By ALAYSA TAGUMPAY E. ESCANDOR

For two months now, intensive Israeli firepower left craters in Lebanon’s roads and forced residents into bomb shelters. In Lebanese streets, the air smelled of blood and smoke, buildings and shops burned into rubbles. Bodies of children were gathered in the encampments’ mass graves for their parents to identify.

As the war rages on, neighboring Islamic states have also become target. At an Israeli roadblock, screams pierced the dark as a young woman gave birth inside her husband’s car. Earlier, the couple was refused admittance at a hospital in an Israelite stronghold for being Palestinian. Hours later, the woman lay exhausted at the back seat while the father cradled his newborn until its death. Yet, this is but one instance of a thousand war atrocities.

More deaths seem imminent as fightings ensue. Successive Israeli air strikes and bombings continue to set the whole of Lebanon ablaze, killing almost 100 civilians at a time. Merely a month later, on August 1, United Nations (UN) estimated that almost 828 people have been killed in Lebanon, around nine times more than Israeli casualties.

Both Palestine and Lebanon lie in tatters, as Israeli bombardments shattered almost all of their economic infrastructures. In fact, Lebanon’s Council of Development and Reconstruction pegged the cost of devastation at 2.5 billion dollars. Expert economists expect the scale to rise as Israeli bombings continue. Meanwhile, the Lebanese people wonder what they did to suffer this inferno.

Eve of (Bomb)ardments

According to reports, the present crisis began when an Israeli corporal was taken hostage by Hamas, Palestine’s dominant political party in Gaza, on June 25 (see sidebar). The skirmish ignited into a full-scale firefight after Lebanese Hezbollah fighters crossed the Arab-Israeli border in the north, kidnapping two more soldiers and killing eight in exchange for thousands of Arab prisoners. Israel retaliated swiftly and ferociously, sending a host of jet planes to Lebanese skies.

Israel’s massive military assault destroyed almost 90 percent of Lebanon’s highways and main roads, making it doubly difficult for relief workers to reach the affected villages and towns. International humanitarian organizations proclaim that the humanitarian crisis in Lebanon is reaching catastrophic levels.

The massive losses arose as nations relied on military solutions to solve disputes that are essentially political in nature. At the heart of the war is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, wherein Jewish immigrants dispossessed Palestinians of their own land. The two state-solution was originally met with great hope, resulting to the Oslo Accords negotiations that was facilitated by the United States. The Accords, however, were never really about peace at all. Instead, Palestinian leaders claimed that it only aimed to contain Hamas and the militant Palestinian Islamic movements.

Reign of (T)errors

The Islamic countries are now increasingly vocal in their condemnation of Israel’s US-backed reprisals. According to Prof. Temario Rivera from the International Studies Department of International Christian University in Tokyo, the US regularly donates $3 billion worth of planes and artillery to Israel. US military is said to supply the Israelis with bombs similar to those used in Iraq. In addition, Atty. Merlin Magallona, former Dean of the UP College of Law and previous Department of Foreign Affairs Undersecretary, described how US policy continues to “extend massive political and material support for the imperial state Israel.” Even prior to June 25, Israel enjoyed US loan guarantees to fuel their incursion to Palestine and Lebanon territory.

Rivera pointed that America’s real interest in the war is geared towards securing the free flow of oil to American markets and establishing a controlled base in the region. As revealed in a 2003 White House Memorandum, Bush’s hidden agenda for waging war is to keep Iran and Iraq oil off the world market. Already, Israeli troops are creeping into the East Mediterranean coastline, where major pipeline corridors are located. Mr. Rasti Delizo of the Campaign for Peace and Social Justice, an anti-war organization, explained how the laws of supply and demand would raise oil prices and consequently increase profit of US oil corporations. Indeed, as the conflagration raged on, oil prices soared to a record high of nearly eighty dollars per barrel.

Mandated Authority

Even as death toll mounts, US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice dismissed Lebanon’s plight, saying that the widespread destruction are all part of the “birth pangs of a new Middle East.” Part of the “birth pangs” were Israel’s white phosphorous bombs, a type prohibited under the Geneva Conventions. When Lebanon President Emile Lahoud exposed the war crimes, the United Nation’s Security Council said it cannot prosecute Israel due to US opposition.

Indeed, US resistance was acutely felt when nation-members of the lobby coalition Group of Eight convened last July. During the summit, Bush charged Syria of complicity with its continued funding of Hezbollah. He also accused Hamas and Hezbollah of being “the real culprit.” And, just as Bush assured that the Afghanistan and Iraq occupation were crucial in the “global war against terror,” so did he demand the two groups’ elimination as necessary consequences in the “great mission to rid the world of evil.” Counter to UN’s call for ceasefire, Bush fumed that Israel has “every right” to defend itself, thus abetting its military assaults against what he labeled as terrorist organizations.

Contrary to Bush’s stance, Magallona says that Hezbollah is not a terrorist group but a duly recognized political party. In fact, he explains, “[Hezbollah] has 18 percent of the Lebanese parliament’s seats. It is also a member of a parliamentary coalition...which has 30 percent of the parliament’s membership. As a majority...these are the members who sit in the Cabinet.” At present, Hezbollah renders support to Lebanese and Palestinian refugees who were displaced by Israeli annexation.

Similarly, Rivera described Hamas as a legal and legitimate party, citing their sweeping victory in the fourth stage of Palestine’s municipal elections in the Ramallah area. He added that the group initially maintained their domestic base by providing the locals with health programs, schools and other social services which their governments failed to deliver.

The results in Ramallah indicate the depth of frustrations felt by the Palestinian society, says Prof. Abdulhusin Kashim of the World Islamic Call Society, a Libyan-based Muslim cooperation. Part of this disenchantment was the former administration’s failure to advance their national interests and rights in the midst of US-Israeli pressures. More than the kidnappings, Delizo adds, the war is about the confluence of Hamas, Hezbollah and various Arab forces who, after years of exploitation, have now decided to defy the US-Israeli hegemony.

“We will rid the world of the evil-doers,” was Bush’s famous post 9/11 promise. To this end, the US plays deaf to UN’s calls for ceasefire by its continued support for Israeli aggression. While the rest are left wondering who the real evil-doers are, the war’s devastating ramifications has already painted the White House a fiery crimson. Lest the guilty be condemned, it is not just the Middle East that will be consumed by this conflagration. ●

Published in print in the Collegian’s August 14, 2006 issue. The sidebars have not been included in this version. The full archival article may be accessed here.