Doomed policy

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The US administration's Middle East policy has left much of the region in ruins. Iraq lies in tatters, embroiled in a vicious cycle of violence, occupied by the US. Gaza is facing an economic blockade and is being pounded by Israeli aerial bombardments and periodic military incursions. In Lebanon Israel has dropped cluster bombs on the Lebanese civilian population and the myth that it strikes with surgical precision has once again been shattered.

Israeli atrocities in Lebanon have managed to radicalise not only Lebanese of different confessions but people throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds. In sitting rooms across the world are beamed images of what Israel's bombardment of Israel with American-made bombs is doing to Lebanese civilians.

Not only has Washington given Israel a free hand to unleash its terror in Lebanon, it is egging it on. The US has provided Israel with cover in the UN Security Council where even the savage attack on Qana has gone uncondemned. Israel has brazenly rejected mounting international pressure to end its barbaric war in Lebanon.

The civilian population of Lebanon has borne the brunt of the Israeli aggression. More than 600 Lebanese, the vast majority innocent civilians, have been killed in the past three weeks as a direct result of Israeli aggression. An estimated 25 per cent of Lebanon's population is now displaced. Not only has Israel wreaked havoc in Lebanon, it is determined to wipe Hizbullah from the face of the earth. It seeks also to deal a mortal blow to Syria and Iran. They are goals doomed from the start.

The brutish Israeli aggression against Lebanon has focused international attention on the double standards of US policy in the region. Israel is flexing its muscles but it is Hizbullah that has stolen the limelight and inspired millions of Muslims and Arabs around the world. The massacre of more than 60 civilians, a third of them children, in the southern Lebanese village of Qana, has become a symbol of Israeli ruthlessness. It is the same village where more than 100 Lebanese civilians were butchered in 1996 when Israel shelled a UN base where civilians had sought shelter.

Israel's wanton destruction of Lebanon is a crime against humanity. When Israel bombed the Jiyyeh power plant south of Beirut more than 30,000 tonnes of oil flooded into the Mediterranean. The spill, which has spread across more than 100 kms of Lebanon's coastline, has caused an environmental catastrophe.

Against this disastrous humanitarian and environmental backdrop Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's intransigence and refusal to implement a ceasefire comes as a slap in the face of those who want to stop Israel's maniacal assault on Lebanon by peaceful diplomatic means.

Instead of smashing Hizbullah, the Israelis and their American backers have ensured that the movement is being further empowered. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has been catapulted into becoming the Arab world's most popular leader. Hizbullah's katyusha rockets have hit the heart of Israel, sending shock- waves through Haifa, Kiryat Shimona and other northern Israeli settlements.

The deliberate Israeli destruction of Lebanon must be stopped. There is an urgent need for an international investigation into the Israeli attack on Qana. The village is a symbol of Lebanese national unity, home to both Shia Muslims and Christians who have lived side by side peacefully for generations. Perhaps that is why it enrages Israeli sensibilities so much, and has been singled out for retaliation once again.