An insider's perspective

The author is a poet and former public information officer at the United Nations. Born in Palestine, he is an American citizen and lives in New York. He wrote this piece at my request.

By Yousef Hamdan

The pictures of dozens of children pulled out from under the rubble in Qana, Lebanon streamed out of TV screens and caused maddening outrage in millions of homes throughout the Middle East. Qana was not just another town. The massacre of its people in 1996 is still imprinted in the collective memory.

In the morning, demonstrators stormed the UN building in Beirut and Gaza. In many cites in the Arab world, men women and children took to the streets denouncing George Bush and his friends in the Arab World. On Sunday morning, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called for an emergency meeting of the Security Council and urged it to condemn the attack on Qana.

After a day of consultations, the council failed to condemn the massacre. US Ambassador John Bolton blocked it from doing so. Only a few days earlier the Israeli delegate proclaimed Mr. Bolton a member of his delegation to the UN!

Just before the air strike on Qana on July 27th, 2006, Israeli Justice Minister, Haim Ramon, a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, told Israeli Army Radio: "All those now in South Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah." Ramon also said "villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops move in."

Anyone who thought Qana may have been another “accident” should think again. If this was not a war crime, what is? Yet the Bush administration insists it must go without rebuke.

When you hear people in the Middle East calling talk shows on TV and screaming in outrage against their inept leaders and the US president, you sense a volcano about to erupt. They know the US is the only Member State blocking the UN from calling for a ceasefire; a ceasefire on the civilians in Lebanon, its basic infrastructure and every means of civilized existence. They heard Chief of Staff Halutz saying Lebanon’s clock will be turned back 20 years.

Yet the US thinks a ceasefire is not a good thing - yet. Instead, the US rushed laser-guided bombs to Israel. In their haste, they forgot to tell Tony Blair they would be using British airports for the delivery of the bombs.

Earlier this month the US cast yet another veto, killing a draft resolution calling on Israel to stop its onslaught on the Gaza strip. Civilians are killed every day in the besieged strip, without electricity, food or medicine. But while that receives wide coverage in the Middle East, the US media pays little attention. A UN delegate from the region said Monday that the children who witnessed Qana ten years ago are those who are now launching rockets on Israeli towns.

Bold headlines throughout the Middle East announced that the US Congress almost unanimously backs Israel’s onslaught on Lebanon. Israeli press is filled with commentary indicating this war is a US war by proxy. One Israeli news commentator revealed that a Republican fundraiser, close to the Bush administration telephoned Israeli officials and urged them to “deliver the goods” and achieve a clear victory.

Now that the “beacon of democracy” called Iraq has not delivered the “goods," a “war president” must have another war with a possible successful outcome. After all this is an election year. Not by accident, Mr. Bush, Monday in Florida, called the war in Lebanon part of the War on Terror. Was the milk factory in Beirut, destroyed by air strikes, a terrorist target?

In the meantime, one third of Israel’s citizens continue to suffer in shelters and a third of those are refugees. As guns will go silent, the vast segments of Israeli society living in poverty will expand and get poorer. On the other hand, the American-Israeli military industrial complex will get a windfall out of this war. We - the American taxpayers - will pay the bill.

Why do they hate us?

A friend in the region called me a few days ago and asked how I could continue to live in the US? I tried to explain that America is not this Bush, nor is it this Congress. Most Americans are waiting to wake up from this nightmare.

Comments

[Marilyn]

"...the children who witnessed Qana ten years ago are those who are now launching rockets on Israeli towns." That seems so obvious once I'd read it, but it hadn't occurred to me. Thank you for having him write this. When we look back on the eight years of devastatation the Bush administration will have wreaked around the world, I will do so with an incomprehension of how our elected representatives will have allowed it to happen. The only hope I see is to get Bush's supporters out of office. Although I'm a Democrat, I was thrilled that Lieberman lost in Connecticut.

[amber]

tara-- I agree. They would be in danger.I wonder if Isreal is asking for this, because it knows it would force Hezbollas hand? you know, like if peace keepers were there, and they are people who have empathy for the people of Lebanon-- would hezbolla continue to fire as well, and risk losing support? Maybe shoe their true colors clearly?

I wonder, would hezbolla stop firing on Isreal? And what do you think about those pictures?? I can see how some people think they look staged, because that same guy is in ALL of them... And then I heard today that some human rights org went in, and is now saying that the death toll in Lebanon is much lower than the media there is reporting... I wouldn't put it past either side to manipulate the media to stir up anger. It is all so confusing! How do we know what to believe? If Isreal stopped, and then Hezbolla did something more-- then would people have more understanding or support for Isreal, do you think? Because how do you trust a people who say theu want to wipe you off the earth?

:(

[miss*R]

my heart is breaking in two - each time I see yet another child pulled out of the rubble or being carried by their parents. I AM SICK TO DEATH OF THIS !!!! Someone has to be an adult and stop!

[Sophie]

such a stranglehold the
US has on the UN -

CEASEFIRE NOW.

[becca]

It is completely unfathombale that the call for a ceasefire has been so summarily renounced. The ramifications of this catastrophe are so widespread, and our actions as a nation will affect our international relationships for decades, perhaps even centuries to come. It is a frightening time to be a world citizen, particularly an American one.

[Tammy]

I wish I had a magic wand to wave :(

[Anne Jeffries]

I wonder how we as a country can ever recover from this administration. Our power in the world seems extreme and based on fear - of what?

[jzr]

This is such a horror. I am ashamed to be called an American. This President, this congress have nothing to do with me. I want change sooo badly, but how, when I find it so difficult to find anyone with some common sense these days. Political ethics are smelly here, across the board!

[Paris Parfait]

Amber, France does not want a peacekeeping force to be sent in while the conflict is still raging. In the past, UNIFIL forces have been fairly ineffective under similar circumstances. France, which has great empathy with Lebanon, is pushing for an immediate ceasefire. The French government apparently believes the Israeli government's insistence that the peacekeeping forces go in before fighting stops - knowing full well that it would take at least a month to put such a force in place - is an excuse to continue firing on Hezbollah and destroying Lebanon in the process. If the peacekeepers go in before a ceasefire is agreed, they will all be in danger, as evidenced by Israel forces already killing four UN peacekeepers and wounding two others.

[cathy]

I'm reading this and shaking my head, so sad what's going on over there and the kids are the ones suffering the most

[amber]

This morning the local morning talk show was talking about this story--
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/07/who-is-this-man.html

I want to know what you think of it.

:)

[Colette]

For the U.S. to have so much power in the U.N. makes the U.N. worthless.

The consequences that the U.S. and Israel will have to face are too fearful to imagine. Because I believe you reap what you sow.

Thank you to he author and to you.

[Laura]

These are desperate, tragic times. Not calling for a ceasefire is so shameful and cynical that I have trouble believing even the current US adminstration is capable of this.

[Catalina]

Of course this is a war crime....Hezbolah is an excuse...(I don't agrre with their actions neither I have to say. Just saying that it IS NOT a reason for Israel doing what they are doing)

Thanks both for this post