One Giant Gaza Strip from the Caspian to the Red Sea

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By Mike Whitney

07/17/06 Information Clearing House—“We will not be the only ones who pay a price. Our homes will not be the only ones destroyed. Our children will not be the only ones killed. Our people will not be the only ones displaced. Those days are over. …I promise you those times have passed.”

–Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Leader of Lebanese Resistance Organization Hezbollah

The last few days have provided a troubling view of the new world order. The Israeli assault on Lebanon’s infrastructure has battered bridges, roads, power-plants, grain depots, apartment buildings, mosques, community centers, civilian homes, gas stations, ports and many of the country’s critical life-support systems. Additionally, Israel has killed 155 civilians including 15 children who were instantly vaporized by a missile that destroyed their van while they were fleeing southern Lebanon. Israel has justified the carnage by pointing to the 2 soldiers who were captured by members of the Lebanese resistance organization, Hezbollah. But Israel’s defense is hopelessly flawed.

What if relatives or friends of the many US detainees who’ve been illegally imprisoned at Guantanamo, decided to use F-16s and laser-guided missiles to attack the Golden Gate Bridge, the Sears Tower, New York City’s electrical grid, and vast swathes of the highway system? Would that be equally justifiable? Or, more to the point, what if Hezbollah decided to blow up major parts of Israel’s infrastructure in retaliation for the hundreds of Lebanese prisoners languishing in Israeli prisons without any legal recourse? Would that be okay?

Israel’s rationale is merely an apology for state terrorism and it’s utterly meaningless in respect to the enormous damage they’ve caused.

What if the shoe was on the other foot? What if it was Israel’s citizens who were locked away in Lebanese prisons? Would Israel simply leave them to their fate?

Hezbollah wants their prisoners back as much as Israel and they’ve shown a willingness to negotiate. Israel, however, has other things in mind; flattening another Arab country and plunging them into the Stone Age. This is the way Israel does business.

The history of the present conflict did not begin with the capture of the 2 soldiers as the media would have us believe, nor is it simply aimed at dismantling Hezbollah. Israel is planning to occupy the territory between its northern border and the Litani River in Southern Lebanon. This will provide access to an important water source for Israel and create a buffer-zone between itself and Arab militants. The demonstration of overwhelming force is intended to send a message to Syria and Iran that they’d better “shape up” or expect similar treatment in the near future.

“A Clean Break”

Israel’s present battle-plan originated with a policy paper that was written by former Defense Policy Board chief Richard Perle and (Bush administration officials) David Wurmser and Douglas Feith. The document, which was titled “A Clean Break; Strategy for Securing the (Israeli) Realm” provides the details of Israel’s plan to topple potential rivals in the region and redraw the map of the Middle East.

The text reads: “Securing the Northern Border;

Syria challenges Israel on Lebanese soil. An effective approach, and one which America can sympathize, would be if Israel seize the strategic initiative (preemption) along its northern borders by engaging Hezbollah, Syria and Iran as the principle agents of aggression in Lebanon including…striking military targets in Lebanon, and should that prove insufficient, striking at striking at select targets in Syria proper.”

Perle’s document outlines exactly what is presently taking place even though it was written back in 1996. (It was composed for the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.)

This shows that Israel is not acting irrationally or spontaneously, but executing a carefully-considered master-plan for crushing potential enemies and reconfiguring the Middle East to accommodate the modern Israeli kingdom. (hence, the pretentious euphemism “Securing the Realm”)

This is the war that Israel wanted from the very beginning; a final showdown with arch-nemesis Hezbollah followed by confrontations with Damascus and Tehran. It’s all in Perle’s blueprint for “total war”.

Prime Minister Olmert has not deviated one millimeter from the original scheme.

George Bush’s appearance in St Petersburg suggests that there was careful coordination between Tel Aviv and the White House so that Israel could carry out its depredations in Lebanon while Bush kept Putin occupied at the G-8 meetings. Eventually, Putin will realize that Bush has taken him for a fool by diverting his attention from events in the Middle East with bogus promises of membership in the WTO. Bush has proven once again, that while he may not read the newspapers, he is a shrewd Machiavellian-politician who is skillful at manipulating situations to his own advantage.

We should review Lebanon’s recent history if we want to fully appreciate the effort that has gone into preparing it for invasion. The assassination of Rafik Hariri gave Israel and America the perfect pretext for intervening in Lebanese affairs via the United Nations. The public anger was effectively shifted onto Syria even though the evidence of Syrian wrongdoing was inconclusive. The public hysteria eventually led to UN resolutions against Syria which forced Bashar Al-Assad to withdraw his troops and accept that Syrian-patron Prime Minister Lahoud would be replaced by the more-compliant Fouad Siniora.

We know now that the “Cedar Revolution” was just another clever “made-in-Washington” public relations scam orchestrated by skillful American NGOs and Israeli intelligence agencies. The “color-coded” revolutions have since been widely discredited as more of Uncle Sam’s tricks for bringing about regime change in countries where the leaders fail to conform to the economic diktats of the IMF and World Bank.

Consider how opportune it has been for Israel to have Syrian forces out of the way while they lay-waste to Lebanon destroying anything in their path.

Coincidence???

Think again. Everything from Bush’s appearance in St Petersburg, to the untimely death of Rafik Hariri, to the Cedar Revolution, to the removal of Syrian troops, has been as painstakingly choreographed as a Bolshoi Ballet; all of it was mere preparation for the “Main Event”, Israel’s triumphant reappearance on Lebanese soil, now threatening to occupy the south for an unspecified period of time and, perhaps, pushing east towards Damascus.

Could Lebanon have escaped Israel’s wrath if its soldiers had not been captured by Hezbollah?

Not likely.

Israel has long planned to disarm Hezbollah and eliminate potential conflicts on its northern flank. That means that if Lebanon rebuilds and prospers once again, the threat of Israeli attack will increase accordingly. Israel’s aspirations for regional supremacy does not allow for strong neighbors.

It’s clear that the devastation in Lebanon is intended to send a message to Damascus and Tehran. As Perle’s “A Clean Break” states, Israel wants to frame “Hezbollah, Syria and Iran as the principle agents of aggression in Lebanon.” The Israel-friendly media has achieved this by reiterating claims that Hezbollah is a “cat’s paw” for Syria and that Iran is providing high-tech weaponry for resistance attacks against Israel. Both countries have denied the allegations, but the stage has been set for a broader war that may engulf the entire region. The probability of regime change in Tehran and Damascus has only intensified as Bush and Olmert’s objectives become more apparent. (Note: Israel needs a friendly government in Syria to protect future pipeline routes from Northern Iraq to Haifa. Currently the Mossad are working with the Kurds to ensure that Israel will become a main player in the energy markets in the coming century) Iran’s vast oil and natural gas wealth, make it the Middle East’s natural leader. This ensures that the mullahs will be challenged and, perhaps, removed to allow for Israeli ascendancy.

The Impotent United Nations

As Israel steps-up its bombing raids on southern Beirut…, the UN has never looked more ineffective or fragmented. The institution has been blocked from even providing its normally toothless resolutions condemning the violence. The UN has become a rubber stamp for American-Israeli policy; harassing Washington’s enemies like Iran and North Korea while obstructing any measure that threatens to curtail US-Israeli aggression. The massive and calculated decimation of Lebanon; including the willful destruction of critical infrastructure, proves that the UN is no longer able to meet the minimal requirements of its original mandate to stop unprovoked aggression. In its present configuration, the United Nations is worse than useless; it is, in fact, abetting the hostilities and providing cover for resurgent 21st century colonialism. The present crisis could signal the death-knell for the beleaguered “world body” as more and more nations will be forced into improvised security alliances to fend off Washington’s plans for global domination.

Curious onlookers should note that Israel’s attacks have not been aimed at Hezbollah, but mainly at Lebanese infrastructure. In fact, there have been no reports of Hezbollah casualties so far. This is no coincidence. Israel’s plan is to reduce Lebanon to rubble and create a humanitarian crisis similar to the one in the occupied territories. Throughout the Arab world the same theory of “pacification” is being applied as Bush and Olmert continue their wanton assault on the basic platforms for human survival, leaving millions of Muslims in abject poverty without food, medicine, clean drinking water, or sufficient heat or light. They have created tens of thousands of refugees who have been driven from their homes or left in the ruins to slowly die in the dark. From the Caspian to the Red Sea, from the Mediterranean to the western tip of Afghanistan, Israel and America are spreading their devastation across the Middle East, transforming the entire region into one massive Gaza Strip.

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Escape from Bint Jebail

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By Adil James, TMO Staff reporter
A Muslim Observer exclusive report

Hussein Khalil looks like a man who spent all night watching a ghost. His face is pale and ashen, with a few days’ growth of beard on his cheeks. His face is young, but his manners show the sincerity that usually results from a close experience of the fragility and beauty of human life. He still sees pictures of the dead people he saw only last week in the south of Lebanon. He still doesn’t sleep quietly through the night, and nor do his children. When airplanes fly overhead, his 3 and a half year old son screams at him to run for shelter before the Israelis kill them.

Mr. Khalil just returned from Lebanon, crossing through a harrowing and miserable odyssey to save his wife and children. On June 6th, his wife and children had left happily for a vacation with her parents in Ainetta, the town immediately neighboring Bint Jebail. They expected to return at the end of the summer, on September 6th.

As the political situation melted down after Hezbollah’s July 12th abduction of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, he kept in constant contact with his family by phone. The phone calls got worse and worse. Through some of the phone calls, he could hear distant bombs and other sounds of war. The bombardment affected his children—they started to become annoyed, hysterical, crying frantically. His infant daughter Muna cried to him on the phone, “Please come and get us—why are they trying to kill us?” His wife told him, “Don’t even try to come,” because of the fierce bombardment. Terrified of the rumored death traps waiting for fleeing refugees on the roads out of southern Lebanon, the family hunkered down in the house. The pressure affected Khalil—at night, he could not sleep; in the day, he could not work; he could not drink, he could not eat.

Friday July 14th was the worst day. That day, he was talking to his wife during an artillery bombardment when he heard a loud explosion, somebody screaming, and the phone line went dead. Although he would not find out until he arrived there days later, the artillery shell had hit the house, destroying the top floor but (through apparently miraculous intervention) not injuring his family members in the house. But that Friday, he knew no such thing. Frantic, he went to the airport. He flew to Jordan; a flight delay gave him an expected wait of 13 hours, which was too much for him at that point. He found a car and traveled to Syria. Explaining his situation, he was allowed to cross the border.

A friend in Damascus prepared a car for his use and made travel plans for him, giving him contact numbers of other people who might help him in Lebanon. Everyone else in Damascus told him not to go, that Beirut was a war zone.

His heart burning for his family, Mr. Khalil continued on, driving to Beirut. He arrived in Beirut on Tuesday. Then he went to the American embassy; after waiting in line, he spoke to an embassy official, telling him that at least 10 US citizens were in a house close to Bint Jebail under heavy bombardment, including his wife and children and in-laws. The American official told him, “We cannot stop the war for your family.” They told him to let them stay where they were, and asked Mr. Khalil for his phone number [which, not surprisingly, they never called].

Then he went to the Red Cross. They said the same thing, that “It is hostile there—we are not allowed to go there, we are not permitted to go.” They told him to try the UN.

He went to the UN, where no one actually met with him, other than to make a generalized announcement that they were trying to obtain a cease-fire there.

Desperate to help his family, he began to contact taxi drivers. He offered some of them $10,000 to drive him to Bint Jebail. No one would take the money—“it’s not an issue of money,” they said, “it is impossible.”

Exhausting all of his friend’s contacts, he turned to an old friend from years ago, whose number he still had. That friend agreed to drive him to Tyre, without ever mentioning money. Their plan was to leave after fajr on Wednesday morning. That night the Israeli air force bombed the Beirut airport. After fajr they left for Tyre.

Lebanon is small, and travel is a minor act relative to what it is in America—if a driver could drive 60mph in a straight line from the south to the north, he could travel the length of Lebanon in less than two hours. When the Israeli army invaded Lebanon in 1982, they waltzed to Beirut in four hours. Tyre is normally a 45 minute drive from Beirut (from Tyre, Khalil planned to hitchhike or walk the 25 miles to Bint Jebail). Against all the advice of those in Lebanon, they drove a van—and it is for this reason that they would be able to save so many of their relatives in Bint Jebail.

The Israelis had bombed the normal roads going south from Beirut, so only someone with knowledge of the back roads could succeed in going south to Tyre. Fortunately the driver knew the back roads through the mountains, and after four hours they began to approach Tyre. Refugees going away from Tyre tried to flag them down, telling them not to go forward.

The driver wanted to turn around, but Khalil begged him, “Just get me to Tyre.”

Asking for directions through the remnants of the devastated roads of southern Lebanon, they tried dead end after dead end. Finally, two people having just come out of Tyre directed them to pass through a nearby orchard, which they did, to find their way.

That was when they found the bodies. They passed at least four cars and one van, full of people, most of whom were dead but some of whom were still alive and moving in agony in those burnt-out shells of cars, all of which still had white flags; body parts and luggage was strewn across the ground. All of the cars had been hit where the heat of the engine provided a signature for missiles to hone in on—this fire was targeted by Israeli helicopters or jets, and was not the result of errant artillery. The smell of burnt human flesh still haunts Mr. Khalil. One man had tried to escape his doomed vehicle, but not in time. The door hung open, and the man’s headless body still leaned out of the car when they passed.

Desperate to save his family, with no medical training and himself on a mission which would save tens of people, Mr. Khalil and his friend continued on. Warned of the danger they faced, Khalil kept his eyes glued to the sky, his hand attached to the door handle, while the driver focused on driving. At a moment’s notice they were prepared to jump out of the van and run away.

He prayed continuously and sincerely, accepting that if he died on this journey at least it would be in the course of doing a good deed, as a martyr, trying to save lives and serve his family.

For some reason, as they left Tyre, the driver continued on and never asked Mr. Khalil to continue on by himself on foot.

They passed through Tibneen. Tens of people waited next to the Tibneen hospital on the road, desperate for food. If Mr. Khalil had stopped here, it would have been impossible to continue on. Many people would have crushed the car. They pushed the bread through the windows to the starving people, about 30 bags of bread, and continued on. Mr. Khalil estimates there are about 15,000 refugees in Tibneen, close to the hospital.

After journeying, they arrived at the split in the road between Bint Jebail and Aineta. To the right there is a valley, from which they saw the white streaks of Hezbollah missiles streaking south towards Israel—the only evidence they ever saw of the presence of Hezbollah in Bint Jebail—“I never even saw one man holding a Kalashnikov,” said Mr. Khalil.

Jet fighters banked and turned in the sky, immediately directing their fire downwards at the source of those plumes of smoke. Artillery flew into the valley, and into Ainetta, the rocket attack providing a focal point for the Israeli military. This barrage affected the travelers as well—they flew down the road past destroyed buildings. One top story of a building was blown up as they passed. They heard and saw an Israeli drone patrolling above. Smoke was everywhere, missiles were flying down, artillery was bombing everywhere.

When he saw his family’s destroyed house Mr. Khalil’s heart sank to his knees. The artillery shell had blown off the top of his roof, he sprinted from the van, through the bombardment, to the house, wrenching open the door, to find his wife and children sitting on the floor, crying under the merciless Israeli bombardment. In a short time, he crowded his entire family into the van; neighbors ran to him, giving him their children to put into the van with him, not caring about themselves but only caring that he save their children. In their minivan, they stacked 32 people, mostly women and children, of several different families.

Later, Khalil learned, only 3 hours after he left the house in which his family had sheltered was splintered by an Israeli attack, killing three people who had been sheltering there—so if he had only waited a day, or had been delayed by only a few hours, his entire family would have been killed.

Thus began their escape. They careened through the streets of Ainetta and towards Tibneen, artillery pounding so close to them that one 155 mm howitzer round blew out the back window of the van. He begged his family, “Do not look outside the van—do not look left or right,” not wanting his children to see the dead people in the road. “Allah Allah please help us,” he prayed fervently. Some in the van read Qur`an, some did other zikr, begging for safety from above. And so, miraculously, 32 people crowded into a minivan did the unthinkable—escaping a merciless Israeli barrage that explicitly targeted all vans and pickup trucks.

When he got to Tibneen, Mr. Khalil felt better, less pressure from the Israelis. When he got to Sida, he got out of the minivan and kissed the earth, thanking God for having brought him out safely. From Beirut, the family was evacuated via the USS Nashville to Cyprus, then by military transport to New Jersey, then via a surreal rental car ride from New Jersey home to Dearborn, Michigan.

When he returned home, he learned that the driver that saved him and his family was later blinded by an Israeli attack while making a second attempt to pass the gantlet and save more people.

Speaking of the state of Lebanon today, Khalil says it is “three times worse than it was during the civil war. They are targeting the infrastructure.” The roads, the gas stations, the small and large factories, the electricity and phone switchboards are all catastrophically devastated. Prices for travel, he says, are astronomically inflated—it now costs about $1,000 or $1,500 to take a taxi from Beirut to Syria.

The tragedy of this past two weeks was not the first of Hussein Khalil’s life. His background reflects the terrible history of Lebanon. His father, a baker, never himself involved in any fighting, was brutally murdered when Mr. Khalil was only 6 years old for the crime of being a Muslim who lived in a Christian neighborhood. Mr. Khalil’s mother first brought him to the United States in 1982, when he was 12 years old, to escape the Lebanese civil war. And we hope that he and his family have finally escaped war for good.

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