Lebanon Daily Star
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
After aggressively supporting Israel's siege of Lebanon - a brutal military campaign that has threatened the very existence of the Lebanese state - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice came to Beirut to profess American "support" for the Lebanese government. Rice's arrival in Beirut - but failure to demand an immediate cease-fire - was not seen by many here as a sincere show of concern for their alarming humanitarian situation.
Admittedly, Rice did not have time during her brief visit to tour the scenes of destruction. Perhaps she would have had a greater sense of the utter devastation in Lebanon had she seen the many civilian neighborhoods, bridges and factories that have been reduced to rubble, or visited the more than 800,000 terrified refugees who are huddled in tents and schools around the country. Perhaps then she would have realized the human toll of Israel's military actions and would have recognized the need to expedite a cease-fire, not just with haste, but with urgency. Instead, Rice met with members of a Lebanese government that is reaching the point of near-collapse under the pressure of growing social tensions and a burgeoning humanitarian disaster.
Throughout this crisis, Rice has been right about one thing: that it would be pointless to resolve the current conflict in a way that will only bring us back to the same situation in six months' time. She is right that any lasting truce will require a dramatic change in the Lebanese-Israeli status quo. But the status quo is likely to deteriorate further without a cease-fire and will never improve until all of the core causes of the conflict are addressed.
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Any package that addresses all of the concerns on the Lebanese-Israeli front will lay the groundwork for a shift in Hizbullah's role in Lebanon. If the Americans and the Israelis agree to a complete package encompassing all of the sources of Lebanese-Israeli tension, Hizbullah will no longer have any justification for its invasive activities. Such a change in the political atmosphere would also empower the Lebanese government to step in and take the necessary steps to assert its sole control over Lebanese territory.
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http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&article_id=74228&categ_id=17