The 4 pairs in the Middle East's death dance - by Rami G.Khouri
Simplistically, US President George W. Bush has depicted this latest round of war as a clash between good and evil, while the Israeli government has tried to blame Palestinians and Lebanese who only want to make war against a peace-loving Israel. The more nuanced and complex reality is that all the actors in the four pairs collectively play a role in the ongoing fighting, as we witness the culmination of four decades of failed policies that have kept the Middle East tense, angry and violent.
Hizbullah and Hamas emerged in the past decade as the main Arab political forces resisting Israeli occupation in Lebanon and Palestine. They have enjoyed substantial popular support in their respective countries, while at the same time eliciting criticisms for their militant policies that inevitably elicit harsh Israeli responses. We see this in Lebanon today, as the Lebanese people broadly direct their anger at Israel for its brutal attacks against Lebanese civilian installations, but more softly question Hizbullah's decision to trigger this latest calamity, and also fault Palestinians, Syria, other Arabs and Iran for perpetually making Lebanon the battleground for other conflicts.
It is no coincidence that Israel is now simultaneously bombing and destroying civilian infrastructure in Palestine and Lebanon, including airports, bridges, roads, power plants, and government offices. It claims to do this in order to stop terror attacks against Israelis, but in fact the past four decades have shown that its policies generate exactly the opposite effect: They have given birth, power, credibility and now political incumbency to Hamas and Hizbullah, whose main raison d'etre has been to fight the Israeli occupation of their lands.
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