Report: U.S. urges Israeli pullout from disputed Golan area

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"The United States is pressing for an Israeli withdrawal from a disputed Golan Heights area located on the border with Lebanon, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the Arabic language daily Al-Hayyat on Sunday.

According to the report, Rice told Lebanese leaders during her unexpected visit to Beirut that the U.S. would bolster its efforts in the coming weeks toward pushing Israel to pull out from the Shaba Farms.

The a-Sharq al-Awset newspaper had a similar report this week, in which it claimed that U.S. supports an Israeli withdrawal from the area.

The region, a small area in the foothills of the Golan Heights, is considered Lebanese by the Lebanese government but the United Nations says it is Syrian land. Israel annexed the area in the 1967 Six-Day War, a move not recognized by the international community.

According to the al-Hayyat report, Rice said during her Beirut visit that U.S. President George W. Bush has taken it upon himself to resolve the Shaba Farms issue and has asked the United Nations to expedite a mission to inspect the situation on the ground there.

Rice told the paper that the results of the investigation would be included in an annual UN report on the implementation of Resolution 1701, which ostensibly ended the Second Lebanon War.

The daily reported that Rice believes Israel will have to pull out from the area after the UN releases its report."

more

[bemildred]

1. Damn! nt

[azurnoir]

2. Damn in this case means?

good, bad, or just surprise?

[bemildred]

3. Good or bad, I don't know.

But surprise, yes. Ms Rice is throwing her weight around, making noise. Combined with her support of the new Lebanese government, and calling out the Israeli settlement project, it's new. When things have been a certain way for a long time, it's fitting to notice when they change.

Whether it's a change in US government policy, or just factional fighting among the realists and the Bushites, I don't know yet.

[azurnoir]

4. I was surprised

However Ms Rice is on a diet so to speak, and the shorter Bushes time in office the less she weighs, soon one puff is all it will take to "blow her away" like a dandelion.

[bemildred]

5. It would not do to just throw all caution to the winds just yet, no.

Ms Rice is damaged goods in every sense, and what actual effect she might have on the course of events remains to be seen. Nevertheless, it is worth noticing that she has thrown what feeble strength she commands onto one side of the scale. If nothing else, resources will have to be diverted into attacks on her instead of some other effort.

[bemildred]

6. Israel says it's ready to begin peace talks with Lebanon

Government spokesman Mark Regev said on Wednesday that Israel is interested in direct, bilateral talks with Lebanon in order to reach a peace deal between the two bordering countries.

Regev said that every issue of contention would be on the table, including a key border dispute over the Shaba Farms, a small piece of land controlled by Israel, the dispute over which is a key sticking point between Israel, Lebanon and Syria.

Regev's comments were the government's most explicit overture toward Lebanon. Last week, when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted Israel would be interested in talks with Beirut, the Lebanese government rejected the notion. On Wednesday, a Lebanese government official said that position hadn't changed.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/993954.html

[notfullofit]

9. Netanyahu's position on the Golan

Speaking at a Likud party event held in the Golan, Netanyahu said that "God willing, in the upcoming elections we will ensure (Israel's) sovereignty over Jerusalem and the Golan.

"What do you find when you dig (into the soil) in the Golan? Syrian ruins? No. You'll find dozens of magnificent synagogues and remnants of (Jewish) communities," he said. "The Israeli nation has been connected to the Golan for thousands of years. The Golan always was and always will remain Israeli."

The Likud chairman continued to say that "before we liberated the Golan 41 years ago, they were on the mountain and we were in the valley; they fired on us for 19 years, and one day we put a stop to it.

"Standing here one can clearly see that the Golan is essential to Israel's security and deterrence - today more than ever before in light of the rise of Iran and its affiliates," he said.

Netanyahu warned that Syria's ties to Iran were only growing stronger. "Only a few days ago Syrian and Iranian defense ministers signed a new defense cooperation pact, and still there are those who suggest we hand over the Golan to Syria and Iran.

"The region is the single largest buffer zone that is preventing any possibility of an invasion into our small country," he added.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=124x213670

[bemildred]

12. Lebanon PM: There's no place for bilateral talks with Israel

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora rejected Israel's call for direct, bilateral talks to reach a peace deal between the two bordering countries.

"Lebanon's known position before this government is that there is no place for bilateral negotiations between Lebanon and Israel," Siniora's media office said in a statement late Wednesday.

Hezbollah legislator Nawar al-Saheli told The Associated Press that the Israeli offer is :ridiculous propaganda." Government spokesman Mark Regev said earlier Wednesday that Israel is interested in talks that would bring every issue of contention to the table. He said the talks would also cover a key border dispute over the Shaba Farms, a small piece of land controlled by Israel, the dispute over which is a key sticking point between Israel, Lebanon and Syria.

Regev's comments were the government's most explicit overture toward Lebanon. Last week, when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted Israel would be interested in talks with Beirut, the Lebanese government rejected the notion. On Wednesday, a Lebanese government official said that position hadn't changed.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/993954.html

[bemildred]

7. How Hezbollah defeated Israel

Some historical context.

---

But aside from these possibilities, recent history shows that those thousands of students and Lebanese patriots who protested Syria's involvement in Lebanon after the death of Rafiq Hariri found it ironic that they took refuge from the Israeli bombing in tent cities established by the Syrian government. Rice is correct on one thing: Syria's willingness to provide refuge for Lebanese refugees was a pure act of political cynicism - and one that the United States seems incapable of replicating. Syria now is confident of its political position. In a previous era, such confidence allowed Israel to shape a political opening with its most intransigent political enemies.

Tenth, and perhaps most important, it now is clear that a US attack on Iranian nuclear installations would be met with little support in the Muslim world. It would also be met by a military response that would collapse the last vestiges of America's political power in the region. What was thought to be a "given" just a few short weeks ago has been shown to be unlikely. Iran will not be cowed. If the United States launches a military campaign against the Tehran government, it is likely that America's friends will fall by the wayside, the Gulf Arab states will tremble in fear, the 138,000 US soldiers in Iraq will be held hostage by an angered Shi'ite population, and Iran will respond by an attack on Israel. We would now dare say the obvious - if and when such an attack comes, the United States will be defeated.

Conclusion

The victory of Hezbollah in its recent conflict with Israel is far more significant than many analysts in the United States and Europe realize. The Hezbollah victory reverses the tide of 1967 - a shattering defeat of Egypt, Syria and Jordan that shifted the region's political plates, putting in place regimes that were bent on recasting their own foreign policy to reflect Israeli and US power. That power now has been sullied and reversed, and a new leadership is emerging in the region.

The singular lesson of the conflict may well be lost on the upper echelons of Washington's and London's pro-Israel, pro-values, we-are-fighting-for-civilization political elites, but it is not lost in the streets of Cairo, Amman, Ramallah, Baghdad, Damascus or Tehran. It should not be lost among the Israeli political leadership in Jerusalem. The Arab armies of 1967 fought for six days and were defeated. The Hezbollah militia in Lebanon fought for 34 days and won. We saw this with our own eyes when we looked into the cafes of Cairo and Amman, where simple shopkeepers, farmers and workers gazed at television reports, sipped their tea, and silently mouthed the numbers to themselves: "seven", "eight", "nine" ...


http://www.atimes.com/atimes/others/hezbollah.html

[shaayecanaan]

8. Exactly right

Iran cemented its position by giving cash relief to people whose homes had been damaged by the Second Lebanon War. It was complete opportunism on the part of the Iranians, but it didnt matter. People took the money, and took it gratefully. At least the support of the Iranians was worth something, they said. Because for the government, the support of the United States had meant less than nothing.

[notfullofit]

10. Israelis oppose ceding

snip.....

A recent poll by the Tami Steinmetz Center for Peace Research found that 67% of Israelis oppose ceding the Golan Heights to Syria. Only 16% of the public said they support such a position. In addition, 65% of Israelis believe that the Golan Heights are strategically and militarily important to Israel. Only 20% cite its historical connection to Jewish life and history, however, and a meager 7% believe it has value for the Israeli economy and tourist industry.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/126546

[Vegasaurus]

11. You bet they oppose ceding

Thought there was opposition to Gaza withdrawal?

Wait to see the reaction, from lefties and moderates too, if Israel really does negotiate away the Golan.

[bemildred]

13. Hezbollah supporters hurl stones at U.S. envoy's car in Lebanon

The party of the United States charge d'affaires was attacked with stones on Wednesday by Hezbollah supporters during a visit to southern Lebanon, a Lebanese security source said.

"Some 200 people, including women and children, surrounded the house of Abdullah Bitar, who is opposed to Hezbollah, as he met in Nabatiyeh with charge d'affaires Michele Sison and they began throwing stones," a Lebanese security source said.

"Death to America, death to Israel - we don't want you in southern Lebanon", the crowd chanted as the Lebanese police rushed to the area where Sison was having lunch.

The source said Sison's car was hit by several stones as she was being evacuated from the area, but she emerged unharmed.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/994087.html