Some basic info for getting a perspective on the Israel/Lebanon situation:

[debbierlus]

The situation that is occurring between Israel and Lebanon is extremely dangerous. It has the real potential of destabilizing the whole region and spreading into a wider Mid Eastern war. This is a critical situation and US refusal to demand a immediate cease fire from Israel is a disastrous political call. Below is a brief background from United for Peace and Justice:

Bush says repeatedly that "Israel has a right to defend herself," both with respect to Gaza and to the new assault on Lebanon.

If, as it appears, last Wednesday's attack was Hezbollah's initiative in crossing Israel's border, it constitutes a violation of international law, despite its claimed intention of aiding the Palestinians and helping achieve the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel. However, it was a border skirmish -- something common on borders all over the world all the time and hardly new on the Israel-Lebanon border. A border skirmish is not the beginning of a war unless one side wants it to be. The Israeli government wanted it to be.


Israel could have responded by negotiating a prisoner swap with the Palestinians and Lebanese, as it has frequently done. Instead, it chose to attack Lebanon's civilian infrastructure, along with Gaza's, and it has killed more than 196 Lebanese civilians. These aren't defensive acts; they are acts of aggression.


Every Lebanese airport has been attacked and rendered unfit for travel. Every seaport has been attacked. Several major gas stations and electrical stations have been destroyed. The major bridges in the country have been destroyed. The main arteries of the country have been destroyed -- from the south to the north -- making travel between main cities throughout Lebanon -- and therefore escape from Israel's bombs -- physically impossible. The Israeli army has been calling upon villages in South Lebanon to evacuate, yet they have destroyed the roads on which people can travel and have bombed two vehicles full of civilians attempting to leave.


Israel's reckless actions have endangered not only Palestinian and Lebanese citizens, but also their own people. By straining the delicate balance among Lebanon's ethnic and religious groups, Israel also risks igniting a new civil war.


Worse, the possibility that Israel's assault on Lebanon will trigger a full-scale regional war grows daily. Even before Israel's assault Bush's occupation of Iraq has destabilized the region and inflamed Arab and Muslim opinion. Now Israel has attacked near the Syrian border; Hezbollah is supported by Syria and Iran; Syria says it will defend itself if attacked; and Iran warns that if Israel attacks Syria, Tehran will retaliate against Israel. Then Bush would have a pretext for bombing Syria and Iran. (See Matthew Rothschild's excellent piece on the Progressive's website.)

But if Israel could not defeat Hezbollah during its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, neither can it do so now with air strikes, blockades, and buffer zones, nor even with another occupation. For four decades Israel has tried to deny Palestinians a meaningful state -- using a military occupation to take their land, and responding with excessive force whenever it is attacked itself. But security for Israelis seems as far away as it was in 1967. Just as in Iraq, there is no military solution to the current crisis. The only real and lasting solution is to resolve the source of conflict by negotiating a resolution based on freedom from occupation and equal rights for all as enshrined in international law.

Go to the website to take immediate action:

http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3326