In 2004, Hizbullah secured the release of some prisoners held captive in Israeli jails in an exchange with Israel. And Hizbullah's military operation last week falls squarely within that framework.

Israel's immediate reaction broke the established rules of the game by bombing civilian structures across Lebanon, imposing a land, air and sea blockade, terrorising the population, and killing more than 100 civilians in a disproportionate display of power not seen since 1982.

Hizbullah then retaliated by bombing northern Israel, in line with the "balance of terror" equations, and the escalation of the conflict has spiralled.

Israel's significant policy shift is linked to domestic politics, psychological factors and power plays.

The wider geostrategic implications are more important then the operational details. For the first time in recent history, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Jordanian, Israeli and US interests now converge in an implicit alliance to quell Hizbullah.

Reactions by these states in the past few days have been strongly indicative of such a stance, from the Saudi statement implicitly condemning Hizbullah, to the US president's explicit refusal to "rein in" Israel.   more »

The real aim is to change the regime in Lebanon and to install a puppet government.

That was the aim of Ariel Sharon's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It failed. But Sharon and his pupils in the military and political leadership have never really given up on it.

As in 1982, the present operation, too, was planned and is being carried out in full coordination with the US.

As then, there is no doubt that it is coordinated with a part of the Lebanese elite.

That's the main thing. Everything else is noise and propaganda.

On the eve of the 1982 invasion, Secretary of State Alexander Haig told Ariel Sharon that, before starting it, it was necessary to have a "clear provocation", which would be accepted by the world.   more »

In contemporary Western societies, repressed religion returns in secular cults and fascism of different shades. The cult phenomenon becomes more dangerous when religious zealots push their agendas through the so-called liberals and neo-conservatives.

The Bush and Blair regimes’ response to recent Israeli aggression and terrorism is an excellent example of the apocalyptic passions of religion that have returned as projects of universal human emancipation through more and more terror.

Today, the United States and its close allies ignore history and justify their own and Israeli aggression on the basis of lies or pretexts such as the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers.

On the other hand, mass killing of innocent civilians in occupied lands is considered “collateral damage” in an effort to emancipate the survivors.

With only a little hyperbole, one might define secular cult’s marriage of neo-conservative re Islamophobic philosophy in terms of this Freudian cycle. The mark of repressed thought and emotion is that it is shut away from conscious scrutiny.   more »

The same malign intent by Israel towards the Palestinians is stamped through its history like the lettering in a children’s stick of seaside rock.

But despite the consistent aim of Israeli policy, generation after generation of Western politicians, diplomats and journalists has shown a repeated inability to grasp what is happening before its very eyes.

Even before Israel’s Declaration of Independence on 15 May 1948, most Palestinians had been terrified away from the two wealthiest cities in coastal Palestine, Jaffa and Haifa.

Other Palestinian cities soon fell during the war of 1948: Israeli forces mostly cleansed Lydda, Ramle, Acre, Safad, Tiberias, Baysan and Bir Saba of their native populations. Today all these cities have been repopulated with Jews -- as well as renamed.

Khalidi has written: “These refugees from the urban areas of the country generally tended to be those Palestinians with the highest levels of literacy, skills, wealth, and education”.

Or, in other words, the small number of Palestinians allowed to remain in their homeland by Israel were peasant families living in isolated rural communities.   more »

16 JULY

Western Women Embrace Sex Tourism

Frank Rich: From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You ‘Axis of Evil’

The Sickness of the Israeli Collective Psyche

The Boy Cried Wolf: Bush Plays Politics with 'Terror Alerts'

American Greed: Wealth, Poverty and "Market Forces"

Robert Fisk: If the Lebanese Dislike Hizbollah, They Hate Israelis