[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, August 1, 2006

Tue Aug 1 15:06:59 CDT 2006

Just Foreign Policy News
August 1, 2006

In this issue:
1) Just Foreign Policy joins Brecher/Smith call for UN General Assembly
Action on Immediate Cease-Fire
2) Doggett, Velazquez, Clay Join Kucinich Resolution for Immediate
Cease-Fire
3) Cease-Fire Diplomacy in Lebanon - NYT editorial
4) Israel Expands Offensive to Drive Back Hezbollah
5) To Stay or to Go Isn't an Easy Choice for Many in Villages
6) Lebanese Race to Save Lives, but Find Death
7) Lebanese Premier Faces Impossible Job
8) U.N. Aid Convoys to Lebanon Delayed
9) For Lebanese, Calm Moment to Flee Ruins
10) Stop the Band-Aid Treatment - Carter op-ed
11) 'There is no ceasefire. There will not be any ceasefire'
12) 'No Hezbollah Rockets Fired from Qana'
13) Republican Senator Criticizes US Policy on Middle East
14) Republican Realists Call for Major Course Change
15) Bush Baggage Could Cost Lieberman Primary
16) Mideast Conflict a Setback for Iran Reform Movement
17) Democratic Leaders Ask Bush to Redeploy Troops in Iraq
18) Iran's Leader Rejects U.N. Resolution
19) U.N. Gives Iran Deadline to End Nuclear Work
20) Lopez Obrador Backers Slow Mexico City

Contents:
1) Just Foreign Policy joins Brecher/Smith call for UN General Assembly
Action on Immediate Cease-Fire
With the UN Security Council failing to take action to bring about a
ceasefire in Lebanon, Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith call on the UN
General Assembly to take action under Resolution 377, "Uniting for Peace,"
to bring about an immediate unconditional cease-fire. (
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0727-27.htm) A similar call in the
run-up to the Iraq war generated significant international pressure on the
United States. Just Foreign Policy is circulating a petition in support of
this demand: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/issues/lebanon.html.

2) Doggett, Velazquez, Clay Join Kucinich Resolution for Immediate
Cease-Fire
Rep Lloyd Doggett [TX-25], Rep Velazquez, Nydia M. [NY-12], and Rep Wm. Lacy
Clay [MO-1] have joined on as co-sponsors to the Kucinich resolution calling
for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon, bringing the number of co-sponsors
to 33, of whom 27 are members of the Progressive Caucus. The current list of
Progressive Caucus members who have not yet agreed to co-sponsor the
Kucinich resolution is at
http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/issues/prog_cauc_noceasefire.xls. A form
for contacting Members of Congress is at
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/justforeignpolicy.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=4697
.

3) Cease-Fire Diplomacy in Lebanon
Editorial
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/opinion/01tue1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
It took the worldwide uproar over the Qana casualties to finally jolt the
Bush administration into asking for something it should have sought many
days earlier. Washington's instant turnabout and Israel's instant response
has left the damaging impression that had America expressed similar concerns
sooner, these and many other innocent Lebanese lives might have been saved.
Israel is already rolling out plans for an expanded ground offensive, which
Washington has done nothing to discourage. Before that happens, the
temporary lull in Israeli attacks needs to be broadened into a full
cease-fire and extended indefinitely while the United Nations Security
Council works to create an international armed force to secure Lebanon's
border.

4) Israel Expands Offensive to Drive Back Hezbollah
Craig S. Smith And Steven Erlanger
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/world/middleeast/01cnd-mideast.html
Israel sharply stepped up its ground campaign in southern Lebanon after the
Israeli cabinet decided to expand its operations, aiming to push Hezbollah
back from the border before a cease-fire is declared and a multinational
force is deployed there. Israeli troops may push northward to the Litani
River, some 15 miles from the Israeli border. Several thousand soldiers have
been engaged in the operation, fighting house-to-house battles with hundreds
of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanese towns and villages close to the border.
The country's most influential columnist, Nahum Barnea, writing in Yediot
Aharonot, raised questions about Israeli tactics and leadership. Mr. Barnea
wrote about the government's decision to allow the army to attack civilian
houses if Hezbollah rockets and war matériel were stored inside and the
population was warned in advance to leave. He said Israel had to respond to
Hezbollah's attack with military action, but added, "The question is how and
at what cost." He criticized Defense Minister Peretz for describing "proudly
how he relieved the army of restrictions on harming civilian population that
lives alongside Hezbollah operatives."

5) To Stay or to Go Isn't an Easy Choice for Many in Villages
Jad Mouawad
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/world/middleeast/01lebanon.html
Israeli artillery pounded this small border village on Monday, covering the
hills with smoke, as the remaining residents tried to decide whether an
Israeli promise to pause its air war would allow them to leave. Despite the
promise, Israel's air force fired one missile around midday on a ridge east
of the town, sending a huge mushroom of smoke and dust high into the sky.
Another two airstrikes were heard within the next hour.

6) Lebanese Race to Save Lives, but Find Death
Reuters
August 1, 2006
Filed at 9:54 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast-lebanon-redcross.html
Rescue workers often can do nothing to help when they arrive at the
aftermath of Israeli attacks, such as that on Qana, in southern Lebanon. The
victims are either killed instantly or buried under rubble. The Lebanese
government says dozens of bodies have yet to be recovered after such
attacks, some of them in cars hit by Israeli missiles. The government has so
far put the war's death toll at 750 including unrecovered bodies. "Often,
they are dead. But there are wounded people,'' said Hussein Hudruj, a
Lebanese Red Cross volunteer. "In one village, we found people alive under
rubble after four days. They were wounded. We took them and now, thank God,
they are okay,'' he said.

7) Lebanese Premier Faces Impossible Job
Associated Press
August 1, 2006
Filed at 5:03 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mideast-Lebanese-Premier.html
Faced with the worst Israeli military onslaught in more than two decades,
Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has a nearly impossible job. The Western-backed
leader is trying to keep good relations with Washington. He must keep
Hezbollah politicians in his Cabinet to keep his fractured government from
falling apart. After the conflict began three weeks ago, Saniora proposed
ideas that included deploying an international force in the south. But his
stance hardened after an Israeli strike in the southern town of Qana that
killed at least 56 people, more than half of them children. He canceled a
visit by Secretary of State Rice and praised Hezbollah leader Nasrallah for
his ''sacrifices,'' even hinting that retaliation may be justified. Siding
with Hezbollah while Lebanon is under siege ensures the survival of
Saniora's government, at least in the short term, as he strives to end the
conflict. The guerrillas are popular with many Lebanese for their role in
pushing Israel to end its 18-year occupation from a self-declared security
zone in southern Lebanon in 2000.

8) U.N. Aid Convoys to Lebanon Delayed
Associated Press
August 1, 2006
Filed at 7:26 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mideast-Fighting-Aid.html
Two U.N. aid convoys destined for southern Lebanon were halted Tuesday after
failing to receive necessary security clearance from Israeli military forces
and Hezbollah, according to a spokeswoman for the World Food Program. The
U.N. requires that Hezbollah and the Israeli army be notified of the route
and timeframe for each convoy, and that the two sides acknowledge the
information. At least a dozen trucks with aid from WFP and other U.N.
agencies were stuck in Beirut as a result.

9) For Lebanese, Calm Moment to Flee Ruins
Sabrina Tavernise
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/world/middleeast/01scene.html
Across southern Lebanon on Monday, people took advantage of the relative
calm to move, seeking safety farther north. They piled onto tractors, packed
into cars, crowded children into open trunks, and even walked, lugging
belongings on their backs. They traveled despite Israeli shelling along the
border that popped and boomed. Those who could were getting out of the town,
though many who were elderly, infirm or lacking the means remained stuck.
The Israelis said they agreed to stop airstrikes for 48 hours, except in
cases of an imminent threat or to support ground troops, to let people in
southern Lebanon evacuate. But in Bint Jbail, leaving the town required
climbing mountains of rubble, something that was physically impossible for
most of the people who had been stranded.

10) Stop the Band-Aid Treatment
We Need Policies for a Real, Lasting Middle East Peace
Jimmy Carter
Washington Post
Tuesday, August 1, 2006; A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073100923.html
It is inarguable that Israel has a right to defend itself against attacks on
its citizens, but it is inhumane and counterproductive to punish civilian
populations in the illogical hope that somehow they will blame Hamas and
Hezbollah for provoking the devastating response. The result instead has
been that broad Arab and worldwide support has been rallied for these
groups, while condemnation of both Israel and the United States has
intensified. Israel belatedly announced, but did not carry out, a two-day
cessation in bombing Lebanon. The urgent need in Lebanon is that Israeli
attacks stop, the nation's regular military forces control the southern
region, Hezbollah cease as a separate fighting force, and future attacks
against Israel be prevented. Israel should withdraw from all Lebanese
territory, including Shebaa Farms, and release the Lebanese prisoners. The
general parameters of a long-term, two-state agreement are well known. There
will be no substantive and permanent peace for any peoples in this troubled
region as long as Israel is violating key U.N. resolutions, official
American policy and the international "road map" for peace by occupying Arab
lands and oppressing the Palestinians. Except for mutually agreeable
negotiated modifications, Israel's official pre-1967 borders must be
honored. A major impediment to progress is Washington's strange policy that
dialogue on controversial issues will be extended only as a reward for
subservient behavior and will be withheld from those who reject U.S.
assertions.

11) 'There is no ceasefire. There will not be any ceasefire'
Israeli PM Olmert issues grim warning as US blocks moves for immediate
cessation of hostilities
Ewen MacAskill, Simon Tisdall and Clancy Chassay
Guardian / UK
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0801-09.htm
An international drive for a ceasefire in Lebanon halted yesterday amid
sharp differences at the UN security council, Israel's rejection of any
truce in the near future and a Hizbullah warning that it would oppose the
deployment of a non UN-force. Amid outrage after Qana and complaints the UN
was doing nothing, the US secretary of state said she was convinced a
sustainable ceasefire could be achieved at the security council this week.
But Israel signalled dissent hours after she left Jerusalem. Its prime
minister shrugged off international pressure: "The fighting continues. There
is no ceasefire and there will not be any ceasefire in the coming days."
Israel, backed by the US, is insisting that the multinational force be put
in place before it halts its operations. France and other countries which
could contribute to a proposed 20,000-strong force are determined that a
ceasefire and the framework for a political agreement between Israel and
Lebanon must precede deployment. A senior official from one of the countries
that may make up the force said: "We are quite adamant. You have to have an
immediate ceasefire and then you need a political agreement, and only then
can this encompass an international force. The purpose of the force is to
help the Lebanese government and the Lebanese people. It is not to fight
Hizbullah."

12) 'No Hezbollah Rockets Fired from Qana'
Dahr Jamail
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Inter Press Service
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0801-02.htm
Red Cross workers and residents of Qana, where Israeli bombing killed at
least 60 civilians, told IPS that no Hezbollah rockets were launched from
the city before the Israeli air strike. The Israeli military has said it
bombed the building in which several people had taken shelter, more than
half of them children, because the Army had faced rocket fire from Qana. The
Israeli military has said that Hezbollah was therefore responsible for the
deaths. Lebanese Red Cross workers in the nearby coastal city of Tyre told
IPS that there was no basis for Israeli claims that Hezbollah had launched
rockets from Qana. "We found no evidence of Hezbollah fighters in Qana," a
28-year-old medic for the Red Cross said. "When we rescue people or recover
bodies from villages, we usually see rocket launchers or Hezbollah fighters
if they are there, but in Qana I can say that the village was 100 percent
clear of either of those." Another Red Cross worker told IPS that "we can
tell when Hezbollah has been firing rockets from certain areas, because all
of the people run away, on foot if they have to."

13) Republican Senator Criticizes US Policy on Middle East
Deborah Tate
Voice of America News
01 August 2006
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-08-01-voa2.cfm
Senator Chuck Hagel, a key Senate Republican and member of the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee, is calling on the Bush administration to work
for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict between Israeli forces and the
Lebanese-based Hezbollah militants. In a speech in the Senate Monday, Hagel
urged the Bush administration to do something it has so far refused: engage
Syria and Iran, the main sponsors of Hezbollah. Hagel said military action
alone will not destroy Hezbollah, and that the pursuit of tactical military
victories at the expense of the core strategic objective of Arab-Israeli
peace is a hollow victory. He urged the United States to reengage Middle
East and international partners to find a resolution to the
Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hagel also said, "America is bogged down in
Iraq, and this is limiting our diplomatic and military options. The longer
American remains in Iraq in its current capacity, the deeper the damage to
our force structure."

14) Republican Realists Call for Major Course Change
Jim Lobe
Inter Press Service
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0801-01.htm
Some of the Republican Party's most venerable foreign policy strategists are
calling urgently for a major course change in U.S. policy in the Middle
East. In Sunday's Washington Post, Brent Scowcroft, national security
adviser to presidents Ford and Bush Senior, explicitly rejected the
administration's contention that the "root cause" of the current crisis was
Hezbollah and its attacks on Israel. In a Post column Monday, former
secretary of state Henry Kissinger renewed his appeal for Washington to
negotiate directly with Iran over its nuclear program. Richard Armitage, a
senior Pentagon official under Bush's father and deputy secretary of state
in Bush's first term, also decried Washington's refusal to directly engage
another key Hezbollah backer, Syria, during the current crisis in an
interview with NPR last week. Armitage also criticised Israel's campaign for
relying too heavily on air power. Richard Haass, president of the Council on
Foreign Relations, was scornful in a Washington Post interview of the
administration's mantra that the current crisis offers an "opportunity" to
reach a permanent solution to southern Lebanon. "An opportunity? Lord, spare
me. I don't laugh a lot. That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long
time. If this is an opportunity, what's Iraq? A once-in-a-lifetime chance?"
he asked.

15) Bush Baggage Could Cost Lieberman Primary
Connecticut Democrats fume at his centrism and unbending support for the
war. A poll shows the senator's rival surging. The vote is next week.
Ronald Brownstein
Los Angeles Times
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0801-05.htm
Both camps say the result will likely turn on which side can best motivate
its supporters to turn out for a contest in the dog days of summer. The
contest is open only to Democrats, but independents have until Monday to
register with the party to vote in the primary. Lieberman was one of only
six Democratic senators to oppose a party-backed resolution in June urging
Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq later this year. Lamont said
he would have voted for that resolution as well as a separate measure, which
only a dozen Democrats backed, that called on Bush to withdraw all the
troops by next summer. Laura Spitz, a graphic designer who is backing
Lamont, said Lieberman "enables Republicans to have this veneer of
bipartisanship because he is their token Democrat." The New York Times
raised similar arguments in endorsing Lamont in an editorial Sunday. Lamont
is pounding the message that elected officials around the country will view
next week's primary results as a referendum on whether Americans want to
change direction in Iraq. That prospect is clearly weighing on many
Connecticut Democrats. One voter wrote, "If our little primary is being
viewed as a referendum on the war in Iraq, then I am voting for Ned Lamont."

16) Mideast Conflict a Setback for Iran Reform Movement
Michael Slackman
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/world/middleeast/01iran.html

The Israeli onslaught in Lebanon and Hezbollah's daily victories in the
regional public relations war over the conflict threaten to claim a victim
in Iran: whatever hope remained of resurrecting the political reform
movement. Even as Iran's officials assess the military setbacks of
Hezbollah, they have grown more emboldened by the gathering support in the
Islamic world for the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia on the front line with
Israel. They have grown more emboldened by what they see as a validation of
their confrontational approach to foreign policy — and in their efforts to
silence political opposition at home.
That is the view of some opposition figures, analysts and former officials
who say they find themselves in the awkward position of opposing Israel and
sympathizing with the Lebanese people, yet fear what might happen should
Hezbollah prevail.

17) Democratic Leaders Ask Bush to Redeploy Troops in Iraq
Adam Nagourney
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/washington/01pullout.html
Leading Congressional Democrats called on President Bush to begin a phased
redeployment of troops by the end of this year, a unified statement
signaling they have concluded that the war could hurt Republicans in the
midterm elections. The letter called on American forces in Iraq to make a
transition to a "more limited mission" dealing with counterterrorism and
training and logistical support of Iraq security forces. "In the interests
of American national security, our troops, and our taxpayers, the open-ended
commitment in Iraq that you have embraced cannot and should not be
sustained," said the letter released Monday, signed by a dozen Democratic
leaders, including Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate minority leader, and
Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader. The fact that most of the
Democratic leadership unified around a position and presented it so
forcefully strongly suggests that the politics surrounding the war are
changing.

18) Iran's Leader Rejects U.N. Resolution
Associated Press
August 1, 2006
Filed at 12:59 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html
President Ahmadinejad on Tuesday rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution
that would give his nation until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment.
Instead, Ahmadinejad insisted Tehran would pursue its nuclear program.
"Throughout Iran, there is one slogan: 'The Iranian nation considers the
peaceful use of nuclear fuel production technology its right,''' Ahmadinejad
said. The Security Council passed a resolution Monday calling for Iran to
suspend uranium enrichment by the end of August or face the threat of
economic and diplomatic sanctions. Ahmadinejad said Iran will not give in to
threats from the United Nations.  Because of Russian and Chinese demands,
the resolution's text was watered down from earlier drafts that would have
made the threat of political and economic sanctions immediate. The
resolution now requires the council to hold more discussions before it
considers sanctions. Iran has said it would formally respond Aug. 22 to the
incentives package, but a top Iranian lawmaker said Tuesday the Security
Council resolution has effectively made the offer ''null and void.''

19) U.N. Gives Iran Deadline to End Nuclear Work
Warren Hoge
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/world/middleeast/01nuke.html
The Security Council passed a resolution on Monday demanding that Iran
suspend its uranium enrichment and reprocessing work by the end of August or
face the possibility of sanctions. The resolution is the first move by the
Council on the Iranian nuclear program that is legally binding and carries
the threat of sanctions. The vote was 14 to 1, with Qatar, the Arab
representative on the Council, dissenting. Javad Zarif, the Iranian
ambassador, said that the Security Council was acting illegally and that the
vote had no international credibility. "Iran's peaceful nuclear program
poses no threat to international peace and security, and therefore dealing
with this issue in the Security Council is unwarranted and void of any legal
basis or practical utility," he said after the vote. He mocked the
ambassadors for not acting forcefully in the current war in Lebanon, saying:
"You be the judge of how much credibility this leaves for the Security
Council. Millions of people around the world have already passed their
judgment." The resolution calls for "full and sustained suspension" of
nuclear activities, including research and development, by Aug. 31, to be
verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations'
nuclear monitoring group. It also calls upon all countries to prevent the
shipment to Iran of any materials that could be used in its
enrichment-related activities or ballistic-missile programs. Nassir
Al-Nassar, the Qatari ambassador, said he voted no out of concern for the
stability of the region while war continued in Lebanon. "We do not agree
with the resolution at a time when our region is in flames," he said.

At the urging of Democrats, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has put
off a vote until September on whether to keep John Bolton as ambassador to
the United Nations, committee aides said Monday. Democrats want to use that
time to press the White House for documents they had sought last year during
the dispute over Bolton's nomination as the envoy.

20) Lopez Obrador Backers Slow Mexico City
Associated Press
August 1, 2006
Filed at 12:44 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mexico-Elections.html
Supporters of Mexico's leftist presidential candidate brought rush-hour
traffic to a crawl Monday, causing the stock market to drop and forcing
office workers dressed in business suits and high heels to hike for miles to
work. At night, tens of thousands descended on the city's central plaza for
a speech by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. ''The public should understand that
if there isn't democracy ... there won't be any justice, or political
stability, or peacefulness,'' Lopez Obrador said. Mexican stocks
closed 0.8percent lower, in part because the protests made investors
nervous. Sunday's
protests were on a scale that has not been seen in recent Mexican history.

--------
Robert Naiman
Just Foreign Policy
www.justforeignpolicy.org
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