[Peace-discuss] Just Foreign Policy News, July 21, 2006

Fri Jul 21 13:18:04 CDT 2006

Just Foreign Policy News

July 21, 2006

In this issue:

1) Kucinich Resolution Calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Lebanon; 23
Cosponsors

2) Poll: Lieberman Trails For First Time

3) Israel Calls Up Reserves, a Sign of Wider Ground Raids

4) Iran Cleric Accuses UN of Tyranny

5) Iranian Leader's Letter Attacks Israel: Germany

6) Bush to Meet Blair at White House July 28

7) European Nations Circulate U.N. Iran Draft

8) Iran Offers a Pledge and a Warning

9) In Mideast Strife, Bush Sees a Step To Peace

10) Israel, Hezbollah Intensify Ground Conflict in Lebanon

11) US says Iran witnessed N. Korean missile tests

12) Rice to Present Diplomacy Plan for Lebanon

13) Seven Questions: The Fight for Lebanon

14) Congresswoman Kilpatrick Calls for Immediate Ceasefire

15) A Closer Look at a Close Vote in Mexico

Summary:

On Wednesday Representative Dennis Kucinich introduced a resolution (H. Con.
Res. 450) "calling upon the President to appeal to all sides in the current
crisis in the Middle East for an immediate cessation of violence and to
commit United States diplomats to multi-party negotiations with no
preconditions." The text is here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.con.res.00450
. There are 23 cosponsors:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HC00450:@@@P
. Of the 62 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, 20 are
cosponsors. To ask your representative to cosponsor, you can use this link:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/justforeignpolicy.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=4697.
Just Foreign Policy is also circulating a petition in support of an
immediate ceasefire:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/justforeignpolicy.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=320

Sen. Joe Lieberman is narrowly trailing his challenger for the first time in
their race for the Democratic nomination, a poll released Thursday shows.
Businessman Ned Lamont had support from 51 percent and Lieberman from 47
percent of likely Democratic voters in the latest Quinnipiac University poll
— a slight Lamont lead, given the survey's sampling error margin of plus or
minus 4 percentage points. Liberals have criticized Lieberman for his
support of the Iraq war and other moves perceived to support congressional
Republicans and Bush.

Israel called up a few thousand reservists in possible preparation for a
more extensive ground operation in southern Lebanon, as its warplanes
continued to hit targets there and to drop leaflets warning residents of
villages to leave their homes and head northward.

Over the last two days, there has been an increase in ground clashes as
Israeli troops have moved about a mile or so inside Lebanon to demolish
Hezbollah outposts and fortifications.

Lebanon's defense minister said on Thursday that the Lebanese Army — which
has so far remained on the sidelines — would go into battle if Israel
invaded: "The Lebanese army will resist and defend the country and prove
that it is an army worthy of respect."

Lebanon's prime minister Siniora said that no settlement was in sight to end
the violence. He accused the United States of giving Israel a green light to
bomb Lebanon. "The United States is allowing Israel to pursue its
aggression," he told Agence France-Presse.

On Thursday UN Secretary General Annan called for an immediate ceasefire and
spoke of the human suffering caused by the offensive, which has displaced
hundreds of thousands of Lebanese from their homes. He proposed that
Hezbollah release the two soldiers, that attacks by both sides be halted and
that an international peacekeeping force be deployed. And he condemned the
Israeli operation as an "excessive use of force."

The Russian Foreign Ministry called Israel's actions in Lebanon "far beyond
the boundaries of an antiterrorist operation" and urged a cease-fire.

President Bush's press secretary, Tony Snow, said, "I'm not sure at this
juncture we're going to step in and put up a stop sign," although he called
on Israel to "practice restraint" and said Mr. Bush was "very much
concerned" about a growing human crisis in southern Lebanon.

Diplomats are investigating the idea of creating a more robust international
peacekeeping force than the current, largely ineffectual Unifil force, which
has occupied a narrow strip along the Lebanese-Israeli border for decades.
The new force would be under United Nations auspices, but made up largely of
European troops, and would help the weak Lebanese government move its army
to the Israeli border and push back a weakened Hezbollah.

The Lebanese government said it had so far sheltered as many as 120,000
refugees, mostly in schools. It is considering setting up tents and
temporary barracks in public parks and sports fields. The United Nations
estimates that a total of 500,000 people have been displaced, on in eight of
Lebanon's population of 4 million.

On the West Bank, Israeli forces continued to surround the Mukata compound
in Nablus, where Palestinians wanted by Israel have been taking refuge since
Wednesday morning. Tanks fired five shells at the buildings and army
bulldozers worked to knock down the exterior walls, while warning those
inside to come out or risk being buried underneath the rubble. Israeli
troops fired rubber-coated bullets at Palestinians who demonstrated against
the troops, wounding five, one seriously, Palestinian medics said.

The U.N. Security Council risks committing "a historic act of tyranny''
against Iran if it passes a resolution demanding Tehran stop making nuclear
fuel, powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Friday. U.N. Security
Council permanent members are wrangling over the text of a draft resolution
that includes the threat of sanctions if Iran fails to halt making enriched
uranium. "They are going to commit another historic act of tyranny against
Iran, despite Iran announcing several times that it is ready to negotiate,''
he said. He said it would be humiliating for Iran to end its domestic
nuclear fuel cycle, which it says it needs to run nuclear power stations.
"If Iran accepts, that would mean putting our hands up and surrendering,''
he continued. Former President Rafsanjani heads the powerful Expediency
Council, Iran's main legislative arbitration body.

U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. John Bolton said on Wednesday major powers
disagreed about how to make legally binding demands that Iran suspend
enrichment and stop work on a reactor that can produce plutonium. Russia and
China, both of which have opposed sanctions, have raised questions in
informal talks about the draft resolution backed by Western nations. The
drafts looks to set a date, possibly by the end of August, for Iran to
comply. The United States has consistently declined to rule out military
strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Germany rejects parts of a letter from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
to Chancellor Angela Merkel which called into question Israel's right to
exist, a government spokesman said on Friday. A German government official
who saw the letter told Reuters it criticized Israel and said Germany and
Iran should cooperate in dealing with Zionism and solving the Palestinian
problem. The spokesman said the letter did not mention Tehran's nuclear
standoff with the West, or the fighting in Lebanon and Israel. Asked if
Germany planned to respond to the letter, Wilhelm said: ``We have no
intention of entering into a long correspondence with the Iranian
president.''

President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair will hold
their talks next week. Bush has yet to sign on to Blair's call for deploying
an international security and monitoring presence along the border of
Lebanon and Israel. Bush's position is that he wants to hear the report of a
U.N. mission to the region on whether such a force would be worthwhile. He
has declined to endorse calls for a ceasefire from U.N. Secretary-General
Kofi Annan and others.

Key European nations circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution
Thursday that would put the threat of sanctions, but not force, behind
demands that Iran suspend uranium enrichment and clear up suspicions about
its nuclear program. If Iran does not comply, the draft states, the council
will follow up under Article 41 of Chapter 7 in the U.N. Charter, which
allows punishments that do not involve military action, such as economic
sanctions, banning air travel or breaking diplomatic relations. The draft,
proposed by Britain, France, Germany and backed by the U.S., would make
mandatory earlier demands from the council that Iran stop uranium
enrichment. The U.S. had hoped to have the Security Council pass the
resolution by the end of this week, but that seemed unlikely because
diplomats were occupied with the Lebanon crisis. In addition, there was no
indication that a split with Russia had been bridged. Russia had circulated
a counterproposal Wednesday that stripped much of the tough language from
the draft. Western powers presented their version to the full council
anyway.

Russia's U.N. Ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, indicated on Wednesday that Moscow
was in no rush to get a resolution passed but said Russia wanted an answer
sometime soon to the package of incentives, put forward on June 5. Churkin
stressed the council is not trying to push Tehran to suspend enrichment.
''We are not in a rush at all,'' Churkin said. ''We do not want to ambush
Iran in any way. We're very much in a negotiating political mode. We do not
want to dictate things to Iran.''

Iran promised again on Thursday to respond to an international package of
incentives on Aug. 22 but warned that it would reconsider its position if
its case was sent to the United Nations Security Council. The announcement
was in a statement issued by Iran's National Security Council. The council
is led by Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani.

Bush's unwillingness to pressure Israel to halt its military campaign is
rooted in a view of the Middle East sharply different from his predecessors,
the Washington Post reports. When hostilities have broken out in the past,
the usual U.S. response has been immediate diplomacy aimed at a cease-fire
to avoid escalation. But now the administration is content to see the
Israelis inflict the maximum damage possible on Hezbollah. The U.S. position
represents a shift away from a more traditional view that the U.S. plays an
"honest broker's" role in the Middle East. In the new view, the conflict is
an opportunity to seriously degrade a big threat in the region. Many Mideast
experts warn that there is a dangerous consequence to this worldview. They
believe that Israel, and the United States by extension, is risking serious
trouble if it continues with air strikes that are producing mounting
casualties. The history of the Middle East is replete with examples of the
limits of military power, they say, noting how the Israeli campaign in
Lebanon in the early 1980s helped create the conditions for the rise of
Hezbollah. They warned that the military campaign is turning mainstream
Lebanese public opinion against Israel rather than against Hezbollah. "There
needs to be a signal that the Bush administration is prepared to do
something," said Larry Garber, executive director the New Israel Fund, which
pushes for civil rights and justice in Israel. "Taking a complete hands-off,
casual-observer position undermines our credibility. . . . There is a danger
that we will be seen as simply doing Israel's bidding." Robert Malley, who
handled Middle East issues on the NSC for Clinton, voiced skepticism about
whether the current course would pay off for either Israel or the United
States. "Hezbollah could emerge with its dignity intact and much of its
political and military arsenal still available," said Malley, who monitors
the region for the International Crisis Group. "What will you have gained?"

The Israeli public, while so far largely supportive of Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert's war effort, has been generally less tolerant of ground operations
since Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and the bloody 18-year occupation
that followed, the Washington Post notes. Amos Yaron, a retired general,
said "We didn't have any problem entering Lebanon in 1982…The problem was
leaving it."

The United States said on Thursday Iran had attended North Korean missile
tests this month, increasing U.S. concern about ties between two countries
Washington accuses of having secret nuclear weapons programmes.U.S.
Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill said one or more Iranian
representatives witnessed July 4 missile tests in North Korea.

Asked at a U.S. Senate hearing about reports Iranians witnessed the North
Korean tests, Hill said: "Yes, that is my understanding."

In a statement published on her Congressional website, Detroit Congresswoman
Kilpatrick called for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon. The President must
send a strong signal that the United States does not condone the ongoing
loss of innocent civilian lives, she said.

A letter in the Washington Post noted that claims that Mexico has had "two
full tallies" of its July 2 presidential vote are incorrect. Both the
initial count on the day of the vote and the so-called 'recount' -- were of
precinct results, not of actual ballots. There has been no centralized count
of the ballots themselves, as López Obrador, who is disputing the precinct
tally, is calling for.

Articles:

1) Kucinich Resolution Calls for Immediate Ceasefire in Lebanon; 23
Cosponsors

Representative Dennis Kucinich [OH-10]

July 19, 2006

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:h.con.res.00450 :

On Wednesday Representative Dennis Kucinich introduced a resolution (H. Con.
Res. 450) "calling upon the President to appeal to all sides in the current
crisis in the Middle East for an immediate cessation of violence and to
commit United States diplomats to multi-party negotiations with no
preconditions." There are 23 cosponsors:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d109:HC00450:@@@P
. Of the 62 members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, 20 are
cosponsors. To ask your representative to cosponsor, you can use this link:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/justforeignpolicy.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=4697
.

2) Poll: Lieberman Trails For First Time

HARTFORD, Conn.,

Associated Press

July 20, 2006

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/07/20/politics/main1823685.shtml

Sen. Joe Lieberman, under fire from activists in his own party, has lost
ground to his challenger and is narrowly trailing him for the first time in
their race for the Democratic nomination, a new poll released Thursday
shows.

3) Israel Calls Up Reserves, a Sign of Wider Ground Raids

Steven Erlanger And Jad Mouawad

July 21, 2006

New York Times

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/21/world/middleeast/21cnd-mide.html

JERUSALEM, July 21 — Israel called up a few thousand reservists today, in
possible preparation for a more extensive ground operation in southern
Lebanon, as its warplanes continued to hit targets there and to drop
leaflets warning residents of villages to leave their homes and head
northward.

4) Iran Cleric Accuses UN of Tyranny

Reuters

July 21, 2006

Filed at 6:48 a.m. ET

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-nuclear-iran-cleric.html

TEHRAN (Reuters) - The U.N. Security Council risks committing ``a historic
act of tyranny'' against Iran if it passes a resolution demanding Tehran
stop making nuclear fuel, powerful cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on
Friday.

5) Iranian Leader's Letter Attacks Israel: Germany

Reuters

July 21, 2006

Filed at 8:55 a.m. ET

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-germany-iran.html

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany rejects parts of a letter from Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Chancellor Angela Merkel which called into question
Israel's right to exist, a government spokesman said on Friday.

6) Bush to Meet Blair at White House July 28

Reuters

July 21, 2006

Filed at 9:47 a.m. ET

http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-mideast-bush-blair.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister
Tony Blair, who have a difference of opinion about a multilateral force for
southern Lebanon, will next week hold their second face-to-face talks this
month.

7) European Nations Circulate U.N. Iran Draft

Associated Press

July 21, 2006

Filed at 12:25 a.m. ET

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-UN-Iran-Nuclear.html

UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- Key European nations circulated a draft U.N. Security
Council resolution Thursday that would put the threat of sanctions, but not
force, behind demands that Iran suspend uranium enrichment and clear up
suspicions about its nuclear program.

8) Iran Offers a Pledge and a Warning

Nazila Fathi

New York Times

July 21, 2006

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/21/world/middleeast/21iran.html

TEHRAN, July 20 — Iran promised again on Thursday to respond to an
international package of incentives on Aug. 22 but warned that it would
reconsider its position if its case was sent to the United Nations Security
Council.

9) In Mideast Strife, Bush Sees a Step To Peace

Michael Abramowitz

Washington Post

Friday, July 21, 2006; A01

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/20/AR2006072001907.html

President Bush's unwillingness to pressure Israel to halt its military
campaign in Lebanon is rooted in a view of the Middle East conflict that is
sharply different from that of his predecessors.

10) Israel, Hezbollah Intensify Ground Conflict in Lebanon

Long Fight Signaled as Evacuations Proceed

Scott Wilson and Edward Cody

Washington Post

Friday, July 21, 2006; 7:32 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/21/AR2006072100344.html

JERUSALEM, July 21 -- Israeli ground forces and Hezbollah guerrillas engaged
in heavy fighting inside Lebanon on Thursday, as senior Israeli defense
officials braced the country for a long conflict against the radical Islamic
groups on its borders and indicated that a large ground operation could
still lie ahead.

11) US says Iran witnessed N. Korean missile tests

Carol Giacomo

Reuters

Friday, July 21, 2006; 12:32 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/21/AR2006072100057.html

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday Iran had attended
North Korean missile tests this month, increasing U.S. concern about ties
between two countries Washington accuses of having secret nuclear weapons
programmes.

12) Rice to Present Diplomacy Plan for Lebanon

Anne Gearan

Associated Press

Friday, July 21, 2006; 11:12 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/21/AR2006072100388.html

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will lay out U.S. plans
Friday for a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting, an
administration official said.

13) Seven Questions: The Fight for Lebanon

Interview with Rami Khouri, Editor, Beirut Daily Star

Foreign Policy

Posted July 19, 2006

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3531

As the conflict between Israel, Lebanon, and the Palestinians escalates, FP
spoke with Rami Khouri, editor at large of the Daily Star, Beirut's largest
English-language newspaper, for some perspective on Hezbollah's tactics,
Iran's role in the crisis, and whether there's any end to the fighting in
sight.

14) Congresswoman Kilpatrick Calls for Immediate Ceasefire

Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick Issues Statement about the
Escalating Conflict between Israel and Hezbollah

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

http://www.house.gov/kilpatrick/pr060718.htm

Detroit, MI – Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick (13th District-MI)
issued the following statement today regarding the escalating violence in
the Middle East: I am deeply concerned about the escalating violence between
Israel and Lebanon.   The violence is resulting in substantial losses of
innocent civilian lives.

15) A Closer Look at a Close Vote in Mexico

Greg Grandin, New York

Letter to the Editor

Friday, July 21, 2006; A16

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/20/AR2006072001854.html

Jorge G. Castañeda [op-ed, July 16] wrote that Mexico has had "two full
tallies" of its July 2 presidential vote. This is incorrect. Both the
initial count on the day of the vote and the so-called "recount" -- which
occurred three days later -- were of precinct results, not of the actual
ballots. There has been no centralized count of the ballots themselves, as
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who is disputing the precinct tally, is calling
for.

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