Israeli Officials Blame Bush for Israeli Attacks in Lebanon
Many Israeli officials are blaming Bush for egging Prime Minister Ehud Olmert into the ill-conceived military adventure in Lebanon. "Bush even urged Israel to attack Syria, but the Olmert government refused to go that far, according to Israeli sources."
Israeli newspaper Haaretz is predicting that Olmert will be forced out of office because of the Lebanon adventure. I disagree with some aspects of the editorial that basically says that Olmert has to become even more of a warmonger to hold on to his office (like that’s a good thing). The comparison with Golda Meir is very apt, though, but Henry Kissinger in his memoirs and others of that era judged that Meir’s intransigence toward a peace process delayed the eventual peace between Israel and Egypt. Sadat was willing to deal, but Meir wanted blood according to Kissinger. Arafat was only too glad to continue fighting and actually bragged that an overwhelming Israeli sense of nationalism was their (the PLO’s) greatest ally not the other Arab states. Arafat wanted continued fighting and knew he’d be cut out of a peace deal as he was when Begin and Sadat eventually signed the Camp David Accords a few years later in 1978. I do, however, think that the main thrust of the editorial is spot on: that Olmert will end up losing his job as Prime Minister for this.
The kicker is that Israeli officials blame Bush for their public relations catastrophe in Lebanon. While Corporate Mainstream Media in the US has been very sympathetic of Israel in this war, the press and the people of the rest of the world are pretty united in their disapproval of Israel’s many attacks on civilians and Lebanese infrastructure that seemed unconnected with Hezbollah. Israel has gotten a HUGE black eye in view of the world over this. Americans have been shielded from most of this reporting, though. Olmert will pay the price for this. I only hope that the Labor party can gain control of the government although that is less than certain.
Like those Israeli officials the people of Lebanon also blame the US for this war. At last the Israelis and the Lebanese are in agreement: it’s our fault. Lucky us.
Israeli newspaper Haaretz is predicting that Olmert will be forced out of office because of the Lebanon adventure. I disagree with some aspects of the editorial that basically says that Olmert has to become even more of a warmonger to hold on to his office (like that’s a good thing). The comparison with Golda Meir is very apt, though, but Henry Kissinger in his memoirs and others of that era judged that Meir’s intransigence toward a peace process delayed the eventual peace between Israel and Egypt. Sadat was willing to deal, but Meir wanted blood according to Kissinger. Arafat was only too glad to continue fighting and actually bragged that an overwhelming Israeli sense of nationalism was their (the PLO’s) greatest ally not the other Arab states. Arafat wanted continued fighting and knew he’d be cut out of a peace deal as he was when Begin and Sadat eventually signed the Camp David Accords a few years later in 1978. I do, however, think that the main thrust of the editorial is spot on: that Olmert will end up losing his job as Prime Minister for this.
The kicker is that Israeli officials blame Bush for their public relations catastrophe in Lebanon. While Corporate Mainstream Media in the US has been very sympathetic of Israel in this war, the press and the people of the rest of the world are pretty united in their disapproval of Israel’s many attacks on civilians and Lebanese infrastructure that seemed unconnected with Hezbollah. Israel has gotten a HUGE black eye in view of the world over this. Americans have been shielded from most of this reporting, though. Olmert will pay the price for this. I only hope that the Labor party can gain control of the government although that is less than certain.
Like those Israeli officials the people of Lebanon also blame the US for this war. At last the Israelis and the Lebanese are in agreement: it’s our fault. Lucky us.
posted by Joe | 8/13/2006 08:33:00 PM
1 Comments:
The Israeli's can't "blame" Bush for this. He may have done the egging but those bombs were dropped by Israeli war planes. Ultimately, Israel will (and should) bear the political fallout from this incident.
That's what they get for listening to an idiot.
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