Editorial: US Diplomacy
Arab News
29 July 2006
The US State Department has taken offense at the claim by Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon that Wednesday�s 15-nation emergency meeting in Rome on the situation in Lebanon had, by not demanding an immediate cease-fire, effectively gave Israel the green light to continue its attacks against Hezbollah. That conclusion is �outrageous� says the State Department.
It has good reason to be upset. But not because of the Israeli claim. The real reason for its unusual bitterness is because the evidently ungrateful ally it was trying to help as devious and manipulative has exposed the US, and the US does not like that.
Rarely do we agree with the Israelis, but to the rest of us too it looks exactly as if they were given the green light to continue the bombardments � and they were given it by the US.
The Rome conference could have demanded an immediate cease-fire, as called for by Saudi Arabia and many other countries. The proposal was there on the table. But the US was against it and effectively vetoed the idea. As a result the conference was worse than a waste of time and energy; it was a complete surrender to Israel.
The decision not to go for an immediate cease-fire and instead issue a meaningless call for peace to be sought urgently can only be interpreted in one way: the Israeli way. In rejecting a cease-fire, the Rome meeting said quite unambiguously that the existing state of affairs � Israel�s bombardment of southern Lebanon � could continue.
It was a disastrous outcome, a case of the responsible being utterly irresponsible
-- and the blame has to lie entirely with the US.
Of course it is unhappy with the Israelis pointing out the obvious. The State Department would prefer that we did not notice that through its careful diplomacy, it had given them the freedom to carry on bombing southern Lebanon. But the obvious cannot be disguised.
Nor should anyone be too surprised at what happened. There is no difference between the US at an international conference blocking a cease-fire call that Israel does not want and the US in the more august setting of the UN vetoing resolutions condemning Israeli policies.
It has a long record of that. The Rome conference was just another instance of US diplomacy working valiantly and unquestioningly in Israel�s interests. Carry on bombing, the US said. They did not spell it out; they did not need to. The Israelis understood. And the Israelis have done just that. In fresh strikes against southern Lebanon yesterday, at least five died and many more were injured.
Does the US feel any responsibility for this continued violence? It should. It is high time that it faced up to the consequences of its actions. It blocked a cease-fire call. The result is more deaths in Lebanon. US diplomacy has Lebanese blood on its hands.
Source: Arab News
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