"For the United States to shun any contact with Hezbollah amounts to trying to play the Middle Eastern chess game without several pieces.
. . . .
My sense is the passage of time — as well as bungling and inconsistencies — has rendered justice impossible in the Hariri murder. Lebanese stability is precious and tenuous: It trumps justice delayed, flawed and foreign.
. . . .
Is anyone listening in D.C.? It’s time to drop either-or diplomacy to address a many-shaded reality."
In essence, Cohen is telling us that if Saad Hariri is willing to forgive the 2005 murder of his father, Rafik, by Hezbollah, the U.S. should also let bygones be bygones. Cohen, however, has a habit of forgetting to mention inconvenient facts.
In 1983, long before Cohen became a U.S. citizen, Hezbollah blew up the Beirut barracks housing the U.S. members of the multinational peacekeeping force in Lebanon, killing 220 Marines, 18 Navy sailors, and three Army soldiers. Attempts at rescuing survivors from the rubble were subsequently hindered by Hezbollah sniper fire.
Cohen also fails to mention the 1984 kidnap and murder of William Francis Buckley by Hezbollah. Buckley, buried in Arlington National Cemetery, was tortured to death by Hezbollah.
Also, no reference by Cohen to Hezbollah's bombing of the Jewish community center building in Buenos Aires in 1994, which killed 85 people and injured hundreds. Why should Roger sully his argument with such trivial details?
Cohen spent the better part of 2009 attempting to convince us that Iran is "not totalitarian", while ignoring Iran's brutal oppression of Baha'is, Kurds, Sunnis, women, homosexuals, dissidents and journalists, and never broaching Iran's support of genocide in Darfur. Now, in 2010, he would have the U.S. seek rapprochement with Tehran's hired Hezbollah thugs for the sake of a "many-shaded reality".
Forgive and forget? Sorry, Roger, not in this lifetime. I spent much of 1983 in Lebanon and will never forget the gruesome sight of Hezbollah's victims. Never!
Some one else posted a comment on the same article and I will just reproduce it-"History did not begin with Rafik Hariri's assassination. During the 1967 war, I walked across the Israel/Lebanon border, which was never closed during that war: Lebanon stayed out of it. Years later, Sharon invaded Lebanon with the intention of driving out the PLO and installing as Prime Minister a pro-Israeli puppet who was a member of the Gamayel family, which headed the Phalange. In response to the Gamayel assassination, Sharon allowed the Phalange into the camps at Sabra and Shatila where they took their revenge against defenseless civilians. (Before agreeing to leave Beirut, Yasser Arafat had demanded assurances that Palestinian civilians would be protected by the IDF -- an assurance which was guaranteed by the U.S., whose Beirut barracks were later bombed in retaliation.) Menachem Begin then intoned "Goyim kill Goyim and the world blames the Jews." Nice turn of phrase, but "the Jews" provided the opportunity (the IDF surrounded and controlled the camps), the illumination, food, and funding for the Phalange.
ReplyDeleteJust as 9/11 was not the beginning of a story, but a response to U.S. activities (which in no way justifies it), so Hezbollah, too, is a response."
You rant against the Hezbollah but offer no solutions. Hezbollah is an extremist organization but till the time you dont talk to the enemies there is no progress.
Israel exists. Hezbollah will have to live with it. The Arab Middle East exists, the Palestinians exist. Israel will have to live with that.
1- Hizbollah early days until late 1980s are nothing to compare to Hizbollah since early 1990s on. Their early days were part of Lebanese civil war mess.
ReplyDelete2- You should not have been in Lebanon first of all in 1983.
3- There's nothing that tells, other than Israeli propaganda, and US intelligence lies, that Hizbollah is responsible of 1994 Buenos Aires attack.
4- Hizbollah's defense against terrorist Israeli occupation and colonization of Palestine is the only thing that keeps us thinking that the Tribunal is just a tool to weaken it. And 2006 war failed. and now they will fail again.
Cohen writes:
ReplyDelete"Hezbollah, Iran-financed and Syrian-backed, has assumed a pivotal role in Lebanese politics. It’s a political party, a social movement and a militia for which the term “terrorist group” is entirely inadequate.".
And why is Hezbollah not a terrorist organization? No explanation there. Cohen loves them, that is it.
He writes:
"Hezbollah-controlled southern Beirut suburb flattened by Israel in 2006, now bustles with construction and commerce, including state-of-the-art juice bars and risqué lingerie stores. It feels about as threatening as New York’s Canal Street."
Juice bars! This is important! So, he would rather make us believe that IDF is a terrorist organization, and Hezbollah is advancing peace and prosperity in the Middle East through by building the juice bars.
If they are not a terrorists anymore, what is wrong with telling the truth about the assassination? Why would it threaten the stability?