The Skeptic الشكاك

242 Post-War Minefields

There’s the actual minefield Israel left in southern Lebanon the last time it invaded. There are the cluster-bombs it left this time. But right now, the political minefield seems to be the trickiest to navigate. One misstep, everyone seems to agree, and this entire situation could explode again.

Kofi Annan today called on Israel to remove one such mine, the blockade of Lebanon, and on Hizballah to remove another, the continued detention of the Israeli soldiers whose capture started this whole mess.

“We need to deal with the lifting of the embargo—sea, land and air — which for the Lebanese is a humiliation,” Annan said at the end of his two-day trip to Lebanon. “And of course the (Lebanese) government needs measures to assure, ensure that the entrances [to] the country—sea, land and air—are secure.”

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni responded that “the naval blockade is to prevent rearmament of Hizballah. The moment when the international community, Germany, Denmark and the others, will reinforce the arms embargo from the sea side, it will be the moment when we can open it,” she told a news conference in Copenhagen. And while Arab NGOs called for Israel’s suspension from the United Nations, Livni called for a new Security Council resolution aimed at preventing Hizballah from re-arming.

Israeli soldiers and sailors need to withdraw to the border, not so much because the blockade is “a humiliation,” though it is, but because their presence is a provocation. The more contact they have with Hizballah, the more chance someone’s trigger-finger will “accidentally” slip.

Likewise, Hizballah: The Armed Group should be integrated into the Lebanese army. That means giving up their status as armed free-agents on the Lebanese scene. Hizballah: The Political Party is such a success there’s no reason for them to fear being a party like any other party or going through the normal channels for making decisions on Lebanon’s behalf. Their aims or outlook may not jibe perfectly with the rest of Lebanese society’s. But that’s what parties are for: to represent the interests of segments of societies.

On July 10, Hizballah’s refusal to disarm looked untenable. After they showed themselves to be the only group willing or able to mount any kind of defense against an Israeli invasion, it looks less so, particularly when even The Economist is arguing that Nasrallah won. The presence of U.N. troops on Lebanese soil can, and has, been portrayed as unwelcome outside interference from a body controlled by the United States. They’re not going to disarm Hizballah in any case. They’re there as a palliative to make Israel feel better about this stupid fiasco. So what? Let both Hizballah and Israel declare victory. So long as everyone gets to save face and go home, it doesn’t really matter. The sad truth is that last month’s destruction served no purpose. Wars rarely do.

“It’s only a tragedy if someone learns something from it,” a curmudgeonly coworker once told me as I waxed weepy about some awful event years ago. Will anyone learn anything from this? Or will we chalk this up as more senseless destruction and wasted lives? Hizballah has an opportunity to take the high road, go fully mainstream, and appear magnanimous in the process. The best thing the rest of the world could do would be to clear the path.

[tags]Lebanon, Israel, Annan[/tags]

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