Yuram Almanfi's Blog | Root Causes

Comments and thoughts of an American Muslim on US Foreign policy in the Middle East and the so-called War on Terror,examining the contradictions from a perspective of justice, fairness and human rights.

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Root Causes

10 August, 2006

Another day in the New Middle East, and would-be Imperial Dictator Bush is in his summer palace in Crawford, Texas, enjoying a 10+ day vacation. Meanwhile, in other parts of the world such as Iraq, Afghanistan, Palestine and Lebanon, human beings are suffering and dying with the approval of the US Congress and tacit approval of the majority of Americans, as inferred by the lack of outcry.

Prior to the cease-fire, Zionist Premier Ehud Olmert had threatened to bomb any vehicle in southern Lebanon [1] while he spoke of the real war being waged not against Hizbollah but rather against Syria and Lebanon. Bush babbled about dealing with "root causes" as if the conflict started precisely on 12 July 2006 and it was all Hizbollah's fault. But then, what can one expect from the leader of the world's most powerful capitalist neo-colonial country, where the driving principle is profit maximization over the short term and the shorter the better.

All right, Mr. Bush... let's look at root causes, for we live in a world of cause and effect. Yes, there's quantum physics where events are governed by probability distributions, but at our level of life experience, there is cause and effect. So if you can, Mr. Bush, follow the causal chain back from 12 July 2006 and let's see where it leads. We can start with the capture of the two Israeli soldiers by Hizbollah and ask:

What caused Hizbollah to capture Israeli soldiers?

Hizbollah exchanged prisoners with Israel on 29 Jan 2004 [2] at which time some 30 Lebanese and other Arab prisoners as well as the remains of 59 Lebanese and 400 Palestinians were exchanged for one Israeli and the remains of 3 others. Hizbollah requested that Israel also provide a map of all Israeli mine locations in Southern Lebanon[3] as locations of only 40% are known. After two and one half years, Hizbollah decided to take action in the hopes of negotiating the release of the remaining prisoners and obtaining the map of mines.

What caused Israel to take Lebanese and other Arab Prisoners and plant land mines?

Israel has attacked Lebanon many times since 1978 and has killed over 17,000 human beings and has taken prisoners [4]. Up until 24 May 2000, Israel has occupied a strip of land in Southern Lebanon, which Israel justified as necessary for protection against Hizbollah attacks. Israel withdrew to the UN recognized border (the blue line) only as a result of pressure by Hizbollah resistance fighters and the collapse of the Israeli-aligned South Lebanon Army.

What caused the formation of Hizbollah?

Hizbollah arose after the 1982 Israeli invasion [5] when people in southern Lebanon gathered together to form a small resistance force with the goal of driving Israel out of southern Lebanon. This group also attempted to provide social services that the Lebanese government could not provide.

What caused the previous Israeli invasions into Lebanon?

In 1978, Israel attacked Lebanon in an attempt to drive Palestinian resistance fighters of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) north of the Litani River [6] to form a security buffer zone to prevent attacks on northern Israeli towns. The UN forced the Israelis back to the border, but they attacked again in 1982, this time driving most of the PLO out of Lebanon to Tunisia.

What caused Palestinians to attack Israel?

When the Zionist Regime of Israel was self-declared in May 1948, over 700,000 Palestinians were forced to flee from their homes and native lands [7]. Many took refuge in Jordan and Syria, but some 300,000 fled to Southern Lebanon. The Palestinians organized into resistance groups and began launching attacks from Southern Lebanon against the Zionist occupiers in an effort to regain the land was unlawfully taken from them.

What caused the creation of Israel in 1948?

Zionists (Jews who favored the creation of a Jewish home land) began organizing in the late 1800s and encouraging colonization of Palestine, which at that time was an Ottoman province. Desiring the support of the Jewish colonizers and the native Palestinian Arabs during World War I, the British promised both a state; one for the Palestinians by means of the Anglo-French Covenant (1918) and another for the Jews by means of the Balfour Declaration (1917). This contradiction, admitted by Lord Balfour himself in 1919, caused numerous bloody conflicts to arise with no solution until a partition plan (UN Resolution 181, 29 Nov 1947 [8]) was pushed through the UN General Assembly as a result of US pressure. By that time, Zionists had amassed formidable forces and self-declared the Zionist state on 15 May 1948 upon the expiration of the British mandate. US President Truman was quick to recognize the illegal entity, explaining that he had Jewish constituents, but no Arab constituents.

What caused Zionism to arise?

There had been centuries of Jewish anti-Semitism [9] in the European countries, the likes of which did not exist in the Middle East. This is evidenced by the numerous Jewish communities that existed in Morocco, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, Iran and elsewhere for hundreds of years and some for thousands. The period between 800CE to 1100CE and beyond in Spain (Al Andalus) was one of the most harmonious and cooperative of times between peoples of the three Abrahamic faiths.

What caused the end of this period of religious cooperation?

As a result of their distorted interpretation of the divinely-inspired Christian Religion, numerous Popes and other Christian leaders encouraged massacres and expulsions of Jews and Muslims. These misguided leaders launched seven Crusades which lead to the expulsion of Jews and Muslims from Spain in 1492 as well as the brutally cruel Inquisition which formally came to an end only in 1834.[10]

So, Mr. Bush, while you relax and ponder root causes during your well-deserved rest in your imperial palace in Crawford, Texas, after riding your bicycle, do indeed consider root causes. You may come to understand that one of the root causes for the death, destruction and chaos that we have witnessed in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle East stems from misguided leaders who, like yourself, have hijacked a divinely-inspired religion for their own warped political agenda.

Yuram 2006-8-15

1 http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20069696-661,00.html

2http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Government/Communiques/2004/Cabinet%20Communique%20-%2025-Jan-2004

3 United Nations Security Council Resolution 1496 (2003) of 31 July 2003, see

http://domino.un.org/UNISPAl.NSF/2ee9468747556b2d85256cf60060d2a6/9705e1400aa53c1385256e5a006ced56!OpenDocument

4 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14191.htm

5 http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1831961,00.html

6 http://www.country-data.com/cgi-bin/query/r-6716.html

7 http://www.palestinehistory.com/ref1948.htm

8 http://www.mideastweb.org/181.htm

9 The dictionary defines Semitic as of or pertaining to Semites, particularly Jews or Arabs, so anti-Semitism should mean hostility towards or prejudice against Semitic people, especially Jews or Arabs. However, common usage today seems to imply only Jews, hence the use of the term "Jewish anti-Semitism."

10 http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=1750&HistoryID=ab50

Posted by yuram 19:50 | Lebanon | Comment(0) | Permalink