Palestine Think Tank

 WRITTEN BY BRENDA HEARD  On 14 December 2009 Lebanese President Michel Suleiman met with US President Barack Obama in Washington.  The photo above gives an idea of the underlying tension.  You can read the full transcript of their public meeting here and watch it on video here. 

Obama gets the conversation rolling with the enigmatic statement that 

“We both agree that the issues of Middle East peace are linked to the issues that exist inside Lebanon, and so the more we can work together to encourage the parties involved — not only Israel and the Palestinians, but also the Israelis and the Syrians, for example — to have constructive dialogue and try to negotiate out of the current impasse, the better off Lebanon will be, the better off the world will be.” [at 1:51 he does say “inside”; yet he goes on to suggest dialogues between parties outside of Lebanon.  What “impasse” he refers to is left to the reader’s inference.]

 After an overview of Lebanese dialogue on regional affairs, President Suleiman notes with candour:  “We also discussed the Israeli threats against Lebanon that are taking place and that place obstacles to the economic growth of the country.  We ask President Obama and the United States to exert further pressure on Israel to implement Resolution 1701 and to withdraw from Israeli occupied — Lebanese occupied territories [Lebanese territories occupied by Israel] namely from the village of Ghajar, Kfar Shouba, and the Shebaa Farms.” 

It is with these words, upon translation of course, that we witness a telling display of body language.  Facial expression and body posture reveal what goes well beyond an awkward moment. 

[Suleiman in translation, 13:43]  “We also discussed the Israeli threats against Lebanon that are taking place and that place obstacles to the economic growth of the country.

[Suleiman in translation] “We ask President Obama and the United States to exert [13:46, head down] further pressure on Israel [13:50, added grimace] to implement Resolution 1701 and to withdraw from Israeli occupied — Lebanese occupied territories namely from the village of Ghajar, Kfar Shouba, and the Shebaa Farms.” 

The tension remains as Suleiman’s remarks move on to the role of the United Nations and to the Palestinian Right to Return.  The stiff, cross-legged Obama at long last brightens with a diplomatic wave of the hand when he takes one and only one question from the media. [Question]  “Mr. President, did you talk about Hezbollah weapons? Because it's my understanding that the Lebanese government now considers it an internal issue and doesn't want the Security Council to deal with it.”

Apparently back in his comfort zone, Obama replies: “President Suleiman emphasized his concerns with respect to Israel.  I want to be clear that I emphasized to him our concerns about the extensive arms that are smuggled into Lebanon that potentially serve as a threat to Israel.  And it is in the interests I think of all parties concerned to make sure that enforcement is exerted with respect to such smuggling, as well as to any other issues.  So one of the things that I want to make clear is that President Sleiman and I aren't going to agree on every issue with respect to how Israel, Lebanon, the Palestinians, Syria, are interacting.  What we do share is a commitment to resolve these issues through dialogue and negotiations, as opposed to through violence.”

18:30—55 “we are going to continue to be promoting those processes that bring parties together, even though there are going to be some strong disagreements with respect to what the terms, for example, of a final peace between Israel and the Palestinians* may be.  And I'm confident that we can arrive at those — such an agreement as long as all the parties are entering into it in good faith.” 

Obama expresses his disdain for weapons “smuggled” into Lebanon, but qualifies that category as only those weapons that “potentially serve as a threat to Israel.”  His concern, then, does not seem to extend to those weapons quietly held by militias across the Lebanese party spectrum and to those held by militias festering within Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps. 

 Adopting the pose of the man orchestrating “how Israel, Lebanon, the Palestinians, Syria, are interacting,” Obama repeats his commitment to constructive dialogue and negotiations—as opposed to violence—to resolve “issues.”  That was the rhetoric of 14^th December. 

On the 16^th December, Obama signed the “H.R.3288 Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2010” [text at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.3288 ].  This Act includes the Division F—Department of State, Foreign Operations and Related Programs Appropriations Act, http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c111:7:./temp/~c1118M9G1u:e890331.  A summary can be read at http://appropriations.house.gov/pdf/FY10_SFOPS_Conference_Summary.pdf and the full text of Title IV Foreign Military Financing Program at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?c111:7:./temp/~c1118M9G1u:e970866.  (If the links are inoperable, simply copy and paste the titles into your search engine)

So much for the pre-requisite “good faith.”  Not only does the bill provide billions of US dollars for Israel-friendly Egypt and Jordan earmarked for military use, the bill also increases military funds to Israel by $225 million from last year—providing a staggering $2775 billion in 2010, part of a package deal at $30 billion in the coming decade.

While this fulfils Obama’s ethical stance against “smuggling” weapons—as the royal token of support has been heralded in with bells and horns in the media and political circles—it rather contradicts his self-righteous dedication to resolve “issues through dialogue and negotiations, as opposed to through violence.”  What else are weapons destined for if not violence?

Of course AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee) boasts that Israel is “slated to spend $150 billion on defense during the next decade, a 50 percent increase over the previous 10-year period.”  Considering the level of death and destruction Israel was able to inflict during the past decade, a 50 percent increase in military capability suggests that dialogue is the last option it has in mind. 

Obama postured “the more we can work together to encourage the parties involved. . .  to have constructive dialogue and try to negotiate out of the current impasse, the better off Lebanon will be, the better off the world will be.”  His face and his folded hands, however, said otherwise.  He offered the rhetoric on the 14^th, gave Israel billions of dollars in weapons on the 16^th, and then on the 19^th presented Israel an additional $202 million in weapons.

As the Jewish Telegraphic Agency explains, the extra $202 million is “considered separately from Israel's defense assistance package, which was in the foreign operations bill also signed in recent days [the 16^th], because it [the extra $202 million] is not purely assistance; it is considered an investment in systems used by U.S. troops and that are profitable for the American companies involved.” 

Well, at least the JTA admits there is something more than altruism happening here.  The Whitehouse has repeatedly voiced its support of Lebanese independence.  The Western media and the general populace have nodded approval of this fundamentally noble status.  Independence, after all, seems the bedrock of the free-enterprise system that ribbons around the Western world.  Yet the idea of an independent Israel . . . unthinkable.  It is a standing joke that Israel is the 51^st state.  But the mafia appears child’s play when compared to the systematic oppression and murder bought with a package salary of billions of dollars in weapons, together with a bonus of absolute political protection from international law.  The yoke of dependence between the US and Israel is pulling the world into a military maelstrom.    

*note the non-parallel reference here.  Obama refers to “Israel,” a state, and to the “Palestinians,” a people, not to “Palestine” a state, as though the latter were not under consideration.

By Brenda Heard,

Friends of Lebanon

www.friendsoflebanon.org  

http://www.friendsoflebanon.org/index_files/News108.htm.