My heart is being torn apart by the death and destruction in Iraq, Lebanon and Israel.

I am a Jew. I spent my youth attending Hebrew school. I support Israel's right to exist. I also support the Lebanese people's right to exist. And that goes for Iraqi, Syrian, Iranian, Shi'ite and Sunni.

I am appealing to your humanity to call for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon and Israel with no pre-conditions.

A catastrophe is upon us. The death toll is escalating. Lives are shattered. People are in urgent need of food, medicine and shelter. Meanwhile the silence of U.S. politicians to the carnage in the Middle East is deafening.

Lebanon is a civilian death trap where an unconscionable amount of children have been killed by bombs and artillery. UNICEF says 45% of the estimated one million Lebanese who have fled their homes are children. One million is a staggering 25% of the overall 3.9 million Lebanese population. To understand the impact of such a number it would equate to 75 million Americans displaced in the United States. That is maybe unimaginable, but it is the proportional reality in Lebanon. Not only is this horrific but it is greatly destabilizing to Lebanon and its fledgling government. Foreign nationals and those with dual citizenship were evacuated, but not the Lebanese. Over a quarter of a million people have escaped into Syria.Yet we hear nothing about international aid for these refugees.

One voice that was heard came from Democrat Party chairman Howard Dean who called the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki an "anti-Semite" for failing to condemn Hezbollah attacks. Are we at the point where those opposed to the relentless Israeli war machine are anti-Semitic? The death count is escalating on both sides. The Lebanese government said that of the 900 of its civilians killed so far, around 35% have been children - that's more than 300 babies and kids. Israeli war dead is at 63 - 24 of whom are civilians. The longer America opposes an immediate cease-fire, not only will more civilians and children die but the global perception will be that America believes an Israeli life is more important than a Lebanese.

I do not support America's determination to reshape the Middle East in its image. "Democracy" "Freedom" "Terrorist" even "Peace" are terms that have become so loaded, so twisted that they have lost meaning in this world. They are currency for institutionalized bias that obfuscates instead of illuminates.

Facts are facts.

The Middle East has been riddled by Western intervention that has scarred it since the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire.

It is clear that Israel and the U.S. are blind to the lessons of history.

Let's not forget that Lebanon itself is an artificial creation of French colonialism - sliced off from Syria to form a regional client dominated by a Maronite minority. Not a recipe for stability.

Israel spent 18 years illegally occupying Lebanon and couldn't defeat Hezbollah. The UN Security Council issued Resolution 425. It requested that the Israeli forces immediately withdraw from South Lebanon, and the Israelis did not. Now Israel and the United States insist on the implementation of 1559 which would disarm Hezbollah. So for 18 years they ignored this earlier Security Council resolution demanding that they remove themselves from South Lebanon, but now want 1559 enforced because these days the U.N. suits its purposes?

Hezbollah is a grassroots insurgency born out of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Is Hezbollah a legitimate resistance force or a terrorist group?

The distinction is ultimately irrelevant because Hezbollah has the overwhelming support of the Lebanese people. Israel and Hezbollah must co-exist because they cannot destroy each other. Hezbollah is the only army capable of defending Lebanon. And it is obvious Israel is not limiting its attacks to Hezbollah. Not when the entire infrastructure of the country is destroyed. Not when Lebanese non-combatant army barracks are bombed. And not when 750+ civilians have been killed and over 1/3 are children. When over 1/3 of "enemy" deaths are children something is terribly wrong.

When Hezbollah fires rockets indiscriminately into Israel that is a war crime. When they fire rockets from houses and endanger civilians, that is a war crime.

These crimes pale in comparison to Israel's indiscriminate massacring of innocent civilians, most of whom are children, the frail, the sick, the injured and those without resources to flee.

Is Israel blind to what the U.S. sponsored wanton destruction of Iraq has caused? Iraq has become a hotbed of resistance and "terrorism" where there was little before. There is a virulent anti-Americanism that didn't exist prior to the invasion of Iraq. Gulf War I defanged Sadam Hussein. He was not a threat to the rest of the world. Yet his overthrow and subsequent U.S. occupation has caused many thousands more Iraqi deaths in 3+ years than in 24+ years of Saddam's rule.

How can killing primarily Lebanese civilians and destroying the country's infrastructure benefit Israel? It can't. The shock and awe of the mighty Israeli war machine paid for by American tax dollars is not equipped to fight a guerrilla war. No military power can defeat a guerilla resistance that has the overwhelming support of its people. Plus Hezbollah is better disciplined and trained than most military forces. They also are not afraid to die, as martyrdom is ingrained in their ideology.

Due to the Israeli onslaught Hezbollah has soared in popularity among the Lebanese people. A recent opinion poll* among all Lebanese including a majority of Shia, Christian, Druse, and Sunni reported that 87% support Hezbollah. At the same time the level of anti-American sentiment has gone through the roof. People are acutely aware of the U.S. green-lighting the ongoing indiscriminate bombing and killing of its people by Israel. This can only result in planting the seeds of hatred for generations to come.

When Bush talks about no "fake" cease-fire until the root causes are addressed, he forgets what cease-fires are supposed to accomplish. The first thing that you do in any military conflict anywhere in the world is try to get a cease-fire so you can work on trying to solve underlying problems. In this case there is an urgent need for evacuation of civilians and time to negotiate a political framework to stop the killing. Without allowing negotiations with all parties (Hezbollah, Lebanese government, Syrian, Iranian, American, United Nations) either directly or indirectly, cessation of hostilities are not possible. Bush wants to see Hezbollah defeated at all costs - which is not only an impossible goal but one that will further play into the image of Israel as a proxy for United States military mis-adventures in the Middle East. And apparently Bush wants Israel to continue its unwinnable military strategy until the "root causes" are resolved His insistence that all that has to happen is Kofi Annan tell Syria to turn off the Hezbollah switch displays an alarming ignorance to a complex matter. Syria did not create Hezbollah. And Syria is not the power broker it once was when Hafez al-Assad was in power and Syria occupied Lebanon.. There is a reason Hezbollah exists. The illegal 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon spawned Hezbollah. And it is seen by the majority of Arab peoples as a legitimate resistance army.

Only when there is a Palestinian homeland including a sharing of Jerusalem along with an exchange and release of thousands of prisoners will peace have a chance. Hamas and Hezbollah are not going away. Israel can co-exist with these organizations if they have no reason to resist Israel. Both are excellent at providing social services for their constituents. I yearn for a day when this is what they are known for.

sincerely,

Dore Stein


* http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/27/1423248&mode=thread&tid=25