[lit-ideas] What the Hizbullah says
- From: Omar Kusturica <omarkusto@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Tue, 25 Jul 2006 07:39:46 -0700 (PDT)
We are defending our sovereignty
Ali Fayyad, Hizbullah leadership
Tuesday July 25, 2006
The Guardian
For nearly two weeks Israel has been waging a war of
terror and aggression against Lebanon. Its stated
justification is the capture by the Islamic Resistance
(Hizbullah) of two Israeli soldiers with the aim of
exchanging them for Lebanese prisoners. The war has
already resulted in the killing of around 400 and
wounding of more than 1,000 Lebanese. Most are
civilians (a third children), crushed in their homes
or ripped to pieces in their cars by Israeli bombs and
missiles.
In reality, the Israeli escalation is less about the
two soldiers and more about its determination to
disarm the Lebanese resistance. According to the US,
Israel and some other western states, this would
implement UN security council resolution 1559, which
led to the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon
last year.
Most Lebanese, however, do not regard the resistance
forces of Hizbullah as militias, as referred to in the
UN resolution, let alone any kind of terrorist
organisation. Our resistance accomplished a major
national mission by forcing Israeli troops to withdraw
from most Lebanese territory in 2000 after 22 years of
occupation. Since then there has been intense national
debate about how Lebanon can defend itself in future
once the resistance has achieved the liberation of the
remaining occupied Lebanese land (the Shaba'a farms
area) and the release of Lebanese detainees.
The Lebanese people's support for the resistance was
demonstrated by the fact that Hizbullah and its allies
won more seats in the 2005 elections, following the
Syrian withdrawal, than when Syrian troops were still
in the country. That is why Israel is now targeting
civilians.
In the context of the continued occupation, detention
of prisoners and repeated Israeli attacks and
incursions into Lebanese territory, the capture of the
Israeli soldiers was entirely legitimate. The
operation was fully in line with the Lebanese
ministerial declaration, supported in parliament, that
stressed the right of the resistance to liberate
occupied Lebanese territory, free prisoners of war and
defend Lebanon against Israeli aggression.
International law also allows peoples and states to
take action to protect their citizens and territory.
The Israeli onslaught is aimed not only at liquidating
the resistance and destroying the country's
infrastructure but at intervening in Lebanese politics
and imposing conditions on what can be agreed.
There is now a clear national consensus on the need to
maintain the military power necessary to prevent
Lebanon from being subjugated by Israel's war machine.
Popular resistance is a way of redressing the huge
imbalance of power, defending Lebanon's sovereignty
and preventing Israel from intervening in Lebanese
internal affairs, as has happened repeatedly since
1948. It is also - as has been the case in the
prisoner-capture operation - dictated by an entirely
local agenda, rather than reflecting any Syrian or
Iranian policy.
The aggression against Lebanon, which has primarily
targeted civilians and failed to achieve any tangible
military objectives, is part of a continuing attempt
to impose Israeli hegemony on the area and prevent the
emergence of a regional system that might guarantee
stability, self-determination, freedom and democracy.
Hizbullah has tried from the start of this crisis to
limit the escalation by adopting a policy of limited
response while avoiding civilian targets; its aims
were restricted to freeing the prisoners of war held
in both camps. However, Israel's systematic
destruction of entire civilian areas in Beirut and
elsewhere and perpetration of scores of horrific
massacres prompted Hizbullah to shift to an all-out
confrontation to affirm Lebanon's right to deter
aggression and defend its territorial integrity and
its citizens, just as any sovereign state would do.
Thus far, Hizbullah has had surprising military
successes, while maintaining its position in the face
of Israel's superior fire power, and preserved its
capacity to wage a long-term war. But Hizbullah is
still ready to accept a ceasefire and negotiate
indirectly an exchange of prisoners to bring the
current crisis to an end.
This is what Israel has so far rejected, with the
support of the US. For this is also a war of American
hegemony over the Middle East, and the US - supported
by the British government - is fully complicit in the
Israeli war crimes carried out in the past two weeks.
It would appear that the peaceful option will not be
given a chance until Hizbullah and the forces of
resistance have demonstrated their ability to confront
Israel's aggression and thwart its objectives, as
happened in 1993 and 1996. That is why resistance is
not only a pillar of our sovereignty but also a
prerequisite of stability.
· Ali Fayyad is a senior member of Hizbullah's
executive committee
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