CONTENTS

The inexperienced George W. Bush regularly reiterated his goal of expanding democracy in the Middle East. Yet the hypocritical Bush allied himself with several right-wing authoritarian regimes in the region: Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt.

Yet Bush refused to validate the results of the Palestinians democratic election that gave victory to Hamas in January 2006. Hamas won a majority in the 132-seat legislature. (Washington Post, January 26, 2006)

The Bush administration failed to establish a viable peace process in the Middle East. To further complicate matters, the victory by Hamas threw prospects for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks into disarray.

It was Bush who claimed that he was the first president to advocate a Palestinian state. It was President Clinton who had done so. In a January 7, 2001 speech, Clinton said, “There can be no genuine resolution to the (Middle East) conflict without a sovereign, viable Palestinian state that accommodates Israel’s security requirements and demographic realities.” (The Nation, November 2003)

President Clinton had made vast accomplished in Oslo in 1993.

THE OSLO ACCORDS. The Oslo Accords were the foundation on which peace negotiations were based between Israel and the Palestinians. It was signed in 1993 by Shimon Peres, Clinton, and Yasser Arafat:

The declaration was the first phase in the ongoing peace process.

1. The accord laid out the goals for the complete withdrawal of Israeli troops from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, and the Palestinians’ right to self- rule in those territories.

2. The PLO recognized the right of the state of Israel to exist in peace and security.

3. The PLO accepted United Nations Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338 that called for Israel’s withdrawal from the territories taken in 1967.

4. The PLO renounced terrorism and other acts of violence.

In 2006, John Mearsheimer of the University of Chicago and Stephen Walt of the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University released a study that examined how the pro-Israel lobby built up its influence in Washington. The study indicated that the pro-Israeli lobby intimidated the press, think tanks, and academia and that it led to a deceptive picture of Israel.

These groups included the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, the Washington Institute for Near Eastern Policy, and various Christian Zionist organizations. These pro-Israel lobby groups influenced major media outlets and American politicians to campaign contributions to maintain their sympathy for Israel regardless of what it did in the region.

Since World War II, the United States channeled 140 billion dollars in support to Israel. During that time, the United States staunchly supported Israel at the United Nations. Since 1982, the United States vetoed 32 Security Council resolutions critical of Israel -- a number greater than the combined total of vetoes cast by all the other Security Council members. At the same time, the United States blocked Arab states’ efforts to put Israel’s nuclear arsenal on the agenda of the International Atomic Energy Agency. (Inter Press Service, March 23, 2006)

Since 1973, Israel cost the United States about $1.6 trillion. If divided by Israel’s population, that was more than $5,700 per person. Other United States help included:

*United States Jewish charities and organizations remitted grants or bought Israel bonds worth $50 billion to $60 billion.

*The United States guaranteed $10 billion in commercial loans to Israel, and $600 billion in “housing loans.”

*The United States gave $2.5 billion to support Israel’s Lavi fighter and Arrow missile projects.

*Israel bought discounted, serviceable “excess” United States military equipment. The discounts amounted to “several billion dollars” over previous recent years.

*Israel used roughly 40 percent of its $1.8 billion per year in military aid, ostensibly earmarked for purchase of United States weapons, to buy Israeli-made hardware. It also won the right to require the Defense Department or United States defense contractors to buy Israeli-made equipment or subsystems, paying 50 to 60 cents on every defense dollar the United States has gives to Israel.

United States help, financial and technical, enabled Israel to become a major weapons supplier. Weapons have made up almost half of Israel’s manufactured exports.

**United States policy and trade sanctions reduced American exports to the Middle East about $5 billion a year, costing 70,000 or so American jobs. Not requiring Israel to use its American aid to buy American goods, as is usual in foreign aid, cost another 125,000 jobs.

Israel blocked some major United States arms sales, such as F-15 fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia in the mid-1980s. That cost $40 billion over 10 years. (Christian Science Monitor, January 9, 2003)

In 29 separate cases between 1972 and 1991, the United States vetoed resolutions critical of Israel. Except for the United States veto, these resolutions would have passed and the total number of resolutions against Israel would now equal 95 instead of 66.

These resolutions would have broadened the record by affirming the right of Palestinian self-determination. They would have called on Israel to abandon its repressive measures against the Palestinian intifada. They would require Israel to send United Nations observers into the occupied territories to monitor Israel's behavior. Most importantly, they would impose sanctions against Israel if it did not abide by the Council’s resolutions.

Since its inception in 1948, Israel carried with itself a legacy of state terrorism. In Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon, 17,500 people – almost all civilians – were killed. Then 1,700 Palestinian civilian died in the Sabra-Chatila massacre. In the 1996 Qana massacre, 106 Lebanese civilian refugees, more than half of them children, were killed by Israeli forces at a United Nations base. During the 2006 massacre of the Marwahin, refugees were ordered from their homes by the Israelis. Then they were slaughtered by an Israeli helicopter crew. 1,000 were killed at the same 2006 bombardment and Lebanese invasion. Almost all of them were civilians.

The Sabra and Chatila massacre was committed by Israel’s right-wing Lebanese Phalangist allies while Israeli troops, as Israel’s own commission of inquiry revealed, watched for 48 hours and did nothing. When Israel was blamed, Menachem Begin’s government accused the world of a blood libel. After Israeli artillery had fired shells into the UN base at Qana in 1996, the Israelis claimed that Hezbollah gunmen were also sheltering in the base. It was a lie. The more than 1,000 dead of 2006 – a war started when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on the border – were simply dismissed as the responsibility of the Hezbollah.

Israel claimed the bodies of children killed in a second Qana massacre may have been taken from a graveyard. It was another lie. The Marwahin massacre was never excused. The people of the village were ordered to flee, obeyed Israeli orders and were then attacked by an Israeli gunship. The refugees took their children and stood them around the truck in which they were travelling so that Israeli pilots would see they were innocents. Then the Israeli helicopter mowed them down at close range. Only two survived, by playing dead. Israel didn't even apologize.

In 1996, another Israeli helicopter attacked an ambulance carrying civilians from a neighboring village – again after they were ordered to leave by Israel – and killed three children and two women. The Israelis claimed that a Hezbollah fighter was in the ambulance. It was untrue.

The Israeli government called up of thousands of army reservists in preparation for a possible ground operation as Israeli troops, tanks, armored personnel carriers, and D-9 armored bulldozers amassed at points all along the border with Gaza. (New York Times, December 29, 2008)

1. Israel violated international law. Under United Nations Resolution 242, Israel was required by international law to withdraw from all the territories occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem. The United Nation’s General Assembly repeatedly condemned Israel’s occupation of the territories as illegal (U.N. resolutions 338, 1397, and 1402, among others). Israel continued to occupy Palestine, and the United States continued to sanction the illegal occupation.

2. Israel systematically violated the Human Rights of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. Israeli security forces in the West Bank and Gaza constantly violated articles of the Fourth Geneva Convention on Human Rights that governed wartime rules of engagement and to which Israel was a signatory. Palestinian homes and agriculture fields were routinely demolished to make way for illegal Israeli settlements. Israeli soldiers regularly arrest and detain -- often for years -- Palestinians without due process. According to Amnesty International, members of the Israeli security forces regularly used torture and prolonged incommunicado detention against Palestinians.

3. Israel -- an Apartheid State. Israel developed an elaborate system of racial discrimination, embedded in its legal system, rivaling Apartheid South Africa’s laws. These laws included the Law of Entry, the Law of Return, the Citizenship Law, the Military Service Law, and numerous legally sanctioned, discriminatory rabbinical rulings. Palestinians were denied various welfare benefits, access to many jobs, and the leasing of homes and land controlled by government bodies. Electricity, sewerage, and roads were provided free to Israeli households, whereas many Palestinian communities in Israel, and especially in the Occupied Territories, had existed for decades without adequate services. Laws governing land ownership such as the Law of Acquisition of Absentee Property and the Law for Acquisition of Land blatantly discriminated against Palestinians. Land ownership in Palestine was more unjust than it ever was in South Africa; at the height of apartheid. Blacks nominally controlled 13 percent of the land, whereas in Israel the Palestinians controlled only 2 percent of the land.

Blockades, which allowed settlers free movement but restricted Palestinians, had lost 100,000 workers their jobs. The Israeli government issued identification cards and car number-plates, color coded, which restricted travel for non-Jews. Palestinians in the West Bank were routinely prevented from travelling to the Gaza Strip because they had to travel through ‘Israeli’ territory. No significant industry had been permitted to develop in the West Bank or Gaza. Consequently, Palestinians were concentrated in the lowest paying jobs and formed a super-exploited labor force for Israeli capital. The occupied territories imported 93 percent of goods but exported a mere 7 percent of what they produced. Palestinian exports to Western Europe were banned so as not to compete with Israeli exports. Ninety percent of Palestinian workers needed to travel to Jewish towns for employment.

4. United States military aid to Israel violated United States law. The United States Arms Export Control Act (AECA) strictly forbade the government from giving military assistance to any country that violates internationally recognized human rights. The State Department’s 2001 human rights report states: “Israeli security units often used excessive force against Palestinian demonstrators including live fire ... impeded the provision of medical assistance to Palestinian civilians by their strict enforcement of internal closures, which reportedly contributed to at least 32 deaths. Israeli security forces harassed and abused Palestinian pedestrians and drivers who were attempting to pass through the more than 130 Israeli- controlled checkpoints.”

Under the AECA, the President must report to Congress promptly upon the receipt of information that a substantial violation of AECA may have occurred.” The United States government was fully aware of the Israeli army’s human rights violations. The United States government eroded its own credibility as an impartial mediator by continuing to arm Israel without restriction and allowing these weapons to be used against civilian populations in violation of United States law.

5. United States military aid to Israel threatened security and global stability. United States funding of Israel’s human rights abuses fueled resentment towards the United States. While the rest of the world strongly condemned Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian Territories, the United States government provided the political, diplomatic, and material means for the occupation to continue. Such actions by the United States government provoked anti-United States sentiment throughout the world, ultimately jeopardizing the safety of people living in the United States. The United States built its own security only by gaining the trust and respect of the international community. (Jewish Virtual Library)

Hard-liner Ariel Sharon's sweeping victory in early February 2001 signaled to the White House that any prospect of Middle East peace would be slowed if not paralyzed. The Likud prime minister's rigid stance against Palestinian hegemony created a larger rift between Israel and the Palestine Authority.

From the outset, the Bush administration merely gave lip service to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The president apparently was unaware that previous administrations, dating back to President Carter, had been heavily involved in working to broker deals between the two sides. Additionally, Bush was highly reluctant to involve himself in Middle Eastern politics on which he was ignorant. Throughout the 2000 presidential campaign, he had merely made token gestures indicating that he hoped to resolve a peace solution. The White House had vowed to take a low profile in resolving the conflict and had maintained that it would not meet the challenge to mediate as a peace-keeper.

The administration refrained from sending an American envoy to Taba, Egypt, for the last- ditch peace talks in the final days of the Israeli political campaign. Bush was in no rush to assemble a new Middle East peace team or to announce whether he would replace America's longtime special Middle East envoy, Dennis Ross, who retired from the State Department.

Secretary of State Powell insisted that the new administration should not move too expeditiously and embroil itself immediately in the Middle East problem areas. He said that it was "a time to be patient" as Sharon formed a new government. The secretary of state called on the various players in the region to recognize the "absolute importance (of) controlling the passions" and "to refrain from any acts that would lead to violence." Powell added that the administration would get involved only if all parties involved in the conflict were prepared to work together. (Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2001)

As the Bush administration mauled over how to deal with the Israel-Palestinian dilemma, Augustus Richard Norton, a Boston University political scientist, warned that all Middle East problem areas were interconnected. Norton said, "A step-by-step, Kissinger-like approach is not the answer. We need systematically to think about all three issues as related problems. If we don't, we're going to find ourselves isolated from many of our allies -- and in a situation where we jeopardize our support in critical quarters of the Mideast and our ability to make peace." (Los Angeles Times, February 7, 2001)

The Middle East turmoil also coincided with a demand from most of the Arab world to ease sanctions against Iraq, dating back to the Gulf War. Nevertheless, the White House showed no indication that it was willing to improve the strained relations by loosening sanctions against Baghdad until Hussein complied with the United Nations resolution that mandated the surrender of its weapons of mass destruction.

The Arab community also pressed the United States to move towards rapprochement with Libya, since the trial of two intelligence agents for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 has ended with the conviction of one of them. Yet the Bush administration refused to budge, continuing to maintain a hard line policy against the Kadafi regime. The administration demanded that Libya pay full reparations and accept full responsibility for the Pan Am attack before agreeing to the lifting of United Nations sanctions.

As violence escalated between Israel and the Palestinians and continued for eight months, Bush was finally pressured by the findings of an international commission headed by former Democratic leader George Mitchell of Maine. The commission was established in September 2000 during a summit attended by President Clinton, Yasser Arafat, and Prime Minister Ehud Barak. The cease-fire that was negotiated at the summit fell apart immediately, but the commission went on to complete its work. The report also was endorsed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and the European Union. In addition to Mitchell, the commission included former Turkish President Suleyman Demirel, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, former Senator Warren Rudman of New Hampshire, and Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorbjorn Jagland.

When the recommendations of the commission were announced, White House advisers told Bush to change his policy from a quasi-isolationist position and to plunge into Middle East mediation. Bush appointed a peace envoy, a position which he never intended to fill. Jordan William Burns was chosen to mediate between Israel and the Palestine Authority. But just a week earlier, Secretary of State Powell said that Bush did not believe that the post of Middle East peace envoy was a "full-time job." Burns was formerly a deputy to Dennis Ross who spent 12 years as the American peace envoy. (Los Angeles Times, May 22, 2001)

Similar to other recommendations since the inception of an Israeli state in 1948, Mitchell's committee called for an end to the violence. The Mitchell report urged the Palestinian Authority to jail terrorists and to stop anti-Israeli attacks. At the same time, it called on the Israeli army to use "nonlethal" means to combat the Palestinians and end the escalating use of deadly weaponry such as tanks, heavy artillery, and warplanes. It also urged Israel to freeze all settlement activity in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, including the expansion of existing settlements. (Los Angeles Times, May 22, 2001)

In mid-June, Bush made it clear that he would break his promise. He sent CIA Director George Tenet to Jerusalem in an attempt to broker a deal between the Palestine Authority and Israel. It was the first time that a CIA director had been dispatched to the Middle East. At best, a shaky cease-fire was agreed upon. Shortly afterwards, Bush stepped deeper into the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, sending Powell to the region to reinforce a shaky cease-fire. Speaking as if he were experienced in Middle East politics, Bush called Israeli Prime Minister Sharon, Palestinian leader Arafat, and Egyptian President Mubarak. Then the president said, "The parties must continue to work on an all-out effort to bring peace." He added, "I said we're making some progress and that they all must continue to work toward breaking the cycle of violence." (Washington Post, June 22, 2001)

A few days later, Sharon visited the White House, as violence continued to strain the cease- fire. A war hero dating back to the 1948 Middle East war, Sharon warned the unschooled American president that he would "not negotiate under fire and under terror." Sharon also publicly disputed Bush's assertion that the two sides were taking small steps toward peace.

Bush continued to toss out a cliché which his advisers had prepared for him from the Mitchell report. The president repeated himself several times, "There must be a cooling-off period." And Bush reiterated what he had said to Russian President Putin: "Today is my opportunity to once again look (at Sharon" in the eye and tell him he's got no better friend than the United States, and as well to tell him that we all must work to break the cycle of violence so that we can begin the process of implementing the Mitchell agreement." (Boston Globe, June 27, 2001)

Despite Bush's empty rhetoric, Sharon made it clear that a precise timetable would be required for Israeli cooperation in the Mitchell plan: 10 days of absolute peace, followed by a six to eight-week period of "cooling off." (Boston Globe, June 27, 2001)

During a photo op with Sharon, Bush insisted that progress was being made in the Middle East talks. But Sharon said unequivocally that the countries were at a stalemate. Nevertheless, Bush continued to assert 13 times over a span of 11 minutes that "progress" was being made. (Los Angeles Times, June 29, 2001)

The Palestinian uprising, which began in October 2000, intensified in the Bush administration. In August, Bush berated PLO chief Yasser Arafat for failing to end "Palestinian violence," and shortly afterwards Israel assassinated Mustafa Zibri, a senior Palestinian political leader, by firing Maverick missiles from Apache helicopter gunships that had been supplied by the United States. The next day, Israeli M-60 tanks and M-113 armored personnel carriers, also sold to Israel by the United States, occuping the Palestinian Christian town of Beit Jala. Bush acted carelessly and dishonestly by pretending that the United States had nothing to do with this horrible mess. But the United States had everything to do with it and could have stopped the carnage overnight if the White House had showed sufficient political will and courage.

Israel responded to the Palestinian uprising by stepping up its attacks against West Bank villages. However, under the United States Arms Export Control Act, the American weapons could be used only for defensive purposes -- not for launching offensive attacks against Palestinians. Furthermore, the same language was written into sales contracts. The law also required the State Department to assess compliance.

Nevertheless, Israel continued to use American-made Apache gunships and F-16 fighter jets in "targeted killings." The Bush administration decided not to invoke the law that blocked military aid to countries that used American arms for purposes other than self-defense.

Israel claimed that its policy of killing Palestinians suspected of planning or carrying out terrorist attacks fell within the definition of legitimate defense. Prime Minister Sharon's spokesman, Raanan Gissin, said, "We use these weapons only for self-defense purposes." State Department officials, immediately running to the Israeli side, said that the act was sufficiently ambiguous that it was impossible to make a clear-cut legal determination to the contrary. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher made clear that it would not try to enforce the statute. (Los Angeles Times, September 8, 2001)

However, the Arab-American community charged that Israel was violating American law. Ziad Asali, president of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said that his group considered a lawsuit to enforce the statute.

Perhaps, the best example of Bush’s inconsistencies in foreign policy lay in his approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. After 15 months of ignoring the problem, the president waffled on numerous occasions, clearly unsure of his own policy towards the Israelis and Palestinians.

After the September 11th terrorist attacks on American soil, Bush issued an ultimatum to world leaders. He was clear as he declared, “You’re either with us or you are with the terrorists.” But his position on the Palestinians was anything but clear. Did the president consider Yasser Arafat a terrorist?

For nearly a year, Bush taunted world leaders by taking a nationalistic approach. But after September 11, the president quickly became an internationalist, as he said, “You’re either with us or you’re on the side of the terrorists.” An internationalist? Or a nationalist? Apparently, Bush wanted it both ways. But in the global power game, his credibility only diminished, as he chose to pick and choose at will.

When Israeli tanks and bulldozers crossed into West Bank cities, Bush remained sequestered at his Crawford ranch for 36 hours. By his silence, he clearly indicated his support for Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s rampage into the West Bank. When Israeli troops invaded Ramallah and laid siege to the headquarters of the Palestinian Authority, Bush still stayed silent. Even as Israeli soldiers surrounded and sequestered Arafat in his battered office, Bush remained silent.

In what mushroomed into the most important significant crisis in the Middle East since the 1967 Six-Day War, the American president appeared unsure of himself. In 1978, President Jimmy Carter had worked countless hours at Camp David to broker a treaty with Menachim Begin and Arafat.

Thirty-five years later, Bush finally spoke out. “I fully understand Israel’s need to defend herself.” His policy seemed murky, and he appeared evasive and uncertain. He used simplistic words in castigating Arafat for allowing Palestinians to carry out suicide bombings in Israel. The president’s first comments were, “First of all, there will never be peace so long as there’s terror and all of us must fight off, fight terror.” Bush certainly seemed to condone the Israeli brutal march into the West Bank by refusing to comment.

Bush refused to answer reporters’ questions on the violence, preferring to let Secretary of State Colin Powell explain the administration’s evolving position for the second day in less than a week. A Washington Post (April 3, 2002) article read, “The president’s actions have done little to satisfy Democrats, Republicans, an increasingly critical news media or the Palestinians.”

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Powell tried to prod a reluctant Bush to commit himself to greater Middle East engagement. To further complicate matters, Bush’s administration was deeply divided between hard-liners, like Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who lobbied to give Sharon a free hand, and senior officials at State, who charged that Bush’s leadership was on the line unless he tried to resolve the conflict. Bush began to undercut Powell and first refused to negotiate at all with Arafat while giving Sharon a free hand.

Bush’s initial stance appeased Bush’s conservative backers, many of whom were angry over his decision to restrain Sharon. Just as important, it pleased the politically influential American Jewish community, whose support could deliver Florida to Bush in 2004. One senior administration official says there was real tension between Bush and Powell over the issue. He said hawks pushed for a bold proposal -- abandon Arafat as a negotiating partner, while at the same time putting forward a United States outline of a final settlement and demanding that both sides respond to it. He said this was rejected. “They backed off. It was thought too hard. Now we are stuck with going there and temporizing.” (Newsweek, April 14, 2002)

Bush said he embraced the Saudi proposal but then just as quickly gave Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon the green light to jettison it, because Palestinians were practicing terrorism against Israeli civilians.

As Bush either remained silent or tossed out a few pet phrases in denouncing terrorism, Israeli troops surrounded Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity in Manger Square where 200 Palestinians were holding out. On the sixth day of the Israeli offensive, dozens of tanks and armored vehicles rolled into Nablus, the largest city in the West Bank with a population of 100,000.

Meanwhile to the north, a second front intensified, where gunners from Lebanon’s Shi’ite Muslim Hezbollah and Israeli troops clashed in a disputed enclave at the intersection of the Israeli, Syrian, and Lebanese borders.

After one week, Israeli forces were in control most of the major Palestinian population centers in the West Bank that were returned to Palestinian administration in the mid-1990s. Those included Nablus, Ramallah, Qalqilyah, Tulkarm, Bethlehem, and Jenin -- as well as a number of smaller towns. (New York Times; Washington Post, April 4, 2002)

On the sixth day of the siege, Bush reversed himself. He found himself in a position where he was coerced to back down and reverse his position. Most of the world had opposed Israel’s incursion into the West Bank, while Bush sat idly by for nearly a week. Consequently, the president who appeared to have no grasp of the Middle East, was forced to change his position. He was confronted with the possibility that relations would deteriorate between the United States and Arab countries. Furthermore, the world community was turning against the president who had tried for 14 months to ignore the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

On April 4, Bush stood with Powell and once again condemned terrorism and charged that Arafat had brought his troubles upon himself. Bush called on Arafat to condemn terrorism. He also called on Israel to “halt the incursions and begin withdrawal.” (Newsweek, April 14, 2002) But then the president changed course. For the first time, he had some harsh words for the Israelis, calling on them to withdraw from the West Bank. He then announced that he was dispatching Powell to the Middle East. One could have surmised that President Clinton himself or President Carter himself would have flown to the Middle East in an attempt to broker a deal between Arafat and Sharon.

As the Israeli attack grew in size and severity and protests escalated on the streets of the Arab world, the White House switched gears again, as he appeared unsure of what course he should follow. Two days later, after Israel had barely acknowledged his demand for Sharon to withdraw from the West Bank, Bush tried to clarify his previous statement. He said that he meant that Israel should “withdraw without delay.” Succumbing to international calls for Israel to withdraw its military machine, Bush acted as an internationalist, calling on the Middle East Arab nations to rally behind him in supporting peace.

The next day, as Powell was leaving on his mission, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer asked Condoleezza Rice, “Are you ready to give (the Israelis) a few days to begin an orderly military retreat?” Rice replied, “No. ‘Without delay’ means without delay. It means now ...”

Two days later, when Israel announced that it was going to leave two towns, Bush called it “a beginning,” adding, “The Israelis must continue withdrawing.” Of course, Sharon stood still. The Defense Department and the vice president’s office had declared war on the president’s policy. Having counseled the White House to ignore the Israel-Palestine problem for 15 months -- advice that proved disastrously wrong -- they were now determined to cripple Powell’s mission. They recommended that the president stop issuing statements supporting the secretary.

Congress jumped in, with Democrats and Republicans falling all over themselves to side with Sharon rather than with Bush. The Christian Right and the neo-conservatives lobbied the White House nonstop, denouncing the secretary of State while he was meeting foreign leaders.

On April 11, Bush changed course once again, attempting to soften his poistion on the Israelis. Ari Fleischer explained that “the president believes that Ariel Sharon is a man of peace.” No further statements urging withdrawal or supporting Powell were issued.

On April 15 the White House sent Deputy Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz to speak at a rally whose purpose was to urge Israel not to withdraw -- at the very moment that the secretary of State was in Jerusalem calling on Israel to withdraw.

Sharon called Powell’s bluff. The prime minister invaded two more towns and did not pay Powell the courtesy of announcing it at their joint appearance, choosing to do so on CNN later in the day.

Then Bush wavered again, deciding to deal with defeat by calling it victory, making his policy even more confused. On April 17 he repeated his line that Sharon was a man of peace and insisted Israel had heeded his call. But Israeli forces remained intact in West Bank towns.

Bush then said he “understood” the need for the continuing siege of Ramallah. This explicitly contradicted his own speech, which had called for an immediate Israeli withdrawal -- 13 days earlier -- ”from Palestinian cities, including Ramallah.” (Newsweek, April 29, 2002)

Bush was hit with an barrage of criticism by Saudia Arabia’s who Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia who delivered a stern warning to the president. Abdullah said the United States would face what a top Saudi advisor said were “grave consequences” if it did not call on Sharon to withdraw forces from the West Bank. (Los Angeles Times, April 26, 2002)

ANTI-ISRAELI PROTESTS. Violence broke out in several Middle Eastern cities. In Bahrain, demonstrators smashed windows and threw fire bombs at the American embassy in Bahrain. The anti-Israeli protesters turned particularly violent when demonstrators broke through a cordon of riot police and vandalized the American Embassy. As many as 80 people were injured as police responded with rubber bullets and tear gas. Chanting “Death to America,” and “Death to Israel,” marchers burned United States flags and were able to break into the compound before Bahraini police could control them. (New York Times; Washington Post, April 5, 2002)

Even in tightly-controlled Saudi Arabia, rare public uprisings were staged against Israel. The public demonstrations were even larger in Syria and Iraq. Riot police clashed with citizens in Jordan and Egypt. Arab officials pushed for United Nations and the United States to reverse an Israeli military incursion into the West Bank. (New York Times; Washington Post, April 5, 2002)

Of more concern to the United States were demonstrations in Amman and Cairo, forcing governments closely allied with the United States and at peace with Israel to deploy heavily armed riot squads to control their own citizens and protect the American and Israeli embassies.

Meanwhile, a week after the Israeli invasion of West Bank cities, demonstrations broke out in several European cities. At the largest rally -- in Paris -- 18,000 marchers took part, some waving signs denouncing Israeli and American policy and chanting, “We are all Palestinians,” and “Bush and Sharon are assassins.” Other demonstrations raged in Marseille, Nantes, Tours, and Rennes. Elsewhere, in Dortmund and Bonn in Germany, protests erupted. About 6,000 people demonstrated in Bern, Switzerland. Thousands also took to the streets in Ankara and Istanbul in Turkey, calling for an immediate withdrawal of Israeli occupation from Palestinian territories. (New York Times; Washington Post, April 7, 2002)

Bush’s indecisiveness on his characterization of Arafat raised criticism from doves and hawks alike. Hard-liners said Bush should call Arafat a terrorist and treat him as an enemy. Others claimed that the Arafat case exposed the flaw in the Bush doctrine, since the president refused to distinguish between good and evil.

Former Reagan administration official Kenneth Adelman, a close friend of Vice President Cheney and other Bush national security officials, questioned the president’s policy. Adelman said, “I think it’s been very fuzzy and disappointing.” Adelman said that the Bush doctrine should be applied to Arafat. “The administration should say regardless of the reasons the Palestinians are upset, what they are doing is violating all principles of decency and civilization. These are not suicide attacks, these are homicide attacks. That’s the kind of clarity I don’t see.” (Washington Post, April 3, 2002)

Other conservatives criticized the Bush doctrine for being too black and white. They claimed that the president was not the first to use the “with-us-or-against-us” position. They pointed out that Vladimir Lenin used a similar phrase in his revolutionary writings: “He who is not with us is against us.” Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was President Jimmy Carter’s national security adviser, charged that the Bush approach was ”Leninism.” “In sheer common sense, if someone is not with you, does that mean he’s automatically against you? I don’t think it’s a good principle. Unfortunately, most of life cannot be delineated in terms of black and white. It’s in various shades of gray, and foreign policy has to be sensitive to that.” Brzezinski said the attempt to impose the all-or-nothing doctrine has created a muddle. “I wish I knew what our policy is. On the one hand we're winking and giving Sharon the green light, and on the other hand we’re voting in the United Nations for Israeli withdrawal.” (Washington Post, April 3, 2002)

Secretary of State Powell tried to explain the contradiction of the Bush doctrine. He said the administration had told Sharon that the United States recognized Israel’s right to defend itself but that it wanted the current invasion to end as quickly as possible. Powell said, “We have made it clear that we believe the right answer is a political process that moves us forward, and that political process is also there for the Palestinian side.” (Washington Post, April 3, 2002)

Critics argued that two miscalculations were responsible for Bush’s ambiguous policy. First, Bush attempted to play down the importance of the Middle East. Second, Bush ignored his allies who recommended that he become more engaged immediately after September 11.

Even conservative journalists joined together in questioning Bush’s indecisiveness. They urged the president to give Israel a freer hand to respond militarily to Palestinian suicide bombings. William Kristol and William J. Bennett -- as well as editorial columnists for the Wall Street Journal and the National Review -- used phrases such as ‘amateur hour,’ ‘moral confusion’ and ‘Clintonite wishful thinking’ to describe the Bush administration. (USA Today, April 3, 2002)

Conservative writers charged that Bush had not done enough to encourage talks between the two sides. Instead, conservatives argued that promoting talks amounted to rewarding Palestinian terrorism and risked undercutting the Bush doctrine of punishing states that harbored terrorists. Kristol wrote, “'There’s a fundamental tension between the war on terrorism and the peace process, if the peace process means negotiating with terrorists or tolerating terrorism. (Weekly Standard, April 3, 2002)

Bush was also hit with a barrage of criticism from moderates and liberals. Robert Scheer of the Los Angeles Times (April 3, 2002) indicated that Bush flaunted an arrogant attitude from his first day in power by showing “no interest in securing peace between Israel and the Palestinians, quickly squandering years of difficult progress made under President Clinton. Now, with outright war already a reality, Bush is tacitly endorsing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s eye-for-an-eye descent into madness because it is a response to Palestinian terrorist attacks.”

6. CRITICISM FROM ACROSS THE GLOBE

On April 3, 2002, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his cabinet decided to cut direct contacts with Israel’s government, while leaving diplomatic channels open. The cabinet issued a decree that all contacts between the two governments would stop, short of diplomatic channels which would serve the Palestinian question and the issue of peace in the region. (New York Times, April 4, 2002)

The United Nations approved dispatching a mission to the occupied territories to investigate human rights violations. Under an Arab proposal, backed by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, envoys from the five regional groups were authorized to travel to the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

As Israeli troops continued to occupy several West Bank cities, European Union (EU) foreign ministers began increasing diplomatic pressure on Israel to withdraw at emergency talks in Luxembourg. Some ministers vented frustration at Bush’s failure to speak out against Israel’s military sweep in the West Bank, despite Washington’s declared support for a United Nations Security Council resolution demanding a withdrawal. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana prepared to fly to the Middle East to press for a cease-fire, an Israeli pullback, the release of Arafat, and a return to peace talks. (New York Times, April 4, 2002)

On April 6, Arab foreign ministers issued a rebuke to the Bush administration, saying the 22-nation Arab League stood behind Arafat as a freedom fighter whose struggle against Israeli occupation was “legitimate national resistance” and could not be equated with terrorism. The ministers “welcomed the intifada” and asserted that the “continuation” of Israeli occupation “necessitated the continuation of the resistance” by “courageous” Palestinians. (New York Times, April 7, 2002)

The Arab ministers met without Syria and Lebanon envoys who demanded a harsher stance against Israel. They refused to condemn Palestinian terrorism that Bush had been pressing them to make in the wake of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the United States. The Arab ministers clearly said that the Palestinian struggle for a homeland over 50 years had nothing to do with the Bush doctrine where all terrorists were tossed into one category. (New York Times, April 7, 2002)

7. PROPOSING A PROVISIOBNAL PALESTINIAN STATE IN 2002

In June 2002, Bush proposed the creation of a provisional Palestinian state. Immediately, he was met with criticism from Republicans and Democrats alike. Even before the president finalized his proposal, conservatives charged that he would be rewarding terrorism if he endorsed such a plan in the wake of increased suicide bombings against Israelis.

The unproven Bush was caught in a dilemma. He was pressured to provide Palestinians greater hope of a political solution. And he was pressured not to reward violence or legitimize Arafat.

Some worried that Bush’s plan did not directly address enough Israeli or Palestinian concerns to change the behavior of either side in the conflict -- especially because Bush previously had indicated that he would support a permanent state for the Palestinians if they stopped terrorism.

House Minority Speaker Richard Gephardt said, “I don’t know how you create a state out of chaos in a place where terrorists are running the show.” GOP Senator John McCain told CNN, “How in the world could you enhance (Arafat’s) status and that of the Palestinians to statehood, unless (the violence) stops?”

According to Gary Schmitt, executive director of the Project for a New American Century -- a conservative foreign policy think tank -- “It gives momentum to the terrorists by allowing them to say we got this (recognition) by doing things our way.” (Los Angeles Times, June 21, 2002)

Bush’s bold proposal was met with castigation throughout the Arab world. Skeptical Arab leaders were concerned, because Bush’s proposal came on the heels of the Saudi peace initiative, the Egyptian-Jordanian peace initiative, the Tenet plan, the Mitchell plan and the 1993 Oslo accords, and the 1991 international peace conference in Madrid.

Furthermore, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak hoped to meet with Secretary of State Powell “to expound how this speech could be put into force.” Musbarak believed that Egypt could help reform Palestinian institutions, “but we need to see what is the plan.” (Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2002)

Farid Zahran, head of an Egyptian publishing house and organizer of a popular committee to support the Palestinian uprising, asked, “How dare Bush give conditions like this? To change leadership, how dare he?” (Los Angeles Times, June 26, 2002)

Even British Prime Minister Blair, so often the most reliable of United States partners, distanced himself slightly from American policy. He made it clear that Palestinians would pay a price if they failed to elect new leaders in elections scheduled for January.

Blair commented, “It’s not a question of saying we're going to tell people who they elect or not elect – that’s for them. But it’s for us to say the consequences of electing people who aren’t serious negotiating partners is that we can’t move this forward.” (Los Angeles Times, June 27, 2002)

After Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien Chretien said Arafat’s removal from power “might be a good thing,” Chretien’s top aides said that Canada viewed Arafat not as a terrorist but as “the leader of the Palestinian people.” A senior Chretien’s advisor said that if new elections were held in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, “we would accept the verdict of the Palestinian people.”

And French President Jacques Chirac said, “It’s naturally up to the Palestinian people, and to them alone, to choose their representatives.”

To further complicate matters, at the last moment Egyptian President Mubarak decided not to not attend the summit. He had been scheduled to take part as a member of a delegation of African leaders meeting with the G-8 leaders.

In December, Bush appointed Elliott Abrams, a passionate advocate of Israel, to the post of director of Middle Eastern affairs. It came at a time when the White House plunged him into one of the sharpest disputes on how to deal with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Abrams’s appointment was applauded by those who had criticized the administration for being too tough on Israel and too deferential to the Palestinians. But it dismayed those, especially at the State Department, who wanted Israel to ease its crackdown in the West Bank and Gaza. (New York Times, December 7, 2002)

Abrams came to his new job trailed by a cloud of controversy, most of it having to do with his pleading guilty in 1987 to the charge that he withheld information from Congress on the Reagan administration’s efforts to assist antigovernment guerrillas in Nicaragua. He was pardoned by the first President Bush in December 1992.

Abrams also had family ties to the neoconservative movement. His wife’s mother was Midge Decter, and her stepfather is Norman Podhoretz. Both were leading members of the neoconservative pantheon and stern critics of liberal cultural attitudes.

In 1997, Abrams wrote a book, “Faith or Fear: How Jews Can Survive in Christian America,” which argued against the loss of religious faith among Jews and criticized intermarriage as a danger to their survival in America. He also urged Jews to make greater common cause with evangelical Christians in rallying support for Israel. He was a fierce opponent of the Oslo peace negotiations between Israel and Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, even while they seemed to bear fruit. He wrote in the 1990s that it was a mistake for President Clinton to trust Arafat. He advocated that position from the start of this Bush administration, until it became Bush’s position in June 2001.

On February 20, 2005, Prime Minister Sharon signed an order requiring 9,000 Israeli settlers to leave the Gaza Strip and northern West Bank within five months. He warned that settlers, who remained in the areas slated for evacuation after that day, could be removed from their homes by force, according to the directive. (CBS, February 20, 2005)

In April, Bush and Sharon differed strongly and publicly over the future of West Bank settlements under the United States-backed peace plan. Bush condemned the expansion of Jewish settlements as a violation of the “road map” for a two-state solution. But Sharon, who has proposed expanding a major settlement east of Jerusalem, said the development and others would be protected under any final agreement and remain part of Israel. (Los Angeles Times, April 12, 2005)

8. BUSH: “TOPPLING SADDAM WILL RESOLVE THE ISRAELI/PALESTINIAN ISSUE”

Bush used several questionable criteria to justify his war in Iraq. The president claimed Iraq possessed an arsenal of “weapons of mass destruction.” He maintained that Saddam Hussein was a direct threat to American security. He compared Saddam with Adolph Hitler and Josef Stalin, calling for the liberation of the Iraq people. And Bush claimed that a regime change in Baghdad would pave the road for peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

However, just the opposite occurred. As Bush declared victory in Iraq, tensions intensified in Israel and the occupied territories. Since Israel and the United States insisted that Palestinian statehood depended on setting up a government that would curtail suicide bombings, Palestinian legislators installed Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, known as Abu Mazen, in late April.

However, within hours of Abbas’ inauguration, Hamas and Fatah “martyrs” dispatched a suicide bomber to a jazz bar within yards of the American embassy in Tel Aviv. Three Israelis were killed and 55 were wounded. Israel retaliated by sending tanks, backed by helicopters, into a Palestinian militant stronghold near Gaza City, killing four Palestinians and wounding 12 others. (Washington Post, May 1, 2003)

Previous efforts for peace had been greeted by waves of violence. It was no different, when the administration introduced a “road map” that called for reciprocal concessions aimed at leading in 2005 to a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace and a “sovereign, independent, democratic and viable Palestine” beside Israel. Once again, Bush called on Israelis and Palestinians to “immediately end the violence and return to a path of peace.” (New York Times, May 1, 2003)

In the first of the plan’s three phases, the governing Palestinian Authority would make “visible efforts on the ground” to stop attacks on Israelis, while Israel “immediately dismantles” Jewish settlement outposts built since March 2001 in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

While the Bush administration forged ahead to make peace efforts, waves of violence intensified. Bush’s “road map” for peace called for reciprocal concessions aimed at a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace and a “sovereign, independent, democratic and viable Palestine” by 2005. Once again, Bush called on Israelis and Palestinians to “immediately end the violence and return to a path of peace.” (New York Times, May 1, 2003)

In the first of the plan’s three phases, the Palestinian Authority would make “visible efforts on the ground” to stop attacks on Israelis, while Israel “immediately dismantles” Jewish settlement outposts built since March 2001 in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.

Bush’s role as a mediator differed drastically from that of adept Presidents Carter and Clinton. In brokering the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian Peace treaty, Carter spent several sleepless nights at Camp David with Menachem Begin and Anwar Sadat. Clinton followed in Carter’s footsteps in 1973, meeting with Yasser Arafat and Yitzak Rabin.

In sharp contrast to these two intellectual presidents, Bush’s short summit with Mahmoud Abbas and Sharon in Amman, Jordan lasted a few hours. Bush did little more than reading from a script prepared by his speechwriters. When he spoke extemporaneously, he lacked the polish of a president. “Look guys, if I didn’t think I could do this, I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t waste my time and come all this distance if I didn’t know I could do it.” (Time, June 16, 2003)

The summit was shattered days later. First, Hamas broke off cease-fire talks with Prime Minister Abbas. The Islamic group refused to end the armed uprising. The rejection from Hamas came a day after Arafat criticized Abbas as having failed to win any concessions from Israel. It was a strong indication that Abbas was failing to consolidate support among the Palestinians. (New York Times, June 6, 2003)

Israel launched a helicopter rocket attack on a senior Hamas leader in Gaza. Two bystanders were killed and 20 were wounded. The target appeared to be Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza, who lived in the open and could have been the subject of an attack at almost any time. Just days before, Tantisi had publicly criticized the summit meeting in Jordan that was attended by Abbas and Bush. (New York Times, June 9, 2003)

In an unusual move, Bush lashed out at the unapologetic Sharon regime. Speaking extemporaneously and grasping for words between a plethora of “ahs,” Bush said he was concerned that the attacks today on Palestinian targets could derail the road map toward Middle East peace. He said, “I’m concerned the attacks make it more difficult for the Palestinian leadership to fight off terrorist attacks. I regret the loss of innocent life.” (New York Times, June 9, 2003; Washington Post, June 9, 2003)

Hours later, Israel fired more rockets into a residential area of Gaza, killing 3 more Palestinians and wounding 32.

The following day, Hamas struck back. A suicide bomber disguised as an Orthodox Jew, blew himself up in Jerusalem, killing at least 16 people and wounding more than 100. Within hours, Sharon retaliated in Gaza. (New York Times, June 10, 2003)

Sharon launched his third attack on suspected Hamas leaders in Gaza within 36 hours. Israeli gunships attacked a car carrying suspected Hamas’ leaders. Six Palestinians were killed; over two dozen were injured, including two children. (New York Times, June 12, 2003)

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians continued to worsen through the fall of 2003 and the winter of 2003-04. In the spring of 2004, Israel assassinated two key Palestinian leaders, creating a larger rift between both sides. Then in a dramatic shift in April 2004, Bush and Sharon put out a plan to unilaterally settle the future of Israeli settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. In doing so they have created an imbalance in the Middle East peace process. (New York Times, April 15, 2004)

Bush endorsed Israel’s long-standing claim to parts of the West Bank and suggested that Palestinian refugees should never expect to return to their homes in Israel. Bush supported Sharon’s plan to maintain Israeli settlements in the West Bank and his contention that Palestinian refugees did not have a right to return to their homes in what was now Israel. (Washington Post, April 15, 2004; New York Times, April 15, 2004)

Israel began withdrawing 7,500 Israeli settlers from Gaza but retained six big settlements in the West Bank, where the number of settlers exceeded 230,000 amidst a Palestinian population of about 2.5 million. Of the Israelis settled on the West Bank, Sharon began dismantling settlements having a total population of 500. Thus, the grand Israeli unilateral move consisted of withdrawing from Arab lands 8,000 settlers out of a total of approximately 240,000 and of retaining the right to return to Gaza -- the only area that they would be vacating entirely if security became a necessity. (Washington Post, April 15, 2004; New York Times, April 15, 2004)

This policy shift meant certain death for the “roadmap” peace plan. The Sharon-Bush announcement drew immediate and sharp criticism from around the world and came at a time when United States-Arab relations were at an all-time low. Even Arab moderates went as far as to say that Bush’s statements could mean the end of the peace process. (Washington Post, April 15, 2004)

Sharon proposed pulling out of Gaza, but he said he would keep several villages on the West Bank. His own Likud members rejected his proposal. Sixty percent voted against the “disengagement plan” in Gaza, leaving Sharon politically weakened. Sharon still defended his plan as the best way to get security for Israelis in the absence of peace moves. He also said it would diffuse international pressure on Israel for greater concessions and help Israel escape the demographic problem that Palestinians will soon outnumber Jews in the area including the West Bank, Gaza, and Israel. (USA Today, May 4, 2004)

Sharon was not about to grant autonomy to Palestinians on the West Bank. In 2003, Sharon started 1,800 housing projects on the West Bank -- an increase of 65 percent from the year before. Sharon also increased the number of Israeli outposts from 1,000 in 2001 to 2,000 2004. (Newsweek, May 3, 2004)

9. VIOLENCE ESCALATES IN ISRAEL AFTER THE INVASION OF IRAQ

Despite Bush’s promise that the toppling of Saddam would lead to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, relations between the two groups continued to deteriorate since the invasion of Iraq.

January 2004:

Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinians in a clash with Palestinian stone throwers in Nablus in the West Bank, one of them a 15-year-old boy. A father of five was shot dead and three Israelis were injured in a roadside ambush by the Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades. Four Israelis were killed at Erez crossing after a suicide bomber exploded herself in a checkpoint to the industrial zone of Erez. Hamas and the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed joint responsibility.

Israeli forces entered the Alzaytoun area south of Gaza City, killing eight Palestinians, five of whom were armed members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and wounding dozens. The Jerusalem bus 19 massacre - Eleven Israelis killed and 50 wounded in a suicide bombing of a city bus in Jerusalem. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs and Hamas claimed responsibility. Three armed Palestinians were killed in gun fights with IDF forces. Two were killed while carrying explosives near Dugit. The third died in a gunfight at Bethlehem.

February 2004:

Yasser Abu al-Aesh, an alleged local leader of Islamic Jihad, was among four militants killed during an Israeli raid in the Rafah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. Twelve Palestinian militants and civilians were killed in clashes with Israeli forces in al-Shojaeya neighborhood in Gaza city. In Rafah refugee camp one Palestinian civilian was killed by Israeli sniper fire. During the day more than 50 Palestinians were wounded, 23 of them children. Eight Israelis killed and 60 wounded in a suicide bombing of a city bus (14A) in Jerusalem, occurring one day before the start of hearings at the International Court of Justice regarding the Israeli West Bank barrier. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility.

An Israeli major was killed and two other soldiers wounded when two Palestinian guerrillas opened fire near the Erez Crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel. The guerrillas were killed by IDF forces. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. An Israeli couple was shot dead in their car on their way home, in the northern Negev. After firing at the car from a distance, causing the driver to lose control, the terrorists approached the car and shot the couple at point-blank range. Altogether, over 40 bullets were used. Yasser Arafat's Fatah’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack. Mahmud Jhouda, head of Islamic Jihad’s “military wing” in Gaza was killed together with another Islamic Jihad member and a relative of his, when the car in which the three were driving was targeted by an Israeli helicopter.

March 2004:

Three Hamas militants were killed in the Gaza Strip when their car was targeted by an Israeli helicopter. Hamas said the three were on “a jihad mission.” Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli soldiers near the Karni border crossing in Gaza. Two Palestinian suicide bombers kill 10 and wound 12 in the Israeli port of Ashdod. Hamas and Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed joint responsibility. Four Palestinians, two militants and two children, died in two Israeli air strikes on Rafah refugee camp in Gaza. Several more were wounded.

An Israeli man was killed while jogging in Jerusalem. Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed the attack, and later apologized when it became known that the victim was a Christian Arab. Ahmed Yassin, leader and founder of Hamas in the Gaza Strip was killed by an Israeli missile.

April 2004:a father of six was killed outside his house after his daughter was wounded by a Palestinian from nearby Tul Karem. The shooter was later killed by Israeli forces. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. A demonstration of Palestinians and international activists against the West Bank wall were fired upon by Israeli soldiers. Twenty people were injured. Israeli border policeman Kfir Ohaiyon was killed and three other Israelis injured in a suicide bombing at the Erez Crossing in northern Gaza. A border policeman was killed and three others lightly wounded just an hour after the beginning of Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen soldiers, when shots were fired at their vehicle near Hebron. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

May 2004:

An Israeli woman who was eight months pregnant, and her four daughters were shot to death in the Gaza Strip, near the Kissufim checkpoint. Three other Israelis were wounded. Six IDF soldiers were killed during an IDF operation to target Qassam rocket workshops in Gaza City, when an armored personnel carrier was struck by an explosive device planted by Palestinian militants. Hamas and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. An IDF officer and four soldiers were killed, and three IDF soldiers were lightly injured, while preparing to detonate a weapon-smuggling tunnel on the Philadelphi Route near the Israeli-Egyptian border near Rafah. Their armored personnel carrier exploded, apparently after being hit by an RPG anti-tank rocket. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed and two soldiers moderately wounded by Palestinian sniper fire in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza Strip. An Israeli major was killed by Palestinian gunfire following a search near Nablus. The Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades claimed responsibility for the attack.

June 2004:

An Israeli man was killed by shrapnel from a mortar fired into greenhouses in Kfar Darom in the Gaza Strip. The mortar was fired by Palestinians. An Israeli sergeant was killed and five others were injured when an underground tunnel laden with explosives detonated under IDF outpost in the Gaza Strip. Hamas and al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility. Two Israelis were killed in Sderot by a Palestinian Qassam rocket that hit a kindergarten. An Israeli truck driver was shot dead near Ramallah. The al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility.

July 2004:

An Israeli man was killed and his wife was wounded in a shooting attack between Mevo Dotan and Shaked. An Israeli captain was killed during a battle with two militants barricaded in a house in Nablus. A remote-control bomb killed one Israeli and wounded 34 others in a bus station in Tel Aviv. Yasser Arafat’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades claimed responsibility.

August 2004:

A Qassam rocket hit Sderot and damaged a house, causing blast injuries to three people. Two people were killed and 16 wounded when an explosive device was detonated by Palestinian militants inside an Arab taxi as it attempted to cross the Qalandia checkpoint north of Jerusalem. Two Palestinians were killed, and about 20 people, the majority of them Arabs, were wounded. An Israeli man was shot dead and another person wounded in an ambush near Itamar. The gunman was killed by Israeli security forces. Fatah claimed responsibility.

An Israeli policeman was slashed with a knife across the neck by an Arab from Shuafat, in Jerusalem. A Palestinian was killed by Israeli soldiers near Wadi Gaza while climbing the fence of an Israeli community. An IDF Combat Engineering force rescued three Israelis from lynching by Arabs in the Qalandia refugee camp. A Palestinian mob attacked the Israelis. An Israeli civilian was wounded by gunfire directed towards an IDF position near Khan Yunis. Two Palestinian suicide bombers killed 16 Israelis and wound more than 94 others aboard two city buses in Beer Sheva. Hamas claims responsibility.

September 2004:

Ninety-seven Palestinians were killed during September 2004. Eighty-three were armed militants.

Two Arabs transporting a bomb were hit by Israeli gunfire causing the bomb to explode. Both Arabs died. A 60-year-old jogger was wounded by shrapnel from a Qassam rocket fired at Sederot. Fourteen Hamas militants were killed and 40 wounded in an Israeli airstrike on their training camp. A car bomb exploded near an Israeli road block in Baqa al-Sharkiya, killing one person. An Arab fugitive was killed and two others wounded in Jericho during a shootout with Israeli soldiers trying to arrest them. Three senior militants belonging to the Fatah Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades were killed in an Israeli targeted assassination in Jenin.

Nine Palestinian militants and a child were killed in two Israeli operations in Nablus and Jenin. In Jenin, four wanted Fatah militants were killed by undercover Border Police troops. Two female suicide bombers turned themselves in to Israeli forces following the death of their handler Hanni Aqad. Senior Hamas commander in Gaza Khaled Abu Shamiyah was killed by Israeli forces. Two Hamas members were killed by Israeli forces in the Rimal area of Gaza.

A female suicide bomber killed herself while killing two and wounding 15 people. A Qassam rocket attack on Sederot resulted in eight wounded Israelis. Three Palestinians and three Israelis were killed during an attack on the Israeli community of Morag. Two terrorists detected while placing a bomb near the Erez Crossing were shot and wounded by Israeli troops. Threee Qassam rockets hit Sderot, killing a two-year-old and four-year-old and injuring 20 others. An Israeli soldier, was killed near Beit Hanoun. Over 24 Palestinians were killed and dozens were injured in wave of fighting in a crowded marketplace. An Israeli woman was shot dead while jogging between Nisanit and Alei Sinai.

October 2004:

In October 2004, 165 Palestinians were killed by IDF forces. Only 50 were noncombatants.

A Palestinian was killed and six are arrested in a Palestinian police office near the Erez crossing. Ten Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces in the Gaza Strip. Four terrorists were killed, during an infiltration attempt near Kibbutz Nahal Oz in the Negev, while six others, Hamas members, were killed by the Israeli Air Force’s targeted strikes. Two Israeli soldiers were wounded and six militants are killed, including a Hamas field commander, and two Arab civilians were killed during the sixth day of the Israeli incursion into the Jabaliya refugee camp. Two Qassam rockets were fired at the Israeli town of Sderot, injuring one Israeli.

An Israeli undercover policeman was killed in a gunfight with Palestinian Authority Force 17 members in Ramallah. An Israeli Arab motorist was shot and wounded by occupants of a passing car while he was changing the tire of his vehicle near Gush Etzion. A senior member Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip was killed by Israeli helicopter air-to-surface missiles fired at his vehicle. A second member of Islamic Jihad riding in the vehicle was killed as well. A 13-year-old girl was shot and killed in Rafah in the Gaza Strip by the Israeli soldiers.

A greenhouse worker was killed when armed terrorists infiltrated Kfar Darom in the central Gaza Strip. Three car bombs were detonated in the Sinai Peninsula frequented by Israeli tourists. The largest explosion, which killed at least 35 and wounding 114, was at a Hilton Hotel in Taba, near the border with Israel. The other two explosions occurred at the towns of Ras al-Sultan and Nuweiba, killing two Israelis and four Egyptians.

A Palestinian worker was killed by a Palestinian sniper attack in the Rafah Yam settlement in the Gaza Strip. Six Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli forces near a crossing border in the Gaza Strip after allegedly trying to plant a bomb. An Israeli man was killed by sniper fire in Sameria. Two Hamas terrorists were killed while trying to infiltrate Kibbutz Nahal Oz. A soldier in the Israeli Engineering Corps was killed by a Hamas bomb blast along the Philadelphi Route. A Hamas chief explosives engineer and his deputy were killed and two others wounded by the Israel Air Force helicopter strike in Jabalia. An Israeli sergeant was killed and six others were wounded by mortars fired at an army post near the Gaza settlement of Morag.

November 2004:

Three Israelis were killed and 30 wounded when a 16-years old child suicide bomber blow himself at the Carmel Market in Tel Aviv. Two Palestinian children were killed by an explosion in the refugee camp of Khan Yonis in the Gaza Strip. Two terrorists were killed en route to attacking the Israeli community of Gadid. One Israeli soldier was wounded. Islamic Jihad confirmed that the dead were theirs.

Two Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades militants were killed when their car bomb exploded prematurely in Qalqilya. An Israeli soldier was killed during a military operation near Tulkarm. Four terrorists were killed after they opened fire upon IDF soldiers in Jenin. One terrorist was killed near Dugit. An Israeli child was wounded when the Israeli community of N'vei Dekalim was attacked with mortars. A Thai worker was wounded in a mortar attack in Netzer-Hazani. The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades attacked Netzarim with bombs, mortar rounds, rocket propelled grenades, and automatic weapons. Three Arabs were killed.

A 26-year-old woman was injured by shrapnel from a bomb attack in eastern Gush Etzion. Three Hamas operatives were killed and one was seriously injured during fights with Israeli forces. In Hebron, two Hamas seniors were killed and one was wounded after the Israeli forces demolished their home. In Rafah, one Hamas member was killed from a tank shell as the Israelis uncovered a smuggling tunnel in a residential building.

December 2004:

An Israeli soldier was killed by a bomb. At least 5 Israeli soldiers were killed and 10 were injured by two suicide bombers between Rafah and Egypt. Hamas and al-Aqsa. A Fatah gunmen was killed by Israeli forces after he shot on the rescue unit soldiers. A Thai worker was killed and two more were injured in Gush Katif by Palestinian mortar shell. Five Israelis were injured when Palestinian terrorists shot at two cars near the Kissufim crossing in the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank, gunmen of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades killed a 20-year-old man.

Israel launched Operation Orange Iron in Khan Yunis, in which Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers entered the west part of the town to prevent mortar shellings. During the operation 11 Palestinians were killed, of whom 8 militants and 3 civilian, and between 24 and 50 were injured.

A mother to four from Moshav Nechusa was killed on the West Bank. An Israeli civil security guard was killed in a shooting attack by two Palestinian terrorists. Ten Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces that entered the Khan Younis refugee camp in the Gaza Strip. During the raid the local Hamas commander was killed and two Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded.

January 2005:

Israeli forces killed one Palestinian in Tal-al Sultan in Gaza. Another was killed in the el-Salam quarter of Rafah and two more by helicopter gunship missile strike in Rafah. An Israeli civilian was seriously wounded when a Palestinian mortar shell hit the Erez crossing. A woman was injured when a barrage of Qassam rockets hit Sderot. A security guard from Beit Jubrin was killed. Seven Palestinians were killed by a tank shell in Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip. Two Israeli children were injured when a Palestinian mortar shell landed near a school bus. Twelve soldiers were wounded when a Qassam rocket hit a base near the Gaze-Israeli border.

A Hamas activist was killed by Israeli soldiers while he was infiltrating the Ganei Tal settlement in Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip. One Israeli was killed and four Israelis were wounded from in a shooting attack in the West Bank. In Gaza, two Palestinians were killed. A Palestinian police man was killed by Israeli forces at a roadblock in southern Gaza. A 26-year-old Israeli died from his wounds after being struck by a Palestinian mortar in Erez. A father of five was killed and four Israeli soldiers were wounded in an attack by three Palestinian militants who detonated a roadside bomb near Morag.

Two Palestinians were killed near Ramallah on the West Bank in an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers. Two Palestinian suicide bombers in Karni killed six civilians and wounded 20 others. Eight Palestinian militants were killed in clashes in the Gaza strip. Several Qassam rockets wounded six Israelis in Sderot. A Palestinian suicide bomber killed one security officer and wounded six Israelis in Gush Katif in the Gaza Strip. Two people were injured when mortar shells hit Neve Dekalim in the Gaza Strip.

February 2005:

Five Israelis and eight Palestinians were killed during February.

Six Israeli soldiers were injured near Hebron and in the Gaza Strip when Palestinian gunmen opened fire on their cars. A Palestinian suicide bomber at the entrance to the Stage Club in Tel Aviv killed five Israelis and wounded 38 others. Two Israelis were wounded by Palestinians in Modi’in.

March 2005:

Two Israeli soldiers were shot in Hebron. Israeli troops killed a member of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the plotter of the Stage Club bombing. Israelis then bulldozed his house, crushing him to death. Three Israeli soldier and one police officer were wounded after they were shot by Palestinians in Ramallah.

April 2005:

An Israeli citizen was shot in Morag. A Qassam rocket hit a cemetery in Sderot. Israeli soldiers killed three Palestinian teenagers in the Rafah refugee camp in Gaza. Two Israelis were wounded by a Palestinian sniper in attack on Philadelphi Route. Three Israeli soldiers were injured by an IED roadside bomb near Karni in the Gaza Strip. A Qassam rocket was launched toward northern Gaza community with no casualties. An Israeli officer was killed in Hebron by a car driven by Palestinians.

May 2005:

At least nine Palestinian militants were killed during May. Some were killed by IDF fire and others by premature detonations of their explosives.

An Israeli soldier and Islamic Jihadist were killed during an Israeli raid on the Palestinian city of Tulkarm. Israeli soldiers opened fire on a group of stone throwing teenagers, killing two. A Palestinian is killed after he tried to stab a soldier. Four Israeli workers were injured by a Palestinian anti-tank rocket attack on the Philadelphi Route. On May 18, Palestinians shelled Israeli settlements and towns with more than 31 mortar shells and Qassam rockets. Two Hamas militants were killed by Israelis in Rafah. A Hamas militant was killed after a rocket he was handling has misfired. Three Palestinian gunmen opened fire on an Israeli base near Jenin. A Palestinian was killed by Israeli soldiers after he tried to stab them in Hebron. Two Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades militants were killed in the Gaza Strip after a bomb they made exploded prematurely.

June 2005:

Violence erupted in the Gaza Strip and West Bank when three Qassam rockets hit Sderot. Israeli soldiers killed senior Islamic Jihad militant Marwah Kamil after he fired on troops that attempted to arrest him. Nine Qassam rockets hit Israeli settlements, killing three workers and injured six others. One Israeli soldier was killed and two workers were injured after Palestinian militants fired anti-tank missile at them in the Philadelphi Route.

An Israeli was killed in a West Bank ambush after Palestinian gunmen shot his car. A Palestinian female suicide bomber was caught in the Erez Crossing, carrying explosives and a detonator in her underwear. She planned to carry out a suicide bombing attack in the Soroka Hospital where she received medical treatment and was scheduled for a doctor’s appointment. An Israeli teenager was killed and four others were injured after an attack in Beit Haggai near Hebron.

July 2005:

Israeli security guard killed a fifteen year-old Palestinian boy. Palestinian militants plotted two suicide bombings in Israel. A car bomb was detonated near a school in the Shavey Shomron settlement, but failed to cause casualties. In Netanya, a suicide bomber at the HaSharon Mall killed four women . An Israeli woman was killed after the Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Fatah’s al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades fired a barrage of more over 12 Qassam rockets over Israeli settlements inside and outside the Gaza Strip. Seven Hamas militants were killed by Israeli Air Force targeted strikes. Two Hamas mortars injured five residents in the Israeli settlement of Neve Dekalim in the Gaza Strip. An Israeli army sniper killled a Hamas commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Khan Yunis. Two Israeli civilians were slain by Palestinian shooting attack in Kisufim road in the Gaza Strip.

August 2005:

An Israeli soldier opened fire on a bus in Shefa-Amr, killing two Christian and two Muslim Israeli Arab civilians before being killed himself. An Israeli settler killed four Palestinian workers. Israeli troops killed five suspected militants in a raid in Tulkarem in the West Bank. A Palestinian stabbed two Orthodox Jews in Jerusalem, killing one and injuring the other. A Palestinian suicide killed himself outside a bus station in Beersheba, seriously wounding two security guards.

September 2005:

Israeli troops fired on Palestinians marching to the evacuated Neve Dekalim settlement in Gaza, killing one and wounding two. Israeli killed one and injured another Palestinian near Rafiah Yam settlement in Gaza.

October 2005:Two drive-by shootings in the West Bank near Hebron resulted in the death of three Israeli civilians and the wounding of three others. A15-year-old Palestinian youth was killed by Israeli forces near Bethlehem after he allegedly had thrown a molotov cokctail at a passing car. Two armed Palestinians were killed in the West Bank in an exchange of fire with Israeli forces. A Palestinian boy was killed by Israeli soldiers near Neve Tzof in the West Bank. Israeli troops killed a high-level Palestinian militant Louie Sa’adi on a raid in Tul Karem in the West Bank. Sa’adi was responsible for several terror attacks on Israel. A second armed militant, a senior Fatah member was also killed during the operation. Five Israelis were killed and 30 were wounded in a suicide bombing in Hadera’s open air market. Two Jihadists and five civilians were killed by Israeli warplanes in Gaza. The attack was part of an Israeli operation in the West Bank and Gaza seeking those responsible for the suicide bombing in Hadera the day before.

November 2005:

A suicide bomber killed himself and five Israelis in a shopping mall in Netanya.

January 2006:

Twenty Israelis were injured in bombing at fast-food restaurant in Tel Aqviv.

February 2006:

One Israeli was killed and five were injured in a stabbing attack on taxi bus en route to Tel Aviv.

March 2006:

One Israeli was killed in shooting attack at gas station near Migdalim on the West Bank.

Two Israelis were killed in an explosion of Qassam rockets found in western Negev.

Four Israelis were killed by a suicide bomber posing as Jewish hitchhiker.

April 2006:

Eleven people were killed by a suicide bomber at a fast food restaurant in Tel Aviv. They included two Romanians, one French citizen, one American, and one dual Israeli-French citizen. Over 60 were injured.

June 2006:

An explosion on a Gaza beach killed seven Palestinians.

Palestinian militants infiltrated Israel through a secret tunnel and start a gunbattle at a military checkpoint. Two 2 Israeli soldiers and 3 militants were killed, and an Israeli soldier was captured by the militants.

Israel began a military operation in the Gaza strip, deploying a large number of tanks, APCs and troops in order to rescue the soldier captured in the attack three days before that.

Source: (Wikipedia Encyclopedia)

10. THE 2006 ISRAELI-HEZBOLLAH WAR

PRELUDE TO WAR. Israel had been anticipating a Hezbollah provocation for some time and planning its response that would be disproportionate.

Israel’s military response by air, land, and sea to the Hezbollah unfolded according to a plan finalized more than a year ago. The report said that a senior Israeli army officer had been briefing diplomats, journalists, and think-tanks for more than a year about the plan. Gerald Steinberg, professor of political science at Israel’s Bar Ilan University said: “Of all of Israel’s wars since 1948, this was the one for which Israel was most prepared.”

Britain was also informed in advance of the military preparations and that Prime Minister Blair had chosen not to try to stop them “because he did not want to.”

Unidentified officials said a strike could “ease Israel’s security concerns and also serve as a prelude to a potential American pre-emptive attack". Shabtai Shavit, a national security adviser to the Knesset, said: “We do what we think is best for us, and if it happens to meet America’s requirements, that’s just part of a relationship between two friends. Hezbollah is armed to the teeth and trained in the most advanced technology of guerrilla warfare. It was just a matter of time.” (The New Yorker, August 14, 2006)

An anonymous Middle East expert claimed that while the State Department supported the plan because it believed it would help the Lebanese government assert control over the south, the White House was focussed on stripping Hezbollah of its missiles. (The New Yorker, August 14, 2006)

The expert added: “If there was to be a military option against Iran’s nuclear facilities, it had to get rid of the weapons that Hezbollah could use in a potential retaliation at Israel. Bush was going after Iran, as part of the “axis of evil,” and its nuclear sites, and he was interested in going after Hezbollah as part of his interest in democratization.” (The New Yorker, August 14, 2006)

The Bush administration considered Israel’s actions as a necessary prerequisite for a possible strike against Iran. Months earlier, Israeli officials visited Washington to brief the government on its plan to respond to any Hezbollah provocation and to ‘find out how much the United States would bear.” (London’s The Independent, August 14, 2006)

Bush was informed in advance and gave the “green light” to Israel’s military strikes against Hezbollah ­- with plans drawn up months before two Israeli soldiers were seized. (London’s The Independent, August 14, 2006)

Israeli officials apparently started their inquiries with Cheney, knowing that if they secured his support, obtaining the backing of Bush and Secretary of State Rice would be easier. Seymour Hersh of The New Yorker quoted an unidentified United States government consultant with close ties to the Israelis who said: “The Israelis told us it would be a cheap war with many benefits. Why oppose it? We’ll be able to hunt down and bomb missiles, tunnels, and bunkers from the air. It would be a demo for Iran.” (The New Yorker, August 14, 2006)

A former intelligence officer, also quoted, said, “We told Israel, ‘Look, if you guys have to go, we’re behind you all the way. But we think it should be sooner rather than later. The longer you wait, the less time we have to evaluate and plan for Iran before Bush gets out of office.’ ” (The New Yorker, August 14, 2006)

THE WAR BEGINS IN JULY 2006. In July 2006, Hamas insurgents in Gaza kidnapped an Israeli soldier. Days later in northern Israel, Hezbollah forces kidnapped two Israeli soldiers. Israel immediately responded with a massive air attack.

Israelis immediately responded with a horrific attack into Lebanon. Tel Aviv bombed the Beirut airport, blockaded Lebanese sea ports, and declared the country’s airspace closed to everything but its own warplanes. The closure of the airport prevented foreign aide from entering the devastated country, and fleeing Lebanese and American citizens were prevented from escaping. (New York Times, July 14, 2006; Inter Press Service, July 17, 2006)

Hezbollah responded by bombarding Israel with scores of rockets, some of which for the first time hit a major city -- the port of Haifa about 20 miles from the border. By the time a cease-fire was reached, the Hezbollah had lobbed over 3,000 rockets into Israel. (The Guardian, July 14, 2006)

Israeli leaders believed the war would last for several days. They were wrong. Israeli commanders admitted that Hezbollah had thousands of Katyushas and hundreds of launchers that could not be eliminated by their air force. (www.haaretz.com, August 4, 2006)

Tens of thousands of Lebanese attempted to flee, many into neighboring Syria. Lebanon citizens claimed the Israelis targeted civilian neighborhoods and vital infrastructure areas -- and not just Hezbollah centers. (Inter Press Service, July 17, 2006)

After three weeks of pounding cities across Lebanon, Israel announced a 48-hour moratorium in air attacks. But almost immediately, Israeli warplanes struck in the coastal city of Tyre where two people were killed.

Israel asked the United States to speed delivery of short-range antipersonnel rockets armed with cluster munitions. The M-26 artillery rockets could be fired in barrages, and they carried hundreds of grenade-like bomblets that scattered and exploded over a broad area. (New York Times, August 11, 2006)

BUSH OPPOSES A CEASE-FIRE. With each passing day of the 34-day war, Bush chastised the Hezbollah and its alleged sponsors, Syria and Iran. He regularly emphasized the same words -- that “terrorists hate freedom and democracy.” But the American president failed to grasp the problem. It was not that Islamic fundamentalists hated freedom and democracy. They despised the United States imperialistic foreign policy. Bush continued to meddle in the affairs of Middle Eastern countries primarily to control their oil. He continued to support Israel as it carried out acts of state terrorism against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank.

While Bush was castigating the Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran, he claimed he wanted to get to “the root of the problem.” He only could grasp the simple presumption that both Palestinians and Jews desired sovereign state. The American president could not or would not see perceive the complex issue:

1. Bush refused to accept the fact that Hezbollah came into existence as a consequence of the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Like all movements, Hezbollah slowly evolved. It was initially a militia and a resistance movement against foreign occupation. It then developed into both a political party and a social organization, providing valuable services to its impoverished community.

Rather than trying to isolate Hezbollah, Bush should encourage it to play a responsible role in the internal dynamics of Lebanon. It would then, in turn, be legitimate to expect Hezbollah to accept Lebanon’s exclusive right to possess armaments and use force.

2. Bush failed to accept the fact that thousands of Palestinian prisoners were held by Israel and that some Lebanese prisoners were held for more than 20 years. And he never mentioned Israel’s military occupation and the injustice that accompanied it.

3. Bush failed to grasp the complex issue involving Syria and Iran. It was a paradox to ask Iran and Syria to sever relations with Hezbollah while asking them to use their influence to obtain its compliance with the cease-fire resolution.

Only one solution could resolve the conflict: a negotiation that would produce a two-state solution: Israel and Palestine.

Former National Security Adviser Brent Scowcroft rebuked Bush’s claims and said that Hezbollah was not the “root cause” of the Middle East crisis. The uneducated Bush with no diplomatic experience or capability claimed the problem evolved from the conflict over Palestine in 1948. (Washington Post, July 30, 2006)

During the first month of war, the United States and Israel stood alone for weeks in opposing a cease-fire. Israeli ground troops moved into southern Lebanon and Israeli warplanes bombed numerous cities across Lebanon. Finally during the fifth week of fighting, the United States and Britain, the lone hold-outs, agreed to a United Nations cease-fire.

THE COST OF THE WAR. During the 34-day war, at least 1,183 Lebanese were killed - one-third of them children; 4,054 were injured and 970,000 displaced from their homes. About 30,000 houses, 120 bridges, 94 roads, 25 fuel stations, 900 businesses, and two hospitals were destroyed.

Amnesty International charged Israel with deliberately targeting civilian infrastructure and committing war crimes in Lebanon. Investigative reporters have also revealed that Israel used the capture of two of its soldiers by Hezbollah as a pretext for an attack long planned by the Israeli military in consultation with Washington.

High-level United Nations officials condemned Israel for its massive retaliation. Louise Arbour, the high commissioner for human rights in the United Nations, said that the killing and maiming of civilians in Lebanon, Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank could constitute war crimes. Jan Egeland, the United Nations relief chief, also condemned Israel for “violating humanitarian law.” (New York Times, July 20, 2006; Agence France Presse, July 24, 2006)

As the Israelis continued to bombard Lebanon, a United Nations report said:

*The Israeli military operation caused enormous damage to residential areas and key civilian infrastructure such as power plants, seaports, and fuel depots.

*Hundreds of bridges and virtually all road networks were systematically destroyed, leaving entire communities in the south inaccessible.

*Skyrocketing prices for basic goods (examples: the price of sugar increased by 600 percent and cooking gas by 400 percent) further depleted the coping mechanisms of the Lebanese.

*There was a lack of essential goods, with needs particularly acute in villages along the Israeli-Lebanese border, which were isolated by the conflict. There were reports that food supplies in some villages were exhausted.

*The widespread destruction of public infrastructure as well as the targeting of commercial trucks seriously hampered relief operations. (The Guardian, July 25, 2006)

The cost of the five-week war on Israel’s economy was estimated at nearly $5.7-billion. The total cost represented 10 percent of the state budget or around half of the defense budget. Official estimates put the cost of the massive air, sea, and land operation launched after the July 12 Hezbollah border attack at around $2.3-billion. (www.business.iafrica.com, August 15, 2006)

The damage caused by the 3,970 rockets fired into northern Israel during the 33 days of conflict topped $1.3-billion. An estimated 12 000 homes were demolished or damaged and 750 000 trees burned. (www.business.iafrica.com, August 15, 2006)

During the war, tens of thousands of Lebanese had fled their homes. Thousands of others were unable to leave and were targets of Israeli air attacks. By the time a cease-fire was reached, 300 Lebanese were dead. Much of the country’s infrastructure was destroyed. The physical damage reached the tens of billions.

THE TERRORIST STATE OF ISRAEL. Israel’s act of aggression was in violation of United States arms control laws for deploying American-made fighter planes, combat helicopters, and missiles to kill civilians and destroy Lebanon’s infrastructure. Section 4 of the United States Arms Export Control Act required that military items transferred to foreign governments by the United States be used solely for internal security and legitimate self-defense. (Inter Press Service, July 18, 2006)

Between 1997 and 2004, Israel received $8.4 billion in arms, with $7.1 billion or 84.5 percent coming from the United States. By United States law, 74 percent of Foreign Military Financing (FMF) assistance to Israel must be spent on American military products. (Inter Press Service, July 17, 2006)

Amnesty International charged that Israel attacked Lebanese civilian targets and it appeared like deliberate war crimes. The majority of the 1,183 Lebanese fatalities were non-combatants, and about 33 percent were reportedly children. Israel lost 118 soldiers, but also 43 civilians. Another 970,000 Lebanese were displaced by the war. (Amnesty International, August 23, 2006)

During the course of the war, the Israeli military destroyed some 80 bridges around the country. Amnesty also criticized attacks on fuel and water storage sites with no obvious military value. (Amnesty International, August 23, 2006)

The Office of Defense Trade Controls concluded -- that Israel dropped three types of American cluster munitions, anti-personnel weapons -- that sprayed bomblets over a wide area -- in many areas of southern Lebanon. (New York Times, August 25, 2006)

The United Nations Mine Action Coordination Center discovered unexploded bomblets, including hundreds of American types, in 249 locations south of the Litani River. The report said American munitions found included 559 M-42s, an anti-personnel bomblet used in 105-millimeter artillery shells; 663 M-77s, a submunition found in M-26 rockets; and 5 BLU-63s, a bomblet found in the CBU-26 cluster bomb. Also found were 608 M-85s, an Israeli-made submunition. (New York Times, August 25, 2006)

As tens of thousands of Lebanese returned to their villages, they had to navigate around unexploded Israeli cluster bombs. The American-manufactured bombs were ejected from artillery shells in mid-flight, showering a wide area with explosions that could kill within 33 feet. Up to 25 percent of the cluster bombs failed to explode. (London’s The Guardian, August 21, 2006)

WORLD OUTRAGE AGAINST ISRAEL AND SUPPORT FOR THE HEZBOLLAH. At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab countries slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war. But soon, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world surged behind Hezbollah. The Shi’ite group’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, became an instant folk hero. (New York Times, July 28, 2006)

Even al Qaeda, run by violent Sunni Muslim extremists normally hostile to all Shi’ites, released a taped message saying that through its fighting in Iraq, the Shia community hoped to liberate Palestine. (New York Times, July 28, 2006)

Opposition to Israel’s invasion continued to mount with each passing day. Moderate Arab countries such as Egypt first condemned Hezbollah, but they soon chastised Israel. Sunnis across the Middle East supported their rival Shi’ites that controlled the Hezbollah party. Even conservative Christian Maronites in Lebanon sided with the Hezbollah.

The Saudi royal family and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who were initially more worried about the rising power of Shi’ite Iran, Hezbollah’s main sponsor, scrambled to distance themselves from the Bush administration. (New York Times, July 28, 2006)

Arab League Secretary General Amr Mussa said he “strongly condemned Israel’s ongoing barbaric attacks on Lebanon, the latest of which is the attack on the village of Qana.” (Agence France Presse, July 31, 2006)

The Organization of the Islamic Conference said “the latest Israeli massacre amounts to a war crime and shows Israel’s contempt for international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention on the protection of civilians in times of war.” (Agence France Presse, July 31, 2006)

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whose country was involved in diplomatic efforts to defuse the crisis, called Israel’s attack “irresponsible” and reiterated his call for an immediate cease-fire. (Agence France Presse, July 31, 2006)

Jordan, another regional broker, also strongly condemned the raid. “This criminal aggression is a flagrant violation of international laws,” said Jordan’s King Abdullah II. (Agence France Presse, July 31, 2006)

Iran blamed the bloody attack on Rice’s visit to the region.

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas condemned the attack and asked the United Nations to oversee an immediate cease-fire.

The United Arab Emirates condemned Israel. Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan said, “This crime ... provides new proof of Israel’s systematic policy of using its destructive weapons to kill in an indiscriminate way and without consideration for international laws and conventions that protect civilians.

Muslim leaders in Asia were furious and called for an immediate cease-fire. Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim nation, branded Israel’s attack a criminal act that violated international and humanitarian laws.

Pakistan denounced the attack as thousands of its Muslims protested.

China strongly condemned the attack as it pushed for a cease-fire.

The Japanese government called Israel’s acts “extremely regrettable that this kind of incident occurred amid international calls on Israel to exercise self-restraint.”

Singapore said it was "deeply shocked and saddened by the loss of innocent lives” as it backed the United Nations call for a cease-fire.

Finland, which held the rotating European Union presidency, said it was “shocked and dismayed” by the strikes.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett described the Qana raids as “quite appalling” and said Britain had “repeatedly urged the Israelis to act proportionately.”

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier expressed “profound pity” for the victims, calling on Israel to observe “proportion” in its attacks and avoid civilian casualties, and reiterating calls for a swift cease-fire.

French President Jacques Chirac condemned the bombing as an “unjustifiable action which shows more than ever the need to agree on an immediate cease-fire.”

Italy and Ireland expressed their consternation: “Nothing can justify the massive slaughter of civilians.”

Switzerland said it acknowledged the right of Israel to defend itself but added: “The operations should adhere strictly to the rules of international humanitarian law.”

Morocco said Israel’s attack was “odious” and reiterated calls for the international community to press for an end to hostilities.

THE HEZBOLLAH EMERGES THE WINNER. Opposition to Israel’s invasion continued to mount with each passing day. The war was only a pyrrhic victory for the Israelis. It was the Hezbollah that emerged with a major political victory as it gathered overwhelming support from a wide spectrum of Middle Easterners including Maronite Christians. They were disgusted with Israel’s massive destruction of lives and property in Lebanon. (London’s The Independent, August 16, 2006)

The Hezbollah funneled more money into the reconstruction of Lebanon than did both the United Nations and the Lebanese government. Most of the hundreds of millions of dollars originated in Iran. (London’s The Independent, August 24, 2006)

The Hezbollah handed out a compensation payment of $12,000, either for new furniture or to cover their family’s rent, to Lebanese who lost their homes. Around 15,000 families received cash in new $100 bills. Most of the aide went to families in the south. In Beirut’s southern suburb,s which have been destroyed or badly damaged in 35 days of Israeli bombing -- 500,000 residents - most of them Shia - lost their homes. (London’s The Independent, August 24, 2006)

Across the devastation of southern Lebanon, the Hezbollah visited hundreds of thousands of Shia families for details of their losses. In some cases, Lebanese government officials -- largely distrusted by the local population -- also made notes of compensation costs. (London’s The Independent, August 24, 2006)

Even Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert admitted to “shortcomings” during the war. Because of his political defeat in Lebanon, Israel reneged on its plan to dismantle some Jewish settlements in the West Bank and to redraw the country’s borders. (Washington Post, August 21, 2006)

Three months after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Tel Aviv regime acknowledged that it used controversial phosphorous bombs. Cabinet Minister Jacob Edery confirmed that the army had used the bombs to attack “military targets” during its war with the Hezbollah. Previously, Israel had said the bombs had only been used to mark out targets. (Britain’s The Independent, October 23, 2006)

During the conflict, doctors in Lebanon treated civilians who appeared to have been hit by the shells, which left their victims with severe chemical wounds that could be fatal. The reports led the Lebanese President, Emile Lahoud, to accuse Israel of violating the Geneva Convention, which banned the use of white phosphorous both as an incendiary weapon against civilians and in air attacks against military forces in civilian areas. (Britain’s The Independent, October 23, 2006)

The United Nations Environment Program investigated allegations that Israel might have used uranium-based weapons during the war. Twenty United Nations experts, working with Lebanese environmentalists, spent two weeks assessing various samples. (Britain’s The Independent, October 30, 2006)

In November 2006, Handicap International, a British-based think tank, released a report that said 98 percent of registered victims of cluster bombs were civilians. (Inter Press, November 3, 2006)

11. TENSIONS CONTINUE

In 2004, the vote was 407-9 to support a statement by Bush that it was “unrealistic” to expect Israel to return completely to pre-1967 borders. In 2003, it was 399-5 to support Israel’s forceful response to Palestinian attacks as justified.

In 2006, the House voted 410-8 to condemn Hamas and Hezbollah for “unprovoked and reprehensible armed attacks against Israel” and supported Israel’s incursion into Lebanon.

On May 5, 2007, the highest ranking United Nations official in Israel warned that American pressure had “pummeled into submission” the UN’s role as an impartial Middle East negotiator. The 53-page “End of Mission Report” by Alvaro de Soto, the United Nation’s Middle East envoy presented a devastating account of failed diplomacy and condemned the sweeping boycott of the Palestinian government. (The Guardian, June 13, 2007)

DeSoto concluded: The international boycott of the Palestinians, introduced after Hamas won elections in 2006, was “at best extremely short-sighted” and had “devastating consequences” for the Palestinian people.

On December 27, 2008, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) launched a series of air strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s offensive came in response to rocket and mortar attacks from Gaza into Israel, terrorizing the inhabitants of nearby Israeli towns. By December 29, the biggest air assault on Gaza since 1967 had killed as many as 300 Palestinians.

Photographic evidence showed that Israel used phosphorus shells in its assault on the heavily populated Gaza Strip. The weapon, used by British and United States forces in Iraq, caused horrific burns. (Times On Line, January 5, 2008)

Rejecting calls for a cease-fire, Israeli government officials said Israel “would push ahead with its air, sea and ultimately ground operation,” which one senior military official described as “making Hamas lose their will or lose their weapons.” In addition to shutting down Hamas’s ability to launch rocket and mortar attacks, Israel aimed to destroy the smuggling tunnels between Egypt and Gaza used by Hamas to resupply with weapons.

On January 3, 2009, IDF ground troops and tanks entered Gaza, “cutting the coastal territory into two and surrounding" Gaza City. Hamas remained defiant, continuing the rocket attacks, though in smaller numbers. Five days later, the Palestinian death toll topped 700 people, with the IDF deaths at nine. Days later, 40 civilian refugees were killed in a United Nations school and three more in another. (Reuters, January 8, 2009)

12. ISRAEL’S NUCLEAR WEAPONS

Israel was the only country in the Middle East that never signed the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). This meant it was not obligated to show or declare its nuclear facilities or activities to United Nations inspectors.

United Nations nuclear watchdog head Mohamed ElBaradei pressed for Israel to abandon its “strategic ambiguity” policy, whereby it refused either to admit or deny the existence of nuclear weapons.. In 2004, ElBaradei lobbied for Israel to disclose if it had an estimated 100 to 200 warheads that were based on estimates of the amount of plutonium its reactors had produced. (New York Times, July 5, 2004)

A color photo of the Nuclear Research Centre Negev showed only a limited view of the suspected nuclear weapons site. The photo was taken by Israeli nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu who once served as a technician. He was freed in April 2004 after serving a 17-year prison term for treason. Vanunu snapped his own 60 photos inside the Dimona reactor and gave them to Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper in 1986. Independent experts who examined the pictures concluded Israel had produced 100 to 200 nuclear warheads at the site. (Reuters, July 5, 2004)

The Nuclear Research Center Negev was established at the end of 1959, and the research reactor in the center was operated afterward. Dimona was aimed at “expanding and deepening basic knowledge of nuclear science and related fields and providing an infrastructure for the practical and economic utilization of atomic energy.” (Reuters, July 5, 2004)