Oriente Próximo (Continuación)

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Por Alvaro Vargas Llosa. Director del Centro Para la Prosperidad Global en el Independent Institute y autor de «Rumbo a la Libertad» (ABC, 23/08/06):

YA expliqué por qué pensaba que era un error la reacción de Israel ante la captura de dos de sus soldados a manos de Hizbolá. Apoyándome en la experiencia de un viaje reciente a la región, afirmé que la ofensiva israelí destruiría el mejor proyecto de sociedad multi-sectaria y emprendedora en el mundo árabe y alteraría el equilibrio de poder en el Líbano en favor de una organización totalitaria, Hizbolá, que no le estaba fijando la pauta a todo el país aun cuando ejercía un dominio perturbador sobre la población chiita.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Joan B. Culla i Clará, historiador, autor de La tierra más disputada: el sionismo, Israel y el conflicto de Palestina (EL PAÍS, 23/08/06):

Hace décadas que, en el escenario bélico del Próximo Oriente, se acabaron para Israel las victorias limpias y elegantes tras unos pocos días de guerra convencional contra uno o varios ejércitos regulares árabes. Hace décadas -desde 1982, o como poco desde 1987- que, en aquella región, las guerras son largas, sucias y asimétricas, lo cual no significa en absoluto que tengan un vencedor predecible de antemano. Hace décadas que, en esas guerras de nuevo cuño, el bando menos armado ha descubierto en las imágenes e impresiones mediáticas una baza tanto o más eficaz que la artillería y los aviones de su adversario.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Carlos Pascual, the vice president for foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, was the State Department’s coordinator for reconstruction and stabilization from 2003 to 2005 and Martin Indyk, the director of Brookings’s Saban Center for Middle East Policy, was the assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs from 1997 to 2000 (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 22/08/06):

VICTORY in the latest war in Lebanon will not be won on the battlefield, but in the race between Hezbollah and the Lebanese government to rebuild homes and lives. Despite President Bush’s pledge yesterday of an additional $230 million for reconstruction, Hezbollah is far out front.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Gregorio Luri, filósofo y pedagogo (LA VANGUARDIA, 22/08/06):

Ante un conflicto tan doloroso como el actual entre Israel y Hezbollah hay dos posturas muy útiles para adormecer la conciencia: el maniqueísmo y el escepticismo diletante. Pero para practicarlas uno ha de poder disfrutar de su miopía moral. Entiendo por miopía moral esa incapacidad para captar los matices que es propia del prejuicio, esa disposición a conceder a un bando sistemáticamente el beneficio de la duda que le negamos sistemáticamente al otro o a negárselo a ambos bajo el supuesto de que un enfrentamiento entre fanáticos igualmente exaltados no tiene arreglo.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Alain Gresh, a specialist on the Middle East for Le Monde Diplomatique. His most recent book is "L'Islam, la République et le Monde" (Fayard) (THE GUARDIAN, 22/08/06):

Killers slaughter dozens of civilians in Iraq every day just because they are Sunni Muslims. Suicide attacks are increasingly common in Afghanistan, where they used to be unknown. On the Gaza Strip, 1.5 million Palestinians are caught in a trap, hemmed in by the Israeli offensive and the decision by the US and the EU to freeze all direct aid. The sudden escalation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon may drag Syria and Iran into a regional conflict.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Samir Sumaida'ie, Iraq's ambassador to the United States (THE WASHINGTON POST, 21/08/06):

As the debate on Iraq rages on, we hear more and more voices that call for throwing in the towel and leaving the mess to Iraqis to sort out. A new and unexpected proponent of this argument is Thomas Friedman of the New York Times, who said in a recent column that it's time for "Plan B." Only a few months before, he was arguing that it would be time for the United States to pack up and go only "when we don't see Iraqis taking the risk to build a progressive Iraq."…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Michael Evans, Defence Editor of The Times (THE TIMES, 21/08/06):

THE BRITISH ARMY is designed to be an expeditionary warfighting force capable of massive firepower and overwhelming aggression; it is also designed to be a force for good. In Iraq and Afghanistan this apparent contradiction presents complex doctrinal issues for the soldiers, particularly in Helmand province where hundreds of Britain’s best combat troops have been targeted almost daily by a resurgent Taleban, the former Afghan rulers.

The recent focus, inevitably, has been on the extraordinary courage and determination of the British soldiers in the outposts in northern Helmand who in June and July faced one of the toughest and longest periods of enemy assault since the Falklands War in 1982.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Terence J. Daly, a retired military intelligence officer and counterinsurgency specialist who served in Vietnam as a province-level adviser (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 21/08/06):

THREE years into the Sunni insurgency in Iraq, everyone from slicksleeved privates fighting for survival in Ramadi to the echelons above reality at the Pentagon still believes that eliminating insurgents will eliminate the insurgency. They are wrong.

There is a difference between killing insurgents and fighting an insurgency. In three years, the Sunni insurgency has grown from nothing into a force that threatens our national objective of establishing and maintaining a free, independent and united Iraq.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Rami G Khouri, the editor of the Beirut-based Daily Star (THE GUARDIAN, 21/08/06):

We have a very simple choice before us in the Middle East: we can get serious about working together to give the people of this region a chance to live normal lives in peace and security; or we can all act silly in the ways of provincial chieftains, as many public figures in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Israel and the US have done in recent days.The chances of achieving a region-wide peace in the Middle East are slim to non existent right now, because the key non-Arab players are focusing on the wrong issues.…  Seguir leyendo »

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El escritor israelí David Grossman recuerda en este artículo a su hijo Uri, muerto el sábado 12 de agosto en el sur de Líbano cuando el carro de combate en el que avanzaba fue alcanzado por un misil antitanque de Hezbolá. Días antes, David Grossman, junto con los escritores Amos Oz y A. B. Yehoshua, había formulado un llamamiento al Gobierno israelí para que finalizara sus operaciones militares en Líbano (EL PAÍS, 21/08/06).
Mi querido Uri:

Hace tres días que prácticamente todos nuestros pensamientos comienzan por una negación. No volverá a venir, no volveremos a hablar, no volveremos a reír. No volverá a estar ahí, el chico de mirada irónica y extraordinario sentido del humor.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Fred Halliday, profesor de la London School of Economics, autor de The Middle East in international relations (Cambridge University Press). Traducción: Robert Falcó Miramontes (LA VANGUARDIA, 21/08/06):

Todas las guerras son diferentes, pero algunas lo son más que otras, o eso parece tras el último conflicto bélico entre Israel y sus vecinos. Esta guerra (inesperada pero urdida desde hace tiempo, y explosiva en sus consecuencias a corto y largo plazo) guarda algunos parecidos con otros conflictos de la historia reciente de la región, pero en otros aspectos muy importantes es diferente y algo más con respecto a las guerras anteriores: es algo más que las cinco guerras árabe--israelíes que ha habido desde 1948; es algo más que otro capítulo de las guerras de Líbano, que empezaron en 1975-1976 y duraron hasta 1990; es algo más que las guerras que estallaron en distintas partes de la región tras la revolución iraní de 1979, a pesar de que está relacionada con ellas.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Andrew Sullivan (THE TIMES, 20/08/06):

The news was buried in a New York Times story last week but it confirmed what others in the Washington chattering classes have been observing lately.

The context is that the White House has been inviting outsiders in to the Oval Office to discuss strategy in Iraq. The new chief of staff Josh Bolten has apparently been trying to pierce the intellectual cocoon in which the president comfortably resides. Bush family consigliere James Baker has already been asked to rescue the president’s failed Iraq policy.

But last week the new nugget: an anonymous “military affairs expert” attended a White House briefing and reported: “Senior administration officials have acknowledged to me that they are considering alternatives other than democracy.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente PróximoInternacionalTerrorismo Internacional

By Richard L. Armitage, deputy secretary of state from 2001 to 2005, and Kara L. Bue, a deputy assistant secretary of state from 2003 to 2005, are international business consultants (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 20/08/06):

IN the wake of the foiled terror plot in London involving British Muslims with Pakistani connections, all eyes are again on Pakistan as the breeding ground for terrorists. While the arrests may serve as proof to some that the country cannot be relied on as an ally in our fight against Islamic extremism, we would argue that the recent events should harden our resolve to support it.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Astri Suhrke, investigadora del Chr. Michelsen Institute, Bergen, Noruega (LA VANGUARDIA, 20/08/06):

Hace relativamente poco, en su visita a Madrid, el secretario general de la OTAN afirmó que Afganistán era la "principal prioridad" para la alianza e insinuó que estaba previsto el envío de más tropas. Nada nuevo, en realidad. Hace sólo medio año, la OTAN había decidido prácticamente doblar sus efectivos en Afganistán bajo el estandarte de la ISAF. Hace unas pocas semanas, el jefe de la delegación de la ONU en Kabul animó a los principales estados europeos a doblar su presencia militar en el país. El comandante en jefe británico de las fuerzas recientemente desplegadas en las provincias del sur solicitó refuerzos nada más poner los pies en la zona, explicando que el despliegue británico había soliviantado a los talibanes.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Franklim D. Kramer, assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs from 1996 to 2001. He is currently an international consultant on defense and national security (THE WASHINGTON POST, 19/08/06):

Not all peacekeeping forces are successful, and certainly not in Lebanon, where U.S. Marines on a peacekeeping mission were killed in their barracks by terrorist truck bombs and where, a few years later, a U.S. military officer leading a United Nations peacekeeping force was kidnapped and killed. If peacekeeping is to be part of a long-term answer for Lebanon, the force there needs to be carefully designed to generate an effective solution rather than become part of the problem, as has been the case in the past.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Essay by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad (THE GUARDIAN, 19/08/06):

The Muhammad family arrived back at their home in the south of Lebanon three days after the ceasefire. Twenty-five people - women, children of all ages, and their grandmother - were squashed inside two rickety cars piled high with mattresses, food boxes and cooking pots. Pictures of the Hizbullah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, were taped to the back windows. Their house was intact, but there was a look of gloom on everyone's faces. The father sat on the steps and took off his shoes, the children gathered around him quietly as the mother sat in a corner weeping silently.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Yoel Marcus, a columnist for the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz, where a longer version of this article first appeared Haaretz.com (THE GUARDIAN, 19/08/06):

Never has a new government with a line-up of fresh faces and ambitious goals been entangled in so many foolish affairs within such a short span of time as that of Ehud Olmert: a president suspected of sexual harassment; an environmental affairs minister accused of election bribery; a justice minister facing charges of indecent behaviour; a chief of staff who liquidated his stock portfolio two hours before the war; a defence minister who wasn't aware of any missile threat; and a prime minister who raced into war without due consideration of its justness and consequences.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Charles Krauthammer (THE WASHINGTON POST, 18/08/06):

The charm of any U.N. Security Council resolution lies in the preamble, which invariably begins by "recalling" all previous resolutions on the same subject that have been entirely ignored, therefore necessitating the current resolution. Hence newly minted Resolution 1701: Before mandating the return of south Lebanon to Lebanese government control, it lists the seven Security Council resolutions going back 28 years that have demanded the same thing.

We are to believe, however, that this time the United Nations means it. Yet, the fact that responsibility for implementation is given to Kofi Annan's office -- not known for integrity, competence or neutrality -- betrays a certain unseriousness about the enterprise from the very beginning.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Lakhdar Brahimi, a former special adviser to the United Nations Secretary General (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 18/08/06):

WHAT a waste that it took more than 30 days to adopt a United Nations Security Council resolution for a cease-fire in Lebanon. Thirty days during which nothing positive was achieved and a great deal of pain, suffering and damage was inflicted on innocent people.

The loss of innocent civilian life is staggering and the destruction, particularly in Lebanon, is devastating. Human rights organizations and the United Nations have condemned the humanitarian crisis and violations of international humanitarian law.

Yet all the diplomatic clout of the United States was used to prevent a cease-fire, while more military hardware was rushed to the Israeli Army.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Oliver Kamm, the author of Anti-Totalitarianism: the Left-Wing Case for a Neoconservative Foreign Policy (THE GUARDIAN, 18/08/06):

British political debate about Israel's intervention in Lebanon has, with rare exceptions, run the gamut of opinion from A to C, but with a unifying theme that Israel's actions have been disproportionate to the provocation. In reality, the principal ethical question concerning Israel's military campaign is whether it has been curtailed too soon. The answer lies with the strengthened UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), and the interpretation given to its mandate to "take all necessary action ... to ensure that its area of operations is not utilised for hostile activities of any kind".…  Seguir leyendo »