Oriente Próximo (Continuación)

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By Jonathan Chait, a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, where this article first appeared (THE GUARDIAN, 07/08/06):

Let's face it, Israel's counter offensive in Lebanon doesn't seem to be going very well. Liberals are saying it. Conservatives are saying it. Plenty of Israelis are saying it. But here is the odd thing: nobody is paying very careful attention to the alternative. The criticism of Israel's ground campaign - however sound much of it may be - takes place against an assumption that peace could be at hand if only Israel stopped fighting.

Let's examine that idea. The United Nations types argue that Israel should withdraw from Lebanon and cease its airstrikes and that an international force should patrol southern Lebanon.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Walter Laqueur, director del Instituto de Estudios Estratégicos de Washington (LA VANGUARDIA, 06/08/06):

En el tercer día de la guerra de Líbano escribí que no había peligro de que las operaciones militares derivaran en una guerra generalizada en Oriente Medio, ya que en estos momentos ninguna de las partes implicadas está interesada en la continuación de las hostilidades, pero en cambio sería muy difícil poner punto final a la guerra. Tres semanas después, la situación no ha variado en lo esencial. Condoleezza Rice está viajando de una capital a otra y todo el mundo le reprocha que no haya tenido éxito todavía, como si la secretaria de Estado pudiera decretar la paz y sacarse de la manga las tropas necesarias para mantenerla.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Jim Hoagland (THE WASHINGTON POST, 06/08/06):

It has been a hard stretch of diplomatic road for the Condoleezza Rice we see in public. That is the "frustrated and stressed" secretary of state who made no visible progress on the crisis in Lebanon while visiting the Middle East. But beneath that image of failure lies a strategic opening for the private policymaker Rice to exploit.

The opening has been understandably obscured by the tragic human carnage of the Israeli-Hezbollah border war and by diplomacy's habits of subterfuge. Moreover, the strategic moment is dependent on a still-to-be established willingness by Rice to break through the stereotypes that imprison President Bush's rhetoric and policy on the Middle East.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Rafael Sánchez Ferlosio, escritor y premio Cervantes 2004 (EL PAÍS, 06/08/06):

Don Mario Vargas Llosa, en la séptima y última entrega de su reportaje Israel / Palestina: paz o guerra santa, titulada 'Los justos' (EL PAÍS, 8 de octubre de 2005), tras contarnos su entrevista con un historiador israelí, Illan Pappe, escribe lo siguiente: "Fue una de las últimas entrevistas que tuve en Israel, en esas dos semanas enloquecidas, en las que, constantemente, tenía que luchar contra la tremenda impresión que me había causado la situación del país. Un país que ha crecido, se ha enriquecido y se ha vuelto tan poderoso que -ojalá me equivoque- podría seguir viviendo así muchos años, sin la menor urgencia de resolver su problema con los palestinos.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Andrew Tabler, a fellow of the Institute of Current World Affairs and the editor in chief of Syria Today magazine (THE NEW YORK TIMES, 05/08/06):

Damascus, Syria

IT is hardly surprising that when discussing the Lebanon crisis, President Bush tends to couple Syria’s role with Iran’s. After all, Damascus and Tehran have spent the better part of the last year deepening their ties, culminating in a June military cooperation agreement. But the United States may well have leverage in Syria that it lacks in Iran. If it is true, as it is reported to be, that Washington seeks to drive a wedge between Hezbollah’s two backers, the Bush administration would do well to modify its democracy agenda to include support for Syrian reform.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Jimmy Carter, ex presidente de Estados Unidos y fundador del Centro Carter. Traducción de María Luisa Rodríguez Tapia (EL PAÍS, 05/08/06):

Oriente Próximo es un polvorín, y en todos los bandos hay quienes aguardan cualquier oportunidad para destruir a sus enemigos con balas, bombas y misiles. Una de las vulnerabilidades de Israel es la cuestión de los prisioneros. Los militantes palestinos y libaneses saben que un soldado o civil israelí capturado es o una causa de conflicto o una valiosa arma de negociación a la hora de intercambiar prisioneros. Esta idea se basa en los diversos intercambios de prisioneros que ya ha habido, como el de 1.150 árabes, sobre todo palestinos, a cambio de tres israelíes en 1985; 123 libaneses a cambio de los restos de 2 soldados israelíes en 1996, y 433 palestinos y otros árabes a cambio de un empresario israelí y los cuerpos de 3 soldados en 2004.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Fawaz A. Gerges, profesor de la cátedra Christian A. Johnson de Oriente Medio y Asuntos Internacionales del Sarah Lawrence College, Nueva Jersey (EE. UU.). Traducción: Verónica Canales Medina (LA VANGUARDIA, 05/08/07):

Cuando la guerra de Israel contra Líbano entra ya en su cuarta semana y las bajas de civiles libaneses aumentan hora tras hora, la diplomacia internacional está en plena actividad. Al parecer, por fin se ha alcanzado un consenso sobre la necesidad del cese de las hostilidades antes de iniciar las negociaciones para resolver las discrepancias subyacentes entre Israel y Líbano. La Administración Bush y el Gobierno de Tony Blair se inclinan por la resolución de la ONU que requiere un alto el fuego como parte de un paquete de acuerdos.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Soumaya Ghannoushi (THE GUARDIAN, 05/08/06):

Tony Blair's speech to the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles was revealing. His definition of the "arc of extremism" applies to himself perfectly. He "has an ideology, a world-view, deep conviction and the determination of the fanatic". His discourse is full of a secularised missionary absolutism, founded on a Manichean world-view of "We" and "They". The battle of the demons and angels in old Judeo-Christian apocalyptic literature turns into a conflict of good v evil in Bush's universe, and into progress v reaction in Blair's.

While constantly pointing the finger at Muslims and denying any part in the spread of terrorism, this arrogant rhetoric of neoliberal militantism, which goes hand in hand with military aggression on the ground, is terrorism's chief recruiter and the greatest threat to Britain's national security.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Shahram Chubin, jefe de estudios del Centre for Security Policy de Ginebra. Autor de Iran's nuclear ambitions, 2006 (LA VANGUARDIA, 04/08/06):

El conflicto entre Israel y Hezbollah, que amenaza con derivar en una guerra regional, no tiene nada que ver con los prisioneros ni con Palestina, ni siquiera con la seguridad de la frontera norte israelí. Lo que se disputa es la configuración política de Oriente Medio en el futuro. La provocación de Hezbollah y la enérgica reacción israelí son parte de una rivalidad más amplia, de la que participan Irán y el nuevo frente radical de la región.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Juan Goytisolo, escritor (EL PAÍS, 04/08/06):

A riesgo de pasar por "ridículo", "grotesco", "antiguo" y "paleto", y de incurrir en "gracietas de progre de pacotilla", según la sabia y ecuánime voz del jefe del principal partido de oposición -oposición que, dicho sea entre paréntesis, parece menos propia de una democracia europea que del filibusterismo de algunos Estados de ese Tercer Mundo que el señor Rajoy menosprecia y execra-, aventuraré unas pocas reflexiones sobre la guerra desigual y asimétrica que, como reflejo de la emprendida por Bush contra "el terrorismo internacional", opone Israel a Hamás, Hezbolá y a quienes les patrocinan, y de la que son principalmente víctima los civiles palestinos de la franja de Gaza y de las ciudades y aldeas de la casi totalidad de Líbano.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Charles Krauthammer (THE WASHINGTON POST, 04/08/06):

Israel's war with Hezbollah is a war to secure its northern border, to defeat a terrorist militia bent on Israel's destruction, to restore Israeli deterrence in the age of the missile. But even more is at stake. Israel's leaders do not seem to understand how ruinous a military failure in Lebanon would be to its relationship with America, Israel's most vital lifeline.

For decades there has been a debate in the United States over Israel's strategic value. At critical moments in the past, Israel has indeed shown its value. In 1970 Israeli military moves against Syria saved King Hussein and the moderate pro-American Hashemite monarchy of Jordan.…  Seguir leyendo »

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Por Augusto Zamora R., profesor de Derecho Internacional y Relaciones Internacionales en la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (EL MUNDO, 04/08/06):

Desde hace semanas el mundo contempla, impávido e indolente, la destrucción del Líbano, que no parece despertar la compasión de nadie. Ciudades, puentes, carreteras, centrales eléctricas, ambulancias, puestos de Naciones Unidas... son destruidos sin que nadie haga nada efectivo por detener a Israel. Los Gobiernos se han limitado, unos a condenar formalmente la agresión, otros a justificarla invocando una inexistente legítima defensa.

La pasividad de la etérea comunidad internacional ha sido interpretada por Israel como una autorización indirecta de su guerra de agresión.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Peter Wilby, a former editor of the New Statesman (THE GUARDIAN, 04/08/06):

So now we know. The purpose of intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan was not regime change, Tony Blair explained in Los Angeles on Monday, but "values change". By bombing and shooting their way into Baghdad and Kabul, he and President Bush wanted to convince the benighted locals of the benefits of democracy, free markets and the rule of law.They think Israel can achieve the same ends by pulverising Lebanon, and thus dealing a blow to the "arc of extremism", successor to the still undefeated "axis of evil".…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Mark Lattimer, the director of Minority Rights Group International (THE GUARDIAN, 04/08/06):

The leaked report from Britain's outgoing ambassador in Iraq, warning that "civil war and a de facto division of Iraq" are now a likelihood, elicited a studied silence from Downing Street and Whitehall yesterday; but William Patey's fears could not have come as a surprise.The toll of sectarian killings has increased inexorably over the past few months since the destruction of the al-Askari shrine in Samarra, and the violently reworked geography of Baghdad and other mixed cities is beginning to resemble nothing so much as the mono-ethnic enclaves that 15 years of civil war imposed on Beirut.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Jonathan Steele (THE GUARDIAN, 04/08/06):

Unlike good children, Israel's drones are heard but not seen. Officially called unmanned aerial vehicles, these "eyes in the sky" circle south Lebanon day and night. Between six and 12 feet long, they are little more than cameras and a motor.They usually fly too high to be spotted, but they make a noise so loud you cannot forget it, like a swarm of wasps on a summer afternoon. Their engines give the impression of being souped up, both as a warning to any Hizbullah rocket-launcher that Big Brother has you in his sights but also as a device to intimidate and madden an entire population - what torturers call "white noise".…  Seguir leyendo »

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By David S. Broder (THE WASHINGTON POST, 03/08/06):

If you think there is an echo in the air when officials discuss the twin crises in Iraq and Lebanon, you're not hearing things. In both cases the argument for carrying on the destructive current policy comes down to a claim that "we can't afford to let the other guy win."

President Bush says over and over that cutting short the occupation of Iraq would turn that country over to the terrorists and embolden them to carry their wicked plots ever closer to our shores. He also endorses -- implicitly -- Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's view that an early cease-fire with Lebanon would strengthen Hezbollah and make its prime sponsor, Iran, even more of a threat to its neighbors.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Jon B. Alterman, the director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (THE WASHINGTON POST, 03/08/06):

We often think of American history in terms of turning points. We are attacked, we fight back, and the world often changes as a result. These turning points are few and far between: 9/11, Pearl Harbor, and the Civil War. We often build memorials in quiet, grassy places that invite contemplation. With the luxury of distance, we ponder how to remember both our suffering and our triumphs, and we imagine our future.

The Middle East has been battered so many times in the last century, there is not one site of mourning but many; everywhere is sacred ground.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Moshe Yaalon, a retired lieutenant general, was chief of staff of the Israel Defense Forces from 2002 to 2005. He is now a distinguished military fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy (THE WASHINGTON POST, 03/08/06):

The conflict in the Middle East is about much more than Israel and Hezbollah, or even Hezbollah's Syrian and Iranian sponsors. What is at stake are the very rules of war that underpin the entire international order.

Sadly, judging from how most of the world has responded to Israel's military action against Hezbollah, these rules have been completely abandoned.

The rules of war boil down to one central principle: the need to distinguish combatants from noncombatants.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By Abdullah Gul, foreign minister and deputy prime minister of Turkey (THE WASHINGTON POST, 08/03/06):

ANKARA, Turkey -- The grave tragedy that has been unfolding before our eyes in Lebanon, and the inability of the international community to bring it to an end after three weeks of suffering, unfortunately raise questions about the United States and its proud legacy of leadership for freedom and justice.

After all, my generation grew up with an image of the United States as standing for the revered values of democracy. It is sad that this image of a "kinder, gentler nation" is being tarnished as millions around the world watch in complete horror as events unfold in Lebanon.…  Seguir leyendo »

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By William Hague, shadow Foreign Secretary (THE TIMES, 03/08/06):

THE EVENTS OF the past few days have clearly demonstrated the depth of the Middle East crisis. A UN meeting to determine which countries might contribute troops to an international force was postponed. After a short lull in military activity after the tragic airstrike on Qana, Israel rejected calls for an immediate ceasefire, Hezbollah continued to rain rockets on Israeli towns and President Assad put the Syrian Army on a higher state of alert. Perhaps most worrying of all, diplomatic efforts appeared to have been derailed when Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Beirut in pursuit of a ceasefire deal was abruptly cancelled and Israel announced that it would continue its offensive.…  Seguir leyendo »