Israel seeks Lebanon talks after Gaza pact
Having already established a ceasefire with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israel are now making overtures towards Lebanon:
I said at the the time of the Israel-Lebanon war that I thought Israel's behaviour in launching the war was disgraceful, especially as we all knew one day she would do the very thing she was refusing to do at the time of the war.The overture appears to have been encouraged by the US administration and comes after indirect talks between Israel and Syria were recently restarted for the first time in eight years. The approach to Lebanon may indicate that an agreement is close at hand with the Lebanese group Hizbullah over the return of two Israeli soldiers captured at the start of the 2006 Lebanon war and who are now feared dead.
Israel is reportedly ready to release some Lebanese prisoners in return.
The country that Hariri rebuilt, against all the odds, after years of civil war and after a twenty year Israeli occupation, is being systematically torn to pieces. It's bridges, it's power plants, it's roads, it's buildings, it's airport, are all being levelled. Even the viaduct has been broken.And now it comes to pass. Israel is prepared to hand over prisoners in exchange for it's soldiers. What a crime that Olmert did not do so in the beginning when he would have gotten back two living beings rather than the corpses of the two soldiers, which is all he will get if the rumours of their deaths are true.
Beirut, the "Paris of the East", is being reduced to rubble.
And for what? For what?
When all this rampant, disgraceful destruction is over, the Israelis will still have to carry out their prisoner swap if they want their soldiers returned.
And what a crime that Olmert visited such devastation upon Beirut rather than do then what he is prepared to do now.
Make no mistake, Olmert committed the war crime of collective punishment when he rained bombs down upon the heads of a civilian population who had nothing to do with the kidnap of these two Israeli soldiers, and he did so for the simple reason that he was too proud then to do what he is doing now.
More than 1,200 Lebanese died because of Olmert's actions and 119 Israeli soldiers and 43 of Israel's citizens died for the very same reason. Olmert wasn't willing to accept political reality, he thought he could bomb an innocent civilian population and force Hizbullah to hand these men over.
He failed. And his failure destroyed the lives of far too many Israelis and Lebanese.
So, I am pleased that Israel is making these overtures towards Lebanon, and I am deeply angered and saddened that it has taken Olmert so long, and cost so many people so much, for him to come to his senses.
And, whilst welcoming the fact that, dead or alive, the two Israeli soldiers are likely to be returned; let us never forget young Gilad Shalit, the young Israeli soldier whose kidnap in Gaza started this whole awful chain of events which resulted in Olmert and Bush's needless war.
Gilad appears to have been airbrushed out of this period of Israeli history, but I remember him. We should all remember Gilad and continue to hope for his safe release.
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