Brent Scowcroft, former National Security Advisor to President George HW Bush and Gerald Ford, weighed in the current administration's approach to the Lebanon crisis to address the elephant in the room that few like to talk about: the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Certainly, Israel, and therefore the US under Bush, wish to avoid any discussion of the Palestinians as a source of the present crisis in Lebanon. They prefer to see this conflict addressed the Neoconservative way through the spread of democracy in the Middle East, by force if necessary, in hopes that the resulting democracies, say in Syria and Iran, being then friendly to Israel, will not give a damn about the Palestinians. You would think that Iraqi president Malaki's vocal support of Hezbollah would clue the US in on the fact that: it ain't going to happen.
Here's some excerpts on Scowcroft's view of what the administration should be doing.
Beyond Lebanon
This Is the Time for a U.S.-Led Comprehensive Settlement
By Brent Scowcroft
Sunday, July 30, 2006
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has stated that a simple cease-fire in Lebanon is not the solution to the current violence. She says it is necessary to deal with the roots of the problem. She is right on both counts. But Hezbollah is not the source of the problem; it is a derivative of the cause, which is the tragic conflict over Palestine that began in 1948.
The eastern shore of the Mediterranean is in turmoil from end to end, a repetition of continuing conflicts in one part or another since the abortive attempts of the United Nations to create separate Israeli and Palestinian states in 1948. The current conflagration has energized the world. Now, perhaps more than ever, we have an opportunity to harness that concern and energy to achieve a comprehensive resolution of the entire 58-year-old tragedy. Only the United States can lead the effort required to seize this opportunity.
Read on here at WaPo:
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