or: What makes us different from the thugs
And a call for Democratic action
Something important just happened. The spokesperson for the IDF was discussing the bombing of the UNO. The Fox News bobblehead interviewer, lobbed in something like "So, how is the elimination of Hezbollah going?",
and she very carefully corrected him saying something like "it is not our goal to eliminate the Hezbollah, per se, as you know, Hezbollah is both a political party and a military arm, it is Hezbollah's militia that must be disarmed, we can not have a rogue military on our Northern Border" NB: am paraphrasing from memory.
What's the big deal about this?
It is a signal of a rather significant policy shift, from the impossible and illusory "Elimination of a terrorist organization", to a more achievable and measurable demilitarization of a militia. Up until this, no Israeli or US official has made this distinction between the militia and the political arms of Hezbollah.
Why should Dems care?
If the diaries and comments here at Da'Kos are any indication, Dems are fairly broadly split about what, if any, normative position we can take that honors core democratic values, and differentiates ourselves from the Republicans.
I suggest we develop a Dem talking paper that says:
"I am voicing my support for Israel for the need to disarm the Hisbollah militia and I call on the administration to call on both sides and the Hizbullah Secretary General Hasan Nasrullah for an immediate cease fire to prevent a deeper humanitarian catastrophe.
This should be followed by negotiations between the Government of Lebanon and Israel and other regional powers, including Syria, Egypt and Jordan in order to achieve the the full demilitarization of Hezbollah.
Armed militias are a threat to human rights and political stability all over the world. The exist in the vacuum created by the lack of strong central governmental institutions to provide basic services and security for their people. Disarming militias must be accompanied by strengthening central government institutions. Our response must necessarily be a strong show of support to the legitimate government of Lebanon in their efforts to disarm the Hezbollah militia.
The administration's lack of constructive engagement in the middle east is the proximal cause of this disaster. Their current policy of indifference to human suffering, their inability to differentiate between legitimate political movements and illegal armed militias, the preference for the use of military force over basic diplomacy, misguided unilateralism is weakening Israel's security and risks triggering a wider regional conflict.
We urge all necessary steps to immediately cease the hostilities, and the disarming of the Hezbollah militia in accordance with UN resolution 1559.
eh?