Three columnists on the Israel-Lebanon War

Three of my favorite columnists were all focusing on the Israel-Lebanon War this week.

Sid Blumenthal points to depressing signs that the neocons and nationalist are back driving policy on Iran and Syria in the Cheney-Bush administration: The neocons' next war Salon 08/03/06. And that's very bad news, if he's right. He reports:

Rice's diplomacy in the Middle East has erratically veered from initially calling on Israel for "restraint," to categorically opposing a cease-fire, to proposing terms for a cease-fire guaranteed to conflict with the European proposal, and thus to thwarting diplomacy, prolonging the time available for the Israeli offensive to achieve its stated aim of driving Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon. But the neocon scenario extends far beyond that objective to pushing Israel into a "cleansing war" with Syria and Iran, says the national security official, which somehow will redeem Bush's beleaguered policy in the entire region.

No problem here by Gene Lyons Arkansas Democrat-Gazette 08/02/06. Based on his previous column, which included criticism of Israel's war policies in Lebanon, Lyons got some mail that suggested he was anti-Semitic. In his conclusion to this column, he points to the incredibly anti-Jewish core of the Apocalyptic notions that animate much of the Christian Right:

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prates about the “birth pangs” of a new Middle East. FYI, she’s talking in code to Christian fundamentalists, alluding to the verse in Matthew in which Jesus tells the Apostles how to recognize the “end times”: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ... All these are the beginning of birth pangs.” Here’s the rest of the scenario: Comes the Apocalypse, all the unconverted Jews get killed. And people think somebody like me is the problem?

Joe Conason was also shaking his head in amazement at the (at best) fecklessness of Bush's policies in the Middle East in Dystunction rules in Middle East conflict WorkingforChange.com/New York Observer 08/02/06:

There is no American strategy for the Middle East. There is only crisis management, performed incompetently, and slogans about "democracy" and "evil" and "terrorism." From somewhere inside this intellectual vacuum, the voice of President George W. Bush assures us that things are getting better in Iraq. ...

It will be many years before our government can play any useful role as an interlocutor between the Israelis and the Arabs, with whom they must eventually make peace.

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