Weekly World News July 22-28, 2006

War Between Israel and its Neighbors
To understand what is happpening it is important to know that American television news reporting on the Middle East is sanitized, said an American professor of journalism who appeared on PBS July 27. In contrast to European and Arab reporting, American reporting omits almost all pictures of injured or bleeding Arab children. It does not display dead bodies and most especially, human body parts scattered over the ground. Europeans and Arabs see those horrors. The Arabs see Hizbollah fighters not as terrorists but as brave Muslim defenders of their homeland. They see the Isrealis as brutal "state terrorists" who have repeatedly humiliated them and robbed them of their land.

On CNN 7-24 a Lebanese doctor showed the badly burned face of an Arab child and said the burns had been caused by phosphorus. When called for comment, the Israeli representative indignantly denied responsibility, saying Israel observed all international rules on weapons. This sounded like a denial. But phosphorus is not on the international list of banned substances -- it is a dangerous substance not yet placed on it. CNN never clarified the matter.

At the end of the week about 400 Lebanese had died and 100 Palestinians in Gaza as well. Israel lost only 51. Thousands of Lebanese were wounded. 750,000 Lebanese had fled their homes.
Meanwhile Hizbollah continued to rain rockets on Israel, reaching its third largest city, Haifa. Israelis apparently have a good system of bomb shelters. The Lebanese do not. The Israelis have a modern air force to bomb Lebanon. Lebanon has none. Nevertheless, Israeli life has been disrupted. by rockets shot by Hizbollah southward, up to 150 a day.

By 7-27, the Israelis stopped bombing south Beirut, a Shia quarter that was pretty well destroyed, and shifted their attention to the fighting on their north border with Lebanon. Here Hizbollah has dug caves and tunnels, created ambushes and tank traps, over a period of six years. It has been able to protect its supply lines with Iran through Syria. Using classic guerrilla techniques on its home territory it is giving the Israeli Army grief. Israel has called up 15,000 reserve troops.

In a meeting of European and Arab states in Rome, all representatives except Condoleeza Rice from the US, wanted to call for an immediate cease fire. Rice claimed that she stood for delay so as to negotiate a permanent settlement that providing that Hizbollah be disarmed. Her position was seen by Europeans and Arabs as a transparent excuse to give the Israelis more time to "degrade" the power of Hizbollah. This was a public relations disaster. Once again, the Bush Administration earned the title of The Reign of Error. Abroad Bush is more than unpopular: he is said to be "radioactive."

Now the Sunni Arab states, initially critical of Shia based Hizbollah for provoking the war, are joined in condemning the US and Israel and praising Hizbollah for its brave fight.The more successful Hizbollah is at humiliating Israel, the less likely it will disarm.

Chaos in Baghdad
The efforts of the new Iraqi government to establish security in Baghdad, an essential condition for its survival, have so far failed. Baghdad has a population of seven million, one third of the population of Iraq. The insurgents have new Sunni recruits as a result of the massacre of Sunnis by Shia death squads. The rising death toll persuaded the US to send 5,000 American troops to Baghdad for four more months to help Iraqi foces. These troops had been promised that they could go home, and now their delight can be imagined. It will probably be impossible for the Bush Administration to reduce troops in Iraq significantly before the November election.

US Politics
According to the NY Times 7-25 he American Bar Association has condemned President Bush for usurpation of power by issuing "signing statements" when he signed a bill. These statements say that he will not enforce certain provisions of the bill. The Constitution does not permit this: a President may only veto a bill and send it back to Congress, where it may or may not be overridden. But he is not permitted to "cancel" a part of a bill. The Constitution does not permit him to sign a bill with his fingers crossed behind his back.

Senator Spector said he was preparing legislation to stop this practice and that lawsuit was possible.

The Status of House Electoral Races
The latest National Public Radio poll, 7-27, found that in the fifty most competitive House of Representative races the Republican incumbents, who had won by 12 points in 2004, were losing to Democrat challengers by 6 points. On "values" issues (gay marriage, embryonic stem cell research, and flag burning) the Republicans lagged 20 points behind the Democrats.

The Role of "Honor" in the Middle East
In a NY Times op ed piece 7-25 John Tierney drew attention to a new book by James Bowman, Honor; A History. This book may be more helpful in understanding Arab behavior than the Quran.

In pre-modern societies honor means imply "the respect of the local 'honor group' -- the family, the extended clan, the tribe, the religious sect." It means that to maintain a reputation for courage and loyalty is more important than telling the truth. Taking revenge against offenders against the honor of one's group is a duty. An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. There is no universal concept of justice for all among pre-modeern people.

Consequently Hizbollah is fighting for its honor, to avenge humiliation by humiliating Israel, not for any particular objective. If it is still standing when the fighting stops, it wins. Further, the successes of Hizbollah win them pan-Arab support because Israel, with its well-armed army, has repeatedly humiliated the Arabs on the battlefield. This is the first time Israel has faced such a well-organized and well-armed guerrilla foe. It may be the wave of the future, making it much more risky to occupy another country.