The entire massive Jewish and pro-Israel propaganda machine has covered the US media with messages of unconditional support for Israeli murder, denials of Lebanese suffering and justification of wanton destruction, presented as an act of heroic defense… by the “mad dogs” (Moshe Dayan) of Israel. The voices of Americans horrified by Israeli atrocities or who just feel sympathy for its victims goes unheeded, or worse, are attacked and ridiculed, (the veteran octogenarian White House correspondent, Helen Thomas, of Lebanese ethnic origin, was taunted as the “voice of Hezbollah” by the President’s Press Secretary Tony Snow). The US peace movement, prohibited by its Jewish progressives from voicing outrage at Israel, let alone the Lobby, is moribund. Once again, Israel gets away with murder; its overseas political transmission belts dominate the mass media. The US Congress kneels to the Lobby’s dictates. The entire White House Staff act as messengers for the Israeli Foreign Office:

“You need two weeks for more bombing? Oh, don’t fear, there will be no time limit…Yes sir, we’ll channel the EU, UN and World opinion – there’ll be no ‘cease fire’ we’ll tell’em!”

“Destroying an entire country as reprisal for 2 Israeli prisoners …we believe that Israel has a right to defend herself.”

The US submission and complicity in the Gaza ethnocide and now the destruction of Lebanon without internal debate in Congress, in the mass media, or even in the so-called “peace movements,” speaks loudly and clearly to the stranglehold of Israeli power within the United States and to the enormous and continuing damage to our basic democratic freedoms. To stand against totalitarian terror and US complicity should be a common reflexive act of decency. Today under the Lobby’s all-pervasive domain it is an act of courage, even though it may reach only a few tens of thousands through the alternative media.

Israel’s idea of a “ceasefire” parroted by the Israel Lobby and regurgitated by the US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to Lebanese leaders is first to allow Israel to continue the carpet-bombing of Lebanon with the newly shipped 5-ton American bombs, thus rejecting Lebanon’s Prime Minister’s pleas for an immediate ceasefire (FT July 25, 2006). Once Israel has totally devastated the country, Washington will propose an “international force” (of Israel’s choosing) along with the Lebanese Army to occupy Southern Lebanon (currently under Israeli occupation with the remnant of the battered unarmed UN peace keepers).The “international force” is then supposed to proceed to the total disarming and forced removal of all Hezbollah fighters and their half-million supporters in the South. At that point Israel would consider a ceasefire. Apparently Israel’s mad-dog disease is contagious and has affected the few remaining grey cells in the White House. According to the New York Times, there are no commitments for the proposed “international force”: “The US has ruled out its soldiers participating, NATO says it is overstretched, Britain feels its troops are overcommitted and Germany says it is willing to participate only if Hezbollah agrees.” (NYTimes July 24, 2006). Secondly since the Israeli scorched-earth policy, and Hezbollah’s tough resistance, few if any Lebanese soldiers will take up arms to implement Israel’s conditions, as even the conservative Lebanese leaders reject a foreign occupation. Thirdly and most important, Hezbollah is prepared for and capable of engaging in a prolonged popular guerrilla war of resistance, such as Israel has never faced before, in terms of organization, morale and military capability. According to Jane’s Defense Weekly, analyst Nicholas Blandford, “(Hezbollah) are well armed, well-motivated combat veterans from the 1990’s. It’s the old Mao Tsetung guerrilla strategy of retreating when the enemy advances and advancing when the enemy retreats.

According to another expert on Hezbollah: “They operate in small isolated cells. One cell does not know what the other cell is doing…This decentralized structure is part of the group’s military potency” (Saad-Ghoreyeb cited in Aljazeera July 25, 2006). Hezbollah’s military force, as large as 7,500 fighters, has like the Vietnamese earlier been preparing underground tunnels across South Lebanon and has built an advanced well-stocked armory. Unlike previous Arab armies, which were heavily infiltrated and which fought ‘standing wars’ under highly centralized commands, Hezbollah works in small, decentralized groups, which move quickly and have taken effective measures against Israeli informers. Hezbollah is waiting for a full-scale ground invasion to fight a guerrilla war in the mountains and on their terrain. According to Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, “When the Israelis enter, they must pay dearly in terms of their tanks, officers and soldiers.” (Al Jazeera July 25, 2006) Israel is clearly not going to win a “seven-day war.” Even in the first 10 days, Alon Ben-David, a Janes Defense Weekly correspondent wrote that the Israeli military has suffered “considerable casualties” in its push north into Lebanon.

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