Lebanon: Winners and Losers

By Justin Raimondo

"Poor Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. "Liberated" Iraq's chief government official came to Washington hoping to shore up the precarious position of his regime as it teeters on the brink of civil war, and all he got was this:
"Mr. Maliki's refusal to condemn Hezbollah has created an awkward situation for the White House. 'His statements are troubling,' Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Democratic minority leader, said today. 'They raise serious questions about whether Iraq, which is supposed to be our ally, can play a constructive role in resolving the current crisis and bringing stability to the Middle East.'"
"I want the prime minister to denounce what Hezbollah has done," said Reid. "I will lose a lot of confidence in al-Maliki if he does not denounce what Hezbollah has done."
Doesn't Mr. Maliki know which side his bread is buttered on? Of course he should pay more attention to what a single American senator thinks than what they're saying back home about Israel's rape of Lebanon. A puppet trying to cut his strings is bound to fall on his face. Pinocchio, however, thinks he's a real boy, and even began acting like one last week at a news conference held in the "Green Zone":
"The Israeli attacks and airstrikes are completely destroying Lebanon's infrastructure. I condemn these aggressions and call on the Arab League foreign ministers' meeting in Cairo to take quick action to stop these aggressions. We call on the world to take quick stands to stop the Israeli aggression."
This was said in answer to a question from a reporter about the Iraqi government's plans to evacuate Iraqis trapped in Lebanon. Rumor has it that a more extensive expression of his stance will come out in a Wednesday speech to Congress – that is, if it ever takes place.
What Maliki said in the Green Zone is verboten in the Zionist Zone that is Washington, D.C. That city, as Pat Buchanan quipped, is "Israeli-occupied territory." A memorable phrase, that, and particularly evocative of what is happening today, as Congress ratifies Israel's brazen blitzkrieg without even mentioning, let alone condemning, the targeting of Lebanese infrastructure and massacre of civilians. As John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt averred in their Harvard University study of the Israel lobby:
"The bottom line is that AIPAC, a de facto agent for a foreign government, has a stranglehold on Congress, with the result that U.S. policy towards Israel is not debated there, even though that policy has important consequences for the entire world. In other words, one of the three main branches of the government is firmly committed to supporting Israel. As one former Democratic senator, Ernest Hollings, noted on leaving office, 'you can't have an Israeli policy other than what AIPAC gives you around here.'""