Lebanon appears hell-bent on re starting civil war while donors, including the US which encouraged last year's destruction, pledge billions, writes Lara Marlowe Login or subscribe for more.
January 30, 2007
Abstract:
Or Heller, the Paris correspondent for the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv , deserved a prize for chutzpah at the closing press conference at the summit on Lebanon last week.
Hosted by president Jacques Chirac, dozens of the world's most influential people, including the secretary general of the UN, the president of the World Bank and the US secretary of state, met on January 25th in the hope of saving Lebanon from bankruptcy and civil war. Chirac raised €5.8 billion in pledges.
When Heller asked Chirac why he didn't hold a similar conference for Israel, there was a stunned silence. Journalists and diplomats exchanged glances of disbelief.
...
At times, Siniora can sound like an economics professor - his profession before he became the late Rafik al-Hariri's banker. But last Thursday, his calm voice and methodical manner were exactly what was needed.
...
everybody knows that Israel invaded Lebanon in 1978, and withdrew after 22 years after inflicting all sorts of atrocities, and leaving a part of Lebanon still occupied . . . The problem is the occupation. There cannot be a real solution if we can't address the issue, which is the continuing occupation of the Shebaa Farms, the Golan Heights, the West Bank and Gaza Strip."
Siniora made that point twice on Thursday, but I saw no flicker of comprehension on Condoleezza Rice's face. Egypt and Jordan have concluded a separate peace with Israel, but the rest of the Arabs are holding out for peace with Israel in exchange for withdrawal from all Arab lands, as offered by the Saudi King Abdallah in 2002.
Instead of answering King Abdallah's initiative, Siniora said: "Israel moves from fault to fault, the last one being the disproportionate attack on Lebanon. Don't forget that Israel detains Lebanese in its prisons, that it occupies the Shebaa Farms and violates our airspace. Israel left more than 380,000 landmines on Lebanese soil, and has not provided most of the maps. In the last 36 hours [of the conflict last summer] after resolution 1701 was passed, until the cessation of hostilities, Israel dropped 1.2 million bomblets that are still killing and maiming people."
Siniora's dignified exposé of his country's grievances somehow redeemed the spectacle of the rich and powerful salving their guilty consciences with promises of money.
Rice apparently saw no irony in the fact she was pledging $770 million (€596 million) to alleviate the destruction she encouraged last summer. Paul Wolfowitz, one of the architects of the Iraq war and now the president of the World Bank, dared to quote from the Koran.
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