On the road to peace

The long-term solution to the West Asia issue has to be diplomatic. But in the face of the immediate threat posed by Hezbollah attacks, military operations by Israel are necessary, writes David Danieli.

Since Wednesday, July 12, 2006, 1,500 rockets have landed in Israel across its entire northern sector, killing and wounding many civilians in towns and villages, including the port city of Haifa. The Hamas and Hezbollah terror organisations have repeatedly challenged the sovereignty of the State of Israel and the safety of its residents -- first in the southern sector of Israel, then on the northern border with Lebanon and deeper into Israeli townships and villages. These attacks are carried out across the internationally recognised border of the State of Israel.

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The unprovoked attack from Lebanon by the Hezbollah terrorist organisation is blatant aggression and an act of war. Israel withdrew its forces from Lebanon, in May 2000, in a peace-seeking act endorsed by the international community in accordance with UN Security Council Resolution 425. The UN confirmed this to be a complete withdrawal to the international border between Lebanon and Israel. Security Council Resolutions, and especially Resolution 1559, repeatedly demanded of the government of Lebanon to disarm Hezbollah and assert its authority over its entire territory.

These resolutions provided the Lebanese government with a perfect chance to assert its authority in southern Lebanon and along the border with Israel and turn it to a peaceful border between the two States. By doing so, the Lebanese government would’ve been acting in the best interest of the people of Lebanon. Unfortunately, the Lebanese government failed to carry out its obligations. Instead, Israel has faced six years of terror -- Katyusha rockets landing in its northern towns and infiltration attacks on civilians and soldiers. For six years, Israel responded with restraint. The July 12 rain of rockets on Israel’s civilian population, which accompanied a cross-border attack and kidnapping, was the last straw.

Under these circumstances, Israel has to exercise its right to self-defence and to make sure that its territory and millions of its citizens are not subject to indiscriminate attacks by terror organisations. Israel has no claim -- territorial or otherwise -- on Lebanon but seeks only to ascertain that Lebanese territory does not become a base for Hezbollah terrorist attacks against Israeli citizens. In his address in the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, on July 17, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said, “Stability and tranquillity in Lebanon, free from rule of foreign powers, and in the Palestinian Authority, are in Israel’s interest… We yearn for the day peace will prevail between us, for the mutual benefit of our peoples on both sides of our common border. The campaign we are engaged in these days is against the terror organisations operating from Lebanon and Gaza. These organisations are nothing but ‘sub-contractors’ operating under the inspiration, permission, instigation and financing of terror-sponsoring regimes, on the Axis of Evil that stretches from Tehran to Damascus.

“On both fronts, we are exercising self-defence in the most basic and essential sense. In both cases, it is a matter whose importance and significance go far beyond the size of the military units involved. We are at the national moment of truth.

“Will we consent to living under the threat of this Axis of Evil or will we mobilise our inner strength and show determination and equanimity? Our answer is clear to every Israeli, and it echoes today throughout the entire region. There are moments in the life of a nation when it is compelled to look directly into the face of reality and say: no more! And I say to everyone: no more! Israel will not be held hostage -- not by terror gangs or by a terrorist authority or by any sovereign State.”

Once again, West Asia is at a violent crossroads as a result of a terrorist rampage. Hamas in the south and Hezbollah in the north, are both terrorist organisations driven by an extremist jehadi ideology which calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. They publicly reject any chance to achieve peaceful coexistence in the region.

Hezbollah tactics, in its terror campaign against Israel, are yet another example of the cynical and brutal way of using civilians as human shields with complete disregard for human life. Rockets are launched from private homes, with families residing inside, where a special room is designated as the launching pad. In this manner, if Israel exercises its right to self-defence, it risks harming civilians and drawing international condemnation. It is important to note that under international law, the terrorist who hides behind a civilian bears full responsibility for placing him in the line of danger. As Hezbollah respects no internationally accepted human norms and legalities, they must be held solely responsible for civilian casualties among the Lebanese people behind whom its terrorists hide.

Hezbollah’s weapons cache is estimated at about 10,000 rockets, supplied by Iran via Syria and directed at Israel’s heartland. In the face of this immediate threat, Israel has reacted within its right, and obligation, to defend its territory and citizens.

Although military operations by Israel are now necessary to defend its citizens by neutralising the threat posed by the Hezbollah, the eventual solution is indeed diplomatic. Israel expects the family of nations to enforce the international consensus already accepted by the UNSC resolutions concerning the disarming of the Hezbollah and the Lebanese government’s assertion of national sovereignty along its border with Israel. There is no substantive difference between the Israeli position and that of the international community as expressed, for instance, in the statement issued by the G-8 leaders in Moscow on July 16.

As Prime Minister Olmert stated, Israel is fighting for something that in many places around the world is taken for granted -- the right to a normal life. Israel fights a war which was imposed on it. A war of self-defence on its internationally recognised borders, on its citizens’ right to life free of external threats. Israel fights for stability and peaceful coexistence in West Asia. The alternative is a chaotic, violent and ever bleeding West Asia with which the people of Israel refuse to come to terms with.

The writer is Ambassador of Israel to India