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Lebanon
Hawkins Renews Calls for Immediate Ceasefire and Israeli Withdrawal from Lebanon |
Hawkins has said that any UN ceasefire agreement should also require Israel to leave Lebanon. Hawkins strongly opposed a ceasefire being pushed by the Bush administration that would allow Israeli forces to occupy parts of Lebanon.
Soon after the attacks began, Hawkins called for an international peacekeeping force to be deployed to end the Israeli military occupation of Palestinian territories and its operations in Gaza and Lebanon and to stop attacks against Israel by Palestinian forces and Hezbollah. The United States has been the principal country blocking implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967) and 338 (1973), which require Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories.
As with any war, there are grievances that can be cited by all parties. It is wrong for both Israel and Hezbollah to be firing missiles that are likely to injure and kill civilians. It was wrong of Hezbollah for taking unilateral action – the capturing of Israel's soldiers – that led Lebanon into the present conflict. While Hezbollah had a legitimate grievance with Israel for breaking a previously agreed to prisoner exchange, Hezbollah had to know that trying to resolve it by taking military action against Israel could drag all of Lebanon into a devastating military assault by Israel in response.
But the response of the government of Israel to this provocation is way beyond any rational response. Such attacks are in violation of international law as collective punishment on the civilian population in Lebanon, and leaves Israelis open to being prosecuted for war crimes. Israel is also wrong for trying to turn Lebanon once again into an Israeli proxy war with Iran, Syria, and Hezbollah.
Hawkins said that it appeared that the Israeli military had long been planning an invasion of Lebanon and seized upon the capturing of the two Israeli soldiers as the excuse to launch the war. And while it is illegal to capture soldiers to use as a negotiating tool to obtain an exchange of prisoners, even ones that have previously been promised, it is a more serious war crime to launch a wholesale attack on civilians and civilian infrastructure in response.
Many of the hundreds of deaths in Lebanon have been children. Israeli peace groups have reported that a number of Israeli pilots have begun to purposely miss their targets because the intelligence provided to them has turned out to be false and they have ended up killing innocent civilians.
It is estimated that more than 900 civilians have been killed in the Israeli attack on Lebanon and over 175 civilians have been slain in the Palestinian territory of Gaza. According to the August 7 New York Times, 36 Israeli civilians have been killed by rockets fired by Hezbollah from Lebanon. One Israeli civilian was killed as a consequence of the war on Gaza.
Israeli is killing and starving children and civilians in Lebanon and Gaza. They are preventing relief and medical supplies from reaching victims. This is a major humanitarian crisis. Clinton has turned a cold shoulder to their plight and instead callously cheerleads Israel's bombings.
The villages that it takes to raise a child are being bombed into ashes. Clinton is waving on the bombs that are destroying a painfully rebuilt democracy in Lebanon that only recently was able to climb out from under the decades long occupation by Israel and Syria.
Hawkins harshly criticized Senator Clinton for failing to publicly demand that the Bush administration stop blocking efforts to affect an immediate ceasefire. Hawkins is also concerned about reports that the Bush administration has sent personnel to assist Israel in selecting targets for cruise missile first strike attacks, possibly in Syria or Iran.
Israel is using weapons supplied by the American government to use in their attacks on Lebanon in violation of the restrictions imposed by us on their use. Yet Clinton and Bush have not taken any action to stop this illegal use. It is American tax dollars that are being used to slaughter children and other civilians.
Hawkins said it was clear that the Israeli military had made a grave miscalculation in launching a war on Lebanon. Rather than disarm Hezbollah, the Israeli generals are rapidly transforming them into heroes throughout the Middle East. It was the invasion of Lebanon by Israel two decades ago that first instigated the rise of Hezbollah. Rather than learning from their mistakes, the Israeli generals seem intent on punishing innocent civilians in Lebanon for the humiliation of previously being forced to withdraw by Hezbollah fighters.
This misguided war is a tremendous threat to the long term security of Israel. After a half century, it is time for the US and Israel to admit that the sledgehammer approach to dealing with the Arab/Israeli conflict will never work. The biggest favor the US could do to Israel is to stop spending billions of dollars to arm them and stop using its unilateral veto at the United Nations to protect Israel from the consequences of its actions. Israel will never find peace as long as it illegally occupies the Palestinian territories.
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 *Website by David Doonan, Labor Donated to Hawkins for Senate Campaign* |
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