Qana

Just when things could not get any worse, they did with the horrible news from Qana. Qana is the small town in Southern Lebanon where, according to the Bible, Jesus turned water into wine. The town's more recent history is tragic. In 1996 the Israelis bombed a U.N. compound where villagers had sought shelter from fighting between Hezbollah fighters and the Israeli army that was occupying South Lebanon at the time. One hundred men, women and children died. The tragedy at Qana became a symbol of the brutality of the 18 year Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon. Today, history repeats itself. Some 56 civilians, including 36 children huddled in what they thought was the safety of the basement of an apartment building perished after the Israeli airforce bombed the building, twice. Then, as now, the Israeli government says it was a mistake and that they do not target civilians. Tell that to the relatives of the some 600 other mistakes they have comitted since July 12th.

Several days ago Condaleeza Rice, standing in Jerusalem next to an Israeli prime minister intent on pulverizing Lebanon to dust to get Hezbollah, declared that "we" will prevail and that a new Middle East is in the making. This arrogant, triumphalist statement by the Secretary of State not only declares unconditional support for Israel but essentially states that Israeli and American Middle East policy are now one and the same. They also share the same modus operandi that goes something like this: in a bad neighborhood restraint is a sign of weakness so hit hard first and then ask questions. Moreover, this brave new Middle East will be of their own making and the natives will have no say in shaping it. So a region with infinite shades of grey is reduced to the monochromatic Bushian view of the world: you are either with us or you belong in Guantanamo.

What a difference a few days make. Today, the Decider in Chief and his Secretary of State are much less bombastic. They are finally asking for an immediate ceasefire -of course I meant "cessation of hostilities". They even "feel the pain" of the Lebanese families that have lost loved ones. No one is buying these crocodile tears. Instead of this fake sympathy, the only superpower, the self-styled indispensable nation, and the provider of 3 billion dollars of aid yearly to Israel could have leaned a little on Olmert and had this insanity stopped. It was evident shortly after Israel started its campaign that it had overreached and was causing wanton destruction in Lebanon. However, the U.S. administration, blinded by its paranoid War on Terrorism and seeing an opportunity to deal Iran an indirect blow, refused to call for a stop to the violence and instead blatantly encouraged its surrogate bully, Israel to finish off Hezbollah.

This bull in a china shop diplomacy does not work in the Middle East; never has. No one, Israeli, Arab or American seems to have learned the lessons of history. No one ever wins in such confrontations, everyone loses, some much more than others. A newly independent Lebanon, reborn after shedding Israeli (2000) then Syrian (2005) influence and its people are the biggest losers. Its population, especially those who have lost their homes and livelihood in the war will be angry and radicalized. A paranoid Israel will be even more so and not any safer. America's stock, in the Middle East will sink -if that's possible- to new lows. Moreover, from Lebanon's experience, the message to Arab reformers is loud and clear. The administration's stated goal of bringing democracy to the Middle East is a fig leaf, a sham easily discarded in favor of what the administration perceives as the United States' strategic interest. For over a year the U.S. egged on and supported the rise of the anti-Syrian reformers in Lebanon only to pull the rug from under them in favor of Israel at the time when they needed them most.

I find the ease with which the U.S. administration simply discarded Lebanon stunning and short sighted. This is after all the most democratic of the Arab countries with a thriving free press and a legendary entrepreneurial spirit. It is also the most Westernized of Arab countries and with a large diaspora living in Europe and the Americas the natural cultural bridge between East and West. A transformed Lebanon would have been critical first step in advancing larger regional reforms.

Instead, the Cedar Revolution is now dead, the country shredded, hundreds dead, hundreds of thousand displaced and now an outrage in, of all places, Qana.