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THIRD WORLD RESURGENCE #191 (July 2006) This issue’s contents
A US/Israeli debacle in the Middle East By T Rajamoorthy Although it initially tried to portray its war against Lebanon as a limited response to the abduction of two of its soldiers, Israel's subsequent expansion of its war aim to that of 'crushing' Hezbollah revealed a bigger gameplan: the realisation of the US vision of a 'new Middle East'. The fierce resistance put up by Hezbollah to the Israeli offensive has however put paid to this latest attempt to restructure the Middle East to conform to Israel's strategic needs and ensure US domination. Washington's latest Middle East war By Phyllis Bennis In this article written before the ceasefire, Phyllis Bennis analyses US and Israeli goals in the Lebanon war and the regional implications of the conflict. She also explains why the first draft of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 was 'very much Washington's resolution'. Was Israel's aim to clear path for US war on Iran? By Gareth Porter Israeli officials viewed the war against Lebanon as a way to destroy Hezbollah's arsenal of rockets and thereby assuage US fears that a US attack on Iran's nuclear facilities could result in a Hezbollah retaliation against Israel. Hezbollah: A proxy for Iran and Syria? By Lara Deeb The key protagonist in Israel's war on Lebanon was the Lebanese Shi'i movement Hezbollah. Far from being the proxy of Syria and Iran as depicted by the international media, the movement is, as Lara Deeb shows in this analysis of its historical origins and social basis, a quintessentially Lebanese one. The dance of death, con dolcezza By Jeremy Seabrook In this comment on the rejection by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice of a proposal at a 26 July international conference in Rome for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon, Jeremy Seabrook says that the remaking of the Middle East is only part of a wider refashioning by the US of the world in the invented imagery of the next, 'in which we must all learn to recognise, like the inhabitants of Beirut, the ruins of the only home we have'. Lies, double standards and culpable fallacies By Raja Halwani Israel's war in Lebanon provided another occasion for the US and Israel to perpetuate a host of lies, myths and fallacies. Raja Halwani considers a few. Human Rights Watch accuses Israel of war crimes By Jim Lobe In systematically failing to distinguish between Hezbollah fighters and the civilian population in its military campaign in Lebanon, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have committed war crimes, according to a report released by Human Rights Watch. Sad reflections on Jewish morality By Haim Bresheeth A chorus of apologists among Jewish intellectuals matches Israel's erasure of all distinctions between humanity and barbarism in war, writes Haim Bresheeth.
Farmer suicides By Devinder Sharma Unable to fathom the reasons behind the spate of farmer suicides in the country, the Indian government is continuing to pursue the very policies that result in the marginalisation of the farming community. Life on the edge of a warming world By Clare Kendall The native Inuit people of the Arctic regions need no convincing of the effects of global warming. As Clare Kendall discovers, they are already suffering its impact.
WTO talks suspended as ministerial meeting collapses By Martin Khor The WTO's Doha Round trade talks collapsed in July after a last-ditch effort to achieve a consensus ended in failure.
Nuclear arms in the hands of any pose a global threat By Jacqueline Cabasso Even as the US continues its shrill campaign on the 'nuclear threat' posed by Iran and North Korea, it has continued modernising every weapon type in its vast nuclear arsenal. Jacqueline Cabasso says that nuclear weapons must be outlawed and systematically eliminated, not just in 'rogue' states, but everywhere, starting with the US. East Timor after Alkatiri: nation or protectorate? By Tim Anderson When in June East Timor was plunged into a crisis, the country's democratically elected Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri was blamed by the Australian media for the upheaval. Tim Anderson argues that his ouster largely as a result of Australian pressure flags a new reality for the citizens of that island state. Central American CEOs seek to arrest the rise of the left The outcome of recent elections across Latin America bodes well for the left in Central America, with Nicaragua possibly the next country set for a left-wing victory. However, the region's economic and business elite appears determined to use its political might to arrest this trend.
Palestine: Israel in violation of 'most fundamental' human rights norms - UN Special Rapporteur By John Dugard Describing the human rights situation as 'appalling', John Dugard, UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), in his intervention at the Special Session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on 5 July, charged that although Israel is in violation of countless UN resolutions, it is the Palestinian people who are being punished by the economic strangulation imposed by the West. Psychology and US psychologists in torture and war in the Middle East By Gerald Gray & Alessandra Zielinski US psychologists have been major contributors to the development of a policy of torture since at least the Vietnam War and to the concealment of torture and its purpose in Iraq and Guantanamo. Is there to be no accountability for such participation in torture? Forgotten children By Yeni & Sai Silp Migrant street youngsters from Burma looking for work in Thai border towns become easy prey for paedophiles.
Domestic violence: Justice for women? By Ratna Bataramunti Violence against women has been a serious problem in Indonesia. Although there was a major breakthrough in legislative reform in September 2004, justice is still a long way off, says an Indonesian activist. For subscription and enquiries: THIRD WORLD NETWORK Tel: 60-4-2266728/2266159; Fax: 60-4-2264505; Email: twnet@po.jaring.my
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