Israel is raining destruction upon Lebanon in a purely defensive operation, according to the Bush administration and most of Congress. Even some CNN anchors, habituated to mechanical reporting of "Middle East violence," sound slightly incredulous. With over 300 Lebanese dead and easily 500,000 displaced, with the Beirut airport, bridges and power plants disabled, the enormous assault is more than a "disproportionate response" to Hizballah's July 12 seizure of two soldiers and killing of three others on Israeli soil. Read on….

Condoleezza Rice (finally) announced that she would visit the war torn Middle East in the near future – let’s not rush to the assistance of innocent civilians and perhaps even prevent a humanitarian disaster! Rice also dismissed any hope of brokering an immediate cease-fire. She added that negotiating a cease-fire would be counter-productive at present! The international community has noted America’s lethargy and unwillingness to act in the present circumstances. The world is aware however that Israel would not have pursued its present hostile course without consent from Washington; Rice’s inaction and firm dismissal of any hope of a brokered cease-fire spells very clearly the relationship between Washington and Tel Aviv.

The attention of the world has once again been drawn to the Middle East, to a group of waring tribes. Today however, we witness a ‘new’ warfare, a type promoted by the Zionists Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz. This new warfare is a composite ‘solution’, an amalgam of the permanent revolution/war doctrine of Lev Bronstein (Trotsky); the tactics of Henry Kissinger (carpet bomber of three million innocent Indo-Chinese civilians) and Leo Strauss, whose exclusivist/elitist philosophy lies behind the events of 9/11, the anthrax letters and the rise of ‘terrorism’ – the new public enemy designed to replace the defunct bogeyman of communism!

This short paper does not pretend to a thorough analysis, however, it is hoped that the few indications would suffice both to verify assertions and to indicate a rich direction for further research.

Innocence implies a lack of guilt or blamelessness; the images humans readily associate with the concept of innocence are those of infants, suckling babes, children and the newborn. A species tends to identify and place value on itself. In contrast to instinctive emotions we have the superimposition of cultural values/demands. Religion is the traditional repository and medium of constructed/cultural values. A cursory analysis would reveal that cultural values are not usually compatible with strong instinctive emotions. The value placed on the lives of defenceless children, infants and the newborn will be the criteria utilised to easily prove our assertions.

Gilbert Achcar interviewed by Paola Mirenda on Israel's military assault on Lebanon and Palestine. Gilbert Achcar grew up in Lebanon and teaches at the University of Paris-VIII. His most recent works are 'Eastern Cauldron', 'The Israeli Dilemma', and 'The Clash of Barbarisms'. Paola Mirenda writes for the Italian newspaper 'Liberazione'.

The real aim of Israel's military action is to change the regime in Lebanon and to install a puppet government. Read Uri Avnery.

Gone are the days of a fair fight and a ‘just’ war – whatever that insane expression is supposed to mean – today we have the actions of the ‘might is right’ ideology of barbarism. This ‘new’ primitivism is evident in the actions of Zionist Israel and the Zionist influenced USA. Today’s wars are the most inglorious wars in human history. How proud we should be of our achievements when we allow idiotic differences and greed to escalate into bloodshed. What a ‘noble’ race of ‘civilised’ humans we are! View this planet as a visitor and be thoroughly appalled.

I have recently discovered that donning a cleaner’s garb or waiter’s apron is a passport to a wealth of knowledge. A very rich harvest of information is available to every non-descript person in a service industry. A typical but dated example (I do not wish to compromise my current activities) would be an overheard conversation between two bankers regarding the then new strategy of reducing (their) costs while simultaneously narrowing the options/freedoms of the population. The banks and other large financial institutions decided that it would be far more expedient and profitable to run their businesses utilising a strategy of perpetual debt rather than temporary debt. ‘Joe and Josephine’ citizen were about to become perpetual debtors or economic slaves.