The Middle East peace process breathed its last the day Israel attacked Lebanon. The offensive followed days of barbaric assaults against Gaza and other Palestinian areas. And now we're back to square one. Negotiations are all but forgotten and no one dares speak of peace efforts anymore. All we have now is fury, with Israel bringing its vengeance to bear on its foes. The Lebanese people are once again left with little option but to fight and resist, without help from the Arabs. Israel, meanwhile, is killing and dismembering in the hope of restoring lost dignity. Israel still thinks it can sort things out with fire and bloodshed. This war has nothing to do with the freeing of the two captured soldiers. Israel has a plan for Lebanon and the region, and this is just one part of it. Israel wants to turn the Lebanese public against the resistance. It wants Lebanon to aid and abet US hegemony in the region. Some parties in Lebanon have been in two minds about the resistance, and Israel wants them to do its bidding. Israel is bombing and shelling, settling accounts, and in its attempts to eliminate the Lebanese resistance is being helped by Arab silence, international indifference and US backing. Israel is seeking to avenge its humiliating withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 and wants to remove Hizbullah from the equation, thereby weakening Arab and Islamic resolve. It aims to undermine any confidence the Arabs may have gained as US schemes in Afghanistan and Iraq came crashing down on the heads of the US administration. The Israeli government believes that Lebanon is the weakest link in the alliance of the forces of resistance. Israel has tried to break Hamas and failed, despite assassinations and wholesale destruction, plans for redeployment and convergence. Israel has so far failed to achieve any of its explicit and implicit objectives. It has failed to free captive soldiers in Lebanon and Palestine and is facing stiff resistance on all fronts. The battle against Lebanon is not going to be easy. The Lebanese resistance has the resolve, support and tactical experience to pose a serious challenge to Israel, despite the latter's military superiority. The destruction of an Israeli warship off the Lebanese coast came as a surprise. Hizbullah has also shelled targets deep within Israel and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, wasn't bluffing when he said it was just the beginning. Hostilities have reached a point where the belligerents no longer speak of exchanging prisoners. A battle of wills is underway and there is a possibility that Damascus, and maybe even Tehran, will be dragged into the current conflict. The Israelis may act erratically -- under domestic pressure -- and threaten the Iranian Embassy in Beirut, or even bomb it. While the Israelis, and the Americans, may not want to turn this war into a regional conflict, once the first shot is fired anything becomes possible.
