The need for peacemakers
WITH ISRAELI and Lebanese civilians being killed and wounded by rockets and bombs, regional and world leaders have an obligation to stop arguing about blame for the current warfare and start working on ways to end it.
The civilian victims should not be made to go on paying for the strategic ambitions of the rulers in Tehran and Damascus or for the rash retaliation of Israel's decision makers.
The Group of Eight leaders meeting this weekend in St. Petersburg can show their club is more than a mere talking shop if they employ their influence on trading partners and allies to bring about a cease-fire on both sides of the border between Lebanon and Israel. A cease-fire alone cannot, however, resolve the underlying causes of the current violence. A G-8 push for a cease-fire must be accompanied by steps that address those causes.
A serious peace-making initiative should aim for as much international legitimacy as possible. The United Nations has to have a role, particularly since the international border that Hezbollah violated when its raiding party crossed into Israel was drawn and solemnly recognized by the UN just six years ago. And Arab League foreign ministers, who are meeting about the crisis today in Cairo, are intensely aware of the danger to their governments should Iran and Syria, backers of Hezbollah, succeed in provoking a regional conflagration and destabilizing Lebanon.
An unusually forthright statement issued by Saudi Arabia on Thursday drew a bright line between the interests of the Sunni Arab states and the provocations emanating from Tehran and Damascus. ``A distinction must be made between legitimate resistance and uncalculated adventures undertaken by elements inside [Lebanon] and those behind them," the statement said. ``Those elements should bear the responsibility for their irresponsible actions and they alone should end the crisis they have created."
Saudi Arabia and other Arab states do not want to let Iran dictate events in the region through its clients in Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and Hamas. And they don't want Israel's retaliation in Lebanon to serve as a rationale for Syria to reoccupy Lebanon.
In concert, the Arab League, the G-8, and the UN should demand that Hezbollah abandon its military posts along the border with Israel, return the two captured Israeli soldiers, and honor the UN Security Council resolution requiring that its militia disarm. For its part, Israel should be required to end its military attacks on Lebanon and, as a gesture of good faith, release some of the Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails who were not convicted of murder.
A peace agreement of this kind is needed to safeguard innocent civilians and to resist the Iranian drive for regional dominance.
