The blame game

Let’s blame Hezbollah for starting it by capturing Israeli soldiers and lobbing rockets onto Israeli soil. No – let’s condemn Israel for its overwhelming and disproportionate response. No - let’s blame Hezbollah for hiding its rockets in amongst women and children. No - let’s condemn Israel for killing women and children. No - let’s blame the Lebanese for not leaving when Israel drops leaflets to tell them to clear out because of the coming onslaught. No - let’s blame Israel for bombing Lebanese civilian evacuees on the roads as they do leave. No - let’s blame Hezbollah for decreeing the ultimate aim of Israel’s destruction and suicide bombings. No - let’s blame Israel for building settlements. No - let’s blame the Palestinian Authorities for not resettling those in refugee camps. Let’s blame Israel for building a wall. Let’s blame the Lebanese government for not dealing with Hezbollah. Let’s blame Syria and Iran for supplying arms to Hezbollah. Let’s blame Britain for giving a bit of Palestine to the Jews. Let’s blame George Bush for everything.

In these sombre, bitter times of conflict, the media is full of blame. Blame has been hurled back and forth, ricocheting between opposing sides ever since Israel’s painful birth. It is the Palestinians in the refugee camps and the ordinary citizens of Israel and of Lebanon who are pawns in this terrible game being played out on the world stage. If there is one thing that is clear to me it is that none of the players really have the best interests of these peoples at heart. It is all about agendas and interests – and that applies to America and Iran, the United Kingdom and Syria.

The blame game isn’t the answer. We need an urgent and unconditional ceasefire. And then we need the world to roll up its sleeves and commit itself for as long as it takes to focus all its efforts on pursuing peace and a lasting settlement. Blaming those who aren’t willing to do that is the only part of the blame game worth playing. What has the UK and US done in the six years since Israel withdrew from the Lebanon to move the road map on? How hectic is our pursuit of a two-state homeland?

Searching for a solution also means swallowing some bitter pills. I hate to see the lesson that history teaches us – I wish it were different – but the bitter truth is that dealing with unpleasant, murderous brutes is often needed to bring peace. Remember the IRA? In the end – the promise of peace and prosperity together with negotiation is what eventually heralded a break in the deadlock of decades and the hatred of centuries. There are people on both sides in Northern Ireland I would instinctively rather see in jail – but had the only talk been about catching and punishing, there would not be the peace there is and the death tolls would have been even worse.

It may make us feel sick to deal with terrorists or terror states – but there is no other way to move forward. Moreover, we would be dealing with people who have fought and won elections – for though many in the west invariably describe Israel as the only democratic state in the region - this isn’t true. Lebanon, even with the political wing of Hezbollah in government, is a democratically elected state. And Hamas won pretty fair elections too. It doesn’t suit us to see terrorists elected by popular vote - but that is democracy. We can’t wish away those election results just because we don’t like them. And neither will we further nurture democracy in the region with that attitude either.

The only way through is to move on from the rights and wrongs of the past (and this ghastly present will also become the past with more hate and more hurt piled up soon enough) until there is a safe homeland for the Palestinians and secure borders for Israel.

(c) Lynne Featherstone, 2006

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