The gossipy article by Seymour Hersh in the current issue of The New Yorker is the most important item to examine during the cease-fire in Lebanon. If you have the time, you can read the entire article here. In the meantime, here's my two-cents worth of commentary about it.

What you had on July 12th, 2006 in south Lebanon was an incident in a war zone, in disputed territory. I am referring to the Hizbullah capture of two uniformed Israeli soldiers. This abduction took place either on Lebanon's side of the "blue line" or else in an area occupied by the IDF, known as the Shebaa Farms--approximately 10 square miles of fertile farmland--which is also Lebanon. Syria has officially acknowledged the Farms to be Lebanese. (The contiguous Syrian Golan Heights and the Shebaa Farms area have been occupied by Israel since 1967 and were formally annexed by the Knesset in 1981. Under international law, however, Tel Aviv's annexation is deemed null and void.)

Accordingly, Hisbullah's action of July 12th was not a terrorist act; it was a military operation against an occupation army. What followed in retaliation was a terrorist act: the massive Israeli air force bombing campaign directed at the entire country of Lebanon, its infrastructure and its defenseless civilian population. It is called state terrorism, and has been employed by the Zionist in Palestine against the native inhabitants for decades.

Like the Palestinians in Gaza, Lebanon cannot defend itself from attacks from the sky. Lebanon has no air force, no anti-aircraft defenses. Tel Aviv and Washington know this, and have taken full advantage of it. In addition, Tel Aviv has always been jealous of the prosperity and perspicacity of Lebanon, and of Beirut in particular. What the Hersh article clearly demonstrates is that the White House signed off on Tel Aviv's plan to attack Lebanon in its entirety, several weeks prior to the July 12th incursion near the blue line. This means that the White House is thoroughly complicit in the war crimes which the IDF committed in Lebanon--doubly so, since Bush Jr. sat back and did nothing whatever after the aerial assault against Lebanon got underway with U.S.-supplied jet fighter bombers, and after it became clear that Tel Aviv was treating all of Lebanon as a free-fire zone, just like Gaza. To quote Hersh:

Earlier this summer, before the Hezbollah kidnappings, the U.S. government consultant said, several Israeli officials visited Washington, separately, “to get a green light for the bombing operation and to find out how much the United States would bear.” The consultant added, “Israel began with Cheney. It wanted to be sure that it had his support and the support of his office and the Middle East desk of the National Security Council.” After that, “persuading Bush was never a problem, and Condi Rice was on board,” the consultant said.

The initial plan, as outlined by the Israelis, called for a major bombing campaign in response to the next Hezbollah provocation, according to the Middle East expert with knowledge of U.S. and Israeli thinking. Israel believed that, by targeting Lebanon's infrastructure, including highways, fuel depots, and even the civilian runways at the main Beirut airport, it could persuade Lebanon's large Christian and Sunni populations to turn against Hezbollah, according to the former senior intelligence official. The airport, highways, and bridges, among other things, have been hit in the bombing campaign. The Israeli Air Force had flown almost nine thousand missions as of last week.

It should be no surprise that all roads lead to Dick Cheney. Everything depends upon this Yale drop-out and upon a nest of Likud operatives in his office and at the NSC. Israeli "officials" come over to consult with characters like Elliott Abrams--convicted criminal, the "neocon's neocon", and a militant Zionist whom Karl Rove and Cheney put in charge of the Middle East desk at the NSC--and David "clean break" Wurmser, Cheney's Middle East "advisor", filling in for Irving "Scooter" Libby, Marc Rich's attorney. Sounds like a tough, arm's length negotiation, doesn't it? I'm sure all of them had only the best interests of America, Europe, the free world and humanity foremost in mind. Maybe they are all on FBI wiretaps as part of the AIPAC espionage investigation.

What a joke, and what a monkey these officials and their boss have made out of Uncle Sam. This laughable arrangement whereby Jewish American Zionist surrogates for Tel Aviv are running U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is an open scandal at the heart of the rotten Bush Administration. It is an outrage, a gross conflict of interest, which you can bet your home and your children that no national Democratic leader on Capitol Hill will ever bring up, even though the Democrats would do anything conceivable to regain power in Washington. Anything, that is, except blow the whistle on the "Israel Lobby", to which the Democrats are also beholden.

Furthermore, a primary aspect of the attack plan for Lebanon outlined above was to set off a renewed civil war in Lebanon among Christians, Sunni and Shia Moslems. We are talking about cynicism and bloodthirstiness to the Nth degree. Arrange for a civil war among your adversaries. Divide et impera. Watch them bleed. Watch as they tear each other apart. Listen, it's working in Iraq. Who do you think is responsible for that? Who do you think was responsible for the 10-year Iran-Iraq war of the 1980's? Who said Iraq is a failure? Iraq is not a failure. From the point of view of those who planned it, of those who instigated and propagandized it and made it happen in Tel Aviv and at AIPAC's headquarters in Washington, "Operation Iraqi Freedom" has been an unqualified, spectacular success.

Iraq has been pauperized and nearly destroyed; it is on the verge of civil war and breaking apart into pieces. Mission accomplished. The fact that Iraq has turned out to be a ruinous, unending, self-destructive fiasco for the United States is a secondary, side issue. Do you think Dick Cheney and G.W. B. give a damn about Iraq, per se? Please. Their interest is politics and power. That's why Abrams has his job on the NSC. To further quote Hersh...

Cheney’s office supported the Israeli plan, as did Elliott Abrams, a deputy national-security adviser, according to several former and current officials. (A spokesman for the N.S.C. denied that Abrams had done so.) They believed that Israel should move quickly in its air war against Hezbollah. A former intelligence officer said, “We told Israel, ‘Look, if you guys have to go, we’re behind you all the way. But we think it should be sooner rather than later—the longer you wait, the less time we have to evaluate and plan for Iran before Bush gets out of office.’" Cheney’s point, the former senior intelligence official said, was “What if the Israelis execute their part of this first, and it’s really successful? It’d be great. We can learn what to do in Iran by watching what the Israelis do in Lebanon.”

Isn't that just peachy? The clock is ticking. We've got this fellow Bush at our disposal; he's a stooge...let's use him while we can. The whole scenario amounts to a conspiracy of the “Neocons”.  Does this explain why President G.W. did not talk with Ehud Olmert until very recently? There was nothing to talk about. Don’t you see? Everything had been agreed to in principle ahead of time. There would be no reason for Bush Jr. to persuade Olmert not to do what the White House had already encouraged Tel Aviv to do. This would logically mean that all public pronouncements by Bush Jr. and Condi Rice about the invasion were a charade. Read The New Yorker article. Total complicity in the destruction of Lebanon.

Just one more observation. With Tel Aviv having completed its part of the bargain, its representatives can now turn around and proclaim to Useful Idiots #1 and #2, behind close doors, that the White House is obliged to go through with its part of the deal--the long awaited and much cherished attack upon Iran. That is the ultimate goal--regime change in Iran, just like in Iraq. Iran has no nuclear arms program in the same way that Iraq had no "weapons of mass destruction". So What?!

The clock is ticking and Congress will not stand in the way. The American people are so misinformed and brainwashed that they will accept any lie and endure any skullduggery hoisted upon them by Washington. This circumstance is making the world a more dangerous place and leading to the bankruptcy of America. It's axiomatic: you get the government you deserve. We are getting it, all right, in spades.