Israel Once Again Wins The PR War

This editorial was published in the Daily Star on 20/11/2010

Although not difficult to achieve, Israel has managed to outmaneuver Lebanon again, using the miniscule village of Ghajar to present itself as internationally responsible and Lebanon as hopelessly inert.

A few decades ago Ghajar was a village of maybe 1,000 inhabitants in Syrian territory which Israel occupied in the 1967 war. After Israel occupied south Lebanon, the villagers began expanding their community onto nearby Lebanese territory. Some 1,500 residents of Ghajar today live in the historically Syrian area, with about 500 more living on Lebanese land.

All the inhabitants have Israeli and Syrian passports; in other words, they have nothing to do with Lebanon. By withdrawing from the area of Ghajar which sits on Lebanese territory, the Israelis are putting the ball in Lebanon’s court, when the Lebanese side is incapable of agreeing even on which racket to use for the match.

The Israelis, meanwhile, can now strut and claim – wrongly – that they are fulfilling their international commitments under UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which mandated that Israeli troops withdraw from all Lebanese territory. Foreign powers are applauding the move; with Israel’s reputation at its lowest point in recent memory, withdrawing from Ghajar without pressure must appear a magnanimous, stately gesture. Unfortunately, Israel has violated Resolution 1701 nearly every day since it was adopted in August 2006, thanks to unceasing military overflights of Lebanon.

Israeli observers tittered at the demonstration by Ghajar residents, claiming – falsely – that it goes to show how no one wants to stop being a citizen of Israel. In reality it shows that the villagers have legitimate questions about their future access to public services, such as how they will be to get electricity and use the town’s education and health care facilities.

A responsible withdrawal by Israel would have meant resolving these questions in the interests of the residents; instead, Israel decided to let the people suffer to score some PR points. To be sure, soon Israel will declaim how the nefarious Lebanese are not fulfilling Resolution 1701 as Tel Aviv takes such significant steps.

In this situation, Lebanon needs a firm stand by its state to confront Israeli propaganda and address the village’s situation. What we get is complete paralysis. Officials do not even hint of meeting; the state does not have the slightest contingency plan for how to administer Ghajar. Syria, it should be noted, has been deafeningly silent as well.

Lebanese politicians scream constantly to get back land occupied by Israel. Israel has called their bluff. Whereas this country’s leaders should convene and demonstrate that they are serious and can handle the return of their land, instead they have shown only a total absence of planning, strategy or consensus – and shown that Lebanon is merely a bystander as its fate unfolds.