• Lebanon
  • August 28, 2006
  • 4 minutes read

Galloway wants int’l forces in Israel to bridle IOF aggressions

The vociferous British lawmaker, George Galloway, who chairs the Respect Party, has saluted the Lebanese national resistance and leaders for the precious sacrifices they offered in defending their country against Israel’s aggression.


Galloway was speaking on Saturday in Beirut before massive media and political meeting organized by the Lebanese popular leagues gathering in condemnation of the IOF troops’ massacres and bloody crimes in Lebanon.


“The destruction left on Lebanon by the Israeli war machinery in the south is similar to the destruction left by the United States of America on the Japanese city of Hiroshima; but the Israeli destruction appeared to be more savage, organized, and programmed”, said the British legislator.


He, further, deplored calls to disarm Hizbullah, and called on the Lebanese government not to heed those calls but to exploit the victory achieved by Hizbullah in its favor.


“How could you heed demands of a defeated army in disarming Hizbullah”, Galloway questioned, underlining that the United Nations must deploy international forces inside Israel and not in Lebanon as Israel is always the aggressor country.


He took aim at American president George W. Bush, and British premier Tony Blair for nixing repeated calls to stop the war and save innocent blood, charging that the rejection on the part of the two leaders was to give Israel the needed time to knock down Hizbullah that it failed to do.


Moreover, He highlighted the need to initiate sincere work and initiatives to achieve a lasting peace in the Middle East based on a just solution to the Arab issues, warning at the same time that instability in the ME means instability in the entire world.


Olmert wronged in appointing Peretz as war minister:
Meanwhile, an Israeli Labor Party official stressed Sunday, in an interview with the Hebrew radio, that Israeli premier Ehud Olmert had erred in appointing Israel’s war minister Amir Peretz to the post, and for not heeding Labor calls to assign him to the finance portfolio instead.


He further flayed Olmert for freezing the committee commissioned to investigate military lapses in Israel’s latest war on Lebanon, saying, “a state couldn’t just be slow in investigating mistakes, and the government erred in not taking a firm decision in this regard”.


The Labor party official acknowledged the existence of a confidence gap between the Israeli public and the government as evident in the sharp decrease in Olmert and Peretz’s popularity in the Israeli street.


“An investigation of the government’s mistakes in the war on Lebanon is crucial at this point of time if Olmert and Peretz want to restore the respect of the people”, said the Labor official.


In a related matter, high-ranking Egyptian sources unveiled that Egypt’s efforts in solving the issue of the captured Israeli soldier are to bear fruits before the end of the year.


The Egyptian daily, Al-Ahram newspaper quoted Sunday a number of those officials as affirming that a Hizbullah-Israel swap of prisoners could take place within two to three weeks amidst intensive German mediation.


They added that once the exchange of prisoners between Hizbullah and Israel occur, a similar swap between Israel and Palestinian captors of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit is expected to follow.


American human rights activist Rev. Jesse Jackson is expected in Lebanon Monday to meet Lebanese president Emil Lahoud and Lebanese officials as he is expected to play a crucial role in the mediation efforts.


Arab and Muslim money takes Israel out of the dilemma:
For their part, a number of well known international companies, including cigarette tycoon Philip Morris, Star Bucks, MacDonald’s, Burger King, Kentucky, Pizza Hut, Coca Cola, and Pepsi among others pledged to allocate sums of their profits to help rehabilitate Israel’s economy after the bitter defeat in Lebanon.


However, what was interesting is the fact that those companies gain most of their profits from Arab and Muslim markets as their branches spread all over the Arab and Muslim worlds.