Thursday, April 17, 2014

"Lebanon: Ater the Cedar Revolution"

Regarding the new book, "Lebanon: After the Cedar Revolution" by Are Knudsen and Michael Kerr, eds, newly published by Oxford University Press.  It usually takes you a few pages to figure the political bias of a particular book on the Middle East but not with this one.  By page 8 you realize that the authors are parroting the propaganda of the Hariri movement.  Oddly, the authors consistently refer to the humiliating Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon (minus the Shib`a farms, the Kfar Shuba hills, and the Ghajar village) as "unilateral Israeli" withdrawal.  What does that mean? This is the actual Israeli official propaganda line.  It implies that Israeli magnanimously withdrew from occupied Lebanese territory as an act of Zionist generosity.  What is unilateral about a withdrawal that was caused by a brave and persistent resistant movement?  Was the Nazi withdrawal from France "unilateral" as well? How about the American withdrawal from Vietnam?  Furthermore, the authors refer to the Israeli war on Lebanon in 2006 as a "military retaliation".(p. 8)  Kid you not.