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| The current conflict has emboldened fundamentalists on all sides. Do moderate voices in the Middle East exist to balance the extremists, and how can they make themselves better-heard? |
Micky Canzano
Montreal, Canada |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
| Moderate voices are there in local newspapers and television and radio stations. These voices are condemning Hezbollah's attack and Hezbollah's control over Lebanon. They are for a peaceful solution between Israel and the Palestinians and they are the ones, among others, who designed the Saudi initiative of 2002. |
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Could you explain why the Arab League has washed its hands of the crisis in Lebanon, and why there seems to be no real will to rein in Hezbollah?
Many thanks |
Sue
Auckland, New Zealand |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
The Arab League realized its incapability of solving inter-Arab conflicts long ago. This is the first time that the Arab League has washed its hands of one of the major conflicts in the area. The reason is because they could not any more bridge the gap between the Saudi-Egyptian position and the Syrian position to the extent that the secretary-general of the League had to forward the whole issue to the international community.
There is a will, however, to rein in Hezbollah but yet it is considered to be an internal Lebanese affair, and no Arab state wants to interfere in another Arab state's affairs, as much as it doesn't want any state to interfere in its own. |
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| There has suprisingly been little coverage of what is happening in Gaza and Mr. Olmert's convergence plan. Have these two operations been put on hold, or are they still going on, but we're just not hearing about them? Thank you. |
Jeffrey Rollman
Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A. |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
No. Officially, the convergence is on, and its viability depends to a large extent on the results of what happens in Lebanon.
The Gaza operation and the possibility of negotiating with the Palestinians is a different story detached from the Lebanese scene, and hopefully will stay so. |
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| First of all, Shalom, it has been a long time since we last talked in Washington. Question: It is really possible for Israel and the IDF to wipe out Hezbollah without some type of cooperation from the government of Lebanon? |
Marvin Klemow
Fairfax, VA, USA |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
| Wiping out Hezbollah is not an aim of the current war. The aim is to weaken Hezbollah significantly, to the extent that it won?t pose a major opponent to conciliatory policies of the Lebanese government. This is the official stand of Israel. Even for this purpose, a strong cooperative government in Lebanon is needed. |
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Dear Mr. Zvi Bar'el,
Don't you think if Israel can attack and destroy the infrastructure of Lebanon and kill more than 300 people - most of them innocent - just for the sake of two of its captured soldiers by Hezbollah, that the Lebanese and Hezbollah have the right to attack Israel to push them out of Shaaba Farms, which belongs to Lebanon, and to get 9,000 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners released? When talks don't work after years then force is applied. What is your opinion on this question? |
Sal Aza
Chicago , United States |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
| Israel had withdrawn from Shaaba Farms in May of 2000 according to strict supervision of the UN and the confirmation of Lebanon and Syria. Shaaba Farms up till now are considered to be part of Syria. I believe that once Syria officially gives up its control over Shaaba Farms, Lebanon will have a legitimate claim against Israel. No, I don't believe that if talks and diplomacy don't work for a certain amount of time, then force should be used. Diplomacy had been working and had a lot of achievements and should be given many more chances before force is used. |
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| How does Iran's ethnic identity, as Farsi/non-Arab, inform their relations with Arab countries, and specifically with Syria? Thanks. |
Steve
Austin, Texas, USA |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
| Iran would like to establish cooperative relationships with Arab countries, as it does with non-Arab countries. This is why Iran has signed a security agreement with Saudi Arabia, has been trying to reestablish full diplomatic relations with Egypt, has correct relations with Jordan and it is cultivating its relationship with Syria. This wasn't always the case. Iran faces difficulties in the area because of its religious identity, rather than its ethnic identity. |
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| You were very sceptical about the official account of Iranian involvement in the Karine A affair, and you wrote a detailed critique in Haaretz explaining why it didn't make sense. Do you believe the frequently heard assertions that Hezbollah receives and follows orders issued by the Iranian government, and that Iran is behind the current Lebanon crisis? Why or why not? What do you see as the relationship between Iran and Hezbollah? |
Marsha B. Cohen
Miami, Florida, USA |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
| The Karine A affair did not necessarily have to do with official government affair in Iran. The fact that weapons were purchased in Iran doesn't mean that the government was behind it. As for Hezbollah, it is receiving and has received weapons from Iran officially and publicly, I believe that Iran's interest in providing Hezbollah with weapons of all kinds it to establish it as a deterring Lebanese Shiite organization and giving it a leverage on Lebanese politics. It doesn't mean necessarily that Iran believes that these kind of weapons deposited with Hezbollah are capable of destroying Israel. |
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| What if Israel hadn't responded to the abductions with massive force? Were there other options? |
Richard Bloom
New York, usa |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
| It is difficult to answer a hypothetical question. We have a situation right now at hand and must try to find out what are the current options. However, not using force probably would have made Israel's government, in the eyes of its citizens, look very weak and non-responsive. |
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| Could this war make fundamentalist minorities in Islamic countries stronger and could they become a threat to Israel? What would Israel's defeat mean for the Jewish-Christian world? |
Francisco Rojas
Valparaiso, Chile |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
Fundamentalist minorities in Islamic countries derive their strength from internal politics rather than international conflicts, so I don't believe that the current conflict should be judged through the theory of connected vessels where fighting one organization in one place affects necessarily the status of another organization in a diferent place.
It's too easy to consider the Islamic world, the Arab world or the Western or Christian-Jewish world as meaningful and ignore internal politics - parallelograms of forces which have much more influence than general all-encompassing terms. |
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| If Hezbollah withstands the situation and the war is ended with a prisoner swap according to Hezbollah's terms, what do you think those conditions will be? |
Raed Salah
Amman, Jordan |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
| The terms will be no different than the ones that were demanded in the first place by Hezbollah: Return of the prisoners. |
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| Was the main reason why Israel did not attack Syria to avoid international pressure on Israel to evacuate the Golan Heights after the current conflict ends? |
Roberta Obadia
Rio de Janeiro , Brazil |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
| I don't think that the Syrian demands over the Golan Heights gave any consideration in the current conflict. This is a separate issue and Israel does not attack Syria because the Israeli perception is that the conflict should be confined to its relations with Lebanon and more directly with Hezbollah. |
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| Lebanon's delicate ethnic fabric has been known for more than a century to erupt in violent warfare. How do sectarian relations in Lebanon affect the government's approach to the current conflict, and are these relations likely to deteriorate yet again? |
Eliza Bloom
Sde Boker, Israel |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
The ethnic sectarian fabric of Lebanon is the most delicate one in the while Middle East, perhaps in the whole world. Yet, it has successfully managed to maintain its stability for long periods of time since signing the Taef agreement of 1989.
The result is that the Lebanese politics is dependent and interdependent on good relationship between the major sects. This is however no guarantee to future stability of the political system. |
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What are the precise roles of Syria and Iran in the crisis? Is the conflict likely to extend to Syria and Iran?
Thank you |
Ohana
Paris, France |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
I don't believe that the conflict will extend, neither to Syria nor Iran. Iran's interests in the conflict is to spare Hezbollah, to save its influence in Lebanon and to create a counter balance axis to the influence of the United States in the area.
I do not consider arming the Hezbollah as a tool to use by Iran to eliminate Israel, rather it is meant to have Hezbollah as a strong deterring force under the auspices of Iran. |
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| Do you consider Israel's response to the kidnap of two IDF soldiers disproportionate? |
Yael
London , U.K. |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
| Yes. |
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| How realistic is it to expect that Israel will be able to significantly damage Hezbollah's capabilities, and what can be done, at the end of the fighting, to prevent Hezbollah (and Hamas) from simply re-arming, and preparing for another provocation? |
Norm Hanson
Edmonton, Canada |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
| The damaging itself is not enough - and Israel can do a lot of damage to Hezbollah's military capabilities - yet without a solid agreement or at least understanding with the Lebanese government which will come under the auspices of the international community we may find ourselves again under the same circumstances in a very short period of time. |
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As there is no military solution for the conflict, why does Israel not recognize that the brutal 39-year occupation of Arab lands, the humiliation as well as the lack of any hope of the inhabitants of these lands are the main reasons for the hatred of Israel. Why haven't Jerusalem and Washington taken up the Saudi plan of 2002 approved by the entire Arab League?
Thank you. |
Gabriel Goren, MD
Encino, U.S.A. |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
| The Saudi plan of 2002 includes many positive elements that should be taken up by Israel and Washington. The plan is still valid and under the current circumstances Israel's and Washington's stand should be reexamined. |
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| Do you agree that if Israel, instead of getting into war alone, had created a broad international diplomatic conflict involving parties interested in disarming Hezbollah (Saudi Arabia, PA Chairman Abbas, Egypt, Jordan, even the Lebanese government), may be pressure on disarming Hezbollah and Hamas could have given better results? |
Alain
Raanana, Israel |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
| I don't think that this aim could have been achieved under regular circumstances. The fact of the matter is that any Israeli initiative to dismantle Hezbollah's arms or to dismantle Hezbollah as such, has been opposed by most Arab countries, let alone Iran. |
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| Can Israel win this war, and, if Israel can in your opinion, how can they win it? |
Teus de Koning
Ederveen, The Netherlands |
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| Zvi Bar'el: |
| Winning the war is of a function of defining targets of the war. If the war was meant to destroy Hezbollah then winning is unachievable. If the idea is to bring the captured soldiers back, then probably we could have done it without the war, through negotiations. And if the purpose is to have a neutral or demilitarized zone between Israel and Lebanon, then we need a very strong Lebanese partner, which is not yet there. |
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