Amir:
Dr. Chomsky, I heard your interview the other day with Amy Goodman and have read several of your books noting your awareness of the Israeli/Palestinian situation. I have many Lebanese friends, several of which are currently in Tripoli in the north.
My question is this; with the obvious plan the Israelis had for this situation and how they are hitting targets completely unrelated to Hezbollah, especially Christian targets, do you believe there is a grand strategy for Lebanon? Many, if not most of the targets hit by Israel have been unrelated to Hezbollah and more at the ability of Lebanon to provide for itself.
My question is this; with the obvious plan the Israelis had for this situation and how they are hitting targets completely unrelated to Hezbollah, especially Christian targets, do you believe there is a grand strategy for Lebanon? Many, if not most of the targets hit by Israel have been unrelated to Hezbollah and more at the ability of Lebanon to provide for itself.
This also makes me rethink the evidence presented against Syria largely implicating them in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri. Do you feel in light of recent events that that too may have been an Israeli action?
Chomsky:
On Israel's plans, I don't have any special insight -- only speculations, no better than yours. You might be interested in an article about it by Uri Avnery, who is quite savvy and experienced.
On Hariri, I think we should wait for the conclusion of the ongoing inquiry (if it ever takes place, under these horrendous circumstances). Lebanese I trust think it is likely to be serious and reliable.
Doubtless Israel has an interest. Whether it went beyond that, who knows? There are plenty of suspicions in Lebanon. Unlike here, they haven't forgotten the last huge car bombing in Beirut, which killed 80 people, mostly women and girls, timed to go off when they were leaving a mosque, organized by the CIA.
Amir:
One more question on the subject of Lebanon if I may; On the recent article in the New Yorker by Seymour Hersh (http://www.newyorker.com/printables/fact/060821fa_fact) Hersh claims the recent Israeli attack on Lebanon had been planned months in advance, as most had imagined, but that it was planned in conjunction with Vice President Cheney and officials at the Pentagon as far back as April for the purpose of eliminating Hezbollah and possibly as a test runfor US plans to strike Iran.
Based on the information he presents, what we've seen transpire during the past 32 days or so, et alia, do you think the US assisted Israel in planning this attack on Lebanon months before the two IDF soldiers were kidnapped on 12 July?
Based on the information he presents, what we've seen transpire during the past 32 days or so, et alia, do you think the US assisted Israel in planning this attack on Lebanon months before the two IDF soldiers were kidnapped on 12 July?
Chomsky:
Hersh is an outstanding reporter (and a personal friend). I am sure he is reporting accurately what his sources told him. But intelligence officials and diplomats are not in the business of telling the truth: rather, of trying to get the public to believe what they want them to believe.
That the US-Israel had contingency plans to invade Lebanon we know without the benefit of any sources. The US has contingency plans to invade Canada, and anything else one can imagine. There could have been nothing more than very brief consultation before the Israeli decision (presumably with US green light) to invade and destroy much of Lebanon. There simply wasn't time.
That the US-Israel had contingency plans to invade Lebanon we know without the benefit of any sources. The US has contingency plans to invade Canada, and anything else one can imagine. There could have been nothing more than very brief consultation before the Israeli decision (presumably with US green light) to invade and destroy much of Lebanon. There simply wasn't time.
Both Israel and the US, and the media, know that there was no possibly justification for the invasion. None of them have the slightest objection to capture of soldiers, even to the far worse crime of kidnapping of civilians. We know this, for certain, because of their (null) reaction to the regular Israeli practice for decades of kidnapping and abducting Lebanese, and of course mass killing, even to the kidnapping of two Gaza civilians on June 24. It's all cynical fraud.
