Hush Money (with strings attached)
From today's Daily Star of Beirut: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=75066
The latest in this comedy. Have Israel smash Lebanon to smithereens for you, offer less than 10% of the total damage as "aid" and THEN say, by the way, you won't get it unless we do what we tell you. Nothing new in this approach, "aid with strings" is a tried and tested behaviour modification process.
But to call this pitiful amount of money "aid" at all is to miss the point. Lebanon should be seeking reparations from Israel and the US in the appropriate legal venue. The cynic in me doesn't hold much hope for this though, given the sorry record of enforcing ICJ judgements against the US, and the US' veto of any resolution that might potentially harm Irael, and the cost and time involved in bringing proceedings.
The latest in this comedy. Have Israel smash Lebanon to smithereens for you, offer less than 10% of the total damage as "aid" and THEN say, by the way, you won't get it unless we do what we tell you. Nothing new in this approach, "aid with strings" is a tried and tested behaviour modification process.
But to call this pitiful amount of money "aid" at all is to miss the point. Lebanon should be seeking reparations from Israel and the US in the appropriate legal venue. The cynic in me doesn't hold much hope for this though, given the sorry record of enforcing ICJ judgements against the US, and the US' veto of any resolution that might potentially harm Irael, and the cost and time involved in bringing proceedings.
posted by John @ 8:50 AM
1 Comments:
At 5:30 PM,
Anonymous said…
Hi John,
Merely from an economic and marketing point of view, never mind fairness, I don’t see any reasons why the US would be at all interested in helping out Lebanon, never mind how much money they pour into the country they are never going to get recognition and support back, and it may only be interpreted as an assumption of guilt. Maybe if France, out of its old links to Lebanon, decided to help it would look like the non involved West cared... but France has its own problems these days. Iran is going to help, but Iran’s help, like Syria’s is double sided, money for sympathy to a cause I really do not think will make any one’s lives better.
We all have a problem (I mean we all Westerners), a PR problem; there are far more “normal” people in the Middle East than radicals, whatever their religious beliefs, and I’m sure many more agree with our basic values than not, but extremes sell well, they have very simple messages “them vs us” “good vs bad” “god vs evil” (I guess you might have noticed that those simple messages apply to all sorts of extreme movements in the West and in the East), the angrier or more scared people are or are made, the easier it is that they will buy into those messages.
One of the most worrying things is that the US administration has fallen into this type of dialectic, the strongest (war-wise) country in the world ruled by people in one extreme will not help approaching people to any middle ground. It is good PR to get re-elected, bad PR for the rest of us that do not vote that administration, or even for those that vote them for reasons different to their foreign policy, for those in the middle grounds in the “opposition” countries and bad to bring down any other extremisms in the world.
I have seen it here, in the UK (and in Spain too), Blair’s decision to back Bush into the Iraq invasion (democratisation? what was it, really?), in my opinion the worst decision of his whole term in government, has put the whole of the UK population in that “them vs us” rhetoric in the “them” side. But people do not vote an administration just based on their foreign policy, and anyone saying that all the UK support the invasion of Iraq because labour was elected is...well...not very rational. The pity is that not even the masses of people demonstrating against it has done much for good PR of the UK in the Middle East so, what to do?
If things do not change every where and if the middle ground people do not start sounding louder and stronger and being able to put pressure on governments and extremist movements, we are doomed. Maybe we need another 60s revolution, put flowers in our hair and take the streets more often (without breaking anything), we need to care more, and hold our administrations liable for what they do and say in our behalf. We need the middle ground people in both sides being seen to work together fruitfully, and I mean both sides, I would like to see those in the Middle East that think that Hezbolla are only helping themselves and an indefensible cause speak up a little bit more, or there’s nobody there?
Lots of ideas in a short message... sorry if it’s slightly confusing. I don’t have many answers.
Amaya
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