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Occupations: The Israelis abandon Gaza, the Syrians leave Lebanon
Independent on Sunday, The, Jan 1, 2006 by Robert Fisk
So they left Gaza and Lebanon. Ah, the blessings of armies leaving other people's countries. If only the Americans would leave Iraq, too... but perhaps that is a bit much. It's all so easy to leave the garbage tips of other people's countries: the trash of Gaza where the Palestinians fleeing Palestine " yes, there was a place then called Palestine " had run away to in 1948, and where 8,000 Israeli settlers living illegally " yes, illegally, under international law " departed this year. And the Eastern Bekaa valley of Lebanon that the Syrian Army left behind.
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The Israelis left under UN Security Council Resolution 242 of 1968 (although everyone forgot about this at the time) and the Syrians left under UN Security Council Resolution 1559 of 2004, which everyone did rightly remember. Having watched the latter withdrawal, I have to say that the Syrians had a lot of equipment. So many tanks, so many tracked anti-aircraft guns, so much artillery. What were they all for? Were the Syrians intending to 'liberate' Jerusalem? Or were they only going to 'liberate' Lebanon, snatched away from them by General Henri Gouraud of the French Army in 1920?
And were the Israelis going to 'liberate' the West Bank, the control of which had somehow eluded them since they occupied it in 1967? Many were the tears shed over Israel's departure " Jewish tears, that is " from Gaza, but only 8,000 Jews were leaving. More than a million Palestinians were staying on in the rubbish tip their parents and grandparents had lived in for up to 57 years. Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon was more spectacular, precipitated as it was by the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in February this year. The Syrians left within weeks, along with most " but not all " of their intelligence officers. And the car bombs kept exploding in Beirut, to remind us all how much we missed those who had departed.
And in Iraq, where so many millions of people wish to see the Americans go, what did we hear? That the democratically elected Iraqi government wanted the Americans to stay. That the US forces must remain to prevent a civil war in Iraq. Which is also what British Prime Minister David Lloyd George claimed in 1920 when the Iraqis wanted us to leave then.
But it has been always thus. Napoleon invaded Egypt in the 18th century to 'liberate' the Egyptians, the British invaded Mesopotamia to liberate the Iraqis from the Ottomans. The Syrians and the Israelis are 'liberating' themselves from the land that they have been illegally occupying. How long must this go on?
Copyright 2006 Independent Newspapers UK Limited
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