Statement Of Sen. Patrick Leahy
The Crisis In Lebanon
Senate Floor
August 1, 2006
Mr. LEAHY.
Since July 12th we have watched with growing horror as
hundreds of Hezbollah rockets have landed deeper and deeper inside
Israel, indiscriminately killing and injuring civilians, and Israeli
bombs, missiles and artillery shells have destroyed much of the
civilian infrastructure in areas of Beirut and southern Lebanon.
Some 550
Lebanese have died, the vast majority of them civilians, and an
estimated 866,000 – one in five Lebanese citizens – have fled their
homes and are either displaced in Lebanon, living in schools and
public buildings, or as refugees in Syria. Fifty Israelis have
died, and in Haifa and other towns in the north many families are
living in terror in basements or shelters.
Meanwhile,
three Israeli soldiers remain as hostages and their families remain
in anguish – hostages held in violation of the Geneva Conventions
and every other international norm. In another sense, Hezbollah and
its supporters Syria and Iran are holding the entire population of
Lebanon hostage.
Of the 26,000
American citizens who were living in or visiting Lebanon when this
crisis began, more than 12,000 have been evacuated, and the exodus
continues. The cost to the U.S. government of this air and sea lift
is expected to be at least $46 million.
The evacuation
took too long to get started, and the delay and confusion caused a
lot of frustration and anxiety among Americans in Lebanon as well as
their families back home.
As after
Hurricane Katrina, I hope the Administration has learned something
from this experience. At the same time, I want to commend the State
Department employees and U.S. military personnel who worked around
the clock to help Americans who were trapped in Lebanon find a way
out.
The unprovoked,
indiscriminate and utterly inexcusable kidnapping of Israeli
soldiers and rocket attacks by Hezbollah should be universally
condemned. Those who ordered it should be brought to justice. It
has ignited a conflict that Hezbollah cannot win, but which could
engulf the region if a way is not found to stop the spiral of
violence from widening.
It is clear
that a buffer zone patrolled by an international force is urgently
needed along the Israeli-Lebanese border to prevent these kinds of
violent incursions against Israel and its people, and that Hezbollah
must be disarmed in order for Lebanon to finally – finally -- break
free of Syria’s harsh grip.
While hundreds
of Hezbollah’s missiles continue to rain down on Israel, Israel’s
military response has also caused the deaths of hundreds of
civilians in Lebanon, including four United Nations observers. One
of the latest tragedies is the destruction by an Israeli missile of
an apartment building in Qana that resulted in 57 Lebanese deaths
including 34 children, children who were not terrorists.
Secretary
Rice’s whirlwind visits to the region have been welcome but they
have produced few tangible results. This type of crisis diplomacy
rarely achieves lasting solutions. She is also occupied with a
widening civil war in Iraq, resurgent Taliban violence in
Afghanistan, an increasingly recalcitrant and aggressive regime in
North Korea, a worsening humanitarian crisis in Darfur with no end
in sight, the specter of a nuclear-weapons-capable Iran in the
world’s future, and other pressing problems. She is simply unable
to focus the sustained, high-level attention on the Middle East
crisis that is needed.
I and others
like my friend from Nebraska, Senator Hagel, have urged President
Bush to appoint a special envoy with the stature and the authority
to work on a continual basis to help broker an immediate ceasefire
and long term solutions to Israel’s conflicts with Hamas and
Hezbollah – someone who wakes up every single day with the
challenge, the portfolio and especially the authority to help
resolve this conflict. I renew this call for such an envoy again
today.
Some U.S.
officials have questioned the possibility of a ceasefire with a
terrorist organization like Hezbollah. That is a valid question,
but ceasefires have been achieved with other terrorist groups, and
while imperfect the results have been sharp reductions in violence.
A ceasefire is
needed immediately in Lebanon, to be followed with similar urgency
by the deployment of an international peacekeeping force on the
border. Too many innocent people are dying – innocent people -- in
both countries. A peacekeeping force is necessary to prevent
further loss of Lebanese and Israeli lives.
We are
committed to protecting Israel’s security and we support Israel’s
right of self defense, including going after Hezbollah fighters who
often launch their attacks from civilian areas.
But for
Israel’s sake, for ours and especially – especially -- for the sake
of innocent lives on both sides of these battle lines, it is vitally
important to ask whether destroying Lebanon – not Hezbollah, but
destroying Lebanon -- will make Israel more secure or instead rally
Muslims behind Hezbollah and give rise to further hatred and
insecurity. I believe that continued bombing of civilian areas in
Lebanon will not destroy Hezbollah, but in a perverse way, it may
strengthen it.
The fact that
these attacks are being carried out with such intensity and are
yielding so much death and destruction, with weapons supplied by the
United States, and at a time when we are trying to repair our
already frayed relations with Muslims around the world, is all the
more reason for the United States and the people of Israel to
consider and answer this question frankly and honestly. I am
concerned, as others have also warned, that a short-term tactical
victory – even if possible – could prove to be a hollow victory at
great human cost.
We should also
reflect on the circumstances that preceded this crisis. For the
past five years, the Bush Administration’s approach to the Middle
East has been either to ignore it or to parachute in for just enough
time for a few handshakes and photographs. There has never been an
effective strategy. They have never been willing to expend any
political capital. Their policy toward Syria and Iran has been
erratic and ineffective. Their relations with the Palestinians have
stagnated.
It was clear
since the earliest days of this Administration that this laxity
would define their approach to these tinderbox issues, and the
terrible harm of that approach – to our ally Israel, to the
Palestinians, and to the prospects for resuming a meaningful peace
process in that region – is all the more clear today.
I am not among
those who believe that the United States pulls all the strings in
the Middle East. There are forces there over which we have only
limited influence.
But neither do
I believe there can be a lasting solution to the Arab-Israeli
conflict without the active, creative and sustained engagement of
the United States, including direct talks with those with whom we
strongly disagree, like Syria and Iran. That has been sorely
lacking under this Administration, and we are witnessing the price
of that neglect in Lebanon and Israel today.
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