Israel's attack on a long established and clearly marked UN base
overlooking the border at Khiam in southern Lebanon Tuesday is
stunning.
Four UN observers were killed in their bunker, including one
from China.
The coordinated artillery and aerial raid occurred despite
personal assurances given to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan by
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that UN positions would be
spared Israeli fire.
We express our strongest condemnation at this inhuman move and
convey our deepest condolences to the victims and their
families.
Israel must apologize for the bombing and to the victims'
families.
Our hearts also go out to the Chinese soldiers in the UN
peacekeeping mission in southern Lebanon, who are now trapped in a
very dangerous situation. Israel must make sure that its shells do
not hit these peacekeepers.
Shocked and deeply distressed by the strike, Annan condemned it
as "apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defense Forces."
No political pretext can justify such outrages.
Thorough investigations should be conducted and tangible
measures taken by the concerned sides, particularly Israel, to
ensure the security of UN peacekeepers.
It is high time that the relevant sides returned to talks to
pursue a political solution.
With Israel resorting to military attacks after two of its
soldiers were taken hostage by Hezbollah, the crisis in the Middle
East is spiraling out of control.
Israel's bombing has gone beyond the legitimate right of
self-defense.
The casualties are mounting as the fighting intensifies.
What the people of Lebanon and Israel urgently need now is to
find a way to stop the fighting.
Israel's allies, the US in particular, should and could save the
peace process by urging a ceasefire. But Israel is being allowed at
least another week to continue its attack against Hezbollah.
Whatever the calculations, any indifference to the mounting
death toll is dangerous.
By resisting calls for an urgent ceasefire, Washington is buying
Israel more time to pound Lebanon.
Yet there is little sign that Hezbollah has been so far deeply
wounded. Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah,
threatened Monday to launch missiles deep into Israeli
territory.
Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, the countries that Washington is
relying on to rein in Hezbollah, made clear that they could not
accept a US plan that would make a ceasefire only part of a broader
peace deal.
Mediation can work only when it takes into account the demands
and principles of both Israelis and Arabs.
The Middle East conflict has already done enough damage to both
sides.
From the 1967 war onward, Israel's key strategic goal has been
to avoid a political process at all costs. The country understood
that the inescapable result of such a process would be Israel's
return to its 1967 borders, with only minor adjustments.
Avoiding a political process is also the reason behind Israel's
decision to withdraw Jewish settlements from the Gaza Strip in
return for an intensification of Israel's presence in the West
Bank.
But this tit-for-tat strategy has never found them peace.
(China Daily July 27, 2006)
