The world's best minds, represented by the United States, Russia, Western Europe, the moderate Arab states of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, as well as international institutions, such as the UN, the European Union and the World Bank, will try to find a way to end the war.
While they are conferring in Rome, Israel will continue to destroy lives in southern Lebanon. Israeli Brigadier General Alon Friedman said on military radio that the ground operation in Lebanon would last at least 10 days. By the end of it, the war's statistics - 400 killed and 600,000 homeless and refugees - will be obsolete. Israel's casualties number 37, most of them servicemen whose job involves the risk of death.
This brings us to the main contradiction of the Rome conference: Can peace be discussed amidst the whining sound of precision aerial bombs destroying Hezbollah's cement bunkers, which in reality turn out to be schools and hospitals, and the smell of the burning bodies of adults and children?
This question has split conference participants into two groups.
Although U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rise said during her Mideast tour that achieving a ceasefire was an urgent task, the U.S.'s policy is a feeble copy of the Israeli stance. Israel's objective is to destroy Hezbollah, force its militants from their headquarters in southern Lebanon, and stop the bleeding gap with the Lebanese army or an international stabilization force before ordering its bombers home.
In other words, Israel insists on prerequisites that must be met before agreeing to a ceasefire.
Russia, the UN and the European Union have come to Rome to demand an immediate and unconditional cessation of fighting. The world cannot wait until Lebanon descends into a humanitarian catastrophe, which is how the UN envoys describe the situation. What Israel is doing to the lives of hundreds of thousands of peaceful Lebanese cannot pass under the guise of a counterterrorist operation, Russian diplomats said ahead of the Rome conference.
The subject of disproportionate Israeli revenge irritates some politicians and analysts. If a Hezbollah missile has hit a fly, why can't an Israeli bomb kill a bumblebee? - they ask ironically. Or should someone be appointed to compare casualties?
Louise Arbour, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, has harshly denounced this attempt to quickly bury the 400 Lebanese casualties and put a sign on their grave saying "They have not returned the two Israeli soldiers."
She demanded that the sides respect "the principle of proportionality in the conduct of hostilities" and warned that "the scale of killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control."
By giving Israel a temporary chance to maim the military arm of Hezbollah, Washington is pursuing a more far-reaching goal. It would like to fit the Israeli invasion of Lebanon into the neoconservative U.S. program aimed at bringing democracy to the "Broader Middle East".
Ideally, Israel will break the back of Hezbollah, which would weaken the international standing of Syria and Iran, the main sponsors of the militant Shiite movement.
Washington hopes to use this situation to split Syria and Iran and encourage Syria to appease Hezbollah, as President George W. Bush told British Prime Minister Tony Blair during a lunch at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg, not realizing a microphone was recording what he said.
Blinded by the hope of attaining this goal, the U.S. and Israel fail to see striking similarities between the fighting in southern Lebanon and the Iraqi war. The use of military force to quash extremists in both countries is only earning them sympathy in the eyes of the people. Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, the man stationed at the ground zero of Mideast violence, said at a news conference in London that the fighting in Lebanon could provoke fundamentalism.
Give the Israeli generals another week or two, and the Lebanese tragedy will provoke a tidal wave of Islamic hatred across the world that will drown the Mohammad cartoons controversy. The Rome conference should start its work by discussing this global threat.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and may not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.
