Welcome to FCNL's Biweekly Iraq and Region Update of March 7, 2008
Welcome to FCNL's Biweekly Iraq and Region Update of March 7, 2008
This update includes reports on…
- the Iraq debate in the Senate and an analysis of the "surge;"
- Israeli support for negotiations with Hamas;
- a suggestion for lobbying; and
- a selection of articles, documents and reports.
I. In Congress
The Senate ended a three-day Iraq war debate last week without voting on a proposal to withdraw U.S. troops and cut funding for the war. Republicans surprised Democrats by agreeing in a procedural vote to allow the debate to take place, but, since neither party saw an advantage in bringing the withdrawal measure to a vote, it was withdrawn by mutual consent.
Figuring prominently in the Senate debate was the question of the "surge." Was the surge-President Bush's decision fifteen months ago to send an additional 30,000 combat troops to Iraq-a success or a failure? In this analysis, I argue that the surge as President Bush advertised it and as most people understand it never happened. The decrease in violence in Iraq has more to do with the United States' first, halting forays into diplomacy in recent months than with the actions of U.S. troops.
As the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq approaches on March 19, Congress should take an opportunity to review the failure of U.S. policy in Iraq and the wider Middle East region. But right now the congressional debate is focused on whether the U.S. is "winning" or "losing" in Iraq and whether the president's troop surge has helped lessen the violence.
We at FCNL are lobbying Congress to approve legislation supporting a comprehensive, bipartisan U.S. diplomatic strategy as the best hope for Iraq and the region and to prevent the president from locking the United States into a long-term military presence in Iraq. When you go to events commemorating the Iraq war anniversary, take along this flyer and help spread the word about what Congress can do.
Bills are pending in both the Senate and the House to block permanent bases and mandate a diplomatic offensive. (On permanent bases: S. 2426 and H.R. 4959; on a diplomatic offensive: S. 2130, H.R. 3797 and H.Con.Res. 288 ) Congress should focus its attention on this legislation.
II. Annapolis Peace Process Watch
The worst fighting in seven years between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip has left two Israeli soldiers, one Israeli civilian and more than 120 Palestinians, at least half of them civilians, dead in recent days. Yet Secretary of State Condolezza Rice has, as the New York Times puts it, "steadfastly refused to use the phrase 'cease-fire,'" because "administration officials believe that a negotiated cease-fire between Israel and Hamas… would legitimize Hamas in the eyes of the Palestinian people."
Nearly two-thirds of the Israeli public disagrees. A Haaretz-Dialog poll conducted on February 26 showed 64 percent of Israelis in favor of direct talks between Israel and Hamas to achieve a cease-fire and the release of an Israeli soldier captured in June 2006. Only 28 percent opposed Israel-Hamas talks. Fifty-five percent of supporters of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Kadima party and 72 percent of voters for Kadima's coalition partner Labor Party supported talks. Even 48 percent of right-wing Likud party voters said that Israel should negotiate a cease-fire with Hamas.
Israeli public opinion reflects the influence of a procession of former Israeli military and intelligence officials who have been calling for negotiations with Hamas, including former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's national security advisor, Giora Eiland; former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy; former Shin Bet head Ami Ayalon; and former defense minister Shaul Mofaz.
The majority in Israel is right and U.S. policy is dangerously, tragically, wrong. Palestinian support for Hamas will only grow as a result of the U.S. and Israeli government refusal to talk and the mounting death toll in Gaza. Failure to achieve a cease-fire will sound the death knell of peace negotiations. Secretary Rice must be persuaded to say "cease-fire."
III. Keep on Lobbying
Americans for Peace Now says that the Bush administration's approach to the Annapolis peace process is "based on a dogmatic policy of boycotting Hamas and blockading Gaza" that "jeopardizes the viability of these very talks, and gives Hamas every incentive to play the spoiler." We at FCNL couldn't agree more. See the Americans for Peace Now action alert and write to Secretary of State Rice and urge her to reverse the failed U.S. policy that threatens to destroy the chance for Israeli-Palestinian peace.
IV. Articles, Documents, and Reports
Cease-fire and Palestinian Unity Needed for Peace Talks
"It's time to take advantage of Hamas's offer of a mutual cease-fire that would not only end the killing in Gaza and the West Bank and the rocket fire on Sderot and Ashkelon, but also prevent a potentially calamitous escalation threatened by [Israeli Defense Minister Ehud] Barak," the director of the U.S./Middle East Project, Henry Siegman, wrote in an op-ed in the International Herald Tribune this week. A cease-fire, the former head of the American Jewish Committee said, "would also offer an opportunity to refashion - with the collaboration of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and other Arab countries - a Palestinian unity government that could resume peace talks on a more realistic foundation."
Kaddish for the Dead
"We mourn the 8 lives lost and the wounded in Yeshivat Mercaz Harav just as we mourn the 120 lives lost in Gaza last week, the hundreds wounded, and the many wounded and killed in Sderot and Ashkelon," Rabbi Michael Lerner, editor of Tikkun magazine and founder of the Network of Spiritual Progressives said in a March 7 statement. "Violence is the wrong path," Rabbi Lerner said. "So this week in Beyt Tikkun synagogue we will say kaddish for the young men killed at the yeshivat ha rav, and for the people killed in Gaza by Israeli troops, Israelis killed in Sderot and Ashkelon, and for the million two hundred thousand Iraqis killed by the US occupation of Iraq and the 4000 American soldiers killed in that war."