The sun rises from the south.

• Position: Thinking Politically

Once again, Israeli colonial policies have engulfed the Palestinian and Lebanese people with massive destruction and mayhem. Through shocking actions that are clearly Crimes against Humanity, the Israeli polity is continuing the Zionist project that it started nearly six decades ago. The Palestinian Catastrophe (Nakba) of 1948 is yet to see justice, refugees are yet to return, thousands remain imprisoned, and the systematic atrocities committed against the people of Lebanon are relived over and over again--all as the world watches.

Fully supported by the United States, the current Israeli war against the people of Lebanon aims to destroy the popular resistance movement and ignite an internal confessional strife within Lebanon with the ultimate goal of creating a proxy state buffered with a "colonized zone" and severed from its Arab surroundings, particularly Syria and Palestine. Such has been the US-Israeli design for Lebanon for decades.

In its July 12 veto of the United Nations resolution condemning the Israeli actions in Gaza, the Bush administration is sending a clear message that Israeli conquests complement US policies for the region, as manifested in the occupation and destruction of Iraq. Effectively, three Arab states (Palestine, Iraq and Lebanon) are now simultaneously under a violent siege and are being drawn into internal strife.

Remaining in the crosshairs of destabilization are Syria and Iran. Pretenses have long been put forward as a prelude to various forms of action against these two states. In both cases, there are plans under way to plant US proxy forces within the political fabric of the society to function in sync with the overall plan of conquest for the area. US-Israeli strategists hope to ultimately control the remaining contiguous anchor of resistance to empire: Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. With that control, US-Israeli hegemony over the Middle East would be complete.

The role of Arab regimes

Given that nearly all Arab regimes have already been transformed into proxy status, they are incapable of effecting any change in the political process, even if they chose. The roles for these regimes have been well defined and choreographed; hence their deafening silence and shameless complacency. Arab states would, at the very least, be expected to immediately severe all Israeli diplomatic relations and the economic exchanges they have fostered and to stand in support of the popular resistance movement. On the...