By Alex Liff
SAN DIEGO–Following is an open letter sent to U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein on Friday, April 23:
Dear Senator Feinstein,
I am a long time resident of California, a citizen of the United States, a voting and an involved member of your constituency. I am writing to you today to express concern and solicit your explanation regarding an aspect of a statement that you made yesterday in connection to some very troubling developments in the Middle East. According to published reports, yesterday you stated the following: “”I believe there is a likelihood that there are Scuds that Hezbollah has in Lebanon. A high likelihood. The rockets and missiles in Lebanon are substantially increased and better technologically than they were and this is a real point of danger for Israel.”
As a senior member of Senate and the head of the important Senate Intelligence committee your pronouncements carry a lot of weight and importance. So the statement above was timely, right on the money and critical for calling the world’s attention to this new, dangerous and very destabilizing development. As you are well aware the transfer of this type of technology into Hezbollah’s hands has been significant in several respects:
It has once again shown that the Syrian regime, which initiated this transfer, has no interest in playing a constructive role in the region and contrary to Senator Kerry’s pronouncement a few weeks ago, is not committed to peace. Therefore, I call on you to object to President Obama’s plan to send our ambassador to Damascus after a 5 year absence.
For the first time in history, a purely terrorist group, Hezbollah, has acquired weapons that can cause massive, indiscriminate civilian damage and do so very quickly. As you very well know, all of Israel is now within the terrorists’ bull’s-eye.
This transfer has crossed the so called Israeli Red line which was clearly stated on numerous occasions and is bound to elicit a justified reaction from Israel, whose government has a duty to protect its citizens from this new mortal danger. This step has significantly increased the chances for a new and significant Middle East conflict.
Given the above you are to be applauded for coming out with the statement denouncing this development and focusing attention on it. I support you actions in this regard completely and unequivocally.
However you then proceeded to make the following statement which frankly was quite baffling “There’s only one thing that’s going to solve it, and that’s a two-state solution”.
The above statement was not accompanied by any kind of explanation and so one was left to fill in the blanks. In the statement you essentially linked the aspirations of an Iranian financed, created, supported, radical terrorist Lebanese Shia organization with the goals of the Sunni Palestinians and their ongoing conflict with the state of Israel. In other words if one is take your words literally, all that needs to happen to resolve this bit of an issue is the establishment of the Palestinian state.
With all due respect Senator, I beg to differ with your premise and propose that the statement above is completely erroneous, short sighted and does nothing to help us deal with real issues at hand. As an ordinary citizen of course I don’t have access to the kind of intelligence information that you have at your disposal but I am a student of history and have been following Middle East for a long time now. Here are the facts as I see them.
Hizbollah is radical Islamist Shia organization which was created by Iran shortly after the 1979 revolution that brought to power one of the most extreme, radical, hate mongering regimes in the world today.
The burgeoning Shia majority in Lebanon had long been dispossessed and marginalized in Lebanon by the ruling Sunni and Christian elites who were typically wealthier, better educated and had more opportunities for advancement. So when the Iranian mullahs beckoned they found a very willing audience of their Shia cousins who were all too happy to link forces with them. In turn, for Iran, the Shia of Lebanon represented a wonderful opportunity to expand their influence in the region while starting to build a deadly noose around their main adversary, the state of Israel.
Initially Hizbollah’s main focus seemed to be on resisting Israel’s presence in southern Lebanon but that factor ceased to exist after Israel’s hasty withdrawal in 2000. Nevertheless, Hizbollah never stopped its subversive activities in Lebanon or its Iranian financed, Syrian facilitated arms build up.
In fact most of the atrocities committed by Hizbollah never had anything to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but were ordered and executed on behalf of their masters in Tehran who had their own regional goals. We all remember the Beirut marine barrack bombings, the Khobar tower attacks, the Jewish center attack in Argentina and the recent Hariri assassination in Beirut. None of these events had anything to do with the desire to promote a separate state for the Palestinians.
If Hizbollah is so concerned about the Palestinians they could start by helping the hundreds of thousands if not millions of them who are housed in squalid refugee camps. In fact the opposite is true, the Lebanese have completely disenfranchised these folks, denying them basic rights and keeping them locked up in miserable conditions. There has been no attempt whatsoever to integrate, resettle or even improve the basic daily conditions of that group. The truth is that for Hizbollah and the rest of the Arab world, Palestinians are simply a convenient lever to use to continue to question Israel’s legitimacy.
I can go on, but hopefully these are all facts familiar to you and your staff. The point is that there is absolutely no connection between the Sunni Palestinians’ desire for a state and Hizbollah’s Iranian dictated objectives. Their goal as stated on numerous occasions by head of Hizbollah, Sheikh Nasrallah as well as President of Iran, Ahmadinajed is the complete and final destruction of Israel. In fact, Nasrallah was quoted on several occasions, stating that his utmost wish was for all Jews to gather in Israel so that Hizbollah can eliminate them all once and for all. I hope you would agree with me, those are not the words of a man, whose goal is a peaceful resolution to the Israeli- Palestinian conflict.
Senator Feinstein, I hope you will agree with me, the historical facts do not support in any way your statement linking the resolution of the Hizbollah issue with the two state solution. Stating so is misleading, confusing and flat out wrong. These types of statement prevent us from dealing with and resolving real issues in the region but worst of all they detract us from focusing on the real problems at hand.
As a senior and powerful senator, you are privy to much information which is not available to regular citizens like myself. All I can do is look at the historic facts and interpret them intelligently. As the old saying goes, “the truth may not always win, but it is always right”. The truth, as underpinned by recent undeniable history, is that Hizbollah, is nothing but an extension of a dangerous, fanatical, radical Iranian region whose goal is the total and complete annihilation of one of our staunchest and most important allies, Israel. The latest moves by the Hizbollah is just one of the numerous steps it has taken to bring that goal closer to the reality. That reality has absolutely nothing to do with the Palestinian issue or the so called two state solution.
Senator Feinstein, it is my humble request that you look at the facts carefully and not fall into the common traps of repeating old, overused mantras, which have nothing to do with reality. As Iran is racing to acquire game changing nuclear technology and Hizbollah is arming to the teeth, it is imperative that the leaders of our great country take the time to understand the situation and make conclusions based on actual facts and history, not fiction or empty one liners.
I thank you for your attention and look forward to hearing your views on this topic.
*
Liff, born in the Soviet Union and a former resident of France, has an MBA from Stanford with a Global Management certificate. A well-traveled student of the Middle East, he currently resides in San Diego.