Hand-Forced by Zionists, Bush Imposes Sanctions on Syria

By Andrew I. Killgore

ON MAY 11, President George W. Bush imposed sanctions on Syria for supporting terrorism and interfering with U.S. efforts to stabilize Iraq. The sanctions include banning exports to Syria, except for food and medicine; prohibiting Syrian aircraft from flying to and from the United States (which they don’t do, anyway); and freezing certain monies.

Congressional Israel-firsters thus have gotten their way. The “terrorism” of which Syria is “guilty” is giving aid to Hezbollah, the Lebanese guerrilla group which successfully fought Israel’s occupation of southern Lebanon and still stands in the way of Israel’s iron determination to win for itself the waters of Lebanon’s Litani River. Israel evacuated Lebanon in 2000, but still holds on to the Sheba’a Farms, of disputed ownership between Lebanon and Syria, because it borders the Litani.

In the mid-1990s American Zionists began a campaign to impose sanctions on Iran because it was promoting “terrorism.” The Iranians were guilty in the same way that Syria was: of providing help to Hezbollah to resist the Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon, and thus preventing Israel from grabbing the waters of the only river in the region that does not cross national boundaries. The campaign culminated in the signing by then-President Bill Clinton of the Iran-Libya Sanctions Act (ILSA), which provided for penalties against any company spending $20 million a year on the Iranian or Libyan oil industry.

Despite President Bush’s signing of the Syria Accountability Act, the administration is trying to harm Syria as little as possible. This is because Damascus is providing the United States with intelligence and trying to limit infiltration of foreign fighters into Iraq to battle the U.S. occupation. The president is reduced, in effect, to tiptoeing around American Zionists in an attempt to look out for the best interests of this country, instead of Israel’s.

As far back as 1919, the Zionists tried at the Paris Peace Conference ending World War I to have the Litani River incorporated into what would become the British Mandate of Palestine. But their top brass (Chaim Weizmann, first president of Israel, and David Ben-Gurion, its first prime minister) failed because the Litani already had been allotted to France (the mandatory power in Lebanon) under the secret Sikes-Picot Treaty of 1915.

In 1978 Israel occupied and held southern Lebanon up to the Litani River. The problem was that the mountainous terrain of south Lebanon required a series of dams to make possible diversion of water into Israel, and a peaceful atmosphere in order to proceed with construction work.

In 1982, under the aegis of then-Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel invaded Lebanon. The soon-to-be Butcher of Beirut’s purpose was to rid Lebanon of the Palestine Liberation Organization, which posed a potential threat to Israeli schemes in Lebanon. Sharon was disgraced and had to leave the Israeli government after he was found to be indirectly responsible for massacring 2,000 Palestinian refugees at the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps. The PLO eventually was evacuated to Tunisia.

Gradually, Hezbollah gained sufficient strength to prevent Israel from diverting the Litani. But Israel’s determination to control the river’s fresh water remains undiminished, particularly as the Litani is so close to Israel—and yet so far.

Hezbollah is made up overwhelmingly of southern Lebanon’s Shi’i residents. The regime in Iran represents a country that is about 90 percent Shi’i, while the Damascus government is dominated by the Alawites, a Shi’i sect comprising only 12 percent of the Syrian population. Thus both Iran and Syria have assisted their religious brethren in Lebanon, while Israel has put relentless pressure on the United States to place sanctions on both countries to force them to stop aiding the Hezbollah.

Beginning with ILSA in 1996, American sanctions against Iran have proven to be a resounding flop. In a multi-billion dollar deal, Russian, French and Malaysian companies contracted to develop Iran’s South Pars gas field. Japan recently signed a multi-billion dollar deal to develop Iran’s largest oil field, Azadegan. Washington huffed and puffed but ultimately decided not to impose sanctions because the U.S. surely would have been taken to the World Trade Organization—and lost.

Syria barely avoided becoming the fourth country in President Bush’s “axis of evil” State of the Nation speech, in which he named Iraq, Iran and North Korea. That does not mean, however, that under pressure from the Israel lobby, against which Bush obviously has no defense, he would not invade Syria to remove it as an obstacle to Israel’s ambitions on the Litani, if he is re-elected. If Sen. John Kerry is elected, however, he would be unlikely to invade Syria.

And that may be the difference between the two candidates for president.

Andrew I. Killgore is publisher of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.