The present phase began with Israel regularly pounding Palestinians in their Gaza targets. The heat went up a notch when an Israeli soldier was abducted. Israel threatened severe punishment and if need be to destroy everything around to save the Israeli soldier.

The Palestine Authority proposed a quid pro quo and wanted that Israel release thousands of Palestinians held for long time in Israeli jails. Israel turned a deaf ear and went ahead with merciless air strikes and her tanks and heavy armour entered Gaza, which Israel Premier Ariel Sharon had handed back to the Palestinians not long ago. The defenseless Palestinians in Gaza bore the brunt of the attack.

The escalation went one step higher when two Israeli soldiers were abducted near South Lebanon by the Hezbollah. Israeli planes rained rockets in Lebanon in the north and Gaza in the south. Drawing Lebanon into the war that had remained restricted between the Palestinians and the Israelis was a dangerous provocation. It alarmed the world capitals. The Security Council of the UN met and a draft resolution supported by the West, Russia and Chine, was vetoed as usual by the US. The US was bailing out her client state Israel.

There has been a meeting of the G8 in St. Petersberg in Russia. The leaders of the US and Russia, George Bush and Vladimir Putin faced the world through the media. Both stuck by their guns, that is Bush went on insisting that Israel had a right to self defense and Putin retorting that Israel had no right to use excessive force. Although in public they have maintained an inflexible posture there can be no doubt that Israeli incursion into Lebanon will be viewed with great dismay in all capitals of the world.

After occupying South Lebanon for nearly two decades Israel pulled out from the entire area in 2000 and this tiny beautiful country on the Mediterranean started breathing again. The hard working and talented Lebanese went ahead to work and with their well proven business acumen succeeded in rebuilding the country. It is a painful spectacle to see the rubble in beautiful Beyrouth. The Israelis are insisting that the Hezbollah must return the captured soldiers.

Behind this tussle between Palestine and Israel, is the reality of Hezbollah that Israel refuses to face by dismissing it disdainfully as a terrorist organization. Taking a cue from Israel, President George Bush also refuses to deal with Hezbollah (as with Hamas). This is reminiscent of President Bush refusing to shake hands with the late President Yaser Arafat, the democratically elected leader of the Palestinians. Israel must come to terms that Hamas graduated from her "terrorist" description some time ago when she won a freely held election in Gaza and the West Bank, defeating Fatah, founder of modern Palestine, and that the same is true for Hezbollah.

It is a case of the tail wagging the dog and this is the story of the last half century plus. Israel has successfully mobilized the American Jewry, who have given unconditional effective support to Israel. No US politician worth his or her salt can do politics without a pilgrimage to Israel. Israel continues to dream of becoming the dominant power in the Middle East. On the basis of her being the sole possessor of nuclear weapons this claim cannot be dismissed. Furthermore she has the unconditional support of the most powerful country of the world although becoming the dominant power is bound to remain a distant dream.

After the first world war when several Empires were dismantled, France, with her influence in Francophone countries specially Syria and Lebanon, built up special relationship. France is a member of the Security Council. In the light of the powerful restraint administered by Israel on the Bush White House, would it be too much to expect that France takes the lead in saving Lebanon from returning to the role where she would be theatre of destruction and a mute spectator of her own demolition?

Arshad-uz Zaman is a former Ambassador and Acting Secretary General, OIC.