U.S. Muslim leader blames Bush for war

U.S. Muslim leader blames Bush for war
Says White House must pressure Israel for cease-fire with Hezbollah

The chief of the Muslim American Society's Freedom Foundation blamed the United States and President Bush for the war between Hezbollah and Israel.

Mahdi Bray, executive director of the foundation, told WorldNetDaily that while there are "no clean hands" in the escalating violence, the United States has failed completely.

"We have the … capability of doing something," he said. "Our position is not defensible that we have not used our leverage to obtain a cease-fire."

The Israeli military's attacks on terrorist locations in Lebanon in recent days were prompted by a Hezbollah attack on Israeli soldiers that left a number dead and two more apparently as hostages.

"Abduction is always a provocative act," Bray said. "Basically our position has always been when it comes to civilian populations, we've always opposed any attack on civilians, whether it's done by Israel or Hezbollah. Certainly the abduction of over 2,000 people who are in Israeli jails, who have been picked up, including members of the Palestinian parliament who were abducted without trial or any form of legal redress, it's bad all the way around for the region."

As WorldNetDaily reported, Bray's group held a rally Friday during which a Jewish activist was physically assaulted and threatened.

The event at Boston's City Hall Plaza was the group's "Justice for Palestine and Lebanon Protest." Signs brought by participants included some including some calling for "victory" for the terrorist group Hezbollah and the "Palestinian Resistance."

Bray said even though he understands the Israelis were "provoked" by the attack that killed soldiers and left two of them as hostages, "I am still taxed for some understanding for the level of response that the Israelis have taken in reference to dealing with this issue," he said. "I can understand any group wanting to get their soldiers back."

But he said there's no reason to destroy electric system infrastructures in Lebanon.

A spokesman for the American Jewish Committee in Boston, Lawrence Lowenthal, said Hezbollah has moved into homes and apartments in civilian areas in Lebanon in order to launch rockets at Israel and contends the nation really has no choice.

"I don't understand what alternative Israel has," he told a local newspaper. "Hezbollah is holding Israel hostage."

Bray said there are two groups in the Middle East that never will prevail. He said one is the group that wants to push Israel into the sea and the other wants Israel's borders to be expanded hugely in all directions. A region with both Israeli and Palestinian states, both with "secure" borders, is the only solution, and he said Bush hasn't done what he could have to ensure that.

"It's unconscionable that our government would wait to move toward a cease-fire. I don't understand that rationale at all. If we put pressure on (Israel) we could have a ceasefire," he said. "I feel perhaps this delay in sending (U.S. Secretary of State) Condoleeza Rice into the region and the Bush administration not calling for a cease-fire like our European counterparts, it poisons the well."

The U.S., he said, is not "fulfilling our job in terms of being an honest broker in dealing with this."

"I think the launching of the missiles and so on like that is a regrettable situation. I see it as a problem in the region," he said. But the U.S. should, he said, go to Hezbollah and say, 'Go back and stop firing missiles and stop killing civilians,' and to Israel say, 'Stop firing on hospitals and trucks."

The two sides need someone to step in, he said.

"Who else can it be but us? If this administration puts pressure on Israel and tells them to stop it, they'll stop it."

There needs to be a brokered cease-fire, he said, and the U.S. must be the broker.

"Why do you even bomb the Christian areas of Lebanon?" he said the U.S. should ask Israel, while "Hezbollah's been shooting up rockets and blowing up Arab kids in the Christian area of Israel."

"This is not healthy," he said. "I don't think it's difficult for the U.S. to say, 'You've got to stop it.'"