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‘We will have to fight them again’

Edward Stourton

Wednesday, 21st March 2007

Edward Stourton has had unrivalled access to the protagonists in the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Here, on the eve of the Winograd Commission’s report, he reveals what really happened in this conflict that nobody won

His boss, Margaret Beckett, insists that she wanted the fighting to end as quickly as everyone else did and that she worked hard behind the scenes to achieve a ceasefire that would last. Calling for an immediate ceasefire would, she argues, have alienated the Israelis, and she rejects any suggestion that ‘we were resisting the calls to use the words “immediate ceasefire” in a way that meant we were happy for the conflict to continue’. There is no reason to doubt Mrs Beckett’s sincerity in this regard, but I have been given a rather different account of events by the man who was then America’s ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton.

Mr Bolton was famously acerbic and ‘undiplomatic’ as an ambassador; since being forced to give up his job in the aftermath of the American mid-term elections he has, as it were, loosened his tie still further. Conducting an interview with him can be an alarming experience, and he mixes candour and aggression in roughly equal measure. My exchange with him on this subject went as follows:

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Labour’s punishment freaks are hounding honest citizens

Ross Clark

Ross Clark says that far from keeping our streets safer or cleaner, the government’s new force of amateur policemen are ignoring the worst offenders and pursuing law-abiding innocents instead

‘Whoever killed Benazir wants to kill me’

Christina Lamb

Christina Lamb interviews the husband of the late Benazir Bhutto, Asif Ali Zardari, who hopes to be named President of Pakistan this Saturday

Never mind the Olympics — get set for the Jubilee

Robert Hardman

Free and open to everyone, the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee in 2012 will eclipse the London Games, says Robert Hardman — an unforgettable tribute to the monarch

A pilgrim’s progress for the 21st century

Mary Wakefield

Mary Wakefield talks to the author William P. Young, whose self-published religious novel has astounded the publishing world and sold nearly two million copies

In defence of David Southall

Theodore Dalrymple

Theodore Dalrymple examines the evidence against two much-vilified British paediatricians, Professors Southall and Meadow, and finds it sadly lacking

Here’s how McCain can beat Obama to the White House

Reihan Salam

The acclaimed young Republican writer, Reihan Salam, says that McCain can win the presidency if he appeals relentlessly to the non-college-educated white middle class, pursues family-friendly tax reform and stands for global peace through American strength

Beijing Notebook

Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson recalls his recent jaunt to China on the occasion of the Olympic games

Russia’s aggression in Georgia is a portent of perils to come

Philip Bobbitt

Philip Bobbitt says that the crisis reflects Russia’s determination to remain an old-fashioned nation state, dominating its region. Intellectual imagination will be needed to thwart that ambition: a recognition that the post-Cold War world needs new global institutions

We have a duty to protect Zimbabwe

Peter Oborne

Robert Mugabe is murdering, starving and brutalising his people in the run-up to the presidential elections next week, says Peter Oborne. We should act now to prevent civil war and ethnic cleansing

‘Touch wood,’ Karzai said to me. You hear it all the time

Fraser Nelson

From the President downwards, all Afghans know that the peace in Helmand is precarious.Fraser Nelson reports from a shattered land of corruption and murky power where warlords wait to see if the West has what it takes to stay the course and thwart a horrific new conflict