After twenty nine years of military presence in its smaller neighbor, Syria is completing a full withdrawal from Lebanon. Due to the combined forces of international and popular protest within Lebanon, Syria was compelled to pull its forces out of Lebanon. Does this change much in the Middle East? Unfortunately, it doesn’t. Lebanon will most likely begin to thrive politically, but for the rest of the region the Syrian pullback is not significant.

As Syrian troops pull out of Lebanon, the military occupation that is arguably the greatest instability in the region and beyond is still being ignored by the international community. It is almost laughable that the United States and Israel were two of the most vocal international demands for Syria to withdraw from Lebanon. Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza have been under control of Israel, with the support of the United States for almost forty years. Why doesn’t this occupation deserve international pressure to end? Maybe the answer to this question can be found in analyzing the difference between the two military occupations. Judging by how the occupied population is affected, the Syrian occupation of Lebanon must be worse than the Israeli occupation of Palestinians; otherwise there would be international pressure on Israel to get out of the West Bank and Gaza.

Let’s take a look at this hypothesis. During the period of time Syria had been in Lebanon have they transported civilians into the country in order to take over land? No, but Israel has been doing exactly that since 1967 violating United Nations Security Counsel Resolution 242. At this point Palestinians have movement limited to less then fifty percent of the West Bank and are not allowed to move in twenty five percent of Gaza (www.miftah.org). Israeli settlements have taken over the West Bank and Gaza, making any Israeli withdrawal the territories complicated.

Did Syria ever destroy homes or other property of the Lebanese population? No, but Israel has been systematically making Palestinian life difficult with policies that allow destruction of Palestinian property. Tearing down olive and date trees has been a common practice of either the Israeli army or settlers (www.palestinemoniter.org). It is important to note that many Palestinians depend on olive tree groves for income to support their family. The collective punishment of knocking down homes has been the corner stone of the Israeli army long before the first suicide bombing took place in 1993, which has left thousands of Palestinians homeless.

Unfortunately this is only the tip of the ice berg of what the Palestinians have had to endure as a direct symptom of the Israeli occupation. It seems that Israel has gotten away and continues to get away with what ever is in its interest. Could you imagine Syria getting away with building a wall in order to annex a portion of Lebanon? Israel has been constructing a wall on Palestinian territory for years with limited criticism from the international community. Targeted assassinations, curfews, limited movement, check points every possible way that a populations life can be affected it has happened and continues to happen to the Palestinians. Systematically breaking the will of the occupied population, Israel has not altered any of its policies since 1967. So that brings us back to the question at hand; why is there limited to no international pressure on Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories? The answer to that question most likely has to do with the support Israel gets from the most power country in the world, the United States. The bottom line is, until that United States changes its policies towards this conflict, Palestinians will continue to be humiliated and the conflict will NEVER be resolved.

Can we someday say that the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories has finally ended? Palestinians can finally have an independent state with actual viable borders. Palestinians can drive from Hebron to Nablus, from Gaza to Ramallah to Jerusalem, without having to cross Israeli checkpoints. Palestinians have there own currency and economy. Palestinians are not dependent on Israel for jobs. Palestinians have their own airport. Palestinians are free. Palestinians come from a country called Palestine!