I happen to live in a residential quarter in Ras Beirut which has been spared so far Israeli air strikes. My next door neighbour is Nabih Berri, the Shia speaker of the House of Deputies, and a close ally of Hezbollah. There are only three families still living in our building of nine floors. All the others have gone up to the mountains for greater security. I don't propose to follow them.
Yesterday morning I decided to visit he municipal garden of Ras Beirut where a few hundred refugees from the shattered southern outskirts of the city have found refuge. They live in the open air, some with mattresses, but the majority without. Fortunately there is an ample supply of water, but no toilet facilities other than a narrow slit in a corner of the garden. I heard no complaints, other than a few whimpers from babies and young children. They all seemed resigned to their fate, and not an injurious word against Hezbollah whose kidnapping of the two Israeli soldiers had brought them to their miserable fate.
The situation in south Lebanon is much worse. Some four hundred thousand refugees have had to leave their shattered homes to escape air strikes and to seek food and shelter elsewhere.
Let us not kid ourselves. The kidnapping of two soldiers has very little to do with savage war that Israel has waged on Lebanon. It was simply an excuse for the invasion for which Israel has been preparing for sometime. The United States has stood firmly behind Israel in its war against Lebanon in the mistaken hope that victory over Hezbollah would weaken Syria and Iran, and in he words of Condoleeza Rice, could prove to be the birth pangs of a new Middle East. If Iraq is an example of this new Middle East, thank you very much Condoleeza. We would be glad to make you a wedding present of that new Middle East, if we can find the right man for you.
Air strikes will not, we repeat, will not solve the issue. Israel must score victory on the ground which so far it has failed to do. The resistance of Hezbollah combatants has prevented Israeli armour from advancing into Lebanon, despite continuous air strikes.
The problem which Rice and her Simian boss have failed to understand is that Hezbollah is part and parcel of the population of south Lebanon, and cannot, but for a few leaders, be identified as such, and that to dispose of the menace which Hezbollah represents, the entire population of south Lebanon will have to be uprooted and pushed some thirty kilometres north of the frontier. It would seem more logical for Israel, instead of uprooting a whole population, to accept the exchange of prisoners and the restitution of Lebanese territory which is still occupied by Israel. Then and only then would Hezbollah have no further reason to exist, and Hezbollah would have no alternative but to surrender their arms to the Lebanese Government.
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4 comments:
What seems to be overlooked is the terrorist bombings in Isreal that the Hezbollah and other fanatic factions completed by suicide and what not. Isreal held back, bombing after bombing and now have finally acted. What the hell did you all expect and now you're getting a taste of your own medicine and you're trying to cry fowl.
Wizard, the sympathies of many Australians are with you. Despite the massive global Israeli spin machine and the absurdly pro-Israeli position of Western leaders, including Australia's, outside Israel itself the verdict of the footage and the reports coming from Lebanon is clear, and deep anger at the savage Israeli action widespread. World=wide.
Some evidence of this is the most recent article at the Irony Party of Australia's Electronic Pamphlet (at http://www.ironyparty.org/newsfeed), entitled Refurbishing Masada
I hope you are your family are fine. God bless you and all the people of Lebanon. I was suppossed to go back to Beirut today :( . It pains me to see Lebanon shattered into pieces.
you can not truly believe that restitution, reparations, prisoner exchanges would do anything to rid Lebanon of the hez-ecoli plaguing your country. or any other extremist group on the planet, that includes the KKK, Aryan nation, Black Muslim, or the nuts who perpetrated 911.
If hez-ecoli gets everything they’re asking for they will then turn on you for being too dark, too light, too rich, too poor, for wearing a burka, or not wearing a burka. There would be rocket attacks because the starbucks coffee is too hot, or Turkish, or Columbian. The leaders that so many are willing to follow are not concerned with truth, peace or the well being of anyone.
What is the goal of Al’Quaida? I don’t know either. Do they? It appears to be the death of all infidels (Translation anyone they don’t agree with) , that being the case how can any government allow them to exist.
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