Should we re-evaluate Israel’s War on Lebanon 16 Years on?

Emad Moussa
12 Jul, 2022

Israel’s aims and intentions during the 34-day long 2006 Lebanon war, writes Emad Moussa, were less to do with targeting Hezbollah and ‘countering’ its missile attacks, and more with the collective punishment of civilians.

A Lebanese man carries his personal belongings as he walks 10 August 2006 amid the rubble of buildings destroyed by Israeli bombardment in the southern suburbs of Beirut. [GETTY]


Labelled as the Second Lebanon War by Israel, and the July War by Lebanon, the 34-day conflict which took place in 2006 broke out when Hezbollah fighters ambushed an Israeli patrol in a cross-border raid, capturing two soldiers and killing three others. Five more soldiers were killed shortly after as the Israeli army attempted to rescue the captives inside Lebanon.

The context of the attack includes the ongoing conflict over the Israel-occupied Lebanese Sheba'a Farms (a small stretch of land bordering Israel, Syria, and Lebanon) and Hezbollah’s intention to swap IDF soldiers with Lebanese and Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisons.

Of critical importance here is not the first trigger; after all Israel and Hezbollah had routinely engaged in skirmishes and, sometimes, fatal exchanges in the area. The rapid escalation to war was less about Hezbollah’s actions and more about Israel’s employment of extreme disproportionality in its response.

Disproportionality is an Israeli military strategy that relies on excessive firepower and tremendous, swift unleashing of force, and is typically employed in asymmetrical warfare.

''Lebanon was put under air and naval blockade. Civilian infrastructure, including Beirut Airport and power stations, in addition to Hezbollah bases, were bombarded around the clock. Nearly 1200 people (the vast majority Lebanese civilians) were killed, and an estimated one million others were displaced. ''

Its goal is to deter protracted warfare, avoid attrition, and - because Israel lacks a strategic depth - concentrate the hostilities within the enemy’s territories.

What is not officially stated but often translated on the ground is the infliction of extensive damage on the enemy’s infrastructure that it will require them a long and expensive reconstruction process to bounce back to normality. This is meant to traumatise the enemy beyond even thinking about engaging militarily with Israel; therefore, establishing deterrence.

In reality, however, and judging by the results, what eventually transpired in Lebanon, as it would in Gaza later, was a series of war crimes coupled by a few surprising blows to Israel’s “too confident” notion of deterrence.

Within hours of Hezbollah’s attack, the Israeli cabinet unanimously approved a proposal by PM Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister, Amir Peretz, to carry out a dramatic and comprehensive military action against Hezbollah.

But as usual, operational codes in Israel’s military perception are rarely literal. The attack on Hezbollah saw Israel’s military disproportionality exceeding its already vulgar boundaries, from “attacking Hezbollah” to waging an all-out, destructive war on Lebanon.

Lebanon was put under air and naval blockade. Civilian infrastructure, including Beirut Airport and power stations, in addition to Hezbollah bases, were bombarded around the clock. Nearly 1200 people (the vast majority Lebanese civilians) were killed, and an estimated one million others were displaced.

The intensity of bombing and indiscriminate targeting almost mirrored Israel’s invasion of the country 24 years prior, and re-enacted a series of bloody attacks on Lebanon in the two decades that followed.

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On July 30th, for instance, Israeli jets shelled the village of Qana in Southern Lebanon, killing 28 people, eerily repeating the scenes from the 1996 Qana massacre, when Israel targeted a UN compound where civilians took shelter, killing over a hundred of them.

In fact, the level of disproportionality, as Hezbollah’s secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah would come to admit later, exceeded Hezbollah’s expectations.

But this scale of destruction is precisely what casts doubts, especially when analysed retrospectively, on the broader incentives behind Israel’s onslaught. As opposed to the initially declared objectives of retrieving the soldiers, incapacitating Hezbollah, and creating a buffer zone in Southern Lebanon to limit the range of Hezbollah’s missiles.

The dubiety is emphasised by Israel’s failure to achieve most of the operation’s declared objectives or stop the barrage of retaliatory Hezbollah missiles hitting the heart of northern Israel - even after 34 days of intense fighting, 7000 bombs and missile airstrikes, and later, ground invasion.

By targeting Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure Israel redeployed its unapologetic policy of collective punishment and state terrorism. One of the goals was to drive a wedge between Hezbollah and the ethnically fragile Lebanese public, as well as between the organisation and the Lebanese government, hoping that will ultimately lead to the government forcing Hezbollah to disarm.

The attack on Lebanon’s civilians would later be adopted as an Israeli army policy, known as the ‘Dahiya Doctrine’, a reference to Beirut’s Shia-majority quarter and allegedly the centre of Hezbollah’s strength, which Israel bombed unceasingly throughout the war.

As such, state terrorism has been officiated as a legitimate army policy, allowing for the deliberate destruction of entire civilian areas rather than engaging in a fight to overtake fortified positions.

This doctrine would also be used repeatedly in Gaza and now, is set to be used against 160 Shia-majority villages across Lebanon should hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah erupt again.

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The excessive disproportionality is also understood as an attempt by Israel to heal its wounds following its humiliating withdrawal from Southern Lebanon in May 2000. Israel also saw its military deterrence deteriorate, particularly in dealing with unconventional non-state actors, like Hezbollah and Hamas, and against which the known principles of asymmetrical warfare have proven limited.

After the war, both Hezbollah and Israel claimed victory. But what transpired was a mixed bag of “victories” and “defeats” for both sides.

Israel’s excessive use of military power proved ineffective; its collective punitive measures only resulted in war crimes and very little political outcome. The war has since been viewed as a military fiasco having failed to disarm or destroy Hezbollah. The Israeli government-appointed Winograd Commission, which was tasked with assessing the war outcome, described the Lebanon war as a "missed opportunity.”

Not only had Hezbollah survived Israel’s onslaught, it maintained consistent firepower till the last day of the war, and for the first time, managed to change the rules of engagement and transfer the battle to Israel. Its media outlets, Al-Manar TV especially, continued to broadcast uninterrupted from undisclosed locations.

Hezbollah today is much stronger than it was in 2006, even after its controversial ten-year involvement in the Syrian civil war. The organisation now far exceeds the Lebanese army in personnel, battle experience, and weaponry.

However, the then strategic victory for Hezbollah was also (and continues to be) a massive blow to the Lebanese state. Walid Junblatt, the Druze leader of the Progressive Socialist Party, commented after the war had ended - pointing at a large poster of Nasrallah that survived the bombing on the Beirut Airport autostrade, that “Hezbollah won…and today, Nasrallah’s picture is larger than Lebanon.”

Indeed, the war cost Lebanon an estimated $2.8 billion worth of infrastructure damage and triggered a 5% shrinkage in the economy. Hezbollah’s military achievements have also deepened the party’s influence in Lebanese politics, weakening the Lebanese state’s role.

The war may have also emphasised sectarian politics and increased regional intervention in Lebanon, mainly by Iran and some Gulf states.

Sixteen years after the war, the story continues. Tensions between the two countries are at an all-time high, with Israel’s infringement upon Lebanon’s Mediterranean gas, a crumbling Lebanese economy, the heightened Iranian presence in the region, and Israel’s internal political crises all serving as additional triggers.

This all leads us to the question: are we on the cusp of another attack on Lebanon?

This might be determined by whether the mutual deterrence established in 2006 between Hezbollah and Israel can withstand the unprecedented and rather pressing changes in the regional geopolitical scene.

Dr Emad Moussa is a researcher and writer who specialises in the politics and political psychology of Palestine/Israel.
Follow him on Twitter: @emadmoussa

Christians living at the Lebanon border see Israel-Hamas war igniting hostilities with Hezbollah

Melanie Lidman
Fri, December 15, 2023 

Maryam Younnes, left, and Shadi Khaloul walk through ruins of homes last month in an ancient Maronite village that is now a national park in Baram, Israel. 

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Birds swoop across a valley separating Lebanon and Israel as olive and pomegranate trees rustle in the wind.

The flash of light from an opposing hillside looks small from a distance — until a boom cracks across the landscape, announcing another Hezbollah rocket launched toward Israel. Minutes later, more explosions peal through the air, as the Israeli military responds to the source of the fire.

Since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza Strip, hostilities have spread north to these hills, where Lebanon-based Hezbollah fighters have launched hundreds of missiles toward Israeli border communities, and Israeli forces have shelled targets to the north.

“This is happening every day,” said Shadi Khaloul, a Christian Aramaean activist, as he stands in a pastoral orchard in the northern Israeli town of Jish.

Aramaeans are a community of native Christians who trace their lineage to the time of Jesus. Khaloul has been instrumental in reviving spoken Aramaic, believed to be the language of Jesus and one used in portions of the Bible.

Shadi Khaloul stands in an ancient Maronite Church in Baram, Israel. A Christian Aramaean activist, he has been instrumental in helping gain recognition within Israel for Aramaean Christians.

 (Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

Like many Aramaeans in Israel, Khaloul has distant family in Lebanon. “I am worried both for my Christian community here in Israel, and for our brothers across the border,” he said, looking over the valley toward the southern Lebanese village of Maroun el Ras.

For Maryam Younnes, the conflict is wrenchingly personal.

She was born in a small, rural Lebanese village called Debel. Her father was a commander in the Christian-dominated militia South Lebanon Army, which cooperated with the Israeli army during Israel’s 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon.

Many in Lebanon viewed members of the SLA as traitors and collaborators for fighting alongside Israel and against Hezbollah. Human rights groups accused the SLA of systematic torture and abuse of Lebanese prisoners at a facility it controlled.

When Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, the SLA collapsed and many members and their relatives fled to Israel. Younnes and her family hoped to stay only a few days, until hostilities calmed down.

Twenty-three years later, her family is still there. The SLA members and their families were eventually offered and accepted full Israeli citizenship.

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She said she has been completely cut off from her extended family in Lebanon, with no communication since they left.

“The fact that my family is on the other side of the border, it’s not easy, because I know that they will get hurt if a broader war will happen,” Younnes said. “The southern Lebanese never wanted this war .... And then when the war is over, we are the ones who pay the price.”

Younnes said the villagers in southern Lebanon — many of whom are Christians — have little choice when Hezbollah militants set up military infrastructure, including rocket launchers, on their property, which puts them at risk for retaliation from Israel.

She blames Iran-backed Hezbollah — the militant group and Islamist political party with representatives in Lebanon’s government — for forcing her to stay in Israel. “For me, and for many Lebanese, Hezbollah is occupying Lebanon."

Of the roughly 7,000 SLA members and their families who came to Israel, about 3,000 remain, Younnes said.

The others resettled in third countries or went back to Lebanon. Returning SLA officials faced prison sentences, though many family members were not prosecuted. They have struggled to reintegrate into Lebanese society.

Maryam Younnes lived in Lebanon until age 5. Her father was a commander in the South Lebanon Army, which cooperated with Israel during its occupation of southern Lebanon, and the family fled to Israel in 2000, where she has lived since, part of a tiny group of Lebanese refugees in Israel. 

(Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times)

In October, the Israeli government directed citizens living within 2½ miles of the Lebanese border to evacuate, including more than 30 towns and the city of Kiryat Shmona. At least 63,000 residents from the north are living in temporary accommodations in the center of the country, funded by the government at least until the end of the year. Nearly 70,000 additional Israelis were evacuated from their homes near the Gaza border.

Both Younnes and Khaloul live outside the evacuation zones and have stayed put. But the booms from the exchanges of fire shake their homes, providing a constant reminder of the threats in the north, even though the fighting in the south in Gaza captures most of the daily headlines.

Israel’s Iron Dome air-defense system intercepts most missiles from Lebanon, though they have killed 10 people in Israel in the last two months. In Lebanon, at least 100 civilians and Hezbollah militants have died due to Israeli artillery fire, according to media reports.

Khaloul said that people in northern Israel fear that Hezbollah will carry out a similar strike to the one on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants in Gaza burst through the border fence and attacked Israeli communities, army bases and a music festival, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 240 hostages back to Gaza.

“If the [Hezbollah] terrorists will stay on the border with no solution, a lot of people will not return in the border line communities,” he said.

In Israel, the Aramaean Christian minority is concentrated in the north, in isolated, rural communities that often do not have adequate shelters from rocket fire. About 3,000 South Lebanon Army soldiers and their families live in Israel, many of whom are Aramaean Christians as well. They live mostly clustered along the northern towns, “as close to Lebanon as possible,” Younnes said.

The Aramaean Christian community numbers just 15,000 in Israel; there are thought to be more than a million Aramaean Christians in Lebanon, and more than 15 million worldwide.

Aramaeans such as Younnes and Khaloul struggle to find their place in the complex tapestry of identities that make up northern Israel. Younnes and Khaloul speak Arabic, but do not identify as Arab Israelis.

Khaloul led a long legal battle to recognize the community as a distinct official minority group, and in 2014 his son became the first to receive an Israeli identity card listing him as “Aramaean.”

Still, many don’t feel fully accepted by the Jewish majority, despite speaking Hebrew and often attending Jewish schools.

“Minorities like the native Christians and Druze, especially Aramaic-speaking Christians ... have no one that can protect them,” Khaloul said.

To foster greater acceptance in Israel, he has advocated for members of his community to serve in the Israeli army. Khaloul, who works at the Alma Research and Education Center think tank, helped start a preparatory program that brings together young Christians and Jews for a year of study and leadership training ahead of their conscription into the military.

Serving in the army helps his community integrate into Israeli society and connect them with better economic and educational opportunities, Khaloul said.

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Many worry that the tit-for-tat hostilities on the northern front will expand into a major regional war, roping in Iran, Syria, Lebanon and possibly the U.S. and other international powers.

“People are asking me all the time if we will be in a wider war, and what we’re saying is that right now we are below the threshold of war,” said Orna Mizrahi, a researcher with the Israel-based Institute for National Security Studies who served for 12 years with the National Security Council of the prime minister’s office.

So far, Hezbollah is showing its presence with rockets aimed at targets very close to the border, but not utilizing the organization’s full arsenal by sending missiles deeper into Israel. Hezbollah is believed to have an arsenal of at least 150,000 rockets with high-precision capabilities that can target the entirety of Israel.

Father Sandi Habib leads a Sunday prayer service in a makeshift worship area in the basement of the Mar Maroun Maronite Church in Jish, Israel. Books during a prayer service. Georgette Sliman, 75, prays during the service. 

Marcus Yam / Los Angeles Times

During Israel's weeklong cease-fire with Hamas in November, when 110 hostages were freed, Hezbollah mostly honored the truce, renewing rocket attacks only after the deal collapsed.

“Neither Hezbollah nor Iran are interested in a wider war," Mizrahi said.

For its part, the Israeli army is “ready at any moment to go on the offensive in the north,” Israeli army chief of staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said during a Dec. 5 news conference. Halevi added that Israel was exploring both diplomatic and military options to deal with the Hezbollah threat.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah boasted in a November speech that its attacks in the north have forced Israel to divert a large amount of its army, navy, and air force resources away from Gaza, which has helped the Palestinians there.

The group has also sought to pressure the international community into intervening in the Gaza conflict by demonstrating how violence could spread into a regional war.

Congregants raise their hands during prayer service at Mar Maroun Maronite Church. Shadi Khaloul lights a candle in an ancient Maronite church in a national park in Bar'am, Israel. Father Bishara Sliman offers sacramental bread to the congregation at Mar Maroun Maronite Church in Jish, Israel. 

Marcus Yam / Los Angeles TimesMore

Both Mizrahi and Khaloul said that for Israelis to regain their sense of security in the north, Hezbollah fighters must be pushed back from their footholds along the border, creating a buffer zone controlled by United Nations forces and the Lebanese army.

Evacuated families from the north have railed against the Israeli government, fearful they will be forced to return to a reality where they are living just a couple of miles from a militant group that is better funded, better organized and better armed than Hamas.

Mizrahi cited the Litani River, whose western branch runs parallel to the border about 13 miles north, as a psychological boundary for Israelis. If Hezbollah were contained north of the Litani River, that would restore some feeling of safety for Israelis, she said.

This is also the boundary that was agreed upon in United Nations Resolution 1701, which helped end the 2006 war between Israel and Lebanon.

But Resolution 1701 has been mostly ignored as Hezbollah has crept closer to the border in recent years. Militants now operate so close to the border that Israelis can see them with their bare eyes.

Hezbollah "is just one mile from our homes, maybe two miles from our homes," Khaloul said. "We don't need another Oct. 7 to happen here."

Lidman is a special correspondent. Times staff writer Nabih Bulos in Beirut contributed to this report.

A ‘Genocidal Maniac’: What is Netanyahu’s Ultimate Goal in the Middle East?

BY RAMZY BAROUD

 JANUARY 9, 2024
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This article was written shortly before Israel assassinated the Deputy Head of Hamas Political Bureau Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut on January 2. The assassination is a further illustration of the Israeli government’s desire to escape the consequences of its disastrous war in Gaza, by igniting a regional conflict. 

The clashes between Hezbollah and Israel are the closest to an actual war that the Lebanon-Israel border has seen since the war of 2006, which resulted in a rushed Israeli retreat, if not outright defeat.

We often refer to the ongoing conflict between Lebanon and Israel as ‘controlled’ clashes, simply because both sides are keen not to instigate or engage in an all-out war.

Obviously, Hezbollah wants to preserve Lebanese lives and civilian infrastructure, which would surely be seriously damaged, if not destroyed, should Israel decide to launch a war.

But Israel, too, understands that this is a different Hezbollah than that of the 1980s, 2000 and even 2006.

Compared to Israel’s behavior in the war of 2006, the Israeli response to Hezbollah’s military action – compelled by its solidarity with the Palestinian Resistance in Gaza – is greatly tamed.

For example, the 2006 war was presumably provoked by a Hezbollah attack on Israeli soldiers, which killed three. (Hezbollah says that the soldiers violated Lebanese sovereignty, as the Israeli army has indeed done numerous times before and since then.)

That single event led to a major war that wreaked havoc on Lebanon, but also resulted in the retreat and defeat of the Israeli army.

Imagine what Israel would have done by the standards of the 2006 war if Hezbollah had killed and wounded hundreds of Israeli soldiers, bombed scores of military bases, installations and even settlements, as it has done, on a daily basis, since early October.

A Different Hezbollah 

Despite numerous threats, Israel is yet to go to war with the main objective of pushing Hezbollah forces past the Litani River, thus supposedly securing the border Jewish settlements. But why the hesitation?

First, Hezbollah fighters are much stronger than before.

For years, Hezbollah has fought in traditional warfare settings, namely in Syria, thus producing a generation of battle-hardened fighters and commanders, who are no longer bound to the rules of guerilla warfare, as was the case in the past.

Second, Hezbollah’s missile capabilities have exponentially grown since 2006, not only in terms of numbers – up to 150,000 according to some estimates – but also in terms of precision, explosive capabilities and range.

Moreover, Hezbollah has excelled in the development of its own rockets and missiles, which include the powerful Burkan, a short-range rocket, which can carry a heavy warhead, between 100 to 500 kilograms. This makes Hezbollah, in some ways, self-sufficient in terms of weapons, if not munitions.

Third, Hezbollah’s sophisticated Radwan Elite Units and an elaborate tunnel system that goes deep inside northern Israel, would force Israel to contend with a whole different military reality than that of the last war, should a major military conflict break out.

Fourth, the Israeli army itself is in tatters, demoralized, greatly exhausted and weakened by ongoing daily losses on the Gaza front. It is hardly in a state of preparedness to fight a long and more difficult war against a better prepared enemy.

That in mind, one must not take such comments as that of Israel’s Defense Minister Yoav Gallant too seriously when he says that his country is fighting a war on seven different fronts. In actuality, the Israeli army is still fighting a single war in Gaza, a difficult war that it is not winning.

Provoking Iran 

To distract from its Gaza losses, and its inability to launch a major war against Lebanon, Tel Aviv wants to drag Tehran into the war.

But why would Israel escalate against the strongest of its enemies in the region, if it is not able to beat the smaller ones?

The short answer is that, by engaging Iran directly, Israel would force the US into a major regional war.

We all remember the seemingly odd decision by the Biden Administration to dispatch an aircraft carrier to the Israeli shores of the Mediterranean, immediately after the start of the Gaza war on October 7. (The Gerald R. Ford was ultimately withdrawn on December 31)

Washington wanted to send a message to Iran that an attack on Israel would be considered an attack on the United States. But when it became clear that Iran had no interest in an actual war, Washington realized, or must have realized, that the danger of a regional war does not stem from Tehran, but from Tel Aviv itself.

That is when official US intelligence and political estimates began telling us, and repeatedly so, that Iran had nothing to do with the Hamas military operation of October 7, and that Iran was not interested in war.

The target audience for that message was Israel and its US-western allies who have been angling for a US-Iran war for years. Biden’s lack of interest in war, of course, has little to do with his propensity for peace, and everything to do with the lack of any serious geostrategic objectives in the Middle East now, his administration’s disastrous failure in Ukraine and the rapid depletion of armaments and munitions.

Israel persisted, however. It continued to accuse Iran of being the orchestrator of the Hamas attack, and the main ‘existential threat’ to the ‘Jewish state’. In Israel’s understanding, the collective action of Hamas and other Palestinian Resistance groups, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Ansarallah in Yemen and the Islamic Resistance of Iraq, are all fragments of a larger Iranian scheme to destroy Israel.

To defeat that imaginary threat, Israel carried out numerous acts of provocations against Iran, focused mostly on the bombing of Iran’s military positions in Syria, leading to the assassination of a top Iranian commander, General Sayyed Ravi Mousavi, near Damascus on December 25.

Biden the Enabler 

For Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a US-Iran war would constitute a lifeline for a desperate politician who fully, and rightly, understands, that a no-victory in Gaza would equal a defeat for the Israeli army. Such a defeat would not only be a disgraceful end for Netanyahu’s political career, but also an end of a long-sustained myth that Israel, and the US, can impose their political will on the Middle East through military superiority and firepower.

The Biden Administration must be fully aware of Netanyahu’s intentions, that of dragging the region into the abyss of possibly one of the most devastating wars in recent memory.

Reported disagreements and, in fact, a rift between Biden and Netanyahu are not related to a US moral objection to the Israeli genocide in Gaza, but to a real American fear that another Middle Eastern war could precipitate the breaking down of US power in the energy-rich region – in fact, beyond.

Thus, the current standstill: Washington’s inability to free itself from its blind commitment to Israel and its violent Zionist ideology, and Netanyahu’s inability to distinguish between the goal of sustaining his personal career and that of destroying the whole of the Middle East.

Unable to place US interests above those of Israel, Biden continues to feed the Israeli military machine, which is mostly used to kill Palestinian civilians in Gaza. This is allowing Netanyahu to champion a perpetual war in Gaza, while working to expand the conflict so that it reaches Beirut, Tehran and other regional capitals.

Needless to say, Netanyahu, described by US Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib as a ‘genocidal maniac’, must be restrained. If not, the Israeli genocide in Gaza will multiply into other genocides throughout the Middle East.

Ramzy Baroud is a journalist and the Editor of The Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books. His latest is “These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons” (Clarity Press, Atlanta). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net

We Are Hezbolah

As Israel makes war on two fronts, Lebanon and Palestine, the Palestinian front has been pushed out of the news by the attacks on Lebanon.

During this week attacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Israeli army killed 26 Palestinians, mostly civilians, including five children and two women, and injured at least 200 civilians including 55 children, 5 women, and two journalists. Two children also died from previous wounds.

In the Gaza Strip, Israeli army killed 20 people, including 16 in offensives on the city of Beit Hanoun and al-Maghazi refugee camp, bringing the number dead to 108 since Israel began the military operation Summer Rain on June 28.

In the West Bank city of Nablus the Israeli army killed four residents; three were members of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of Fateh. Thirty-three civilians were also injured, including journalists and members of a medical crew.

In the West Bank city of Nablus the Israeli army demolished a municipal headquarters that includes a central jail, the military intelligence department and the police department. In Gaza, the Israeli army bombed and destroyed the Ministries of the Economy and Foreign Affairs, in addition to several houses and two bridges.

The Israeli army temporarily reopened Rafah Crossing border in coordination with the third party observers after holding six thousand people hostage at the crossing for three weeks. Five people died at the crossing before Israel lifted the closure for two days.

The Israeli army illegally arrested at least 31 Palestinian civilians in the West Bank and 5 in the Gaza Strip. In the West Bank city of Nablus at least 150 Palestinians were illegally detained for various lengths of time and held without charges.

While demonising Hamas and Hezbolah as terrorist organizations, the reality is that both organizations are political and military, whose existence is the result of Imperialist machinations of the West in the Middle East. Their origins begin with the American war in Lebanon twenty years ago, and the Iraq Iran war, which the Americans aided and abetted, in order to destabilize the region for the benefit of their client state Israel.

Hezbolah is begrudgingly credited with being a serious military organization, better prepared to battle Israel than Lebanon's army or even Hamas. And we need to remember that. This is not a terrorist organization, nor is it a minor armed struggle faction, it is in fact a well armed and organized military force.

Its existence was the result of the Iraq/Iran war, thank you America. I could go on here about chickens coming home to roost, but that point seems lost on the commentators who would rather run around like chickens with their heads cut off, or chicken little, saying "gee why is this happening?".

The reality is that Hezbollah should be given credit where credit is due, they did something none of their Arab allies dared to, that is show military support for the Palestinians after the Israelis invaded Gaza.

What reporters and commentators continue to ignore, is that Israel had already been bombing and attacking Gaza, including the killing of innocent civilians which it denied doing, prior to the kidnapping of one of its soldiers.

Hezbollah then kidnapped another set of soldiers in solidarity with Palestine. Seems straight forward to me. Since Israel is holding thousands of Palestinians illegally in jails, the demand was for their release. Which Israel has complied with before, so the expectation is that they would again.

With a concerted effort by the West to delegtimize the Hamas government in Palestine, complete with economic boycotts producing a real humanitarian crisis in the region, Israel has been at war with the Palestinians since the beginning of the year.


Of course with the worlds attention diverted by the American war in Iraq and Afghanistan, another two front war, Israel knows it can declare war on the Palestinians with nary a peep from the West. And in fact can expect the Americans to support it without question, which they do, since the Israeli state is doing its masters bidding.

Hezbollah made a bold and daring political and military feint at the Israeli military state. This so called bastion of parliamentary democracy in the Middle East is nothing of the kind, they are a militarized state capitalist regime, fascism by any other name, a terrorist founded state that uses state terror against its enemies.

Israel's strategy of retaliation dates back to the 1950s when it was largely conducted by a young officer named Ariel Sharon.


Hezbollah is not Hamas, nor are they Fateh, allowing Nablus and other Palestinian cities to be pounded mercilessly while holding press conferences denouncing Israel.

The systematic bombing of Southern Beirut has created an exodus of civilians, and the disappearance of Hezbollah fighters into the hills, preparing for the inevitable Israeli invasion.

Hezbollah, defeated Israel before, and can face a strategic military fight with Israel again. Israel admits as much, thus it is attacking Lebanon's infrastructure to demoralize the population, it is a terror attack, to undermine support for Hezbollah. Its impact has been the opposite.

What really worries Israel is the potential for a three front war, that is if Syria becomes involved, so the merciless destruction of Lebanon is a warning to neighboring states to keep out of this battle.

So the focus on Syria has been their supposed link to Hezbollah, as if anyone could tell Hezbollah what to do, in reality the subtext has been keep out of this.
Israel and its American allies are worried about a third front being opened up in this war.

Two front wars historically lead to defeat as we saw with both Napoleon and Hitler. Hezbollah has correctly estimated that if they attack Israel, it creates a military problem for Israel, and reduces its ability to continue attacking Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.

While the world moans and groans about Lebanon, the continued war against the Palestinians gets lost in the news coverage. We need to remember this through all the lies and distortions, that Israel declared war on the Palestinians, economically, politically and militarily, with support of America and its Western syncophants, back when Hamas was "democratically' elected.

The Palestinians and Hezbollah have no real allies amongst the Arab nations. They are fascist medievalist states, oil partners with America or its economic dependents, like Jordan, fearful of the Palestinian cause being used to rally the masses to overthrow the regimes in power. The Arab Leagues denunciation of Hezbollah has more to do with this than with their alliance with the West in the War on Terror. Whatever that is.

America and Israel now fight losing battles in the their two front wars, the worlds greatest military power and its client state are being stretched beyond their capabilities militarily in the Middle East.

Having failed to learn the lessons of the British Empire, the American Empire is bogged down in the very region that led to the demise of that earlier Empire. The military politics of the Cold War are at work here again, instead of Commies its Terrorists. When the Cold War heated up in Viet Nam, the lessons learned from that war have been lost on the American Empire, both Republicans and Democrats have failed to remember that a peoples war can defeat a more technologically superior military power.

Hezbollah has not forgotten that lesson, and in taking the fight to Israel has become a rallying point for Arab dissention in the Middle East. When the Lebanese population, regardless of religious beliefs, cry We Are Hezbollah, then America, Israel and the Arab League, tremble in fear.

The war on Hezbollah is a war against mass uprising in the Middle East. A victory for Hezbollah, could well precipitate such a revolt. Defeating Israel on the battle field and forcing it back across the border, could ignite a fire storm of revolution in the Middle East.

That America wants Israel to take out Hezbollah is clear, it helps their oil allies in the Arab League as much as it helps Israel. America refuses a ceasefire agreement, in hopes Israel can defeat Hezbollah militarily. The hopes of the Arab League are that Israel can defeat Hezbollah as well, for if not, their regimes will crumble as the Arab masses see that the Great Powers can be challenged and defeated. We Are Hezbollah will be the rallying cry of revolt in the Middle East if they are successful, and woe betide the regimes in Egypt,Jordan, Saudi Arabia, etc.

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