Lebanon--several Blasts from the Past

[eridani]

Hezbollah was directly created by Israel. It would not exist had not Israel invaded and occupied Lebanon in 1982.

http://www.thejerusalemfund.org/carryover/pubs/20000901ib.html

With the United States’ refusal to support nonviolent means to force Israel to withdraw, and with a historically weak central government, Lebanese formed their own militias to fight the occupiers. The most significant was Hezbollah, a radical Islamic group composed mostly of Shi’ite Muslims from the farming villages adjacent to Israeli-held territory. Even Lebanese who did not agree with the militia’s fundamentalist ideology saw them as freedom fighters, trying to liberate their country from a foreign military occupation.

Islamic extremists were never much of a factor in Lebanon prior to the 1982 U.S.-backed Israeli invasion and the subsequent direct U.S. military intervention in support of a rightist Lebanese government installed under Israeli guns. During this period, the more moderate Islamic and secular groups were largely destroyed; Hezbollah filled the vacuum. {Sounds a lot like the results of a recent US adventure, no?}

This fundamentalist movement, which was responsible for the kidnapping of several Americans and other Westerners in the 1980s, rose from obscurity a little more than eighteen years ago to become one of Lebanon’s most powerful political groupings. Hezbollah receives the core of its support from the hundreds of thousands of Lebanese Shi’ites who fled north into the slums of greater Beirut due to years of Israeli attacks.

U.S. officials greatly exaggerated the role of Syria in controlling and supporting Hezbollah. Syria has historically backed the rival Amal militia. The Iranian role was also inflated. These overstatements were largely intended to discredit a genuinely indigenous movement; one which had widespread support for its resistance efforts against a foreign occupation condemned across Lebanon’s diverse communities. The group did not even exist until four years after Israel began its occupation and heavy bombardment of southern Lebanon. Thus, Hezbollah is very much a manifestation of U.S. and Israeli policy. The perception of achieving a military victory, while those advocating a more moderate ideology and a diplomatic solution have failed, has enhanced Hezbollah’s status.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/dilip_hiro/2006/07/post_232.html

Since it came into being to resist Lebanon's occupation by Israel after its June 1982 invasion, Hizbullah has a long history of taking hostages and using them as bargaining chips to achieve its political aims. After breaking away from the earlier Shia group called Amal, its leaders formed close links with the contingent of 2,000 Revolutionary Guards sent by Iran to fight the Israeli invaders, from its base in Baalbekin eastern Lebanon.

As Hizbullah escalated its guerrilla attacks on Israel in southern Lebanon its military aid from Tehran increased, with Syria acting as the conduit. Through its (domestic) Martyrs Foundation, Iran sent funds to Hizbullah to provide health, education and other public services to the Shia community which, forming two-fifths of the national population is the largest sectarian group in Lebanon.

Hizbullah assisted Iran by taking western, especially American, hostages (under such labels as the Organization of the Oppressed of the Earth) on the basis that their captivity would inhibit US military intervention in the Iran-Iraq War on the Iraqi side. It also used American hostages as a means to secure US-made weapons, clandestinely, for Iran which had been equipped with such arms before the 1979 revolution.

After the end of the Lebanese civil war in October 1990, Hizbullah fighters moved to the area adjacent to the Israeli-occupied southern Lebanon. In late 1991 a three-way swap - involving 450 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners, seven dead or captured Israeli soldiers, and the remaining Western hostages - ended this phase of Hizbullah's hostage-taking.

Uri Avnery's take--
http://alternet.org/story/39141/

The real aim is to change the regime in Lebanon and to install a puppet government.

That was the aim of Ariel Sharon's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It failed. But Sharon and his pupils in the military and political leadership have never really given up on it.

As in 1982, the present operation, too, was planned and is being carried out in full coordination with the US.

As then, there is no doubt that it is coordinated with a part of the Lebanese elite.

That's the main thing. Everything else is noise and propaganda.

On the eve of the 1982 invasion, Secretary of State Alexander Haig told Ariel Sharon that, before starting it, it was necessary to have a "clear provocation", which would be accepted by the world.

The provocation indeed took place - exactly at the appropriate time - when Abu-Nidal's terror gang tried to assassinate the Israeli ambassador in London. This had no connection with Lebanon, and even less with the PLO (the enemy of Abu-Nidal), but it served its purpose.

This time, the necessary provocation has been provided by the capture of the two Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah. Everyone knows that they cannot be freed except through an exchange of prisoners. But the huge military campaign that has been ready to go for months was sold to the Israeli and international public as a rescue operation.

<snip>

The public is not enthusiastic about the war. It is resigned to it, in stoic fatalism, because it is being told that there is no alternative. And indeed, who can be against it? Who does not want to liberate the "kidnapped soldiers"? Who does not want to remove the Katyushas and rehabilitate deterrence? No politician dares to criticize the operation (except the Arab MKs, who are ignored by the Jewish public). In the media, the generals reign supreme, and not only those in uniform. There is almost no former general who is not being invited by the media to comment, explain and justify, all speaking in one voice.

Other information--


http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/18/1442244

World Health Organization: Lebanese Residents Displaced by Israeli Bombardment Expected to Top 900,000

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/18/1442249

A Sampling of Arab TV Coverage of the Middle East Crisis

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/17/1423257

Hezbollah, the United States and the Context Behind Israel's Offensive on Lebanon

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/14/146258

U.S.-Backed Israeli Policies Pursuing "End of Palestine"; Hezbollah Capture of Israeli Soldiers "Very Irresponsible Act" That Could Lead To "Extreme Disaster"

http://www.mideastweb.org/water.htm

Water In the Middle East Conflict

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ionfiltered=0&article=85512&d=18&m=7&y=2006

US Think-Tank Predicts Full-Scale Israeli Invasion of Lebanon

http://experts.about.com/e/0/1982_Invasion_of_Lebanon.htm

1982 Invasion of Lebanon

[RoyGBiv]

1. K&R

Because I appreciate the historical perspective.

Hezbollah is still an organization full of scum, but we would do well to remember by what means they became organized.

[ShortnFiery]

2. "an organization full of scum"

The same argument could be said about the Far Right Wing Republicans and Likud (their hearts are dark and full of hate), but that doesn't negate, like Hezbollah, they are EACH a DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED part of a nation's government.

[eridani]

3. Yep. Democracies often elect scum for leaders, and--

--are no less democratic for all that. 'Tis true, 'tis pity; and pity 'tis, 'tis true.

[RoyGBiv]

4. Okay ...

And your point is what?

[ShortnFiery]

5. My point is that when we (USA/Israel) promote DEMOCRACY

but the Elected Leaders are not to our liking, they are still Legitimate. They are no more "terrorists" but members of a sovereign state. Hezbollah and the Israeli government are then, perhaps promoting State Sponsored Terrorists.

Just because Israel does NOT approve of members of Hamas and Hezbollah being democratically placed into their Government System, that does NOT give Israel the right to dismiss their authority and begin indiscriminate KILLING of ALL MEMBERS of these organizations.

[Igel]

6. It gives the circumstances in which it was organized,

it doesn't give the means.