Nasrallah the liberator, anointed by Sharon

[bemildred]

GOC Northern Command Benny Gantz likes
to surprise visitors from overseas by referring
to Hezbollah as an NGO, or nongovernmental
organization. Foreigners tend to view such
organizations positively, imagining groups like
the International Red Cross or Amnesty
International. Gantz reminds them that
Lebanon contains an NGO of a different type -
violent and deadly.

Ariel Sharon has signed a tainted agreement
with the head of this NGO, Hassan Nasrallah;
and despite the German mediator, it is truly a
Sharon-Nasrallah deal - just as Menachem
Begin concluded the cease-fire with Palestine
Liberation Organization leader Yasser Arafat
in July 1981, following two weeks of PLO
shelling of Kiryat Shmona, even though it was
mediated by American Philip Habib and the
Saudi royal family.

Israel ought to speak with governments, not
organizations. In its negotiations with Arafat
over the Oslo Accord, the Rabin government
viewed the PLO as the Palestinian
government-in-the-making, recognizing it as
the Palestinians' official representative. Now,
Sharon has recognized Hezbollah as the official
representative of the Lebanese. It is Nasrallah,
rather than President Emile Lahoud or Prime
Minister Rafik Hariri, with whom the prime
minister negotiates the release of Lebanese
prisoners from Israeli jails.

The American government behaves differently:
It demands that the Lebanese government take
action against terrorist organizations that
appear on the State Department's blacklist.
Hezbollah occupies a place of dishonor on this
list thanks to the activities of Imad Mughniyeh,
who has been the impresario of the
organization's attacks since as far back as the
1980s.

Haaretz

[tinnypriv]

1. Unsurprising to see Oren repeat such astonishing fantasies

About Rabin and the PLO, but that is par for the course it seems, especially so when coupled with this sort of disgraceful deceit about the Habib cease-fire (a few events ommitted, the obvious ones). :eyes:

[bemildred]

2. Not buying anything, just thought it was interesting.

There were a few clues here about some other issues:

The Israel Defense Forces' General Staff, in a
war game conducted last week, reached
conclusions for its own use: If the conflict with
the Palestinians escalates and operations in
Gaza are needed, it would be better to confine
these operations to raids and not get embroiled
in an invasion; the Palestinian Authority is not
functioning, but its existence is preferable to a
Hamas regime; and in the north, it is better to
exercise restraint than to be dragged into a
major escalation.