Middle East thread continued

[Imran Siddiqui]

Hezbollah never needed another reason to exist after Isreal left. They were the de facto government and army in south Lebanon and justified their continued existance as a deterrance against Israeli invasion. Not like the Lebanese army would be able to even govern southern Lebanon after all those years.

It also begs the question of why an anti-Syrian government would pick up on something that "justifies Hezbollah's continued existance", considering Hezbollah is... uh... Pro-Syrian!

[Winston]

Something's not right here. Why is there a picture of a football where Yasser Arafat should be?

[notyoueither]

Oh, I don't know, perhaps they wanted an argument to counter the UN calling for their being disarmed?

And whatever the position of the current PM of the GoL wrt the Syrians, he is embracing the Farms as a reason that Hezbollah is just fine in his books.

Strange, in'it?

[notyoueither]

One more time, for those hard of reading.

"What the prime minister said is that the international community has not given the Lebanese government an opportunity to deal with the problem of Hezbollah`s arms, since the continuing presence of the Israeli occupation of Shebaa Farms is the reason for the weapons' location."

The statement continued, "the international community needs to assist us in persuading Israel to withdraw from Shebaa so that we can deal with the problem of Hezbollah`s arms."

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, the current Prime Minister of Lebanon (Fouad Siniora, btw) really believes that a Syrian backed rebel group running part of his country is ok... which is why he asked them to cease fire as well.

[notyoueither]

And refuses to lift a finger, adopting complete crap as a justification for their continued existance.

As I said earlier, I see what an Israeli said at the outbreak. The stress would show that Hezbollah is not an unwelcome part of the GoL, or something to that effect.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Yeah, because when a rebel force in a country is stronger than the military, the thing to do is to just charge right in so the rebel force can slaughter the military, leaving the actual government entirely defenseless against said rebel force . Brilliant!

As I said earlier, I see what an Israeli said at the outbreak. The stress would show that Hezbollah is not an unwelcome part of the GoL, or something to that effect.

Or rather Isreal saw the prospects for a 'Wag the Dog' phenomenon (where people would rally around Hezbollah against the outside force) and could justify torching the entire country (ie, message to Iran to knock **** off)... maybe even allowing Syria back in so they could justify having an 'occupation' again.

[notyoueither]

The PM of Lebanon didn't have a gun pointed at his head when he repeated the fiction about the Farms, did he?

[Imran Siddiqui]

Cause countries don't have national myths that most of their citizens believe . Hell, even Aoun's party (the Christian one that advocates a secular, liberal state) speaks of the Shebaa Farms as Lebanese.

[notyoueither]

And?

The Israelis should cave to a myth?

What exactly are you advocating?

[notyoueither]

We could go back and forth, and back and forth, and it will resolve nothing.

A part of the truth is that Israel has responded harshly to continued provocations launched by a quasi-governmental organization in an adjacent state.

Another part of the truth is that the government of that state has done nothing but endorse Hezbollah's continued existance while Hezbolloah's continued existance hinges on a fiction.

It's a ****ing sad, sad story, and it's going to go on until people from the outside step in and say 'enough!'

Lebanon is never going to be able to disarm Hezbollah. To try to do so would be to start the war that results in the division of Lebanon. Hezbollah has that much support.

There need to be three things.

There has to be a halt to attacks on Israel from Lebanon.

Hezbollah needs to be disarmed so that the GoL can get on with the business of rebuilding their country.

For the above to happen other nations are going to have to be willing to commit force to Southern Lebanon. The more Arabs involved, outside of Syria, the better.

And there needs to be a **** load of good luck for the people of Lebanon so that they come out of this with as few scars as possible.

[Imran Siddiqui]

And?! The fact that the Lebanese are asking for that as part of a compromise doesn't mean they are deliberately prolonging the war for some unknown benefit.

What the Isrealis should do is try to bring in other third parties and begin to entertain negotiations on all sides. Because otherwise, this will never end... until Isreali citizens get tired of it and force Isreal to pull back, achieving nothing.

[notyoueither]

The Israelis will never get tired of it. They'll urge harsher actions if need be. They aren't going anywhere, and them leaving is the only thing that would ever satiate Hezbollah.

And how is inventing an excuse to keep fighing not prolonging the war for whatever benefit the fevered minds of Hezbollah imagine?

You can't reason with insanity.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Originally posted by notyoueither
The israelis will never get tired of it. They'll urge harsher actions if need be.

Yeah, that's why Isreal was still in South Lebanon in 2006 . Why exactly do you think they pulled out in 2000?

And how is inventing an excuse to keep fighing not prolonging the war for whatever benefit their fevered minds imagine?

There it is again: "inventing an excuse to keep fighting". This jives with your "I never said they just invented it" statement a few posts ago how?

And what is the benefit for Lebanon? If you just want to claim it's "insanity", we can do the same for Isreal's motives in bombing Lebanon who had nothing to do with the kidnappings and does not have the strength to put down Hezbollah as "insanity" (though, personally I think it is more vengance or rage on Isreal's part, rather than actually thinking). Works pretty nicely both ways.

[notyoueither]

What are you smoking?