If you doubt in any way that employing the Lebanese army in the south—a move that has been accepted by Hassan Nasrallah, head of Hezbullah (which should immediately make you suspicious)—then take a look at this.
TWELVE trucks crossed the Syrian border into Lebanon and rumbled south. When they were stopped at a checkpoint a few days later, the Lebanese Armed Forces found the trucks were brimming with ammunition and weapons, including Katyusha rockets that have been raining down on Israel since July 12.
What happened next, in this little-reported incident in late January, goes to the heart of the conflict between Israel and Lebanon. The convoy was waved on and travelled unhindered to its final destination: Hezbollah terrorists in southern Lebanon.
The Lebanese army said the transportation and storage of ammunition belonged to the “resistance”. Once inside Lebanon it was subject to a ministerial policy statement of the Lebanese Government, which considers the “resistance” to be legitimate.
“As the Government of Lebanon has confirmed, the Lebanese Armed Forces has thus not been authorised to prevent further movement of the ammunitions, which had been a common practice for more than 15 years,” UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a letter to the Security Council in April. “Hezbollah publicly confirmed that the arms were destined for the group.”
Interesting, isn’t it, how Kofi Annan knew that weapons were flooding into Hezbullah’s hands and did nothing about it—until the Israelis came under attack and responded in kind. Then Kofi leaped into action. Against Israel, of course.
There is also evidence that the Lebanese army helped Hezbullah kill Israelis.
Just two days into the war, an Israeli Sa’ar 5 class missile corvette, enforcing the naval blockade off Lebanon, was struck by a C-802 radar-guided anti-ship cruise missile, an Iranian-made version of a missile known as the Chinese silkworm. The explosion claimed the lives of four soldiers and the ship had to return to port.
It was the first time the missile had been used in the war with Israel and military officials reported that the Israeli ship’s radar system was not calibrated to detect the missile, which is equipped with an advanced anti-tracking system.
Iran denied any involvement and US and Israeli officials say there was no evidence that Iranian operatives working in Lebanon launched the missile themselves. That made the incident even more curious, observes Schenker.
“It was assumed broadly that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard corp personnel stationed in Lebanon would assist Hezbollah in the technical operation of this equipment,” says Schenker. “That would not have been a surprise. What was a surprise is that according to Israelis, a Lebanese Armed Forces naval radar station was used and it was used to lock on the ship.”
It meant the land-based radar post communicated with the missile, which allowed the incoming missile to avoid detection.
“This enhanced capability is why the IDF (Israeli Defence Force) destroyed the Lebanese Armed Forces radar station,” says Schenker, referring to an IDF strike north of Beirut a few days later.
The incident points to the many sympathies within the Lebanese Armed Forces and the Government to Hezbollah and why the present conflict is so precarious and raising concerns of another civil war in Lebanon.
So does Siniora’s WaPo oped. The man is a Syrian sympathizer/stooge, and has no intention of disarming Hezbullah.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has played a delicate act in avoiding the use of the word “militia”, which is the definition in UN resolution 1559 that calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah. In fact just as news of that intercepted convoy of arms was breaking in Lebanon, Siniora told Beirut parliament on February 6: “We have never called, and will never call, the resistance by any name other than resistance.”
The deployment of the Lebanese army in the south will benefit only Hezbullah. Israel needs to go in and root out the rocket launchers, and the terrorists firing them.
Hundreds more were fired today, and two more civilians were killed. It’s not going to stop by deploying the Lebanese army, who are responsible for allowing Hezbullah to arm itself with the bombs currently raining down on Israel.
Last year I heard a Lebanese Christian say that Hizbollah had liberated Southern Lebanon from the Israelis. It seems the Lebanese have made their choice. They choose to be a colony of Iran and an Islamic Republic. That also means that the Christians will, sooner or later, be driven out of Lebanon. “First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people” is the motto of the Muslim Brotherhood and other radical Islamist organizations. To Muslims the Christians have no more right to be there, or to weild political power, than Jews do. Next year, or the year after, the Lebanese Christians will become the Jews.