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02/17/2010

Misplaced honors

Filed under: Lebanon — Tags: , — Soccerdad @ 10:00 am

Recently there were a couple of items of how the United States is honoring (in different ways) people they shouldn’t be.

Martin Kramer on the American Ambassador to Afghanistan honoring a past Afghan hero.

No doubt it made diplomatic sense for the United States to help restore this Afghan national monument, and for its ambassador to praise Afghanistan’s national hero. At the same time, it is ironic in more ways than one can count.

First, Jamal al-Din al-Afghani is not exactly the sort of Muslim role model the United States usually promotes. He was what used to be called an agitator, someone who hated the great Western power of the era (Britain) not just for its materialism but for its imperialism, and who didn’t just criticize Muslim rulers but actively plotted against them. On both counts, Osama bin Laden could just as readily claim Afghani’s mantle.

The history is fascinating and it’s pretty clear that al-Afghani isn’t the sort of figure that America ought to be encouraging its allies to emulate.

Barry Rubin on the even more damaging tribute being paid to Syria.

So while President Barack Obama called Hariri’s son to say the United States wants to find the murderers and encourage the investigation his policies have been the exact opposite. The U.S. refusal to send a new ambassador to Syria has been a key sign of American anger over the murders and leverage to press Syria toward cooperation with the investigation.

Now, however, a high-ranking U.S. official on that very anniversary has leaked that the United States has now made a significant concession to Syria by naming its first ambassador to Syria since that envoy was withdrawn after Hariri’s murder. A State Department official said that the Syrian government has accepted the U.S. candidate though we don’t yet know who is the choice.

True, this was not an official public announcement. But the fact is that everyone now knows that the decision has been made and the arrangements all put in place. Nobody in Washington will notice that this timing sends a signal to independent-minded Lebanese that the United States wants to forget about Hariri’s murder, accept Syrian-Iranian-Hizballah as holding Lebanon hostage and moving closer to making it a satellite.

The outrage over Hariri’s murder and the independence of Lebanon continue to diminish every day.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

12/22/2009

Iran’s cat’s paw

Filed under: Iran, Syria — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 6:00 pm

When I first read this analysis of Lebanese President Sa’ad Hariri’s trip to Syria, Lebanon Drama Adds Act With Leader’s Trip to Syria , I was astonished by its anodyne language. After all what was being described was the capitulation once again of Lebanon to Syria. And yet the reporter focused on the “symbolism” of the visit.

For many Lebanese, the visit was a measure of Syria’s renewed influence over Lebanon after years of bitterness and struggle since the Syrian military’s withdrawal in 2005. That withdrawal came after Mr. Hariri’s father, former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, was killed in a car bombing that many here believe to have been ordered by Syria.

The withdrawal was a blow to Syrian prestige, and afterward Saad Hariri seemed to have the entire Western world at his back as he built a movement for greater Lebanese independence and pushed for an international tribunal to try his father’s killers.

But since then, the United States and the West have chosen to engage with Syria, not isolate it. And Saudi Arabia, which has long backed Mr. Hariri and competed with Syria for influence here, reconciled with the Syrians earlier this year, leaving them a freer hand to guide politics in Lebanon as they once did.

All this has been known for months, but it was still tremendously important for Mr. Hariri to actually cross the mountains — in his first visit since before his father’s killing — and pay his respects in Damascus.

“The image of Syrian soldiers retreating was a huge blow to them,” said Elias Muhanna, a political analyst and the author of the Lebanese blog Qifa Nabki. “So the image of Hariri coming over the mountains means they’ve come full circle. It demonstrates to all the power centers in Damascus that Bashar has restored Syria’s position of strength vis-à-vis Lebanon.”

I suppose that the quote from Elias Muhanna doesn’t sugarcoat anything but casting the Hariri’s meeting with Assad as an act in a play dimishes the significance of Hariri’s action.

David Schenker, in the Murdered Father’s club eschews phony dramatic terminology.

So Saad Hariri and Walid Jumblatt, the leaders of the Cedar Revolution, whose fathers were all but certainly killed by Syria, are paying homage to Damascus. For Jumblatt, it was a pragmatic decision. For Hariri, it’s a decision taken under extreme pressure, and one fraught with political ramifications. Not only will the visit be seen as a humiliation by Hariri’s Lebanese Sunni supporters, it will likely be understood as Hariri absolving Damascus of responsibility for the murder of his father, a perception that could undermine support for the International Tribunal. Hariri is trying to mitigate the negative consequences of his trip by visiting Riyadh and Cairo prior to Damascus, but this will not blunt the impact.

Given Syrian resilience, perhaps this development was to be expected. After all, despite no perceptible change in Syrian behavior, and its ongoing violation of UN Security Council resolutions on Lebanon, Europe has made great efforts to improve relations with Damascus. In November 2009, the EU offered Syria an Economic Association agreement, essentially removing all human rights clauses from the pact to sweeten the deal for the authoritarian state.

Washington’s increased diplomatic and military engagement with Damascus also appears to have had an effect, decreasing March 14 confidence in its most ardent supporter. Perhaps the leading factor in March 14 leadership’s decision to return to Damascus, however, appears to be Saudi Arabia’s equivocating. Riyadh had been a leading force in trying to dissuade Damascus from playing its traditionally pernicious role in Lebanon. Recently, however, Saudi appears to have made a concession on Lebanon in order to improve relations with Syria.

It’s not exactly clear why Riyadh cut the deal with Damascus, but it appears that the decision was driven by concerns over Iran. To mitigate the threat posed by Tehran, Saudi Arabia is attempting to pry Syria away from its 30-year strategic ally, and the first Saudi down-payment in this ill-advised gambit has been its Lebanese allies. At least in part, this dramatic change in policy vis-à-vis Syria is related to the perceived U.S. weakness on Iran. Absent Saudi confidence that Washington will prevent a nuclear Iran, Riyadh is hedging.

Syria’s resurgent domination of Lebanese politics, then, is the result of a number of factors. One of which is the American rapproachment with Syria. Limited as that outreach has been it still has had an effect. Michael Young, a Lebanese columnist, wrote this three years ago:

But perhaps the best reason to isolate Syria is Lebanon. Assad’s deepest desire is to re-establish Syrian hegemony here. One reason for this, aside from Lebanon’s ability to again grant Syria regional relevance, is the United Nations’ investigation of Rafik Hariri’s murder. All the signs are that Syria will be accused of the crime, which could bring down the Assad regime. By dominating Lebanon, the Syrian president could stifle the investigation, which relies heavily on Lebanese judicial cooperation.

More generally, Assad would exploit any Western opening to seize power in Lebanon through his Lebanese allies, against the majority that forced a Syrian withdrawal last year. If this were to succeed, who would be the Praetorian Guard of that new order? Hezbollah. The party could, thus, preserve its autonomy, eliminate its domestic adversaries, and thrive under Syria’s sympathetic eye. This factor alone explains why Syria would never accept to diminish Hezbollah’s power. As Syria plots a return to Lebanon, it has no intention of harming its main ally in that venture.

Young’s prediction has come true.

So the EU, the Saudis, and the United States have all, in different ways and varying degrees of enthusiasm, strengthened Assad’s hand and he has happliy taken advantage.

But what’s most important to remember is that by strengthening Syria, and Hezbollah, the world is also strengthening Iran. Shimon Shapira writes:

The Lebanese flag, which was brutally trampled by Hizbullah during the 1980s, now occupies a place of honor alongside the yellow banner of Hizbullah. The impression is that Hizbullah has adopted the Lebanese state and in its self-appraisal has become an authentic representative of Lebanese national identity. There is a perpetual gap between the pragmatic spirit coming from the Hizbullah political manifesto and Lebanon’s political reality. Hizbullah’s vigorous position insisting that it retain an army of its own that does not heed the authority of the state but rather the representative of Iran’s leader in Lebanon makes a mockery of the clauses in the political manifesto about Lebanon being the eternal homeland. Furthermore, by building a state-like system parallel to that of the Lebanese state, and one that relies on aid and funding from Iran and Syria, Hizbullah does not contribute to the strengthening and health of the Lebanese homeland that Nasrallah says he wants to preserve and nurture. Finally, the subversive conduct of Hizbullah, which acts against the interests of the Lebanese state and sends forth subversive and violent elements into nearby countries such as Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan, makes the concept of loyalty to the Lebanese homeland void of any content.

It would seem, therefore, that the decision of the Lebanese government headed by Saad Hariri to recognize the continued legitimate existence of Hizbullah’s armed militia demonstrates less a case that Hizbullah underwent a process of “Lebanonization,” but rather that the Lebanese state has undergone a process of “Hizbullazation.” Parallel to adopting the Lebanese identity, Hizbullah preserves its essential link to Iran: its commitment to the Iranian leader as the source of authority surpasses any other commitment including on the political level. Hizbullah adopts decisions on war and peace taken by Iran, the sole recognized source of authority, and not only on theoretical and religious issues, as Nasrallah may wish to claim.

Hizbullah’s alleged move toward pragmatism is based to a large extent on an Iranian decision to create a new atmosphere in Lebanon that will allow it to work unmolested. After the Second Lebanon War that erupted at Israel’s initiative and caught Hizbullah by surprise, Iran ordered Hizbullah to restrain activities against Israel and intensify its integration into the political life of the Lebanese state. Iran is looking for strict silence in the Lebanese arena in order to enable Hizbullah to reconstruct its strategic capabilities (including long-range rockets and missiles) in Lebanon in order to deter Israel, and to make use of these capabilities at a time to be determined by Tehran in the event that deterrence fails. This is the main reason for the quiet prevailing in South Lebanon, and it seems that Israeli deterrence of Hizbullah plays only a minor role.

The meeting between Hariri and Assad doesn’t just mark a new high point in the Syrian domination of Lebanon. It also represents the transformation of Lebanon into Iran’s cat’s paw. That which appeases Iran only makes it stronger.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

12/02/2009

Watch the media spin

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, United Nations — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:00 am

The AP released a brief story on the Lebanese government affirming Hezbullah’s defiance of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 to disarm. This version holds too much of the truth in it. Prediction: Mention of 1701 will be dropped to the bottom of the next version, and weasel words will be added.

Lebanon’s new government has endorsed Hezbollah’s right to keep its weapons.

The decision came Wednesday in a statement that lays out the government’s goals for the next four years.

Lebanon’s government is a shaky coalition of Western-backed factions and the militant group Hezbollah and its allies.

Wednesday’s move is the latest sign that Hezbollah has no intention of meeting a U.N. resolution that ended the 2006 war with Israel. The resolution required Hezbollah to give up its arsenal.

Hezbollah’s refusal to disarm has generated division within Lebanon as well as concern in Israel, which says it is preparing to deploy a defense system to shoot down rockets from Lebanon.

Remember, too, this is Israel’s casus belli if Hezbullah attacks. The terrorist group is now authorized by the government of Lebanon. That makes it all of Lebanon’s problem. I know the world will not see it that way if it comes to another war. But if the international legists are so concerned about international law, then they will acknowledge that when the government of a state authorizes a group’s arming legally, then that government is now legally responsible for whatever that armed group does.

And of course, none of this will matter to the screamers who blame Israel for everything.

11/27/2009

Lebanon’s descent

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, United Nations — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 8:00 am

In Lebanon, the raidicals keep on strengthening their positions. Peter Berkowitz writes (via memeorandum):

Six days later, on March 14, a Sunni, Christian, and Druze crowd of more than 1 million–a quarter of Lebanon’s population–shook their nation by gathering in downtown Beirut to outdo the pro-Syria demonstrators and show their devotion to a sovereign Lebanon. The stunning upsurge of pro-liberty and pro-democracy sentiment in what became known as the Cedar Revolution combined with international indignation over the Hariri assassination compelled Syria, which had occupied the country for 29 years, to withdraw its forces by the end of April. The forces of freedom exulted.

Three years later, on May 7, 2008, however, the March 14 coalition suffered a huge blow. Hezbollah forces, carrying little more than light arms but backed by a formidable guerrilla machine in the south and the threat of far more devastating force, rolled into Beirut and took over the city in a matter of hours. Lebanon’s liberals and democrats were devastated by the failure of the United States and Europe to come to Lebanon’s aid even as its cosmopolitan capital was overrun by ragtag fighters equipped by, and loyal to, Iran’s Islamic revolutionaries. Hezbollah lifted the siege at the end of the month with the signing of the Doha Agreement, which, most importantly, gave it, a minority party, a veto over government action in a new national unity government.

Specifically, Lebanon, at Hezbollah’s behest has just passed a law effectively defying UN Security Council resolution 1701.

Lebanon’s new cabinet has agreed on a policy statement that acknowledges Hezbollah’s right to use its weapons against Israel, despite disagreement by some members of the ruling majority.


Elder of Ziyon observes:

Not only does this give official Lebanese status to an independent army that doesn’t answer to the government, it also is clearly against UN resolution 1701, which called for “no weapons without the consent of the government of Lebanon and no authority other than that of the government of Lebanon; and it also implicltly contradicts the paragraph that calls for “strong support for full respect for the Blue Line.”

It is effectively the continuing surrender of Lebanon to Hezbollah.

Meryl adds:

It’s Israel’s casus belli, and it will be ignored by the screamers. But it won’t be ignored by Israel, and it shouldn’t be ignored by the UN. (Yes, I know it will. But it shouldn’t.) I see the UN is moving along quickly to censure Hizbullah for the arms depot explosion last month. What? They’re not? No!

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

11/22/2009

You will not be assimilated; resistance is vital

Filed under: Israel Derangement Syndrome, Israeli Double Standard Time — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 10:00 am

Occasionally, a little inconvenient truth slips out in a news report. In the case of School dropout high among Palestinian refugees: UN, it’s this:

Lebanese law prevents Palestinian refugees from practising most professions or owning property.

Clearly the article was meant to convey the impression that the world must do something to solve the plight of the Palestinians. But we learn that fellow Arabs – in this case Lebanese – have cut the Palestinians off from their society.

So then why is Sheikh Nasrallah so proud of resistance against Israel?

On the occasion of Hezbollah’s Martyr Day, Nasrallah said Wednesday that while 18 years of Palestinian negotiations with Israelis failed to bring about a free Palestine, the 18 years of Lebanese resistance freed southern Lebanon from the Israeli occupation.

If he’s so concerned about the Palestinians why isn’t Hezbollah making legislative efforts to change Lebanese laws to permit Palestinians to integrate into Lebanese society? But then his own statements aren’t that different from those of a noted “moderate.”

Might I also point out this blatant discrimination doesn’t bother the UN Human Rights Council nearly as much as Israel’s self-defense?

Crossposted on Yourish.

11/04/2009

IDF commandos thwart Iranian arms shipment to Syria

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 11:00 am

The IDF is showing Iran that Israel has a very long reach. Commandos took control of a ship carrying weapons for Syria and Hezbollah.

An Israeli Navy commando force seized control over a suspicious vessel in the early hours of Wednesday morning, which was found to be carrying weapons.

The ship is believed to have come for Iran, destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon and meant to dock in Syria.

The incident took place some 150 kilometers off the coast, near Cyprus. A fleet of smaller ships approached the vessel, sailing under the Antiguan flag, and boarded it.

The crew members showed no resistance. The ship was found to be carrying at least five containers of ammunition and weapons, under the guise of a civilian delivery.

The cargo included rockets, grenades, mortar shells and missiles. “This could be bigger than Karin-A,” a military source said.

The firm running the ship says it had no idea it was being used for weapons smuggling.

“We did not know there were weapons on the ship. We knew that we were delivering containers, but we are not legally permitted to check what is inside them. This is the responsibility of the customs authorities at the ports where we anchor. We do not know what happened on the ship. We are waiting, just like you are, for answers.”

How did the arms get on the ship? That is a very good question. Will we get answers? I think we will.

He added, “This is the first time something like this happens to us. I hope this will not damage the relations between Cyprus and Israel, because it is just business for us.”

Will we get UN condemnation? I think we won’t. But all in all: An awesome operation from IDF commandos. Something to give Iran pause, one would think.

10/25/2009

Compare and contrast

Filed under: Israel, Juvenile Scorn, Lebanon — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

This is why Israel has more Nobel prize winners than the entire Arab world combined.

Lebanese chefs prepared a massive plate of hummus weighing over two tons Saturday that broke a world record organizers said was previously held by Israel — a bid to reaffirm proprietorship over the popular Middle Eastern dip.

“Come and fight for your bite, you know you’re right!” was the slogan for the event – part of a simmering war over regional cuisine between Lebanon and Israel, which have had tense political relations for decades.

Lebanese businessmen accuse Israel of stealing a host of traditional Middle Eastern dishes, particularly hummus, and marketing them worldwide as Israeli.

“Lebanon is trying to win a battle against Israel by registering this new Guinness World Record and telling the whole world that hummus is a Lebanese product, its part of our traditions,” said Fady Jreissati, vice president of operations at International Fairs and Promotions group, the event’s organizer.

Yeah, you really have to concentrate on what’s important. Don’t try to break Israeli records in things like numbers of Ph.D’s per capita, or tech companies, or scientific innovation. Instead, let’s concentrate on what’s really important:

A similar attempt to set a new world record will be held Sunday for the largest serving of tabbouleh, a salad made of chopped parsley and tomatoes, that Lebanon also claims as its own.

Way to go, Lebanon. That’ll show ‘em.

10/15/2009

Snarking

Filed under: Iran, Israel, Lebanon, World — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:30 am

Turk to Israel: No, really, we love you, you baby-killing bastards: Yeah, right. The Turkish producer of a film about Palestinians that depicts IDF soldiers murdering young girls for no apparent reason other than they’re Zionist child-killers says that just because the uniform looks like the IDF, and just because it takes place in Gaza, doesn’t mean that the show is about IDF soldiers murdering innocent Palestinian children. He defends his thesis by bringing up Mohammed al-Dura and 300 dead children from the Gaza war. I guess his show must be about Shmisraeli ShmIDF shmoldiers, not Israeli IDF soldiers.

Hezbollah: That was no missile, that was a door! I really want to see their video footage. They’re claiming that the group of Hezbollah terrorists seen loading a long, metallic object onto a truck were carrying a metal door. Uh-huh. I’m also eagerly awaiting UNIFIL’s explanation as to why their men were watching Hezbollah load a “metal door” onto a pickup truck. What? UN peacekeepers ignoring Hezbollah UN Resolution violations? No! You don’t say!

Khameini in a coma? Or dead? I hope it’s true. But if it is, well, Iran ain’t seen nothin’ yet. Revolution? That won’t be the half of it. It might be great news to Israel, depending on who wins the power struggle. We can always dream that client states Syria and Lebanon get left out in the cold.

Those wily Jews: While the Arabs and Muslims in the region continue their important work in improving the many ways you can carry a suicide bomb, Israelis are developing things like a battery that will last thousands of hours in hearing aids and the like. Oh, and the battery will be cheaper and cleaner than those currently on the market. No wonder Israel has more Nobel prizes than the entire Arab world combined.

10/14/2009

Breaking UN resolutions only counts if you’re Israel

Filed under: Israeli Double Standard Time, Lebanon, United Nations — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:30 am

How many times have we heard the tired old argument that Israel is in violation of dozens of UN resolutions? The fact that the resolutions that most people think of are nonbinding makes no difference; Israeli is in violation of that dreaded shibboleth, international law.

Meanwhile, Hezbollah is in plain violation of an actual, binding resolution, and nobody but Israel seems to notice or care. The explosion last month of a weapons depot underneath a home in southern Lebanon raised no angry response from the UN, or even lifted eyebrows from UNIFIL, who are, uh, right there in southern Lebanon. Israel has complained. Nothing happened.

The explosion this week of another house in southern Lebanon has once again raised no apparent concern in the UN, or with UNIFIL, or even with Nobel peace prize winner Barack Obama, who is very, very concerned about peace in the middle east—when it comes to Israel’s actions, anyway. In fact, UNIFIL has sprung into action in the usual UN way.

UNIFIL said it was aware of an explosion and was in contact with the Lebanese army. “We are looking into the circumstances of the incident,” UNIFIL spokeswoman Yasmina Bouziane said.

Ah. They’re investigating. That’ll show Hezbollah.

This time around, Israel is launching an all-out effort to see if the UN and the world will cease its hypocrisy. Instead of imagined war crimes as found in the Goldstone report, this is an actual violation of UN 1701, forbidding Hezbollah from arming south of the Litani. And Israel has proof that was what they were doing.

Of course, the AP has to spin it negatively. Note the language implying that Israel doesn’t really have proof. The IDF just said that’s what happened. It could be any old film of anyone smuggling weapons into any house, right?

The Israeli military released footage it said was shot by one of its drones in the area. It said the video shows Hezbollah members sealing off the explosion site, recovering dozens of rockets from the home and driving them away in two covered trucks.

You can go online and see the footage for yourself. Ynet has it. It’s at the IDF website. Israel isn’t just saying that Hezbollah is smuggling weapons. They’re proving it. But since it isn’t a Palestinian eyewitness supplying the testimony, obviously, it can’t be believed. (I’m feeling very sarcastic this morning, yes. Why do you ask?)

08/27/2009

Thursday SNB

Filed under: Iran, Lebanon, News Briefs, Pop Culture — Tags: , , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

He will fart in your general direction: Nicholas Sarkozy is threatening “severe” new sanctions on Iran if it doesn’t stop enriching uranium and trying to get the bomb. Yeah, like we haven’t heard that before.

No! Not the dreaded letter to the IAEA! Iran has gotten the non-aligned nations to sign onto a letter to the IAEA pushing for a ban on attacks on nuclear plants. Hm. This is a tough one. Israel is not a signatory to the NPT, but it is a member of the IAEA. But then again, the UN General Assembly, under which the IAEA was formed, is a powerless bunch of stuffed shirts with a proven anti-Israel agenda. Israel: Fear the letter! (And by the way, wussy little Iran, after threatening Israel in so many different ways, is running to the UN for protection. Baby.)

The obligatory “Shalit deal is imminent” mention: Yeah, yeah, yeah. We keep hearing that, and yet, Gilad Shalit is still not released. And while some of the things I’m reading do seem to be leading to an actual release, well, I’ll wait until I see some results first.

Hezbullah ascendant: Funny, I thought Hezbullah lost the election, and yet, Sa’ad Hariri, whose father was killed by Syria—which sponsors Hezbullah—says they’re going to be part of the government whether Israel likes it or not. (And a big nyah-nyah to you!) Hokay. Just remember, Israel has let Lebanon know that if Hezbullah attacks again, since they’re now part of the government, it will be considered an act of war by Lebanon. Which is why Lebanese villagers are turning on Hezbullah and throwing them out of their villages.

She was leader of the pack, and now she’s gone: Ellie Greenwich, the songwriter who gave us some of the most memorable pop tunes of the 60s, died yesterday. What would this world be without Da Doo Ron Ron and Do Wah Diddy Diddy? Not to mention Be My Baby and The Look of Love. Let’s all of us take a moment to let our hearts stand still (Da Doo Ron Ron Ron Da Doo Ron Ron).

08/10/2009

Monday SNB

Filed under: AP Media Bias, Gaza, Israel, Religion, Terrorism, The One, palestinian politics — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:00 am

Funny how the AP keeps on missing these tidbits: Fatah has approved adding “the right to resist occupation in all its forms” to its new platform. (This is on top of insising that all of Jerusalem is theirs.) They further explain:

“we won’t abandon any of our options, and we believe that resistance, in all forms, is a legitimate right of occupied people in confronting their occupiers.”

And yet, we never seem to see the AP articles that emphasize the Palestinian refusal to compromise. Only Israel’s. Funny, that.

What AP media bias? Yesterday, Palestinians fired mortars at the Erez crossing while sick Palestinians were being transferred from Palestinian ambulances to Israeli ones. So Israel bombed a smuggling tunnel (should have bombed a lot more of them). The AP, which can’t seem to notice that Fatah is turning into Hamas Lite, found its voice again, against Israel. The headline: Israeli warplanes bomb tunnel along Gaza border. Just in case you thought maybe it was sightseeing planes that bombed the tunnel.

The “Judaization” of Jerusalem includes rebuilding synagogues: Jews rebuilt a synagogue that was built in Jerusalem in 1867, but because it’s on the “wrong” side of the line, Ehud Barak has come under fire for attending the ceremony to welcome the return of the Torah to a 142-year-old Jewish house of worship. Jews were forced out of there in 1938, and yet, we never seem to read about that aspect of Jerusalem anywhere but in the Jewish press. The synagogue is 100 yards from the Temple Mount. And it was nearly destroyed, of course, when Jordan controlled Jerusalem from 1948 to 1967. Sure, give Jerusalem back to the Muslims. Because they did such a great job safeguarding other religious sites before.

Bibi to Beirut: L’etat, c’est Hezbullah. Benjamin Netanyahu warned Lebanon that Israel will hold the entire country responsible for whatever Hezbullah does. Which makes sense, considering that Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has thrown in with Hezbullah and declared that he was wrong about Iran, so they’re going to be making policy with a voting majority soon. Right now, it’s just a war of words. I hope it stays that way, but it looks like Iran is placing its ducks in a row to respond to any attack on its nuclear facilities. And speaking of Iran:

Iran to Obama: No fist unclenching until we say so. Iran is bent on running out the clock. I know my regular readers are going to be shocked to hear this, but they’re not going to adhere to any U.S. deadline for talks—not even the one set by The One. And the clock ticks closer to Israeli action. Say, Iranian opposition: Faster, please. Oh, wait. They’re all in jail now.

08/04/2009

Tuesday SNB

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, Politics, The One — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 11:00 am

Gush Shalom: With friends like these… The background: Israel is looking into making it illegal for foreign countries to fund organizations that actively work against Israel, such as Breaking the Silence, the discredited organization that uses anonymous soldiers without any factual data to accuse Israel of war crimes in Gaza. Gush Shalom is urging the EU to tell Israeli that if that happens, the EU will stop funding programs in hospitals, universities, and other organizations that help people. Way to work for your counry, GS! Wow, with friends like you, who needs enemies? You’re doing the work for them.

Lebanon is circling the drain: So, when Hezbollah launches the next attack, and Israel defends herself, will anyone in the UN, EU, or anti-Israel media notice that the people of Lebanon are choosing to side with the terrorsts? Druze leader Walid Jumblatt says he’s shifting alliances—which would give Hezbollah the power it’s been seeking if he throws his votes in with them. Just remember this over the shouts of disproportional force hitting the poor, innocent Lebanese who want nothing to do with Hezbollah.

If you’ve lost the AP, you’ve lost America: Even the AP is noticing that Obama isn’t going to be able to pay for all the programs he’s trying to shove down our throats—because tax revenues have dropped the most they have declined since 1932. Three cheers for Congress, eh? At this rate, we’ll be smack-dab in the Hoover Administration before you can say “depression.”

You’ve lost the AP: Yes, that would be two days in a row that the AP has noticed that Obama is not the magician he appeared to be on the campaign trail. Yesterday, tax revenues are down. Today, the AP notes that Obama can’t support his big-spending programs without taxing the middle class. Speaking as a taxable middle class person, I’m damned glad the media are finally noticing that Obama has been lying from the get-go. Stop me if you’ve heard this before: Say, how can you tell when a politician is lying? That’s right, his mouth is open. No hope, no change, just more of the same.

08/02/2009

Iran plane crash cause: Exploding bomb parts

Filed under: Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:45 am

The plane that crashed in Iran two weeks ago that killed everyone on board crashed because it was carrying arms to Hezbollah.

According to the sources, the aircraft was carrying a large number of modern fuses composed of 2 kilograms (4.4 pounds) of explosives and electrical instrumentation.

The report is in line with testimonies on explosion sounds heard before the crash. According to the sources, the plane was meant to transfer the fuses from Iran to Armenia, and from there to Syria through Turkey, and then on the ground to Lebanon. This route was chosen, according to exiled opposition sources, so as not to draw attention.

Chalk another one up to our terrorist buddies in Lebanon and Syria. And it’s just lovely that the Turks are complicit in this terror track as well. Why on earth shouldn’t we trust them to negotiate between Israel and Syria?

07/27/2009

Monday SNB

Filed under: American Scene, Israel, Lebanon, News Briefs, Politics, Syria — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 11:00 am

(That’s Snark News Briefs to you, buster.)

Weapons cache? What weapons cache? Lebanon is doubling down on the next war with Israel by (of course) siding with Hezbullah and insisting that the arms cache that exploded was arms “left behind by the Israelis.” Even the UN is unable to cover up this blatant violation of 1701. However, nothing will be done about it. You know it. I know it. The UN will manage to find a satisfactory excuse for allowing Hezbullah to keep arming south of the Litani, in violation of 1701, because, well, the UN is virulently anti-Israel. The Lebanese are placing themselves squarely at fault for anything that happens next. Old Chipmunk Cheeks has emerged (vocally, anyway) from his secure, nondisclosed location and threatened Tel Aviv. Not many people will remember this the next time Hezbullah invades Israel or sends rockets that way, and Israel goes after non-Hezbullah areas. But I will.

Speaking of Lebanon: The IDF built a Hezbullah city to train its troops for the next war. This, of course, is why the IDF will continue to succeed against Israel’s enemies. Well, that, and a little help from above.

U.K. groveling to Arab world: I’m currently reading Benny Morris’ 1948, and you know, the Brits haven’t really changed at all in regards to Israel. They’re currently expressing “regret” that they sold Israel arms that were used to defend herself in the Gaza war. It’s almost as if the Brits are really, really sorry they allowed any Jews to settle in their ancestral homeland at all. Oh. Wait.

U.S. groveling to Arab world: George Mitchell is in Syria, talking to the man who is responsible for the murder of American soldiers in Iraq, asking him to cut a peace deal with Israel. Here’s my prediction: Assad will not closed down the offices of Hamas and other terror groups in Damascus. He will not break ties with Iran. And he will not stop sponsoring Hezbullah and trying to run Lebanon. But he will, of course, blame Israel for the lack of peace in the Middle East, and demand the return of the Golan Heights, plus territory that never belonged to Syria in the first place. Why not? It’s worked all along. The world will not see Syria as part of the problem. Only Israel’s refusal to turn over the Golan. That would be the same Golan from which Assad’s father used to regularly shell Israeli civilians while they were working on their farms and living their lives.

Sarah Palin: Free at last. Sarah’s no longer governor of Alaska. Expect to hear even more from her now that her enemies can’t charge her every move with ethics complaints. Really, the SOB’s actually tried to say that her raising money for her defense against ethics charges was unethical. Can you say, “Set-up”? I knew you could.

Snakes in a drain: Just for something different, a 14-foot python was hiding in a storm drain in Florida. You know, the alligators are bad enough. I may never visit Florida again.

07/21/2009

Tuesday Snark News

Filed under: Hamas, Israel, Lebanon, Movies, News Briefs, The One, United Nations — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 7:00 am

Brits to America: The Israelis don’t listen to us. Meryl to Brits: You anti-Israel, anti-Semitic gits. Why should they?

Barry Rubin cut the bullshit: He did, really. (It’s okay, Barry, I put it back for you.) Seriously, click the link and read his latest essay. It’s one of his best ever.

UNIFIL watched as Lebanese invaded Israel: Okay, they weren’t terrorists—but isn’t it UNIFIL’s job to keep the two sides apart? What’s that you say? On days that end with a “y” it’s Israeli Double Standard Time? Yeah, I knew that.

Oh, please—Hezbollah “sympathizers”? The mainstream media is truly as stupid as you think they are.

A crowd in southern Lebanon threw rocks at U.N. peacekeepers over the weekend, wounding 14 of them in an effort to prevent the investigation of an explosion in the area, the United Nations said.

How many of this “crowd” you figure were Hezbollah soldiers? I’m guessing nearly all of them. Why? Read Michael Totten’s account of what happened when Christopher Hitchens ran afoul of Hezbollah thugs. That’s why.

Pop quiz! Who said this:

“One of the things that I know the blogs are best at is debunking myths that can slip through a lot of the traditional media outlets and a lot of the conventional wisdom,” he said, according to audio of the call posted on Web sites. “And that is why you are going to play such an important role in our success in the weeks to come.”

Your choice: A) Barack Obama. B) John McCain. C) Karl Rove. D) Joe the Plumber.

The answer: Barack Obama, on a call to liberal bloggers. He’s right, but about the wrong side. And while you’re posting against ObamaCare, don’t forget to call and write your Congresspeople.

I know you’re going to be shocked to hear this: NYDN found Harry Potter fans who weren’t happy with the movie. Please. Try to be strong and understanding—really. Not everyone liked the film. Wow, now that’s news!

05/23/2009

U.S. arming Hezbullah for next war with Israel

Filed under: Lebanon — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:46 am

America has apparently learned nothing since training and arming the PLO, which then used that training and those weapons to murder Israelis. Now, we’re going to send some pretty intense weaponry that will end up in the hands of Hezbullah.

US Vice President Joe Biden promised that Washington will provide the Lebanese army with 42 fighter jets, helicopters, UAVs and tanks, Arab media outlets reported on Saturday.

On Friday Biden concluded a brief one-day visit to Lebanon, during which he met mostly with leaders affiliated with the anti-Syrian camp, including Defense Minister Elias Murr.

Murr said tat the American vice president pledged to have the said weapons delivered to Lebanon, and that the aid package would be given to the country unconditionally, although Biden on Friday said that the aid hinges on the outcome of the upcoming general elections.

How do we know this will end up in Hezbullah’s hands? This is how:

The sources attribute the recent arrests to improved cooperation between Lebanon’s many security agencies, saying that with the help of better-trained personnel and access to more sophisticated equipment, the Internal Security Forces have been intensifying their efforts to uncover espionage networks as part of an attempt to develop a pan-Lebanese image.

[...] The United States has provided $1 billion in aid since 2006, including $410 million in security assistance to the Lebanese military and police.

So yes, great idea, let’s give Lebanon advanced tanks, fighter jets, and military equipment. Because it’s not like they’re going to go to war with Israel again, or are a pawn of the Iranians and Syrians.

Words fail.

05/22/2009

Nasrallah blames Israel for all the ills of the region

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 11:00 am

These are the words of the man who, in the coming months, you can expect the EU, UN, and left-leaning US crowd to call for Israel to negotiate with. Because Hezbollah, they will say, is moderating. Or because Hezbollah is part of the Lebanese government, and it can no longer be ignored.

These are his words:

In a speech on occasion of the 61st anniversary of the occupation of Palestine broadcast on Monday, Secretary General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah said the Israeli entity which is based on usurpation, massacres, displacement and occupation isn’t a legitimate entity and cannot be legitimate in any way.

Nasrallah affirmed that the Israeli entity is the cause of all wars, disasters and crises in the region, forcing the past, current and future generations to bear the repercussions and effects of this tumor festering in the region.

He stressed that the wars that happened in the region were imposed by this entity, and that the actions of the region’s governments, peoples, armies and resistance movements were reactions to the occupation of Palestine, which is the source of conflict in the Middle East, with the enemy counting on the Palestinian cause being forgotten and on forcing the Palestinian people to despair and abandon their land and rights.

If someone can explain to me how you can reach an agreement with the man who spoke those words, I’d appreciate it. Because from where I’m sitting, the only agreement you can reach with Nasrallah is the business end of a hellfire missile.

05/19/2009

Getting nervous

Filed under: Israel — Tags: — Soccerdad @ 8:00 am

Yesterday, the Jerusalem Post reported that two accused Lebanese spies for Israel and their families fled to Israel.

Two Lebanese citizens suspected of spying for Israel have fled the country and crossed the heavily fortified border into Israel, a senior Lebanese security official said Monday.

The official said the men, one of them a 49-year-old mathematics teacher, entered Israel Monday morning through a gate at the border fence near Kibbutz Bar Am. Each man was accompanied by two of his children, according to the official.

The account suggests that they may have coordinated their escapes with Israel, but doesn’t say so explicitly. Still I share Israel Matzav’s skepticism that they really were spies. There have been a number of Lebanese accused of being spies for Israel lately. No doubt a part of the reason has been Israel’s secret war against Iran. Ronen Bergman lists a number of episodes:

On July 12, 2006, thanks to precise intelligence, the Israeli Air Force destroyed almost the entire stock of Hezbollah’s long-range rockets stored in underground warehouses. Hezbollah was shocked.

In July 2007, another mysterious accident occurred in a missile factory jointly operated by Iran and Syria at a Syrian site called Al-Safir. The production line — which armed Scud missiles with warheads — was shut down and many were killed.

In September 2007, Israel destroyed a nuclear reactor built by Syria and aided by North Korea in Dir A-Zur — despite Syria’s significant efforts to keep it a secret. With indirect authorization from a very high ranking Israeli official, the CIA published incriminating pictures obtained by Israel of the site before it was bombed. These photos convinced the world that the Syrians were indeed attempting to manufacture a nuclear bomb.

In February 2008, Hezbollah’s military leader, Imad Mughniyah, was killed in Damascus. In August of that year, Gen. Mohammed Suliman, a liaison to Hamas and Hezbollah who participated in the Syrian nuclear project, was assassinated by a sniper.

In December 2008, Israel initiated operation Cast Lead, which dealt Hamas a massive blow. Most of its weapons were destroyed within days by Israeli air strikes. (Israel also knew where the Hamas leadership was hiding, but since it was in a hospital Mr. Olmert refused to authorize the strike.) In January 2009, Israeli Hermes 450 drones attacked three convoys in Sudan that were smuggling weapons from Iran to the Gaza Strip.

(I’ve been skeptical that Israel killed Mughniyah, but Bergman knows more than I do.) Bergman though writes:

These are all excellent achievements, but did they change reality? Mostly not.

I won’t give him any argument on this point, but these hits are making Iran and Hezbollah nervous.

UPDATE: Tom Gross points out that Bergman is very well connected and believes that the article may have included a message:

In addition to alerting people outside Israel, Bergman’s piece may well have the Israeli leadership in mind. In this respect it performs a similar function to a recent article in Ha’aretz by that paper’s intelligence correspondent Yossi Melman (who also has excellent contacts in Israeli intelligence). Both pieces serve as a warning from the Israeli intelligence community to Prime Minister Netanyahu, urging him not to give in to Obama’s pressure and back away from taking decisive action on the Iranian issue.

Crossposted on Yourish.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

04/26/2009

3 arrested in Lebanon for spying for Israel

Filed under: Iran, Israel — Tags: , — Soccerdad @ 7:04 am

The New York Times reports that Lebanese authorities have arrested three men for spying for Israel.

The arrests on Saturday were based on information from Adeeb al-Alam, a retired Lebanese general who was arrested this month and charged with spying for Israel for over at least a decade. Mr. Alam traveled regularly to Europe to meet with Israeli officials, and at their behest he set up a business that brought women to Lebanon to work as maids to help disguise his activities, Lebanese security officials said.

Over the past year, according to the article, Lebanon has arrested 9 people for spying for Israel.

In many cases, Hezbollah has discovered and captured spying suspects before handing them to the authorities in Lebanon. Hezbollah, a Shiite militant group, whose political wing has strong representation in the Parliament and cabinet, is the most powerful military force in Lebanon, and it is also widely thought to have the best intelligence network.

This year, Hezbollah captured Marwan Faqih, a businessman in Nabatiye who is believed to have sold dozens of cars to Hezbollah officials with tracking and listening devices inside them, on behalf of Israeli intelligence. Mr. Faqih was handed over to the authorities in Lebanon and charged with collaborating with Israel.

Clearly there’s been some sort of shadow war going on in Lebanon. And while it may be comforting to Lebanon (and its Syrian and Iranian overlords) to attribute these killings to Israel, I’m not convinced that Israel has had anything to with them. Maybe I’m naive, but I’m not convinced that Israel killed Imad Mughniyeh in Damascus either.

Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has said repeatedly that the group would retaliate against Israel for the 2008 killing of Imad Mugniyah, a top Hezbollah military commander.

In other words, arresting people who were inconvenient to Hezbollah for some other reason would be a good way of showing that Hezbollah is doing something and not impotent in that case.

I also think that the arrests are a sign of nervousness about Iran’s nuclear program, as Iran has made a number of arrests and an execution for espionage recently. And as Iran’s proxy bordering Israel, I expect that the nervousness has spread to Hezbollah.

(I should emphasize, that my feeling that Lebanon’s espionage arrests are based on false accusations, is not based on any inside knowledge. I do know that Fatah and Hamas have used the charge of “collaboration with Israel” to rid themselves of people who were inconvenient. I suspect that Hezbollah and Iran work much the same way.)

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

01/08/2009

Iran opens a second front?

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, Terrorism — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 2:00 am

Did Iran order Hezbullah to shell northern Israel yesterday?

A Katyusha barrage was fired Thursday at the Nahariya area in the Western Galilee. Police reported that two people were lightly wounded and evacuated to the local hospital. Several residents were treated for shock.

[...] Residents rushed to take cover in shelters and fortified areas, as children throughout the town were making their way to school.

It’s a typical terrorist tactic. They deliberately aim to kill as many children as possible.

Israel returned fire.

The IDF shelled the areas in southern Lebanon from which Katyusha rockets were fired at Israel’s north Thursday morning. There were no initial reports of injuries.

Military sources estimated that the attack was carried out by a Palestinian organization and not by Hizbullah, in light of the type of rockets used.

It could easily have been Iran’s orders. Hezbullah doesn’t sneeze without asking the mullahs’ permission. And Iranian orders were given yesterday.

A senior Iranian politician met Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Damascus on Wednesday as the Palestinian Islamist group considered an Egyptian proposal for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

Ali Larijani, speaker of parliament and one of the major figures in the Islamic Republic, met Mashaal and several high level officials from Hamas at the Iranian embassy in the Syrian capital, witnesses said.

The meeting stretched into the early hours of Thursday, with no details emerging from the deliberations. Larijani earlier met leaders of Islamic Jihad, a smaller Palestinian group with close links to Iran.

Iran thinks it’s time to up the ante for Israel, since Hamas hasn’t been able to do much against the IDF. It’s not too difficult to make the rocket attack look like it isn’t Hezbullah. But both UNIFIL and the Lebanese army increased border patrols. Yes, there was that incident in December where the Lebanese army defused eight rockets ready to launch at Israel. But I wouldn’t be at all surprised to find out that this is Hezbullah.

Time will tell.

12/31/2008

Is the price of oil keeping Hezbullah peaceful?

Filed under: Iran, Israel, Lebanon — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 8:00 am

Oil is sticking around $40 a barrel (it closed at $39 and change today). Iran is in trouble.

Iran’s president presented parliament with a sweeping economic package Tuesday that calls for scrapping costly state subsidies for fuel, water and electricity and raising taxes to make up for the steep slide in world oil prices.

The move is a risky one for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who already is facing public disenchantment over Iran’s economic problems as he heads into June elections. Economists have warned that his plan will push up prices, worsening inflation now running at 28 percent.

But it’s even better (or worse) than that.

Iran relies on oil for 60% of its budget, half of which is spent on welfare. Starved for money, Mr. Ahmadinejad proposes to free some consumer prices and cut spending. Corruption, mismanagement (inflation at 25%) and unmet populist promises already made Mr. Ahmadinejad unpopular at home. Now the austerity talk is raising the domestic temperature. In October, a strike by bazaar merchants forced the government to delay a sales tax. The universities are restive again (see “Iran’s YouTube Generation,” Dec. 15) and the government wants to push through a hated gasoline rationing plan.

Apparently, Iran’s budget has oil pegged at $60/bbl. Ouch. Sucks to be you, Mad Mullahs. And will the Mullahs loosen the pursestrings of their Swiss bank accounts? Of course not. Let the peasants eat—um. What’s an Iranian delicacy?

Here’s what I find most satisfying right now: The price of oil went up a dollar or two since the start of Israel’s war on Hamas. Then it pretty much went back down again on the news that demand is going nowhere. When you have a land awash in a commodity that isn’t as desirable today as it was a mere six months ago, well, you either have to utilize other parts of your economy, or you have to just suck up the $100/bbl difference. But when oil revenues make up 60% of your budget—well, then you don’t get to do the things you really want to do.

Is the price of oil stopping the mullahs from ordering Hezbullah to open a second front against Israel? Perhaps. It could also be that they’re keeping Hezbullah in reserve for a possible attack on their nuclear facilities. Omri says it’s because the IDF flat-out stated not long ago that the next time Hezbullah attacks Israel, the IDF will flatten Lebanon. Not just the Hezbullah sections of Beirut. The entire country. Here’s the article he cited:

In any future conflict with Hizbullah, Israel will likely cite the Shi’ite group’s increasing influence within the Lebanese cabinet as a legitimate reason to target Lebanon’s entire infrastructure, government sources have told The Jerusalem Post.

So. Is the price of oil affecting Iran’s decision? Is it the desire to hold Hezbullah in reserve in case Hamas does get totally chewed up and spit out by the IDF? Or is it because the Lebanese know that Israel isn’t making idle threats about infrastructure?

Once again, Omri:

Evaluating Hezbollah – The consensus seem to be that they won’t attack lest the IAF flatten southern Lebanon. There were several mentions about the noticeable lack of activity in the south.

I’ll go with the Israeli sources on this one. They’re better informed. The fact that Iran is going to be facing probable riots in the near future because the price of oil has dropped? Well, that’s just a nice little extra.

11/24/2008

Hezbullah stronger than ever

Filed under: Israeli Double Standard Time, Lebanon, United Nations — Tags: , — Meryl Yourish @ 8:00 am

It’s good to know that the UN is enforcing UNSC resolution 1701, calling for the disarmament of Hezbullah. Because otherwise, Hezbullah might be three times stronger now than it was during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.

Hizbullah has grown three times stronger than at the end of the Second Lebanon War, Defense Minister Ehud Barak told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.

“They have 42,000 missiles now, which could also reach Ashkelon, Beersheba and Dimona. The radical axis of Iran, Syria and Hizbullah is becoming stronger compared to the axis of the more moderate countries,” he added.

If we didn’t have UN Peacekeepers in Lebanon, turning a blind eye to the rearmament (and the truckloads of weapons coming in from Syria), things might be even worse than they were two and a half years ago.

As for Hizbullah’s recent exercises in southern Lebanon, Barak said this proves that UN Resolution 1701 is not working.

“Hizbullah’s involvement in the state of Lebanon, this identity, exposes Lebanon and its infrastructures to deeper damage in case of a future conflict,” he noted.

I’m so happy that UN is concentrating on the important things, like a day of mourning for the Palestinians to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the UN partition of the British Mandate. It’s great that Nobel Peace Prize winners are calling for the expulsion of Israel from the UN, but not a nation that has taken an armed terrorist group, responsible for the deaths of Americans and Israelis the world over, into their government and made them legitimate—even as they regularly threaten to use their weapons to destroy Israel.

Yes, just another day in Israeli Double Standard Time.

10/17/2008

The anti-Israel bias, cont’d.

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:30 am

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s report on Israel and Hezbullah illustrates perfectly what is wrong with the way that the world looks at any conflict that involves Israel.

A report released Thursday by United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon described Hezbollah as a threat to Middle East security, and called for both the Lebanese militant group and Israel to stop threatening each other through the media.

The report, sent to the members of the UN Security Council, also criticized Syria for allowing weapons smuggling to Lebanese militias.

Ban’s report indicates that Hezbollah continues to maintain a militia separate from the Lebanese government.

[...] “I therefore reiterate my call on Hezbollah to comply with all relevant Security Council resolutions, and urge all parties which maintain close ties with Hezbollah and have the ability to influence it, in particular Syria and Iran, to support its transformation into a political party proper,” it said.

The report also cited the “the urgency and importance of ensuring that the Government has the monopoly on the use of force in Lebanon.”

This is all well and good. The report calls Hezbollah out for being in violation of two UNSC resolutions (as opposed to Israel, which is in violation of zero UNSC resolutions, in spite of the anti-Israel crowd’s insistence otherwise). But here’s where the logic gets all blown to hell:

Ban also leveled criticism at the remarks made by GOC Northern Command Gadi Eisenkot to the daily Yedioth Ahronoth several weeks ago regarding the Israel Defense Forces’ plans to use “disproportionate force” should war again break out with Lebanon or Hezbollah.

In response, senior Hezbollah figures told the media the organization would respond forcefully to any Israeli attack.

“I am disturbed by the repeated exchanges of threats, through the media, between Israel and Hezbollah. I urge all parties to cease this public discourse, which creates anxiety among civilian populations on both sides,” he said.

Get it? Hezbollah threatens Israel with thousands of missiles, an illegal militia, and has stated quite clearly that it wants to destroy Israel. These are unquestionably threats. Israel says she will defend herself strongly against an attack. This is considered a threat, both by Israel, and by the AP, which wrote this article. Look at the language in bold. Israel was responding to the Hezbollah threat. The AP structures it as a threat by Israel to the Iranian proxy army.

Language matters. This is the sort of thing that gets picked up by the left, swallowed whole, and then repeated—until it becomes conventional wisdom. Israel is exchanging threats, not declaring that she will defend herself strongly in the event that Hezbollah launches another attack on her.

This is one reason why Israel is so hated in the world. The cards are stacked against her from every organization, and every angle.

09/07/2008

Hizbullah: We’ll never make peace with Israel

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 6:00 am

Say, good to see ol’ Chipmunk Cheeks confirming what we’ve known all along: It’s not about Zionism. It’s about Jews. He’ll never make peace with Israel.

In his speech Nasrallah stressed that even if Lebanon receives control of the Shebaa Farms,his organization will continue to battle Israel. “We are not using Shebaa as an excuse to bear weapons. If the area is freed the weapons will remain because we are talking about a defensive strategy against a threatening country such as Israel,” he said.

And of course, there are the threats:

He warned Israel against attacking Lebanon, as the IDF would lose. “All of Israel is saying that in a new war against Lebanon the only way to determine victory will be through terrestrial warfare, that’s why Barak promised us five divisions,” he said.

So, where is Nasrallah making these threats from again? Oh, that’s right. It’s a secure, undisclosed location—because he’s afraid he’s going to get a Hellfire missile enema.

Here’s hoping.

08/15/2008

Nasrallah threatens from secure, undisclosed location

Filed under: Israel, Juvenile Scorn, Lebanon — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 11:30 am

So, when Chipmunk Cheeks Nasrallah makes threats on TV from a hidden location deep in Lebanon, should we do anything more than laugh, loudly and scornfully?

Speaking on Lebanese television in a special broadcast marking two years since the end of the Second Lebanon War, Nasrallah said that the outcome of the war “affected Israel and the entire region.”

[...] Nasrallah accused Israel of planning to assassinate Hizbullah leaders, saying this would not deter Hizbullah from continuing its battle against Israel.

“I tell the Zionists: We don’t fear you. Say whatever you want and do whatever you want. We know that you are planning new assassinations of resistance leaders. But this will not make us retreat,” he said. “We are staying here and standing fast here.”

The Hizbullah leader went on to say that Israel was helpless in dealing with the Iranian Islamic Republic, and that even Israel recognizes its own inability to cope with the rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

To review: He doesn’t fear Israel or the Zionists, and yet, he’s afraid to show up in public unless surrounded by thousands of civilians, knowing full well that Israel won’t drop bombs on him if there is a risk of killing women and children. He doesn’t fear Israel or the Zionists, yet he has been in hiding for years. He doesn’t fear Israel or the Zionists, and yet, he can’t walk in the open in downtown Beirut, his stomping grounds.

Yeah, “cognitive dissonance” is not a phrase bandied about much in NasrallahLand.

08/03/2008

The myth of land for peace

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, Syria — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 10:00 am

Ehud Olmert insists that the Syrians want peace. Some pundits are claiming that Syria needs only to be torn from its alliance with Iran, given back the Golan Heights, and allowed to continue its domination of Lebanon, and there will be peace between Syria and Israel. But if that’s all it takes, land for peace, well, someone isn’t getting the memo.

Or how do you explain these words by the dictator of Syria?

“The Zionist regime is not strong and the states can obtain their rights through resistance and determination,” he added.

During the meeting Assad stressed that the ongoing indirect talks between Israel and Syria under Turkish mediation would not affect Damascus’ ties to Iran. “Syria is working to embolden its relations with Tehran and is determined to maintain its cooperation and coordination with Iran.”

“Resistance,” of course, is the code-word among Arab regimes for war. And Ehud Olmert’s lack of leadership is what has caused Israel’s enemies to say things like this:

“The liberation of all occupied lands, the return of the Palestinian (refugees), the establishment of a Palestinian state and the collapse of the Zionist regime are not considered by the region’s nations to be goals that are unattainable,” the Iranian president said.

Hamas leaders believe this. Hezbullah leaders believe this. Israel’s deterrence was pretty much destroyed in the 2006 failed Lebanon war. Meantime, Hezbullah is now part of the Lebanese government, and it worked quickly to draft new rules allowing it both to retain its weapons and use the government of Lebanon to legitimize its fight against Israel. Hezbullah’s aims are being codified:

“Lebanon, its army, its people and its resistance [Hezbollah] have the right to take action to liberate lands that have remained occupied at the Shaba Farms, the hills of Shuba village and the northern portion of the village of Ghajar, with all legitimate means possible, and to resist Israeli aggression.”

The Shaba farms were never part of Lebanon. They were part of Syria, but Hezbullah uses this excuse to keep its “resistance” against Israel going. And note that now they’re expanding their territorial claims, so that even if Israel gives Lebanon the Shaba farms, Hezbullah will have another reason to continue fighting. And if Israel cedes that land to Lebanon, Hezbullah will come up with another reason. It isn’t small pieces of territory that is the Muslim grievance against Israel. It is her very existence. When Hamas calls “Palestine” an Islamic Waqf, every Muslim in the world nods his head in agreement, whether they are gun-carrying terrorists of Hamas or educated men discussing the Israel situation on Al Jazeera. It isn’t a matter of ceding territory. There will never be peace as long as Muslims think that Jews do not belong in their historic homeland—and as long as the world insists on calling Israelis “settlers” or “colonials.” I am once again struck by the absolute adherence to The Exception Clause that is so evident in the world: Everyone has the right to return to the lands of their origin—except for Jews.

And this mindset is what allows the very president of Lebanon to call war with Israel “legitimate:”

Suleiman announced Friday, during an address for Army Day, that “the countdown for the restoration of the Shaba farms and the hills of Shuba village has begun … all means are possible and legitimate to this end.”

The drumbeats of war are getting louder. I don’t believe the stories about peace with Syria. Bashar Assad has too much to gain from staying in Iran’s axis. And while it would be extremely valuable to remove the Syrian threat, I don’t think it will be gone. I think that Syria’s army will simply bombard Israel from the Heights again, while Hezbullah and Hamas attack from two sides.

I certainly hope Israel chooses a better leader, and does it soon. She needs one.

06/29/2008

Breaking: Samir Kuntar to be freed

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, Terrorism — Tags: , , , — Meryl Yourish @ 9:24 am

Looks like Israel is creating more reasons for Hezbullah, Hamas, and other terrorists to kidnap more Israelis. They’re freeing Samir Kuntar and other Lebanese prisoners for what is now declared the corposes of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser.

The cabinet approved Sunday the prisoner exchange deal with Hizbullah, which will facilitate the return of IDF captives Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. The motion was carried with a majority of 22 ministers.

Earlier, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urged his ministers to vote in favor of the deal. “At the end of a long process, I have reached the conclusion that as the Israeli prime minister I must recommend that you approve the proposal which will bring this painful affair to an end – even at the painful price it requires us to pay,” Olmert said during Sunday’s cabinet meeting.

I’m not an Israeli. I don’t understand why the nation will allow terrorists to hold it hostage this way. But I do understand cause and effect, and incentives. Israel has just guaranteed that Hezbullah will try to kidnap more soldiers. Next up: the Hamas swap for Gilad Shalit.

There’s one tiny point of light at the end of this dark tunnel. I think that Israel may be clearing up all the details of her prisoners and KIA hostages as a way to clear the decks for action in Gaza. In other words: If Israel has her captives back, whether they are alive or dead, she can then start clearing out the terrorist rat’s nests with a clear conscience, and without fear that it is causing their deaths.

Mind you, I have a tendency to see the glass half-full, so this may be entirely wishful thinking. But maybe it isn’t.

06/22/2008

The price of appeasement

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, Politics — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 3:08 pm

Israel appeases Hamas by entering a truce with them, and Hizbullah gets the message: Israel is a pushover.

Hizbullah has returned to its original demand that Israel release not only several Lebanese prisoners but also hundreds of Palestinian ones in exchange for kidnapped soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, Ynet has learned.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s specially appointed envoy overseeing MIA affairs, Ofer Dekel, heard the renewed stipulation at a meeting with German mediator Gerhard Conrad in Berlin last week.

And why not? Israel is ignoring the fact that Hamas is using the truce to rearm and regroup, showing Hizbullah that Ehud Olmert will agree to just about anything these days. He’s offering the Golan to Syria and allowing the U.S. and the UN to ignore the UN-agreed-to Shebaa Farms border. So why would Nasrallah think that he needs to actually deal in good faith with Israel? No one else is.

The prime minister vehemently rejected the renewed demand. Israel has repeatedly said it would not consider including Palestinian prisoners in a deal for Regev and Goldwasser under any circumstances. Hizbullah is insisting on the clause to solidify its standing in the Arab world as patrons of the Palestinian cause.

Sure. And a few weeks ago, Olmert vehemently objected to any truce that didn’t include Gilad Shalit’s freedom. Just wait. He’ll cave on this, too. He’s currently threatening to fire all of his cabinet ministers who vote to dissolve the government this week. It remains to be seen if his ministers care more about Israel than they do for their own positions. I wouldn’t bet the farm on it.

The Labor ministers left the government meeting in order to confer with Labor Chairman Ehud Barak. One of the ministers who witnessed
the scene told Ynet that “The Labor ministers were seriously spooked and immediately left to ask Barak what they should do. The prime minister has proven to them that they won’t be able to keep their jobs while undermining the government.”

Let him fire you, morons. You’ll only be out of work for as long as it takes to complete new elections.

Barak told his ministers that they must hold their ground and vote for the dissolution of the Knesset in view of the multiple police investigations held against Olmert.

Labor announced last week that it intends to back the future motion of dissolution, although given the choice it would “opt for governmental stability rather than new general elections”.

Translation: Polls show a Labor defeat, so we won’t call for elections yet.

I simply can’t get a handle on why Israeli politicians suck so much, and then I take a look around at American politicians, and I go, “Oh.”

06/20/2008

The whole shebaa-ng

Filed under: Iran, Israel, Israel Derangement Syndrome, Lebanon, Syria — Tags: , , , — Soccerdad @ 9:00 am

Back in February, 2002, Thomas Friedman trumpeted the Saudi “peace plan” as proposed by then-Crown Prince (now King) Abdullah:

Earlier this month, I wrote a column suggesting that the 22 members of the Arab League, at their summit in Beirut on March 27 and 28, make a simple, clear-cut proposal to Israel to break the Israeli-Palestinian impasse: In return for a total withdrawal by Israel to the June 4, 1967, lines, and the establishment of a Palestinian state, the 22 members of the Arab League would offer Israel full diplomatic relations, normalized trade and security guarantees. Full withdrawal, in accord with U.N. Resolution 242, for full peace between Israel and the entire Arab world. Why not?

I am currently in Saudi Arabia on a visit — part of the Saudi opening to try to explain themselves better to the world in light of the fact that 15 Saudis were involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. So I took the opportunity of a dinner with Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, and de facto ruler, Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud, to try out the idea of this Arab League proposal. I knew that Jordan, Morocco and some key Arab League officials had been talking about this idea in private but had not dared to broach it publicly until one of the ”big boys” — Saudi Arabia or Egypt — took the lead.

After I laid out this idea, the crown prince looked at me with mock astonishment and said, ”Have you broken into my desk?”

”No,” I said, wondering what he was talking about.

”The reason I ask is that this is exactly the idea I had in mind — full withdrawal from all the occupied territories, in accord with U.N. resolutions, including in Jerusalem, for full normalization of relations,” he said. ”I have drafted a speech along those lines. My thinking was to deliver it before the Arab summit and try to mobilize the entire Arab world behind it. The speech is written, and it is in my desk. But I changed my mind about delivering it when Sharon took the violence, and the oppression, to an unprecedented level.

After this free publicity, Abdullah went around the Arab world to garner support for his initiative. On one of his stops he visited Syria and as the NY Times reports, President Bashar Assad gave his crucial support to the initiative.

Syria expressed its support today for a Saudi peace effort for the Middle East, while a bomb planted in an Arab schoolyard and crude rockets fired at an Israeli town fed the rapidly expanding blood feud between Israelis and Palestinians.

In its first statement on the plan proposed last month by Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, which pledges Arab countries to a full normalization of relations with Israel in return for full Israeli withdrawal from land occupied in the 1967 war, Syria expressed its ‘’satisfaction with the position of Saudi Arabia.”

The statement followed a meeting between Prince Abdullah and President Bashar al-Assad of Syria in Riyadh. It said a comprehensive peace ”cannot be achieved except with Israeli withdrawal from all occupied Arab land, including the Syrian Golan.” The statement also called for the right of return for Palestinian refugees, a matter critical to Lebanon, where many of them live.

This report leaves out a critical point. Syria insisted that Abdullah include language demanding an Israeli withdrawal from Southern Lebanon. The communique from the Arab summit reflects this change:

Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967, including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.

What’s remarkable about this demand is that Israel had already withdrawn beyond the accepted international border of Lebanon two years earlier!

The United Nations has confirmed that Israeli troops have completely withdrawn from south Lebanon. But the Lebanese Government rejected the UN verification, saying Israeli forces were still in control of some part of Lebanese territory.

The point of the dispute was the area known as the Shebaa farms.

A group of farms close to the poorly-defined border of Lebanon and Syria has emerged as a potential new flashpoint for conflict between Israel and Lebanese Muslim guerrillas.

The Syrian-backed guerrilla group, Hezbollah, says Israel must withdraw from the area of the Shebaa farms – which it says lies on Lebanese territory – or face continued attacks.

Israel says most of the area lies on the Syrian side of the Lebanon/Syria border and that it will only withdraw from the part marked as Lebanese territory on United Nations maps.

I suspect that the vagueness of the BBC’s reporting here is due to its pro-Arab bias, adding uncertainty to Israel’s claim, but later on it gets to the key point:

Syria agrees with Lebanon that the Shebaa farms area is part of Lebanon.

However, Israel points out that it seized the territory from Syria, during the 1967 Middle East War.

This isn’t a small matter. After everyone claimed that Hezbollah would lay down arms or if they didn’t would be exposed as terrorists worthy of destruction. Here’s Thomas Friedman from his fantasy “How Bibi got re-elected”

Now that Israeli troops are out of Lebanon, noted Mr. Netanyahu, everything is reversed: Politically, if the Iranian-directed Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas try to come across the border, they will be invading Israel, and Israel will be justified in massively retaliating against Lebanese, Syrian and Iranian troops that abet such an invasion. And if Israel does retaliate, it won’t be with guerrilla warfare, but with the Israeli Air Force massively striking Lebanese, Iranian and Syrian military targets in Lebanon, and maybe inside Syria.

But of course Hezbollah regularly violated the border between 2000 and 2006. In 2004 Friedman wrote:

Israel’s withdrawal is not a cure-all for this. Israel will still be despised. But if it withdraws to an internationally recognized border, it will have the moral high ground, the strategic high ground and the demographic high ground to protect itself. After Israel withdrew from Lebanon, the Hezbollah militia, on the other side, went on hating Israel and harassing the border — but it never tried to launch an invasion. Why? Hezbollah knew it would have no legitimacy — in the world or in Lebanon — for breaching that U.N.-approved border. And if it tried, Israel would be able to use its full military weight to retaliate.

Friedman having been proved wrong that Hezbollah would at least respect the border and would devote its energies to building itself politically in Lebanon. So he comforted himself by raising the threshold: Hezbollah would never invade Israel. It was a standard that would be proven wrong in 2006.

And of course behind Hezbollah’s continued war against Israel was the false pretext that Israel still “occupied” Lebanese territory, Shebaa Farms. That is the reason that Syria actively promoted the idea that Shebaa Farms was Lebanese. It needed a justification for allowing Hezbollah to continue attacking Israel with impunity. Alan Makovsky put it like this:

Support for Hizballah and the Lebanese claim to Shebaa Farms
Syria not only endorsed an Arab League summit statement supporting Lebanon’s claim to Shebaa farms, but Syrian U.N. ambassador Mikha�il Wahbi also wrote in an October 24 letter, “Israel . . . has not completed the withdrawal from south Lebanon to the internationally recognized borders, including the Shebaa farms.” This stance, in effect, justifies ongoing Hizballah attacks on Israel, retaining for Syria a source of pressure on Israel, despite the “loss” of southern Lebanon. Syria has supported and has no doubt directed Lebanon�s refusal to deploy its troops to the border following the Israeli withdrawal.

And the more pernicious implication of the claim that Shebaa Farms is Lebanese territory, is that it shows that the Arab world will continually change the terms to which Israel must comply in order to earn an ill-defined “peace.” So it’s a mistake for Israel to accede to this demand. It’s also a mistake for the West – especially the United States – to promote this fiction. All it does is strengthen Iran and its proxies at the expense of Israel and the West.

I’ve provided you with this background so we can evaluate a few paragraphs from yesterday’s New York Times on the current effort to push Israel to negotiate with Lebanon over Shebaa farms:

When Israel withdrew from the occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, the United Nations Security Council stated that the withdrawal was complete even though Israel held onto the disputed area because Shebaa, the United Nations said, was part of the Syrian Golan Heights occupied by Israel.

But Lebanon and Hezbollah say the land is Lebanese, and Syria has not contradicted them. Moreover, Hezbollah has used Israel’s hold over Shebaa as a reason for keeping its men under arms despite United Nations resolutions calling for the disarming of all Lebanese militias.

Hezbollah says that as long as part of the Lebanese homeland is occupied, it needs its weapons because the national army is weak.

But the West, especially the United States and France, wants to reduce the power of Hezbollah, a client of both Syria and Iran, and has been looking for ways to strengthen the pro-Western government of Lebanon.

On Wednesday, Hezbollah officials made clear that they viewed Israel’s offer as part of an effort to disarm the group. “If they really want to give us back our land, they can withdraw and implement the Security Council resolutions,” said Nawar Sahili, a Hezbollah member of Lebanon’s Parliament, referring to a United Nations resolution that calls for the Shebaa issue to be resolved.

Saying that Syria “has not contradicted” Hezbollah on Shebaa farms is a vast understatement. Syria has promoted this idea for its client Hezbollah.

The assertion that Israel negotiating with Lebanon will somehow strengthen the “pro-Western government of Lebanon” is outright nonsense. It will strengthen Hezbollah at the expense of the nominally pro-Western government of Fuad Siniora.

Finally, quoting a member of Hezbollah mentioning Security Council resolutions without mentioning the various resolutions that Hezbollah is violating serves to give cover to the terrorist organization.

Resolution 425 which Israel fulfilled when it withdrew from Southern Lebanon, also called for the disarming of militias and the Lebanese army establishing control over southern Lebanon. Hezbollah’s continued control over Southern Lebanon prior to 2006 stood in direct violation of that resolution. And its re-arming now – which the article notes – violates Resolution 1701 – which the article doesn’t note.

For Israel, the main concern in Lebanon is Hezbollah’s increasing power. Israeli military officials say that Hezbollah has many more rockets and much deadlier ones today than it had two years ago when the two fought a monthlong war after Hezbollah guerrillas crossed the border to capture and kill Israeli soldiers.

Acceding to Syria’s and Hezbollah’s demands will only serve to strengthen them. If Israel gives in here, Hezbollah will make new demands. Better that Israel should be (unfairly) portrayed as unreasonable than that Iran’s proxies should be strengthened even further.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

06/11/2008

The true obstacles to peace

Filed under: Israel, Lebanon, Syria — Tags: , , — Meryl Yourish @ 6:16 pm

The true obstacles to peace in the Middle East are not settlements. The obstacles are the thugs ruling the Arab states that refuse to ever compromise.

First, Syria says Israel can forget about peace until AFTER she gives up all the land that should rightly be the object of the discussion towards peace between the two nations:

A senior Syrian official said on Tuesday no direct negotiations will be held with Israel until it recognizes what Damascus regards as requirements for a deal.

“I think it is too early to resume direct talks. There are conditions,” Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal al-Mekdad told reporters. “I hope Israel responds to the requirements of peace, which are the end of the occupation of Palestine and the establishment of a Palestinian state, restoration of the Syrian Golan and pull out of remaining occupied Lebanese territory,” he added.

Now, Lebanon says the same thing after Olmert floated the balloon of starting peace talks with Beirut. In order to achieve peace, Israel must begin bargaining after giving away the farm:

Lebanon poured cold water Wednesday on Israel’s hope that Beirut would follow Damascus in opening peace talks with Israel, saying it had to withdraw from what Beirut considers its occupied land.

Lebanon’s response came after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told his cabinet on Tuesday he hoped Lebanon would consider opening talks on peace with the Jewish state.

In other words, give us everything we want and then some, and maybe we’ll talk peace after that. The Arab position hasn’t changed. They said no in 1948, again in 1967, and have been saying no to peace with Israel for over 60 years.

Let’s remember that next time some moron insists that it’s “settlements” that are stopping the peace process. No, it’s Arab irredentism and rejectionism of Israel.

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