By Andrew L. Jaffee

Hezbollah claims to be fighting on behalf of Arabs, but is killing innocent Arabs, including 2 children. Hezbollah is responsible for the deaths of all Lebanese killed by Israel in defense of its sovereignty. So are the “Arab heavyweights” really trying to rein in Hezbollah, or is this the usual double-talk? From the AP:

With Israel and the United States saying a real cease-fire is not possible until Hezbollah is reined in, Arab heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia were pushing Syria to end its support for the guerrillas, Arab diplomats in Cairo said.

A loss of Syria’s support would deeply weaken Hezbollah, though its other ally, Iran, gives it a large part of its money and weapons. The two moderate Arab governments were prepared to spend heavily from Egypt’s political capital in the region and Saudi Arabia’s vast financial reserves to break Damascus from the guerrillas and Iran, the diplomats said.

Syria said it will press for a cease-fire to end the fighting — but only in the framework of a broader Middle East peace initiative that would include the return of the Golan Heights. Israel was unlikely to accept such terms but it was the first indication of Syria’s willingness to be involved in efforts to defuse the crisis.

In Washington, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal asked President Bush to intervene.

“I have brought a letter from the Saudi King to stop the bleeding in Lebanon,” Saud told reporters after the Oval Office meeting.

I’m impressed that the AP actually stated as a fact (no “alleged” prefix) that Iran is Hezbollah’s main benefactor. But al-Faisal’s “bleeding in Lebanon” makes me think we’re hearing the usual Arab “unity” sophistry — e.g., look at the Arab unity between Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq, or between Saddam’s Iraq and Kuwait, or between Kuwaitis and its former Palestinian refugees, or between Jordan and the Palestinians during Black September, or the Lebanese civil war, or al-Qaeda’s bombing in Amman, etc., etc.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

It seems that the U.N. is only “appalled” by what Israel does in self-defense, and not when Hezbollah specifically targets Israeli Arabs and Jews:

The UN’s Jan Egeland has condemned the devastation caused by Israeli air strikes in Beirut, saying it is a violation of humanitarian law.

Mr Egeland, the UN’s emergency relief chief, described the destruction as “horrific” as he toured the city.

No U.N. visits to view the outcome of Hezbollah’s specific targeting of civilian centers?

In Haifa, two people died as Hezbollah rockets struck the Israeli city.

Fifteen people were reportedly injured by the volley of rockets, which struck a house and an industrial zone.

The BBC News website’s Raffi Berg visited the scene of one of the rocket attacks in northern Haifa.

He says the rocket exploded next to a carriageway, raking passing cars with shrapnel and ball bearings and killing a man in a nearby vehicle.

A later barrage of missiles was reported to have injured five people.

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by Bill Levinson

netWMD Special Report: Hezbollah Facts

There has been considerable talk of Hezbollah’s plans to use chemical weapons on Israel, and now it is said that Hezbollah is planning to use radiological weapons: radioactive materials to be dispersed by conventional explosives. We don’t know what Israel’s policy is toward such weapons but Hezbollah and its Iranian sponsors should be reminded of the United States’ policy: chemical = biological = nuclear. An attack with a chemical or biological weapon is the equivalent of a nuclear attack and invites retaliation in kind. Since the United States has no chemical or biological weapons with which to respond, the nature of the retaliation would be obvious.

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Middle East Quarterly*
Summer 2006
http://www.meforum.org/article/983
* Cross-posted with permission

President George W. Bush has made democratization a central focus of his administration’s Middle East policy. He declared during his second-term inauguration: “It is the policy of the United States to seek and support the growth of democratic movements and institutions in every nation and culture, with the ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world.”[1] But how successful has this effort, known as the Bush doctrine, been? Elections in Iraq and the Palestinian Authority favored Islamists, many of whom embrace violence and consider liberal democracy anathema. Does the instability inherent in democratization undercut U.S. and European security? Is the U.S. government pushing democracy too quickly? Or not fast enough? On March 9, 2006, Patrick Clawson, senior editor at the Middle East Quarterly and deputy director for research at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, convened a roundtable to discuss U.S. democratization efforts in the Middle East. Joining him were Joshua Muravchik, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and author of Exporting Democracy: Fulfilling America’s Destiny,[2] Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, Michael Rubin, also a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute and editor of the Middle East Quarterly, and Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

netWMD Special Report: Hezbollah Facts

Of course the U.S. has sided with Israel in its conflict with Hezbollah. The House and Senate have passed almost unanimous resolutions supporting the Jewish state — a matter of public record. Secretary of State Rice has ruled out a “ceasefire.” President Bush has stated categorically that, “Israel has a right to defend herself.”

Now the talking heads have gotten a hold of the fact that the U.S. is rushing delivery to Israel of precision bunker-busting bombs, to aid in the Jewish state’s fight against the terrorist group Hezbollah. Hand-wringing has already started because the expedited delivery “is likely to anger Arab governments because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding Israel at such a sensitive time,” according to the BBC.

Such a sensitive time? Hezbollah is shooting rockets into Israeli civilian centers. Israel is a democracy and a staunch ally. So what if previous administrations have involved the U.S. in years of “shuttle diplomacy” to solve the Palestinian/Israeli conflict? Look at where we are now. Another Palestinian terrorist group is operating at will from inside the territory of a sovereign Arab state, Lebanon. Of course the U.S. is taking sides.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

When considering the Middle East conflict in general, and the current war between Israel and Hezbollah, it is important to keep your intellectual arsenal stocked with the facts:

• Hezbollah is committed to the destruction of Israel. From the Middle East Quarterly:
  

  Here, then, is Nasrallah on the future intentions of Hizbullah:

  One of the central reasons for creating Hizbullah was to challenge the Zionist program in the region. Hizbullah still preserves this principle, and when an Egyptian journalist visited me after the liberation and asked me if the destruction of Israel and the liberation of Palestine and Jerusalem were Hizbullah’s goal, I replied: “That is the principal objective of Hizbullah, and it is no less sacred than our [ultimate] goal…

  See also: Parliament of Australia, ADL, and the BBC:

  The party’s rhetoric calls for the destruction of the state of Israel.

• Even the BBC admits the cause of the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah:
  

  The crisis was triggered by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah militants on 12 July.

• Hezbollah is using Lebanese civilians as human shields. Source: Houston Chronicle. See also the San Francisco Chronicle.
• Hezbollah is specifically targeting Israeli civilians by launching rockets at urban centers. Source: BBC.
• Hezbollah is indiscriminate in targeting civilians and has killed Arab children with its rockets. Source: Reuters.
• Hezbollah rockets have landed near Palestinian villages. Source: Reuters, Washington Post.
• Hezbollah leader “Nasrallah has declared Arab casualties of his group’s rocket attacks ‘martyrs for Allah.’” Source: All Headline News.
• Hezbollah has hidden weapons in mosques. Source: Fox.
• Israel regularly warns Lebanese civilians before attacking Hezbollah tagets. Source: Daily Mail. See also Bloomberg.
• Hezbollah is defying U.N. Resolution 1559, calling for the disarming of all militias based in Lebanon. See the BBC.
• Hezbollah is a proxy for two of the world’s most active state sponsors of terrorism, Syria and Iran. See the Council on Foreign Relations.
• Hezbollah has an immense arsenal of weaponry at its disposal. In its own words, from the Middle East Quarterly:
  

  “They say [we have] 12,000 rockets — I say more than 12,000 rockets.”

• Israel has the right to exist as a sovereign, secure democracy. Information about the history of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is not that hard to find. For example, take the World Almanac and Book of Facts, available in any mainstream bookstore and at most public libraries. Its profile of Israel states:*
  

  … The Hebrews probably arrived early in the 2d millennium BC …

  … Arab invaders conquered Palestine in 636. The Arabic language and Islam prevailed within a few centuries, but a Jewish minority remained …

  … Jewish immigration, begun in the late 19th century, swelled in the 1930s with refugees from the Nazis; heavy Arab immigration from Syria and Lebanon also occurred. Arab opposition to Jewish immigration turned violent in 1920, 1921, 1929, and 1936. The UN General Assembly voted in 1947 to partition Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish state. Britain withdrew in May 1948.

  Israel was declared an independent state May 14, 1948; the Arabs rejected partition. Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia invaded, but failed to destroy the Jewish state, which gained territory. …

  So we have ancient evidence of a Jewish presence in “Palestine” since 2000 BC, which can easily be found in any reputable archaeological journal. We have evidence of a continuous Jewish presence in the Holy Land. We have evidence that Arabs, not just Jews, were immigrants into the Levant. Finally, we see that Arabs violently rejected the hallowed concept of a Palestinian homeland in 1948. *Source: The World Almanac and Book of Facts 2002, World Almanac Education Group, Inc., New York, NY, 2002, pp. 808-817.

• Israel unilaterally withdrew from Lebanon in 2000 and Gaza in 2005, and plans to withdraw from the West Bank. Source: Wikipedia.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Just what are these Cambodians lamenting? And why give an atheist murderer a Buddhist funeral? From the BBC:

Hundreds of Cambodians have paid their respects to Ta Mok, a former Khmer Rouge leader nicknamed “The Butcher”.

In a traditional Buddhist funeral ceremony, incense was burned and prayers recited over Ta Mok’s body, which was daubed with white powder.

The ceremony took place in Ta Mok’s former stronghold of Anlong Veng, in the north of Cambodia.

Ta Mok, who died on Friday, was the regime’s military commander and linked to many atrocities of the 1970s.

About 1.7 million people died under the Khmer Rouge, through a combination of starvation, disease and execution.

Ta Mok was the only Khmer Rouge leader who refused to bargain with authorities following the collapse of the regime, and he was arrested in 1999 near the Thai border.

by Andrew L. Jaffee

Even the BBC admits the cause of the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah:

The crisis was triggered by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah militants on 12 July.

A glimmer of hope?

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by Asaf Romirowsky
FrontPageMagazine.com*
July 21, 2006
http://www.meforum.org/article/980
* Cross-posted with permission

netWMD Special Report: Hezbollah Facts

Since Hamas’ victory in the Palestinian elections we are witnessing a vindication and renewal of Israel’s targeted assassination policy. Even before Hamas was “legalized” Israel used this technique to cause disarray within terrorist groups. It is now timelier than ever.

Historically, the U.S government never really approved Israel’s policy of targeted killings, even when American citizens were victims of terrorist bombings. As Department of State Spokesman Richard Boucher articulates, “We [America] are against targeted killings. We’re against the use of heavy weaponry in urban areas, even when it comes to people like Mohammed Deif, who have been responsible for the deaths of American citizens.”

But if Hamas’ attacks from Gaza were not enough, Hizbollah’s opening of a second front war against Israel shows that America more than ever should back Israel on her endeavor to root out the terrorist elements wherever they may be found. The U. S. must begin to see Israel’s war on Hamas as Washington views its own war against Former Government Officials (FGOs) from Saddam Hussein’s Baath regime, as well as Washington’s war against al-Qaeda terrorists. The bottom line is that fighting terrorism is useless unless the top leaders, planners and footsoldiers have been eliminated.

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by Michael Rubin
New York Daily News*
July 20, 2006
http://www.meforum.org/article/979
* Cross-posted with permission

netWMD Special Report: Hezbollah Facts

As fighting continues between Israel and Hezbollah, both the British government and the United Nations have called for the dispatch of an international peacekeeping mission to southern Lebanon. “The only way we are going to have a cessation of violence is if we have an international force deployed,” British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Monday. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan added that such a force is “essential.”

But with its long and troubled history in the region, the idea of sending a peacekeeping force should be dead on arrival.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

The U.S. House today joined the Senate in emphatically standing behind Israel in defending itself from terror:

The House, displaying a foreign affairs solidarity lacking on issues like Iraq, voted overwhelmingly Thursday to support Israel in its confrontation with Hezbollah guerrillas.

The resolution, which was passed on a 410-8 vote, also condemns enemies of the Jewish state.

Click here to see how your representative voted.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was the only Republican to vote against the resolution. Democrats who voted against the measure of support were Neil Abercrombie of Hawaii, John Conyers, Carolyn Kilpatrick and John Dingell, all from Michigan, Jim McDermott of Washington, Nick Rahall of West Virginia and Pete Stark of California.

House Republican leader John Boehner cited Israel’s “unique relationship” with the United States as a reason for his colleagues to swiftly go on record supporting Israel in the latest flare-up of violence in the Mideast.

If your representative voted against the pro-Israel resolution, please click here to find contact info and give him/her a tongue-lashing.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

After an interminable diatribe by Secretary General Kofi Annan at the U.N. today, John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador there, asked the question which most of the world’s politicians do not have the guts and/or intelligence to ask:

Still no-one has explained how you conduct a ceasefire with a group of terrorists.

Yes, yes, yes. Anan did chide Hezbollah for shooting rockets into Israel. But the Secretary General still discussed Israel and Hamas as if they were equals, both responsible for the current situation in the Levant. As usual, Israel had to give a deaf world, drunk with moral relativism, a reality check:

Israel’s UN ambassador Dan Gillerman said he was disturbed that Mr Annan’s report had not mentioned the word “terror”.

“The first thing that must be addressed is cessation of terror before we even talk about cessation of hostilities,” he said.

After all, Israel is a nation that actually warns civilians in Lebanon before attacking. Hezbollah hides behind civilians to carry out its terrorist activities.

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by Daniel Pipes
Los Angeles Times*
July 20, 2006
http://www.danielpipes.org/article/3765
* Cross-posted with permission

netWMD Special Report: Hezbollah Facts

A leading Israeli philosopher some years back referred to his countrymen as “an exhausted people, confused and without direction.” Before he became prime minister, Ehud Olmert publicly declared these extraordinary words: “We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies.” In that demoralized spirit, the state of Israel retreated twice in five years under fire, from Lebanon and from Gaza — and now, as a consequence, is fighting wars in precisely those places.

Individual members of congress have noticed this problem; I suggest that the executive branch take Olmert at his word and buck up this fatigued but exceptionally close ally. Even if Israel can very capably defend itself (as recent events have confirmed), it lacks the will to make the protracted efforts to defeat its enemies. And Israel’s enemies — Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran — are also America’s enemies.

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

Some said President Bush was over-imaginative when he talked about an “Axis of Evil,” which included Iran and North Korea. Today, we find that Iran and North Korea may be coordinating their efforts in the worst possible way: in the development of nuclear weapons and corresponding delivery systems. From Reuters:

One or more Iranians witnessed North Korea’s recent missile tests, deepening U.S. concerns about growing ties between two countries with troubling nuclear capabilities, a top U.S. official said on Thursday.

Asked at a U.S. Senate hearing about reports that Iranians witnessed the July 4 tests, Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator with Pyongyang, replied: “Yes, that is my understanding” and it is “absolutely correct” that the relationship is worrisome.

Hill’s comments are believed to be the first public U.S. confirmation that Iranian representatives observed the seven tests, which involved one launch of a long-range ballistic missile, which failed soon after being fired, and six tests of short and medium-range missiles. Hill said the six succeeded in hitting their target range.

But U.S. officials have long said that Iran and North Korea have been collaborating and have expressed serious concerns that cash-strapped Pyongyang was keen to sell missiles and possibly also nuclear material. “Our understanding is that North Korea has had a number of commercial relations in the Middle East with respect to missiles,” Hill said.

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By Fern Sidman

As the war in Israel reaches new heights on both the northern and southern fronts, it was reported that Israeli launched over 110 airstrikes in Lebanon, with the latest being an attack on a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Lebanon. According to CNN, “Israeli warplanes dropped 23 tons of bombs on a bunker where Hezbollah leaders were holed up, according to the Israel Defense Forces.”

CNN also reported that, “Hezbollah said via its Al-Manar television station that none of its leaders was in the bunker at the time of the huge Israeli airstrike.”

Meanwhile, two more Israeli soldeirs were killed in heavy fighting as a small number of Israeli ground troops moved into southern Lebanon and two Arab children were killed as a result of a Katyusha rocket attack on the city of Nazareth. On the southern front, it was reported by Arutz Sheva that, “Some 30 armored vehicles entered a terrorist stronghold neighborhood in Gaza overnight; 17 terrorists were killed. Two soldiers were moderately wounded and a terrorist alert was issued for Petach Tikvah.”

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