MIDDLE EAST: Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah rattle sabers

Israel and Hezbollah are at it again.

In a thinly veiled warning to the militant Shiite group Hezbollah, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak reiterated on Thursday the Israeli position that all of Lebanon would pay dearly for any attack launched from its territory.

"If there is a conflict on our northern border, we will use all necessary force," Barak told Israeli public radio.

“What happened in the second Lebanon war will not happen again,” he said, indicating that Israel would target even more of Lebanon’s infrastructure.

Hezbollah's international relations officer, Ammar Moussawi, responded to Barak's comments, warning that any Israeli attack on Lebanon "won't be a picnic," according to Al Manar, the party's TV station.

Hezbollah did not release an official statement, but its website prominently featured a piece by Ibrahim Al-Amin, a journalist considered close to Hezbollah. Writing for the left-leaning daily Al-Akhbar today, Al-Amin dismissed Israel’s threats as “messages to buy calm, not war.”

“This is based on Israel’s fears of Hezbollah possessing weapons that can tip the balance, namely an air defense system capable of crippling the Israeli Air Force,” he wrote.

Nevertheless, all the war talk has renewed fears among many in the Levant of another conflict breaking out. The July 2006 war between Israel and the militant Shiite group Hezbollah resulted in the deaths of over 1,200 Lebanese and 150 Israelis. Over 34 days, Israel also did extensive damage to Lebanon’s infrastructure, targeting bridges, roads, the Beirut International Airport, Lebanon’s largest dairy farm and the Jiyyeh coastal power plant that spilled some 15,000 tons of fuel oil into the Mediterranean, as well as significant portions of Dahiyeh, a residential area south of Beirut.

While Al-Amin lamented that “as the likelihood of an all-out confrontation increases, the options narrow” until a hugely destructive war seems inevitable, he emphasized the party’s readiness to confront any Israeli attack.

He concluded by taunting Israel: 

We are not talking about direct threats here. Israel has known for some time that the resistance [Hezbollah] possesses rockets that can reach every house in Tel Aviv. But the question is in regards to the deterrent effect of this threat. If Israel decides on a limited, surprise strike against the resistance in Lebanon or a selective, localized one, then Hezbollah will strike back even harder. And if the matter escalates, it will quickly turn into the Dahiyeh-Tel Aviv equation…Is Israel ready for this game? Does it really know what's on Hezbollah's mind, and what could the jewel in the Israeli crown [the military] do about it?”

-- Meris Lutz in Beirut

Photo: A screenshot from a Hezbollah website shows a photograph of Israeli military vehicles. Credit: Meris Lutz / For the Times

Comments

[Notorious ABG]

Truth unleashed? Riiiiight.

Funny how Israel Bashers don't rest in their quest to wipe out the past 10 years of 8000 missile strikes into pre-1948 Israel (Sderot was part of the original split of the land, which occured BEFORE all 5 neighboring Arab countries attacked the nascent Israel, but I digress....). Or was that 8 years of 10,000 missile strikes?

Either way, I don't see how this board actually promotes intelligence, education, or acceptance when the moderators allow Jew Haters and Israel Bashers to rewrite history simply by not acknowledging anything more than they hate Jews and Israel.

Way to go, LA Times.

[rezasantorini]

Hezbollah is not a country. Israel is.

[truthunleashed]

i think hezbollah has every right to defend its country if israeli attack but they need to take a chill pill right now and play the defensive side and NEVER the aggressor. only cause the obama administration has a difficult task at hand for getting palestinians their own state which majority of right wingers neo-cons and israeli govt opposes so he gota big fight ahead of him. hes a great president fighting to bring not only in the middle east but for our us interest. it will shift attention somewhere else cause thats what israel wants. they are conniving and decitefull and might even plot it to make it look like if the other side attacked first. right now palestinian state comes first so they need to put up any fight in backburner unless they really have too. israel is a parasite state who sucks usa blood for our free aid with our tax dollars. they are a warmongering country so if they cant pick a fight with iran, they are hungry for either syria or lebanon for their greed of their land and power. usa made the biggest mistake by arming these guys to the teeth cause now they are the biggest bully in the middle east committing war crimes killing children and women on a daily which has become the norm and the biased one side us media fails to report it as usual.

[truthunleashed]

i think hezbollah has every right to defend its country if israeli attack but they need to take a chill pill right now and play the defensive side and NEVER the aggressor. only cause the obama administration has a difficult task at hand for getting palestinians their own state which majority of right wingers neo-cons and israeli govt opposes so he gota big fight ahead of him. hes a great president fighting to bring not only in the middle east but for our us interest. it will shift attention somewhere else cause thats what israel wants. they are conniving and decitefull and might even plot it to make it look like if the other side attacked first. right now palestinian state comes first so they need to put up any fight in backburner unless they really have too. israel is a parasite state who sucks usa blood for our free aid with our tax dollars. they are a warmongering country so if they cant pick a fight with iran, they are hungry for either syria or lebanon for their greed of their land and power. usa made the biggest mistake by arming these guys to the teeth cause now they are the biggest bully in the middle east committing war crimes killing chilling

[Asten]

Please Israel will destory them if they really want to and carry out their attacks corretly. Everyone knows that only Israel has a air defense system in teh middleeast since the Yom Kippur war.