Hezbullah threatens Israel over maritime borders

...Sub-Mariner

...Naim Qassem...

...Hezbollah on Wednesday issued a stark warning to Jerusalem, vowing to protect its maritime rights against "Israeli threats." Lebanon has a real interest in developing potential fields and a possible confrontation with Israel will not assist in obtaining the energy independence it is seeking. Analyzing Lebanese declarations, it is clear that the Lebanese have chosen first to seek a diplomatic solution either through the UN apparatus or through international courts and bodies of arbitration that specialized in those disputes. It comes as no surprise, however, that the sudden interest in the potential fossil-fuel wealth off the Israeli and Lebanese coastlines has turned the Mediterranean into a potential theater of confrontation between Israel and Hizbullah. The Lebanese group already boasts an amphibious warfare unit trained in underwater sabotage and coastal infiltration. Hizbullah's ability to target shipping - and possibly offshore oil and gas platforms - was exposed in the war with Israel in 2006 when Hizbullah came close to sinking an Israeli missile boat with an Iranian version of the Chinese C-802 missile. Hizbullah fighters have since hinted that they have acquired larger anti-ship missiles with double the 72-mile (116 km.) range of the C-802 variant.

Islamic Feminism

UN 1701: Hezbollah setting up missile launchers in Southern Lebanon is fine, but a floating Premenstrual syndrome is against the rules.

UN Accuses Israel of Spying on Lebanon - denied correlative is UN 1701

A United Nations force in southern Lebanon says it is investigating a blast reportedly caused by the detonation of an Israeli device spying on Hezbollah's private telecommunications network.

 The militant Hezbollah group said Friday it discovered what it said was an Israeli device in the southern village of Majdel Silim. Both the group and the Lebanese army said the device was apparently detonated remotely by the Israelis.

via israelnationalnews.com

they say it as if spying on people that are breaking international law and are trying to kill you is a bad thing

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Congress still withholding US military aid to Lebanon

Contrary to reports last week, Congress (Representatives Howard Berman (D-Cal), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fl) and Nita Lowey (D-NY) is still holding up US military aid to Lebanon.

U.S. Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy said Wednesday that the Pentagon was working closely with Congressmen to resolve their concerns over military assistance to Lebanon.
"We are working closely with members of the U.S. Congress to resolve the concerns they have over military assistance to Lebanon," said Flournoy following talks with Premier Saad Hariri at the Grand Serail.
She reiterated U.S. commitment to Lebanese sovereignty and territorial integrity and the full implementation of U.N. Security Council resolutions 1559, 1680, and 1701.
"We remain determined to work with the Lebanese government to extend its authority over all of Lebanon, and to advance political and economic reforms that benefit the people of Lebanon," she said.
Flournoy said this commitment includes U.S. support to the Lebanese army to help the Lebanese government exercise its sovereignty and authority over all of its territory.

This is nonsense. The Lebanese government is controlled by Hezbullah and unfortunately only a civil war will stand a chance of removing that control. The Lebanese army, under the watchful eyes of UNIFIL, has allowed the reconstitution of Hezbullahland in southern Lebanon. Worst of all, the Lebanese army is now under the control of Hezbullah.
US military aid to Lebanon ought to be withheld. Lebanon is on the wrong side.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

that is good news though. Obama will be gone in two years!
Stop supplying $$$$ for murder

noahdavidsimon's posterous

Bulldozer Bullshit at Border

A patrol from the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) soon arrived on the scene and stopped the bulldozer's activity.
Contacts are underway to determine the full details behind the incident.

YNet gives a little perspective.

The Lebanese news agency reported that the Lebanese Army has raised its alertness in south Lebanon's western front near al-Mahmoudia after an IDF bulldozer entered the area in order to dig a water canal.
A UNIFIL patrol stopped the bulldozer and initiated negotiations between the parties. The IDF Spokesman's Unit said in response that the force was engaged in routine activity and did not cross the border.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Islamic Feminism at it's funniest

UN 1701: Hezbollah setting up missile launchers in Southern Lebanon is fine, but a floating Premenstrual syndrome is against the rules.

The French ship Mariam, now renamed Julia, which plans to bring female 'activists' to Gaza, has now been cleared to sail to Cyprus. The Lebanese government would not clear the ship to sail directly to Gaza as that would violate UN Security Council Resolution 1701 (please don't ask since when Lebanon is concerned about such things - I've been wondering about that myself). But they did clear it to sail to Cyprus. I'm not sure why they expect Cyprus to clear them to sail directly to Gaza. But they're going there anyway.

Lebanon has given permission for another flotilla to leave Tripoli for Gaza, according to a Beirut minister quoted by an-Nahar Monday morning.
Lebanese Transport Minister Ghazi Aridi said the ship named Julia is now docked at the northern Lebanese port of Tripoli and can set sail once it is cleared by port authorities there. He said the ship would be allowed to sail to Cyprus and not directly to Gaza in order to abide by UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for a full cessation of hostilities by both Lebanon and Israel and forbids any paramilitary activity south of the Litani River.
Aridi said the voyage of the ship, the French-registered Julia, would not violate the terms of the cease-fire resolution. To clear the confusion over the latest Gaza flotilla initiative, Aridi added that while the ship was named Julia, the voyage itself was named Mariam.
He stressed that Lebanon’s government would take full responsibility over the ship’s course, its cargo and the female activists – both foreign and Lebanese – on board.
Israeli UN ambassador Gabriela Shalev warned Friday that the attempt by the organizers to sail from Lebanon and deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza could escalate tensions and affect peace and security in the region. She cited in particular the ships' departure from Lebanon which "remains in a state of hostility with Israel." She also cited "a possible link" between the organizers and the Shiite Muslim Hizbullah group.

Don't these people have jobs? Or is this meant to be fodder for What I did on my summer vacation?

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

note: the flotilla was postponed 

For Reuters, only Israel is subject to international law

Reuters correspondents seem to relish the citing of non-binding findings in international law that disfavor Israel -- like the ICJs advisory opinion on the security fence in 2004.  They are much more circumspect however, to note authoritative resolutions issued by bodies like the UN Security Council that find for Israel and/or condemn Arab violations of international law.  Take for example, the UNSC ruling in June of 2000 that Israel had completely withdrawn from Lebanese territory and that the Shebaa Farms area belongs not to Lebanon, but to Syria.  Reuters correspondent Yara Bayoumy appears to be confused about the independence of this determination:

Israel and Hezbollah have traded threats, even though each insists it is not seeking another conflict. One potential flashpoint is Shebaa Farms, a tiny area claimed by Lebanon but still occupied by Israel, which says it was Syrian territory.

For Bayoumy, it is only Israel that is asserting Shebaa Farms is not a part of Lebanon; there is no mention of the UNSC ruling confirming the same.  Thus, it's reported as simply a "he said-she said" between Israel and Lebanon with no reference to international law that upholds Israel's view.

In suggesting that the belligerent parties may be moving toward another war, Bayoumy cites the "unsubstantiated" allegation of the transfer of Scud missiles from Syria to Hezbollah:

The region has stayed largely quiet since 2006 with U.N. and Lebanese army troops monitoring the border. But unsubstantiated Israeli allegations that Syria has transferred long-range Scud missiles to Hezbollah have caused rumors of war to swirl.

In fact, Hezbollah has confirmed receiving the Scuds and Bayoumy fails to make any mention of Hezbollah's rearming with tens of thousands of other rockets in violation of UNSC Resolution 1701.
Just another Swiss cheese sandwich prepared by Reuters.

via r-mew.blogspot.com

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

UN 1701 and other promises

Prior to the 1991 war, the Americans promised Israel that in the event of a Scud attack, U.S. aircraft would concentrate on knocking out the Scuds within the first 48 hours. However, as explained by Moshe Arens, who served as Israel’s defense minister at the time:

The problem of hitting mobile launchers was far more difficult than the U.S. had envisioned. Although there was intensive aerial activity directed at hitting the Scud launchers, not a single Scud launcher was hit or immobilized during the five weeks of the Gulf War.

Then the Americans sent over the Patriots. The Patriot was probably the most advanced anti-aircraft missile around at the time, and was advertised as also having anti-missile capability. As it turned out, the Patriot missiles in Israel did not succeed in intercepting a single Scud missile.

Today, senior American officials are not promising to destroy Hizbullah Scuds; they are denying that they’re in Lebanon.
After all, such a deployment would be a serious violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701 which prohibits the “supply of weapons to any entity in Lebanon without the consent of the Government of Lebanon.” (This raises the question of whether Lebanon’s government, cowering before a resurgent Syria, agreed to the Scud deployment. If so, that makes Lebanon, its military, and infrastructure complicit and fair game in the event of another war.)

via pajamasmedia.com

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Syria Sends Long-Range Missiles to Hizballah in Violation of U.N. 1701

Obama and the state department are starting to sound like a Lewis Carroll story.

State Department: Yes, missiles have been delivered, it explains, but only "in part." What does this mean? Perhaps the Syrians merely shipped Hizballah equipment or parts to repair and enhance missiles it delivered earlier in violation of the U.S.-sponsored ceasefire agreement. via rubinreports.blogspot.com

Apparently Obama borrowed this loophole in logic from the Kennedy administration who argued that an attack on Cuba could be avoided because there was a small chance that the Soviets were doing repairs.

Lebanese tear down Israeli barrier on disputed border

Aabasiya: Lebanese residents dismantled a barbed wire fence set up by Israeli troops in a disputed border area yesterday, leading to a call for restraint by UN peacekeepers in the tense region. 
"The residents have taken down the barbed wire near the village of Aabasiya, which Lebanon considers part of its territory," a Lebanese military spokesman said on condition of anonymity.
Israeli troops set up the fence on Tuesday near the Blue Line, a UN-drawn border with Lebanon, in what the Lebanese army claims was a violation of Lebanese territory. Around 20 Lebanese, led by MP Qassem Hashem, marched into Aabasiya near the disputed area of Ghajar at the Lebanese border with Syria and Israel and tore down the barrier before leaving the area. Two Israeli tanks and dozens of soldiers immediately arrived at the border as Lebanese troops went on alert across the Blue Line, which was established after the withdrawal of Israeli troops from southern Lebanon in 2000 following a 22-year presence. The UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon — UNIFIL — said however that the Lebanese demonstrators had crossed the UN-drawn border.
The demonstrators "crossed the Blue Line and... removed sign posts of a minefield as well as concertina wire which was laid by the Israeli Defence Forces three days ago, and placed two Lebanese flags next to the Israeli technical fence," UNIFIL deputy spokesman Andrea Tenenti said. "UNIFIL has contacted the parties in order to prevent any escalation of the situation, urging restraint and calling on them to take the necessary steps in accordance with their obligations under UN Security Council 1701," he added.

via thepeninsulaqatar.com

the missing correlative not mentioned in the Arab press here is that UN 1701 also asks that Hezballah not be arming as part of a Lebonese government with advanced weaponry. Essentially any codes declared by the UN are voided by now... that is if one were to take the UN seriously at all

Posted via web from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Hassan Nasrallah Play

I'm willing to bet that Israel will not wait and give Iran it's discretion on when they will attack Israel through Lebanon. Hezbullah is clearly part of the Lebanese government and they are building up forces in contradiction with UN 1701.

Sadly unless the world itself acts and does the right thing... Israel will be making a sacrifice play. Attacking Lebanon will not only cost Israel Lebanese lives, but many Jewish lives. There is no alternative to survive.

Israel may pre-emptively strike at Lebanon. This could happen under one of two scenarios: either that Israel decides to take care of Hezbullah before it feels it has to strike Iran's nuclear capability, or that Israel decides that Hezbullah's rocket supply is getting too big to ignore. I don't believe the second scenario is likely because if that were the case, I believe it would have happened already. But it's entirely conceivable that Israel would pre-emptively strike Hezbullah to remove that threat before it has to go after Iran. In that case, Israel would be looking for at least a month of lead time before Iran's nuclear capability is scheduled to go on line. The delayed international effort to stop Iran is bringing the day that Israel may have to take matters into its own hands much closer. When it comes to its own survival, Israel will not defer to the international community. The nearly wall-to-wall support for Operation Cast Lead a year ago (91% of the Jewish population) proves that.

Ahmadinejad may never have a chance to play the Hezbullah card.

For once, the Obama administration did the right thing.

US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton sent a message to Beirut that Washington cannot prevent an Israeli strike in Lebanon as long as arms smuggling to Hezbollah continues.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

It is just a matter of time before Israel's hand is forced... Much like the War of Attrition, and every other war with the Arabs, the enemy builds up it's forces onthe border. This is a pattern from history and whenever you read it online that Israeldid indeed attack first they always deny the correlative fact that the enemy had put their forces into position form attack through numbers. This time with missiles. The attack on Lebanon will destroy much of Northern Israel, but it also will flatten Lebanon. This could be a very good thing for Israel because if Iran has a WMD they will certainly attempt to put it North of Israel's border. Israel does not have the liberty to wait to be attacked.

Hariri is no Saint

the State of Lebanon is in conflict with UN Resolution 1701, have let Hezbollah into their government and have become a vassal of Syria

Although the Obama administration has hesitated before rushing headlong into renewing relations with Damascus, it has undertaken a series of gestures that have demonstrated that any real policy of isolation is over. This goes hand in hand with the broader regional stance of the administration of attempting "engagement" with the Iranian regime.

Far from signaling to Middle Eastern powers that a new world of cooperation is about to commence, what this US stance conveys to friends and foes in the region is that Washington no longer has the stomach for holding fast against the bid by Iran and its allies for regional hegemony.

The clients, and the clients of the clients, therefore move to make their accommodation with the changed reality.

via jpost.com

they can't control themselves from murdering people? Do you have any idea how much money these people in power in the Middle East have? every criminal organization has conflicting parties that people might have empathy for. Every great dramatic villain has a sob story. That is the nature of evil. Were not the Germans themselves victims of harsh punitive actions from WWI?

In Washington, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman failed to persuadePresident Barack Obama to drop objections to Hizbullah's rearming, and instead "exert further pressure" on Israel to withdraw from disputed areas along its border with Lebanon. Suleiman acted "more like the Syrian ambassador than the Lebanese president," observed Farid Ghadry, the Washington-based head of the Reform Party of Syria.

Obama publicly told Suleiman he should enforce UN Resolution 1701 by disarming Hizbullah and halting its "extensive" arms smuggling, which poses "a threat to Israel." Suleiman disagreed, insisting that part of the resolution no longer applies to the militant group because it is a legitimate political party and part of Lebanon's government, which has authorized it to retain its weapons. The real threat, he told Obama, is from Israel.

via jpost.com

The argument you have is they can't help but send missiles? If my neighbor next door were launching missiles to the next town and I knew that there would be missiles back... I'd do everything I could to get those missiles out of a residential area. These people are responsible and it is the population that will suffer. Their country is culpable and they will suffer casualties. I'm not going to let my family get killed because other people don't have the chutzpah to contain the hate in their neighborhood. If these people do not follow the terms agreed... the only situation is to kill back... and this is not said lightly because the missile capability is three times what it was in 2006. I suspect you have some kind of orchestrated bias against Jewish people living if you feel otherwise. Keep in mind that Hariri is backed by the Sauds. He has all the money in the world. if he wanted to he could buy soldiers with loyalty. he is meeting with Syria because he benefits double. don't believe that sob story about his dad for a second. these guys kill each other all the time and for all we know Assad had nothing to do with the death of his father. It might of been some fringe Shia group. Hariri is picking his allies. don't pity him. he isn't caught between anything. don't worry about these murderers. Hariri can afford a miliary. He chooses Syria because he is united in hate against Israel. if Sunni Hamas can take money from Iran... so can Hariri

original post 12/27/09

Last week's visit by Lebanese Prime Minister Sa'ad Hariri to Damascus is the latest marker in the return of the coercive Syrian presence in Lebanon. It is also an indication of Syria's successful defiance of the west.

via jpost.com

Assad’s regime assassinated Saad Hariri’s father, Rafik, in 2005 for just gingerly opposing Syria’s occupation of Lebanon. There is no alternate universe where Saad Hariri is OK with this or where his generically “positive” statements at a press conference were anything other than forced.

via commentarymagazine.com

The pro-western and pro-Saudi March 14 movement, led by Hariri, achieved a modest victory in elections in June. This victory was effectively nullified in the lengthy coalition "negotiations" that followed. The new government as finally announced in November represented the unusual spectacle of a wholesale capitulation of the electoral victors before the vanquished.

The Hizbullah-led opposition kept their effective veto power in the Cabinet. The government's founding statement included an acknowledgement of the legitimacy of Hizbullah's continued armed presence.

via

jpost.com

Now, with Hezbollah playing a more active role in the Lebanese government, Lebanon could be held more responsible for Hezbollah actions against Israel, Israeli security officials and experts say.

via nytimes.com

Lebanon has to decide which side it's on. Either it can stand up to Hezbullah the way the Iranian people are now standing up to the mullahs or it can bear the consequences when Hezbullah uses their infrastructure to fire cannon fodder at Israel. While I feel sorry for those Lebanese who don't support Hezbullah and want to live in peace with us, I feel more sorry for the Israelis who are likely to be under fire by Hezbullah in the next war.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

I was invited to dinner at Hariri’s house earlier this year and had a long and frank discussion about politics with him and some colleagues. I can’t quote him because the meeting was off the record, but trust me: the man is no friend of the Syrian government or Hezbollah, and it’s not just because someone in that crowd killed his father. His political party, the Future Movement, champions liberalism and capitalism, the very antithesis of what is imposed in Syria by Assad’s Arab Socialist Baath party regime and the totalitarian Velayat-e Faqih ideology enforced by the Khomeinists in Iran and in the Hezbollah-occupied regions of Lebanon.

Hezbollah and its sponsors in Tehran and Damascus have forced Hariri to do a number of things lately — to give it veto power in his government’s cabinet and to surrender to its continuing existence as a warmongering militia that threatens to blow up the country again by picking fights with the Israelis.

Hariri and his allies in parliament resisted an extraordinary amount of pressure on these points for months before caving in, but cave in they did. They didn’t have much choice. The national army isn’t strong enough to disarm Hezbollah,

and unlike Iran’s tyrant Ali Khamenei, Hariri doesn’t have his own private army. Hezbollah militiamen surrounded his house last year and firebombed his TV station when the government shut down its illegal surveillance system at the airport. At the end of the day, Hariri has to do what Hezbollah and its friends say unless someone with a bigger stick covers his back when push comes to shove.

No one has Hariri’s or Lebanon’s back, not anymore. He and his allies in the “March 14″ coalition have sensed this for some time, which is why Druze leader Walid Jumblatt has grudgingly softened his opposition to Assad and Hezbollah lately. When Hariri went to Damascus, everyone in the country, aside from useless newswire reporters, understood it meant Syria has re-emerged as the strong horse in Lebanon.

Walid Jumblatt is another member of what David Schenker calls the Murdered Fathers Club. Assad’s ruthless late father, Hafez Assad, put Jumblatt through a similarly gruesome experience back in the 70s during the civil war. First Assad murdered Walid’s father, Kamal, then summoned the surviving Jumblatt to Damascus and forced him to shake hands and pledge his allegiance. Who can even imagine what that must have felt like? Hariri knows now, and Jumblatt still tells everyone he meets all about it.

Hariri generally doesn’t like having long conversations with journalists on the record because he doesn’t want to calculate how everything he says will be simultaneously interpreted in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Israel, the United States, France, and Saudi Arabia. I can’t say I blame him. He lives under virtual house arrest as it is, with barely more freedom of movement than Hassan Nasrallah. Here is something he said, though, back when it was safer for him to do so: “Action must be taken against Syria, like isolation, to make the Syrians understand that killing members of [Lebanon's] parliament will have consequences.”

The U.S. and France did effectively isolate Assad with Saudi assistance when George W. Bush and Jacques Chirac were in charge, but presidents Barack Obama and Nicolas Sarkozy think they can save the Middle East by “engaging” its most toxic leaders. Syria, therefore, is no longer isolated. Lebanon’s little anti-Syrian government doesn’t stand a chance under these circumstances, especially not when Hezbollah is the dominant military power in the country.

“It’s a dangerous game these people are playing,” Lebanese activist and political analyst Eli Khoury said last time I spoke with him in Beirut, “but I think it’s only a matter of time until the newcomers burn their fingers with the same realities that we’ve seen over and over again. I’ve seen every strategy: Kissinger’s step-by-step approach, full engagement — which means sleeping with the enemy, basically — and the solid stand as with the Bush Administration. I’ve seen them all. The only one that works so far in my opinion, aside from some real stupid and dumb mistakes, is the severing of relationships. It made the Syrians behave.”

It did make the Syrians behave a bit for a while, but now the U.S., France, and Saudi Arabia are bringing Assad in from the cold and giving him cocoa. His influence, naturally, is rising again, in Lebanon and everywhere else. That’s good news for Hezbollah, of course, which means it’s also good news for Iran. It’s bad news for the Lebanese, the Americans, the French, the Saudis, and the Israelis. None of this was inevitable, but — in Lebanon, at least — it was predictable.

via commentarymagazine.com

Hariri is no Saint

In Washington, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman failed to persuadePresident Barack Obama to drop objections to Hizbullah's rearming, and instead "exert further pressure" on Israel to withdraw from disputed areas along its border with Lebanon. Suleiman acted "more like the Syrian ambassador than the Lebanese president," observed Farid Ghadry, the Washington-based head of the Reform Party of Syria.

Obama publicly told Suleiman he should enforce UN Resolution 1701 by disarming Hizbullah and halting its "extensive" arms smuggling, which poses "a threat to Israel." Suleiman disagreed, insisting that part of the resolution no longer applies to the militant group because it is a legitimate political party and part of Lebanon's government, which has authorized it to retain its weapons. The real threat, he told Obama, is from Israel.

via jpost.com

Lebanon in violation of UN 1701

no targets are off limits. Hizzbollah has joined the government and thus Lebanon is open to full responsibility. http://noahdavidsimon.blogspot.com/2009/12/lebanese-government-lets-hizbullah-keep.html six times as many missiles are being put in civilian locations. do something about it before Israel has to defend itself from rocket fire

no targets are off limits. Lebanon in violation of UN 1701

and of course this will be all Israel's fault when it attempts to take out missiles launched at it's civilians....

Lebanon's new government Wednesday endorsed Hizbullah's right to keep its weapons, the latest sign that the group has no intention of meeting a UN resolution calling for it to disarm.

Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah is seen speaking via a video link as journalists listen to him during a press conference in Beirut on Monday.


Lebanon's government is a shaky coalition of Western-backed factions and Hizbullah, which has virtual veto power over the government. The group is said to have thousands of rockets and missiles hidden in basements and bunkers throughout Shi'ite Muslim areas of the country.

A United Nations resolution that ended the Second Lebanon War calls on the group to disarm.
Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said recently that his group has replenished its weapons stock since 2006 and now has more than 30,000 rockets, which he said can strike virtually anywhere in Israel.

via jpost.com

This now means that in the next war no targets are off limits to Israeli forces. Hizzbollah has joined the government and thus Lebanon is open to full responsibility. Note also that Hizzbollah has now also placed Lebanon, as a country, in violation of UN 1701. Finally Hizzbollah has threatened Israel again and indicated that Israel is occupying Arab lands. Iran is the patron of these developments-this story continues to emerge.

via docstalk.blogspot.com

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701 is a resolution that was intended to resolve the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.

It was unanimously approved by the United Nations Security Council on 11 August 2006. The Lebanese cabinet, which includes two members of Hezbollah, unanimously approved the resolution on 12 August 2006. On the same day, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that his militia would honor the call for a ceasefire. He also said that once the Israeli offensive stops, Hezbollah's rocket attacks on Israel would stop. On 13 August the Israeli Cabinet voted 24-0 in favor of the resolution, with one abstention. The ceasefire began on Monday, 14 August 2006 at 8 AM local time, after increased attacks by both sides.

via en.wikipedia.org