Israel in Lebanon - Déjà vu?

Israel has entered Lebanon. Israeli troops are battling Hezbollah fighters in Bint Jbeil inside Lebanon. Does this sound familiar?

The answer is yes. Back in 1982 Israel took over southern Lebanon, the result was a resistant group being set up called Hezbollah (or the Party of God). It is alleged that it emerged with financial backing from Iran in the early 1980s and began a struggle to drive Israeli troops from Lebanon. In May 2000 this aim was achieved, thanks largely to the success of the party's military arm, the Islamic Resistance.

Hezbollah won the respect of most Lebanese people. It provided a presence in the Lebanese parliament and has built broad support by providing social services and health care. But it did not demilitarise, despite UN resolution 1559, passed in 2004, which called for the disarming of militias as well as the withdrawal of foreign (i.e about 14,000 Syrian) forces from Lebanon.

Although Israel withdrew from most of Lebanon it still in occupation of an area called Shebaa Farms. Lebanon wants to reclaim this area. Hezbollah is fighting to get this back. Israel claimed that the area did not belong to Lebanon but to Syria. Syria claimed that the land belongs to Lebanon. Whatever the truth of the matter, this piece of land does not belong to Israel and should be returned to Lebanon or to Syria. The UN have told Isreal many times to get of of this area, but Israel never listens to the UN and continous to occupy land belonging to other countries.



During the previous occupation of Lebanon, Israel also took with them many prisoners (some fighters, some normal people who were abducted or kidnapped) many of them were women and children. These people have been locked up in Israel, some for decades. Like the detainees in Guantanamo, they never had access to proper trials. Hezbollah wants to see these people released and returned to Lebanon.

To get some of these prisoners released Hezbollah had adopted the tactic of kidnapping Israeli soldiers and have in the past successfully bargained with Israel to exchange with their troops. This time Israel attacked with aggression and Hezbollah retaliated. We seem to forget that Israel attacked first.

To date about 17 Israelis have been killed and over 360 Lebanese (half of them children) have been killed. As Israel destroys Lebanese infrastructure, thousands of people have fled their homes becoming instant refugees. You can be assured that many will never forget what has happened and many will not let Israel and the west forget either. Lets not create a new Hezbollah.



Lets hope Dr Condoleezza Rice has a successful visit in the Middle East. My advice to her is simple. Get Israeli troops out of Lebanon, give back the Shebaa Farms region to the Lebanese and return all the Lebanese prisoners held in Isreal. The result will lead to a complete end to the military side of Hezbollah.