Hezbollah buildup in Lebanon

The Associated Press is reporting that:

Israel's defense minister on Wednesday accused Syria of allowing the
rearmament of Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and said Israel has the right to
act "forcefully" against the Shiite militia to counter the threat.Defense
Minister Amir Peretz's comments came days after Israel said it discovered four
bombs in northern Israel recently planted by Hezbollah guerrillas. The Israeli
claim, denied by Hezbollah, immediately raised tensions along the volatile
border.

With all the U.N.'s self-righteous indignation and cries for peace during last summer's war, I'm wondering what the United Nations is doing to stop Hezbollah's military buildup now?

If Israel has to fight Hezbollah again, they should give non-Hezbollah-supporting residents fair warning to move out of southern Lebanon, and then take off the kid gloves this time.

Hezbollah re-arms in Lebanon

Remember last summer how the United Nations was going to reinforce its presence in Lebanon to keep the peace? What the United Nations actually did was, in effect, to stop Israel's pounding of Hezbollah so Hezbollah could re-arm for another day. Terrorism expert Daniel Pipes posted this to his website:

"Today comes a report by Uzi Mahnaimi in the Sunday Times (London), 'Hezbollah's missiles back in Lebanon,' that Hizbullah's forces are back in south Lebanon and stronger than ever. He quotes an Israeli intelligence officer. 'Since the ceasefire, additional rockets, weapons and military equipment have reached Hezbollah. We assume they now have about 20,000 rockets of all ranges — a bit more than they had before July 12." In a recent interview with Al-Manar, Hizbullah's television station, Hassan Nasrallah confirmed the Israeli estimate, claiming Hizbullah now possesses at least 30,000 rockets."

"Israeli military intelligence has warned the government that renewed fighting with Hezbollah, which it regards as a terrorist organisation, should be expected as early as next spring. In response, Israeli forces have taken emergency action. They have postponed a plan to reduce the length of national service — currently 36 months for men and about 24 months for women — and are stepping up production of better armoured tanks. They are also grouping all special forces into a single new division and are developing laser technology, jointly with the United States, to shoot down Hezbollah's rockets."

"Hezbollah sought war with Israel"

Aljazeera is reporting today that "Ahmed Abul Gheit, Egypt's foreign minister, said that Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, sought war with Israel to foil plans by the Lebanese government to disarm the group."

Where are they now?

Ambassador Dennis Ross pointed out on Fox's Weekend Live Saturday that the rocket fire from Gaza into Israel has not stopped for one day—not a single day—since Israel pulled out of Gaza!

This raises some serious questions: Where is all the international outrage against the Hamas government for their continued and unprovoked attacks against Israel? Why isn’t the United Nations Council on Human Rights condemning these attacks? Where is the media coverage of the violence against Israel? Why aren’t Cindy Sheehan and the anti-war crowd condemning these attacks? Why is it that when Israel is continually attacked the world remains silent, but when Israel responds, so many people and nations condemn Israel?

Lebanon president hides Nasrallah

At one point during Israel's war with Hezbollah, Israel Prime Minister Olmert said that Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, was hiding underground. DEBKAfile (Sept. 19) just reported that the Hezbollah leader was in fact hiding as the guest of Lebaneese President Lahoud on orders from Syria. Israel knew this but chose not to take Nasrallah out in order to keep from drawing Syria into the war.

If this report is accurate, Lebanon's hands in this war may have been much dirtier most people imagined.

America is the enemy

America is the enemy—well, that is apparently what most Lebanese think, anyway. In a recent poll, 69% considered America an enemy. In fact, 57% of the Lebanese people as a whole, and 94% of Shiite Muslims, even supported Hezbollah’s kidnapping of the Israeli’ soldiers (Lebanon Daily Star)! In the Middle East, I would have thought Lebanon was one of the more “moderate” Muslim nations.

The re-arming of Hezbollah

According to Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, the re-arming of Hezbollah has already begun--once again, right unding the nose of the U.N. See the Counterterrorism Blog. Syria, of course, denies the allegations (UPI), which is exactly what we would expect from a nation that supports terrorists.

Hezbollah's propaganda exposed

Hezbollah's propaganda exposed.

The U.N. and Hezbollah

An article just published in The Weekly Standard alleges that UNIFIL (United Nations Forces in Lebanon) regularly published current information about Israeli troop movements on its website during the recent war. It was no secret that UNIFIL passively allowed the military buildup of Hezbollah in southern lebanon in violation of U.N. resolutions, but if The Weekly Standard allegation is true, the U.N. was actively assisting Hezbollah terrorists in the war!

When will we realize that the U.N. is actually part of the problem? Yesterday I e-mailed my senator asking for an investigation. Please consider doing the same

Muslims and Christians in Lebanon

On August 9, Recliner Commentaries posted "Tolerance, Islamic style" which documents worldwide violence of Muslims against Christians. Muslims who kill Christians do so claiming to follow the teachings of Muhammad himself.

With this in mind we might wonder how Lebaneese Christians are reacting to Muslims in Lebanon who are now homeless. The answer is that Lebaneese Christians are opening their homes to Muslim refugees. "For a month now, Lebanese Christian groups have been housing and feeding thousands of displaced families in their own homes and in places like Beirut Baptist School and the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary" (MNN).

While we need to fight against Islamic terrorism that would seek to destroy Israel and the West, our fight is not against all Muslims. When the Gospel of John says "for God so loved the world..." that includes Muslims too and these Lebaneese Christians are truly acting like Christians.

U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon

According to a FOXNews article, so far Bangladesh has offered the largest number of troops (2,000) to stand between Hezbollah and Israel. Indonesia and Malaysia have also offered to send forces. The article doesn't mention the fact that these countries do not recognize Israel's right to exist. Allowing them to be part of a peacekeeping force may be like sending vultures to keep the Hezbollah wolves from attacking the farm.

Hezbollah, Iran and Nazi Germany

From Lebanon, to Syria, to Iran, Muslim leaders across the Middle East are publicly and enthusiastically crowing over their imagined victory over Israel. Meanwhile Hezbollah, who, as the puppet of Iran, instigated this whole war and who housed their weapons and military centers among Lebanese civilians in are now providing aid to Lebanese families in an effort to look like the good guys. Already, Lebanese women are naming their babies after Hezbollah leader, Nasrallah.

Meanwhile, Lebanese Prime Minister Saniora and Hezbollah leader Nasrallah “reportedly reached a deal” that would allow Hezbollah to keep its weapons as long as they didn’t show them publicly (isn’t that what they were doing before the war broke out?). And U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan said on TV that “dismantling Hizbullah is not the direct mandate of the U.N.” (Jerusalem Post).

All this in spite of the fact that U.N. Resolution 1701 specifically requires “the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon so that…there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state.” Not only that, but U.N. “peacekeepers” may not be in place for up to a year!

The ink is barely dry on U.N. Resolution 1701 and the U.N. is already back to its corrupt, irresponsible ways, and Resolution 1701 doesn’t appear to be worth the paper it was printed on.

I think Israel needs to go back and finish the job on the Iranian puppet, Hezbollah, and the U.S. needs to start positioning warships off Iran in case another “shock and awe” is needed. Iran is Nazi Germany all over again. The longer we longer we stick our head in the sand hoping it will go away, the more endangered western civilization becomes.

Iran, Hezbollah, Lebanon and ceasefire

The Lebanese government was scheduled to meet today to discuss plans to move their army into Southern Lebanon in accordance with the U.N. ceasefire. Suddenly, without explanation, the meeting was called off. According to DEBKAfile, the meeting was cancelled because Hezbollah, taking orders from Iran, announced that they would not allow Lebanese forces to be deployed in Southern Lebanon as previously agreed (DEBKAfile).

Syrian deployment?

Fox news just reported that, according to Israeli intelligence, Syria is deploying tanks along the border of the Golan heights. They are also removing land mines.

Pro-terrorism protests

Today, people in Washington DC, San Francisco, Atlanta, Dallas, and Ann Arbor protested Israel’s involvement in Lebanon. The protests ranged from a few dozen to thousands.

I’m sure people had a variety of motives for attending these protests--ranging from Muslim extremism, to anti-Israel hatred, to anti-war ideology to genuine concern for the Lebanese people. Regardless of the motivation, the actual result is support for Hezbollah terrorism.

Middle East Conflict: the root cause

Once again, Dennis Prager hits the nail on the head in his analysis of the Middle East conflict. Until the world comes to grips with the root cause of the conflict, they are just treating cancer with aspirin. Below are the first three paragraphs of Dennis Prager’s excellent article:

“The Middle East conflict is difficult to solve, but it is among the simplest conflicts in history to understand.”

“The Arab and other Muslim enemies of Israel (for the easily confused, this does not mean every Arab or every Muslim) want Israel destroyed. That is why there is a Middle East conflict. Everything else is commentary.”

“Those who deny this and ascribe the conflict to other reasons, such as "Israeli occupation," "Jewish settlements," a "cycle of violence," "the Zionist lobby" and the like, do so despite the fact that Israel's enemies regularly announce the reason for the conflict. The Iranian regime, Hizbollah, Hamas and the Palestinians -- in their public opinion polls, in their anti-Semitic school curricula and media, in their election of Hamas, in their support for terror against Israeli civilians in pre-1967 borders -- as well as their Muslim supporters around the world, all want the Jewish state annihilated.”

For a defense of this proposition, please read the rest of this article at Townhall.Com.

Liberals in Wonderland

In an outstanding article, Ana Torres-Gill points out that in many ways Israel embodies the ideals of “progressives” yet many progressives seem to be supporting Hezbollah. The author writes,

"I seem to have fallen down the rabbit hole and emerged in a city where some self-proclaimed progressives are more at ease rationalizing terrorism and repressive governments, but uncomfortable supporting democracies. When did it become trendy for some to spit out immediate and myopic condemnations of Israel while selectively blinding oneself to the atrocities and failures of the other darling underdogs of the Middle East? The irony is that progressives have more in common with the State of Israel than with those dedicated to its destruction."

Please read the rest of this insightful article at Sentinal.Com.

More peaceful Muslims

Associated Press correspondents are reporting that hundreds of thousands of Shiites marched on Baghdad today in support of Hezbollah and against Israel and America. American and Israeli flags were burned as were effigies of President Bush and Prime Minister Olmert.

Demonstrators chanted “Allah, Allah, give victory to Hassan Nasrallah.” Many demonstrators wore white shrouds symbolizing their willingness to die for Hezbollah. No violence was reported during this demonstration in favor of violent terrorists (My Way).

Inside Hezbollah

A recent story in the Guardian gives an inside look into Hezbollah. Excerpts appear below. How do you negotiate with people who have been trained from childhood to hate the west and to embrace martyrdom?

"Inside a well-furnished apartment in a village on the outskirts of Tyre, with shelves of books piled from floor to ceiling, a black turbaned cleric and three men sit sipping bitter coffee. By the door is a pile of Kalashnikovs and ammunition boxes; handguns are tucked into the men's trousers. The four are Hizbullah fighters, waiting for the Israelis."

"We don't take anyone who knocks at our door and says 'I want to join'. We raise our fighters. We take them when they are young kids and raise them to become Hizbullah fighters. Every fighter we have believes that the ultimate form of being is martyrdom."

"He and his fellow fighters have been preparing for the latest conflict with the Israelis for years and he acknowledges the support received from Iran."

"If they want to kill Hizbullah they have to kill every Shia in the south of Lebanon."

"And even when the battle with the Israelis is over, he adds menacingly, Hizbullah will have other battles to fight. The real battle is after the end of this war. We will have to settle score with the Lebanese politicians. We also have the best security and intelligence apparatus in this country, and we can reach any of those people who are speaking against us now. Let's finish with the Israelis and then we will settle scores later."

What happened at Qana?

If you're interested in what happened a Qana, Lebanon, you'll definitely want to check out the Step-by-Step blog for today, August 1.