BBC: Nasrallah regrets triggering war

Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has said he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he has realised it would lead to war.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lebanese_prisoners_in_Israel

There are currently four known Lebanese citizens in Israeli prisons. Hezbollah has demanded the release of these prisoners as as condition for releasing Israeli reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, captured in the raid which sparked the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict.

* Samir Kuntar is serving four life sentences for murder for a 1979 attack on a civilian apartment block in Nahariya, Israel.

* Nissim Nasser is an Israeli of Lebanese descent who was arrested in 2002 for spying for Hezbollah.

* Yehia Skaff is described by Hezbollah as a "fighter".

* The other prisoner is Ali Faratan.

Hezbollah initially demanded the release of Kuntar, Nasser, and Skaff at the time of the 2004 Israel-Hezbollah prisoner exchange, but Israel refused.

more@link

It is more important to investigate the roots of the war:

* What made the trio Olmert-Peretz-Halutz decide to start a war only a few hours after the capture of the two soldiers?

* Was it agreed with the Americans in advance to go to war the moment a credible pretext presented itself?

* Did the Americans push Israel into the war, and, later on, demand that it go on and on as far as possible?

* Was it Condoleezza Rice who decided in fact when to start and when to stop?

* Did the US want to get us entangled with Syria?

* Did the US use us for its campaign against Iran?

http://www.counterpunch.org/avnery08192006.html

Who's to Blame?

Israel on the Slide

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

Israel has been kidnapping Lebanese for years, a hefty chunk of the 10,000 or so rotting in horrifying Israeli prisons, like the secret Facility 1391 in central Israel, worse than Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo. On June 25 Corporal Gilad Shalit was kidnapped in Gaza, prompting an escalation in Israel's already barbaric assaults on the civilian population there. Since June 25, says the Palestinian Ministry of Detainees, Israel has kidnapped over 35 Palestinian Parliament Members and 10 cabinet Ministers. It was certainly hard to find in any US paper or newscast any reference to the fact that one day before, on 24 June, Israeli forces kidnapped two civilians in Gaza, a doctor and his brother, and sent them off to some Israeli dungeon. As Noam Chomsky remarked to an interviewer from al-Ahram, "The timing alone reveals with vivid clarity that the show of outrage over the capture of Israeli soldiers is cynical fraud, and undermines any shreds of moral legitimacy for the ensuing actions."

http://www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08262006.html

August 23, 2006

The Discrimination Game

The Occupier Defines Justice

By AMIRA HASS

On Jerusalem's Jabotinsky Street, opposite the President's Residence, a medium-sized plaque is fixed on a locked gate, enclosing a broad building and a lovely garden: "This building was the location of the British Mandate Government's High Military Court, which held the trials of the Hebrew resistance fighters from the Haganah, Etzel and Lehi." The sign bears the emblems of the Jerusalem municipality and the three resistance organizations. It further notes: "The resistance fighters refused to acknowledge the authority of the court to judge them, and asked to be recognized as prisoners of war."

The speaker of the Palestinian Authority's parliament, who was arrested two weeks ago by the Israel Defense Forces, also refused to acknowledge the authority of the Military Court to judge him. Obviously the two latest detainees, whose arrest was deemed by Israel to be the appropriate solution to its shortcomings in releasing kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, will make the same declaration. Nasser A-Shaer, the Palestinian education minister and deputy prime minister, and Mahmoud Ramahi, chief whip of the Palestinian Legislative Council, were arrested on Saturday and Sunday. Incidentally, the Palestinians have lately ceased using the verb "arrested" in regards to the arrests of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers. Instead they use the verb "abducted."

These three detainees/abducted join about 10,000 other Palestinian prisoners and detainees. As with the prisoners of the Hebrew resistance, who saw themselves as POWs regardless of their actions (killing British soldiers or Arab civilians), some Palestinians request that their prisoners be declared POWs. Others prefer the definition of political prisoners. Let's let the definitions rest. In any case, from the offense to the jailing, Israel, as an occupying force, plays around with the definitions as it sees fit.

http://www.counterpunch.org/hass08232006.html

"Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has said he would not have ordered the capture of two Israeli soldiers if he had known it would lead to such a war."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5291420.stm