Hezbollah minister says combatants will fight as long as Israel in Lebanon

August 5, 2006 8:58 AM

http://www.newspress.com/Top/Article/article.jsp?Section=WORLD&ID=564782551810835718

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - A Hezbollah Cabinet minister said Saturday that the guerrilla group will continue fighting as long as Israeli troops remain inside Lebanon. He was responding to news that a U.N. cease-fire resolution would be adopted in the next few days.

''We will abide by it on condition that no Israeli soldier remains inside Lebanese land. If they stay, we will not abide by it,'' Mohammed Fneish said when asked whether Hezbollah would stop fighting under a U.N. resolution calling for a cease-fire or a cessation of hostilities.

Fneish, the power and hydraulic resources minister, spoke to reporters before going into a Cabinet meeting. He is one of two Hezbollah ministers in Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's government.

Earlier Saturday, the United States and France said they have reached a deal on a U.N. Security Council resolution to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The U.S.-French draft resolution calls for a ''full cessation of hostilities'' but allows Israel to respond to Hezbollah attacks.

Could it be? Nah...

In any case, it seems perfectly reasonable to me that in order for a ceasefire to be honored, the invading country must remove its military forces from the invaded country.

sw

Duh!

With the position of contending forces remaining the same. Of course, a resolution by the U.N. could certain direct a retirement as a condition of any cease-fire, though doing so might make it less likely to be accepted.

Are the IDF guys in Lebanon just going to plop down where they are and sit around campfires roasting marshmallows? It doesn't make any sense to me that there could be a cessation of hostilities while a foreign invasionary force remains within the other country's borders.

Seems to me what we're looking at here is a resolution designed to fail -- all show and no substance.

sw

Marshmallows all around, for I.D.F. and Hezbollah alike, or whoever the parties might be, if discussed in the abstract. The point of a cease-fire is simply to stop the shooting, not to produce a result in terms of territory or presence that one side has been unable to achieve by force of arms. Generally in a cease fire, the sides are not even supposed to take action to improve their positions, by such means as reinforcement or construction of fortifications, but no one ever really abides by this, and persons of bitter disposition tend to the view that acceptance of a cease-fire occurs when both sides are running short of ammunition....

In some measure, how many conditions one wishes to attach to a cease-fire can be viewed as a sort of test of how important one considers a cessation of active killing, as opposed to securing a situation favoring one side or another. If the principal objection is to immediate human suffering, the terms that will end the shooting, and end the killing and maiming, ought to be immaterial.

It is certainly possible that any resolution emerging will contain elements one side or the other will find objectionable. The side that swallows its objections first will be the political winner.

"Peace, n.: An interval of cheating between intervals of fighting."

Lebanon. I doubt they will withdraw until they have pushed Hezbollah back to the river. From that distance, Hezbollah's rockets can't reach Israel.

If Israel withdrew now, Hezbollah would just start replenishing their missiles and manpower. Israel WILL NOT let that happen again.

meanwhile, the Lebanese civilians have taken the brunt of their 'defenses'

This resolution also calls for the immediately disarming of Hazzobalah. Why doesn't Israel withdraw and disarm there the ones inflicting most of the damage.

there's no room for that kind of thinking when it comes to Israel.

they cease to exist. They will be wiped off the map. THAT'S Hezbollah's agenda. That's Hamas' agenda and that's Syria and IRAN'S agenda...TO WIPE ISRAEL OFF THE MAP. Do you want that to happen?

Nasrallah purveys his message via Hezbollah’s own television network, Al-Manar, a primary engine of incitement to violence against Jews, Israelis and Americans. Al Manar’s stated mission is to "wage psychological warfare against the Zionist enemy." This is often done by glorifying attacks, particularly suicide missions against Israel. Last year, Nasrallah appeared on Al-Manar encouraging "martyrdom" among children, saying:

How can death become joyous? How can death become happiness? When Al-Hussein asked his nephew Al-Qassem, when he had not yet reached puberty: "How do you like the taste of death, son?" He answered that it was sweeter than honey. How can the foul taste of death become sweeter than honey? Only through conviction, ideology, and faith, through belief, and devotion.

We do not want to...leave our homeland to Israel... Therefore, we are not interested in our own personal security. On the contrary, each of us lives his days and nights hoping more than anything to be killed for the sake of Allah. (MEMRI: Al-Manar TV , Feb. 18-19, 2005)

In May, Nasrallah appeared on Al-Manar TV to explain that "our nation's willingness to sacrifice their blood, souls, children, fathers, and families" is an advantage over the Jews "who guard their lives." (MEMRI: Al-Manar TV on May 23, 2006.)

http://camera.org/index.asp?x_context=7&x_issue=11&x_article=1158

now those are sterling sources.

:eyes:

not per say mean the source is filled with lies or inaccuracies. Would you also consider MERIP or the Electronic Intifada, to be suspect? All partisan sources should be considered in the light of their bias, not automatically discounted.

Here is some information that may help:

Selective Memri

Brian Whitaker investigates whether the 'independent' media institute that translates the Arabic newspapers is quite what it seems

Monday August 12, 2002

(snip)

Memri's purpose, according to its website, is to bridge the language gap between the west - where few speak Arabic - and the Middle East, by "providing timely translations of Arabic, Farsi, and Hebrew media".

Despite these high-minded statements, several things make me uneasy whenever I'm asked to look at a story circulated by Memri. First of all, it's a rather mysterious organisation. Its website does not give the names of any people to contact, not even an office address.

(snip)

The reason for Memri's air of secrecy becomes clearer when we look at the people behind it. The co-founder and president of Memri, and the registered owner of its website, is an Israeli called Yigal Carmon.

Mr - or rather, Colonel - Carmon spent 22 years in Israeli military intelligence and later served as counter-terrorism adviser to two Israeli prime ministers, Yitzhak Shamir and Yitzhak Rabin.

Retrieving another now-deleted page from the archives of Memri's website also throws up a list of its staff. Of the six people named, three - including Col Carmon - are described as having worked for Israeli intelligence.

much more at link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/elsewhere/journalist/story/0,7792,773258,00.html



And here is Juan Cole's exeperience with MEMRI:

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

Intimidation by Israeli-Linked Organization Aimed at US Academic
MEMRI tries a SLAPP

I just checked my campus mail and found a letter in it from Colonel Yigal Carmon, late of Israeli military intelligence, now an official at the Middle East Media Research Organization, or MEMRI. He threatened me with a lawsuit over blog comments I made here at Informed Comment, reprinted at anti-war.com. This technique of the SLAPP or Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation had already been pioneered by polluting industries against environmental activists, and now the pro-Likud lobby in the US has apparently decided to try it out against people like me.

I urge all readers to send messages of protest to memri@memri.org. Please be polite, and simply urge MEMRI, which has a major Web presence, to withdraw the lawsuit threat and to respect the spirit of the free sharing of ideas that makes the internet possible.


http://www.juancole.com/2004/11/intimidation-by-israeli-linked.html

:eyes:


The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explores the Middle East through the region's media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic, Persian, and Turkish media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological, intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle East.

Founded in February 1998 to inform the debate over U.S. policy in the Middle East, MEMRI is an independent, nonpartisan, nonprofit, 501 (c)3 organization. MEMRI's headquarters is located in Washington, DC with branch offices in Berlin, London, Tokyo and Jerusalem. MEMRI research is translated to English, German, Hebrew, Italian, French, Spanish and Japanese.

To support MEMRI's undertaking please click here to send your secure contribution online, or send your donations to:

MEMRI
P.O. Box 27837
Washington, DC 20038-7837
Phone: (202) 955-9070
Fax: (202) 955-9077

But it is hardly an accurate portrayal of the
whole. They pick clips that only support their
viewpoint. Its like the equivilant of grabbing
the most outrageous fox news segments and saying
that those clips represent the American news
media.
http://sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Middle_East_Media_Research_Institute

it is not "nonpartisan" in the slightest degree.

Edited to add a link to Media Transparency, which reveals the rightwing funders behind MEMRI.

http://www.mediatransparency.org/recipientgrants.php?recipientID=2085

Oh, and your statement about a "Hezbollah source" is pretty typical of the way you "debate" these questions so reasonably and rationally.


:eyes:

You can read about it here: U.N. Council to review draft Mideast resolution

Hizballah did not start firing rockets into Israel until after Israel started bombing Lebanon. They have already said that their rockets will stop when Israel's bombing stops. That's fair enough.

If you read the article, there will be a further resolution offered later that deals specifically with disarming Hizballah.

sw

pull out by Israel. Israel didn't enter Lebanon until Hezbollah kidnapped 2 soldiers, killed 8 soldiers and fired THOUSANDS of rockets into Israel over the last 6 years. Northern Israel has been under assault since Israel pulled out of Lebanon. Why is that acceptable to so many people on this board? The U.S. had an attack on the WTC on 911 and that ONE attack was enough for the MAJORITY of U.S. citizens to approve of the U.S. going into Afghanistan and removing the Taliban. WTF is the difference here?? NONE. Taliban = Hezbollah, only Hezbollah is WORSE. Why the double standard for Israel?

... against internal insurgent forces. After all, if the US just withdrew now the insurgents would replenish their weapons and resources and we all know that's a threat to the US.

:eyes: :puke:

.

...and Hezbollah is to blame for Israel's actions. :eyes:


Grow the fuck up, Middle East.

Hezbollah leaders should just come out and say they want to keep fighting indefinitely and stop being fashionably obtuse about it.

Israel has said as much . . .

"Israel will not halt its war against Hezbollah for the time being, an Israeli Cabinet minister said Saturday.

``The Israeli military continues to act in the meantime, without letup, in many areas,'' he added.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-5995942,00.html

it is because Israel is admitting they aren't prepared to pull out of Lebanon nor stop the fighting.

But hey, at least they're honest about it right?