Is This the Start of the Next Lebanese Civil War?

I hope now the whole world will understand what Hizballah is all about: power and influence, not protection of Palestinians or a counterbalance to Israeli aggression. If Hizballah actually adhered to its original purpose, it would have disbanded after Israel withdrew from Lebanon, or at least become a National Guard-type organization, instead of becoming a political party cum army with National Guard-type elements. Two summers ago, Hizballah decided to "protect" Lebanon from Israeli aggression by invading Israel and kidnapping soldiers. To the joy of many "protected" Lebanese, Israeli reacted forcefully even if it didn't obtain its object. Now Hizballah decides to "protect" Lebanon by shooting Lebanese because the Lebanese government wants to disable Hizballah's communication network. Certainly the desctruction of fiber optic cable is worth killing someone over, right? Especially if that someone is a Lebanese citizen who doesn't know what's good for him, i.e., protection by Hizballah against Israeli aggression. Hizballah's real goals are to become the ruling party of Lebanon, implement whatever absurd Islamic code of civil obedience it comes up with, and then menace Israel with the aid of Syria and Iran. What a joke. Hizballah is a farce. And to those who mention the good deeds Hizballah does for the disenfrachised in southern Lebanon, I ask, do you need guns and rockets to deliver bread and health care?

Lebanon made a deal with the devil
(Hezbullah) , now there will be hell to pay.

Amazing! The sides fight and the Lebanon army just spectates.

Jasaon, the army spectates for several reasons, not the least of which, its not able to handle a toe-to-toe fight with Hizballah.

Second, is the makeup of the forces, which contain a large percentage of shia. In a direct secretarian conflict, these people are going to be shooting at their own. That's not going to happen.

What is interesting is how valauable Nassrallah believes this phone network is. Or, its the excuse he's been waiting for to open a frontal attack on his opponents.

Which, given the power disparity, really does raise the question why the Lebanese government, such as it is, decided to cross this trip wire at this time.

Hizballah has been the only active militia in Lebanon for the past 28 years. It's armed by Iran with front line weaponry, including military rockets and long range missiles, and training.

A direct confrontation with Hizballah is going to be ugly unless the anti-Syrian forces have been building their strength behind closed doors.

One thing that makes it particularly hard for the (non-Hizballah part of the) Lebanese govt is that it is so divided: Many Christian factions are allied with Hizballah. If the Sunnis, Christians, and Druze united, they would significantly outnumber the Shia, but they don't.

HZB just looking for an excuse? Perhaps the govt's snipe against the network is just the camel's straw. I don't condone the current violence, but the way things have been gridlocked for months now must be pretty darn frustrating.

Hezbollah takes over West Beirut...
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7391600.stm

Hope you and your colleagues are safe in the midst of this violence, Andrew.

Hizbullah are fakers.

A good, quick synopsis of the events:

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/category/contentions

Carlos, you forget a few things. Nasrallah has clearly and openly stated before that if he knew Israel would react in such a way to kidnapping those soldiers, he would never have had Hezballah conduct such an operation.

You also forget that Israel has thousands of Lebanese prisoners still, including many Hezballah personnel and many Shiites.

You also dont mention that Israel withdrew from MOST of southern Lebanon, but not all of it.

You also show clearly that you do not understand Hezballah and seem to be making the mistake of most westerners in thinking all Islamist groups are the same. I hardly think Hezballah is so concerned with forcing Islamic Shariah on everyone in Lebanon, etc etc etc. If you have been to Lebanon, even Shiite Muslims in the south are quite liberal. Its not an extremely conservative country. Many people in Lebanon who support Hezballah are not all that religious. I would say they are pretty moderate compared to many other Islamist groups, so you should not jump to conclusions so quickly.

"And to those who mention the good deeds Hizballah does for the disenfrachised in southern Lebanon, I ask, do you need guns and rockets to deliver bread and health care?"

-I am sorry, but right there clearly shows you have no idea what your talking about. Hezballah have provided os much benefits and aid money to their people. They even agreed to pay the rent for up to 1 whole year for anyone whose homes have been destroyed by Israel. Hezballah are not stupid. They know how to ingrain themself in society. They are not just about guns and war. Hezballah has even organized and run anti-globalization conerences. They are a network thats more than just a militia with a few representatives in parliment. Quit being so one sided

hopefully the world will let them fight it out on their own, if the fighting continues. intervention from anyone... syrian, iran, the US, Israel... will only cause more bloodshed. better to be brother vs. brother.

I agree, Jacob. I am confused at the timing by Lebanon's government when they clearly can't back this up militarily.

Rutgurt,

Nassrallah's mea-culpa about launching the 2006 war would be similar to President "W" Bush's comments about invading Iraq (if he ever uttered such a thing).

Saying you wouldn't do something stupid that would endanger the lives of your own people after the fact is meaningless. "Oh cr*p, you mean that if we did that we'd get into a down and out nasty fight we weren't planning on? Oh wow I guess I wouldn't have done that then. When people's lives are on the line, you would expect the people at the top to do better than that.

For the record, prior to 2006, Israel didn't have thousands of Lebanese prisoners, in fact, you're talking less than a handful, the most notorious of which was Samir Kuntar, who's sitting in prison, convicted of murdering a four-year old girl by bashing her skull in with a rock after watching him kill her father. Post 2006 war, you're talking about a dozen POW's.

As for withdrawing from Lebanon, Israel pulled back to the UN demarcated blue line, a move approved by the United Nations for those who always complain about Israel deserving the violence used against its citizens because it doesn't adhere to UN resolutions.

Hizballah, is a proxy army for Iran. The funds that it receives comes from Tehran, as does the arms, and training.

As for their representation in Parliment, well, after this past weekend, we see how well the organization holds to the idea of peaceful government. What we're witnessing is a coup as Hizballah uses its military superiority on its rival political groups.