Hezbollah not to blame for war,  
 
reports show 
 
Big News Network.com  
 
Until three weeks ago the border between Israel and Lebanon was relatively quiet.  
 
There had been no major incidents for the six years since Israel ended its 22 year-occupation (since 1978) in May 2000.  
 
Hezbollah patrolled the Lebanese side, and the Israeli army, the Israeli side. The UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) observed.  
 
There were skirmishes, many prompted by Israeli invasion of Lebanese airspace which, according to UNIFIL reports, occurred almost daily.  
 
In 2003, three years after the Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, Israeli Brigadier General Meir Caliphi, completed a posting as commander of the Galilee Division saying northern Israel was witnessing one of its more peaceful periods in years. 'When compared to other parts of the country, the north is flourishing,' he said.  
 
He said the only real activity from Hezbollah was when Israeli planes invaded Lebanese airspace and they fired anti-aircraft guns. Only two civilians sustained minor injuries as a result of the shelling, he said.  
 
'It may go against military logic,' Caliphi admitted, 'but I think that it is important to continue with the policy of restraint. So long as we can keep the quiet here.'  
 
Brigadier Caliphi said the Hezbollah was well aware of Israel's ability to respond forcefully if the rockets deployed in southern Lebanon were fired against Israel.  
 
In an extraordinary admission he said any attack would bring havoc to the Lebanese civilian population, and in a reference to proportionality, he inferred any response would be one hundred times that inflicted.  
 
'If rockets fly over the north, it is better that 100 mothers in Beirut mourn than one mother in Haifa. The Hezbollah know that in such a case, we will take off our gloves and it does not want to be viewed as responsible for bringing disaster on Lebanon's citizens,' he said.  
 
Then in an even more extraordinary admission, he threatened another, 'Jenin.'  
 
'They saw that in Jenin we were willing to ravage a refugee camp in order to gain quiet, even if we did not use F-16 aircraft. They know the implications to their region,' he said. The Brigadier General had no qualms about saying that any incursion by Hezbollah could result in an attack on the Lebanon government, and also said Syria could be a target.  
 
Caliphi expressed great confidence in the ability of the Israel Defense Forces to impose quiet in Lebanon. 'Today I feel much more confident about our ability to respond along the northern border. If we are drawn into a confrontation, we will be able to win the fight and create a new situation in which the Hezbollah will not be able to return to its positions along the fence. In such a confrontation, Syria, the Hezbollah and the government of Lebanon could be the targets, and they will have to pay the highest price possible. They are fully aware of the rules of the game,' Caliphi said.  
 
The general also had some respectful comments about the head of the Hezbollah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah. 'He is rational and smart, and analyzes the situation correctly. I do not underestimate the Hezbollah but take them very seriously,' he said.  
 
Last year, February 18, at the annual meeting of the annual Jerusalem meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Israel's then Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reportedly pounded the podium and passionately supported Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon.  
 
'Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon is a model which Israel would apply to Gaza and Samaria.' he said. Olmert went on to say Hezbollah 'terrorists' now stationed in former Israeli army positions throughout Southern Lebanon had accumulated 15,000 missiles and mortars in Lebanon.  
 
Continuing to pound on the podium, he said, 'they have never, never, never used missiles against Israel on the northern border since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in May, 2000.' (It was later pointed out that 5 Katyusha rockets had been fired into northern Israel in the period to 2004, a declassified Israeli army document showed).  
 
Just on three weeks ago, on July 12, the border quiet was interrupted by Hezbollah in a raid on an Israeli military post which resulted in the capture of two Israeli soldiers. Three others died in the attack.  
 
Five other soldiers were killed that day, four instantly, and one later, when a tank struck a mine. This however, according to Haaretz newspaper, occurred six kilometres inside Lebanese territory.  
 
The Hezbollah attack was staged to capture soldiers to use for a prisoner-exchange with Israel, a strategy adopted by both sides in the past. According to Human Rights Watch, targeting and capture of enemy soldiers is allowed under international humanitarian law.  
 
Immediately on securing the capture of the soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, Hezbollah announced it wanted a prisoner exchange.  
 
In the three weeks since that day, news reports, based on statements from various government officials from Israel and the United States, infer Hezbollah began attacking northern Israel with rockets, and it were those attacks that prompted the much repeated mantra by not only Israel, and the U.S., but leaders from a number of other countries, and the UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, that Israel has a right to defend itself.  
 
However there is no evidence Hezbollah intended, or indeed started, a sustained rocket attack on Israel.  
 
Indeed on July 12 CNN reported Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah calling for 'direct negotiations' aimed at freeing prisoners from Israeli jails in exchange for the two Israeli soldiers abducted by Hezbollah.  
 
The abduction, Nasrallah told a news conference, is 'our natural, only and logical right,' CNN reported.  
 
'We want our prisoners released,' Nasrallah said, and asserted that the abduction had focused the international community on the plight of prisoners, both Hezbollah members and Palestinians, in Israeli jails.  
 
There are reportedly 9,000 prisoners being illegally held in Israeli jails, including women and under-age children, that have never faced charges or trial. Some have been held for more than thirty years.  
 
Nasrallah said that an Israeli military operation 'will not accomplish the return of the Israeli soldiers' and that 'direct negotiations' are the only way to win their return, reported CNN.  
 
The capture of the two soldiers on July 12 was at a time when Israel was conducting a relentless offensive on Gaza (which is continuing), following the capture of a soldier there, Gilad Shalit, 19, on June 25. A number of high profile air strikes had resulted in the deaths of a number of civilians, including women and children.  
 
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said (on July 12) the attack and abductions (by Hezbollah) were an 'act of war' and blamed the Lebanese government, which he said would be held responsible. (Reported by CNN July 12).  
 
On July 12 Israel's Haaretz newspaper said that immediately after the Hezbollah attack, the organization's Al-Manar television station began broadcasting clips calling on Israel to release Lebanese prisoners held in Israel in return for the soldiers.  
 
'Fulfilling its pledge to liberate the [Arab] prisoners and detainees, the Islamic Resistance captured two Israeli soldiers at the border with occupied Palestine,' the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah said in a statement.  
 
News reports said when the attack took place that 'simultaneously,' rockets were fired into Israel. Another report described them as 'diversionary.' There were no other reports of firings of rockets or of any casualties.  
 
Haaretz reported July 12 in its coverage of the day's events, 'The IDF also ordered troops deployed on the Lebanon and Gaza borders on high alert in the event that armed groups may attempt to fire Katyusha and Qassam rockets into Israel.'  
 
The call by Hezbollah, broadcast on Al-Manar fell on deaf ears. Israel responded, said CNN, by launching air strikes and sending troops and tanks into southern Lebanon. The following day it dramatically escalated the conflict by repeatedly bombing Beirut International Airport and other targets throughout Lebanon. It even bombed Al-Manar. There were heavy casualties among the Lebanese civilian population. In response Hezbollah began firing rockets at northern Israel.  
 
One of the central issues in this conflict is the status of Hezbollah. Israel has branded Hezbollah as a terrorist group, and successfully persuaded the United States to do likewise. Britain and Australia fell in behind the U.S. and so too did Canada and the Netherlands. Of the 192-member nations of the United Nations however, only six have listed Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.  
A recent letter sent by 213 members of the U.S. Congress to the European Union demanding it list Hezbollah as a terrorist organization was rebuffed. The EU President Erkki Tuomioja said Wednesday the union would not be complying with the demand.  
 
The Lebanese government regards Hezbollah as a legitimate resistance group. It operates exclusively within Lebanon, was set up as a result of the 1982 invasion and occupation by Israel, and is largely credited within Lebanon, and internationally, as playing a major part in bringing the Israeli occupation to an end. When Israel did leave in May 2000 it refused to relinquish the Shebaa Farms area which it continued to occupy, arguing the area was Syrian and not Lebanese, which the UN confirms is so. The January 20, 2005 UN Secretary-General's report on Lebanon states: 'The continually asserted position of the Government of Lebanon that the Blue Line is not valid in the Shaba farms area is not compatible with Security Council resolutions.'  
 
Most incidents involving Hezbollah and Israel on the border centered around the disputed Shebaa Farms area. The U.S. State Department in its report on terrorism for 2005 said, 'Hezbollah and Israel clashed twice in this disputed part of the Golan Heights in 2005.' Both Israel and Hezbollah have reportedly lodged a number of complaints about each other's actions.  
 
Hezbollah has not conducted terrorist attacks along the lines of al-Qaeda but maintains it is acting purely as a resistance group. The organization says it forbids its fighters going to Iraq for any reason, and that no Hezbollah units or individual fighters have entered Iraq to support any Iraqi faction fighting the U.S.  
 
Hezbollah has no known links to al-Qaida. It condemned the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center towers, but remained silent on the attack on the Pentagon.  
 
Hezbollah not to blame for war, reports show

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