If this report is accurate, the war may expand beyond Hizbullah.
According to Qatar news station al-Jazeera, the Lebanese army issued a statement expressing its support of “Hizbullah’s right to resist Israeli aggression.”
Meantime, Israel is telling Lebanon that Hizbullah has got to go.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Thursday morning that “we consider Lebanon responsible for terror activity originating in its sovereign territory. It is a derivate of Lebanese hesitance to act. Lebanon is paying the price for its small-mindedness, which allowed Hizbullah to behave as if it is the one in charge of the country.”
According to the defense minister, “This operation is intended to prevent unequivocally Hizbullah’s access to the northern border. Lebanese forces are the ones who need to sit there and we expect them to deploy on Israel’s border. We will not allow Hizbullah to sit our border.”
That would be in compliance with UN Resolution 1559 (a binding one), which calls for the disarming of Hizbullah, and which Lebanon has ignored.
I don’t suppose the UN Resolution being bandied about by Qatar (that aims to condemn Israel) will also contain language insisting on the enforcement of 1559.
Some people never learn. This is a replay of the 1970s and early 80s when Lebanon sat back and watched while the PLO took over South Lebanon to use as a base against Israel (and terrorized and murdered Lebanese into the bargain). This happened while there was a civil war going on, it’s true, but that war was sparked by the PLO coming in and consisted mainly of competitive massacres of civilians. The only thing that stopped it was Lebanon becoming Syria’s colony (because Syria was instigating much of it). So much for the Lebanese peoples’ desire for independence and liberty, they threw it away to make nice with Hezbollah.