Truth from the Land of Israel

mashriq / arabia / iraq | imperialism / war | opinion / analysis Tuesday July 25, 2006 22:01 by Ilan Shalif

An anarchist view of the current situation

For Israel, the involvement of Hezbollah in the resistance in the occupied areas of Palestine is a real threat, and Israel's fight in Lebanon is part of the fight to keep at least some of the gains of the '67 war.

Truth from the land of Israel

As people may know, Hezbollah replaced the shia-ite Amal as the dominant group within the shia-ite community in Lebanon during the war and the '82 invasion of Israel and the following years.

Hezbollah's climb to its present role could not have materialised without active Syrian support. For Syria, the Hezbollah guerrillas replaced the Palestinians as guerrilla pressure on Israel to force it to give back the Syrian areas captured in the '67 war (as people may remember, the main Palestinian PLO forces retreated to North Africa during the '82 war.)

However, the old status quo cannot be acceptable to Israel and the US, as Israel is supposed to play a part in the pressure on Iran, but can hardly do that when 12,000 missiles of various kinds are threatening Israel to deter it from assaulting Syria and Iran.

The ousting of Hezbollah also serves US and Israeli interests in cancelling the dominant influence of Syria in Lebanon. Syria's role in the Iraqi resistance is a real pain in the ass for the US.

For Israel, the involvement of Hezbollah in the resistance in the occupied areas of Palestine is a real threat, and Israel's fight in Lebanon is part of the fight to keep at least some of the gains of the '67 war.

The present Lebanese war has a few less strategic "contributions". It helps to take out of the agenda the "social agenda" - the main subject of the recent elections - with the most prominent promoter of the "social agenda", Amir Perets, serving as minister of war.

Another subject deferred by the Lebanese war is the war against the Palestinians - mainly the open war in the Gaza Strip, but also the daily war of attrition in the West Bank and the struggle against the separation fence.

Ilan