Israel's Attack on Lebanon and Hezbollah

[siegfriedandroy]

who did Israel attack at the airport? civilians, hezbollah agents? (just trying to get my facts strait)

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As the news reports, Israel in response to Hezbollah attacks on Israeli soil has attacked not only Hezbollah positions, but also the Beirut international airport. Of course Lebanon is protesting mightlily and spouting threats of retaliation that it can't back up.

Lebanon purports to be a sovereign country, and of course only recently has rid itself of Syrian troops. But it cannot maintain that Israel's attacks are wrong when it fails to act against Hezbollah itself. When Israel invaded in 1982 it was during the middle of the Lebanese civil war when there wasn't an effective central government. But now there is. So that means they are responsible for attacks launched from their soil.

If they tacitly support such attacks on Israel, then of course they have to expect to pay the price. But even if they don't, it is their responsibility to deal with stopping those attacks and if they are unable or unwilling, then again they have to expect Israeli reprisals. And that is going to include the logistical pipeline Hezbollah uses which includes the airport.

So either Lebanon needs to take responsiblity if it supports the Hezbollah attacks on Israel, or take action against Hezbollah itself to stop them. And if it lacks the military means to do so, then then Israel is going to do it for them, with more loss of civilian lives than if the Lebanese government took responsiblity for setting its own house in order.

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[Chris Alger]

They bombed the tarmac and bombed it again after repairs. They bombed roads, bridges, factories, apartments, houses, fuel supplies and all manner of vehicles, even ambulances. They told civilians to flee and them bombed them when they did. They flattened entire villages. They bombed civilian targets so deliberately and indiscriminately -- the overwhelming majority of Israeli-caused casualties are civilians -- that the UN's high commissioner (Canadian) warned that Israeli leaders were facing personal criminal responsibility.

Israel has no intention of committing the amount of forces necessary to defeat and disarm Hizballah; they're on the verge of admitting as much. But it has plenty enough firepower to punish millios of Lebanonese for living in the country where Hizballah exists.