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Thursday, August 6, 2020

Lebanon's Hezbollah, That Tiny Nation North of Israel-Friend Once, Foe Now

Nadene Goldfoot
                                                                   
Paris of the Orient; Beirut, Lebanon before August 2020
At least 137 people were killed and 5,000 wounded in a massive explosion that shook Beirut on Tuesday, August 4, 2020, according to Lebanon's health minister. It was not caused by Israel, though a few people  proclaimed the cause to be Israel.  Lebanon is an enemy state being Hezbollah, the terrorist organization, has been attacking since their inception, it is not what Israel would do.  The cause has been found; Russia's ammonium nitrate improperly stored, for or by Hezbollah, no doubt, burst into fire caused by a fire next door to the warehouse.  Israel has had a hot and cold relationship with Lebanon for years due to Hezbollah.  Russia had to have the Middle East under its power so needed to keep Assad of Syria in power, so Russia wanted to protect Iran's only Arab ally, and allowed Iran be a protectorate to to Hezbollah, and gave Iran the chance to establish a military presence in Syria, which has leaked over to Lebanon, being Hezbollah is from Lebanon. This is why the ammonium nitrate was allowed to be stored there for the past 6 years. Don't you think?   

Update: The Beirut Port after Tuesday’s explosion that killed at least 157 and wounded more than 5,000.  Friday evening.  
Emir Faisal in 1919 said as leader of the Arab World:
"We Arabs, especially the educated among us, look with deepest sympathy on the Zionist movement...We will wish the Jews a hearty welcome home....our two movements complement one another."  At the time, Beirut was the Paris of the Orient, the vacation spot for Arabs.  It consisted of mostly Muslims with longstanding Christians living there as well.  

Major Haddad was just such a man, leader of the Christian Militia in 1980.  He was not liked that well by the Muslims, however, but a friend to Israel whose men guarded the border, with permission from General Ariel Sharon of IDF.  He would do his R&R in Haifa's hospital.  


Since 1919, the Arabs have been following people like Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Sherif of Jerusalem, AKA Grand Mufti.  and they have closed ranks and refuse to accept Israel, turning into her enemy.  Lebanon has been such a neighbor.                                                         

On 23 August 1982 Bachir Gemayel was democratically elected president   by the majority of Christian and Muslim MPs while the country was torn by civil war and occupied by IsraelSyria and Palestinian factions. Gemayel started enacting policies to disarm Christian militias, ordered the Lebanese Army to enter West Beirut for the first time since the start of the war and forced Yasser Arafat and the PLO to leave Lebanon. On 14 September 1982, before he could take office, he was assassinated, along with 26 others, when a bomb exploded in Beirut Phalange headquarters in Achrafiyeh by Habib Tanious Shartouni, a member of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party. The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation blamed the Syrian Social Nationalist Party (SSNP) for the terrorist attack.

The Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon took place after Israel invaded Lebanon during the 1982 Lebanon War and subsequently retained its forces to support the Christian South Lebanon Army led by Haddad in Southern Lebanon.
                                                                           
ProCon.org map created using United Nations delineations
*UNIFIL — United Nations Interim Forces In Lebanon (1978-present day)
**UNDOF — United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (1974-present day)
Eventually attacks led to the withdrawal of the international peacekeeping force from Lebanon, where they had been stationed following the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) withdrawal in the aftermath of Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon.  I was in Israel at the time, and saw the IDF going up the mountain towards Safed while I was going down the mountain in a bus.  The PLO had stationed themselves at the Sabra and Shatilla camps there and the Christian Militia of Lebanon wanted the chance to go in and stop them, so Sharon allowed them, not realizing what Hadad allowed them to do.  It was Sharon who took the blame of a massacre.  "Saad Haddad (1936 – January 14, 1984) was the founder and head of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) during the Lebanese Civil War. For years Haddad was closely collaborating and receiving arms and political support from Israel against Lebanese government forces, Hezbollah, and the Syrian Army. Haddad died of cancer in his house in Marjayoun.

On October 23, 1983, two truck bombs struck buildings in Beirut, Lebanon, housing American and French service members of the Multinational Force in Lebanon, a military peacekeeping operation during the Lebanese Civil War.  241 US servicemen were killed by Hezbollah at the Marine base there.  Hezbollah is Lebanon's terrorist organization but Iranian backed.  It uses the Lebanese population as human shields, and have hidden its weapons and terrorists within the civilian infrastructure.   The explosion that just happened at the waterfront is an example of their building up their weapons to use against Israel that were not stored carefully, a death trap for their civilians waiting to happen.

From 1985 through 2000, Israel continued to fund the South Lebanon Army. In 1992, Hezbollah won ten out of 128 seats in the Lebanese National Assembly.  On 7 October 2000 Hezbollah attacked Israel. In a cross-border raid,Israeli soldiers, who were patrolling the Lebanese border were attacked and abducted. The event escalated into a 2-month fire exchanges between Israel and Hezbollah, primarily at the Hermon ridge.
                                                    
Dust rises after the impact of two bombs dropped during an IAF airstrike on TyreLebanon in 2006.

By 2006, 165 Israeli civilians and soldiers were killed during a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, THE HEZBOLLAH WAR from 2005-2006. "Two Israeli soldiers were abducted and taken by Hezbollah to Lebanon. ... Hezbollah then launched more rockets into northern Israel and engaged the IDF in guerrilla warfare from hardened positions. The conflict is believed to have killed between 1,191 and 1,300 Lebanese people, and 165 Israelis.   Israel was engaged in a 34-day military conflict in Lebanon, Northern Israel and the Golan Heights. The principal parties were Hezbollah paramilitary forces and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). The conflict started on 12 July 2006, and continued until a United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect in the morning on 14 August 2006, though it formally ended on 8 September 2006 when Israel lifted its naval blockade of Lebanon. Due to unprecedented Iranian military support to Hezbollah before and during the war, some consider it the first round of the Iran–Israel proxy conflict, rather than a continuation of the Arab–Israeli conflict.
                                                  
Missiles shot by Hezbollah

  It is Hezbollah who needs the weapons.  These terrorists already have had about 150,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking anywhere in Israel.  They have the terrorists; 45,000 active and reserve fighters are signed on, and 6,000 to 8,000 more waiting for orders in Syria.  They can launch 1,5000 rockets per day into Israel.  Hezbollah has dug tunnels to infiltrate and attack Israel as well.    
Update: 8/26/20, Israeli officials estimate that Hezbollah possesses 130,000 rockets and missiles capable of striking virtually anywhere in Israel, and has gained valuable battlefield experience fighting alongside Iranian troops in Syria.                                                    

Search and rescue workers sift through damaged buildings Thursday in Beirut after this week's huge explosion at the Lebanese capital's port caused widespread damage.
                                                 
Houssam Shbaro/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
Even so, when the explosion occurred, the mayor of Jerusalem let Lebanon know that Israel was ready to off any medical aid they needed, and that war's politics wouldn't interfere with Israel giving aid and comfort to Lebanese people at such a time of crisis.  
Authorities in Lebanon have detained 16 people as part of an urgent investigation into the enormous explosion that devastated Beirut's port area and much of the city on Tuesday. The blast has been traced to an estimated 2,750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse; not caused by any bombing by Israel as some first thought.

Lebanon was taken over by Ayatollah Khomeini's students in Nejaf in Lebanon after the Iranian Revolution  in 1982.  Hezbollah was created to get the Shia groups into one group to fight the Israelis and uplift their position in Lebanon from the Sunnis and Christians.  Syrians were occupying Lebanon's eastern highlands at the time and they permitted the Hezbollahs on a base in the Bekaa valley.  They are a part of establishing the Islamic State across the Arab world.  Their goal is to eliminate Israel and fight Western imperialism.                                                     
Saint George Maronite Cathedral and the Mohammad Al-Amin MosqueBeirut.

A 2012 study conducted by Statistics Lebanon, a Beirut-based research firm, found that Lebanon's population is estimated to be 54% Muslim (27% Shia; 27% Sunni), 5.6% Druze, 40.4% Christian (21% Maronite, 8% Greek Orthodox, 5% Melkite, 6.4% other Christian denominations like Armenian Orthodox, Armenian Catholic, Syriac,CatholicSyriac OrthodoxRoman CatholicChaldeanAssyrian, and Copt. Haddad was a Maronite.  


Update: probably due to the mass explosion on the dock in Beirut, the whole Lebanese cabinet has resigned. 8/10/2020 Resource: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Beirut_barracks_bombings
ISRAEL 101-HEZBOLLAH, 2010  
https://www.npr.org/2020/08/06/899867579/beirut-explosion-update-lebanon-detains-16-people-as-part-of-inquiry
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saad_Haddad
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Lebanon#:~:text=A%202012%20study%20conducted%20by,Armenian%20Orthodox%2C%20Armenian%20Catholic%2C%20Syriac
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachir_Gemayel
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli_occupation_of_Southern_Lebanon

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