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THE SAD BOOK OF BEIRUT
There is a town on the western edge of England near the Welsh border that holds the distinction of being a “Book Town” in fact if a book is being sought then it is more than likely that it will be found on the shelves of on of the many book shops that are located there. The town is Hay-on-Wye a quiet sleepy place that knows little of war, conflict and upheaval. Its alter ego was once Beirut in Lebanon. What Amsterdam was to the diamond trade or Paris to fashion Beirut was to the book world. It was said that if a book existed and it was for sale then Beirut was where it would be found but that was many years ago and the city has been so ravaged by conflict and war that the trade has dispersed to safer climates where the precious artefacts would hold the slender chance of survival.
Since the creation of the State of Israel all of its neighbours have tried desperately to wipe it off the face of the Earth and reinstate the land once known as Palestine without success. The first attacks came within weeks of the creation of Israel when Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan and the displaced Palestinians all attacked simultaneously on four fronts hopping to crush the fledgling state out of existence. It did not work then and it has not worked on the several occasions that the surrounding Arab nations have repeatedly tried to eradicate the State of Israel. The simple truth of the matter is that the Jews have no where else to go that they can call home and with their back against the wall they have clearly demonstrated that they are determined to hold what has become their homeland or die.
The last time that the Arab nations tried to overwhelm Israel the Israeli army decided to take possession of the strategic locations from which the Arabs had launched their attacks in the past. During June of 1966 Israel took possession of the Golan Heights from Syria, a favoured vantage point from which the Syrian army could and did launch artillery bombardments of Haifa and Tel Aviv. The Israelis also fought a bloody battle in the Bekaa valley an extension of the Great Rift Valley to clear it of two terrorist factions Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guard. The valley comprised territory that belonged to Lebanon and Syria. They took possession of the west bank of the River Jordan driving the Jordanian army east of the river making it more difficult for Jordan to attack Jerusalem. To prevent Egyptian tanks forcing an entry into Israel they secured the Gaza Strip a bottleneck that had proved the downfall of the Egyptian army several times in the past.
Hezbollah [Or the party of god] is a radical Shiite Muslim group whose stated aim is the creation of a Muslim state in Lebanon. The Revolutionary Guard however is a powerful military group dedicated to the export of Islam wherever they see fit. These two groups are allied and more disturbing The Revolutionary Guard is mainly based in Iran. Taken with Iran’s recent foray into the development of a Nuclear capability and the stated aim of its President [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad] “To Wipe the state of Israel off the face of the Earth” it is perhaps understandable that Israel does not want either organisation to have bases in the Bekaa valley within striking distance of both the Israeli capital Tel Aviv and its major port Haifa. The other main player in the terror triangle is Hamas, they like Hezbollah have been cultivating their public image with civic improvement programs and social interaction. Hamas however found themselves elected to power recently in an election that they did not expect to win; they are now the ruling party in the Palestinian authority. Israel had been collecting taxes that up to the election of Hamas it passed on to the Palestinian Authority, which was used to meet the civic wage bill of police, civil and civic servants and many government departments. The amount transferred to the Authority every month was 52 million dollars and it was guaranteed by the USA. On its election Hamas refused to renounce violence and Israel withheld the money due to the Authority until it did, the USA supported the action because without the renunciation of violence the perception was that the American government could be using US tax dollars to fund terrorist actions against itself. Israel continued to withhold the funds and services within the Palestinian jurisdiction began to fail.
On June 25th Hamas units tunnelled their way from the Gaza Strip across the border into an Israeli army post, they killed two soldiers and a third was taken hostage; negotiations for his return began. Shortly afterwards two more Israeli soldiers were taken hostage in a cross border raid near the Israeli border with Lebanon but this time Hezbollah claimed to be holding them. Negotiations for the return of the Hezbollah hostages did not fare well and whilst the negotiations were still in progress rocket attacks against civilian targets in northern Israel, the rocket attacks seemed to emanate from the locations of known terror groups in the Bekaa valley. Israel, fearing that the hostages would be spirited out of Lebanon under cover of the diversion caused by the attacks began to eliminate infrastructure that could provide Hezbollah with the means to move their hostages. The Lebanese coast was blockaded and several roads bombed, communications have been severed and petrol stations have become ready-made bombs, busses have all but ceased to run, as have the trains and Beirut airport in common with other military installations is out of commission.
The Middle East cauldron is about to boil over but for the moment there has been no formal declaration of war. Strangely both Iran’s president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syria’s President Bashar Al-Assad have asked for a ceasefire followed by a “Prisoner Exchange” which does not square with the boasts of the head of Hezbollah Sheik Hassan Nasrallah that he has 12000 Iranian made rockets at his disposal and intends to use them against Israel. If Hezbollah was that well armed why would both of its principal backers want to call a halt with success so close to hand? The Lebanese President Fouad Siniora maintains that this action is between Israel and Hezbollah and that Lebanese forces will stay out of it. The Israelis however have good reason to mistrust the Lebanese presidents assertion. One reason for the apparent change of heart in Damascus [Syria] and Teheran [Iran] may be the success of Israeli warplanes that have destroyed so much ordinance carried by trucks coming from both Syria and Iran putting the success of the Hezbollah action in doubt.
The Lebanese government is not the strongest form of government and was deliberately contrived to be so in order that it ruled by the consensus of its citizens. However because it is not that strong Hezbollah and the Revolutionary Guard are able to operate with virtual impunity from inside Lebanon in fact Hezbollah maintains a suite of offices on the outskirts of Beirut that is coordinating the attacks on Israel whilst cynically exploiting the presence of civilians caught in the crossfire with the Israelis.
Reading between the lines it is a simple matter to decipher how Hamas, The Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah backed and funded by both Syria and Iran has engineered this confrontation with little regard for the “Collateral” damage to Lebanon or human life.
The Israeli leader Ehud Olmert unequivocally blames the Lebanese government for the current crisis and seems determined to disarm and dismantle the terror groups that now control so much of Lebanon but once the objectives are achieved favours the Lebanese military controlling southern Lebanon rather than an Israeli force and hold little faith in the vastly superior UN peacekeeping force that is currently there maintaining that they are “Ineffective”.
The conflict unfolding in southern Lebanon and in particular around Beirut has displaced much of the population causing a mass exodus away from the danger areas. On Monday a Reuters correspondent tried to make a journey from Beirut to Tyre, which normally takes an hour, after five hours on the road he had still not reached the objective. The displaced “foreign” nationals are also a big problem, Americans, Germans, French and Italians awaiting evacuation by their individual countries but the contingent that has attracted the biggest headlines are the 12,000 British citizens in Beirut, at first they were advised to stay put but as the power failed, the water stopped running, raw sewage issued from fractured sewers and food supplies ran out the conditions deteriorated so much that the British government was forced to mount a rescue. HMS Illustrious and HMS Bulwark were despatched to be followed by HMS Gloucester and HMS York if necessary having first gained an assurance of “Safe passage” from Israel.
The first thirty-nine Brits were airlifted to Akrotiri in Cyprus on Monday and Tuesday saw the Navy beginning the rescue operation in earnest.
There is little doubt in the Jewish mind that the kidnap of the Israeli soldiers was intended to be a long drawn out negotiation seen many times in the past resulting in the release of hundreds of known terrorists in return for the three hostages. Ehud Olmert could have chosen that path but did not. The three hostages may have been the catalyst that lit the blue touch paper of the powder keg that is the Middle East but with one terrorist state in Gaza and the West Bank [Hamas] the last thing Israel needs is another terrorist state to the north in the shape of Hezbollah. The side show of the hostage situation pales into insignificance when measured against the claims of Sheik Hassan Nasrallah that he has 12,000 rockets trained upon Israel and intends to use them. Ehud Olmert must stop and disarm Hezbollah if Israel is to survive and he will do it even at the expense of the three hostages.
The beleaguered leader of Lebanon, President Fouad Siniora claims that Israel has “Opened the gates of hell” and from the pictures coming from Beirut it is an accurate analogy but it has to be asked, “Who gave them the key to unlock the door kept closed for so long”?
JP.
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