Syria says tells Hizbollah: stop rocketing Israel

[sabra]

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L14253656.htm

Syria says tells Hizbollah: stop rocketing Israel

LONDON, July 14 (Reuters) - Syria is telling Lebanon's Hizbollah movement to stop firing rockets at Israel in a conflict sparked by the capture of two Israeli soldiers, Syria's ambassador to London said on Friday.

Hizbollah, an Islamist group represented in the Lebanese government, wants to trade the captives for prisoners held in Israel. In an attempt to increase domestic pressure on Hizbollah, Israeli planes have attacked Beirut and southern Lebanon, killing at least 60 people.

When asked whether Syria was telling Hizbollah to stop firing rockets at Israel, the ambassador, Sami Khiyami, told the BBC: "Of course."

"This is a movement that is completely independent. We have good relations with it," he said. Hizbollah was created to fight Israel's former occupation of southern Lebanon and is backed by both Iran and Syria.

[Warpy]

1. Syria and Lebanon DON'T WANT THIS

and likely would have pressured Hezbollah to cough up those two captured soldiers had they been offered that alternative to the present war.

They've only been able to rebuild for the last decade and a half. They're sick of this shit.

[theboss]

2. Lebanon...certainly not

Syria...I'm not sure about.

I do think that Iran wants this, and that scares me.

[MidwestTransplant]

3. Syria want's this totally. How do you think those missiles

get to Hezbollah. Hezbollah is a proxy for Syria and Iran to the extreme detriment of the Lebanese people. They don't want to fight Israel on their own land so they try to do it in Lebanon. That's why the Lebanese hate Syria and Iran.

[denverbill]

4. OK, well, here's the problem.

Not this:
"This is a movement that is completely independent."

But this:
"We have good relations with it."

If I'm friends with someone, and they cold-bloodedly murder someone, and I stay good friends with them, and give them help of any kind, it makes me an accessory after the fact.

There's a lot about Israel I don't like, but I won't support any group that uses terrorism to advance it's agenda, and any country that has 'good relations' with terrorists is not ever going to be a friend of mine.

[Terran1212]

5. So I mean is the US responsible for its allies as well?

I mean, you can maintain relations with people because you've had them for years and its just good realpolitik, that doesn't mean you support all of its actions.

[denverbill]

6. Responsible for it's allies? Yes, at a certain point.

If the US was allied with Germany in 1938, and Germany annexes Austria, takes over Czechoslovakia, invades Poland, and invades France, at what point can the US keep supplying them with food, iron, and coal before they are considered complicit?

At each step of that war, would the world have looked on as the US just kept saying "Well, Germany is our friend, and we've told them to stop invading other countries."?

At some point, either Hezbollah has to give up terrorism, or Syria has to give up it's support of Hezbollah.

[Terran1212]

7. That won't ever happen because Hezbollah liberated Lebanon

during the first Israeli incursion. Most in the region don't see that as terrorism when Hezbollah is fighting the people who are flattening your homes.

I think it was foolish for Hezbollah to intervene on behalf of the Palestinians. Maybe brave, but they shouldn't have done it.

[denverbill]

8. I don't see that as terrorism either.

But anything they do across the Israeli border is. The raid on the Israeli soldiers, the rocketing.

Granted I don't think Hezbollah is in the same league with Hamas as far as terrorism is concerned, but they seem to be closing the gap.

[jerry611]

11. Before 9/11...Hezbollah killed more Americans than anyone else

Hezbollah killed 241 US Marines in 1983 with a bombing in Beirut. Intel showed that the Ayatollah's in Iran funded the operation. This is what increased tentions between the US and Iran. And this is why Reagan then started giving weapons to Saddam Hussein. We didn't want the Ayatollah's (who were also had some friends in the Soviet Union) to take over Iraq.

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[denverbill]

16. Yes, but they were American soldiers on Lebanese soil.

It's hard to call it terrorism when:

#1-it's a military target, not civilian
and
#2-it was not on our own terroritory.

[jerry611]

17. It was a multi-national peacekeeping force

The French lost soldiers in that bombing too.

The whole situation was charged by the Cold War as well. The reason we were involved is because we were determined to keep the Soviets from advancing into the mid-east. If we allowed them to, Russia would control over 3/4ths of the world's known oil reserves. And that would have been more than enough to put a strangle on the US economy and weaken us. Our strategy worked. We kept the Soviets out. But the problem is that we started a lot of fires, and we are now having a lot of trouble putting those fires out.

[jerry611]

9. And that is the major problem with the mid-east

There is a militant-extremist sect of Islam that has control of many of the governments in that region.

These jihadis are not interested in making peace with the Israelis. They want to destroy Israel because they think it is their land and the Jews have no claim to it.
Many of these terrorists that commit these acts are brainwashed. They think they are still fighting the Crusades and saving Jerusalem for Islam.

Look at the terrorist propaganda videos, they refer to the the west as "Crusaders."

There needs to be several generations of change in that region before peace can ever have a chance.

[cali]

10. I find that to be a revolting sentiment

Nothing brave about it, and many, many Lebanese detest H'zbollah- and with good reason. BTW, any cursory study of the history of the area, would indeed tell you that Syria and Iran do indeed use H'zbollah as a proxy.

Both sides need to be condemned. Israel for reacting disproportionately to the killing, abductions and rocket attacks. There's no excuse for the destruction they're raining down on Lebanon, no matter the provocation. H'zbollah needs to be condemned equally strongly. In addition to the dead soldiers, they've killed 2 civilians and wounded around a hundred, some seriously.

[Terran1212]

13. Hezbollah had every right to defend its people against Israel

And its revolting that you give the right to self defense only to Israeli Jews but not Arabs.

[Behind the Aegis]

14. Hezb'allah doesn't HAVE people!

Besides, they were the ones that ran across the border and started the "dust-up!"

[Baclava]

The 'dust-up' is now a War...and it could be a long one

'THIS IS A WAR'

"The notion that this is a limited operation is wrong -- this is a fundamentally new situation," Gen. Gershon Yitzhak, head of the Israeli Army Home Front Command, said in an interview.

"This is not an operation. This is a war for the sake of our home, what it will look like in the future and how we will be able to live in the region. This operation will continue to expand, and it is only just beginning.

"We must remove this threat once and for all," the general added

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...NGQBJV6OA1.DTL

[Terran1212]

19. Israel has hundreds of Lebanese citizens in their jails

Most just "disappeared" one day.

If Israel can bomb all of Lebanon to get back two SOLDIERS, why can't Hezbollah fight to retreive its kidnapped citizens.


Or is this more along the lines of: "Israelis can defend themselves but the dirty arabs can't!"

Either you agree both can fight for their citizens or that both should stop fighting. Everything else is double standard

[Behind the Aegis]

20. got link?

I have seen the number THREE. Can you link to something that shows there are "100's" of Lebanese in Israeli jails?

[Terran1212]

21. Three is what the IDF will admit, hundreds is the reality

You know our Gitmo? Israel has many such prisons where they are holding the "disappeared" Lebanese that are well-documented in Lebanon's press and academia, but which Israel has no intention of even recognizing.

[Behind the Aegis]

22. so...that would be a "no?"

[Name removed]

23. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Behind the Aegis]

24. The US is bombing Gaza?

[cali]

18. Of course I did nothing of the sort

do try to develop some reading comprehension. Real slowly now; I. Roundly. Condemn. Israel. For. Incursions. Into. Gaza. And. Lebanon. Gee, didn't I say the exact same thing in the post you responded to? Why yes, I did.

[Behind the Aegis]

15. Good on Syria!

Now, let's see if they follow through!