Friday, July 30, 2010

Israel Threatens Lebanon


The Existential Threat Facing Lebanon Today

A Good Piece

by Rannie Amiri
Global Research

"....Recent events belie Barak’s last two claims. Indeed, Israel is doing its best to goad, prod and provoke Hezbollah into firing that one rocket that can be used as pretext to wage all-out war and avenge their July 2006 invasion disaster:

· Military surveillance flights over Lebanon violate the country’s airspace and sovereignty daily.

· In mid-July, an Israeli patrol crossed the border into Lebanon and attempted to abduct a shepherd.

· A week later, an Israeli vessel fired artillery rounds at a Lebanese fishing boat located within Lebanese territorial waters.

· Israel ’s designs on Lebanon ’s offshore gas reserves and the prospect of using force to secure them has been recently discussed, as has evidence suggesting their involvement in the Hariri assassination.

Barak clearly intimates that any war Israel wages will not spare civilian lives or infrastructure, as Gaza will testify. In fact, he simply reiterated what has become known as the “Dahiya Doctrine.”

In an October 2008 interview with Yedioth Ahronoth , Israel Defense Forces Northern District Commander Major General Gadi Eisenkott explained it:

“What happened in the Dahiya Quarter of Beirut in 2006 will happen in every village from which shots are fired on Israel . We will use disproportionate force against it and we will cause immense damage and destruction. From our point of view these are not civilian villages but military bases. This is not a recommendation, this is the plan, and it has already been authorized.”

The Dahiya Doctrine: a strategy used to justify collective punishment and the commission of war crimes, and an existential threat to present-day Lebanon .

One wonders whether King Abdullah—busy running interference in Lebanon and Syria on the United States ’ behalf—understands that his March 14 allies would not be spared."

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