By Robert Fisk
"Can a tree start a Middle East war? It almost did yesterday.
That such a question can be asked is a symbol of the incendiary state of the region, the mutual distrust of Arabs and Israelis, and the dangerous border of southern Lebanon which was – as so often – drenched in blood yesterday, the blood of three Lebanese soldiers, an Israeli lieutenant-colonel and a Lebanese journalist outside an otherwise nondescript village called Addaiseh....
But this comes after a tripartite Arab summit in Beirut, mysterious rocket attacks on the borders of Jordan, Israel and Egypt two days ago, a claim by the Lebanese Hizbollah that the UN inquiry into the murder of ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri was an "Israeli project", and the discovery – on Monday – of yet another alleged Israeli spy in the Lebanese telephone network....
An Explosive border
"Exceptionally quiet and uniquely dangerous" was how one group of experts yesterday described the border dividing southern Lebanon and northern Israel.
An uneasy calm has prevailed over one of the world's most combustible political boundaries since the 2006 war waged by Israel against Hizbollah. But the region, littered with landmines and patrolled by Lebanese troops along with 13,000 UN peacekeepers, remains as tense and volatile as ever.
The Brussels-based think-tank, International Crisis Group, warned yesterday that the political roots of the 2006 crisis remain unaddressed and that another war would be more devastating than the last.
Hizbollah, the Iran-backed militia movement that fought Israel in 2006, took no part in yesterday's skirmish, but its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said his group would react if the Lebanese army was attacked again.
"The Israeli hand that targets the Lebanese army will be cut off," he said."
"Can a tree start a Middle East war? It almost did yesterday.
That such a question can be asked is a symbol of the incendiary state of the region, the mutual distrust of Arabs and Israelis, and the dangerous border of southern Lebanon which was – as so often – drenched in blood yesterday, the blood of three Lebanese soldiers, an Israeli lieutenant-colonel and a Lebanese journalist outside an otherwise nondescript village called Addaiseh....
But this comes after a tripartite Arab summit in Beirut, mysterious rocket attacks on the borders of Jordan, Israel and Egypt two days ago, a claim by the Lebanese Hizbollah that the UN inquiry into the murder of ex-prime minister Rafiq Hariri was an "Israeli project", and the discovery – on Monday – of yet another alleged Israeli spy in the Lebanese telephone network....
An Explosive border
"Exceptionally quiet and uniquely dangerous" was how one group of experts yesterday described the border dividing southern Lebanon and northern Israel.An uneasy calm has prevailed over one of the world's most combustible political boundaries since the 2006 war waged by Israel against Hizbollah. But the region, littered with landmines and patrolled by Lebanese troops along with 13,000 UN peacekeepers, remains as tense and volatile as ever.
The Brussels-based think-tank, International Crisis Group, warned yesterday that the political roots of the 2006 crisis remain unaddressed and that another war would be more devastating than the last.
Hizbollah, the Iran-backed militia movement that fought Israel in 2006, took no part in yesterday's skirmish, but its leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said his group would react if the Lebanese army was attacked again.
"The Israeli hand that targets the Lebanese army will be cut off," he said."
Comment by Angry Arab on this piece:
The pro-Hariri propaganda of Robert Fisk
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