Qaouk: Hizbullah is a source of stregth for all Arabs & Muslims…(1)

Hizbullah’s new resistance campaign against “Israeli” troops in the Shibaa Farms appears to be based on the perceived reluctance of “Israel” to open a new front in Lebanon, by staging limited and periodic assaults against “Israeli” troops in the Shibaa Farms, Hizbullah is seeking to sap the resolve of the “Israelis” without forcing the government of Ehud Barak into launching harsh military reprisals.
In an interview with The Daily Star, Sheikh Nabil Qaouk, Hizbullah’s southern commander, said that the resistance did not intend to start a large-scale conflict.
“When we took the decision to continue the resistance, we took into account all possibilities,” he said. “If “Israel” stages a large-scale attack it will not be to its benefit. Our aim is not to have a wide-scale war. Our aim is to liberate our land and free our detainees.”
Qaouk acknowledged that “the rules of the past still apply.” A severe “Israeli” retaliation to attacks in the Shibaa Farms which saw the infrastructure targeted would undermine Hizbullah’s standing in the country. But it would also guarantee an escalation in the conflict, with settlements and towns in northern “Israel” coming under mass rocket attacks by Hizbullah. It is this balance of terror that Hizbullah is exploiting.
By resorting to military operations in the Shibaa Farms, Hizbullah is treading a very fine line, in which war or the continuation of the status quo rests on its ability to predict the reactions of the “Israeli” government.
“We know very well the enemy’s weak points,” Qaouk said. “The “Israelis” know that the cost of a war would be very great, more to them than others.
“When we stage an operation in the South, this makes “Israel” weaker and the intifada stronger. When domestic politics in “Israel” are weak we become stronger. The enemy is very aware that it can’t stage a wide-scale attack on the Palestinians or Syria because Hizbullah is (in the picture).
“Today Hizbullah is a source of strength for all Arabs and Muslims. (It) is a factor one can’t ignore in the regional balance of power. When “Israel” studies its power and capabilities, it not only examines the armies of Arab states it also has to take Hizbullah into account.”
“Israel” has said that retaliation for cross-border attacks could target Syrian troops stationed in Lebanon. But such a response would only bring the prospect of war with Syria that much closer and still not keep Hizbullah from attacking northern “Israel”.
Professor Nizar Hamzi, the head of the political science department at AUB, said that attacking Syrian forces would be a futile gesture.
“What would the “Israelis” have to gain by hitting the Syrians in Lebanon? They did that in 1982 but the Syrians came back even more powerful,” he said.
“The balance of terror remains in the South, in which the weakest is equal to the strongest,” Hamzi added. “If “Israel” retaliates to attacks in the Shibaa Farms area by assaulting Lebanon’s infrastructure then Hizbullah will respond with rocket attacks into Galilee.”
The main difference between the resistance efforts against “Israel’s” occupation of the South and the new campaign in the Shibaa Farms is the perception of legitimacy.
The “Israeli” occupation of the South flouted UN resolutions and was internationally recognized as illegal. Even Hizbullah’s opponents could not deny the party’s right to engage in legitimate resistance against an illegal occupier. For Hizbullah,
such legitimacy was a useful propaganda tool.
But the Shibaa Farms is a different matter. The state was unable to convince the UN that the area was Lebanese and the Shibaa Farms were subsequently separated from the requirements of Resolution 425 by the Blue Line.
As far as the UN and the international community are concerned, attacks against “Israeli” forces in the farms is an act of aggression, not resistance. Theoretically, this grants “Israel” justification to respond militarily, with the endorsement of the international community.
But Hizbullah no longer has any use for international legitimacy.
“The view of the international community is no indication of whether we are right or wrong. It doesn’t change the truth of what we’re doing,” Qaouk said. “The international community is a partner in the crime of what is happening to the Palestinians. It adopts double standards. We believe that the only way to regain occupied land is through resistance.”
However, Qaouk hinted that Hizbullah was aware of national sentiment and would act accordingly.
“Our people are confident in our decisions on their behalf. When we resisted in the South, we resisted both wisely and courageously,” he said.
Qaouk stressed that last week’s roadside-bomb attack in the Shibaa Farms against “Israeli” military vehicles was conducted on land seized in 1970 rather than 1967, when the Golan Heights were occupied. Qaouk hinted that attacks would be confined to the Shibaa Farms.
Hamzi said that Hizbullah’s actions in Shibaa were made possible by the intifada in the West Bank and Gaza, the reluctance of “Israel” to escalate the conflict and the polarization of Lebanon regarding the debate over the Syrian presence.
“The peace process has collapsed and the intifada has claimed over 200 lives. In Lebanon, the country is increasingly polarized over the divisive issue of a Syrian withdrawal,” he said. “Polarization in Lebanon allows Hizbullah to get away with attacks against “Israel”. If the country were unified then it would be different.”
Hizbullah’s role as exemplar to Arabs and Muslims in general and the Palestinians in particular means that the party cannot be seen to do nothing while the intifada rages on.
“Doing nothing,” Hamzi argued, “is as dangerous as doing too much.”

The Red Cross asks Lebanon's help to meet “Israeli” prisoners…(2)

“The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said Friday it has asked Lebanon's Foreign Minister Mahmud Hammud to help it secure access to the “Israeli” soldiers abducted by Hizbullah in October.

"I have asked the minister to help me, so that we have the chance of meeting them," said Henry Fournier, the ICRC's delegate.

"I have talked with all the concerned parties and I think that everyone will make the necessary efforts to arrrive at a solution."

Fournier added that he has been in regular contact with the head of Hizbullah, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, but that contacts with Hizbullah and the Lebanese government must happen outside the public eye.

Hizbullah wants to exchange the “Israeli” hostages for the 19 Lebanese detained in “Israel’s” prisons. It has refused to furnish any information on the health of the “Israeli” soldiers.

The ICRC has already visited with all Lebanese detainees in “Israeli” prisons with the exception of Mustapha Dirani, said Fournier.

He added that the ICRC "continued to concentrate all its efforts on obtaining access to Dirani," considered one of the two most important Lebanese prisoners in “Israel”.

Dirani was kidnapped from Lebanon by “Israeli” security agents in 1994.

The three “Israeli” soldiers were abducted from Shibaa Farms by Hizbullah at the beginning of October.

According to the “Israeli” military, the soldiers -- Omar Suad, Avraham Binyamin, and Adi Abitan -- were wounded when captured.

On October 18, Hizbullah announced the abduction of an “Israeli” colonel, working with “Israeli” intelligence, who had entered Lebanon on a false passport. In “Israel”, he has been identified as Elhanan Tannenbaum, a colonel in the military reserves and an electronics specialist.

Until now, the ICRC, which has met several times with Hizbullah, has not secured a visit with the “Israeli” prisoners.

Mine awareness class launched for children…(3)

The grisly sight of a boy treading on a land mine in Braachit in May was enough to make 12-year old Mohammed Bassam determined to become an expert on the deadly devices.
The experience pushed Bassam, a student from Ainata, to join the Mine Awareness Education workshop, which began Thursday at the Jamil Bazzi Public School in Bint Jbeil.
The workshop’s organizers include the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Save the Children Sweden, the National Demining Office and the Ministry of Education.
By the end of the workshop, Bassam will not have learned how to unearth mines, but he will have learned how to avoid them and help other children do the same.
The three-day workshop is aimed primarily at training educators and social workers in mine awareness. They in turn will then teach children the dangers of mines using a child-to-child approach.
This approach has yielded encouraging results in  mine-afflicted countries such as Cambodia, Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen and northern Iraq, prompting workshop organizers to apply it in the former occupied zone.
Since “Israel’s” 22-year occupation of the South and Western Bekaa ended in May, there have been 75 land-mine accidents, 11 of them fatal and 20 of them involving children.
“Our aim is to make children aware of the dangers of mines through a non-traditional educational method,” said Hijazi Idriss, a UNESCO education-program specialist and workshop coordinator.
The majority of participants in the Bint Jbeil workshop were middle school teachers from 10 public schools in and around the town, many of whom have been active in health, environmental and civic education.
Also attending were social workers who received land-mine training from UNICEF and Balamand University’s Land Mine Resource Center, along with members of the Lebanese Red Cross and six middle-school students.
According to Ibrahim Bazzi, the Education Ministry’s representative in Bint Jbeil, Nabatieh and Marjayoun, up to 2,500 children are likely to benefit from the program in the long run. Fifty of the region’s schools have already been targeted for the program.
“If the workshop succeeds in making children spread the message of safety and behavior regarding mines, an additional 2,500 people, including the children’s parents and relatives, might also benefit,” said Bazzi.
But to succeed, mine awareness education programs must be continuous and include regular follow-up on the ground.
As it turns out, continuity and follow-up are an essential element of child-to-child learning.
“The problem mines that these mines pose won’t go away quickly. That’s why we encourage schools to set up long-term programs with mine awareness activities throughout the year,” said Christina Nelke, the Lebanon-based mine-awareness program officer for Save the Children Sweden.
The child-rights NGO has 15 offices worldwide.
In so doing, Nelke said, teachers should try to instill in their students with the feeling of involvement, ownership and responsibility for their own learning process.
Therefore, part of the workshop includes training teachers to help children learn how to conduct a survey about mine accidents and victims in their community. They are encouraged to discuss their findings in the classroom and decide how to minimize the risks of land mines. The children then put together an action plan and finally evaluate the success of their efforts.
Bassam remembers crying and “feeling a surge of bravery” when he saw the boy in Braachit trigger a mine. Now, Bassam has one thing in mind ­ to save other children, including his two younger siblings from the terrible consequences of land mine accidents.
The National Demining Office is scheduled to field participants’ questions on the workshop’s final session Saturday. The organisation is involved in all mine awareness programs and has begun the arduous task of land-mine clearing.

Sidon journalists show support for intifada…(4)

Journalists in Sidon staged a sit-in on Friday at the city’s Martyrs’ Square to express solidarity with Palestinians in the occupied territories.
The 28 journalists, who stopped working for an hour and put their cameras on the ground, wore Palestinian keffiyehs and chanted anti-US and anti-”Israeli” slogans.
Some of them expressed strong condemnation of “Israeli” aggression by staging a day-long hunger strike. Others decided to boycott American products, while another group donated money or a day’s salary as a small contribution to support the Palestinian uprising.
Palestinian and Lebanese flags were raised as well as two banners, one in Arabic, the other in English, which both read: “We’re united in solidarity with the intifada of our people in occupied Palestine against the US-backed “Israeli” massacres.”
The journalists also observed a minute’s silence to honor the sacrifices of Palestinians during the intifada and the resistance.
The journalists signed a statement urging the international community to take measures to stop the bloodshed.
They also urged Arab countries to sever ties with “Israel” and Arab people to boycott American products to express the lack of any punitive action against the Jewish state. The statement stressed the importance of the continuation of the intifada to liberate the land.

Another "Day of Anger" in Occupied Palestine,Four Martyrs…(5)

In the 9th consecutive Friday of Anger since the Intifadah broke out, more clashes erupted and more military operations were carried out against the “Israeli” occupation.

“Israeli” soldiers shot dead a Palestinian youth,Ghassan Majed Qaraan, in Nablus.

In the town of Jenine,15-year-old Aysar Mohammed Hissis was martyred when an “Israeli” bullet passed through his head.

Another 15-year-old boy,Majdi Ali Abed, died on Friday from wounds sustained when an “Israeli” sniper shot him last Friday at Karni crossing point.

Several Palestinians were wounded in stone-throwing clashes in the West Bank town of Ramallah.”Israeli” artillery also targetted residence buildings in the town.

In Nablus, thousands of Palestinians demonstrated at the funeral of Ibrahim Bani Odeh, the Hamas activist martyred when “Israeli” forces fired at his car Thursday. Hamas through loud speakers claimed responsibility for the car-bomb attack in al-Khudaira (Hadera) town which killed two “Israelis”.

The Resistance Movement threatened "“Israel”" to retaliate for the killing of Odeh..

On the other hand, an “Israeli” settler was killed when his car was subject to gunfire  close to West Bank town of Nablus. Near Beit Anoun village in al-Khalil (Hebron) a roadside bomb exploded when an “Israeli” convoy passed.

The “Israeli” Radio also reported that fire was opened on a militarily protected “Israeli” convoy driving towards Netzarim Settlement in Gaza strip.

Thursday evening, “Israeli” occupation forces assassinated a Fatah member by launching a missile on his house. The victim is 25-year-old Firas Diyab Kassem al-Subaii. His brother was also wounded in the attack.

“Israeli” security cabinet gives Barak green light for military operations…(6)

“Israeli” Deputy War Minister Ephrain Sneh announced that “Israel” decided against directly launching retaliatory attacks for Palestinian car bombing on Wednesday but said that response will be later and will be "more effective".

Sneh said Prime Minister Barak's security cabinet "gave green light for a series of preventive operations. The response should be wise and more effective, leading to the least possible losses in the “Israeli” side."

Government sources said the security cabinet decided not to order strikes on Palestinian targets at this stage in answer to Barak's will, who fears a strong military response would result into international backlash and a hardening of Palestinian positions on resuming negotiations.

Before the security cabinet session “Israeli” Deputy War Minister Ephraim Sneh and Tayyeb Abdel-Rahim, a top aide to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, held surprise talks at Erez crossing in Gaza strip.

Footnotes:

1-     The Daily Star, 25-11-2000.

2-     AFP, 24-11-2000.

3-     The Daily Star, 25-11-2000.

4-     Same source.

5-     Manar TV, 24-11-2000.

6-     Same source.