The Drums of War are Beating for 2009

Nasrallah: We’ll never lay down our weapons, even is Shebaa is liberated.

Israel: When the terrorists [Hezbollah] become the government, the list of targets is longer.

Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese Hezbollah, said yesterday that his group will never lay down its weapons, even if the disputed Shebaa Farms in South Lebanon get liberated from Israeli occupation.
"Even if Shebaa is liberated the weapons of the resistance are staying. The resistance is a defense project for Lebanon," Nasrallah said during a Ramadan dinner in southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh on Thursday.

Shebaa was captured from Syria during the 1967 Six-Day war with Israel. Israel says Shebaa is Syrian territory and its fate should be determined in future peace talks with Damascus. Lebanon and Syria have never agreed on who has sovereignty over Shebaa. Lebanon says the territory was Lebanese up to the 1950s and residents there have land deeds stamped by the Lebanese government, but Syria annexed it by force in an incident in which two Lebanese policemen were killed. Syria has given conflicting accounts about its claims to Shebaa: Syrian officials have in recent months said that Shebaa is Lebanese, but have refused to officially cede Shebaa back to Lebanon in writing with the United Nations commission set up after the Israeli withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000 to delineate the border in that area.

Last week, Israeli officials warned that Lebanon's civilian infrastructure could become a legitimate target if Hezbollah attacked Israel. The warning came after the formation of a unity government in which the Hezbollah-led opposition has 11 ministries as well as veto power over cabinet decisions. To the question: “Will there be war?", an Israeli military official said: "For 2008, the answer was no. But I am more cautious about 2009."

Hezbollah itself was for the time being concentrating on building its strength within Lebanon rather than threatening Israel, the official said. He accused them of stockpiling weapons in central and northern Lebanon for use in a future internal conflict there. If there was another war with Israel, he went on, the Israeli military had learned the lessons of 2006.

Rather chillingly, perhaps, he said the next war would see far more bombing and far more damage to Lebanese infrastructure. "The damage to Lebanon wasn't enough to deter them [in 2006]," he said. Next time, Hezbollah would not enjoy air-conditioning in their bunkers because there would be no electricity.

Hezbollah's presence in the Lebanese government now was actually helpful from an Israeli military point of view, he explained.

"When the terrorists become the government, the list of targets is longer."

[Sources: BBC and other news reports]

Hanibaal