Israel fears Hezbollah

After getting defeated twice at hands of Hezbollah, Israel now fears the power of the Lebanese group.

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BBC - 24 May 2010

Israel fears stronger Hezbollah 10 years after pull-out

A Hezbollah flag can be seen flying just metres from the border

"From a local guerrilla organisation, we've created a monster." - Alon Ben-David - Defence analyst

The Four Mothers activists say soldiers were dying "for nothing' in south Lebanon


Barely 100m from a picnic spot in Israel's northern-most village, the yellow flag of the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah flutters in the breeze.

It was through Metulla that the last Israeli soldiers drove as they withdrew unilaterally from Lebanon in 2000, ending their 18-year presence in the country.

The troops had held a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, aiming to protect Israel's northern border from militant attacks.

Now 10 years later, the scene is tranquil, although a major war was fought across this border in 2006, and the regional media is full of talk of Iranian-backed Hezbollah's growing arsenal.

"In Metulla, it's always business as usual," says local resident Jonathan Javor, 28. "You still have to pick fruit, you still have to open your hotel, no matter what's going on."

Metulla forms a finger of land jutting into Lebanon.

Its green orchards back right onto the border, overlooked by Lebanese villages on the hills beyond.

Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982, pushing as far as Beirut in an attempt to target Palestinian militants, but then drew back to hold a zone varying from about 5-20km (3-12 miles) into Lebanon, to protect border communities such as Metulla.

While many Lebanese civilians from the buffer zone crossed into Israel daily to work, Hezbollah and other militant groups fought a war of attrition against the Israelis and their Lebanese Christian allies, the South Lebanon Army.

On average, about two or three Israeli soldiers died each month.

Sitting on a sunny veranda in Kibbutz Ashdot Yaacov, an hour's drive south, three friends reminisce together about the campaign they waged, as part of a group called Four Mothers, for the withdrawal.

"Many people called us saying 'Please take my child out of Lebanon, I want him alive," says Amalia Dayan.

The women are at pains to point out their commitment to sending their sons and daughters to defend Israel.

But Mrs Dayan says they felt losses in Lebanon were a sacrifice "for nothing," in a long-standing occupation "with no goal".

Ten years on, the women have no regrets. Smadar Ben-Porat believes it is just a matter of time until the next war with Hezbollah, but she thinks the movement would have grown stronger whether or not Israel had pulled out.

"I believe it's better for us to defend our country from legitimate borders," she says.

Israeli President Shimon Peres recently accused Syria of transferring Scud missiles to Hezbollah. The US says the group now has more missiles than most governments.

There is a UN presence in south Lebanon, which was expanded as part of the 2006 ceasefire agreement, but few Israelis believe it has stopped Hezbollah rearming.

Alon Ben-David, military analyst for Israel's Channel 10 television, believes Hezbollah has 40,000 rockets and long-range precision missiles with which it could strike targets such as military bases and power stations, which "makes the equation completely different".

"From a local guerrilla organisation, we've created a monster," he says.

In 2000, the troops were pulled out ahead of schedule, in what was perceived on both sides as a hasty scramble. Hezbollah claimed it as a major victory.

"We boosted the radical axis - Iran, Syria and Hezbollah - we gave them a lot of encouragement in the withdrawal and I think we're still paying the price for it," says Mr Ben-David.

At present, he believes neither side has the incentive for another war, "because they realise what devastation it would cause on both sides".

But, he says, if Israel were to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iran's nuclear programme, Hezbollah would be likely to hit back.

'Necessity'

In Metulla, town mayor Herzel Boker dismisses talk of imminent war as "manufactured by journalists".

A commander in Israel's south at the time of the withdrawal, he believes the pull-out was "a necessity", but says it left the security situation "effectively without control".

Few Israelis argue that the troops should have stayed, but many wish they had left differently - as part of a peace deal with Syria and Lebanon, or at least without creating the impression of weakness.

Mr Boker is also angered that Israel did not make better provisions for the SLA fighters and their families. Some were able to rush across the border to begin new lives in Israel, but others were left behind and captured by Hezbollah.

The 2006 war began when Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers from the border region. Israel struck back, mainly at south Lebanon and Hezbollah areas in Beirut.

Some 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, and some 160 Israelis, most of whom were soldiers, were killed.

Now, there are two Hezbollah ministers in Lebanon's unity government and Israel has said it will hold Lebanon as a whole responsible for the activities of Hezbollah.

"If Lebanon creates an escalation, the state of Israel will react, and as we saw in 2006 it could react aggressively… if we will not live in peace, neither will they," Mr Boker says.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8699425.stm

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BBC - 28 April 2010

US: Hezbollah armed with improved missiles


The US defence secretary has warned that Hezbollah now has more rockets and missiles than most governments.

Robert Gates accused Syria and Iran of supplying weapons of "ever-increasing capability" to the military wing of the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement.

"This is obviously destabilising for the whole region," he said following talks with his Israeli counterpart.

Hezbollah has said the missile stock is not as big as the US or Israel's and vowed to continue arming itself.

Mr Gates did not say if Syria was supplying Hezbollah with Scud ballistic missiles, as Israel has alleged.

Hezbollah fought a 34-day conflict with Israel in 2006 during which more than 1,200 Lebanese people, mostly civilians, were killed. Some 160 Israeli people, most of whom were soldiers, also died.

United Nations Security Council resolution 1701, which ended the conflict, included an arms embargo on Lebanon, except for transfers authorised by the Lebanese government or UN.

'Delicate balance'

After meeting Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak in Washington on Tuesday, Mr Gates said Syria and Iran was "providing Hezbollah with rockets and missiles of ever-increasing capability".

"And we're at a point now, where Hezbollah has far more rockets and missiles than most governments in the world, and this is obviously destabilising for the whole region and we're watching it very carefully," he told a news conference at the Pentagon.

Mr Barak also warned that Syria was arming Hezbollah with "weapons systems that can turn or disrupt the very delicate balance in Lebanon".

But he played down the chances of war over the alleged transfers.

"We do not intend to provoke any kind of major collision in Lebanon, or vis-a-vis Syria... but we are watching closely these developments and think that they do not contribute to stability in the region."

Mr Barak also chose not to repeat the allegation, made by Israeli President Shimon Peres last week, that Syria had been smuggling "Scud missiles to Hezbollah so that it can threaten peace".

A Hezbollah member of Lebanon's parliament told local media that the organisation would continue to rearm itself.

"Our choice was and remains to secure all the arms of resistance that we can," Hassan Fadlallah told the Arabic As-Safir newspaper.

But he said Hezbollah's armaments "do not compare" with the US or Israel's.

And another Hezbollah MP, Nawwar al-Sahili, told the BBC that the group had the right to buy whatever it needed from whomever it deemed appropriate in order to protect Lebanon.

Mr Sahili also said that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah - who recently said that if there was another war, Hezbollah would be able to hit Tel Aviv - never made empty threats.

Syria strongly denied the charge, saying it believed Israel aimed "through these claims to further strain the atmosphere in the region". Lebanon's prime minister said it seemed Israel was trying to find a pretext for a military strike.

Last week, Syria's most senior diplomat in Washington, Deputy Chief of Mission Zouheir Jabbour, was summoned by the state department to be warned about its "provocative behaviour".

A senior state department official later said the US would consider the "full range of tools" available to halt any smuggling of Scuds.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8647909.stm

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BBC - 7 November 2006

Israelis count cost of conflict

"We got in. We got killed. That's it. We didn't achieve anything." - Boaz, Israeli reservist

At Biranit, an Israeli military outpost, high on a hill overlooking a broad sweep of southern Lebanon, Lt Col Guy Hazoot, of the Galilee Division of the Israeli army, pointed to a heap of rubble not more than 50 yards away across no-man's land.

"This was a Hezbollah position," he told me. "And they're not here any more."

But when Oren, a young lieutenant, took me for a drive along the fence, he painted a slightly different picture.

He told me it was quiet now, but there are still Hezbollah fighters out there, collecting information, making sketches.

Getting ready for the next round?

"It's hard to tell," he said. "Everyone wants to be ready."

Another round. It's hard to find Israelis who don't fear a fresh outbreak of violence, perhaps soon.

Pessimism

Their pessimism is fuelled, in part, by the belief that Israel did not fight well enough in this summer's conflict in Lebanon.

In Haifa, at the scene of an explosion in August, I found Rami, brooding and resentful about a war he called a failure.


“ We got in. We got killed. That's it. We didn't achieve anything ”
Boaz, Israeli reservist

"We didn't achieve anything because the kidnapped soldiers are not back. But I think in the next war you will see what our strength is."

His sentiments are echoed by soldiers who fought in Lebanon.

Boaz, a reservist, told me his engineering unit lacked proper equipment and adequate training.

He lost nine colleagues when Hezbollah fighters fired anti-tank missiles into a house where the unit was sleeping.

"We got in. We got killed. That's it. We didn't achieve anything."

Sense of failure

Whether it is soldiers who fought in Lebanon, or civilians in the north, the sense of failure and mistrust seems all pervasive.

Two and a half months after the war ended, the questions - and recriminations - haven't stopped.

Hardly a day goes by without further allegations of military incompetence and political bungling being aired in Israel's notoriously unruly press.

A perceived lack of effective leadership, political or military, is a question in the minds of many.

With the era of the commanding soldier-politician apparently behind them - at least for now - journalist Danny Ben-Simon says Israelis feel lost.

"Israelis feel... that the current leaders are a total failure," he says.

"You can see in the paper ironic ads: "If you have right qualities, we need a prime minister, a defence minister. We need all the ministers.""

Israel's military did a lot of damage to Hezbollah over the summer, but those who fought, and those on the receiving end of Hezbollah's rockets don't feel any sense of triumph.

The latest fighting in Gaza, and the spectre of a nuclear-armed Iran, serve to convince many that Israel's sixth Middle East war was simply the latest in a series without end.

Speaking in Tel Aviv on Monday, the British Ambassador to Israel, Tom Phillips, warned that the Lebanon war had "prompted Israelis to believe that Israel has no choice but to remain strong, and to be prepared to pay the heavy price of however many wars the future may bring".

Hear the full story on Radio 4: File on 4 Tue 7 Nov 2000GMT, repeated Sun 12 Nov 1700GMT or online at the File on 4 website

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/file_on_4/6121950.stm

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BBC - 25 May 2010

Hezbollah entrenched in Lebanon years after Israel left

Every day 70-year-old Abu Ali Shami looks at Israel from his olive grove. The barbed wire, which is only a metre away, reminds him of what life was like when Israeli soldiers were stationed on the Lebanese side of the barbed wire fence.

"We were powerless," Abu Ali Shami says. "There was so much injustice, if felt like we lived in a big prison."

Like all residents of Kfar Kila, a village on the Lebanese-Israeli border, Abu Ali Shami still remembers restrictions on travel and the climate of fear, enforced not only by the Israeli military but also their Lebanese collaborators.

"We were so happy when they left," remembers Abu Ali, another villager in Kfar Kila. "They withdrew in the middle of the night and it felt as if we finally had our country back."

Ten years on since the withdrawal, the UN together with the Lebanese army patrol the border area. But flapping in the breeze along the fence are yellow and green flags of Hezbollah. Waving next to them is the flag of the group's biggest foreign backer - Iran.

It is Hezbollah that has real control over what happens in southern Lebanon and many villagers say they like the arrangement.

"It's the resistance, its weapons and [Hezbollah leader] Hassan Nasrallah who make us feel safe here," says Fawwaz Mohammed. "Without the resistance we could never be free."

'Victories'

Hezbollah is staging a series of events marking the 10th anniversary of the Israeli withdrawal, and what it sees as its victories since then - particularly the most recent war with Israel in 2006. Among them is the opening of a new war museum just a short drive away from the border.

The museum showcases hundreds of pieces of weaponry and equipment. The museum cost more than $3m to build. This was raised, according to Hezbollah, entirely from private donations.

"It's a commemoration of our fighters, of our martyrdom and also this museum is the way of reminding the new generation about sacrifices that they made," says the group's spokesman, Dr Ibrahim Moussawi.

As a guide leads visitors around the museum through an elaborate network of underground tunnels, he describes the battles and the living conditions of the Hezbollah fighters.

Almost all of South Lebanon is riddled with similar bunkers, it is believed that Hezbollah uses them to keep its weapons and train its guerrillas.

But the guide brushes off all questions about the real tunnels: "It's a secret," he laughs.

While Hezbollah remains extremely secretive about its military, the museum is in many ways, a sign of just how much the group has evolved over the last 10 years.

Politics and military

Today, it is arguably the most powerful militia in the Middle East and inside Lebanon it also functions as a sophisticated political organisation which has won elections, which has a track record of doing serious social work, and which is clever at marketing itself.

Hezbollah's growing military might, fuelled by funding from Iran, is a serious concern for Israel and its allies.

Israel and Washington have recently accused Syria of transferring long range scud rockets to Hezbollah. The allegations sparked off a new cycle of mutual accusations, and speculation about another war.

The Lebanese Prime Minister, Saad Hariri, was among those to deny the allegations that there were scud rockets in Lebanon, but Hezbollah never issued a denial.

In fact many in Lebanon believe that the group does have some sort of long-range missile, if only because in some of his recent speeches the group's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has threatened to hit targets deep inside Israel.

"I don't know what kind of rockets Hezbollah has, but what I do know is that Hassan Nasrallah does not make empty threats. Israel knows that, which is why they are worried," says Beirut-based analyst Rami Khoury.

And yet, despite all the talk of war, tensions and mutual accusations - or partly because of it all - the situation, Rami Khoury believes, is currently under control.

"What we have now is a situation of quite good mutual deterrence. Nobody is going to give up or surrender to the other side. At the same time, both sides know that if they start a war, it will be ferocious and it will kill many civilians," says Rami Khoury.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/10152082.stm

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BBC - 26 February 2010

Hezbollah chief Nasrallah meets Ahmadinejad in Syria

"If the Zionist regime decides to repeat its past mistakes, the region will finish it off", Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian President

The head of the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has made a rare public appearance in the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Sheikh Nasrallah attended a dinner with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

He is under an Israeli death threat and makes very few appearances in public. When he addresses Hezbollah, he does so by video from a secret location.

Both Syria and Iran provide the group with financial and military support.

Hezbollah fought a 33-day war with Israel in 2006 during which more than 1,200 Lebanese people, mostly civilians, were killed. Some 160 Israeli people, most of whom were soldiers, also died.

In November, Sheikh Nasrallah vowed to boost the capacity of its military wing and threatened to retaliate if Israel attacked Lebanon.

'Deep' ties

Since 2006, the Hezbollah leader has made few public appearances in Lebanon, even avoiding key religious and political occasions.

His fear of an assassination attempt has been particularly heightened since February 2008, when the commander of his group's military wing, Imad Mughniyeh, was killed in a car bombing in Damascus.

Hezbollah blamed Israel for the attack, but it denied any involvement.

Before Thursday's dinner, Sheikh Nasrallah and President Ahmadinejad discussed "the latest developments in the region, and Zionist threats against Lebanon and Syria", Hezbollah's al-Manar television reported.

"If the Zionist regime decides to repeat its past mistakes, the region will finish it off," al-Manar quoted the Iranian leader as saying.

After bilateral talks on Thursday, President Assad said Syria and Iran were working together to confront "Israeli terrorism".

Both leaders dismissed US calls for Syria to distance itself from Iran, emphasising their "deep and brotherly" ties.

The meeting came a week after the US signalled an attempt to improve ties with Syria, sending a senior official to Damascus for talks and nominating a new ambassador after the withdrawal of his predecessor five years ago.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/8539178.stm

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