US embargoes weapons to Israel, delivers them to Hezbullah
Last month, I reported that the United States is maintaining an arms embargo on Israel. On top of that, it turns out that while refusing to sell arms to Israel, the US is selling weapons and ammunition to Lebanon, whose government and army are both dominated by Hezbullah. The U.S. embassy in Lebanon announced last week that on April 2 it had delivered the first in a series of shipments of weapons and ammunition. The shipment included 1,000 M16A4 rifles, 10 missile launchers, 1,583 grenade launchers, and 538 sets of day/night binoculars and night-vision devices. It was stressed that the equipment would be supported with training provided by the U.S. government.So if Hezbullah - which is still classified as a terror organization in the US (I guess Obama hasn't gotten around to changing that yet) is part of the Lebanese Armed Forces, what terrorists are they 'fighting'? Conveniently, al-Qaeda has blasted Hezbullah.
Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr visited Washington in February to discuss military cooperation, especially U.S. assistance to the LAF to fight terrorism.
A month ago, Minister Murr told Lebanese Al-Manar television that though he does not support integrating Hizbullah arms and forces within the LAF, “this does not mean we should offer Israel a favor [and disarm Hizbullah].”
Insinuating that the issue is not a matter of consensus, Murr said, “There are some [Lebanese] annoyed by [the existence of] Hizbullah’s arms, and I could be one of them” – but he acknowledged that Hizbullah’s weapons deter Israel. Murr is said to be one of the government ministers considered close to the President of Lebanon.
Al-Qaeda, for its part, apparently views the LAF and Hizbullah as working together – to help Israel. Lebanon’s Daily Star reported last week that Saleh al-Qaraawi, an Al-Qaeda member who is listed among Saudi Arabia’s 85 most wanted terrorists, spoke on the CNN Arabic news channel, accusing the Lebanese army, Hizbullah and the United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) of being traitors and of “working for the benefit of the Jews.”So that's why Hezbullah has 40,000 rockets pointed at Israel. Gee, why didn't I think of that?
But the truth is that even the Arabs admit that the al-Qaeda statement was all for show.
Palestinian factions in Lebanon did not attribute much importance to the statements, saying they were media-motivated and based on anger that Al Qaeda-linked Fatah al-Islam lost a battle to the Lebanese Army.And the US continues to supply Hezbullah with arms while embargoing Israel. What could go wrong?
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:19 AM
3 Comments:
I mentioned in my response to Yair Lapid's article about the Holocaust on Ynet my belief that Israel's survival and moral condition are both one and the same. I observed that Israel can expect no help from world that is not only silent in the face of Iran's genocidal intention but which as you have just illustrated, arms Iran's proxy in Lebanon to the teeth. The world was quite happy to have the Germans get rid of the Jews for them. One gets the impression they would not mind at all if Iran finished the job with Israel. The Jewish people have not only the right, they have the duty to survive and the lesson in the face of a hostile, if not indifferent world is they must protect themselves with their own strength and G-d's protection and above all, they must never place Israel's very existence into the hands of a hostile nation.
Israel faces a great danger. But has it also been given the opportunity to lift a sentence of death that threatens to be passed upon the entire Jewish people. And for their sake, let us hope Israel acts decisively to lift it and soon.
Question: Has the US given Lebanon weapons before? I would of course advocate never giving the Leb govt weapons as they have not managed to stand up to Hezbullah. If the standard Leb govt people think they need weapons to deter Israel rather than needing them to assert their authority over all Leb territory (as opposed to a supposedly agreed border respected by Leb., in which case Israel will go back to the lab and innovate the next cure for cancer), then giving Leb more weapons is taking the side of Iran/Hez.
I agree with normanF.
Israel is our bastion.
But also Jews are the bulwark against everyone else getting attacked by the islamic tyrannosaurus.
Israel must strike the tyrannosaurus NOW! (why wait?)
Post a Comment
<< Home