Israel Matzav: Hezbullah tries to distract attention from Hariri probe by threatening Israel

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Hezbullah tries to distract attention from Hariri probe by threatening Israel

Hezbullah MP Muhammad Raad told the Beirut Daily Star on Wednesday that in the event that Israel attacks Lebanon, not one inch of Israel would be spared.

“If Israel launches an attack, rockets of the resistance will cover all of Israel: even the city of Eilat won’t be spared,” Loyalty to the Resistance bloc MP Mohammad Raad said, referring to the southern most port city of the Jewish state.

Raad’s statement came during a celebration organized by the Islamic Institute for Education.

Although that statement grabbed the headline, Raad is much concerned about something else: Funding for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

The Hezbollah lawmaker also urged that funding to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, which issued sealed indictments and arrest warrants against four members of Hezbollah, should cease.

“Funding for the Special Tribunal for Lebanon should stop because of its targeting of the resistance.”

Counter-terrorism expert Matthew Levitt says that Hezbullah is deeply concerned about the Tribunal - and with good reason.

Matthew Levitt, counterterrorism and intelligence director at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, wrote on Wednesday that Hezbollah has every reason to fear the details of Hariri’s assassination coming to light.

“The inclusion of [Mustafa] Badreddine – cousin and brother-in-law to Imad Mughniyah, who was chief of the Hezbollah external operations branch known as the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO) until his 2008 assassination by a car bomb in Damascus – has the group on edge, and with good reason.”

“The exposure of evidence tying someone as senior as Badreddine to the murder of Lebanon’s leading Sunni figure would severely undermine Hezbollah’s image – particularly the group’s longstanding claim that it is first and foremost part of the fabric of Lebanese society, and only secondarily a Shi’ite or pro-Iranian movement,” Levitt wrote for the Institute’s PolicyWatch series.

“Hezbollah is now the dominant political force in Lebanon, and the odds that the indicted suspects will be arrested and handed over for trial are slim to none,” he added.

“Regardless of Hezbollah’s response, then, preparations for a trial will likely be underway by fall, whether Badreddine and his accused co-conspirators are present or not.”

We will likely hear many more bellicose threats from Hezbullah over the next couple of months, and they may even attack us in a bid to distract Lebanon from the truth. But if we play our cards right, Lebanon could be heading for civil war again, and we may actually enjoy some quiet on our northern front while watching the Lebanese destroying each other's weapons.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Hezbullah, Imad Mughniyah, Matthew Levitt, Muhammad Raad, Mustafa Badreddine, Special Tribunal for Lebanon