Hezbollah/Isreal/U.N. -- what's the deal?

[atlas]

Can anyone give me a history lesson on how this mess between Lebanon and Isreal got started?

All I know is that after the holocaust the UN told Palestine that they were going to ship all the exiled jews over there and call it Isreal; since other countries couldn't (or wouldn't) take the immigrants. They force the Palestinians out of the country and whoila, there was Israel. And since then everyone around them has been pissed at them.

Could somebody give some more details into this?

[Janus]

Israeli-Palestinian conflict (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israeli-Palestinian_conflict)


Can anyone give me a history lesson on how this mess between Lebanon and Isreal got started?
Ever since 1982, problems have always occured on Israel's northern border. After the Hezbollah kidnapping, Israel chose to launch an offensive campaign in order to get rid of this thorn in its side forever.

Of course, this is simply a continuation of the Hezbollah-Israel feud that had been going on since the Israeli invasion and occupation of Lebanon back in 1982.

[atlas]

Damn. This is no simple confllict. It has a list of 28 articles just for the history of it, I'll come back to tis thread when I'm reading them (friday maybe?).

[Janus]

This is no simple confllict
Nope, the world is much more complex than some would lead you to believe.

The Arab-Israeli conflict has deep roots that stretch back decades.

[Severian]

Briefly, though - Lebanon has been described as Israel's Vietnam.

Israel invaded Lebanon twice before. 1978 and 1982. Intervening in its internal conflicts, and going after Palestinian refugees and PLO fighters in Lebanon.

From 1982 to 2000, Israel occupied part of southern Lebanon. A bitter guerilla war developed - and in 2000 Israel withdrew in failure. There've been periodic bombing raids ever since.

Here's a few articles from the Militant which not only describe events at the times they were written, but give some historical background.

1996 - Lebanese resistance undefeated (http://www.themilitant.com/1996/6019/6019_2.html)

An article on the withdrawal from 2000, the mass actions by Lebanese responding to it, and the collapse of Israel's collaborator army in south Lebanon:
Lebanese return (to the south) as Israeli forces withdraw (http://www.themilitant.com/2000/6423/642356.html)

A few months later, In October 2000, as the second Palestinian intifada was just starting - (http://www.themilitant.com/2000/6440/644002.shtml) " Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon on October 7 crossed the border with Israel and captured three Israeli soldiers from a patrol vehicle. Hezbollah spokespeople said the goal of their operation was to exchange the three sergeants for 19 Lebanese prisoners being held without trial in Israel.

Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak immediately seized on this incident. He threatened to attack Lebanon and Syria and to pull out of efforts to restart negotiations. "

Eventually a prisoner exchange was negotiated - but Hezbollah's leadership said that as long as some Lebanese prisoners were held, they'd have to do the same again eventually.

[chebol]

Actually, the evidence seems to indicate that the Israelis were part of a 'patrol' inside Lebanon. Or, at least, that was the story until the whole situation became one of 'taking sides'.

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/israeli_solders.html

Also, check out these two articles for some more background:

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/678/678p12.htm
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2006/676/676p12b.htm

and

http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/1996/228/228p32.htm

[Severian]

Originally posted by [email protected] 10 2006, 02:02 AM
Actually, the evidence seems to indicate that the Israelis were part of a 'patrol' inside Lebanon. Or, at least, that was the story until the whole situation became one of 'taking sides'.

http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/israeli_solders.html

That's a conspiracy site which exists to claim that the World Trade Center was destroyed by...the Bush administration? Anyway, not an al-Qaeda attack.

Hezbollah statements have also said the Israeli soldiers were captured on a raid into Israel - something they've said for years they'll do if Lebanese prisoners aren't released.

There's zero reason to deny this.

This is one of the relatively positive features of Hezbollah compared to other Islamist groups, incidentally - they're less prone to demagogy and lies. Even the bourgeois media (e.g. NPR) has commented on this as one reason for Nasrallah's popularity.