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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Haim R. Branisteanu who wrote (2816)	4/17/2002 2:32:59 PM
From: Cage Rattler	Respond to of 32591

A second front for Israel <<JANE'S>> 17 April 2002 The Israeli incursions into the Palestinian Occupied Territories and the anger they have stirred up in the Arab and Muslim world provided an excellent opportunity for Syria and Hizbullah, the Shia Muslim private army in south Lebanon, to pursue their own interests by causing mischief on the Lebanon-Israel frontier. Syria, currently sidelined in the region, is out to prove that it still counts. This it is doing by ensuring a daily dozen Hizbullah attacks on the contested Shebaa Farms along the Israel-Lebanon border and occasional reminders that it has other proxy forces that could hit Israel elsewhere along the border. When the Israeli army crashed its way into the West Bank, the Lebanese government knew it was a matter of time before its restless Palestinian refugee population, 350,000-strong, took up arms. Sheikh Nasrallah, leader of Hizbullah, recognised that the mood in the country was turning against Hizbullah’s military actions in the South, which could provoke massive Israeli retaliation. Nasrallah knew that the government, under local and foreign pressure, could curtail his party’s total freedom of action in south Lebanon. The Shia leader travelled secretly to Damascus and met the Syrian president, Bashar Assad. Nasrallah was told Hizbullah could attack Israeli military outposts in the disputed Shebaa Farms region but without causing any civilian casualties and minimal military ones. Nasrallah returned from Damascus convinced that Assad agreed with his view that Israel could not open up a second front and would not react harshly to Hizbullah operations in the Shebaa Farms area. . . . Why did Hizbullah play such a dangerous game of brinkmanship giving a boost to the Syrians but with no real value to the besieged Palestinians? A veteran officer of Islamic Resistance, the military arm of Hizbullah, said: "We know the Syrians think they are using us. But it serves our interests as well. Our cadres are genuinely furious with what the Israelis are doing. It is also our religious indoctrination to liberate Jerusalem no matter how unrealistic it may sound." Was this one way of keeping Hizbullah’s restless militants occupied? "That too," the officer replied. "And it did bring Powell to Beirut. Would he set foot here without our pressure?" 364 of 716 words