Hezbollah occupies 23 seats in the Parliament. It has not surrendered a single one since the war began. The 1990 Taif Agreement gave Hezbollah the state sanctioned right to police Lebanon's southern border with Israel. This agreement is still in effect despite a 2004 UN resolution demanding that Lebanon dismantle Hezbollah's presence along the border.
Hezbollah is the government. The government is Hezbollah.
Israel attacked weapons stockpiles, bridges, airports, and roads so that they couldn't move Israelis into Iran. It then attacked Hezbollah strongholds like headquarters, tv stations, and residences/neighborhoods of leaders.
Lebanon has attacked Israel pretty hard except hasn't been able to do the same amount of damage.
And yes, Lebanon should move its troops into the South. That was the demand. Otherwise they can continually do this over and over again. If the government is supposedly different from Hezbollah and can't do this, there is no reason why it should exist. It's just a mask.
Return the soldiers and move Hezbollah out of the South. It is a demand that the entire world has asked Lebanon to make.
-Rudey
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Originally Posted by RACooper
No... it's pretty clear that Hezbollah started this particular conflict.
Hezbollah attacks and kills Israeli soldiers, and kidnaps 2.
Israel retaliates against Lebanon as a whole.
Unlike you I'm more than capable of looking beyond the simplistic black and white, and see that the Lebanese government wouldn't have been involved - simply because it would further risk their already tenuous position, it would further risk giving Hezbollah more public/political power, and finally because the government subsits from grafts on the newly booming tourist business I can't see them willing to risk that lucrative skimming.
Now as for the Israeli demands... well they are pretty f*cking ludicrous right now - demanding that Lebanon disarm Hezbollah... how they hell is the Lebanese government and military supposed to disarm them in the middle of a warzone? Face it the hawks were looking for an excuse to flex some military muscle and they leaped on this as an excuse to bombard Lebanon once again...
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