Dave Eberhart, NewsMax
Wednesday, April 3, 2002

As the Israeli siege of Bethlehem raged Tuesday, Lebanese Hezbullah guerrillas fired mortar rounds and about 20 rockets on Israeli army positions in the disputed Shaba Farms area. The Israeli defense forces responded with up to 70 artillery shells and a couple of jet sorties, firing rockets at targets on the Lebanese side of the border, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Recently, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld charged that the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon was a training ground for Iranian-backed terrorists. Lebanon’s prime minister, Rafiq Hariri countered, "The recent U.S. attitudes make it difficult for the Arabs, both people and leaders, to continue watching for long their brothers in Palestine being killed daily and their rights infringed upon.”

Lebanon, although pledged to cooperate in the U.S. campaign against terror, rejected a U.S. request to freeze Hezbollah’s assets, saying the group is a legitimate movement resisting Israel’s occupation of Lebanese territory.

Beyond War of Words

But the mounting tensions have been accelerating beyond rhetorical volleys for the past month.

Last week in a preamble to the current military action, Israeli planes fired missiles near Lebanese border towns after Lebanese-based Hezbollah guerrillas attacked seven different Israeli positions in Shaba Farms, captured by Israel from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.

On that occasion Hezbollah admitted in a statement, "The Islamic resistance confirms that it is carrying out its duty of liberating every inch of Lebanese land that is still under occupation.”

A terrorist squad, April 2, opened fire on Israeli vehicles traveling close to the Lebanese border. Although Israeli security authorities said there was no indication of a terrorist infiltration from the northern border, they did not rule out the possibility that the attack was planned in Lebanon.

Lending credibility to the Lebanon connection, Israeli intelligence sources reportedly gleaned just hours before the firefight that the Hezbollah was planning an attack in the north in the hope of "igniting the northern front.” It was also learned that Hezbollah sought to conduct "solidarity” operations with the Palestinians -- hoping to pull Israel into fighting on the northern border.

On the Record

Furthermore, Hezbollah had gone on record, saying it would "do what it can” to help the Palestinian intifada. An advisor to Sheikh Hassan Nasralleh, the secretary general of Hezbollah, said that the organization "has offered its experience and all its abilities to the oppressed Palestinian people….”

Late last month at the Al-Rashidiya Refugee Camp in Lebanon, Brigadier General Sultan Abul Aynayn, chief of Arafat’s Fatah movement in that country, warned, "If a hair of Arafat’s head is hurt, the Israelis and the United States will be held responsible.’’

Backing up Aynayn’s warning, about 55,000 of the estimated 350,000 Palestinian refugees in the Lebanese refugee camps recently demonstrated, chanting, ‘‘Death to Sharon. We are all martyrs for Palestine!’’

The worst-case scenario, as seen by Middle East watchers: a movement of Palestinian fighters toward the Israeli-Lebanon border, potentially joining forces with Hezbollah militants already itching to fight Israel again.

Despite the expectation of devastating retaliations by Israel, the weak, Syrian-dominated Lebanese government may not be able to stem the war beat vitalized by the Israeli–Palestinian bloodletting. Enter a wider conflict in the region.

Gun Running

In the meantime, Hezbollah’s Nasrallah makes no secret of his organization’s intent to send weapons, including rockets, to the beleaguered Palestinians.

So far, Israel has not risen to the bait, although yesterday prime minister Ariel Sharon gave a stern warning to his northern neighbors to behave.

An Israeli army spokesman, Lieutenant Colonel Olivier Rafowicz, said recently that there have indeed been attempts to escalate the conflict northward. "Hezbollah wishes in a crude and violent fashion to heat up the area and provoke Israel,” he said.

If and when Israel does rise to the bait on the northern frontier may be up to men such as Aynayn and whether they live up to their recent fighting words.

"[In the 1970s] we were forced by the world to have an organization called Black September,” Aynayn threatened recently. "What is going on now in Palestine will force us to have the same sort of organization again.’’

Black September is perhaps best known for its attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.

Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:

Israel

Middle East

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