Hezbollah Issues Strong Statement to Israel

Hezbollah has just today followed up Israel's friendly gesture (the release of enemy combatants - more in the next article) with the statement that they have the ability to launch rockets against any point in Israel. The leader of this terrorist group, Hassan Nasrallah, told Arab television station, Al-Jazeera, this in a recent interview that is scheduled to air soon. His comments were, "Even in the months of July and August 2006 [during the war with Israel] there was not one place in occupied Palestine that we could not reach, every point and every corner. I stress that we can do this today as well." These comments were made during a time when the Hezbollah militants have been identified as they moved their rocket launching systems into civilian districts of southern Lebanon. This is being done to prevent Israel and the UN from identifying these trouble spots and taking appropriate actions against them as allowed by the UN. These actions by Hezbollah mirror what they did last year during the conflict with Israel. Throughout that war, they continually protested to the targeting of civilian quarters by Israeli aircraft. Israel maintained that they had no choice as Hezbollah had hid their rocket sights amongst the common populace. These rockets are not ones which one might think of at the mention of the word. These are small, mobile rockets with small range and limited accuracy. They are easy to hide in neighborhoods. This continues as Israel is forced by the world opinion to watch.

My view on the leader's comments can be demonstrated through the following analogy: When someone wants to protect their home from intruders, they look at the options of survellaince and observation before them. They can buy an entire visual survellaince system and have it installed throughout the house and grounds, which would incur great expense, or they can avail themselves of a much cheaper, almost equally effictive method. They can go to a store and purchase multiple signs that say that the house is protected by a security system and they can install inexpensive "dummy" cameras on the exterior of the house. Through this "installation", criminals may tend to not put to test the sincerity of these signs and pass on by the house. This is what Hezbollah is doing with Israel. Even in the war last year, when they had this so-called caoability to hit Israel everywhere, they never employed this even in the face of taking mass casualties through the Israeli offensive. History shows us that terrorist organizations never need a reason to strike a people, beyond the disconnected logic that they piece together in their own minds. As a result, if they want to attack a people, they will do it, and most often without forewarning. Nasrallah's comments on their firepower capabilities strike me as nothing more than saber-rattling in an attempt to prevent Israel from making a move against their increasing buildup of potential aggression. Israel has enough military strength to flatten Lebanon, and Hezbollah knows it. So, they choose the next best thing to having mass weaponry - saying that they have mass weaponry.