The problem with telling Hizb Allah to "knock it off"

Below is an email I (and my mailing list) received from an American friend of mine. He asks why the Lebanese government doesn't (in his words) just tell Hizb Allah to knock it off. I suppose this is a question many people are asking. Unfortunately, like everything else in my little country, it's not that simple. Below his email are a few replies he got back which try to shed some light on the situation so far ...

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This is the email from my American friend, Robert:

First let me start by offering my modest words of condolences of the Lebanese that have lost their lives, and profound thankfulness of those that have been able to find haven from the violence. I was just as shocked when I heard of the war that erupted on Lebanese soil. That such terror is happening in a country of great beauty has created conflict in my mind. I offer the same condolences to Israelis and Palestinians too, with the same shock seeing that this violence has perpetuated for far too long.

Secondly, while I am an American, allow me to give some background and insight to myself. I was born in Texas, but have lived overseas for half of my life in Papua New Guinea, Nigeria and Canada. In these places, I have come to understand the role of a global citizen. What I mean by this term is realizing that while you were born in one geographic, social and cultural defined space, you are still a member of the human race and have obligations to that broad group. Despite differences in geography, society and culture, we share the same joy and the same pains. This idea I live every day.

Thirdly, I am a liberal and socialist American. I have studied my country’s history and past government Administrations. I know we did wrong in the past and now and I am shamed of the harm we have caused, not just outside of our borders but within our borders to our own citizens. This is not to say that the US has done some incredibly good things and has helped influenced peaceful events to take place. I will say that when we get involved directly, all hell breaks loose, while when we act more subtly or without thought the good events happen. Furthermore, I have become a soldier for charity in my community and I try to voice my opinion to my government in the ways I can.

And lastly, I also know that Israel has been acting way out of order in its past years. As a global citizen, I am ashamed of the actions Israel has taken against its neighbors. As well as ashamed of the actions Palestine has taken.

With that out of the way, I would like to pose a question in the attempt to understand out of my own ignorance of Lebanese society. If this most recent volley of bombs was started by Hizballah, and it is what Israel is really trying to stop, why hasn’t the Lebanese government or its citizens told Hizballah to stop its bombing campaign? To knock it off? To stop acting on the behalf of the Lebanese population? I am understanding that Lebanon did not want this to happen nor thought it would ever happen, so why let Hizballah continue? It is one thing to wag a finger and put blame on someone else for the bad things happening, but the blame also falls on the person doing the wagging and not acting, not trying to stop the bad from happening in the first place. Even in the modern US, did citizens protest its own government from military actions.

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Reply #1 from Elie:

Hizballah kidnapped 2 Israeli soldiers to exchange them for 3 Lebanese who were incarcerated for the past 30 years in the Israeli jails. During past exchanges of prisoners, Israel agreed to exchange these 3 with other prisoners that were returned to Lebanon, but reneged on the agreement. Hizballah announced that they will negotiate an exchange through a 3rd party and Israel replied with thousands of air raids over Lebanon. The first thousand shots were Israeli and Hezballah only returned fire. It is a pity that people believe what Israel now says instead of following the facts and checking the sequence of events. It is a pity that all over the world people believe what the Israeli government says while in Israel itself, the Israeli people believe Hassan Nasrallah - the leader of Hizballah - more than their own government.

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Reply #2 from Ghassan:

im not one for a political debate, but i can offer some insight, or rather my own views. Im going to speak very frankly, not something u would ever read in a newspaper.

The middle east has been a hot spot for more than a thousand years, literally. Back to the romans and earlier. i bet even the cavemen were like "what the hell." Back to the point. the people living in the middle east are ancestors of a mixtures of bablonians, assyrians, mesopotamians, pheonicians and God knows what else. Those guys you read about in history text books.

The point is, they have earned and learned to live together for thousands of years, through wars, peace, religion changes etc.. The state of israel is new. Imposed by whom? the Brits. One morning you wake up, and Israel has a state. Its only decades old. Its built on land that was previously occupied. you cant just get used to your neighbor. especially an administration like israel.

Israel gave birth to Hezbollah. Cause and effect. The fact they had been occupying the south of Lebanon, ignited the people to form an army, or militia called hezbollah because their land was occupied. Everyone seen Braveheart? These arent terrorists who decided they wanted to screw with the west like Al-Qaeda or whatever. They were never the coziest of neighbors either. I remember the US was celebrating a 300 year old "historic" church, and the media went on for quite some time. um hey, have u heard of the mideast? do u want to know "historic." The time span is an important factor. So for the "people" to rise up against hezbollah and speak out...it aint like the west. just not that simple. never has been. frankly i dont think it will ever be. wish i were more optimistic. Dont get me wrong i dont approve of any of the bloodshed from both sides. I aint offering a solution either. As Rumsfeld so eloquently describes Iraq, its a "quagmire."

Hope everyone is going to the blogs. Medical supplies running out is cruel.

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Reply #3 from Roy:

Robert, in order for you to have some insight on the lebanese way of thought when it comes to hezbollah, you need to see the causality first. A lot of blame is laid, granted, but it's not fair to call it finger pointing. Lebanon was part of the maps drawn up after both world wars in oder to be split up by the more powerfu countries. Then, it was part of the region prmised to the Zionists. This is where the blame begins. A populated area "given" to a people. Rational reasoning seems to take a back seat to greed here. To add to this, the United States decided to back the Zionists with weapons that are beyond the capabilities of anyone in the region. The palestinians were thrown out of their lands and rules were imposed on their lives. This was not called terrorism since it was done by an army... it was ironic that while this was happening, the jews were colle cting on the holocaust... then, retalitaion was attempted in vain. What were they to do? die? leave? live according to someone else's rules? occupation is a form of terrorism. So an islamic group made a resistance force. They decided that lebanon is a good base of operations. other arab countries could have been better, but no one wants to take a risk on their ground. So now you have a resistance that is stronger than the lebanese army, supported by other islamic movements, using terrorist tactics. In the meantime, you have a terrorist nation flying warplanes over lebanese lands, attacking infrastructure "when necessary" and keeping a full population in concentrated areas. That's when 2 soldiers were kidnapped in order to negotiate for the thousands of lebanese detainees in zionist prisons. I don't know what you think the lebanese government can do here, try to go for another civil war? get more people killed? Do you realize this turned into a war with lebanon despite lebanon having nothing to do with it? but what can you expect out of hezbollah? lay down weapons and allow palesinians to be sent into "reservations"? oh, crap reservations are for indians... no wonder americans don't think this is a big deal, i guess when something's repeated, it doesn't take the same toll on the conscience...

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Reply #4 from Chahin:

There's a major point you have to grasp too. Hizb Allah is a wholly reactionary force, and Nasrallah is very keen to capitalise on justified "natural rights" of self-defence and vengence which are protected by international laws. It was born out of the 1982 invasion to repel the Israeli invasion which more than overstayed their welcome.

When the Israelis first arrived, many villages greeted them with rice and roses for liberating them from PLO forces who had forcefully used these villages as bases and staging grounds. Buth when they came, they never left... Apparently they had other plans for the country as an entity (they attempted to rearrange the political system and power structure), but also for two of the biggest reasons everyone wants our tiny nation: 1- Extrememly strategic location as well as a culture receptive to East and West. 2- Water, water, water.

When the party (and its milita) was formed, it used tactics and conducted operations which could be viewed as "criminal" to say the least. I am refering to the kidnapings and hijacking and whatnot. However, the Hizb Allah of then is not the same group that is lead by their current leader, Nasrallah. Go back to when this revered sheikh grabbed the reigns and you will truly be astonished by him. He is a genius at calculating political situations and carefully picks what to do and what to say. He also has a track record of always delivering what he promises and moreso, what he threatens.

This war was "sparked" by the capture of these two soldiers, but the conflict was always there, instigated by Israel. They claim to have pulled out of Lebanon in accordance with UNSC resolution 425, but this is no true. Even UNIFIL and the UN has confirmed numerous Israeli fly-by's over Lebanese territory, Lebanese prisoners unlawfully held without charges in Israeli prisoners, maps of mines planted by occupationary forces and in 2004 (not 100% sure of the year) pipes were discovered underground in south Lebanon that were built by the Israelis during the occupation to steal Lebanese water (which they continued to do after they "withdrew"). Let us also not forget the 15 year old Lebanese sheperd who was shot by Israeli patrol guards across the border.

Now let me portray my stance. When I first heard of the operation on July 12th carried out by resistance operatives, the first thought to come to my head was, "oh fuck." It was pretty obvious (to me and many others) what the Israeli reaction would be. Their Prime Minister and Defence Minister are both men without extensive military backgrounds (which is not the norm in Israel). Military people tend to have a more leniant approach to conflicts. Military men will tend to try to avoid leading their nation into a war. Apart from this, the Israelis were just itching for a reason to go full out on Lebanon, as has been proven by the current conflict at hand.

So I got very angry at what Hizb Allah did because I knew the country was going to be set alight. However, Hizb Allah acted perfectly within their "natural rights" as Nasrallah put it. The capture of the Israeli soldiers was a direct reaction to Israel's holding of Lebanese prisoners. This was not the first time such a thing has happened. It is typical of Hizb Allah to capture Israelis and trade them for prisoners (it's been done a bunch of times with Germany as the mediator).

Oh and if you have any interest in the Palestine crisis with the captured Israeli soldier there, go read up on what happened days before that shit storm broke out. Apart from the continuous oppression of the Palestinian people, two of their people were abducted by Israeli forces, one of whom is a doctor.

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Reply #5 from Ziad:

Robert,
Roy and Chahin portrayed the historical circumstances perfectly, though I'm going to answer your question: "Why doesn't the Lebanese Government tell Hizbullah to knock it off?"

A brief history is needed I suppose. Lebanon had been a victim of a Syrian military presence since 1976, and occupation since the Taif Accords were drawn up in 1989. In 2005, following the much advertised "Cedar Revolution" and resolution 1559 backing it up, we were able to get rid of the Syrians. Ever since the end of the war, Syria had been supporting Hizbullah militarily and politically, and at the same time crippling the Lebanese military and government. When Syria left Lebanon in 2005, it basically left behind a weak government, a weak Lebanese army, and a incredibly strong, financially supported, popular, hyped up militia in the south, known as Hizbuillah.

Now you know the conditions that lead to the pathetic status quo we were left with. With Hizbullah armed to the teeth, and with no Lebanese citizen wanting to risk another civil war (at least the intelligent ones of the bunch), Siniora's government had no choice but to handle the situation in some way as not to alienate the Shiite community... Hence the national dialogue. This was partaken to find solutions to the many problems facing Lebanese society, one of which were Hizbullah's weapons.

So something was actually being done. Even though it was a slow process, there still was an internal initiative to remove the arms under the context of national unity and brotherhood. However, Hizbullah had betrayed the dialogue by kidnapping those two soldiers. For Hisbullah I suppose, the welfare of Lebanon as a sovereign state is directly linked to the war against Israel, and the welfare of palestine, in the context of the historical/regional struggles that have plagued the middle east since 1948.

For those who associate themselves more with the regional conflict with Israel, Hizbullah is doing all arabs a favor. For those who don't, Hizbullah is bringing the Lebanese to ruin. As for the Lebanese government, our military cannot stand up against Hizbullah, its a losing battle. Even if they were able to win it would still be a losing battle, because it would mean alienating around 40% of the population of Lebanon.