Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Hassan Nasrallah is mouthing off about he need to lop off chunks of Israel again. Most people understand, and the article makes clear, that this is just a tactic by Hizballah to remain relevant and prevent disarmament. And here I thought Hizballah was all about hospitals and social services. Yet somehow whenever they feel they need to project their raison d'etre, it's not clinics and welfare payments they shout about, it's guns, bombs, resistance and fighting "Zionists" they scream.
YNet: ‘Israel must cede more land’
Seven Arab villages currently in northern Israel belong to Lebanon and should be ceded, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in an election rally in Lebanon Thursday.
Nasrallah’s demands regarding the villages have been voiced before and mark the latest attempt to deflect growing calls for the Hizbullah to disarm, Arab affairs expert Eyal Zisser told Ynet in response to the report.
“Nasrallah mentioned this several times in the past, including prior to the IDF’s withdrawal from Lebanon,” he said. “It should be viewed as a tactic in an attempt to… avoid disarmament.”
Nasrallah looking for excuses?
Meanwhile, political sources said Nasrallah’s remarks are an effort to extend the group’s “resistance” efforts, after other disputes with Israel on the Lebanese border have been resolved.
The villages in question were annexed to what is today Israel prior to the state’s establishment through agreements between France and Britain, but Nasrallah chose to provide his own reasoning for why the area should in fact be considered Lebanese territory...
