Hizballah - More dangerous than al-Qaida?

Nov. 18, 2008

While CIA Director Michael Hayden said last week that al-Qaida was still the largest threat to the United States, intelligence analysts warn that the Shiite organization, Hizballah, should not be underestimated, according to Olivier Guitta writing in The Middle East Times yesterday:

Pre Sept. 11, 2001, Hizballah was the organization believed to be responsible for the deaths of the largest number of Americans killed in terrorist attacks. Former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage called Hizballah "the A-team of terrorists, while al-Qaida may actually be the B-team."

...Hizballah is believed to maintain a vast network of operatives across the world; from Europe to Africa to the Middle East, to Latin America and even North America.

...Europe presents other possible targets. Counterterrorism officials, especially in Europe, are sometimes privately more concerned by Hizballah than al-Qaida. Intelligence officials say that infiltrating the movement is almost impossible, mostly because of the lack of a large Shiite population on the continent, and when compared to Intel on Sunni terrorist groups, European law enforcement officials say they are almost blind.

The Middle East remains the region where Hizballah can inflict the most damage to the West. Being clearly in command in Lebanon, UNIFlL forces in southern Lebanon remains vulnerable to attacks.

Hizballah's arsenal is impressive and includes some 40,000 rockets that have been supplied by Iran, Syria and Eastern European countries. These weapons could also end up in the hands of the insurgents in Iraq.

The article goes on to say that Hizballah has a vast fund-raising operation, an extensive network of operatives on American soil and an "ongoing capability to launch terrorist attacks within the United States," according to then-CIA Director George Tenet.

Peres: Israel will gladly hand back the Golan

In the name of 'peace'
Nov. 18, 2008

(Photo caption: Metulla Mayor Jacob Katz points to the massive Golan Heights in the distance. The Golan overlooks all of the Galilee and produces some great Israeli wine, I might add.)

Israeli President Shimon Peres said Syria already knows that Israel will return the strategic Golan Heights, captured during the 1967 war, in order to attain peace. Never mind that doing so would give Syria and friends (Iran and Hizballah) a sniper's view into the heart of Israel.

"Egypt made peace with Israel, and so did Jordan and they got back all the territory. Syria knows that if it will make peace it will get the same," Peres said today during state visit to Britain.

Making peace with Syria is contingent on Damascus cutting ties with Iranian-backed Hizballah based in Lebanon.

Peres told BBC Radio: "If Syria will understand that they can't have the Golan Heights and keep Lebanon as a base for the Iranians, then the decision will be clear. But if she wants the Golan Heights back and keeps her bases in Lebanon - which are really controlled and financed by the Iranians - no Israeli will agree to have Iranians on our borders."

But they'll agree to Syrians? And can Syria stop the Iranian Revolutionary Guard from coming through their borders? Or is Israel bargaining for a military base in Syria on Iran's border? Now that would be interesting.

Meanwhile, more peace: A Palestinian man was caught with pipe-bomb at checkpoint outside Nablus on Tuesday morning.

The plight of Arab Christians

But this time in the words of a Muslim
Nov. 18, 2008

Christians are being persecuted not only in Iraq, but in most Arab countries, regardless of their numbers there. They are subjected to every possible kind of discrimination, as well as expulsion. The problem is that it is not only Arab officials who are remaining silent, but, alarmingly, so are Arab intellectuals, the elites, non-government organizations, and leaders of the private sector. All these groups look on at these unprecedented [acts of] folly without apprehending the danger with which these crimes are fraught.

Statistics show that in 2005 the number of Christians in Iraq was as high as 800,000. By early 2008, it had dropped by half, [indicating] that 50 percent of Iraqi Christians had been expelled from their homes and lands.

Let us be honest with ourselves and courageously say out loud that Palestinian Christians are taking many severe blows, yet are suffering in silence so as not to attract attention. I do not refer here to the suffering caused by the occupation... but to actions of the past 20 years at least - that is, since the beginning of the occupation in 1967 - involving the confiscation of Christian property, especially in Bethlehem, Ramallah, and Al-Birah.

What makes things worse is that those who are plundering [the Christians'] property are either powerful [in their own right] or are backed by various elements, among them high-ranking military officials or influential members of large clans.

...Furthermore, there has been an attempt to marginalize Christian culture in Palestine, even though it is rich and deeply rooted [there]. This began with [accusations] of unbelief [against Christians] - a move that ultimately harmed Palestinian society as a whole... Despite all the injustices [against the Christians], no one has seen or heard of any constructive action to curb it and to [defend] the Christians' rights.

...But the most fundamental problem here may be related to culture. We continue to instill a horrific culture in our children, one that sees Christians as infidels... and as 'the other.' We need an injection of humanistic and national awakening; we must raise an outcry and stand up to restore the Christians' rights, of which they have been deprived in order to preserve the demographic balance, which will safeguard the unity of our homeland and the justness the Palestinian cause.

...It is not words that we need, but progressive attitudes, and the truth, so that it can be presented to tyrannical rulers, and so that clerics and old men will not be the only Christians left in the Holy Land and in the city of [Jesus'] birth.

By Abd Al-Nasser Al-Najjar writing in the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam, Oct. 25, 2008. Translation: MEMRI

Let's pray for the Christians as well as this writer.