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A Call to Hizballah Leader Nasrallah: Now Is Decision Time

(Daily Star-Lebanon) Fouad Mamdan - When Israeli troops withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000, Hizballah rightly claimed a historic victory. Your party for the first time did what no Arab army or guerrilla force had done: it imposed on Israel a humiliating withdrawal from occupied territories without negotiations. Hizballah, during the past six years, has launched numerous attacks against Israeli border positions. But the Israelis benefit from international legitimacy because they are deployed behind the UN's so-called Blue Line. Sadly, today it is Hizballah that is being described by the UN as an aggressor in southern Lebanon and the one starting senseless fights. Meanwhile, your party has amassed a military arsenal in the south, enabling it to massively shell towns and villages deep into northern Israel. Why this military build-up? Only to liberate the Shebaa Farms? Or to respond to a possible American strike against Iranian nuclear installations? Or to help the Syrians pressure the Israelis to return the Golan Heights? Hizballah argues that it needs arms to repel "Israeli aggression." What aggression? The Israelis, since May 2000, have been more than happy to be out of Lebanon. It is time to show that Hizballah is loyal to Lebanon and not to any other country. It is time to tell Iran that solidarity has its limits. It is also time to wish the doomed Syrian regime good luck, and time for your fighters to integrate in the Lebanese Army with dignity. The writer, a Shiite from southern Lebanon, set up Greenpeace in Lebanon in 1994-1999. He is now executive director of a lobby in Brussels influencing EU environmental policies.
2006-05-12 00:00:00
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