By Stephen Lendman
Global Research, September 04, 2019
Make no mistake. Israel is run by anti-democratic hardliners. Nuclear armed and dangerous, along with maintaining stockpiles of chemical, biological, and other banned terror weapons, Israel is a Middle East menace.
It’s second only to the regional threat posed by the US presence — the real axis of evil, along with their NATO and despotic Arab state allies.
Hezbollah is part of Lebanon’s government. In May 2018 general elections, its candidates and allies won a 67-seat majority of parliament’s 128 seats – equally divided between Muslims and Christians.
Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah called parliamentary results a “political and moral victory” for the resistance — giving the group and its allies power to veto legislation they consider unacceptable.
Under Lebanon’s confessional system, the president must be a Maronite Christian, the prime minister a Sunni Muslim, and the parliament speaker a Shia Muslim.
Hezbollah is falsely designated a terrorist organization by the State Department, at the behest of Israel.
It’s nothing of the sort, maintaining a military wing for self-defense alone — in a part of the world boiling from US/NATO/Israeli aggression.
In a Monday televised address, Nasrallah warned Israel of a strong response if it attacks Lebanese territory aggressively, saying:
If the IDF “attack(s), then all your borders and forces will be at risk.”
Hezbollah is much stronger than during 2006 Israeli aggression on Lebanon, embarrassing IDF ground forces at the time.
Its thousands of missiles and rockets can strike targets anywhere in Israel if the IDF attacks its positions or strikes other Lebanese targets.
In response to Israel’s preemptive attack on Lebanese soil in late August, Nasrallah announced the “start of a new phase, Hezbollah “no longer” observing red lines.
He vowed strong retaliation “deep inside” Israel if further IDF aggression occurs, adding:
“(T)here is a new battlefield which is targeting Israeli drones in Lebanon’s skies” — referring to the incursion and crash of two IDF UAVs near Beirut in late August.
Israeli warplanes repeatedly and aggressively attack Syrian targets from Lebanese airspace.
“We have a higher level of deterrence now, and we have changed the rules of engagement,” Nasrallah stressed, adding:“…Israeli aggression is over…(W)e will no longer tolerate Israeli violation of Lebanon airspace.” He vowed to retaliate against unlawful IDF incursions.“The Lebanese have the right to defend themselves, and we will defend. There is now a new operational space, and it is Lebanon’s skies. When it comes to dealing with the UAVs, it will happen. I won’t specify when and how, but it will come,” Nasrallah stressed.
With full support and encouragement from both right wings of the US war party, Israel operates with impunity.
The world community never held it accountable for its high crimes against defenseless Palestinians and regional states, nor its repeated breaches of Security Council resolutions and other international laws.
Is another Israeli war on Lebanon coming? On September 17, Israeli Knesset elections will be held.
If Netanyahu’s Likud party and hard right allies fail to gain a coalition majority, maybe things will cool down for a while.
If he’s reelected prime minister again, anything ahead is possible.
At the same time, he faces bribery, fraud and breach of trust charges, an October 2 and 3 pre-indictment hearing scheduled.
The jury is out on whether he’ll be held accountable for the above offenses.
No Israeli politician (or high-ranking IDF official) was ever held accountable for high crimes against Palestinians, supporting terrorism, or terror-bombing other countries – far more serious crimes than civil wrongdoing.
A Final Comment
DEBKAfile (DF) is connected to Israeli military intelligence. On Monday, it published a propaganda report, falsely claiming Iran and Hezbollah “plot(ed) (an) anti-Israel drive at (a) secret Beirut summit” in August.
DF admitted having no knowledge of what may have been discussed by Iranian and Hezbollah officials, if a Beirut summit actually occurred last month.
DF falsely claimed their officials discussed “a counsel of war to set out a joint program of operations against US and Israeli Middle East targets in the coming weeks.”
The Islamic Republic and Hezbollah never preemptively attacked another country — what the US, NATO, and Israel do repeatedly.
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Award-winning author Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago. He can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net. He is a Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization (CRG)
His new book as editor and contributor is titled “Flashpoint in Ukraine: US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III.”
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com.
The original source of this article is Global Research
Copyright © Stephen Lendman, Global Research, 2019
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