Israel, Scapegoat of Middle East, Blamed Again

Nadene Goldfoot

Lebanon, Israel neighbor to the north, just experienced its year old unity government collapse. The cause was Hezbollah's ministers and allies resigning. Why seems to be because a U.N. Netherlands-based tribunal is investigating the 2005 assassination of the former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Iran and Syria, denounced the investigating tribunal as an Israeli project. That's a pretty wild accusation considering the U.N. is mostly run by Muslim countries and Israel is constantly at fault, according to them.

Just recently Israel was blamed for sending "Moses, the "Mossad" vulture" to Saudi Arabia to spy. The poor vulture was wearing a tracking device on his leg that aids endangered species, and Israel was studying the movements of vultures for science. Bandar bin Saud, the Saudi nature authority finally admitted that there was no truth that the bird was linked to espionage, only misunderstanding about the tracking device. He even admitted that Saudi Arabia uses one similar to follow rare birds.

Lebanon's government fell while Prime Minister Saad Hariri, the son of the slain leader was consulting with Obama in Washington. His father had been assassinated in a suicide bombing that killed 22 other people. He was a Sunni Muslim, a hero to his community. He was even backed by many Christians who liked his efforts to reduce Syrian influences in Lebanon.

I remember living in Israel when in 1982 Sharon let Major Hadad, a Christian Lebanese leader and friend of Israel, have the lead in going into the camps of the PLO in Lebanon with his men. They had been firing Katusha rockets into Israel from there. Just before we had moved into our apartment in Safed, we passed by an apartment building that had had a katusha rocket fall in the rear of it. That fact was my introduction to Safed in 1981.

It turned out to be a bloody and quiet attack. Christians were the minority then but the leaders in the government. It was the Muslims who were attacking Israel and Hadad was great about keeping them from our border. Israel later had to initiate "Operation Grapes of Wrath in April 1996 because of the attacks coming from Lebanon. The Hezbollah were terrorists, following Ayatollah Khomeini, and attacking not only Israel but any Western influences.

Things seem to have fallen apart since Syria has taken over so much. It was hard enough when Lebanon was divided religiously, but it was working better than today with Syria's influence. Now we have had no protection from northern terrorism. So finally, the UN is investigating a six year old assassination, a cold-case, you might say. This has upset the Hezbollah faction so much that they shut down the government. Yes, things are not going smoothly in 2011.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Hezbollah

http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=202766

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110112/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_hariri_tribunal/print