AP: Hezbollah: No Cease-Fire Without Pullout

[Eugene]

Hezbollah: No Cease-Fire Without Pullout

By HAMZA HENDAWI

BEIRUT, Lebanon Aug 3, 2006 (AP)— Hezbollah's chief spokesman said
Thursday that his group will not agree to a cease-fire until all Israeli troops
leave Lebanon. "Declaring a cease-fire is not the concern of the people
of Lebanon as long as there is one Israeli soldier on Lebanese soil even one
meter (into Lebanon)," Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahal said in a live
interview with Al-Jazeera television.

"We will not accept any (Israeli) soldier staying on Lebanese territory, and
it is the right of every Lebanese to fight until liberation," he said.

Meanwhile, Israel renewed airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, and an
Israeli missile killed three people in a border village a day after Hezbollah
launched its biggest rocket attacks yet on Israel.

-snip-

Full article: http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=226922...

[LostinVA]

1. Totally fair -- especially to the Lebanese people

Israel has invaded a sovereign nation, and needs to act like the sovereign nation IT is and pull back to within its own borders. Then, hopefully something can be hammered out to protect Lebanon.

[BillZBubb]

2. Now both sides are digging in their heels.

Before Hezbollah was inclined to accept a ceasefire on less rigorous terms. Israel didn't want a ceasefire at all.

Now, Hezbollah has hardened their position. That can only mean they think they've taken the Israeli's best shot and a doing well militarily. Israel can't quit now or they will have lost the war--they have to stay in until they achieve something they can claim is a victory.

[Igel]

4. "Now" isn't quite the right word.

A week or two ago Nasrallah was saying without a prisoner exchange there could be no ceasefire, no matter how many Lebanese were killed. But he also said that Israel fell for his clever ruse, drawing them across the border so Hezbollah could kill as many as possible before driving them back.

Nasrallah has three unalterable requirements:
--no Israelis on Muslim ground
--prisoner exchange, with Kuntar the kiddie-killer as the star innocent in his celestial pantheon
--no disarmament

All else is blather.

BTW, these are the victory conditions for Hezbollah, so all he's saying is "Let the slaughter continue until we win."

[BillZBubb]

5. BALONEY!

Initially, Nasrallah said ALL they wanted was a prisoner exchange. He wanted a deal like he had worked before with Sharon. Israel rejected it out of hand and began bombing the shit out of innocent Lebanese.

Nasrallah recently agreed with the UN on a 72 hour cease fire for humanitarian aid to get through. Israel rejected it out of hand. Israel said "WE WILL CONTINUE SLAUGHTERING INNOCENT LEBANESE AND ANYONE WHO TRIES TO HELP THEM!".

Nasrallah has requirements for a ceasefire, but they are not what you listed. That is just pure propaganda.

[Igel]

8. The first two come from transcripts of

interviews with him, and translated aired interviews.

The first thing he wanted was a prisoner exchange; he discussed this with Siniora months ago, he said, but didn't inform him of the logistics for this try. They tried this a time or two before. Civilians deaths didn't matter to him; they insisted on the exchange. The demands have dropped from all the Lebanese and a thousand or so Palestinians to 3 Lebanese; including the hero Kuntar, whose conduct is apparently the dream of every Hezbollah fighter. To kill a 4-year-old girl after having her watch her father gunned down. I can see why Nasrallah, that seeker after justice, wants his release.

Nasrallah said his explicit strategy, once the fighting started, was to pull Israelis into Lebanon--they don't hold territory, they're not a regular army--for the sake of killing them and driving them back from all of Lebanon. He's the resistance; gotta have something to resist. Mostly he just wants to drive them out; having Israelis in S. Lebanon is a better target than in the Shebaa Farms.

Full withdrawal and prisoner exchange are precisely what he's listed as requirements, in authorizing Siniora and the government. Also on the list, but less obligatory, are land mine maps for S. Lebanon. Siniora's tried to roll them into compliance with the '48 or '49 armistice agreement, which is a bit of anachronistic silliness, given what's happened in the last 30 years there.

The third is my conclusion from what Siniora's said, and what Nasrallah's said in the past. After everything else, Hezbollah disarms. But after everything last time, Hezbollah didn't disarm, and something else was found to justify it. Perhaps that's no longer important; perhaps it is.

The ceasefire doesn't much matter; Hezbollah is now a reactionary force, since they're now the resistance and there's active fighting. A ceasefire helps Hezbollah as much as it helps civilians; a permanent ceasefire would suit Nasrallah's strategy even better. Killing Israelis can wait, if the PR is right.

"Baloney" does describe what he's said, so in that we're agreed; but it's not how he wants to be portrayed. Nasrallah got what he ultimately wanted, IMHO; I think he just got it early. Hardly a fair sheikh.

[newyorican]

7. Is that a quote?

A week or two ago Nasrallah was saying without a prisoner exchange there could be no ceasefire, no matter how many Lebanese were killed.

[JHH]

3. A right to self defense?

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

6. Yes.

And this worked so well the first time Israel left southern Lebanon.