Israel's position



It is now official, albeit indirectly, that Israel's attack on Lebanon last month was not about the release of its two kidnapped soldiers. Despite the ceasefire, and despite calls for an end to the embargo by much of the world, the latest by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana on Friday, Israel refuses to end its naval and air blockade of Lebanon. Now Tel Aviv has named its conditions for ending the blockade and they do not include the release of soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev. This is most surprising since after all Tel Aviv had always vociferously demanded the release of the two soldiers from the custody of Hizbollah and this was apparently thought to be real objective of Israel's invasion of Lebanon. However, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev announced on Friday that Lebanon's army and the new, stronger international force must take charge of Lebanese ports and frontiers (i.e., including that with Syria) before Israel would end the embargo. In other words, the intention again, from Israel's point of view, is to try to starve Hizbollah of the arms, equipment and other assistance it allegedly receives from the sea and from across the Syrian frontier, and not really to force the organisation to free the two soldiers. "The minute they (the Lebanese and international forces) are there, we will be able to lift (the blockade)," the spokesman added.

Somehow, he makes it sound as if Israel would be doing a good deed that "minute," and not putting an end to a highhanded, illegal action. "In the interim period," he added, "Israel is doing all we can to facilitate the flow of humanitarian support." This is more than a joke, coming from a spokesman of a government which in 33 days killed 1,290 citizens of a sovereign country and destroyed its basic infrastructure. Viewed from a different perspective, what the spokesman has said is also a kind of tacit acknowledgment that Israel failed to achieve what it intended to do in Lebanon. Earlier, its army chief, Lt-Gen Dan Halutz, admitted for the first time on Aug 24 that his army had faced failures and that its mistakes would be examined. This is a dramatic comedown from a man who in the beginning of the war had threatened to bomb Lebanon three decades into the past. There had been great support in Israel for the war in Lebanon, and most Israelis must still be in favour of their government's effort to cut Hizbollah down to size in any way. However, the families of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are not likely to be very happy with what will seem to them the callousness of Israel's latest position.

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This is the sign of 1 who loves GOD that his chief care z goodness n devotion n his words r mostly in praise n glorification of GOD.