OzOz

Israel is at war with Lebanon. Israel is at war with virtually all countries in the immediate vicinity, with the sole exceptions of Egypt and Jordan. They are the only two countries it has fought over the last 60 years that have signed peace treaties with it. With the rest, it is in a state of suspended hostilities - although granted that hostilities with Lebanon have been not so suspended in the last few days. And yes, I can understand if you think this is being somewhat pedantic.

Such support, explicit or implicit (i.e. no use of a UNSC permanent member's veto) already exists, for without it, UN Security Council Resolution 1559 would have been impossible. From Wikipedia (United_Nations_Security_Council_Resolution_1559):

Yet despite this support, demonstrably nothing has been done - and the background for this, also from the same page, is very instructive. The Lebanese government has made an official response to this resolution. In terms of disarming guerillas, one of the requirements of the resolution, their response was (also from the same Wikipedia page):

(This text is also found on the Lebanese Army's website here. Emphasis added by me.)

(Also, regarding the Shebaa Farms mentioned in the above quote, and to cut a long story short: This is a small area of about 12 square miles which ironically is the subject of a border dispute between Lebanon and Syria. Lebanon contends that it should have been included in the area that Israel withdrew from in 2000. However, the UN is satisfied that Israel completely withdrew from Lebanon at that time, as it does not regard the Shebaa Farms area as part of Lebanon, partly on the basis of official maps from Lebanese government agencies, including the army. See Shebaa_Farms for more information.)

willravel, before doing a bit of research for this post, I was inclined to agree with you that Lebanon doesn't have the power to stop Hezbollah - in fact, I'd still probably agree with you on this point. However, preserving Hezbollah in Lebanon is official Lebanese government policy, as shown by their own statement in response to UNSC Resolution 1559. They have no intention of even asking them politely to put down their toys and behave. That, to me, shows the whole situation in a completely different light.

Oh? We've already established that they form part of the government of Lebanon. This fact alone stretches your claim a little bit thin. Also, the Lebanese government refuses to even ask Hezbollah to leave, but supports them as a "Lebanese strategic interest" - so they have the full support of those who do represent the populace of Lebanon.

This I am pleased to acknowledge, now that you have corrected me. However, I also note that the Lebanese government does not share your condemnation.

I am arguing nothing of the sort. What I am arguing is that it is right for Israel to go after Hezbollah, following everyone else's obvious failure and/or outright refusal to do so, even though innocent civilian casualties will be inflicted. I also note that it is the modus operandi of virtually all such terror groups to hide themselves in and surround themselves with the local population, so that civilian casualties cannot be avoided in hunting such groups down - and said casualties are then held up as evidence of "atrocities". What are the Israelis supposed to do - ask Hezbollah to obligingly line up here, and the rest of the population to line up over there, so that the Israelis can just shoot the "bad guys"?

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