The Globe and Mail’s Associated Press account of the air strike in Lebanon attempts to suspend cognitive judgment:
Beirut — Israeli jets attacked a Palestinian militant group's training base in southern Lebanon early Wednesday, the Israeli military and Lebanese witnesses said, hours after an Israeli border town was hit by rocket fire.
The base, located south of Beirut, is operated by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command, a small, Syrian-backed group that has been waging a decades long fight against the Jewish state. "This is in response to the firing of projectile rockets last night toward Israeli communities," the military said. It said it views such attacks with "extreme severity" and holds Lebanon responsible.
Witnesses reported warplanes roared over the PFLP-GC guerrilla base at Naameh, a hilltop base overlooking the Mediterranean seven kilometres south of Beirut, and the sound of two booms were heard. Other witnesses said two air-to-surface missiles were fired and white smoke billowed from the ground. Police had no immediate confirmation of an air strike, but Lebanese troops at a checkpoint near Naameh confirmed an air raid and sealed off the area, preventing journalists from approaching.
It was not immediately clear if there were any casualties from the raid on the target, a maze of concrete fortified tunnels built inside a hill that the PFLP-GC had used as a base for decades. The air strike was launched after three rockets landed in a residential area of Kiryat Shemona. The Israeli army said the rockets damaged some property but caused no injuries. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Both Hezbollah guerrillas and Palestinian militants operate in nearby southern Lebanon.
This account reflects what I have been reading a long time in Western media accounts of Israeli military actions. What I label as the cart before the horse journalism. This Globe and Mail/AP report does; is lead with Israeli military action and downplays the rationale for any Israeli military action. This report fails to emphasize that the air strike was the direct result of a rocket barrage that was launched from Lebanon against two Israeli civilian border communities. The barrage was strong enough that Israeli citizens were evacuated into bomb shelters for well over two hours but you wouldn't know it from the G&M/AP account.
The characterization of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine as a just a run of the mill militant group is outrageous. For a brief overview of the PFPL history check out the Wikipedia entry on the group. During the late 60’s and 70’s the PFPL emerged as the premier organization of all Palestinian airline hijacking terror groups. The PFPL broke out of PLO umbrella in 1993 with the signing of the Oslo accords as they would not accept any manifest destiny that did not showcase wiping Israel off the map.
It is incredibly lame to continue to portray Hezbollah as guerrilla fighters, and frankly, it is beyond belief or parody. Who exactly is Hezbollah still fighting, and more importantly; why? Israel left Lebanon in May 2000 for better or worse though Hezbollah seems to be stuck in a time loop that disregards the reality on the ground for the last 5 years and seeks to bring back the old gory days.
Just last month Hezbollah tried to infiltrate Israeli territory with the expressed purpose of kidnapping Israeli soldiers. In spite of a UN resolution condemning Hezbollah’s unprovoked incuration into Israel and its lack of remorse; ask yourself why is the PFPL launching an attack on Israel, and for what purpose – whose aims are the PFPL furthering? Southern Lebanon is controlled completely by Hezbollah. No one operates in without approval and the prior authorization from Hezbollah.
Once again, Lebanon is struggling for independence from foreign occupation but without disarming these rogues’ terror groups operating independently inside its borders means that Lebanon is once again endangering its newly won autonomy. As Santayana so succinctly put it - those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat it.
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