Israel, oil and the "planned demolition" of Lebanon [View All]

[Mr_Jefferson_24]

By Mike Whitney
Online Journal Contributing Writer

http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_1080.shtml

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By now, it should be apparent that Israel’s military campaign has nothing to do with Hezbollah’s capturing of the two Israeli soldiers on July 14. The present plan, which was drawn up more than a year ago (and of which high-ranking members of the Bush administration were fully briefed) is designed to establish a new northern border for Israel at the Litani River and create an “Israel-friendly” regime in Beirut.

The plan to annex the land south of the Litani River dates back to the founding of the Jewish state when Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, described the country’s future borders this way: “To the north the Litani River, the southern border will be pushed into the Sinai, and to the east, the Syrian Desert, including the furthest edge of Transjordan.” (See map of post WW1 Zionist plan for region)

In 1978 the IDF launched Operation Litani with the intention of annexing the southern part of Lebanon and setting up a Christian client-regime in Beirut that would take orders from Tel Aviv. Israel said that it needed a “buffer zone” for its security, the same excuse that it uses today. The 1982 invasion devolved into an 18-year onslaught which ravaged the Lebanese economy and killed more than 20,000 civilians. In 2000, Israel was driven from Lebanon by the persistent attacks of the Lebanese resistance organization, Hezbollah.

The media portrayal of the current conflict is blatantly absurd. It has nothing to due with “captured soldiers” or Israel’s “right to defend itself.” This is a traditional war with clear territorial and political objectives. The border controversy is nonsense. Israel is trying to seize more land to realize its vision of “Greater Israel,” while reducing an adjacent Arab country to a “permanent state of colonial dependency.”...