Lebanon: Arabs urged to break Israeli blockade

[bemildred]

Lebanon's parliament speaker on Saturday urged Arab planes and ships to break Israel's air and sea blockade of Lebanon, describing it as a "military aggression."

Israel says the restrictions are necessary to prevent Hizbullah from rearming, while Lebanon says they hamper the delivery of food and medical supplies and put a damper on attempts to revive its badly battered economy.

During a special session of parliament, speaker Nabih Berri proposed a series of protest actions to draw international attention to the blockade that has continued since cease-fire went into effect Aug. 14, ending the fighting between Hizbullah and Israel.

"It is a military aggression that is an attack on national sovereignty and a clear violation of resolution 1701," Berri said referring to the United Nations resolution that opened the way for an end to the 34 days of fighting.

JPost

[rodeodance]

1. I think this area will explode again soon. just a gut feeling.

[truth2power]

2. Yet another UN resolution violated by Israel. n/t

[Roy]

5. Can the Israelis tell the difference between food and weapons?

If it is about weapons, Why can't they let the aid through and stop the weapons?

edit: intended to reply to OP, sorry.

[truth2power]

6. Because it's NOT about weapons...

any more than the devastation inflicted on Lebanon was about the capture of two Israeli soldiers.

Things are never as they seem. :eyes:

[Poll_Blind]

3. In this case both the Israelis and the Lebanese have arguable points.

  On one hand you have the Israelis who, with certainty that extends to my own beliefs, know that weapons of some sort will eventually come into Lebanon via Syria or somewhere else. Zizals, who knows. But on the other hand, Israel may have lost the war based on stated military objectives but is very capable of choking the consciousness out of Lebanon, slowing the delivery of aid, rebuilding materials and other goods with a presumably benign purpose.

  That there are stirrings in the Arab political circles to possibly attemt to break the blocade is also a wider recognition that Israel military guilding is beginning to wear off. And that should concern Olmert for the obvious reasons but also because I would imagine it predictable that this plays on the Israeli street, especially in conservative corners (of which there are many more than four) of Israeli political and religious culture, very poorly. Especially to the conservadox settlers who have a recent history of using assassination to show their displeasure. Those rabbis who gave fatwa-esque "permission" for Yigal to slay Rabin presumably have not learned the error of their ways and are likely still taking their spot at the podium on a weekly basis and influencing who they may. Anyone who came to Kadima from Likud would be aware of this. Certainly Sharon was. He knew, or I perceive that he knew, the danger of courting the generally very conservadox settlers and what they might do if they felt burned on a deal. I laud him for appearing to move away from that dangerous courtship and twoard something which could possibly benefit Israel as a nation in the long term.

  But back to the Arabs. Strategically, if they're willing to lose resources to make the gesture it puts Israel vis-a-vis Olmert in a tricky position. The best he can hope for is to hold the blocade. At the other end of the spectrum is a military counter-response which would presumably involve attacks on seaports and airports of whatever countries sponsored such aid. With the current disarray and finger pointing (Israelis, like Americans have merely 10 fingers when things are going good but often become polydactyl when the chips are down) in Israel which, thanks in part to Likud, now involve a number of criminal investigations, I see Israel being well-below the top of her game in something which would require a great deal of cohesiveness. Historically any nation, unless the government is truly in a state of disarray (and I don't think Olmert's has reached this level yet), can pull itself together when necessary for national defense.

  But in situations where it's not Israeli territory that's being defended but the Israeli blocade on Lebanon, I don't think it would have the same galvanizing effect.

PB

[w4rma]

4. An oil spill larger than the Exxon Valdez that needs to be cleaned up

which this blockade is preventing.