Lebanese army prevents Hezbollah supporters from protesting near border

[Behind the Aegis]

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese army troops prevented a group of Hezbollah supporters from reaching the border with Israel on Wednesday to stage a protest, witnesses said.

Soldiers recently deployed in the border town of Kafr Kila stopped buses carrying about 100 Hezbollah supporters, mostly young boys, who were traveling to the nearby Fatima Gate border fence to stage a demonstration.

The troops told the demonstrators they could not go further and blocked the road with two armored personnel carriers. After an hour of negotiations, the troops allowed a small group of up to 12 boys to hang up a large caricature poster mocking U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on the border fence, the witnesses said.

The incident happened as Rice was on her way to Israel from Cairo, Egypt, on Wednesday.


more...

[geek tragedy]

1. Wha? Lebanon's army patrolling the border?

What next--Israel keeping its planes out of Lebanese airspace?

[Kagemusha]

2. Because Israel said it'd start shooting next time this happened.

Lebanon would rather Israel not do that.

Edit: No, I'm not kidding, though Israel claims its first response would be rubber bullets. (Assuming its soldiers have some, I suppose.) The IDF seems to think protests are intel operations to gauge the Israeli response and therefore a legitimate military threat. As I said, Lebanon would rather this not blow up...

Edit2: Israel's pledged to not stop overflights because unlike Hezbollah, it's entitled to intelligence, and overflights are a great way of gathering it.

[pampango]

4. You must have a better link that I do.

The story mine linked to just said that the IDF gave permission to soldiers to shoot "Lebanese stone-throwers along the border if they feel their lives are in danger." I Now that seems like a stupid order - those must be some mighty big rocks to endanger the soldiers, but it didn't say that the first response to a demonstration would be bullets - rubber or otherwise.

My link didn't say anything about Israeli overflights. No matter how much they may want the intelligence, I don't think they should intrude on Lebanese airspace, even if no one is hurt.

Could the Lebanese army be flexing its muscles to see what Hezbollah will let them get away with?

[Kagemusha]

5. Sorry, I was drawing on several stories between 1-2 weeks ago

And the statements that I read from Israeli defense officials at the time was that THE VERY ACT ITSELF OF PROTEST was a military provocation and putting the lives of soldiers in danger and would be greeted with force the next time it happened. I think this was two Wednesdays ago. No, your link didn't say anything about Israeli overflights, but a story I read yesterday in Ha'aretz did, but their links change daily usually so I don't have links to any of these stories handy. I'm going by my memory, which is generally good. And er, the Israelis don't give a damn about Lebanese airspace, and the more they can rub that in to everyone, the more Israel looks like it won after all.

Sorry that since my info there is old, I don't HAVE links for it anymore. It's an amalgam of various sources. We'll see what the future holds...

As for your question re: the Lebanese army, well, that's a matter of pure speculation but, I think it's much more to do with relations with Israel than with Hezbollah. Why would it serve the PM's interests to allow Israeli troops to kill unarmed protestors, if that's what it comes to? It wouldn't.

[Solo_in_MD]

6. Considering that Hezbollah is an illegal militia, your Edit#2

may well be correct

[Kagemusha]

7. But, it's not like Lebanon WANTS Israel to violate its airspace either.

It's just that Israel doesn't exactly care.

[Solo_in_MD]

8. Israel wants a secure and peaceful border, when Lebanon

steps up to that, they will back off. Until then they will do what they think is necessary to protect themselves, world opinion be damned. Consider that Egypt controls its borders and keeps the riff raff under control. The border is peaceful and prosperous, with no Israeli overflights either. There is a clue there somewhere.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. If only this had happened a month ago.

But, good on the Lebanese military for actually protecting their country and doing their job!