The Middle East Reminds Me Of Capone vs. The Untouchables

For those who ask why Israel is not negotiating I have two words for you.

They are.

If he pulls a knife, you pull a gun. If he puts one of your men in the hospital, you put one of his in the morgue.

-Jimmy Malone (played by Sean Connery) in The Untouchables.

But in this case.

If he kidnaps two of your soldiers, negotiate by putting 2 of his in the morgue. If he doesn’t return them, put two more in the morgue. If he doesn’t return them, put two more in the morgue and so on, and so on.

I get the impression that with the latest response from the Lebanese Prime Minister that either the two soldiers are dead or that the Lebanese have absolutely no control over the ability to return them. i.e. Hezbollah is calling the shots (not to mention firing them off 35km into Israel)

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Saturday called Israel’s military a “war machine” and said attacks had turned his country into a “disaster zone.”

…

Siniora called for an immediate U.N.-backed cease-fire and international help to stop Israel’s attacks.

A cease-fire, he said, will allow Lebanon to “establish its sovereignty over all its lands” based on the 1949 armistice agreement.

…

He said Israel was “punishing all Lebanese collectively, with their actions lacking any moral or legal legitimacy.”

In response, an Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman said Lebanon had triggered the crisis by failing to disarm Hezbollah.

“This whole crisis was initiated by aggression by Lebanon into Israel,” said Mark Regev.

(emphasis mine)

I am one of those wishing for a quick, peaceful resolution to this, but I think Regev has this one right. The border has been relatively peaceful for quite some time. The incursion by Hezbollah was obviously a tactic to pull Israel’s attention away from the soldier kidnapped and being held in the Gaza Strip and after Jack’s Newswatch reminded me of this clip, it is obvious what side of the fence the Western world is on.

WASHINGTON (CNN) –Iran is responsible for the 1983 suicide bombing of a U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, that killed 241 American servicemen, a U.S.

District Court judge ruled Friday.U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth said the suicide truck bombing was carried out by the group Hezbollah with the approval and funding of Iran’s senior government officials.

The Lebanese need to boot Hezbollah out. If they need help to do it, they should ask. But it is something they need to do if they want to preserve their nation. By asking for time to “establish sovereignty” I think they are just asking for reprieve. There seems to be no way the Lebanese can control Hezbollah.