Middle East Crisis (Part 1)

For the past week, as you should know, Israel has effectivley been in a state of war with Lebanon. It started when Hezbollah fighters conducted a raid into Israel that catured two soldiers.

The Israeli response has so far included the bombing of numerous roads and bridges, the bombings of the Beirut International Airport, the only such in the country, on the belief that it would be used to smuggle the two soldiers out of Lebanon and into Iran, bombings in other areas throughout the capitlal causing, according to Bloomberg, 250 people to be killed with 500 or 600 wounded, attacks damaging some of the major ports in Lebanon, and a naval blockade of Lebanon, and as of this writting, Israeli forces have entered Lebanon. So far the Hezbollah response has included missle and rocket attacks on targets in Israel, with deliberately targeting civilians and an attack on an Israeli naval vessel by a Kamakazi UAV.

So far, most of the fighting has been limited to air raids by the Israeli's and rocket attacks by Hezbollah. However, there is the possibility of further escalation into a wider war.

First, a little history of Hezbollah. Hezbollah was formed, depending on who you listen to was formed as early as 1982 or as late as 1985. It is a collective group of Shia extreamist groups, Islamic Jihad, Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, and the Revolutionary Justice Organization, that merged to Hezbollah and are now considered to be the same as Hezbollah by the U.S., Israel, and Canada.

The organization, like Hamas, has a political and military wing with the politcal wing being a political party in Lebanon with 23 seats. The military wing is much more infamous. Hezbollah has been acused by the U.S. government of being behind multiple terrorist operations, including the 1983 marine barracks bombing, with assistance from Iran, the kidnapping of multiple westerners, the hijacking of TWA Flight 847, and numerous other bombings. They also control a world wide satilite T.V. network.

Currently, Hezbollah is regarded as legitimet in the Arab world due to the fact that their resistance during the Israeli occupation of Southern Lebanon is the only time that Arab armies have forced Israel to give up. In Lebanon, they are popular because of their civil services in a nation that lacked even a basic government and there temporary relinquishment of the goal of establishing a Shi'ite theocracy in Lebanon, which made them palatable to Christians and Sunnis. Also, some Western governments have ackowledged Hezbollah's civil service.

It's sponsers are Iran, Syria, and Lebanon. They are considered to be in violation of two UN resolutions, UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1373 and UNSC resolution 1559, by those who consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization. Hezbollah it's self is in violation of UNSC resolution 1559 which calls for the dismantlement of militas such as Hezbollah's military wing.

One of the largest problems in this conflict is that Hezbollah is one of the best terrorist organizations on Earth. They have a world wide terrorist network and operation, including cases of Hezbollah members in the U.S.

Ali Boumelhem was a member of Hezbollah who was a U.S. citizen and a convicted felon, who was found to be suppling Hezbollah with weapons. The fact that he was a felon made him ineligable to own weapons.