Already Chancellor Angela Merkel's proactive policy to assist Tel Aviv in keeping the Arabs powerless and at the mercy of Israel's formidable military machine is being duly noted by the Lebanese. (See below, last paragraph.) Instead of trying to persuade the war criminals in Tel Aviv to be reasonable and to return Lebanese and Syrian territory to Lebanon and Syria, in accordance with international law and common sense, Angela is pandering to the gang in Tel Aviv. Either she is ignorant or she is foolish. Either way, this is not a  good development for Germany or Europe. This could be a real problem for Germany, in view of the fanaticism of Islamists and the large body of Moslems within Germany proper, some of whom may be extremists. And just wait until German-built and gifted U-boats come into play to attack Iran. At the end of the day, that is a real possibility. Why is Angela making Germany a target?

Angela's endless talk about the "existential threat" to Israel's existence and Germany's "special responsibility" to Israel is just plain silly, preposterous, and a non sequitur. It is the Arabs who need protection from Israel, not the other way around. It the Arabs whose territory is being occupied by armed force. It is the Palestinians who have lost their homeland and who are living as helots within Palestine proper and in refugee camps all over the Middle East. It is the Lebanese who have had the infrastructure of their country blasted to kingdom come, and who have been showered with grotesque, American-made cluster-bombs.

Wake up, Angela. Stop talking nonsense. Please don't be a stooge and a lackey. She is beginning to sound as ridiculous as G.W. Bush and Condi Rice. And that's as ridiculous as it gets. Germany and Europe deserve better.

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UN force only protects Israel: top Shi'ite cleric

Monday Oct 16, 2006 || Reuters

BEIRUT - Lebanon's top Shi'ite Muslim cleric said on Monday a reinforced international force on the Lebanese border was only there to protect Israel. Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said United Nations peacekeepers were doing little to stop Israeli violations of Lebanon's sovereignty and urged the Lebanese to treat the force, UNIFIL, with caution.

"The widening of the scope of Israeli violations in the south and other areas in Lebanon and their repetition within the sight and hearing range of UNIFIL forces that don't interfere to stop these violations... affirm that these forces have come here to protect Israel not Lebanon," a statement from Fadlallah said. "Therefore, it is the Lebanese people's right to put a question mark over its (U.N. force) role and to be cautious toward it in order to deal with it in a way that would protect Lebanon's security and peace."

A U.N. resolution ended a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas on August 14. It also called for the deployment of up to 15,000 U.N. troops to join a similar number of Lebanese army troops in mainly Shi'ite south Lebanon. Israeli forces withdrew from virtually all of south Lebanon on October 1 but Israeli jets continue to fly over Lebanon.

Lebanon and UNIFIL say overflights violate Lebanese sovereignty and breach the U.N. resolution. But Israel has said the overflights would continue to help ensure that arms supplies do not reach Hezbollah from Syria.
Israel has also not withdrawn from a small area of southern Lebanon which straddles the border between Lebanon and territory Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East War. Lebanon has since threatened to complain to the U.N. Security Council unless Israel leaves the Lebanese part of the Ghajar village.

Statements such as that of German Chancellor Angela Merkel who linked Berlin's decision to send a naval force to prevent Hezbollah from rearming by sea with Germany's "special responsibility for Israel's right to exist", have also upset many Lebanese politicians and officials.

© Reuters 2006