Hizbollah demanding Palestinians released in prisoner swap

Haaretz is reporting that Israel will likely be including Palestinian prisoners in its exchange with Hizbollah. Until recently Israel always tried to keep its enemies apart. Witness the seperate peace deals with Egypt and Jordan. But now Hizbollah have punctured that balloon. It also seems to confirm that Hizbollah attacked in 2006 out of support for the Palestinians, as opposed to its own agenda, Israel had been pummeling the Gaza strip for about a month earlier. And while I have never seen it publicised it would seem to suggest a united armed front is in support of the Palestinians. Or put another way, if Israel attacked Gaza, might it expect retaliation from Hizbollah. Being the nieve soul I am, I don’t understand why Res 242 does not promise peace for everyone. Had the War on Terror not rebounded then maybe Israel wouldn’t feel so vulnerable. But the War on terror has crippled the Bush Administration. And united its enemies. And if it has done so in the South, why not vis-a-vis Hezbollah as well? After all, the prime minister boasted to Nasrallah that the kidnapping of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser was one kidnapping too many. But with such demonstrations of fortitude on the part of both the government and the citizens, is it any wonder that on the verge of completing the deal, Nasrallah added Palestinian terrorists to the list of those to be released? Haaretz

Haagen Daas Ad in Beirut “Taste the reconciliation”

The Beirut Report an inside look at Lebanon, the Middle East and its media The picture on the left from The Beirut Report. A scoop of Doha The BBC is also running the same type of picture with the following caption: There are posters all over parts of the capital now proclaiming: Beirut Back to Life. And Haagen-Dazs ice-cream were really quick off the mark. Their posters say: Taste the Reconciliation - with the Doha Agreement Cone. From the BBC: Iran’s Lebanese ‘aircraft carrier’

Baalbeck, Baalbek Lebanon, Largest hewn stone in world.

BaalBeck means Sun Temple. The Phoenicians were there from perhaps 2,000 BC. But like Stonehenge and the Pyramids I and many others believe these giant relics are much older than historians would have us believe. The Sphinx is now generally accepted to be from 10,000 BC. I think, think along those lines, pre 10,000 BC. http://www.andrewcollins.com and http://www.grahamphillips.net are two web sites of pioneer archeologist and earth mystery people. Glaring evidence of our civilised hubris is evident when we go to major museums in the UK, and the exhibits start with the Romans. Druids and Stonehenge are often not represented.

Map of Lebabon, 2002. Photo Credit: The University of Texas at Austin.

http://bbsnews.net/article.php/2007061320500060

Anyway BaalBeck has enormous temples and large stone structures. This one shaped stone (thought to be the heaviest in the world) weighs around 1,000 tons. It was partially taken out of its quarry to be taken up to the Sun Temple, where other similar large stones are. But for some reason the whole effort was aborted. There is no evidence of how the stones were moved!

http://www.thefutureisnigh.com/gallery/baalbeck.jpg

I think Baalbeck is a stronghold of Hizbollah, thankfully the ruins were not bombed in the wars (as far as I know). Nearby there are Marijuana fields. They have been there since before Hizbollah evolved.

http://www.cominganarchy.com/syria_diary/lebanon.htm

Press TV: Israel wary of Hizbollah

Israel wary of Hezbollah military might

Israeli officials have expressed concern over Hezbollah’s military strength after it took control of west Beirut just in three days.

Israeli war minister Ehud Barak on Sunday called the situation in Lebanon “a serious development” following a series of deadly clashes between supporters of the ruling bloc and the Hezbollah-led opposition.

http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=55244&sectionid=351020203

Druze moving towards supporting Hizbollah

Chief among those blamed is Walid Jumblatt, known as “the weather vane”, given his history of changing his political stance depending on the current power alignment, and who is expected to seek a deal with Hezbollah in a bid to keep some position in the coming new government. It was just 36 months ago that Jumblatt was praising Hezbollah as the legitimate Lebanese Resistance and he may return to that position as he appears ready to give up his role in the Welch Club and try to save his leadership role in the deeply fractured Druze community. Hezbollah will now dry up Jumblatt’s power and shut him up. The Party will very likely force him to reconcile with the—as of this morning—much stronger Druze leader Talal Arslan, Hezbollah’s ally, who is getting credit for arranging last night’s ceasefire and presumably saving many Druze lives.

Hezbollah support in the Druze community is growing rapidly this morning.

http://www.counterpunch.org/lamb05122008.html

Jumblatt speaks on uruknet

Jumblatt:

“I am a hostage now in my home in Beirut,” he said over the telephone to his rival Nabih Berri, the speaker of parliament and a top opposition leader, while TIME waited nearby for an interview. “Tell [Hizballah leader] Sayeed Hassan Nasrallah I lost the battle and he wins. So let’s sit and talk to reach a compromise. All that I ask is your protection.” ……

Sitting in his garden terrace in Beirut, with just a few family members and loyal retainers, Jumblatt is quickly coming to grips with the new political landscape. “The U.S. has failed in Lebanon and they have to admit it,” he said. “We have to wait and see the new rules which Hizbollah, Syria, and Iran will set. They can do what they want.“

http://www.uruknet.info/?p=m43964&hd=&size=1&l=e

Hizbollah come up trumps.

Hasn’t the Beirut saga unfolded as yet another botched Western special ops. On the eve of Bush’s visit. He only ever sabre rattles anyway. Why I am even mentioning him is a mystery to me. They botched Basra and Lebanon, basically western intelligence underestimated the opposition both times, and both times the opposition ceded what they occupied. But they ceded to fellow arabs for peace, that does not mean they will to Israelis or Americans. So we can expect more botched jobs, done by botched thinkers. When the logic is faulty, then so is the manifestation. It will just be really spectacular if they hatch a botched job against Syria or Iran.

Crimes and corruptions reported that the former head of Israel’s intelligence Aaron Zeevi Farkash informed the US  “We advised the CIA not to rely on Walid Jumblatt or Saad Hariri because we tested them in 2006 and they proved helpless in the face of Hezbollah.”the Pro Western Government cannot be relied upon as they are no match for Hizbollah.

This proved to be true by events on the ground.
Here at WordPress middeno gives a first hand account of events on the ground in Beirut, as does Franklin Lamb as published over at Countercurrents.

Nasrallah’s speech today extracts

On the telephone network:

They then said the network could be used for international
intelligence; we said that this was a sin and a waste of public money.
They looked into the matter, and it was resolved.
They then asked for a compromise: end the sit-in downtown, and we will overlook the network.
We ask, if we fulfill this, suddenly the network is not illegal and
not a waste of public money? This is not a government; this is a gang.
We told them that was blackmail.
We told them the network was part of the resistance, but the sit-in was
an opposition movement and hence not under our control anyway.
(Our network) is related to defending the country against Israel.

Jumblatt is a liar and a killer. … This is not a government, this is a gang.

We will not allow the airport to serve the CIA and Mossad, point blank.

Sectarian sedition is out of the question, and we will not use our
arms to take power by force. It will only be used to defend our arms.
After the July War, we were exposed to a billion-dollar smearing campaign. “Hezbollah is Iranian, Hezbollah is Syrian…”
Our image was not smeared, however, for our image is as bright as the sun and cannot be damaged.
Even if we disagree politically, we are brothers… There will be no Sunni-Shia strife in Lebanon.

The full transcript is here:

http://tearsforlebanon.wordpress.com/2008/05/08/nasrallah-justifies-lebanon-riots-in-speech/

Or see what Hizbollahs web site says:

http://www.almanar.com.lb/NewsSite/NewsDetails.aspx?id=43009&language=en