All Not So Quiet On The Middle Eastern Front

Bonjour Dave Balmer,

Concerning your post, there is also another explanation for Israeli's 
extravagant reaction to the capture of two of its soldiers which, 
incidentally, was first reported by many publications as the soldiers being 
abducted when they were inside Lebanon on one of their frequent raids. [I 
don't know the truth of these reports but it smells like the Bay of Tonkin 
incident being reversed, as it was, to hide U.S, aggression.]

In an article http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HH05Ak01.html

Middle East
Aug 5, 2006
It's about annexation, stupid!
By Kaveh L Afrasiabi

the following paragraphs describe another reason for Israeli's reaction.  I 
do remember reading some time ago that when Israel withdrew the last time 
it occupied Lebanon, there were reports that they left with tankers of 
water they had 'stolen' from the Litani River.  The references to Hertzl 
and Ben Gurion are also correct.

Here are some of the concluding relevant paragraphs.

Yours to incite world insight,       Trevor Goodger-Hill

====================

If so, then the chronology of events narrated by future historians will 
closely follow this line of thought: that Israel deliberately provoked 
Hezbollah into action, after a six-year hiatus, by pressuring Hezbollah's 
ally, Hamas, which was subjected to a campaign of terror, financial squeeze 
and intimidation.

The laying of such a trap by Israel would not have happened in a vacuum of 
strategic thinking on Israel's part. The fact that Hezbollah fell into the 
trap is a result of several factors, including an adventurist element 
lending itself to the "reckless" action of Hezbollah on July 11 with 
respect to crossing the Blue Line and attacking an Israeli patrol.

Since then, the Israelis have put on the mask of being reluctant warriors, 
delaying their troops' entry into south Lebanon and thus perpetuating 
Israel's self-image as disinterested in any imperial grand objectives. Yet 
the facts on the ground speak louder than words and, indeed, what fact is 
more important than Israeli leaders' announced intention to occupy up to 
the Litani River?

Again, what is understandably omitted in those announcements, adopted as 
the real reasons by CNN and other US networks, is Israel's predatory lust 
after Litani's water sources, as well as for new geographical and strategic 
depth. This in turn might explain the otherwise inexplicably blatant 
overreaction of Israel to a border incident with Hezbollah.

Instead of searching for answers in the Israeli collective psyche or in the 
context of action, we must probe the answer in the writings of Israel's 
founding fathers, including Theodor Herzl and David Ben-Gurion, commonly 
yearning for Israel's control of the Litani River. As a timely addition to 
their old wish, Israel today has a security-related explanation, justifying 
the territorial takeover in the near future in terms of the lessons of the 
present war, the main lesson being Israel's dire need to gain strategic 
depth to avoid rocket attacks.

Indeed, the verdict will soon be out in Israel about the precious lesson of 
Lebanon War II, that is, how to prevent future rocket attacks in the only 
feasible way, that is, direct control of southern Lebanon.

Kaveh L Afrasiabi, PhD, is the author of After Khomeini: New Directions in 
Iran's Foreign Policy (Westview Press) and co-author of "Negotiating Iran's 
Nuclear Populism", Brown Journal of World Affairs, Volume XII, Issue 2, 
Summer 2005, with Mustafa Kibaroglu. He also wrote "Keeping Iran's nuclear 
potential latent", Harvard International Review. He is author of Iran's 
Nuclear Program: Debating Facts Versus Fiction.

(Copyright 2006 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved.


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