The Cutting Edge report for this week. 5 27 2007[/align][/align]
I. War signs in the Middle East reached a new flash point yesterday, when the Bush Administration agreed to rush special advanced weaponry to the Lebanese Army, teetering under the fire of Hezbollah/Islamic militants, as the two sides battled for the fourth straight day.[/align]
"For five days, Lebanese tanks and artillery have been pounding Fatah al-Islam gunmen barricaded in the Palestinian Nahr al-Bared refugee camp without achieving a breakthrough. The fighting has escalated dangerously following the infiltration of pro-Syrian reinforcements to the camp. They are led by members of the pro-Syrian Palestinian extremist Ahmed Jibril"™s group, armed by Damascus and directed by Syrian military intelligence officers, who maintain a presence in North Lebanon."
This next segment demonstrates both the success this group of Islamic fighters has experienced so far in this fighting, and the seriousness of the outcome.
"The Bush administration decided to rearm the Lebanese troops with better weapons because if they fail to suppress the Islamist uprising in the northern camp, the unrest will spread. The south Lebanese Palestinian refugee camp of Ein Hilwa in the south is already getting restive..." (Ibid.)
Notice that this Islamic unrest is already spreading southward, toward the Israeli border. We believe this whole battle scenario was designed, from the beginning, to prepare Hezbollah to make war on Israel without interference from either the Lebanese Army or the U.N. peacekeeping force.
Israel understands this quite well, as this next segment illustrates.
"The IDF"™s northern command has placed Israeli units along the Lebanese and Syrians on the alert in case of a flare-up ... There are some indications that it could also ignite Israel"™s northern borders. The northern command is on the ready for artillery fire and the Israeli Air Force prepared for Syrian aircraft intrusions. The navy is braced for missile attacks on its vessels by Hezbollah, which has just received a supply of C-802 shore-to-ship missiles from Syria, or even a ground incursion. Jerusalem took careful note of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad"™s threat to Israel from Isfahan Thursday: The Zionist state will be uprooted, he said, if it attacks Lebanon again this summer." (Iid.)
This segment is helpful, for it ties together all the groups we believe are working tightly together to prepare for a war against Israel: Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran. As we note below, this tight cooperation extends to both Hamas and to all Islamic militant groups in the region. The time has come for all such groups to begin cooperating instead of fighting one another, and to bind themselves together in terms of common tactics and military goals.
This next breaking news story also illustrates that Hezbollah is most definitely involved in this battle.
"Al Qaeda"™s regional and Palestinian network has come to the surface under the pressure of the Fatah al-Islam-Lebanese showdown in the northern Lebanese Palestinian refugee camp. Hassan Nasrallah"™s dramatic TV speech Friday night, May 25, confirmed that the Fatah al-Islam faction fighting in Lebanon is al Qaeda, at a time when the jihadists"™ deepening involvement in the Palestinian cause is taboo for Israeli, Arab and Western spokesmen. Nasrallah bluntly urged the Lebanese army not to storm the Palestinian Nahr al-Bared refugee camp near Tripoli because that would entangle Lebanon in the US war on al Qaeda. The camp and Palestinian civilians would be a red line. 'We will not accept or provide cover or be partners in this', he said. 'The Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah alliance should support the Sunni group fighting in the Lebanese Palestinian camp, not oppose it'. "
Another news story confirmed that the American sophisticated military hardware had, indeed, arrived in Beirut, Lebanon.
"Several transport planes carrying military aid for the Lebanese army from the US and its Arab allies have arrived at Beirut airport. The move follows an appeal for such aid by the Lebanese government. Its forces are battling Islamist militants who have taken over the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon ... The military supplies are believed to include ammunition for automatic rifles and heavy weapons, spare parts for military helicopters and night-vision equipment.'
We can only hope that this new equipment does turn the tide in favor of the Lebanese Army, because if it is neutralized, Hezbollah will be able to turn its full attention to the U.N. "Peacekeeping" Force patrolling the Lebanese/Israeli border. Such peacekeeping forces have been forced out from other countries before, so we should expect just such an effort now. And, make no mistake: if both the Lebanese Army and the U.N. Peacekeepers are neutralized, Hezbollah will be completely free to join Hamas in attacking Israel, from within and from without.
What might this new, sophisticated hardware be? We will address this issue in a later news story about Iraq, below, but if America has just delivered the kind of weapon we are afraid they have delivered, the weak Lebanese Army might have just been given a reprieve.
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Build Up To An All Out War With Israel.
. Good to see you posting again.
