A good analysis of the present mess in the region.
To: foil-l@insaf.net
From: india-unity@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 23:17:44 +0530
Subject: [india-unity] "Hezbollah Talks Big but Bows Out of the Gaza War"
__._,_.___
Posted by: Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com>
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Mukto Mona plans for a Grand Darwin Day Celebration:
Call For Articles:
http://mukto-mona.com/wordpress/?p=68
http://mukto-mona.com/banga_blog/?p=585
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VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
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"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
To: foil-l@insaf.net
From: india-unity@yahoogroups.com
Date: Thu, 24 Jul 2014 23:17:44 +0530
Subject: [india-unity] "Hezbollah Talks Big but Bows Out of the Gaza War"
Hezbollah Talks Big but Bows Out of the Gaza War
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/23/hezbollah-talks-big-but-bows-out-of-the-gaza-war.html
Hamas is increasingly isolated in the region as it fights its ferocious
war against Israel. In the old days Hezbollah might have helped—but not
now.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hezbollah boss Hassan Nasrallah made a phone call to
Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal on Monday and vowed to support "the
resistance in Gaza in any way necessary." Then Nasrallah, whose fame has
spread far and wide over the years as the head of the Iranian-backed
Lebanese "Party of God," called Palestinians Islamic Jihad leader
Ramadan Salah to talk about maintaining close diplomatic ties in the
fight against Israel.
But here's the real message from Nasrallah: Hamas, you're on your own.
This is a far cry from those days in the middle of the last decade when
Hezbollah, encouraged by Tehran, was staking out a position as the
region's preeminent leader of resistance against Israel and leader of a
pan-Islamist movement ready to defend not only Shiites but also Sunni
Muslims from, as they were wont to say, Jews and Crusaders.
In 2006, when the Israelis attacked Gaza in the south, Hezbollah started
launching rockets attacking Israel from the north and kidnapped Israeli
soldiers there, leading to a brief but brutal war in which Hezbollah
guerrillas fought the vaunted Israel Defense Forces to a standstill.
But Hezbollah has more pressing strategic imperatives today, and
Nasrallah is not known as an impulsive leader. He plots and schemes and
bides his time to strike when he thinks the stars are aligned in his
favor. Weighing in on the side of Hamas would invite massive Israeli
retaliation and force a replay of the 2006 war that, this time around,
Hezbollah would be likely to lose—not just because Israel would fight a
smarter campaign, but because Nasrallah's forces are stretched so thin
on so many fronts defending its allies—and Tehran's—in Damascus and even
in Baghdad.
"In the ongoing war in Gaza, Hezbollah hardly qualifies as an
afterthought," argues Michael Young, opinion editor of Lebanon's
English-language newspaper The Daily Star and a longtime Hezbollah
critic. "The party is too involved in Syria on behalf of its Iranian
sponsors."
The Hamas leadership had worried this day might come. It warned
Hezbollah of what it saw as the distraction of intervening full-tilt in
Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Over a year ago, as Hezbollah was ratcheting up its military assistance
to Assad and turning the tide of battle in his favor, Hamas urged
Hezbollah to withdraw its forces from Syria and focus on fighting Israel
instead.
But Hamas, you see, is part of the international Muslim Brotherhood—the
Sunni Muslim Brotherhood—committed to Assad's overthrow. This
inconvenient fact was something that might be glossed over if everyone
was focused on the Israeli enemy, but it couldn't be ignored in what
rapidly became Syria's Sunnis vs Shia civil war.
"We call on Hezbollah to take its forces out of Syria and to keep their
weapons directed against the Zionist enemy," Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas
leader, announced on his Facebook page. He warned that Hezbollah's
involvement in Syria would stoke sectarian flames across the Mideast—as
indeed it has done.
There were even unconfirmed reports that Hamas fighters gave tips to the
Sunni insurgents in Syria about how to fight against Hezbollah in urban
combat by using tunnels (a technique Hezbollah originally had taught
Hamas, which it is now using to try to launch commando raids in Israel
and wage a guerrilla campaign inside Gaza).
Nasrallah rebuffed the advice from Hamas, saying his forces would
continue to fight alongside Assad, whose dynasty is built on the Alawite
sect of Shia Islam.
Over the last year Hamas has found itself increasingly isolated. The
overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt last year not
only eliminated a vital ally, it brought to power a military-dominated
regime determined to crush the Brotherhood and its regional iterations,
especially in Gaza.
Meanwhile the Hamas rupture with Hezbollah and Tehran left the
Palestinian group cash-strapped, isolated and increasingly ostracized,
according to analyst Jonathan Schanzer of the Washington, D.C.-based
Foundation for Defense of Democracies. So Hamas started trying to patch
things up.
The rapprochement efforts even involved Meshaal trying to distance Hamas
from his previous outspoken support of the Syrian insurgency, arguing
that while people "have the right to rise up for their rights," this
"must be done through peaceful means." The Syrian rebel coalition known
as the Army of Islam responded with disdain: "He who performs jihad out
of his office should not offer advice to those in the trenches."
Quite apart from all that infighting, the fact is a confrontation with
Israel at this time suits neither Hezbollah nor Tehran.
For the Party of God the imperatives are shoring up Assad, and holding
off the threat of extremist jihadists like those of the group formerly
known as ISIS. That war has not yet been won. Far from it.
The Iranians are focused on pulling off an accord with the West over
their nuclear program, thus guaranteeing their own survival, and they
aren't inclined to risk that for the sake of Hamas. At least not now.
So, yes, Nasrallah is calling up his old protégés in Hamas and
Palestinian Islamic Jihad to offer moral support, but when he signs off
they understand the Iranian-Hezbollah message very well. "Don't call
us," he's saying, "we'll call you."
--
Peace Is Doable
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/07/23/hezbollah-talks-big-but-bows-out-of-the-gaza-war.html
Hamas is increasingly isolated in the region as it fights its ferocious
war against Israel. In the old days Hezbollah might have helped—but not
now.
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hezbollah boss Hassan Nasrallah made a phone call to
Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal on Monday and vowed to support "the
resistance in Gaza in any way necessary." Then Nasrallah, whose fame has
spread far and wide over the years as the head of the Iranian-backed
Lebanese "Party of God," called Palestinians Islamic Jihad leader
Ramadan Salah to talk about maintaining close diplomatic ties in the
fight against Israel.
But here's the real message from Nasrallah: Hamas, you're on your own.
This is a far cry from those days in the middle of the last decade when
Hezbollah, encouraged by Tehran, was staking out a position as the
region's preeminent leader of resistance against Israel and leader of a
pan-Islamist movement ready to defend not only Shiites but also Sunni
Muslims from, as they were wont to say, Jews and Crusaders.
In 2006, when the Israelis attacked Gaza in the south, Hezbollah started
launching rockets attacking Israel from the north and kidnapped Israeli
soldiers there, leading to a brief but brutal war in which Hezbollah
guerrillas fought the vaunted Israel Defense Forces to a standstill.
But Hezbollah has more pressing strategic imperatives today, and
Nasrallah is not known as an impulsive leader. He plots and schemes and
bides his time to strike when he thinks the stars are aligned in his
favor. Weighing in on the side of Hamas would invite massive Israeli
retaliation and force a replay of the 2006 war that, this time around,
Hezbollah would be likely to lose—not just because Israel would fight a
smarter campaign, but because Nasrallah's forces are stretched so thin
on so many fronts defending its allies—and Tehran's—in Damascus and even
in Baghdad.
"In the ongoing war in Gaza, Hezbollah hardly qualifies as an
afterthought," argues Michael Young, opinion editor of Lebanon's
English-language newspaper The Daily Star and a longtime Hezbollah
critic. "The party is too involved in Syria on behalf of its Iranian
sponsors."
The Hamas leadership had worried this day might come. It warned
Hezbollah of what it saw as the distraction of intervening full-tilt in
Syria in support of President Bashar al-Assad's regime.
Over a year ago, as Hezbollah was ratcheting up its military assistance
to Assad and turning the tide of battle in his favor, Hamas urged
Hezbollah to withdraw its forces from Syria and focus on fighting Israel
instead.
But Hamas, you see, is part of the international Muslim Brotherhood—the
Sunni Muslim Brotherhood—committed to Assad's overthrow. This
inconvenient fact was something that might be glossed over if everyone
was focused on the Israeli enemy, but it couldn't be ignored in what
rapidly became Syria's Sunnis vs Shia civil war.
"We call on Hezbollah to take its forces out of Syria and to keep their
weapons directed against the Zionist enemy," Moussa Abu Marzouk, a Hamas
leader, announced on his Facebook page. He warned that Hezbollah's
involvement in Syria would stoke sectarian flames across the Mideast—as
indeed it has done.
There were even unconfirmed reports that Hamas fighters gave tips to the
Sunni insurgents in Syria about how to fight against Hezbollah in urban
combat by using tunnels (a technique Hezbollah originally had taught
Hamas, which it is now using to try to launch commando raids in Israel
and wage a guerrilla campaign inside Gaza).
Nasrallah rebuffed the advice from Hamas, saying his forces would
continue to fight alongside Assad, whose dynasty is built on the Alawite
sect of Shia Islam.
Over the last year Hamas has found itself increasingly isolated. The
overthrow of the Muslim Brotherhood government in Egypt last year not
only eliminated a vital ally, it brought to power a military-dominated
regime determined to crush the Brotherhood and its regional iterations,
especially in Gaza.
Meanwhile the Hamas rupture with Hezbollah and Tehran left the
Palestinian group cash-strapped, isolated and increasingly ostracized,
according to analyst Jonathan Schanzer of the Washington, D.C.-based
Foundation for Defense of Democracies. So Hamas started trying to patch
things up.
The rapprochement efforts even involved Meshaal trying to distance Hamas
from his previous outspoken support of the Syrian insurgency, arguing
that while people "have the right to rise up for their rights," this
"must be done through peaceful means." The Syrian rebel coalition known
as the Army of Islam responded with disdain: "He who performs jihad out
of his office should not offer advice to those in the trenches."
Quite apart from all that infighting, the fact is a confrontation with
Israel at this time suits neither Hezbollah nor Tehran.
For the Party of God the imperatives are shoring up Assad, and holding
off the threat of extremist jihadists like those of the group formerly
known as ISIS. That war has not yet been won. Far from it.
The Iranians are focused on pulling off an accord with the West over
their nuclear program, thus guaranteeing their own survival, and they
aren't inclined to risk that for the sake of Hamas. At least not now.
So, yes, Nasrallah is calling up his old protégés in Hamas and
Palestinian Islamic Jihad to offer moral support, but when he signs off
they understand the Iranian-Hezbollah message very well. "Don't call
us," he's saying, "we'll call you."
--
Peace Is Doable
__._,_.___
Posted by: Farida Majid <farida_majid@hotmail.com>
****************************************************
Mukto Mona plans for a Grand Darwin Day Celebration:
Call For Articles:
http://mukto-mona.com/wordpress/?p=68
http://mukto-mona.com/banga_blog/?p=585
****************************************************
VISIT MUKTO-MONA WEB-SITE : http://www.mukto-mona.com/
****************************************************
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it".
-Beatrice Hall [pseudonym: S.G. Tallentyre], 190
__,_._,___