Hariri: Hizbullah has right to attack Israel

Hariri: Hizbullah has right to attack Israel

Flashback!

Jerusalem Post; 3/21/2001; ARIEH O'SULLIVAN

Wednesday, March 21, 2001 -- Even though Israel pulled its forces out of Lebanon, its Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri said Lebanon has the right to fight for the Shaba Farms, which he claimed are part of his country.

"The Lebanese government is fully convinced that the Shaba Farms area is a Lebanese territory and must be liberated by all means available," Hariri said in an interview with the London-based Jane's Defense Weekly to be published today.

"One way to regain Shaba Farms is through diplomatic contacts, while another way is through armed resistance. Only circumstances determine which course we should follow," Hariri was quoted as saying.

Hariri's statements indicate his rejection of the United Nations acceptance of Israel's position that Shaba Farms is Syrian territory occupied in the 1967 Six Day War. Syria has remained silent on the matter, but Israeli intelligence sources have said it has given Hizbullah the nod to harass the IDF on the Mount Dov slopes adjacent to the farms.

Hariri also gave Hizbullah a free hand in striking at Israel.

"Things are not as they used to be in the 1980s. Wars in that era did not solve the problems, but made things worse," said Hariri. "Now if [the Israelis] wage a war, Hizbullah will escalate its attacks."

Still, Hariri says a political settlement is possible with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "if the new Israeli government has the true desire to do so." But he quickly added that statements by Sharon and other Israeli officials "lead to a pessimistic conclusion about peace prospects in the region."

Hariri blamed a lack of peace with Israel on the Jewish state.

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COULD THIS HARIRI STATEMENT HAVE GOTTEN HIM KILLED?

WAS IT HARAKIRI?

This is certainly a possibility, but I'm not sure how they would accomplish it. I know they would have had a really hard time concealing the tonnage of conventional explosives necessary, I don't think it was just a car bomb. It was probably a micro nuke buried in the ground, but that's just a guess on my part based on the limited forensics available.

At this point, for all I know, it could have been air dropped munitions, a strange and very powerful shaped charge car bomb, a meteor impact...I just don't know. All I've seen are a couple pictures of a sizable crater and some sketchy eyewitness and blast damage reports, all of which could be fake, exagerated, or misleading.

Syria had little to gain by killing Hariri, Israel had a lot to gain. Hariri also had other enemies within Lebanon and Beirut in particular, he was a successful businessman, and successful businessmen always have enemies. They have rivals, disgruntled stepping stones, greedy family members, etc.. I'm sure the Lebanese police are investigating, we'll probably hear something about the investigation in due time.

If they had come out with a bunch of bogus stuff immediately, I would have been suspicious. If you notice, all the speculation came from the press, not policemen or investigators on the scene. It takes time to do a crime scene workup. One of the telltale signs that the government of a country is hiding something, when they rush the investigation and release premature speculation in place of evidence. I hope the Beirut police and Syrian army investigators do their job and find enough evidence to piece together the truth.

Patience Is A Virtue

I don't see anything persuasive here in any direction.

As much as I would love to know who did this, I don't, and it's quite likely I never really will. The question may go unanswered indefinitely.

But the absence of evidence necessary to know one way or another is precisely why I must withhold judgment.

I would rather not know and be right about that than to make a guess, base my credibility on that assumption, and then later be proven wrong.

How does Hariri's death tie in with the recent bomb in Tel-Aviv? Could it have been a retaliation? A false flag operation to stir up emotions against Syria? Could it really be a Hezbollah operation?

If Israel killed Hariri, then Hariri's followers would necessarily want to counter attack. If on the other hand an unknown third party killed the popular politician, who would stand to gain by this attack?

I'm a little confused at the apparent lack of motive in some recent, notable incidents. Any thoughts on this?

It seems regardless of what the truth is, Syria is next in line for a little force fed democracy.