| Headlines in most newspapers and on televised newscasts say “ Middle East crises”. As a matter of fact that headline has been used for the past sixty or so years.
Not much time goes by without Middle East crises being a front page story. Right now it's the war in Lebanon . For the people living in the Lebanon world this is not new.
Actually, Israeli forces invading their country and Israeli bombers dropping bombs everywhere has happened before. It was only six years ago Israeli forces pulled out of Lebanon after being there since 1982. Israel is only one country causing problems in the Lebanon world .
Syria is responsible for most of Lebanon 's problems. Of course Syria unofficially thinks Lebanon is really the western part of Syria .
In 1976 the Syrian government sent 40,000 troops into Lebanon to fight a wing of the Palestinian movement. The Syrians didn't leave. After forcing the Palestinians into the south of Lebanon , the Syrians remained in the Lebanon world controlling its government, and therefore its people, for the next 30 years.
They finally withdrew in 2005. This Palestinian group forced into the south of Lebanon , within a few years became allies with Syria .
When these Palestinians in southern Lebanon crossed the border into Israel to attack Israeli citizens, Israel had the excuse it needed to invade Lebanon in 1978. After just a few days the United Nations passed a resolution ordering Israeli forces and Palestinian militants out of the country. Israel pulled its troops out, the Palestinian militants stayed. In 1982 after many attacks on its citizens from the PLO, based in southern Lebanon , Israel again sent its troops across the border. Here we go again. This time a Lebanese Shia Islamic group was formed to fight the Israeli troops.
The name of this group, sponsored by Syria and Iran , was known as Hezbollah. Let's jump to 2006, not because there has been peace in the mean time, there hasn't, but rather because in July of this year (2006) Hezbollah terrorists, as they have been labelled by Israel and the western world, entered Israeli territory and captured two Israeli solders. It's not clear what the purpose of this exercise was.
What is clear is it set off a chain of events giving the Israeli forces another reason to invade the Lebanon world and it did, with a vengeance.
So far, less than a month since the capture of the two Israeli solders, nearly 700 innocent Lebanese civilians have been killed. Israel has suffered 75 deaths. No one knows where this will lead. It might end with all sides pulling back so they can keep a distant eye on each other, as has happened in the past.
It might lead to other countries becoming involved and all out World War. One thing is for certain it's not going to go away. If you could see into the future and read a newspaper headline from 2056, it will probably say “Middle East Crises, Israeli troops invade southern Lebanon .” |
