'Lebanon is a Hizbullah state, gov't has become irrelevant'

THE JERUSALEM POST
May. 11, 2008

"Lebanon must be related to as a Hizbullah state," Vice Premier Haim Ramon said Sunday.

"Everything that happens there is the responsibility of Hizbullah. The country is controlled by this terror organization and its government has become irrelevant," Ramon said at the weekly cabinet meeting.

"The notion that there is another government apart from Hizbullah is entirely fictional," added the vice premier Ramon's remarks came after head of Military Intelligence, General Amos Yadlin, provided an intelligence briefing to the cabinet ministers on the recent clashes in Lebanon and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel was paying close attention to the unfolding crisis.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter said that "Hizbullah continues to be in control of Lebanon, without carrying the responsibility of managing the country,"

"[They] continue to create problems for Israel, like during the Second Lebanon War, and this prevents us from fighting against terror."

Dichter also commented on the upcoming visit of Egyptian Intelligence chief Omar Suleiman to Israel, saying that he doubted the official would be successful in efforts to produce a ceasefire, as he has so far failed to keep Palestinians from firing Kassam rockets into the western Negev.

Meanwhile, Deputy Defense Minister Matan Vilna'i told Army Radio that Israel was prepared for the possibility of the situation in Lebanon deteriorating into another civil war and was closely monitoring the situation's developments, though would not get involved in the latest outbreak of violence there.

The Lebanese violence that has killed at least 38 people in four days was sparked when the US-backed government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora tried to crack down on Hizbullah last week.

Hizbullah responded by seizing control of many Beirut neighborhoods loyal to the government.

Beirut, which experienced four days of bloody sectarian clashes between Sunnis and Shi'ites, spent a quiet night Sunday. But many of its roads remained blocked, including the one to the airport, however, by the ongoing civil disobedience campaign of the opposition, and heavy fighting broke out between pro and anti-government supporters in northern Lebanon, security officials reported.

Vilna'i said the current sectarian fighting could end with a Hizbullah takeover of the government.

"We need to keep our eyes peeled and be especially sensitive regarding all that is happening there," Vilna'i said.

"We shouldn't get involved. We need to watch and should follow this very closely even when we are dealing with other fronts," he said, referring to continued fighting against Hamas.

Israel is especially concerned about the situation in Lebanon in light of the Hamas's control of Gaza, Vilna'i said. Hamas and Hizbullah, as Iranian proxies, are mutually dependent, he said.

Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit said Israel should not yet take any action, but warned that things could change if Hizbullah takes over Lebanon.

"I think it's very dangerous, the (possible) situation in which Iran is in fact sitting on our border, and controlling Lebanon," Sheetrit said. "It's really dangerous in the long term because now its plain to everyone that ... Hizbullah is just the long arm of Iran and that's the way we should relate to it."

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Eyal Ben-Reuven, who served as deputy head of the Northern Command during the Second Lebanon War, said Hizbullah's increasing strength stems from the 2006 conflict.

"I must say, as one who deeply participated in the Second Lebanon War, I feel sad, because if we then would have done what we needed to do and turned Hizbullah into a failed force, we would be in a different situation today," Ben-Reuven told Army Radio.