More Fun With the Chronicle's "Concise Primer on the Middle East Conflict"
This part is also kind of dishonest:
Q: Is the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict linked to fighting between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank?
A: Analysts believe Hezbollah had been planning its incursion into Israel for many weeks before the kidnapping of the Israeli troops. The operation took place, though, just weeks after Hamas kidnapped an Israeli soldier in Gaza. No direct link has been established between the two kidnappings, but some form of coordination can't be ruled out. As for the groups themselves, similarities are largely superficial. In both cases, Israel is fighting militant Muslims that both Israel and the United States regard as terrorists. At the same time, Hezbollah, which based in Lebanon, and Hamas, based in Palestinian areas, are very different organizations.
This phrase reminds us of nothing so much as when Anthony Cordesman, commenting on the Axis of Evil speech, said that Iran, Iraq, and North Korea were "very different countries." How insightful!
Hamas and Hezbollah have the following things in common:
(1) They are both funded and supplied by Iran and Syria
(2) They both started as terrorist organizations
(3) They've both moved on from that starting point to being armies
(4) They both attacked, kidnapped, and killed Israeli soldiers within a couple of weeks of each other
(5) They both demanded that Israel release terrorist prisoners to get the kidnapped soldiers back
(6) They're both wildly popular with their respective publics - the largest political parties in their respective areas
They have the following differences:
(1) They live in different places
(2) There are different letters in their names
More seriously:
"Certainly there was strategic coordination," said another senior Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "If Hamas is attacked, then Hezbollah comes to its aid, and vice versa." Furthermore, according to Meir, "the ideological support, the weapons, everything comes from Iran, and in the case of Hezbollah, through Damascus." However, he added, "I'm not saying they had an operational hand in it."
"Very different organizations" indeed.
Q: Is the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict linked to fighting between Israel and Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank?
A: Analysts believe Hezbollah had been planning its incursion into Israel for many weeks before the kidnapping of the Israeli troops. The operation took place, though, just weeks after Hamas kidnapped an Israeli soldier in Gaza. No direct link has been established between the two kidnappings, but some form of coordination can't be ruled out. As for the groups themselves, similarities are largely superficial. In both cases, Israel is fighting militant Muslims that both Israel and the United States regard as terrorists. At the same time, Hezbollah, which based in Lebanon, and Hamas, based in Palestinian areas, are very different organizations.
This phrase reminds us of nothing so much as when Anthony Cordesman, commenting on the Axis of Evil speech, said that Iran, Iraq, and North Korea were "very different countries." How insightful!
Hamas and Hezbollah have the following things in common:
(1) They are both funded and supplied by Iran and Syria
(2) They both started as terrorist organizations
(3) They've both moved on from that starting point to being armies
(4) They both attacked, kidnapped, and killed Israeli soldiers within a couple of weeks of each other
(5) They both demanded that Israel release terrorist prisoners to get the kidnapped soldiers back
(6) They're both wildly popular with their respective publics - the largest political parties in their respective areas
They have the following differences:
(1) They live in different places
(2) There are different letters in their names
More seriously:
"Certainly there was strategic coordination," said another senior Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "If Hamas is attacked, then Hezbollah comes to its aid, and vice versa." Furthermore, according to Meir, "the ideological support, the weapons, everything comes from Iran, and in the case of Hezbollah, through Damascus." However, he added, "I'm not saying they had an operational hand in it."
"Very different organizations" indeed.
