In 2000 when Israel withdrew from South Lebanon, Hezbollah decided to continue its resistance against Israel's occupation. So they dug up old maps of a 50 km2 strip of land called Chebbaa farms and decided that it was part of Lebanon.
However, that piece of land being under the control of Syria in 1967 it was occupied by Israel and considered Syrian. So Israel refused to give up this small plot...eight years forward, after one war, several clashes, thousands of casualties, the land is still "occupied” by Israel and Hezbollah is still trying to free it.
A week ago the US secretary Condoleezza Rice visited Lebanon and declared the US intention to work on placing Chebbaa under UN control until its border is firmly marked and placed under the Syrian or Lebanese sovereignty. (Syria to keep the resistance going in Lebanon always refused to deliver the necessary paperwork to the UN to award Lebanon sovereignty)
Lo and behold Hezbollah officials bristled with indignation, denouncing this move as a ploy to end the resistance and strip its weapons… in other words Hezbollah was against a full Israeli withdrawal from supposedly Lebanese lands because this will end their divine resistance.
A Lebanese paradox par excellence. A resistance that encourages an occupier “occupation” and attacks any effort at freeing the land, maybe Hezbollah has an exclusive dealership on freeing lands…
Meanwhile the political crisis drags on, slowly rotting the stats and its institutions away; at least we have a president. And this is what driving General Aoun (Hezbollah staunchest ally) even madder.
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