Dear President Obama:
Over the last few years, we have provided over a half billion dollars in military assistance, including sophisticated weaponry, to Lebanon and also provided important training.
The hopes the arose when the assassination of Rafic Hariri led to the Cedar Revolution have been dashed. Yesterday's attack on Israelis in Israel by members of the Lebanese army have made it obvious that assistance is effectively assistance to Hezbollah, the terrorist group which now has intimate ties with the army and a veto power over the Lebanese government.
Hezbollah is not just anti-Israel; it is a bitter enemy of America.
I never thought we should have provided military assistance to Lebanon in the first place; we certainly shouldn't be providing any assistance now.
Please stop providing military assistance to Lebanon — at least until Hezbollah no longer has a role in that government.
Sincerely,
Alan Stein
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2 comments:
Rather than any international peacekeeping mission, the best course is bilateral security arrangements. The Israeli experience with an international presence has been poor. UNIFIL in Lebanon has not lived up to Israeli expectations in preventing the re-armament of Hizbullah after the 2006 Second Lebanon War. For more on defensible borders to secure Israel's future, see this piece by Maj.-Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan - http://www.jcpa.org/text/security/dayan.pdf and www.defensibleborders.org.
Since Hezbollah is on the State Department's list of terrorist organizations, the arming of Hezbollah violates U.S. Law. Perhaps legal action against the President is called for if he persists in sending arms to them.
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