Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Gopher]

Maybe, LosSeoul. A colleague and good friend in my department where I am is Lebanese. We often play backgammon and have tea and talk academic politics.

[NovaKart]

[ytuque]

[LosSeoul]

Your original claim was that Hezbollah controls South Lebanon and that you wanted proof that this was not true.

My original point is Hezbollah is an Islamic militia funded by Iran
True. Although technically Hezbollah is refereed to as a Resistance movement, this is what allowed them to keep their arms after the Taif accord.

has veto power over the government, and has military forces comparable if not superior to the Lebanese army.
True, Hezbollah has veto power...as does the rest of the opposition. Why? Well because they are PART of the government. You know how? We voted and certain people chose them to represent us.

This makes many Christians, including the ones who I know who still have family there, very nervous
This is more of a political thing. First of all you say many christians...are you familiar with the Free Patriot Movement? Statistics involving numbers of people are hard to come by in Lebanon, but I believe it is the largest Christian party in Lebanon. FPM is an ally of Hezbollah and part of the March 8th opposition group.

Using Christian villagers as human shields back in 2006 didn't help either.
What villages? Proof?

As to the reason for the veto power, Hezbollah outgunned government supporters which resulted in 81 dead
You make such a sweeping, general statement here. You fail to adress anything else that happened in the 17 month political crisis leading up to what happened in May of 08. This includes sit ins, non violent protests and strikes by both Hezbollah and FPM, one of the two largest christian parties in Lebanon. Violence erupted upon the disablement of Hezbollah's telecommunication network, include al Manar. This was a difficult extremely difficult piece in recent Lebanese history and I'm sure that I am not alone in saying that those of us that we're there and beyond are glad to see that it was largely resolved in Doha.


I made my comments about Hezbollah controlling S. Lebanon since they still have forces and weapons caches in the area. In addition, there have been incidents where they have run off UNIFIL forces (Italians) and arrested a UNIFIL officer (Polish)
I think the issues with the UNIFIL your talking about happened during the Lebanese Civil War?
Like I said in my previous post. When your in the south you will see UNIFIL, you will see the Lebanese Army and you will NOT see Hezbollah. Is the south a stronghold of Hezbollah supporters? Yes of course. Is Hezbollah able to control the south? maybe. Does it control the south? No.

I neglected to mention that they have rearmed since 2006, and there is speculation that they are ready to have a go at the Israelis again.
Yeah they probably have. Good. I herd about this "speculation"...I was there at the Anniversary speech in the Da7yih when Nasrallah spoke on the issue. Like me to "put up"? Ill gladly send you a link to parts of video I shot there, although they are in Arabic. To BRIEFLY summarize the statement that he mad was if Israel invades the Janoub then Hezbollah will attack Haifa and if Israel attacks Beirut Hezbollah will attack Tel Aviv.
If you think that Hezbollah "had a go" at the Israel in 2006 that is another entirely different misunderstanding/issue. I can guarantee you that people within Lebanon had a greater fear of another Israeli invasion and violation of our sovereignty (as they do every week when they fly drones over the border into our airspace) then of Hezbollah having a go.

You have a much more positive view of things in Lebanon than the Lebanese who have given up on the country
I havn't been gone that long...this is usually a symptom of people who left during the civil war and I can not at all blame them.

[Reggie]