Hezbollah, Hamasâ operations: âDivine coincidenceâ?
Source:http://aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=11714
If you asked any Lebanese from any sectarian and political party about the chief leader of the resistance movement Hezbollah, heâll point out the same piece of personal history.
"There's something you should know about him," they say.
Heâll start narrating how Hassan Nasrallah's son was killed while fighting against the barbaric Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon in 1997.
Any Lebanese would speak with great admiration of Nasrallah who insists that his son was killed like any soldier who dies while fighting to liberate his country.
Ever since Hezbollah succeeded in forcing Israel end its military occupation of Lebanon in 2000, the Lebanese have nurtured a palpable gratitude to the movement, its fighters and its leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.
Even Nasrallahâs opponents temper their criticism with praise for Hezbollahâs great role in driving the Israeli invaders out of Lebanon.
Some analysts suggested that Nasrallah extended the helping hands to the Palestinian nation, which had been battling the same aggressor Hezbollah managed to defeat in Lebanon.
Last weekâs operation by Lebanonâs Hezbollah, in which two Israeli soldiers were captured, two weeks after Palestineâs resistance group and now the ruling Party Hamas had done virtually the same thing, was, according to Mohamed Abu Asen, Gaza accountant, âan act of solidarity with the Palestinian people, when not a single Arab state had lifted a finger to help us" after two weeks of retaliatory Israeli attacks.â
Hezbollahâs abduction of the two Israeli soldiers which started military confrontation with the Israeli aggressors is "completely connected" to Hamasâ abduction of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit in Palestine, an editorial on The Washington Post quoted Asen as saying.
But some disagree with Asenâs opinion.
Khalid Salah, 31, a butcher, says :"I don't think they planned this together,"
"Rather, it's a divine coincidence."
Whether jointly planned or not, the kidnapping of the three Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah and Hamas shouldnât be considered a crime- kidnapping soldiers of an occupying army is âlegitimateâ.
The two operations in Palestine and Lebanon thrown the two resistance groups together in a way that hasn't happened since 1992, when Israel deported hundreds of Hamas fighters to southern Lebanon, where they benefited from Hezbollahâs experience in bombmaking and gained military skills that later helped them in confronting the relentless Israeli aggression in Palestine.
A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was quoted earlier as saying that the United States had intelligence that Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah went to Damascus to meet with Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal shortly before Wednesday's operation by Hezbollah fighters in which the two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped, suggesting that the raid was linked to Hamasâ kidnapping of Shalit last month.
However nothing confirms that.
Hamas and Hezbollah have already offered to free the Israeli soldiers, if Israel agreed to release Palestinian and Lebanese detainees it holds.
But the Jewish State rejected the two groups' demands, arguing it âwont negotiate with terroristsâ, using the kidnappings to justify its non-stop terror raids in Gaza and Lebanon which have claimed the lives of scores of civilians and inflicted sever damage on both countriesâ infrastructure.
"It was a well-coordinated operation" between Hezbollah and Hamas, Gideon Meir, a senior Israeli Foreign Ministry official said. "How come it happened in two places simultaneously?"
Another Israeli official expressed a similar opinion, saying: "certainly there was strategic coordination,"
"If Hamas is attacked, then Hezbollah comes to its aid, and vice versa."
"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," Meir added.
Hamas however denied allegations that the two operations were coordinated.
"If they have proof or evidence, they should show the world there is cooperation between Hamas and Hezbollah," Palestinian government spokesman Ghazi Hamad, a member of Hamas, said.
Mr. Hamad moreover rejected the U.S. efforts to link Hezbollah and Hamasâ operations to Iran and Syria, accusing Washington of "trying to convince the world that all these organizations should be put in one basket, and present this as the image of terror to the world."
The U.S. blames anything on Iran and Syria, whether or not it has a proof on that.
"It's not a matter of coordination," said Mahei al-Masri, a Palestinian fruit vendor.
"What's common here are the goals. Hezbollah wants Lebanese and Arab prisoners freed, and Hamas wants the Palestinian prisoners freed."
"The U.S. accuses the Islamic states of everything that happens here," said Marwa al-Haddad, 34, who was shopping at the Friday market in the Beach Refugee Camp along the Gaza City coast.
But the vast majority of Gazans believe that Hezbollah could have launched its operation in an effort to relieve Israeli military pressure on the Palestinians battling the Israeli aggressors in Gaza, which has been relatively quiet since last Thursday.
Palestinians who believe in this theory feel gratitude towards Hezbollah.
They feel relieved to have another ally in the fight against Israel, who receives great and unconditional support from the U.S., whether financially, diplomatically, or militarily.
"I have a question for the Israelis now in shelters," he said. "How do you feel when you see Israeli jets bombing our homes and killing our people? Are they human beings and we're not?"
"We have 9,000 men, children and woman in Israeli prisons, and for three Israeli soldiers the whole world is calling for their release, including the U.N. and G-8. And they're soldiers, not innocent civilians," said Abu Islam, 62, also unemployed and with 12 children.
"The world is not hearing the Palestinian cries. No one listens to the weak."
Source:http://aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=11714