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Israel tries to block military aid to Lebanon
By Patrick Galey
Daily Star staff
BEIRUT: Israel has launched a diplomatic campaign aimed at countries providing military assistance to Lebanon, warning that any weapons or equipment given to Beirut will end up in
Hizbullah’s hands, according to Israeli media. The Jerusalem Post, citing Israeli government sources, reported on Monday that Tel Aviv is calling on the international community to rethink supporting the Lebanese Army.
“The
position Israel is trying to impress on countries that support Lebanon is that the Lebanese Army and Hizbullah are virtually indistinguishable,” the paper wrote.
It reported that Israeli concerns are likely to be raised
this week during a visit from US National Security Adviser James Jones. Talks will touch on Israel’s refusal to accept the Lebanese Cabinet statement’s article six, which legitimizes the presence of a resistance to Israeli
aggression in Lebanon, it added.
“There has been a great deal of concern here,” the paper quoted one official as saying over the resistance issue.
The campaign comes at a time when the US is considering providing
Lebanon with support across a wide variety of security, development and reform projects. In talks with Lebanese President Michel Sleiman last weekend, the defeated US presidential candidate John McCain reiterated the US’s
“commitment to supporting a strong, independent, and democratic Lebanon.”
Sleiman himself asked Washington in December for greater military assistance.
Simon Haddad, political science professor at Notre Dame
University, said that weapons provided by the US would not reach Hizbullah.
“I don’t think that Hizbullah is in need of weapons; they have enough weapons that they can use in future confrontations with Israel,” he said.
Retired Army General Elias Hanna said that the type of support Lebanon received from the US should not concern officials south of the Blue Line, as it was not of use to Hizbullah.
“The US won’t provide Lebanon with
anything that will change the balance of power,” he said. “Maybe Israel doesn’t want to add more complexities to its own situation. But this weaponry will not complicate the situation, because what the Americans give will be
conventional weapons.”
Since 2005, the US has pledged to provide Lebanon with more than $500 million worth of military support to aid the capacities of its security forces, assist counterterrorism operations and work to
prevent arms flowing into the country through its porous border with Syria, according to the US Congressional Research Service. This pales in comparison to the near $3 billion the US provides Israel’s military with annually.
The US State Department has said that military aid to Lebanon would, among other developments, “promote Lebanese control over southern Lebanon and Palestinian refugee camps to prevent them from being used as
bases to attack Israel.” But political wrangling has delayed much of the US’ promised military support from reaching Lebanon.
“It’s true that the US is reluctant to provide Lebanon with certain things,” said Haddad, who
added that the Lebanese Army command was likely to ask for an increase in US military provisions in the near future.
“[Israel] is afraid of any anti-aircraft missiles being provided to the Lebanese because this could change
the status quo, but this is not the current issue,” he said. “The US is not willing to invest militarily in Lebanon, so in any case they would not [provide such weaponry].”
Haddad added that the US could be worried by
Israeli warnings of weapons falling into the wrong hands.
“The US would like to inquire more about the use of this [military equipment],” he added. “They need assurances.”
Haddad said that irrespective of the
military reality, “Israel’s arguments could be used to stop US support [for Lebanon].”
Israel has repeatedly said that it will not accept Hizbullah as a member of Lebanon’s Cabinet and periodically warns that all of Lebanon
will be held accountable if it is attacked by the group from positions in the south.
Hanna said that Hizbullah’s aims and those of the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) were different, as was the military equipment both
sought to obtain.
“Hizbullah does not need the LAF, the LAF is totally different from an ideological approach and practical capability,” he said.
Israel’s reported diplomatic offensive seeking to diminish military
assistance to Lebanon in fear of strengthening Hizbullah was unfounded, according to Hanna, who said that US funding was aimed at “local stability, as the Americans will not give us advanced weapons.”
“All they want is to
make the LAF capable enough to implement Resolution 1701 and keep us from falling as a proxy of Iran,” he said.
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