Do you get the feeling that war is ready to break out all over the world, with us in the middle???
granny
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Hezbollah's Palestinian outreach program
Michael Burrows
National Post
July 6, 2005
Many issues were hashed over during the recent Iranian election
campaign
-- including the country's faltering economy, its isolation on the
world
stage and the growing number of young voters disillusioned with the
revolution that brought the Mullahs to power in 1979.
But among the carefully vetted candidates, one subject remained tabboo:
Iran's ongoing efforts to sabotage peace efforts between Israel and the
Palestinians.
It has long been known in intelligence circles that Iran's terrorist
proxy in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah, has been training Palestinian
terror groups, including Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Al-Aqsa Martyr's
Brigades. For years, Yasser Arafat looked the other way at the
infiltration of Hezbollah agents. But now that the PA is headed by
Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinians themselves are complaining about
Hezbollah's presence in the West Bank and Gaza.
Since Israel's strategic withdrawal from Lebanon in May 2000, Hezbollah
has been robbed of its primary adversary and, therefore, its raison
d'etre. Israel's withdrawal to an internationally-recognized border has
also frustrated Hezbollah's masters in Tehran -- who delighted in
fighting a war by proxy against the hated "Zionist Entity."
And so, on instructions from Iran, Hezbollah started a recruiting
campaign, targeting Palestinian militants soon after the outbreak of
the
second Intifada in September, 2000. The first public evidence of Iran's
involvement came to light in January of 2002, when Israeli special
forces executed "Operation Noah's Ark," capturing a 4,000-ton
weapons-laden freighter en route to Gaza from Iran. The Iranian- and
Russian-made weapons on board included Katyusha rockets with a
20-kilometre range, anti-tank missiles, mortars, mines, sniper rifles,
ammunition and more than two tons of high explosives. The interdiction
provided the smoking gun proving Iran's involvement in Palestinian
terror.
Hezbollah's terrorist operations master, and the man tasked with
undermining the nascent peace efforts, is Imad Mughniyah, also known as
Hajj amongst his followers. Mughniyeh, a Lebanese Shiite who first
earned his terrorist spurs as a member of Yasser Arafat's Force 17,
founded Hezbollah as a rival to the Syrian-backed Amal Militia after
the
Palestinians quit Beirut in 1982.
Mughniyeh is responsible for a long list of suicide bombings,
hijackings
and attacks that have cost hundreds of lives, including the bombings
that destroyed a U.S. Marine base and Embassy in Beirut, killing some
300 people. Lacking Osama bin Laden's enormous ego and propensity for
home-made video productions, Mughniyeh has avoided the limelight and
has
no aspirations to appear on Al-Jazeera or CNN.
Mughniyeh is successful because he prefers to pull the strings from the
shadows of Beirut, Damascus and Tehran. He does not venture from these
terrorist sanctuaries because, like bin Laden, he has a place on the
FBI's Most Wanted Terrorists list, as well as a US$5-million price on
his head.
The links between Hezbollah, Iran and the Palestinian terror groups are
based on multiple layers of covert contacts that wind back to the
Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and Pasdaran, the
Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Both these organizations are tasked with providing material support to
terrorist organizations dedicated to fighting Israel, the United States
and other supposed agents of western imperialism. These shadowy
elements
maintain a presence in most of Iran's embassies worldwide and recently
gained media attention in Canada for their involvement in the murder of
photojournalist Zahra Kazemi. According to sources in the Israel
Security Agency, about 50 squads of six to eight gunmen in the West
Bank, most of them affiliated with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, are
directly funded by Hezbollah via Iran.
But Iran's violent, self-serving plans for the Palestinians may be in
jeopardy. According to an Agence France-Presse report, Mr. Abbas has
dispatched a top aide to Lebanon for talks with Hezbollah's leaders.
Abdelfatah Hamayel, who served as a cabinet minister under Abbas during
his time as Palestinian Authority prime minister in 2003, was expected
to urge the Shiite militia to stop funding attacks.
The dispatch of Mr Hamayel is based on the real fear in the Palestinian
camp that Iran will radicalize the conflict with Israel to the point of
no return. Hezbollah is already widely admired amongst the general
Palestinian population. The resulting loss of whatever tenuous control
Mr. Abbas's secular administration possesses will be dealt a fatal
blow,
and the already muted voices of moderation amongst his followers will
be
drowned out for good.
For their part, Western leaders must recognize the significance in the
PA's change of policy and support Mr. Abbas's efforts to prevent Tehran
and its terrorist proxies from derailing the peace negotiations.
Palestinian leaders may sometimes look the other way at terrorism, but
they are at least constrained by the knowledge that they will live with
the consequences. Iran's leaders suffer no such constraints: Their only
interest is bloodshed. And given the result of last week's election,
there seems little chance that will soon change.
C National Post 2005
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