[Candor7]

According to generally accepted principles of International Law. an adjacent state that harbors a force which attacks a neighboring state, is under a duty to prevent it. If it cannot, and in this case, the question becomes: Does Lebanon have the capacity to prevent the cross border illegal military operations of Hezbollah. If Lebanon has that capacity, as an independent state, it has the duty according to law to prevent it. It is acording to international law, a test of statehood status for Lebanon.

If Lebanon refuses to act or cannot, and perhaps in this case it cannot because the UN has usurped Lebanon's duty by virtue of Security resolution 1559. In one months time the UN mandate will end, and Lebanon must expell Hezbollah, or risk loss of its legal status as an independent state internationally. This fact has astounding repercussions for the Saudi's , the French , and the United States. Lebanon has about 30 days to decide what she must do.

Hezbollah is not a state. It is a group of international criminals, supported , aided and abetted by Syria and Iran, which also refuse to recognize the State of Lebanon.

The Syrian position is that Lebanon is up for grabs, land which is contested.As members of the United Nations, they go against the international UN position which recognizes the states of Lebanon, and Israel.

So the question, " Is Israel at War with Lebanon" has two answers, depending on which side of this adversarial fence one rests. But it is important to understand both side so of the question:

1) Israel, from the Western legal point of view , is indeed at war with Lebanon for failing to contain forces hostile to adjacent nation Israel.Israel also is at war with the United Nations which still has a month or so of declaratory interventive duty. For these reasons Israel has ignored protests from Lebanon, and from the UN concerning damages to property and persons as collateral to destroying a criminal force.

Israel is justified by the international law authorizing "Reasonable Hot Pursuit" into Lebanon's territory to neutralize the criminal force as a matter of Self Defense. Israel also has a Causis Belli against Lebanon.( Curiously, the United States has the same potential argument against the State of Mexico on the illegal alien issue.)

2) Israel is at war with Hezbollah from the other point of view of the Islamofascist Axis ( Syria, Iran, Hezbollah),and there is no State of Lebanon. The Islamofascist Axis does not recognize Lebanon as a State and it does not recognize Israel as a State, and so all land withing the contiguous States of Israel and Lebanon is up for grabs.

The interesting point here is whether Israel also considers a part of Lebanon up for grabs, and whether Israel will in the near future take the position that Lebanon is no longer a State since she has no internal control over an aggressive force.( contrary to the imprecations of Condi Rice, President Bush, and the United States)

[ARealMothersSonForever]

Bump for a clearly stated appraisal of the situation! France is in a no-win situation. It will drain their treasury to occupy and rebuild Lebanon. Yet if they do not, it is likely that Syria and Israel will battle over how to carve up the remnants of Lebanon. Either solution will require years, and Hizb will grow in popularity for being the "resistance".