In an Op-Ed that was published in the Christian Science Monitor on August 1, 2006, “Hizbullah’s attacks stem from Israeli incursions into Lebanon,” Anders Strindberg turns truth on its head by blaming Israel for the current situation while exonerating Hizballah and Hamas, groups designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Israel. He echoes the terrorists’ propaganda both in his underlying premise that Israel’s very existence is invalid and in his unsubstantiated allegations and misrepresentations against the Jewish State.
Strindberg alleges Israel’s occupation of “Lebanon’s Shebaa Farms area,” its daily “violations” of the blue line, its “terrorizing” of Lebanese civilians and its “assassinations” within Lebanon, as the reasons for Hizbullah’s actions on July 12.
In fact, the United Nations Security Council confirmed that the Shebaa Farms was not part of Lebanon and that Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 was complete, in compliance with UN Security Council resolutions 425. UN Security Resolution 1585 (2005) reaffirmed this, the background notes emphasizing that “the continually asserted position of the Government of Lebanon that the Blue Line is not valid in the Shab’a farms area is not compatible with Security Council resolutions.”
Neither does Strindberg provide any evidence for his other allegations save one example of a 15-year-old Lebanese shepherd supposedly “killed by unprovoked Israeli cross-border fire as he tended his flock in southern Lebanon.” However, this story, used as a pretext by Hizbullah leader Nasrallah to attack soldiers in Israel with rockets, was in fact disputed. According to Nasrallah, the person shot was an unarmed shepherd. According to Israel, he was an armed man with binoculars who had crossed the U.N.-demarcated border and opened fire at the soldiers.
Where Strindberg departs from the terrorist groups’ rhetoric is in his insistence that they are not “driven by a desire to ‘wipe out Jews'”. Hizbullah leader Nasrallah was quoted in Lebanon’s Daily Star on Oct 23, 2002 saying, “If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” And the Hamas Covenant or Charter spells out its mission clearly:
…our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave, so much so that it will need all the loyal efforts we can wield, to be followed by further steps and reinforced by successive battalions from the multifarious Arab and Islamic world, until the enemies are defeated and Allah’s victory prevails. (Hamas Charter, Introduction)
Strindberg may label the popular explanation of events in Lebanon “pure analytical nonsense” and try to justify Hizbullah and Hamas’ goals, but the facts speak otherwise.