Yesterday Hezbollah’s rockets killed 15 Israelis, mostly soldiers, the deadliest barrage of the Lebanese resistance’s attacks in nearly a month of fighting against the Israeli occupying army.

Three years ago, when a powerful quake hit the Iranian city of Bam, killing 35,000 people, transport planes carrying aid poured in from everywhere, including Syria. Those planes, the Israeli military intelligence alleges, returned to Damascus carrying sophisticated weapons, including long-range Zelzal missiles, which Israel claims Syrians passed on to the Lebanese resistance movement in southern Lebanon, stated a New York Times editorial.

Israel’s claims that those weaponry shipments were passed on to Hezbollah, bitter foe of Israel, “are just one indication of how — with the help of its main sponsors, Iran and Syria”, the Lebanese resistance’s military might and arsenal have majorly improved over the past six years, since Hezbollah forced the Israelis out of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah, a Lebanese umbrella organization of groups and organizations rejecting the Israeli presence in Lebanon and the Middle East, is a significant force in Lebanon’s politics and a major provider of social services, operating schools, hospitals, and agricultural services, for thousands of Lebanese.

The group’s fighters are well trained like an army.

“They are nothing like Hamas or the Palestinians,” admitted a soldier who just returned from Lebanon.

“They are trained and highly qualified”, with flak jackets, night-vision goggles, good communications and sometimes Israeli uniforms and ammunition. “All of us were kind of surprised.”

Hezbollah, known for its close links to Iran and Syria, was founded in 1982 to confront the Israeli army and end its illegitimate presence and occupation of Lebanon.

Hezbollah’s stockpile of what some experts describe as Syrian- and Iranian-made missiles, 3,000 of which have hit Israeli towns, received much attention from the media recently, specially with the great losses inflicted upon the Israelis since the conflict broke last month.

The New York Times put the number of Israelis killed since Lebanon’s offensive began at 48, but officials say they’re over 70.

Also during the past six years, both Tehran and Damascus provided satellite communications and some of the world’s best infantry weapons, including Russian-made antitank weapons and Semtex plastic explosives.

They also provided training on how to use such weapons against the Israelis.

But the credit should be given to Hezbollah’s fighters’ talent and skillful use of such weapons, specially the wire-guided and laser-guided antitank missiles, with double, phased explosive warheads and a range of about two miles.

With Russian-made antitank missiles, capable of penetrating armor, Hezbollah fighters managed to destroy many Israeli vehicles, including its most modern tank, the Merkava, on about 20 percent of their hits, according to Israeli tank commanders at the front.

“They use them like artillery to hit houses,” said Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, until recently the Israeli Army’s director of intelligence analysis.

“They can use them accurately up to even three kilometers, and they go through a wall like through the armor of a tank.”

Hezbollah fighters also use tunnels so as to quickly emerge from the ground, fire a shoulder-held antitank missile, and vanish immediately.

“We know what they have and how they work,” General Kuperwasser said.

“But we don’t know where all the tunnels are. So they can achieve tactical surprise.”

They also use antitank missiles, which Israelis consider their “main fear”, said David Ben-Nun, 24, an enlisted man in the Nahal brigade who just returned from a week in Lebanon.

Although the Israelis admit that Hezbollah’s fighters are few, between 2,000 and 4,000, Timur Goksel, who was the senior political adviser to Unifil, the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, which monitors the border until 2003.

Mr Goskel, who says he knows Hezbollah well and holds true admiration for its commitment and organization, describes its fighters as much as the Israelis do: “careful, patient, attuned to gathering intelligence, scholars of guerrill

a warfare from the American Revolution to Mao and the Vietcong”.

“Hezbollah has studied asymmetrical warfare,” Mr. Goksel said.

“They have staff work and they do long-term planning, something the Palestinians never do,”

“They watch for two months to note every detail of their enemy. They review their operations — what they did wrong, how the enemy responded. And they have flexible tactics, without a large hierarchical command structure.”

“Hezbollah has much better weapons than before,” he said, noting that military confrontation with the Israeli army for 18 years, made Hezbollah fighters “not afraid of the Israeli Army anymore”.

Goskel, speaking during a telephone interview from Beirut, further stated that Hezbollah’s ability to attack Israelis and study their flaws, gave its fighters confidence that the Israeli Army “is a normal human army, with normal vulnerabilities and follies.”

Hezbollah’s tactics focus on trying to draw Israeli ground forces farther into Lebanon, according to Mr. Goksel.

“They want to draw them in to well-prepared battlefields,” like Aita al Shaab.

“They know the Israelis depend too much on armor, which is a prime target for them. And they want Israeli supply lines to lengthen, so they’re easier to hit.”

The Hezbollah fighters “are not just farmers who have been given weapons to fire,” he said. “They are persistent and well trained.”

Hezbollah,the Party of God, emerged in Lebanon in the early 1980s and soon became the region's leading resistance and anti Israeli movement, determined to drive Israeli occupiers out from Lebanon and the Middle East region.

In 2000 the group witnessed one of its main aims being achieved. Hezbollah fighters defeated the well equi

pped Israeli army, forcing it end its two-decade occupation of south Lebanon.

The movement now serves as an inspiration to Palestinian resistance groups fighting to liberate their occupied lands.

http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=12372

 or

Il nous est particulièrement difficile de parler de Tanya au passé. Tanya, qui nous avait fait le grand plaisir de venir inaugurer la librairie Résistances à Paris le 7 décembre dernier, en y donnant une conférence extraordinaire avec son compagnon, le grand poète Aharon Shabtai. Tanya, qui a été de tous les combats contre la colonisation et l’occupation de la Palestine, et qui a été l’une des analystes les plus lucides de la politique criminelle du gouvernement de son pays.

Tanya Reinhart aurait pu se contenter d’être une brillante linguiste et de parfaire sa carrière universitaire en Israël. Mais elle a fait le choix de dénoncer, de résister aux pressions. Dans sa tribune bi-mensuelle dans le quotidien israélien Yediot Ahronot, comme dans ses livres, "Détruire la Palestine" et "L’héritage de Sharon", elle a brossé un tableau sans concession de la terrible situation créée par les dirigeants de son pays, avec une faculté d’anticipation rare.

"Détruire la Palestine" (Editions La Fabrique) est une description magistrale de l’ensemble des stratagèmes utilisés depuis toujours par les dirigeants israéliens pour ne pas s’engager dans un véritable processus de paix, et pour faire croire que la responsabilité en incombe aux Palestiniens. Tanya Reinhart décortique notamment les 7 ans que durèrent les "accords d’Oslo" et montre la distorsion entre ce qui fut présentée comme "l’offre généreuse" de Ehoud Barak, et la réalité. C’est à dire à la fois le resserrement de l’étau autour des Palestiniens dans le même temps (entre 1993 et 2000), et les "propositions" totalement inacceptables des Israéliens, car ne permettant aucune viabilité pour un Etat palestinien qui se serait retrouvé morcelé, sans continuité territoriale, et privé de Jérusalem Est.

Plus récemment, Tanya Reinhart fut la première à dénoncer la "poudre aux yeux" que constituait l’annonce du "désengagement" de la Bande de Gaza par Sharon, auquel elle n’a jamais cru. "Derrière l’écran de fumée du ’retrait’ de Gaza se profile le transfert des Palestiniens", écrivait-elle, tandis que nos gouvernants saluaient le "grand homme de paix".

Tanya fut également l’une des rares opposantes israéliennes à soutenir le boycott des institutions de son pays, notamment universitaires. "Nous cesserons de redouter le boycott quand nous respecterons le droit international", répondait-elle non seulement à l’establishment israélien, mais aussi à cette "gauche" israélienne timorée, soi-disant pacifiste, qui accepte l’impunité dont jouissent l’Etat d’Israël et l’ensemble de ses institutions. Tanya Reinhart n’hésita pas à apporter son soutien à l’université Paris 6, lors du vote par son conseil d’administration, en 2003, de la suspension de ses relations privilégiées avec les universités israéliennes.

Lors de sa dernière conférence en France, le 7 décembre dernier à la librairie Résistances, elle dénonça violemment l’embargo imposé au peuple palestinien, expliquant que les pays européens, dont la France où nous nous trouvions, n’avaient pas le droit de couper ainsi les vivres aux Palestiniens. "Ce n’est pas un acte de générosité que l’Europe aurait la faculté de poursuivre ou pas, expliquait-elle. C’est un choix qui a été fait de se substituer aux obligations de l’occupant israélien auquel le droit international impose de veiller au bien-être des populations occupées. L’Europe a choisi de ne pas obliger Israël à respecter ses obligations, et a préféré verser de l’argent aux Palestiniens. En cessant de la faire, elle viole le droit international".

Fatiguée, Tanya s’était "excusée" de ne plus avoir la force de rester en Israël où, indiquait-elle, la répression physique contre les vrais opposants, était devenue de plus en plus brutale. Elle avait donc décidé d’aller enseigner aux Etats-Unis et venait de s’installer à New York.

Cette femme merveilleuse, que nous avions eu la joie d’accueillir lors de plusieurs de nos meetings et concerts, va terriblement nous manquer. Nous exprimons toute notre douleur et notre sympathie à son compagnon, Aharon Shabaï, un homme de grand coeur et de talent.

MARDI 27 MARS à partir de 19 H : soirée en hommage à Tanya Reinhart

En présence de différents intervenants, nous évoquerons l’action de Tanya Reinhart, sa contribution essentielle à la compréhension de la situation au Proche-Orient et de ses conséquence pour l’humanité toute entière.

Librairie Résistances  : 4 Villa Compoint. 75O17 Paris. M° Guy Môquet ou Brochant. http://www.librairie-resistances.com

CAPJPO-EuroPalestine

English text (translated by Robert Thompson)

We are going to miss Tanya Reinhart terribly badly.

We were staggered to learn of the sudden death of our friend Tanya Reinhart, yesterday in New York (she had a stroke). Words fail us because we are so stricken by the loss of our friend, of this great lady, of this indefatigable militant against the policy of the Israeli government towards the Palestinians, of this warm woman who never stopped denouncing injustice and lies, through her articles, her books, and her actions.

Ii is particularly difficult for us to speak of Tanya in the past tense. Tanya, who gave us so much pleasure when she came to the opening of the Résistances book-shop in Paris on 7th December last, when she gave an extraordinary address with her companion, the great poet Aharon Shabtai. Tanya, who took part in all the battles against the colonisation and the occupation of Palestine, and who was one of the most lucid analysts of the criminal policy of her government.

Tanya Reinhart could have been content to be a brilliant linguist and to perfect her university career in Israel. But she made the choice of denouncing and resisting pressures. In her weekly column in the Israeli daily Yediot Ahoronot, as in her books, "Destroy Palestine" and "Sharon’s heritage", she systematically painted a picture which made no concession to the terrible situation created by the rulers of her country, with a rare faculty for anticipating the future.

"Destroy Palestine" (in French "Détruire la Palestine" published by the Editions La Fabrique) is a masterly description of all the stratagems always used by the Israeli rulers to avoid engagement in a genuine peace process, and to make believe that this was the sole fault of the Palestinians. Tanya Reinhart especially examined in detail the 7 years during which the "Olso agreement" lasted and showed the contrast between what was presented as being the "generous offer" of Ehud Barak, and its reality. This was to show how the vice was being closed around the Palestinians during the same period (between 1993 and 2000), and the totally inacceptable "proposals" put forward by the Israelis, since they allowed for no viable Palestinian state which would instead find itself in pockets, without territorial continuity, and deprived of East Jerusalem.

More recently, Tanya Reinhart was the first to denounce the "red herring" of the announcement by Sharon of the withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, in which she never believed. "Behind the smokescreen of the ’withdrawal’ from Gaza can be seen the transfer of the Palestinians", she wrote, while our rulers praised the "great man of peace".

Tanya was also one of the rare Israeli opposition personalities to support the boycott of her country’s institutions, especially the Universities. "We shall stop having to worry about the boycott when we respect international law", she replied not only to the Israeli establishment, but also to that timid, supposedly pacifist, Israeli "left-wing" which accepted the impunity from which the state of Israel and all its institutions benefitted. Tanya Reinhart did not hesitate to give her support to the Paris 6 University, when its Administrative Council, in 2003, voted to surpend its special relations with Israeli Universities.

During her last lecture in France, on 7th December last at the Résistances book-shop, she violently denounced the embargo imposed on the Palestinian people, explaining that the European countries, including France in which we live, had no right to cut off food supplies from the Palestinians. "It was not an act of generosity which Europe could either carry on or not", she explained. "It was a choice which had been made to take on the obligations imposed by international law on the Israeli occupier to see to the well-being of the occupied populations. Europe chose not to oblige Israel to respect its obligations, and preferred to pay money to the Palestinians. When it put an end to this, it breached international law".

Tired out, Tanya "apologised" for not having the strength to remain in Israel where, she let it be known, physical repression against genuine opponents had become more and more brutal. She had therefore decided to go to teach in the United States and had just settled in New York.

This marvellous woman, whom we had the joy of welcoming to several of our meetings and concerts, is going to be terribly badly missed by us. We express all our sadness and our sympathy to her companion, Aharon Shabaï, a man with a great heart and talent.

We’ll organize an evening in her honour in Paris, at the Bookshop "Librairie Résistances" on the 27th of March, from 7 pm.

CAPJPO-EuroPalestine

© APGraphicsBank" href="http://www.amnesty.org/sites/impact.amnesty.org/files/PUBLIC/Regions/MENA/gaza-child-flag-560x400.jpg" rel=lightbox[gallery]>

Palestinian children protest against Israeli airstrikes, Gaza City

© APGraphicsBank

3 March 2008