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| Lebanon |
July 25, 2006 |
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Dear Friends,
The first time I went to Israel was in the spring of 1983. I was a Lieutenant in the Air Force and, during a break at graduate school, I flew to Israel with a friend and traveled the country in a rented car. Nine months earlier, Israel had moved into southern Lebanon to stop the attacks on northern Israeli communities by PLO rockets fired from across the border.
I`ve been back to Israel since then, but that first trip remains the most memorable. We went to the Israeli-Lebanese border and drove all along the northern border of Israel, up into the Golan Heights to the border of Syria. For Americans used to the vastness of a continent, you quickly understand how small Israel really is and how vulnerable its borders are.
Israel completely withdrew from Lebanon in 2000. But Hezbollah, a radical Islamic Shiite group, continued to operate in southern Lebanon beyond the authority of the weak central government in Beirut. Hezbollah was supported and armed by Iran and Syria and has always been closely aligned with Iran. It is believed to be responsible for over 200 terrorist attacks since 1982 including the suicide bombing that killed over 200 Marines at their barracks in Beirut and the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Argentina.
On July 12th, after months of harassing rocket fire, Hezbollah crossed the border with Israel killed 8 soldiers and kidnapped two others and fired a rocket into the city of Haifa.
Last Sunday afternoon, I met with the Israeli Consul General who was visiting Albuquerque. Several of my colleagues on the Intelligence Committee carried the same message to the Middle East this weekend as I delivered to him.
Israel has a right to defend itself. The cause of the current violence was Hezbollah`s attack from Lebanese territory. While we support Israel`s right to defend itself, we continue to encourage the Israeli government to take the greatest possible care to avoid harming innocent civilians.
I also urged the Israeli government to respond positively to the proposal of the United States and others to open humanitarian corridors into Lebanon to allow the international community to deliver assistance to the Lebanese people. Israel`s quarrel is with Hezbollah, not with the Lebanese people.
We must work with other nations to strengthen the young democracy of Lebanon and implement UN Security Council Resolution 1559 so that Hezbollah no longer threatens Israel or continues to destabilize the region. That may involve a multinational force in southern Lebanon before the central Lebanese government is ready to assume full responsibility in its southern territory.
We must recognize what is at stake here. Hezbollah is a terrorist organization funded and supported by Iran and Syria. Hezbollah threatens not only Israel, but the stability of other Arab states in the region, including Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. We must work with these states and our other allies to find a sustainable path forward.
Israel is one of America`s closest allies in a very dangerous neighborhood of the world. We must continue to work with them to combat terrorism worldwide.
Wish you were here,
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