Word: hizballah
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Wrath, the Israeli public had not turned against him; but neither had it rallied to him as he established a new reputation as a tough leader. After bashing Lebanon with artillery, missile boats, F-16 jets and helicopter gunships, Israel had not achieved even one of its military objectives. Hizballah, the Iranian-backed militia that has been fighting Israel in Lebanon since 1982, was still sending Katyusha rockets into the Galilee. And despite extensive damage to Lebanon's infrastructure and the death of some 160 civilians, support for the guerrillas was growing in Lebanon. With general elections just four weeks...
...necessarily. Western and Arab observers agree that it is not certain how well Assad controls Hizballah, even though it operates on his turf in Lebanon. The Shi'ite guerrilla force was founded in the early 1980s by radical Iranians. Assad, a secular politician who crushed his homegrown fundamentalists, did not publicly embrace Hizballah; he entrusted relations to his intelligence chiefs. The group has grown less extreme in recent years, sending delegates to the Lebanese parliament, but Hizballah is still closely tied to Tehran and remains as determined as ever to fight Israel. Yet it also seems to pay attention...
...Lebanon stopped Peres and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from agreeing last week to start negotiating next month on a final settlement--Iran or Syria may have been growing uneasy. Some Syrians suspect Iran had concluded that Assad was about to sign a treaty with Israel and cranked up Hizballah to delay the process. Other analysts think Assad is worried about what disruption peace with Israel might bring to Syria's tightly controlled society and has decided to stall...
...Israeli government is in a greater hurry. Despite the Qana debacle, Peres was determined to keep fighting as long as Hizballah continued its rocket salvos. The Israelis still hoped for an agreement shutting down those attacks and giving the Israeli army a freer hand against Hizballah. In return, as part of a peace treaty with Lebanon, Israel would be willing to discuss a pullout back inside Israel's borders if Hizballah were disarmed and no violence had occurred for some specified period...
Perhaps in responding to the Hizballah rockets, Rabin would have acted exactly as Peres has. But at a time when Israel's counterstrikes are being criticized as an election ploy designed to portray Peres as tough, the Prime Minister must work overtime to rebut the idea that he is acting only for political gain--even if that perception is grossly unfair. War heroes like Rabin know (or learn) that a measured response is a luxury most easily enjoyed by the strong--or those seen as strong. Incapable of replicating Rabin's exceptional military credentials, Peres should realize that...