Word: hizballah
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...current political battle for Lebanon, the Serail has become a garrison once again, under siege by an angry army of opposition supporters camped out in white refugee tents in the squares of central Beirut. On Sunday, with hundreds of thousands of demonstrators answering Hizballah and its allies' call for reinvigorated protests to topple the government, the Lebanese Army lined the causeways leading to the Serail with razor-wire barricades and tank columns, while riot police in full black battle armor guarded the citadel's gates...
...Since their last bout ended in August, both Israel and Hizballah have been gearing up for a possible Round 2. Israeli, Arab and Lebanese sources hostile to Hizballah told TIME that the organization has been busy restocking its arsenal with help from Iran and Syria. Hizballah has taken delivery of Syrian-made Katyusha missiles with a range of almost 60 miles, able to strike the Israeli port of Haifa and maybe the northern outskirts of Tel Aviv. The Israeli military estimates that Hizballah's arsenal now has over 20,000 short-range missiles and hundreds of medium-range ones. This...
...Hizballah officials in Beirut say the movement has no intention of starting a new brawl with Israel. They say a new war would most likely be sparked by Israel launching a preemptive strike against Hizballah defenses, or by targeting its leaders. Nasrallah is still in hiding to avoid a possible Israeli attack, although Israel's willingness to kill him seems lately to have dimmed, according to Western diplomats in Beirut...
...Meanwhile, to replace the hundreds of fighters fallen in the last conflict, Hizballah is recruiting eager new volunteers; the best of them are heading to Iran for further war training, according to Israeli sources and Western diplomats in Beirut. Hizballah leaders are also trying to figure out how to do a better job of hiding their long-range missiles; nearly all of their last supply was destroyed by Israeli aircraft in the opening days...
...irony, of course, is that Israel set out to destroy Hizballah last summer and ended up making its leader, Nasrallah, only stronger. In Beirut, Lebanese politicians fret that it's only because Hizballah came out of the war with Israel relatively unscathed that Nasrallah is attempting his current power play of bringing down the Siniora government. Given the current tumult in the Middle East, the outcome of a second fight to the finish for Israel could prove even more unpredictable - and possibly disastrous...