After the 1948 Arab-Israeli conflict, Lebanon became home to more than 110,000 Palestinian refugees from their homes in present day Israel
By 1975, they numbered more than 300,000, effectively creating an unofficial state-within-a-state in South Lebanon

'Hezbollah was conceived in 1982 by a group of clerics after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. It was formed primarily to offer resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Inspired by the success of the Iranian Revolution, the party also dreamt of transforming Lebanon's multi-confessional state into an Iranian-style Islamic state. Although this idea was abandoned and the party today is a well-structured political organisation with members of parliament.'

From the BBC News site a few days ago

Six countries officially list Hezbollah or its security arm as a terrorist organization: the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel, Canada, the Netherlands, and Australia, though its designation as such is not unanimous.


However my contributions to this discussion have not been about the Lebanese situation or Hezbollah but rather about the appalling conditions behind the Apartheid Wall in Gaza which remain undisputed facts.

In the January 25 2006 democratic elections in Gaza Hamas won a landslide victory.

Although in the media Hamas tends to be identified with its military arm, Izzeddin al-Qassam, which is well known for its suicide attacks against Israeli targets, the organization's popularity in the Occupied Territories actually stems from its being seen as the voice of Palestinian dignity and the symbol of the defence of Palestinian rights at a time of unprecedented hardship, humiliation, and despair.

Most importantly, perhaps, Hamas acquired much of its political credit from its charity and social service networks. It built kindergartens and schools (that offer free meals for children), education centres for women, and youth and sports clubs. Its medical clinics provide subsidized treatment to the sick and the organization extends financial and technical assistance to those whose homes had been demolished as well as to refugees living in sub-standard conditions

In other words, Hamas was elected not only because it is considered an alternative to the corrupt Palestinian Authority, but also because Israel created the conditions that made it an indispensable social movement.

The claim that Hamasís popularity results from its social welfare network conceals the fact that Israel has produced a situation where there is desperate need for charity institutions. Accordingly, Israeli efforts to undermine the Palestinian Authority alongside its success in destroying the infrastructure of existence in the Occupied Territories has not only made Palestinian life miserable, but has empowered its most lethal adversary, the Hamas.

Starving Gaza while the Ramallah-based West Bank authority receives financial and political backing from Israel and its allies in the west has failed to shift Palestinian opinion in favour of President Mahmud Abbas and his prime minister, Salam Fayyad.

So, rather than heed the advice of the experts and fulfil the wish of his own public,(a poll published in the Israeli daily Ha'aretz in March this year suggested that 64% of Israelis favoured a negotiated truce with Hamas) Olmert has decided to go to war with the Gaza Strip


In February Isreali deputy defence minister Matan Vilna has threatened Gaza with "they will bring upon themselves a bigger 'shoah'* because we will use all our might to defend ourselves"

*the word "shoah" is rarely used in Israel beyond discussions of the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews

Remove the causes of violent protest and it may be possible to remove violent protest too.