Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Abu Ghait met secretly with Hizballah leaders in Beirut last week, DEBKA file’s counter-terror sources report, and invited a delegation to pay a formal visit to Cairo. The pro-Iranian Hizballah is listed by the UN and many nations as a terrorist organization.

This is a stab in the back for Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, defense minister Ehud Barak and his political adviser, Amos Gilead and their policy of heavy reliance on Egyptian mediation for holding down Hamas aggression from the Gaza Strip and securing the release of the kidnapped Israeli soldier Gilead Shalit.

The invitation was tendered without referring to Israel or even informing Barak when he met Hosni Mubarak only last week in Alexandria. Later he declared the Gaza ceasefire Israel accepted had proved successful, clearly ignorant of the Egyptian ruler’s machinations behind Israel’s back.

Egypt has therefore empowered Hizballah with a role alongside Hamas in Gaza Strip affairs and thrown its own weight behind the most radical Palestinian camp versus Israel.

For Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah, who has declared all-out war on Israel, this is a major strategic boost. The leading Arab nation has recognized Hizballah’s leader as a legitimate force in and outside Lebanon, allowing him to go on flouting UN resolutions demanding the disbanding of his terrorist militia and acting as Iran’s proxy arm against Israel.

DEBKAfile’s military sources cite members of Israel’s high command as taking the view that Egypt’s acceptance of Hizballah ties in directly with the establishment of a Hamas-Jihad-Islami-Hizballah situation room in Gaza City and Beirut to run the war campaign against Israel, which was first revealed by DEBKAfile on Sept. 1.

Israel will not accept deployment of advanced anti-aircraft systems by Hizbullah

Ron Ben-Yishai
Part 1 of security assessment
Security and intelligence chiefs are expected to present a discouraging assessment at the cabinet meeting Wednesday. In recent months, Hizbullah has been able to establish a military presence north and south of the Litani River that is already prepared to a large extent to fire rockets and missiles on northern and central Israel – while at the same time hindering the IDF ground forces who would enter Lebanon to curb the fire.

In principle, Hizbullah’s rockets and missiles (estimated at 40,000) are found on both sides of the Litani. Yet the heavy arsenal, made up of several hundred rockets with warheads weighing hundreds of kilograms and featuring a range of up to 250 kilometers (roughly 160 miles) is found underground north of the Litani and is well-fortified in land bought by Hizbullah. In south Lebanon, the group established a fortified underground system that would be used to fight the IDF armored corps and infantry troops that advance towards the rocket arsenal north of the Litani. Meanwhile, the logistical and training center of Hizbullah, which has been boosted with thousands of new fighters, is in the Beqaa Valley region in Lebanon.

Yet the most worrisome development has to do with a new component that Hizbullah is attempting to set up in Lebanon with Syrian assistance. We are talking about an anti-aircraft system that is aimed at limiting Israel’s ability to gather intelligence above Lebanon, and later make it more difficult for the Israeli Air Force to strike in Lebanon and Syria. Should Iran, Syria, and Hizbullah be able to establish a massive anti-aircraft system in Lebanon, this will fundamentally change the strategic balance of power.

Hizbullah already possesses old models of anti-aircraft missiles and cannons; our Air Force has an answer for them. Some of them have already been deployed in the Second Lebanon War. Yet what the Syrians and Iranians may give Hizbullah at this time poses a different danger and is of a different scope than anything we have known so far (it should be noted these weapons have not yet been received by Hizbullah.) In fact, this system is supposed to provide aerial defense to the entire Syrian-Iranian rocket and missile arsenal in Lebanon and western Syria. Israel cannot reconcile itself to such development alongside Hizbullah’s rocket arsenal and ground fortifications.

Therefore, Jerusalem has embarked on a diplomatic-PR offensive in Europe and in the United States under the leadership of the army chief and defense minister, who recently visited Washington. Meanwhile, Olmert spoke about this with Sarkozy in Europe. The message to Syria, which is also being conveyed via Wednesday’s cabinet meeting and through other means, some of them clandestine, is as follows: Israel would not accept the establishment of an advanced anti-aircraft system in Lebanon; should it be set up, Israel will not hesitate to act against it.

Israel is also warning Lebanon against granting Hizbullah the freedom to act, in light of the latest government decision in Beirut that in fact defines Hizbullah as part of the national army. And the third issue: A warning to Hizbullah to refrain from carrying out acts of revenge for the killing of Imad Mugniyah; such acts would meet a “disproportional response.” The Israeli government is attempting to convey all these messages at this time to Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and the international community. Israeli officials hope that exposing the Syria-Hizbullah intentions will deter Damascus and Tehran and stop them from implementing their plans in Lebanon.

Lebanese unity government authorizes policy draft affirming right of ‘the resistance’ to liberate territories under Israeli control. Pleased with achievement, veto-wielding Hizbullah already sets sights on new goal – ending IAF sorties

Roee Nahmias
08.05.08, 02:15 / Israel News

The Lebanese unity government unanimously approved the draft of its future policy statement, voting in favor of allowing Hizbullah to retain its weapons arsenal and continue its campaign to “liberate all its
territories” – i.e. the Shebaa farms and the village of Ghajar.
The position paper will now be brought before the Lebanese Parliament for its vote of confidence.
In recent days Hizbullah has drawn attention to its newly focused efforts on ending Israeli Air Force sorties over Lebanon.

The clause in question was the main point of contention between the country’s political factions as they sought to draft the policy proposal. Section 24 of the draft now assures the “right of Lebanon’s people, the army and the resistance to liberate all its territories.”

Many officials in the anti-Syrian, pro-Western bloc had argued that statement should not include the word ”resistance” and that it should make ”liberating the occupied lands” solely the national army’s responsibility. But Hizbullah and its allies strongly opposed those demands.

Hizbullah said it was satisfied with the decision: “The government’s decision proves that the resistance, which won in July 2006, and completed its victory in Operation Radwan (the prisoner-exchange deal with Israel), and is now going from victory to victory,” said Lebanese MP for Hizbullah, Hassan Haballah.
Information Minister Tareq Mitri said that four ministers had expressed reservations over the clause related to “resistance against Israel.”