Quote de revstriker
I think it's smart that Israel doesn't believe Bashar al-Assad. After all, he offers ZERO proof, and ZERO incentive for Israel to give up this strategically important piece of land.
Zero incentive?? I don't call full recognition and peace "ZERO incentive."
Quote de revstriker
Hassan Ezzedin, the leader of Hezbollah who said "If they go from Sheba'a, we will not stop fighting them. Our goal is to liberate the 1948 borders of Palestine...
First, Hassan Ezzedin is a spokesperson and not the leader. Second, that statement backs Mr. Robert Pape's conclusion that this conflict is solely over land disputes.
Quote de revstriker
And to what country the Shebaa Farms area actually belongs to (Syria vs. Lebanon) is certainly not solved by the deeds.
According to Israeli scholar Asher Kaufman, French mandatory records clearly show the Shebaa Farms as Lebanese in the 1920s and 1930s, but sloppy border delineations permitted Syria to encroach on the territory over the following decades. By 1967, the Farms were under de facto Syrian control; thus when Israel invaded, it seized the land from Syria.
Despite the ongoing territorial dispute over the Farms, the nationality of the area’s residents has never been questioned. Since the days of the mandate, the owners and residents of the 14 farms have all been legally Lebanese. Likewise, the town of Shebaa, from which the farms derive their name, is universally accepted as part of Lebanon.
In addition to self-identifying as Lebanese, the Farms’ residents insist that their land has been Lebanese for generations. Since at least the 1950s, taxes collected in the area were paid to the Lebanese government, and a large amount of documentary evidence dating as far back as the 1930s places the farms legally under Lebanese jurisdiction. This evidence includes bills of sale, title deeds, and even documents from Syrian customs agencies - proof that this designation was not a unilateral Lebanese move.
At the time of the Israeli withdrawal in 2000, the international community acknowledged that there was ambiguity over the nationality of the Shebaa Farms.
On 28 November 2005, a step was made in this direction at the Euro-Mediterranean Summit in Barcelona, during which Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa announced plans to officially concede the Farms to Lebanon.
No actions have followed his announcement, and though some believe that a diplomatic solution may yet conclusively end Israeli occupation of Lebanese land, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in an interview with the Times on 3 August 2006, poured cold water on this prospect. Asked about whether the Farms would form part of a deal to end the Israeli-Lebanese conflict, he responded: "As far as I am concerned it is entirely off the table."
Quote de revstriker
Every other map shows the land as being part of Syria including Lebanese Army Maps from the 1960s.
Regardless of who technically owns this land, the fact still remains that Hezbollah's objective is to remove Israel from Sheeba Farms, and Golan Heights Area. Again this is a land dispute.
Quote de revstriker
And the UN has agreed with Israel in that this area is not covered by resolution 425.
Lebanon disputs Israel's compliance with UN Resolution 425. Lebanon claims that the Shebaa farms area was actually Lebanese, and that the Israelis should therefore withdraw from there as well. Lebanon asserts that the UN certification of the Israeli withdrawal was "invalid," because of Lebanon's claim to the Shebaa Farms.
Quote de revstriker
So let's see if I understand all this...... Israel gives up control of a strategic piece of land, and for it they get.... what?
What they got was two governments telling Israel that the land disputes are not settled and they will continue to resist Israel's occupation of land until these land disputes are settled.
:
.
