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July 27, 2006

Hizbollahstan: How an Israeli Cindy Sheehan and the Four Mothers movement pushed the Lebanon retreat that plunged Israel into war

From the July 23, 2006 post:

The website of the Four Mothers group, which spearheaded Israel's Lebanon retreat, is a case study in defeatism and denial. The grassroots movement enabled the Israeli government to manipulate public opinion in favor of a retreat from Lebanon.The group's 'peace' efforts set the stage for the attacks which Dr. Daniel Pipes termed "Israel's Unnecessary War". A 2000 article already predicted that "Hizbollahstan" would be the immediate result of Israel's show of perceived weakness.The ignominious abandonment of Lebanon, which was hailed as a victory by Islamists,whetted their appetite for more, and enabled the terrorist group Hezbollah to spread it's influence into Gaza and the West Bank and build up an arsenal of 13,000 missiles on Israel's border Those missiles are now being fired into Israel in an unprecedented assault on Israeli towns and cities...

The decision of then Prime Minister Ehud Barak to withdraw from Lebanon and leave Hezbollah to literally and figuratively take up positions in old Israelis outposts has lead to six years of violence and attacks. A Jerusalem Post article detailing the fighting at Moshav Avivim, one kilometer from the border recounts that:

"... Wednesday was Avivim's worst day so far in the current fighting with Hizbullah and one of the worst days in the history of the long-suffering community.

Earlier in the day, two IDF soldiers were killed and nine wounded in a clash with Hizbullah forces on the Lebanese side of the border. The forces had been sent in to destroy a Hizbullah outpost directly opposite the moshav.

The outpost was originally built by the IDF and abandoned intact after prime minister Ehud Barak ordered a hasty withdrawal from southern Lebanon in 2000..."

Israel's ignominious and suicidal retreat was the direct result of a movement spearheaded by Orna Shimoni, a bereaved mother whose son Lieutenant Eyal Shimoni was killed in Lebanon. His bereaved mother Orna Shimoni became an "Israeli Cindy Sheehan's and became part of a group of 3 other mothers which garnered public and political support for an anti war /Lebanon withdrawal movement.

The sucess of the Four Mothers for pushing for Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon using the public sympathy for bereaved mothers proved to be a death knell for the sons of countless others,and for scores of Israelis now falling victim to the Hezbollah missile attacks which were a direct result of the withdrawal. The deaths of 2 soldiers today at a Hezbollah base in an abandoned Israeli outpost is a case in point. Israel is at war and now is not the time for recriminations, but the Four Mothers movement should be pointed out as a reminder - since the Israeli public is known to have should memories, and might be tempted to work out a deal before Hezbollah has been vanquished.

A press release about the dismantling of the organisation was published in 2000 is a mixture of denial and willful deceit and tragic irony in light of the present war which was a direct result of the Four Mother's initiative. Continue reading at Militant Islam Monitor...

Posted by Richard at July 27, 2006 4:55 PM