I'll be honest. I don't know much about what's happening with Lebanon. Can someone give me an overview?

Question

I'm completely ignorant when it comes to news and current events. I sometimes watch the news and try to read the paper, but (I feel embarassed saying this) I find it hard to understand at times. I have an eighth grade education. But I want to try and get into current events. Can anyone tell me what is going on with Lebanon and Israel please?

Duck, I already said that I have been doing that. I am wondering if someone could tell me in plain english what's going on.

Answer 1

Here is the cliffnotes version:

Israel is bombing Lebanon to the dark ages because citizens of Lebanon (and they might not even all be citizens, just random people in Lebanon) known as Hezbollah kidnapped 2 (yeah just two) Israeli soldiers.

Why Hezbollah kidnapped the soldiers is not completely clear, but they have been fighting against Israel ever since the Arab nations lost the 7 Days War.

The 7 Days War was a war fought shortly after Israel was created. The Arab nations attempted to retake land that was stolen by the western nations. They summarily got their butts handed to them because Israel was backed by the US and friends. In this conflict Israel took more land from the surrounding nations.

Israel was created out of Palestine after WW II in part because of massive guilt on the part of the western countries for not realizing what Hitler was doing in the Holocaust. Another, less talked about reason, was that most European nations didn't really want the Jews around anyway.

Going back further there has always been animosity between the two cultures (Hebrew and Arab) even into Biblical times (BCE).

Answer 2

June/July: Gaza militants dug a long tunnel and ambushed an Israeli unit that was guarding the border. They killed a few Israeli soldiers and kidnapped one.

Israel invades Gaza strip again to rescue soldier.

Early-Mid July: Hezbollah terrorists dug a long tunnel and ambush an Israeli unit on the Israel/Lebanon border. They kill a few soldiers and kidnap two soldiers.

Israel proceeds to whoop their *** for doing so, enforce the UN resolution calling for the disarmament of Hezbollah, and rescue their soldiers.

I don't believe they have rescued any soldiers as of yet, and quite a few soldiers have been KIA.



You also need to know this...Israel has been attacked by all of the arab countries combined, and guess who won? Israel. They won't lose this, it might take time to disarm the terrorist group, but they won't lose.

Answer 3

Okay do you remember the civil war? U know the north wanted freedom the south wanted slavery. Its something like that someone kidnapped 2 people from lebanon and they want their people back. And with all the change going on over there its one side thats happy and the other side is pissed

Answer 4

Isreal has been ocuping Leabanon for years. leabanon kicked them out but they stay close by at they borders that even have blimps over the country.Isreal has captured thousands of people from hezbullah. So Hezbullah captured 2 of isreals soldiers in exchange for the thousands that have been in isreals prinsonns for years. And now they r in a war

Answer 5

hessballa kidnapped two soldiers to exchange them with there people in Israel prisons, but it turned really bad Israel refused the exchange & hessballa by its turn refused any other solution but exchange, & the war started inncent die every day just to get those soldiers back without exchange, non of them wanna stop & accept the other terms cos thats politics every body think the right is with them

Answer 6

You want my advice?
Don't read any of the written answers. Each one will defend his own ideas and offend others. Try to know it yourself from any straight media.

Answer 7

Lebanon is going to die.

Answer 8

I live in Israel so I'll give you my side of the story.
In 1982 Israel invaded Lebanon terretory in response to terrorist attacks on the state of Israel from within Lebanon. This operation which was named "Peace of Galilai" was meant to deal with huge pockets of Palestenian terrorist camps which arose on Lebanese soil and where encouraged, trained and funded by Syria. This was Syria's way of showing Israel that it can still cause a lot of trouble without actually having to engage Israeli forces itself.
The Israeli operation which was supposed to last a short time quickly snow-balled into a long engagment in which Israel advanced deep into the Lebanese soil, despite it's earlier intentions. Officially it ended in a siege of Beirut (the capital of Lebanon) and a cease-fire was declared which included for some unknown reason, us (Israel) allowing Araft (the late head of the PLO and a well known terrorist) to withdraw. Israel set-up a security zone, inside Lebanon, along Israel's northern border in an attempt to prevent terrorists from firing at Israeli settlements. The Lebanese, encouraged by Syria, naturally saw this as an unjustified military occuption of their sovreign state and thus Hizballah - "The party of god" was formed as a freedom fighter group. Make no mistake the so called "freedom fighters" are terrorists, backed by Syria, which comiited attrocities against Israeli citizens as well as citizens of their own country. They are a fundamental group, which is comprised of a religious minority in Lebanon. Still the Hizballah commited attacks both against the occupying Israeli army in Lebanon and Israeli citizens in Israel. In the year 2000 (the year I was discharged from the IDF- the israeli army), Israel withdrew it's forces from Lebanon, due to an increasing demand from the Israeli people, that did not like their soldiers dieing in Lebanon. This was recognized by the UN as a total withdrawl from Lebanese soil, however Hizballah continued to claim that Israeil must withdraw further! At that time the Palastinian people who are also under occupation of the Israeli army started making trouble inside Israel, and Hizballah took the opportunity and kidnapped 3 Israeli soldiers (it later turned out to be 3 corpses of soldiers) unprovoked from inside Israel, and an Israeli citizen (it later turned out that he was a drug dealer) from abroad. The Israeli government did not react to this and instead negogiated their release. We got back 3 corpses and a drug dealer in exchange for hundreds of convicted terrorists, some of which actually commited murder.
Today 2006, the palastinians commited an attack on Israeli forces surrounding the Gaza strip, which was recently evacuated by the Israelis in a unilateral move by Israel. During the attack an Israeli soldier was kidnapped and is still held in the Gaza strip, which used to be Israeli terretory, but was returned to the Palastinain autonomy last summer.
Israeli responded by reentering the Gaza strip and attacking terrorist targets in the strip. As a response to this, and also to show that they are still important policy deciders in the middle east Hizballah launched a rocket attack on Israeli cities, wounding and killing tens of civilians. At the same time they attacked a border patrol on the ISRAELI SIDE, killed some of the soldiers and kidnapped 2.
In response, as opposed to the last time that soldiers were kidnapped, Israel does not negogiate with the terrorist group Hizballah. We begun a military offensive against Hizballah targets throughout the whole of Lebanon and especially the south. It is important to note that the objectives of this operation are not only the safe return of our kidnapped soldiers, but also preventing terrorists from attacking Israeli civilians. During the whole time, since the Israeli response begun, Hizballah is continuing to fire rockets at Israeli cities and civilian targets. It should be noted that the Israeli forces always announce a long time before they attack a target which is heavily populated to allow civilians to escape. The Israeli forces don't target civilian infra-structure as is reported by the world media, but rather stratigic military points, like bridges leading to and from Syria, through which Hizballah is supplied with weapons. At all times Israel is trying to avoid as much as humanly possible from hitting innocent civilians, but it is very difficult when the terrorists operate from inside heavly populated areas.
A few days ago Israeli forces begun a ground invasion of southern Lebanon to deal with Hizballah strongholds, the fighting is fierce and there are heavy casualties on both sides.
I think that the Hizballah underestimated Israeli response, they probably thought it would end with negotaitions like last time. The biggest mistake they made was attacking Israeli cities, because that made all Israeli response legititmate.
I wish there was an easy way to end this, but there is only one thing that is certain. Israel has the right to defend its citizens, be it by force then by force. Colateral damage is very unfortunate, but it happens in every war, and if we (Israel) is on one side then better us then them.

Answer 9

go to www.cnn.com or www.foxnews.com or turn on the TV...