Hizbullah Goes On Offensive Against Lebanese Government

Is this the first step in arranging the stage for the fight against Israel to come?

Explosions and gunfire rang out across Lebanon's capital. The cause of the explosions was not immediately known and there was no word on casualties.

The violence deepened tensions in a country already mired in a 17-month-old political crisis pitting the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah against the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. The troubles have left the country without a president since November.

Labor unions had called for the strike after rejecting a last-minute pay raise offer by the government. Instead, it turned into a showdown between Hezbollah and the government.

The clashes began when government and opposition supporters in a Muslim sector of Beirut exchanged insults and began throwing stones at each other. Witnesses said security forces intervened and gunshots were heard, apparently troops firing in the air to disperse the crowds.

A cameraman for Hezbollah's al-Manar television was beaten by a soldier, the station reported. The state-run National News Agency reported that he was struck in the forehead during the clash.

Bystanders wrapped a shirt on his head to stop the bleeding before he left on his motorcycle.

A soldier was hit in the mouth by a stone and two other news photographers also were hurt by stones, according to witnesses and television reports.

I suspect that it is precisely the situation. Hizbullah needs to get control over the Lebanese government or sufficiently cow it into submission so that it can operate even more freely than it has to date. The UN is spineless and gutless in its ongoing oversight of UNIFIL and UN SCR 1701 that demands Hizbullah's disarmament. Hizbullah's very actions show that the UN has no will to fight to impose the resolution, which was meant to provide security for Israel.

In fact, Hizbullah has effectively engaged in acts of war against the Lebanese people and its civilian government by blockading Beirut.

The Hizbullah militia and its supporters spent a good part of the day terrorizing Beirut citizens, blocking major roads, and dumping dirt along the airport road, blocking access to the airport.

Flights to and from Beirut's Rafik Hariri airport have been canceled.

Hooligans on motorcycles are touring Beirut neighborhoods, throwing insults and beating residents. Clashes between Hizbullah/Amal and March 14 supporters erupted in several mixed neighborhoods in the city.

The media is reporting heavy gunfire and use of rocket propelled grenades. The pro-Hizbullah labor unions, meanwhile, have called off today’s strike, which LBC said, quoting government sources, was used by Hizbullah as an excuse for unleashing violence and exact revenge after Monday's cabinet decision to crack down on Hizbullah's spy network in the country.

Hizbullah has decided that now is the time to unleash hell on the Lebanese people and it shows once again that Hizbullah is not interested in peace or simply ridding Israel's presence from territory claimed for Lebanon, but rather to institute its own power over Lebanon so that it can engage in a wider conflict with Israel at a time and place of its choosing.

Once again, the failure to fight Hizbullah with the full power and effect of the Israeli military and a reluctance of the UN to fulfill its own mission has left the door open to a wider conflict that will be far more damaging.