Israel up in arms over weapons seizure
By Sami Moubayed
DAMASCUS - Ambassadors and diplomats from 44 countries, along with military
attaches from 27 nations, were taken to a base in central Israel on Thursday
evening to see for themselves the weapons and ammunition seized from the ship Francop
in international waters off Cyprus on Wednesday.
Israel's ambassador to the United Nations, Gabriela Shalev, complained to the
UN on Thursday after Israeli commandos seized the Francop, carrying
tonnes of what are said to be Iranian-supplied arms, including rockets and
anti-tank weapons, destined for Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Clearly, Israel is not going to let this matter lie, and if history is any
guide, it could be used as a pretext for waging another war on
Hezbollah, or even a strike against Iran.
Israeli Commodore Ran Ben-Yehuda said the weapons on the Antigua-flagged Francop
were found behind civilian cargo in at least 40 containers and were enough to
keep Hezbollah supplied for a month of fighting. They were said to be bound
from Iran to Syria, via Egypt.
The Israeli press has trumpeted the event, saying it signaled a victory against
Syria, Iran and Hezbollah. Speaking from Tehran, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid
al-Mouallem said that the ship "was not carrying Iranian weapons to Syria, only
cargo, nothing more". His words were firmly echoed by Hezbollah and his Iranian
counterpart, Manouchehr Mottaki.
Hezbollah brief statement said, "Hezbollah staunchly denies any link to the
weapons that the Zionist enemy has seized from the Francop ship. At the
same time, Hezbollah denounces Israel's piracy in international waters."
Apart from shedding serious doubt on the safety of Mediterranean waters, the
event raises several points.
Israeli officials say the ship's journey started in Iran and that it arrived a
week ago in Beirut, then headed to Damietta, Egypt, where the weapons were
loaded, and then sailed for the port city of Latakia in Syria. It is difficult
to believe, though, that weapons for Hezbollah could be loaded in Egypt. Israel
claims it discovered documents on the ship proving that the arms were made by
the Iranians for Hezbollah. It has not, however, provided any evidence of these
documents.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called the entire event a war
crime, criticizing the United Nations for failing to issue any response to the
incident. "The international community should be focusing on this," he said,
"but instead, the world condemns Israel and the Israel Defense Forces [IDF] and
undermines our right to self defense."
Netanyahu continued, "The bulk of the shipment included rockets whose aim is to
hurt our civilians and kill as many civilians as possible." He added that the
shipment of arms to Hezbollah was a "blatant violation of Security Council
resolutions".
Netanyahu's reference to the IDF was the UN-mandated Goldstone report, created
to investigate war crimes in Gaza during the 2008-2009 Israeli war. In that
report, which has aroused more than a stir since surfacing in mid-September,
Israel and Hamas are accused of war crimes.
The report condemned both sides in the conflict, which killed over 1,300
Palestinians and 13 Israelis, but was more critical of Israel. The UN General
Assembly on Thursday voted that Israel and the Palestinians should be urged to
investigate the charges. The Arab-drafted resolution is non-binding.
Reports doing the rounds in Syria and Lebanon claim that Israel is blowing up
the arms seizure to divert the world's attention from the Goldstone report. As
for UN resolutions, there are at least 60 critical of Israel, ranging from
unlawful attacks on neighbors to the establishment of illegal settlements.
Ultimately, the Arab street realizes that, regardless of how authentic the
Israeli tale is, the Israelis could use it as a pretext either to justify an
attack on Hezbollah or Iran - or to drown the Goldstone report.
In 1982, the Israelis wanted a pretext to strike at the Palestinian Liberation
Organization (PLO) in Beirut. US secretary of state Alexander Haig strongly
refused to back any attack unless a proper pretext was found. That was created
when Palestinian militants shot and paralyzed the Israeli ambassador to London,
Shlomo Argov.
The Israeli cabinet met to discuss the event and senior officials warned
then-prime minister Menachem Begin that Argov's assassins were not Arafat's
Fatah but a rival Palestinian faction headed by the notorious Abu Nidal. Rafael
Eitan, then-chief of staff of the IDF, responded, "Abu Nidal, Abu Shmidal.
They're all the same."
Twenty years later, in a January 2002 incident similar to the present arms
seizure, the IDF seized in the Red Sea a Palestinian freighter, the Karine A,
carrying 50 tons of weapons. Israel cried foul, accusing PLO leader Yasser
Arafat and Hezbollah - another tale hard to believe, given Arafat's strained
relationship with the Lebanese fighters. The Palestinian leader envied the
popularity of Hezbollah, considering that they had stolen the "mantel of
resistance" from him and the Palestinians.
Both groups denied the reports, and Arafat even ordered an investigation into
the event - but the damage had been done. George W Bush accused Arafat of lying
and used the event to sever all contacts with the PLO chairman - a boycott that
lasted until Arafat's passing in November 2004.
We don't know how the Francop issue will develop or whether it will
materialize into another confrontation between Hezbollah and Israel, which is
something that Netanyahu has been eyeing since coming to power nine months ago,
unsatisfied by the results of the war of 2006, which failed at eliminating,
disarming, or even weakening, the Lebanese party.
Sami Moubayed is editor-in-chief of Forward Magazine in Syria.
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