For those who are reluctant to label Hezbollah — the Syrian/Iranian-backed group that autonomously runs the southern end of Lebannon and delights in, among other things, kidnapping, sniping, and shooting rockets into northern Israel (which are then answered by “provocative” air strikes) — as a “terrorist” organization, consider this charming billboard, photographed by Canadian MP James Moore on a 2002 trip to the Lebanon/Israel border, at a time when the Canadian Parliament was debating whether to ban Hezbollah in Canada as a terror group.
So far you have seen part of the UN compound on the Lebanese side, the Hezbollah bunkers and flags, and the pictures were taken from the Israeli border point. What was also at the border was a 12-foot by 10-foot billboard of gruesomeness erected by Hezbollah about 6-inches from the Israeli border for the purpose of intimidating young Israeli troops. The billboard, seen below, shows 5 pictures. The picture on the top left is of a blown-up Israeli in a market after a suicide bombing. In the middle is a mutilated Israeli skull. On the top right is the picture of a wounded young Israeli soldier who was held captive. The bottom right is a picture of 2 Israelis being shot by a firing squad. On the bottom left is the picture of a member of Hezbollah holding up the severed head of an Israeli soldier at a celebration rally of the soldier’s killing. On the sign in both Arabic and Hebew are the words “Beware Sharon (Israel’s Prime Minister), we still have 3 of your soldiers.” When the billboard was erected, Hezbollah had just kidnapped 3 Israeli soldiers (two were in their early 20s, one was 19). Hezbollah has since killed all three soldiers.
Let us consider how one might go about negotiating with such people “in good faith” and to “constructive ends” with an eye toward both “peace” and “security.”
(via GoaF)