About 2 weeks ago, Hezbollah crept into Israel and kidnapped 2 IDF soldiers...since then, the fighting has been intense and deadly. Not only between hezbollah and the IDF, but with the media and the US government in simultaneously taking the focus off of the travesty of death and quagmire happening in iraq...and, oh yeah, afghanistan ( the red headed step child in all this bullshit ).
Wanting to learn more about Hezbollah and remember what I knew long ago about them I did an interweb search and found this little nugget:
Hezbollah abducted three Israel Defense Forces soldiers during an October 2000 attack in Shebaa Farms, and sought to obtain the release of 14 Lebanese prisoners, some of whom had been held since 1978. On January 25, 2004, Hezbollah successfully negotiated an exchange of prisoners with Israel, through German mediators. The prisoner swap was carried out on January 29: 30 Lebanese and Arab prisoners, the remains of 60 Lebanese militants and civilians, 420 Palestinian prisoners, and maps showing Israeli mines in South Lebanon were exchanged for an Israeli businessman and army reserve colonel Elchanan Tenenbaum kidnapped in 2001 and the remains of the three Israel Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers mentioned above, who were killed either during the Hezbollah operation, or in its immediate aftermath. For the entire period between the abduction (October 2000) and the end of the negotiations (January 2004), Hezbollah did not provide information about the death of the 3 kidnapped soldiers (Adi Avitan, Beni Avraham and Umar Suad) even though Israel intelligence has suspected them to be already dead. ( Emphasis mine ).
Further adventures reminded me that they operate out of Lebanon, but are supported primarily by Iran and Syria ( Knew that already ) , but further investigation showed me that the geography of the war grounds then and now are in dispute...are they fighting over syrian land? Israeli ? Lebanese? They can't even agree on where the fucking property lines are. (This too, is kind of old news, but takes on new life in the current situation).
Do a google search on the history of the Hezbollah and be reminded, amazed and confused. It's really worth the time.
Especially if you have insomnia :)
A post script note to my tattooist friend calling himself the hez...maybe it's time to think about changing your name, at least for a while, or expanding it to it's proper hezakiah.
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