Cheney's "Splendid Little Wars"

May 24 (LPAC)--Washington-based intelligence sources draw a link between the destabilization of Lebanon, now heightening daily, where the Lebanese Army is in a standoff with the Sunni guerrilla group, Fatah al-Islam, and the blow-up in Gaza, previously quiet since the February 2007 "Mecca Agreement" brokered by Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, with the creation of the Palestinian National Unity Government.

In both the cases, the violence was the outgrowth of the insane plan of Dick Cheney and Saudi Prince Bandar bin-Sultan, to arm factions against Hezbollah and Hamas--the "Islamist enemy" defined by the British-White House-Likud alliance. After both Hezbollah,-- the Lebanese Shia organization,-- and Hamas,-- the Palestinian Islamist party,-- won stunning victories in elections pushed by the Bush-Cheney administration, the Cheney/Bandar plan went into effect. It was to try to use "mercenaries" in the form of rival groups. Fatah al-Islam (no connection to the Palestinian Fatah) was set up to rival and fight Hezbollah, and Fatah gangs and militias were armed against Hamas.

Spreading the fighting beyond Gaza, Israeli government of Ehud Olmert opened a new offensive today against the Palestinian Hamas in the West Bank Occupied Territories, with the arrest of 30 top leaders of Hamas. Associated Press reports that among the Hamas officials "rounded up" are top elected officials, and leaders of humanitarian groups, including "former Cabinet minister Abdel Rahman Zeidan, legislators Hamed Bitawi and Daoud Abu Ser, the mayors of the towns of Nablus, Qalqiliya and Beita, and the head of the main Islamic charity in Nablus, Fayad al-Arba."

Previously, Israel had been concentrating its attack on the Palestinians in Gaza, where it was reported to LPAC by well-informed Egyptian sources, that Hamas was besting the U.S.-armed Fatah fighters, in near-civil-war fighting. Israel stepped in, said the source, only when it was clear that Hamas was not being crushed by Fatah. Since May 18, when Israelis began air strikes and tank incursions into Gaza, the Israelis have killed more than 40 Palestinians, said AP. But this has failed to stop Hamas from firing rockets from Gaza into Israel, and the Israeli government is now trying to escalate.