Israel and Lebanon: The Boiling Point

Netanyahu in London: Will Israel Make Any Move on Settlements and Jerusalem?

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Relations between Tel Aviv and Beirut are reaching a boiling point. After weeks in a battle of words, Israeli President Shimon Peres claimed to Kuwaiti al-Rai that Hezbollah had stockpiled 80,000 weapons, three times more than its munitions before the Second Lebanon War of 2006. He continued:

Hizbullah is working for its own interests and will always find a pretext to continue its policy against Israel, even if the IDF withdraws from Sheba Farms and the Lebanese Ghajar village.

Peres said Lebanon had "become the Iran of the region" rather than the "Switzerland of the Orient."

On Sunday, Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh told The Daily Star that Beirut would never negotiate with Israel over the return of captured land and that Lebanon would be the last Arab state to sign a peace treaty concerning Jerusalem. He said:

There will be neither direct nor indirect negotiations with Israel. Israel  should have withdrawn [from captured territory] from the first minute of Resolution 1701….They should implement all UN resolutions.

On the specific allegation, Salloukh said, “I don't know how he counted these rockets. Let them [Israel] give us a list showing who the source is and how they identify these rockets. [Peres] imagines too much.”

Although Salloukh is not speaking on behalf of Hezbollah, his words reflect a coalition position which includes the group. Indeed, the Lebanese Government may be mirroring the Israeli tactic to “create a situation on the ground that will render such a solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict impossible while paying lip-service to the two-state solution.” Despite the tension, it is not only Tel Aviv that might prefer this to a settlement.

Israel and Sweden: When Democracies Fight

UPDATE 1300 GMT: The Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister, Danny Ayalon, spreads his message by Twitter: "Calling on the Swedish government to strongly condemn these accusations"

Warning lights are blinking for the diplomatic relationship between Sweden and Israel. First, the "shocking" news came from a Swedish court in April that an Egyptian-born Palestinian found guilty of terror attacks against U.S. and Jewish targets in the 1980s could have his life sentence commuted to a 30-year prison term.

Then, on 4 August, Sweden criticized the State of Israel via the Swedish President of the European Union said, "The presidency of the European Union reiterates its serious concerns about the continued and unacceptable evictions in east Jerusalem, notably the evictions by Israeli authorities of two families….House demolitions, evictions and settlement activities in east Jerusalem are illegal under international law."

After the release of the report of the Jerusalem-based conservative NGO Monitor criticising “Swedish government funding for radical NGOs under the guise of human rights and humanitarian aid", eyes returned to Stockholm when the Swedish government declared on August 12 that 50 million Kronor ($6.9 million) would be given to the Palestinian Authority to help pay wages and pensions of local officials.

And that is not the end of the story. On Tuesday, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz printed Donald Boström’s claim, from his article in Sweden's largest daily newspaper, the left-leaning Aftonbladet, that Israeli soldiers are abducting Palestinians to steal their organs:

"Our sons are used as involuntary organ donors," relatives of Khaled from Nablus said to me, as did the mother of Raed from Jenin as well as the uncles of Machmod and Nafes from Gaza, who all had disappeared for a few days and returned by night, dead and autopsied.

Israeli diplomatic circles reacted with fury. Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Yigal Palmor called the newspaper's decision to publish "a mark of disgrace": "In a democratic country, there should be no place for dark blood libels out of the Middle Ages of this type….This is an article that shames Swedish democracy and the entire Swedish press."

There has been no reaction from the Swedish Government to the latest Israeli statements.