The latest accusation against Israel from Lebanon is a charge that the IDF has begun to indulge in cross-border livestock rustling.
Lebanon and its Big Brother Iran spent each day last week building up the accusation and whipping up local angst and rage against the Terrible Israelis.
The espionage eagle wasn’t creative enough, it seems. Nor was the griffon vulture. There is no end to the amazing myths about the superpower of Israel’s intelligence apparatus, it seems: the Zionist Entity can turn any living creature into a spy. Even one’s poor kidnapped goats and sheep. So watch out!
Our story begins with a herd of goats that apparently went missing in the southeast Lebanese village of Halta.
So who’re ya gonna call?
A small group of farmers and shepherds gathered to hold a protest last Wednesday in the village, claiming the goats were “confiscated by Israeli forces,” the state-run National News Agency reported. It is not really clear who the farmers blamed, but state-run media made certain to guide the way.
That same day, Lebanese MP Qassem Hashem added more fuel to the fire. Hashem, a member of Amal in the parliament’s Development and Liberation bloc, issued a statement condemning Israel’s “brief seizure of Lebanese cattle.”
The Amal MP is a firm supporter of Iran and Hezbollah. He was quoted by Alahednews six years ago as saying it had become a norm that the international community and the United Nations were “not to be depended on… namely because their role has been reduced to counting violations.”
(It was the Shi’ite Amal group that seized Israel Air Force navigator Ron Arad when he was lost in October 1986 in a mission over Lebanon and later handed him over to Hezbollah. Hezbollah told a mediator the airman was killed during an escape attempt, but provided no proof. His status and whereabouts remain unknown to this day.)
By Thursday (Feb. 11) South Lebanese residents were demonstrating in front of the United Nations Internation Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) office in the village of Kfar Shuba over “Israeli abduction of cattle,” NNA reported via The Daily Star.
“Israeli forces Thursday returned 134 goats to south Lebanon in ‘bad condition,’ but are still holding another 91,” Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Friday.
Apparently everyone took a break on Friday so they could go to the mosque and hear a few more invectives against Israel and so forth.
By Sunday (Feb. 14) the story had been embroidered enough to make Iran’s Press TV news.
“Israeli troops have crossed into Lebanon and made off with cattle in the southeastern village of Halta in the latest violation of the Arab country’s territories,” proclaimed the Iranian news outlet in bold letters on its news site.
“The Israeli patrol crossed the “Blue Line” and encroached 100 meters inside the Lebanese territories and drove 100 heads of cattle belonging to a Lebanese national towards the occupied territories on Wednesday,” Press TV claimed. The outlet accused the IDF of more livestock rustling in September 2015.
Lebanon has had no president since May 25, 2014, when former president Michel Sleiman completed his term in his office.
The reason, according to Yalibnan News, is because, “the parliament was unable to reach a quorum… the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group and its ally MP Michel Aoun’s Change and Reform block Mps boycotted the [27] sessions” dedicated to the effort.
Iranian involvement in Lebanon has been so helpful for the country that once was considered the Riviera of the Middle East…
