posted July 18, 2006 08:07 PM              

Canadians fleeing Lebanon could be Hezbollah targets: Israeli ambassador

1 hour, 37 minutes ago

By Joan Bryden

ADVERTISEMENT

OTTAWA (CP) - Israel will do whatever it can to ensure safe passage for Canadians fleeing Lebanon but Israel's ambassador warns there's no guarantee they won't be targeted by Islamic guerrillas.

Indeed, Alan Baker suggested Tuesday that Hezbollah, the militant Islamic group that controls much of southern Lebanon, might deliberately target Canadian refugees in order to provoke an international incident.

Baker issued the grim warning as Foreign Affairs officials prepared to begin evacuating the first Canadians from Beirut on Wednesday. They'll board ships destined for Cyprus or Turkey about 200 kilometres across the Mediterranean Sea. From there, government-leased aircraft will fly them home.

On Monday, officials said the government had leased six commercial passenger ships with a capacity to carry 4,500 Canadians per day to Cyprus.

By Tuesday, however, that had changed to seven vessels with capacity for only 2,000, and Turkey had been added as an additional destination for fear that Cyprus will be overwhelmed by refugees fleeing Lebanon.

A government e-mail message sent to some of the estimated 50,000 Canadians in Lebanon advised that departures would begin Wednesday but provided few other details. It did say that the Canadian government will foot the bill for the evacuation, unlike some other countries which are making refugees pay for transport out of Lebanon.

It told the Canadian refugees to stay put until contacted by the embassy with specific departure arrangements and asked that they "please do not come to the embassy." In preparation for departure on short notice, the e-mail advised them to gather their travel documents, one piece of luggage per person, weighing no more than 20 kg, and three days' worth of any required medication.

Kim Girtel, a spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs, said about 30,000 Canadians in Lebanon have now registered with the embassy in Beirut. She said it's not clear how many of those want to leave the country but acknowledged the evacuation will take awhile.

"It would be nice if we could Star Trek them out but it's going to take time. Priority goes to people in greatest need," she said.

Girtel said Canada has received assurances that the ships will have safe passage. But she had no information on how Canadians outside Beirut will make it safely to the city to board the vessels.

Baker said Canada's ambassador and military attache in Israel have been meeting with Israeli military and foreign affairs officials to devise safe routes to Beirut. He said the Lebanese government has also been involved in co-ordinating the evacuation.

Although southern Lebanon has been pummelled by Israeli attacks over the past week and much of its roads, bridges and ports destroyed, Baker said it should be possible to find a way for fleeing Canadians to reach Beirut.

"I don't think the roads are blocked to such an extent to prevent transporting these people," he said in an interview.

But he refused to go into any detail about possible travel plans because, he said, Hezbollah "can't be trusted to honour any type of arrangement that would enable safe passage.

"We don't want the Hezbollah to try and provoke some type of event which could jeopardize those arrangements."

Asked if he believes Hezbollah would deliberately target fleeing foreigners to create an international incident, Baker said: "Absolutely.

"Look, why do they put their artillery launching things in the back gardens of private homes? In order to provoke a response by Israel which would kill innocent people, including, as happened, eight Canadians."

Seven Canadians were killed over the weekend and another has since succumbed to wounds suffered during Israeli attacks on Hezbollah sites in Lebanon.

That said, Baker added that he doesn't think Hezbollah "has any reason to harm Canadians" in particular.

"The opposite. They should want that Canadians won't be annoyed with them."

Nevertheless, he said Canada should be urging the Lebanese government to wring a promise of safe passage out of Hezbollah.

Once Canadians board the ships, Baker said there's no chance Israel would harm them, even by accident.

"Our targets are strictly limited to Hezbollah infrastructure and runways of airports so that they won't be able to be used for supplying missiles and weapons," he said.

"One would presume that boats carrying Canadians and other foreign people, including Lebanese civilians - it doesn't make any difference - they're not the targets that we're looking for."
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/18072006/2/national-canadians-fleeing-lebanon-hezbollah-targets-israeli-ambassador.html

posted July 19, 2006 03:01 PM            

Sorry Lioneye, you're right. Sometimes we forget about our allies flighting with us and how they may be affected in other war zones.

My heart goes with them

posted July 19, 2006 03:44 PM              

But, the main reason I posted that was just to throw that out there, that evacuees vessels, carrying any nationality out of Lebanon could be targeted by Hez.

posted July 19, 2006 03:59 PM            

Cowards are the ones that use museums, churches / mosques, historic buildings and schools to launch their missiles. They can't possible fight like real men so they hide behind women and children.

Then the sick media and supporters publish articles calling the retaliation criminal and make statements such as "How dare you fire on Lebanon and kill those innocent people...etc..."

How do we really know that the death is a result of Isreali fire or in the case of Iraq, coalition fire? If they evil-cowards are willing to hide behind the skirts of an old woman to fire a bomb, thus making them a target and willing to blow up school houses, why wouldn't they kill old men, women and children in Haditha and blame it on US Marines?

posted July 19, 2006 05:02 PM              

The other thing I found interesting, that I read elsewhere, is the the Lebanese people were warned days beforehand by Israel that they would be targetting the Hez. strong-hold areas, and that the people should get out of the way. Many chose not too.

posted July 19, 2006 05:17 PM            

The people in Lebanon had adequate warning, but maybe they feared leaving their goods / homes to the idiots belonging to Hezbollah more than the potential of their homes being bombed.

I think if I was in their shoes, not knowing what I really know about being a target, but knowing that Hezbollah uses private homes as shelters and God only knows what they would do if they found an empty one with goods?

posted July 19, 2006 09:31 PM            

They both have a long and illustrious history of screwing each other over. Pali's bomb buses, Jews poisoned Pali's wells, and ironically the first modern example of a "terrorist bombing" took place by Zionists against the British before WWII at a famous hotel (the details like names and exact dates are escaping me at the moment, but info about the event can fairly easily be found online).

There comes a point when it doesn't really matter who started it, or who did what to whom. It just needs to stop. Jews need to stop discriminating against Pali's and Pali's and their muslim sympathizers need to stop antagonizing the Israelis and denying their right to exist.

And I for one am just getting sick of it. This crap has being going on for as long as I can remember, and it's ridiculous.

I kinda look at it like we're all at a party (the world being one big party, each country is a person at that party), but the party is uncomfortable for everyone in the room cause two people (Israel/Pali) are fighting, and by doing so are involving everyone at the party in their BS.

posted July 19, 2006 09:34 PM              

But, Israel has some legitimate greivences with Palistinians, and by proxy, a good portion of the entire Arab world.

posted July 19, 2006 09:38 PM            

quote:

---

Why is it that legitimate Arab armies don't want to get involved in the conflict?

---

Because everytime they have in the past it's blown up in their faces. Badly. Like to the point of humiliation.