Netanyahu says Israel will occupy Lebanon for as long as they ‘need’

Israeli PM Benyamin Netanyahu has said Israel will occupy Lebanon for as long as required. The settler colonial state pushed deep into the country’s south during the most recent invasion and is still holding swathes of Lebanese territory.

Netanyahu said on 9 July:

We will remain in the security zone in southern Lebanon for as long as necessary to guarantee the security of our communities in the north.

The war criminal PM was addressing a group of Israeli pilots. The Times of Israel reported that he told them:

The war is not over. Alongside old challenges, new ones continue to emerge. Old axes collapse, and new ones arise. We are preparing for every scenario. We know one thing: we must always remain stronger than our enemies.

Adding:

Preserving Israel’s air superiority is a cornerstone of our national security doctrine. It is equally essential for maintaining stability in the turbulent Middle East.

We achieve this by continually improving both our people and our technology.

Israel, Lebanon’s government and the south

The Canary’s Guy Smallman reported on 4 July that the Lebanese government’s sell-out of the people under occupation in the south has caused widespread outrage.

protestors took to the streets of South Beirut to vent their anger as news spread of the ‘framework agreement’ between the Lebanese government and Israel. Youth on foot, and riding scooters, blocked the main road to the airport with burning barricades. It took the army several hours to regain control of the area.

One local told him:

What kind of president can sign a deal when there are still bodies under the rubble and the battles are still ongoing. How can he even talk to the enemy when our land is occupied and so many people are displaced?

Smallman wrote:

Many here are questioning how this agreement can ever realistically be implemented on the ground in Southern Lebanon. The fighters holding the line against the Israelis reject it, as do the local people.

Adding:

The Lebanese army are unlikely to intervene on behalf of the government to disarm the resistance, and the speaker of the parliament has just said that the agreement will not be implemented as it threatens serious internal division in a country that was ravaged by civil war for a decade and a half.

For Zionists, Netanyahu among them, Lebanon is already theirs. His belligerent speech about preparation for future wars — and his ongoing ethnic cleansing in Lebanon — speak to the Israeli vision of a land cleansed of its indigenous inhabitants.

Featured image via the Canary