(A) Journalist Robert Fisk of the U.K. is another source that agrees that Sheikh Fadlallah had no direct ties to Hezbollah - although in the West his name is synonymous with terror activities associated with that group and promotion of violence;
(B) I authored a paper in 1983 on the 1982 Sabra & Shatila camp massacre, and one Lebanese Muslim that I interviewed cited your point, above, that U.S. guarantees to the P.L.O. of the safety of Palestinians in those camps were unfulfilled and the U.S. government, therefore, bore a degree of responsibility for those deaths;
(C) the large degree of radicalization of the Shia community within Lebanon was directly caused by U.S./Israeli security policies that were perceived as supportive of the Phalangists coupled with the violence directed against Shi'ites - this view has been voiced by Council on Foreign Relations member Thomas Friedman in his book "From Beirut to Jerusalem";
(D) the Iranian government filled a vacuum in providing logistical and training support to Shia extremists involved in paramilitary and terror activities against Israeli interests and thus gained substantial influence in that region.
Several reply comments to the above:
(A) Journalist Robert Fisk of the U.K. is another source that agrees that Sheikh Fadlallah had no direct ties to Hezbollah - although in the West his name is synonymous with terror activities associated with that group and promotion of violence;
(B) I authored a paper in 1983 on the 1982 Sabra & Shatila camp massacre, and one Lebanese Muslim that I interviewed cited your point, above, that U.S. guarantees to the P.L.O. of the safety of Palestinians in those camps were unfulfilled and the U.S. government, therefore, bore a degree of responsibility for those deaths;
(C) the large degree of radicalization of the Shia community within Lebanon was directly caused by U.S./Israeli security policies that were perceived as supportive of the Phalangists coupled with the violence directed against Shi'ites - this view has been voiced by Council on Foreign Relations member Thomas Friedman in his book "From Beirut to Jerusalem";
(D) the Iranian government filled a vacuum in providing logistical and training support to Shia extremists involved in paramilitary and terror activities against Israeli interests and thus gained substantial influence in that region.