A Blog By James Curran: Lebanon Fires Rockets at Israel

Thursday, January 8, 2009

...and Israel fires back. And round and round it goes. Luckily no deaths have been reported. Thank some deity for small miracles.

Anonymous said...: Great title - are you implying that the Lebanese army attacked Israel?; Jan 8, 2009, 7:54:00 AM
James Curran said...: Do we know who fired them yet?; Jan 8, 2009, 7:56:00 AM
Renaissance Man said...: There is a genuine issue here regarding attribution of state responsibility...in this case Lebanon's. Lebanon asserts sovereignty over southern Lebanon, an area contolled de facto by Hezbollah. Hezbollah, in fact, is now a participant in the Lebanese government.

So, although I will leap to the wild conclusion that the rocket attack came from Hezbollah,the question arises as to whether the firing of rockets from Lebanese territory can be attributed to the Lebanese state.

This becomes a bit of a double edged sword for Lebanon because they can either accept responsibility, thereby admitting an act of war, or they can deny responsibility, thereby raising issues about whther they exercise sovereignty over all their national territory.; Jan 8, 2009, 11:44:00 AM