[Peptobismol]

From the NYT, FWIW:

http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/30215.html

Lebanon’s Three-Sided Postwar Game: Who Gets Shabaa Farms?

Source: NYT (9-24-06)


Disarming Hezbollah, the militant Lebanese Shiite group that fought Israel last month, is a major goal in Washington, Jerusalem and even among the political elite in Beirut. But the main stumbling block, at least according to Hezbollah’s current position, is a 10-mile-square area of hilly land known as Shabaa Farms.

Israel and the United Nations say the land belongs to Syria and is part of the Golan Heights that has been occupied by Israel since the 1967 war. But the Lebanese insist it is theirs, and Hezbollah says it will not lay down its weapons until Israel gives it back....
For as long as anyone here can remember, the people of Shabaa say they have farmed the southwestern slope of the Mount Hermon foothills, overlooking the Hula Valley of what is now northern Israel.

After France split Lebanon from Syria in the 1920’s, most maps showed the border running between the town of Shabaa and the farms. It is one of many pockets of land that were separated from their historic administrative jurisdictions when the Great Powers carved up the Levant, as the region was known, after World War I.

But the maps were moot as far as people on the ground were concerned. Though the French-drawn border put the Shabaa Farms in Syria, the people who owned the farms continued to pay taxes to the government of Beirut and continued to register births, deaths and other events in Lebanon.

The Lebanese say a study commissioned by President Adib al-Shishakli of Syria in 1951 and finally published in 1964 found that the farms were part of Lebanon and that the maps showing them in Syria were wrong. Even Syria still agrees that the farms are Lebanese.

The original 14 farms were divided and passed down through the generations to eventually become 14 hamlets of 20 or 30 houses each. By the time Israel took over the territory, about 200 families shared the land. Sitting in his parlor here, Mohamed Ibrahim Atui, 80, unfolded a stained handwritten deed from 1952 recording his purchase “of 32 olive trees.”

“My father sold the land to Mohammad Mahdi in the 1940’s, and I bought it from him,” Mr. Atui said. He keeps the deed hidden in his house for safekeeping....

[radikal]

Yes, good luck, Eil, Lebanon's in a real mess, isn't it? I hope everything gets back to "normal" soon.


IMJ

[HedgeYourBets]

Rabin was the last one to negotiate with Syria on return of the Golan Heights. Since then, relations have deterioriated immensely.

And also Netanyahu and Peres.