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There are 11,000 international peacekeepers in southern Lebanon , operating under a U.N. mandate . One was the fear of losing a large number of soldiers ; two , the memories of our rather unfortunate 18 years ' occupation of southern Lebanon , 1982 to 2000 . Today , Hezbollah is a reality entrenched at the core of Lebanon , with strong structural basis for endurance . In 2000 , Israel withdrew from Southern Lebanon , after which Hizbullah decimated the Israeli-trained and financed South Lebanon Army . As in southern Lebanon , what cannot be won through bribery is imposed through intimidation . Women from Ethiopia travel to Lebanon , in the belief that they will work as domestics and have reported being forced into domestic servitude and sexual exploitation . Shortly before Nasrallah 's speech , Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert commented that " there is no more a state-within-a-state " in Lebanon , and Defense Minister Amir Peretz vowed to prevent Hezbollah from carrying out any more attacks on Israel from South Lebanon . Hezbollah employs terrorist tactics , but it is an organization that draws on a strong political well of support in southern Lebanon , and after the events of the last few weeks , more deeply , " end quote . In Lebanon , assassins took the life of Pierre Gemayel , a prominent participant in the Cedar Revolution . The Security Council resolution drafted by the French and the Americans would impose a ceasefire and set out a plan for helping Beirut to gain control of southern Lebanon , now controlled by Hezbollah . The most distressing thing in my view was the decision by the Israeli cabinet this week , A , not to have a major ground invasion and to content itself with limited security zone in southern Lebanon , and secondly , and more importantly , is to tell the Syrians explicitly that they are not going to be targeted . When we come back , Israel says members of Iran 's Revolutionary Guard have been found among slain Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon , fueling claims that that country is waging a proxy war against the Jewish state .