NYTIMES: HIZBALLAH STRONGER THAN EVER

According to Hassan Nasrallah, the group’s leader, Hezbollah has increased its missile stocks to 40,000, compared with 13,000 during the 2006 war; Israeli defense officials do not dispute the estimate. (In 2006, Hezbollah fired about 4,000 missiles.)

Hezbollah rejoined Lebanon’s coalition government in 2008 as a full partner with veto power, a position of responsibility that many analysts say should discourage any thoughts of provoking a second destructive war with Israel. Yet, because of the party’s ties to Iran and its powerful militia, Hezbollah officials say they are ready to fight even if a war would do widespread damage.

There are other reasons that Hezbollah officials say they are feeling emboldened. Hezbollah’s patrons in Iran appear to have regained control after a year of internal challenges since the disputed June 2009 re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Officials say Hezbollah proved to its constituents that it could quickly rebuild from the last war, completing a lavish reconstruction project with hundreds of millions of dollars in financing from Iran and donors in the Persian Gulf. Polished 10-story apartment blocks, completed this year, line the center of Haret Hreik, the Beirut suburb almost uniformly reduced to rubble because it housed many of Hezbollah’s top institutions and leaders.

New asphalt roads, designed and paid for by Iran, connect the interior and border villages of southern Lebanon — all Hezbollah areas — to the main coastal highway.

And perhaps most importantly, Lebanese analysts said, Hezbollah’s role in the government has paved the way for tighter cooperation with Lebanese intelligence units, and Lebanese officials have reportedly arrested more than 100 people suspected of being Israeli spies in the past two years.

The renaissance in southern Lebanon is on full display in Aita al Shaab. Almost destroyed in 2006, it has been ostentatiously rebuilt, and its population has increased by about 30 percent from its prewar level, to 12,000 inhabitants.'

ALL THIS REARMING IS IN DIRECT VIOLATION OF BINDING UNSCR'S.

AND IT WAS DONE RIGHT UNDER THE NOSES OF THE UN "PEACE-KEEPERS"..

40000 MISSILES.

40000 MISSILES.

40000 MISSILES.

AND HIZBALLAH HAS A VETO WITHIN THE LEBANESE GOVERNMENT - WHICH MEANS IRAN DOES.

WHICH IS WHY AHMADINEJAD REFERS TO THE LEBANESE BORDER WITH ISRAEL AD IRAN'S BORDER WITH ISRAEL.

THE UN IS NOT USELESS; IT'S WORSE' THE UN IS ON THE OTHER SIDE.