http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/15/mideast/index.html
Israel strikes militant stronghold in Beirut
Israel declares state of emergency; Hezbollah rocket fire continues
Saturday, July 15, 2006; Posted: 10:57 p.m. EDT (02:57 GMT)
Manage Alerts | What Is This? BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Israel took its fight against Hezbollah back into the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs, targeting a militant stronghold in Dahiya, the Israel Defense Forces said.
The Jerusalem Post reported in its Friday editions that the IDF was threatening to strike the Dahiya neighborhood of Beirut if Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israeli cities continued.
Israeli jets earlier this week targeted Hezbollah's headquarters in Beirut and the city's international airport, and the Israeli Air Force continued on Saturday and Sunday to conduct airstrikes on Beirut and other targets around Lebanon.
As of Saturday, at least 100 Lebanese and 13 Israelis had been killed, according to Lebanese and Israeli sources.
Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said late Saturday that "if Hezbollah is disarmed, you'll have an immediate de-escalation of the crisis."
In the Lebanese coastal city of Sidon, the normally bustling harbor was quiet. None of the fishermen have been out to sea since Israel established a blockade of Lebanese ports. (Watch as Sidon is cut off from Lebanon -- 2:56)
"Every day we don't go out, we don't have food on the table. I don't know how much longer we can keep this up," one fisherman said.
On Saturday children and adults ran into the streets of Sidon to snatch up leaflets dropped from Israeli aircraft. The leaflets had a caricature of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah as a serpent and read: "Is the resistance ... helping Lebanon? The resistance ... is destroying Lebanon!"
Airstrikes have destroyed the bridge between Sidon and Beirut, leaving roads deserted. Israeli warplanes also struck northern Lebanon near its border with Syria.
'War machine'
Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Saturday called Israel's military a "war machine" and said attacks had turned his country into a "disaster zone."
Israel later declared a state of emergency in the northern Galilee region, Regev said.
The declaration allows the Israeli government to close public institutions such as schools, shopping malls and restaurants in northern Israel, where Hezbollah has been aiming its rockets since the crisis began, Regev said.
Hezbollah again on Saturday launched scores of rockets from Lebanon into Israel.
Israeli warplanes, meanwhile, struck Lebanese port cities, the capital Beirut and the border area near Syria on the fourth day of violence triggered by the capture of two Israeli soldiers Wednesday. Israel has vowed to free the soldiers.
Siniora called for an immediate U.N.-backed cease-fire and international help to stop Israel's attacks.
A cease-fire, he said, will allow Lebanon to "establish its sovereignty over all its lands" based on the 1949 armistice agreement.
"We are pained as well as angry yet determined and patient," Siniora said, adding that "these are hours for unity, not for division."
He said Israel was "punishing all Lebanese collectively, with their actions lacking any moral or legal legitimacy."
In remarks Saturday, Siniora reiterated that the Lebanese government had no knowledge of Hezbollah's plans.
Israel blames Lebanon
In response, Regev said Lebanon had triggered the crisis by failing to disarm Hezbollah. He further called Israel's offensive "surgical" and Hezbollah's "indiscriminate."
"This whole crisis was initiated by aggression by Lebanon into Israel," Regev said.
If Siniora "had done his job correctly," followed relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and disarmed Hezbollah, "this crisis would have been averted," Regev added.
Israel is willing to implement a cease-fire in accordance with those resolutions, he said.
Israel intensified its attacks from air, sea and land Saturday on targets such as Beirut and the ports of Tripoli, Amchit and Junieh, according to Lebanese media.
Israeli warplanes hit Hezbollah's main headquarters in Beirut, which was struck Friday as well, according to Lebanese interior ministry officials. No casualties were reported from those strikes, the officials said.
The IDF confirmed the aerial attack, saying, "The state of Israel warned the Lebanese population who are present at the compound or around it, using leaflets and different means of communication, to stay clear from the site for their own safety."
Al-Jazeera, the Arabic-language TV channel, reported that the headquarters of Hezbollah's spiritual leader, Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, was targeted.
Israel also said it had attacked the Beirut headquarters of Hamas, the Palestinian movement that dominates the Palestinian Authority government. (Watch the ties between Hezbollah and Hamas -- 2:25)
Minibus hit
Earlier on Saturday, an Israeli airstrike near Tyre hit a minibus carrying 20 civilians, killing at least 15 of them, Lebanese internal security sources said.
The IDF said it was making "every effort" to avoid civilian casualties, adding: "Responsibility for endangering civilian population rests on the Hezbollah terror organization, which operates and launches missiles at Israel from populated civilian areas."
More than 75 rockets were fired at Israeli towns on Saturday, the IDF said.
One barrage struck Nahariya, a northwestern town near the Lebanese border. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
The town has been targeted since the conflict between Israel and the Lebanese-based guerrilla group started Wednesday.
To guard against Katyusha rockets, missile batteries were deployed in Haifa, video from the scene showed.
Body found
After more than 12 hours, the Israeli military Saturday located the body of one of four sailors missing since Friday after a Hezbollah missile hit an Israeli warship, the IDF confirmed.
The IDF initially said the boat was struck by an unmanned aircraft packed with explosives. But Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the United States, said Saturday that it was a Chinese-made C-802 missile.
On Hezbollah-run Al Manar television, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed responsibility for the attack on the Israeli warship and called it "just the beginning." He also declared "open war" with Israel. (Watch Nasrallah say Hezbollah is ready for war -- 2:14)
Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel. The group holds 23 of the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament. (What is Hezbollah?)
Other developments:
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa called the Middle East peace process "dead." Speaking at a news conference after a meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo, he said the peace process failed "because certain powers have given Israel every capacity to do whatever it wishes."
On Saturday in St. Petersburg, Russia, U.S. President Bush called on Syria to urge Hezbollah to lay down its arms and placed the blame for the violence on Hezbollah and its backers in Damascus. (Full story)
The U.S. State Department on Saturday is fine-tuning plans to evacuate Americans in Lebanon, estimated to number around 25,000, to nearby Cyprus. (Full story)
The Mideast violence has been blamed for surging oil prices, and Wall Street has been pummeled in the process. (Watch how the Mideast crisis is hitting your wallet -- 2:07)
CNN's John Vause, Richard Roth, Paula Hancocks, Alessio Vinci, and Sandy Petrykowski contributed to this report.
Full Version: What's Up in the Middle East
Common Ground Common Sense > Issues that Affect Our Lives > Foreign Policy and National Defense > Foreign Policy & National Defense Issues Archive
http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/07/14/0...53.g7u4vpr6.htm
US, major allies differ in response to Israeli attack
Jul 14 11:58 AM US/Eastern
Email this story
Major US allies condemned the ferocity of Israel's military attack on Lebanon, revealing a clear split with Washington's moderate call for restraint.
Cries of alarm mounted worldwide after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered armed forces to intensify the offensive in response to rockets hitting towns in northern Israel, killing two and wounding 50.
As the civilian death toll in Lebanon mounted above 60 and Israeli warplanes hit buildings, roads and Beirut airport, French President Jacques Chirac questioned whether Israel was seeking Lebanon's destruction.
"One may well ask if there isn't today a kind of wish to destroy Lebanon -- its infrastructure, its roads, its communications, its energy, its airport. And for what?
"I find honestly -- as all Europeans do -- that the current reactions are totally disproportionate," he said in a live television interview on France's national Bastille Day.
Chirac's comments, echoed across most of Europe and in much of the rest of the world, conflicted with US President George W. Bush's dogged defence of Israel's right to defend itself.
Bush has not publicly criticized the scale of the Israeli assault, blaming Lebanese militia group Hezbollah and radical Palestinian Hamas for sparking the crisis.
Hezbollah guerrillas seized two Israeli servicemen Wednesday, leading to Israel's first ground incursion since it ended its occupation of the south of the country in 2000.
Bush telephoned Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, however, vowing to push Israel to limit the damage it is wreaking in Lebanon.
"President Bush asserted that he will exert pressure on Israel to limit damage inflicted on Lebanon through the ongoing military operation," said a statement from Siniora's office.
Around the rest of world, however, leaders bluntly condemned Israel's response.
"In my view, Israel is making a mistake," said Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. "It will only lead to an escalation of the violence."
In Italy, Prime Minister Romano Prodi said he recognized Israel's legitimate concerns and condemning the kidnapping of the soldiers.
But "we deplore the escalation in the use of force, the serious damage to Lebanese infrastructure and the civilian casualties of the raids," the Italian leader added.
The Vatican secretary of state, Angelo Sodano, said: "The Holy See deplores the attack on Lebanon, a free and sovereign country," adding that he felt for the people "who had already suffered in defence of their independence."
Germany called on Israel to consider the longer term impact of its strike on Lebanon.
"On the one hand, Israel has the internationally recognised right to self defence. But at the same time we ask our Israeli friends and partners not to lose sight of the long-term consequences when they exercise this right," German deputy government spokesman Jens Ploetner said.
"Here we think care should be taken about the situation in Lebanon, which is a fragile entity as a state and could be further destabilised," he added.
Already, Israel has imposed an air and sea blockade on Lebanon, shut the only international airport by bombing its runways and damaged the main Beirut-Damascus highway.
Iran, which with Syria is a sponsor of Hezbollah, called on the United Nations to step in. "The international community and the UN must intervene to stop this crime," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said during a visit to Greece.
In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim state, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was quoted by the state news agency Antara as saying: "Indonesia repeats its call for Israel to stop its military action."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for restraint on all sides but kept closer to the US line.
"I totally understand the desire and the need for Israel to defend itself properly and I also understand the plight of Lebanon and the Lebanese government, not to say the many Palestinians that are suffering as well," Blair said in London.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was meeting with Bush before hosting a summit of Group of Eight powers in Saint Petersburg, said he would formally place the Middle East crisis on the agenda.
"I consider that all sides implicated in this conflict should immediately stop military action," Putin said.
US, major allies differ in response to Israeli attack
Jul 14 11:58 AM US/Eastern
Email this story
Major US allies condemned the ferocity of Israel's military attack on Lebanon, revealing a clear split with Washington's moderate call for restraint.
Cries of alarm mounted worldwide after Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert ordered armed forces to intensify the offensive in response to rockets hitting towns in northern Israel, killing two and wounding 50.
As the civilian death toll in Lebanon mounted above 60 and Israeli warplanes hit buildings, roads and Beirut airport, French President Jacques Chirac questioned whether Israel was seeking Lebanon's destruction.
"One may well ask if there isn't today a kind of wish to destroy Lebanon -- its infrastructure, its roads, its communications, its energy, its airport. And for what?
"I find honestly -- as all Europeans do -- that the current reactions are totally disproportionate," he said in a live television interview on France's national Bastille Day.
Chirac's comments, echoed across most of Europe and in much of the rest of the world, conflicted with US President George W. Bush's dogged defence of Israel's right to defend itself.
Bush has not publicly criticized the scale of the Israeli assault, blaming Lebanese militia group Hezbollah and radical Palestinian Hamas for sparking the crisis.
Hezbollah guerrillas seized two Israeli servicemen Wednesday, leading to Israel's first ground incursion since it ended its occupation of the south of the country in 2000.
Bush telephoned Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, however, vowing to push Israel to limit the damage it is wreaking in Lebanon.
"President Bush asserted that he will exert pressure on Israel to limit damage inflicted on Lebanon through the ongoing military operation," said a statement from Siniora's office.
Around the rest of world, however, leaders bluntly condemned Israel's response.
"In my view, Israel is making a mistake," said Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero. "It will only lead to an escalation of the violence."
In Italy, Prime Minister Romano Prodi said he recognized Israel's legitimate concerns and condemning the kidnapping of the soldiers.
But "we deplore the escalation in the use of force, the serious damage to Lebanese infrastructure and the civilian casualties of the raids," the Italian leader added.
The Vatican secretary of state, Angelo Sodano, said: "The Holy See deplores the attack on Lebanon, a free and sovereign country," adding that he felt for the people "who had already suffered in defence of their independence."
Germany called on Israel to consider the longer term impact of its strike on Lebanon.
"On the one hand, Israel has the internationally recognised right to self defence. But at the same time we ask our Israeli friends and partners not to lose sight of the long-term consequences when they exercise this right," German deputy government spokesman Jens Ploetner said.
"Here we think care should be taken about the situation in Lebanon, which is a fragile entity as a state and could be further destabilised," he added.
Already, Israel has imposed an air and sea blockade on Lebanon, shut the only international airport by bombing its runways and damaged the main Beirut-Damascus highway.
Iran, which with Syria is a sponsor of Hezbollah, called on the United Nations to step in. "The international community and the UN must intervene to stop this crime," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said during a visit to Greece.
In Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim state, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono was quoted by the state news agency Antara as saying: "Indonesia repeats its call for Israel to stop its military action."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for restraint on all sides but kept closer to the US line.
"I totally understand the desire and the need for Israel to defend itself properly and I also understand the plight of Lebanon and the Lebanese government, not to say the many Palestinians that are suffering as well," Blair said in London.
Russian President Vladimir Putin, who was meeting with Bush before hosting a summit of Group of Eight powers in Saint Petersburg, said he would formally place the Middle East crisis on the agenda.
"I consider that all sides implicated in this conflict should immediately stop military action," Putin said.
Israel and Hezbollah Widen Strikes; Civilians Bear Brunt
BEIRUT-Iran helped the militant group launch its missile strike on
a naval ship, Israelis say. Lebanon's leader and the Arab League
call on the U.N. to intervene. By Laura King and Megan K. Stack.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/e5U...Io30G2B0Hhpr0EE
Dream Is Over in Lebanon
BEIRUT-Beirut rose from the wreckage of the civil war to become a
fashionable city. As the bombs rain down again, residents are
falling into despair. By Megan K. Stack.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/e5U...Io30G2B0Hhps0EF
BEIRUT-Iran helped the militant group launch its missile strike on
a naval ship, Israelis say. Lebanon's leader and the Arab League
call on the U.N. to intervene. By Laura King and Megan K. Stack.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/e5U...Io30G2B0Hhpr0EE
Dream Is Over in Lebanon
BEIRUT-Beirut rose from the wreckage of the civil war to become a
fashionable city. As the bombs rain down again, residents are
falling into despair. By Megan K. Stack.
http://email.latimes.com/cgi-bin1/DM/y/e5U...Io30G2B0Hhps0EF
Arabs rally against Israeli attacks
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/07B...F2FD01F7278.htm
Saturday 15 July 2006, 1:47 Makka Time, 22:47 GMT
Nearly 5,000 protesters in Cairo chanted anti-Israeli slogans
Thousands of protesters across the Arab world have taken to the streets to condemn Israeli offensives in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Nearly 5,000 people gathered near Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque, chanting anti-Israel slogans and carrying banners that read "No to Israel" and "Hey Arab leaders, you should be united."
Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, met Jordan's King Abdullah II nearby to discuss the situation.
They issued a joint statement demanding "an immediate halt on attacking civilians and vital infrastructure," saying such attacks breached international humanitarian conventions, and called for restraint on all sides.
Egypt and Jordan are the only countries in the region to have signed peace treaties with Israel.
In Amman, more than 2,000 demonstrators gathered at a mosque after Friday prayers, shouting "Zionists get out, get out!" and "Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan are one people!"
Flagrant defiance
Abdul-Hadi Majali, the speaker of Jordan's lower house of parliament, called on the international community to oppose Israel's actions, calling them a "flagrant defiance" of international law, the official Petra news agency reported.
Thousands of Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad praising Hezbollah's leader and denouncing Israel and the US over the attacks. Some protesters said they were ready to fight the Israelis.
Protesters in Kuwait criticised
Israel and the United States
Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi president condemned the attacks and warned that they could lead to "an escalation of violence in the region." The influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars issued a statement urging the international community not to be silent.
In Kuwait, hundreds rallied in front of the seaside parliament, shouting "Death to Israel!" and "Death to America!" Some waved posters of Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, whose headquarters were bombed on Friday by Israeli planes.
"Arab countries can do nothing but condemn," Kuwaiti lawmaker Musallam al-Barrak said.
Hamas rally
In Gaza, thousands of protesters marched at a Hamas-organised rally waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags.
"We in Hamas came here to tell our people in Lebanon that your blood is our blood, your enemy is ours and your aim is ours," one demonstrator shouted through loudspeakers.
Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, said his country stands with the "Palestinian mujahedeen" and "backs the steadfastness of the Lebanese resistance," Sudan's official news agency reported.
Amr Moussa, the Arab League secretary-general, issued a statement calling on Israel to halt its military operations, and asking the UN security council to intervene. He met UN officials in Cairo ahead of an emergency summit of Arab foreign ministers on Saturday.
Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/07B...F2FD01F7278.htm
Saturday 15 July 2006, 1:47 Makka Time, 22:47 GMT
Nearly 5,000 protesters in Cairo chanted anti-Israeli slogans
Thousands of protesters across the Arab world have taken to the streets to condemn Israeli offensives in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
Nearly 5,000 people gathered near Cairo's Al-Azhar Mosque, chanting anti-Israel slogans and carrying banners that read "No to Israel" and "Hey Arab leaders, you should be united."
Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian president, met Jordan's King Abdullah II nearby to discuss the situation.
They issued a joint statement demanding "an immediate halt on attacking civilians and vital infrastructure," saying such attacks breached international humanitarian conventions, and called for restraint on all sides.
Egypt and Jordan are the only countries in the region to have signed peace treaties with Israel.
In Amman, more than 2,000 demonstrators gathered at a mosque after Friday prayers, shouting "Zionists get out, get out!" and "Lebanon, Palestine and Jordan are one people!"
Flagrant defiance
Abdul-Hadi Majali, the speaker of Jordan's lower house of parliament, called on the international community to oppose Israel's actions, calling them a "flagrant defiance" of international law, the official Petra news agency reported.
Thousands of Iraqis demonstrated in Baghdad praising Hezbollah's leader and denouncing Israel and the US over the attacks. Some protesters said they were ready to fight the Israelis.
Protesters in Kuwait criticised
Israel and the United States
Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi president condemned the attacks and warned that they could lead to "an escalation of violence in the region." The influential Sunni Association of Muslim Scholars issued a statement urging the international community not to be silent.
In Kuwait, hundreds rallied in front of the seaside parliament, shouting "Death to Israel!" and "Death to America!" Some waved posters of Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, whose headquarters were bombed on Friday by Israeli planes.
"Arab countries can do nothing but condemn," Kuwaiti lawmaker Musallam al-Barrak said.
Hamas rally
In Gaza, thousands of protesters marched at a Hamas-organised rally waving Palestinian and Lebanese flags.
"We in Hamas came here to tell our people in Lebanon that your blood is our blood, your enemy is ours and your aim is ours," one demonstrator shouted through loudspeakers.
Omar al-Bashir, the Sudanese president, said his country stands with the "Palestinian mujahedeen" and "backs the steadfastness of the Lebanese resistance," Sudan's official news agency reported.
Amr Moussa, the Arab League secretary-general, issued a statement calling on Israel to halt its military operations, and asking the UN security council to intervene. He met UN officials in Cairo ahead of an emergency summit of Arab foreign ministers on Saturday.
Agencies
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/7FE...76E90A8389D.htm
Lebanon exodus gathers pace
Sunday 16 July 2006, 4:42 Makka Time, 1:42 GMT
Britain has not said if the ships will be used to evacuate Britons
Foreign governments were drawing up plans for a voluntary evacuation of their nationals from Lebanon as Israel kept up air strikes against its neighbour.
Britain is to send two Royal Navy warships to the Middle East as part of the contingency plans for a possible evacuation, the ministry of defence said in London on Saturday.
A ministry of defence spokeswoman said the aircraft carrier Illustrious and the warship Bulwark would shortly be sent to the Middle East, but she would not comment on news reports that they would be used to evacuate Britons from the area.
"As you would expect we are monitoring the situation closely and are engaging in prudent contingency planning," said the spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.
"As part of this HMS Illustrious and HMS Bulwark will shortly head toward the region. They have been given no specific tasking."
Britain also advised its citizens not to attempt to leave Lebanon under their own steam and said it had not yet made a decision on whether to evacuate its nationals. There are 10,000 Britons in Lebanon, plus a further 10,000 with joint nationality.
France, Italy and Sweden followed Britain's lead in preparing to evacuate their citizens, mainly by land to Syria or by ferry to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
US plans
US says it is working on a plan to
move Americans to Cyprus
The US State Department said it was working on a plan with the Pentagon to transport Americans to Cyprus, where they can board commercial aircraft for onward travel. There were around 25,000 US citizens in Lebanon.
Air travel from Beirut was made impossible after the international airport was shut down on Thursday after Israeli air strikes blew craters in the runways.
Dominique de Villepin, the French prime minister, announced that "sea and air facilities, both civilian and military" would be made available for any French national who wished to leave.
France began deploying about 800 military personnel plus aircraft to Lebanon, chartered a ferry and dispatched two warships as part of its operation to evacuate its own citizens and others to Cyprus.
Cyprus as a European Union member said on Friday that it was ready to support a joint EU-co-ordinated mass evacuation of Europeans stranded in Lebanon.
France sends frigate
Naval sources in Toulon said France was sending a landing-craft transporter with four helicopters and equipped with a hospital and operating rooms, should they be needed. A French frigate was also due to arrive in the area on Thursday.
France is sending a landingcraft
with hospital facilities
Up to 20,000 French, including residents, tourists and business travellers are currently in Lebanon, according to a foreign ministry estimate.
Italy said the foreign ministry had already organised with its embassy in Beirut a convoy of 410 Italian citizens and other nationals, mainly from the European Union, heading for Syria.
However, witnesses reported that an Israeli bombardment forced the convoy to stop at Tripoli, Lebanon's second city located about 90kms (60 miles) north of Beirut.
About 15 buses carrying European nationals were stopped at Tripoli until security conditions allowed them to continue on the route to Syria, witnesses said.
Arturo Parisi, Italian defence minister, ordered the dispatch of a ship of the Italian navy and two large C130 air force transport planes to the region to help evacuate Italians and other stranded foreigners.
The deployment was of a strictly humanitarian character, a statement said.
Italians staying put
The foreign ministry said there were more than 1,000 Italians in Lebanon, most of whom had said they did not yet wish to leave.
Vienna alerted Israel to plans to evacuate its citizens by bus after the main road into Syria was heavily bombed in recent days, Austrian radio reported. Around 120 Austrians were in Lebanon.
Turkey said a bus carrying 32 of its nationals, mostly tourists and business people, as well as two French nationals, crossed the Yayladagi border gate between Turkey and Syria on Saturday, the Anatolia news agency reported.
From Damascus, an Olympic Airline plane brought 50 Greeks and other nationals from Lebanon to Athens, the Greek foreign ministry said.
More than 100 Spaniards and other nationals resident in Lebanon arrived on Saturday at a military air base near Madrid aboard a transport plane chartered by the defence ministry. Some 600 Spanish nationals are resident in Lebanon, said the foreign ministry.
Around 50 Swiss and 30 Germans arrived in Damascus by bus on Saturday.
Morocco sends C130s
King Mohammad has instructed to
dispatch C130 transport planes
Morocco also announced that it was evacuating several dozen of its nationals by air. The foreign ministry said instructions had come from King Mohammed VI to dispatch C130 transport planes to bring them home.
The Moroccan embassy in Beirut on Friday organised a first group of evacuees who left by road for Damascus.
Ukraine also began evacuating its nationals via Syria. With more than 1,600 in Lebanon, the foreign ministry in Kiev said its embassy in Lebanon and consular services were preparing to evacuate those who wished to leave.
Bulgaria's foreign ministry said meanwhile that it was working on a contingency plan to evacuate Bulgarians from Lebanon. About 500 Bulgarian nationals are currently residing in Lebanon and 300 of them have said they want to evacuate, national radio reported.
Poland said it was making arrangements for the evacuation of 100 of its citizens who wish to leave the country by Monday. Around 700 Poles live in Lebanon.
The 214 Polish soldiers stationed in Lebanon as part of a UN force were not in danger and an evacuation was not planned, Warsaw said.
Sweden also said it was working on evacuation plans for its 2,000 citizens in Lebanon, as did the Netherlands for its 600 nationals. Russia also said it was preparing for a possible evacuation.
Berlin advised its citizens not to go to Lebanon, but said it had no mass evacuation plans for the 1,100 German nationals already there. It said it was in "close and permanent contact" with other EU countries in Beirut and was "preparing for all scenarios".
Agencies
Lebanon exodus gathers pace
Sunday 16 July 2006, 4:42 Makka Time, 1:42 GMT
Britain has not said if the ships will be used to evacuate Britons
Foreign governments were drawing up plans for a voluntary evacuation of their nationals from Lebanon as Israel kept up air strikes against its neighbour.
Britain is to send two Royal Navy warships to the Middle East as part of the contingency plans for a possible evacuation, the ministry of defence said in London on Saturday.
A ministry of defence spokeswoman said the aircraft carrier Illustrious and the warship Bulwark would shortly be sent to the Middle East, but she would not comment on news reports that they would be used to evacuate Britons from the area.
"As you would expect we are monitoring the situation closely and are engaging in prudent contingency planning," said the spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with government policy.
"As part of this HMS Illustrious and HMS Bulwark will shortly head toward the region. They have been given no specific tasking."
Britain also advised its citizens not to attempt to leave Lebanon under their own steam and said it had not yet made a decision on whether to evacuate its nationals. There are 10,000 Britons in Lebanon, plus a further 10,000 with joint nationality.
France, Italy and Sweden followed Britain's lead in preparing to evacuate their citizens, mainly by land to Syria or by ferry to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
US plans
US says it is working on a plan to
move Americans to Cyprus
The US State Department said it was working on a plan with the Pentagon to transport Americans to Cyprus, where they can board commercial aircraft for onward travel. There were around 25,000 US citizens in Lebanon.
Air travel from Beirut was made impossible after the international airport was shut down on Thursday after Israeli air strikes blew craters in the runways.
Dominique de Villepin, the French prime minister, announced that "sea and air facilities, both civilian and military" would be made available for any French national who wished to leave.
France began deploying about 800 military personnel plus aircraft to Lebanon, chartered a ferry and dispatched two warships as part of its operation to evacuate its own citizens and others to Cyprus.
Cyprus as a European Union member said on Friday that it was ready to support a joint EU-co-ordinated mass evacuation of Europeans stranded in Lebanon.
France sends frigate
Naval sources in Toulon said France was sending a landing-craft transporter with four helicopters and equipped with a hospital and operating rooms, should they be needed. A French frigate was also due to arrive in the area on Thursday.
France is sending a landingcraft
with hospital facilities
Up to 20,000 French, including residents, tourists and business travellers are currently in Lebanon, according to a foreign ministry estimate.
Italy said the foreign ministry had already organised with its embassy in Beirut a convoy of 410 Italian citizens and other nationals, mainly from the European Union, heading for Syria.
However, witnesses reported that an Israeli bombardment forced the convoy to stop at Tripoli, Lebanon's second city located about 90kms (60 miles) north of Beirut.
About 15 buses carrying European nationals were stopped at Tripoli until security conditions allowed them to continue on the route to Syria, witnesses said.
Arturo Parisi, Italian defence minister, ordered the dispatch of a ship of the Italian navy and two large C130 air force transport planes to the region to help evacuate Italians and other stranded foreigners.
The deployment was of a strictly humanitarian character, a statement said.
Italians staying put
The foreign ministry said there were more than 1,000 Italians in Lebanon, most of whom had said they did not yet wish to leave.
Vienna alerted Israel to plans to evacuate its citizens by bus after the main road into Syria was heavily bombed in recent days, Austrian radio reported. Around 120 Austrians were in Lebanon.
Turkey said a bus carrying 32 of its nationals, mostly tourists and business people, as well as two French nationals, crossed the Yayladagi border gate between Turkey and Syria on Saturday, the Anatolia news agency reported.
From Damascus, an Olympic Airline plane brought 50 Greeks and other nationals from Lebanon to Athens, the Greek foreign ministry said.
More than 100 Spaniards and other nationals resident in Lebanon arrived on Saturday at a military air base near Madrid aboard a transport plane chartered by the defence ministry. Some 600 Spanish nationals are resident in Lebanon, said the foreign ministry.
Around 50 Swiss and 30 Germans arrived in Damascus by bus on Saturday.
Morocco sends C130s
King Mohammad has instructed to
dispatch C130 transport planes
Morocco also announced that it was evacuating several dozen of its nationals by air. The foreign ministry said instructions had come from King Mohammed VI to dispatch C130 transport planes to bring them home.
The Moroccan embassy in Beirut on Friday organised a first group of evacuees who left by road for Damascus.
Ukraine also began evacuating its nationals via Syria. With more than 1,600 in Lebanon, the foreign ministry in Kiev said its embassy in Lebanon and consular services were preparing to evacuate those who wished to leave.
Bulgaria's foreign ministry said meanwhile that it was working on a contingency plan to evacuate Bulgarians from Lebanon. About 500 Bulgarian nationals are currently residing in Lebanon and 300 of them have said they want to evacuate, national radio reported.
Poland said it was making arrangements for the evacuation of 100 of its citizens who wish to leave the country by Monday. Around 700 Poles live in Lebanon.
The 214 Polish soldiers stationed in Lebanon as part of a UN force were not in danger and an evacuation was not planned, Warsaw said.
Sweden also said it was working on evacuation plans for its 2,000 citizens in Lebanon, as did the Netherlands for its 600 nationals. Russia also said it was preparing for a possible evacuation.
Berlin advised its citizens not to go to Lebanon, but said it had no mass evacuation plans for the 1,100 German nationals already there. It said it was in "close and permanent contact" with other EU countries in Beirut and was "preparing for all scenarios".
Agencies
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clemon...es_b_25110.html
Shrewd Israeli Objectives May Be to Curb US Deal-Making Options In Middle East
Some Questions Regarding Israel's Objectives: Is Israel Trying to Curb America's Deal-Making in Middle East?
When I visited Israel in March, one of the more interesting dinner discussions I had was with former Mossad Director Danny Yatom, now a Labor Party member of the Knesset.
As head of the Mossad, Yatom gave orders to have the head of Hamas, Khaled Meshal, assassinated by poison.
The effort was botched, and the failed attempt became globally embarrassing news for Yatom and then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But the fact remains despite this one failed case that Israel has been extremely skillful at knocking off serious enemies in covert, lethal, under-the-radar-screen ways.
Why is Israel pounding most of Lebanon rather than just the South and rather than pinpointing its attack against Hezbollah assets? Why the dramatic bombing of explosive fuel centers? The attacks both in Gaza and in Beirut seem made for Fox News, CNN, and the next Schwarzenegger movie.
I think that there is little doubt that a significant part of the explanation can be attributed to the fact that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his more liberal partner in this effort, Amir Peretz -- now Defense Minister -- are not former field command generals and want to demonstrate that they can be responsible stewards of Israel's national security -- and that they won't be timid in using Israel's military capabilities.
But that doesn't explain it all. The Israeli response to the Hezbollah incursion is exactly what Hezbollah wanted. Adversaries rarely give each other the behaviors the other actually desires unless there are other objectives involved.
My view is that three broad threats were evolving for Israel from the American side of the equation. One one front, the U.S. will be attempting to settle some kind of new equilibrium in Iraq with fewer U.S. forces and some face-saving partial withdrawal. To accomplish this and maintain any legitiimacy in the eyes of important nations in the region -- particularly among close U.S. partners among the Gulf Cooperation Council states -- America "might have" tried to do some things that constituted a broad new bargain with the Arab Middle East. The U.S. had even previously flirted, along with the Brits, in trying to get Syria on a Libya like track and out of the international dog house.
There was also pressure building to push Hamas -- or at least the "governing wing" of it -- towards a posture that would move dramatically closer to a recognition of Israel. Abbas was becoming increasingly entrepreneurial in creating opportunities for the constructive players in Hamas to squirm towards eventual negotiatons with Israel that could possibly be packaged in terms of "final status negotiations" on the borders and terms of a new Palestinian state. George W. Bush is the first President to actually call the Palestine territories "Palestine" and may have eventually come around on trying to pump up Abbas's legitimacy as the father of a new and different state. I am doubtful of this scenario -- but some in Israel had serious concerns about this unfolding.
Lastly, despite lots of tit-for-tat tensions and enormous mistrust, Iran and the U.S. were tilting towards a deal to negoatiate about Iran's nuclear pretensions and other goals.
Some in Israel viewed all three of these potential policy courses for the U.S. -- a broad deal with the Arab Middle East, a new push on final status negotiations with the Palestinians, and a deal to actually negotiate directly with Iran -- as negative for Israel.
The flamboyant, over the top reactions to attacks on Israel's miltiary check points and the abduction of soldiers -- which I agree Israel must respond to -- seem to be part establishing "bona fides" by Olmert -- but far more important, REMOVING from the table important policy options that the U.S. might have pursued.
Israel is constraining American foreign policy in amazing and troubling ways by its actions. And a former senior CIA official and another senior Marine who are well-versed in both Israeli and broad Middle East affairs, agreed that serious strategists in Israel are more concerned about America tilting towards new bargains in the region than they are either about the challenge from Hamas or Hezbollah or showing that Olmert knows how to pull the trigger.
Another well respected and very serious national security public intellectual in the nation wrote this when I shared this thesis that Israeli actions were ultimately aimed at clipping American wings in the region. His response:
the thesis of your paper is right-on.
whether intentional or coincidental, that is what is being done right now.
I share these other views only to establish the fact that there is not a concensus either in support of or opposed to Israeli action -- but some are beginning to scrutinize what Israel is seeking to achieve with such flamboyant displays of power that are antagonizing whole societies on their borders.
Keeping America from cutting new deals in the region -- which many in the national security establishment thinks are vital -- may actually be what is going on, and the smarter-than-average analysts are beginning to see that.
To take one moment though and argue a counter-point to this, one serious analyst I spoke to this morning who stopped by to talk after attending synogogue raised a good point. He said that he thought that Olmert's insecurity about military management was driving the over-reaction.
But he also said that the QUALITY of the attacks against Israel were freaking out the Israeli military and intelligence leaders. Complex incursions that included abductions along with a successful attack on an Israeli gunship show that the enemy is no longer an unimpressive, rag-tag lot. Training and armaments have been improved, and Israel is scrambling to figure out how this happened.
Interesting thesis -- and it should be on the table too.
Steve Clemons is publisher of the popular political blog, The Washington Note.
Shrewd Israeli Objectives May Be to Curb US Deal-Making Options In Middle East
Some Questions Regarding Israel's Objectives: Is Israel Trying to Curb America's Deal-Making in Middle East?
When I visited Israel in March, one of the more interesting dinner discussions I had was with former Mossad Director Danny Yatom, now a Labor Party member of the Knesset.
As head of the Mossad, Yatom gave orders to have the head of Hamas, Khaled Meshal, assassinated by poison.
The effort was botched, and the failed attempt became globally embarrassing news for Yatom and then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
But the fact remains despite this one failed case that Israel has been extremely skillful at knocking off serious enemies in covert, lethal, under-the-radar-screen ways.
Why is Israel pounding most of Lebanon rather than just the South and rather than pinpointing its attack against Hezbollah assets? Why the dramatic bombing of explosive fuel centers? The attacks both in Gaza and in Beirut seem made for Fox News, CNN, and the next Schwarzenegger movie.
I think that there is little doubt that a significant part of the explanation can be attributed to the fact that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and his more liberal partner in this effort, Amir Peretz -- now Defense Minister -- are not former field command generals and want to demonstrate that they can be responsible stewards of Israel's national security -- and that they won't be timid in using Israel's military capabilities.
But that doesn't explain it all. The Israeli response to the Hezbollah incursion is exactly what Hezbollah wanted. Adversaries rarely give each other the behaviors the other actually desires unless there are other objectives involved.
My view is that three broad threats were evolving for Israel from the American side of the equation. One one front, the U.S. will be attempting to settle some kind of new equilibrium in Iraq with fewer U.S. forces and some face-saving partial withdrawal. To accomplish this and maintain any legitiimacy in the eyes of important nations in the region -- particularly among close U.S. partners among the Gulf Cooperation Council states -- America "might have" tried to do some things that constituted a broad new bargain with the Arab Middle East. The U.S. had even previously flirted, along with the Brits, in trying to get Syria on a Libya like track and out of the international dog house.
There was also pressure building to push Hamas -- or at least the "governing wing" of it -- towards a posture that would move dramatically closer to a recognition of Israel. Abbas was becoming increasingly entrepreneurial in creating opportunities for the constructive players in Hamas to squirm towards eventual negotiatons with Israel that could possibly be packaged in terms of "final status negotiations" on the borders and terms of a new Palestinian state. George W. Bush is the first President to actually call the Palestine territories "Palestine" and may have eventually come around on trying to pump up Abbas's legitimacy as the father of a new and different state. I am doubtful of this scenario -- but some in Israel had serious concerns about this unfolding.
Lastly, despite lots of tit-for-tat tensions and enormous mistrust, Iran and the U.S. were tilting towards a deal to negoatiate about Iran's nuclear pretensions and other goals.
Some in Israel viewed all three of these potential policy courses for the U.S. -- a broad deal with the Arab Middle East, a new push on final status negotiations with the Palestinians, and a deal to actually negotiate directly with Iran -- as negative for Israel.
The flamboyant, over the top reactions to attacks on Israel's miltiary check points and the abduction of soldiers -- which I agree Israel must respond to -- seem to be part establishing "bona fides" by Olmert -- but far more important, REMOVING from the table important policy options that the U.S. might have pursued.
Israel is constraining American foreign policy in amazing and troubling ways by its actions. And a former senior CIA official and another senior Marine who are well-versed in both Israeli and broad Middle East affairs, agreed that serious strategists in Israel are more concerned about America tilting towards new bargains in the region than they are either about the challenge from Hamas or Hezbollah or showing that Olmert knows how to pull the trigger.
Another well respected and very serious national security public intellectual in the nation wrote this when I shared this thesis that Israeli actions were ultimately aimed at clipping American wings in the region. His response:
the thesis of your paper is right-on.
whether intentional or coincidental, that is what is being done right now.
I share these other views only to establish the fact that there is not a concensus either in support of or opposed to Israeli action -- but some are beginning to scrutinize what Israel is seeking to achieve with such flamboyant displays of power that are antagonizing whole societies on their borders.
Keeping America from cutting new deals in the region -- which many in the national security establishment thinks are vital -- may actually be what is going on, and the smarter-than-average analysts are beginning to see that.
To take one moment though and argue a counter-point to this, one serious analyst I spoke to this morning who stopped by to talk after attending synogogue raised a good point. He said that he thought that Olmert's insecurity about military management was driving the over-reaction.
But he also said that the QUALITY of the attacks against Israel were freaking out the Israeli military and intelligence leaders. Complex incursions that included abductions along with a successful attack on an Israeli gunship show that the enemy is no longer an unimpressive, rag-tag lot. Training and armaments have been improved, and Israel is scrambling to figure out how this happened.
Interesting thesis -- and it should be on the table too.
Steve Clemons is publisher of the popular political blog, The Washington Note.
Iran Denies Aiding Hezbollah, Describes Israeli Claim as ' 'Propaganda' Voice of America
An Iranian government spokesman has denied charges that Iran is aiding the Lebanon-based Shiite group Hezbollah. He also warned Israel of dire consequences if it attacks Syria. Speaking to reporters Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said there are no Iranian Revolutionary Guards fighting alongside Hezbollah in Lebanon. Asefi also dismissed charges that Iran has provided missiles to Hezbollah as "propaganda." He said Hezbollah is strong enough to take care of itself.
By Gary Thomas
Canadians scrambling to find ways out of Lebanon Edmonton Journal (subscription)
Israel batters Hezbollah HQ, wipes out radar sites Chicago Tribune
CBC News - New York Times - Detroit Free Press - Ottawa Sun - all 4,579 related »
An Iranian government spokesman has denied charges that Iran is aiding the Lebanon-based Shiite group Hezbollah. He also warned Israel of dire consequences if it attacks Syria. Speaking to reporters Sunday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said there are no Iranian Revolutionary Guards fighting alongside Hezbollah in Lebanon. Asefi also dismissed charges that Iran has provided missiles to Hezbollah as "propaganda." He said Hezbollah is strong enough to take care of itself.
Hamid Reza Asefi (file photo)
An Israeli army general, Udi Adam, said Sunday that Iranian troops are helping Hezbollah fire rockets into Israel, and that Israel has identified the Iranian troops. Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim organization, was founded after the 1982 Israel invasion of Lebanon. It took its inspiration from the 1979 Iranian revolution, and most Western analysts believe it gets considerable military and financial support from the Iranian government. The United States lists Hezbollah as a terrorist group. Iran claims it gives only moral support to Hezbollah. On Saturday Abbas Ali Kadkhodai, spokesman for Iran's powerful Guardian Council, reiterated Iran's assertion that it has no influence over the group. Spokesman Asefi also said Iran stands by Syria, which has also been accused of backing Hezbollah, in the current crisis. He warned Israel against attacking Syria, saying it will face great losses if it does so.Smoke billows from Rafik Hariri International Airport in Beirut, after Israeli warplanes targeted it, July 13, 2006
After Hezbollah abducted two Israeli soldiers, Israel began attacking targets in Lebanon in a bid to cripple Hezbollah and win the release of the kidnapped soldiers. Hezbollah has retaliated by firing rockets into Israel. President Bush has said Israel has every right to defend itself from Hezbollah attacks. Late Saturday, Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has kept up a steady stream of harsh rhetoric against Israel, likened Israel's attacks on Lebanon to the ones of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler that began World War II. President Adhmadinejad, who was elected one year ago, has been internationally condemned for questioning the existence of the Holocaust, in which six million Jews are estimated to have been killed by the Nazi regime.By Gary Thomas
Canadians scrambling to find ways out of Lebanon Edmonton Journal (subscription)
Israel batters Hezbollah HQ, wipes out radar sites Chicago Tribune
CBC News - New York Times - Detroit Free Press - Ottawa Sun - all 4,579 related »
Deadly Hezbollah attack on Haifa BBC News
Rockets fired by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have killed at least eight people and wounded dozens of others in the coastal Israeli city of Haifa. It is the worst attack on Israel since the clashes with Lebanon began. Israeli jets have again hit targets in the south of Beirut as they continue a fifth day of air strikes, which have killed at least 100 Lebanese people. The Israeli air strikes began after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a raid into Israel on Wednesday. In other developments:
It is the second time Haifa has been hit by Hezbollah rockets in recent days. In a first salvo on Saturday at least 13 rockets were reported to have landed in the city. The eight people who died were part of a train repair crew working at a railway depot. The BBC's Wyre Davies at the depot says that the rocket, believed to be a Katyusha rocket, crashed through the roof. About 50 people were also injured. Our correspondent says that the devastation is still apparent, with pools of blood everywhere. The attack on Haifa raised Israel's civilian death toll from the fighting to 12.
Second wave
According to Israel Radio a second wave of four rockets then hit, one landing in a city street. People driving on the roads in Haifa reportedly abandoned their cars as they fled from the onslaught. Lebanese people salvage belongings from bomb crater
Israeli war planes have continued to attack Beirut
City exodus
The BBC's Ian Pannell in Beirut says that there have already been a number of Israeli air strikes against Lebanese targets on Sunday. In the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV was attacked.
Rockets fired by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon have killed at least eight people and wounded dozens of others in the coastal Israeli city of Haifa. It is the worst attack on Israel since the clashes with Lebanon began. Israeli jets have again hit targets in the south of Beirut as they continue a fifth day of air strikes, which have killed at least 100 Lebanese people. The Israeli air strikes began after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a raid into Israel on Wednesday. In other developments:
- Iran's foreign ministry denies Israeli allegations that it supplied missiles to Hezbollah and warns Israel it will incur "unimaginable losses" if it attacks fellow Hezbollah supporters Syria
- The Israeli military recovers the bodies of three sailors missing after their ship was hit by a Hezbollah missile on Friday, bringing the number of Israeli troops killed in the Lebanon offensive to 12
- Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora appeals for a UN-supervised ceasefire to end the Israeli raids, but the UN Security Council fails to agree on the issue
- Israel raises rocket alert threat as far south as Tel Aviv
- Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz says Israel will not stop its offensive until "the reality changes".
Second wave
According to Israel Radio a second wave of four rockets then hit, one landing in a city street. People driving on the roads in Haifa reportedly abandoned their cars as they fled from the onslaught. Lebanese people salvage belongings from bomb crater
Israeli war planes have continued to attack Beirut
Israeli war planes have continued to attack Beirut
Following the depot attack a new barrage of rockets hit to the north of the city in Kiryat Motzkim and Kiryat Haim. Hezbollah has claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it was retaliation for the deaths of Lebanese civilians and the destruction of the country's infrastructure during the Israeli air raids. Israel has carried out a heavy bombing campaign across Lebanon, hitting Hezbollah sites, but also a wide range of civilian targets.City exodus
The BBC's Ian Pannell in Beirut says that there have already been a number of Israeli air strikes against Lebanese targets on Sunday. In the southern suburbs of Beirut, Hezbollah's al-Manar TV was attacked.
QUOTE("Hosan - Egypt")
What is happening in the Mid-East is proof that trust in the West will never help Muslims
A major power station in Beirut was also struck. There was also a raid in the eastern city of Baalbek, where local Hezbollah leaders were believed to have gathered. Foreign nationals have been leaving Lebanon to escape the violence. As the violence has escalated the number of locals attempting to flee has grown, but with the Israelis targeting the border areas and nearby roads, this has become increasingly difficult.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060716/ap_on_...HE0BHNlYwN0bWE-
Hezbollah rocket barrage kills 8 in Haifa
By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer
Lebanese guerillas fired a relentless barrage of rockets into the northern Israeli city of Haifa during morning rush hour Sunday, killing eight people at a train station and wounding seven others in a dramatic escalation of a five-day-old conflict that has shattered Mideast peace.
Hezbollah's firing of at least 20 rockets at Haifa came after Israel unleashed its fiercest bombardment yet of the Lebanese capital, starting after midnight Saturday. The attack reduced Beirut apartment buildings to rubble and knocked out electricity in many areas of the city.
Within two hours of the 8 a.m. Haifa attack, Israel warplanes retaliated with at least six airstrikes on southern Beirut, blasting the Hezbollah headquarters building and sending a thick smoke cloud over the city.
U.S. officials were monitoring violence in Lebanon hour-by-hour to decide whether to evacuate an estimated 25,000 Americans, possibly to the neighboring Mediterranean island of Cyprus. About 350 people — most of them Europeans — were evacuated Saturday night and early Sunday from Lebanon to Cyprus on Italian military flights.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there would be "far-reaching consequences" for the Haifa attack. Black smoke rose over the city. Air-raid sirens wailed as the dead and wounded were evacuated. Rockets also hit an oil refinery, gas storage tanks and a busy street during morning rush hour.
Israeli authorities put residents across the north and in the central city of Tel Aviv on heightened alert, reflecting the longer range of the missile attacks. They blamed Syria and Iran for providing guerrillas with more sophisticated weaponry, raising the specter of a wider regional confrontation.
At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI expressed grave concern over the escalation of fighting in Lebanon and denounced terrorism and retaliation in the Holy Land.
Sunday brought the fiercest attacks since the conflict erupted Wednesday after Hezbollah guerillas penetrated Israel in brazen raid, killing eight soldiers and capturing another two.
The fighting opened a second front for Israel, which was already battling Hamas-linked Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip following the capture of an Israeli soldier June 25. With the expanding crisis, Israel expanded its mission from the immediate need to free the three soldiers to a campaign to halt rocket fire from Gaza and to neutralize Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli troops, tanks and helicopter gunships re-entered northern Gaza on Sunday, firing missiles and exchanging gunfire with armed Palestinians, killing three of them.
Masked militants in Gaza vowed Sunday to launch more rockets at Israel "to show solidarity with the twin of our resistance," referring to Hezbollah.
The Haifa attack raised Israel's death toll in the fighting to at least 24, half of them civilians. Most of the 130 people killed by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon also were civilians.
Iran and Syria are prime supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah, and Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal warned that any aggression against it "will be met with a firm and direct response whose timing and methods are unlimited."
Iran on Sunday again denied Israeli claims that it had troops in Lebanon and that it helped Hezbollah attack an Israeli warship on Friday, saying the guerrilla group could fend for itself without outside help.
Initially, it was believed that an unmanned drone laden with explosives had hit the Israeli warship; it later became clear that Hezbollah used what Israel described as an Iranian-made, radar-guided C-802 missile.
The army said Sunday that three sailors missing after the gunship attack were dead, raising the number of Israeli sailors killed in the attack to four.
The Islamic Republic also warned that expanding Israel's bombing raids to neighboring Syria would bring the Jewish state "unimaginable damages."
"Iran stands by the people of Syria," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
Hezbollah said it hit Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, with dozens of Raad-2 and Raad-3 missiles. But Israeli officials said Hezbollah — previously using relatively small Katyusha rockets — also launched at least four Iranian-made Fajr missiles, its first use of the weapons. The missiles have a range of 28 miles and a far larger warhead than Katyushas.
Shaul Mofaz, an Israeli Cabinet minister and former army chief of staff, blamed Syria. "The ammunition that Hezbollah used this morning ... is Syrian ammunition," he said. He compared Hezbollah to al-Qaida, saying Israel should mount its operation accordingly.
One of the rockets hit the section of the Haifa station where crews perform maintenance on the trains, tearing a huge hole in the roof. About 30 people were working at the time, Ofer Litzevski, a train company official, said.
At the scene a body lay on a stretcher in a white bag.
Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav warned people against holding large gatherings and canceled all cultural events. Trains and buses were halted across northern Israel.
Hezbollah said it intentionally avoided hitting petrochemical installations in Haifa, according to a statement read on Al-Manar television, the Islamic guerrillas' main voice to the world.
"But the next time, it (Hezbollah) will not spare anything in Haifa and its surroundings," the statement said.
Israel had deployed a Patriot missile battery in Haifa on Saturday to protect against surface-to-surface missiles. But the Patriot was not built to combat the kind of missiles that hit on Sunday, said Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, a member of the army's General Staff.
Rockets fired by Lebanese militants also struck Acco, Nahariya and several other northern towns, and residents of the region were told to head to bomb shelters. Israeli rescue teams said 20 people were wounded in Haifa and Acco, four of them seriously.
Israel's overnight attacks on Lebanon briefly knocked Al-Manar TV off the air. The Jiyeh power plant was in flames after being hit at about 6 a.m., cutting electricity to many areas in Beirut and south Lebanon.
Large sections of the capital were covered in fine white dust from the barrage. Fires raged, and heaps of rubble and twisted metal covered entire city blocks near the Hezbollah compound in Beirut's southern district, known as Dahiyah. The steel gates of the compound were mangled.
One building was collapsed on its side; other apartment buildings were reduced to rubble or had their upper floors collapsed into those below. Broken furniture, blankets, mattresses, clothes and stuffed toys were scattered on the streets.
The Dahiyah district was empty except for guerrillas and a few residents who returned to collect belongings before taking refuge elsewhere.
"We want to sleep on our own pillows in the shelter," Mariam Shihabiyah, a 39-year-old mother of five said as she emerged from scrounging supplies from her wrecked apartment. "I just want them and our clothes, that's all ... Can you believe what happened to Dahiyah?"
A copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, lay in the street, its dusty pages fluttering. A Hezbollah gunman picked it up reverently lifted and kissed it.
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
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Hezbollah rocket barrage kills 8 in Haifa
By JOSEF FEDERMAN, Associated Press Writer
Lebanese guerillas fired a relentless barrage of rockets into the northern Israeli city of Haifa during morning rush hour Sunday, killing eight people at a train station and wounding seven others in a dramatic escalation of a five-day-old conflict that has shattered Mideast peace.
Hezbollah's firing of at least 20 rockets at Haifa came after Israel unleashed its fiercest bombardment yet of the Lebanese capital, starting after midnight Saturday. The attack reduced Beirut apartment buildings to rubble and knocked out electricity in many areas of the city.
Within two hours of the 8 a.m. Haifa attack, Israel warplanes retaliated with at least six airstrikes on southern Beirut, blasting the Hezbollah headquarters building and sending a thick smoke cloud over the city.
U.S. officials were monitoring violence in Lebanon hour-by-hour to decide whether to evacuate an estimated 25,000 Americans, possibly to the neighboring Mediterranean island of Cyprus. About 350 people — most of them Europeans — were evacuated Saturday night and early Sunday from Lebanon to Cyprus on Italian military flights.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there would be "far-reaching consequences" for the Haifa attack. Black smoke rose over the city. Air-raid sirens wailed as the dead and wounded were evacuated. Rockets also hit an oil refinery, gas storage tanks and a busy street during morning rush hour.
Israeli authorities put residents across the north and in the central city of Tel Aviv on heightened alert, reflecting the longer range of the missile attacks. They blamed Syria and Iran for providing guerrillas with more sophisticated weaponry, raising the specter of a wider regional confrontation.
At the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI expressed grave concern over the escalation of fighting in Lebanon and denounced terrorism and retaliation in the Holy Land.
Sunday brought the fiercest attacks since the conflict erupted Wednesday after Hezbollah guerillas penetrated Israel in brazen raid, killing eight soldiers and capturing another two.
The fighting opened a second front for Israel, which was already battling Hamas-linked Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip following the capture of an Israeli soldier June 25. With the expanding crisis, Israel expanded its mission from the immediate need to free the three soldiers to a campaign to halt rocket fire from Gaza and to neutralize Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Israeli troops, tanks and helicopter gunships re-entered northern Gaza on Sunday, firing missiles and exchanging gunfire with armed Palestinians, killing three of them.
Masked militants in Gaza vowed Sunday to launch more rockets at Israel "to show solidarity with the twin of our resistance," referring to Hezbollah.
The Haifa attack raised Israel's death toll in the fighting to at least 24, half of them civilians. Most of the 130 people killed by Israeli airstrikes in Lebanon also were civilians.
Iran and Syria are prime supporters of Hamas and Hezbollah, and Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal warned that any aggression against it "will be met with a firm and direct response whose timing and methods are unlimited."
Iran on Sunday again denied Israeli claims that it had troops in Lebanon and that it helped Hezbollah attack an Israeli warship on Friday, saying the guerrilla group could fend for itself without outside help.
Initially, it was believed that an unmanned drone laden with explosives had hit the Israeli warship; it later became clear that Hezbollah used what Israel described as an Iranian-made, radar-guided C-802 missile.
The army said Sunday that three sailors missing after the gunship attack were dead, raising the number of Israeli sailors killed in the attack to four.
The Islamic Republic also warned that expanding Israel's bombing raids to neighboring Syria would bring the Jewish state "unimaginable damages."
"Iran stands by the people of Syria," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said.
Hezbollah said it hit Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, with dozens of Raad-2 and Raad-3 missiles. But Israeli officials said Hezbollah — previously using relatively small Katyusha rockets — also launched at least four Iranian-made Fajr missiles, its first use of the weapons. The missiles have a range of 28 miles and a far larger warhead than Katyushas.
Shaul Mofaz, an Israeli Cabinet minister and former army chief of staff, blamed Syria. "The ammunition that Hezbollah used this morning ... is Syrian ammunition," he said. He compared Hezbollah to al-Qaida, saying Israel should mount its operation accordingly.
One of the rockets hit the section of the Haifa station where crews perform maintenance on the trains, tearing a huge hole in the roof. About 30 people were working at the time, Ofer Litzevski, a train company official, said.
At the scene a body lay on a stretcher in a white bag.
Haifa Mayor Yona Yahav warned people against holding large gatherings and canceled all cultural events. Trains and buses were halted across northern Israel.
Hezbollah said it intentionally avoided hitting petrochemical installations in Haifa, according to a statement read on Al-Manar television, the Islamic guerrillas' main voice to the world.
"But the next time, it (Hezbollah) will not spare anything in Haifa and its surroundings," the statement said.
Israel had deployed a Patriot missile battery in Haifa on Saturday to protect against surface-to-surface missiles. But the Patriot was not built to combat the kind of missiles that hit on Sunday, said Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, a member of the army's General Staff.
Rockets fired by Lebanese militants also struck Acco, Nahariya and several other northern towns, and residents of the region were told to head to bomb shelters. Israeli rescue teams said 20 people were wounded in Haifa and Acco, four of them seriously.
Israel's overnight attacks on Lebanon briefly knocked Al-Manar TV off the air. The Jiyeh power plant was in flames after being hit at about 6 a.m., cutting electricity to many areas in Beirut and south Lebanon.
Large sections of the capital were covered in fine white dust from the barrage. Fires raged, and heaps of rubble and twisted metal covered entire city blocks near the Hezbollah compound in Beirut's southern district, known as Dahiyah. The steel gates of the compound were mangled.
One building was collapsed on its side; other apartment buildings were reduced to rubble or had their upper floors collapsed into those below. Broken furniture, blankets, mattresses, clothes and stuffed toys were scattered on the streets.
The Dahiyah district was empty except for guerrillas and a few residents who returned to collect belongings before taking refuge elsewhere.
"We want to sleep on our own pillows in the shelter," Mariam Shihabiyah, a 39-year-old mother of five said as she emerged from scrounging supplies from her wrecked apartment. "I just want them and our clothes, that's all ... Can you believe what happened to Dahiyah?"
A copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, lay in the street, its dusty pages fluttering. A Hezbollah gunman picked it up reverently lifted and kissed it.
Copyright © 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved.
Questions or Comments
Privacy Policy -Terms of Service - Copyright/IP Policy - Ad Feedback
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Iran leader Ali Khameini declares Sunday: Hizballah will never be disarmed
July 16, 2006, 4:58 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile: This was Iran’s first direct guarantee of support for the embattled Lebanese Shiite group since hostilities were launched Wednesday, July 12. It is interpreted as a promise of weapons and, if necessary, fighting men to avert a Hizballah defeat. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources see also a message addressed to the Olmert government that Israel will not achieve its objectives in Lebanon or succeed in dictating new rules.
Earlier, Tehran threatened Israel against attacking Syria
An Iranian spokesman said Sunday: “We are standing by the Syrian people. Israel faces “unimaginable losses”. Hizballah was not mentioned. The Syrian government promised “a firm, direct and unlimited response to any attack by Israel.”
Israeli spokesmen have reiterated that Syria is not targeted for attack but accused Iran of helping Hizballah attack the Israeli missile boat Friday.
The night of July 12, after the Hizballah kidnap of two Israeli soldiers, DEBKAfile reported that Iran’s national security adviser Ali Larijani flew into Damascus in line with the recently-signed Iranian-Syrian mutual defense pact. His presence affirmed that an Israeli attack on Syria will be deemed an assault on Iran. It also links the Israeli hostage crisis to Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West.
The Syrian army went on a state of preparedness as did the Iranian air force, missile units and navy are also on high alert.
DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report Hizballah acted on orders from Tehran to open a second front against Israel, partly to ease IDF military pressure on the Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but also for three more reasons:.
1. To show the flag as a champion and defender of its ally, Hamas.
2. To complement to its latest order to go into action against American and British forces in southern Iraq.
3. To hijack the agenda of the G-8 summit in St. Petersberg and divert it from Iran’s nuclear case and the situation in Iraq.
Before their attack, our sources reported Hizballah’s leaders went into hiding and moved stocks of ordnance and missile underground to the Palestinian Ahmed Jibril’s tunnel system at Naama, 30 km south of Beirut, which was built in the 1980s by East German engineers.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
Iran leader Ali Khameini declares Sunday: Hizballah will never be disarmed
July 16, 2006, 4:58 PM (GMT+02:00)
DEBKAfile: This was Iran’s first direct guarantee of support for the embattled Lebanese Shiite group since hostilities were launched Wednesday, July 12. It is interpreted as a promise of weapons and, if necessary, fighting men to avert a Hizballah defeat. DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources see also a message addressed to the Olmert government that Israel will not achieve its objectives in Lebanon or succeed in dictating new rules.
Earlier, Tehran threatened Israel against attacking Syria
An Iranian spokesman said Sunday: “We are standing by the Syrian people. Israel faces “unimaginable losses”. Hizballah was not mentioned. The Syrian government promised “a firm, direct and unlimited response to any attack by Israel.”
Israeli spokesmen have reiterated that Syria is not targeted for attack but accused Iran of helping Hizballah attack the Israeli missile boat Friday.
The night of July 12, after the Hizballah kidnap of two Israeli soldiers, DEBKAfile reported that Iran’s national security adviser Ali Larijani flew into Damascus in line with the recently-signed Iranian-Syrian mutual defense pact. His presence affirmed that an Israeli attack on Syria will be deemed an assault on Iran. It also links the Israeli hostage crisis to Iran’s nuclear standoff with the West.
The Syrian army went on a state of preparedness as did the Iranian air force, missile units and navy are also on high alert.
DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report Hizballah acted on orders from Tehran to open a second front against Israel, partly to ease IDF military pressure on the Hamas in the Gaza Strip, but also for three more reasons:.
1. To show the flag as a champion and defender of its ally, Hamas.
2. To complement to its latest order to go into action against American and British forces in southern Iraq.
3. To hijack the agenda of the G-8 summit in St. Petersberg and divert it from Iran’s nuclear case and the situation in Iraq.
Before their attack, our sources reported Hizballah’s leaders went into hiding and moved stocks of ordnance and missile underground to the Palestinian Ahmed Jibril’s tunnel system at Naama, 30 km south of Beirut, which was built in the 1980s by East German engineers.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Israeli jets focus on six Hizballah targets Saturday in S. Beirut, the Beqaa Valley and on the Lebanese Mediterranean coast
July 16, 2006, 12:09 AM (GMT+02:00)
In the S. Beirut suburb of Dahya, the Hizballah’s command and communications compound was pounded; in the Beqaa Valley, Israeli warplanes raided Hizballah weapons stores, command posts, training camps and logistic centers. A Katyusha launch squad was struck. Also singled out for demolition were Lebanese army radar stations in the ports of Tripoli, Junya, Beirut and Sidon, which guided to target the Iran-made C-802 missile that struck the Israeli warship off Beirut Friday, July 14. One Israeli crewman was killed, three are missing. Israel continues to maintain its air, land and sea blockade of Lebanon – and strikes against roads, bridges and airports - to restrict Hizballah terrorist movements and hamper their procurement of fresh weapons supplies and manpower.
Also destroyed Saturday, were the Beirut premises of Hamas senior operatives Muhammed Nazal and Muhammed Hamdan.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
Israeli jets focus on six Hizballah targets Saturday in S. Beirut, the Beqaa Valley and on the Lebanese Mediterranean coast
July 16, 2006, 12:09 AM (GMT+02:00)
In the S. Beirut suburb of Dahya, the Hizballah’s command and communications compound was pounded; in the Beqaa Valley, Israeli warplanes raided Hizballah weapons stores, command posts, training camps and logistic centers. A Katyusha launch squad was struck. Also singled out for demolition were Lebanese army radar stations in the ports of Tripoli, Junya, Beirut and Sidon, which guided to target the Iran-made C-802 missile that struck the Israeli warship off Beirut Friday, July 14. One Israeli crewman was killed, three are missing. Israel continues to maintain its air, land and sea blockade of Lebanon – and strikes against roads, bridges and airports - to restrict Hizballah terrorist movements and hamper their procurement of fresh weapons supplies and manpower.
Also destroyed Saturday, were the Beirut premises of Hamas senior operatives Muhammed Nazal and Muhammed Hamdan.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
South Lebanese civilians flee towns and village on order from Israel ahead of air strikes against Hizballah targets and rocket launchers
July 16, 2006, 4:38 PM (GMT+02:00)
Mayors and citizens in contact with Israelis across the border have appealed to Israeli leaders to spare their villages and towns. Hizballah fired rockets at Druze villages on Golan Sunday. No reports of casualties.
Earlier, the Israeli air force targeted launch sites south of Tyre which sent rockets against Haifa Sunday. Lebanese sources report five people were killed. Sunday,July 16, 113 Lebanese are estimated to have died in the five days since Israel launched its air offensive against Hizballah.
The aerial bombardment of southern Beirut continues Sunday after the Hizballah building over Hassan Nasrallah’s command bunker was flattened overnight.
The Israeli air force has targeted 11 Hizballah rocket crews in last 48 hours, two Saturday night. The Israel navy continues to shell rocket stations on the Lebanese coast. The warships apply new counter-measures against Hizballah missiles.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
South Lebanese civilians flee towns and village on order from Israel ahead of air strikes against Hizballah targets and rocket launchers
July 16, 2006, 4:38 PM (GMT+02:00)
Mayors and citizens in contact with Israelis across the border have appealed to Israeli leaders to spare their villages and towns. Hizballah fired rockets at Druze villages on Golan Sunday. No reports of casualties.
Earlier, the Israeli air force targeted launch sites south of Tyre which sent rockets against Haifa Sunday. Lebanese sources report five people were killed. Sunday,July 16, 113 Lebanese are estimated to have died in the five days since Israel launched its air offensive against Hizballah.
The aerial bombardment of southern Beirut continues Sunday after the Hizballah building over Hassan Nasrallah’s command bunker was flattened overnight.
The Israeli air force has targeted 11 Hizballah rocket crews in last 48 hours, two Saturday night. The Israel navy continues to shell rocket stations on the Lebanese coast. The warships apply new counter-measures against Hizballah missiles.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
Hizballah TV al Manar crashes Sunday shortly after latest warning to Israel, returns with poor quality broadcast
July 16, 2006, 11:18 AM (GMT+02:00)
Israel air force has repeatedly struck the station in S. Beirut. Hizballah warned earlier: “In the first attack we deliberately avoided the petrochemical industries of Haifa. If Israeli air raids continue, we won’t miss again.”
Israeli homeland authorities order nearly one million residents of the city, its environs and northern Israel to stay under shelter and off the streets. Eight people were killed in Haifa, more than 20 injured, in heavy rocket barrage from Lebanon Sunday morning.
July 16, 2006, 11:18 AM (GMT+02:00)
Israel air force has repeatedly struck the station in S. Beirut. Hizballah warned earlier: “In the first attack we deliberately avoided the petrochemical industries of Haifa. If Israeli air raids continue, we won’t miss again.”
Israeli homeland authorities order nearly one million residents of the city, its environs and northern Israel to stay under shelter and off the streets. Eight people were killed in Haifa, more than 20 injured, in heavy rocket barrage from Lebanon Sunday morning.
http://www.dispatch.com/editorials-story.p...714-A15-02.html
Israeli invasion is self-defeating
Friday, July 14, 2006
JESSICA ASHOOH
Mortars pound the scrublands on either side of the Israel-Lebanon border and Israeli soldiers take up positions in southern Lebanon while the United States and Europe sit back and wring their hands in a passive expression of self-imposed inefficacy. This scene has been played out so many times over the past 30 years that it could easily describe any day from 1978. Yet the fact that it is happening in 2006 illustrates the time warp that is Middle East security.
Wednesday’s incursion is the latest in a long series of retaliatory operations against militants in southern Lebanon. But such operations never work. If they did, Israel’s bordersecurity problem would have been resolved in 1978, when its army first entered Lebanon.
Rather than quelling the attacks, such drastic military responses escalate them and severely destabilize the entire region. In essence, Israeli action in Lebanon is akin to trying to put out a fire with gasoline.
The invasion is exactly what Hezbollah wants: a nationalist rallying point to bring even moderate Lebanese to the anti-Israeli cause. In the hours after troops crossed into Lebanon, Hezbollah supporters were in the streets of Beirut dancing and handing out sweets while making preparations for a major demonstration. Meanwhile, Israeli officials continued to make the Hezbollah propaganda machine’s work impossibly easy as Defense Forces chief Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz threatened to "turn Lebanon’s clock back 20 years."
But the sad truth is that there is little difference between these events and those of 20 years ago. Tit-for-tat retaliation games couldn’t solve the conflict then, and won’t now. While there is no quick fix to the Israel-Lebanon problem, which like so many other troubles in the region is strapped in the straightjacket of the Palestinian issue, there are options other than invasion that would go a long way in easing the tension.
First, Israel must stop walking into the public-relations traps that Hezbollah repeatedly sets for it. While the group’s frequent kidnappings are intolerable and inexcusable, the Israeli response encourages them through its predictability. Hezbollah knows it can count on a big boost at home through baiting the Israelis into crossing the border, a sore subject among even the most moderate of Lebanese, given Israel’s 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon. In fact, it was this presence that originally gave birth to Hezbollah, which was formed as a resistance against the occupying forces. The group, which has become a full political party in Lebanon’s democracy, experienced the greatest threat to its existence during the relative calm following Israel’s withdrawal in 2000. In the absence of an immediate Israeli presence against which to rebel, talk in Beirut turned to disarming the group. Simply put, Hezbollah relies on Israel’s militarism for its very existence.
History has also shown that Israeli military presence in Lebanon tends to bring other unsavory additions to the neighborhood, namely Syria. Syrian troops, which held Lebanon in a 29-year stranglehold until driven out by mass protest in 2005, remained in the country for that long on the sole pretext of counterbalancing the Israeli forces stationed in the south. Hence, an encore presence in Lebanon on the part of Israel could give Damascus the excuse it craves to reassert its military presence in its tiny neighbor.
Both these scenarios would be bad news for Israel by internationalizing its conflict with the Palestinians, drawing the region back into the political quicksand that it had somewhat wriggled out of through the liberation of Lebanon, and ultimately countering any Pyrrhic victory that recovering the kidnapped troops would provide.
Thus, the greatest weapon that Israel can use in its fight against militant fanaticism is restraint. This fact should be sternly brought to Jerusalem’s attention by the United States, whose security interests in the war on terror cannot withstand the public-diplomacy nightmare of being perceived as complicit to Israel’s cat-and-mouse border games.
Jessica Ashooh is a terrorism analyst at the World Security Institute in Washington, D.C.
jashooh@cdi.org
Israeli invasion is self-defeating
Friday, July 14, 2006
JESSICA ASHOOH
Mortars pound the scrublands on either side of the Israel-Lebanon border and Israeli soldiers take up positions in southern Lebanon while the United States and Europe sit back and wring their hands in a passive expression of self-imposed inefficacy. This scene has been played out so many times over the past 30 years that it could easily describe any day from 1978. Yet the fact that it is happening in 2006 illustrates the time warp that is Middle East security.
Wednesday’s incursion is the latest in a long series of retaliatory operations against militants in southern Lebanon. But such operations never work. If they did, Israel’s bordersecurity problem would have been resolved in 1978, when its army first entered Lebanon.
Rather than quelling the attacks, such drastic military responses escalate them and severely destabilize the entire region. In essence, Israeli action in Lebanon is akin to trying to put out a fire with gasoline.
The invasion is exactly what Hezbollah wants: a nationalist rallying point to bring even moderate Lebanese to the anti-Israeli cause. In the hours after troops crossed into Lebanon, Hezbollah supporters were in the streets of Beirut dancing and handing out sweets while making preparations for a major demonstration. Meanwhile, Israeli officials continued to make the Hezbollah propaganda machine’s work impossibly easy as Defense Forces chief Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz threatened to "turn Lebanon’s clock back 20 years."
But the sad truth is that there is little difference between these events and those of 20 years ago. Tit-for-tat retaliation games couldn’t solve the conflict then, and won’t now. While there is no quick fix to the Israel-Lebanon problem, which like so many other troubles in the region is strapped in the straightjacket of the Palestinian issue, there are options other than invasion that would go a long way in easing the tension.
First, Israel must stop walking into the public-relations traps that Hezbollah repeatedly sets for it. While the group’s frequent kidnappings are intolerable and inexcusable, the Israeli response encourages them through its predictability. Hezbollah knows it can count on a big boost at home through baiting the Israelis into crossing the border, a sore subject among even the most moderate of Lebanese, given Israel’s 22-year occupation of southern Lebanon. In fact, it was this presence that originally gave birth to Hezbollah, which was formed as a resistance against the occupying forces. The group, which has become a full political party in Lebanon’s democracy, experienced the greatest threat to its existence during the relative calm following Israel’s withdrawal in 2000. In the absence of an immediate Israeli presence against which to rebel, talk in Beirut turned to disarming the group. Simply put, Hezbollah relies on Israel’s militarism for its very existence.
History has also shown that Israeli military presence in Lebanon tends to bring other unsavory additions to the neighborhood, namely Syria. Syrian troops, which held Lebanon in a 29-year stranglehold until driven out by mass protest in 2005, remained in the country for that long on the sole pretext of counterbalancing the Israeli forces stationed in the south. Hence, an encore presence in Lebanon on the part of Israel could give Damascus the excuse it craves to reassert its military presence in its tiny neighbor.
Both these scenarios would be bad news for Israel by internationalizing its conflict with the Palestinians, drawing the region back into the political quicksand that it had somewhat wriggled out of through the liberation of Lebanon, and ultimately countering any Pyrrhic victory that recovering the kidnapped troops would provide.
Thus, the greatest weapon that Israel can use in its fight against militant fanaticism is restraint. This fact should be sternly brought to Jerusalem’s attention by the United States, whose security interests in the war on terror cannot withstand the public-diplomacy nightmare of being perceived as complicit to Israel’s cat-and-mouse border games.
Jessica Ashooh is a terrorism analyst at the World Security Institute in Washington, D.C.
jashooh@cdi.org
Israel renews south Lebanon raids BBC News
Israeli air raids have killed at least 23 people in southern Lebanon hours after Israel warned that the area would come under further heavy attack. More than 120 Lebanese have died since clashes with Israel began on Wednesday. Twelve Israeli civilians have been killed from Hezbollah rockets, including eight in Haifa on Sunday. Early on Monday, Israel planes targeted the port of Tripoli, Lebanon's second city, for the first time. There is so far no word on casualties. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Haifa attack - the worst on Israel since clashes started - would have "far-reaching consequences".
At least 16 died in Israeli air strikes on Sunday the city of Tyre, while attacks on a border village killed at least seven, including five with Canadian and Lebanese citizenship. Rescuers searched the debris in Tyre with more feared trapped under the rubble. The strikes came hours after the Hezbollah attack on Haifa, which prompted Israel to warn the perpetrators would pay a "very heavy price". Correspondents say the large death-count in a strike on Israel's third-largest city has rattled the whole country. The eight killed were part of a train repair crew working at a railway depot when the rocket crashed through the roof. It is the second time in three days that Haifa has been hit by Hezbollah rockets, and raises Israel's death toll from the fighting to 24 overall. According to Israel Radio a second wave of four rockets then hit, followed by a new barrage of rockets to the north of the city. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it was retaliation for the deaths of Lebanese civilians and the destruction of the country's infrastructure during the Israeli air raids. Israel has carried out a heavy bombing campaign across Lebanon, hitting Hezbollah sites, but also a wide range of civilian targets.
City exodus
On Sunday, warplanes renewed attacks on Beirut's airport. Hezbollah's al-Manar TV was attacked in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and a major power station in the city was struck. There was also a raid in the eastern city of Baalbek, where local Hezbollah leaders were believed to have gathered. US security teams have landed at the US Embassy in Beirut to start planning the evacuation of Americans. Foreign nationals have been leaving Lebanon to escape the violence. As the violence has escalated the number of locals attempting to flee has grown, but with the Israelis targeting the border areas and nearby roads, this has become increasingly difficult.
Israeli air raids have killed at least 23 people in southern Lebanon hours after Israel warned that the area would come under further heavy attack. More than 120 Lebanese have died since clashes with Israel began on Wednesday. Twelve Israeli civilians have been killed from Hezbollah rockets, including eight in Haifa on Sunday. Early on Monday, Israel planes targeted the port of Tripoli, Lebanon's second city, for the first time. There is so far no word on casualties. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the Haifa attack - the worst on Israel since clashes started - would have "far-reaching consequences".
QUOTE("G8 nations statement")
These extremist elements... cannot be allowed to plunge the Middle East into chaos
The Israeli air strikes began after Hezbollah seized two Israeli soldiers in a raid into Israel on Wednesday. In other developments:- The Israeli army says Hezbollah rockets fired from Lebanon have struck deeper into Israel than ever before, hitting the town of Afula, 50km from the border, and the outskirts of Nazareth
- New Israeli air strikes late on Sunday set fuel tanks ablaze at Beirut's international airport
- Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah says the battle against Israel is "just at the beginning", in his first televised appearance since the offensive
- Iran's foreign ministry denies Israeli allegations that it supplied missiles to Hezbollah
- Top European Union and United Nations officials arrive in Beirut for talks on the crisis. The UN envoy backs Lebanon's call for a ceasefire but urges the release of the captured soldiers
- Leaders of the G8 nations blame extremist forces for the crisis, but call on Israel to end military operations.
At least 16 died in Israeli air strikes on Sunday the city of Tyre, while attacks on a border village killed at least seven, including five with Canadian and Lebanese citizenship. Rescuers searched the debris in Tyre with more feared trapped under the rubble. The strikes came hours after the Hezbollah attack on Haifa, which prompted Israel to warn the perpetrators would pay a "very heavy price". Correspondents say the large death-count in a strike on Israel's third-largest city has rattled the whole country. The eight killed were part of a train repair crew working at a railway depot when the rocket crashed through the roof. It is the second time in three days that Haifa has been hit by Hezbollah rockets, and raises Israel's death toll from the fighting to 24 overall. According to Israel Radio a second wave of four rockets then hit, followed by a new barrage of rockets to the north of the city. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying it was retaliation for the deaths of Lebanese civilians and the destruction of the country's infrastructure during the Israeli air raids. Israel has carried out a heavy bombing campaign across Lebanon, hitting Hezbollah sites, but also a wide range of civilian targets.
City exodus
On Sunday, warplanes renewed attacks on Beirut's airport. Hezbollah's al-Manar TV was attacked in the southern suburbs of Beirut, and a major power station in the city was struck. There was also a raid in the eastern city of Baalbek, where local Hezbollah leaders were believed to have gathered. US security teams have landed at the US Embassy in Beirut to start planning the evacuation of Americans. Foreign nationals have been leaving Lebanon to escape the violence. As the violence has escalated the number of locals attempting to flee has grown, but with the Israelis targeting the border areas and nearby roads, this has become increasingly difficult.
25 Lebanese Civilians Killed in Fresh Israeli Attacks
The latest deaths mean that Israel has killed at least 130 Lebanese civilians since Wednesday.
By Aljazeera
One air strike killed at least 10 people in the coastal city of Tyre on Sunday evening. Another raid destroyed several houses near the Israeli border and killed at least 16 civilians.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14009.htm
Only the beginning, warns Nasrallah
Nasrallah showed determination to continue to fight Israel
By Aljazeera
The leader of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah has warned that the current confrontation with Israel was only the beginning.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14011.htm
Hizbollah's response reveals months of planning
If Lebanese dislike Hizbollah, they hate Israelis
By Robert Fisk
It will be called the massacre of Marwaheen. All the civilians killed by the Israelis had been ordered to abandon their homes in the border village by the Israelis themselves a few hours earlier. That's when the Israeli jets arrived to bomb them, killing 20 Lebanese, at least nine of them children. The local fire brigade could not put out the fires as they all burned alive in the inferno. Another "terrorist" target had been eliminated.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14006.htm
Israeli is preparing the battlefield
Stratfor Intelligence Report
We are now in the period preceding major conventional operations. Israel is in the process of sealing the Lebanese coast. They have disrupted Lebanese telecommunications, although they have not completely collapsed the structure. Israeli aircraft are attacking Hezbollah's infrastructure and road system. In the meantime, Hezbollah, aware it is going to be hit hard, is in a use-it or-lose-it scenario, firing what projectiles it can into Israel.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14005.htm
Wildly disproportionate attack on Lebanon seems like pretext to confront Iran
By Linda McQuaig
Is it really Iran that is pushing for war? Think about it. Why would Iran want to provoke a war with Israel and the U.S. — both heavily armed nuclear powers — when it has no nuclear weapons itself?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14013.htm
Hezbollah Rocket Attack Kills Eight in Haifa, Israel:
At least 110 Lebanese civilians, three soldiers and two Hezbollah fighters are dead, according to Lebanese police
http://tinyurl.com/n78vx
U.S. Bombs On U.S. Aircraft Flown By Israeli Kills Eight Canadians:
Eight Canadians were killed in Lebanon on Sunday, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay told CTV television
http://tinyurl.com/pe74j
U.S. grants Israelis a green light :
The effective U.S. green light to Israel appeared to leave the United States at odds with most of its allies
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/16/news/policy.php
In Pictures: Israeli Attacks Kill Civilians:
- Warning - Graphic Images
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14014.htm
Israeli strikes are part of a broader strategy :
Israel, with U.S. support, intends to resist calls for a cease-fire and continue a longer-term strategy of punishing Hezbollah, which is likely to include several weeks of precision bombing in Lebanon, according to senior Israeli and U.S. officials.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13884768/
12 Egyptian Sailors Rescued :
Their ship was fired on, set ablaze by an Israeli barge that was firing at random in all directions.
http://www.sana.org/eng/21/2006/07/15/47652.htm
Lebanese villagers ordered out:
Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter said the move was aimed at forcing an exodus of tens of thousands of civilians in order to put pressure on the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militia.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19814098-23109,00.html
Israeli army using bunker-buster bombs:
The IDF mobilized a reserve infantry division in preparation for a possible ground incursion into south Lebanon, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
http://tinyurl.com/gbkh5
Lebanon blames US for UN silence:
Lebanon has accused the United States of blocking a Security Council statement calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, and said the impotence of the UN's most powerful body sent wrong signals to small countries.
http://tinyurl.com/lgobt
UN is a US puppet, Syria charges :
The United Nations is a "puppet" of the US administration, a Syrian state newspaper said Friday, blasting the Security Council for failing to take any action on Israel's deadly military assaults on Gaza and Lebanon.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=133709
2,000 Israelis hold anti-war demo in Tel Aviv:
Around 2,000 people marched in Israel's commercial capital of Tel Aviv on Sunday to demand an end to the punishing offensive against Lebanon that has left some 150 dead, organisers said.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=133833
The latest deaths mean that Israel has killed at least 130 Lebanese civilians since Wednesday.
By Aljazeera
One air strike killed at least 10 people in the coastal city of Tyre on Sunday evening. Another raid destroyed several houses near the Israeli border and killed at least 16 civilians.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14009.htm
Only the beginning, warns Nasrallah
Nasrallah showed determination to continue to fight Israel
By Aljazeera
The leader of the Lebanese movement Hezbollah has warned that the current confrontation with Israel was only the beginning.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14011.htm
Hizbollah's response reveals months of planning
If Lebanese dislike Hizbollah, they hate Israelis
By Robert Fisk
It will be called the massacre of Marwaheen. All the civilians killed by the Israelis had been ordered to abandon their homes in the border village by the Israelis themselves a few hours earlier. That's when the Israeli jets arrived to bomb them, killing 20 Lebanese, at least nine of them children. The local fire brigade could not put out the fires as they all burned alive in the inferno. Another "terrorist" target had been eliminated.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14006.htm
Israeli is preparing the battlefield
Stratfor Intelligence Report
We are now in the period preceding major conventional operations. Israel is in the process of sealing the Lebanese coast. They have disrupted Lebanese telecommunications, although they have not completely collapsed the structure. Israeli aircraft are attacking Hezbollah's infrastructure and road system. In the meantime, Hezbollah, aware it is going to be hit hard, is in a use-it or-lose-it scenario, firing what projectiles it can into Israel.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14005.htm
Wildly disproportionate attack on Lebanon seems like pretext to confront Iran
By Linda McQuaig
Is it really Iran that is pushing for war? Think about it. Why would Iran want to provoke a war with Israel and the U.S. — both heavily armed nuclear powers — when it has no nuclear weapons itself?
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14013.htm
Hezbollah Rocket Attack Kills Eight in Haifa, Israel:
At least 110 Lebanese civilians, three soldiers and two Hezbollah fighters are dead, according to Lebanese police
http://tinyurl.com/n78vx
U.S. Bombs On U.S. Aircraft Flown By Israeli Kills Eight Canadians:
Eight Canadians were killed in Lebanon on Sunday, Foreign Minister Peter MacKay told CTV television
http://tinyurl.com/pe74j
U.S. grants Israelis a green light :
The effective U.S. green light to Israel appeared to leave the United States at odds with most of its allies
http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/07/16/news/policy.php
In Pictures: Israeli Attacks Kill Civilians:
- Warning - Graphic Images
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14014.htm
Israeli strikes are part of a broader strategy :
Israel, with U.S. support, intends to resist calls for a cease-fire and continue a longer-term strategy of punishing Hezbollah, which is likely to include several weeks of precision bombing in Lebanon, according to senior Israeli and U.S. officials.
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13884768/
12 Egyptian Sailors Rescued :
Their ship was fired on, set ablaze by an Israeli barge that was firing at random in all directions.
http://www.sana.org/eng/21/2006/07/15/47652.htm
Lebanese villagers ordered out:
Internal Security Minister Avi Dichter said the move was aimed at forcing an exodus of tens of thousands of civilians in order to put pressure on the Lebanese Shiite Hezbollah militia.
http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,19814098-23109,00.html
Israeli army using bunker-buster bombs:
The IDF mobilized a reserve infantry division in preparation for a possible ground incursion into south Lebanon, The Jerusalem Post has learned.
http://tinyurl.com/gbkh5
Lebanon blames US for UN silence:
Lebanon has accused the United States of blocking a Security Council statement calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, and said the impotence of the UN's most powerful body sent wrong signals to small countries.
http://tinyurl.com/lgobt
UN is a US puppet, Syria charges :
The United Nations is a "puppet" of the US administration, a Syrian state newspaper said Friday, blasting the Security Council for failing to take any action on Israel's deadly military assaults on Gaza and Lebanon.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=133709
2,000 Israelis hold anti-war demo in Tel Aviv:
Around 2,000 people marched in Israel's commercial capital of Tel Aviv on Sunday to demand an end to the punishing offensive against Lebanon that has left some 150 dead, organisers said.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=133833
Syria vows to defend itself if Israel attack:
Syria warned that it would respond directly and by all means necessary to any Israeli attack on its territory, in its first official reaction to Israel’s offensive on neighbouring Lebanon.
http://tinyurl.com/oq829
Assad pledges Syrian help for Lebanon:
Syria will put its resources at the disposal of Lebanon to help cope with Israeli attacks devastating the country, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Lebanese President Emile Lahoud by phone on Saturday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060715/wl_nm/...ia_lebanon_dc_1
Syria ‘ready for anything’:
Syria is bracing itself for “any eventuality” as the regime nervously eyes a relentless Israeli operation over the border in Lebanon and faces up to increasingly hostile US rhetoric.
http://www.dawn.com/2006/07/16/int2.htm
Statement from the General Secretary of Hizballah:
I would like to say a few words – a word to the Lebanese people, a word to the resistance fighters, a word to the Zionists, and a word to the Arab rulers.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14007.htm
Iran: President urges world community not to close eyes to Zionists aggressions:
The president warned the Zionist regime that if they do not respond to this invitation properly, they should expect a horrible destiny.
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-24/0607168241162731.htm
Iran: If Muslim world must respond, Israel will regret it: Iranian news agency
'Faras', reported that the defense minister warned against harsh outcomes in the event of an attack on Syria or continued Israeli operations in Lebanon.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3276563,00.html
Israel Kills 3 Palestinians In Occupied Gaza:
Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers, backed by helicopters firing machine guns, moved in darkness into farmland near Beit Hanoun
http://tinyurl.com/nqdrc
In case you missed it:
Jonathan Cook: Covering up Gaza:
The state of Israel, fearful of the truth, continues to control media coverage of its brutal occupation
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14008.htm
George Galloway: "Recognize the Centrality of the Palestine Question":
Palestine is the only Arab country in which there is a free vote, and in it the Islamist party won, and the response from external powers was that the party that won should immediately scrap the policy on which it won the election and adopt the policy of the party it defeated.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14015.htm
Iraqi PM denounces 'criminal' strikes on Lebanon and Gaza: -
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday denounced Israel's attacks on Lebanon, calling them dangerous for the entire Middle East.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=133705
Syria warned that it would respond directly and by all means necessary to any Israeli attack on its territory, in its first official reaction to Israel’s offensive on neighbouring Lebanon.
http://tinyurl.com/oq829
Assad pledges Syrian help for Lebanon:
Syria will put its resources at the disposal of Lebanon to help cope with Israeli attacks devastating the country, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad told Lebanese President Emile Lahoud by phone on Saturday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060715/wl_nm/...ia_lebanon_dc_1
Syria ‘ready for anything’:
Syria is bracing itself for “any eventuality” as the regime nervously eyes a relentless Israeli operation over the border in Lebanon and faces up to increasingly hostile US rhetoric.
http://www.dawn.com/2006/07/16/int2.htm
Statement from the General Secretary of Hizballah:
I would like to say a few words – a word to the Lebanese people, a word to the resistance fighters, a word to the Zionists, and a word to the Arab rulers.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14007.htm
Iran: President urges world community not to close eyes to Zionists aggressions:
The president warned the Zionist regime that if they do not respond to this invitation properly, they should expect a horrible destiny.
http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-24/0607168241162731.htm
Iran: If Muslim world must respond, Israel will regret it: Iranian news agency
'Faras', reported that the defense minister warned against harsh outcomes in the event of an attack on Syria or continued Israeli operations in Lebanon.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3276563,00.html
Israel Kills 3 Palestinians In Occupied Gaza:
Israeli tanks and armored personnel carriers, backed by helicopters firing machine guns, moved in darkness into farmland near Beit Hanoun
http://tinyurl.com/nqdrc
In case you missed it:
Jonathan Cook: Covering up Gaza:
The state of Israel, fearful of the truth, continues to control media coverage of its brutal occupation
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14008.htm
George Galloway: "Recognize the Centrality of the Palestine Question":
Palestine is the only Arab country in which there is a free vote, and in it the Islamist party won, and the response from external powers was that the party that won should immediately scrap the policy on which it won the election and adopt the policy of the party it defeated.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14015.htm
Iraqi PM denounces 'criminal' strikes on Lebanon and Gaza: -
Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki on Saturday denounced Israel's attacks on Lebanon, calling them dangerous for the entire Middle East.
http://www.turkishpress.com/news.asp?id=133705
Bush May Send Rice to Help Calm Mideast New York Times
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called today for an international “stabilization force’’ to quell the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia, while President Bush pungently suggested that Mr. Annan should pay more attention to reining in Hezbollah. Mr. Blair and Mr. Annan called for a deployment that would be far larger than the 2,000-member United Nations observer force currently stationed in southern Lebanon. Without such a force, “then I think it’s very difficult to see how we restore calm,’’ Mr. Blair said, according to Agence-France Presse. American and Israeli officials gave a tepid response to the idea, with Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, telling the Knesset that a ceasefire could only come after Hezbollah returns two captured soldiers and that Lebanese, not international soldiers should be deployed along the border, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Bush did not address the plan directly. But he expressed his unhappiness about Mr. Annan’s overall approach to the crisis quite bluntly and, unintentionally, quite publicly. His words were picked up by an open microphone while he and Mr. Blair chatted during a lunch that followed Mr. Blair and Mr. Annan’s joint statement on the final day of the Group of 8 summit here. Leaning over the back of Mr. Bush’s chair, Mr. Blair first brought up trade discussions, as the president chewed thoughtfully on a roll. Mr. Bush then abruptly changed the subject to the Mideast, complaining about Mr. Annan’s approach to the crisis, and for holding the view — which is shared by many of the leaders here — that Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah should halt the violence and then hash out their differences. The Americans have said that Israel would likely only stand down if Hamas and Hezbollah returned the soldiers they have kidnapped and ceased their shelling of Israeli towns. “I don’t like the sequence of it,’’ Mr. Bush said. “His attitude is basically ceasefire and everything else happens.” He went on to say the U.N. should directly enlist the Syrians to intervene. “I feel like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen,” he said to Mr. Blair, referring to Syria’s president, Bashir Assad. “See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this "expletive deleted" and it’s over,” Mr. Bush said. Mr. Blair reiterated his argument, made earlier in the day with Mr. Annan, for an international force to be dispatched to the area. “I think the thing that is really difficult is you can’t stop this unless you get this international presence agreed,” Mr. Blair said. “You need to get this done quickly otherwise this thing will spiral out of cont...’’ Mr. Bush interrupted to say, “Yeah, she’s going. I think Condi’s going to go pretty soon.” Mr. Blair then argued that it would be less risky for him to take the lead in a visit to the region instead of Ms. Rice, saying her presence could put America’s prestige on the line. “If she goes out she’s got to succeed as it were, where as I can just go out and talk,” Mr. Blair said. At that point, Mr. Blair appeared to notice the nearby microphone, and leaned over to turn it off. Mr. Annan today said that the Security Council members would start working on a detailed proposal for the deployment of a stabilization force. At the United Nations, the Security Council went into its third session on Lebanon in four days, but beforehand John R. Bolton, the American ambassador, discouraged talk of sending a multilateral force to the area. Mr. Bolton said that three major questions had to be addressed first. "Would such a force be empowered to deal with the real problem ?," he said. "The real problem is Hezbollah." The second, he said, was "Would it be empowered to deal with countries like Syria and Iran that support Hezbollah?" The third was how a new force would be different or better than the existing United Nations force which has been there for 28 years and whether it would undercut past Security Council resolutions which have sought to strengthen Lebanese institutions. Mr. Bolton was also asked why the United States was not backing an immediate ceasefire. "We could have a ceasefire in a matter of nanoseconds if Hezbollah and Hamas would release their kidnap victims and would stop engaging in rocket attacks and other acts of terrorism against Israel," he said. Mr. Bolton said that any Security Council action on Lebanon should await the return of a three-man mission that Secretary General Kofi Annan dispatched Friday to report back on the crises in Gaza and Lebanon. United Nations officials said the team was due back in New York the end of the week. The three, Middle East advisors Terje Roed-Larsen and Alvaro de Soto and Mr. Annan’s political advisor, Vijay Nambiar, have met with Arab League officials and leaders of Egypt, Oman, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian authority in Cairo and with Fouad Siniora, Lebanon’s prime minister, and the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, in Beirut. Mr. Nambiar said in Beirut Monday that the team was now going to Israel and might return to Lebanon afterwards. It is also scheduled to go to Syria and the Palestinian territories. "Our work will require the support and goodwill for my delegation from all the parties," he said. "But they should know that the consequences of failure could indeed be grave." In Jerusalem, a government spokeswoman said that it was too soon to discuss a buffer force. “We’re at the stage where we want to be sure that Hezbollah is not deployed at our northern border,’’ said the spokeswoman, Miri Eisin. On Sunday, during their meeting in St. Petersburg, the leaders of the Group of 8 countries blamed “extremist forces” and “those who support them” for the surge of Middle East violence. They urged Israel to exercise “utmost restraint” and expressed their “deepening concern for rising civilian casualties on all sides and the damage to infrastructure.” The leaders did not call for an immediate cease-fire but urged Hezbollah to restore peace by releasing captured Israelis and ending attacks on Israel, followed by the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of detained Palestinian legislators belonging to Hamas. The seeming unity of that statement papered over deep divisions between the nations. Those disagreements were underscored today when the French prime minister, Dominque Villepin, headed to Beirut to express “solidarity’’ with its beleaguered government, according to Agence-France Presse. At the lunch today at the vast Konstantinovsky Palace in this suburb of St. Petersburg, not all of what the open microphone, controlled by a Russian television service, was serious diplomacy. In another segment Mr. Bush told an aide asking him about his upcoming remarks, “I’m just going to make it up, right here — I’m not going to talk too damn long like the rest of them.” He added, “Some of these guys talk too long.” A foreign counterpart was heard to agree, but it was unclear who that was. At the lunch were the leaders of the Group of 8 industrial nations — France, Germany, Japan, United States, Russia, Great Britain, Italy, and Canada – as well as those of China, India, and Brazil, among others. At another moment, Mr. Bush was clearly itching to return to the White House, saying to someone, “Good job, gotta keep this thing moving — I gotta’ leave at 2:15 — you’ll want me out of town so to free up your security forces.’’ . “Gotta go home. Got something to do tonight,” Mr. Bush said, then, apparently turning to Mr. Hu, adding, “How about you? When are you going home?”
Bush caught on tape swearing about Syria MSNBC
Bush Drops Diplomacy in Talk With Blair Captured by Microphone Bloomberg
KXLY - Guardian Unlimited - Seattle Post Intelligencer - ITV.com - all 2,623 related »
British Prime Minister Tony Blair and United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan called today for an international “stabilization force’’ to quell the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia, while President Bush pungently suggested that Mr. Annan should pay more attention to reining in Hezbollah. Mr. Blair and Mr. Annan called for a deployment that would be far larger than the 2,000-member United Nations observer force currently stationed in southern Lebanon. Without such a force, “then I think it’s very difficult to see how we restore calm,’’ Mr. Blair said, according to Agence-France Presse. American and Israeli officials gave a tepid response to the idea, with Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, telling the Knesset that a ceasefire could only come after Hezbollah returns two captured soldiers and that Lebanese, not international soldiers should be deployed along the border, The Associated Press reported. Mr. Bush did not address the plan directly. But he expressed his unhappiness about Mr. Annan’s overall approach to the crisis quite bluntly and, unintentionally, quite publicly. His words were picked up by an open microphone while he and Mr. Blair chatted during a lunch that followed Mr. Blair and Mr. Annan’s joint statement on the final day of the Group of 8 summit here. Leaning over the back of Mr. Bush’s chair, Mr. Blair first brought up trade discussions, as the president chewed thoughtfully on a roll. Mr. Bush then abruptly changed the subject to the Mideast, complaining about Mr. Annan’s approach to the crisis, and for holding the view — which is shared by many of the leaders here — that Israel and Hamas and Hezbollah should halt the violence and then hash out their differences. The Americans have said that Israel would likely only stand down if Hamas and Hezbollah returned the soldiers they have kidnapped and ceased their shelling of Israeli towns. “I don’t like the sequence of it,’’ Mr. Bush said. “His attitude is basically ceasefire and everything else happens.” He went on to say the U.N. should directly enlist the Syrians to intervene. “I feel like telling Kofi to get on the phone with Assad and make something happen,” he said to Mr. Blair, referring to Syria’s president, Bashir Assad. “See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this "expletive deleted" and it’s over,” Mr. Bush said. Mr. Blair reiterated his argument, made earlier in the day with Mr. Annan, for an international force to be dispatched to the area. “I think the thing that is really difficult is you can’t stop this unless you get this international presence agreed,” Mr. Blair said. “You need to get this done quickly otherwise this thing will spiral out of cont...’’ Mr. Bush interrupted to say, “Yeah, she’s going. I think Condi’s going to go pretty soon.” Mr. Blair then argued that it would be less risky for him to take the lead in a visit to the region instead of Ms. Rice, saying her presence could put America’s prestige on the line. “If she goes out she’s got to succeed as it were, where as I can just go out and talk,” Mr. Blair said. At that point, Mr. Blair appeared to notice the nearby microphone, and leaned over to turn it off. Mr. Annan today said that the Security Council members would start working on a detailed proposal for the deployment of a stabilization force. At the United Nations, the Security Council went into its third session on Lebanon in four days, but beforehand John R. Bolton, the American ambassador, discouraged talk of sending a multilateral force to the area. Mr. Bolton said that three major questions had to be addressed first. "Would such a force be empowered to deal with the real problem ?," he said. "The real problem is Hezbollah." The second, he said, was "Would it be empowered to deal with countries like Syria and Iran that support Hezbollah?" The third was how a new force would be different or better than the existing United Nations force which has been there for 28 years and whether it would undercut past Security Council resolutions which have sought to strengthen Lebanese institutions. Mr. Bolton was also asked why the United States was not backing an immediate ceasefire. "We could have a ceasefire in a matter of nanoseconds if Hezbollah and Hamas would release their kidnap victims and would stop engaging in rocket attacks and other acts of terrorism against Israel," he said. Mr. Bolton said that any Security Council action on Lebanon should await the return of a three-man mission that Secretary General Kofi Annan dispatched Friday to report back on the crises in Gaza and Lebanon. United Nations officials said the team was due back in New York the end of the week. The three, Middle East advisors Terje Roed-Larsen and Alvaro de Soto and Mr. Annan’s political advisor, Vijay Nambiar, have met with Arab League officials and leaders of Egypt, Oman, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the Palestinian authority in Cairo and with Fouad Siniora, Lebanon’s prime minister, and the speaker of the Lebanese parliament, Nabih Berri, in Beirut. Mr. Nambiar said in Beirut Monday that the team was now going to Israel and might return to Lebanon afterwards. It is also scheduled to go to Syria and the Palestinian territories. "Our work will require the support and goodwill for my delegation from all the parties," he said. "But they should know that the consequences of failure could indeed be grave." In Jerusalem, a government spokeswoman said that it was too soon to discuss a buffer force. “We’re at the stage where we want to be sure that Hezbollah is not deployed at our northern border,’’ said the spokeswoman, Miri Eisin. On Sunday, during their meeting in St. Petersburg, the leaders of the Group of 8 countries blamed “extremist forces” and “those who support them” for the surge of Middle East violence. They urged Israel to exercise “utmost restraint” and expressed their “deepening concern for rising civilian casualties on all sides and the damage to infrastructure.” The leaders did not call for an immediate cease-fire but urged Hezbollah to restore peace by releasing captured Israelis and ending attacks on Israel, followed by the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of detained Palestinian legislators belonging to Hamas. The seeming unity of that statement papered over deep divisions between the nations. Those disagreements were underscored today when the French prime minister, Dominque Villepin, headed to Beirut to express “solidarity’’ with its beleaguered government, according to Agence-France Presse. At the lunch today at the vast Konstantinovsky Palace in this suburb of St. Petersburg, not all of what the open microphone, controlled by a Russian television service, was serious diplomacy. In another segment Mr. Bush told an aide asking him about his upcoming remarks, “I’m just going to make it up, right here — I’m not going to talk too damn long like the rest of them.” He added, “Some of these guys talk too long.” A foreign counterpart was heard to agree, but it was unclear who that was. At the lunch were the leaders of the Group of 8 industrial nations — France, Germany, Japan, United States, Russia, Great Britain, Italy, and Canada – as well as those of China, India, and Brazil, among others. At another moment, Mr. Bush was clearly itching to return to the White House, saying to someone, “Good job, gotta keep this thing moving — I gotta’ leave at 2:15 — you’ll want me out of town so to free up your security forces.’’ . “Gotta go home. Got something to do tonight,” Mr. Bush said, then, apparently turning to Mr. Hu, adding, “How about you? When are you going home?”
Bush caught on tape swearing about Syria MSNBC
Bush Drops Diplomacy in Talk With Blair Captured by Microphone Bloomberg
KXLY - Guardian Unlimited - Seattle Post Intelligencer - ITV.com - all 2,623 related »
WHY US LOOKS TO OTHERS IN MIDEAST CRISIS - HOWARD LAFRANCHI (CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR, JULY 17): The lack of a US initiative in a region of traditional influence suggests the White House sees little to be gained from intervention at this time, but it also suggests how inattention to the region has left the US with few options.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0717/p01s02-usfp.html
BAD COP, WORSE COP: BUSH'S DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS SHOULD NOT BE MISTAKEN FOR NEUTRALITY - MICHAEL SHTENDER-AUERBACH (MOTHER JONES, JULY 13): Let us not mistake American disengagement for neutrality: all of the signs point to a U.S. administration that appears to be in full support of the Israeli agenda to topple Hamas.
http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_a...iddle_east.html
DEATH DANCE: HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON AND PALESTINE, SYRIA AND IRAN, THE U.S. AND ISRAEL: UNLESS THESE FOUR PAIRS OF ACTORS TURN AWAY FROM THEIR FAILED POLICIES, THE MIDDLE EAST WILL SINK FURTHER INTO VIOLENCE AND DESPAIR - RAMI G. KHOURI (SALON, JULY 15): With every new Israeli attack against the Hamas and Hezbollah leadership or the civilian populations, the anti-Israel, anti-U.S. resistance campaign led by Hamas and Hezbollah generates widespread political and popular support throughout the Middle East and much of the world. The world's sole superpower is peculiarly powerless in the current crisis in the Middle East.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/...airs/print.html
BUSH AND OLMERT'S DANGEROUS GAME - MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD (PROGRESSIVE, JULY 15/COMMON DREAMS): It's the U.S. and Israel against all comers, especially in the Arab and Muslim world. But as mighty as the U.S. is, and as mighty as Israel is, both will lose this game in the long run.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0715-30.htm
US MUST ACT TO STOP MIDEAST ESCALATION - JAMES ZOGBY (HUFFINGTON POST, JULY 14): The damage done by Israel's asymmetric power edge has been amplified by the U.S.'s own asymmetries of compassion and pressure -- Israel gets the compassion, while pressure is reserved for the Arabs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/...html?view=print
TOO HIGH A PRICE EDITORIAL (NATION, JULY 15/COMMON DREAMS): The United States must urgently back more active and comprehensive G-8 and UN-led diplomacy as well as make clear to Israel that it cannot support its current military action.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0715-29.htm
WELCOME TO THE HORNETS' NEST - GARY HART (HUFFINGTON TIMES, JULY 14): The U.S. is fighting a two front war with Afghanistan and Iraqi insurgents. Israel is fighting a two front war with Lebanon and the Palestinians.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart/we...html?view=print
FOR LEBANON, TIME FOR ISRAEL'S "COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT"? EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SFGATE.COM, JULY 16): Imagine if the United States, with the full force of its military might, were to launch at attack on Canada or Mexico if the masterminds of George W. Bush's unfocused "war on terror" were to determine that a likely-to-threaten-the-U.S. terrorist group were based in, say, Vancouver or Monterrey.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...5&entry_id=7091
MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST - CHRIS HEDGES (TRUTHDIG, JULY 14): When Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promises ?open war? against Israel, as he did in an address shortly after his Beirut offices were bombed, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he won?t cease his attack until Israel is secure, it is time to run for cover, especially when George W. Bush is our best hope for peace.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200607...ed_destruction/
FIGHT FOR MIDEAST DEMOCRACY FALTERING - MICHAEL RUBIN (MIDDLE EAST FORUM, JULY 14): Just as Bush?s father once called on Iraqis to stand up and fight dictatorship only to abandon them to Saddam's gunships, so too does he now abandon Arab freedom-seekers, only on a much larger scale and with far more dire consequences for both Middle Eastern democracy and U.S. credibility.
http://www.meforum.org/article/975
ISRAEL MAKES ITS 'CLEAN BREAK' - KAREN KWIATKOWSKI (ANTIWAR.COM, JULY 15): Perhaps as Israel executes her "Clean Break" (her independent action this week -- a cruel slap to her perceived enemies, and a betrayal of American interests in the Middle East), America -- led by the next Congress of the United States -- can finally begin to truly celebrate Israel?s independence, and like tired parents, reorganize our own lives and objectives and dreams accordingly.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/kwiatkowski.php?articleid=9306
A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP?: IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ISRAEL LOBBY'S INFLUENCE ON WASHINGTON - GLENN FRANKEL (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 16): Since 9/11, Americans have increasingly come to accept the idea that Israel and the United States share not just values but enemies. A Gallup Poll in February reported 68 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Israel with 23 percent unfavorable, and that Americans support Israelis over Palestinians by 59 percent to 15 percent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1201627_pf.html
GIVE ISRAEL TIME TO COMPLETE THE MISSION EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, JULY 17): The most important thing Washington can do in the coming days will be to fend off the efforts of powerful countries, like Russia and China and many in the European Union, who will attempt to mobilize pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Lebanon before it cuts Hezbollah down to size.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...16-084448-1468r
AS ISRAEL GOES FOR WITHDRAWAL, ITS ENEMIES GO BERSERK - DAVID BROOKS (NEW YORK TIMES, JULY 15): This crisis is a return to the elemental conflict between Israel and those who seek to destroy it. And what?s the world?s response? Israel is overreacting.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
IT'S OUR WAR : BUSH SHOULD GO TO JERUSALEM -- AND THE U.S. SHOULD CONFRONT IRAN - WILLIAM KRISTOL (WEEKLY STANDARD, JULY 24): What's happening is an Islamist-Israeli war. What's under attack is liberal democratic civilization, whose leading representative right now happens to be the United States. We might consider countering this act of Iranian aggression with a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/433fwbvs.asp
THE ROGUES STRIKE BACK: IRAN, SYRIA, HAMAS, AND HEZBOLLAH VS. ISRAEL - ROBERT SATLOFF (WEEKLY STANDARD, JULY 24): Indeed, the rogue foursome is linked ideologically and operationally in a much more organic way than the charter members of the Axis of Evil ever were.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/442luknw.asp
A FOUR-FRONT WAR FOR ISRAEL?- EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, JULY 15): The bulk of the blame for the terror emanating from Lebanon and the Palestinian territories belongs to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar Assad.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...14-091311-4992r
IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO IRAN - JEFF JACOBY (BOSTON GLOBE, JULY 16): Israel may be able to inflict a punishing defeat on Hezbollah, but regime change in Tehran will require American resolve. Will we muster that resolve before the mullahs get the bomb?
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...to_iran?mode=PF
WILDLY DISPROPORTIONATE ATTACK ON LEBANON SEEMS LIKE PRETEXT TO CONFRONT IRAN - LINDA MCQUAIG (TORONTO STAR, CANADA, JULY 16/COMMON DREAMS)
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0716-25.htm
MORE IRANIAN THREATS EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, JULY 16): Not everyone in the Arab world, apparently, is enthusiastic about following Tehran and Hezbollah into the abyss.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...15-082328-1179r
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0717/p01s02-usfp.html
BAD COP, WORSE COP: BUSH'S DISENGAGEMENT FROM THE MIDDLE EAST PEACE PROCESS SHOULD NOT BE MISTAKEN FOR NEUTRALITY - MICHAEL SHTENDER-AUERBACH (MOTHER JONES, JULY 13): Let us not mistake American disengagement for neutrality: all of the signs point to a U.S. administration that appears to be in full support of the Israeli agenda to topple Hamas.
http://www.motherjones.com/cgi-bin/print_a...iddle_east.html
DEATH DANCE: HAMAS AND HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON AND PALESTINE, SYRIA AND IRAN, THE U.S. AND ISRAEL: UNLESS THESE FOUR PAIRS OF ACTORS TURN AWAY FROM THEIR FAILED POLICIES, THE MIDDLE EAST WILL SINK FURTHER INTO VIOLENCE AND DESPAIR - RAMI G. KHOURI (SALON, JULY 15): With every new Israeli attack against the Hamas and Hezbollah leadership or the civilian populations, the anti-Israel, anti-U.S. resistance campaign led by Hamas and Hezbollah generates widespread political and popular support throughout the Middle East and much of the world. The world's sole superpower is peculiarly powerless in the current crisis in the Middle East.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/...airs/print.html
BUSH AND OLMERT'S DANGEROUS GAME - MATTHEW ROTHSCHILD (PROGRESSIVE, JULY 15/COMMON DREAMS): It's the U.S. and Israel against all comers, especially in the Arab and Muslim world. But as mighty as the U.S. is, and as mighty as Israel is, both will lose this game in the long run.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0715-30.htm
US MUST ACT TO STOP MIDEAST ESCALATION - JAMES ZOGBY (HUFFINGTON POST, JULY 14): The damage done by Israel's asymmetric power edge has been amplified by the U.S.'s own asymmetries of compassion and pressure -- Israel gets the compassion, while pressure is reserved for the Arabs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-zogby/...html?view=print
TOO HIGH A PRICE EDITORIAL (NATION, JULY 15/COMMON DREAMS): The United States must urgently back more active and comprehensive G-8 and UN-led diplomacy as well as make clear to Israel that it cannot support its current military action.
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0715-29.htm
WELCOME TO THE HORNETS' NEST - GARY HART (HUFFINGTON TIMES, JULY 14): The U.S. is fighting a two front war with Afghanistan and Iraqi insurgents. Israel is fighting a two front war with Lebanon and the Palestinians.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart/we...html?view=print
FOR LEBANON, TIME FOR ISRAEL'S "COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT"? EDWARD M. GOMEZ (WORLD VIEWS, SFGATE.COM, JULY 16): Imagine if the United States, with the full force of its military might, were to launch at attack on Canada or Mexico if the masterminds of George W. Bush's unfocused "war on terror" were to determine that a likely-to-threaten-the-U.S. terrorist group were based in, say, Vancouver or Monterrey.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/sfgate/det...5&entry_id=7091
MUTUALLY ASSURED DESTRUCTION IN THE MIDDLE EAST - CHRIS HEDGES (TRUTHDIG, JULY 14): When Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah promises ?open war? against Israel, as he did in an address shortly after his Beirut offices were bombed, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he won?t cease his attack until Israel is secure, it is time to run for cover, especially when George W. Bush is our best hope for peace.
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/200607...ed_destruction/
FIGHT FOR MIDEAST DEMOCRACY FALTERING - MICHAEL RUBIN (MIDDLE EAST FORUM, JULY 14): Just as Bush?s father once called on Iraqis to stand up and fight dictatorship only to abandon them to Saddam's gunships, so too does he now abandon Arab freedom-seekers, only on a much larger scale and with far more dire consequences for both Middle Eastern democracy and U.S. credibility.
http://www.meforum.org/article/975
ISRAEL MAKES ITS 'CLEAN BREAK' - KAREN KWIATKOWSKI (ANTIWAR.COM, JULY 15): Perhaps as Israel executes her "Clean Break" (her independent action this week -- a cruel slap to her perceived enemies, and a betrayal of American interests in the Middle East), America -- led by the next Congress of the United States -- can finally begin to truly celebrate Israel?s independence, and like tired parents, reorganize our own lives and objectives and dreams accordingly.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/kwiatkowski.php?articleid=9306
A BEAUTIFUL FRIENDSHIP?: IN SEARCH OF THE TRUTH ABOUT THE ISRAEL LOBBY'S INFLUENCE ON WASHINGTON - GLENN FRANKEL (WASHINGTON POST, JULY 16): Since 9/11, Americans have increasingly come to accept the idea that Israel and the United States share not just values but enemies. A Gallup Poll in February reported 68 percent of Americans have a favorable opinion of Israel with 23 percent unfavorable, and that Americans support Israelis over Palestinians by 59 percent to 15 percent.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...1201627_pf.html
GIVE ISRAEL TIME TO COMPLETE THE MISSION EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, JULY 17): The most important thing Washington can do in the coming days will be to fend off the efforts of powerful countries, like Russia and China and many in the European Union, who will attempt to mobilize pressure on Israel to agree to a ceasefire in Lebanon before it cuts Hezbollah down to size.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...16-084448-1468r
AS ISRAEL GOES FOR WITHDRAWAL, ITS ENEMIES GO BERSERK - DAVID BROOKS (NEW YORK TIMES, JULY 15): This crisis is a return to the elemental conflict between Israel and those who seek to destroy it. And what?s the world?s response? Israel is overreacting.
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/07/16/opini...agewanted=print
PAID SUBSCRIPTION
IT'S OUR WAR : BUSH SHOULD GO TO JERUSALEM -- AND THE U.S. SHOULD CONFRONT IRAN - WILLIAM KRISTOL (WEEKLY STANDARD, JULY 24): What's happening is an Islamist-Israeli war. What's under attack is liberal democratic civilization, whose leading representative right now happens to be the United States. We might consider countering this act of Iranian aggression with a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/433fwbvs.asp
THE ROGUES STRIKE BACK: IRAN, SYRIA, HAMAS, AND HEZBOLLAH VS. ISRAEL - ROBERT SATLOFF (WEEKLY STANDARD, JULY 24): Indeed, the rogue foursome is linked ideologically and operationally in a much more organic way than the charter members of the Axis of Evil ever were.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Publ...12/442luknw.asp
A FOUR-FRONT WAR FOR ISRAEL?- EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, JULY 15): The bulk of the blame for the terror emanating from Lebanon and the Palestinian territories belongs to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Syrian President Bashar Assad.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...14-091311-4992r
IT ALL BOILS DOWN TO IRAN - JEFF JACOBY (BOSTON GLOBE, JULY 16): Israel may be able to inflict a punishing defeat on Hezbollah, but regime change in Tehran will require American resolve. Will we muster that resolve before the mullahs get the bomb?
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...to_iran?mode=PF
WILDLY DISPROPORTIONATE ATTACK ON LEBANON SEEMS LIKE PRETEXT TO CONFRONT IRAN - LINDA MCQUAIG (TORONTO STAR, CANADA, JULY 16/COMMON DREAMS)
http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0716-25.htm
MORE IRANIAN THREATS EDITORIAL (WASHINGTON TIMES, JULY 16): Not everyone in the Arab world, apparently, is enthusiastic about following Tehran and Hezbollah into the abyss.
http://www.washtimes.com/functions/print.p...15-082328-1179r
ARABS WATCHING HELPLESSLY - MARC LYNCH (ABU AARDVARK, JULY 15): American public diplomacy has been virtually invisible on [Israel's actions in Gaza and Lebanon], at a time when it is more urgently needed than ever. I can understand this -- you have to have a policy if you want to try to explain or defend it, and right now the Bush administration doesn?t seem to have any policy at all beyond supporting Israel and issuing calls for 'restraint' which Israel promptly and publicly rejects. And what administration official wants to subject him or herself to tough Arab questioning on live TV right now?
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark..._watching_.html
SEE ALSO
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark..._of_the_ar.html
MIDDLE EAST CRISIS: U.S. FAILS TO DEFEND ITS INTERESTS - MUQTEDAR KHAN (OPEDNEWS.COM JULY 15): By justifying Israel's excessive use of force the U.S. has immediately distanced itself from the very powers it was seeking solidarity with -- EU and Russia. America's weak response and support of Israel has probably done billions of dollars worth of damage to the public diplomacy campaign that every one thinks is so vital to win the war on terror.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mu..._crisis_3a_.htm
STATE DEPARTMENT ON THE LEBANON DEBACLE - GEORGE AJJAN BLOG (JULY 14): On Thursday afternoon, I had the opportunity, as a member of the National Policy Council of the Arab American Institute (AAI), to take part in a conference call with Alberto Fernandez, Director of Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department.? A summary of the conversation is included in the blog.
http://www.ajjan.com/2006/07/state-departm...on-debacle.html
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark..._watching_.html
SEE ALSO
http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark..._of_the_ar.html
MIDDLE EAST CRISIS: U.S. FAILS TO DEFEND ITS INTERESTS - MUQTEDAR KHAN (OPEDNEWS.COM JULY 15): By justifying Israel's excessive use of force the U.S. has immediately distanced itself from the very powers it was seeking solidarity with -- EU and Russia. America's weak response and support of Israel has probably done billions of dollars worth of damage to the public diplomacy campaign that every one thinks is so vital to win the war on terror.
http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mu..._crisis_3a_.htm
STATE DEPARTMENT ON THE LEBANON DEBACLE - GEORGE AJJAN BLOG (JULY 14): On Thursday afternoon, I had the opportunity, as a member of the National Policy Council of the Arab American Institute (AAI), to take part in a conference call with Alberto Fernandez, Director of Public Diplomacy in the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs at the State Department.? A summary of the conversation is included in the blog.
http://www.ajjan.com/2006/07/state-departm...on-debacle.html
Israeli strikes on Lebanon kill 42
By Lin Noueihed
Israeli air strikes killed 42 people across Lebanon on Monday, raising the death toll since Israel's offensive to 204, all but 14 of them civilian.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14028.htm
Nothing but anti-Arab racism can fully explain the behaviour of the Israelis
By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
As we witness the bombardment by Israel of Lebanon and Gaza - a grotesque over-reaction - and, as the death toll of Arab civilians mounts, you have to ask how the Israelis can do what they do. My only answer now is to conclude that it is racism. No political or territorial struggles can convincingly explain or excuse the maddened onslaught by the Israeli state.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14024.htm
We're Being Set Up for Wider War in the Middle East
by Paul Craig Roberts
The old adage, "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" does not apply to Americans, who have shown that they can be endlessly fooled.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14026.htm
Hezbollah, the United States and the Context Behind Israel's Offensive on Lebanon
Democracy Now! Report
As Israeli warplanes continue to bomb Lebanon and Hezbollah fires rockets into northern Israel we get context on the crisis with two analysts: As'ad AbuKhalil, a Lebanese professor of political science at California State University and Chris Hedges, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and the former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times.
This is a must listen report
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14031.htm
Israelis are dying: it must be an escalation
By Jonathan Cook
Here we go again -- more than 130 Lebanese dead after five days of savage aerial bombardment from at least 2,000 sorties by Israeli war planes that are making the country’s south a disaster zone and turning Beirut into a crumbling ghost town. Those dead, most civilians and many of them women and children, hardly get a mention, their lives apparently empty of meaning or significance in this confrontation.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14032.htm
'If our Prime Minister is crying, what are we to do?'
By Robert Fisk in Beirut:
The few who were not lying in their basements ran shrieking through the streets - not gunmen, but women with screaming children, families holding suitcases, desperate to leave the heaps of broken buildings, entire apartment blocks smashed to bits, the roadways covered in smashed balconies and torn electrical wires.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14016.htm
The Final Say
By Eric Margolis
Hezbollah, from my experience, is no mere cat's paw of Syria and Iran, but a fiercely independent-minded movement that is Lebanon's dominant political and military force. Though backed by Tehran and Damascus, Hezbollah pursues its own local interests, sometimes in opposition to its allies.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14018.htm
Where is the rage? Where is the outrage?
By Michael Payne
A large segment of this society is currently in a state of conditioned silence. It watches as America is undergoing radical changes that are transforming this nation into an instrument of world domination with the objective of controlling this planet's energy resources.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14029.htm
By Lin Noueihed
Israeli air strikes killed 42 people across Lebanon on Monday, raising the death toll since Israel's offensive to 204, all but 14 of them civilian.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14028.htm
Nothing but anti-Arab racism can fully explain the behaviour of the Israelis
By Yasmin Alibhai-Brown
As we witness the bombardment by Israel of Lebanon and Gaza - a grotesque over-reaction - and, as the death toll of Arab civilians mounts, you have to ask how the Israelis can do what they do. My only answer now is to conclude that it is racism. No political or territorial struggles can convincingly explain or excuse the maddened onslaught by the Israeli state.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14024.htm
We're Being Set Up for Wider War in the Middle East
by Paul Craig Roberts
The old adage, "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" does not apply to Americans, who have shown that they can be endlessly fooled.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14026.htm
Hezbollah, the United States and the Context Behind Israel's Offensive on Lebanon
Democracy Now! Report
As Israeli warplanes continue to bomb Lebanon and Hezbollah fires rockets into northern Israel we get context on the crisis with two analysts: As'ad AbuKhalil, a Lebanese professor of political science at California State University and Chris Hedges, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and the former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times.
This is a must listen report
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14031.htm
Israelis are dying: it must be an escalation
By Jonathan Cook
Here we go again -- more than 130 Lebanese dead after five days of savage aerial bombardment from at least 2,000 sorties by Israeli war planes that are making the country’s south a disaster zone and turning Beirut into a crumbling ghost town. Those dead, most civilians and many of them women and children, hardly get a mention, their lives apparently empty of meaning or significance in this confrontation.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14032.htm
'If our Prime Minister is crying, what are we to do?'
By Robert Fisk in Beirut:
The few who were not lying in their basements ran shrieking through the streets - not gunmen, but women with screaming children, families holding suitcases, desperate to leave the heaps of broken buildings, entire apartment blocks smashed to bits, the roadways covered in smashed balconies and torn electrical wires.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14016.htm
The Final Say
By Eric Margolis
Hezbollah, from my experience, is no mere cat's paw of Syria and Iran, but a fiercely independent-minded movement that is Lebanon's dominant political and military force. Though backed by Tehran and Damascus, Hezbollah pursues its own local interests, sometimes in opposition to its allies.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14018.htm
Where is the rage? Where is the outrage?
By Michael Payne
A large segment of this society is currently in a state of conditioned silence. It watches as America is undergoing radical changes that are transforming this nation into an instrument of world domination with the objective of controlling this planet's energy resources.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14029.htm
ELAND ON ISRAEL AND LEBANON
Israel's raids in Lebanon and Gaza have undermined rather than improved Israeli security, according to Ivan Eland, director of the Independent Institute's Center on Peace & Liberty. A better option for Israel, he argues, would have been to have quietly deployed "stealthy special operations forces, killing or capturing leading figures" of Hamas and Hezbollah.
"Once again, Israel's disproportionate action of holding a whole country responsible for a group's capturing and killing of a few of its solders has now triggered a full-blown war that has endangered citizens of northern Israel," writes Eland in his latest op-ed. "Even if Hamas and Hezbollah do oftentimes resort to acts of terror, what terrorists crave most is publicity."
Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, may also have been using the raids for publicity -- "to show the folks at home that he was tough," Eland writes. "No one can excuse genuine acts of terror by rag-tag groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, especially indiscriminate rocket attacks on towns and cities. But neither should the great power, especially the United States, look the other way while the governments -- read Israel -- systematically kill many more civilians under the guise of a disingenuous claim of offensive self-defense."
"Israeli-Arab War: Terrorism on Both Sides," by Ivan Eland (7/17/06)
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1767
Israel's raids in Lebanon and Gaza have undermined rather than improved Israeli security, according to Ivan Eland, director of the Independent Institute's Center on Peace & Liberty. A better option for Israel, he argues, would have been to have quietly deployed "stealthy special operations forces, killing or capturing leading figures" of Hamas and Hezbollah.
"Once again, Israel's disproportionate action of holding a whole country responsible for a group's capturing and killing of a few of its solders has now triggered a full-blown war that has endangered citizens of northern Israel," writes Eland in his latest op-ed. "Even if Hamas and Hezbollah do oftentimes resort to acts of terror, what terrorists crave most is publicity."
Ehud Olmert, Israel's prime minister, may also have been using the raids for publicity -- "to show the folks at home that he was tough," Eland writes. "No one can excuse genuine acts of terror by rag-tag groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah, especially indiscriminate rocket attacks on towns and cities. But neither should the great power, especially the United States, look the other way while the governments -- read Israel -- systematically kill many more civilians under the guise of a disingenuous claim of offensive self-defense."
"Israeli-Arab War: Terrorism on Both Sides," by Ivan Eland (7/17/06)
http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1767
Lebanon evacuation gathers pace BBC News
The evacuation of foreigners from Lebanon is being stepped up, as Israeli warplanes carry out a seventh day of air strikes. France and Italy have moved 1,600 Europeans by ship to Cyprus, and British warships are preparing to transport thousands of Britons. The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian disaster in Lebanon as people flee their homes. Israel is targeting Hezbollah fighters, who have captured two of its soldiers. More than 200 Lebanese citizens have been killed since Israel launched air strikes last Wednesday. Twenty-four Israelis have died - 12 as a result of Hezbollah rocket attacks. Tens of thousands of foreigners are set to leave Lebanon by land, sea, and air in the coming days. On Tuesday morning, a ferry chartered by France brought 1,200 Europeans to the Cypriot port of Larnaca. Nearly 400 people arrived on an Italian navy vessel on Monday night. They appeared tired, but relieved to be away from the violence. "It's getting worse and worse, the bombs are actually so close that we could see the smoke and the fire," one evacuee told Reuters news agency. "Kids were crying. It's quite scary." Another said: "It was hell, it was scary. We're glad we're here but at the same time we're very sad." British warships are standing by to transport up to 12,000 Britons and a further 10,000 people with dual British-Lebanese nationality to Cyprus. British military bases on the island have offered to provide short-term shelter for people as they wait for repatriation flights.
'Worse by the hour'
US military helicopters have started flying American citizens from Lebanon to Cyprus. A commercial ship escorted by a US destroyer is due to move another 25,000 people to safety. Other governments are organising pullouts by land to Syria. The BBC's Jim Muir in southern Lebanon says the roads are clogged with packed vehicles. Many of the displaced people appear exhausted and bewildered. The UN's top humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, said air strikes on roads and bridges were hampering efforts to help the people fleeing their homes. "It's already very bad, and it is deteriorating by the hour," he told the BBC. "Now it seems we are headed for another scenario where we will have to do a lot of rebuilding, a lot of humanitarian relief, a lot of life-saving relief". Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said the attacks will not end until the two soldiers, who were captured by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid, are freed. He also insisted that Hezbollah guerrillas should be disarmed, and that the Lebanese army should take control southern Lebanon.
The evacuation of foreigners from Lebanon is being stepped up, as Israeli warplanes carry out a seventh day of air strikes. France and Italy have moved 1,600 Europeans by ship to Cyprus, and British warships are preparing to transport thousands of Britons. The United Nations has warned of a humanitarian disaster in Lebanon as people flee their homes. Israel is targeting Hezbollah fighters, who have captured two of its soldiers. More than 200 Lebanese citizens have been killed since Israel launched air strikes last Wednesday. Twenty-four Israelis have died - 12 as a result of Hezbollah rocket attacks. Tens of thousands of foreigners are set to leave Lebanon by land, sea, and air in the coming days. On Tuesday morning, a ferry chartered by France brought 1,200 Europeans to the Cypriot port of Larnaca. Nearly 400 people arrived on an Italian navy vessel on Monday night. They appeared tired, but relieved to be away from the violence. "It's getting worse and worse, the bombs are actually so close that we could see the smoke and the fire," one evacuee told Reuters news agency. "Kids were crying. It's quite scary." Another said: "It was hell, it was scary. We're glad we're here but at the same time we're very sad." British warships are standing by to transport up to 12,000 Britons and a further 10,000 people with dual British-Lebanese nationality to Cyprus. British military bases on the island have offered to provide short-term shelter for people as they wait for repatriation flights.
'Worse by the hour'
US military helicopters have started flying American citizens from Lebanon to Cyprus. A commercial ship escorted by a US destroyer is due to move another 25,000 people to safety. Other governments are organising pullouts by land to Syria. The BBC's Jim Muir in southern Lebanon says the roads are clogged with packed vehicles. Many of the displaced people appear exhausted and bewildered. The UN's top humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, said air strikes on roads and bridges were hampering efforts to help the people fleeing their homes. "It's already very bad, and it is deteriorating by the hour," he told the BBC. "Now it seems we are headed for another scenario where we will have to do a lot of rebuilding, a lot of humanitarian relief, a lot of life-saving relief". Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said the attacks will not end until the two soldiers, who were captured by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid, are freed. He also insisted that Hezbollah guerrillas should be disarmed, and that the Lebanese army should take control southern Lebanon.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle...tion=middleeast
Hezbollah rejects ceasefire with Israel
(AFP)
17 July 2006
BEIRUT - Hezbollah on Monday rejected a ceasefire on terms dictated by Israel, with a senior member of the Lebanese Shiite militia rejecting the conditions set by the Jewish state.
“We accept no conditions for a ceasefire, whatever the pressure,” Abdullah Kasir, a member of Hezbollah’s central committee, told AFP.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday said a ceasefire would only be considered on three conditions: that Hezbollah release two captured Israeli soldiers, the firing of Hezbollah rockets on Israeli towns cease, and that the militia be disarmed in line with a UN resolution.
Kasir said Israel’s demand to see the Lebanese army deploy along the border with Israel, replacing Hezbollah guerrillas who currently control the area, was a matter for the Lebanese to settle themselves.
He added that the two Israeli soldiers, abducted in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah last Wednesday, were in “a secure place” but did not specify whether they were still in Lebanon.
The militia has taken them as bargaining chips to demand a prisoner exchange with Israel, which is holding Lebanese and other Arab detainees in jails, said Kasir.
Asked whether Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was still in Lebanon despite Israeli efforts to target him, Kasir said that ”Hezbollah’s leadership and Nasrallah are at the heart of the battle ...
“We will never leave, even if Lebanon is reduced to scorched earth.”
Hezbollah, he said, was “ready to fight and to inflict painful blows on the enemy. The Islamic Resistance (Hezbollah’s armed wing) has only begun to reveal its abilities and its forces.”
Israel, he added, should brace for more “surprises”, such as last Friday’s anti-ship missile which stuck an Israeli corvette off Lebanon killing four sailors and the rocket attacks on Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city.
Hezbollah rejects ceasefire with Israel
(AFP)
17 July 2006
BEIRUT - Hezbollah on Monday rejected a ceasefire on terms dictated by Israel, with a senior member of the Lebanese Shiite militia rejecting the conditions set by the Jewish state.
“We accept no conditions for a ceasefire, whatever the pressure,” Abdullah Kasir, a member of Hezbollah’s central committee, told AFP.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday said a ceasefire would only be considered on three conditions: that Hezbollah release two captured Israeli soldiers, the firing of Hezbollah rockets on Israeli towns cease, and that the militia be disarmed in line with a UN resolution.
Kasir said Israel’s demand to see the Lebanese army deploy along the border with Israel, replacing Hezbollah guerrillas who currently control the area, was a matter for the Lebanese to settle themselves.
He added that the two Israeli soldiers, abducted in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah last Wednesday, were in “a secure place” but did not specify whether they were still in Lebanon.
The militia has taken them as bargaining chips to demand a prisoner exchange with Israel, which is holding Lebanese and other Arab detainees in jails, said Kasir.
Asked whether Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was still in Lebanon despite Israeli efforts to target him, Kasir said that ”Hezbollah’s leadership and Nasrallah are at the heart of the battle ...
“We will never leave, even if Lebanon is reduced to scorched earth.”
Hezbollah, he said, was “ready to fight and to inflict painful blows on the enemy. The Islamic Resistance (Hezbollah’s armed wing) has only begun to reveal its abilities and its forces.”
Israel, he added, should brace for more “surprises”, such as last Friday’s anti-ship missile which stuck an Israeli corvette off Lebanon killing four sailors and the rocket attacks on Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city.
http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=9317
July 17, 2006
We're Being Set Up for Wider War in the Middle East
by Paul Craig Roberts
The old adage, "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" does not apply to Americans, who have shown that they can be endlessly fooled.
Neoconservatives deceived Americans into an illegal attack and debilitating war in Iraq. American neoconservatives are closely allied with Israel's Likud Party. In the past, some neocons lost their security clearances because of "mishandling" of classified information. According to Insight magazine, "the Pentagon has banned security clearance to Americans with relatives in Israel. Government sources and attorneys said the Pentagon has sought and succeeded in removing security clearance from dozens of Americans, mostly Jews, who either lived, worked, or have relatives in Israel."
Despite questions of dual loyalties, neocons hold high positions in the Bush regime. Ten years ago these architects of American foreign and military policy spelled out how they would use deception to achieve "important Israeli strategic objectives" in the Middle East. First, they would focus "on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq." This would open the door for Israel to provoke attacks from Hezbollah. The attacks would let Israel gain American sympathy and permit Israel to seize the strategic initiative by "engaging Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon."
Today, this neoconservative plan is unfolding before our eyes. Israel has used the capture of two of its soldiers in Lebanon as an excuse for an all-out air and naval bombardment against Lebanese civilian targets. However, a number of commentators have pointed out that such a massive attack requires weeks if not months of preparation that could not be done overnight in response to the capture of the soldiers.
Regardless, in the first two days of the Israeli military attack on Lebanon more than a hundred civilians, including Canadians, have been killed by Israeli bombs (gifts from U.S. taxpayers). The Beirut International Airport has been repeatedly bombed, as have residential neighborhoods, roads, bridges, ports, and power stations.
Soldiers are a legitimate military target. Civilians, civilian neighborhoods, tourists, and international airports are not. Under the Nuremberg standard used to sentence Nazi war criminals to death, the Israeli government is clearly guilty of war crimes.
Meanwhile, the Israelis are committing identical war crimes in Gaza. Again Israel's excuse is the capture of an Israeli soldier. However, the distinguished Israeli professor Ran HaCohen said that the Israeli army "had been demanding a massive attack on Gaza long before the Israeli soldier was kidnapped."
By blocking UN Security Council action against Israel for its massacre of civilians in Gaza, the Bush regime has made itself complicit in these monstrous war crimes. Just as Germans who supported Hitler were deemed to be complicit in his war crimes, Americans who support Bush are complicit in Bush's war crimes.
Hezbollah is not the Lebanese government. It does not rule Lebanon. Hezbollah is the militia organization founded in 1982 in response to Israel's invasion of Lebanon. Hezbollah defeated the Israeli army and drove out the Israeli invaders six years ago.
According to the BBC, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that the two Israeli soldiers "were captured to pressure Israel to release the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in its jails," especially the women and children.
The BBC also notes that although Hezbollah operates "from Lebanese territory and the militant group has two ministers in the Lebanese government, the central government is almost powerless to influence the militant group." (Note that the BBC applies the loaded word "militant" to Hezbollah but not to Israel.) Hezbollah, reports the BBC, "is also very popular in Lebanon and highly respected for its political activities, social services, and its military record against Israel."
The prime minister of Lebanon, who was installed with President Bush's approval when Syria, under Bush's pressure, recently withdrew its troops from Lebanon, has twice appealed to Bush to pressure Israel to stop its criminal attacks. Our great moral, democratic, Christian leader has twice rebuffed the appeal from the legal representative of the Lebanese people. Instead, Bush is willingly going along with the 1996 neocon script. Bush is laying the blame on Syria and Iran, exactly as the neocon script calls for him to do.
When Bush demands that Syria "stop Hezbollah attacks," he forgets that he was the one who forced Syria out of Lebanon (to enable Israel to attack Lebanon). If Americans were attentive, they would be ashamed to witness "their" president acting as an Israeli propagandist.
Fox "News," CNN, and the rest of the Bush propaganda ministry are echoing the lie that innocent Israel is under attack from the "terrorist states" of Syria and Iran through their surrogate, Hezbollah. Americans, who are sick of the Iraq occupation and want the troops home, are being fooled again and set up for wider war in the Middle East.
Evangelical "Christians" are part of the propaganda show. Three thousand of them, under the lead of the Rev. John C. Hagee, are heading to Washington for a "Washington/Israel summit" to demand, needlessly, that the neocon Bush regime show "stronger support for Israel."
It is difficult to see how Bush could show any stronger support without using the U.S. military to assist Israel in its attacks, which is, of course, what the "Christian" Rev. Hagee intends when he declares: "There's a new Hitler in the Middle East [he doesn't mean Bush or Olmert]. The only way he will be stopped will be by a preemptive military strike in Iran."
Present at Rev. Hagee's "Washington/Israel Summit" will be Israel's former Minister of Defense, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, Republican Senators Sam Brownback and Rick Santorum, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, and Gary Bauer.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful lobby in Washington, expressed its thanks to Rev. Hagee for demonstrating "the depth and breadth of American support" for Israel. Recently, AIPAC has been under investigation as a suspected nest for Israeli spies.
David Brog, former chief of staff for Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, has gone to work for Rev. Hagee. Brog, who is Jewish, says he works for Hagee's evangelical enterprise because "we're bringing into a pro-Israel camp millions of Christians who love Israel and giving them a political voice. Israel's enemies are our enemies, and this group instinctively understands that." Brog goes on to say that Hagee's evangelicals understand that they are not supposed to talk about Jesus, only about saving Israel: "Christians who work with Jews in supporting Israel realize how sensitive we are in talking about Jesus. They realize it will interfere with what they are trying to do."
Gentle reader, is this an admission that evangelicals have set aside Jesus for war? Do these bloody-minded evangelicals really believe they will be wafted to Heaven for helping Israel involve the U.S. in more war? Have evangelicals forgotten that "an eye for an eye" is Old Testament? "Turn the other cheek" is New Testament.
On July 14, Reuters reported that alone among Christians, the "Vatican condemns Israel for attacks on Lebanon."
Whose delusion is the greatest – the evangelical "rapture" delusion, the neocon delusion about American power, or the Zionist delusion? The three together mean disaster for America, Israel, and the world.
One of the great evangelical/Zionist/neocon myths is that "tiny Israel" armed with 200 nuclear weapons is threatened by Muslim Middle Eastern countries. In actual fact, Egypt and Pakistan, which have the bulk of the Middle Eastern Muslim population, are ruled by American puppets. Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the oil emirates are totally dependent on U.S. protection and, thereby, are also under the American thumb. Iran is Persian, not Arab, and has no common borders with Israel. Hezbollah was created when Israel tried to seize Lebanon in 1982. Hamas is a Palestinian response to the atrocities Palestinians have suffered for a half century at Israel's hands.
Israel's land-stealing policy is the source of Middle Eastern instability. America is hated because American money and weapons are what enable Israel to steal Palestine from Palestinians.
As numerous Middle East experts have pointed out, what is decried as "Arab terrorism against Israel" is, in fact, the only tactic Muslims have for calling the world's attention to the plight of the Palestinians, about which Americans are generally ignorant.
It is absurd for Bush to condemn Syria for not behaving as an American puppet and for not fighting Israel's battles by taking on Hezbollah. Syria and Iran (and Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion) are the only Middle Eastern countries independent of American control. It is far beyond the boundaries of reason and morality to expect these two remaining independent countries to give up their independence in order to enable Israel to steal Palestine and southern Lebanon.
It is the refusal of Syria and Iran (and Saddam Hussein's Iraq) to stand with Israel against Palestine that has made them targets for American attack. Neocons have total control of U.S. foreign policy in the Bush regime, and they have morphed our strategic interests into Israel's.
As the neoconservative architects of Bush's wars revealed in 1996, their concern lies with Israeli strategic objectives.
Find this article at:
http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=9317
July 17, 2006
We're Being Set Up for Wider War in the Middle East
by Paul Craig Roberts
The old adage, "fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me" does not apply to Americans, who have shown that they can be endlessly fooled.
Neoconservatives deceived Americans into an illegal attack and debilitating war in Iraq. American neoconservatives are closely allied with Israel's Likud Party. In the past, some neocons lost their security clearances because of "mishandling" of classified information. According to Insight magazine, "the Pentagon has banned security clearance to Americans with relatives in Israel. Government sources and attorneys said the Pentagon has sought and succeeded in removing security clearance from dozens of Americans, mostly Jews, who either lived, worked, or have relatives in Israel."
Despite questions of dual loyalties, neocons hold high positions in the Bush regime. Ten years ago these architects of American foreign and military policy spelled out how they would use deception to achieve "important Israeli strategic objectives" in the Middle East. First, they would focus "on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq." This would open the door for Israel to provoke attacks from Hezbollah. The attacks would let Israel gain American sympathy and permit Israel to seize the strategic initiative by "engaging Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran as the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon."
Today, this neoconservative plan is unfolding before our eyes. Israel has used the capture of two of its soldiers in Lebanon as an excuse for an all-out air and naval bombardment against Lebanese civilian targets. However, a number of commentators have pointed out that such a massive attack requires weeks if not months of preparation that could not be done overnight in response to the capture of the soldiers.
Regardless, in the first two days of the Israeli military attack on Lebanon more than a hundred civilians, including Canadians, have been killed by Israeli bombs (gifts from U.S. taxpayers). The Beirut International Airport has been repeatedly bombed, as have residential neighborhoods, roads, bridges, ports, and power stations.
Soldiers are a legitimate military target. Civilians, civilian neighborhoods, tourists, and international airports are not. Under the Nuremberg standard used to sentence Nazi war criminals to death, the Israeli government is clearly guilty of war crimes.
Meanwhile, the Israelis are committing identical war crimes in Gaza. Again Israel's excuse is the capture of an Israeli soldier. However, the distinguished Israeli professor Ran HaCohen said that the Israeli army "had been demanding a massive attack on Gaza long before the Israeli soldier was kidnapped."
By blocking UN Security Council action against Israel for its massacre of civilians in Gaza, the Bush regime has made itself complicit in these monstrous war crimes. Just as Germans who supported Hitler were deemed to be complicit in his war crimes, Americans who support Bush are complicit in Bush's war crimes.
Hezbollah is not the Lebanese government. It does not rule Lebanon. Hezbollah is the militia organization founded in 1982 in response to Israel's invasion of Lebanon. Hezbollah defeated the Israeli army and drove out the Israeli invaders six years ago.
According to the BBC, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that the two Israeli soldiers "were captured to pressure Israel to release the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in its jails," especially the women and children.
The BBC also notes that although Hezbollah operates "from Lebanese territory and the militant group has two ministers in the Lebanese government, the central government is almost powerless to influence the militant group." (Note that the BBC applies the loaded word "militant" to Hezbollah but not to Israel.) Hezbollah, reports the BBC, "is also very popular in Lebanon and highly respected for its political activities, social services, and its military record against Israel."
The prime minister of Lebanon, who was installed with President Bush's approval when Syria, under Bush's pressure, recently withdrew its troops from Lebanon, has twice appealed to Bush to pressure Israel to stop its criminal attacks. Our great moral, democratic, Christian leader has twice rebuffed the appeal from the legal representative of the Lebanese people. Instead, Bush is willingly going along with the 1996 neocon script. Bush is laying the blame on Syria and Iran, exactly as the neocon script calls for him to do.
When Bush demands that Syria "stop Hezbollah attacks," he forgets that he was the one who forced Syria out of Lebanon (to enable Israel to attack Lebanon). If Americans were attentive, they would be ashamed to witness "their" president acting as an Israeli propagandist.
Fox "News," CNN, and the rest of the Bush propaganda ministry are echoing the lie that innocent Israel is under attack from the "terrorist states" of Syria and Iran through their surrogate, Hezbollah. Americans, who are sick of the Iraq occupation and want the troops home, are being fooled again and set up for wider war in the Middle East.
Evangelical "Christians" are part of the propaganda show. Three thousand of them, under the lead of the Rev. John C. Hagee, are heading to Washington for a "Washington/Israel summit" to demand, needlessly, that the neocon Bush regime show "stronger support for Israel."
It is difficult to see how Bush could show any stronger support without using the U.S. military to assist Israel in its attacks, which is, of course, what the "Christian" Rev. Hagee intends when he declares: "There's a new Hitler in the Middle East [he doesn't mean Bush or Olmert]. The only way he will be stopped will be by a preemptive military strike in Iran."
Present at Rev. Hagee's "Washington/Israel Summit" will be Israel's former Minister of Defense, Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon, Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon, Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman, Republican Senators Sam Brownback and Rick Santorum, the Rev. Jerry Falwell, and Gary Bauer.
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the most powerful lobby in Washington, expressed its thanks to Rev. Hagee for demonstrating "the depth and breadth of American support" for Israel. Recently, AIPAC has been under investigation as a suspected nest for Israeli spies.
David Brog, former chief of staff for Republican Sen. Arlen Specter, has gone to work for Rev. Hagee. Brog, who is Jewish, says he works for Hagee's evangelical enterprise because "we're bringing into a pro-Israel camp millions of Christians who love Israel and giving them a political voice. Israel's enemies are our enemies, and this group instinctively understands that." Brog goes on to say that Hagee's evangelicals understand that they are not supposed to talk about Jesus, only about saving Israel: "Christians who work with Jews in supporting Israel realize how sensitive we are in talking about Jesus. They realize it will interfere with what they are trying to do."
Gentle reader, is this an admission that evangelicals have set aside Jesus for war? Do these bloody-minded evangelicals really believe they will be wafted to Heaven for helping Israel involve the U.S. in more war? Have evangelicals forgotten that "an eye for an eye" is Old Testament? "Turn the other cheek" is New Testament.
On July 14, Reuters reported that alone among Christians, the "Vatican condemns Israel for attacks on Lebanon."
Whose delusion is the greatest – the evangelical "rapture" delusion, the neocon delusion about American power, or the Zionist delusion? The three together mean disaster for America, Israel, and the world.
One of the great evangelical/Zionist/neocon myths is that "tiny Israel" armed with 200 nuclear weapons is threatened by Muslim Middle Eastern countries. In actual fact, Egypt and Pakistan, which have the bulk of the Middle Eastern Muslim population, are ruled by American puppets. Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and the oil emirates are totally dependent on U.S. protection and, thereby, are also under the American thumb. Iran is Persian, not Arab, and has no common borders with Israel. Hezbollah was created when Israel tried to seize Lebanon in 1982. Hamas is a Palestinian response to the atrocities Palestinians have suffered for a half century at Israel's hands.
Israel's land-stealing policy is the source of Middle Eastern instability. America is hated because American money and weapons are what enable Israel to steal Palestine from Palestinians.
As numerous Middle East experts have pointed out, what is decried as "Arab terrorism against Israel" is, in fact, the only tactic Muslims have for calling the world's attention to the plight of the Palestinians, about which Americans are generally ignorant.
It is absurd for Bush to condemn Syria for not behaving as an American puppet and for not fighting Israel's battles by taking on Hezbollah. Syria and Iran (and Iraq prior to the U.S. invasion) are the only Middle Eastern countries independent of American control. It is far beyond the boundaries of reason and morality to expect these two remaining independent countries to give up their independence in order to enable Israel to steal Palestine and southern Lebanon.
It is the refusal of Syria and Iran (and Saddam Hussein's Iraq) to stand with Israel against Palestine that has made them targets for American attack. Neocons have total control of U.S. foreign policy in the Bush regime, and they have morphed our strategic interests into Israel's.
As the neoconservative architects of Bush's wars revealed in 1996, their concern lies with Israeli strategic objectives.
Find this article at:
http://www.antiwar.com/roberts/?articleid=9317
http://www.nysun.com/pf.php?id=36219
Hezbollah Spurns Secret Overture on Lebanon Truce
BY ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
July 18, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/36219
CAIRO, Egypt — Secret efforts to set up a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel have hit a brick wall, despite what appeared to be a public softening of the Jewish state's position.
Prime Minister Olmert yesterday again ruled out Hezbollah's original demand, an exchange of prisoners. But he held out the prospect that the bombing of Lebanon would end if the two soldiers abducted in a cross-border raid July 12 were returned.
Mr. Olmert said the aim of the current Israeli operation in Lebanon is to cripple and weaken Hezbollah. He told the Knesset, "Israel will not agree to live in the shadow of missiles or rockets against its residents."
A co-director of an organization that has worked regularly as a secret intermediary between political Islamic groups and Western governments said its recent contacts with Hezbollah and Israel suggest that both sides have dug in their heels and are not amenable to a truce.
"It does not seem we are close to any cease-fire," Mark Perry of the Conflicts Forum told The New York Sun. "Hezbollah will not do it just so Israel will stop pounding them. They feel they can dig in for months."
He added, "People are negotiating in public right now."
Alastair Crooke, Mr. Perry's associate at the Conflicts Forum and a onetime MI6 operations officer, last spoke with his Hezbollah contact on Saturday, Mr. Perry said.
Mr. Perry said he has shared his pessimistic assessment of the situation with Western governments. The Conflicts Forum, based in London, receives funding from private individuals and some government grants, including a recent grant from the European Union.
Efforts to bring a temporary end to the hostilities are the focus of this week's international diplomacy, both at the G-8 summit in Russia and the U.N. Security Council in New York. In a private remark to Prime Minister Blair inadvertently picked up by an open microphone yesterday, President Bush said he would send Secretary of State Rice to the region soon to explore options for peace. A three-man delegation representing Secretary-General Annan will travel to Damascus this week to assess the likelihood of an end to the spiraling violence that has engulfed Israel, Lebanon, and Gaza in the last week.
The outline of a cease-fire deal, Mr. Perry said, would require that Hezbollah return two kidnapped Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, retreat behind a 25-mile area in southern Lebanon, and agree to a new international force to patrol the area vacated by Hezbollah forces.
However, the fighting escalated yesterday as the Israeli air assault hit coastal ports in northern Lebanon, apartment buildings where Hezbollah leaders are believed to be based, and factories, according to wire reports. Hezbollah fired three more rounds of missiles into the northern Israeli city of Haifa, forcing intelligence analysts there to move their operations to an underground bunker.
Israeli radio reported yesterday that Hezbollah fired a dud missile, the Zilzal 2, which has a range of 120 miles, far enough to reach Tel Aviv, the country's financial center and largest city. The reports of the misfire came in response to Hezbollah claims that it had successfully downed an Israeli aircraft. Israel claimed the wreckage that fell from the sky was the remains of the Iranian-made missile.
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported that Israeli aircraft were honing in on the underground bunkers in Lebanon occupied by Hezbollah's military leadership. Those expected to be found inside include Imad Mugniyah, a master terrorist who plotted the 1983 operations that killed 241 American Marines stationed in Beirut. Mr. Mugniyah was America's most wanted terrorist before the attacks of September 11, 2001.
In January, Israeli soldiers on the border with Lebanon told the Sun that photographs of Hezbollah positions on the Lebanese side suggested that Mr. Mugniyah made regular visits to that front.
Prime Minister Siniora of Lebanon told Reuters yesterday that the Israeli attacks had inflicted billions of dollars worth of damage to his country. "What Israel has been
Hezbollah Spurns Secret Overture on Lebanon Truce
BY ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun
July 18, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/36219
CAIRO, Egypt — Secret efforts to set up a cease-fire between Hezbollah and Israel have hit a brick wall, despite what appeared to be a public softening of the Jewish state's position.
Prime Minister Olmert yesterday again ruled out Hezbollah's original demand, an exchange of prisoners. But he held out the prospect that the bombing of Lebanon would end if the two soldiers abducted in a cross-border raid July 12 were returned.
Mr. Olmert said the aim of the current Israeli operation in Lebanon is to cripple and weaken Hezbollah. He told the Knesset, "Israel will not agree to live in the shadow of missiles or rockets against its residents."
A co-director of an organization that has worked regularly as a secret intermediary between political Islamic groups and Western governments said its recent contacts with Hezbollah and Israel suggest that both sides have dug in their heels and are not amenable to a truce.
"It does not seem we are close to any cease-fire," Mark Perry of the Conflicts Forum told The New York Sun. "Hezbollah will not do it just so Israel will stop pounding them. They feel they can dig in for months."
He added, "People are negotiating in public right now."
Alastair Crooke, Mr. Perry's associate at the Conflicts Forum and a onetime MI6 operations officer, last spoke with his Hezbollah contact on Saturday, Mr. Perry said.
Mr. Perry said he has shared his pessimistic assessment of the situation with Western governments. The Conflicts Forum, based in London, receives funding from private individuals and some government grants, including a recent grant from the European Union.
Efforts to bring a temporary end to the hostilities are the focus of this week's international diplomacy, both at the G-8 summit in Russia and the U.N. Security Council in New York. In a private remark to Prime Minister Blair inadvertently picked up by an open microphone yesterday, President Bush said he would send Secretary of State Rice to the region soon to explore options for peace. A three-man delegation representing Secretary-General Annan will travel to Damascus this week to assess the likelihood of an end to the spiraling violence that has engulfed Israel, Lebanon, and Gaza in the last week.
The outline of a cease-fire deal, Mr. Perry said, would require that Hezbollah return two kidnapped Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, retreat behind a 25-mile area in southern Lebanon, and agree to a new international force to patrol the area vacated by Hezbollah forces.
However, the fighting escalated yesterday as the Israeli air assault hit coastal ports in northern Lebanon, apartment buildings where Hezbollah leaders are believed to be based, and factories, according to wire reports. Hezbollah fired three more rounds of missiles into the northern Israeli city of Haifa, forcing intelligence analysts there to move their operations to an underground bunker.
Israeli radio reported yesterday that Hezbollah fired a dud missile, the Zilzal 2, which has a range of 120 miles, far enough to reach Tel Aviv, the country's financial center and largest city. The reports of the misfire came in response to Hezbollah claims that it had successfully downed an Israeli aircraft. Israel claimed the wreckage that fell from the sky was the remains of the Iranian-made missile.
The Israeli daily Ha'aretz reported that Israeli aircraft were honing in on the underground bunkers in Lebanon occupied by Hezbollah's military leadership. Those expected to be found inside include Imad Mugniyah, a master terrorist who plotted the 1983 operations that killed 241 American Marines stationed in Beirut. Mr. Mugniyah was America's most wanted terrorist before the attacks of September 11, 2001.
In January, Israeli soldiers on the border with Lebanon told the Sun that photographs of Hezbollah positions on the Lebanese side suggested that Mr. Mugniyah made regular visits to that front.
Prime Minister Siniora of Lebanon told Reuters yesterday that the Israeli attacks had inflicted billions of dollars worth of damage to his country. "What Israel has been