http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1830632,00.html
Dissent grows in Israel over Lebanon
Ian Black in Jerusalem
Wednesday July 26, 2006
The Guardian
Olmert is coming in for increasing criticism of his handling of the war in Lebanon. Photograph: Guy Assayag/EPA
The government of the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, is facing a barrage of criticism over its handling of the war in Lebanon, with questions being raised about the decision to attack Hizbullah, mounting military losses, continuing missile strikes on northern Israel, and disquiet about Lebanese civilian casualties.
Israel has yet to confirm reports of 12 soldiers killed in heavy fighting around the south Lebanese town of Bint Jbeil, but analysts in Jerusalem said fatalities on that scale are likely to bring pressure from the army and the public for a significant change of tack.
Two weeks into the fighting, growing unease about a wide range of war-related issues has burst into the open with a series of anxious comments by politicians, former officers and leading experts and pundits.
Few Israelis are protesting against the war, as they did in their hundreds of thousands after the 1982 invasion of Lebanon. Apart from small demonstrations by Israeli Arabs and Jewish leftwingers, there is broad support for hitting back at the Shia guerrillas after their border raid and abduction of two Israeli soldiers. But what is becoming clear is the deep concern about the conduct and progress of the campaign.
Moshe Arens, a hawkish former Likud defence minister, issued a stark warning that Hizbullah and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, could emerge from the conflict undefeated. "This will be a disaster for Israel," he told the Ha'aretz newspaper. "Nasrallah will be seen as someone who fired thousands of katyushas at Israeli communities for weeks and came out unscathed."
Experts say Israel's much-vaunted intelligence services have underestimated Hizbullah capabilities, especially in not knowing it had an Iranian-made missile capable of hitting an Israeli naval vessel off Beirut.
The air force has also come under scrutiny after the loss of three US-built Apache helicopters and an F16 jet, with one helicopter reportedly downed by friendly fire. Five Israeli soldiers have also been killed by friendly fire.
Wall-to-wall TV and radio talk shows have wheeled out reserve or former officers highlighting the shortcomings of those running the show, bringing defensive responses from the IDF general staff and even charges of disloyalty in wartime.
But Ze'ev Schiff, the highly respected doyen of Israeli military commentators, and author of the definitive history of the 1982 war, put it bluntly: "Israel is far from a decisive victory and its main objectives have not been achieved."
Another veteran correspondent, Eitan Haber, wrote in the mass-circulation Yediot Aharonot: "This is neither the time nor the place in the middle of serious fighting, but when this is all over the IDF is going to have take a good look at itself."
The main worry is that Hizbullah can still launch 80-100 rockets a day despite thousands of Israeli sorties over Lebanon. Haifa, Carmiel and other northern areas were hit again on today. Israeli ground operations have inflicted losses on the guerrillas in Maroun al-Ras and Bint Jbeil, but none have been mounted in the Tyre area further west from where missiles are being launched at Haifa. Hizbullah has been damaged but is far from crippled. Supplies from Iran and Syria are getting through despite a blockade.
The subtext of much criticism is that Mr Olmert and his defence minister, the Labour party leader, Amir Peretz, have little military experience and none of the stature of the former prime minister, Ariel Sharon. Many of their closest advisers are untried novices - "raw recruits" in the words of one pundit.
Commentators are also questioning whether key government decisions were thought through in the context of an overall strategy. These include the immediate response to the July 12 attack, the bombing of Beirut international airport despite warnings this would trigger retaliation against Haifa, and the destruction of Hizbullah HQ in southern Beirut. They say the government's response has been to shift its goals and lower public expectations.
The original objective of "breaking Hizbullah" has been quietly watered down to "weakening Hizbullah". Mr Olmert's sudden agreement to the deployment of a multinational force on the border reflects reluctant recognition that Israel cannot itself disarm the Lebanese militia and needs a foreign buffer.
International focus on civilian deaths in Lebanon - roughly 10 times the number suffered by Israel - has badly undermined Israel's case abroad, despite the unwavering support of the US. Its own propaganda efforts have been poor and uncoordinated.
"Even before we know who will win this campaign we can state with certainty that Israel has suffered a terrible propaganda defeat in Lebanon and the Arab world," wrote the Ma'ariv columnist Jacky Hugi. "One country cannot destroy another without explaining to the neighbour the logic behind its actions. From being our silent allies the Lebanese have become the victims of our blind pounding."
On top of all that there are bitter complaints about poor conditions in air raid shelters in the north, the failure to compensate those whose property has been damaged by enemy action and the confusion caused by a plethora of officials giving out conflicting messages. Some want a single "war spokesman" to be responsible for all government information, a concept which worked well in the 1991 Gulf war, when Iraqi Scud missiles hit Israel.
Nahum Barnea, the country's leading political commentator, warned earlier this week that the Israeli public had exaggerated expectations of what might emerge from this crisis. "Israel is like the guy who promised to jump off the big top at the circus but freezes the moment he gets up there. 'Why isn't he jumping,' the spectators ask. 'No question of jumping,' the guy replies. 'The only question is how I can get down'."
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.antiwar.com/jamail/?articleid=9417
July 27, 2006
Hezbollah Could Be
Gaining Strength
by Dahr Jamail
BEIRUT - The continuing Israeli bombing of south Lebanon and south Beirut might just have strengthened the Hezbollah.
The bombings appear particularly to have strengthened the hand of Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the charismatic Hezbollah leader.
Hezbollah has over the years gained a strong following in Lebanon primarily on the back of its engagement in social services, taking on infrastructure projects, and looking after its followers. The Israeli assault is giving Hezbollah scope to gain more such power.
Hezbollah now controls, for example, more than half of about 100 schools in Beirut that have been converted into refugee shelters.
"These attacks show the true force of Israel," a young man told IPS at a refugee camp in a city park. "I was with Hezbollah before, but now I want to join them so I can fight the Israelis, who only want our land, and want to attack Islam."
A Hezbollah member in charge of a group of fighters in southern Beirut claimed that support for Hezbollah has increased dramatically since the Israeli attacks began two weeks ago.
"People are afraid, and in need, and we are protecting them and helping care for the refugees created by this Zionist aggression," he told IPS. "The longer this fight continues, the more support we will have. We are prepared to fight to the very end."
Support for the Hezbollah appears to be stronger among younger people. And some Christians too are speaking in support of Hezbollah. Ramzi Semaan, a 21-year-old Christian told IPS that "Hezbollah was defending this country, and the Israeli response was being planned months in advance. So Hezbollah is helping to defend Lebanon from the Zionists."
But most of the Christian population seem to blame Hezbollah. Of the 3.8 million people in Lebanon, about 60 percent are Muslims, mostly Shia, and most of the remaining 40 percent Christian.
Views on the Hezbollah fall largely, though not entirely, along religious lines. Most of the large Shia population obediently follow every word of Nasrallah.
Many who have their doubts about Hezbollah still speak of their need for Hezbollah protection against Israeli aggression. And most agree that Hezbollah is a strong political force, and will have to be negotiated with. It is clear that there can be no peace in the region without including Hezbollah in any process toward cease-fire and further, any lasting solution.
The widespread destruction of infrastructure has been decisive in turning popular anger against Israel, rather than Hezbollah.
"Israel is protecting itself because Hezbollah made their operation against her soldiers," said Fouad Rashed, a 33-year-old Christian owner of an electronics store in the capital. "Their reaction is too strong though, because now they are destroying our country."
A 50-year-old Christian, Nassan Hanin, said "Hezbollah was wrong to carry out their operation, and Israel is wrong in their extreme reaction. I'm happy that Hezbollah was hit for what they did, but this has been at too great a cost for us now."
Many who lived through the worst of the civil war in the eighties blame both.
"We can barely believe there is war here again," a 52-year-old waiter in the Hamra district of Beirut told IPS. "We thought we were finished with it 1990. I believe it was wrong for Hezbollah to kidnap the Israeli soldiers, but this level of reaction from the Israelis, of destroying all of Lebanon, is completely unjustified. It is insane."
(Inter Press Service)
July 27, 2006
Hezbollah Could Be
Gaining Strength
by Dahr Jamail
BEIRUT - The continuing Israeli bombing of south Lebanon and south Beirut might just have strengthened the Hezbollah.
The bombings appear particularly to have strengthened the hand of Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the charismatic Hezbollah leader.
Hezbollah has over the years gained a strong following in Lebanon primarily on the back of its engagement in social services, taking on infrastructure projects, and looking after its followers. The Israeli assault is giving Hezbollah scope to gain more such power.
Hezbollah now controls, for example, more than half of about 100 schools in Beirut that have been converted into refugee shelters.
"These attacks show the true force of Israel," a young man told IPS at a refugee camp in a city park. "I was with Hezbollah before, but now I want to join them so I can fight the Israelis, who only want our land, and want to attack Islam."
A Hezbollah member in charge of a group of fighters in southern Beirut claimed that support for Hezbollah has increased dramatically since the Israeli attacks began two weeks ago.
"People are afraid, and in need, and we are protecting them and helping care for the refugees created by this Zionist aggression," he told IPS. "The longer this fight continues, the more support we will have. We are prepared to fight to the very end."
Support for the Hezbollah appears to be stronger among younger people. And some Christians too are speaking in support of Hezbollah. Ramzi Semaan, a 21-year-old Christian told IPS that "Hezbollah was defending this country, and the Israeli response was being planned months in advance. So Hezbollah is helping to defend Lebanon from the Zionists."
But most of the Christian population seem to blame Hezbollah. Of the 3.8 million people in Lebanon, about 60 percent are Muslims, mostly Shia, and most of the remaining 40 percent Christian.
Views on the Hezbollah fall largely, though not entirely, along religious lines. Most of the large Shia population obediently follow every word of Nasrallah.
Many who have their doubts about Hezbollah still speak of their need for Hezbollah protection against Israeli aggression. And most agree that Hezbollah is a strong political force, and will have to be negotiated with. It is clear that there can be no peace in the region without including Hezbollah in any process toward cease-fire and further, any lasting solution.
The widespread destruction of infrastructure has been decisive in turning popular anger against Israel, rather than Hezbollah.
"Israel is protecting itself because Hezbollah made their operation against her soldiers," said Fouad Rashed, a 33-year-old Christian owner of an electronics store in the capital. "Their reaction is too strong though, because now they are destroying our country."
A 50-year-old Christian, Nassan Hanin, said "Hezbollah was wrong to carry out their operation, and Israel is wrong in their extreme reaction. I'm happy that Hezbollah was hit for what they did, but this has been at too great a cost for us now."
Many who lived through the worst of the civil war in the eighties blame both.
"We can barely believe there is war here again," a 52-year-old waiter in the Hamra district of Beirut told IPS. "We thought we were finished with it 1990. I believe it was wrong for Hezbollah to kidnap the Israeli soldiers, but this level of reaction from the Israelis, of destroying all of Lebanon, is completely unjustified. It is insane."
(Inter Press Service)
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=206...refer=worldwide
Hezbollah's Bigger, Better Arsenal Draws Israel Into Ground War
July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Hezbollah's expanded arsenal of guided missiles and rockets is drawing Israeli forces into an increasingly deadly ground war in southern Lebanon as they attempt to locate and destroy the hidden weapons.
The Shiite Muslim group has added about 10,000 Katyusha rockets to its armory in the six years since Israel withdrew its ground forces from Lebanon, military experts say. Israel can't rely solely on air strikes to tackle the threat from rockets with improved range and accuracy that may be able to strike Tel Aviv: Eight Israeli soldiers were killed and 22 wounded in one gun battle in south Lebanon yesterday, the army's heaviest casualties since the conflict began 15 days ago.
``It's like Vietnam,'' Penrose Albright, a former U.S. assistant secretary of homeland security, said in a telephone interview from Washington. ``The enemy has an endless supply of cheap weapons and can strike at you from any direction.''
Hezbollah's new capabilities, with 12,000 missiles across southern Lebanon, threaten such strategic targets in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, as the state-owned oil refineries and one of the country's biggest chemical plants. The ``Party of God'' has also surprised Israel by adding smarter missiles to the unguided World War II-vintage Katyusha warheads.
``Hezbollah has come a long way,'' said Superintendent Michael Cardash, deputy head of the Israeli Police bomb disposal unit, holding a twisted shard recovered from a Syrian-made 220- millimeter rocket that ripped through the roof of a Haifa rail yard July 16 and killed eight workers. ``Their rockets are causing us significant damage.''
Guided Missile
Hezbollah displayed a technological leap in mid-July off the coast of Lebanon, when its forces used a guided missile to kill four commandos on an Israeli ship.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's 46-year-old general secretary, has promised more ``military surprises'' for the Israelis. Those include the Iranian-made C802 Noor guided missile that hit the Israeli ship and the long-range Zelzal-2 rocket, which can travel 120 miles (200 kilometers), said Yaakov Amidror, a retired major general who ran Israel's National Defense College.
Hezbollah, founded in 1982, has claimed credit or been linked to scores of attacks on Israelis and Americans, including rocket attacks on Israeli towns, the 1983 bombing that killed 241 U.S. and 58 French soldiers in Beirut and the 1994 attack that killed 95 at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Leaders of the group say its fight with Israel will boost its prestige and popularity in Lebanon and throughout the Muslim world, and that it is in no rush to end the fighting.
The group's strategy is ``not to reveal all its cards, to impose its own pace in fighting the war and to prepare for a long war,'' Ali Fayyad, a member of Hezbollah's Central Council, said in an interview in Beirut.
Advance Planning
Nasrallah started planning for the next big conflict when Israel left Lebanon six years ago, said Eitan Azani, a researcher at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism, part of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.
``He has been preparing artillery, military actions and intelligence just for this particular moment in time,'' Azani said. ``It shows he's the one in charge in South Lebanon.''
The Israeli army says 1,436 Hezbollah missiles have landed in Israeli territory since the conflict erupted July 12, when it raided Israel and captured two Israeli soldiers. Fifty Israelis have died and about 1,000 have been injured in the fighting. Israeli air strikes in Lebanon have left about 370 people dead and thousands wounded.
`Commodities'
It probably wasn't too difficult for Nasrallah to expand his arsenal, said Albright, who led a U.S.-Israeli study 10 years ago on defense against short-range rockets. ``Katyushas have become like commodities on the international arms market, and you can get them from almost anyone,'' he said. ``They're not an existential threat, but they can certainly disrupt daily life and hurt Israel economically.''
Hezbollah's arsenal also contains Iranian-made Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 missiles, which have a range of 55 miles, and Iran's Mirsad-1 drone airplanes, according to the ``Middle East Military Balance,'' an annual survey published by Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies.
While considered ``dumb bombs,'' even the Katyushas are more sophisticated than the homemade Qassam rockets that Palestinians have been firing during the past year at Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip, police say.
Tunnels and Trenches
Hezbollah's superior knowledge of the terrain in south Lebanon, which has been mined and dug full of tunnels and trenches since the Israeli withdrawal in May 2000, gives them significant advantages in the current conflict, said Michael Kerr, a Lebanon expert at the London School of Economics.
The Hezbollah fighters ``arrive with an open-roofed truck, fire the rockets and then disappear so anyone retaliating is fighting a ghost army,'' Kerr said in an interview.
``Lebanon is a mountainous country with lots of forestation so it's perfectly suited to storing weapons,'' he said. ``Israel is looking for a needle in a haystack and sometimes it might hit the haystack instead of a needle.''
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he won't stop fighting until Hezbollah is driven back to a distance north of the Lebanese border from which they can no longer threaten Israel.
Amidror, the former head of the National Defense College, said Israel's campaign fits into a wider need by the U.S. and its allies to neutralize Iran and prevent it from terrorizing Israel and destabilizing the Middle East. ``Israel must carry out its current military operation against Hezbollah until it is fully neutralized, isolated, disarmed and unable to serve as Iran's long arm,'' he said.
``There's no way to stop Hezbollah's Katyushas except by going in there on the ground and destroying their weapons,'' said Albright. ``Unfortunately that's going to be a long, drawn- out and bloody process.''
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at jferziger@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: July 26, 2006 21:10 EDT
Hezbollah's Bigger, Better Arsenal Draws Israel Into Ground War
July 27 (Bloomberg) -- Hezbollah's expanded arsenal of guided missiles and rockets is drawing Israeli forces into an increasingly deadly ground war in southern Lebanon as they attempt to locate and destroy the hidden weapons.
The Shiite Muslim group has added about 10,000 Katyusha rockets to its armory in the six years since Israel withdrew its ground forces from Lebanon, military experts say. Israel can't rely solely on air strikes to tackle the threat from rockets with improved range and accuracy that may be able to strike Tel Aviv: Eight Israeli soldiers were killed and 22 wounded in one gun battle in south Lebanon yesterday, the army's heaviest casualties since the conflict began 15 days ago.
``It's like Vietnam,'' Penrose Albright, a former U.S. assistant secretary of homeland security, said in a telephone interview from Washington. ``The enemy has an endless supply of cheap weapons and can strike at you from any direction.''
Hezbollah's new capabilities, with 12,000 missiles across southern Lebanon, threaten such strategic targets in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city, as the state-owned oil refineries and one of the country's biggest chemical plants. The ``Party of God'' has also surprised Israel by adding smarter missiles to the unguided World War II-vintage Katyusha warheads.
``Hezbollah has come a long way,'' said Superintendent Michael Cardash, deputy head of the Israeli Police bomb disposal unit, holding a twisted shard recovered from a Syrian-made 220- millimeter rocket that ripped through the roof of a Haifa rail yard July 16 and killed eight workers. ``Their rockets are causing us significant damage.''
Guided Missile
Hezbollah displayed a technological leap in mid-July off the coast of Lebanon, when its forces used a guided missile to kill four commandos on an Israeli ship.
Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's 46-year-old general secretary, has promised more ``military surprises'' for the Israelis. Those include the Iranian-made C802 Noor guided missile that hit the Israeli ship and the long-range Zelzal-2 rocket, which can travel 120 miles (200 kilometers), said Yaakov Amidror, a retired major general who ran Israel's National Defense College.
Hezbollah, founded in 1982, has claimed credit or been linked to scores of attacks on Israelis and Americans, including rocket attacks on Israeli towns, the 1983 bombing that killed 241 U.S. and 58 French soldiers in Beirut and the 1994 attack that killed 95 at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires. Leaders of the group say its fight with Israel will boost its prestige and popularity in Lebanon and throughout the Muslim world, and that it is in no rush to end the fighting.
The group's strategy is ``not to reveal all its cards, to impose its own pace in fighting the war and to prepare for a long war,'' Ali Fayyad, a member of Hezbollah's Central Council, said in an interview in Beirut.
Advance Planning
Nasrallah started planning for the next big conflict when Israel left Lebanon six years ago, said Eitan Azani, a researcher at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism, part of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.
``He has been preparing artillery, military actions and intelligence just for this particular moment in time,'' Azani said. ``It shows he's the one in charge in South Lebanon.''
The Israeli army says 1,436 Hezbollah missiles have landed in Israeli territory since the conflict erupted July 12, when it raided Israel and captured two Israeli soldiers. Fifty Israelis have died and about 1,000 have been injured in the fighting. Israeli air strikes in Lebanon have left about 370 people dead and thousands wounded.
`Commodities'
It probably wasn't too difficult for Nasrallah to expand his arsenal, said Albright, who led a U.S.-Israeli study 10 years ago on defense against short-range rockets. ``Katyushas have become like commodities on the international arms market, and you can get them from almost anyone,'' he said. ``They're not an existential threat, but they can certainly disrupt daily life and hurt Israel economically.''
Hezbollah's arsenal also contains Iranian-made Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 missiles, which have a range of 55 miles, and Iran's Mirsad-1 drone airplanes, according to the ``Middle East Military Balance,'' an annual survey published by Tel Aviv University's Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies.
While considered ``dumb bombs,'' even the Katyushas are more sophisticated than the homemade Qassam rockets that Palestinians have been firing during the past year at Israeli towns bordering the Gaza Strip, police say.
Tunnels and Trenches
Hezbollah's superior knowledge of the terrain in south Lebanon, which has been mined and dug full of tunnels and trenches since the Israeli withdrawal in May 2000, gives them significant advantages in the current conflict, said Michael Kerr, a Lebanon expert at the London School of Economics.
The Hezbollah fighters ``arrive with an open-roofed truck, fire the rockets and then disappear so anyone retaliating is fighting a ghost army,'' Kerr said in an interview.
``Lebanon is a mountainous country with lots of forestation so it's perfectly suited to storing weapons,'' he said. ``Israel is looking for a needle in a haystack and sometimes it might hit the haystack instead of a needle.''
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he won't stop fighting until Hezbollah is driven back to a distance north of the Lebanese border from which they can no longer threaten Israel.
Amidror, the former head of the National Defense College, said Israel's campaign fits into a wider need by the U.S. and its allies to neutralize Iran and prevent it from terrorizing Israel and destabilizing the Middle East. ``Israel must carry out its current military operation against Hezbollah until it is fully neutralized, isolated, disarmed and unable to serve as Iran's long arm,'' he said.
``There's no way to stop Hezbollah's Katyushas except by going in there on the ground and destroying their weapons,'' said Albright. ``Unfortunately that's going to be a long, drawn- out and bloody process.''
To contact the reporter on this story:
Jonathan Ferziger in Tel Aviv at jferziger@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: July 26, 2006 21:10 EDT
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/hirschberg.php?articleid=9422
July 27, 2006
Despite Olmert's Offensive, Israelis Running From Rockets
by Peter Hirschberg
JERUSALEM - Avner Pomeranetz does not sound particularly concerned by the barrage of 26 Katyusha rockets that slammed into his home town of Kiryat Shmona on Israel's northern border over the weekend. Nor by the fact that he has to remain in town by order of the army, and cannot travel south out of range of the rockets, because as a pharmacist he is considered to be providing an essential service.
"This is nothing new," he told IPS, pointing out that ever since he arrived in the border town after immigrating from Argentina to Israel in the mid-1970s, it has been a target of rockets from Lebanon. But most residents of northern Israel are far less sanguine than the 73-year-old Pomeranetz. Unlike this Katyusha veteran, residents in places like Haifa, Safed, Carmiel, Acre, and Tiberias are experiencing life under Hezbollah rockets for the first time. Tens of thousands have traveled south, out of rocket range, to family, friends, and hotels.
The Israeli military estimates that between a third and a half of the residents in northern Israel have left their homes and their work.
Those who have remained in Haifa and other towns in northern Israel have spent much of the last two weeks in bomb shelters and security rooms, or in close proximity to them, ears peeled for the sirens that warn of incoming rockets. But not everyone has found shelter in time from the rockets: a 15-year-old Arab girl was killed Tuesday when a rocket fired by Hezbollah directly struck a home in a Muslim section of the village of Maghar in northern Israel.
In Israel's third-largest city of Haifa, a man was killed Sunday when his car was mangled by a rocket as he drove along a main road in the northern port city. The same day, another man was killed when a rocket slammed into the factory where he was working in a Haifa suburb.
So far, 17 Israelis have been killed – eight in the single most deadly attack, in Haifa last week – and hundreds injured in the rocket attacks.
Along with the human cost, the economic damage is also mounting. Already the rockets have snuffed out the tourism industry in the north, which was hoping for another profitable season after six years of relative security calm following Israel's mid-2000 withdrawal from south Lebanon.
Farmers are incurring damage as orchards stand empty with workers unable to harvest the fruit. The many bed and breakfast outlets across northern Israel are empty, and small businesses are shut.
"People aren't leaving their homes, everything is dead," Shiri Gelbart, owner of a small business in Haifa told Channel 10 television. "At the end of the day, the cash register is empty."
More than half of the factories in northern Israel have either been shuttered or are operating on only partial capacity. The estimated damage to industry in northern Israel since the fighting erupted two weeks ago is said to be in the region of 2 billion shekels ($450 million).
Despite the cost, the broad domestic and political support for Israel's military offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon is still strong.
"Olmert's response was correct," says Avner. "We had no choice. We withdrew to the last centimeter. South Lebanon is no longer occupied territory. It's a pity this type of response did not come earlier," he says, referring to the fact that during the six years since Israel left Lebanon, Hezbollah has built up an arsenal of some 12,000 short and medium-range missiles that it deployed in the south of the country facing Israel.
Asked about the devastation in Lebanon and the ever rising number of civilian casualties as a result of Israel's aerial raids, Avner's wife Chani says it is "very painful" to watch, but that Hezbollah's missiles are a "direct threat" to Israel and could not be ignored.
"We are trying our best not to harm civilians," adds Avner. "But Hezbollah places its rocket launchers amongst the [Lebanese] civilian population. And unlike us, they shoot directly at civilians."
Like a growing number of ex-military staff, who have been vocally expressing their views on radio and television, Chani believes that Israel cannot subdue Hezbollah by means of an aerial assault alone. But some commentators have warned against a ground incursion, saying Hezbollah wants to lure Israel into south Lebanon where it believes the conventional Israeli military will be vulnerable.
Chani says there is no choice but to carry out ground operations in order to "clear the area near the border" of Hezbollah fighters. And she fully comprehends the price of a ground operation: her son was killed four years ago when the elite unit of which he was a member was involved in a military operation in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Opinion polls show over 80 percent of Israelis support Olmert's decision to launch a military offensive after Hezbollah militants attacked an Israeli border patrol on July 12, killed three soldiers and snatched two others that they are holding captive.
But that support for Olmert could change if the military operation ends and Olmert does not achieve the goals he has outlined: the release of the captured soldiers, the deployment of the Lebanese army or an international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, and the removal of Hezbollah far from the border area.
"Hezbollah cannot be wiped out," says Avner. "It is an integral part of Lebanon. But it has to be kept far from the border, and the soldiers have to be released."
Israel's leaders believe the war will not be decided on the battlefield alone, but that the outcome will also depend on the ability of the civilian rear to endure the rocket attacks and the mounting military casualties – 12 soldiers have been killed since Israel launched its offensive.
This is one reason why the military views the battle being waged around the town of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold in south Lebanon, as particularly significant. After Israel withdrew from Lebanon six years ago, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made a triumphant speech in the village, declaring that Israeli society was as weak as a "spider's web."
Avner thinks the Israeli response has sent a very different message to Nasrallah. "Hezbollah didn't expect these two civilians to react the way they did," he said, referring to Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz, neither of whom rose up through the ranks of the military before entering political office, like many former Israeli leaders.
"They thought that Israel would fire a few missiles and then begin negotiations over the release of the soldiers. Now Nasrallah is finding out that things aren't quite as he thought."
(Inter Press Service)
July 27, 2006
Despite Olmert's Offensive, Israelis Running From Rockets
by Peter Hirschberg
JERUSALEM - Avner Pomeranetz does not sound particularly concerned by the barrage of 26 Katyusha rockets that slammed into his home town of Kiryat Shmona on Israel's northern border over the weekend. Nor by the fact that he has to remain in town by order of the army, and cannot travel south out of range of the rockets, because as a pharmacist he is considered to be providing an essential service.
"This is nothing new," he told IPS, pointing out that ever since he arrived in the border town after immigrating from Argentina to Israel in the mid-1970s, it has been a target of rockets from Lebanon. But most residents of northern Israel are far less sanguine than the 73-year-old Pomeranetz. Unlike this Katyusha veteran, residents in places like Haifa, Safed, Carmiel, Acre, and Tiberias are experiencing life under Hezbollah rockets for the first time. Tens of thousands have traveled south, out of rocket range, to family, friends, and hotels.
The Israeli military estimates that between a third and a half of the residents in northern Israel have left their homes and their work.
Those who have remained in Haifa and other towns in northern Israel have spent much of the last two weeks in bomb shelters and security rooms, or in close proximity to them, ears peeled for the sirens that warn of incoming rockets. But not everyone has found shelter in time from the rockets: a 15-year-old Arab girl was killed Tuesday when a rocket fired by Hezbollah directly struck a home in a Muslim section of the village of Maghar in northern Israel.
In Israel's third-largest city of Haifa, a man was killed Sunday when his car was mangled by a rocket as he drove along a main road in the northern port city. The same day, another man was killed when a rocket slammed into the factory where he was working in a Haifa suburb.
So far, 17 Israelis have been killed – eight in the single most deadly attack, in Haifa last week – and hundreds injured in the rocket attacks.
Along with the human cost, the economic damage is also mounting. Already the rockets have snuffed out the tourism industry in the north, which was hoping for another profitable season after six years of relative security calm following Israel's mid-2000 withdrawal from south Lebanon.
Farmers are incurring damage as orchards stand empty with workers unable to harvest the fruit. The many bed and breakfast outlets across northern Israel are empty, and small businesses are shut.
"People aren't leaving their homes, everything is dead," Shiri Gelbart, owner of a small business in Haifa told Channel 10 television. "At the end of the day, the cash register is empty."
More than half of the factories in northern Israel have either been shuttered or are operating on only partial capacity. The estimated damage to industry in northern Israel since the fighting erupted two weeks ago is said to be in the region of 2 billion shekels ($450 million).
Despite the cost, the broad domestic and political support for Israel's military offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon is still strong.
"Olmert's response was correct," says Avner. "We had no choice. We withdrew to the last centimeter. South Lebanon is no longer occupied territory. It's a pity this type of response did not come earlier," he says, referring to the fact that during the six years since Israel left Lebanon, Hezbollah has built up an arsenal of some 12,000 short and medium-range missiles that it deployed in the south of the country facing Israel.
Asked about the devastation in Lebanon and the ever rising number of civilian casualties as a result of Israel's aerial raids, Avner's wife Chani says it is "very painful" to watch, but that Hezbollah's missiles are a "direct threat" to Israel and could not be ignored.
"We are trying our best not to harm civilians," adds Avner. "But Hezbollah places its rocket launchers amongst the [Lebanese] civilian population. And unlike us, they shoot directly at civilians."
Like a growing number of ex-military staff, who have been vocally expressing their views on radio and television, Chani believes that Israel cannot subdue Hezbollah by means of an aerial assault alone. But some commentators have warned against a ground incursion, saying Hezbollah wants to lure Israel into south Lebanon where it believes the conventional Israeli military will be vulnerable.
Chani says there is no choice but to carry out ground operations in order to "clear the area near the border" of Hezbollah fighters. And she fully comprehends the price of a ground operation: her son was killed four years ago when the elite unit of which he was a member was involved in a military operation in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Opinion polls show over 80 percent of Israelis support Olmert's decision to launch a military offensive after Hezbollah militants attacked an Israeli border patrol on July 12, killed three soldiers and snatched two others that they are holding captive.
But that support for Olmert could change if the military operation ends and Olmert does not achieve the goals he has outlined: the release of the captured soldiers, the deployment of the Lebanese army or an international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, and the removal of Hezbollah far from the border area.
"Hezbollah cannot be wiped out," says Avner. "It is an integral part of Lebanon. But it has to be kept far from the border, and the soldiers have to be released."
Israel's leaders believe the war will not be decided on the battlefield alone, but that the outcome will also depend on the ability of the civilian rear to endure the rocket attacks and the mounting military casualties – 12 soldiers have been killed since Israel launched its offensive.
This is one reason why the military views the battle being waged around the town of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold in south Lebanon, as particularly significant. After Israel withdrew from Lebanon six years ago, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah made a triumphant speech in the village, declaring that Israeli society was as weak as a "spider's web."
Avner thinks the Israeli response has sent a very different message to Nasrallah. "Hezbollah didn't expect these two civilians to react the way they did," he said, referring to Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz, neither of whom rose up through the ranks of the military before entering political office, like many former Israeli leaders.
"They thought that Israel would fire a few missiles and then begin negotiations over the release of the soldiers. Now Nasrallah is finding out that things aren't quite as he thought."
(Inter Press Service)
Thursday, 27th July 2006
Latest News
Lebanon to sue Israel for "barbaric destruction"
ROME (Reuters) - Lebanon will sue Israel and demand compensation for the "barbaric destruction" suffered by its people, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said on Wednesday.
"Israel cannot go on indefinitely disregarding international law," the Lebanese leader told world diplomats at an international meeting on Lebanon in Rome.
"It must be made to pay and we shall commence legal proceedings and spare no avenue to make Israel compensate the Lebanese people for the barbaric destruction it has inflicted and continues to inflict upon us," he said.
© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1086762006
Latest News
Lebanon to sue Israel for "barbaric destruction"
ROME (Reuters) - Lebanon will sue Israel and demand compensation for the "barbaric destruction" suffered by its people, Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said on Wednesday.
"Israel cannot go on indefinitely disregarding international law," the Lebanese leader told world diplomats at an international meeting on Lebanon in Rome.
"It must be made to pay and we shall commence legal proceedings and spare no avenue to make Israel compensate the Lebanese people for the barbaric destruction it has inflicted and continues to inflict upon us," he said.
© Reuters 2006. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content, including by caching, framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters and the Reuters sphere logo are registered trademarks and trademarks of the Reuters group of companies around the world.
This article: http://news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=1086762006
Deadliest Day for Israel in Lebanon
By Jonathan Finer and Edward Cody
AVIVIM, Israel, July 27 -- More than 100 Hezbollah fighters staged a fierce ambush on Israeli ground forces entering the Lebanese border town of Bint Jbeil before dawn Wednesday, killing at least eight soldiers and wounding 22 with gunfire, mortars and antitank missiles.
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By Jonathan Finer and Edward Cody
AVIVIM, Israel, July 27 -- More than 100 Hezbollah fighters staged a fierce ambush on Israeli ground forces entering the Lebanese border town of Bint Jbeil before dawn Wednesday, killing at least eight soldiers and wounding 22 with gunfire, mortars and antitank missiles.
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24 Killed As Israel Moves Into N. Gaza
By John Ward Anderson
JERUSALEM, July Israeli troops pushed into the northern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, sparking intense street clashes with local fighters that left 24 Palestinians dead and at least 57 wounded, Palestinian security and hospital officials said. They said most of the victims were struck by Israeli tank...
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By John Ward Anderson
JERUSALEM, July Israeli troops pushed into the northern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, sparking intense street clashes with local fighters that left 24 Palestinians dead and at least 57 wounded, Palestinian security and hospital officials said. They said most of the victims were struck by Israeli tank...
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Israel says world backs offensive BBC News
Israel says the decision by a summit of world powers not to call for a halt to its Lebanon offensive has given it the green light to continue.
Foreign ministers attending emergency talks on the crisis in Rome on Wednesday did not call for an immediate ceasefire, vowing instead to work with the "utmost urgency" for a sustainable truce.
Speaking on Israeli army radio, Mr Ramon - a close confidant of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert - said "everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror". He said that in order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops moved in. He added that Israel had given the civilians of southern Lebanon ample time to quit the area and therefore anyone still remaining there could be considered a Hezbollah supporter. "All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah," Mr Ramon said. At its meeting later, the Israeli cabinet decided not to broaden its military offensive, Israel Radio reported.
But ministers also decided to call up thousands of additional reservists to boost the military campaign, the radio said. The chief of Israel's northern command, Maj Gen Udi Adam, has warned that he expects the fighting to "continue for several more weeks". The head of political programmes at Hezbollah's TV station, al-Manar, Ibrahim Moussawi, says the organisation is determined to continue fighting. "Israel is a mighty army. You're talking about a regional superpower with hi-tech weaponry," Mr Moussawi said. "But when you talk about resistance and determination and resolve to face and to confront this, yes, Hezbollah has the will and the determination to do it." "The Israelis have tried this before since 1982, which culminated in the year 2000 with the defeat of the Israelis and their withdrawal from south Lebanon," he added.
Hezbollah weapons
An Israeli military official told the BBC that Israel had destroyed 50% of Hezbollah's weapons arsenal. But the group's ability to inflict damage appears undiminished - on Wednesday they fired some 150 rockets into Israel, more than on any other day of the conflict. Pursuing Mr Olmert's plan of pushing Hezbollah back from border areas, in order to prevent them continuing to fire rockets into Israeli territory, and establishing a "security zone" in the south will take many weeks, our correspondent adds. Meanwhile, Israel's attacks on Lebanon have continued with air strikes on a Lebanese army base and a radio relay station north of Beirut.
Israel says the decision by a summit of world powers not to call for a halt to its Lebanon offensive has given it the green light to continue.
The people of Tyre no longer feel they are in a safe haven
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world... to continue the operation," Justice Minister Haim Ramon said. His comments came before Israeli cabinet ministers decided not to launch a large-scale ground offensive. Israel has launched fresh air raids, amid ongoing fighting in south Lebanon. At least 423 Lebanese and 51 Israelis have died in the violence since Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July. In other developments:- Following the deaths of four UN observers in an Israeli air strike, Australia has withdrawn 12 UN peacekeepers, describing the prospect of sending an international force to Lebanon right now as a "suicide mission"
- UN refugee chief Antonio Guterres says 500,000 people have been displaced within Lebanon by the fighting
- A poll of Israelis published by Israel's Maariv daily newspaper suggests 82% back the continuing offensive and 95% say Israel's action is justified
Foreign ministers attending emergency talks on the crisis in Rome on Wednesday did not call for an immediate ceasefire, vowing instead to work with the "utmost urgency" for a sustainable truce.
- Three airports bombed
- 62 bridges destroyed
- Three dams and ports hit
- 5,000 homesdamaged
- Damage in maps
- Economy reels
Israel suffered its worst losses in an ambush in Bint Jbeil
The BBC Jim Muir in Tyre, in southern Lebanon, says that the progress of Israeli ground troops has not been as fast as expected as they battle through the difficult terrain of southern Lebanon. They still have not managed to capture the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil, where they have suffered their worst losses. The bombing of areas near Tyre, combined with last night's raid on flats near the city centre, has also sparked a civilian exodus from the city.Hezbollah weapons
An Israeli military official told the BBC that Israel had destroyed 50% of Hezbollah's weapons arsenal. But the group's ability to inflict damage appears undiminished - on Wednesday they fired some 150 rockets into Israel, more than on any other day of the conflict. Pursuing Mr Olmert's plan of pushing Hezbollah back from border areas, in order to prevent them continuing to fire rockets into Israeli territory, and establishing a "security zone" in the south will take many weeks, our correspondent adds. Meanwhile, Israel's attacks on Lebanon have continued with air strikes on a Lebanese army base and a radio relay station north of Beirut.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/27/world/eu...artner=homepage
Israel Debates Strategy Shift After Truce Talks Fail
By GREG MYRE and JOHN O’NEIL
Published: July 27, 2006
JERUSALEM, July 27 — Israel’s security cabinet today decided against expanding its ground offensive in Lebanon, a day after the heaviest fighting in the two-week-old conflict killed 9 Israeli soldiers and dozens of Hezbollah fighters.
Before the meeting, Israeli officials said they regarded the failure of an international conference to reach agreement on a cease-fire plan as clearing the way for further assaults on Hezbollah.
“We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world,’’ Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Israeli radio, “to continue this operation, this war, until Hezbollah won’t be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed.’’
Mr. Ramon also raised the possibility of an expanded air assault, saying “all those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah.’’
The fierce fighting in southern Lebanon and rising Israeli casualties led a number of politicians to call today for an expansion of the ground assault. But after meeting this afternoon, the cabinet decided to stick with the limited campaign already underway, officials said.
On the diplomatic front, France’s foreign minister, Phillipe Douste-Blazy, today proposed a United Nations resolution for a settlement, Reuters reported. It called for the release of two soldiers seized by Hezbollah, the disarmament of the militant group and the creation of a buffer zone along the border, the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel, the deployment of the Lebanese army in the buffer zone and guarantees of respect for Lebanese sovereignty.
Arriving today in Kuala Lumpur for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended her resistance during the Rome conference to the push for a quick cease-fire. She said she was “willing and ready to go back to the Middle East at any time’’ for talks on a “sustainable’’ peace plan, The Associated Press reported, but warned against expecting any rapid solution.
Arab governments and newspapers expressed disappointment at the outcome of the Rome conference. Egypt’s foreign minister, Ahmed Abul Gheit, said the meeting had “failed to meet Arab demands’’ for a cease-fire, Agence France-Presse reported. The Saudi daily Okaz criticized the “major powers’’ for delaying a cease-fire by insisting on “conditions that will allow the aggression to continue,’’ according to Reuters.
Also today, Ayman al-Zawarhiri, al Qaeda’s second-in-command, vowed in a videotape released today that the group “will not stay silent with regard to what is happening to Muslims in Palestine and Lebanon.”
"What is happening to Muslims is a Crusader and Zionist war," Mr. Zawarhiri said, promising “we will attack everywhere’’ in response.
Meanwhile, Israeli air assaults continued today, destroying radio towers north of Beirut and targets in south Lebanon, Reuters reported. It quoted Lebanese security officials who said that Israeli warplanes struck a convoy carrying food and medical supplies from Syria, killing two truck drivers. Agence France-Presse said that nine people were killed in new air strikes, including a gendarme and a Nigerian domestic worker hit by an Israeli missile while riding his motorbike near the southern city of Tyre.
Reuters quoted Israeli security officials who said that a rocket fired by Hezbollah struck a chemical factory in a northern town, but there was no immediate information on casualties.
In Gaza, three Palestinians were killed today, Reuters reported. At least 23 Palestinians had died in fighting there on Wednesday.
A trickle of relief aid continued to make its way into Lebanon, as a second airlift of medical supplies landed in Beirut, news services said. On Wednesday, relief aid reached the southern city of Tyre,, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. In an update on its Web site it painted a grim picture of conditions in villages near the fighting. In one village, it said, “about 700 people, among them 300 children, had taken shelter in a mosque. In other isolated villages, the streets remained empty. As people were afraid to go out, fearing bombardments, dead bodies had not been removed from the streets and others were still buried under rubble.’’
Hezbollah on Thursday kept up its sustained fire on northern Israel, with 130 rockets hitting the region, wounding more than 10 Israelis.
The death toll has been at least 433 in Lebanon and 51 in Israel, according to Reuters.
The death toll on Wednesday was Israel’s highest since fighting began on July 12 after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers during a raid into Israel.
The most intense ground combat came around the hilltop town of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold just a few miles from the Israeli border.
During the meeting in Rome, while the other nations pressed for an immediate cease-fire, the United States argued for a “sustainable cease-fire,” with the Lebanese government regaining sovereignty over southern Lebanon, and militias like Hezbollah being disbanded.
The lack of action prompted Prime Minister Fouad Siniora of Lebanon to lash out with a cry of despair.
“Is the value of human life less in Lebanon than that of citizens elsewhere?” he asked. “Are we children of a lesser god? Is an Israeli teardrop worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood?”
Accusing Israel of “barbaric destruction,” he vowed to seek justice, announcing that Lebanon would begin legal proceedings for war reparations.
European and Arab governments, as well as Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, and Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, lined up behind him and pushed hard for an immediate cessation of hostilities or even a truce on humanitarian grounds, several participants said.
But in a tense, sometimes stormy debate that went on for nearly an hour, Ms. Rice dug in, and prevailed.
Later, she defended the United States’ refusal to call for an immediate cease-fire, saying: “It doesn’t do anyone any good to raise false hopes about something that’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen. I did say to the group, ‘When will we learn?’ The fields of the Middle East are littered with broken cease-fires.”
She said she expected that the issue would end up being resolved by the United Nations Security Council.
In a news conference after the talks, the normally placid Mr. Annan made no effort to control his rage at Israel for what he had called an “apparently deliberate targeting” of a United Nations observer post in southern Lebanon by Israel on Tuesday. Four observers were killed.
“Mr. Olmert definitely believes it was a mistake,” said Mr. Annan, referring to Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert. But despite at least 10 calls from United Nations personnel to Israel that their positions were being shelled, Mr. Annan added, “The shelling of the U.N. positions began early in the morning and carried on all day.”
He pledged a formal investigation.
Ms. Rice and Mr. Annan disagreed at the news conference on whether Syria and Iran should be brought into the effort to end the violence. Mr. Annan called for working “with the countries of the region to find a solution,” naming Iran and Syria as players; Ms. Rice, by contrast, said she was concerned about Iran’s role and calling on Syria to live up to its responsibilities, a reference to previous United Nations resolutions.
While the world has focused on the fighting in Lebanon, Israel has continued to shell Gaza. Most of those killed in Gaza on Wednesday were militants, but a mother and her two young daughters died when an artillery shell hit their home, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. A third young girl was also killed, and dozens of Palestinians were wounded.
In its campaign, which began as an effort to halt rocket attacks and intensified after Palestinian militants captured an Israeli soldier last month, Israel has hit homes in residential areas where it believes weapons are stored, causing civilian casualties in some cases.
Israel says it has dropped leaflets, and even made phone calls to families in the area, warning them that they should leave because militants are operating in the area and that the Israeli military could carry out operations.
In southern Lebanon, Israel’s initial talk of breaking Hezbollah’s back has slowly given way to more limited goals as Israeli ground troops have bogged down just a few miles into the country. The latest talk is of creating a buffer zone just two kilometers, or about 1.2 miles, wide, which Israel said it could police from its side of the border.
“You can create a buffer zone, not only by being there, but by going in and out,” said Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz, who is in charge the Israeli military’s ground forces.
Prime Minister Olmert briefed an Israeli parliamentary committee Wednesday on plans for the zone, according to participants in the closed session.
A senior Israeli official who spoke about the plan Tuesday said ground troops would be used in the zone. But Mr. Olmert suggested that Israel would try to keep order from its side of the border with artillery and airstrikes.
The plan is already coming under criticism, as has the slow military progress on the ground. Yuval Steinitz, a member of the committee on defense and foreign affairs, which met with Mr. Olmert, described the government’s plan as half-baked.
“If we want to achieve something with this operation, then we need to conduct massive ground operations and clear out all of southern Lebanon,” he said.
Two days ago, Israeli military officials on the border confidently announced that first the village of Marun al-Ras and then the larger town of Bint Jbail had been subdued. But renewed fighting erupted in the region around daybreak Wednesday, and by afternoon military officers were being more circumspect about their progress.
In the village of Marun al-Ras, one Israeli soldier was killed and three more were wounded Wednesday, the Israeli military said. Hezbollah fighters fired an anti-tank rocket that hit the soldiers in a building, it said.
When asked what the Israeli military had achieved after two weeks of fighting, General Gantz replied: “I would suggest asking what Hezbollah has achieved. They came as defenders of Lebanon but basically have destroyed the country.”
General Gantz, a lean, graying man who is famous for having been the last Israeli to leave southern Lebanon in the pullout six years ago after the country’s 18-year presence there, insisted that the fight, though long, would ultimately go Israel’s way. Yet he showed glimmers of frustration with the political pressures that are shaping the battle plan.
When asked if he thought Israel’s response to the initial Hezbollah raid was disproportionate, as many critics have charged, he minced no words. “I don’t think it was disproportionate,” he said. “It should have been much stronger, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
He added, “We have a long way to go and a lot to achieve,” though he would not talk about how many villages needed to be cleared of Hezbollah fighters. Israeli Army officers are saying that it is probably unrealistic to expect that the military can wipe out Hezbollah’s well-hidden and widespread arsenal, which was believed to have contained more than 10,000 missiles when the fighting began.
General Gantz conceded that it would be difficult to stop the rockets that have menaced northern Israel with purely military means, noting that the launchers are mobile and easily hidden and can be fired remotely or with timers.
Another officer, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press, noted that even if Israel managed to destroy 50 or 60 percent of those rockets, there would still be enough left to keep up the current pace of roughly 100 rockets a day for weeks.
“All Hezbollah has to do to win, is not lose,” another officer said.
Israel Debates Strategy Shift After Truce Talks Fail
By GREG MYRE and JOHN O’NEIL
Published: July 27, 2006
JERUSALEM, July 27 — Israel’s security cabinet today decided against expanding its ground offensive in Lebanon, a day after the heaviest fighting in the two-week-old conflict killed 9 Israeli soldiers and dozens of Hezbollah fighters.
Before the meeting, Israeli officials said they regarded the failure of an international conference to reach agreement on a cease-fire plan as clearing the way for further assaults on Hezbollah.
“We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world,’’ Justice Minister Haim Ramon told Israeli radio, “to continue this operation, this war, until Hezbollah won’t be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed.’’
Mr. Ramon also raised the possibility of an expanded air assault, saying “all those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah.’’
The fierce fighting in southern Lebanon and rising Israeli casualties led a number of politicians to call today for an expansion of the ground assault. But after meeting this afternoon, the cabinet decided to stick with the limited campaign already underway, officials said.
On the diplomatic front, France’s foreign minister, Phillipe Douste-Blazy, today proposed a United Nations resolution for a settlement, Reuters reported. It called for the release of two soldiers seized by Hezbollah, the disarmament of the militant group and the creation of a buffer zone along the border, the release of Lebanese prisoners held by Israel, the deployment of the Lebanese army in the buffer zone and guarantees of respect for Lebanese sovereignty.
Arriving today in Kuala Lumpur for a meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice defended her resistance during the Rome conference to the push for a quick cease-fire. She said she was “willing and ready to go back to the Middle East at any time’’ for talks on a “sustainable’’ peace plan, The Associated Press reported, but warned against expecting any rapid solution.
Arab governments and newspapers expressed disappointment at the outcome of the Rome conference. Egypt’s foreign minister, Ahmed Abul Gheit, said the meeting had “failed to meet Arab demands’’ for a cease-fire, Agence France-Presse reported. The Saudi daily Okaz criticized the “major powers’’ for delaying a cease-fire by insisting on “conditions that will allow the aggression to continue,’’ according to Reuters.
Also today, Ayman al-Zawarhiri, al Qaeda’s second-in-command, vowed in a videotape released today that the group “will not stay silent with regard to what is happening to Muslims in Palestine and Lebanon.”
"What is happening to Muslims is a Crusader and Zionist war," Mr. Zawarhiri said, promising “we will attack everywhere’’ in response.
Meanwhile, Israeli air assaults continued today, destroying radio towers north of Beirut and targets in south Lebanon, Reuters reported. It quoted Lebanese security officials who said that Israeli warplanes struck a convoy carrying food and medical supplies from Syria, killing two truck drivers. Agence France-Presse said that nine people were killed in new air strikes, including a gendarme and a Nigerian domestic worker hit by an Israeli missile while riding his motorbike near the southern city of Tyre.
Reuters quoted Israeli security officials who said that a rocket fired by Hezbollah struck a chemical factory in a northern town, but there was no immediate information on casualties.
In Gaza, three Palestinians were killed today, Reuters reported. At least 23 Palestinians had died in fighting there on Wednesday.
A trickle of relief aid continued to make its way into Lebanon, as a second airlift of medical supplies landed in Beirut, news services said. On Wednesday, relief aid reached the southern city of Tyre,, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. In an update on its Web site it painted a grim picture of conditions in villages near the fighting. In one village, it said, “about 700 people, among them 300 children, had taken shelter in a mosque. In other isolated villages, the streets remained empty. As people were afraid to go out, fearing bombardments, dead bodies had not been removed from the streets and others were still buried under rubble.’’
Hezbollah on Thursday kept up its sustained fire on northern Israel, with 130 rockets hitting the region, wounding more than 10 Israelis.
The death toll has been at least 433 in Lebanon and 51 in Israel, according to Reuters.
The death toll on Wednesday was Israel’s highest since fighting began on July 12 after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers during a raid into Israel.
The most intense ground combat came around the hilltop town of Bint Jbail, a Hezbollah stronghold just a few miles from the Israeli border.
During the meeting in Rome, while the other nations pressed for an immediate cease-fire, the United States argued for a “sustainable cease-fire,” with the Lebanese government regaining sovereignty over southern Lebanon, and militias like Hezbollah being disbanded.
The lack of action prompted Prime Minister Fouad Siniora of Lebanon to lash out with a cry of despair.
“Is the value of human life less in Lebanon than that of citizens elsewhere?” he asked. “Are we children of a lesser god? Is an Israeli teardrop worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood?”
Accusing Israel of “barbaric destruction,” he vowed to seek justice, announcing that Lebanon would begin legal proceedings for war reparations.
European and Arab governments, as well as Kofi Annan, the United Nations secretary general, and Javier Solana, the European Union foreign policy chief, lined up behind him and pushed hard for an immediate cessation of hostilities or even a truce on humanitarian grounds, several participants said.
But in a tense, sometimes stormy debate that went on for nearly an hour, Ms. Rice dug in, and prevailed.
Later, she defended the United States’ refusal to call for an immediate cease-fire, saying: “It doesn’t do anyone any good to raise false hopes about something that’s not going to happen. It’s not going to happen. I did say to the group, ‘When will we learn?’ The fields of the Middle East are littered with broken cease-fires.”
She said she expected that the issue would end up being resolved by the United Nations Security Council.
In a news conference after the talks, the normally placid Mr. Annan made no effort to control his rage at Israel for what he had called an “apparently deliberate targeting” of a United Nations observer post in southern Lebanon by Israel on Tuesday. Four observers were killed.
“Mr. Olmert definitely believes it was a mistake,” said Mr. Annan, referring to Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert. But despite at least 10 calls from United Nations personnel to Israel that their positions were being shelled, Mr. Annan added, “The shelling of the U.N. positions began early in the morning and carried on all day.”
He pledged a formal investigation.
Ms. Rice and Mr. Annan disagreed at the news conference on whether Syria and Iran should be brought into the effort to end the violence. Mr. Annan called for working “with the countries of the region to find a solution,” naming Iran and Syria as players; Ms. Rice, by contrast, said she was concerned about Iran’s role and calling on Syria to live up to its responsibilities, a reference to previous United Nations resolutions.
While the world has focused on the fighting in Lebanon, Israel has continued to shell Gaza. Most of those killed in Gaza on Wednesday were militants, but a mother and her two young daughters died when an artillery shell hit their home, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. A third young girl was also killed, and dozens of Palestinians were wounded.
In its campaign, which began as an effort to halt rocket attacks and intensified after Palestinian militants captured an Israeli soldier last month, Israel has hit homes in residential areas where it believes weapons are stored, causing civilian casualties in some cases.
Israel says it has dropped leaflets, and even made phone calls to families in the area, warning them that they should leave because militants are operating in the area and that the Israeli military could carry out operations.
In southern Lebanon, Israel’s initial talk of breaking Hezbollah’s back has slowly given way to more limited goals as Israeli ground troops have bogged down just a few miles into the country. The latest talk is of creating a buffer zone just two kilometers, or about 1.2 miles, wide, which Israel said it could police from its side of the border.
“You can create a buffer zone, not only by being there, but by going in and out,” said Maj. Gen. Benny Gantz, who is in charge the Israeli military’s ground forces.
Prime Minister Olmert briefed an Israeli parliamentary committee Wednesday on plans for the zone, according to participants in the closed session.
A senior Israeli official who spoke about the plan Tuesday said ground troops would be used in the zone. But Mr. Olmert suggested that Israel would try to keep order from its side of the border with artillery and airstrikes.
The plan is already coming under criticism, as has the slow military progress on the ground. Yuval Steinitz, a member of the committee on defense and foreign affairs, which met with Mr. Olmert, described the government’s plan as half-baked.
“If we want to achieve something with this operation, then we need to conduct massive ground operations and clear out all of southern Lebanon,” he said.
Two days ago, Israeli military officials on the border confidently announced that first the village of Marun al-Ras and then the larger town of Bint Jbail had been subdued. But renewed fighting erupted in the region around daybreak Wednesday, and by afternoon military officers were being more circumspect about their progress.
In the village of Marun al-Ras, one Israeli soldier was killed and three more were wounded Wednesday, the Israeli military said. Hezbollah fighters fired an anti-tank rocket that hit the soldiers in a building, it said.
When asked what the Israeli military had achieved after two weeks of fighting, General Gantz replied: “I would suggest asking what Hezbollah has achieved. They came as defenders of Lebanon but basically have destroyed the country.”
General Gantz, a lean, graying man who is famous for having been the last Israeli to leave southern Lebanon in the pullout six years ago after the country’s 18-year presence there, insisted that the fight, though long, would ultimately go Israel’s way. Yet he showed glimmers of frustration with the political pressures that are shaping the battle plan.
When asked if he thought Israel’s response to the initial Hezbollah raid was disproportionate, as many critics have charged, he minced no words. “I don’t think it was disproportionate,” he said. “It should have been much stronger, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
He added, “We have a long way to go and a lot to achieve,” though he would not talk about how many villages needed to be cleared of Hezbollah fighters. Israeli Army officers are saying that it is probably unrealistic to expect that the military can wipe out Hezbollah’s well-hidden and widespread arsenal, which was believed to have contained more than 10,000 missiles when the fighting began.
General Gantz conceded that it would be difficult to stop the rockets that have menaced northern Israel with purely military means, noting that the launchers are mobile and easily hidden and can be fired remotely or with timers.
Another officer, who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press, noted that even if Israel managed to destroy 50 or 60 percent of those rockets, there would still be enough left to keep up the current pace of roughly 100 rockets a day for weeks.
“All Hezbollah has to do to win, is not lose,” another officer said.
Release of Israeli soldier could be 'imminent,' Abbas suggests CBC North
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he believes there may be an "imminent solution" for the release of an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas militants.
Death toll climbs in Gaza Jurnalo
Abbas: Release of Shalit 'imminent' Jerusalem Post
People's Daily Online - Naharnet - Daily Telegraph - Reuters AlertNet - all 272 related »
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas says he believes there may be an "imminent solution" for the release of an Israeli soldier captured by Hamas militants.
Cpl. Gilad Shalit, shown in an undated photo, was captured June 25 by Hamas militants. (Associated Press)
But a Hamas military spokesman is denying the report. "Nothing has changed in the case of the Israeli soldier," Abu Ubaida, spokesman for the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, told Reuters. "The file remains in the hands of the resistance factions and not in the hands of any politician even if that politician is Abu Mazen," Ubaida said, using Abbas's nickname. Cpl. Gilad Shalit was captured June 25 when Palestinian militants crawled through a tunnel leading from the Gaza Strip to southern Israel. Two Israeli soldiers were killed in the attack. His capture triggered a military offensive in the Gaza Strip. "With regards to the issue of the abducted Israeli soldier, I have reiterated that there are ongoing efforts that lead us to believe in an imminent solution," Abbas said, speaking through a translator. Abbas spoke at a news conference after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi. The Hamas-led Palestinian government has repeatedly called for a prisoner swap, saying it wants women and youths under 18 currently imprisoned in Israel released in exchange for the soldier. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has rejected those calls.Death toll climbs in Gaza Jurnalo
Abbas: Release of Shalit 'imminent' Jerusalem Post
People's Daily Online - Naharnet - Daily Telegraph - Reuters AlertNet - all 272 related »
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=...rticleid=278953
Arabs write off Rome meeting, blame US
Jonathan Wright. Nidal al-Mughrabi, Nadim Ladki | Cairo, Egypt
27 July 2006 01:12
Arabs on Thursday wrote off the Rome meeting on Lebanon as a disappointment and accused Washington of subverting the will of the world for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the guerrilla group Hezbollah.
But some saw hope in signs that Washington was isolated and might have to change its position if its Israeli allies fail to make progress in their military campaign in south Lebanon.
The Rome conference of 15 governments, excluding Israel, Syria and Iran, did not call for an immediate ceasefire, as the major Arab countries had wanted. Instead participants promised to immediately start work to try to stop the fighting.
Diplomats say the United States wants to give Israel more time to hit Hezbollah militarily so that the movement is more likely to accept US and Israeli terms for a settlement.
But Arab governments say the cost in civilian lives is too high and talks on a settlement should follow the ceasefire.
"The whole world is being held hostage by just one country -- the United States," said one Arab diplomat, who asked not to be named. "The only ones who could really put pressure are the Europeans, and they take things lying down these days."
"I see that there is a general trend now to isolate America in one way or another because there was a strong consensus on a ceasefire," said Mohamed Habib, the deputy leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement.
"It was clear that the US administration was on one side and the international community was on the other side, which shows that there is a split and it may widen," he added.
An Arab diplomat who took part in the meetings said that in fact the US had support from Britain and Canada, diluting the extent of its isolation.
"The Canadians took a very strong position condemning Hezbollah and not saying a word about Israel. The others were concerned about humanitarian problems," he added.
Cart before the horse
Papers across the Arab world described the Rome meeting as a failure and many blamed Washington for the outcome.
Washington's position in Rome reinforced the widespread Arab view that the United States will support Israeli military actions under most circumstances.
"The Rome conference was never going to succeed as long as the major powers insist on putting the cart before the horse with conditions that will allow the aggression to continue," said the Saudi daily Okaz.
Awad al-Zufairi, Kuwaiti politician and deputy head of the Gulf country's unofficial Umma Party, said: "Our reaction is clear. It is the continuous policy of America to support Israel. We think that America is wrong to support Israel.
"Israel is an aggressive nation that kills innocent people including children and women. What's going on in Gaza and Lebanon is a clear evidence of that."
Ali Ahmad al-Baghli, a former Kuwaiti oil minister, said Kuwaitis were very sorry to hear the result of the Rome talks.
"Lebanese people were expecting something to be done towards the Israeli atrocities ... towards civilian targets," he said.
George Ishak, coordinator of the opposition Kefaya movement in Egypt, was worried by the proposal to send European forces to south Lebanon, saying: "We are warning our people that the Iraq scenario will be repeated."
Habib said the US position would change if Israel suffered high losses, saying: "If fate turns against the Zionist entity ... then America will be the first to ask for a ceasefire".
Israeli attacks kill 3 in Gaza
Meanwhile, Israeli attacks killed three people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, a day after fighting that left 24 Palestinians dead, Palestinian medical workers said.
Those who died on Thursday included a 75-year-old woman, whose house was hit by a missile or shell. The identity of the other dead, aged 16 and 23, was not immediately clear. Medical workers said the two were killed in an air strike.
The army was checking the reports.
At least 148 Palestinians have been killed in the assault. Wednesday's death toll was the highest since Israeli troops returned to the territory in late June, less than a year after they had withdrawn following a 38-year occupation.
Tanks and troops pushed into north-eastern Gaza, a stronghold of militants firing rockets into Israel, early on Wednesday and have remained. At least 12 of those killed on Wednesday were militants.
Militants have kept up attacks with homemade rockets despite the Israeli offensive.
Israel has rejected demands for a prisoner exchange by the gunmen who captured Corporal Gilad Shalit in a border raid on June 25. Some of the gunmen came from the armed wing of the governing Hamas Islamist group.
The offensive has put pressure on the Hamas-led government, which was already struggling under a crippling US-led aid embargo, designed to force the group to recognise Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and accept past peace deals.
Israeli troops also surrounded a house in the West Bank city of Jenin. Residents said they opened fire at stone throwers, slightly wounding two.
Heavier air strikes
Israel pummelled south Lebanon with bombs and shells on Thursday and Israeli media said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Cabinet favoured heavier air strikes against Hezbollah rather than a big ground offensive.
Israeli forces have been trying to push Hezbollah back from the border and end rocket attacks, but the army is wary of getting bogged down in guerrilla battles in southern Lebanon.
Israel launched its latest bombardment of the south a day after nine soldiers were killed in the heaviest 24-hour toll it has suffered in its 16-day-old conflict against Hezbollah.
"Ministers want to step up air strikes and limit ground operations," Israeli media reported after Olmert's inner security Cabinet met to consider a response to the losses.
At least 433 people in Lebanon and 51 Israelis have already been killed in the conflict.
Israeli warplanes destroyed radio masts north of Beirut on Thursday and attacked three trucks carrying medical and food supplies to the east, security sources said. They said two truck drivers were killed. Israel accuses Lebanon's eastern neighbour Syria of supplying Hezbollah with arms. Syria denies the charge.
Other Israeli aircraft blasted targets in and around several villages and towns in the mainly Shi'ite Muslim south, and artillery batteries opened up from Israel's side of the border.
Several Hezbollah rockets landed in northern Israel but caused no casualties, Israeli emergency services said.
Hezbollah guerrillas killed nine Israeli soldiers in pitched battles in a border town and a nearby village on Wednesday.
An opinion poll conducted before Wednesday's fighting showed 95% of Israelis still believed the offensive in Lebanon was justified, though the minority supporting a halt to the war for negotiations rose to 12% from 8%. - Reuters
Related articles
Special report: Israel and the Middle East
The neocon resurgence
The summit fails. War rages
No ceasefire in sight as Lebanon burns
The lethal mistakes of George Bush
Fierce fighting in Lebanon
Iran: Ignore us at your peril
Israel allows for aid as it pursues war
Forces close in on Hezbollah stronghold
Pretoria's shadow-boxing
Blasted by a missile on the road to safety
War for a puppet regime
Arabs write off Rome meeting, blame US
Jonathan Wright. Nidal al-Mughrabi, Nadim Ladki | Cairo, Egypt
27 July 2006 01:12
Arabs on Thursday wrote off the Rome meeting on Lebanon as a disappointment and accused Washington of subverting the will of the world for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and the guerrilla group Hezbollah.
But some saw hope in signs that Washington was isolated and might have to change its position if its Israeli allies fail to make progress in their military campaign in south Lebanon.
The Rome conference of 15 governments, excluding Israel, Syria and Iran, did not call for an immediate ceasefire, as the major Arab countries had wanted. Instead participants promised to immediately start work to try to stop the fighting.
Diplomats say the United States wants to give Israel more time to hit Hezbollah militarily so that the movement is more likely to accept US and Israeli terms for a settlement.
But Arab governments say the cost in civilian lives is too high and talks on a settlement should follow the ceasefire.
"The whole world is being held hostage by just one country -- the United States," said one Arab diplomat, who asked not to be named. "The only ones who could really put pressure are the Europeans, and they take things lying down these days."
"I see that there is a general trend now to isolate America in one way or another because there was a strong consensus on a ceasefire," said Mohamed Habib, the deputy leader of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement.
"It was clear that the US administration was on one side and the international community was on the other side, which shows that there is a split and it may widen," he added.
An Arab diplomat who took part in the meetings said that in fact the US had support from Britain and Canada, diluting the extent of its isolation.
"The Canadians took a very strong position condemning Hezbollah and not saying a word about Israel. The others were concerned about humanitarian problems," he added.
Cart before the horse
Papers across the Arab world described the Rome meeting as a failure and many blamed Washington for the outcome.
Washington's position in Rome reinforced the widespread Arab view that the United States will support Israeli military actions under most circumstances.
"The Rome conference was never going to succeed as long as the major powers insist on putting the cart before the horse with conditions that will allow the aggression to continue," said the Saudi daily Okaz.
Awad al-Zufairi, Kuwaiti politician and deputy head of the Gulf country's unofficial Umma Party, said: "Our reaction is clear. It is the continuous policy of America to support Israel. We think that America is wrong to support Israel.
"Israel is an aggressive nation that kills innocent people including children and women. What's going on in Gaza and Lebanon is a clear evidence of that."
Ali Ahmad al-Baghli, a former Kuwaiti oil minister, said Kuwaitis were very sorry to hear the result of the Rome talks.
"Lebanese people were expecting something to be done towards the Israeli atrocities ... towards civilian targets," he said.
George Ishak, coordinator of the opposition Kefaya movement in Egypt, was worried by the proposal to send European forces to south Lebanon, saying: "We are warning our people that the Iraq scenario will be repeated."
Habib said the US position would change if Israel suffered high losses, saying: "If fate turns against the Zionist entity ... then America will be the first to ask for a ceasefire".
Israeli attacks kill 3 in Gaza
Meanwhile, Israeli attacks killed three people in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, a day after fighting that left 24 Palestinians dead, Palestinian medical workers said.
Those who died on Thursday included a 75-year-old woman, whose house was hit by a missile or shell. The identity of the other dead, aged 16 and 23, was not immediately clear. Medical workers said the two were killed in an air strike.
The army was checking the reports.
At least 148 Palestinians have been killed in the assault. Wednesday's death toll was the highest since Israeli troops returned to the territory in late June, less than a year after they had withdrawn following a 38-year occupation.
Tanks and troops pushed into north-eastern Gaza, a stronghold of militants firing rockets into Israel, early on Wednesday and have remained. At least 12 of those killed on Wednesday were militants.
Militants have kept up attacks with homemade rockets despite the Israeli offensive.
Israel has rejected demands for a prisoner exchange by the gunmen who captured Corporal Gilad Shalit in a border raid on June 25. Some of the gunmen came from the armed wing of the governing Hamas Islamist group.
The offensive has put pressure on the Hamas-led government, which was already struggling under a crippling US-led aid embargo, designed to force the group to recognise Israel's right to exist, renounce violence and accept past peace deals.
Israeli troops also surrounded a house in the West Bank city of Jenin. Residents said they opened fire at stone throwers, slightly wounding two.
Heavier air strikes
Israel pummelled south Lebanon with bombs and shells on Thursday and Israeli media said Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's Cabinet favoured heavier air strikes against Hezbollah rather than a big ground offensive.
Israeli forces have been trying to push Hezbollah back from the border and end rocket attacks, but the army is wary of getting bogged down in guerrilla battles in southern Lebanon.
Israel launched its latest bombardment of the south a day after nine soldiers were killed in the heaviest 24-hour toll it has suffered in its 16-day-old conflict against Hezbollah.
"Ministers want to step up air strikes and limit ground operations," Israeli media reported after Olmert's inner security Cabinet met to consider a response to the losses.
At least 433 people in Lebanon and 51 Israelis have already been killed in the conflict.
Israeli warplanes destroyed radio masts north of Beirut on Thursday and attacked three trucks carrying medical and food supplies to the east, security sources said. They said two truck drivers were killed. Israel accuses Lebanon's eastern neighbour Syria of supplying Hezbollah with arms. Syria denies the charge.
Other Israeli aircraft blasted targets in and around several villages and towns in the mainly Shi'ite Muslim south, and artillery batteries opened up from Israel's side of the border.
Several Hezbollah rockets landed in northern Israel but caused no casualties, Israeli emergency services said.
Hezbollah guerrillas killed nine Israeli soldiers in pitched battles in a border town and a nearby village on Wednesday.
An opinion poll conducted before Wednesday's fighting showed 95% of Israelis still believed the offensive in Lebanon was justified, though the minority supporting a halt to the war for negotiations rose to 12% from 8%. - Reuters
Related articles
Special report: Israel and the Middle East
The neocon resurgence
The summit fails. War rages
No ceasefire in sight as Lebanon burns
The lethal mistakes of George Bush
Fierce fighting in Lebanon
Iran: Ignore us at your peril
Israel allows for aid as it pursues war
Forces close in on Hezbollah stronghold
Pretoria's shadow-boxing
Blasted by a missile on the road to safety
War for a puppet regime
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2006/07/27/...st_Fighting.php
Israel extends its air campaign
The Associated Press
Published: July 27, 2006
BEIRUT Israeli jets pounded across Lebanon on Thursday, extending their air campaign a day after suffering its highest one-day casualty toll in fighting with Hezbollah, with nine soldiers killed. Al-Qaida threatened new attacks in response to Israel's assault on Lebanon, its first comment on the fighting now in its third week.
The Israeli government met Thursday to decide whether to broaden the Lebanon offensive. An Israeli Cabinet minister said world powers' lack of agreement on a cease-fire this week gave Israel a green light to press deeper to wipe out Hezbollah guerrillas.
The al-Qaida threat, in a videotape by Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, was the first sign the terror network aimed to exploit Israel's two pronged offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas-linked militants in Gaza Strip to rally Islamic militants and expand the fight.
"We cannot just watch these shells as they burn our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and stand by idly, humiliated," al-Zawahri said, adding that "all the world is a battlefield open in front of us."
"The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires. ... It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," he said. "We will attack everywhere."
Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza after Palestinian Hamas-linked militants there snatched an Israeli soldier on June 25. As that conflict raged, Hezbollah grabbed two soldiers in a July 12 cross-border raid, sparking a massive Israel assault on Lebanon.
So far, 16 days of bombardment and intense ground fighting in recent days have been unable to stop Hezbollah rocket attacks. On Wednesday, the guerrillas unleashed their biggest volley yet - 151 rockets into northern Israel.
The Israeli military warned Lebanese in the south on Thursday that their villages would be "totally destroyed" if missiles are fired from them.
On Wednesday, a high-level conference of key Mideast players in Rome ended in disagreement, with most European leaders urging an immediate cease-fire, but the U.S. willing to give Israel more time to punish Hezbollah and ensure an international force can move into south Lebanon to keep the peace.
With cease-fire efforts stalemated, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that she was prepared to make a second tour of the Middle East to try to hammer out a resolution, but she did not specify when.
"I am more than happy to go back," Rice said, if her efforts can "move toward a sustainable cease-fire that would end the violence." She spoke in Malaysia after attending the Rome conference. Rice held talks in Beirut and Jerusalem earlier in the week.
Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who is close to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Israel interprets the lack of consensus at Rome as a green light to continue its offensive.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world .... to continue the operation, this war, until Hezbollah won't be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed," he told Israel Army Radio. "Everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror."
Ramon also said the Israeli air force must bomb villages before ground forces enter, suggesting that this would help prevent Israeli casualties in the future.
Asked whether entire villages should be flattened, he said: "These places are not villages. They are military bases in which Hezbollah people are hiding and from which they are operating."
Thousands of civilians are believed to be trapped in villages across the border region in southern Lebanon, according to humanitarian officials who have toured the region. Americans who escaped a village near the epicenter of the ground fighting said Wednesday many U.S. citizens were still there.
On Thursday, the Israeli military's radio in south Lebanon warned that the army "will totally destroy any village from which missiles are fired toward Israel."
The statement, aired on Al-Mashriq radio, also told Lebanese not to use the road from Qleileh - which is near the Mediterranean coast - to Houlah in eastern Lebanon across the border from Israel's Kiryat Shmona.
Israeli airstrikes on Thursday pounded roads and suspected Hezbollah residences in the south and east, as well as a Lebanese army base in the north, while artillery and warplanes barraged the immediate border region where ground fighting continued.
The call for greater firepower came after Israel suffered its heaviest casualty toll in a single battle on Wednesday, with nine soldiers killed and 25 wounded in house-to-house fighting in Bint Jbail, a border town that Israeli troops have been trying for five days to wrest from Hezbollah guerrillas. Israeli army commanders have said troops would seize additional towns and villages in south Lebanon to force out Hezbollah gunmen.
In the first apparent ramification of the killing of four U.N. observers by an Israeli airstrike earlier this week, Australia decided to withdraw 12 unarmed logistics specialists who had been sent to southern Lebanon to help with evacuation efforts.
It also said it would not support a new international force in southern Lebanon unless it had the strength and will to disarm Hezbollah, Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday.
Earlier this month, Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson backed participation of Australian troops in a new U.N. Middle East peacekeeping mission, but on Thursday, he seemed to rule out any major contribution.
"I would be surprised if Australia were to be committing a significant number of troops to this area," Nelson said. Australia, a staunch U.S. ally in the war on terror, has troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as East Timor and the Solomon Islands.
Across the south, Israeli warplanes struck roads and houses, many believed to belong to Hezbollah activists. The houses were mostly deserted, but such strikes have often caused casualties among nearby residents. A Lebanese policeman, Mohammed Abu Hamdan, was killed when an Israeli missile struck his car as he drove in the eastern city of Zahle, security officials said.
Jets carried out more than 30 bombing runs in the highland, apple-growing region of Iqlim al-Tuffah, striking empty houses of alleged Hezbollah activists. The strikes caused a number of casualties, but ambulances and civil defense crews were unable to reach the targeted areas because of intense bombardment, security officials and witnesses said.
Other strikes hit the nearby southern market town of Nabatiyeh, wounding at least three people, officials said. A hit on a road in Rayak, a few kilometers (miles) from the Lebanese-Syrian border, wounded two soldiers and a civilian, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make statements to the media.
At least 423 other people have been killed in Lebanon - including 376 civilians reported by the Health Ministry and security officials. The deaths of the soldiers on Wednesday brought to 51 the number of Israelis killed in the campaign, according to the military.
And a missile a four-story building belonging to the Shiite Muslim Amal Movement in the southern port city of Tyre, a day after a strike in the city devastated an empty seven-story building where Hezbollah's top commander in the south has offices.
The strike on Wednesday wounded 13 people, including six children, nearby. But a Hezbollah official in Tyre denied Israeli reports that the commander, Sheik Nabil Kaouk, was killed.
The privately owned Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. TV station said Israeli jets struck the army base at Aamchit, 50 kilometers (30 miles) along the Beirut-Tripoli highway north of the Lebanese capital near the coast and knocked down a relay tower in an adjacent field of antennas belonging to the state-run Radio Liban.
Israeli military officials said the target of the airstrike was a radar station used by Hezbollah for attacks like the one on the Israeli missile boat on July 14. Four Israeli soldiers died in that incident.
Israel said Wednesday that it intends to damage Hezbollah and establish a "security zone" that would be free of the guerrillas and extend 1.2 miles into Lebanon from the Israeli border. Such a zone would prevent Hezbollah from carrying out cross-border raids such as the one two weeks ago which triggered the Israeli military response.
Israel said it would maintain such a zone, with firepower or other means, until the arrival of an international force with muscle to be deployed in a wider swath of southern Lebanon - as opposed to the U.N. force already there that has failed to prevent the violence.
___
AP correspondents Kathy Gannon in Tyre, Hamza Hendawi in Sidon, Laurie Copans in Jerusalem, Jocelyn Gecker in Kuala Lumpur and Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this story.
(pvs-krg/lk)
BEIRUT Israeli jets pounded across Lebanon on Thursday, extending their air campaign a day after suffering its highest one-day casualty toll in fighting with Hezbollah, with nine soldiers killed. Al-Qaida threatened new attacks in response to Israel's assault on Lebanon, its first comment on the fighting now in its third week.
The Israeli government met Thursday to decide whether to broaden the Lebanon offensive. An Israeli Cabinet minister said world powers' lack of agreement on a cease-fire this week gave Israel a green light to press deeper to wipe out Hezbollah guerrillas.
The al-Qaida threat, in a videotape by Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, was the first sign the terror network aimed to exploit Israel's two pronged offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas-linked militants in Gaza Strip to rally Islamic militants and expand the fight.
"We cannot just watch these shells as they burn our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and stand by idly, humiliated," al-Zawahri said, adding that "all the world is a battlefield open in front of us."
"The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires. ... It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," he said. "We will attack everywhere."
Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza after Palestinian Hamas-linked militants there snatched an Israeli soldier on June 25. As that conflict raged, Hezbollah grabbed two soldiers in a July 12 cross-border raid, sparking a massive Israel assault on Lebanon.
So far, 16 days of bombardment and intense ground fighting in recent days have been unable to stop Hezbollah rocket attacks. On Wednesday, the guerrillas unleashed their biggest volley yet - 151 rockets into northern Israel.
The Israeli military warned Lebanese in the south on Thursday that their villages would be "totally destroyed" if missiles are fired from them.
On Wednesday, a high-level conference of key Mideast players in Rome ended in disagreement, with most European leaders urging an immediate cease-fire, but the U.S. willing to give Israel more time to punish Hezbollah and ensure an international force can move into south Lebanon to keep the peace.
With cease-fire efforts stalemated, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that she was prepared to make a second tour of the Middle East to try to hammer out a resolution, but she did not specify when.
"I am more than happy to go back," Rice said, if her efforts can "move toward a sustainable cease-fire that would end the violence." She spoke in Malaysia after attending the Rome conference. Rice held talks in Beirut and Jerusalem earlier in the week.
Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who is close to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Israel interprets the lack of consensus at Rome as a green light to continue its offensive.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world .... to continue the operation, this war, until Hezbollah won't be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed," he told Israel Army Radio. "Everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror."
Ramon also said the Israeli air force must bomb villages before ground forces enter, suggesting that this would help prevent Israeli casualties in the future.
Asked whether entire villages should be flattened, he said: "These places are not villages. They are military bases in which Hezbollah people are hiding and from which they are operating."
Thousands of civilians are believed to be trapped in villages across the border region in southern Lebanon, according to humanitarian officials who have toured the region. Americans who escaped a village near the epicenter of the ground fighting said Wednesday many U.S. citizens were still there.
On Thursday, the Israeli military's radio in south Lebanon warned that the army "will totally destroy any village from which missiles are fired toward Israel."
The statement, aired on Al-Mashriq radio, also told Lebanese not to use the road from Qleileh - which is near the Mediterranean coast - to Houlah in eastern Lebanon across the border from Israel's Kiryat Shmona.
Israeli airstrikes on Thursday pounded roads and suspected Hezbollah residences in the south and east, as well as a Lebanese army base in the north, while artillery and warplanes barraged the immediate border region where ground fighting continued.
The call for greater firepower came after Israel suffered its heaviest casualty toll in a single battle on Wednesday, with nine soldiers killed and 25 wounded in house-to-house fighting in Bint Jbail, a border town that Israeli troops have been trying for five days to wrest from Hezbollah guerrillas. Israeli army commanders have said troops would seize additional towns and villages in south Lebanon to force out Hezbollah gunmen.
In the first apparent ramification of the killing of four U.N. observers by an Israeli airstrike earlier this week, Australia decided to withdraw 12 unarmed logistics specialists who had been sent to southern Lebanon to help with evacuation efforts.
It also said it would not support a new international force in southern Lebanon unless it had the strength and will to disarm Hezbollah, Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday.
Earlier this month, Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson backed participation of Australian troops in a new U.N. Middle East peacekeeping mission, but on Thursday, he seemed to rule out any major contribution.
"I would be surprised if Australia were to be committing a significant number of troops to this area," Nelson said. Australia, a staunch U.S. ally in the war on terror, has troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as East Timor and the Solomon Islands.
Across the south, Israeli warplanes struck roads and houses, many believed to belong to Hezbollah activists. The houses were mostly deserted, but such strikes have often caused casualties among nearby residents. A Lebanese policeman, Mohammed Abu Hamdan, was killed when an Israeli missile struck his car as he drove in the eastern city of Zahle, security officials said.
Jets carried out more than 30 bombing runs in the highland, apple-growing region of Iqlim al-Tuffah, striking empty houses of alleged Hezbollah activists. The strikes caused a number of casualties, but ambulances and civil defense crews were unable to reach the targeted areas because of intense bombardment, security officials and witnesses said.
Other strikes hit the nearby southern market town of Nabatiyeh, wounding at least three people, officials said. A hit on a road in Rayak, a few kilometers (miles) from the Lebanese-Syrian border, wounded two soldiers and a civilian, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make statements to the media.
At least 423 other people have been killed in Lebanon - including 376 civilians reported by the Health Ministry and security officials. The deaths of the soldiers on Wednesday brought to 51 the number of Israelis killed in the campaign, according to the military.
And a missile a four-story building belonging to the Shiite Muslim Amal Movement in the southern port city of Tyre, a day after a strike in the city devastated an empty seven-story building where Hezbollah's top commander in the south has offices.
The strike on Wednesday wounded 13 people, including six children, nearby. But a Hezbollah official in Tyre denied Israeli reports that the commander, Sheik Nabil Kaouk, was killed.
The privately owned Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. TV station said Israeli jets struck the army base at Aamchit, 50 kilometers (30 miles) along the Beirut-Tripoli highway north of the Lebanese capital near the coast and knocked down a relay tower in an adjacent field of antennas belonging to the state-run Radio Liban.
Israeli military officials said the target of the airstrike was a radar station used by Hezbollah for attacks like the one on the Israeli missile boat on July 14. Four Israeli soldiers died in that incident.
Israel said Wednesday that it intends to damage Hezbollah and establish a "security zone" that would be free of the guerrillas and extend 1.2 miles into Lebanon from the Israeli border. Such a zone would prevent Hezbollah from carrying out cross-border raids such as the one two weeks ago which triggered the Israeli military response.
Israel said it would maintain such a zone, with firepower or other means, until the arrival of an international force with muscle to be deployed in a wider swath of southern Lebanon - as opposed to the U.N. force already there that has failed to prevent the violence.
___
AP correspondents Kathy Gannon in Tyre, Hamza Hendawi in Sidon, Laurie Copans in Jerusalem, Jocelyn Gecker in Kuala Lumpur and Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this story.
(pvs-krg/lk)
Israel extends its air campaign
The Associated Press
Published: July 27, 2006
BEIRUT Israeli jets pounded across Lebanon on Thursday, extending their air campaign a day after suffering its highest one-day casualty toll in fighting with Hezbollah, with nine soldiers killed. Al-Qaida threatened new attacks in response to Israel's assault on Lebanon, its first comment on the fighting now in its third week.
The Israeli government met Thursday to decide whether to broaden the Lebanon offensive. An Israeli Cabinet minister said world powers' lack of agreement on a cease-fire this week gave Israel a green light to press deeper to wipe out Hezbollah guerrillas.
The al-Qaida threat, in a videotape by Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, was the first sign the terror network aimed to exploit Israel's two pronged offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas-linked militants in Gaza Strip to rally Islamic militants and expand the fight.
"We cannot just watch these shells as they burn our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and stand by idly, humiliated," al-Zawahri said, adding that "all the world is a battlefield open in front of us."
"The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires. ... It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," he said. "We will attack everywhere."
Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza after Palestinian Hamas-linked militants there snatched an Israeli soldier on June 25. As that conflict raged, Hezbollah grabbed two soldiers in a July 12 cross-border raid, sparking a massive Israel assault on Lebanon.
So far, 16 days of bombardment and intense ground fighting in recent days have been unable to stop Hezbollah rocket attacks. On Wednesday, the guerrillas unleashed their biggest volley yet - 151 rockets into northern Israel.
The Israeli military warned Lebanese in the south on Thursday that their villages would be "totally destroyed" if missiles are fired from them.
On Wednesday, a high-level conference of key Mideast players in Rome ended in disagreement, with most European leaders urging an immediate cease-fire, but the U.S. willing to give Israel more time to punish Hezbollah and ensure an international force can move into south Lebanon to keep the peace.
With cease-fire efforts stalemated, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that she was prepared to make a second tour of the Middle East to try to hammer out a resolution, but she did not specify when.
"I am more than happy to go back," Rice said, if her efforts can "move toward a sustainable cease-fire that would end the violence." She spoke in Malaysia after attending the Rome conference. Rice held talks in Beirut and Jerusalem earlier in the week.
Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who is close to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Israel interprets the lack of consensus at Rome as a green light to continue its offensive.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world .... to continue the operation, this war, until Hezbollah won't be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed," he told Israel Army Radio. "Everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror."
Ramon also said the Israeli air force must bomb villages before ground forces enter, suggesting that this would help prevent Israeli casualties in the future.
Asked whether entire villages should be flattened, he said: "These places are not villages. They are military bases in which Hezbollah people are hiding and from which they are operating."
Thousands of civilians are believed to be trapped in villages across the border region in southern Lebanon, according to humanitarian officials who have toured the region. Americans who escaped a village near the epicenter of the ground fighting said Wednesday many U.S. citizens were still there.
On Thursday, the Israeli military's radio in south Lebanon warned that the army "will totally destroy any village from which missiles are fired toward Israel."
The statement, aired on Al-Mashriq radio, also told Lebanese not to use the road from Qleileh - which is near the Mediterranean coast - to Houlah in eastern Lebanon across the border from Israel's Kiryat Shmona.
Israeli airstrikes on Thursday pounded roads and suspected Hezbollah residences in the south and east, as well as a Lebanese army base in the north, while artillery and warplanes barraged the immediate border region where ground fighting continued.
The call for greater firepower came after Israel suffered its heaviest casualty toll in a single battle on Wednesday, with nine soldiers killed and 25 wounded in house-to-house fighting in Bint Jbail, a border town that Israeli troops have been trying for five days to wrest from Hezbollah guerrillas. Israeli army commanders have said troops would seize additional towns and villages in south Lebanon to force out Hezbollah gunmen.
In the first apparent ramification of the killing of four U.N. observers by an Israeli airstrike earlier this week, Australia decided to withdraw 12 unarmed logistics specialists who had been sent to southern Lebanon to help with evacuation efforts.
It also said it would not support a new international force in southern Lebanon unless it had the strength and will to disarm Hezbollah, Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday.
Earlier this month, Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson backed participation of Australian troops in a new U.N. Middle East peacekeeping mission, but on Thursday, he seemed to rule out any major contribution.
"I would be surprised if Australia were to be committing a significant number of troops to this area," Nelson said. Australia, a staunch U.S. ally in the war on terror, has troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as East Timor and the Solomon Islands.
Across the south, Israeli warplanes struck roads and houses, many believed to belong to Hezbollah activists. The houses were mostly deserted, but such strikes have often caused casualties among nearby residents. A Lebanese policeman, Mohammed Abu Hamdan, was killed when an Israeli missile struck his car as he drove in the eastern city of Zahle, security officials said.
Jets carried out more than 30 bombing runs in the highland, apple-growing region of Iqlim al-Tuffah, striking empty houses of alleged Hezbollah activists. The strikes caused a number of casualties, but ambulances and civil defense crews were unable to reach the targeted areas because of intense bombardment, security officials and witnesses said.
Other strikes hit the nearby southern market town of Nabatiyeh, wounding at least three people, officials said. A hit on a road in Rayak, a few kilometers (miles) from the Lebanese-Syrian border, wounded two soldiers and a civilian, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make statements to the media.
At least 423 other people have been killed in Lebanon - including 376 civilians reported by the Health Ministry and security officials. The deaths of the soldiers on Wednesday brought to 51 the number of Israelis killed in the campaign, according to the military.
And a missile a four-story building belonging to the Shiite Muslim Amal Movement in the southern port city of Tyre, a day after a strike in the city devastated an empty seven-story building where Hezbollah's top commander in the south has offices.
The strike on Wednesday wounded 13 people, including six children, nearby. But a Hezbollah official in Tyre denied Israeli reports that the commander, Sheik Nabil Kaouk, was killed.
The privately owned Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. TV station said Israeli jets struck the army base at Aamchit, 50 kilometers (30 miles) along the Beirut-Tripoli highway north of the Lebanese capital near the coast and knocked down a relay tower in an adjacent field of antennas belonging to the state-run Radio Liban.
Israeli military officials said the target of the airstrike was a radar station used by Hezbollah for attacks like the one on the Israeli missile boat on July 14. Four Israeli soldiers died in that incident.
Israel said Wednesday that it intends to damage Hezbollah and establish a "security zone" that would be free of the guerrillas and extend 1.2 miles into Lebanon from the Israeli border. Such a zone would prevent Hezbollah from carrying out cross-border raids such as the one two weeks ago which triggered the Israeli military response.
Israel said it would maintain such a zone, with firepower or other means, until the arrival of an international force with muscle to be deployed in a wider swath of southern Lebanon - as opposed to the U.N. force already there that has failed to prevent the violence.
___
AP correspondents Kathy Gannon in Tyre, Hamza Hendawi in Sidon, Laurie Copans in Jerusalem, Jocelyn Gecker in Kuala Lumpur and Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this story.
(pvs-krg/lk)
BEIRUT Israeli jets pounded across Lebanon on Thursday, extending their air campaign a day after suffering its highest one-day casualty toll in fighting with Hezbollah, with nine soldiers killed. Al-Qaida threatened new attacks in response to Israel's assault on Lebanon, its first comment on the fighting now in its third week.
The Israeli government met Thursday to decide whether to broaden the Lebanon offensive. An Israeli Cabinet minister said world powers' lack of agreement on a cease-fire this week gave Israel a green light to press deeper to wipe out Hezbollah guerrillas.
The al-Qaida threat, in a videotape by Osama bin Laden's deputy Ayman al-Zawahri, was the first sign the terror network aimed to exploit Israel's two pronged offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas-linked militants in Gaza Strip to rally Islamic militants and expand the fight.
"We cannot just watch these shells as they burn our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and stand by idly, humiliated," al-Zawahri said, adding that "all the world is a battlefield open in front of us."
"The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires. ... It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq," he said. "We will attack everywhere."
Israel launched a military offensive in Gaza after Palestinian Hamas-linked militants there snatched an Israeli soldier on June 25. As that conflict raged, Hezbollah grabbed two soldiers in a July 12 cross-border raid, sparking a massive Israel assault on Lebanon.
So far, 16 days of bombardment and intense ground fighting in recent days have been unable to stop Hezbollah rocket attacks. On Wednesday, the guerrillas unleashed their biggest volley yet - 151 rockets into northern Israel.
The Israeli military warned Lebanese in the south on Thursday that their villages would be "totally destroyed" if missiles are fired from them.
On Wednesday, a high-level conference of key Mideast players in Rome ended in disagreement, with most European leaders urging an immediate cease-fire, but the U.S. willing to give Israel more time to punish Hezbollah and ensure an international force can move into south Lebanon to keep the peace.
With cease-fire efforts stalemated, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday that she was prepared to make a second tour of the Middle East to try to hammer out a resolution, but she did not specify when.
"I am more than happy to go back," Rice said, if her efforts can "move toward a sustainable cease-fire that would end the violence." She spoke in Malaysia after attending the Rome conference. Rice held talks in Beirut and Jerusalem earlier in the week.
Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who is close to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Israel interprets the lack of consensus at Rome as a green light to continue its offensive.
"We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world .... to continue the operation, this war, until Hezbollah won't be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed," he told Israel Army Radio. "Everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror."
Ramon also said the Israeli air force must bomb villages before ground forces enter, suggesting that this would help prevent Israeli casualties in the future.
Asked whether entire villages should be flattened, he said: "These places are not villages. They are military bases in which Hezbollah people are hiding and from which they are operating."
Thousands of civilians are believed to be trapped in villages across the border region in southern Lebanon, according to humanitarian officials who have toured the region. Americans who escaped a village near the epicenter of the ground fighting said Wednesday many U.S. citizens were still there.
On Thursday, the Israeli military's radio in south Lebanon warned that the army "will totally destroy any village from which missiles are fired toward Israel."
The statement, aired on Al-Mashriq radio, also told Lebanese not to use the road from Qleileh - which is near the Mediterranean coast - to Houlah in eastern Lebanon across the border from Israel's Kiryat Shmona.
Israeli airstrikes on Thursday pounded roads and suspected Hezbollah residences in the south and east, as well as a Lebanese army base in the north, while artillery and warplanes barraged the immediate border region where ground fighting continued.
The call for greater firepower came after Israel suffered its heaviest casualty toll in a single battle on Wednesday, with nine soldiers killed and 25 wounded in house-to-house fighting in Bint Jbail, a border town that Israeli troops have been trying for five days to wrest from Hezbollah guerrillas. Israeli army commanders have said troops would seize additional towns and villages in south Lebanon to force out Hezbollah gunmen.
In the first apparent ramification of the killing of four U.N. observers by an Israeli airstrike earlier this week, Australia decided to withdraw 12 unarmed logistics specialists who had been sent to southern Lebanon to help with evacuation efforts.
It also said it would not support a new international force in southern Lebanon unless it had the strength and will to disarm Hezbollah, Prime Minister John Howard said Thursday.
Earlier this month, Australian Defense Minister Brendan Nelson backed participation of Australian troops in a new U.N. Middle East peacekeeping mission, but on Thursday, he seemed to rule out any major contribution.
"I would be surprised if Australia were to be committing a significant number of troops to this area," Nelson said. Australia, a staunch U.S. ally in the war on terror, has troops in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as East Timor and the Solomon Islands.
Across the south, Israeli warplanes struck roads and houses, many believed to belong to Hezbollah activists. The houses were mostly deserted, but such strikes have often caused casualties among nearby residents. A Lebanese policeman, Mohammed Abu Hamdan, was killed when an Israeli missile struck his car as he drove in the eastern city of Zahle, security officials said.
Jets carried out more than 30 bombing runs in the highland, apple-growing region of Iqlim al-Tuffah, striking empty houses of alleged Hezbollah activists. The strikes caused a number of casualties, but ambulances and civil defense crews were unable to reach the targeted areas because of intense bombardment, security officials and witnesses said.
Other strikes hit the nearby southern market town of Nabatiyeh, wounding at least three people, officials said. A hit on a road in Rayak, a few kilometers (miles) from the Lebanese-Syrian border, wounded two soldiers and a civilian, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to make statements to the media.
At least 423 other people have been killed in Lebanon - including 376 civilians reported by the Health Ministry and security officials. The deaths of the soldiers on Wednesday brought to 51 the number of Israelis killed in the campaign, according to the military.
And a missile a four-story building belonging to the Shiite Muslim Amal Movement in the southern port city of Tyre, a day after a strike in the city devastated an empty seven-story building where Hezbollah's top commander in the south has offices.
The strike on Wednesday wounded 13 people, including six children, nearby. But a Hezbollah official in Tyre denied Israeli reports that the commander, Sheik Nabil Kaouk, was killed.
The privately owned Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. TV station said Israeli jets struck the army base at Aamchit, 50 kilometers (30 miles) along the Beirut-Tripoli highway north of the Lebanese capital near the coast and knocked down a relay tower in an adjacent field of antennas belonging to the state-run Radio Liban.
Israeli military officials said the target of the airstrike was a radar station used by Hezbollah for attacks like the one on the Israeli missile boat on July 14. Four Israeli soldiers died in that incident.
Israel said Wednesday that it intends to damage Hezbollah and establish a "security zone" that would be free of the guerrillas and extend 1.2 miles into Lebanon from the Israeli border. Such a zone would prevent Hezbollah from carrying out cross-border raids such as the one two weeks ago which triggered the Israeli military response.
Israel said it would maintain such a zone, with firepower or other means, until the arrival of an international force with muscle to be deployed in a wider swath of southern Lebanon - as opposed to the U.N. force already there that has failed to prevent the violence.
___
AP correspondents Kathy Gannon in Tyre, Hamza Hendawi in Sidon, Laurie Copans in Jerusalem, Jocelyn Gecker in Kuala Lumpur and Rod McGuirk in Canberra, Australia, contributed to this story.
(pvs-krg/lk)
Voices from Iran and Syria BBC News
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice has warned Hezbollah's main allies, Syria and Iran, that they face isolation unless they try to halt the war in Lebanon. A Syrian who supports Hezbollah, and an Iranian who does not, discuss the group's role in the conflict.
HALA, 27, CIVIL ENGINEER, HAMA, SYRIA
I support Hezbollah. Not for religious sectarian reasons, but because Hezbollah symbolises Arab resistance. This is what is lacking from the Arab scene. Israel always blames Syria and Iran for all the problems in the region because these are the two countries that stand in the face of Israel and try to resist it. Compared with Israel, Hezbollah has limited international support. But it does have lots of support among real people within Syria. Israel has the backing of the international community, especially the USA. So why don't Arab countries rally round Hezbollah seeing as Israel already has the support of the world's major powers? If the current stand-off continues Syria may get attacked. US forces could come across the border from Iraq, because they are already there. As I see it, there are two possible ways this conflict could go. The temporary one is that Hezbollah continues its attacks and keeps on fighting. The more permanent solution is that the Arab countries cut off oil to the west and open up their borders so people from Arab countries who want to go and fight can do so.
BAHMAN, SCIENCE TEACHER, TEHRAN, IRAN
I am no great fan of Hezbollah. Yet the West's pronouncements on this current crisis shock and anger me. Are Bush, Rice and their patsy Blair so foolish to believe what they say when they place all the blame on Hezbollah, Syria and Iran? Blame naturally is on both sides, but Israel as the more powerful player carries more responsibility for the entire Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Hezbollah, while having its own agenda for prisoner exchange, was also reacting to Israeli actions in Gaza. Hezbollah's popularity and strength are linked proportionally to Israel's policies and use of violence in the region. Here in Iran we do get tired of Ahmedinejad's constant banging on about Israel and his pathetic statements about the Holocaust. But Israel's horrific actions in Lebanon, its repeated disregard for Muslim and Christian Arab civilians has served to harden popular opinion. Israel is viewed as barbaric, oppressive and racist. If Israel made serious moves towards peace in the Middle East, groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah would not find domestic support for violent acts. But as long as Israel kills and imprisons as it wishes, these groups will find people willing to fill their ranks. And I can't say I blame them.
The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice has warned Hezbollah's main allies, Syria and Iran, that they face isolation unless they try to halt the war in Lebanon. A Syrian who supports Hezbollah, and an Iranian who does not, discuss the group's role in the conflict.
HALA, 27, CIVIL ENGINEER, HAMA, SYRIA
I support Hezbollah. Not for religious sectarian reasons, but because Hezbollah symbolises Arab resistance. This is what is lacking from the Arab scene. Israel always blames Syria and Iran for all the problems in the region because these are the two countries that stand in the face of Israel and try to resist it. Compared with Israel, Hezbollah has limited international support. But it does have lots of support among real people within Syria. Israel has the backing of the international community, especially the USA. So why don't Arab countries rally round Hezbollah seeing as Israel already has the support of the world's major powers? If the current stand-off continues Syria may get attacked. US forces could come across the border from Iraq, because they are already there. As I see it, there are two possible ways this conflict could go. The temporary one is that Hezbollah continues its attacks and keeps on fighting. The more permanent solution is that the Arab countries cut off oil to the west and open up their borders so people from Arab countries who want to go and fight can do so.
BAHMAN, SCIENCE TEACHER, TEHRAN, IRAN
I am no great fan of Hezbollah. Yet the West's pronouncements on this current crisis shock and anger me. Are Bush, Rice and their patsy Blair so foolish to believe what they say when they place all the blame on Hezbollah, Syria and Iran? Blame naturally is on both sides, but Israel as the more powerful player carries more responsibility for the entire Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Hezbollah, while having its own agenda for prisoner exchange, was also reacting to Israeli actions in Gaza. Hezbollah's popularity and strength are linked proportionally to Israel's policies and use of violence in the region. Here in Iran we do get tired of Ahmedinejad's constant banging on about Israel and his pathetic statements about the Holocaust. But Israel's horrific actions in Lebanon, its repeated disregard for Muslim and Christian Arab civilians has served to harden popular opinion. Israel is viewed as barbaric, oppressive and racist. If Israel made serious moves towards peace in the Middle East, groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah would not find domestic support for violent acts. But as long as Israel kills and imprisons as it wishes, these groups will find people willing to fill their ranks. And I can't say I blame them.
http://www.debka.com/article.php?aid=1191
Israeli Units Branch East, Face Heavy Hizballah Resistance in Central Sector
DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Report
July 26, 2006, 4:42 PM (GMT+02:00)
The Israeli military campaign against Hizballah, launched July 12 when two soldiers were kidnapped, started out in the Central Sector of South Lebanon with the conquest of Maroun er Ras, and moved on to Bin Jubeil and its five satellite villages. Wednesday, July 25, the IDF suffered a major reverse at Bin Jubeil where HIzballlah fighters regrouped and counter-attacked, inflicting heavy casualties on the Israel mopping-up force.
But other IDF contingents had meanwhile embarked on the next stage of the campaign in the Eastern Sector of South Lebanon. This came to light when a series of Israeli air strikes against Hizballah positions and installations around Khiam hit a Unifil post and killed four observers Tuesday night, July 25
Israel deeply regretted the deaths and promised a full investigation, after UN Secretary Kofi Annan accused Israel of apparently targeting the observer post.
However, DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources add: The holier-than-thou tone of outrage taken by Annan is surprising when it generally known that many UN missions are exploited as the cover for foreign agents, often hostile, to carry out spying operations in war zones. The inadvertent Israeli air strike revealed the fact that the UN force in Lebanon includes Chinese observers. One was killed along with an Austrian, a Canadian and a Finn. The presence of Chinese observers keeping an eye on the combat in South Lebanon has never before been reported.
Our intelligence experts compare the incident to the inadvertent US bombardment which destroyed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1998, killing a number of Chinese “diplomats.” It was discovered that from that building the Chinese had operated sophisticated surveillance to track the performance of American warplanes, missiles and smart bombs.
On the night of July 26, Day 15 of the Lebanon War, an Israeli force pushed towards Khiam on its way to the approaches of the large Druze village of Hatzbaya. This route has taken Israeli troops north and east for the objective of controlling a stretch of south Lebanon known as Fatahland (before the 1982 war cleansed it of Yasser Arafat’s terrorists.)
This would bring them close up to Syrian positions on Mt. Hermon and for the first time in 35 years afford the Israeli outposts at the disputed Shebaa Farms strategic depth.
Monday, July 24, Damascus warned that Israeli artillery coming within range of Damascus would not be tolerated. The statement was issued with a view to deterring Israel from entering the Eastern Sector. So far the Syrians have made no response to Israel’s advance.
Perhaps the most important gain from the crisis is Israel’s recovery of control over its main sources of water, the Wazani springs in the divided Ghajar village. This was achieved in the early hours of the IDF push in the east. Israel will not cede this asset in a hurry. Worth citing in this regard is defense minister Amir Peretz’s statement Tuesday, 25, after US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice left the Middle East, that Israel would retain control of a security belt in southern Lebanon until a multinational force takes over.
The main battle in this sector is now centering on the Majidya base in Khiam, source of Hizballah rocket attacks on Kiryat Shemona and the Galilee panhandle communities Majidya was once a Lebanese army training facility for new recruits under Israeli military instructors. It was demolished when Israel pulled out of south Lebanon in May 2000. Aside from the Hizballah concentration in Majidya, its men are fairly thin on the ground in the Eastern Sector.
The mixed village population on the Israeli units path of advance, Druzes, Shiites, Sunnis and Christians, provides a useful shield for Hizballah fighters. They take full advantage of the directives to Israeli ground forces not to touch Druze and Christian villages. By long Lebanese tradition, the Druzes shut their village doors to Shiites, while the Christians accommodate them because they don’t know how long Israeli forces will be around to protect them against the Hizballah.
As the Israelis advance through the region, they are discovering the depth and breadth of Hizballah’s war preparations. South Lebanon was divided into 176 combat squares controlled from 40 scattered command bunkers. Their latest directive orders them to fight Israeli troops from the shelter of wooded areas and bunkers using guerrilla tactics of surprise and ambush instead of hand-to-hand combat in built-up areas in which they have taken heavy casualties.
DEBKAfile’s military sources: The huge explosions that struck South Beirut Tuesday evening were caused by 20 Israeli airborne missiles dropping on large, newly-discovered Hizballah subterranean arms caches, part of this tunnel network.
The force of the secondary blasts attested to their contents and the accuracy of the Israeli intelligence pinpointing of previously unknown weapons bunkers in S. Beirut.
Buried alongside the command bunkers are vast arsenals of Katyusha rockets and launchers, and food and water for a long stay. Hizballah was itself caught napping by the extent and fierceness of Israel’s riposte to their July 12 cross-border attack. Therefore, not all the bunker posts were completely built. The night before the Israeli advance into the Eastern Sector, Hizballah personnel were seen putting finishing touches on the fortifications of the command bunkers and sowing the routes with anti-tank mines and roadside bombs. Israel guns shelled the Hizballah teams to disrupt their work on the bunkers and the roads.
Israeli Units Branch East, Face Heavy Hizballah Resistance in Central Sector
DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Report
July 26, 2006, 4:42 PM (GMT+02:00)
The Israeli military campaign against Hizballah, launched July 12 when two soldiers were kidnapped, started out in the Central Sector of South Lebanon with the conquest of Maroun er Ras, and moved on to Bin Jubeil and its five satellite villages. Wednesday, July 25, the IDF suffered a major reverse at Bin Jubeil where HIzballlah fighters regrouped and counter-attacked, inflicting heavy casualties on the Israel mopping-up force.
But other IDF contingents had meanwhile embarked on the next stage of the campaign in the Eastern Sector of South Lebanon. This came to light when a series of Israeli air strikes against Hizballah positions and installations around Khiam hit a Unifil post and killed four observers Tuesday night, July 25
Israel deeply regretted the deaths and promised a full investigation, after UN Secretary Kofi Annan accused Israel of apparently targeting the observer post.
However, DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources add: The holier-than-thou tone of outrage taken by Annan is surprising when it generally known that many UN missions are exploited as the cover for foreign agents, often hostile, to carry out spying operations in war zones. The inadvertent Israeli air strike revealed the fact that the UN force in Lebanon includes Chinese observers. One was killed along with an Austrian, a Canadian and a Finn. The presence of Chinese observers keeping an eye on the combat in South Lebanon has never before been reported.
Our intelligence experts compare the incident to the inadvertent US bombardment which destroyed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1998, killing a number of Chinese “diplomats.” It was discovered that from that building the Chinese had operated sophisticated surveillance to track the performance of American warplanes, missiles and smart bombs.
On the night of July 26, Day 15 of the Lebanon War, an Israeli force pushed towards Khiam on its way to the approaches of the large Druze village of Hatzbaya. This route has taken Israeli troops north and east for the objective of controlling a stretch of south Lebanon known as Fatahland (before the 1982 war cleansed it of Yasser Arafat’s terrorists.)
This would bring them close up to Syrian positions on Mt. Hermon and for the first time in 35 years afford the Israeli outposts at the disputed Shebaa Farms strategic depth.
Monday, July 24, Damascus warned that Israeli artillery coming within range of Damascus would not be tolerated. The statement was issued with a view to deterring Israel from entering the Eastern Sector. So far the Syrians have made no response to Israel’s advance.
Perhaps the most important gain from the crisis is Israel’s recovery of control over its main sources of water, the Wazani springs in the divided Ghajar village. This was achieved in the early hours of the IDF push in the east. Israel will not cede this asset in a hurry. Worth citing in this regard is defense minister Amir Peretz’s statement Tuesday, 25, after US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice left the Middle East, that Israel would retain control of a security belt in southern Lebanon until a multinational force takes over.
The main battle in this sector is now centering on the Majidya base in Khiam, source of Hizballah rocket attacks on Kiryat Shemona and the Galilee panhandle communities Majidya was once a Lebanese army training facility for new recruits under Israeli military instructors. It was demolished when Israel pulled out of south Lebanon in May 2000. Aside from the Hizballah concentration in Majidya, its men are fairly thin on the ground in the Eastern Sector.
The mixed village population on the Israeli units path of advance, Druzes, Shiites, Sunnis and Christians, provides a useful shield for Hizballah fighters. They take full advantage of the directives to Israeli ground forces not to touch Druze and Christian villages. By long Lebanese tradition, the Druzes shut their village doors to Shiites, while the Christians accommodate them because they don’t know how long Israeli forces will be around to protect them against the Hizballah.
As the Israelis advance through the region, they are discovering the depth and breadth of Hizballah’s war preparations. South Lebanon was divided into 176 combat squares controlled from 40 scattered command bunkers. Their latest directive orders them to fight Israeli troops from the shelter of wooded areas and bunkers using guerrilla tactics of surprise and ambush instead of hand-to-hand combat in built-up areas in which they have taken heavy casualties.
DEBKAfile’s military sources: The huge explosions that struck South Beirut Tuesday evening were caused by 20 Israeli airborne missiles dropping on large, newly-discovered Hizballah subterranean arms caches, part of this tunnel network.
The force of the secondary blasts attested to their contents and the accuracy of the Israeli intelligence pinpointing of previously unknown weapons bunkers in S. Beirut.
Buried alongside the command bunkers are vast arsenals of Katyusha rockets and launchers, and food and water for a long stay. Hizballah was itself caught napping by the extent and fierceness of Israel’s riposte to their July 12 cross-border attack. Therefore, not all the bunker posts were completely built. The night before the Israeli advance into the Eastern Sector, Hizballah personnel were seen putting finishing touches on the fortifications of the command bunkers and sowing the routes with anti-tank mines and roadside bombs. Israel guns shelled the Hizballah teams to disrupt their work on the bunkers and the roads.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Israeli cabinet rejects army chiefs’ demands to expand the IDF ground campaign in South Lebanon and call up more reserves
July 27, 2006, 3:43 PM (GMT+02:00)
These decisions were reached the day after Israel sustained severe losses in battles with Hizballah at Bint Jubeil and Maroun er Ras.
IDF generals argued that the cabinet was playing into Hizballah's hands by holding the IDF to a slow pace of advance and keeping it short of the troops needed to crush Hizballah and halt its rocket blitz against Israeli cities, which has climbed to more than 100 a day.
The cabinet also decided against opening a second front against Syria although, as DEBKAfile’s military sources stress, Damascus is an active partner in Hizballah’s offensive, serves as a staging post for Iranian weapons supplies to Hizballah and pushes arms and rockets into Lebanon.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
The Israeli cabinet rejects army chiefs’ demands to expand the IDF ground campaign in South Lebanon and call up more reserves
July 27, 2006, 3:43 PM (GMT+02:00)
These decisions were reached the day after Israel sustained severe losses in battles with Hizballah at Bint Jubeil and Maroun er Ras.
IDF generals argued that the cabinet was playing into Hizballah's hands by holding the IDF to a slow pace of advance and keeping it short of the troops needed to crush Hizballah and halt its rocket blitz against Israeli cities, which has climbed to more than 100 a day.
The cabinet also decided against opening a second front against Syria although, as DEBKAfile’s military sources stress, Damascus is an active partner in Hizballah’s offensive, serves as a staging post for Iranian weapons supplies to Hizballah and pushes arms and rockets into Lebanon.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
Israeli Units Branch East, Face Heavy Hizballah Resistance in Central Sector
DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Report
July 26, 2006, 4:42 PM (GMT+02:00)
The Israeli military campaign against Hizballah, launched July 12 when two soldiers were kidnapped, started out in the Central Sector of South Lebanon with the conquest of Maroun er Ras, and moved on to Bin Jubeil and its five satellite villages. Wednesday, July 25, the IDF suffered a major reverse at Bin Jubeil where HIzballlah fighters regrouped and counter-attacked, inflicting heavy casualties on the Israel mopping-up force.
But other IDF contingents had meanwhile embarked on the next stage of the campaign in the Eastern Sector of South Lebanon. This came to light when a series of Israeli air strikes against Hizballah positions and installations around Khiam hit a Unifil post and killed four observers Tuesday night, July 25
Israel deeply regretted the deaths and promised a full investigation, after UN Secretary Kofi Annan accused Israel of apparently targeting the observer post.
However, DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources add: The holier-than-thou tone of outrage taken by Annan is surprising when it generally known that many UN missions are exploited as the cover for foreign agents, often hostile, to carry out spying operations in war zones. The inadvertent Israeli air strike revealed the fact that the UN force in Lebanon includes Chinese observers. One was killed along with an Austrian, a Canadian and a Finn. The presence of Chinese observers keeping an eye on the combat in South Lebanon has never before been reported.
Our intelligence experts compare the incident to the inadvertent US bombardment which destroyed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1998, killing a number of Chinese “diplomats.” It was discovered that from that building the Chinese had operated sophisticated surveillance to track the performance of American warplanes, missiles and smart bombs.
On the night of July 26, Day 15 of the Lebanon War, an Israeli force pushed towards Khiam on its way to the approaches of the large Druze village of Hatzbaya. This route has taken Israeli troops north and east for the objective of controlling a stretch of south Lebanon known as Fatahland (before the 1982 war cleansed it of Yasser Arafat’s terrorists.)
This would bring them close up to Syrian positions on Mt. Hermon and for the first time in 35 years afford the Israeli outposts at the disputed Shebaa Farms strategic depth.
Monday, July 24, Damascus warned that Israeli artillery coming within range of Damascus would not be tolerated. The statement was issued with a view to deterring Israel from entering the Eastern Sector. So far the Syrians have made no response to Israel’s advance.
Perhaps the most important gain from the crisis is Israel’s recovery of control over its main sources of water, the Wazani springs in the divided Ghajar village. This was achieved in the early hours of the IDF push in the east. Israel will not cede this asset in a hurry. Worth citing in this regard is defense minister Amir Peretz’s statement Tuesday, 25, after US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice left the Middle East, that Israel would retain control of a security belt in southern Lebanon until a multinational force takes over.
The main battle in this sector is now centering on the Majidya base in Khiam, source of Hizballah rocket attacks on Kiryat Shemona and the Galilee panhandle communities Majidya was once a Lebanese army training facility for new recruits under Israeli military instructors. It was demolished when Israel pulled out of south Lebanon in May 2000. Aside from the Hizballah concentration in Majidya, its men are fairly thin on the ground in the Eastern Sector.
The mixed village population on the Israeli units path of advance, Druzes, Shiites, Sunnis and Christians, provides a useful shield for Hizballah fighters. They take full advantage of the directives to Israeli ground forces not to touch Druze and Christian villages. By long Lebanese tradition, the Druzes shut their village doors to Shiites, while the Christians accommodate them because they don’t know how long Israeli forces will be around to protect them against the Hizballah.
As the Israelis advance through the region, they are discovering the depth and breadth of Hizballah’s war preparations. South Lebanon was divided into 176 combat squares controlled from 40 scattered command bunkers. Their latest directive orders them to fight Israeli troops from the shelter of wooded areas and bunkers using guerrilla tactics of surprise and ambush instead of hand-to-hand combat in built-up areas in which they have taken heavy casualties.
DEBKAfile’s military sources: The huge explosions that struck South Beirut Tuesday evening were caused by 20 Israeli airborne missiles dropping on large, newly-discovered Hizballah subterranean arms caches, part of this tunnel network.
The force of the secondary blasts attested to their contents and the accuracy of the Israeli intelligence pinpointing of previously unknown weapons bunkers in S. Beirut.
Buried alongside the command bunkers are vast arsenals of Katyusha rockets and launchers, and food and water for a long stay. Hizballah was itself caught napping by the extent and fierceness of Israel’s riposte to their July 12 cross-border attack. Therefore, not all the bunker posts were completely built. The night before the Israeli advance into the Eastern Sector, Hizballah personnel were seen putting finishing touches on the fortifications of the command bunkers and sowing the routes with anti-tank mines and roadside bombs. Israel guns shelled the Hizballah teams to disrupt their work on the bunkers and the roads.
DEBKAfile Exclusive Military Report
July 26, 2006, 4:42 PM (GMT+02:00)
The Israeli military campaign against Hizballah, launched July 12 when two soldiers were kidnapped, started out in the Central Sector of South Lebanon with the conquest of Maroun er Ras, and moved on to Bin Jubeil and its five satellite villages. Wednesday, July 25, the IDF suffered a major reverse at Bin Jubeil where HIzballlah fighters regrouped and counter-attacked, inflicting heavy casualties on the Israel mopping-up force.
But other IDF contingents had meanwhile embarked on the next stage of the campaign in the Eastern Sector of South Lebanon. This came to light when a series of Israeli air strikes against Hizballah positions and installations around Khiam hit a Unifil post and killed four observers Tuesday night, July 25
Israel deeply regretted the deaths and promised a full investigation, after UN Secretary Kofi Annan accused Israel of apparently targeting the observer post.
However, DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources add: The holier-than-thou tone of outrage taken by Annan is surprising when it generally known that many UN missions are exploited as the cover for foreign agents, often hostile, to carry out spying operations in war zones. The inadvertent Israeli air strike revealed the fact that the UN force in Lebanon includes Chinese observers. One was killed along with an Austrian, a Canadian and a Finn. The presence of Chinese observers keeping an eye on the combat in South Lebanon has never before been reported.
Our intelligence experts compare the incident to the inadvertent US bombardment which destroyed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1998, killing a number of Chinese “diplomats.” It was discovered that from that building the Chinese had operated sophisticated surveillance to track the performance of American warplanes, missiles and smart bombs.
On the night of July 26, Day 15 of the Lebanon War, an Israeli force pushed towards Khiam on its way to the approaches of the large Druze village of Hatzbaya. This route has taken Israeli troops north and east for the objective of controlling a stretch of south Lebanon known as Fatahland (before the 1982 war cleansed it of Yasser Arafat’s terrorists.)
This would bring them close up to Syrian positions on Mt. Hermon and for the first time in 35 years afford the Israeli outposts at the disputed Shebaa Farms strategic depth.
Monday, July 24, Damascus warned that Israeli artillery coming within range of Damascus would not be tolerated. The statement was issued with a view to deterring Israel from entering the Eastern Sector. So far the Syrians have made no response to Israel’s advance.
Perhaps the most important gain from the crisis is Israel’s recovery of control over its main sources of water, the Wazani springs in the divided Ghajar village. This was achieved in the early hours of the IDF push in the east. Israel will not cede this asset in a hurry. Worth citing in this regard is defense minister Amir Peretz’s statement Tuesday, 25, after US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice left the Middle East, that Israel would retain control of a security belt in southern Lebanon until a multinational force takes over.
The main battle in this sector is now centering on the Majidya base in Khiam, source of Hizballah rocket attacks on Kiryat Shemona and the Galilee panhandle communities Majidya was once a Lebanese army training facility for new recruits under Israeli military instructors. It was demolished when Israel pulled out of south Lebanon in May 2000. Aside from the Hizballah concentration in Majidya, its men are fairly thin on the ground in the Eastern Sector.
The mixed village population on the Israeli units path of advance, Druzes, Shiites, Sunnis and Christians, provides a useful shield for Hizballah fighters. They take full advantage of the directives to Israeli ground forces not to touch Druze and Christian villages. By long Lebanese tradition, the Druzes shut their village doors to Shiites, while the Christians accommodate them because they don’t know how long Israeli forces will be around to protect them against the Hizballah.
As the Israelis advance through the region, they are discovering the depth and breadth of Hizballah’s war preparations. South Lebanon was divided into 176 combat squares controlled from 40 scattered command bunkers. Their latest directive orders them to fight Israeli troops from the shelter of wooded areas and bunkers using guerrilla tactics of surprise and ambush instead of hand-to-hand combat in built-up areas in which they have taken heavy casualties.
DEBKAfile’s military sources: The huge explosions that struck South Beirut Tuesday evening were caused by 20 Israeli airborne missiles dropping on large, newly-discovered Hizballah subterranean arms caches, part of this tunnel network.
The force of the secondary blasts attested to their contents and the accuracy of the Israeli intelligence pinpointing of previously unknown weapons bunkers in S. Beirut.
Buried alongside the command bunkers are vast arsenals of Katyusha rockets and launchers, and food and water for a long stay. Hizballah was itself caught napping by the extent and fierceness of Israel’s riposte to their July 12 cross-border attack. Therefore, not all the bunker posts were completely built. The night before the Israeli advance into the Eastern Sector, Hizballah personnel were seen putting finishing touches on the fortifications of the command bunkers and sowing the routes with anti-tank mines and roadside bombs. Israel guns shelled the Hizballah teams to disrupt their work on the bunkers and the roads.
Lebanon damage report BBC News
Summary of the main Lebanese infrastructure damaged by Israeli bombing in the two weeks since the conflict began on 12 July, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs.
Airports
Beirut International
Qaleiat domestic
Rayak military
Ports
Beirut
Tripoli
Jounieh
Other transport
Lighthouse, Beirut
Bridges: 62
Fuel stations: 22
Overpasses: 72
Dams: 3
Roads: 600km
Military
Radar installations: 4
Army barracks: 1
Civilian
Private homes: 5,000
Commercial
Tissue paper factory, Bekaa
Bottle factory, Bekaa
Other businesses: 150
Communications
Hezbollah's al-Manar TV station, Haret Hreik, Beirut
MTC mobile phone antenna, Dahr al-Baidar
Utilities
Jiyeh power plant
Sibline power station
Sewage plant, Dair al-Zahrani
Summary of the main Lebanese infrastructure damaged by Israeli bombing in the two weeks since the conflict began on 12 July, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Social Affairs.
Beirut International
Qaleiat domestic
Rayak military
Ports
Beirut
Tripoli
Jounieh
Other transport
Lighthouse, Beirut
Bridges: 62
Fuel stations: 22
Overpasses: 72
Dams: 3
Roads: 600km
Military
Radar installations: 4
Army barracks: 1
Civilian
Private homes: 5,000
Commercial
Tissue paper factory, Bekaa
Bottle factory, Bekaa
Other businesses: 150
Communications
Hezbollah's al-Manar TV station, Haret Hreik, Beirut
MTC mobile phone antenna, Dahr al-Baidar
Utilities
Jiyeh power plant
Sibline power station
Sewage plant, Dair al-Zahrani
Lebanon battles rage as talks fail to agree on truce The Daily Star
Fighting in Lebanon showed little sign of abating yesterday after nine Israeli soldiers were killed in running battles with Hezbollah on the Lebanese border as the conflict entered its third week marked by the failure of international talks to agree a truce. Israel was also under fire over the killing of four UN peacekeepers Tuesday in what UN chief Kofi Annan charged was an "apparently deliberate" targeting of their post. But the United Nations Security Council failed Wednesday to agree a statement condemning the killings after the United States rejected any criticism of the Israeli attack, and was to resume its negotiations on Thursday. As the Israeli toll mounted in a war that has already cost more than 405 lives in Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert laid out plans to set up a narrow security zone in southern Lebanon, which has borne the brunt of the Israeli offensive. In Rome, far from the bombs and bloodshed, 15-nation crisis talks failed to agree on a call for an immediate ceasefire, effectively backing the US stance that there must first be a sustainable solution. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora despaired for his war-ravaged people, saying his country was being "cut to pieces". US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied on Thursday that Washington had been isolated at the talks in its rejection of an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah. "Yes, there were a lot of countries calling for an immediate ceasefire. There were several that did not," Rice told journalists on board a plane taking her from Rome to a meeting with southeast Asian leaders in Malaysia. "It was not all countries calling for an immediate ceasefire," she said. Rice insisted the Rome meeting had not been a failure. "It was a success because it identified the elements that would eventually make up a sustainable ceasefire," she said. She said there had been agreement that full implementation of United Nations resolution 1559 and the Taif Agreement that ended Lebanon's civil war in 1990 were the basis for a solution. Both the resolution and the agreement call for the extension of the Lebanese government's sovereignty to the whole of the country and the disbanding of private militias such as Hezbollah. Rice said there had also been agreement in Rome on the need for a multinational UN-mandated force for Lebanon. "The UN plans to hold a troop contribution meeting at the end of this week or next week," she added. Israel announced that nine soldiers had been killed in fighting around the key Hezbollah military stronghold of Bint Jbeil and a nearby village, bringing to 51 the number of Israelis killed in the worst cross-border fighting in a quarter century. It was the highest toll since Israel launched its deadly offensive against Lebanon on July 12 to try to recover two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in border attacks that also killed eight servicemen. Israel is also engaged in a similarly fierce assault in the Gaza Strip to retrieve a third serviceman held captive by Palestinians militants. A total of 24 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday alone in the bloodiest day since the offensive was launched in late June. A total of 140 have been killed since then. Israel carried out new air strikes against the southern port city of Tyre, with rescue officials warning that dozens of people were trapped under rubble. Olmert, who has said he was determined to press on with Israel's war on Hezbollah, proposed the creation of a security zone in Lebanon to protect its border but he insisted there was no question of another occupation. He also said during a tour of northern Israel that the offensive would not "last months," but declined to give any timeframe. Countries at the Rome meeting also agreed to hold multilateral talks soon on an international buffer force, an idea espoused by Rice who ended a lightning visit to the Middle East Tuesday. Israel however, was not at the talks, nor were Syria or Iran, which both back Hezbollah and are accused by both the Jewish state and Washington of stoking the conflict. Governments around the world expressed shock and anger at the deaths in the Israeli raid on Tuesday, which Annan said appeared to target the observer post. "I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces of a UN observer post in southern Lebanon that has killed two UN military observers, with two more feared dead," Annan said. Israel's UN ambassador Dan Gillerman said he was "surprised at these premature and erroneous assertions." Olmert however phoned Annan and expressed "deep regrets" over the killing in Khiam, once the site of an infamous Israeli jail but now a Hezbollah stronghold, and said he would order a comprehensive inquiry. Amid international outcry, the UN Security Council agreed to condemn the attack. But UN ambassadors announced the failure to agree a statement following a day of intense haggling among the 15-nation council. China, home to one of the dead soldiers of the UN mission in Lebanon, or Unifil, had originally demanded the statement condemn the attack. But the United States would not accept any criticism of its ally Israel, diplomats said. The four dead observers were from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, a Lebanese security source said. Washington has appeared increasingly isolated in its steadfast support for the Israeli campaign, facing accusations that it was allowing Israel the time to complete its aim of wiping out Hezbollah. But there was also no sign of any let-up from Hezbollah, the fundamentalist Shia "Party of God" which was created after Israel's bloody invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed to hit back with rocket attacks into the heart of Israel as he made a new television appearance following repeated attempts by Israel to kill him in bombing raids. Israel has repeatedly said it believes the Shia militant group has longer-range rockets capable of reaching beyond its third city, as far as the commercial capital Tel Aviv, or even the southern city of Beersheva. Several rockets landed Wednesday on Haifa, wounding at least six people. In a flickering sign of some relief for Lebanese trapped by Israel's blockade, a Jordanian military plane carrying UN humanitarian aid landed at Beirut airport and Unicef announced that a first convoy of humanitarian aid for children had arrived in Tyre. Much of Lebanon's infrastructure lies in ruins from Israeli bombing and food, fuel and medical supplies have been disrupted with some 800,000 Lebanese displaced. The UN food body has warned of a "major food crisis". Tens of thousands of foreigners have also fled, with Americans completing their final evacuation Wednesday. Most have been pulled out by land or sea with the airport closed to commercial traffic because of Israeli air strikes.
Lebanon: Up to 600 killed in Israel's assault Mail & Guardian Online
Ceasefire delay Israel's 'green light' The Australian
Canada.com - Boston Globe - Wall Street Journal - International Herald Tribune - all 2,610 related »
Fighting in Lebanon showed little sign of abating yesterday after nine Israeli soldiers were killed in running battles with Hezbollah on the Lebanese border as the conflict entered its third week marked by the failure of international talks to agree a truce. Israel was also under fire over the killing of four UN peacekeepers Tuesday in what UN chief Kofi Annan charged was an "apparently deliberate" targeting of their post. But the United Nations Security Council failed Wednesday to agree a statement condemning the killings after the United States rejected any criticism of the Israeli attack, and was to resume its negotiations on Thursday. As the Israeli toll mounted in a war that has already cost more than 405 lives in Lebanon, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert laid out plans to set up a narrow security zone in southern Lebanon, which has borne the brunt of the Israeli offensive. In Rome, far from the bombs and bloodshed, 15-nation crisis talks failed to agree on a call for an immediate ceasefire, effectively backing the US stance that there must first be a sustainable solution. Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora despaired for his war-ravaged people, saying his country was being "cut to pieces". US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denied on Thursday that Washington had been isolated at the talks in its rejection of an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Lebanese Shia militia Hezbollah. "Yes, there were a lot of countries calling for an immediate ceasefire. There were several that did not," Rice told journalists on board a plane taking her from Rome to a meeting with southeast Asian leaders in Malaysia. "It was not all countries calling for an immediate ceasefire," she said. Rice insisted the Rome meeting had not been a failure. "It was a success because it identified the elements that would eventually make up a sustainable ceasefire," she said. She said there had been agreement that full implementation of United Nations resolution 1559 and the Taif Agreement that ended Lebanon's civil war in 1990 were the basis for a solution. Both the resolution and the agreement call for the extension of the Lebanese government's sovereignty to the whole of the country and the disbanding of private militias such as Hezbollah. Rice said there had also been agreement in Rome on the need for a multinational UN-mandated force for Lebanon. "The UN plans to hold a troop contribution meeting at the end of this week or next week," she added. Israel announced that nine soldiers had been killed in fighting around the key Hezbollah military stronghold of Bint Jbeil and a nearby village, bringing to 51 the number of Israelis killed in the worst cross-border fighting in a quarter century. It was the highest toll since Israel launched its deadly offensive against Lebanon on July 12 to try to recover two soldiers captured by Hezbollah in border attacks that also killed eight servicemen. Israel is also engaged in a similarly fierce assault in the Gaza Strip to retrieve a third serviceman held captive by Palestinians militants. A total of 24 Palestinians were killed on Wednesday alone in the bloodiest day since the offensive was launched in late June. A total of 140 have been killed since then. Israel carried out new air strikes against the southern port city of Tyre, with rescue officials warning that dozens of people were trapped under rubble. Olmert, who has said he was determined to press on with Israel's war on Hezbollah, proposed the creation of a security zone in Lebanon to protect its border but he insisted there was no question of another occupation. He also said during a tour of northern Israel that the offensive would not "last months," but declined to give any timeframe. Countries at the Rome meeting also agreed to hold multilateral talks soon on an international buffer force, an idea espoused by Rice who ended a lightning visit to the Middle East Tuesday. Israel however, was not at the talks, nor were Syria or Iran, which both back Hezbollah and are accused by both the Jewish state and Washington of stoking the conflict. Governments around the world expressed shock and anger at the deaths in the Israeli raid on Tuesday, which Annan said appeared to target the observer post. "I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defence Forces of a UN observer post in southern Lebanon that has killed two UN military observers, with two more feared dead," Annan said. Israel's UN ambassador Dan Gillerman said he was "surprised at these premature and erroneous assertions." Olmert however phoned Annan and expressed "deep regrets" over the killing in Khiam, once the site of an infamous Israeli jail but now a Hezbollah stronghold, and said he would order a comprehensive inquiry. Amid international outcry, the UN Security Council agreed to condemn the attack. But UN ambassadors announced the failure to agree a statement following a day of intense haggling among the 15-nation council. China, home to one of the dead soldiers of the UN mission in Lebanon, or Unifil, had originally demanded the statement condemn the attack. But the United States would not accept any criticism of its ally Israel, diplomats said. The four dead observers were from Austria, Canada, China and Finland, a Lebanese security source said. Washington has appeared increasingly isolated in its steadfast support for the Israeli campaign, facing accusations that it was allowing Israel the time to complete its aim of wiping out Hezbollah. But there was also no sign of any let-up from Hezbollah, the fundamentalist Shia "Party of God" which was created after Israel's bloody invasion of Lebanon in 1982. Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah vowed to hit back with rocket attacks into the heart of Israel as he made a new television appearance following repeated attempts by Israel to kill him in bombing raids. Israel has repeatedly said it believes the Shia militant group has longer-range rockets capable of reaching beyond its third city, as far as the commercial capital Tel Aviv, or even the southern city of Beersheva. Several rockets landed Wednesday on Haifa, wounding at least six people. In a flickering sign of some relief for Lebanese trapped by Israel's blockade, a Jordanian military plane carrying UN humanitarian aid landed at Beirut airport and Unicef announced that a first convoy of humanitarian aid for children had arrived in Tyre. Much of Lebanon's infrastructure lies in ruins from Israeli bombing and food, fuel and medical supplies have been disrupted with some 800,000 Lebanese displaced. The UN food body has warned of a "major food crisis". Tens of thousands of foreigners have also fled, with Americans completing their final evacuation Wednesday. Most have been pulled out by land or sea with the airport closed to commercial traffic because of Israeli air strikes.
Lebanon: Up to 600 killed in Israel's assault Mail & Guardian Online
Ceasefire delay Israel's 'green light' The Australian
Canada.com - Boston Globe - Wall Street Journal - International Herald Tribune - all 2,610 related »
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-L..._r=1&oref=login
Israel OKs Call - Up of 30, 000 Soldiers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 27, 2006
Filed at 3:29 p.m. ET
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's government decided Thursday not to expand its battle with Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon for now, but authorized the army to call up 30,000 reserve soldiers in case the fighting intensified. The Lebanese health minister said up to 600 civilians have been killed in the campaign, including as many as 200 still buried in the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, said she was ''willing and ready'' to return to the region to work for a sustainable peace agreement. But President Bush suggested he would support the offensive for as long as it would take to cripple Hezbollah.
Bush also sharply condemned Iran for its support of Hezbollah.
The events signaled that Israel and the United States were settling in for a much longer battle than had initially been expected, one that could grow far bloodier if Israel decides its air attacks and small-scale invasion into Lebanon is not working and sends in thousands of more ground forces.
With no end in sight to the fighting, al Qaida weighed in Thursday for the first time since the Israeli offensive began, vowing to attack ''everywhere'' until Islam prevails.
In recent days, senior Israeli generals urged the government to authorize a broader ground campaign in southern Lebanon, which they said would help the thousands of troops already engaged in bloody battles there.
Israel's security Cabinet authorized the army to call up three additional reserve divisions to refresh the troops in Lebanon if they were needed, but rejected the generals' advice to expand the offensive.
However, Justice Minister Haim Ramon said that world leaders' failure to call for an immediate cease-fire during a Rome summit gave Israel a green light to carry on with its campaign to crush Hezbollah -- an assertion hotly rejected by European officials.
The conference ended Wednesday in disagreement, with most European leaders calling for an immediate cease-fire and the United States wanting to give Israel more time to neutralize Hezbollah.
''We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world .... to continue the operation, this war, until Hezbollah won't be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed,'' Ramon told Israel's Army Radio.
European leaders said Ramon's interpretation was badly mistaken.
''I would say just the opposite -- yesterday in Rome it was clear that everyone present wanted to see an end to the fighting as swiftly as possible,'' German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday struck roads and houses, many believed to be the deserted homes of Hezbollah activists, in the apple-growing region of Iqlim al-Tuffah. The strikes caused casualties, but fighting kept ambulances and civil defense crews from the areas, security officials and witnesses said.
Other strikes hit a Lebanese army base in the north, while artillery and warplanes pounded the area near the border, according to witnesses. However, the fierce ground battles that raged Wednesday through the border villages of Bint Jbail and Maroun al-Ras appeared to have abated, with U.N. observers reporting only ''sporadic fighting'' there.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said the strategic damage to Hezbollah was ''enormous'' and vowed that the group would ''not return to what it was.''
Israel launched its offensive in Lebanon on July 12, after Hezbollah guerrillas overran the border, killed three Israeli soldiers on patrol and captured two others.
Since then, at least 429 people in Lebanon -- most of them civilians -- have been killed in a punishing campaign of airstrikes, artillery shelling and clashes, according to Lebanese officials and Hezbollah. A total of 33 Israeli soldiers died in the fighting and 19 civilians were killed in Hezbollah's unyielding rocket attacks on Israel's northern towns, the army said.
The guerrillas shot 110 rockets into Israel on Thursday, lightly wounding 20 people and bringing the total of rockets launched to 1,564.
The army broadcast a warning on its Arabic-language radio station Thursday telling Lebanese in the south that their villages would be ''totally destroyed'' if rockets were fired from them.
Army Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said there have been hundreds of Hezbollah casualties and that ''we have caused serious damage to their rocket launching capabilities.''
But Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a staunch supporter of Hezbollah, said Israel would never be able to crush the group militarily, and should stop fighting and start talking.
''Whatever it (Israel) does it's not going to reach its goal,'' he told The Associated Press. ''They're not going to be able to take out the weaponry of Hezbollah. So all they're doing is massive destruction.''
Meanwhile, al-Qaida issued its first response to the violence, threatening to retaliate with new attacks.
The videotape by Osama bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahri was an effort by the terror network to rally Islamic militants by exploited Israel's two-pronged offensive -- against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas-linked militants in Gaza.
''We cannot just watch these shells as they burn our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and stand by idly, humiliated,'' al-Zawahri said, adding that ''all the world is a battlefield open in front of us.''
''The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires. ... It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq,'' he said. ''We will attack everywhere.''
In Damascus, Syrian and Iranian officials gathered to hold meetings on the crisis, according to Iranian and Kuwaiti news reports. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah was also to take part in the meeting as well as Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to Kuwait's Al-Siyassah newspaper, known for its opposition to the Syrian regime.
The newspaper said the meeting was designed to discuss ways to maintain supplies to Hezbollah fighters with ''Iranian arms flowing through Syrian territories.''
Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahhal would not comment on whether Nasrallah, whose movements are kept strictly secret, was in Damascus but was dismissive of the Kuwaiti newspaper report.
With cease-fire efforts stalemated, Rice -- who was in Malaysia after a trip to Beirut, Jerusalem and the Rome conference -- said she was prepared to make a second tour of the Middle East, but did not announce a timetable.
''I am more than happy to go back,'' Rice said, if her efforts can ''move toward a sustainable cease-fire that would end the violence.''
In his interview with Army Radio, Ramon said the Israeli air force must bomb villages before ground forces enter, suggesting that this would help prevent future Israeli casualties. Ramon spoke a day after nine soldiers were killed in house-to-house fighting in two border villages. Hezbollah acknowledged Thursday that it lost five fighters in that fighting, though Israel said at least 30 were killed.
Asked whether entire villages should be flattened, he said: ''These places are not villages. They are military bases in which Hezbollah people are hiding and from which they are operating.''
Thousands of civilians are believed trapped in the border villages, according to humanitarian officials.
International Red Cross spokesman Hisham Hassan said their teams that have visited border villages under heavy bombardment, have found families hiding in schools, mosques and churches, or huddled together in homes they hope will withstand the barrage.
''But even the residents we speak to can't say how many are there, because everyone's hiding, they don't know who's dead or alive,'' he said.
Israel OKs Call - Up of 30, 000 Soldiers
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 27, 2006
Filed at 3:29 p.m. ET
JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's government decided Thursday not to expand its battle with Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon for now, but authorized the army to call up 30,000 reserve soldiers in case the fighting intensified. The Lebanese health minister said up to 600 civilians have been killed in the campaign, including as many as 200 still buried in the rubble of destroyed buildings.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meanwhile, said she was ''willing and ready'' to return to the region to work for a sustainable peace agreement. But President Bush suggested he would support the offensive for as long as it would take to cripple Hezbollah.
Bush also sharply condemned Iran for its support of Hezbollah.
The events signaled that Israel and the United States were settling in for a much longer battle than had initially been expected, one that could grow far bloodier if Israel decides its air attacks and small-scale invasion into Lebanon is not working and sends in thousands of more ground forces.
With no end in sight to the fighting, al Qaida weighed in Thursday for the first time since the Israeli offensive began, vowing to attack ''everywhere'' until Islam prevails.
In recent days, senior Israeli generals urged the government to authorize a broader ground campaign in southern Lebanon, which they said would help the thousands of troops already engaged in bloody battles there.
Israel's security Cabinet authorized the army to call up three additional reserve divisions to refresh the troops in Lebanon if they were needed, but rejected the generals' advice to expand the offensive.
However, Justice Minister Haim Ramon said that world leaders' failure to call for an immediate cease-fire during a Rome summit gave Israel a green light to carry on with its campaign to crush Hezbollah -- an assertion hotly rejected by European officials.
The conference ended Wednesday in disagreement, with most European leaders calling for an immediate cease-fire and the United States wanting to give Israel more time to neutralize Hezbollah.
''We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world .... to continue the operation, this war, until Hezbollah won't be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed,'' Ramon told Israel's Army Radio.
European leaders said Ramon's interpretation was badly mistaken.
''I would say just the opposite -- yesterday in Rome it was clear that everyone present wanted to see an end to the fighting as swiftly as possible,'' German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said.
Israeli airstrikes on southern Lebanon on Thursday struck roads and houses, many believed to be the deserted homes of Hezbollah activists, in the apple-growing region of Iqlim al-Tuffah. The strikes caused casualties, but fighting kept ambulances and civil defense crews from the areas, security officials and witnesses said.
Other strikes hit a Lebanese army base in the north, while artillery and warplanes pounded the area near the border, according to witnesses. However, the fierce ground battles that raged Wednesday through the border villages of Bint Jbail and Maroun al-Ras appeared to have abated, with U.N. observers reporting only ''sporadic fighting'' there.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said the strategic damage to Hezbollah was ''enormous'' and vowed that the group would ''not return to what it was.''
Israel launched its offensive in Lebanon on July 12, after Hezbollah guerrillas overran the border, killed three Israeli soldiers on patrol and captured two others.
Since then, at least 429 people in Lebanon -- most of them civilians -- have been killed in a punishing campaign of airstrikes, artillery shelling and clashes, according to Lebanese officials and Hezbollah. A total of 33 Israeli soldiers died in the fighting and 19 civilians were killed in Hezbollah's unyielding rocket attacks on Israel's northern towns, the army said.
The guerrillas shot 110 rockets into Israel on Thursday, lightly wounding 20 people and bringing the total of rockets launched to 1,564.
The army broadcast a warning on its Arabic-language radio station Thursday telling Lebanese in the south that their villages would be ''totally destroyed'' if rockets were fired from them.
Army Chief of Staff Dan Halutz said there have been hundreds of Hezbollah casualties and that ''we have caused serious damage to their rocket launching capabilities.''
But Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a staunch supporter of Hezbollah, said Israel would never be able to crush the group militarily, and should stop fighting and start talking.
''Whatever it (Israel) does it's not going to reach its goal,'' he told The Associated Press. ''They're not going to be able to take out the weaponry of Hezbollah. So all they're doing is massive destruction.''
Meanwhile, al-Qaida issued its first response to the violence, threatening to retaliate with new attacks.
The videotape by Osama bin Laden deputy Ayman al-Zawahri was an effort by the terror network to rally Islamic militants by exploited Israel's two-pronged offensive -- against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas-linked militants in Gaza.
''We cannot just watch these shells as they burn our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and stand by idly, humiliated,'' al-Zawahri said, adding that ''all the world is a battlefield open in front of us.''
''The war with Israel does not depend on cease-fires. ... It is a jihad (holy war) for the sake of God and will last until (our) religion prevails ... from Spain to Iraq,'' he said. ''We will attack everywhere.''
In Damascus, Syrian and Iranian officials gathered to hold meetings on the crisis, according to Iranian and Kuwaiti news reports. Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah was also to take part in the meeting as well as Syrian President Bashar Assad, according to Kuwait's Al-Siyassah newspaper, known for its opposition to the Syrian regime.
The newspaper said the meeting was designed to discuss ways to maintain supplies to Hezbollah fighters with ''Iranian arms flowing through Syrian territories.''
Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahhal would not comment on whether Nasrallah, whose movements are kept strictly secret, was in Damascus but was dismissive of the Kuwaiti newspaper report.
With cease-fire efforts stalemated, Rice -- who was in Malaysia after a trip to Beirut, Jerusalem and the Rome conference -- said she was prepared to make a second tour of the Middle East, but did not announce a timetable.
''I am more than happy to go back,'' Rice said, if her efforts can ''move toward a sustainable cease-fire that would end the violence.''
In his interview with Army Radio, Ramon said the Israeli air force must bomb villages before ground forces enter, suggesting that this would help prevent future Israeli casualties. Ramon spoke a day after nine soldiers were killed in house-to-house fighting in two border villages. Hezbollah acknowledged Thursday that it lost five fighters in that fighting, though Israel said at least 30 were killed.
Asked whether entire villages should be flattened, he said: ''These places are not villages. They are military bases in which Hezbollah people are hiding and from which they are operating.''
Thousands of civilians are believed trapped in the border villages, according to humanitarian officials.
International Red Cross spokesman Hisham Hassan said their teams that have visited border villages under heavy bombardment, have found families hiding in schools, mosques and churches, or huddled together in homes they hope will withstand the barrage.
''But even the residents we speak to can't say how many are there, because everyone's hiding, they don't know who's dead or alive,'' he said.
The UN Security Council calls on Israel to publish its findings from the probe of an air strike which caused the deaths of four UNIFIL observers at Khiam
July 27, 2006, 10:56 PM (GMT+02:00)
Australia has decided to pull its 12 observers from UNIFIL in South Lebanon following the incident.
Israel voiced deep sorrow for the deaths of 4 UN observers in air strikes targeting Hizballah positions at Khaim, Eastern Sector of S. Lebanon, July 26 and promised a thorough inquiry.
DEBKAfile adds: The holier-than-thou tone of outrage taken by Annan is surprising when it generally known that many UN missions are exploited as the cover for foreign agents, often hostile, to carry out spying operations in war zones. The inadvertent Israeli air strike revealed the fact that the UN force in Lebanon includes Chinese observers. One was killed along with an Austrian, a Canadian and a Finn. The presence of Chinese observers keeping an eye on the combat in South Lebanon has never before been reported.
Our intelligence experts compare the incident to the inadvertent US bombardment which wrecked the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1998 (picture), killing a number of Chinese “diplomats.” It was discovered that from that building the Chinese had operated sophisticated surveillance to track the performance of American warplanes, missiles and smart bombs.
The Khaim observer post was located near Hizballah positions and training facilities in the eastern sector, where the IDF has launched the next stage of its campaign against Hizballah in southern Lebanon.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
July 27, 2006, 10:56 PM (GMT+02:00)
Australia has decided to pull its 12 observers from UNIFIL in South Lebanon following the incident.
Israel voiced deep sorrow for the deaths of 4 UN observers in air strikes targeting Hizballah positions at Khaim, Eastern Sector of S. Lebanon, July 26 and promised a thorough inquiry.
DEBKAfile adds: The holier-than-thou tone of outrage taken by Annan is surprising when it generally known that many UN missions are exploited as the cover for foreign agents, often hostile, to carry out spying operations in war zones. The inadvertent Israeli air strike revealed the fact that the UN force in Lebanon includes Chinese observers. One was killed along with an Austrian, a Canadian and a Finn. The presence of Chinese observers keeping an eye on the combat in South Lebanon has never before been reported.
Our intelligence experts compare the incident to the inadvertent US bombardment which wrecked the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1998 (picture), killing a number of Chinese “diplomats.” It was discovered that from that building the Chinese had operated sophisticated surveillance to track the performance of American warplanes, missiles and smart bombs.
The Khaim observer post was located near Hizballah positions and training facilities in the eastern sector, where the IDF has launched the next stage of its campaign against Hizballah in southern Lebanon.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
Lebanon says up to 600 killed in Israeli attacks:
Hospitals had so far received 401 bodies of victims of the Israeli attacks. "On top of those victims, there are 150 to 200 bodies still under the rubble. We have not been able to pull them out because the areas they died in are still under fire," Khalifeh told Reuters.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3282427,00.html
Dozens killed in day of fiercest combat yet:
Israel's two-front conflict saw its heaviest day of fighting on Wednesday, killing nine Israeli soldiers, dozens of Hezbollah fighters and at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza.
http://tinyurl.com/jdzn4
Harper demands answers on UN death:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, under attack by political opponents over his Middle East policy, said yesterday he will seek explanations from the United Nations and the Israeli government about the "terrible tragedy" that killed a Canadian peacekeeper in Lebanon.
http://tinyurl.com/z5hlg
World condemns Israel as diplomacy fails again:
Jerusalem attempted to fend off the rebukes following the deaths of the four UN observers, who came from Austria, Canada, Finland and China.
http://www.alternet.org/story/39527
Bush cites Iran's role in Lebanon conflict:
President Bush declined Thursday to criticize Israel's tactics in its continuing offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, and gave a sharp condemnation of Iran's role in the bloody fighting.
http://tinyurl.com/kjpzr
Israel's star-spangled arsenal;
Much has been made in the US media of the Syrian- and Iranian-origin weaponry used by Hezbollah in the escalating violence in Israel and Lebanon. There has been no parallel discussion of the origin of Israel's weaponry, the vast bulk of which is from the United States.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14237.htm
'They are treating us like meat in a butcher's shop':
Outside the hospital, men were nailing shut around 70 coffins for just some of the scores of innocent civilians killed in the previous nine days' bombardment. Among them were the small coffins of 20 children.
http://www.sundayherald.com/56880
Belgian Jewish Leader: Israel Committing War Crimes :
Jewish associations have begun to react against the Israeli offensive into Lebanon. Head of the Union of Belgian Jewish Progressives (UPJB) Dr. Jacques Ravedovitch stated that Israel is committing war crimes in Lebanon.
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&hn=35131
Twin wars `a calculated kind of madness':
Israel's twin wars, one in Lebanon and the other in the Gaza Strip, are a disaster, not only for their civilian victims but also Israel itself, as well as for the United States, and the chief cheerleader for both, Stephen Harper.
http://tinyurl.com/eh5pg
Uri Avnery: Is Beirut Burning? :
It is not important how long this war will last and what will be its results - the fact that a few thousand fighters have withstood the Israeli army for 11 days and more, has already been imprinted in the consciousness of hundred of millions of Arabs and Muslims.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article14220.htm
Syrian reporter: In Syria there is atmosphere of eve of war:
As the conflict with Hizbullah in Lebanon escalates by the day, the question of Syria's involvement in the conflict becomes increasingly more relevant.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3282279,00.html
Israel steps up "psy-ops" in Lebanon :
From mass targeting of mobile phones with voice and text messages to old-fashioned radio broadcasts warning of imminent attacks, Israel is deploying a range of old and new technologies in Lebanon as part of the psychological operations ("psyops") campaign supplementing its military attacks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5217484.stm
Noam Chomsky in Beirut:
"I think Nasrallah has a reasoned and persuasive argument that the arms should be in the hands of Hizbullah as a deterrent to potential aggression, and there are plenty of background reasons for that ..."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14230.htm
Hezbollah Signals It's Open to Talks With United States:
A Hezbollah political leader told a delegation of former European and American officials last month that the Bush administration approached the organization for talks following September 11, 2001, and that the group would be open to new discussions.
http://www.nysun.com/article/11974?access=129695
Bombs bound for Israel came via British airports :
Ministers are embroiled in a row over whether British military equipment and airports are being used to assist Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1199343.ece
75-year-old woman and a child among 5 killed by Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza:
Despite a high death toll in Gaza, with 23 people killed on Wednesday alone, the world's attention has been focused on Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been fighting Hezbollah guerrillas since July 12.
http://tinyurl.com/kljop
Israeli tank shelling kills two Palestinian sisters in Gaza Strip :
Two Palestinian sisters, aged at two and nine, were killed and their mother critically wounded Wednesday evening in an Israeli tank shelling at the eastern town of Jabalya in northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics and witnesses said.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200607/2...727_287066.html
At least 21 Palestinians killed as Israeli occupation forces invade Gaza:
At least 21 Palestinians were killed yesterday when the Israeli army renewed its hostilities in the Gaza Strip. About 50 tanks and armoured vehicles entered northern Gaza and began demolishing buildings and trees at dawn. Armed Palestinians attacked the forces and fighting continued all day.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1831143,00.html
Why Israel Can’t Win the War:
The world is witnessing what could be a critical turning point in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israel is now engaged in a war that could permanently undermine the efficacy of its much-vaunted military apparatus.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14226.htm
Map Showing Where Israel Has Bombed Lebanon
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14227.htm
A Statement By The Saudi Royal Court:
It should be stated that patience could not last forever. If the Israeli military brutality persisted with killings and destruction no one could predict the consequences and then regreat will be in vain
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14217.htm
A history of terror:
60th anniversary of Zionist bombing the King David Hotel:
91 people died, among them 28 British, 41 Arabs and 17 Jews. One IZL fighter was killed inside the hotel, after the explosives had been set.
http://tinyurl.com/lal2n
Hospitals had so far received 401 bodies of victims of the Israeli attacks. "On top of those victims, there are 150 to 200 bodies still under the rubble. We have not been able to pull them out because the areas they died in are still under fire," Khalifeh told Reuters.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3282427,00.html
Dozens killed in day of fiercest combat yet:
Israel's two-front conflict saw its heaviest day of fighting on Wednesday, killing nine Israeli soldiers, dozens of Hezbollah fighters and at least 23 Palestinians in Gaza.
http://tinyurl.com/jdzn4
Harper demands answers on UN death:
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, under attack by political opponents over his Middle East policy, said yesterday he will seek explanations from the United Nations and the Israeli government about the "terrible tragedy" that killed a Canadian peacekeeper in Lebanon.
http://tinyurl.com/z5hlg
World condemns Israel as diplomacy fails again:
Jerusalem attempted to fend off the rebukes following the deaths of the four UN observers, who came from Austria, Canada, Finland and China.
http://www.alternet.org/story/39527
Bush cites Iran's role in Lebanon conflict:
President Bush declined Thursday to criticize Israel's tactics in its continuing offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon, and gave a sharp condemnation of Iran's role in the bloody fighting.
http://tinyurl.com/kjpzr
Israel's star-spangled arsenal;
Much has been made in the US media of the Syrian- and Iranian-origin weaponry used by Hezbollah in the escalating violence in Israel and Lebanon. There has been no parallel discussion of the origin of Israel's weaponry, the vast bulk of which is from the United States.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14237.htm
'They are treating us like meat in a butcher's shop':
Outside the hospital, men were nailing shut around 70 coffins for just some of the scores of innocent civilians killed in the previous nine days' bombardment. Among them were the small coffins of 20 children.
http://www.sundayherald.com/56880
Belgian Jewish Leader: Israel Committing War Crimes :
Jewish associations have begun to react against the Israeli offensive into Lebanon. Head of the Union of Belgian Jewish Progressives (UPJB) Dr. Jacques Ravedovitch stated that Israel is committing war crimes in Lebanon.
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&hn=35131
Twin wars `a calculated kind of madness':
Israel's twin wars, one in Lebanon and the other in the Gaza Strip, are a disaster, not only for their civilian victims but also Israel itself, as well as for the United States, and the chief cheerleader for both, Stephen Harper.
http://tinyurl.com/eh5pg
Uri Avnery: Is Beirut Burning? :
It is not important how long this war will last and what will be its results - the fact that a few thousand fighters have withstood the Israeli army for 11 days and more, has already been imprinted in the consciousness of hundred of millions of Arabs and Muslims.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article14220.htm
Syrian reporter: In Syria there is atmosphere of eve of war:
As the conflict with Hizbullah in Lebanon escalates by the day, the question of Syria's involvement in the conflict becomes increasingly more relevant.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3282279,00.html
Israel steps up "psy-ops" in Lebanon :
From mass targeting of mobile phones with voice and text messages to old-fashioned radio broadcasts warning of imminent attacks, Israel is deploying a range of old and new technologies in Lebanon as part of the psychological operations ("psyops") campaign supplementing its military attacks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5217484.stm
Noam Chomsky in Beirut:
"I think Nasrallah has a reasoned and persuasive argument that the arms should be in the hands of Hizbullah as a deterrent to potential aggression, and there are plenty of background reasons for that ..."
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14230.htm
Hezbollah Signals It's Open to Talks With United States:
A Hezbollah political leader told a delegation of former European and American officials last month that the Bush administration approached the organization for talks following September 11, 2001, and that the group would be open to new discussions.
http://www.nysun.com/article/11974?access=129695
Bombs bound for Israel came via British airports :
Ministers are embroiled in a row over whether British military equipment and airports are being used to assist Israeli attacks on Lebanon.
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/politics/article1199343.ece
75-year-old woman and a child among 5 killed by Israeli Occupation Forces in Gaza:
Despite a high death toll in Gaza, with 23 people killed on Wednesday alone, the world's attention has been focused on Lebanon, where Israeli forces have been fighting Hezbollah guerrillas since July 12.
http://tinyurl.com/kljop
Israeli tank shelling kills two Palestinian sisters in Gaza Strip :
Two Palestinian sisters, aged at two and nine, were killed and their mother critically wounded Wednesday evening in an Israeli tank shelling at the eastern town of Jabalya in northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics and witnesses said.
http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200607/2...727_287066.html
At least 21 Palestinians killed as Israeli occupation forces invade Gaza:
At least 21 Palestinians were killed yesterday when the Israeli army renewed its hostilities in the Gaza Strip. About 50 tanks and armoured vehicles entered northern Gaza and began demolishing buildings and trees at dawn. Armed Palestinians attacked the forces and fighting continued all day.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1831143,00.html
Why Israel Can’t Win the War:
The world is witnessing what could be a critical turning point in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israel is now engaged in a war that could permanently undermine the efficacy of its much-vaunted military apparatus.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14226.htm
Map Showing Where Israel Has Bombed Lebanon
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14227.htm
A Statement By The Saudi Royal Court:
It should be stated that patience could not last forever. If the Israeli military brutality persisted with killings and destruction no one could predict the consequences and then regreat will be in vain
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14217.htm
A history of terror:
60th anniversary of Zionist bombing the King David Hotel:
91 people died, among them 28 British, 41 Arabs and 17 Jews. One IZL fighter was killed inside the hotel, after the explosives had been set.
http://tinyurl.com/lal2n
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...7/28/wmid28.xml
You're all targets, Israel tells Lebanese in South
By Harry de Quetteville in Jerusalem
(Filed: 28/07/2006)
Everyone remaining in southern Lebanon will be regarded as a terrorist, Israel's justice minister said yesterday as the military prepared to employ "huge firepower" from the air in its campaign to crush Hizbollah.
Haim Ramon issued the warning as the Israeli government decided against expanding ground operations after the death of nine soldiers in fighting on Wednesday.
Ehud Olmert surrounded by bodyguards in northern Israel
"What we should do in southern Lebanon is employ huge firepower before a ground force goes in," Mr Ramon said at a security cabinet meeting headed by Ehud Olmert, the prime minister. "Everyone in southern Lebanon is a terrorist and is connected to Hizbollah. Our great advantage vis-a-vis Hizbollah is our firepower, not in face-to-face combat."
Mr Olmert promised that the army would "continue toward the established goals".
Mr Ramon's comments suggested that civilian casualties in Lebanon, which stand at about 600 after 16 days of bombardment, could rise yet higher.
The government's unrelenting line has the backing of the Israeli media, which are demanding a harsh response to an ambush in the Hizbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil, in which eight soldiers died.
The country's biggest-selling paper, Yedioth Ahronoth, said the army had raised the threshold of response to Katyusha rockets.
"In other words: a village from which rockets are fired at Israel will simply be destroyed by fire," it said.
"This decision should have been made and executed after the first Katyusha. But better late than never."
Three divisions of reserve soldiers, up to 15,000 men, are to be called up.
Almost 50 Hizbollah missiles landed in northern Israel yesterday, wounding four people and bringing the total number of rockets fired into the country to about 1,400.
You're all targets, Israel tells Lebanese in South
By Harry de Quetteville in Jerusalem
(Filed: 28/07/2006)
Everyone remaining in southern Lebanon will be regarded as a terrorist, Israel's justice minister said yesterday as the military prepared to employ "huge firepower" from the air in its campaign to crush Hizbollah.
Haim Ramon issued the warning as the Israeli government decided against expanding ground operations after the death of nine soldiers in fighting on Wednesday.
Ehud Olmert surrounded by bodyguards in northern Israel
"What we should do in southern Lebanon is employ huge firepower before a ground force goes in," Mr Ramon said at a security cabinet meeting headed by Ehud Olmert, the prime minister. "Everyone in southern Lebanon is a terrorist and is connected to Hizbollah. Our great advantage vis-a-vis Hizbollah is our firepower, not in face-to-face combat."
Mr Olmert promised that the army would "continue toward the established goals".
Mr Ramon's comments suggested that civilian casualties in Lebanon, which stand at about 600 after 16 days of bombardment, could rise yet higher.
The government's unrelenting line has the backing of the Israeli media, which are demanding a harsh response to an ambush in the Hizbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil, in which eight soldiers died.
The country's biggest-selling paper, Yedioth Ahronoth, said the army had raised the threshold of response to Katyusha rockets.
"In other words: a village from which rockets are fired at Israel will simply be destroyed by fire," it said.
"This decision should have been made and executed after the first Katyusha. But better late than never."
Three divisions of reserve soldiers, up to 15,000 men, are to be called up.
Almost 50 Hizbollah missiles landed in northern Israel yesterday, wounding four people and bringing the total number of rockets fired into the country to about 1,400.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2701824_pf.html
For Those Who Remain, A Cycle of Siren and Shelter
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, July 28, 2006; A01
HAIFA, Israel, July 27 -- At the port of Haifa, the parking lots are empty and the docks are vacant. Long chains with hooks at their ends dangle from tall, silent cranes, swaying gently in the Mediterranean breeze. The only sign of life is a white security vehicle making lonely laps.
Nearby, crane operator Nissim Benbenishty, 62, has stopped at the Dagon grain facility to boost the spirits of a co-worker. Of Dagon's 85 employees, only three, all security personnel, are working. The rest have left town or are staying close to home, where they can be with their families and dash into a bomb shelter at the first whisper of an air raid siren.
Over Benbenishty's shoulder looms the famous Dagon Silo, a 223-foot-high grain elevator with a capacity of 100,000 tons.
"Even during normal times, the slightest spark will send the building sky high," he explains. Haifa residents have worried since the current conflict began that a missile strike on the silo could devastate the surrounding area.
In the past two weeks, the radical Shiite militia Hezbollah has fired more than 60 rockets from southern Lebanon at Haifa, Israel's third-largest city and largest port, killing nine people and seriously injuring 13, according to Mickey Rosenfeld, a spokesman for Israel's national police. Since then, about half of Haifa's 270,000 residents have fled south, hoping to get out of range, Rosenfeld said.
"I don't feel good. I don't feel good," Benbenishty says. "We are surrounded by Arab countries that want to annihilate us."
When the sirens scream, he says, people dash to the shelters, and afterward his wife, six children and four grandchildren grab their cellphones to make sure everyone is accounted for. "Our phone bills are going to be huge next month," he says.
Next to the Dagon Silo, the Haifa train station is closed. There is little traffic on the main road connecting Haifa to Tel Aviv, 50 miles south, and most storefronts are shuttered tight.
Amir Ardet, 23, an Israeli Arab minding his family's bakery, waves his hand over platters of sweets and breads. "Everything is delicious, but we have no customers," he says.
"The whole area is office buildings and government workers, and they are either sitting at home or have run off to Tel Aviv, and all the port workers took vacation," he says.
That has left Haifa with a core of people who seem resigned to their fate.
"What can you do?" Ardet says, echoing a familiar refrain. "If I die, I die."
That is not the attitude adopted by Adki Kaplun, 64, his wife, Luda, 61, and their granddaughter Yulia, 10, immigrants from Ukraine who came to Israel five years ago in search of prosperity and now doubt the wisdom of their move.
They sit on plastic chairs in the covered parking lot of their apartment building, near the stairwell to the bomb shelter in the basement. Next to them are handbags with water, food and important documents.
They live on the eighth floor of the building, the elder Kaplun explains, "and since there are lots of sirens, and it's hard going up and down every time they fire at us, we just stay here all day."
As if on cue, a siren begins to screech. Kaplun jumps like he's touched an electric wire, and fear shrouds his face. He screams that everyone must rush to the basement, and people follow suit, from all over the building, down the stairs, through two large steel doors and into the sweltering storage area fitted out as a bomb shelter with a single fan, a few beach chairs, some crayons and a deck of playing cards.
Last Friday, says Annie Nissim, 23, "my husband and I went into town, we heard a siren and ran into a bomb shelter, and when we came out, a rocket had landed right where we were standing when we first heard the siren." Nineteen people were injured, she said. "Since then, we take the sirens very seriously."
In the shelter, people are talking in Arabic, Russian and Hebrew. Many are immigrants, Nissim says, and their shared trauma and trips to the shelter -- "as many as 12 a day" -- have pulled them all together. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," she says.
People start wondering if the alert may be over, but Kaplun anxiously waves everyone back from the open shelter doors. Others arrive, wait a few minutes, then leave when they decide it's safe. Finally, Kaplun resumes his perch outside.
"I want to leave Israel. I just want to get out of here," he says. "Why should I lead my life running around scared that a bomb is going to hit me?"
Just down the street, the famous Bahai Gardens are closed, like so many of Haifa's landmarks. The gardens climb up Mount Carmel in 19 colorful terraces bedecked with marble fountains, conical pines and white rose trees.
Tending the islands of purple petunias and bright pink impatiens, Fade Kanboura, a gardener, seems to symbolize the cultural and religious mix for which Haifa is renowned. He is a Catholic, working for the Bahais, in a Jewish state under attack by radical Muslims.
"Everybody's a target," Kanboura says, laughing at the thought that Haifa's Jews might resent their Arab neighbors for the Hezbollah strikes. "A rocket cannot tell the difference between a Jew, an Arab and a Christian."
"No one has anything against the Arabs" who make up about 10 percent of Haifa's population "or the Arabs in Lebanon -- only against Hezbollah," says Moshe Batish, 52, the owner of a curio and antique store in a posh neighborhood at the top of Mount Carmel.
A billboard advertising plays and concerts, since canceled, has been plastered with handwritten placards: "Stay strong and brave," "Stop, smile, everything's for the best," and "The whole world is a very narrow bridge -- the important thing is not to be scared."
At the Dan hotel, although it is high season, only 20 guests are staying in the 222 rooms, says Berthe Yogev, the room manager. The lobby is empty, the bar is closed, and each place in the cavernous dining room is set, waiting for the first customer.
Nearby, the Educational Zoo is shut, manager Eti Ararat says.
"The animals are locked up in their sleeping quarters because the areas where they usually roam during the day are behind glass, and if that breaks from the Hezbollah bombings, then all the predators such as lions and tigers and bears will go on a rampage through Haifa," she says.
At Carmel Beach, two deeply bronzed men have the seashore to themselves and are playing an aggressive game of paddle ball. Usually at this time of the year, there's hardly space to spread a blanket here.
"How many days can you stay home? One? Two? We are not afraid of Hezbollah" or its leader, Hasan Nasrallah, says Simon Levi, an unemployed 33-year-old who spends every day at the shore but bristles at the term "beach bum."
"Israel invented security," he adds. "When I hear a siren, I run to the sea and go swimming."
Shachaf Sabag, carrying a nine-foot fishing pole and red pail, arrives with his 4-year-old son, who is carrying a net. Like many in the city, they have cabin fever: no kindergarten, no summer camp, no activities at all.
"I'm not afraid, I'm worried. Everything is crashing down," says Sabag, 30, who works for Israel's prison authority. "Everything is closing down, people are losing their jobs, and people are afraid this will go on for who knows how long. Some people have even sold their homes and left."
In the distance, sirens start to wail -- a muffled moan that rises and falls on the sea breeze. Sabag puts his arm around his son's neck and tousles his hair. Nothing to fear, the gesture says.
Down the beach, Levi jumps into the water.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
For Those Who Remain, A Cycle of Siren and Shelter
By John Ward Anderson
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, July 28, 2006; A01
HAIFA, Israel, July 27 -- At the port of Haifa, the parking lots are empty and the docks are vacant. Long chains with hooks at their ends dangle from tall, silent cranes, swaying gently in the Mediterranean breeze. The only sign of life is a white security vehicle making lonely laps.
Nearby, crane operator Nissim Benbenishty, 62, has stopped at the Dagon grain facility to boost the spirits of a co-worker. Of Dagon's 85 employees, only three, all security personnel, are working. The rest have left town or are staying close to home, where they can be with their families and dash into a bomb shelter at the first whisper of an air raid siren.
Over Benbenishty's shoulder looms the famous Dagon Silo, a 223-foot-high grain elevator with a capacity of 100,000 tons.
"Even during normal times, the slightest spark will send the building sky high," he explains. Haifa residents have worried since the current conflict began that a missile strike on the silo could devastate the surrounding area.
In the past two weeks, the radical Shiite militia Hezbollah has fired more than 60 rockets from southern Lebanon at Haifa, Israel's third-largest city and largest port, killing nine people and seriously injuring 13, according to Mickey Rosenfeld, a spokesman for Israel's national police. Since then, about half of Haifa's 270,000 residents have fled south, hoping to get out of range, Rosenfeld said.
"I don't feel good. I don't feel good," Benbenishty says. "We are surrounded by Arab countries that want to annihilate us."
When the sirens scream, he says, people dash to the shelters, and afterward his wife, six children and four grandchildren grab their cellphones to make sure everyone is accounted for. "Our phone bills are going to be huge next month," he says.
Next to the Dagon Silo, the Haifa train station is closed. There is little traffic on the main road connecting Haifa to Tel Aviv, 50 miles south, and most storefronts are shuttered tight.
Amir Ardet, 23, an Israeli Arab minding his family's bakery, waves his hand over platters of sweets and breads. "Everything is delicious, but we have no customers," he says.
"The whole area is office buildings and government workers, and they are either sitting at home or have run off to Tel Aviv, and all the port workers took vacation," he says.
That has left Haifa with a core of people who seem resigned to their fate.
"What can you do?" Ardet says, echoing a familiar refrain. "If I die, I die."
That is not the attitude adopted by Adki Kaplun, 64, his wife, Luda, 61, and their granddaughter Yulia, 10, immigrants from Ukraine who came to Israel five years ago in search of prosperity and now doubt the wisdom of their move.
They sit on plastic chairs in the covered parking lot of their apartment building, near the stairwell to the bomb shelter in the basement. Next to them are handbags with water, food and important documents.
They live on the eighth floor of the building, the elder Kaplun explains, "and since there are lots of sirens, and it's hard going up and down every time they fire at us, we just stay here all day."
As if on cue, a siren begins to screech. Kaplun jumps like he's touched an electric wire, and fear shrouds his face. He screams that everyone must rush to the basement, and people follow suit, from all over the building, down the stairs, through two large steel doors and into the sweltering storage area fitted out as a bomb shelter with a single fan, a few beach chairs, some crayons and a deck of playing cards.
Last Friday, says Annie Nissim, 23, "my husband and I went into town, we heard a siren and ran into a bomb shelter, and when we came out, a rocket had landed right where we were standing when we first heard the siren." Nineteen people were injured, she said. "Since then, we take the sirens very seriously."
In the shelter, people are talking in Arabic, Russian and Hebrew. Many are immigrants, Nissim says, and their shared trauma and trips to the shelter -- "as many as 12 a day" -- have pulled them all together. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else," she says.
People start wondering if the alert may be over, but Kaplun anxiously waves everyone back from the open shelter doors. Others arrive, wait a few minutes, then leave when they decide it's safe. Finally, Kaplun resumes his perch outside.
"I want to leave Israel. I just want to get out of here," he says. "Why should I lead my life running around scared that a bomb is going to hit me?"
Just down the street, the famous Bahai Gardens are closed, like so many of Haifa's landmarks. The gardens climb up Mount Carmel in 19 colorful terraces bedecked with marble fountains, conical pines and white rose trees.
Tending the islands of purple petunias and bright pink impatiens, Fade Kanboura, a gardener, seems to symbolize the cultural and religious mix for which Haifa is renowned. He is a Catholic, working for the Bahais, in a Jewish state under attack by radical Muslims.
"Everybody's a target," Kanboura says, laughing at the thought that Haifa's Jews might resent their Arab neighbors for the Hezbollah strikes. "A rocket cannot tell the difference between a Jew, an Arab and a Christian."
"No one has anything against the Arabs" who make up about 10 percent of Haifa's population "or the Arabs in Lebanon -- only against Hezbollah," says Moshe Batish, 52, the owner of a curio and antique store in a posh neighborhood at the top of Mount Carmel.
A billboard advertising plays and concerts, since canceled, has been plastered with handwritten placards: "Stay strong and brave," "Stop, smile, everything's for the best," and "The whole world is a very narrow bridge -- the important thing is not to be scared."
At the Dan hotel, although it is high season, only 20 guests are staying in the 222 rooms, says Berthe Yogev, the room manager. The lobby is empty, the bar is closed, and each place in the cavernous dining room is set, waiting for the first customer.
Nearby, the Educational Zoo is shut, manager Eti Ararat says.
"The animals are locked up in their sleeping quarters because the areas where they usually roam during the day are behind glass, and if that breaks from the Hezbollah bombings, then all the predators such as lions and tigers and bears will go on a rampage through Haifa," she says.
At Carmel Beach, two deeply bronzed men have the seashore to themselves and are playing an aggressive game of paddle ball. Usually at this time of the year, there's hardly space to spread a blanket here.
"How many days can you stay home? One? Two? We are not afraid of Hezbollah" or its leader, Hasan Nasrallah, says Simon Levi, an unemployed 33-year-old who spends every day at the shore but bristles at the term "beach bum."
"Israel invented security," he adds. "When I hear a siren, I run to the sea and go swimming."
Shachaf Sabag, carrying a nine-foot fishing pole and red pail, arrives with his 4-year-old son, who is carrying a net. Like many in the city, they have cabin fever: no kindergarten, no summer camp, no activities at all.
"I'm not afraid, I'm worried. Everything is crashing down," says Sabag, 30, who works for Israel's prison authority. "Everything is closing down, people are losing their jobs, and people are afraid this will go on for who knows how long. Some people have even sold their homes and left."
In the distance, sirens start to wail -- a muffled moan that rises and falls on the sea breeze. Sabag puts his arm around his son's neck and tousles his hair. Nothing to fear, the gesture says.
Down the beach, Levi jumps into the water.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743541.html
Israel says UN can't be part of probe of deadly attack on post
Israel's UN ambassador on Thursday ruled out major UN involvement in any potential international force in Lebanon, saying more professional and better-trained troops were needed for such a volatile situation.
Dan Gillerman also said Israel would not allow the United Nations to join in an investigation of an Israeli air strike that demolished a post belonging to the current U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. Four UN observers were killed in the Tuesday strike.
"Israel has never agreed to a joint investigation, and I don't think that if anything happened in this country, or in Britain or in Italy or in France, the government of that country would agree to a joint investigation," Gillerman said.
Gillerman, who spoke at an event hosted by The Israel Project advocacy group and later inside the United Nations, gave a heated defense of Israel's two-week campaign against Hezbollah militants. He said some diplomats from the Middle East had told him that Israel was doing the right thing in going after Hezbollah.
His refusal to conduct a joint investigation will be a slap to UN officials, who have specifically sought to partner with Israel to investigate the bombing.
Gillerman was highly critical of the current UN peacekeeping force, deployed in a buffer zone between Israel and Lebanon since 1978, saying its facilities had sometimes been used for cover by Hezbollah militants and that it had not done its job.
"It has never been able to prevent any shelling of Israel, any terrorist attack, any kidnappings," he said. "They either didn't see or didn't know or didn't want to see, but they have been hopeless."
Gillerman even mocked the name of the force - the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.
"Interim in UN jargon is 28 years," he said.
The flaws with the U.N. force make it imperative that any UN force come from somewhere else, though it could have a mandate from the United Nations, he said.
"So obviously it cannot be a United Nations force," Gillerman said. "It will have to be an international force, a professional one, with soldiers from countries who have the training and capabilities to be effective."
Any such force must have two main objectives. It must disarm completely and make sure Hezbollah has lost all its capacity as a terror organization; and it should monitor the border between Syria and Lebanon "to make sure that no additional shipments of arms, rockets, illegal weapons, enter Lebanon," he said.
Despite his refusal for a UN force, he said Israel was not "excluding anybody," and that "the makeup, the composition and the countries which would supply the soldiers to that force still has to be decided."Gillerman apologized for the strike that killed the four UN observers, but said the conflict was a war and that accidents happen.
"This is a war which is going on," he told reporters. "War is an ugly thing and during war, mistakes and tragedies do happen."
Gillerman said Israel would welcome any information from the UN as it conducts its investigation, and will consider any UN requests for information.
UN Council expresses 'shock' over IAF attack on UN post
The UN Security Council adopted a statement on Thursday expressing shock and distress at Israel's bombing of a UN outpost in Lebanon that killed four unarmed UN peacekeepers.
The policy statement, which carries less weight than a resolution, was weaker than one proposed by China and other nations, after more than a day of negotiations and objections from the United States, which wanted to make sure Israel was not directly blamed for the attack.
China, expressing frustration at the delay, earlier warned the United States that its opposition to the statement could could jeopardize UN negotiations on a resolution ordering Iran to stop its nuclear enrichment. One of the peacekeepers killed on Tuesday was Chinese. The other three came from Austria, Canada and Finland.
The final draft adopted by the 15-member council eliminated wording "condemning any deliberate attack against UN personnel" as well as a call for a joint Israeli-UN investigation, which UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had asked for.
Instead, it called on Israel "to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into this incident, taking into account any relevant material from United Nations authorities."
It said the Security Council "is deeply shocked an distressed by the firing by the Israel Defense Forces on a United Nations Observer post in southern Lebanon on 25 July, 2006, which caused the death of four U.N. military observers."
Israel has apologized and called the incident a mistake.
UN officials said they asked Israel a dozen times to stop bombing near the post in the hours before it was destroyed.
Jane Lute, an American and an assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, briefed the Security Council that the outpost came under Israeli fire 21 times, including four direct hits.
After the statement was adopted, China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya said he was relieved action was taken even if the final draft was watered-down. He had previous said he was frustrated by the U.S. position.
EU official: Israel misinterpreted our declaration at Rome summit
Israel has drawn the wrong conclusions from statements made at the summit held in Rome this week on the Middle East crisis, a European Union official said Thursday.
Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tumioja, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said the Israeli government's interpretation of the summit's declaration as permission to continue its offensive is "their own and wrong interpretation."
The summit's final statement called for a United Nations force to be deployed in southern Lebanon to aid the country in implementing UN decisions on disarming Hezbollah. The statement also called for increased humanitarian aid to Lebanon.
China demanded Thursday morning that Israel apologize for the death of a Chinese UN observer in southern Lebanon on Tuesday. Three other observers - an Austrian, a Canadian, and a Finn - died in the air strike.
"We are completely shocked by the incident and strongly condemn it," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said that Yehuda Haim, Israel's ambassador to Beijing, was summoned to the foreign ministry office Wednesday and asked to apologize both to China and to the victim's family.
An Israeli embassy official said the ambassador expressed his "profound regret" at the incident and promised it would be investigated.
"Israel does not target UN observers," the official said. "Many things can happen in this kind of situation, some of them sad," he added.
U.S. working on own plan for Lebanon after Rome summit fails
The United States, which fiercely opposed the calls for an immediate cease-fire during the Rome conference Wednesday, has been working on its own proposal for solving the conflict in Lebanon.
Its initiative calls for Israel's withdrawal from the Shaba Farms and a deployment of NATO forces to guarantee Hezbollah's disarmament.
Israel launched a massive attack on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon following a July 12 cross-border incursion by the militant organization in which two Israeli troops were abducted and eight others killed.
Meanwhile, U.S. envoys to the Middle East David Welsh and Elliott Abrams are due to arrive in Israel on Thursday for further talks on finding a resolution to the ongoing fighting.
They were also set to formulate an agreement for stationing an international force in southern Lebanon and a new United Nations resolution that would determine the force's mandate.
Welsh and Abrams both participated in the Rome summit, along with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat quoted Lebanese sources Wednesday as saying that Rice presented this proposal to officials in Beirut earlier this week.
While the U.S. initiative calls for transferring control of Shaba Farms to Lebanon, it stipulates that the permanent international border will not be determined if Syria continues to refuse to agree on the boundaries of this area. The UN is to be in charge of handing Shaba Farms over to Lebanon.
Beirut claims that the international border in this area would extend Lebanon's territory a few dozen kilometers into the Golan Heights. Syria has been keeping mum on its territorial demands in this area.
The American proposal also calls for a 20-kilometer-wide strip of southern Lebanon, starting at the Israeli border, which would be declared a no-go zone for Hezbollah.
An international force headed by NATO commanders, with authority to use both deterrent and offensive force, would be deployed in this strip to monitor and stabilize the situation.
Ninety days after being deployed, this force would become a part of the UN-sponsored force, with the option of incorporating the UNIFIL troops currently serving in southern Lebanon.
The delegation set to arrive in Israel on Thursday also includes the EU troika members - Finland's Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, European Commissioner for external relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner, and the EU envoy to the Middle East, Mark Otte.
They will meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
The Rome summit on the situation in Lebanon ended with no clear results Wednesday, after the U.S. shot down a joint European-Arab demand for an immediate cease-fire.
The 18 participants, including the U.S., Russia and European and Arab states, issued a joint statement expressing their "determination to work immediately to reach with the utmost urgency a cease-fire that puts an end to the current violence and hostilities."
The statement, which was being hashed out until the last minute, also called for an international force to be deployed in South Lebanon under a UN mandate in order to help the Beirut government implement Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for disarming Hezbollah and deploying the Lebanese army in the south. The statement also called for humanitarian aid to Lebanon.
One of the international force's most difficult assignments will be to ensure that the Lebanese army controls all the weapons in the country. This would involve making the international force responsible for disarming Hezbollah and the Palestinian militias operating in Lebanon. The force would also monitor the Lebanese-Syrian border, an Israeli demand whose aim is to prevent Syria from continuing to supply Hezbollah with weapons.
According to Lebanese sources, Rice added Israel's withdrawal from Shaba Farms to the initiative under pressure from Lebanese officials, including Prime Minister Fuad Siniora. However, neither Rice nor Lebanese leaders made statements to the media following her visit Monday, the atmosphere of which was described as "tense."
Syria, meanwhile, Wednesday reiterated its willingness to contribute to an arrangement in Lebanon. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica: "We are ready to intervene and take a positive role. We ask the U.S. to pressure Israel to agree to a cease-fire and prisoner release
Israel says UN can't be part of probe of deadly attack on post
Israel's UN ambassador on Thursday ruled out major UN involvement in any potential international force in Lebanon, saying more professional and better-trained troops were needed for such a volatile situation.
Dan Gillerman also said Israel would not allow the United Nations to join in an investigation of an Israeli air strike that demolished a post belonging to the current U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon. Four UN observers were killed in the Tuesday strike.
"Israel has never agreed to a joint investigation, and I don't think that if anything happened in this country, or in Britain or in Italy or in France, the government of that country would agree to a joint investigation," Gillerman said.
Gillerman, who spoke at an event hosted by The Israel Project advocacy group and later inside the United Nations, gave a heated defense of Israel's two-week campaign against Hezbollah militants. He said some diplomats from the Middle East had told him that Israel was doing the right thing in going after Hezbollah.
His refusal to conduct a joint investigation will be a slap to UN officials, who have specifically sought to partner with Israel to investigate the bombing.
Gillerman was highly critical of the current UN peacekeeping force, deployed in a buffer zone between Israel and Lebanon since 1978, saying its facilities had sometimes been used for cover by Hezbollah militants and that it had not done its job.
"It has never been able to prevent any shelling of Israel, any terrorist attack, any kidnappings," he said. "They either didn't see or didn't know or didn't want to see, but they have been hopeless."
Gillerman even mocked the name of the force - the UN Interim Force in Lebanon.
"Interim in UN jargon is 28 years," he said.
The flaws with the U.N. force make it imperative that any UN force come from somewhere else, though it could have a mandate from the United Nations, he said.
"So obviously it cannot be a United Nations force," Gillerman said. "It will have to be an international force, a professional one, with soldiers from countries who have the training and capabilities to be effective."
Any such force must have two main objectives. It must disarm completely and make sure Hezbollah has lost all its capacity as a terror organization; and it should monitor the border between Syria and Lebanon "to make sure that no additional shipments of arms, rockets, illegal weapons, enter Lebanon," he said.
Despite his refusal for a UN force, he said Israel was not "excluding anybody," and that "the makeup, the composition and the countries which would supply the soldiers to that force still has to be decided."Gillerman apologized for the strike that killed the four UN observers, but said the conflict was a war and that accidents happen.
"This is a war which is going on," he told reporters. "War is an ugly thing and during war, mistakes and tragedies do happen."
Gillerman said Israel would welcome any information from the UN as it conducts its investigation, and will consider any UN requests for information.
UN Council expresses 'shock' over IAF attack on UN post
The UN Security Council adopted a statement on Thursday expressing shock and distress at Israel's bombing of a UN outpost in Lebanon that killed four unarmed UN peacekeepers.
The policy statement, which carries less weight than a resolution, was weaker than one proposed by China and other nations, after more than a day of negotiations and objections from the United States, which wanted to make sure Israel was not directly blamed for the attack.
China, expressing frustration at the delay, earlier warned the United States that its opposition to the statement could could jeopardize UN negotiations on a resolution ordering Iran to stop its nuclear enrichment. One of the peacekeepers killed on Tuesday was Chinese. The other three came from Austria, Canada and Finland.
The final draft adopted by the 15-member council eliminated wording "condemning any deliberate attack against UN personnel" as well as a call for a joint Israeli-UN investigation, which UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had asked for.
Instead, it called on Israel "to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into this incident, taking into account any relevant material from United Nations authorities."
It said the Security Council "is deeply shocked an distressed by the firing by the Israel Defense Forces on a United Nations Observer post in southern Lebanon on 25 July, 2006, which caused the death of four U.N. military observers."
Israel has apologized and called the incident a mistake.
UN officials said they asked Israel a dozen times to stop bombing near the post in the hours before it was destroyed.
Jane Lute, an American and an assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, briefed the Security Council that the outpost came under Israeli fire 21 times, including four direct hits.
After the statement was adopted, China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya said he was relieved action was taken even if the final draft was watered-down. He had previous said he was frustrated by the U.S. position.
EU official: Israel misinterpreted our declaration at Rome summit
Israel has drawn the wrong conclusions from statements made at the summit held in Rome this week on the Middle East crisis, a European Union official said Thursday.
Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tumioja, whose country currently holds the EU presidency, said the Israeli government's interpretation of the summit's declaration as permission to continue its offensive is "their own and wrong interpretation."
The summit's final statement called for a United Nations force to be deployed in southern Lebanon to aid the country in implementing UN decisions on disarming Hezbollah. The statement also called for increased humanitarian aid to Lebanon.
China demanded Thursday morning that Israel apologize for the death of a Chinese UN observer in southern Lebanon on Tuesday. Three other observers - an Austrian, a Canadian, and a Finn - died in the air strike.
"We are completely shocked by the incident and strongly condemn it," a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said.
The spokesperson said that Yehuda Haim, Israel's ambassador to Beijing, was summoned to the foreign ministry office Wednesday and asked to apologize both to China and to the victim's family.
An Israeli embassy official said the ambassador expressed his "profound regret" at the incident and promised it would be investigated.
"Israel does not target UN observers," the official said. "Many things can happen in this kind of situation, some of them sad," he added.
U.S. working on own plan for Lebanon after Rome summit fails
The United States, which fiercely opposed the calls for an immediate cease-fire during the Rome conference Wednesday, has been working on its own proposal for solving the conflict in Lebanon.
Its initiative calls for Israel's withdrawal from the Shaba Farms and a deployment of NATO forces to guarantee Hezbollah's disarmament.
Israel launched a massive attack on Hezbollah in southern Lebanon following a July 12 cross-border incursion by the militant organization in which two Israeli troops were abducted and eight others killed.
Meanwhile, U.S. envoys to the Middle East David Welsh and Elliott Abrams are due to arrive in Israel on Thursday for further talks on finding a resolution to the ongoing fighting.
They were also set to formulate an agreement for stationing an international force in southern Lebanon and a new United Nations resolution that would determine the force's mandate.
Welsh and Abrams both participated in the Rome summit, along with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
The London-based Arabic newspaper Al-Hayat quoted Lebanese sources Wednesday as saying that Rice presented this proposal to officials in Beirut earlier this week.
While the U.S. initiative calls for transferring control of Shaba Farms to Lebanon, it stipulates that the permanent international border will not be determined if Syria continues to refuse to agree on the boundaries of this area. The UN is to be in charge of handing Shaba Farms over to Lebanon.
Beirut claims that the international border in this area would extend Lebanon's territory a few dozen kilometers into the Golan Heights. Syria has been keeping mum on its territorial demands in this area.
The American proposal also calls for a 20-kilometer-wide strip of southern Lebanon, starting at the Israeli border, which would be declared a no-go zone for Hezbollah.
An international force headed by NATO commanders, with authority to use both deterrent and offensive force, would be deployed in this strip to monitor and stabilize the situation.
Ninety days after being deployed, this force would become a part of the UN-sponsored force, with the option of incorporating the UNIFIL troops currently serving in southern Lebanon.
The delegation set to arrive in Israel on Thursday also includes the EU troika members - Finland's Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, European Commissioner for external relations Benita Ferrero-Waldner, and the EU envoy to the Middle East, Mark Otte.
They will meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
The Rome summit on the situation in Lebanon ended with no clear results Wednesday, after the U.S. shot down a joint European-Arab demand for an immediate cease-fire.
The 18 participants, including the U.S., Russia and European and Arab states, issued a joint statement expressing their "determination to work immediately to reach with the utmost urgency a cease-fire that puts an end to the current violence and hostilities."
The statement, which was being hashed out until the last minute, also called for an international force to be deployed in South Lebanon under a UN mandate in order to help the Beirut government implement Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for disarming Hezbollah and deploying the Lebanese army in the south. The statement also called for humanitarian aid to Lebanon.
One of the international force's most difficult assignments will be to ensure that the Lebanese army controls all the weapons in the country. This would involve making the international force responsible for disarming Hezbollah and the Palestinian militias operating in Lebanon. The force would also monitor the Lebanese-Syrian border, an Israeli demand whose aim is to prevent Syria from continuing to supply Hezbollah with weapons.
According to Lebanese sources, Rice added Israel's withdrawal from Shaba Farms to the initiative under pressure from Lebanese officials, including Prime Minister Fuad Siniora. However, neither Rice nor Lebanese leaders made statements to the media following her visit Monday, the atmosphere of which was described as "tense."
Syria, meanwhile, Wednesday reiterated its willingness to contribute to an arrangement in Lebanon. Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem told the Italian newspaper La Repubblica: "We are ready to intervene and take a positive role. We ask the U.S. to pressure Israel to agree to a cease-fire and prisoner release
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...2701849_pf.html
Darkness Is Mood At Beirut Lighthouse
By Nora Boustany
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, July 28, 2006; A18
BEIRUT, July 27 -- Just as the sun was setting two weeks ago, with Israeli warplanes buzzing low over Beirut and explosions echoing nearby, fourth-generation lighthouse keeper Victor Shibley received orders from his superiors to shut off the projectors.
"As soon as I turned off the lights, the first one hit, then the second," Shibley, 55, said of the blasts that gutted the top floors of the gleaming new Manara lighthouse, a black and white tower that rises above the city's seafront district. "No one will stay alive, I told myself."
It was 6:45 p.m. July 15, and Shibley was at the lighthouse with his two sons, Raymond, 27, an apprentice expected to eventually succeed his father, and Joseph, the elder, as well as eight other employees on a lower floor.
The Israeli helicopter gunships were targeting any site that housed military radar installations after Hezbollah fighters shelled an Israeli gunboat. Victor Shibley's wife, Jeannette, was at home during the attack and said she "just assumed the worst had happened to my three men."
No one at the lighthouse was hurt during the airstrike. Shibley, the keeper, said the lamp, made of security glass, had been smashed, and his son displayed photos he had taken of two holes left in the walls by the Israeli strike.
"You cannot let fear take a hold of you," Raymond Shibley said.
His father's response was more sober. "We have witnessed and seen so much calamity," he said. "We did not sleep that night. I was afraid they would come back to hit the old stone lighthouse, which we keep as a standby in case the new one fails."
The new lighthouse is Shibley's pride and joy, an electronic marvel. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather had labored over gas-fired lamps since Ottoman times to guide ships at sea. His uncles, George and Zaki, had manned lighthouses in Jaffa, now part of Israel, while it was under British mandate, and in the Syrian port of Latakia before French troops left the region.
The old tower, which is attached to the Shibley home, sits about half a mile uphill in what is now a residential area nestled behind the Goethe Institute, the German cultural center, and an alley shaded by oleanders and pink bougainvillea bushes. It was shelled in August 1982, when the Israeli army invaded and imposed a sea blockade on Beirut.
One day in 1992, Shibley mischievously turned on his damaged stone lighthouse, startling motorists in midday traffic. His intent was to focus government attention on repairing the vital installation, like the rest of the country. He succeeded.
The French government offered a grant of $100 million, and the British-Danish Gisman consortium undertook the project in 1993. It took 10 years to complete, with additional funding from Rabii Umeish, a local entrepreneur.
Now both lighthouses are closed.
"Why the lighthouse?" Shibley asked. "It was more the horror and awe of it all. We live there."
* * *
During a drive north from Beirut, along winding roads framed by purple dandelions and Queen Anne's lace, black smoke rose in funnels from behind, in Beirut's scorched southern suburbs. Yet the Mediterranean still sparkled, a quivering carpet of silver moons.
On Voice of Free Lebanon radio, which once catered to Lebanon's Christians, listeners called in with appeals for solidarity and assistance.
"There is no alternative to this country, which we rebuilt with our hard work and prayers so our children can stand on their feet," said an irate Amal Ballout. "Now my boys are thinking of leaving. Every time we rebuild the foundation, someone comes along to knock us right back into the past. We need laws to protect us regardless of religion, to shield us from everyone -- Iran, Israel, the Americans helping them, and Syria."
* * *
In Byblos, a scenic port city farther north that was scheduled to host a summer music festival, the sea breeze was soft and the light bright. Last spring, enthusiastic Lebanese had gathered in three public schools to vote for their first free government since Syrian troops departed the country. Now, the halls were filled with refugees and gloom.
Jaafar Suleiman Sadek, 82, one of 160 refugees housed in the Hajj Secondary School, sat speechless on a stool, both hands resting on a cane. He lost everything he had in the village of Chehabiyyeh. Neighbors had brought him out three days ago.
Fatmeh Zein plucked furiously at a bundle of coriander as she prepared a meal for her four children. The family, including her husband, Jihad Badawi, 46, bedridden with lung cancer and a brain tumor, was at home when Israel began shelling the southern port city of Tyre. Her husband died in the attack.
"We buried him 15 days ago and fled," she said.
She recalled fleeing her home in 1978, the first time Israel invaded to secure a buffer zone, and then again in 1982, when it fought to drive armed Palestinian guerrilla factions out of southern Lebanon. Israeli troops pulled out six years ago.
Another woman, 35, sheathed in black, appeared at the steps of the Hajj Secondary School, a white and cream-colored building tucked among jasmine bushes, cactuses and pomegranate trees.
"I came with five children: Mohammed, Bakr, Tuqa -- " she said, her voice trailing off. "Ali, my 17-year-old, is still there, with the mujaheddin. They sent for him one day before the fighting. He left without telling me anything. My husband wants me to be patient, to think of him as no different than other men at the front. Yet I look at teenagers around me and I remember him. My heart is burning."
"I stayed in Jwayya for six days under the bombs, hiding below the staircase, in the corridor, until shell fragments landed in our house," she said, declining to give her name.
At the Byblos Co-ed Middle School, Ibrahim Nawas, 65, a retired teacher and a Canadian citizen, held out his swollen, scarred hands.
"They were moaning under the debris. I had to help dig them out," he said of his neighbors in Aitaroun. Nine members of the family were killed, Nawas said.
Mazen Muselmani, a clothes wholesaler, said he did not want to abandon his shop and home in the southern suburbs of Beirut where he was born and raised, but he finally had to leave. His brothers and their families have been dispersed.
"I don't know who is dead or alive," he said.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
Darkness Is Mood At Beirut Lighthouse
By Nora Boustany
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, July 28, 2006; A18
BEIRUT, July 27 -- Just as the sun was setting two weeks ago, with Israeli warplanes buzzing low over Beirut and explosions echoing nearby, fourth-generation lighthouse keeper Victor Shibley received orders from his superiors to shut off the projectors.
"As soon as I turned off the lights, the first one hit, then the second," Shibley, 55, said of the blasts that gutted the top floors of the gleaming new Manara lighthouse, a black and white tower that rises above the city's seafront district. "No one will stay alive, I told myself."
It was 6:45 p.m. July 15, and Shibley was at the lighthouse with his two sons, Raymond, 27, an apprentice expected to eventually succeed his father, and Joseph, the elder, as well as eight other employees on a lower floor.
The Israeli helicopter gunships were targeting any site that housed military radar installations after Hezbollah fighters shelled an Israeli gunboat. Victor Shibley's wife, Jeannette, was at home during the attack and said she "just assumed the worst had happened to my three men."
No one at the lighthouse was hurt during the airstrike. Shibley, the keeper, said the lamp, made of security glass, had been smashed, and his son displayed photos he had taken of two holes left in the walls by the Israeli strike.
"You cannot let fear take a hold of you," Raymond Shibley said.
His father's response was more sober. "We have witnessed and seen so much calamity," he said. "We did not sleep that night. I was afraid they would come back to hit the old stone lighthouse, which we keep as a standby in case the new one fails."
The new lighthouse is Shibley's pride and joy, an electronic marvel. His father, grandfather and great-grandfather had labored over gas-fired lamps since Ottoman times to guide ships at sea. His uncles, George and Zaki, had manned lighthouses in Jaffa, now part of Israel, while it was under British mandate, and in the Syrian port of Latakia before French troops left the region.
The old tower, which is attached to the Shibley home, sits about half a mile uphill in what is now a residential area nestled behind the Goethe Institute, the German cultural center, and an alley shaded by oleanders and pink bougainvillea bushes. It was shelled in August 1982, when the Israeli army invaded and imposed a sea blockade on Beirut.
One day in 1992, Shibley mischievously turned on his damaged stone lighthouse, startling motorists in midday traffic. His intent was to focus government attention on repairing the vital installation, like the rest of the country. He succeeded.
The French government offered a grant of $100 million, and the British-Danish Gisman consortium undertook the project in 1993. It took 10 years to complete, with additional funding from Rabii Umeish, a local entrepreneur.
Now both lighthouses are closed.
"Why the lighthouse?" Shibley asked. "It was more the horror and awe of it all. We live there."
* * *
During a drive north from Beirut, along winding roads framed by purple dandelions and Queen Anne's lace, black smoke rose in funnels from behind, in Beirut's scorched southern suburbs. Yet the Mediterranean still sparkled, a quivering carpet of silver moons.
On Voice of Free Lebanon radio, which once catered to Lebanon's Christians, listeners called in with appeals for solidarity and assistance.
"There is no alternative to this country, which we rebuilt with our hard work and prayers so our children can stand on their feet," said an irate Amal Ballout. "Now my boys are thinking of leaving. Every time we rebuild the foundation, someone comes along to knock us right back into the past. We need laws to protect us regardless of religion, to shield us from everyone -- Iran, Israel, the Americans helping them, and Syria."
* * *
In Byblos, a scenic port city farther north that was scheduled to host a summer music festival, the sea breeze was soft and the light bright. Last spring, enthusiastic Lebanese had gathered in three public schools to vote for their first free government since Syrian troops departed the country. Now, the halls were filled with refugees and gloom.
Jaafar Suleiman Sadek, 82, one of 160 refugees housed in the Hajj Secondary School, sat speechless on a stool, both hands resting on a cane. He lost everything he had in the village of Chehabiyyeh. Neighbors had brought him out three days ago.
Fatmeh Zein plucked furiously at a bundle of coriander as she prepared a meal for her four children. The family, including her husband, Jihad Badawi, 46, bedridden with lung cancer and a brain tumor, was at home when Israel began shelling the southern port city of Tyre. Her husband died in the attack.
"We buried him 15 days ago and fled," she said.
She recalled fleeing her home in 1978, the first time Israel invaded to secure a buffer zone, and then again in 1982, when it fought to drive armed Palestinian guerrilla factions out of southern Lebanon. Israeli troops pulled out six years ago.
Another woman, 35, sheathed in black, appeared at the steps of the Hajj Secondary School, a white and cream-colored building tucked among jasmine bushes, cactuses and pomegranate trees.
"I came with five children: Mohammed, Bakr, Tuqa -- " she said, her voice trailing off. "Ali, my 17-year-old, is still there, with the mujaheddin. They sent for him one day before the fighting. He left without telling me anything. My husband wants me to be patient, to think of him as no different than other men at the front. Yet I look at teenagers around me and I remember him. My heart is burning."
"I stayed in Jwayya for six days under the bombs, hiding below the staircase, in the corridor, until shell fragments landed in our house," she said, declining to give her name.
At the Byblos Co-ed Middle School, Ibrahim Nawas, 65, a retired teacher and a Canadian citizen, held out his swollen, scarred hands.
"They were moaning under the debris. I had to help dig them out," he said of his neighbors in Aitaroun. Nine members of the family were killed, Nawas said.
Mazen Muselmani, a clothes wholesaler, said he did not want to abandon his shop and home in the southern suburbs of Beirut where he was born and raised, but he finally had to leave. His brothers and their families have been dispersed.
"I don't know who is dead or alive," he said.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/060727/1/42dr6.html
Friday July 28, 2:03 AM
Israel says it has 'green light' for war on Hezbollah
AFP Photo
Israel insisted it had been given the green light from the world to press on with its deadly assault on Lebanon and called up more troops, after suffering its biggest single-day military loss in the conflict.
But as its warplanes went into action again across Lebanon and fighting continued around a key border town, Israel said it would limit its ground offensives after the killing of nine troops in pitched battles with Hezbollah guerrillas on Wednesday.
At least 10 people were killed as combat jets bombarded Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley, bringing the death toll to 417 people in Lebanon alone as the conflict entered its 16th day.
"Yesterday in Rome we in effect obtained the authorization to continue our operations until Hezbollah is no longer present in southern Lebanon," Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon told army radio, referring to a 15-nation conference in the Italian capital on Wednesday.
World powers remain at odds over how to end the conflict, despite the mounting death toll and warnings that Lebanon was facing a humanitarian catastrophe, with much of its infrastructure in ruins, hundreds of thousands of thousands fleeing their homes and increasing shortages of food and medicines.
Washington, Israel's closest ally, infuriated Arab opinion by blocking calls at the Rome meeting for an immediate ceasefire and instead calling for efforts to reach a "sustainable" truce.
US President George W. Bush said he was "troubled" by the destruction Israeli strikes have left in Lebanon but rejected any "fake peace" that does not tackle the conflict's root causes.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Arab countries were disappointed that the Rome conference had "failed to meet Arab demands" for an immediate truce.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora despaired for his war-ravaged people, telling diplomats in Rome that his country was being "cut to pieces".
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meanwhile insisted there had been agreement in Rome on the need for a multinational UN-mandated force for Lebanon and said the world body planned to hold a meeting this week or next.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Thursday the bloc would be willing to contribute peacekeeping forces to Lebanon if a UN resolution allowed it.
A diplomatic source in Paris said France was to propose to its UN Security Council partners a resolution that would see the creation of a buffer zone on both sides of the border as part of a strategy to end the conflict.
Israel is already planning a buffer zone in Lebanon to protect its border, while insisting there was no question of another occupation, with memories still raw of the quagmire that resulted from its 1982 invasion.
Washington also prevented adoption of a UN Security Council draft resolution critical of Israel after its warplanes killed four UN observers in a raid in a south Lebanon town that UN chief Kofi Annan said was "apparently deliberate."
Ramon said Israel no longer regarded the border town of Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah military stronghold where the nine soldiers were killed, as a civilian area after ordering people to leave.
"Everyone who is still in south Lebanon is linked to Hezbollah, we have called on all who are there to leave," he said.
At an emergency meeting Thursday, the security cabinet decided to intensify air strikes on Lebanon and restrict its more risky ground operations to setting up a border buffer zone of a few kilometres, army radio reported.
It also decided to call more reservists, with the Israeli media reporting that several tens of thousands of troops could be involved.
In its first reaction to Israel's dual assaults on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, Al-Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri warned the network would carry out attacks against Israel and its US backers in revenge.
"We cannot watch these rockets raining down their fire on our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and remain inactive and submissive," Zawahiri said in a videotape aired by Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera.
Israel insists it will not halt its assault until two soldiers captured by Hezbollah on July 12 are freed and the militia is disarmed, but it has met unexpected resistance from the Shiite fundamentalist group.
Hezbollah launched another 40 rockets into northern Israel on Thursday, damaging buildings but causing no casualties, the army said. Fifty-one Israelis have been killed, the majority of them soldiers.
At least 10 people, including a Nigerian domestic worker and a gendarme, were killed in Lebanon in a new wave of Israeli attacks, police said.
A rift also opened with Britain, hitherto the United States' most steadfast ally, after it emerged that Washington had used a Scottish airport as a staging post for new arms deliveries to Israel to sustain its bombing campaign.
"I am not happy about it," Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said of the stopover by US aircraft delivering GBU28 laser-guided bombs to Israel.
In a flickering sign of some relief for Lebanese trapped by the air and sea blockade Israel imposed at the start of the conflict, a Jordanian plane carrying UN humanitarian aid landed at Beirut airport.
And the UN Children's Fund UNICEF announced that a first convoy of humanitarian aid for children had arrived in Tyre, the scene of heavy Israeli bombardment.
Much of southern Lebanon's infrastructure lies in ruins from Israeli bombing and food, fuel and medical supplies have been disrupted with some 800,000 Lebanese displaced. The UN food body has warned of a "major food crisis."
Friday July 28, 2:03 AM
Israel says it has 'green light' for war on Hezbollah
AFP Photo
Israel insisted it had been given the green light from the world to press on with its deadly assault on Lebanon and called up more troops, after suffering its biggest single-day military loss in the conflict.
But as its warplanes went into action again across Lebanon and fighting continued around a key border town, Israel said it would limit its ground offensives after the killing of nine troops in pitched battles with Hezbollah guerrillas on Wednesday.
At least 10 people were killed as combat jets bombarded Hezbollah strongholds in south Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley, bringing the death toll to 417 people in Lebanon alone as the conflict entered its 16th day.
"Yesterday in Rome we in effect obtained the authorization to continue our operations until Hezbollah is no longer present in southern Lebanon," Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon told army radio, referring to a 15-nation conference in the Italian capital on Wednesday.
World powers remain at odds over how to end the conflict, despite the mounting death toll and warnings that Lebanon was facing a humanitarian catastrophe, with much of its infrastructure in ruins, hundreds of thousands of thousands fleeing their homes and increasing shortages of food and medicines.
Washington, Israel's closest ally, infuriated Arab opinion by blocking calls at the Rome meeting for an immediate ceasefire and instead calling for efforts to reach a "sustainable" truce.
US President George W. Bush said he was "troubled" by the destruction Israeli strikes have left in Lebanon but rejected any "fake peace" that does not tackle the conflict's root causes.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Arab countries were disappointed that the Rome conference had "failed to meet Arab demands" for an immediate truce.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora despaired for his war-ravaged people, telling diplomats in Rome that his country was being "cut to pieces".
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice meanwhile insisted there had been agreement in Rome on the need for a multinational UN-mandated force for Lebanon and said the world body planned to hold a meeting this week or next.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said Thursday the bloc would be willing to contribute peacekeeping forces to Lebanon if a UN resolution allowed it.
A diplomatic source in Paris said France was to propose to its UN Security Council partners a resolution that would see the creation of a buffer zone on both sides of the border as part of a strategy to end the conflict.
Israel is already planning a buffer zone in Lebanon to protect its border, while insisting there was no question of another occupation, with memories still raw of the quagmire that resulted from its 1982 invasion.
Washington also prevented adoption of a UN Security Council draft resolution critical of Israel after its warplanes killed four UN observers in a raid in a south Lebanon town that UN chief Kofi Annan said was "apparently deliberate."
Ramon said Israel no longer regarded the border town of Bint Jbeil, a Hezbollah military stronghold where the nine soldiers were killed, as a civilian area after ordering people to leave.
"Everyone who is still in south Lebanon is linked to Hezbollah, we have called on all who are there to leave," he said.
At an emergency meeting Thursday, the security cabinet decided to intensify air strikes on Lebanon and restrict its more risky ground operations to setting up a border buffer zone of a few kilometres, army radio reported.
It also decided to call more reservists, with the Israeli media reporting that several tens of thousands of troops could be involved.
In its first reaction to Israel's dual assaults on Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, Al-Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri warned the network would carry out attacks against Israel and its US backers in revenge.
"We cannot watch these rockets raining down their fire on our brothers in Gaza and Lebanon and remain inactive and submissive," Zawahiri said in a videotape aired by Arabic television channel Al-Jazeera.
Israel insists it will not halt its assault until two soldiers captured by Hezbollah on July 12 are freed and the militia is disarmed, but it has met unexpected resistance from the Shiite fundamentalist group.
Hezbollah launched another 40 rockets into northern Israel on Thursday, damaging buildings but causing no casualties, the army said. Fifty-one Israelis have been killed, the majority of them soldiers.
At least 10 people, including a Nigerian domestic worker and a gendarme, were killed in Lebanon in a new wave of Israeli attacks, police said.
A rift also opened with Britain, hitherto the United States' most steadfast ally, after it emerged that Washington had used a Scottish airport as a staging post for new arms deliveries to Israel to sustain its bombing campaign.
"I am not happy about it," Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said of the stopover by US aircraft delivering GBU28 laser-guided bombs to Israel.
In a flickering sign of some relief for Lebanese trapped by the air and sea blockade Israel imposed at the start of the conflict, a Jordanian plane carrying UN humanitarian aid landed at Beirut airport.
And the UN Children's Fund UNICEF announced that a first convoy of humanitarian aid for children had arrived in Tyre, the scene of heavy Israeli bombardment.
Much of southern Lebanon's infrastructure lies in ruins from Israeli bombing and food, fuel and medical supplies have been disrupted with some 800,000 Lebanese displaced. The UN food body has warned of a "major food crisis."
http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=17556
Syria defends Lebanese, Palestinian resistance
DAMASCUS: Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara on Thursday stressed the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples’ right to resistance, slamming what he called Washington’s pro-Israeli bias in the current conflict.
“Syria will continue to support the right of the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples to resist the Israeli occupation,” Shara was quoted as saying during talks with Palestinian activist leader Nayef Hawatmeh in Damascus.
The declaration came with more than 400 Lebanese killed in Israel’s offensive in Lebanon and more than 100 Palestinians killed in its assault on Gaza, both operations aimed at securing the release of captured Israeli troops.
At least 50 Israelis have been killed in the conflict, with Israel and the United States accusing Syria and Iran of supplying Hezbollah’s armed wing, the Islamic Resistance, with weapons. Shara also “condemned American partiality in favour of the aggressive policies of Israel,” said a statement issued by Hawatmeh’s Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Washington has vetoed UN resolutions seeking an immediate ceasefire in the crisis or criticising Israel and on Wednesday opposed a ceasefire call being made at international crisis talks in Rome.
“The Israeli occupation of Arab territories is destabilising the region,” Shara was quoted as saying, calling for “Israel to apply UN resolutions dealing with the Israeli-Arab conflict”.
A Syrian official said earlier that Damascus was not surprised at “the failure of the Rome conference to agree on a ceasefire, nor by the fact that the United States imposed its viewpoint which is the opposite of that adopted by other countries.” The official, who requested anonymity, called for “declaring an immediate ceasefire, followed by an exchange of prisoners which would open the door to a political solution”, summing up the official Syrian position.
The 15-nation crisis talks failed to call for an immediate truce and lent support to the US position that there must first be a sustainable solution to the conflict.
Syria defends Lebanese, Palestinian resistance
DAMASCUS: Syrian Vice President Faruq al-Shara on Thursday stressed the Lebanese and Palestinian peoples’ right to resistance, slamming what he called Washington’s pro-Israeli bias in the current conflict.
“Syria will continue to support the right of the Palestinian and Lebanese peoples to resist the Israeli occupation,” Shara was quoted as saying during talks with Palestinian activist leader Nayef Hawatmeh in Damascus.
The declaration came with more than 400 Lebanese killed in Israel’s offensive in Lebanon and more than 100 Palestinians killed in its assault on Gaza, both operations aimed at securing the release of captured Israeli troops.
At least 50 Israelis have been killed in the conflict, with Israel and the United States accusing Syria and Iran of supplying Hezbollah’s armed wing, the Islamic Resistance, with weapons. Shara also “condemned American partiality in favour of the aggressive policies of Israel,” said a statement issued by Hawatmeh’s Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
Washington has vetoed UN resolutions seeking an immediate ceasefire in the crisis or criticising Israel and on Wednesday opposed a ceasefire call being made at international crisis talks in Rome.
“The Israeli occupation of Arab territories is destabilising the region,” Shara was quoted as saying, calling for “Israel to apply UN resolutions dealing with the Israeli-Arab conflict”.
A Syrian official said earlier that Damascus was not surprised at “the failure of the Rome conference to agree on a ceasefire, nor by the fact that the United States imposed its viewpoint which is the opposite of that adopted by other countries.” The official, who requested anonymity, called for “declaring an immediate ceasefire, followed by an exchange of prisoners which would open the door to a political solution”, summing up the official Syrian position.
The 15-nation crisis talks failed to call for an immediate truce and lent support to the US position that there must first be a sustainable solution to the conflict.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?ed...rticle_id=74320
Casualties force change in Israel's strategy
By Raed El Rafei
Daily Star staff
Friday, July 28, 2006
BEIRUT: Israel's security Cabinet decided to step up its air campaign against Lebanon on Thursday, but said it would not expand its ground offensive after the death of nine of its soldiers in fighting for Bint Jbeil the day before.
According to Elias Hanna, a researcher of military affairs, the decision to limit the ground campaigns was made because "Israelis are traumatized by their negative experience during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982."
"They are afraid of suffering more losses in every village they try to conquer," Hanna added.
The researcher said internal political calculations are also affecting Israel's military strategy.
"The ruling coalition includes the conservative Likud Party, which is constantly trying to prove that the withdrawal from Southern Lebanon in 2000 was a mistake in the first place," Hanna said.
An increasing death toll would only strengthen Likud's point of view, he added.
Earlier on Thursday, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Israel interpreted the lack of consensus at a summit of world powers in Rome Wednesday as a "green light" to continue its attacks on Hizbullah.
Israel's security Cabinet later agreed to ramp up air attacks on Lebanon and authorized an additional mobilization of approximately 15,000 troops from army reserves.
However, the meeting rejected intensifying the ground campaign beyond the goal of pushing Hizbullah a few kilometers back from the border, according to Army Radio.
The offensive will continue until Hizbullah stops firing rockets into Israel and returns the two soldiers seized in a deadly cross-border raid on July 12, the Cabinet decided.
"The army will continue toward the established goals," Premier Ehud Olmert was quoted as having told his ministers.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
Ahead of the meeting, several ministers said it was time to expand the offensive, which has already killed over 400 people in Lebanon, the vast majority of them civilians, and 51 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
"Maximum firepower has to be used," Ramon told Army Radio. "We have to exploit the advantages that we have over Hizbullah with the air force and artillery and be cautious when we use ground troops."
But Hanna said Israel has witnessed "strategic and tactical surprises" in their clashes with Hizbullah on the ground and have realized the difficulty of guerrilla warfare.
Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post said Thursday the US was "counseling" Israel to
negotiate a possible withdrawal from the Shebaa Farms as part of a long-term arrangement for Lebanon.
"This issue was one of the focuses of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's talks in Jerusalem Tuesday with Olmert," the Post said.
"However, this issue - as well as discussions about the mandate and composition of
a possible multinational force in Lebanon - was shunted aside Wednesday because of the bitter fighting and the Israeli Army losses at Bint Jbeil," it added.
Other media reports said the Israeli government was facing heavy internal criticism after suffering heavy casualties in South Lebanon.
Haaretz said Israeli consensus over a large-scale offensive in Lebanon is beginning to "crack."
The Israeli daily said that "critics are starting to say the government launched the offensive hastily, with no exit strategy, and many fear the country is again being dragged into a quagmire across its northern border." - With agencies
Casualties force change in Israel's strategy
By Raed El Rafei
Daily Star staff
Friday, July 28, 2006
BEIRUT: Israel's security Cabinet decided to step up its air campaign against Lebanon on Thursday, but said it would not expand its ground offensive after the death of nine of its soldiers in fighting for Bint Jbeil the day before.
According to Elias Hanna, a researcher of military affairs, the decision to limit the ground campaigns was made because "Israelis are traumatized by their negative experience during the invasion of Lebanon in 1982."
"They are afraid of suffering more losses in every village they try to conquer," Hanna added.
The researcher said internal political calculations are also affecting Israel's military strategy.
"The ruling coalition includes the conservative Likud Party, which is constantly trying to prove that the withdrawal from Southern Lebanon in 2000 was a mistake in the first place," Hanna said.
An increasing death toll would only strengthen Likud's point of view, he added.
Earlier on Thursday, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Israel interpreted the lack of consensus at a summit of world powers in Rome Wednesday as a "green light" to continue its attacks on Hizbullah.
Israel's security Cabinet later agreed to ramp up air attacks on Lebanon and authorized an additional mobilization of approximately 15,000 troops from army reserves.
However, the meeting rejected intensifying the ground campaign beyond the goal of pushing Hizbullah a few kilometers back from the border, according to Army Radio.
The offensive will continue until Hizbullah stops firing rockets into Israel and returns the two soldiers seized in a deadly cross-border raid on July 12, the Cabinet decided.
"The army will continue toward the established goals," Premier Ehud Olmert was quoted as having told his ministers.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
Ahead of the meeting, several ministers said it was time to expand the offensive, which has already killed over 400 people in Lebanon, the vast majority of them civilians, and 51 Israelis, mostly soldiers.
"Maximum firepower has to be used," Ramon told Army Radio. "We have to exploit the advantages that we have over Hizbullah with the air force and artillery and be cautious when we use ground troops."
But Hanna said Israel has witnessed "strategic and tactical surprises" in their clashes with Hizbullah on the ground and have realized the difficulty of guerrilla warfare.
Meanwhile, The Jerusalem Post said Thursday the US was "counseling" Israel to
negotiate a possible withdrawal from the Shebaa Farms as part of a long-term arrangement for Lebanon.
"This issue was one of the focuses of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's talks in Jerusalem Tuesday with Olmert," the Post said.
"However, this issue - as well as discussions about the mandate and composition of
a possible multinational force in Lebanon - was shunted aside Wednesday because of the bitter fighting and the Israeli Army losses at Bint Jbeil," it added.
Other media reports said the Israeli government was facing heavy internal criticism after suffering heavy casualties in South Lebanon.
Haaretz said Israeli consensus over a large-scale offensive in Lebanon is beginning to "crack."
The Israeli daily said that "critics are starting to say the government launched the offensive hastily, with no exit strategy, and many fear the country is again being dragged into a quagmire across its northern border." - With agencies
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/ce4f3d8c-1c88-11db...00779e2340.html
Israel says Rome talks ‘authorise’ offensive
By Roula Khalaf in Rome, Sharmila Devi in Jerusalem and FT Reporters
Published: July 26 2006 10:29 | Last updated: July 27 2006 09:00
Haim Ramon, Israel’s justice minister, on Thursday said that an international crisis meeting on Lebanon on Wednesday had given Jerusalem “authorisation” to continue its offensive against its neighbour.
In remarks made on Israeli army radio Mr Ramon said that military action should continue until “Hizbollah’s presence is erased in Lebanon and it is disarmed”, warning civilians to flee villages in southern Lebanon. “These places are not villages. They are military bases in which Hizbollah people are hiding and from which they are operating.”
The minister added: “All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hizbollah.”
Seperately, a poll published by the Beirut Centre for Research and Information found 85 per cent of Lebanese approve of Hizbollah’s abduction of two Israeli soldiers – an action which sparked the current wave of hostilities.
Wednesday’s meeting in Rome had failed to agree on a call for an immediate ceasefire in the two-week conflict between Israel and Hizbollah fighters, pledging only quick humanitarian relief and support for Lebanon’s reconstruction.
Nearly all the participants the conference called for an immediate ceasefire, leaving the US isolated, according to Arab officials.
Foreign ministers from the US, Europe and the Arab world ended the talks with a stated determination to work towards the end of the conflict with “utmost urgency”. Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, said: “We all agreed we want most urgently to end violence on a basis that is sustainable.”
The meeting came as the Israeli army suffered its highest casualties for years in the fighting in southern Lebanon. On Wednesday night it said nine soldiers had been killed and 22 wounded in an assault on the town of Bint Jbail.
Israeli air strikes hit more than 50 targets across Lebanon on Wednesday, while Hizbollah, the Shia Islamist group, fired 125 rockets into Israel. Major-General Udi Adam, Israel’s head of the northern command, said: “Given the progress over the last two weeks, I reckon it [the offensive] will continue for several more weeks.”
Participants at the Rome talks agreed conditions for a lasting peace required the Lebanese government to deploy its forces throughout its territory and disarm all militias, a reference to Hizbollah, which sparked the conflict with the capture of two Israeli soldiers. The meeting also agreed that an international force should be authorised under a United Nations mandate to support the Lebanese army.
The mandate of the international force will be discussed over the next few days as the debate on Lebanon moves to the UN Security Council. Diplomats said the US appeared to be suggesting the force should deploy to assist the truce, while France said it should follow a political agreement that settles all disputes between Lebanon and Israel.
Fouad Siniora, Lebanon’s prime minister, said his country was being “cut to pieces”. Lebanon needed humanitarian assistance, he said, but it needed an immediate ceasefire more.
Israel’s campaign has killed 418 people, mostly civilians, devastated Lebanon’s infrastructure and displaced more than half a million people. In Israel at least 42 people have been killed.
Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah’s leader, told al-Arabiya television on Wednesday: “We fight a guerrilla warfare... the important thing is what losses we inflict on the Israeli enemy.” His group, which is backed by Syria and Iran, has vowed it would not accept “humiliating” terms in a truce.
Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, told the Rome meeting the crisis remained “horrendous”.
China called on the Security Council to condemn the “co-ordinated artillery and aerial attack” by Israel on a UN observer post in Lebanon that killed as many as four people, but the US rejected any suggestion of deliberate targeting.
Additional reporting by Mark Turner at the United Nations
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
Israel says Rome talks ‘authorise’ offensive
By Roula Khalaf in Rome, Sharmila Devi in Jerusalem and FT Reporters
Published: July 26 2006 10:29 | Last updated: July 27 2006 09:00
Haim Ramon, Israel’s justice minister, on Thursday said that an international crisis meeting on Lebanon on Wednesday had given Jerusalem “authorisation” to continue its offensive against its neighbour.
In remarks made on Israeli army radio Mr Ramon said that military action should continue until “Hizbollah’s presence is erased in Lebanon and it is disarmed”, warning civilians to flee villages in southern Lebanon. “These places are not villages. They are military bases in which Hizbollah people are hiding and from which they are operating.”
The minister added: “All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hizbollah.”
Seperately, a poll published by the Beirut Centre for Research and Information found 85 per cent of Lebanese approve of Hizbollah’s abduction of two Israeli soldiers – an action which sparked the current wave of hostilities.
Wednesday’s meeting in Rome had failed to agree on a call for an immediate ceasefire in the two-week conflict between Israel and Hizbollah fighters, pledging only quick humanitarian relief and support for Lebanon’s reconstruction.
Nearly all the participants the conference called for an immediate ceasefire, leaving the US isolated, according to Arab officials.
Foreign ministers from the US, Europe and the Arab world ended the talks with a stated determination to work towards the end of the conflict with “utmost urgency”. Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state, said: “We all agreed we want most urgently to end violence on a basis that is sustainable.”
The meeting came as the Israeli army suffered its highest casualties for years in the fighting in southern Lebanon. On Wednesday night it said nine soldiers had been killed and 22 wounded in an assault on the town of Bint Jbail.
Israeli air strikes hit more than 50 targets across Lebanon on Wednesday, while Hizbollah, the Shia Islamist group, fired 125 rockets into Israel. Major-General Udi Adam, Israel’s head of the northern command, said: “Given the progress over the last two weeks, I reckon it [the offensive] will continue for several more weeks.”
Participants at the Rome talks agreed conditions for a lasting peace required the Lebanese government to deploy its forces throughout its territory and disarm all militias, a reference to Hizbollah, which sparked the conflict with the capture of two Israeli soldiers. The meeting also agreed that an international force should be authorised under a United Nations mandate to support the Lebanese army.
The mandate of the international force will be discussed over the next few days as the debate on Lebanon moves to the UN Security Council. Diplomats said the US appeared to be suggesting the force should deploy to assist the truce, while France said it should follow a political agreement that settles all disputes between Lebanon and Israel.
Fouad Siniora, Lebanon’s prime minister, said his country was being “cut to pieces”. Lebanon needed humanitarian assistance, he said, but it needed an immediate ceasefire more.
Israel’s campaign has killed 418 people, mostly civilians, devastated Lebanon’s infrastructure and displaced more than half a million people. In Israel at least 42 people have been killed.
Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbollah’s leader, told al-Arabiya television on Wednesday: “We fight a guerrilla warfare... the important thing is what losses we inflict on the Israeli enemy.” His group, which is backed by Syria and Iran, has vowed it would not accept “humiliating” terms in a truce.
Kofi Annan, UN secretary-general, told the Rome meeting the crisis remained “horrendous”.
China called on the Security Council to condemn the “co-ordinated artillery and aerial attack” by Israel on a UN observer post in Lebanon that killed as many as four people, but the US rejected any suggestion of deliberate targeting.
Additional reporting by Mark Turner at the United Nations
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2006
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/ahrari.php?articleid=9426
July 28, 2006
Fourth Generation War
in Lebanon
by Ehsan Ahrari
Hezbollah, by kidnapping two and killing several Israeli soldiers, has drawn a forceful response from the Jewish state. One perspective is that the Islamist organization was surprised by the ferocity of that response. It can also be argued that such intensity only fulfills the objective of Hezbollah to create an imbroglio for Israel in Lebanon – an objective based on a combination of the Maoist conception of "perpetual revolution" and "fourth generation war," a notion developed by William Lind.
Hezbollah's maverick leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is a man who likes to read biographies of world leaders and leaders from his archenemy, Israel. So, one should not be surprised if he has read Mao's biography and his thinking on the perpetual revolution that drove his Cultural Revolution, as well as the growing literature on fourth generation war and its utility for Hezbollah's war with Israel. By the same token, he might also have studied the fourth generation war-related tactics used by al-Qaeda and Musab al-Zarqawi in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.
The underlying logic of the perpetual revolution is that, by creating chaos, its architect might be able to extract his version of order. One can argue ad infinitum whether Mao succeeded in achieving that goal during his Cultural Revolution; however, the idea lingers among contemporary revolutionaries and iconoclasts, including those whom the Bush administration likes to label as "terrorists."
Fourth generation war involves a non-state actor as one of the participants, especially an actor who uses violence justified on the basis of an ideology to wage war. As Lind describes it, "In Fourth Generation war, the state loses its monopoly on war. All over the world, state militaries find themselves fighting non-state opponents such as al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the FARC. Almost everywhere, the state is losing." The technologically weak actor uses tactics – including psychological warfare – "to weaken the technologically advantaged opponent's will to win."
Nasrallah's version of the perpetual revolution seems to be that, through the use of fourth generation warfare, he would extract a disproportionate response from Israel. The chaos emanating from that response greatly favors Hezbollah, in the sense that it diminishes Israel's capability to control events.
There is a suspicion that Hezbollah did not anticipate Israel would react so strongly. Now that suspicion is confirmed through an interview that Nasrallah gave to al-Manar, his organization's television network. His calculation was that there would be an agreement with Israel for the exchange of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners, which the military wing of Hamas has also been demanding. Israel has exchanged prisoners with Hezbollah in the past.
In terms of their capabilities to wage a conventional war, there is no comparison between Israel and Hezbollah. They are not in the same category. One is a nation-state and the other is not. However, Hezbollah has two weapons. First, it has the political will to take on Israel. Second, the specifics of "victory" for Israel and Hezbollah related to this round of conflict are starkly different. For Israel, victory means dismantling Hezbollah. For Hezbollah, total victory means forcing Israel to fulfill its demands. In the absence of that outcome, there is still some victory in survival, even if Hezbollah's organizational structure, as well its political and military capabilities, are considerably reduced. It can always reemerge from the ruins of defeat and challenge the mighty Israel another day.
The political will of Hezbollah is most worrisome for Israel. As the chief recipient of America's cutting-edge military technology, and as a possessor of its own impressive military-industrial complex, Israel is rightly perceived as a military superpower in the Middle East. What is more important is that it also has established a reputation of using disproportionate military responses to all sizes of military attacks from Arab states.
The list of those disproportionate responses is much too long to enumerate. Just look at what Israel did to the combined armed strength of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in the 1967 war. The entire scope of the Arab-Israeli conflict changed, it seems, forever. The Arab states never forgot the humiliating defeat of their armed forces in the 1967 war. Consequently, there never really emerged an "Arab spirit of adventurism" that could challenge Israel on the battlefield.
Even the late Anwar Sadat's decision to start the 1973 war (which Israel calls the "Yom Kippur War" and Arabs call the "Ramadan War" since it was waged during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan) had a very limited purpose, as it turned out. Sadat really wanted to liberate the Egyptian territory lost in the 1967 war from Israeli occupation.
The post-9/11 era created an environment that appeared quite conducive to fourth generation war, as the Islamists see it. The rationale, once again, is to get the United States involved in as many military theaters in the world of Islam as possible. As the practitioners of fourth generation war envision, they have a perceptible advantage over the United States for the following reasons, all of which are essential ingredients of fourth generation war. Lind might not have included them in his writing, but these characteristics are emerging as the chief features of fourth generation war.
First, there is no such thing as an infinite capability of the United States to occupy many Muslim countries. The Islamists might be right about that reality. The Bush administration is in the process of reducing its force presence in Afghanistan by transferring most of its peacekeeping-related responsibilities to NATO's ISAF forces, and prefers to remain focused on eradicating the remnants of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Once that mission is accomplished, or even reaches a politically acceptable level, the U.S. will be out of Afghanistan.
Second, and a related point, is that there is not an infinite political willingness in the United States to remain as an occupying force in a Muslim country. The Islamists might also be right in arriving at that conclusion. Iraq, more than Afghanistan, is proving that reality. The pressure is growing on the Bush administration inside the United States to declare the modalities and timetable of its "exit strategy."
Third, America's capability to absorb casualties on the battlefield is also very limited, while the Islamists are more than willing, it seems, to absorb a disproportionately high number of casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Islamist jihadists know that in both of those countries there is intense competition between their forces and the United States regarding "the will to endure and prevail."
Applying these variables to Hezbollah's approach to fourth generation war, it seems that there is not that much difference between American and Israeli thinking and behavior, as Hezbollah might have calculated it.
First, Israel may seek to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure as a "punishment" for the government of Lebanon for not controlling Hezbollah. However, that very act has not only boosted the popularity of Hezbollah in the Arab world, but has also escalated by leaps and bounds Hezbollah's maneuverability within Lebanon. An already weak Lebanese government has become almost a nonentity in terms of its capacity to force Hezbollah to do anything against its will.
Second, the increasing political chaos in Lebanon is likely to bring additional Islamist groups, including al-Qaeda, to that country. Right now, there is little possibility of any collaboration between Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, since they have acute theological differences. However, no one can rule out the possibility of cooperation if Lebanon degenerates into a lawless place like Afghanistan and Iraq. Israel would be as powerless in controlling the dynamics of lawlessness in Lebanon as the U.S. has been in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Third, Israel will have to think long and hard about invading and occupying Lebanon as an option to create a "friendly" government there. Its 1982 invasion is not a shining example of success in terms of Israel's aspirations to make a client state out of Lebanon.
Fourth, while Israel is destroying the civilian infrastructure in Lebanon, it is also willing to accept a cease-fire. It knows that such an option would be the best possibility of disarming Hezbollah. Hezbollah, on the contrary, is not interested in such an arrangement, knowing full well that there will be a lot of international pressure for disarming, indeed, dismantling it.
However, the current state of power distribution in Lebanon decisively favors Hezbollah's maintaining its political status and visibility. Its current strategy seems to be to continue firing Katyusha rockets. It already fired C-802 Silkworm cruise missiles on an Israeli ship last week. That missile has an anti-jamming capability. No one really knows what other capabilities Hezbollah has in store. Considering that, according to reports, Hezbollah has Iranian-made Fajr (range: 30 mi.) and even Zalzal (range: 125 mi.) missiles, Israeli leaders have to worry about the possibility of missiles reaching Tel Aviv.
Hezbollah is likely to sustain the tempo of its missile assault on Israel and still seek indirect negotiations. It knows it cannot score a victory on the battlefield. All it seeks is an Israeli willingness to say "yes" to a prisoner exchange. In the context of fourth generation war, it would depict that outcome as its "profound victory," in the sense that such a potential outcome would not radically alter the chances of its survival in Lebanon.
The best solution for this conflict from the Israeli point of view would be the emergence of a comprehensive political package that would disarm Hezbollah and station Lebanese forces on the Lebanon-Israeli border. Israel knows that no international demands will be made for it to pay compensation for the damage it has inflicted on Lebanon. The Americans, as usual, will protect it from such demands.
The best solution from Hezbollah's perspective would be an acceptance of a cease-fire by Israel and the exchange of prisoners (the frequently talked about number is 10,000 – mostly Palestinians and a few Lebanese – incarcerated in Israeli prisons) and hostages from both sides. Given the acute political weakness of the Arab side in this unipolar world, the chances of the emergence of Hezbollah's preferred solution are minimal. That is why it will continue to look at fourth generation war against Israel as an option, and why guerrilla warfare will not disappear from Lebanon anytime soon.
July 28, 2006
Fourth Generation War
in Lebanon
by Ehsan Ahrari
Hezbollah, by kidnapping two and killing several Israeli soldiers, has drawn a forceful response from the Jewish state. One perspective is that the Islamist organization was surprised by the ferocity of that response. It can also be argued that such intensity only fulfills the objective of Hezbollah to create an imbroglio for Israel in Lebanon – an objective based on a combination of the Maoist conception of "perpetual revolution" and "fourth generation war," a notion developed by William Lind.
Hezbollah's maverick leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is a man who likes to read biographies of world leaders and leaders from his archenemy, Israel. So, one should not be surprised if he has read Mao's biography and his thinking on the perpetual revolution that drove his Cultural Revolution, as well as the growing literature on fourth generation war and its utility for Hezbollah's war with Israel. By the same token, he might also have studied the fourth generation war-related tactics used by al-Qaeda and Musab al-Zarqawi in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq.
The underlying logic of the perpetual revolution is that, by creating chaos, its architect might be able to extract his version of order. One can argue ad infinitum whether Mao succeeded in achieving that goal during his Cultural Revolution; however, the idea lingers among contemporary revolutionaries and iconoclasts, including those whom the Bush administration likes to label as "terrorists."
Fourth generation war involves a non-state actor as one of the participants, especially an actor who uses violence justified on the basis of an ideology to wage war. As Lind describes it, "In Fourth Generation war, the state loses its monopoly on war. All over the world, state militaries find themselves fighting non-state opponents such as al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, and the FARC. Almost everywhere, the state is losing." The technologically weak actor uses tactics – including psychological warfare – "to weaken the technologically advantaged opponent's will to win."
Nasrallah's version of the perpetual revolution seems to be that, through the use of fourth generation warfare, he would extract a disproportionate response from Israel. The chaos emanating from that response greatly favors Hezbollah, in the sense that it diminishes Israel's capability to control events.
There is a suspicion that Hezbollah did not anticipate Israel would react so strongly. Now that suspicion is confirmed through an interview that Nasrallah gave to al-Manar, his organization's television network. His calculation was that there would be an agreement with Israel for the exchange of Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners, which the military wing of Hamas has also been demanding. Israel has exchanged prisoners with Hezbollah in the past.
In terms of their capabilities to wage a conventional war, there is no comparison between Israel and Hezbollah. They are not in the same category. One is a nation-state and the other is not. However, Hezbollah has two weapons. First, it has the political will to take on Israel. Second, the specifics of "victory" for Israel and Hezbollah related to this round of conflict are starkly different. For Israel, victory means dismantling Hezbollah. For Hezbollah, total victory means forcing Israel to fulfill its demands. In the absence of that outcome, there is still some victory in survival, even if Hezbollah's organizational structure, as well its political and military capabilities, are considerably reduced. It can always reemerge from the ruins of defeat and challenge the mighty Israel another day.
The political will of Hezbollah is most worrisome for Israel. As the chief recipient of America's cutting-edge military technology, and as a possessor of its own impressive military-industrial complex, Israel is rightly perceived as a military superpower in the Middle East. What is more important is that it also has established a reputation of using disproportionate military responses to all sizes of military attacks from Arab states.
The list of those disproportionate responses is much too long to enumerate. Just look at what Israel did to the combined armed strength of Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in the 1967 war. The entire scope of the Arab-Israeli conflict changed, it seems, forever. The Arab states never forgot the humiliating defeat of their armed forces in the 1967 war. Consequently, there never really emerged an "Arab spirit of adventurism" that could challenge Israel on the battlefield.
Even the late Anwar Sadat's decision to start the 1973 war (which Israel calls the "Yom Kippur War" and Arabs call the "Ramadan War" since it was waged during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan) had a very limited purpose, as it turned out. Sadat really wanted to liberate the Egyptian territory lost in the 1967 war from Israeli occupation.
The post-9/11 era created an environment that appeared quite conducive to fourth generation war, as the Islamists see it. The rationale, once again, is to get the United States involved in as many military theaters in the world of Islam as possible. As the practitioners of fourth generation war envision, they have a perceptible advantage over the United States for the following reasons, all of which are essential ingredients of fourth generation war. Lind might not have included them in his writing, but these characteristics are emerging as the chief features of fourth generation war.
First, there is no such thing as an infinite capability of the United States to occupy many Muslim countries. The Islamists might be right about that reality. The Bush administration is in the process of reducing its force presence in Afghanistan by transferring most of its peacekeeping-related responsibilities to NATO's ISAF forces, and prefers to remain focused on eradicating the remnants of al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Once that mission is accomplished, or even reaches a politically acceptable level, the U.S. will be out of Afghanistan.
Second, and a related point, is that there is not an infinite political willingness in the United States to remain as an occupying force in a Muslim country. The Islamists might also be right in arriving at that conclusion. Iraq, more than Afghanistan, is proving that reality. The pressure is growing on the Bush administration inside the United States to declare the modalities and timetable of its "exit strategy."
Third, America's capability to absorb casualties on the battlefield is also very limited, while the Islamists are more than willing, it seems, to absorb a disproportionately high number of casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq. The Islamist jihadists know that in both of those countries there is intense competition between their forces and the United States regarding "the will to endure and prevail."
Applying these variables to Hezbollah's approach to fourth generation war, it seems that there is not that much difference between American and Israeli thinking and behavior, as Hezbollah might have calculated it.
First, Israel may seek to destroy Lebanon's infrastructure as a "punishment" for the government of Lebanon for not controlling Hezbollah. However, that very act has not only boosted the popularity of Hezbollah in the Arab world, but has also escalated by leaps and bounds Hezbollah's maneuverability within Lebanon. An already weak Lebanese government has become almost a nonentity in terms of its capacity to force Hezbollah to do anything against its will.
Second, the increasing political chaos in Lebanon is likely to bring additional Islamist groups, including al-Qaeda, to that country. Right now, there is little possibility of any collaboration between Hezbollah and al-Qaeda, since they have acute theological differences. However, no one can rule out the possibility of cooperation if Lebanon degenerates into a lawless place like Afghanistan and Iraq. Israel would be as powerless in controlling the dynamics of lawlessness in Lebanon as the U.S. has been in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Third, Israel will have to think long and hard about invading and occupying Lebanon as an option to create a "friendly" government there. Its 1982 invasion is not a shining example of success in terms of Israel's aspirations to make a client state out of Lebanon.
Fourth, while Israel is destroying the civilian infrastructure in Lebanon, it is also willing to accept a cease-fire. It knows that such an option would be the best possibility of disarming Hezbollah. Hezbollah, on the contrary, is not interested in such an arrangement, knowing full well that there will be a lot of international pressure for disarming, indeed, dismantling it.
However, the current state of power distribution in Lebanon decisively favors Hezbollah's maintaining its political status and visibility. Its current strategy seems to be to continue firing Katyusha rockets. It already fired C-802 Silkworm cruise missiles on an Israeli ship last week. That missile has an anti-jamming capability. No one really knows what other capabilities Hezbollah has in store. Considering that, according to reports, Hezbollah has Iranian-made Fajr (range: 30 mi.) and even Zalzal (range: 125 mi.) missiles, Israeli leaders have to worry about the possibility of missiles reaching Tel Aviv.
Hezbollah is likely to sustain the tempo of its missile assault on Israel and still seek indirect negotiations. It knows it cannot score a victory on the battlefield. All it seeks is an Israeli willingness to say "yes" to a prisoner exchange. In the context of fourth generation war, it would depict that outcome as its "profound victory," in the sense that such a potential outcome would not radically alter the chances of its survival in Lebanon.
The best solution for this conflict from the Israeli point of view would be the emergence of a comprehensive political package that would disarm Hezbollah and station Lebanese forces on the Lebanon-Israeli border. Israel knows that no international demands will be made for it to pay compensation for the damage it has inflicted on Lebanon. The Americans, as usual, will protect it from such demands.
The best solution from Hezbollah's perspective would be an acceptance of a cease-fire by Israel and the exchange of prisoners (the frequently talked about number is 10,000 – mostly Palestinians and a few Lebanese – incarcerated in Israeli prisons) and hostages from both sides. Given the acute political weakness of the Arab side in this unipolar world, the chances of the emergence of Hezbollah's preferred solution are minimal. That is why it will continue to look at fourth generation war against Israel as an option, and why guerrilla warfare will not disappear from Lebanon anytime soon.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0728/p06s01-wome.html
WIDENING APPEAL: Damascus residents marched in support of Hizbullah Thursday. The group's battles with Israeli forces have bolstered its regional profile and ambitions.
KHALED AL-HARIRI/REUTERS
Israeli strikes may boost Hizbullah base
Hizbullah support tops 80 percent among Lebanese factions.
By Nicholas Blanford
TYRE, LEBANON – The ferocity of Israel's onslaught in southern Lebanon and Hizbullah's stubborn battles against Israeli ground forces may be working in the militant group's favor.
"They want to shatter the myth of Israeli invincibility," says Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a leading Lebanese expert on Hizbullah. "Being victorious means not allowing Israel to achieve their aims, and so far that is the case."
Still, the intensity of the Israeli bombing campaign appears to have taken Hizbullah aback. Mahmoud Komati, the deputy head of Hizbullah's politburo told the Associated Press, "the truth is - let me say this clearly - we didn't even expect [this] response ... that [Israel] would exploit this operation for this big war against us."
When Hizbullah guerrillas snatched two Israeli soldiers from across the border, it appeared to be a serious miscalculation. In the days that followed the July 12 capture, Israel unleashed its biggest offensive against Lebanon since its 1982 invasion, smashing the country's infrastructure, creating 500,000 refugees, and so far killing more than 400 civilians.
Thursday, Israeli air and artillery strikes continued in southern Lebanon and the International Committee of the Red Cross said bodies were laying in the streets of some Lebanese border villages where fighting has trapped civilians. Also Thursday Al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman Zawahiri, called in a televised video for Muslims to join fighting in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon in a holy war against Israel. While al-Qaeda is a Sunni Muslim group which in general views Shiites, who make up Hizbullah's ranks, with disgust and not even as Muslims, they share a common hatred of Israel and the US.
In a televised address Tuesday, Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah's secretary general, said the Israeli onslaught was an attempt by the US and Israel to "impose a new Middle East" in which Lebanon would be under US hegemony.
"Our fate is to confront this plan ... we are waging a war for the liberation of the remaining occupied lands and the liberation of our detainees," Mr. Nasrallah said.
Ms. Saad-Ghorayeb says that Hizbullah's goals have changed, "assuming a wider strategic importance" in which the party is at the forefront of opposition to the Bush administration's agenda of transforming the Middle East into a series of pro-Western democracies.
"Hizbullah is in a unique position to confront the US agenda which if successful will be, by extension, a victory for Syria, Iran and Hamas," she says.
Hizbullah's top guerrilla fighters are mounting a stubborn campaign against the region's most powerful army in and around Bint Jbail, the largest Shiite town in the border district where support for the party runs high.
Hizbullah has had six years - ever since Israel withdrew from south Lebanon - to prepare for this climactic showdown. Instead of storing weapons and ammunition in vulnerable stockpiles, they are scattered throughout the south in natural caves, tunnels, and homes. Hizbullah officials say they have sufficient ammunition and high morale tofight for months.
Hizbullah's frontline fighters are battle-hardened veterans after fighting Israeli forces in the 1990s. They are armed with advanced Russian antitank missiles, which have proved deadly against Israel's vaunted Merkava tanks and use classic hit-and-run guerrilla tactics.
"Hizbullah is doing what it does best, harassing the enemy," says Timur Goksel, who served 24 years with the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon.
Indeed, Nasrallah has announced the launch of the "second phase of our struggle" in which his long-range rockets would "go beyond Haifa," Israel's third-largest city. Israeli officials have been bracing for possible rocket attacks on Tel Aviv, which would mark a major escalation in the conflict.
"If Hizbullah hits Tel Aviv, I think that Israel will totally wipe off the map Bint Jbail, Khiam, Tyre and Nabatieh," says Nizar Abdel-Kader, a columnist for Ad-Diyar newspaper and a retired Lebanese army general.
The stakes are high for Hizbullah, but it seems it can count on an unprecedented swell of public support that cuts across sectarian lines.According to a poll released by the Beirut Center for Research and Information, 87 percent of Lebanese support Hizbullah's fight with Israel, a rise of 29 percent on a similar poll conducted in February. More striking, however, is the level of support for Hizbullah's resistance from non-Shiite communities. Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hizbullah along with 80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis.
Lebanese no longer blame Hizbullah for sparking the war by kidnapping the Israeli soldiers, but Israel and the US instead.
The latest poll by the Beirut Center found that 8 percent of Lebanese feel the US supports Lebanon, down from 38 percent in January.
"This support for Hizbullah is by default. It's due to US and Israeli actions," says Saad-Ghorayeb, whose father, Abdo, conducted the poll.
The most favorable outcome for Hizbullah, analysts say, is to keep harassing Israel until there is a cease-fire agreement that essentially leaves Hizbullah intact. If Israel establishes an occupation zone along the border to police the area, Hizbullah will likely continue fighting, unhindered by a weakened Lebanese government and backed by a radicalized Shiite community. That growing radicalization is palpable in this laid-back coastal town where support for Hizbullah traditionally has been arbitrary.
Ghassan Farran, a doctor and head of a local cultural organization, gazes in disbelief at the pile of smoking ruins which was once his home. Minutes earlier, an Israeli jet dropped two guided missiles into the six-story apartment block in the centre of Tyre.
"Look what America gives us, bombs and missiles," says this educated, middle-class professional. "I was never a political person and never with Hizbullah but now after this I am with Hizbullah."
WIDENING APPEAL: Damascus residents marched in support of Hizbullah Thursday. The group's battles with Israeli forces have bolstered its regional profile and ambitions.
KHALED AL-HARIRI/REUTERS
Israeli strikes may boost Hizbullah base
Hizbullah support tops 80 percent among Lebanese factions.
By Nicholas Blanford
TYRE, LEBANON – The ferocity of Israel's onslaught in southern Lebanon and Hizbullah's stubborn battles against Israeli ground forces may be working in the militant group's favor.
"They want to shatter the myth of Israeli invincibility," says Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a leading Lebanese expert on Hizbullah. "Being victorious means not allowing Israel to achieve their aims, and so far that is the case."
Still, the intensity of the Israeli bombing campaign appears to have taken Hizbullah aback. Mahmoud Komati, the deputy head of Hizbullah's politburo told the Associated Press, "the truth is - let me say this clearly - we didn't even expect [this] response ... that [Israel] would exploit this operation for this big war against us."
When Hizbullah guerrillas snatched two Israeli soldiers from across the border, it appeared to be a serious miscalculation. In the days that followed the July 12 capture, Israel unleashed its biggest offensive against Lebanon since its 1982 invasion, smashing the country's infrastructure, creating 500,000 refugees, and so far killing more than 400 civilians.
Thursday, Israeli air and artillery strikes continued in southern Lebanon and the International Committee of the Red Cross said bodies were laying in the streets of some Lebanese border villages where fighting has trapped civilians. Also Thursday Al Qaeda's second in command, Ayman Zawahiri, called in a televised video for Muslims to join fighting in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon in a holy war against Israel. While al-Qaeda is a Sunni Muslim group which in general views Shiites, who make up Hizbullah's ranks, with disgust and not even as Muslims, they share a common hatred of Israel and the US.
In a televised address Tuesday, Hassan Nasrallah, Hizbullah's secretary general, said the Israeli onslaught was an attempt by the US and Israel to "impose a new Middle East" in which Lebanon would be under US hegemony.
"Our fate is to confront this plan ... we are waging a war for the liberation of the remaining occupied lands and the liberation of our detainees," Mr. Nasrallah said.
Ms. Saad-Ghorayeb says that Hizbullah's goals have changed, "assuming a wider strategic importance" in which the party is at the forefront of opposition to the Bush administration's agenda of transforming the Middle East into a series of pro-Western democracies.
"Hizbullah is in a unique position to confront the US agenda which if successful will be, by extension, a victory for Syria, Iran and Hamas," she says.
Hizbullah's top guerrilla fighters are mounting a stubborn campaign against the region's most powerful army in and around Bint Jbail, the largest Shiite town in the border district where support for the party runs high.
Hizbullah has had six years - ever since Israel withdrew from south Lebanon - to prepare for this climactic showdown. Instead of storing weapons and ammunition in vulnerable stockpiles, they are scattered throughout the south in natural caves, tunnels, and homes. Hizbullah officials say they have sufficient ammunition and high morale tofight for months.
Hizbullah's frontline fighters are battle-hardened veterans after fighting Israeli forces in the 1990s. They are armed with advanced Russian antitank missiles, which have proved deadly against Israel's vaunted Merkava tanks and use classic hit-and-run guerrilla tactics.
"Hizbullah is doing what it does best, harassing the enemy," says Timur Goksel, who served 24 years with the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon.
Indeed, Nasrallah has announced the launch of the "second phase of our struggle" in which his long-range rockets would "go beyond Haifa," Israel's third-largest city. Israeli officials have been bracing for possible rocket attacks on Tel Aviv, which would mark a major escalation in the conflict.
"If Hizbullah hits Tel Aviv, I think that Israel will totally wipe off the map Bint Jbail, Khiam, Tyre and Nabatieh," says Nizar Abdel-Kader, a columnist for Ad-Diyar newspaper and a retired Lebanese army general.
The stakes are high for Hizbullah, but it seems it can count on an unprecedented swell of public support that cuts across sectarian lines.According to a poll released by the Beirut Center for Research and Information, 87 percent of Lebanese support Hizbullah's fight with Israel, a rise of 29 percent on a similar poll conducted in February. More striking, however, is the level of support for Hizbullah's resistance from non-Shiite communities. Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hizbullah along with 80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis.
Lebanese no longer blame Hizbullah for sparking the war by kidnapping the Israeli soldiers, but Israel and the US instead.
The latest poll by the Beirut Center found that 8 percent of Lebanese feel the US supports Lebanon, down from 38 percent in January.
"This support for Hizbullah is by default. It's due to US and Israeli actions," says Saad-Ghorayeb, whose father, Abdo, conducted the poll.
The most favorable outcome for Hizbullah, analysts say, is to keep harassing Israel until there is a cease-fire agreement that essentially leaves Hizbullah intact. If Israel establishes an occupation zone along the border to police the area, Hizbullah will likely continue fighting, unhindered by a weakened Lebanese government and backed by a radicalized Shiite community. That growing radicalization is palpable in this laid-back coastal town where support for Hizbullah traditionally has been arbitrary.
Ghassan Farran, a doctor and head of a local cultural organization, gazes in disbelief at the pile of smoking ruins which was once his home. Minutes earlier, an Israeli jet dropped two guided missiles into the six-story apartment block in the centre of Tyre.
"Look what America gives us, bombs and missiles," says this educated, middle-class professional. "I was never a political person and never with Hizbullah but now after this I am with Hizbullah."
http://fairuse.100webcustomers.com/fairenough/nyt336.html
July 28, 2006
Changing Reaction
Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
DAMASCUS, Syria, July 27 — At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight.
Now, with hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for 15 days, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements.
The Saudi royal family and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who were initially more worried about the rising power of Shiite Iran, Hezbollah’s main sponsor, are scrambling to distance themselves from Washington.
An outpouring of newspaper columns, cartoons, blogs and public poetry readings have showered praise on Hezbollah while attacking the United States and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for trumpeting American plans for a “new Middle East” that they say has led only to violence and repression.
Even Al Qaeda, run by violent Sunni Muslim extremists normally hostile to all Shiites, has gotten into the act, with its deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, releasing a taped message saying that through its fighting in Iraq, his organization was also trying to liberate Palestine.
Mouin Rabbani, a senior Middle East analyst in Amman, Jordan, with the International Crisis Group, said, “The Arab-Israeli conflict remains the most potent issue in this part of the world.”
Distinctive changes in tone are audible throughout the Sunni world. This week, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt emphasized his attempts to arrange a cease-fire to protect all sects in Lebanon, while the Jordanian king announced that his country was dispatching medical teams “for the victims of Israeli aggression.” Both countries have peace treaties with Israel.
The Saudi royal court has issued a dire warning that its 2002 peace plan — offering Israel full recognition by all Arab states in exchange for returning to the borders that predated the 1967 Arab-Israeli war — could well perish.
“If the peace option is rejected due to the Israeli arrogance,” it said, “then only the war option remains, and no one knows the repercussions befalling the region, including wars and conflict that will spare no one, including those whose military power is now tempting them to play with fire.”
The Saudis were putting the West on notice that they would not exert pressure on anyone in the Arab world until Washington did something to halt the destruction of Lebanon, Saudi commentators said.
American officials say that while the Arab leaders need to take a harder line publicly for domestic political reasons, what matters more is what they tell the United States in private, which the Americans still see as a wink and a nod.
There are evident concerns among Arab governments that a victory for Hezbollah — and it has already achieved something of a victory by holding out this long — would further nourish the Islamist tide engulfing the region and challenge their authority. Hence their first priority is to cool simmering public opinion.
But perhaps not since President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt made his emotional outpourings about Arab unity in the 1960’s, before the Arab defeat in the 1967 war, has the public been so electrified by a confrontation with Israel, played out repeatedly on satellite television stations with horrific images from Lebanon of wounded children and distraught women fleeing their homes.
Egypt’s opposition press has had a field day comparing Sheik Nasrallah to Nasser, while demonstrators waved pictures of both.
An editorial in the weekly Al Dustur by Ibrahim Issa, who faces a lengthy jail sentence for his previous criticism of President Mubarak, compared current Arab leaders to the medieval princes who let the Crusaders chip away at Muslim lands until they controlled them all.
After attending an intellectual rally in Cairo for Lebanon, the Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm wrote a column describing how he had watched a companion buy 20 posters of Sheik Nasrallah.
“People are praying for him as they walk in the street, because we were made to feel oppressed, weak and handicapped,” Mr. Negm said in an interview. “I asked the man who sweeps the street under my building what he thought, and he said: ‘Uncle Ahmed, he has awakened the dead man inside me! May God make him triumphant!’ ”
In Lebanon, Rasha Salti, a freelance writer, summarized the sense that Sheik Nasrallah differed from other Arab leaders.
“Since the war broke out, Hassan Nasrallah has displayed a persona, and public behavior also, to the exact opposite of Arab heads of states,” she wrote in an e-mail message posted on many blogs.
In comparison, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s brief visit to the region sparked widespread criticism of her cold demeanor and her choice of words, particularly a statement that the bloodshed represented the birth pangs of a “new Middle East.” That catchphrase was much used by Shimon Peres, the veteran Israeli leader who was a principal negotiator of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which ultimately failed to lead to the Palestinian state they envisaged.
A cartoon by Emad Hajjaj in Jordan labeled “The New Middle East” showed an Israeli tank sitting on a broken apartment house in the shape of the Arab world.
Fawaz al-Trabalsi, a columnist in the Lebanese daily As Safir, suggested that the real new thing in the Middle East was the ability of one group to challenge Israeli militarily.
Perhaps nothing underscored Hezbollah’s rising stock more than the sudden appearance of a tape from the Qaeda leadership attempting to grab some of the limelight.
Al Jazeera satellite television broadcast a tape from Mr. Zawahri (za-WAH-ri). Large panels behind him showed a picture of the exploding World Trade Center as well as portraits of two Egyptian Qaeda members, Muhammad Atef, a Qaeda commander who was killed by an American airstrike in Afghanistan, and Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker on Sept. 11, 2001. He described the two as fighters for the Palestinians.
Mr. Zawahri tried to argue that the fight against American forces in Iraq paralleled what Hezbollah was doing, though he did not mention the organization by name.
“It is an advantage that Iraq is near Palestine,” he said. “Muslims should support its holy warriors until an Islamic emirate dedicated to jihad is established there, which could then transfer the jihad to the borders of Palestine.”
Mr. Zawahri also adopted some of the language of Hezbollah and Shiite Muslims in general. That was rather ironic, since previously in Iraq, Al Qaeda has labeled Shiites Muslim as infidels and claimed responsibility for some of the bloodier assaults on Shiite neighborhoods there.
But by taking on Israel, Hezbollah had instantly eclipsed Al Qaeda, analysts said. “Everyone will be asking, ‘Where is Al Qaeda now?’ ” said Adel al-Toraifi, a Saudi columnist and expert on Sunni extremists.
Mr. Rabbani of the International Crisis Group said Hezbollah’s ability to withstand the Israeli assault and to continue to lob missiles well into Israel exposed the weaknesses of Arab governments with far greater resources than Hezbollah.
“Public opinion says that if they are getting more on the battlefield than you are at the negotiating table, and you have so many more means at your disposal, then what the hell are you doing?” Mr. Rabbani said. “In comparison with the small embattled guerrilla movement, the Arab states seem to be standing idly by twiddling their thumbs.”
Mona el-Naggar contributed reporting from Cairo for this article, and Suha Maayeh from Amman, Jordan.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
July 28, 2006
Changing Reaction
Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah
By NEIL MacFARQUHAR
DAMASCUS, Syria, July 27 — At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight.
Now, with hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for 15 days, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements.
The Saudi royal family and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who were initially more worried about the rising power of Shiite Iran, Hezbollah’s main sponsor, are scrambling to distance themselves from Washington.
An outpouring of newspaper columns, cartoons, blogs and public poetry readings have showered praise on Hezbollah while attacking the United States and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for trumpeting American plans for a “new Middle East” that they say has led only to violence and repression.
Even Al Qaeda, run by violent Sunni Muslim extremists normally hostile to all Shiites, has gotten into the act, with its deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, releasing a taped message saying that through its fighting in Iraq, his organization was also trying to liberate Palestine.
Mouin Rabbani, a senior Middle East analyst in Amman, Jordan, with the International Crisis Group, said, “The Arab-Israeli conflict remains the most potent issue in this part of the world.”
Distinctive changes in tone are audible throughout the Sunni world. This week, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt emphasized his attempts to arrange a cease-fire to protect all sects in Lebanon, while the Jordanian king announced that his country was dispatching medical teams “for the victims of Israeli aggression.” Both countries have peace treaties with Israel.
The Saudi royal court has issued a dire warning that its 2002 peace plan — offering Israel full recognition by all Arab states in exchange for returning to the borders that predated the 1967 Arab-Israeli war — could well perish.
“If the peace option is rejected due to the Israeli arrogance,” it said, “then only the war option remains, and no one knows the repercussions befalling the region, including wars and conflict that will spare no one, including those whose military power is now tempting them to play with fire.”
The Saudis were putting the West on notice that they would not exert pressure on anyone in the Arab world until Washington did something to halt the destruction of Lebanon, Saudi commentators said.
American officials say that while the Arab leaders need to take a harder line publicly for domestic political reasons, what matters more is what they tell the United States in private, which the Americans still see as a wink and a nod.
There are evident concerns among Arab governments that a victory for Hezbollah — and it has already achieved something of a victory by holding out this long — would further nourish the Islamist tide engulfing the region and challenge their authority. Hence their first priority is to cool simmering public opinion.
But perhaps not since President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt made his emotional outpourings about Arab unity in the 1960’s, before the Arab defeat in the 1967 war, has the public been so electrified by a confrontation with Israel, played out repeatedly on satellite television stations with horrific images from Lebanon of wounded children and distraught women fleeing their homes.
Egypt’s opposition press has had a field day comparing Sheik Nasrallah to Nasser, while demonstrators waved pictures of both.
An editorial in the weekly Al Dustur by Ibrahim Issa, who faces a lengthy jail sentence for his previous criticism of President Mubarak, compared current Arab leaders to the medieval princes who let the Crusaders chip away at Muslim lands until they controlled them all.
After attending an intellectual rally in Cairo for Lebanon, the Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm wrote a column describing how he had watched a companion buy 20 posters of Sheik Nasrallah.
“People are praying for him as they walk in the street, because we were made to feel oppressed, weak and handicapped,” Mr. Negm said in an interview. “I asked the man who sweeps the street under my building what he thought, and he said: ‘Uncle Ahmed, he has awakened the dead man inside me! May God make him triumphant!’ ”
In Lebanon, Rasha Salti, a freelance writer, summarized the sense that Sheik Nasrallah differed from other Arab leaders.
“Since the war broke out, Hassan Nasrallah has displayed a persona, and public behavior also, to the exact opposite of Arab heads of states,” she wrote in an e-mail message posted on many blogs.
In comparison, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s brief visit to the region sparked widespread criticism of her cold demeanor and her choice of words, particularly a statement that the bloodshed represented the birth pangs of a “new Middle East.” That catchphrase was much used by Shimon Peres, the veteran Israeli leader who was a principal negotiator of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which ultimately failed to lead to the Palestinian state they envisaged.
A cartoon by Emad Hajjaj in Jordan labeled “The New Middle East” showed an Israeli tank sitting on a broken apartment house in the shape of the Arab world.
Fawaz al-Trabalsi, a columnist in the Lebanese daily As Safir, suggested that the real new thing in the Middle East was the ability of one group to challenge Israeli militarily.
Perhaps nothing underscored Hezbollah’s rising stock more than the sudden appearance of a tape from the Qaeda leadership attempting to grab some of the limelight.
Al Jazeera satellite television broadcast a tape from Mr. Zawahri (za-WAH-ri). Large panels behind him showed a picture of the exploding World Trade Center as well as portraits of two Egyptian Qaeda members, Muhammad Atef, a Qaeda commander who was killed by an American airstrike in Afghanistan, and Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker on Sept. 11, 2001. He described the two as fighters for the Palestinians.
Mr. Zawahri tried to argue that the fight against American forces in Iraq paralleled what Hezbollah was doing, though he did not mention the organization by name.
“It is an advantage that Iraq is near Palestine,” he said. “Muslims should support its holy warriors until an Islamic emirate dedicated to jihad is established there, which could then transfer the jihad to the borders of Palestine.”
Mr. Zawahri also adopted some of the language of Hezbollah and Shiite Muslims in general. That was rather ironic, since previously in Iraq, Al Qaeda has labeled Shiites Muslim as infidels and claimed responsibility for some of the bloodier assaults on Shiite neighborhoods there.
But by taking on Israel, Hezbollah had instantly eclipsed Al Qaeda, analysts said. “Everyone will be asking, ‘Where is Al Qaeda now?’ ” said Adel al-Toraifi, a Saudi columnist and expert on Sunni extremists.
Mr. Rabbani of the International Crisis Group said Hezbollah’s ability to withstand the Israeli assault and to continue to lob missiles well into Israel exposed the weaknesses of Arab governments with far greater resources than Hezbollah.
“Public opinion says that if they are getting more on the battlefield than you are at the negotiating table, and you have so many more means at your disposal, then what the hell are you doing?” Mr. Rabbani said. “In comparison with the small embattled guerrilla movement, the Arab states seem to be standing idly by twiddling their thumbs.”
Mona el-Naggar contributed reporting from Cairo for this article, and Suha Maayeh from Amman, Jordan.
Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company
http://www.antiwar.com/lobe/?articleid=9429
July 28, 2006
Sunni-Shia Split Fades as Israel Presses Campaign
by Jim Lobe
Hopes by the George W. Bush administration for the emergence of an implicit Sunni-Israel alliance against an Iranian-led "Shia Crescent" have faded over the past week as Arab public opinion has become increasingly united by outrage over the Jewish state's continuing military campaign in Lebanon and Washington's refusal to stop it, according to Middle East experts here.
Fueled by saturation television coverage of the destruction and suffering wrought by Israel's attacks, popular sentiment in both Shia and Sunni communities has moved strongly behind Shia Hezbollah, whose leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, has become a symbol of resistance to Israeli and U.S. power, these analysts agree.
"Resistance rises above sectarianism," according to Graham Fuller, a former top Middle East analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Rand Corporation. "Sunni masses by and large are not concerned whether Iran, Syria's rulers, or Hezbollah are Shi'ites; they applaud them for their steadfastness and willingness to fight and even die."
The growing Sunni-Shia unity in support of Hezbollah defies hopes by Bush administration officials and their Israel-centered neoconservative supporters here that fears of an Iranian-led Shia axis stretching from Lebanon across Syria to the new Shia-dominated government in Iraq would provoke Sunni-led states to form a de facto alliance with Israel.
Those hopes were bolstered when, in a break with traditional Arab solidarity over any confrontation with Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt denounced Hezbollah for "adventurism" in abducting two Israeli soldiers along the Israel-Lebanon border, the incident which precipitated the violence and destruction that followed.
Their statements, which were welcomed by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as evidence of the emergence of a "new Middle East," were also cited as evidence, particularly by neoconservatives, that Iran, Hezbollah's most-important source of arms and external funding, had displaced Israel as the Sunnis' greatest threat.
The theory was most eloquently expressed by Michael Rubin, a hardline neoconservative at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). "Across Lebanon and the region, Arab leaders see Hezbollah for what it is: An arm of Iranian influence waging a sectarian battle in the heart of the Middle East," he wrote in a July 19 column in the Wall Street Journal titled "Iran Against the Arabs."
"An old Arab proverb goes, 'Me against my brother; me and my brother against our cousin; and me, my brother, and my cousin against the stranger,'" he went on. "Forced to make a choice, Sunni Arabs are deciding: The Jews are cousins; the Shi'ites, strangers."
But most regional specialists now dismiss this analysis, at least at the popular level. If anything, they say, the impact of Israel's military campaign in Lebanon has confirmed its status as the "stranger," while Hezbollah's resistance has elevated it and those who support it to "cousin," if not "brother" to the Sunni Arabs.
"In fact … there is more of a rapprochement between the Sunni and Shia," according to Jean Francois Seznec, a Gulf specialist at Columbia University, who noted that Shia Hezbollah and Iran both support Sunni Hamas in the Palestinian territories and that Sunnis in Syria could be expected to rally behind the Alawi Assad regime if Damascus, which also supports Hezbollah, is drawn into the current conflict.
"[T]he real split here is between the Sunni autocrats and their very own citizens," wrote Fuller in an article for Global Viewpoint. "These Sunni regimes are terrified that Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and even Sunni Hamas are all creating inspirational models of independent mass resistance against reigning U.S. and Israeli power in the region."
That Sunni leaders now feel compelled to follow public opinion was made evident by several developments this past week, beginning with Egypt's rejection of Washington's proposal to hold Wednesday's emergency international conference on Lebanon at Sharm al-Sheik. As a result, the conference, at which Rice was found herself completely isolated in rejecting calls for an immediate cease-fire, was held in Rome instead.
Tuesday's angry and unusually harsh denunciation by Saudi Arabia of what it called "unremitting Israeli aggression," which also warned Washington in particular of unpredictable "repercussions befalling the region, including wars and conflict that will spare no one" if a cease-fire is not quickly achieved, was also taken as a major reversal of its previous views.
"The Saudis thought they could get a cease-fire and be the heroes," said Marc Lynch, a Middle East specialist at Williams College who follows the Arab media closely. "When it became clear that that wasn't going to happen and public opinion was getting really mobilized, then they did a 180-degree turn. That is very significant."
Finally, Thursday's appearance on al-Jazeera of a new video by al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, in which he implicitly called for unity between Sunnis and Shia against the "Zionist-Crusader alliance," suggested that the most radical Sunni jihadis are eager not only to identify themselves with Hezbollah's resistance, but also see the current crisis as an opportunity for broadening their base.
"Just as Iraq served al-Qaeda's strategy by supplying an endless stream of images of 'heroic mujahideen' fighting against 'brutal Americans' – and became less useful as images of dead Iraqi civilians began to complicate the picture – the Lebanon war offers an unending supply of images and actions which powerfully support al-Qaeda's narrative and worldview … without the complications posed by [Abu Musab] Zarqawi's controversial anti-Shia strategy in Iraq," wrote Lynch on his widely read blog.
"In that regard, al-Qaeda's open support for Hezbollah might even help to heal the Sunni-Shia breach which Zarqawi worked to hard to open [in Iraq] against [Osama] bin Laden's and Zawahiri's advice," he added.
Even before the current Israel-Lebanon crisis, al-Qaeda had been trying to undo the damage caused by Zarqawi's anti-Shia campaign. In his most recent audio message, released July 1, several weeks after Zarqawi's death, bin Laden referred to Shi'ites as "cousins" and called for al-Qaeda of Mesopotamia, as Zarqawi's group is known, to make U.S. forces and their collaborators – rather than the general Shia population – its primary target.
"The Sunni-Shia divide is real, and it's not just being invented by the neocons, but if you look at mainstream public opinion, a lot of the Sunni-Shia stuff that the neocons and the press are picking up on is the invention of the [Sunni-led] regimes, especially in the Gulf, where Sunni leaders really are afraid of Iran and their Shia populations inconveniently happen to live on the oil fields," Lynch told IPS.
"For the Arab regimes, playing on Sunni-Shia differences is really a divide-and-conquer [strategy] to prevent the rise of a unified movement against them. But the fact is you're now seeing even very Sunni movements like the Muslim Brotherhood rallying to Hezbollah as the fighter against Israel, while these corrupt, impotent, pro-American governments aren't doing a thing."
(Inter Press Service)
July 28, 2006
Sunni-Shia Split Fades as Israel Presses Campaign
by Jim Lobe
Hopes by the George W. Bush administration for the emergence of an implicit Sunni-Israel alliance against an Iranian-led "Shia Crescent" have faded over the past week as Arab public opinion has become increasingly united by outrage over the Jewish state's continuing military campaign in Lebanon and Washington's refusal to stop it, according to Middle East experts here.
Fueled by saturation television coverage of the destruction and suffering wrought by Israel's attacks, popular sentiment in both Shia and Sunni communities has moved strongly behind Shia Hezbollah, whose leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, has become a symbol of resistance to Israeli and U.S. power, these analysts agree.
"Resistance rises above sectarianism," according to Graham Fuller, a former top Middle East analyst for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Rand Corporation. "Sunni masses by and large are not concerned whether Iran, Syria's rulers, or Hezbollah are Shi'ites; they applaud them for their steadfastness and willingness to fight and even die."
The growing Sunni-Shia unity in support of Hezbollah defies hopes by Bush administration officials and their Israel-centered neoconservative supporters here that fears of an Iranian-led Shia axis stretching from Lebanon across Syria to the new Shia-dominated government in Iraq would provoke Sunni-led states to form a de facto alliance with Israel.
Those hopes were bolstered when, in a break with traditional Arab solidarity over any confrontation with Israel, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt denounced Hezbollah for "adventurism" in abducting two Israeli soldiers along the Israel-Lebanon border, the incident which precipitated the violence and destruction that followed.
Their statements, which were welcomed by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as evidence of the emergence of a "new Middle East," were also cited as evidence, particularly by neoconservatives, that Iran, Hezbollah's most-important source of arms and external funding, had displaced Israel as the Sunnis' greatest threat.
The theory was most eloquently expressed by Michael Rubin, a hardline neoconservative at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI). "Across Lebanon and the region, Arab leaders see Hezbollah for what it is: An arm of Iranian influence waging a sectarian battle in the heart of the Middle East," he wrote in a July 19 column in the Wall Street Journal titled "Iran Against the Arabs."
"An old Arab proverb goes, 'Me against my brother; me and my brother against our cousin; and me, my brother, and my cousin against the stranger,'" he went on. "Forced to make a choice, Sunni Arabs are deciding: The Jews are cousins; the Shi'ites, strangers."
But most regional specialists now dismiss this analysis, at least at the popular level. If anything, they say, the impact of Israel's military campaign in Lebanon has confirmed its status as the "stranger," while Hezbollah's resistance has elevated it and those who support it to "cousin," if not "brother" to the Sunni Arabs.
"In fact … there is more of a rapprochement between the Sunni and Shia," according to Jean Francois Seznec, a Gulf specialist at Columbia University, who noted that Shia Hezbollah and Iran both support Sunni Hamas in the Palestinian territories and that Sunnis in Syria could be expected to rally behind the Alawi Assad regime if Damascus, which also supports Hezbollah, is drawn into the current conflict.
"[T]he real split here is between the Sunni autocrats and their very own citizens," wrote Fuller in an article for Global Viewpoint. "These Sunni regimes are terrified that Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and even Sunni Hamas are all creating inspirational models of independent mass resistance against reigning U.S. and Israeli power in the region."
That Sunni leaders now feel compelled to follow public opinion was made evident by several developments this past week, beginning with Egypt's rejection of Washington's proposal to hold Wednesday's emergency international conference on Lebanon at Sharm al-Sheik. As a result, the conference, at which Rice was found herself completely isolated in rejecting calls for an immediate cease-fire, was held in Rome instead.
Tuesday's angry and unusually harsh denunciation by Saudi Arabia of what it called "unremitting Israeli aggression," which also warned Washington in particular of unpredictable "repercussions befalling the region, including wars and conflict that will spare no one" if a cease-fire is not quickly achieved, was also taken as a major reversal of its previous views.
"The Saudis thought they could get a cease-fire and be the heroes," said Marc Lynch, a Middle East specialist at Williams College who follows the Arab media closely. "When it became clear that that wasn't going to happen and public opinion was getting really mobilized, then they did a 180-degree turn. That is very significant."
Finally, Thursday's appearance on al-Jazeera of a new video by al-Qaeda deputy leader Ayman al-Zawahiri, in which he implicitly called for unity between Sunnis and Shia against the "Zionist-Crusader alliance," suggested that the most radical Sunni jihadis are eager not only to identify themselves with Hezbollah's resistance, but also see the current crisis as an opportunity for broadening their base.
"Just as Iraq served al-Qaeda's strategy by supplying an endless stream of images of 'heroic mujahideen' fighting against 'brutal Americans' – and became less useful as images of dead Iraqi civilians began to complicate the picture – the Lebanon war offers an unending supply of images and actions which powerfully support al-Qaeda's narrative and worldview … without the complications posed by [Abu Musab] Zarqawi's controversial anti-Shia strategy in Iraq," wrote Lynch on his widely read blog.
"In that regard, al-Qaeda's open support for Hezbollah might even help to heal the Sunni-Shia breach which Zarqawi worked to hard to open [in Iraq] against [Osama] bin Laden's and Zawahiri's advice," he added.
Even before the current Israel-Lebanon crisis, al-Qaeda had been trying to undo the damage caused by Zarqawi's anti-Shia campaign. In his most recent audio message, released July 1, several weeks after Zarqawi's death, bin Laden referred to Shi'ites as "cousins" and called for al-Qaeda of Mesopotamia, as Zarqawi's group is known, to make U.S. forces and their collaborators – rather than the general Shia population – its primary target.
"The Sunni-Shia divide is real, and it's not just being invented by the neocons, but if you look at mainstream public opinion, a lot of the Sunni-Shia stuff that the neocons and the press are picking up on is the invention of the [Sunni-led] regimes, especially in the Gulf, where Sunni leaders really are afraid of Iran and their Shia populations inconveniently happen to live on the oil fields," Lynch told IPS.
"For the Arab regimes, playing on Sunni-Shia differences is really a divide-and-conquer [strategy] to prevent the rise of a unified movement against them. But the fact is you're now seeing even very Sunni movements like the Muslim Brotherhood rallying to Hezbollah as the fighter against Israel, while these corrupt, impotent, pro-American governments aren't doing a thing."
(Inter Press Service)
Rice to return to Middle East for negotiations MSNBC
Secretary of state, allies make slow progress in securing cease-fire
'Everybody wants a cease-fire'
While in the Middle East, Rice and her diplomatic team remained focused on negotiating a way to end the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. Rice also dispatched two U.S. envoys, Elliot Abrams and David Welch, to work on a second track in the region. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, en route to Washington to meet Friday with Bush, said he will seek a U.N. resolution to resolve the Mideast crisis by early next week, his spokesman told reporters on customary condition of anonymity. Speaking in Malaysia on Friday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana said, “Everybody wants a cease-fire, everybody. We want the cease-fire to be durable and to be as soon as possible.” Crucial to any agreement, he said, is a legal package from the U.N. Security Council that would potentially deploy an international force to help the Lebanese government secure its entire territory. Rice attended individual meetings with eight foreign ministers, including those from the Muslim nations of Indonesia and Malaysia. The diplomats were almost certain to have raised the issue of the Mideast fighting. Earlier this week, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi censured Israel when he opened the meeting of foreign ministers gathered for the Asian regional conference. “We should condemn Israel’s latest use of disproportionate force in Gaza and the West Bank,” said Abdullah, who heads the world’s largest Islamic political conference. “We should not tolerate Israel’s excessive military reprisals against Lebanon.”
U.S. somewhat isolated
As the death toll and devastation rise, world attention has increasingly focused on the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri weighed in Thursday, calling for Muslims to unite in a holy war against Israel and to join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza until Islam reigns from “Spain to Iraq.” The Bush administration’s insistence that a cease-fire on the Lebanon-Israeli border address tough-to-negotiate regional disputes isolated Rice from many U.S. allies. International leaders including U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan are seeking a quick end to the fighting that has cost millions of dollars and hundreds of lives. He and others want to stop the violence before sorting out how to disarm Lebanon’s well-armed Hezbollah militia, strengthen the country’s central government and other difficult issues. As a result, a meeting of senior diplomats in Rome on Wednesday failed to produce a unanimous, concrete course for a cease-fire, falling back to a broad outline aimed at peace. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Snow disputed what he said was a “presumption” in some quarters that the U.S. diplomatic prescription wasn’t a success unless Rice had a cease-fire. “What she has said is, ‘What on earth is the good of having another empty-handed cease-fire in the Middle East?”’ he said. “What is the purpose of having something that is not enforceable at this juncture, and is not realistic?” He said U.S. diplomats in the region are working toward a U.N. resolution, U.S. diplomats in Europe are talking about troop contributions and the United States also is helping organize humanitarian aid.
North Korea worries
Even as Rice and representatives of the nations attending the conference were preoccupied with what is happening in the Middle East, they also faced another festering diplomatic problem with North Korea’s determination to develop a nuclear weapons program. Opening a meeting Friday of 10 nations discussing security concerns that Rice described as “bedeviling” northeast Asia, she said it’s unfortunate North Korea has been unwilling to return to the negotiating table. “The United States remains ready at any time, at any place and without any conditions to engage those discussions,” Rice said.
Secretary of state, allies make slow progress in securing cease-fire
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday at the Asian summit in Kuala Lumpur that she will be returning to the Middle East but gave no exact date for the trip.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday she will return to the Middle East to work with others on bringing an end to the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting, but did not say when. "I am going to return to the Middle East. The question is when is it right for me to return to the Middle East," she told a news conference after taking part in a global security forum in Malaysia. Rice came to Kuala Lumpur from a packed round of meetings in the Middle East via a one-day conference in Rome that called for an urgent, but not immediate, cease-fire to hostilities in southern Lebanon where Israeli forces have been fighting the militant group Hezbollah for more than two weeks. Rice and aides huddled with international leaders Friday about ways to advance an end to the hostilities, often working long-distance with European and Arab allies. A State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Rice would likely leave Malaysia on Saturday, rather than Friday as earlier expected. The changing schedule would delay a possible visit to the Middle East and suggests that Bush administration officials working behind the scenes on the crisis in Lebanon were making slow progress. Nearly every U.S. ally has called for a quick truce to end the bloodshed and efforts to smooth needed humanitarian supplies to the Lebanese. Rice agrees, but reiterated her position that the Israelis and the Lebanese must do the time-consuming work of achieving a sustainable peace plan. As she did so, President Bush’s spokesman Tony Snow said the administration would “push back” against criticism of the United States. 'Everybody wants a cease-fire'
While in the Middle East, Rice and her diplomatic team remained focused on negotiating a way to end the fighting between Israel and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah. Rice also dispatched two U.S. envoys, Elliot Abrams and David Welch, to work on a second track in the region. British Prime Minister Tony Blair, en route to Washington to meet Friday with Bush, said he will seek a U.N. resolution to resolve the Mideast crisis by early next week, his spokesman told reporters on customary condition of anonymity. Speaking in Malaysia on Friday, the European Union’s foreign policy chief Javier Solana said, “Everybody wants a cease-fire, everybody. We want the cease-fire to be durable and to be as soon as possible.” Crucial to any agreement, he said, is a legal package from the U.N. Security Council that would potentially deploy an international force to help the Lebanese government secure its entire territory. Rice attended individual meetings with eight foreign ministers, including those from the Muslim nations of Indonesia and Malaysia. The diplomats were almost certain to have raised the issue of the Mideast fighting. Earlier this week, Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi censured Israel when he opened the meeting of foreign ministers gathered for the Asian regional conference. “We should condemn Israel’s latest use of disproportionate force in Gaza and the West Bank,” said Abdullah, who heads the world’s largest Islamic political conference. “We should not tolerate Israel’s excessive military reprisals against Lebanon.”
U.S. somewhat isolated
As the death toll and devastation rise, world attention has increasingly focused on the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri weighed in Thursday, calling for Muslims to unite in a holy war against Israel and to join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza until Islam reigns from “Spain to Iraq.” The Bush administration’s insistence that a cease-fire on the Lebanon-Israeli border address tough-to-negotiate regional disputes isolated Rice from many U.S. allies. International leaders including U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan are seeking a quick end to the fighting that has cost millions of dollars and hundreds of lives. He and others want to stop the violence before sorting out how to disarm Lebanon’s well-armed Hezbollah militia, strengthen the country’s central government and other difficult issues. As a result, a meeting of senior diplomats in Rome on Wednesday failed to produce a unanimous, concrete course for a cease-fire, falling back to a broad outline aimed at peace. Speaking to reporters at the White House, Snow disputed what he said was a “presumption” in some quarters that the U.S. diplomatic prescription wasn’t a success unless Rice had a cease-fire. “What she has said is, ‘What on earth is the good of having another empty-handed cease-fire in the Middle East?”’ he said. “What is the purpose of having something that is not enforceable at this juncture, and is not realistic?” He said U.S. diplomats in the region are working toward a U.N. resolution, U.S. diplomats in Europe are talking about troop contributions and the United States also is helping organize humanitarian aid.
North Korea worries
Even as Rice and representatives of the nations attending the conference were preoccupied with what is happening in the Middle East, they also faced another festering diplomatic problem with North Korea’s determination to develop a nuclear weapons program. Opening a meeting Friday of 10 nations discussing security concerns that Rice described as “bedeviling” northeast Asia, she said it’s unfortunate North Korea has been unwilling to return to the negotiating table. “The United States remains ready at any time, at any place and without any conditions to engage those discussions,” Rice said.
In U.S., Blair to pressure Bush on Middle East MSNBC
Spokesman says British leader to seek a U.N. resolution to resolve fighting
Toward a cease-fire
Meanwhile, two U.S. Mideast envoys were holding diplomatic talks in the region and there has been speculation that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would return there over the weekend. White House spokesman Tony Snow said it was likely Bush and Blair would discuss strategies for ending the crisis, including proposals for the makeup and mandate of a peacekeeping force and for humanitarian and reconstruction aid for Lebanon. U.S. officials say European troops would likely dominate any international peacekeeping force. “I don’t anticipate American combat power, combat forces, being used in this force,” Rice told reporters Thursday while traveling to Malaysia for an Asian regional conference. With Israel signaling it is settling in for a much longer battle than had initially been expected, Bush suggested he would support the offensive for as long as it takes to cripple the Shiite Muslim militant group. The fighting began after Hezbollah crossed the border and captured two Israeli soldiers. Defying some members of his own parliament, Blair has insisted that Hezbollah must first free the soldiers and stop firing rockets into Israel, a similar position to that taken by Bush.
Hundreds killed
Israel’s punishing campaign of airstrikes, artillery shelling and clashes has killed an estimated 600 Lebanese. More than 50 Israelis have died, most of them soldiers. Many countries in Europe and the Middle East are calling for an immediate cease-fire and have deplored the impact of Israel’s campaign on Lebanon. The gap between the United States and Britain and other nations has intensified some of the diplomatic strains that have existed since Bush invaded Iraq in 2003 with Blair as one of his chief international backers. Blair comes to Washington for the second time in two months politically weakened, both by Iraq and by domestic woes in Britain. His close alliance with Bush has made him the subject of ridicule. Blair has responded to growing calls from inside his own party to step down by saying it is too soon. But he has promised to give up the prime minister’s post before the next national elections, expected by 2009. Most recently, Blair’s government has had to deal with allegations that two U.S.-chartered planes carrying missiles to Israel stopped to refuel at a Scottish airport without filing the proper paperwork for hazardous materials. The missile dispute has added to questions about what Britain gets out of its “special relationship” with the United States. And at the Group of Eight summit of world powers in St. Petersburg, Russia, Bush and Blair had an undignified luncheon chat unaware that a microphone was live. Bush’s “Yo, Blair!” greeting has dogged the British leader. From Washington, Blair was to fly to California for meetings with business leaders.
Spokesman says British leader to seek a U.N. resolution to resolve fighting
British Prime Minister Tony Blair boards an aircraft at London's Heathrow airport to fly to the U.S. for a meeting with President Bush on Friday where they will discuss strategies for ending the Mideast crisis.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair will seek a U.N. Security Council resolution to resolve the fighting in the Middle East when he arrives in the United States to meet with President Bush on Friday, his spokesman said. Blair will attempt to “increase the urgency” of diplomacy to end the violence between Israel and Hezbollah when he meets Bush in Washington, his spokesman told reporters on board Blair’s plane. He spoke on customary condition of anonymity. Bush and Blair come together at the White House as consultations continue on a possible international peacekeeping force to stabilize the more than 2-week-old situation and supplement the Lebanese army. State Department counselor Philip Zelikow is working in Brussels with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana and there were plans for meetings at the United Nations. Blair's spokesman said the prime minister hopes a U.N. resolution could be in place by early next week. The spokesman said Blair will seek “to increase the urgency, the pace of diplomacy, in identifying the practical steps that are necessary to bring about a cease-fire on both sides.” “We want to accelerate discussions that are going on among the international community, identifying those who would serve in a stabilization force, and increase the tempo of putting that stabilization force together,” he said.Toward a cease-fire
Meanwhile, two U.S. Mideast envoys were holding diplomatic talks in the region and there has been speculation that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would return there over the weekend. White House spokesman Tony Snow said it was likely Bush and Blair would discuss strategies for ending the crisis, including proposals for the makeup and mandate of a peacekeeping force and for humanitarian and reconstruction aid for Lebanon. U.S. officials say European troops would likely dominate any international peacekeeping force. “I don’t anticipate American combat power, combat forces, being used in this force,” Rice told reporters Thursday while traveling to Malaysia for an Asian regional conference. With Israel signaling it is settling in for a much longer battle than had initially been expected, Bush suggested he would support the offensive for as long as it takes to cripple the Shiite Muslim militant group. The fighting began after Hezbollah crossed the border and captured two Israeli soldiers. Defying some members of his own parliament, Blair has insisted that Hezbollah must first free the soldiers and stop firing rockets into Israel, a similar position to that taken by Bush.
Hundreds killed
Israel’s punishing campaign of airstrikes, artillery shelling and clashes has killed an estimated 600 Lebanese. More than 50 Israelis have died, most of them soldiers. Many countries in Europe and the Middle East are calling for an immediate cease-fire and have deplored the impact of Israel’s campaign on Lebanon. The gap between the United States and Britain and other nations has intensified some of the diplomatic strains that have existed since Bush invaded Iraq in 2003 with Blair as one of his chief international backers. Blair comes to Washington for the second time in two months politically weakened, both by Iraq and by domestic woes in Britain. His close alliance with Bush has made him the subject of ridicule. Blair has responded to growing calls from inside his own party to step down by saying it is too soon. But he has promised to give up the prime minister’s post before the next national elections, expected by 2009. Most recently, Blair’s government has had to deal with allegations that two U.S.-chartered planes carrying missiles to Israel stopped to refuel at a Scottish airport without filing the proper paperwork for hazardous materials. The missile dispute has added to questions about what Britain gets out of its “special relationship” with the United States. And at the Group of Eight summit of world powers in St. Petersburg, Russia, Bush and Blair had an undignified luncheon chat unaware that a microphone was live. Bush’s “Yo, Blair!” greeting has dogged the British leader. From Washington, Blair was to fly to California for meetings with business leaders.
Israeli air raids kill 11 in southern Lebanon MSNBC
Villages pounded after Olmert decides to intensify airstrikes, ground forays
Hezbollah casualties
An Israeli military source told Reuters that the army believed it had killed at least 200 Hezbollah fighters in the conflict. The Shiite guerrillas have acknowledged only 31 dead. Hundreds of civilians casualties and a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon have fueled world pressure for an instant cease-fire. Washington insists on finding a durable solution first -- one that eliminates Hezbollah’s capacity to menace Israel and thereby reduces the influence of its allies Syria and Iran. U.N. Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said it would be hard to get a cease-fire agreed without involving Iran and Syria. Asked if a quick cease-fire was possible, he told France’s Le Figaro newspaper: “Frankly, no. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah are displaying any sign of accepting one right now. On the contrary, both have remained very belligerent.” Larsen said it was too early to say if Iran and Syria could join peace efforts, adding that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan had spoken to the presidents of both countries. President Bush meets British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Washington later on Friday. Blair is under pressure to distance himself from his U.S. ally and join Arab and European nations in demanding that the Lebanon war stop now. France and European Union president Finland made clear on Thursday they wanted an immediate truce. Bush said he wanted an early end to the violence, but not a “fake peace.” An overwhelming majority of Israelis continue to support the war in Lebanon and say the country should be even more forthright in its actions, a newspaper poll showed on Friday. The survey showed that 82 percent of all Israelis and 92 percent of the Jewish population felt the operation against Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon was justified. The conflict has largely overshadowed fighting in the Gaza Strip, where Israel launched an offensive a month ago when Palestinian militants captured a soldier in a cross-border raid. Israeli aircraft attacked homes owned by Palestinian militants and a metal workshop in the Gaza Strip on Friday, wounding seven people, medics and witnesses said. Dozens of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles withdrew from areas east and north of Gaza City after a two-day operation against gunmen that killed 30 Palestinians, around half of them civilians, witnesses and Palestinian security sources said.
Villages pounded after Olmert decides to intensify airstrikes, ground forays
Smoke billows in the town of Khiam, southern Lebanon, after an Israeli air raid on Friday.
Israel battered Lebanon on Friday, killing 11 people as waves of air raids struck villages in the hills behind the southern port of Tyre and hundreds of artillery rounds crashed across the border. Security sources told Reuters that at least eight people, including a Jordanian, died in over 40 air raids in the south. Three were killed in overnight airstrikes in the eastern Bekaa Valley. Despite growing world demands for an end to Israel’s war with Hezbollah guerrillas, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice delayed a possible return to the region. The pounding of villages, where some civilians remain trapped, followed a decision by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s security cabinet to intensify airstrikes and ground forays against Hezbollah, rather than launching a big invasion. Rice is likely to delay her departure from Malaysia until Saturday, said a senior State Department official, dashing prospects that she would return to the Middle East on Friday. “She will go when it is the right time,” the official said. “She will go when it is useful.” Her bags were packed and ready to go when the schedule was suddenly changed, suggesting that negotiations had not reached a point where her presence could produce a halt to hostilities that have killed 456 people in Lebanon and 51 Israelis. Rice came to Kuala Lumpur after a trip to Lebanon and Israel earlier in the week and a one-day conference in Rome that stopped short of calling for the violence to stop forthwith. Israel has taken Washington’s refusal to demand an immediate cease-fire as permission to pursue an onslaught on Lebanon aimed at crippling Hezbollah guerrillas who set off the conflict by seizing two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. Hezbollah has kept up rocket strikes on northern Israel and fought Israeli ground incursions, especially near the southern town of Bint Jbeil, where sporadic fighting continued on Friday.Hezbollah casualties
An Israeli military source told Reuters that the army believed it had killed at least 200 Hezbollah fighters in the conflict. The Shiite guerrillas have acknowledged only 31 dead. Hundreds of civilians casualties and a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon have fueled world pressure for an instant cease-fire. Washington insists on finding a durable solution first -- one that eliminates Hezbollah’s capacity to menace Israel and thereby reduces the influence of its allies Syria and Iran. U.N. Middle East envoy Terje Roed-Larsen said it would be hard to get a cease-fire agreed without involving Iran and Syria. Asked if a quick cease-fire was possible, he told France’s Le Figaro newspaper: “Frankly, no. Neither Israel nor Hezbollah are displaying any sign of accepting one right now. On the contrary, both have remained very belligerent.” Larsen said it was too early to say if Iran and Syria could join peace efforts, adding that U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan had spoken to the presidents of both countries. President Bush meets British Prime Minister Tony Blair in Washington later on Friday. Blair is under pressure to distance himself from his U.S. ally and join Arab and European nations in demanding that the Lebanon war stop now. France and European Union president Finland made clear on Thursday they wanted an immediate truce. Bush said he wanted an early end to the violence, but not a “fake peace.” An overwhelming majority of Israelis continue to support the war in Lebanon and say the country should be even more forthright in its actions, a newspaper poll showed on Friday. The survey showed that 82 percent of all Israelis and 92 percent of the Jewish population felt the operation against Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon was justified. The conflict has largely overshadowed fighting in the Gaza Strip, where Israel launched an offensive a month ago when Palestinian militants captured a soldier in a cross-border raid. Israeli aircraft attacked homes owned by Palestinian militants and a metal workshop in the Gaza Strip on Friday, wounding seven people, medics and witnesses said. Dozens of Israeli tanks and armored vehicles withdrew from areas east and north of Gaza City after a two-day operation against gunmen that killed 30 Palestinians, around half of them civilians, witnesses and Palestinian security sources said.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-L...r=1&oref=slogin
U.N. Observers Leave Israel - Lebanon Border
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 28, 2006
Filed at 9:18 a.m. ET
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- The United Nations has decided to remove unarmed observers from their posts along the Israeli-Lebanese border, moving them in with the peacekeeping force in the area, a spokesman said Friday. The decision came three days after one of the posts of the observer force, known as UNTSO, was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike earlier this week, killing four.
''These are unarmed people and this is for their protection,'' said Milos Struger, a spokesman for UNIFIL, the peacekeeping force whose 2,000 members have light weapons for self-defense.
In other developments, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at dozens of targets across southern Lebanon overnight, including buildings that were reduced to rubble and a Hezbollah base where long-range rockets were stored, the military said.
Israeli defense forces said aircraft hit a total of 130 targets in Lebanon on Thursday and early Friday, including a Hezbollah base in the Bekaa Valley, where long-range rockets were stored, and 57 Hezbollah structures, six missile launching sites and six communication facilities.
Israeli jets fired missiles at a three-story building near the southern Lebanon market town of Nabatiyeh, destroying the building and killing a Jordanian man who was hit by shrapnel in a nearby home, Lebanese security officials.
The building housed a construction company believed to be owned by a Hezbollah activist, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with the media. The strike also wounded four children nearby, they said.
Israel also destroyed two buildings in the village of Kfar Jouz near Nabatiyeh, and civil defense teams were struggling to rescue people believed buried in the rubble, witnesses said.
Warplanes pounded roads in southeastern Lebanon, a Lebanese army checkpoint in Ansar village and a castle in Arnoun village near the Lebanon-Israel border. In addition, Israeli jets fired more than 30 missiles at suspected Hezbollah hideouts in hills and mountainous areas in the southern part of the country, security officials said.
Meanwhile, the guerrillas continued to launch rockets into northern Israel on Friday, with 10 fired at the towns of Ma'alot, Karmiel and Safed by midmorning, the army said. No casualties were reported.
At least 438 people have been reported killed in Lebanon since fighting broke out between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas, most of them Lebanese civilians. But Lebanon's health minister estimated Thursday that as many as 600 civilians have been killed so far in the offensive.
Thirty-three Israeli soldiers have died in the fighting and 19 civilians have been killed in Hezbollah's unyielding rocket attacks on Israel's northern towns, the army said.
The army said Friday that Israeli troops have killed about 200 Hezbollah guerrillas since fighting began more than two weeks ago. Hezbollah has reported far fewer casualties.
Israel launched its offensive in Lebanon on July 12, after Hezbollah guerrillas overran the border, killing eight soldiers and capturing two others. Israeli forces opened an earlier offensive in the Gaza Strip on June 28, three days after Hamas militants attacked Israeli army post in southern Israeli, killing two soldiers and capturing another one.
Hezbollah and Hamas have both demanded the release of Hezbollah and Palestinian prisoners in return for freedom for the three Israeli captives, but Israel's government has refused.
Israel decided on Thursday not to expand its ground battle with Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon for now, but the Cabinet authorized the army to call up 30,000 reserve soldiers in case the fighting intensified.
In Geneva, the international Red Cross appealed for $81 million to help victims of the fighting in Lebanon. Life is becoming ''unbearably dangerous'' for civilians who have been trapped by the violence, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
Resources and access to water and basic services are also very limited, the ICRC said in a statement, while medical evacuations and aid operations are very difficult and cannot meet the population's needs.
''In southern Lebanon, the No. 1 issue today is ensuring the safety of civilians and securing safe access for those engaged in medical and other humanitarian activities,'' said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the ICRC's director of operations.
''At the same time, the damage to civilian infrastructure and the country's economy, coupled with the large-scale displacement of civilians, requires an emergency response that is likely to extend into next year,'' Kraehenbuehl said.
The U.N. observation post near Khiam came under close Israeli fire 21 times Tuesday -- including 12 hits within 100 yards and five direct hits from 1:20 p.m. until the peacekeepers' post was destroyed at 7:30 p.m., Jane Lute, assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, told the U.N. Security Council in New York.
U.N. officials said Hezbollah militants had been operating in the area of the post near the eastern end of the border with Israel, a routine tactic to prevent Israel from attacking them.
''We did repeatedly in recent days say (to Israel) that this was an exposed position, that Hezbollah militants were 500 meters (yards) away shielding themselves near U.N. workers and civilians,'' U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said. ''That's why it is so inexplicable that what happened.''
Israeli officials had told the United Nations that the bombing around the base was part of an ''an aerial preparation for a ground operation,'' said the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Officials in the outpost called the Israeli army 10 times during those six hours, and each time an army official promised to have the bombing stopped, according to a preliminary U.N. report on the incident, which was shown to an Associated Press reporter on Wednesday.
U.N. Observers Leave Israel - Lebanon Border
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: July 28, 2006
Filed at 9:18 a.m. ET
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- The United Nations has decided to remove unarmed observers from their posts along the Israeli-Lebanese border, moving them in with the peacekeeping force in the area, a spokesman said Friday. The decision came three days after one of the posts of the observer force, known as UNTSO, was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike earlier this week, killing four.
''These are unarmed people and this is for their protection,'' said Milos Struger, a spokesman for UNIFIL, the peacekeeping force whose 2,000 members have light weapons for self-defense.
In other developments, Israeli warplanes fired missiles at dozens of targets across southern Lebanon overnight, including buildings that were reduced to rubble and a Hezbollah base where long-range rockets were stored, the military said.
Israeli defense forces said aircraft hit a total of 130 targets in Lebanon on Thursday and early Friday, including a Hezbollah base in the Bekaa Valley, where long-range rockets were stored, and 57 Hezbollah structures, six missile launching sites and six communication facilities.
Israeli jets fired missiles at a three-story building near the southern Lebanon market town of Nabatiyeh, destroying the building and killing a Jordanian man who was hit by shrapnel in a nearby home, Lebanese security officials.
The building housed a construction company believed to be owned by a Hezbollah activist, the officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk with the media. The strike also wounded four children nearby, they said.
Israel also destroyed two buildings in the village of Kfar Jouz near Nabatiyeh, and civil defense teams were struggling to rescue people believed buried in the rubble, witnesses said.
Warplanes pounded roads in southeastern Lebanon, a Lebanese army checkpoint in Ansar village and a castle in Arnoun village near the Lebanon-Israel border. In addition, Israeli jets fired more than 30 missiles at suspected Hezbollah hideouts in hills and mountainous areas in the southern part of the country, security officials said.
Meanwhile, the guerrillas continued to launch rockets into northern Israel on Friday, with 10 fired at the towns of Ma'alot, Karmiel and Safed by midmorning, the army said. No casualties were reported.
At least 438 people have been reported killed in Lebanon since fighting broke out between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas, most of them Lebanese civilians. But Lebanon's health minister estimated Thursday that as many as 600 civilians have been killed so far in the offensive.
Thirty-three Israeli soldiers have died in the fighting and 19 civilians have been killed in Hezbollah's unyielding rocket attacks on Israel's northern towns, the army said.
The army said Friday that Israeli troops have killed about 200 Hezbollah guerrillas since fighting began more than two weeks ago. Hezbollah has reported far fewer casualties.
Israel launched its offensive in Lebanon on July 12, after Hezbollah guerrillas overran the border, killing eight soldiers and capturing two others. Israeli forces opened an earlier offensive in the Gaza Strip on June 28, three days after Hamas militants attacked Israeli army post in southern Israeli, killing two soldiers and capturing another one.
Hezbollah and Hamas have both demanded the release of Hezbollah and Palestinian prisoners in return for freedom for the three Israeli captives, but Israel's government has refused.
Israel decided on Thursday not to expand its ground battle with Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon for now, but the Cabinet authorized the army to call up 30,000 reserve soldiers in case the fighting intensified.
In Geneva, the international Red Cross appealed for $81 million to help victims of the fighting in Lebanon. Life is becoming ''unbearably dangerous'' for civilians who have been trapped by the violence, the International Committee of the Red Cross said.
Resources and access to water and basic services are also very limited, the ICRC said in a statement, while medical evacuations and aid operations are very difficult and cannot meet the population's needs.
''In southern Lebanon, the No. 1 issue today is ensuring the safety of civilians and securing safe access for those engaged in medical and other humanitarian activities,'' said Pierre Kraehenbuehl, the ICRC's director of operations.
''At the same time, the damage to civilian infrastructure and the country's economy, coupled with the large-scale displacement of civilians, requires an emergency response that is likely to extend into next year,'' Kraehenbuehl said.
The U.N. observation post near Khiam came under close Israeli fire 21 times Tuesday -- including 12 hits within 100 yards and five direct hits from 1:20 p.m. until the peacekeepers' post was destroyed at 7:30 p.m., Jane Lute, assistant secretary-general for peacekeeping, told the U.N. Security Council in New York.
U.N. officials said Hezbollah militants had been operating in the area of the post near the eastern end of the border with Israel, a routine tactic to prevent Israel from attacking them.
''We did repeatedly in recent days say (to Israel) that this was an exposed position, that Hezbollah militants were 500 meters (yards) away shielding themselves near U.N. workers and civilians,'' U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said. ''That's why it is so inexplicable that what happened.''
Israeli officials had told the United Nations that the bombing around the base was part of an ''an aerial preparation for a ground operation,'' said the senior official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Officials in the outpost called the Israeli army 10 times during those six hours, and each time an army official promised to have the bombing stopped, according to a preliminary U.N. report on the incident, which was shown to an Associated Press reporter on Wednesday.
Last update - 09:51 28/07/2006
Analysis / The alternative to Hezbollah may be occupation
By Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz Correspondent
"So, you don't want peace? You want war all the time?" asked a young Lebanese participant in a fascinating televised discussion Thursday night on Lebanon's LBC station. She was addressing a group of young men, some with shaved heads and short beards, dressed in the latest fashions and uttering nationalist slogans. She seemed to stand no chance. Only two of those men identified themselves as Hezbollah supporters; the rest, both Muslims and Christians, proclaimed the "need for unity."
A poll on Thursday confirmed what was apparent during the television discussion: Some 96 percent of Shiites expressed support for the abduction of the Israeli soldiers, as did 73 percent of Sunnis, 54 percent of Christians and 40 percent of Druze. Most of the participants in the poll felt that Israel will not be able to defeat Hezbollah.
This public opinion is no secret to the Lebanese government, which, during the Rome Conference on Wednesday, realized that it must return home and improve its offer if it wants to obtain a cease-fire. Therefore, the meetings held on Thursday between the Speaker of the Parliament, Nabih Berri, Hezbollah and members of the largest blocs in the government were meant to shape a political agreement.
The characteristics of this agreement are beginning to take shape. They include an immediate cease-fire, an Israeli withdrawal from Shaba Farms, a map of Israeli mine fields left in southern Lebanon following the May 2000 withdrawal, an exchange of prisoners, and implementation of the Taif Agreement of 1989, which reiterates the 1949 cease-fire agreement between Israel and Lebanon. The proposal will also include the imposition of Lebanese sovereignty throughout the country, including the border area with Israel.
What the various Lebanese factions have not yet agreed on is the order in which all this will happen, or how the demilitarized area in southern Lebanon will be guaranteed. Furthermore, there is no unified view on the deployment of a multinational force in this area.
Naim Qassem, the deputy of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, said in an article published in Al-Nahar on Thursday that the group will consider it a victory if Lebanon does not become an American bridgehead in the Middle East. This does not reflect merely an ideological aspiration, but a real opposition to the deployment of a NATO force controlled by the United States in southern Lebanon. As for disarmament, if at all, Hezbollah would like to leave this issue to domestic discussions between the group and the government, without any external interference or dictates.
The question now is whether it will be possible to obtain a declaration of intent from Israel and the United States. In short, will Israel agree, in advance, to withdraw from Shaba Farms, if Syria transfers an official document confirming it to be Lebanese, and if the Lebanese army deploys there in place of the Israel Defense Forces? Will Israel agree to negotiations with the government of Lebanon, and not Hezbollah, over an exchange of prisoners? These two issues are directly relevant to the way the results of this war will be viewed, because any declarations of intent on these points will be considered Hezbollah achievements.
On the other hand, if Israel decides that it can register achievements without cooperating with the Lebanese government - that is, without allowing Hezbollah any gains - it may find itself faced with Lebanese unity of the kind that it experienced during its years of occupation. In that case, Israel might find itself caught in a situation similar to the one it has faced in the territories since it chose to give up its partner: a direct, long-term occupation.
Analysis / The alternative to Hezbollah may be occupation
By Zvi Bar'el, Haaretz Correspondent
"So, you don't want peace? You want war all the time?" asked a young Lebanese participant in a fascinating televised discussion Thursday night on Lebanon's LBC station. She was addressing a group of young men, some with shaved heads and short beards, dressed in the latest fashions and uttering nationalist slogans. She seemed to stand no chance. Only two of those men identified themselves as Hezbollah supporters; the rest, both Muslims and Christians, proclaimed the "need for unity."
A poll on Thursday confirmed what was apparent during the television discussion: Some 96 percent of Shiites expressed support for the abduction of the Israeli soldiers, as did 73 percent of Sunnis, 54 percent of Christians and 40 percent of Druze. Most of the participants in the poll felt that Israel will not be able to defeat Hezbollah.
This public opinion is no secret to the Lebanese government, which, during the Rome Conference on Wednesday, realized that it must return home and improve its offer if it wants to obtain a cease-fire. Therefore, the meetings held on Thursday between the Speaker of the Parliament, Nabih Berri, Hezbollah and members of the largest blocs in the government were meant to shape a political agreement.
The characteristics of this agreement are beginning to take shape. They include an immediate cease-fire, an Israeli withdrawal from Shaba Farms, a map of Israeli mine fields left in southern Lebanon following the May 2000 withdrawal, an exchange of prisoners, and implementation of the Taif Agreement of 1989, which reiterates the 1949 cease-fire agreement between Israel and Lebanon. The proposal will also include the imposition of Lebanese sovereignty throughout the country, including the border area with Israel.
What the various Lebanese factions have not yet agreed on is the order in which all this will happen, or how the demilitarized area in southern Lebanon will be guaranteed. Furthermore, there is no unified view on the deployment of a multinational force in this area.
Naim Qassem, the deputy of Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah, said in an article published in Al-Nahar on Thursday that the group will consider it a victory if Lebanon does not become an American bridgehead in the Middle East. This does not reflect merely an ideological aspiration, but a real opposition to the deployment of a NATO force controlled by the United States in southern Lebanon. As for disarmament, if at all, Hezbollah would like to leave this issue to domestic discussions between the group and the government, without any external interference or dictates.
The question now is whether it will be possible to obtain a declaration of intent from Israel and the United States. In short, will Israel agree, in advance, to withdraw from Shaba Farms, if Syria transfers an official document confirming it to be Lebanese, and if the Lebanese army deploys there in place of the Israel Defense Forces? Will Israel agree to negotiations with the government of Lebanon, and not Hezbollah, over an exchange of prisoners? These two issues are directly relevant to the way the results of this war will be viewed, because any declarations of intent on these points will be considered Hezbollah achievements.
On the other hand, if Israel decides that it can register achievements without cooperating with the Lebanese government - that is, without allowing Hezbollah any gains - it may find itself faced with Lebanese unity of the kind that it experienced during its years of occupation. In that case, Israel might find itself caught in a situation similar to the one it has faced in the territories since it chose to give up its partner: a direct, long-term occupation.
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Israeli intelligence ups estimate of Hizballah stock of Zelzal-2 missiles whose 250km range covers Tel Aviv and Jerusalem
July 28, 2006, 1:56 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israeli army chiefs fear that Hassan Nasrallah, having received the nod from Tehran Wednesday, will start firing them at central Israel over the weekend.
Although the Israeli air force has destroyed some of these missiles which carry a 600 kilo payload, several dozen still remain. Thursday night and Friday morning, July 28, Israeli bombers struck Hizballah locations in the northern Beqaa Valley where the Zelzal-2 missiles are stored.
DEBKAfile’s military sources add: The Israeli army discovered the 3.5-on, 8.46 meters long missiles were stored in buildings with strengthened floors and walls to carry their weight, their roofs removed and replaced with makeshift coverings such as branches and twigs. These coverings are dense enough to block the missiles from the view of Israeli aircraft but are easily removable to enable the rapid launch of the Zelzal from inside the building where it is stored. The warning by Israel’s generals about the Zelzal’s deployment also applies to the Mohajer-4, a pilotless aircraft packed with explosives. In November 2004 and April 2005, this Iranian drone penetrated Israeli airspace undetected.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
July 28, 2006, 1:56 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israeli army chiefs fear that Hassan Nasrallah, having received the nod from Tehran Wednesday, will start firing them at central Israel over the weekend.
Although the Israeli air force has destroyed some of these missiles which carry a 600 kilo payload, several dozen still remain. Thursday night and Friday morning, July 28, Israeli bombers struck Hizballah locations in the northern Beqaa Valley where the Zelzal-2 missiles are stored.
DEBKAfile’s military sources add: The Israeli army discovered the 3.5-on, 8.46 meters long missiles were stored in buildings with strengthened floors and walls to carry their weight, their roofs removed and replaced with makeshift coverings such as branches and twigs. These coverings are dense enough to block the missiles from the view of Israeli aircraft but are easily removable to enable the rapid launch of the Zelzal from inside the building where it is stored. The warning by Israel’s generals about the Zelzal’s deployment also applies to the Mohajer-4, a pilotless aircraft packed with explosives. In November 2004 and April 2005, this Iranian drone penetrated Israeli airspace undetected.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
DEBKAfile reports a war council in Damascus chaired by Syrian president Bashar Assad, attended by Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah and senior Iranian official Ali Larijani
July 28, 2006, 4:42 PM (GMT+02:00)
Iran‘s state news agency confirmed Nasrallah’s presence in the Syrian capital “for consultations.”
DEBKAfile’s military sources note that Nasrallah crossed over despite the heavy Israeli air bombardment of Lebanese-Syrian border regions. The war conference is attended also by Hamas leaders Khaled Meshaal and Mussa Abu Marzouk as well as the Palestinian Jihad Islami chief Abdallah Ramadan Shelah. The Palestinian terrorist leaders were invited in their capacity as commanders of the second front against Israel in Gaza.
This anti-Israel coalition will no doubt decide on the two fronts’ next steps in their war against the “Zionist enemy.” The fact that Assad is there and the consultation is taking place in his capital indicates that he and the other participants feel confident enough to decide on a further escalation of the violence.
The conference began hours after the Israeli cabinet decided against broadening the campaign against Hizballah or attacking Syria indicating that Tehran, Damascus, Hizballah and the Palestinian terrorists sensed a weakening of Israel’s resolve to fight back. This sort of soft talk from Jerusalem is not taken on trust but makes the Syrians suspect that Israel is playing a double game. Their response will be to redouble their hostilities in the very near future.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
July 28, 2006, 4:42 PM (GMT+02:00)
Iran‘s state news agency confirmed Nasrallah’s presence in the Syrian capital “for consultations.”
DEBKAfile’s military sources note that Nasrallah crossed over despite the heavy Israeli air bombardment of Lebanese-Syrian border regions. The war conference is attended also by Hamas leaders Khaled Meshaal and Mussa Abu Marzouk as well as the Palestinian Jihad Islami chief Abdallah Ramadan Shelah. The Palestinian terrorist leaders were invited in their capacity as commanders of the second front against Israel in Gaza.
This anti-Israel coalition will no doubt decide on the two fronts’ next steps in their war against the “Zionist enemy.” The fact that Assad is there and the consultation is taking place in his capital indicates that he and the other participants feel confident enough to decide on a further escalation of the violence.
The conference began hours after the Israeli cabinet decided against broadening the campaign against Hizballah or attacking Syria indicating that Tehran, Damascus, Hizballah and the Palestinian terrorists sensed a weakening of Israel’s resolve to fight back. This sort of soft talk from Jerusalem is not taken on trust but makes the Syrians suspect that Israel is playing a double game. Their response will be to redouble their hostilities in the very near future.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Two cargo planes carrying munitions from the US to Israel due over the weekend
July 28, 2006, 11:17 AM (GMT+02:00)
London complained to Washington about two previous flights carrying GBU-28 bunker busters for bombing Hizballah’s tunnel fortresses stopping over at a Scottish airport en route for Israel.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Becker accused the US of not following procedures.
On July 23, DEBKAfile first revealed the start of a US airlift to Israel in response to Iran’s re-supplies to Hizballah three days earlier. Israel is receiving fresh stocks of bombs, missiles and spare parts for Israel Air Force aircraft and helicopters. Hizballah is getting via Syria long-range Zelzal-2 missiles which can reach Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and Fajr 3, Fajr 5 and Katyusha rockets as well as anti-tank and anti-air missiles. The supplies land at Syria’s Abu Ad Duhur military airfield north of Homs.
Thursday, July 21, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander Brig.-Gen Yahya Rahim Safavi (picture) assumed command of the Lebanon war from Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah. RG forward command posts are operating out of Iranian embassies in Beirut and Damascus. Syria has placed its army, Scud missiles and air force in a state of preparedness.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
Two cargo planes carrying munitions from the US to Israel due over the weekend
July 28, 2006, 11:17 AM (GMT+02:00)
London complained to Washington about two previous flights carrying GBU-28 bunker busters for bombing Hizballah’s tunnel fortresses stopping over at a Scottish airport en route for Israel.
British Foreign Secretary Margaret Becker accused the US of not following procedures.
On July 23, DEBKAfile first revealed the start of a US airlift to Israel in response to Iran’s re-supplies to Hizballah three days earlier. Israel is receiving fresh stocks of bombs, missiles and spare parts for Israel Air Force aircraft and helicopters. Hizballah is getting via Syria long-range Zelzal-2 missiles which can reach Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, and Fajr 3, Fajr 5 and Katyusha rockets as well as anti-tank and anti-air missiles. The supplies land at Syria’s Abu Ad Duhur military airfield north of Homs.
Thursday, July 21, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards commander Brig.-Gen Yahya Rahim Safavi (picture) assumed command of the Lebanon war from Hizballah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah. RG forward command posts are operating out of Iranian embassies in Beirut and Damascus. Syria has placed its army, Scud missiles and air force in a state of preparedness.
Copyright 2000-2006 DEBKAfile. All Rights Reserved.
Bush aims for rapid Lebanon force BBC News
An international force must be quickly despatched to Lebanon, US President George W Bush has said. After talks in Washington with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr Bush said the two countries' goal was to achieve a "lasting peace" in the region. But neither called for an immediate ceasefire. The US secretary of state is returning to the region on Saturday. Earlier, Hezbollah said it had fired a new long-range rocket, called the Khaibar-1, into northern Israel. Meanwhile, the UN has called for a 72-hour truce in the conflict zone to allow humanitarian aid in and to get casualties out. Mr Bush said he and Mr Blair had agreed an international force would augment the Lebanese army, and assist with the distribution of humanitarian aid. He told reporters their top priorities in dealing with the crisis were to:
Convoy hit
Earlier on Friday, two mortar rounds hit a convoy of vehicles carrying civilians escaping the violence in southern Lebanon. Two people travelling in a German TV car were wounded. The convoy, organised by the Australian embassy, was returning to the port city of Tyre from the border village of Rmeish, where hundreds of people have been trapped by the Israeli offensive. Our correspondent says the cars were clearly marked as a press and civilian convoy, and that individual journalists had been in contact with the Israelis who knew about the journey. The Israeli Defence Forces said they did not believe it was one of their mortars but were still checking.
Air strikes
Some 425 Lebanese, the vast majority civilians, are confirmed killed in the 17 days of the conflict - but a Lebanese minister has suggested scores more bodies lie under the rubble. Fifty-one Israelis, including at least 18 civilians, have been killed, mostly by Hezbollah rockets. The Israeli assault began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid on 12 July. Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz stressed on Friday Israel had no plans to start operations against Syria. In other developments:
An international force must be quickly despatched to Lebanon, US President George W Bush has said. After talks in Washington with UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, Mr Bush said the two countries' goal was to achieve a "lasting peace" in the region. But neither called for an immediate ceasefire. The US secretary of state is returning to the region on Saturday. Earlier, Hezbollah said it had fired a new long-range rocket, called the Khaibar-1, into northern Israel. Meanwhile, the UN has called for a 72-hour truce in the conflict zone to allow humanitarian aid in and to get casualties out. Mr Bush said he and Mr Blair had agreed an international force would augment the Lebanese army, and assist with the distribution of humanitarian aid. He told reporters their top priorities in dealing with the crisis were to:
- Help provide immediate humanitarian relief
- Achieve an end to the violence
- Return those displaced by the crisis
- Help with reconstruction
Convoy hit
Earlier on Friday, two mortar rounds hit a convoy of vehicles carrying civilians escaping the violence in southern Lebanon. Two people travelling in a German TV car were wounded. The convoy, organised by the Australian embassy, was returning to the port city of Tyre from the border village of Rmeish, where hundreds of people have been trapped by the Israeli offensive. Our correspondent says the cars were clearly marked as a press and civilian convoy, and that individual journalists had been in contact with the Israelis who knew about the journey. The Israeli Defence Forces said they did not believe it was one of their mortars but were still checking.
Air strikes
Some 425 Lebanese, the vast majority civilians, are confirmed killed in the 17 days of the conflict - but a Lebanese minister has suggested scores more bodies lie under the rubble. Fifty-one Israelis, including at least 18 civilians, have been killed, mostly by Hezbollah rockets. The Israeli assault began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid on 12 July. Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz stressed on Friday Israel had no plans to start operations against Syria. In other developments:
- A Jordanian man was killed and at least three other people wounded in one of several strikes in Kfar Joz, close to the south Lebanese market town of Natabiyeh
- There were multiple strikes on the Bekaa Valley to the east, on villages around Tyre, and roads in the south-east
- Sporadic clashes were reported in Bint Jbeil, where Israel suffered its worst single losses on Wednesday
- Unarmed UN observers have been temporarily relocated from border positions in southern Lebanon after the deaths of four UN observers in an Israeli strike on Tuesday
- Israeli military chief Dan Halutz was taken to hospital after feeling unwell but later returned home, Israeli Channel 10 TV reported.
Hizbollah demands halt to "aggression" Swissinfo
Hizbollah pledged on Saturday to deny the United States and Israel any political gains from the war in Lebanon as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Jerusalem to discuss ways to end the 18-day-old conflict.
Israel rejected as unnecessary a United Nations plea for a truce to aid civilians trapped by fighting. Hours later, an Israeli air strike killed a woman and six children in a house in the southern village of Nmeiriya, medics said. At least 469 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon in the conflict, and 51 Israelis have died. In an interview with Reuters, Hizbollah's deputy chief Naim Kassem demanded an immediate halt to "Israeli aggression". Asked how Hizbollah viewed U.S. demands for its guerrillas to disarm and make way for an international force in south Lebanon, Kassem said: "America and Israel have no right to get a result from their defeat. There is no (military) victory for America and Israel for them to make political gains." Pressed on possible deployment of such a force, he said Hizbollah had decided not to talk about this in public. President George W. Bush said the conflict in Lebanon was part of the wider struggle against terrorism and any strategy to end the violence must address the threat posed by Hizbollah. "As we work to resolve this current crisis, we must recognise that Lebanon is the latest flashpoint in a broader struggle between freedom and terror that is unfolding across the region," he said in his weekly radio address. Rice, who was flying to Jerusalem from Malaysia, was due to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to discuss the outlines of a U.N. Security Council resolution. "She will be able to tell us exactly what kind of international force has to be sent here and what kind of resolution has to be passed by the United Nations," Israeli government spokesman Avi Pazner said. Rice, who will meet Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora later in her Middle East mission, said she expected her talks to be tough. "There has to be give and take," she added. Neither side showed much willingness for compromise. Israel dismissed a proposal by U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland for a 72-hour truce to let relief workers reach stricken civilians and deliver emergency aid. "There is no need for a 72-hour temporary cease-fire because Israel has opened a humanitarian corridor to and from Lebanon," Pazner said, drawing a swift rebuke from France.
NO SAFE ACCESS
While Israel has let aid shipments through its blockade of Lebanon, international relief agencies say they have been unable to get Israel to guarantee safe passage to civilians in southern areas hardest hit by Israeli bombing aimed at Hizbollah. France, which has repeatedly called for an immediate cease-fire, said it "deeply regrets" Israel's rejection of Egeland's idea. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said he would press Israel to change its mind. Hizbollah's Kassem reiterated the group's demand for a halt to Israel's onslaught on Lebanon, begun after guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. "It is natural that we demand it is ended unconditionally and that all the displaced people return to their villages and towns," he said in written answers to questions. Washington has pledged $30 million (16 million pounds) to help Lebanon but America's attitude to the war has angered many Lebanese. "They send the Israelis smart bombs and they send us blankets. If it was up to me, I wouldn't let this ship dock here. I would dump this stuff in the sea," said a Lebanese soldier watching U.S. relief goods being unloaded in Beirut. A U.S. military catamaran had brought blankets, tarpaulins and medical kits for some of the 800,000 war-displaced people. The World Food Programme said it had also opened the first land crossing point for aid convoys into Lebanon. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has invited countries willing to join an international force in Lebanon to meet in New York on Monday to begin planning, even though its mandate has yet to be set by the Security Council. Major powers say the force cannot deploy before a cease-fire or operate without the consent of Lebanon, Israel and Hizbollah. German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out any immediate German participation in the force, saying the German military was already stretched in other operations abroad. Bush has blamed Hizbollah and its main allies Syria and Iran for the conflict in Lebanon. The Shi'ite group says it is fighting a U.S.-Israeli plan for hegemony in the Middle East. Lebanon's Siniora argues that the main problems include Israel's occupation of the disputed Shebaa Farms area, claimed by Lebanon, and its detention of Lebanese prisoners. The Lebanon war has overshadowed the conflict in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is waging a month-old offensive to recover a soldier captured by militants and halt Palestinian rocket fire. Israeli aircraft bombed a suspected Hamas arms factory and border tunnel in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. Troops entered a northern area to look for explosives and tunnels, the army said. At least 150 Palestinians, around half of them gunmen, have been killed in the offensive.
By Tom Perry. Reuters
Lebanon crisis is part of broader struggle against terrorism: Bush Daily News & Analysis
Mideast Push Assumes New Urgency Wall Street Journal
Zaman Online - SABC News - Ha'aretz - Mail & Guardian Online - all 1,160 related »
Hizbollah pledged on Saturday to deny the United States and Israel any political gains from the war in Lebanon as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice flew to Jerusalem to discuss ways to end the 18-day-old conflict.
NO SAFE ACCESS
While Israel has let aid shipments through its blockade of Lebanon, international relief agencies say they have been unable to get Israel to guarantee safe passage to civilians in southern areas hardest hit by Israeli bombing aimed at Hizbollah. France, which has repeatedly called for an immediate cease-fire, said it "deeply regrets" Israel's rejection of Egeland's idea. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said he would press Israel to change its mind. Hizbollah's Kassem reiterated the group's demand for a halt to Israel's onslaught on Lebanon, begun after guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on July 12. "It is natural that we demand it is ended unconditionally and that all the displaced people return to their villages and towns," he said in written answers to questions. Washington has pledged $30 million (16 million pounds) to help Lebanon but America's attitude to the war has angered many Lebanese. "They send the Israelis smart bombs and they send us blankets. If it was up to me, I wouldn't let this ship dock here. I would dump this stuff in the sea," said a Lebanese soldier watching U.S. relief goods being unloaded in Beirut. A U.S. military catamaran had brought blankets, tarpaulins and medical kits for some of the 800,000 war-displaced people. The World Food Programme said it had also opened the first land crossing point for aid convoys into Lebanon. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has invited countries willing to join an international force in Lebanon to meet in New York on Monday to begin planning, even though its mandate has yet to be set by the Security Council. Major powers say the force cannot deploy before a cease-fire or operate without the consent of Lebanon, Israel and Hizbollah. German Chancellor Angela Merkel ruled out any immediate German participation in the force, saying the German military was already stretched in other operations abroad. Bush has blamed Hizbollah and its main allies Syria and Iran for the conflict in Lebanon. The Shi'ite group says it is fighting a U.S.-Israeli plan for hegemony in the Middle East. Lebanon's Siniora argues that the main problems include Israel's occupation of the disputed Shebaa Farms area, claimed by Lebanon, and its detention of Lebanese prisoners. The Lebanon war has overshadowed the conflict in the Gaza Strip, where Israel is waging a month-old offensive to recover a soldier captured by militants and halt Palestinian rocket fire. Israeli aircraft bombed a suspected Hamas arms factory and border tunnel in the Gaza Strip on Saturday. Troops entered a northern area to look for explosives and tunnels, the army said. At least 150 Palestinians, around half of them gunmen, have been killed in the offensive.
By Tom Perry. Reuters
Lebanon crisis is part of broader struggle against terrorism: Bush Daily News & Analysis
Mideast Push Assumes New Urgency Wall Street Journal
Zaman Online - SABC News - Ha'aretz - Mail & Guardian Online - all 1,160 related »
Israel rejects UN aid truce call BBC News
Israel has rejected a United Nations call for a three-day truce in southern Lebanon, as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Israel. The UN says children, the elderly and disabled people are trapped and supplies are short. But an Israeli spokesman said there was no need for a truce as a humanitarian corridor to the area had been opened. Ms Rice is expected to discuss proposals to deploy a multinational force in southern Lebanon. Israeli officials have indicated to the BBC that Israel may be willing to stop fighting as soon as a UN resolution is passed next week - before the arrival of international peacekeepers - and that they will not insist on the Hezbollah disarming first. However, the UN has warned the deaths of four of its personnel in an Israeli airstrike may deter countries from contributing to a future force. The UN says some 600 people - about a third of them children - have been killed by Israeli action in Lebanon. They include a mother and her five children killed in a new wave of Israeli air raids in southern Lebanon, Lebanese medics said. Israel said it was investigating. On Saturday Israeli forces withdrew from the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil - a Hezbollah stronghold - which they had been trying to take for some days and where they sustained their heaviest one-day losses since the campaign began. Hezbollah has continued firing hundreds of rockets into Israel - several hit the northern Israel town of Safed on Saturday. In a new message, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said more central Israeli cities would be targeted if the Israeli offensive continued. A total of 51 Israelis, including at least 18 civilians, have been killed during the conflict. The Israeli assault began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
'Concessions'
The US secretary of state is expected to talk to Israeli and Lebanese leaders about proposals to deploy a multinational force, as part of what US President George W Bush calls a viable plan for ending hostilities. World leaders are due to discuss a deployment at a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday. Israeli officials told the BBC that a ceasefire must meet certain key conditions, including a guarantee that Hezbollah will not move back into positions close to the border. Meanwhile, Israeli military sources have indicated that the fighting could intensify. BBC diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams says Israel would prefer a deal but it is publicly prepared to continue fighting if it does not get one. Earlier, the UN deputy chief issued a warning over the observers' deaths in an Israeli strike on a UN base. Mark Malloch-Brown said they had accepted Israel's apology, but still had "serious concerns" about what happened. UN officials said they had contacted Israel a dozen times before the bombing and asked them to stop firing, which Israel did not.
Israel has rejected a United Nations call for a three-day truce in southern Lebanon, as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrives in Israel. The UN says children, the elderly and disabled people are trapped and supplies are short. But an Israeli spokesman said there was no need for a truce as a humanitarian corridor to the area had been opened. Ms Rice is expected to discuss proposals to deploy a multinational force in southern Lebanon. Israeli officials have indicated to the BBC that Israel may be willing to stop fighting as soon as a UN resolution is passed next week - before the arrival of international peacekeepers - and that they will not insist on the Hezbollah disarming first. However, the UN has warned the deaths of four of its personnel in an Israeli airstrike may deter countries from contributing to a future force. The UN says some 600 people - about a third of them children - have been killed by Israeli action in Lebanon. They include a mother and her five children killed in a new wave of Israeli air raids in southern Lebanon, Lebanese medics said. Israel said it was investigating. On Saturday Israeli forces withdrew from the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbeil - a Hezbollah stronghold - which they had been trying to take for some days and where they sustained their heaviest one-day losses since the campaign began. Hezbollah has continued firing hundreds of rockets into Israel - several hit the northern Israel town of Safed on Saturday. In a new message, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said more central Israeli cities would be targeted if the Israeli offensive continued. A total of 51 Israelis, including at least 18 civilians, have been killed during the conflict. The Israeli assault began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight in a cross-border raid on 12 July.
'Concessions'
The US secretary of state is expected to talk to Israeli and Lebanese leaders about proposals to deploy a multinational force, as part of what US President George W Bush calls a viable plan for ending hostilities. World leaders are due to discuss a deployment at a meeting at the UN headquarters in New York on Monday. Israeli officials told the BBC that a ceasefire must meet certain key conditions, including a guarantee that Hezbollah will not move back into positions close to the border. Meanwhile, Israeli military sources have indicated that the fighting could intensify. BBC diplomatic correspondent Paul Adams says Israel would prefer a deal but it is publicly prepared to continue fighting if it does not get one. Earlier, the UN deputy chief issued a warning over the observers' deaths in an Israeli strike on a UN base. Mark Malloch-Brown said they had accepted Israel's apology, but still had "serious concerns" about what happened. UN officials said they had contacted Israel a dozen times before the bombing and asked them to stop firing, which Israel did not.
Israeli bombs kill 13 in Lebanon:
Waves of air raids struck hill villages near the southern port of Tyre and hundreds of artillery rounds crashed across the border from Israel, killing at least 10 people including a Jordanian.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article14250.htm
Israeli Justice Minister: IDF Entitled to Kill Everyone in South Lebanon:
Ramon made these comments on Israeli Army radio. He was apparently not asked about the IDF’s practice of blowing up the cars full of civilians fleeing south Lebanon.
http://tinyurl.com/fkng3
Criminalizing Civilians :
Look at this logic: since Israel has asked civilians to leave, any that disobeyed have forfeited their status as civilians.
http://www.juancole.com/2006/07/criminaliz...ns-patrick.html
The "hiding among civilians" myth:
The analysts talking on cable news about Hezbollah "hiding within the civilian population" clearly have spent little time if any in the south Lebanon war zone and don't know what they're talking about. Hezbollah doesn't trust the civilian population and has worked very hard to evacuate as much of it as possible from the battlefield.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article14252.htm
Ted Rall: Kill 'Em All, Let God Sort Us Out:
The word "indiscriminate" is inherently inseparable from "bombing." The claim that bombs can strike their targets with pinpoint precision is one of the greatest marketing scams ever perpetuated on the American public. So why the hell do we keep using them?
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article14256.htm
Irish peacekeepers remain sceptical over 'accident' that killed UN observers :
The Israelis have claimed the attack was an accident. But Irish peacekeepers and journalists who have been in south Lebanon over the past three decades can be forgiven for being sceptical about that claim.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12429.htm
UN to remove observers from Israel-Lebanon border :
The United Nations will remove unarmed observers from their posts along the Israel-Lebanon border, moving them in with the peacekeeping force in the area, a spokesman said Friday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743541.html
Hizbullah support tops 80 percent among Lebanese:
87 percent of Lebanese support Hizbullah's fight with Israel, a rise of 29 percent on a similar poll conducted in February. More striking, however, is the level of support for Hizbullah's resistance from non-Shiite communities. Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hizbullah along with 80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0728/p06s01-wome.html
Only Hizbullah can defend against an Israeli invasion :
"The Israelis are radicalising Lebanon, even liberal democrats like me. I took part in last year's demonstrations against Syria. I was a critic of Hizbullah. Now I cannot help but support Hizbullah's fighters who are defending our country." What about Hizbullah's rocket attacks on Haifa? "It's right," she replied. "It's not only Lebanese who should have to suffer. Are human rights available only to Israelis?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1831961,00.html
Anger in the Arab World :
The rhetoric about "terrorism" has mesmerized those who parrot it, blinding them to the fact that Hezbollah and Hamas are deeply rooted popular movements that have developed as a response to occupation--of the West Bank and Gaza for nearly forty years, and of southern Lebanon from 1978 to 2000.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060814/khalidi
The 'Arab system' is dying in Lebanon:
Iran and groups like Hizbullah will emerge stronger from the rubble of Beirut, while the old regimes of the Arab League will be rendered impotent.
http://tinyurl.com/kb5nz
How Much Longer?:
How much longer will the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers be allowed to justify the kidnapping of the entire nation of Lebanon?
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article14240.htm
Bush, Blair back UN force for Lebanon:
The US president and British prime minister have agreed to send a UN multinational force to support the Lebanese government.
http://tinyurl.com/g4jy5
Israel rules out United Nations role in peacekeeping force:
Israel's ambassador to the UN ruled out Thursday major UN involvement in any potential international force in Lebanon, saying more professional and better-trained troops were needed for such a volatile situation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743541.html
In hock to George Bush :
Blair must speak out on Lebanon. We can't leave the United States to set our moral compass
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1831944,00.html
US rejects weapon flight concerns :
The White House has dismissed UK concerns about the use of Prestwick Airport, in Scotland, by US planes carrying bombs to Israel.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5221782.stm
Blair warns Iran, Syria of 'confrontation' :
'Iran and Syria have a choice. And they may think that they can avoid this choice; in fact, they can't,' Blair said after talks at the White House with US President George Bush.
http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2...afx2912197.html
UK peers call for Blair to be stripped of power to go to war without vote:
A House of Lords committee has called for Prime Minister Tony Blair to be stripped of his power to send Britain to war
http://tinyurl.com/qg6aj
Israeli sniper kills a 13-year-old boy:
An Israeli sniper shot and killed Anas Zomlot, from the "Block 2" area in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, early on Friday morning as he was standing on his family's balcony.
http://tinyurl.com/ktdgv
Gaza Strip Situation Report
22 Palestinians are killed and 67 injured in the last 36 hours
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5298.shtml
Waves of air raids struck hill villages near the southern port of Tyre and hundreds of artillery rounds crashed across the border from Israel, killing at least 10 people including a Jordanian.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article14250.htm
Israeli Justice Minister: IDF Entitled to Kill Everyone in South Lebanon:
Ramon made these comments on Israeli Army radio. He was apparently not asked about the IDF’s practice of blowing up the cars full of civilians fleeing south Lebanon.
http://tinyurl.com/fkng3
Criminalizing Civilians :
Look at this logic: since Israel has asked civilians to leave, any that disobeyed have forfeited their status as civilians.
http://www.juancole.com/2006/07/criminaliz...ns-patrick.html
The "hiding among civilians" myth:
The analysts talking on cable news about Hezbollah "hiding within the civilian population" clearly have spent little time if any in the south Lebanon war zone and don't know what they're talking about. Hezbollah doesn't trust the civilian population and has worked very hard to evacuate as much of it as possible from the battlefield.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article14252.htm
Ted Rall: Kill 'Em All, Let God Sort Us Out:
The word "indiscriminate" is inherently inseparable from "bombing." The claim that bombs can strike their targets with pinpoint precision is one of the greatest marketing scams ever perpetuated on the American public. So why the hell do we keep using them?
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article14256.htm
Irish peacekeepers remain sceptical over 'accident' that killed UN observers :
The Israelis have claimed the attack was an accident. But Irish peacekeepers and journalists who have been in south Lebanon over the past three decades can be forgiven for being sceptical about that claim.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12429.htm
UN to remove observers from Israel-Lebanon border :
The United Nations will remove unarmed observers from their posts along the Israel-Lebanon border, moving them in with the peacekeeping force in the area, a spokesman said Friday.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743541.html
Hizbullah support tops 80 percent among Lebanese:
87 percent of Lebanese support Hizbullah's fight with Israel, a rise of 29 percent on a similar poll conducted in February. More striking, however, is the level of support for Hizbullah's resistance from non-Shiite communities. Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hizbullah along with 80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0728/p06s01-wome.html
Only Hizbullah can defend against an Israeli invasion :
"The Israelis are radicalising Lebanon, even liberal democrats like me. I took part in last year's demonstrations against Syria. I was a critic of Hizbullah. Now I cannot help but support Hizbullah's fighters who are defending our country." What about Hizbullah's rocket attacks on Haifa? "It's right," she replied. "It's not only Lebanese who should have to suffer. Are human rights available only to Israelis?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1831961,00.html
Anger in the Arab World :
The rhetoric about "terrorism" has mesmerized those who parrot it, blinding them to the fact that Hezbollah and Hamas are deeply rooted popular movements that have developed as a response to occupation--of the West Bank and Gaza for nearly forty years, and of southern Lebanon from 1978 to 2000.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060814/khalidi
The 'Arab system' is dying in Lebanon:
Iran and groups like Hizbullah will emerge stronger from the rubble of Beirut, while the old regimes of the Arab League will be rendered impotent.
http://tinyurl.com/kb5nz
How Much Longer?:
How much longer will the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers be allowed to justify the kidnapping of the entire nation of Lebanon?
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article14240.htm
Bush, Blair back UN force for Lebanon:
The US president and British prime minister have agreed to send a UN multinational force to support the Lebanese government.
http://tinyurl.com/g4jy5
Israel rules out United Nations role in peacekeeping force:
Israel's ambassador to the UN ruled out Thursday major UN involvement in any potential international force in Lebanon, saying more professional and better-trained troops were needed for such a volatile situation.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743541.html
In hock to George Bush :
Blair must speak out on Lebanon. We can't leave the United States to set our moral compass
http://www.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,,1831944,00.html
US rejects weapon flight concerns :
The White House has dismissed UK concerns about the use of Prestwick Airport, in Scotland, by US planes carrying bombs to Israel.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/5221782.stm
Blair warns Iran, Syria of 'confrontation' :
'Iran and Syria have a choice. And they may think that they can avoid this choice; in fact, they can't,' Blair said after talks at the White House with US President George Bush.
http://www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2...afx2912197.html
UK peers call for Blair to be stripped of power to go to war without vote:
A House of Lords committee has called for Prime Minister Tony Blair to be stripped of his power to send Britain to war
http://tinyurl.com/qg6aj
Israeli sniper kills a 13-year-old boy:
An Israeli sniper shot and killed Anas Zomlot, from the "Block 2" area in Jabalia refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, early on Friday morning as he was standing on his family's balcony.
http://tinyurl.com/ktdgv
Gaza Strip Situation Report
22 Palestinians are killed and 67 injured in the last 36 hours
http://electronicintifada.net/v2/article5298.shtml
What Next, Lebanon?
By Anthony Shadid
MUKHTARA, Lebanon, July 29 -- From his hilltop citadel, Walid Jumblatt was a worried man Saturday. In Lebanon's Byzantine, ever-shifting politics, the leader of the country's Druze community has emerged as one of Hezbollah's harshest critics. But a savvy veteran, he understood the arithmetic of the...
To view the entire article, go to http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...er=emailarticle
By Anthony Shadid
MUKHTARA, Lebanon, July 29 -- From his hilltop citadel, Walid Jumblatt was a worried man Saturday. In Lebanon's Byzantine, ever-shifting politics, the leader of the country's Druze community has emerged as one of Hezbollah's harshest critics. But a savvy veteran, he understood the arithmetic of the...
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Rice Renews Talks in Mideast
By Robin Wright and Jonathan Finer
JERUSALEM, July 29 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned to the Middle East late Saturday for more talks on how to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, saying she was encouraged by Hezbollah's agreement on Thursday at a Lebanese cabinet meeting to accept a cease-fire and an...
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By Robin Wright and Jonathan Finer
JERUSALEM, July 29 -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returned to the Middle East late Saturday for more talks on how to end fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, saying she was encouraged by Hezbollah's agreement on Thursday at a Lebanese cabinet meeting to accept a cease-fire and an...
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Returning to Old Approach, U.S. Faces Risky Path Ahead
By Robin Wright
JERUSALEM, July 29 -- The Bush administration is now entangled in a risky new diplomatic venture in the Middle East -- and one with huge potential pitfalls even if Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice succeeds in negotiating a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in the days ahead, according to...
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By Robin Wright
JERUSALEM, July 29 -- The Bush administration is now entangled in a risky new diplomatic venture in the Middle East -- and one with huge potential pitfalls even if Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice succeeds in negotiating a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah in the days ahead, according to...
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Many Arabs Applaud Hezbollah
By Faiza Saleh Ambah
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia, July 29 -- Ever since the seizure of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah sparked an Israeli offensive in Lebanon, Huda Fatani has set her alarm for 3:15 each morning, gotten up to perform her ablutions, then spent more than an hour on her knees praying for the Lebanese militia.
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By Faiza Saleh Ambah
JIDDAH, Saudi Arabia, July 29 -- Ever since the seizure of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah sparked an Israeli offensive in Lebanon, Huda Fatani has set her alarm for 3:15 each morning, gotten up to perform her ablutions, then spent more than an hour on her knees praying for the Lebanese militia.
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Dozens killed in Lebanon air raid BBC Bulgaria
More than 40 civilians, including 20 children, have been killed in a town in southern Lebanon in the deadliest Israeli strike of the conflict.
Displaced families had been sheltering in the basement of a house in Qana, which was crushed after a direct hit. The US secretary of state has cancelled a visit to Lebanon as its prime minister says he will only discuss a full and immediate ceasefire. Hundreds of protesters are staging a violent demonstration in Beirut. An angry crowd attacked the UN building, chanting slogans against the US and Israel and in support of Hezbollah.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she was "deeply saddened by the terrible loss of innocent life. "We are also pushing for an urgent end to the current hostilities, but the views of the parties on how to achieve this are different," she said. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said earlier that Israel was not in a hurry to agree to a ceasefire until it achieved its goals in the area. Lebanon's health minister now says about 750 people - mainly civilians - have been killed by Israeli action in Lebanon since their operations began 19 days ago. A total of 51 Israelis, including at least 18 civilians, have been killed in the conflict, sparked by Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid earlier in July.
'Stop'
Witnesses said the early-morning strike flattened several buildings on top of sleeping residents.
Analysis: A second Qana Massacre? BBC News
Israel: We Warned Villagers to Evacuate Their Houses Zaman Online
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More than 40 civilians, including 20 children, have been killed in a town in southern Lebanon in the deadliest Israeli strike of the conflict.
QUOTE("Qana survivor")
May God have mercy on the children. They came here to escape the fighting
"People are fed up in Lebanon," a protester told the BBC. "They are fed up." Israel said the Shia militant group was responsible for the Qana strike, by using the town to launch rockets. But Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora denounced Israel's "heinous crimes against civilians", and said there was "no room on this sad morning" for talks until Israel had halted its attacks.'Stop'
Witnesses said the early-morning strike flattened several buildings on top of sleeping residents.
The strike sparked anger and grief in the capital
One survivor said the "bombing was so intense that no-one could move". Reliable casualty figures are not yet clear, but reports said more than 40 had been killed, while sources in the Lebanese Red Cross said as many as 50 or 60 had lost their lives. Elderly, women and children were among those killed in the raid, which wrought destruction over a wide area. The BBC's Fergal Keane at the scene saw two small boys pulled from the rubble. Reporters spoke of survivors screaming in grief and anger, as some scrabbled through the debris with bare hands.QUOTE("Nikki @ Warwickshire")
Surely the lives of the innocent should take precedent
"We want this to stop," a villager shouted. "May God have mercy on the children. They came here to escape the fighting." Israel's military said it had warned residents of Qana to leave and Hezbollah bore responsibility for using it to fire rockets at the Jewish state. The BBC's Jim Muir in Qana says many did not have the means - or were too frightened - to flee. Correspondents say the town holds bitter memories for the Lebanese. Qana was the site of an Israeli bombing of a UN base in 1996 that killed more than 100 people sheltering there during Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" offensive, which was also aimed at destroying Hezbollah.Analysis: A second Qana Massacre? BBC News
Israel: We Warned Villagers to Evacuate Their Houses Zaman Online
Bangkok Post - News24 - Canada.com - NBC30.com - all 216 related »
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