Lebanon faces humanitarian disaster
Brian Whitaker, Beirut
July 18, 2006

is on the brink of a humanitarian crisis as thousands of Shiite Muslims either flee their homes in fear of Israeli bombardments or find themselves trapped.

In Beirut, where Israel has dropped leaflets urging residents to leave suburbs controlled by Hezbollah, schools are being overwhelmed as families seek refuge in classrooms. But hundreds have no choice but to sleep out in the open.

Of the 600 homeless Shiites who spent Saturday night in the city's Sanayeh park, 70 per cent were children. Police have been turning journalists away. "No photographs," said one officer.

A volunteer relief worker said Lebanese authorities had been slow to act during the first few days of the crisis and would be embarrassed by such images.

Before the war began, more than 500,000 Shiites were believed to be living in al-Dahiya, the area most heavily targeted by the Israelis. The Lebanese authorities opened dozens of schools at the weekend but these are now overflowing.

The Chakib Arslan school, in Verdun, was considered suitable for up to 180 people, but now holds 850. Most arrived only with what they were wearing or could carry.

As the sound of three bombs shook the school, a teenage girl burst into tears. Faten and her 16 relatives are living in a classroom. "Our house was not safe," she said. "Hezbollah told us to go and we left four days ago. We have $100 between us and my father needs medicine. We can't get it for him."

Rami, a volunteer, said sometimes families were able to buy food. "Most of the time the Government doesn't help much but it sends a little food," she said.

The relief effort is being run by several organisations and political groups, comprising Christians and Muslims. "It began with a sit-in, in solidarity with Gaza, but then turned into relief work," said Ghassan Makarem of Helem, a Lebanese gay and lesbian organisation. "It's a mix of NGOs, leftist groups, Palestinian youth groups, and others."

But outside Beirut, there is no such help and people are fending for themselves. Many cannot leave because roads are impassable, and those who do escape are at risk of attack.

more

Ali Waked | July 17

Yediot Aharonot - The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, Fatah’s armed wing, claimed Monday afternoon they had kidnapped a Border Guard officer in the West Bank.

An announcement published by the group claimed the abduction was carried out in the Judea and Samaria area and to prove the claim, the announcement included the name of the officer allegedly kidnapped.

The IDF responded that the name was not recognized, but added they were investigating the claims.

[more at link above]

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

July 17

Haaretz - Iran's foreign minister arrived in Syria for talks with its government Monday on the crisis in neighboring Lebanon.

Iran and Syria are the principal sponsors of Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group that provoked the current fighting when its guerrillas crossed into northern Israel last Wednesday and kidnapped two Israel Defense Forces soldiers.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki did not speak to reporters on arrival in Damascus, but went headed straight for talks with President Bashar Assad and Foreign Minister Walid Moallem.

[more at link, above]

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Pakistan stands with Lebanon: PM

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan stands by the people of Lebanon, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz told his Lebanese counterpart Fouad Siniora on Sunday. Pakistan “strongly condemns the violence being committed against Lebanon” and urges that the loss to life and property stop immediately, Aziz told Siniora in a phone call, an official statement said. “Pakistan strongly stands by the Lebanese people and fully respects their sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he said. “We appeal to the world community, the permanent members of the Security Council, the UN and other relevant bodies to intervene,” he added. staff report

Daily Times

A Divide Deepens in Arab World
By Kim Murphy, Times Staff Writer
July 17, 2006

DAMASCUS, Syria — The rapidly escalating conflict in Lebanon has divided the Arab world, deepening the gulf between rulers and ruled and reinforcing in the public's mind the impotence of leaders who for two generations have been unable to produce a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, governments with ties to the United States have guardedly denounced Hezbollah for the attack on Israel that triggered the fighting — even as their citizens began tacking up posters of Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the cleric who heads the Shiite Muslim militant group and has vowed to bring "war on every level" to Israel's door.

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The disconnect between the broad range of public support for Hezbollah and the unease felt by many Arab leaders is one of the reasons that Arab governments have been largely unable to mount an effective diplomatic response to Israel's 5-day-old bombing campaign.

Over the weekend, for example, the Arab League, meeting in Cairo, was able to agree on little more than a statement urging all parties to avoid actions that might "undermine peace and security," appealed to the United Nations for intervention and unsurprisingly declared the Middle East peace process dead.

On one level, the divide pits Syria and non-Arab Iran, which are longtime backers of Hezbollah, against Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, whose Sunni Muslim-led governments fear the rise of Islamic militancy and the influence of Iran.

"The resistance will win and the Israeli aggression will fail," Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said in a statement Sunday, pledging a "firm and direct response" if Syria is attacked. "The resistance has hit deep inside Israel, and the enemy did not expect this."

Iran, meanwhile, threatened that Israel would suffer "unimaginable losses" if it widened the conflict with a strike on Syria.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Sunday rallied behind Hezbollah, describing Israel as "an evil, cancerous tumor" in the midst of the Islamic world.

By contrast, the Saudis on Friday blamed the current crisis on "irresponsible adventurism" by Hezbollah — a statement echoed by Jordan and Egypt.

The divide also separates those governments from large segments of their populations.

"What has the Egyptian government done to thwart the Israeli aggressions? The government is having normal relations with Israel, sitting back and saying how much they love Palestine, while Palestinians are being shot dead every day. And then comes this very small nationalist resistance movement which finally manages to do something that all the Arab governments with their huge armies haven't been able to do," said Iman Hamdi, a political scientist at the American University in Cairo.

"It very much discredits these regimes in the eyes of the people," she said.

The decision by President Bush not to support the Lebanese government's plea for a cease-fire, even though that government has been backed by the United States, has dealt a further blow to public feelings about the U.S. in the region.

Members of the governing bloc in the Lebanese parliament, led by Saad Hariri, "are the most pro-American Arabs in the Middle East. They have promised, 'America will protect us if we stand against Syria,' " said Joshua Landis, a Middle East expert and professor at the University of Oklahoma.

Now Israel is "blowing the hell out of them, and America isn't taking one step to protect them," Landis said. "The whole Arab world is going to look and see that Hariri has been sacrificed on the altar of Israeli power. For the Arabs, this just rips the face of democracy right off."

Even the U.S.-backed Cabinet in Iraq has been critical, with Prime Minister Nouri Maliki calling on Arab leaders to "adopt a clear stance that denounces the criminal operations committed in Lebanon and Gaza."

The one action that Arab governments have been able to agree on so far is to pledge money to help Lebanon. On Sunday, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates promised $90 million.

more at LA Times

Cairo | July 17

The Daily Star (Egypt) - The Arab League said on Saturday after an emergency meeting of foreign ministers that the Middle East peace process had failed and called on the United Nations Security Council to intervene to stop the escalating violence.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa announced the decision following a heated closed-door session in Cairo aimed at finding a way to end a widening Israeli offensive on Lebanon and attacks in the Palestinian territories.

"We all decided that the peace process has failed and that the mechanisms, proposals and committees were either deceptive or sedatives or contrary to the peace process, or handed the process over as a gift to Israeli diplomacy to do with as it wished," Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said.

[more at link, above]

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

July 17

Yediot Aharonot - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addressed the Knesset plenum Monday regarding the fighting in the north: “Israel did not ask for these confrontations, but there were those who interpreted our will for peace as a sign of weakness. Our enemies were wrong to think our restraint was a sign of weakness."

“Israel has no territorial argument, neither on the southern or northern border,” Olmert added.

Olmert said Israel was interested in a stable and calm Lebanon, free of external powers.

[more at link, above]

[Comment: The messaging that this is a limited incursion against state proxies continues. ~ JPD]

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

Analysis: What Israel hopes to accomplish
By Claude Salhani Jul 17, 2006, 15:06 GMT
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WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- For the first time since Israel pulled out of Lebanon six years ago after its 18-year occupation of the south, the Jewish state is getting involved once again in a major way in the Lebanese quagmire. Or perhaps the more correct term would be to say that Israel is engaging over Lebanon rather than getting drawn inside the country anew.

Many are those in Israel -- both among the military and the civilians -- who remember the long and costly Lebanon war of 1982. In fact, it was that very war, dubbed Operation Peace for Galilee, that spawned the Lebanese Hezbollah and deeply divided Israeli public opinion as rarely before.

The 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the subsequent siege of Beirut had ripped apart the very fabric of Israeli society. Many questioned the wisdom of the operation and even within the military establishment there were diverging opinions. If the 1982 invasion of Lebanon was the cause that gave birth to Hezbollah, on the other hand that same war also produced the Peace Now movement in Israel.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert knows only too well the history of that war, a war that nearly ended the illustrious career of his former boss, Ariel Sharon, then defense minister, when Israeli troops were accused of allowing Lebanese Christian militias to massacre Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps, then under their control.

That is why no Israeli soldier is about to set foot inside Lebanon anytime soon with intent to stay. Any ground operation will most probably have pre-set objectives, such as the destruction of Hezbollah bases and the capture of its leadership. And that is why Israel`s wrath is so intense. It explains why the unrelenting aerial bombardment by the Israeli Air Force, army and navy on targets inside Lebanon has been so fierce as Israel tries to fight a war without over-committing boots on the ground.

There even appears to be some logic to Israel`s insane bombardment of Beirut, its suburbs and other cities, ports, airports, roads, bridges, etc. Israel`s plan, it would seem, is to pound Hezbollah to the ground -- or nearly enough -- to weaken it to the point where it would be too weak to resist accepting the implementation of U.N. Security Resolution 1559, calling for the disarmament of all militias, and to accept to be disarmed by the Lebanese Army -- the only boots on the ground that should exist in Lebanon in the first place.

Israel wants the Lebanese government to assume its responsibility and take control of the south -- a parcel of land that has plagued Israel for several decades now as its control passed from the Palestine Liberation Organization to Hezbollah. Two invasions by Israel -- the first in 1978 that brought about the deployment of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon and the second in 1982 -- failed to pacify Israel`s northern frontier.

Just as Israel set about to distance the PLO from its northern border in 1982, it is now seeking to do the same with the Lebanese Hezbollah, who has replaced the PLO in southern Lebanon as the primary threat along Israel`s northern border. Except this time the battle to distance the Shiite militant organization will be done mostly from the skies and the sea. The only Israeli soldiers likely to set foot on Lebanese soil would be for very specific operations. The likelihood of a renewed Israeli occupation is unrealistic.

Israel essentially seeks to reverse Hezbollah`s victory as seen by the Shiites, that it was them who forced Israel out of southern Lebanon in 2000. That victory paid much dividend to Hezbollah, both in Lebanon and in the rest of the Arab world, where they were hailed as heroes. Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian faction in Gaza, hoped to emulate Hezbollah in many ways. This latest Israeli assault is undoubtedly meant to 'set the record straight' and discourage hopes within Hamas that they could gain same stature as Hezbollah -- something for which the Palestinians in Gaza received a brief apercu following the capture of Cpl. Gilad Shalit a few weeks ago.

Meanwhile reports from southern Lebanon indicate that Israel in aiming to clear a swath of at least 36 miles between its northern border and the militias, and this by any means possible. A United Press International correspondent in the area seems to think Israel might create a DMZ -- a demilitarized zone -- along its frontier with Lebanon. At that point the Lebanese army could move its units into southern Lebanon and assume control of the region. In the aftermath of hell and high-fire that rained down on South Lebanon as part of Israel`s campaign to expel the Shiite militants from the area, south Lebanese villagers would welcome the legitimacy of the national Lebanese army. But as in all occupations, or call it deployment of troops, the honeymoon period between the newly arrived military and the villagers is a short-lived one.

The Lebanese Army, if it goes into the south, had better come prepared to replace Hezbollah in all capacities the Shiite organization fulfilled in the underdeveloped south. That includes setting up free clinics, schools and social centers. Of course the Lebanese armed forces are not geared to the administration of school and medical dispensaries. This would require an immediate and close involvement of the Lebanese government to ensure that competent ministries pick up the slack where Hezbollah left off. They will only have one chance at getting it done right, because honeymoon periods have a tendency to run out rather quickly. And people in need have very short-term memories. A few mistakes by the Lebanese military and/or the government and the villagers will be clamoring for Hezbollah`s return.

(Comments may be sent to Claude@upi.com.)

upi

Israel Considers Conditional Cease Fire
By Laura King and Megan K. Stack, Times Staff Writers
10:25 AM PDT, July 17, 2006

BEIRUT -- Israel for the first time today signaled its willingness to accept a cease-fire based on a pullback of Hezbollah guerrillas from Lebanon's frontier and the release of two captured soldiers, even as other countries, including the United States, began efforts to evacuate their war-trapped citizens.

Israeli aircraft hammered targets across Lebanon for a sixth day, pressing a punishing assault that demolished more roads and highway bridges and again hit Hezbollah's battered headquarters. Israeli forces also made a limited ground foray into Lebanon but returned to base, the military said.

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Hezbollah aimed dozens of rockets at Israeli towns and cities, penetrating deeper into northern Israel than before.

One barrage peeled the façade off a vacant three-story building in the northern Israeli town of Haifa, the scene of the incursion's most lethal rocket attack a day earlier that killed eight people, and the city's busy commercial port was closed by rocket fire.

Israeli officials said Hezbollah fired its deepest strike into Israel yet, sending rockets into the town of Atlit, about 35 miles south of the frontier and five miles south of Haifa. No one was hurt.

Casualties again edged upward, with the death toll exceeding 180 on the Lebanese side, nearly all of them civilians. Twenty-four Israelis have been killed since the region's worst fighting in two decades erupted last week, half of them civilians and half troops.

In an apparent softening of its previous cease-fire terms, a senior Israeli official said a cease-fire would be possible if Hezbollah withdrew fighters from the border zone and released the two Israeli soldiers seized last week in a cross-border raid. Previously, Israel had demanded the disarming of Hezbollah, the only Lebanese faction to have kept its weaponry after the end of the civil war.

A senior Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Israeli position had been conveyed to Italy's prime minister, who has been trying to mediate a truce.

Talk of a cease-fire also came from Iran, blamed by the United States and Israel as the guiding hand behind Hezbollah. Iran's foreign minister, Manouchehr Mottaki said talks in Damascus with Syria's vice president Farouk Sharaa that a truce and a prisoner exchange would be "an acceptable and fair" way to stop the fighting.

Israel was cool to the idea of the deployment of an international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon to bolster what has been a small and largely ineffectual United Nations contingent.

The idea of an international peacekeeping force, put forth by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, was rejected by Israel as premature, reservations that were echoed by the Bush administration.

"I don't think we're at that stage yet," said government spokeswoman Miri Eisin. "We're at the stage where we want to be sure that Hezbollah is not deployed at our northern border."

much much more

Hanan Greenberg | July 17

Yediot Aharonot - IDF sources estimate Monday that the “downed Israel Air Force jet seen falling from Beirut’s skies" was actually a Zelzal-type long-range missile, which is capable of reaching central Israel.

According to army sources, the Air Force struck a missile launching device, and as a result one rocket was accidentally fired but landed nearby.

Earlier Hizbullah's television station and other media in the Arab world reported that an Israel Air Force aircraft crashed in eastern Beirut, in an area called al-Warwar.

[more at link, above]

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

believes that Syria can save the Middle East

Lauren Rosen interviews Mark Perry, co-Director of Conflicts Forum, a Beirut-based nongovernmental organization that has, over the past three years, put former senior American and British policy-makers and intelligence officials in talks with Hezbollah and other militant political Islamic groups in Lebanon. He formerly worked as an adviser to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and as a reporter for Newsday. Perry has recently returned from Beirut and is now in Arlington, Virginia. Laura Rozen interviewed him by telephone Friday about the unfolding crisis in Lebanon and Israel.

Aluf Benn | July 17

Haaretz - French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin on Monday joined British Prime Minister Tony Blair and United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in calling for the deployment of an international force in southern Lebanon, in order to end the spiraling conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Villepin also called for an immediate truce between Israel and Lebanon on humanitarian grounds.

De Villepin was speaking after meeting the Lebanese government in Beirut in an effort to find a solution to the confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas.

The French premier arrived in Beirut on Monday to meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and express France's support for Lebanon.

Israel on Monday reiterated its opposition to the initiative of deploying an international force in Lebanon.

[more at link, above]

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

Worth seeing.

Beirut | July 18

The Daily Star (Lebanon) - The relentless bombardment of Lebanon has caused an incredible amount of death and destruction. The first detailed report by the Internal Security Forces' directorate general, released Monday, documented the sheer amount of human and material damage since last Wednesday as a result of Israeli raids over vital public utilities and residential areas.

Crucial infrastructure was among the first to be targeted, including an initial aerial attack on a power station.

The runways of Rafik Hariri International Airport, the Qoleiaat Airport in North Lebanon and the Riyaq Military Airport in the Bekaa - were all severely damaged, as were the three main sea ports of Beirut, Tripoli and Jamil Gemayel.

[more at link, above]

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

Nada Bakri | Beirut | July 18

The Daily Star (Lebanon) - French President Jacques Chirac on Monday backed the idea of an international force to restore order in Lebanon and described Israel's offensive as "aberrant," as his premier paid an emergency visit to the Lebanese capital. Echoing Chirac's comments, French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin urged Hizbullah and Israel to join in a cease-fire and proposed dispatching international monitors to southern Lebanon as part of a settlement to end the bloodshed.

De Villepin's visit is part of diplomatic efforts to end the fighting, as world powers moved to give teeth to the proposed international force for Lebanon.

Following a summit of leaders of the Group of Eight industrial nations, Chirac said that "some means of coercion" may be needed to enforce UN Resolution 1559, which calls for the disarmament of Hizbullah and other militia in Lebanon.

"The application of 1559 is the essential element, and this will probably require some means of coercion," Chirac said.

He said that Israel's attacks on Lebanon had created a "dramatic situation" which would require major reconstruction of Lebanon's infrastructure and had hit ordinary Lebanese.

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

July 18

The Daily Star (Lebanon) - Israel continued its bombardment of Lebanon Monday, targeting the South, the Bekaa Valley and Beirut's southern suburbs, leading to the death of at least 46 Lebanese and pushing the overall death toll to over 200 since Wednesday. The latest strikes came as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the fighting in Lebanon would end when the two soldiers captured by Hizbullah on Wednesday were freed, rocket attacks on Israel stopped and the Lebanese Army deployed along the border.

Delivering a speech to Israel's Parliament, Olmert said Israel would have no mercy on militants who attack its cities with rockets.

"We shall seek out every installation, hit every terrorist helping to attack Israeli citizens, destroy the entire terrorist infrastructure, in every place. We shall continue this until Hizbullah does the basic and fair things required of it by every civilized person," he said.

Israeli officials have said publicly that Israel would not stop fighting until Hizbullah is dismantled. But Olmert's comments Monday seemed to be a softening of that position.

Israel's deputy armed forces chief of staff, Major Moshe Kaplinsky, said Monday that his country's armed offensive in Lebanon would last "at least another week."

[more at link, above]

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

Lebanon: the world looks on

· EU criticism of Israel removed
· Statement diluted following British pressure
· Death toll passes 200

Ewen MacAskill and Rory McCarthy in Nahariya, and Patrick Wintour in St Petersburg

Tuesday July 18, 2006
The Guardian

Western leaders remained paralysed yesterday as Lebanon suffered one of its bloodiest days since Israel began its bombardment a week ago.

For the second time in 48 hours western governments declined to intervene as Israeli forces, on the sixth day of aerial attacks, killed 47 people and wounded at least 53. Hizbullah, the Iranian-backed militia, also stepped up its attacks, launching 50 rockets against Israel, the highest number in a single day. The death toll since Israel began its attack has risen to 210 in Lebanon and 29 in Israel.

Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, dismissed hopes of a quick resolution to the conflict last night, vowing his military would continue operating at full intensity. He said Israel would not stop until two of its captured soldiers were freed, the Lebanese army deployed to protect Israel's northern border and Hizbullah forced to disarm.

He said both Hizbollah and Hamas, the Palestinian group, were working with the support of "the axis of evil that stretches from Tehran to Damascus. When missiles rain on our cities, our response will be to wage war with greater determination, courage and sacrifice," he said. "We don't seek war or head-on confrontation but if necessary we shall not flinch from them."

more

yeah it takes a lot of courage to sacrifice the innocent(snark on)

Not just smartass deconstruction-some very good links and an opportunity to ask questions of a first-rate scholar at the end of the piece


Shmuel Rosner | July 17

Ha'aretz - Like every important event, the war in Lebanon has already given us a large variety of spin-words and banal political clichés. It comes from Israel, Lebanon and the international community. A leader usually throws an expression into the air that the ordinary citizen will pick up and relay to every passing TV camera.

So here it is :the first big parade of words. Readers can suggest additions by sending them to rosnersdomain@haaretz.co.il.

As long as it takes: Usually means as long as the U.S. administration allows it to happen. In the current crisis the Americans are sensing there?s a genuine opportunity to weaken Hezbollah. They will feel obligated to intervene sooner rather than later in one of two cases: Heavier price in human life on the Lebanese side; or growing outcry coming from important allies in the international community.

The fragile Lebanese democracy: The Arab world is now working on a new definition for democracy. From now on please use "democracies" to denote countries in which there's a weak government chosen by the people, and a strong militia controlled by outside forces. Thus, the democracy is safe on both accounts: You cannot act against the government, as it is a legitimate, democratically-elected leadership, and you cannot ask the government to take responsibility for its territory as it is too weak to act against the militias, and you don't want to risk its collapse.

Hezbollah is a terror organization: And like all terror organizations, it is allowed to get people elected to the parliament, operate freely in a sovereign state and demand negotiation with its leadership.

Resolution 1559: Yet another proof that the UN is capable of calming a troubled area, and that good paperwork is an efficient tool in the war against terror.

Crossing red lines: Something your enemy does. Israel says the abduction of soldiers was a crossing of a red line, and later it was the firing of Katyushas on Israeli cities. Hezbollah draw the lines in other places. "As long as the enemy pursues its aggression without limits and red lines we will pursue the confrontation without limits and without red lines, its leader said.

We are monitoring the situation: By way of drinking champagne, having fun and talking about a whole lot of other issues.

The right to self defense: No country or leader will deny the right of every man for self defense. Of course Israel has the right to self defense. The question, argued by Israel?s critics, is whether the actions in Lebanon can be considered an act of self defense. But hey, who are we kidding here? We all know the real meaning of this expression, don?t we? It means you can keep bombing until we say otherwise

Restraint: Bombing Beirut.

It was irresponsible and unacceptable: The sentence with which one describes Hezbollah's behavior before saying that "The Israeli strikes targeted Lebanon's equipment, its roads, its communications, its energy sector and its airport. Why?" Here's a hint: The answer to the question (this one was articulated by France's Jacques Chirac) might be hiding in the first sentence.

Iran and Syria are responsible: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that 'ran, Syria, Hezbollah, Hamas' are trying to destabilize 'democratic and moderate forces'. And what do we do about it? Bomb Hamas and Hezbollah and denounce Iran and Syria. Does this line of action have any connection to the fact that it's easier to pick a fight with the weaker bully?

We would call for a show of moderation from all parties involved: Another one from Chirac, but you could hear similar statements coming from a variety of international leaders. What they mean is one of two things: We care so much that even taking a side from afar seems too demanding. Or: We know Israel has every right to defend itself, but upsetting Hezbollah is too risky.

Lobby
Is this great timing to publish a long piece
asking if the Israel lobby has too much influence?

The Washington Post gave it its entire Magazine cover, proving, yet again, that I was right when I wrote a couple of weeks ago this: 'I'm sorry to admit that Walt and Mearsheimer won this round of the battle. They wanted to make a national debate of the issue, and to some extent they succeeded' (Read 'The unappreciated love of Walt and Mearsheimer' here).

My guest this week is probably one of the three most knowledgeable Americans about the Middle East. Martin Indyk will answer my questions, and yours. Just send them to rosnersdomain@haaretz.co.il.

For obvious reasons, both the Iran Time Saver and the Hamas Time Saver are dealing with different aspects of the crisis in Lebanon. Both were updated during the weekend, and contain links to some interesting articles.

_{"at some point I'm hopeful I'll figure out something to put here"}

'Yo, Blair!': Overheard at the G8
Published: 18 July 2006
Bush: Yo, Blair. How are you doing? (Does he regard Mr Blair as an equal? What about 'Yo, Tony'?)

Blair: I'm just...

Bush: You're leaving?

Blair: No, no, no not yet. On this trade thingy....(inaudible) (Mr Blair is getting anxious that the World Trade Organisation is falling apart because some nations, including the US, are putting domestic interests before a worldwide free trade agreement)

Bush: Yeah, I told that to the man.

Blair: Are you planning to say that here or not?

Bush: If you want me to.

Blair: Well, it's just that if the discussion arises...

Bush: I just want some movement.

Blair: Yeah.

Bush: Yesterday we didn't see much movement.

Blair: No, no, it may be that it's not, it may be that it's impossible.

Bush: I am prepared to say it.

Blair: But it's just I think what we need to be an opposition...

Bush: Who is introducing the trade?

Blair: Angela (The German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, will lead the trade discussion. That is good for Mr Blair. She is on his side.)

Bush: Tell her to call 'em.

Blair: Yes.

Bush: Tell her to put him on, them on the spot. Thanks for the sweater it's awfully thoughtful of you.

Blair: It's a pleasure.

Bush: I know you picked it out yourself.

Blair: Oh, absolutely, in fact (inaudible)

Bush: What about Kofi? (inaudible) His attitude to ceasefire and everything else ... happens. (Change of subject. Now they are on to Lebanon and the UN secretary general, Kofi Annan)

Blair: Yeah, no I think the (inaudible) is really difficult. We can't stop this unless you get this international business agreed.

Bush: Yeah. (Mr Blair is trying to push the idea of a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon. That 'yeah' does not sound like a wholehearted agreement)

Blair: I don't know what you guys have talked about, but as I say I am perfectly happy to try and see what the lie of the land is, but you need that done quickly because otherwise it will spiral. (Meaning: 'Please, George, let me go to the Middle East and be a world statesman')

Bush: I think Condi is going to go pretty soon. (Meaning: 'No')

Blair: But that's, that's, that's all that matters. But if you... you see it will take some time to get that together. (Meaning: 'Oh well, all right, if you don't want me to. Just a thought')

Bush: Yeah, yeah.

Blair: But at least it gives people...

Bush: It's a process, I agree. I told her your offer to... (Meaning: 'Drop it. You're not going.')

Blair: Well... it's only if I mean... you know. If she's got a..., or if she needs the ground prepared as it were... Because obviously if she goes out, she's got to succeed, if it were, whereas I can go out and just talk.

Bush: You see, the ... thing is what they need to do is to get Syria, to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over. (Mr Bush is expressing his belief that Syria is pulling Hizbollah's strings, while Mr Blair is hinting the Syrians might be up to no good as well)

Blair: (inaudible)

Bush: (inaudible)

Blair: Syria.

Bush: Why?

Blair: Because I think this is all part of the same thing.

Bush: Yeah.

Blair: What does he think? He thinks if Lebanon turns out fine, if we get a solution in Israel and Palestine, Iraq goes in the right way... (Here they might be talking about Kofi Annan, or they may mean the Syrian President, Bashir Assad)

Bush: Yeah, yeah, he is sweet. (Mr Bush is probably being sarcastic)

Blair: He is honey. And that's what the whole thing is about. It's the same with Iraq.

Bush: I felt like telling Kofi to call, to get on the phone to Assad and make something happen.

Blair: Yeah.

Bush: (inaudible)

Blair:(inaudible)

Bush: We are not blaming the Lebanese government.

Blair: Is this...? (at this point Blair taps the microphone and the sound is cut)

_{"at some point I'm hopeful I'll figure out something to put here"}

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/17/woolsey/

Hezbollah rejects ceasefire proposals by foreign envoys

Associated Press

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Hezbollah on Monday dismissed international ceasefire proposals as “Israeli conditions,” accusing foreign envoys of allowing Israel time to continue its military offensive to force Lebanon into submission.

“The international envoys have conveyed Israeli conditions. These conditions are rejected,” said Hezbollah legislator Hussein Haj Hassan. “We accept what secures our country's interest and pride and dignity and not to submit to Israeli conditions,” he said on al-Jazeera television late Monday.

He spoke after UN and European Union envoys as well as France's prime minister discussed with Lebanon's government ways to end the six-day-old ferocious fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah guerrillas. Israel has demanded the guerrillas release two Israeli soldiers they captured last Wednesday and pull far back from the border as conditions for any ceasefire.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television, in its prime news bulletin presentation, accused the envoys of coming to Lebanon for a “clear-cut objective to give more time for enemy aircraft to carry out more destruction and devastation so that someone can raise the banner of surrender.”

Hezbollah said it wanted an unconditional ceasefire. According to Al-Manar, which has become the guerrillas main window to the outside world after its top leaders have gone into hiding because of the Israeli onslaught on their offices and homes, Hezbollah pledged to continue firing rockets on Israel and to target more cities deeper in that country.

“This is the beginning. Beware of our cyclone. Today it's Haifa. Tomorrow it's Haifa, Acre and what's beyond and farther than Haifa after all the red lines have been shattered,” the news announcer said on al-Manar, referring to Hezbollah's threat to strike deeper into Israel after hitting Israel's coastal cities.

Israeli officials have warned Hezbollah has Iranian-supplied missiles that could hit Tel Aviv, south of Haifa and Israel's largest metropolis.

The Hezbollah broadcast said the foreign envoys' proposals were to push the guerrillas away from the border, deploy the Lebanese national army and hand over the captive Israeli soldiers to the Lebanese government.

Haj Hassan, the Hezbollah legislator, outlined Hezbollah's terms for ending the fighting. “We want a ceasefire without conditions and then indirect negotiations that will lead to an exchange of prisoners. This is what we can accept. Anything else will be Israeli conditions that can never be accepted,” he told al-Jazeera.

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Aluf Benn | July 18

Ha'aretz - Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni hinted Tuesday that Israel would not object to a temporary international force in south Lebanon, despite earlier an outright Israeli rejection of such a plan.

Speaking after a meeting with a United Nations delegation headed by special envoy Vijay Nambiar, Livni said that while Israel would prefer the deployment of the Lebanese army in the south of the country, "we will consider other solutions put forward."

"If there is a need to strengthen the Lebanese army somehow, so that the military in south Lebanon is effective, and prevents Hezbollah from returning, we will consider ways to do achieve this," Livni said.

[Comment: I think the translation on the messaging trend seen here and over the past few days is that the Israelis don't want to see a ceasefire before they've accomplished their objectives, but if the western powers want to put a peacekeeping force in, so that Hizbollah can attack it (as I think they inevitably would), the west is welcome to feel their pain. ~ JPD]

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

David Horovitz | July 18

The Jerusalem Post - Israel is well aware of the extent of both Syrian and Iranian involvement in the ongoing Hizbullah rocket offensive - as the sources of weaponry, and much more besides. The Teheran-Damascus axis, as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stressed in his Knesset speech on Monday night, is subcontracting terrorism - to Hamas and to Hizbullah.

The rockets now daily hitting Haifa and points ever-further south are Syrian made. The missile that hit the Hanit vessel off the Lebanese coast on Friday was Iranian-made. Iran is reported to have several hundred of its own Revolutionary Guards based in Lebanon, working with Hizbullah; some of them may well have been killed in the Israel Air Force's raids on Hizbullah's Dahiya command neighborhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

But Israel remains determined, so far as it is able, not to have this conflict escalate to include those two enemy states. Indeed there is a concern in the defense establishment that Hizbullah, isolated and struggling for survival amid the intensifying IAF strikes, may resort to desperate measures to try and draw in the Syrians - including even firing itself on a Syrian target, an attack that would be misrepresented as Israeli fire in the hope of prompting the already jumpy Syrians into injudicious action.

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

The Jerusalem Post - A state of emergency was declared Sunday at the Haifa industrial zone after Katyusha rockets landed nearby, killing eight people and injuring at least 20 others. The continued rocket attacks on Haifa have raised fears that a real danger exists to strategic installations in the industrial zone, including an oil refinery.

On Sunday, the Home Front Command shut down the Haifa Port, the main entrance to Israel by sea. Ships were not allowed into Haifa to unload fuel and other goods, and were being diverted to other Israeli ports. Ships were allowed to leave the port.

In addition, the Haifa oil refinery was reducing petrol stock and was dumping oil out of fear that a rocket attack could spark a major blast and fire in the coastal city.

[Comment: This is what I'd be concerned about, too. The refineries are fairly close to the railyard that was hit on Sunday and again more recently. The H-shaped white building depicted in this google maps link is, I think, the railyard, while the large industrial complex with all the tanks to the south is a refinery. ~ JPD]

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

Hanan Greenberg | July 18

Yediot Aharonot - The diplomatic clock has began ticking – and the Israel Defense Forces is seeking to harvest the gains of the operation in Lebanon as soon as possible. Army sources said Tuesday evening that the chief of staff has ordered the Air Force to destroy all Hizbullah positions on the northern border by Saturday.

As part of the same effort, two outposts in the northern part of the Rajar village have been destroyed.

"Explosives of between hundreds of kilograms to a ton have been planted among the outposts, which means we must act very cautiously," a senior IDF source said.

In the context of the new policy, every gunman found at a distance of up to a kilometer from the border will be hit.

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

Nayla Razzouk | Beirut | July 18

AFP - Israel rejected calls for a ceasefire Tuesday as it pounded a Lebanese army barracks and flattened homes on the seventh day of an assault that has killed at least 240 people and sent tens of thousands fleeing for their lives.

Helicopters, ferries and cruise liners were being chartered to pick up foreign nationals trapped in the deadliest cross border violence in decades between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas.

Lebanon's grim body count continued to mount, with 11 soldiers and at least four civilians killed and several families trapped and feared dead under the rubble of houses pulverised by Israeli missiles.

And across the border in northern Israel, a civilian was killed when a rocket hit a park in the resort of Nahariya in the latest of hundreds of rocket attacks by Hezbollah.

Prime Minister Fuad Siniora accused Israel of "committing massacres against Lebanese civilians and working to destroy everything that allows Lebanon to stay alive".

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.

Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff | July 18

Ha'aretz - The Israel Defense Forces' Head of Operations Directorate, Major General Gadi Eisencott, said Tuesday evening that "over the course of the last 24 hours, very successful attacks have continued, especially those of the air force but also other units, by land and by sea, in Lebanon."

"Until now, over 1,000 terrorist targets have been attacked, including 180 Katyusha and long-range rocket launch sites," Eisencott said.

Israel Air Force warplanes continued bombing Lebanon on Tuesday, killing 13 civilians - all of them members of two families - and 14 Lebanese soldiers. An armed Hezbollah operative and the driver of a truck carrying humanitarian supplies were also killed in Tuesday's raids.

The death toll since the start of the IDF military campaign in Lebanon has risen to 220, the majority of the casualties being civilian.

"We declared war on terror, it's not even a noun, so, good luck. After we defeat it, I'm sure we'll take on that bastard ennui." - Jon Stewart.