IDF is saying that they pushed more of their forces inside Lebanon, and that they strated advancing towards Bint Jbeil

Al Jazeera

07:52 Beilin: This is a just war, but Israel`s goals require negotiations (Israel Radio)

07:35 Report: Nasrallah says Israeli incursions won`t stop rocket fire (Reuters)

07:34 Haifa University, Technion reopen; some staff complain about risks (Haaretz)

07:24 IDF troops exchanging fire with Hezbollah guerillas in southern Lebanon (Haaretz)

8:24 Nine IDF soldiers injured in fire exchanges near Bint Jbeil

source: Ynetnews

08:16 Six IDF soldiers lightly wounded in exchange of fire in Bint Jbeil (Haaretz)

08:16 IDF chief: For every Haifa attack, troops will strike 10 south Beirut houses (Haaretz)

08:13 Olmert asks Peres to go to U.S. to explain Israeli policy, get aid for north (Haaretz) [what aid--more bombs?]

Lebanon aid stuck in transit

July 24, 2006 04:44am

TONNES of humanitarian aid material are stuck in Syria with no safe route to reach people driven from their homes by Israeli bomb attacks on Lebanon, the UN refugee agency said today...
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...005961,00.html

Saudis urge Bush on ceasefire

July 24, 2006 08:44am

TOP Saudi Arabian officials have pressed US President George W. Bush to agree to seek a ceasefire in the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in southern Lebanon.

"We requested a ceasefire to allow for the cessation of hostilities, to allow for the rebuilding of the forces of Lebanon,” Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said today after a meeting of more than an hour with Mr Bush and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Mr Bush has resisted calling for an immediate ceasefire, saying Israel has the right to defend itself and a cessation of hostilities must address the root causes of the conflict, including Hezbollah's attacks on Israel and abduction of Israeli soldiers...
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/sto...005961,00.html

08:38 MK Steinitz: Inefficacy of ground operation is exposing our weakness (Haaretz)
__________________

Last update - 08:39 24/07/2006

ANALYSIS: Hezbollah cell based in Tyre wreaking havoc on Haifa

By Ze'ev Schiff, Haaretz Correspondent

We can say without a doubt that the war of attrition against the city of Haifa and its residents is a tale of two cities: Tyre in Lebanon versus Haifa in Israel. The Hezbollah unit deployed in Tyre and its environs has been bombarding Haifa with Syrian rockets and upgraded Iranian-made Katyushas. If this unit is not destroyed, it will continue to target Haifa. As such, it is odd that the Israel Defense Forces ground operation that began Sunday was not immediately directed against the threat from Tyre.

In recent days, the air force has targetted Tyre, but this was not sufficient. The fact is that on Sunday dozens of rockets were fired from the area of Tyre toward Haifa, causing casualties. It is clear that the center of Hezbollah's campaign of attrition is Haifa, and most of the launches take place from Tyre and its environs. Therefore, at this time, this target is more important than Beirut and the Shi'ite quarter of Dahiya, and clearly more important than the little villages in southern Lebanon's central front. Without an immediate destruction of the rockets in the area of Tyre, the war of attrition against Haifa - the third largest city in Israel - will not end.

In the front lines against Israel in southern Lebanon, Hezbollah has deployed two units. The first, Nasser, involves 500 men who hold positions and outposts between the villages in the central to the eastern zones of the front. It is mostly equipped with short-range rockets. This unit is responsible for most of the rockets fired against central and eastern Galilee. Most of the rockets land in fields, but there have been strikes against Safed, Meron, Nazareth and others. The second unit is deployed in the area of Tyre, and is equiped with longer-range rockets. This is where the Syrian-made 220mm rockets with warheads of several dozen kilograms are based.

Israeli intelligence was the first among similar organizations to discover that in addition to Iran, Syria also arms Hezbollah with rockets. Even recently, the Syrians have assisted Hezbollah in transferring 220mm rockets into Lebanon. In addition to these rockets, the Hezbollah unit in Tyre also fires upgraded 122mm Katyusha rockets from Iran. Their range was increased from about 22 kilometers to 35 km, and the first rocket to hit Haifa, at Stella Maris, was one of these Iranian upgrades. If pressure is placed on Hezbollah forces in Tyre, they will pull their main, long-range rockets further back so that they can continue targetting Israeli towns.

Israel has also not succeeded in explaining to the world the problem stemming from Tyre and the blitz against Haifa originating there. International newspapers published a photograph of 82 Lebanese coffins on their front pages, and Hezbollah claimed that each coffin held the body of a Lebanese killed by Israel. This may be, but it also may be not. However, do the readers know where the rockets fired against Haifa are coming from?

In one known case, a bomb struck a basement and killed those inside. Later, it turned out that of the 32 casualties, mostly dead, 11 were armed Hezbollah militants. The basement served Hezbollah and civilians that sought cover. In the current fighting there is no alternative but to convince the citizens of the city to leave, and make it easy to do so. But it is unclear whether Hezbollah will allow the evacuation of civilians from Tyre.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741811.html

Israel warns it will hit 10 buildings for every rocket fired
(AFP)

24 July 2006

JERUSALEM - The Israeli air force is under orders to blast 10 buildings in south Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, for every rocket the Shiite militant group fires at the Israeli port of Haifa, army radio said Monday.

“Army chief of staff Dan Halutz has given the order to the air force to destroy 10 multi-storey buildings in the Dahaya district (of Beirut) in response to every rocket fired on Haifa,” a senior air force officer told the station.

Hezbollah rockets fired from southern Lebanon killed two people on Sunday in the northern city of Haifa, which has been hit by dozens of missiles since the latest conflict started on July 12.

Israel kept up its offensive on Lebanon on Monday, with its ground forces pushing deeper into the territory and warplanes carrying out a new blitz of about 40 air raids overnight.

UN humanitarian coordinator Jan Egeland on Sunday accused Israel of violating humanitarian law as he toured bombed-out areas of south Beirut.

“This is destruction of block after block of mainly residential areas. I would say it seems to be an excessive use of force in an area with so many citizens,” he said
link

July 24, 2006 Edition > Section: Foreign > Printer-Friendly Version

Israel Declares Border Area A Free-Fire Zone

BY ISAMBARD WILKINSON and FRANCIS HARRIS - The Daily Telegraph
July 24, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/36615

JERUSALEM — Israel brushed aside mounting calls yesterday for a cease-fire in Lebanon. Its army made clear that it planned to keep up its assault for at least a week and had not ruled out a ground invasion.

Buoyed by support from Washington for rooting out Hezbollah rockets from southern Lebanon, the army treated parts of the border area as a free-fire zone. It hit at least two cars with rockets as they sought the relative safety of the city of Tyre.

Secretary of State Rice was setting out for the Middle East last night, but aides said calling a cease-fire was not on her agenda unless it involved the disarming of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

"The purpose is to maintain a sustainable cease-fire," President Bush's chief of staff, Josh Bolten, said. "It is sustainable only if we get to the root problem, which is Hezbollah, a terrorist organization." That uncompromising response will disappoint those at the United Nations and in Europe who believe that a cease-fire should be the primary aim.

Prime Minister Olmert said he accepted proposals for an international force for southern Lebanon. But the broad powers he envisaged for it appeared to rule out any prospect of it ever taking shape.

"Israel is ready to see deployment of a force with military capabilities and combat experience made up of troops from European Union countries," he told the German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

But in addition to monitoring Lebanon's border with Israel, the force would have to control crossings between Syria and Lebanon. That would require some 20,000 troops, and Lebanon would see such a mandate as tantamount to an occupation.

In Beirut, the United Nations' emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, toured parts of the southern suburbs, which have been devastated by airstrikes, and accused the Israelis of violating international humanitarian law.

"It is horrific," he said as he visited the Haret Hreik district."I did not know it was block after block of houses."

Despite 11 days of bombardment, Hezbollah launched salvos of rockets into northern Israel, killing two people in Haifa and wounding more than 30.

Israel's chief of staff, Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, said his forces needed weeks to do their work."I don't want to set a date," he said, "but we're trying to shorten the operation and still achieve our goals."

As senior diplomats from Britain, Germany, and France arrived in Israel to try to coax it toward a cease-fire or at least restraint, General Halutz said: "The foreign ministers do not determine our time limit. The Israeli government does that."

In London, ministers insisted that there was no rift between the Foreign Office and no. 10 after a Foreign Office minister, Kim Howells, speaking in Beirut, accused Israel of using disproportionate force and destroying Lebanon. He returned to the theme yesterday after visiting Haifa.

"I am very disturbed the more I hear about the extent of this campaign," he said. "At some stages there are 60 jets out there over the Mediterranean waiting to hit targets."

The Israeli foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, said she

link

Rice visit a “show of support” for Lebanon
(AFP)

24 July 2006

BEIRUT - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Beirut on Monday on what US officials said was an ”important show of support” for the people of Lebanon and their government.

Rice arrived on board a heavily-armed US military helicopter on the first leg of a regional trip to discuss the conflict in Lebanon, where Israel has been waging a massive offensive against Hezbollah for almost two weeks.

The visit to Lebanon is an “important show of support for the Lebanese public and the Siniora government,” a US official said, referring to Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

“The fact we are going to go right into Beirut after all that has happened is a pretty dramatic signal to Lebanon and their government,” the official told reporters travelling with Rice.

Rice, who is also due to visit Israel, would make an announcement on aid to Lebanon and also wanted to discuss with Lebanese leaders “the elements of the solution we can see now,” the official said, without elaborating.

link

sheesh who needs enemies with "friends" like us

'We're not trying to destroy Hezbollah'

By Matthew Tostevin

Jerusalem - Israel's offensive in Lebanon is not aimed at totally dismantling Hezbollah but rather at preventing the guerrilla group returning to the border and attacking the Jewish state, a cabinet minister said on Monday.

Public Security Minister Avi Dichter played down expectations for the campaign as security sources said the army believed it had only a week to keep pounding Hezbollah before an international deal would force it to stop.

Dichter said it was up to the international community to disarm Hezbollah under a UN resolution.

Hezbollah has rained rockets on northern Israel despite the offensive
"From an Israeli perspective, the target is not to totally dismantle Hezbollah," Dichter told reporters.

"What we are doing now is to try to send a message to Hizbollah and to the Lebanese government ... hoping that somehow we'll succeed in setting up a new situation between Israel and Hizbollah."

Israel's offensive has killed 370 people in Lebanon, most of them civilians, since Hizbollah abducted two soldiers in a raid on July 12. Hezbollah, which has fired barrages of rockets into Israeli towns, has killed at least 37 Israelis.

Israeli troops battled Hezbollah inside southern Lebanon on Monday and Al Jazeera television said two soldiers were killed. "We are ... trying to destroy every Hezbollah post and position along the line and we are not going to allow Hizbollah to return to the line," said Dichter, who used to head Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency.

Hezbollah has rained rockets on northern Israel despite the offensive and the group's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, said in remarks published on Monday that Israeli incursions would not stop the Katyusha fire.

Diplomacy to end the crisis has intensified and both Israeli security sources and Western diplomats said the army believed it had about one more week to do as much damage to Hezbollah as it could.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who started a visit to the region in Lebanon, said a ceasefire was urgent as long as the right conditions were in place. The United States wants any agreement to remove the threat posed to Israel.

Israel has signalled its approval for the idea of a beefed up peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon that might prevent Hezbollah attacks over the border and help disarm the group, as provided for under a UN resolution.

Dichter said Israel wanted to write a new "Dictionary of Terms" for relations with Hezbollah.

"Trying to write it with bullets and trying to write it with bombs takes a little longer, but it's going to be written," he said. "If they even think of attacking, they will know what price they, or Lebanon, will pay."

reuters

Hazem Saghieh Al-Hayat(Lebanon} - 24/07 Opinion

{Hazem Sagieh is Political editor of Al-Hayat)

Al Hayat

There is an amazing paradox between the enormity of what is committed by the savage Israeli machine of destruction and the limited political ability of its immediate enemy, Hezbollah, to benefit from that situation. No doubt, it is an agonizing paradox for the latter, perhaps even perplexing, and may lead it, later on, to some despair.

Those who talk about a solution, or are pressing in some form or another for a peaceful end, speak specifically about the Lebanese State as the party which contributes to its making and implementation and capitalize on normality. Even the many demonstrations to condemn what is happening are divided into two categories: demonstrations in solidarity with Lebanon and its peace; and demonstrations in solidarity with Hezbollah and its war.

Hezbollah, therefore, is more of an ideological stance than any concrete national reality. As for the tormented state and its suffering people, it is as if they are something else, entirely unrelated to Hezbollah and mostly pictured as being its victims as much as Israel's.

There are, therefore, those who condemn the Jewish State because they are anxious for the interest of Lebanon and its people. They want to put a stop the bloodshed. And there are those who condemn the Jewish State for the sake of the 'resistance.' Thus, in the latter case, the tragedy of the population is used, just as the Saddam loyalists manipulated the plight of the children of Iraq before the fall of Saddam. It is a division replete with indications of two political conceptions: one related to life - the life of a specific people and country - while the other deals with death demanded as sacrifices for the sake of the 'cause.'

Here, it is advisable to note the importance of the differences with the other belligerent. There is a broad consensus on Ehud Olmert and his war. It is a consensus which puts Israel's Cause, the Israeli State and its people on an equal footing, in the sense that one does not contradict the others or coerce them.

The lack of any political framework to Hezbollah's war front is made complete by the division within the ranks of the Lebanese. The result is a prevalent isolated military adventure difficult to connect with anything else. That is, Hezbollah is not fighting the battle of the Lebanese government, which has found more than one way to disown it. Nor, obviously, is it waging the battle of the majority parties that represent the bulk of the Lebanese people and who are locked in rivalry with Hezbollah. At the same time, the fundamentalist party is waging a battle that is embarrassing ti the Arab League that failed to provide the necessary majority to hold an emergency summit. Furthermore, it is fighting a war that does not enjoy the sympathy of the Security Council. And when ideas attributed to Kofi Annan emerge, it would not be difficult to expect their contradiction with Hezbollah's ideas.

On a more general level, the latter does not intersect with any influential current in thd international politics. It does not benefit, for example, from American-Russian contradictions nor does it widen an American-European cleavage. With the notable exception of Venezuela 's Chavez, even the radical movements of the Third World, to say nothing of Europe, have not shown any impressive response to Hezbollah or its war. Hezbollah's sectarian nature deprives its battle of its comprehensive Lebanese aspect, while its relationship with Iran deprives it of its Arab representation, or considerably weakens it.

A quick review of the recent Lebanese, Arab and international positions will suffice to make us notice the political weakness of Hezbollah, though the sympathy with Lebanon is huge and the disgust with Israeli conduct is great. For example, when French Prime Minister de Villepin arrived in Beirut in solidarity with the city, his visit seemed to be as much against Hezbollah as against Israel.

And since it has become useless to lament 'the worst of times' and the 'disappearance of Arab knighthood' (and thank God it has disappeared), it would be wise to notice that the Syrian-Iranian connection is the only 'political' dimension in this war.

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

Another Opinion piece from Dar al-Hayat. Quite a spectrum presented there......


Jihad el-Khazen Al-Hayat - 24/07/06//

There is opposition around the world and within Israel itself to the daily crimes committed by the Israeli government against the Palestinians and the Lebanese.

But I will slash my way though the Israeli peace groups, the 'Stop the War Coalition' in Britain, the official and popular French stances supporting Lebanon and the protests in other countries, and focus on the United States.

Yesterday, I cited very few examples of the extremism of the neo-conservatives, who believe that Israel has not committed enough murders. They also believe that the Bush administration has not provided Israel with sufficient support.

Today, I will continue by mentioning the voices opposed to Israel's criminal war. These voices are raised in a country that is Israel's partner in this war, though it will deny it.

I will begin with a translation of part of an article entitled, "Will we go to war for Israel?" written by Justin Raimondo. He is one of the leading experts who writes about the extremism of the neo-conservatives and their loyalty to Israel. Usually, those who support Israel in the administration or in Congress are called 'the Amen corner' or those who say Amen to whatever Israel says.

What I will do here is select and translate parts of Raimondo's article. He says:
"What Israel wants is what they have always wanted: to use American power, American tax dollars, and American lives to advance their own expansionist agenda. Twenty-five thousand Americans are in Lebanon at the present moment, all of them at risk from Israeli bombs - but that didn't factor into Tel Aviv's calculations, any more than Lebanese or Palestinian lives matter one whit to them. The Israelis put Israel first - and so does Washington. If all 25,000 American tourists and others have to perish in the flames of Israeli air strikes, then so be it. No sacrifice is too great - just as long as our Israel-centric foreign policy remains firmly in place.

"Unleashed by the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the presence of a substantial American force in the midst of Mesopotamia, the Israelis are the tip of an American spear aimed at Syria and Iran. And Israel's amen corner in Washington and the media are doggedly pushing the talking point that these two spokes on the 'axis of evil' are churning the Lebanese waters. MSNBC assures us that Iran 'created' Hezbollah: knowledgeable analysts can only laugh at this agitprop - but then they aren't cited in this piece. Only a former Israeli general is.

"Hezbollah, of course, was 'created,' not by Iran, but by the Israeli invasion of 1982. The group gained prestige and adherents as it drove the invading Israelis back over the border and set up an elaborate network of social service organizations, standing candidates for office and entering the Lebanese Parliament. The mere sight of an Arab entity successfully defying Israel, and not only living to tell the tale but also prospering, is impermissible: Russian President Vladimir Putin was not alone in saying that there was more to the Israeli agenda than merely getting back their captured - um, I mean 'kidnapped' - soldiers.

"The question boils down to this: can the Israelis win a war with Hezbollah without American intervention? The answer, clearly, is no: look what happened last time. The Americans, lured into Beirut, suffered 241 casualties - after bombing Beirut's suburbs - and Reagan wisely withdrew. Israel, in the end, was driven out. The neocons are determined that, this time, the Americans will not only stay - they'll go for Damascus.

American interests play little or no role in the formulation of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, and we all know why. What scholars John J. Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt said in their now famous study [.pdf] of 'the Lobby,' as they call it, is being confirmed in spades by this latest episode:

" 'For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in 1967, the centerpiece of U.S. Middle Eastern policy has been its relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for Israel and the related effort to spread 'democracy' throughout the region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion and jeopardized not only U.S. security but that of much of the rest of the world. This situation has no equal in American political history. Why has the U.S. been willing to set aside its own security and that of many of its allies in order to advance the interests of another state?' Their answer: 'The unmatched power of the Israel Lobby.'

"That Lobby is now furiously demanding - and getting - unconditional support for the violation of Lebanon's sovereignty not only from the president, but from the leaders of both political parties and the major mandarins of the commentariat. The Mearsheimer-Walt thesis has now been confirmed." (End of translation).

As I previously mentioned, Raimondo is one of the leading reviewers of the work of the neo-conservatives and the activity of the Israeli lobby. He has written more than once on Israeli spies inside and outside the administration. He revealed new information about the charges leveled against Larry Franklin and his confession to lighten the sentence. He also revealed information about the two AIPAC officials, Stephen Rosen and Keith Weissman. The three are awaiting trial.

I translated paragraphs from the first half of Raimondo's article. He continues with excerpts from previous articles, talking about the influence of the Israeli lobby, its conspiracy against Lebanon and Syria and the manipulation of US foreign policy to the advantage of Israel.

Mersheimer and Walt said nothing that we have not been saying for years, and even decades. However, the significance of what they said stems from their status as prominent professors in leading American universities, unlike us, who are part of the dispute. The same applies to Raimondo who is an American journalist, researcher, activist and peace advocate, not an Arab journalist defending his cause. There are many more like Raimondo who deserve the Arab readers' attention.

{Justin Raimondo is the editorial director of Antiwar.com. His reputation is somewhat controversial- NYmole)...

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

I'd like to invite anyone interested in a Lebanese(American) perspective on the war in Lebanon to visit Candide's Notebooks ( www.pierretristam.com ), where substantive essays and links to the latest are posted daily. The place isn't usually so Lebanon-centric (it's usually more liberal-centric), but these days what isn't? Thanks for the open thread.

Jerusalem Post:

IDF Apache crash was not an accident

LT. Colonel amoung the 20 wounded by the attack between Maroun al Ras and Bint Jabil!!

Two pilots injured as Apache crash lands in North
By YAAKOV KATZ AND JPOST STAFF

Hizbullah statement on Maroun al Rass:

"An army that fights with excellent forces and tanks with the assistance of an air force cannot got into a village directly on the border except after a battle that has continued for days with great losses against a number of opposition fighters is a failed and defeated army"
source Haaretz

16.56: قصف عنيف على صفد البطيخ يوقع 4 شهداء وأكثر من 20 جريحاً

source tayyar.org

16.56 heavy bomb on safad batikh which leads to 4 killed and more then 20 injured

17:10 Two moderately to seriously hurt in rocket attack on Galilee (Haaretz)

Enormous fires in Kriat Shmona after HA rockets landed there.
New TV
An Israeli has been injured in the fights in bint Jbeil.
New Tv

17:35. Lebanese President Lahoud accuses IDF of using `phosphorous bombs` (Reuters)

17.28. The outbreak of fires in large colonies Mskav year Qiryat Shemona and beacon (Tayyar )

17:41 Thousands of Sudanese in Khartoum march in support of Hezbollah (AP)
__________________

Association for Civil Rights: Halutz orders are not legal

The Association for Civil Rights in Israel has turned to Defense Minister Defense Minister Amir Peretz following orders by Chief of Staff Lieutenant Colonel Dan Halutz, to the Air Force to strike ten buildings in the Dahiya neighborhood of Beirut on every Katyusha barrage which strikes Haifa.

"In light of the fact that this is not a lone statement by Halutz, the Assocaition demands that the defense minister make it clear to the chief of staff that revenge operations are banned and forbidden," the statement said. (Ynetnews)

(07.24.06, 17:05)

al hurra
medical israely sources : rokets on tabaraya 3 wounded and one in shlomi
__________________

Future TV: Rice suggests the creation of a buffer zone in the south, the deployment of the army there and upgrading UNIFIL’s role

Naharnet : The UN launches an urgent appeal for $150 million to help hundreds of thousands of civilians displaced by Israeli attacks on Lebanon
__________________
NEWTV : Meeting between Rice & Berri ended without any agreement
__________________

18:10 Liberal Democrats chief calls on PM Blair to suspend arms exports to Israel (AP)

18.14 : eyewitnesses confirm the occurrence of a huge explosion east of Gaza
__________________
NewTV : Israeli warplanes targeted a house in Tyr near to AlDiniya School (sour)
__________________

Hizbolla just declared 3 new martyrs on its websites, the total so far are seven martyrs I guess.
__________________

18:14 - Israel says that Hezbollah reactivating overseas units (Naharnet)
__________________
18.17: The sound of sirens in Safed ( Tayyar )
18:24: Egyptian President Mubarak calls for immediate ceasefire in Lebanon (AP)
__________________

U.S. officials are telling CNN's John King privately not to expect a cease-fire to come out of Rice's mission, which will likely focus on assessing the humanitarian situation in the region.

meeting is taking place right now between Berri & Seniora - Source NewTV
__________________

18.40: الجزيرة: غارة اسرائيليّة على مدينة صور
18.39: الصحافة الإسرائيلية: سقوط 80 صاروخًا على إسرائيل اليوم خلف 30 جريحًا

[Translation]

18.40: Al Jazeera: Raid on Sour

18.39: Isra. Media: 80 rockets were launched on Israel (30 wounded)

tayyar.org

LBC

the israely army : we distroyed 9 roket luncher for hizballa
__________________

Source Naharnet :

18:44 - Seven killed as Israel bombs homes in south Lebanon
__________________

July 24, 2006
Big Muddy
Twelve days in, and even Ralph Peters thinks the Israelis are losing:

http://billmon.org/archives/002559.html

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/742148.html

Whats more? The cost of aid now and in the future or the profit from military sales to Israel?(purposely left out cost of goodwill) ~ candy

U.S. to give $30 mln to Lebanon aid appeal
24 Jul 2006 17:50:07 GMT

TEL AVIV, July 24 (Reuters) - The United States will contribute $30 million to an international appeal for humanitarian aid for Lebanon, a U.S. official said on Monday.

Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch said the aid would include medical kits for 100,000 people, 20,000 blankets and plastic sheeting. The United Nations earlier appealed for $150 million in aid.

Welch said Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would address the humanitarian situation in talks with Israeli officials.

Hopes of crushing Hezbollah quickly fade for Israelis
Olmert warming to peacekeeping force on border
Jul. 24, 2006
MITCH POTTER, MIDDLE EAST BUREAU

JERUSALEM—Cracks began to appear yesterday in the Israeli consensus on Lebanon as mounting international criticism and dwindling expectations of a knockout blow against Hezbollah kept most of Israel's invasion-sized force idling on its northern border.

The apparent hesitance of Israeli leaders to order more than limited incursions into the risk-fraught hills of southern Lebanon came as a parade of foreign diplomats worked Jerusalem's corridors of power in search of a political formula to end the standoff.

Israeli analysts suggested the 12-day campaign to rout the hold of Hezbollah militias over southern Lebanon was poised at a "decisive moment" as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert weighed the risks of pushing forward into terrain that's cost Israel dearly in past conflict.

The arrival today of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to bear heavily on Olmert's final decision.

As attacks continued yesterday — some 90 Katyusha missiles landed in Israel, killing two civilians and injuring dozens, while Israel delivered 120 air strikes over Lebanon, killing eight and wounding 100 — a flurry of developments suggested the first signs of diplomatic sobriety. Among them:

# Olmert warmed to the idea of a peacekeeping force in Lebanon, an option he previously dismissed as premature. The Israeli prime minister told visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier that Israel would like to see the force "made up of troops from European Union countries."

# Saudi Arabian diplomats tabled a proposal for an immediate ceasefire in talks with U.S. President George W. Bush. Rice sat in on the meeting with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal before departing for Jerusalem.

# Syrian officials stepped forward, saying Damascus was ready for direct dialogue with the United States and was ready to use its influence over Hezbollah, conditional upon a reopening of diplomacy that would include discussions on Israel's continued hold over the Golan Heights.

# Qatar, a U.S. ally, emerged as a third-party mediator, working behind the scenes between Israel and Hezbollah to end the crisis. Hezbollah, in turn, reportedly agreed the Lebanese government would lead discussions on its behalf aimed at a possible prisoner swap that would see the release of two captured Israeli soldiers in exchange for Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

Israeli forces took up positions early today near a second Hezbollah stronghold, Bint Jubayl, after earlier capturing the nearby hilltop village of Maroun al-Ras, the site of intensive battles between Hezbollah guerrillas and Israeli commandos on Thursday and Friday.

But Israeli military sources suggested the army's goal at present is the establishment of a one-kilometre security "buffer zone" along the border rather than a deep swath of 30 kilometres earlier envisioned.

"Israel's problem now is that unattainably high expectations were created at the outset by the political leadership, which spoke of dismantling or crushing Hezbollah," said Shlomo Brom, a former Israeli army chief of strategic planning and now senior research associate at the Jaffee Centre for Strategic Affairs.

"These expectations were unrealistic. But when Hezbollah blatantly provoked Israel, Mr. Olmert had little choice but to deliver a forceful reaction.

"Now, I think he is grappling with what most Israelis already know: We can't really change Lebanon. When you have a guerrilla force so utterly rooted into the population, you cannot simply erase it. So the expectations are coming down, to the idea that if Hezbollah receives a strong enough blow it will be made to think twice before trying this again."

Growing international pressure fed by images of Lebanon's infrastructure in ruins is also a factor, said Gabriel Ben-Dor, director of Haifa University's National Security Studies Centre.

"It is not over. But we are at crossroads now in a war that has not been going as well as we hoped and not yielding the results that we'd hoped," he said.

"Here in Haifa we received another nine rockets today and many more across the north which killed two more Israelis. So the fundamental decision is whether we continue with this resolute attitude and the original goal of crushing Hezbollah, or do we accept that we cannot achieve that and go for a political settlement with less decisive results?"

Ben-Dor said if Israel's image has been in any way tarnished by the so far lopsided toll of death and destruction of air strikes in Lebanon, it is likely to suffer more if a decision is made to push forward on the ground.

"A lengthy ground war in Lebanon will make Israel look very violent and aggressive at the very moment that Israel needs maximum credibility to rally the world to a common front against the real existential threat before us — Iran's nuclear ambitions," Ben-Dor said.

"Any move forward now could become a hindrance to our security later. That is part of the decision that has to be made."

Criticism of Israel's air campaign over Lebanon peaked on the weekend, with the most pointed comments coming from British Foreign Office minister Kim Howells. "The destruction of the infrastructure, the death of so many children and so many people. These have not been surgical strikes," Howells said after visiting Lebanon on Saturday.

Olmert rebuffed the criticism, blaming a biased media for distorting the truth. He dispatched Vice-Premier Shimon Peres on a tour of Europe and North America to explain Israel's plight.

"The massive, brutal and murderous viciousness of Hezbollah is unfortunately not represented in its full intensity on television screens outside of Israel," Olmert told reporters. "A twisted image is presented, where the victim is presented as an aggressor."

It's estimated 381 people, mostly civilians, have died in Lebanon. Israeli fatalities stand at 17 civilians and 20 soldiers.

Toronto Star

----

Comment: Well I guess the stiff resistance Hizbullah put up combined with the unfavourable press and reaction by countries has been heard by Israel. As Pat Lang predicted, if Israel isn't willing to put enough enough troops on the ground, the strategy of depending on bombs from airplanes has failed.

It isn't over yet, but it is sounding like they're having second thoughts on how successful they'll be with continuing to depend on the superiority of their airforce without sacrifying many lives with troops that also carries ramifications for civilian populations.

Olmert is sounding bitter that he didn't get rave reviews in the press and world community opinions.

If it ends, a round of applause should go to the reporters and photographers who kept the world so well informed of this incursion into Gaza and Lebanon and all those who spoke out against this war including blogs and the speed of the Internet to relay the information. It really was gratifying to see Lebanese and Israeli citizens talking to each other. A phenomena that probably never happened before. Betcha Olmert was getting some pressure from his own countrymen who became opposed to the war. They do read and hear public opinion from around the world unlike 'some' deaf and blind world political leaders.

dumb (as in stupid) political leaders. :-)

No hiding place for civilians caught in air strikes

Jonathan Steele in Beirut
Monday July 24, 2006
The Guardian

Photograph: Getty Images

Heavily bandaged with only his eyes and mouth showing, 18-year-old Zakaria Alamedin lies in a Beirut hospital, still unaware that his father died in the rocket attack which burnt his face.

He was lucky to have just left the cellar of the 14-storey office and apartment block where most of his family were sheltering in the city of Tyre. Someone had phoned to say Hassan Nasrallah, the Hizbullah leader, was on TV and he ran upstairs to watch. It saved his life.

The Israeli bomb left the tall building standing but homed in on the basement which is open at one side. Twenty people who had thought they were safe died instantly. Forty were wounded.

In Beirut's city centre Isam Kaoun, a 31-year-old house-painter, tells a similar story of mass death. He was in his home town of Srifa last week when Israeli missiles struck three houses in rapid succession shortly after 3am. They killed nine people in one basement shelter, six in another, and six in a third.

While Israeli missiles continue to strike vehicles full of desperate refugees fleeing their villages in south Lebanon, Israel is also accused of targeting a large number of homes and office buildings used only by civilians.

Researchers for Human Rights Watch, the New York-based non-governmental organisation, say they have compiled details on the deaths of more than a quarter of the roughly 400 Lebanese killed by the air strikes Israel launched a fortnight ago. "We've investigated the results of air campaigns in Kosovo, Afghanistan, and Iraq, and the pattern here is different. They're hitting civilians time and time again," Peter Bouckaert, a long-serving Human Rights Watch investigator, said.

"Just because the Israelis are using smart weapons doesn't mean they're hitting military targets," he added. "The Israelis seem to make no discrimination between military and civilian targets."

In many cases the Israeli attacks have killed or injured entire families. Ahmed Ali, a taxi driver, 45, lies in a room at Beirut's Rafik Hariri hospital. He has lost both his legs. In a room nearby sits his wounded wife, Akram Ibrahim, cradling their one-year-old daughter with a bandage on her tiny right arm. Ten-year-old Ali Ahmed Ali is in a wheelchair, his body peppered with blood-stained injuries.

They lived in Blida, a village of 3,500 less than a mile from Lebanon's eastern border with Israel. "We woke at 6.30am last Wednesday to the sound of a bomb exploding somewhere else in the village. So we rushed down to the basement and waited until the heavy bombing ended," said Akram Ibrahim.

"At 2.30pm they started again and we went down again. There were 12 people in the cellar. It's an ordinary house, nothing special. Then we were hit." Hundreds of people from Blida have now fled, but 200 remain there in fear.

The Human Rights Watch researchers are convinced from Ahmed Ali's description that the family was injured by at least two cluster bomblets, which entered the basement, releasing metal fragments. The weapons are a standard part of Israel's arsenal and were used by them in Lebanon in the 1980s.

A separate team of Human Rights Watch investigators photographed cluster munitions with Israeli forces near the Lebanese border in recent days. The photographs show M483A1 "dual purpose improved conventional munitions", which are produced in the United States.

"Our prior research in Iraq and Kosovo clearly shows that cluster munitions cannot be used in populated areas without huge loss of civilian life. Human Rights Watch calls upon the Israeli military to immediately cease the use of indiscriminate weapons like cluster munitions in Lebanon," Mr Bouckaert said.

In Srifa, an inland town of about 10,000 people, the Israeli attacks have been particularly lethal, killing as many as 42 people, according to Human Rights Watch. Jan Egeland, the United Nations humanitarian affairs coordinator, was visibly shocked after meeting Srifa survivors in Beirut yesterday. He called for access to be opened to the inland villages.

"We hear horrific stories from there where so many women and children were killed. The women told us 'Let us at least be able to retrieve our bodies, because the dogs are eating them'," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,1827926,00.html

July 24, 2006
Fight Centers Around 2 Towns in Southern Lebanon
By CRAIG S. SMITH and GREG MYRE
AVIVIM, Israel, July 24 — In some of the most intense ground clashes so far, Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants fought fiercely today in and around two hilltop towns in southern Lebanon where the Israeli military is seeking to drive the Islamic faction away from the border.

The fighting came as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in the region, making an unannounced stop in Beirut, where she met Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora. “Thank you for your courage and steadfastness,” she told Mr. Siniora, though few details emerged from their meeting. Ms. Rice then headed to Israel.

The main battle was on the outskirts of Bint Jbeil, about two miles across the border and considered an important Hezbollah stronghold. The town, whose name means “daughter of the mountain” in Arabic, is the largest population center in this corner of Lebanon. Israeli military officers said the offensive on the town began Sunday.

“We’re definitely in there, we control it, though there are still pockets of resistance,” said Capt. Mitch Pilcer of the Israeli Army’s Northern Command. However, other Israeli military officials were more cautious, saying the Israeli troops were still fighting their way into the town as of this evening.

Soldiers in a rear staging area near the Israeli border town of Avivim said they had encountered sustained fighting and faced land mines, artillery fire and anti-tank rockets.

At least 20 Israeli soldiers were wounded today in Bint Jbail and surrounding areas, according to the Israeli military. It declined to say whether any had been killed, though Arab television networks reported that two Israelis had died.

The most dramatic events of the day turned around efforts to rescue the crew of a disabled tank, which had come under heavy fire. Some, if not all of the four crew members inside were wounded, according to soldiers who would not give their names because of Israeli Army policy that prohibits them from talking to reporters without authorization. They said one of the wounded was a battalion commander and others said one crew member had been killed. They were eventually recovered and the wounded sent hospitals in Israel, the soldiers said.

When asked what it was like in Lebanon, one member of an armed bulldozer crew who gave his first name as Naom said there had been an enormous amount of anti-tank missile fire. He said the large olive drab bulldozers that the Israeli Army uses to clear roads and demolish buildings drew heavy fire.

“It’s not Lebanon, it’s Afghanistan,” he said.

At the Menara Kibbutz on a high ridge overlooking Lebanon, streams of smoke drifted from the town of Mes e Jbail from apparent Israeli shelling. Fires burned elsewhere across the gentle landscape, reminiscent of southern California.

Bint Jbail, also smoking, could be glimpsed in the distance. Below the kibbutz, on an outcropping, sat a United Nations observer outpost, built of cinderblocks and concrete blast walls. The U.N. observers, meant to monitor the border after Israel’s withdrawal, could do nothing but watch.

The push for Bint Jbeil comes after the Israeli forces moved into Maroun al-Ras, a smaller town closer to the border. It too is set on a hilltop, and Hezbollah has used it as a key base, according to the military.

While the Israeli forces are in Maroun al-Ras, they continued to come under fire from Hezbollah forces, beginning early in the morning, the military said. Maroun al-Ras is just a short distance across the border, and there have been clashes between Israeli and Hezbollah ground forces in the area for the past six days.

The Israeli air force bombarded both towns throughout the day.

In another development, an Israeli helicopter returning from a mission to Lebanon crashed on the Israeli side of the border, killing both crew members, the military said. Hezbollah claimed it had shot down the helicopter, but the Israeli military insisted this was not the case. The military believed the crash was caused by a technical problem and said it was investigating.

Though Israel’s military and political leaders say they do not want to undertake a major ground offensive in south Lebanon, but only want to clear Hezbollah fighters and weapon from the border region, the past several days of fighting have demonstrated that doing so will take a time.

One Israeli officer, who asked not to be named, noted that in a full-scale war, the military would simply bypass these small villages and push north, coming back later to mop up when the main objective has been reached. “We’re doing the opposite here,” he said.

Hezbollah has put up fierce resistance, even in towns just a short distance across the frontier. The Israeli military has found a well-protected network of bunkers and tunnels, with large stocks of Katyusha rockets and other weaponry, indicating that Hezbollah was preparing for a major battle.

Avi Dichter, Israel’s public security minister, said the military objective in southern Lebanon was to weaken Hezbollah to the point where it could not seriously threaten Israel from the border area.

“From an Israeli perspective, the target is not to totally dismantle Hezbollah,” said Mr. Dichter, who was formerly the head of the Shin Bet security agency. Israel, he said, was “hoping that somehow we’ll succeed in setting up a new situation between Israel and Hezbollah.”

Responding to criticism over the large number of civilian deaths in Lebanon, Mr. Dichter said: “A war is not a surgical operation, and air war is not a surgical operation. You identify the targets, bombs are sophisticated and accurate. But you see a cement truck and from the air it looks just like a Katyusha truck. Sometimes from the air you hit the wrong target.”

In southern Lebanon, at least seven civilians were killed, including two children, in a renewed wave of Israeli air strikes that hit several homes around Tyre, Agence France-Presse reported.

About 380 Lebanese have been killed in 13 days of fighting, the vast majority of them civilians, according to the Lebanese. Israeli military officials say they believe they have killed around 100 Hezbollah militants.

The Israeli operation has not slowed the Hezbollah rocket fire. More than 80 rockets crashed into northern Israel as of this evening, wounding about 20 people, the military said. The rockets again touched off brush fires, turning the clear summer sky gray with smoke in the town of Kiryat Shmona, which was hit by a heavy barrage in the afternoon.

There was also renewed violence in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli artillery shelled two towns in the northern Gaza Strip, killing five Palestinian civilians, including two children, Palestinian hospital workers reported.

Palestinian militants fired eight rockets into southern Israel, the Israeli military said, though they caused no serious damage or injuries.

The Israeli military responded with shells, hitting an apartment building and open spaces just outside in Beit Lahiya. Three civilians were killed, and several people were wounded, according to Palestinians in the area.

The Israeli military said it did not target civilians, but is investigating the possibility that one or more rockets “misfired.” The military said it regretted any civilian casualties.

Later, another Israeli attack killed a woman and a child in the nearby Beit Hanoun area, according to the Palestinians.

The military said it fired on a Palestinian cell that was launching rockets and identified a hit. The military said it was not aware of any civilian casualties.

Israel has been dropping leaflets in northern Gaza, warning civilians to move away from areas where Qassam rockets are being launched.

Craig Smith reported from Avivim for this article and Greg Myre reported from Jerusalem.

LINK

24 Jul 2006
Source: Human Rights Watch

(Beirut, July 24, 2006) Israel has used artillery-fired cluster munitions in populated areas of Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said today. Researchers on the ground in Lebanon confirmed that a cluster munitions attack on the village of Blida on July 19 killed one and wounded at least 12 civilians, including seven children. Human Rights Watch researchers also photographed cluster munitions in the arsenal of Israeli artillery teams on the Israel-Lebanon border. "Cluster munitions are unacceptably inaccurate and unreliable weapons when used around civilians," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. "They should never be used in populated areas."

Alert Net

----

Dave, could you take a look at the pictures of those shell casings and confirm whether they are forbidden ordnance. I seem to recall cluster bombs were used in Iraq?

22:19 IDF says officer, soldier killed in fighting in Lebanon in Bint Jbail (Haaretz)

CNN: Hizballah Infrastructure is still intact

Israel open to multinational peacekeeping force to end crisis
__________________www.tayyar.org

renewal of the raids on Dayhieh - LBC
__________________

About 61 percent of the British public believe Israel's military response to the kidnapping of two soldiers by Hizbullah is "exaggerated," a poll published by the Guardian has shown.

Only 22 percent said Israel's response is proportionate. Only 30 percent of British citizens agree with stance of Prime Minister Tony Blair who backed Israel's military response. (AFP)

(07.24.06, 22:13)

(Ynet)

22.13: أ.ب.: رفض الرئيس نبيه بري إقتراح كندوليزا رايس المتضمن شروطاً لوقف إطلاق النا

Source:www.tayyar.org

Translation:
22.13 - berri refused rice's suggestion to have a cease fire on her terms

French Foreign minister Philippe Douste-Blazy on TF1

1- Il n’y aura pas de règlement militaire du conflit et notamment pas contre le Hezbollah
2- Le seul objectif de la communauté internationale est de garantir la souveraineté du Liban
3- Israël ne fait pas de discrimination entre la guérilla du Hezbollah et la population civile
4- Ne rien faire pour le Liban est terrifiant et même injustifiable
5- Conditions du cessez-le-feu : désarmement du Hezbollah / libération des prisonniers détenus par le Hezbollah
6- Si vous n’avez pas un gouvernement libanais qui dans son ensemble ne permet pas le retour du cessez-le-feu et l’envoi de l’Armée libanaise sur tout le territoire, on ne peut arriver à un règlement du conflit
7- La solution devra prendre en compte aussi la question des prisonniers libanais en Israël et les Fermes de Chebaa
8- Si les USA veulent envoyer une force multinationale avant de réunir les conditions politiques d’un cessez-le-feu, ça nous rappellera de bien mauvais souvenirs et ce ne sera pas efficace.

Translation:

1- It will be impossible to solve the crisis, including Hezbollah disarmement, through military means
2- The sole goal of the international community is to preserve Lebanon's sovereignty
3- Israel isn't making any difference between Hezbollah's fighters and Lebanese civilians
4- Doing nothing towards Lebanon is terrifying and cannot be justified
5- Conditions for the cease-fire: Disarmement of Hezbollah / Releasing the Israeli prisoners held by Hezbollah
6- We cannot reach a solution if the entire Lebanese government does not stick to the conditions allowing the cease-fire to occur and if it does not commit to sending the Army to fully control the Lebanese territory
7- The solution must also embrace the Lebanese prisoners in Israel and the Shebaa Farms issues
8- If the USA decide to send a MNF before reaching all the political conditions for a cease-fire, it will be a mistake and a repetion of bad memories...
__________________

Bashar Assad discussing with Annan the Lebanese Situation..

Source NewTV

21.32: استهداف دراجة نارية على طريق قانا عين بعال واستشهاد سائقها

21.23: تجدد القصف الجوي الإسرائيلي على مدينة صور

21.22: تحليق الطيران على علو منخفض فوق بيروت والضاحية

21.19: البيت الأبيض يجدد عدم موافقته لوقف إطلاق النار

21.15: غارات على كفر رمان والنبطية

21.13: معارك شرسة في هذه الأثناء على تخوم بنت جبيل

21.12: حرائق في أحراج كريات شمونة بعد قصفها من حزب الله

20.04: رايس تصل في هذه الأثناء الى إسرائيل

20.47: الولايات المتحدة تخصص مساعدات عاجلة للبنان بقيمة 30 مليون دولار

20.24: غارات إسرائيلية على منطقة النبطية

19.44: رايس تغادر لبنان الى قبرص ومنها الى إسرائيل

www.tayyar.org

[translation]

21.32 a motorcycle was targetted in road kana-3ain ba3al and its driver died.
21.23 israeli raid over sour again via plane
21.22 israeli plane flyinh on low level in dahiyeh and beirut.
21.19 white house repeats its point again which is not to stop war
21.15 israeli raid over nabatiyeh and kafr raman
21.13 right now heavy fights in bnt jbeil is going
21.12 fires in kryat shmona after hizbollah bomb
21.04 rice reaches israel at the moment
20.47 USA give lebanon emergency help of 30 million dollars
20.44 israeli raid over nabatiyeh
19.44 rice leaves lebanon to cyprus and from there to israel

21.48: تجدد الغارات على الضاحية الجنوبية

Source:www.tayyar.org

Translation:
21.48 - renewal of the raids on SOUTHERN DAHYI

21:52 UNIFIL: IDF shell hits UN post in southern Lebanon, wounds 4 (Reuters)

21:48 Israel puts diplomatic missions abroad on high alert for Hezbollah attacks (Reuters)
__________________

posted 22.15 local time on Jpost.com
IDF: Two soldiers killed in Bint Jbail
By YAAKOV KATZ

Two soldiers were killed in fierce battles in Bint Jbail on Monday, the IDF announced Monday night.

One soldier died after his tank rode over a large explosive device. A battalion commander was also wounded in the attack.

A few hours later, another tank was hit - this time by an anti-tank missile.
__________________

Sydney Morning Herald

July 24

.....The Red Cross in Tyre said that five of its volunteers and three patients were wounded when Israeli aircraft attacked two ambulances on Sunday night. The attack took place near Qana when an ambulance from Tyre arrived to evacuate three patients from the border town of Tibnin.

The drivers said that two guided missiles were fired at each ambulance. Three patients - a woman, her son and grandson - were all re-injured, the son losing his leg to a direct hit from one of the kinetic-energy anti-tank missiles.

Ambulance drivers - until Sunday night the only people able to drive out into the killing zone - report that the roads around Tibnin are strewn with wrecked vehicles and uncollected bodies. The Red Cross has now been forced to abandon all attempts to rescue wounded from Tibnin....

Is this a war crime? - if not why not? - stonehouse

FWIW:

U.S. rushing bunker-busters to Isreal

World Tribune

Monday, July 24, 2006

WASHINGTON — The United States has approved an Israeli request for "accelerated deliveries" of precision-guided air munitions to Israel.

Officials said the Bush administration approved an Israeli request for bunker-buster weapons days after the outbreak of the Hizbullah war on July 12. They said the Israel Air Force concluded that its heavy air strikes on Hizbullah strongholds around Lebanon have been ineffective.

Officials said the Israel Air Force failed to destroy Hizbullah headquarters in southern Beirut. On July 19, Israeli F-15I and F-16I fighters dropped 23 tons of munitions on Hizbullah's command and control bunker, but failed to destroy the hardened facility, Middle East Newsline reported.

"The administration and Congress already approved the PGM sale," an official said. "We're talking about accelerated deliveries."

On Monday, the London-based A-Sharq Al Awsat said the U.S. Air Force would transfer the GBU-28 bunker-busters to Israel. The newspaper said the air force would take bombs stored in Central Command headquarters in Qatar.

In 2005, the administration approved an Israeli request for satellite and laser-guided air bombs used by the U.S. Air Force in the war against Iraq. The deal, meant to be led by prime contractor Raytheon, included as many as 100 GBU-28's.

The GBU-28 is a 5,000-pound laser-guided bomb intended to destroy concrete bunkers. This was Israel's first purchase of the GBU-28, meant for deployment on Israel's F-15I fleet.

Rice, in Israel, calls for peace based on 'enduring principles'

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel on Monday for talks about the ongoing fight between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, saying that she was looking for a sustainable peace.

The United States has not yet pushed for Israel to halt its offensive in Lebanon, saying that it did not support a deal that would leave Hezbollah guerrillas on Israel's border.
Ha'aretz:
[...]
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Monday that Syria cannot be a partner to diplomatic efforts to secure an end to fighting in Lebanon and northern Israel.

Palestinians: 'Day of rage' against Rice visit

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH, Jerusalem Post, July 24

Palestinians are calling for a general strike in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to protest US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the region scheduled for later this week, accusing Washington of backing Israel's military campaigns against Hamas and Hizbullah.

Leaflets distributed in the West Bank and Gaza by representatives of several Palestinian factions called for a "day of rage" [a euphemism for violent protests] against Rice's visit. The groups also called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to refrain from meeting with Rice.

"We reject Rice's visit to the Middle East and we will expose its real goals," read the leaflets, signed by the National and Islamic Forces in Palestine. "This visit comes in the wake of Israel's US-backed comprehensive aggression against the Palestinians and Lebanese."

The factions accused Israel of waging a war of "genocide" against the Palestinians and Lebanese after receiving a green light from the US administration. They also strongly condemned the US for vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israel for its offensive operations in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

[More]

Hezbollah a tough foe for Israeli military

By STEVEN GUTKIN, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 24 minutes ago

Figures released by the Israeli army show the pace of Hezbollah rockets raining down on Israel has not slowed — and the guerrillas are nowhere close to being neutralized.

.....More than 350 people have been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began, according to security officials. Some 600,000 peop
More than 35 Israeli's have died, including 22 soldiers.

If Hezbollah emerges from the fighting with its "military arm more or less intact ... my God they're going to use it as a victory," Goksel said.

"As long as they don't lose, they don't have to win ... because they'll be standing up to the Israelis and in this part of the world that is a victory."

link

Last update - 23:48 24/07/2006

Lebanese parliament speaker rejects Rice cease-fire proposal

By Aluf Benn, Shmuel Rosner and Shlomo Shamir, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies

Nabih Beri, Lebanon's parliament speaker and Hezbollah's de facto negotiator, rejected proposals brought by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday, inisisting a cease-fire must preceed any talks about resolving Hezbollah's presence in the south, an official close to the speaker said.

Rice's talks with Prime Minister Fouad Siniora also appeared to have been tense. Siniora told Rice that Israel's bombardment was taking his country "backwards 50 years" and also called for a "swift cease-fire," the prime minister's office said.

RAW STORY
Published: Monday July 24, 2006

The Washington Wire, the blog of the Wall Street Journal is reporting today the Karen Hughes, public diplomacy chief of the State Department, was surrounded in an airport bar by Lebanese Americans who had been evacuated from Lebanon.

Despite traveling 5 days, members of the group could not stay in a hotel because of a disagreement with the State Department over who would bear the lodging costs.

Excerpts from the blog entry follow.

#

When Condoleezza Rice’s plane stopped to refuel in Shannon airport in Ireland, en route to Lebanon, some of the secretary of state’s top aides got an earful from dozens of Lebanese-Americans waylaid there after being evacuated from Beirut.

At five in the morning, many in the group of Lebanese-Americans were sprawled on benches trying to sleep amid a fluorescent glare and jabber of TV news, much of it on the carnage in Beirut. But 20 or so caught on that an important U.S. delegation was at the bar, including public diplomacy chief Karen Hughes, top Mideast aide David Welch, and White House adviser Elliot Abrams.

The group had come to Shannon aboard a chartered plane whose engines had broken down the day before. Some had been on the move for five days. “We saw beautiful Beirut Lebanon being destroyed,” one said. A spat between the State Department and a charter company over who should pay had prevented the group from going to a hotel.

link

Don't they know how hideously uncomfortable it is to have to endure the company of the little people squashed by your policies? How can one rule the planet properly with such clumsy Imperial Palanqeen Bearers? It's so hard to get good help - ES

The Australian
Annabelle McDonald 25 jul 06

NOBEL peace laureate Betty Williams displayed a flash of her feisty Irish spirit yesterday, lashing out at US President George W.Bush during a speech to hundreds of schoolchildren.

Campaigning on the rights of young people at the Earth Dialogues forum, being held in Brisbane, Ms Williams spoke passionately about the deaths of innocent children during wartime, particularly in the Middle East, and lambasted Mr Bush.
"I have a very hard time with this word 'non-violence', because I don't believe that I am non-violent," said Ms Williams, 64.

"Right now, I would love to kill George Bush." Her young audience at the Brisbane City Hall clapped and cheered.

"I don't know how I ever got a Nobel Peace Prize, because when I see children die the anger in me is just beyond belief. It's our duty as human beings, whatever age we are, to become the protectors of human life."

Ms Williams was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 30 years ago, when she circulated a petition to end violence in Northern Ireland after witnessing British soldiers shoot dead an IRA member who was driving a car. He veered on to the footpath, killing two children from one family instantly and fatally injuring a third.

Ms Williams's petition had tens of thousands of Protestant and Catholic women walking the streets together in protest. Now the former office receptionist heads the World Centres of Compassion for Children International, a non-profit group working to create a political voice for children.

(...)

Wrapping up the three-day forum yesterday, delegates agreed to a 26-point action plan.

"There can be no sustainable peace while the majority of the world's population lives in poverty," they said.

"There can be no sustainable peace if we fail to rise to the global challenge presented by climate change.

"There can be no sustainable peace while military spending takes precedence over human development."

link

On Meet the Press, Tim Russert points out a stunning White House press release that calls for Israel to attack Syria.

On Meet the Press, Tim Russert points out a stunning press release from the White House Communications Office. The release, titled Setting The Record Straight, endorses an LA Times Op-Ed that calls for Israel to attack Syria:

"It's time to let the Israelis take off the gloves…. Israel needs to hit the [Syrian] Assad regime. Hard."

It's difficult to not interpret this as the White Communications Office officially endorsing an Israeli attack on Syria.

link

http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=2790

Full English transcript of the interview he gave to al-Jazeera.

I think the US and Rice have lost all credibility in the situation and wonder if the baton has been passed off to Blair to help cool the situation. ~ candy

World News
Mr Blair at Downing Street 'Situation Is A Catastrophe'
Updated: 21:57, Monday July 24, 2006

Tony Blair has called the situation in Lebanon "a catastrophe" and said he "deeply regrets" the loss of civilian lives in the violence.

The Prime Minister also revealed he is working on a plan to end the conflict, which will be ready "in a few days".

He made the comments in a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

Mr Blair said: "We are working very hard to put in place a plan that will allow the immediate cessation of hostilities."

And he said Israel's tactics are damaging Lebanon and its "fragile democracy".

Refusing to support either the Israelis or Hizbollah, he said: "I want the killing to stop now but it's got to happen on both sides and it's not going to happen on both sides unless there is a plan in place."

The Prime Minister added that if the conflict is swiflty brought to an end work can start on dealing with the underlying causes.

And he said it is "tragic that a country that struggled to become a democracy has been set back".

Mr Maliki called for an immediate ceasefire and blamed Israel for the crisis.

He described the bombardment of Lebanon as an "excessive use of force" if it is directed at innocent civilians and not solely at Hizbollah militants.

And he said the attacks hitting Lebanon have destabilised the entire region, including Iraq.

The pair met journalists in London following their talks on the possibility of handing control over more areas of Iraq to local forces.

It is Mr Maliki's first official visit to Britain and he used it to outline his Government's progress since it was formed in May.

But the subject was heavily overshadowed by the Middle East conflict.

'Russian roulette' with rockets in northern Israel
25 Jul 2006 09:07:17 GMT
Source: Reuters

More By Jonathan Saul

SAFED, Israel, July 25 (Reuters) - Eliezer Asulin lives alone in the remains of his home, half-destroyed by a direct hit from a Hizbollah rocket fired from Lebanon.

It was just one of 1,200 rockets the guerrilla group has rained down on northern Israel in the past two weeks, killing 17 civilians and causing tens of thousands to flee south.

Those that have stayed behind, either for work or to protect their homes, now feel like they are gambling with their lives.

"Every day we play Russian roulette even before we wake up," says Asulin, a truck driver from Safed, which sits 12 km (7.5 miles) from the Lebanese border and has been one of the prime targets of rocket fire over the past 14 days.

"I am only here to save whatever is left of my belongings," said the 48-year-old as he bought fruit in the only store left open in the town, where around 30,000 people used to live.

"I have sent my family south. Most of the town has left."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert highlighted the problems of the north at a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday, saying the situation had become intolerable for more than one million people.

"Life has almost stopped completely," he said.

"People are sitting in these small, packed shelters without air conditioning in the heat of the summer. They're not working. They're unable to meet the basic needs of their lives."

He pledged to pursue his offensive against Hizbollah in southern Lebanon and the bombardment of other parts of the country, a conflict that has killed around 380 Lebanese, the vast majority of them civilians, over the past two weeks.

As well as the 17 Israeli civilians killed, 24 troops have also died in the fighting, which began after Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a raid on July 12.

"GHOST TOWNS"

In Haifa, Israel's third largest city and the main one in the north, attempts are being made to return to normality despite the rockets -- the university reopened its doors on Sunday. But surrounding areas have become ghost towns.

In Safed, where a rocket hit a hospital last week and patients had to be relocated, silence hangs over the main square and the cobbled streets. Synagogues are shuttered.

"We have become refugees. There is nothing to do but stay indoors or leave," said Asulin.

In the village of Shlomi, barely 2 km from Lebanon, a stray dog wanders around looking for its owner. Only one man sits outside sipping a soft drink.

"This is a ghost town like much of the north," said Arieh Edrin, 47, a kiosk owner.

"People only come out for groceries now. Coaches keep coming to ferry people to the south. It is harder on the younger ones."

In other towns, anger builds along with the casualties.

In the mainly Christian Arab village of Gush Halav, 4 km from the border, many blame Hizbollah. "I am an Arab and proud to be one. But make no mistake, I would like Nasrallah to be assassinated for what he has done to all of us," said Bashir Zubran, 24, referring to Hizbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah.

Others echoed those frustrations.

"There is no work, we spend most of the time in secure rooms or bomb shelters," said Christian Sousan, 21. "We are all depressed," he added, as the thud of a rocket nearby echoed across the village.

By LEE KEATH
The Associated Press
BEIRUT, Lebanon - An Israeli jet fired a missile into a house in south Lebanon early Tuesday, killing seven people, hospital and security officials said.

At least one other person, a woman, was wounded in the attack in the market town of Nabatiyeh, officials said.

It was not immediately clear why Israel targeted the house, which belonged to a man named Mohammed Ghandour. He, his wife and his son were among the seven killed, security officials said.

They said a man named Saad Hamza, his wife, an unidentified man and two children were also

The attack came a day after Israeli troops battled their way to a key Hezbollah stronghold in south Lebanon, seizing a hilltop in heavy fighting and capturing two guerrillas, according to the Israeli army.

The U.S. completed its evacuation of 12,000 Americans and said it would switch to bringing in humanitarian aid.

On the 13th day of Israel's offensive, its forces moved one step deeper into Lebanon as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made her first diplomatic foray since the conflict began and immediately met resistance.

The tangled knots in the negotiations meant fighting was likely to drag on just as the pace of Hezbollah rockets raining down on Israel shows no signs of letting up despite the aerial bombardment of its positions. Air power alone is proving insufficient to rout the guerrillas, who are tough opponents on the ground as well. Mideast observers say Hezbollah only has to remain standing not beat Israel to emerge victorious in Arab eyes.

Rice paid a surprise visit to Beirut on the way to Israel, trying to push a blanket plan that would call for a cease-fire simultaneous with the deployment of international and Lebanese troops into southern Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah attacks on Israel.

Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a prominent Shiite Muslim who has been negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah, rejected the idea and said a cease-fire should be immediate, leaving the other issues for much later. Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora took a similar stance and complained bitterly to Rice about the destruction wreaked by U.S. ally Israel.

Israel "is taking Lebanon backward 50 years and the result will be Lebanon's destruction," he told Rice, the prime minister's office said.

But a day after criticizing Israel for "disproportionate" strikes against civilians, U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland accused Hezbollah of "cowardly blending" among Lebanese civilians.

"Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending ... among women and children," Egeland said. "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."

much much more

what an odd statement, anyone know a source for this?

do the math: A mathematician's guide to the news.
Proportionate Response
Does one Israeli really equal 47 Americans?

By Jordan Ellenberg
Posted Monday, July 24, 2006, at 12:29 PM ET

On June 25, Louise Roug and Doug Smith of the Los Angeles Times wrote that "[a]t least 50,000 Iraqis have died violently since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. … Proportionately, it is equivalent to 570,000 Americans being killed nationwide in the last three years." Three weeks later on Meet the Press, Newt Gingrich asked viewers to "[i]magine Miami had missiles being fired at it every day. Remember that when Israel loses eight people because of the difference in population, it's the equivalent of losing almost 500 Americans."

It's hard for Americans to comprehend what's happening in the Middle East. That's why commentators reach for analogies. What event in the United States would be "equivalent" to the terror over there? The answer depends on what you mean by "equivalent." Is it, "What crime in America is morally equal to the killing of eight Israelis?" Or do you mean something more like, "What event would have the impact on America that the killing of eight Israelis does on Israel?"
.
.
.
.
.
...Maybe it's best to keep it simple. If you want to imagine eight people killed, imagine eight people killed—but people on your block, not across the world. That computation is mathematically and morally unimpeachable, and no calculator is required.

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Israel to maintain buffer zone
Plans to maintain control until international force present
Jul. 25, 2006

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Tuesday that Israel will maintain a security zone in southern Lebanon until an international force arrives there.

Peretz did not say whether Israeli soldiers would remain in Lebanon or would maintain the zone using airstrikes and artillery fire.

Israel had initially been opposed to an international force in southern Lebanon, preferring that the Lebanese army secure the border.

But in recent days it has said it would accept a force under NATO’s command.

“There will be a security zone, which will be under the control of our forces if there is not a multinational force,” Peretz said.

“If there is not a multinational force that will get in to control the fences, a multinational force with an enforcement capability, we will continue to control (Hezbollah) with our fire toward any one who will get close to the defined security zone.”

Toronto Star

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U.S. wants peacekeepers
Bold proposal sees international force deployed across breadth of Lebanon
Jul. 25, 2006. 09
SANDRO CONTENTA
EUROPEAN BUREAU CHIEF

BEIRUT—A U.S. ceasefire plan calls for an international peacekeeping force to be posted initially in Lebanon's war-ravaged south and later extended throughout the country to disarm the Hezbollah militia, a Lebanese government source says.

"Eventually, the international force would be right up to the Syrian border," the highly placed source told the Toronto Star yesterday.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the broad proposal during a surprise two-hour meeting here yesterday with Lebanon's Prime Minister, Fuad Saniora. Rice then flew by helicopter to Israel for talks with officials there.

Saniora made clear Lebanon wants a comprehensive solution that ends once and for all the recurring cycles of conflict with Israel — short of a full-fledged peace deal.

He insisted on a prisoner exchange, an end to Israeli violations of Lebanese territorial sovereignty, and the Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Shebaa Farms — a small piece of land Lebanon claims as its own but that the UN considers part of Syria.

"Rice said everything can be discussed," the government source said.

Rice had little to add upon arrival in Jerusalem last night, the Star's Mitch Potter reports.

"If we have learned anything it is that any peace is going to have to be based on enduring principles and not temporary solutions," she told reporters. "We will talk about how to get an enduring cessation of violence."

Said Ahmad Fatfat, Lebanon's interior minister: "We need a global solution. Any partial one will bring another war in a few weeks, a few months or a few years, and everything that will be rebuilt will be destroyed again."

The U.S. has been sharply criticized in Lebanon for dragging its feet on a ceasefire while Israel bombs the country's infrastructure — and a growing number of civilians — to pieces.

Underscoring the fragile security situation in the capital, Rice's visit wasn't announced in advance because of safety concerns, and a convoy of 20 SUVs whisked her past armed Lebanese guards patrolling largely deserted streets. Though south Beirut has been heavily targeted by Israeli warplanes, no explosions were heard during her five-hour stay.

The UN's emergency relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, who has denounced the Israeli bombing as "a violation of humanitarian law," yesterday appealed for $150 million (U.S) from the international community to help 800,000 displaced Lebanese.

The ceasefire proposal came as Israeli soldiers fought pitched battles while pushing deeper into southern Lebanon to besiege the town of Bint Jbail, dubbed the "capital of the resistance" because of its intense support of Hezbollah during Israel's 1982-2000 occupation of the south.

Few expect a ceasefire to take hold soon, particularly if issues such as prisoner exchange and Israel's withdrawal from Shebaa Farms are taken seriously. A lasting ceasefire would also likely involve talks with countries the U.S. now shuns — Syria and Iran, whose governments are widely considered Hezbollah's patrons.

The plan's first phase would see international forces stationed 20 kilometres north from the Israeli border. That would give Israel the buffer it demands to prevent rocket fire or cross-border raids, such as Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, which triggered the current conflict.

The second phase would expand the force across the country and implement a United Nations resolution to disarm all militias in Lebanon. The international force would also train and equip the Lebanese army to take control of the country once it left, the source said.

The Lebanese government is expected to meet today to consider the ceasefire plan. But Saniora has already told Rice international troops must come from the United Nations, and not NATO, the source added.

An international force across all of Lebanon is seen positively by some government officials because it might help stabilize the country and reduce interference by Iran and Syria.

"The mandate of the international force has to be considered very carefully. If it's perceived as an occupation force there will be serious trouble in Lebanon," said Timur Goskel, a former official with the UN observer mission in south Lebanon.

After seeing Saniora, Rice took the proposal to parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, leader of the Shiite Amal party, who is close to Hezbollah, Iran and Syria.

The proposal is silent on how Hezbollah would be disarmed, or what kind of deal would be offered in exchange for them doing so. At the moment, the proposal has little to entice Hezbollah to a ceasefire, let alone disarm.

With Israeli soldiers fighting inside south Lebanon, Hezbollah has regained some of the legitimacy as a resistance group it lost when Israel withdrew in 2000, observers say. It's not likely to stop fighting as long as Israeli soldiers are on Lebanese soil.

Goskel, who advised the UN in south Lebanon for 24 years, said Hezbollah has been building its defences against an Israeli incursion since 2000. Arms are stored under homes, in caves and an extensive system of tunnels, he said.

"Eliminating Hezbollah militarily will be a difficult task. I don't think it can be done," Goskel said.

He believes Hezbollah, already seen as heroic by many Arabs for pushing out the Israelis in 2000, will emerge from the conflict with an even greater status.

"It will be more difficult to disarm them after this conflict. They will say, `We are the only ones protecting our own (Shiite) community,'" Goskel said.

In Israel yesterday, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni restated Israel's bottom-line demands for a cessation of violence: the release of two captured Israeli soldiers in Hezbollah's possession, the dismantling of Hezbollah as a military organization and deployment of the Lebanese national army in southern Lebanon.

"The goal of Hezbollah is to set the region in flames," Livni said. "We will not and we cannot expect less than to succeed."

Before Rice made her proposals, Lebanon's Fatfat told the Star that Hezbollah might be convinced to disarm if all Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails are exchanged, and if Israel withdrawals from Shebaa Farms, which it seized during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

"In that case, an armed resistance would no longer have its raison d'etre," he said, adding Hezbollah could then focus on its role as a political party.

Fatfat accuses both Israel and Syria of wanting to keep Lebanon unstable. Israel would see a democratic Lebanon as an economic competitor in the Middle East and Syria would see it as embodying the alternative to its repressive regime.

Rice continues her round-robin diplomacy today when she meets Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defence Minister Amir Peretz and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Toronto Star

----

Comment: So where are these UN troops who would be willing to attempt to disarm Hizbullah? The air attack didn’t work, so now they demand that other countries send troops on their behalf. Stephen Harper sure as heck better not send Canadian troops to die in the Middle East.

War is going badly for Israel which explains why they are now in favour of an International force manning the border and why it is they can't disarm Hizbullah themselves. The United States would be fools to engage in wars on 3 fronts (Afghanistan, Iraq and Lebanon).

Also read Juan Cole's description of Condi’s acrimonious meeting in Lebanon.

Also read

a senior Hezbollah official said the group did not expect Israel to react so strongly to its capture of two Israeli soldiers in a July 12 raid, saying it expected "the usual, limited response."

Mahmoud Komati, the deputy chief of the Hezbollah politburo, also told The Associated Press that his group will not lay down its arms.

"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," Komati said.

Source AP

48 hours of fierce fighting around Bint Jbeil because HA well dug in--unnamed Israeli commander, reported by CNN.

Abu Jafar HA commander of central sector killed in Maroun al-Ras, say Israeli military sources--CNN

Hassan Nasrallah soon to be on Al Manar TV to make statement. Any guesses as to what he will say?

IDF kills 4 UN observers.

They seem to make lots of mistakes in their targets. Do they not know the coordinates of UN posts for years?

No wonder innocent Lebanese people are being slaughtered.

One day in Tyre explains what is happening to ordinary Lebanese--being split in two parts, being decapitated, being roasted.
Thanks to our tax money!

rough translation

Hassan Nasrallah: We have to first understand the war imposed on Lebanon. After 2 weeks, we understand very well what it is all about.
After the words of Rice about the "new Middle East', i.e. the new AMERICAN Middle East. Do you think that this came up all of a sudden after we captured the 2 soldiers. Everything points towards a plan that has been in the works for a long time.
The NEW Middle East means the area that the US controls and manages, with Israel as its prime partner.
In the NEW MIddle East, Palestinian issue should be dealt with... all the resistance movements have to be crushed.

HN: It started with the Palestinians. The US was surprised by the results of the elections when Hamas won. They punished the Palestinians in every way possible.. embargo, attacks, etc.
Then the israeli soldier was captured in Ghaza. This led to the unification of Palestinians after they were starting to split after the elections.

In Lebanon, for the past year, there were direct and indirect efforts by the US... they used to bet on internal factors, and they lost. There were no factions who were able or fit to crush the resistance. The popularity of HA was stronger. They assessed the Lebanese army capabilities. They were surprised when they found out they cannot count on the army to turn against the resistance.
They bet on the fact that including HA in the gvt will make them change their stance on resistance, but this didnt happen.

So all their efforts failed. They were observing closely the national dialogue, and they realized even that will not crush the resistance. So they realized there was no INTERNAL factor they could count on to eliminate the resistance

HN: On the regional level, they tried with Syria and Iran, but they also failed.

At the end, they realized they had no solution but one: eliminate the resistance in Lebanon and Palestine and then isolate syria and iran.

Based on all that, their only choice was WAR by Israel on Lebanon.
We have information that all the training that was happening in Northern Israel lately, was all in preparation for htis war. It was scheduled for Septemeber or October. They were only getting last pieces of interlligence and information.

Their plan was for Israel to go for a swift and all out war, hitting all the infrastructure, the HA positions, their Headquarters, etc.. paralyzing the resistance and turning the public opinion against them. That's waht they were plannign.

Some might ask, why did you capture the 2 soldiers then.... even if we didnt do it, they wouldve gone for their war in September anyway!
I am transparent... when we captured the 2 soldiers, we UNINTENTIONALLY ruined their plans... pushing the Israelis to speed up their plans, hence losing the surprise effec they were counting on.
They thought they would invade swiftly without us being prepared. When we did what we did, we were ready for them, and they had to go for their plan...

HN: thats the war they called an OPEN war, and we said we are ready for it.
We now realized, with great certainty, the justification for this war and the purposes for this war. Did we make a mistake? no.. they were going to go for it anyway in 2 months.
__________________
__________________

HN: Our destiny is to face that plan and defeat it.. to liberate our land, and liberate our prisoners.

Brothers and sisters, today they started the diplomatic efforts.. giving the enemy more chances. All the envoys who came , came here with dictated statements, not with solutions.

I will assure you, that we will not accept any condition for our people that will be contrary to the lebanese interests.

Houses have been destroyed, but will be rebuilt insha2allah, infrastructure has been distroyed but will be rebuilt insha2allah... but our dignity cannot be destroyed.

After her visit to here, Rice gave Israel another chance. Thenext week or 10 days will be crucial... everyone is waiting for who will blink first.
We would like to announce that after all these attacks from the Israelis, I ANNOUNCE THAT WE WILL GET INTO THE POST-HAIFA PHASE!!! unfortunately we have to.. . and if things get worse, we will go for the next phase, that is BEYOND THE POST HAIFA

HN: on the ground, we are fighting in Bent Jbeil. Just like we fought in Maroun el Ras. We are not an army, we fight a guerilla war... we want to inflict damages on the Israelis... The occupation of any inch of our land, will multiply our efforts to destroy them and fight them even more.

In the ground fighting, the measure is how much damage we do to them.
HN: we will be very transparent.. We dont hide our martyrs. Dont give in to the psychological war they are waging against us. They have claimed controlling Bent Jbeil 2 days ago... until the RECORDING of this message, bent Jbeil was still free. They talk about hundreds of hizbullah casualties.. where are they!?? they willl spread rumors, i tell u not to believe them. Listen to us, whenever we have a martyr, we will announce his name. When we lose a town, we will tell you we lost a town. They are the ones lying to you, to their people and to the world.. thats their weakness. Our honesty is our strength.

HN: things will not stay the same.. we promise you we will win. The enemy will not have a long time to do this.. no matter how much coverage they get from the US. The regional and international factors will not allow it to last long.

the end.
__________________

__________________

__________________

From BBC News: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/5215366.stm

our United Nations peacekeepers have been killed in an Israeli air strike on an observation post in southern Lebanon, the UN has said.

A bomb struck the post occupied by the peacekeepers of the Unifil force in the Khiam area, it said.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said he was "shocked" at the "apparently deliberate targeting" of the post.

The attack came as Israel said it would control an area in southern Lebanon until international forces deployed.

Apparently, that post has been there since 1948. Annan is now being quoted as saying the bombing appears to have been deliberate.

Israeli strike destroys U.N. post, kills 3
4th observer feared dead; Annan condemns attack

Associated Press
Updated: 52 minutes ago

BEIRUT, Lebanon - An Israeli bomb destroyed a U.N. observer post on the border in southern Lebanon Tuesday, killing three observers and leaving another feared dead, officials said. U.N. chief Kofi Annan said Israel appeared to have struck the site deliberately.

The bomb made a direct hit on the building and shelter of the observer post in the town of Khiyam near the eastern end of the border with Israel, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon known as UNIFIL.

Annan said two observers were killed with two more feared dead. Later, a U.N. official confirmed that a third body had been recovered. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to publicly discuss the issue.

One of the dead was identified as Chinese U.N. observer Du Zhaoyu, China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported. The other three were from Austria, Canada and Finland but it wasn’t clear which two were confirmed killed, U.N. and Lebanese military officials said.

Denial from Israel

Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman expressed his “deep regret” for the deaths and denied the post was intentionally targeted.

Rescue workers were trying to clear the rubble, but Israeli firing “continued even during the rescue operation,” Struger said.

U.N. officials said four observers were in the post when the bomb hit, and the building had been destroyed. Two bodies had been recovered and two were unaccounted for, apparently still in the rubble. They spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The victims included observers from Austria, a Canada, China and Finland, U.N. and Lebanese military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information to the media. It was not immediately known which were confirmed dead.

As reports of the attack emerged, Annan rushed out of a hotel in Rome following a dinner with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora.

“I am shocked and deeply distressed by the apparently deliberate targeting by Israeli Defense Forces of a U.N. Observer post in southern Lebanon,” Annan said in the statement.

Annan said in his statement that the post had been there for a long time and was marked clearly, and was hit despite assurances from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that U.N. positions would not be attacked.

‘Full investigation’

“I call on the government of Israel to conduct a full investigation into this very disturbing incident and demand that any further attack on U.N. positions and personnel must stop,” Annan said in the statement.

Gillerman called the assertions “premature and erroneous.”

“I am shocked and deeply distressed by the hasty statement of the secretary-general, insinuating that Israel has deliberately targeted the U.N. post,” he said.

He said Israel would investigate the bombing. “We do not have yet information what caused this death: it could be the IDF (Israel’s military) it could be Hezbollah,” he said.

In the meantime, the envoy assured that “Israel remains committed to protecting the safety and security of U.N. personnel on the ground and is doing its utmost to guarantee that they be able to carry out their mission.”

The U.N. Security Council was expected to receive a briefing on the bombing on Wednesday.

Since Israel launched a massive military offensive against Lebanon and Hezbollah guerrillas July 12, an international civilian employee working with UNIFIL and his wife have been killed in the crossfire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah guerrillas in the southern port city of Tyre.

Five UNIFIL soldiers and one military observer have also been wounded, Struger said.

One israeli soldier dead, 5 wounded in Bint Jbeil
Al Arabia

Israel's New Battle Plan: Grinding It Out
The siege of Bint Jebel shows how Israel has learned that, despite its overwhelming technological superiority, it has to fight Hizballah on its own terms — in prolonged and messy ground battles

Source www.times.com

Last update - 08:35 26/07/2006

Fierce gun battles reported near Hezbollah stronghold

By Haaretz Service and News Agencies

Israel Defense Forces troops were engaged in fierce gun battles with Hezbollah militants in the south Lebanese town of Bint Jbail early Wednesday, despite the fact that the army has taken over the town. A number of troops were reportedly wounded.

On Tuesday, IDF infantry and armored soldiers surrounded the Hezbollah stronghold in Bint Jbail.

Military officials said Golani Brigade infantry troops had surrounded the village, imposed a closure and seized some houses on the outskirts. But the army said fighting with guerrillas was ongoing.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743027.html

08.02: سقوط 5 صواريخ على طبريا

[Translation]

08.02: 5 Rockets on Tabaraya

tayyar.org
__________________

08:36 Katyusha rockets land near Safed; no injuries reported (Israel Radio)
__________________

Is the criticism of IDF's military intelligence justified?

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent

Moshe Arens is worried. The man who was defense minister for three terms when Israel controlled southern Lebanon, believes the current campaign there is being badly conducted. Unless there is a swift change, he warns, Hezbollah could come out of the conflict without being trounced. "This will be a disaster for Israel. Nasrallah will be seen in the world as someone who fired thousands of Katyushas on Israeli communities for weeks and came out unscathed."

This criticism is rejected both in the government and the army. The war, they say, is going well, Israel has chalked up several successes and has the upper hand. But one thinks that if Israelis had been asked on July 12 whether it was possible that Hezbollah would shell the North for two weeks without the IDF's being able to stop it, most of them would have replied in the negative.

Several issues must be considered:

more...

If Peace Comes, Just Who'll Go In to Keep It?

Even if a truce occurs, few countries seem eager to put troops between Israel and a Hezbollah that is entrenched and refusing to disarm.

By Tyler Marshall and Tracy Wilkinson, Times Staff Writers
July 26, 2006
LA Times

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration's effort to assemble an international peacekeeping force for Lebanon has quickly run into several roadblocks, including one especially daunting: Few countries seem willing to commit troops, especially without a cease-fire agreement in place.

The White House has said no U.S. troops would be part of such a force. Britain says it is stretched too thin to take on another deployment. France has called talk of such a force "premature," while German officials wince at the idea of their troops on Israel's border.

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Such reluctance is complicating the U.S. push to deploy a force to isolate the Islamic militant group Hezbollah and neutralize its ability to strike Israel from bases in southern Lebanon.

Such a deployment would mark the first time combat-ready peacekeeping troops were stationed on one of Israel's frontiers.

U.N. peacekeepers, first deployed along the border in 1978 and currently numbering about 2,000, have never been considered a combat force, and have been overwhelmed by the current fighting.

Aside from finding troops, other problems are hobbling the potential deployment. The United States, Israel and most European countries want Hezbollah to disarm completely, as required by a United Nations resolution. Hezbollah rejects that idea.

U.S. efforts to pressure Hezbollah have been hampered by the absence of formal diplomatic ties to Iran and just low-grade official channels open with Syria — the radical group's two main patrons.

"If Hezbollah is not disarmed or rejects a cease-fire agreement, then who's going to come in? Nobody," said Robert Hunter, former U.S. ambassador to NATO who now works in the Washington office of Rand Corp.

Officials traveling with U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was headed for a Lebanon crisis meeting in Rome late Tuesday, said that the force they would like to field could not begin its work until the fighting had ebbed enough to allow an unchallenged entry.

"They're not going to fight their way in," a senior Bush administration official told reporters. He declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the subject.

Despite comments by Rice emphasizing urgency in achieving a cease-fire, there was further evidence Tuesday that the administration appeared willing to delay an end to the fighting to give the Israeli military a chance to degrade Hezbollah's ability to fight.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, Henry A. Crumpton, the State Department's counter-terrorism coordinator, said he believed the Israeli response was "in some ways just beginning."

He noted that Israel's military appeared to have made only limited progress in degrading Hezbollah's combat capabilities.

"Hezbollah, because it has been [in] a safe haven for so long, [has] been able to build some pretty stalwart defenses, pretty elaborate bunker systems, and they're fighting hard right now," Crumpton said.

"It's going to take a while, I think, for the Israelis to get in there and deny that space in Lebanon."

U.S. officials signaled that topics of discussion in Rome would include how large an international force should be, what rules it would follow regarding firefights and whether it should operate only in south Lebanon or throughout the country, a senior administration official said.

As they search for countries willing to take part, U.S. officials confront a sticking point: If they get the diplomatic backing for the kind of aggressive peacekeeping force the administration views as essential to a stable peace, fewer nations are likely to volunteer because of the increased combat risk their troops would face.

Turkey, a Muslim country and a North Atlantic Treaty Organization member with a respected army and a good relationship with Israel, has been mentioned as a possible contributor. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora has said he would welcome Turkish participation.

In Ankara, the Turkish capital, a senior official said his government was open to the idea, but only if the Israelis and Hezbollah agreed to a cease-fire.

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