Halutz's Bombing War
Hezbollah's Top Ally in Israel
By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

excerpt " when he was asked what feelings, what moral tremors he might have had about the dropping of a one-ton bomb in a house in Gaza. Halutz's jaunty reply was to the effect that all he felt was "a slight tremor in the wing of the airplane."

"Israel is doomed," said a friend of mine some months ago, returning to the U.S. after a trip to Israel. I asked him why, and my friend, who spent twenty years working at a high level in the Pentagon, answered, "They've put in an Air Force man as chief of the General Staff."

He was talking about Dan Halutz, appointed chief of the General Staff of the IDF in February of this year.[...]

[...]The trouble is that history shows air power doesn't win wars, or even battles. The best known example is the bombing of Germany by the Americans and the British in World War Two. The plan, as advanced by Britain's Arthur "Bomber" Harris, was to kill a million Germans and paralyze industrial production. Harris began his career with the British bombing campaigns in Mesopotamia in the 1920s, then Palestine, against the Great Rising, in the 1930s.

The Allies' bombs killed many Germans, though not a million. But as postwar investigators headed by the late J.K. Galbraith found, war production actually increased. The bombs stiffened German morale and loathing of the enemy.

Galbraith's investigations failed to dent the myth of air power. America's most famous Air force general in the postwar period was Curt LeMay, headed of America's nuclear air fleet, the Strategic Air Command. In World War Two he had overseen the firebombing of Tokyo. It was LeMay who boasted to President John Kennedy that his planes could "reduce the Soviet Union to a smoldering, irradiated ruin in three hours."

Dan Halutz is in the LeMay tradition, a brutish lout. He raised a storm when he was asked what feelings, what moral tremors he might have had about the dropping of a one-ton bomb in a house in Gaza. Halutz's jaunty reply was to the effect that all he felt was "a slight tremor in the wing of the airplane."[...]
http://www.counterpunch.com/

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If this were 1700, they'd be saying: "Since civilization began, slavery has existed. It's human nature." I would have believed it. If 1800: "Women will never vote. They are not born rational". I would have believed it.
2006: Make war irrelevant

Norwegian paper dagbladet.no has a nice picture illustrating the extent of Israeli bombing in Beirut.

http://gfx.dagbladet.no/pub/artikkel/4/47/472/472969/beirut.jpg

Ze'ev Schiff, Amos Harel and Aluf Benn | August 4

Ha'aretz - Defense Minister Amir Peretz told Israel Defense Forces officials on Thursday evening to begin preparing for the next stage of the military offensive in south Lebanon, which would extend the IDF's control to all Lebanese territory south of the Litani River.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, however, is said to be reluctant about expanding Israel's ground operation. While Peretz believes that the short-range rocket threat posed by Hezbollah can be neutralized by taking the area up to the Litani, Olmert feels that such a move would not be able to counter the longer-range missile threat posed by the Shi'ite organization.

The directive issued by Peretz was made in the wake of Hezbollah rocket attacks that killed eight people in northern Israel earlier Thursday, officials said.

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

http://www.breakingnews.ie/2006/08/04/story270668.html

August 4

Israeli warplanes pounded Beirut’s southern suburbs and other parts of Lebanon early today, local media reported.

Airstrikes on the capital’s southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, began just before 1am local time (10pm Irish time Thursday), causing two huge explosions. Yesterday, Israeli aircraft dropped leaflets on the area warning people to leave.

Fighter planes appeared to focus on the southern suburb of Ouzai, making 24 pre-dawn over-flights in less than an hour, local media outlets said.

The attacks on Ouzai, a predominantly Shiite Muslim area, were the first since fighting between Hezbollah and Israel began 24 days ago. At daybreak, New TV reported two additional strikes on the area, airing footage of smoke billowing from buildings.

Israeli jets launched three attacks near Baalbek in eastern Lebanon, Hezbollah’s TV, Al-Manar, and witnesses reached by telephone said.

Another airstrike was launched near the Lebanese-Syrian border crossing at Masnaa, east of Beirut, the Voice of Lebanon radio said.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, in a speech televised yesterday, offered to halt rocket attacks on Israel in return for an end to the air attacks. He also threatened to launch missiles at Tel Aviv if Israel attacks Beirut proper.

Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, told CNN that Nasrallah’s suggestion for a halt to the rocket attacks was “a sign of weakness,” suggesting that Hezbollah’s leader, “may realize that his forces are being degraded and looking for a way out.”

On Nasrallah’s threats against Tel Aviv, Gillerman said, ”I am sure that he, as well as his sponsors, realize the consequences of doing something as unimaginable and crazy as that.”

مقتل 3 جنود اسرائليين في قصف صاروخي جنوب لبنان
العربية

3 israeli soldiers killed in a missile attack south lebanon
Al-arabiyya

update: 5 IDF soldiers dead so far in "Markaba"

Source: Al Arabiyya

القوات الإسرائلية تعمل في 20 قرية جنوب لبنان العربية
Israeli forces operating in 20 villages of southern Lebanon
Al-Arabiyya

منشورات اسرائلية تدعو أهالي النبطية للرحيل
العربية
israeli flyers asking the people in nabatieh to evacuate it!
Al-Arabiyya!

according to lbc, all the roads linking Beirut to the north are cut!
__________________
Here is one of the many comments left at haaretz by Christian Lebanese denouncing the bombings of west Beirut/Jounieh.

Title: Innocent Christian regions bombarded

Name: Open-minded Lebanese

City: Beautiful Beirut

What IDF did this morning by its attack on pure christian regions in Jounieh,in the North of Beirut,is totally TERRORISM. What is IDF planning next?

These regions were against Hezbollah`s attacks on Israel,and they were seeking to make peace and to find a permanent solution to the problems in the south of Lebanon. These people are neutral and peace loving people,and by hitting them like IDF did today,Israel is pushing them to take sides and start to look at Israel as an ennemy and not as a future neighbour.

Stop this bloodshed,I ask all the honest Israelis to stop this non-sense war. Nasrallah clearly said yesterday that he will stop firing rockets at Israel if IDF stops. This is a clear sign of readiness for a peace agreement. IT IS WHAT BOTH OUR PEOPLE ARE LOOKING FOR,I HOPE SO.

If this war lasts longer,it will become out of control, and we hear about several terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and others coming to Lebanon to fight. Dont let that start,we wont be able to stop it.

Last update - 09:04 04/08/2006

Islamic group: 200 militants sent to bomb 'Israel's vital interests'

By Reuters

JAKARTA - More than 200 Islamic militants from Southeast Asia have
been sent on missions to bomb Israel's "vital interests" and countries that support the Jewish state, their leader said on Friday.

The militants have been trained to carry out suicide bombings to avenge Israel's military strikes on the Palestinian territories and Lebanon, said Suaib Didu, chairman of the Jakarta-based ASEAN Muslim Youth Movement.

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"We will limit our targets to Israel's vital interests and those that support Israel's aggression in Palestine and Lebanon," Didu said. "We will not carry out attacks indiscriminately."

Hardline militant groups in Indonesia have made claims in the past of sending volunteers to participate in conflicts overseas that have sometimes proved exaggerated.

Western countries such as the United States and Britain, as well as businesses, could be targeted unless they cease supporting Israel, he said.

Didu said the group was watching Australia's position on the Middle East conflict.

"If John Howard makes a statement in support of Israel, he will be a target," Didu said.

More than 3,000 people have signed up for the mission, and 217 people from Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore have been dispatched abroad so far, he said.

A "show of force" of the more than 3,000 volunteers will be held on Saturday in Pontianak in West Kalimantan province on Borneo island, Didu said, adding that many of the 200-plus militants had fought with Afghanistan against the Soviets.

Din Syamsuddin, chairman of the moderate Muhammadiyah, Indonesia's second largest Muslim organization, said Thursday that threats by radical Muslim groups to send volunteers to fight Israel were just "symbolic gestures" to show solidarity with the Palestinians and Lebanese.

"There are too many obstacles for these people to travel there. It is too costly and the Israeli army is no match for them," he told reporters.

But in Canberra, Human Services Minister Joe Hockey said Friday the government was not shrugging off reports of the plans to carry out suicide bombings.

"The minister for foreign affairs and the Department of Foreign Affairs are investigating what is reported in the papers today and we are treating it very, very seriously," Hockey told Australian television.

Australia is a staunch ally of the United States, with troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan. While it has been targeted in attacks in Indonesia, Australia has never suffered a major peacetime attack on home soil.

Australia and Indonesia strengthened cooperation on counter-terrorism following the 2002 nightclub bombings on the Indonesian resort island of Bali, which killed 202 people, including 88 Australian tourists.

The fighting in Gaza, which began June 25 after Hamas-linked militants captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid, has killed a total of 175 Palestinians, the U.N. reported, adding that it was concerned that "with international attention focusing on Lebanon, the tragedy in Gaza is being forgotten."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060804/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel

August 4

Ha'aretz - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert would welcome the participation of German soldiers in a stabilization force in South Lebanon, he said in an interview with a German newspaper published on Friday.

"I have informed (German) Chancellor Angela Merkel that we have absolutely no problem having German troops in South Lebanon," Olmert told the daily Suddeutsche Zeitung.

"There is no other nation that Israel considers more of a friend that Germany ... I would be very happy if Germany participated," he said.

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

Yaakov Katz | August 4

The Jerusalem Post - The backs of pickup trucks, side rooms in one-story homes and thick brush in valleys and on ridges are the places from which Hizbullah is succeeding in firing rockets despite intensive IDF operations to stop the attacks.

On Wednesday, Hizbullah fired more than 220 rockets and on Thursday another 150, proving that despite the IDF operation, which entered its fourth week on Wednesday, it was still functioning just like it was on July 12, the day the war erupted.

From the beginning of this war, senior military officers repeatedly stated that the goal of Operation Change of Direction was not to eradicate Hizbullah's Katyusha array but to weaken the organization to the extent that it would be possible to create a new diplomatic order in southern Lebanon, one that would not include a guerrilla presence.

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

Yaakov Katz | August 4

The Jerusalem Post - Heavy fighting was taking place on Friday between IDF ground troops and Hizbullah guerrillas in southern Lebanon.

Two soldiers were wounded, one seriously, after an anti-tank rocket hit their D9 bulldozer in the village of Ataybeh, in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon. One of the wounded was part of an engineering force operating in the area.

Earlier Friday, two members of Golani's Battalion 13 were wounded, one seriously and one moderately, in the town of Makarbe in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon, west of Kiryat Shmona.

The four were taken to the hospital for medical treatment.

IDF forces took several of the Hizbullah operatives captive.

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

David Horovitz | August 4

The Jerusalem Post - Hizbullah is hurting under the impact of Israel's military action, but it is not yet showing signs of desperation, according to Uri Lubrani, an adviser to the defense minister and formerly Israel's longtime coordinator of activities in Lebanon.

Watching Hizbullah's broadcasts, "my sense is that they are feeling the pressure," Lubrani told The Jerusalem Post. "It's also plain that the IDF operation in Baalbek [overnight Tuesday-Wednesday] had a real impact. They'll have to explain that to their supporters."

The hope in Hizbullah that the Kafr Kana tragedy would lead to a far wider escalation of anger in the Arab world, and one that would dramatically constrain Israel, had not been fully realized, he added.

But a good barometer of the Hizbullah mindset, Lubrani suggested, would be the degree to which its backers press at the United Nations for an urgent cease-fire. "I would consider a real sign of desperation if their supporters starting putting on frantic pressure at the UN for a cease-fire," he said. And that might happen, he posited without elaboration, "if they fear that we are about to go further."

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

RAW STORY
Published: Thursday August 3, 2006

A report by columnist Sidney Blumenthal in Salon claims that Israel is receiving intelligence from the US's National Security Agency.

Blumenthal claims to be in touch with "a national security official with direct knowledge of the operation" to supply Israel with signals intelligence from American assets to help it monitor armament transfers from Syria and Iran to Hezbollah. He states that President Bush has approved the intelligence sharing.

Bush is being influenced by neoconservatives in his administration led by Vice President Dick Cheney's staff and Elliot Abrams, senior director for the Near East on the National Security Council. The group, according to Blumenthal, seeks to start a 'four front war' by giving Israel the pretext to strike Iran and Syria. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been briefed, but is not a central actor in the plan.

An excerpt of the restricted-access article is provided below.

#

The National Security Agency is providing signal intelligence to Israel to monitor whether Syria and Iran are supplying new armaments to Hezbollah as it fires hundreds of missiles into northern Israel, according to a national security official with direct knowledge of the operation. President Bush has approved the secret program.

Inside the administration, neoconservatives on Vice President Dick Cheney's national security staff and Elliott Abrams, the neoconservative senior director for the Near East on the National Security Council, are prime movers behind sharing NSA intelligence with Israel... The neoconservatives are described as enthusiastic about the possibility of using NSA intelligence as a lever to widen the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and Israel and Hamas into a four-front war.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is said to have been "briefed" ... (h)er "briefing" appears to be an aspect of an internal struggle to intimidate and marginalize her. Recently she has come under fire from prominent neoconservatives...

link

Geneva | August 4

AFP - Overnight bombings in Lebanon cut off an "umbilical cord" for relief supplies and halted evacuations from the country to Syria, international and UN agencies said Friday.

Israeli warplanes wrecked four bridges along the coastal highway in the Christian heartland north of Beirut, cutting off practically the last landlink with neighbouring Syria.

"This was the main supply route for UNHCR, all our supplies come from Syria," said Jennifer Pagonis, a spokeswoman for the office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The UNHCR, backed by other UN relief agencies and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), said the humanitarian crisis had deepened after the bombings.

"The road was badly damaged.. with the result that we cannot bring assistance from Arida, from Syria to Beirut," said Christiane Berthiaume, a spokeswoman for the UN's World Food Programme (WFP).

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

Leila Hatoum | Beirut | August 4

The Daily Star (Beirut) - Hizbullah's leader offered Thursday to stop pounding Israel's "northern settlements" if the Jewish state refrained from bombarding Lebanon's "cities and civilians." Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also issued a warning, however, in a televised speech: "Let my words be clear, any attack on Lebanon's capital, Beirut, will result in Hizbullah bombarding the Zionist entity's capital, Tel Aviv."

In an almost immediate response aired on Israeli public television, a senior military official said Israel would destroy all of Lebanon's infrastructure if Tel Aviv were hit.

"We are ready to keep the whole thing restricted to a military fight with the Israeli Army," Nasrallah said, "on the ground, fighters to fighters."

But Israel dropped leaflets over the southern suburb of Beirut, warning residents of Bir al-Abed, Hay Madi and Al-Ruweiss to evacuate their homes.

Nasrallah also refuted the Israeli claim that it had carved out a "security zone" by taking up positions "in or near 11 towns and villages in South Lebanon."

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

Raed El Rafei | Beirut | August 4

The Daily Star (Lebanon) - The war in Lebanon has brought out the best in many and has put on the forefront of events many reporters who often risk their own lives to transmit what is really happening on the ground. Many local and Arab channels have tasked female reporters to cover the most dangerous zones near the borders in the South or in the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Rima Maktabi, who covered the bombardment of the Dahiyeh for Al-Arabiyya news channel, described being a war reporter as "a strange but highly enriching experience."

"When working under tremendous pressure you grasp in few days much more than you learn in months of work at normal times," Maktabi said.

Maktabi believes in the strength of covering war zones on the ground.

"The reporting on the Qana massacre changed the political course of events. The real challenge during these times is to show and report on the facts on the ground," she said.

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

Israel bombs Lebanese highway

David Fickling and agencies
Friday August 4, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

Israeli aircraft bombed southern Beirut last night and today launched raids on the highway north of the city, threatening to cut Lebanon's only remaining link with the outside world.

In the south of the country, Israeli ground forces continued their attempts to establish a five-mile "security zone" north of the Lebanese border, with Israel's Channel 10 television reporting heavy fighting in the central section of the zone this morning.

The strikes on Lebanon's coastal highway north of Beirut were the first significant attacks on civilian targets in the north of the country during the 24-day offensive. Four civilians were killed and 10 were wounded as Israeli bombers blew up bridges during the early morning rush hour.

Witnesses reported brush fires being ignited by the attacks and cars plunging off the destroyed bridges into ravines.

Local television showed video of rescuers sifting through twisted metal and blocks of concrete to rescue people whose cars fell from the Madfoun bridge in the north of the country. A van was stuck in a hole made by a missile, its driver resting on his back on the ground outside. His face was blackened and covered with dust but he appeared still alive. Attacks also punched holes in highway bridges at Maameltein, Halat and Jounieh, according to reports.

[More]

http://lebanonesque.blogspot.com/2006/08/here-comes-fatfat.html

If I were Lebanese I'd be furious too.

Israel expands bombing(Beirut, Lebanon-AP, August 4, 2006) - Lebanon's president says Israel is waging a "war of starvation" on his country's civilians to force the government to agree to Jerusalem's demands.

A statement from President Emile Lahoud says Israel's expanded air raids today have cut off the only coastal highway left for getting aid to displaced people and refugees. He says Israel is trying to compensate for what he says have been losses by its army in southern Lebanon.
Israel warplanes today targeted bridges in the Christian heartland north of Beirut for the first time, killing five civilians and wounding 19 during the morning rush hour. The militant Hezbollah has little support or presence in the area.

A Lebanese soldier and four civilians were killed in attacks near Beirut's airport and southern suburbs.

Hezbollah, meantime, claims it's killed six Israeli soldiers along the border. And it's also unleashed another barrage of rockets into Israel. Police say more than three dozen rockets slammed into border villages in a-half hour, killing at least one Israeli

link

Israel threatens mass push

Ed O'Loughlin and Jonathan Pearlman, The Age
August 5, 2006

ISRAEL is threatening to seize most of south Lebanon after at least nine of its civilians and six soldiers were killed in less than 24 hours, the nation's worst death toll in more than three weeks of war.

Israeli jets destroyed four highway bridges north of Beirut yesterday, disrupting efforts to help civilians caught up in the conflict. An air strike on a parking lot used by trucks and buses near Lebanon's border with Syria in the eastern Bekaa Valley killed or wounded 25 civilians, security sources said. Beirut was also bombed, despite threats from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah that the Shiite militant group would hit Tel Aviv with rockets if Beirut was attacked again.

With no action to end the 24-day-old war emerging from the UN, fierce fighting raged in south Lebanon as Israeli troops tried to expand seven small border enclaves they control.

More than 150 Israeli air strikes hit southern Lebanon and artillery pounded border areas yesterday in support of ground forces.

[More]

ANALYSIS: Whatever happens, Iran wins

By Bradley Burston

In the West, Mahmoud Ahmedinejad is called a lot of names, many of them unprintable.

But the time may have come to call him the one name he has truly earned in dealing with the West - genius.

In the little over a year in which he has served as president of Iran, he has engineered a position for the Islamic Republic that is unique in the Middle East, and, indeed, in the world:

Whatever happens, Iran wins.

Take Iraq. The worse things get for the United States in Iraq, the more broadly genuine Ahmadinejad's smile gets.

George Bush, having invaded, reshuffled, and in many ways neutered Iraq, Iran's old hated rival in the region, has done for Tehran what Tehran couldn't do for itself in the disastrous Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s.

Even better for Ahmadinejad , the worse things get in Iraq and Lebanon, the higher that oil prices climb, and every few cents at the pump is ultimately going to spell billions more for the Iranian treasury.

The crowning development for Ahmadinejad is the circumstance that Washington's incalculable investment of troops, materiel, and policy in Iraq, and the myriad ways in which the war has gone catastrophically, may mean that the West cannot hope to orchestrate a future military offensive against Iran, even if the nuclear threat from Tehran clearly warrants it.

Stated differently, the War on Terror has granted Iran immunity. Ahmadinejad has a Get Out of Jail Free card, and he got it from Saddam Hussein.

Then there is this: Ahmadinejad understands as does no one else, the regional value of outrage.

Every obscene statement on the Holocaust, every matter-of-fact suggestion that Israel will be eradicated, every assertion of the Natural Right to Nuclear Capability, every jab at the Great Satan in Washington, only cements his status as the megastar of restive, miserable, messianic Muslims the world over.

In addition, Ahmadinejad and Iran's more violent client allies all profit greatly from the Everything is Victory element of the jihadist revolution, which tends to assess military developments according to the following criteria:

1. If I kill you, I win.
2. If you kill me, I am a martyr. I win big.
3. There are no innocents in the land of my enemy. If I kill infants, the elderly, pregnant women, even on purpose, I win.
4. When my enemy kills innocent civilians in error, even his own allies condemn him for brutality. I win.

The variations of the Iran Wins No Matter What principle are endless. But the best may have come this week, when French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy paid a visit to war-shattered Beirut.

France, once the colonial patron of the Paris of the Mideast, retains a special feeling about Lebanon. What many hadn't realized, however, was France's special feeling about Iran.

It is clear, Douste-Blazy told a news conference in Beirut, "that we could never accept a destabilization of Lebanon, which could lead to a destabilization of the region,"

And therefore, the French foreign minister continued:

"In the region there is of course a country such as Iran - a great
country, a great people and a great civilization, which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/746601.html

Air Raid on a House in Taybeh contains 17 people of the same family.

All dead. Aljazeera.

Urgent News.

A new Massacer in Qa'a Rah (Qa3 Ra7 or Sahel el Qa3) North of Lebanon on the borders between lebanon and Syria. (Watch Live on Aljazeera exclusive pictures of the massacer)

More than 60 People dead , mostly lebanese with thier families and some Syrian workers.

Aljazeera Reporter : 90% of the dead in Qa3 north of lebanon were children and women.

This may actually have a higher final death toll than Qana, and is far enough away from the Israeli border that it cannot plausibly be claimed that rockets were being fired from it.

Ynetnews.com has this

3 Golani troops killed

Cleared for publication: During operation in southern Lebanese village of Markhava Hizbullah fires anti-tank missile killing officer, two soldiers; in separate incident 2 soldiers injured in Al-Taybeh

Efrat Weiss

Two soldiers and an officer of the Golani Brigade were killed overnight Friday by an anti-tank rocket fired by Hizbullah, the army said.

The soldiers were identified as First Sergeant Daniel Shiran, 20, of Haifa, and First Sergeant Omri Elmakis, 20, of Ramle.

An IDF officer was seriously wounded and another soldier was lightly injured in the incident.

Golani troops were attacked during an operation in the southern Lebanese village of Markhaba. The army said that at least seven terrorists were killed in the village and weapon caches were found. A car driven by backup Hizbullah gunmen was destroyed.

An Israeli air strike on a parking lot used by trucks and buses near Lebanon's border with Syria in the eastern Bekaa Valley on Friday killed or wounded 25 civilians, security sources said. They said warplanes bombarded the parking near the village of Qaa in the northern tip of the Bekaa close to a Lebanese customs point on the border.

Earlier, the army said that two Israeli soldiers were wounded - one moderately and another lightly - in fresh clashes with Hizbullah in the southern Lebanese village of al-Taybeh. One of the soldiers was an officer.

Soldiers conducting searches in the village came under fire and an anti-tank missile was fired in their direction. The soldiers were airlifted to the Rambam hospital in Haifa.

IDF ground troops operating in the southwestern Lebanon killed four Hizbullah terrorists in the village of Shama.

In the Lebanese village of Mankhala a Hizbullah terrorist was killed and another was injured.

Al-Jazeera was at one point reporting more than 60 dead at the parking lot in Qaa, 90% of them women and children. Latest figure apparently is 33 dead, more wounded.

From a Lebanese viewer:

Another crime, another massacre today!
Israel killed 33 citizens in Al kaa region in al-Bekaa.
Al jazeera tv was broadcasting the pictures of the bodies, or the pieces of bodies and autopsies, very similar to the Qana's Massacre.
this thread is dedicated to the persons who died in this massacre.

AP has this:

An Israeli airstrike hit dozens of farm workers loading vegetables near the Lebanon-Syria border, killing 28, the workers' foreman and a Lebanese official said.

link

Naharnet.com has this:

26 people, mostly Syrians, killed in an Israeli raid on workers filling a refrigerated room with boxes of fruit and vegetables in Qaa village in the Bekaa valley near the Syrian border

Officials: Israeli strikes in Lebanon flatten houses, 57 buried in rubble

Israeli air strikes on two villages in south Lebanon on Friday flattened two houses, and 57 people were reported buried in the rubble, security officials and the state news agency reported.
The number of dead was not immediately known. The warplanes hit Taibeh, about 5 kilometers (3 miles) from the Israeli border, destroying a house where 17 people had taken refuge. (AP)

(08.04.06, 20:03)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3286381,00.html

Iraqi Shiites chant 'Death to Israel'

By MURTADA FARAJ, Associated Press Writer
Fri Aug 4, 10:35 AM ET

Hundreds of thousands of Shiites chanting "Death to Israel" and "Death to America" marched through the streets of Baghdad's biggest Shiite district Friday in a show of support for Hezbollah militants battling Israeli troops in Lebanon....

The demonstration was the biggest in the Middle East in support of Hezbollah since the Israeli army launched an offensive July 12 after a guerrilla raid on northern Israel. The protest was organized by radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose political movement built around the Mahdi Army militia has been modeled after Hezbollah.

Al-Sadr summoned followers from throughout the Shiite heartland of southern Iraq to converge on Baghdad for the rally but he did not attend.

Demonstrators, wearing white burial shrouds symbolizing their willingness to die for Hezbollah, waved the group's yellow banner and chanted slogans in support of its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who has attained a cult status in the Arab world for his defiance of Israel.

"Allah, Allah, give victory to Hassan Nasrallah," the crowd chanted.

"Mahdi Army and Hezbollah are one. Let them confront us if they dare," the predominantly male crowd shouted, waving the flags of Hezbollah, Lebanon and Iraq...

Factoid: the combined Shia population of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Iran exceeds 83 million.

source

The neocons are doing a 'heckuva job' in the region. Heckuva job.