(snip)

Lebanese security sources said Israeli helicopters unloaded two vehicles carrying commandos who headed toward an office of a Hizbollah leader, Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek, in Bodai, 26 km (16 miles) from the Syrian border.

Reuters

The articles from the Washington Post and Reuters does tend to support this more detailed one from Australia:

'Unconvincing' Arab gave raiders away
by Patrick Rahir in Buday
August 20, 2006

IN the eastern Lebanese mountain village of Buday, residents say Hezbollah's strength combined with Israeli soldiers' unconvincing Arabic accents proved fatal for an overnight Israeli commando raid.

And they have little doubt that the raid, which saw one soldier killed in clashes with Hezbollah fighters, targeted an Iranian-linked senior official from the Lebanese Shiite fundamentalist movement, Sheikh Mohammed Yazbek.

Israel said its raid, which drew harsh criticism from Lebanon's premier and threatened to throw off course a six-day-old truce, was aimed at preventing weapons shipments to Hezbollah from Syria and Iran.

But villagers in Buday, nearly all of them self-described supporters of Hezbollah which in recent days has doled out thousands of dollars in cash to those whose homes have been destroyed in southern Beirut, see a different motive.

"They came to capture Sheikh Yazbek," says one man who refuses to give his name but describes himself an interior ministry employee in a town where Hezbollah's yellow and green flags fly proudly from every corner.

As soon as he divulges his opinion, others rush to join in.

Some say Yazbek, who is a senior member of Hezbollah's Shura consultative council and representative in Lebanon of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in charge of financial grants from Khamenei's office, was seen in the area as recently as Friday.

Yazbek, who is originally from Buday but does not reside in the village, was glimpsed attending the funerals of Hezbollah fighters who were killed during Israel's month long offensive in Lebanon, they say.

Yazbek's influence on the impoverished Bekaa Valley village is clear to see - an imposing complex whose construction Yazbek sponsored, including a school, mosque and meeting rooms, stands in stark contrast to a dim conglomeration of cement apartment blocks.

The dawn battle between Israeli soldiers and Hezbollah guerrillas took place just a few hundred metres away.

Late Friday, under cover of darkness and shielded by warplanes launching mock air raids, Israeli helicopters landed two Humvees near the eastern town of Baalbek some 20 km from Buday.

The vehicles were painted in Lebanese army colours and the Israeli soldiers were wearing Lebanese army uniforms, so the Israeli soldiers were able to move freely for several hours, residents said.

But on the outskirts of Buday, Hezbollah guerrillas were maintaining a strict patrol, and they stopped the Israeli vehicles.

After brief questioning, the Israeli soldiers responded in Arabic that they were on the same side.

Their unusual accents gave them away. The Hezbollah watchman sounded the alarm and the clash erupted.

Hezbollah fighters then rushed in from throughout the surrounding areas, says Suheil Qana, 37, who says he slept with his Kalashnikov in his hand to be ready to defend his family.

Qana awoke in the night to the sound of explosions caused when Apache helicopters fired missiles and machine gun rounds as F-16 fighters and Israeli drones overflew the area to provide cover for the commando launch.

By 6 am this morning, it was all over, the hen farmer has said.

Residents point out bloodstains in the fields. Civil servant Hajj Mashuri Msheikh says the spots of blood are in the area where helicopters took off with the disguised vehicles and soldiers after the fighting ended.

Enormous craters are visible in the roads nearby, artillery shells are strewn across the fields and trails, and an irrigation canal is riddled with holes bored by bullets and explosions.

Eventually, two beefy men carrying pistols and walkie-talkies approach to check the identities of correspondents on the scene. Asked what happened here, one of them, a bearded man, responds.

"There were fewer than 30 Israelis. They fell during a clash," he says.

They take out a few items from a bag, war trophies. A bloodied bandage, a shell cartridge, a page written in Hebrew.

Asked for his name, the bearded man says only: "That's impossible," before climbing into a car and driving off.

Australian News

-----

Comments: Commando units do usually go after targets.

Are going after supply routes for Hezbollah!
Let us go after supply routes for US supplies for Israel!
You can't condemn one supply route without condemning the other supply route!
When Israelis realise that they have taken over much of Palestinian lands at the cost of the Palestinian suffering they will realise they have created the middle east problem.
The Palestinians are suffering because they are losing land that was theirs for years.
The US supports the Israelis because they have the same future.
The Rapture!
The Palestinians only want their land back!
The Israelis are taking so much land from the Palestinians (using their legal system) that they are occupying Palestinian farms and villages.

_{repressive governments mix administrative clumsiness & inefficiency with authoritarian tendencies.}

By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Sunday, August 20, 2006
by Nayla Razzouk

BEIRUT, Aug 20, 2006 (AFP)-A fragile truce to end a month-long war in Lebanon was facing its biggest test Sunday after an Israeli commando raid against Hezbollah which UN chief Kofi Annan charged was a violation of the ceasefire deal.

Israel insisted it would continue to act to prevent alleged cross-border arms smuggling to Hezbollah and Syria, while Lebanon warned it could stop its historic troop deployment in the south of the country.

At dawn on Saturday Israel airlifted troops into a Hezbollah stronghold in the Baalbek region in eastern Lebanon and clashed with Shiite Muslim fighters, in the first serious violence since the UN-brokered ceasefire came into effect almost a week ago.

Annan voiced his concern at the raid, which has underscored the fragility of the truce accord as the United Nations scrambles to put together a beefed-up peacekeeping force in war-battered south Lebanon.

"The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about a violation by the Israeli side of the cessation of hostilities as laid out in Security Council resolution 1701," a statement issued by Annan's spokesman said.

"The Secretary-General further calls on all parties to respect strictly the arms embargo, exercise maximum restraint, avoid provocative actions and display responsibility in implementing resolution 1701." And a visiting UN envoy in Lebanon warned that such incidents threatened to spark war again and scare off states which may help boost a UN peacekeeping force.

"We may slip into war again, this is why incidents such as what happened yesterday are not very helpful," Terje Roed-Larsen was quoted as saying in an interview with Lebanon's leading An-Nahar newspaper.

"The incident does not help maintain the fragile ceasefire and will not encourage potential participants in the new international forces to contribute with soldiers," according to an Arabic translation of Roed-Larsen's remarks.

UN Security Council Resolution 1701 calls for Israeli troops to withdraw from south Lebanon in tandem with the deployment of the Lebanese army and a strengthened UN peacekeeping force of up to 15,000 troops.

The United Nations has been urging countries, particularly European nations, to send troops, but most governments want more details on the precise mandate of the force before contributing.

Israel said Saturday's raid was aimed at halting weapons smuggling and accused Lebanon of violating the truce by failing to station troops on the Lebanese border with Syria.

"As long as the Lebanese army and the international forces are not deployed, the Israeli army will not stop its flights in the region to stop the transfers of arms from Syria," Environmental Minister Gideon Ezra, who is considered close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, told public radio.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora blasted the operation as a "blatant violation" of the truce, which took effect on Monday to end a conflict that has claimed close to 1,300 lives in Lebanon and killed 160 Israelis.

Lebanon warned it might suspend its troop deployment to Hezbollah's stronghold in the south, which began on Thursday, if the United Nations failed to ensure Israel honoured the resolution.

"I could ask the cabinet to stop the army's deployment to the south, as we did not send the troops to fall into an Israeli trap," Defence Minister Elias Murr said.

A Lebanese military official said that Israeli helicopters, under cover of mock air raids, landed two vehicles in the mountainous region of Afqa, about 30 kilometers (18 miles) east of Baalbek, in the central Bekaa valley, at dawn Saturday.

Commandos then drove eastward to the nearby village of Buday where they clashed with Hezbollah guerrillas, he said.

Israeli public radio said the mission of the commandos might have been to free the two Israeli soldiers seized by Hezbollah on July 12, or at least to obtain information about them. Their capture triggered the 34-day conflict.

One man was killed in southern Lebanon Saturday while trying to defuse an explosive device, bringing to six the number of civilians killed since the truce took effect, police said.

There were exchanges of fire earlier this week that left at least four Hezbollah fighters dead, but both sides had downplayed the clashes.

The Israeli raid came hours before French troops began deploying in Lebanon to reinforce UN peacekeepers, and as EU leaders hesitated to offer firm troop commitments in the absence of details on the precise mandate of the force charged with policing a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.

France has agreed to contribute 200 troops, far short of the major commanding role that many had foreseen for Lebanon's former colonial power.

About 50 French soldiers from an engineering unit arrived by sea Saturday in the southern Lebanese town of Naqura and more were expected in coming days.

French President Jacques Chirac also held talks with Italy, Turkey and Finland, all of whom have agreed in principle to send soldiers, urging them to swiftly agree the make-up and mandate of a peacekeeping force.

"It's very important that Europe now steps forward," Deputy UN Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown said Friday, emphasizing that 3,500 troops were needed on the ground within 10 days.

He said that while Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Nepal had all offered troops as part of the expanded UN force, there was a need to deploy a balanced European-Muslim force that would be acceptable to both Lebanon and Israel.

Israel has made clear it would not accept countries with which it has no diplomatic relations -- such as Muslim-majority Malaysia and Indonesia.

The scope of the force and its rules of engagement were believed to be the major stumbling blocks for European nations, but Malloch Brown said countries now had full details and "the ball is in their court."-AFP

Daily Star

-----

Comments:

JustPlainDave,

Would you happen to know what the scope of the UN Force and its rules of engagement are under UN Agreement 1701? I highly doubt Hizbullah has agreed to surrender their weapons, but has this particular UN mission been authorized to shoot back when they're fired upon in order to defend themselves? I had thought peacekeepers in Haiti were authorized to use their armaments for self-protection purposes only. I know my stepfather was so authorized when he served on a peacekeeping force in Egypt. I do not believe he was empowered to use his weapon for any other purpose. But he was also authorized to intercede when weapons were drawn by civilians, (using his discretion) and not targeted at him, but not allowed to fire his own under those circumstances (that poses very high risk to peacekeepers). He told me that practicably everyone (men, women and children) in the Middle East had a dagger somewhere on their person--it was prudent to look upon all civilians as being potentially hostile.

-----

JustPlainDave,

Never mind ... found this article that answers my questions about its scope and powers of engagement:

(snip)

In the first report on the cease-fire he submitted to the Security Council, Annan said Friday that UNIFIL would not wage war against Israel, Lebanon or Hezbollah. He reiterated his request that member states provide "desperately needed soldiers" for the UN peace force.

"It is not expected to achieve by force what must be realized through negotiation and an internal Lebanese consensus," Annan told the Security Council.

UN Deputy Secretary General Mark Malloch Brown, who is in charge of recruiting reinforcements to UNIFIL, emphasized the force's policing mandate.

"It is not an offensive force," Brown said. "It's not going to go in there and attempt large-scale disarmament. Rather it is going to police the political agreement that triggers disarmament, called for under the resolution, and therefore it will make a prudent use of force."

-----

Comments: I doubt the ceasefire will hold 'til all the UN peacekeeping force is deployed--it's tenuous at best.

Operation in Baalbek points to Israel's determination to stem arms shipments from Syria to Hizbullah during ceasefire
Ron Ben-Yishai

The efforts focus on replenishing Hizbullah's secret arms storage depots with antitank and antiaircraft missiles, and long-range missiles.

Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been dispatched to Syria and Lebanon to rehabilitate Hizbullah.

...

Saturday's commando operation will not be the last. From reports by Lebanese TV channels it is clear that the operation targeted a base that served Hizbullah operatives responsible for smuggling arms and people from Syria.

An aerial attack on the base is possible, but a ground operation allows the collection of valuable intelligence material and the assassination of top operatives.

More

Read Angry Arab

If Israel prevented arms being smuggled in, where is their evidence? They're trying to provoke Hizbullah into violating the ceasefire so they can resume their attack in the hope they'll do better the next time 'around.

Read the blog at Colonel Lang’s site for informed comments about the Lebanese/Israeli War.

-----

Israel lies about their success better than rugs.

Yes, it seems that Israel is permitted to, or at least can, do just about anything in Lebanon and then say they're just trying to 'halt Hizballah's re-supply'. They could bomb any building in Beirut and claim it was being used as a 'secret bank for transfer of Iranian funds'. Or whatever.

Israel, with the United States' vigorous assistance, is simply unaccountable to the international community. It basically does whatever it wants. It can kidnap, assassinate, drop cluster bombs, target 'in error', destroy infrastructure, blockade, stop humanitarian convoys, violate airspace, violate UN resolutions, and so on to its heart's content. It just needs to declare by fiat that its actions are done to 'defend itself'. But there is effectively no independent checking of such claims.

I'd like to see the international UN-authorized force open fire on any cross-border Israeli military movements. But I bet it won't happen, regardless of what Israel attempts.

Given that the Israelis were garbed in the enemy's uniforms, does that imply that the Geneva conventions offer them no protection as spies or saboteurs? A pretty risky move on the part of the IDF, if so. Too bad none were captured alive.

not add to hostilities.

To wear a blue helmet is the toughest job there is. Easy to pull a trigger on a weapon, much harder and more character needed to restrain troops from being belligerent. It takes very special people to be peacekeepers, with a high degree of training; not all are suited for the task.

Petronius, I believe if troops wear the uniform of their enemy, they can be shot as they were in WWII. Prisoners of war have to wear the uniform of the country they represent. Hizbullah does not wear uniforms which doesn't bode well for their survival if captured.

Lebanon warns against rogue attacks

By STEVEN R. HURST, Associated Press Writer
Sun Aug 20, 2:16 PM ET

Lebanon's defense minister said Sunday he is certain Hezbollah will not break the cease-fire but warned all militant groups of harsh measures and a traitor's fate if they incite Israeli retaliation by firing rockets into the Jewish state.

Defense Minister Elias Murr's strong remarks indicated concern that Syrian-backed Palestinian militants might try to restart the fighting by drawing retaliation from Israel.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, meanwhile, toured the devastated Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut and decried the destruction by Israeli bombs as a "crime against humanity." Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shiite and Hezbollah backer, stood at the Sunni premier's side and said they spoke with one voice.

In Jerusalem, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would name a panel to investigate the military and government's performance during the war, which has been criticized by many Israelis as weak and indecisive.

A day after Israeli commandos staged a pre-dawn raid deep into Lebanon, prompting U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to declare the Israelis in violation of the Security Council cease-fire resolution, no new clashes were reported.

Residents in the mountains east of Beirut, however, described continued overflights by Israeli warplanes on the truce's seventh day.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Saturday's raid was aimed at disrupting arms shipments to Hezbollah and such operations may continue until international peacekeepers arrive to enforce an arms embargo.

"In the situation where there was a flagrant violation of the embargo, Israel had the right to act. Had there not been a violation, Israel would not have to respond," he said Sunday, expressing impatience with the slow international response in offering troops for the peacekeeping force.

Siding with Jerusalem, the U.S. government also said the Israeli raid underscored the importance of quickly deploying an expanded U.N. peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon.

"We've seen the press reports and noted the Israeli statement saying that the operation was a reaction to arms smuggling," White House spokeswoman Emily Lawrimore said, adding that preventing the resupply of weapons to Hezbollah by Syria and Iran is a key provision of the cease-fire plan.

The Lebanese defense minister insisted that Hezbollah would hold its fire.

"We consider that when the resistance (Hezbollah) is committed not to fire rockets, then any rocket that is fired from the Lebanese territory would be considered collaboration with Israel to provide a pretext (for Israel) to strike," Murr said.

He added that "the Lebanese army will decisively deal with" any attack on Israel and that anyone arrested for violating the truce "will be considered by the military tribunal as an agent of the Israeli enemy."

Murr did not repeat his threat of Saturday to stop the deployment of Lebanon's army in the south to protest Israel's helicopter-borne commando raid near the town of Boudai on the west side of the Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Such a halt would be a blow to the U.N. cease-fire plan, which calls for the army and a strong U.N. peacekeeping force to police the truce and separate Israeli troops and Hezbollah's guerrillas.

Murr apparently was satisfied by a declaration from Annan warning Israel against a repeat of the raid.

Townspeople in Boudai said 300 residents grabbed guns after the Israeli raid began at 3 a.m. and fought at the side of 15 Hezbollah guerrillas for 90 minutes before the commandos retreated and were flown back to Israel. Residents said there were no casualties on the Lebanese side. One Israeli officer was killed and two soldiers were wounded.

Under the U.N. cease-fire that took effect a week ago Monday, Lebanon has started deploying 15,000 soldiers in its southern region, putting a government force there for the first time in four decades.

It is to be joined by an equal force of international peacekeepers, but wrangling among countries expected to send troops has delayed the mission and U.N. officials are pleading for nations to participate to bolster the fragile truce.

France, which commands the existing U.N. force in Lebanon, UNIFIL, on Sunday called for a meeting of European Union countries this week to determine the number of troops they are prepared to contribute to the U.N. mission.

"We are asking that Europe express its solidarity toward Lebanon as rapidly as possible," Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy told radio Franco Info.

The Israeli prime minister complicated the effort with a reported decision Sunday to reject peacekeepers in Lebanon from countries that don't have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state.

Indonesia, Malaysia and Bangladesh — Muslim countries that do not have diplomatic ties with Israel — are among the only countries so far to have offered front-line troops for the expanded force.

The U.N. cease-fire resolution does not explicitly give Israel authority to block countries from joining the peacekeeping mission, but it does say the force should coordinate its activites with the Lebanese and Israeli governments.

Saniora, the prime minister, made his first visit Sunday to Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold, where airstrikes wrecked whole neighborhoods.

"What we see today is an image of the crimes Israel has committed ... there is no other description other than a criminal act that shows Israel's hatred to destroy Lebanon and its unity," Saniora told reporters and television crews invited on the tour.

"I hope the international media transmits this picture to every person in the world so that it shows this criminal act, this crime against humanity," the Western-backed prime minister said.

While he visited, Hezbollah's operatives were still handing out bundles of $100 bills to people who lost homes to Israeli bombs — $12,000 for each claimant. The stipend is to pay a year's rent and refurnish homes.

Arab foreign ministers held an emergency meeting in Egypt, and Arab League Deputy Secretary-General Ahmed Ben Heli said they would discuss setting up a fund to rebuild Lebanon, which lost an estimated 15,000 apartments, 140 bridges and other structures.

Diplomats said Arab governments wanted to counter the flood of Iranian money that is believed to be financing the Hezbollah handouts.

Iran, which is not an Arab nation, denied that Sunday. "Hezbollah is a legitimate body in Lebanon; they have their own economic resources and popular support there," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said in Tehran.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060820/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel

with Lebanese politics, but after reading Fouad Siniora’s biography he doesn’t sound like he would be interested in providing free schools, or much of a support system for Lebanese people. No wonder Hassan is so popular, because he does appear to provide those things along with defence.

Perhaps when the dust settles from the war, there will be changes made to Lebanon’s government that is more in tune with what the Lebanese population needs.

Whether or not his popularity will draw Nasrallah into the formal government of Lebanon won’t be known until he makes that decision. He’s a very pragmatic man and so far by not holding office it has allowed him to be a force within the country without being elected. I would think to retain his popularity, he will have to consider formalizing his stature by becoming part of Lebanese government.

The system of confessional government isn’t representative of the people. According to that link, no matter how popular a candidate was, he has to fit within the parameters of 'a' particular religious group. They do need to revise their Constitution to unifiy their country. Nasrallah has claimed his concern is Lebanon, not Syria, nor Iran, nor any other Middle Eastern Country; if he's sincere with his current popularity, he'd perhaps be able to bring about change?

It is always very difficult to have a central government when there is more than one culture within it. (Canada recognizes that and has difficulty governing with only two), having three makes it extremely difficult. All three do have things in common...it's finding and capitalizing on them without having wedge issues that are divisive.

France and UNIFIL don't want to send troops accepting the conditions of Israel, thus Israel might be pressuring them to act faster.

Israel wants a conflict between Hizbollah and UNIFIL troops.

-- Happy fishing in ocean of noise!

Bush was speaking at a press conference. His Middle East policy is all about supporting freedom and the spread of democracy, he says.

I see. Yes, it all makes sense.

Hence his terrific support for: the monarchies of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Kuwait, etc.

Hence his terrific support for the Mubarak regime in Egypt.

Hence his withdrawal of support from the Palestinian government when Hamas won the elections.

Hence his opposition to the Iranians no matter how many polls showing Iranians support Ahmadinejad's pursuit of nuclear power.

Hence his determination to continue to occupy Iraq no matter how many polls show Iraqis want an end to the occupation.

Hence his hugely one-sided support for Israel despite huge opposition within the region to that support.

Within the region, Bush has all the credibility of a notorious hypocrite.

According to your president, we want to kill you because you're free. Not true. We want to kill you because you're stupid enough to believe his crap.

Annan to give UNIFIL 'teeth'

Herb Keinon, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 21, 2006

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan is expected to recommend Monday that the rules of engagement of the enhanced UNIFIL force to be deployed in Lebanon include opening fire on Hizbullah where necessary, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

While UN Security Council Resolution 1701 mandated an enhanced UNIFIL force to help the Lebanese Army deploy south and along the border with Syria, it did not spell out the operational procedures of this force.

Israel has been pushing for the need for an effective force, arguing that one of the criteria would be the ability to open fire on Hizbullah if the force saw, for instance, Hizbullah launching rockets toward Israel. This matter came up at a meeting Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni held last week in New York with Annan.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, in a telephone conversation in the afternoon with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi on Sunday, said that Israel would like to see Italy lead the force, a change from the widespread expectation that France would be heading it up.

According to a statement issued from Olmert's office, the prime minister told Prodi that Israel viewed Italy's sending troops as "vital" to the implementation of the resolution and that this would be an important contribution to "peace and security in the Middle East."

Olmert told Prodi that it was not only important that Italy lead this force, but also that Rome send troops to monitor the Lebanese-Syrian border to stop the rearmament of Hizbullah.

Prodi, according to the Prime Minister's Office, said that Italy intended to send a "significant" force, and that he would bring the issue up before the Italian parliament "as soon as possible."

The question of the rules of engagement was addressed last Thursday in New York at a meeting of those countries considering sending troops to the force, with some of those countries opposed to being able to open fire, concerned that Hizbullah would then shoot back.

Nevertheless, reports reaching Jerusalem Sunday indicated that Annan, in interim suggestions that are expected to be presented Monday, would give UNIFIL clear authorization to open fire.

"This is to date the most explicit expression of the upgrade to the UNIFIL force that has yet been received," one senior diplomatic official said.

Nevertheless, even if the UNIFIL forces had authorization to open fire, whether they would indeed do so and subject themselves to a firefight with Hizbullah is questionable. Officials in the Prime Minister's Office reserved judgment, saying they wanted to see the recommendation before responding.

more

So can Unifil fire on Israel too?

JERUSALEM - Israeli troops shot and wounded two Hezbollah guerrillas Monday during a clash in southern Lebanon, the army said, underscoring the fragility of a week-old truce that ended 34 days of fighting.

The army said the soldiers opened fire after guerrillas approached the force in a "threatening manner." It identified hitting two of the three militants in the group.

link

....we'll just have to take the IDF's word for that.

According to your president, we want to kill you because you're free. Not true. We want to kill you because you're stupid enough to believe his crap.

By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent, and News Agencies

Israel Defense Forces troops shot and wounded three Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon on Monday, an IDF spokesman said, as soldiers maintained positions in the territory ahead of a planned pullout.

"A force identified armed gunmen coming toward them in a threatening way," the spokesman said. "The soldiers fired at them and identified three hits."

It was unclear whether the Hezbollah men were killed.

Israel on Monday handed over to UN peacekeepers five Lebanese men who were captured during an Israel Defense Forces commando raid late on August 1 on the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, according to a peacekeeping official.

Haaretz
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Comments: The five that were returned, wouldn’t that be the shop keeper whose name was Nasrallah, not the Sheik, but the Lebanese store owner and four others who were captured. captured in Baalbek in a similar commando raid,

From the link: “The Lebanese sources identified three of the men as Hussein Nasrallah, Hussein al-Burji and Ahmed al-Ghotah and described them as low ranking members of the group. The captured Hussein Nasrallah has the same name as a Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, but is not known to be related to him in any way.”

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I really don't know what will happen in the Middle East, but Hizbullah has upset the balance of powers in Lebanon. They're a force to be recokoned with. Lebanon doesn't currently have government forces that are able to defend it. Like Israel, it's using outside influences to support its efforts.

The system of government in Lebanon is very complicated which undoubtedly brought it about. The articles I posted shed light on the reasons why Hizbullah currently is in the position it is. Circumstances do prevent democratization as we know it. Counries and people do the best they can within structures that are often helpless to change. Changes within countries and governments come about slowly unless they are forced. Outsiders often fail to detect changes within societies.

The history of the Middle Eastern region has shown that Arab countries haven't coalesced to be an effective factor. In Iran and Turkey thay have. The Arab countries are the exception. Until now Israel has dominated over Arab countries. My point was, is that about to change regardless of whether they are or are not democracies? Will Hizbullah be a lasting force that sets the Middle East on a new direction? I drew attention to Quebec because of 'some' similarities, but Canada is a democracy, Lebanon is not. Both countries do have minorities within majorities and there is friction between the groups. It's not easy to have central governments that have such factions within them. Some counties can have assimiliation--that's not viable in Canada or Lebanon. The groups have to work with each other--usually decreased nationalism is the result of accommodation for each other.

Nasrallah is pragmatic, recognizes it and is able to join Sunnis, Shiites and Christians--all identify with being Lebanaese. He's an unsually gifted leader. He does not impose his will by force as Saddam did. Nor is he like other despotic leaders in the Middle East. He's not like leaders in Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, or Egypt.

Israel readies new attack on Lebanon

According to your president, we want to kill you because you're free. Not true. We want to kill you because you're stupid enough to believe his crap.

Strong words. But, imo, necessary ones:

Berube was whining about my support for Hezbollah and, as I seemed to be a merely incidental character for his diorama of infidel leftists, and since he is clearly incurably banal, I decided to leave him alone. Maxims and Reflections has a word or two, however:

[T]here is a powerful undertow toward power in the discourse of the "democratic" "left" that I finally find so dismaying that I have no choice but to reject the thing root and branch. Because few people they accuse of defending Milosevic or Hussein or Nasrallah or any other Hitler-Of-The-Month has defended these people with anything like the vigor and passion with which the "democratic" "left" has implicitly defended Bush, Clinton or Bush; or, if not these men themselves, then the right of these men to send an army anywhere, to level any city from the air, to destroy any state, to define any population as criminal, outlaw, subhuman.

The "democratic left" is the "civilised left" of which hucksters like Kamm speak, it is the domesticated left, the left that is constantly refashioning itself in the image of the bourgeoisie, the left that accepts liberalism as the horizon of discourse and thinks democracy is the same thing as liberal capitalism. The "democratic left" supports the right of no oppressed group to defend itself against violence by "democratic" states. No matter how bad the murder is, self-defense is an offence. Hezbollah has no right to defend itself because it is not composed of liberal democrats. Same goes for Hamas, and the Iraqi resistance. Axiomatically, the honorary White Man of the Levant does have a Right to Defend Itself - against ambulances, villages, fleeing cars and so on.

Ooh, aah--Hezbollah

According to your president, we want to kill you because you're free. Not true. We want to kill you because you're stupid enough to believe his crap.

22 Aug 2006 06:47:15 GMT
Source: Reuters

ROME, Aug 22 (Reuters) - Italy, which is expected to lead a U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, will be unable to send troops if Israel "keeps shooting", Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said on Tuesday.

"From Israel, we expect a renewed effort, this time truly binding, to respect the ceasefire," D'Alema said. "It's fair to expect that Hizbollah put down their weapons, but we cannot send our troops to Lebanon if the (Israeli) army keeps shooting."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L2274965.htm