http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2006/07/more_tribalism.html

http://www.back-to-iraq.com/archives/2006/07/reaping_the_whirlwind.php

http://www.juancole.com/2006/07/beginning-of-new-war-will-it-spill.html

http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2006/07/war_without_end.html

http://obsidianwings.blogs.com/obsidian_wings/2006/07/bad_moon_rising.html

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/004550.html

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/737826.html

In the meantime, Israel escalated its Gaza assault, dropping a quarter-ton bomb on a home before dawn in an attempt to assassinate top Hamas fugitives. The blast killed nine members of a Palestinian family — seven children and two parents — Palestinian hospital officials said. The head of the military wing of Hamas Mohammed Deif was wounded but escaped, Israel said.

From: Irish examinder

It killed 7 children and 2 parents.

Dave, information about the 1/4 ton bomb = 500 pound bomb? Isn’t 500 pounds a very large bomb to be dropping on a home? Wouldn’t something smaller destroy it? I seem to recall the bomb that was dropped on Zarqawi was also 500 pounds. There wasn’t a lot left of him or the house. I wouldn't think a Palestianian's home would be particularly robost. That could be an incorrect assumption on my part.

I am right, you are wrong!
After more than 40 years of being occupied, what do the Palestinians have to lose?
Israel is killing civilians to get the bad guys. But that is OK because Bush is supporting them.
Three Israeli soldiers are captured and the Israeli's are trying to get them.
How about the 1'500 women and children in Israeli jails, let alone the other thousands of people in Israeli jails because the Israeli's think that they are a threat?
Does this sound like another Gitmo situation?

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

Posted on Fri, Jul. 14, 2006
Hezbollah strike challenges U.S.

ANALYSIS:By taking Israeli hostages and firing rockets, the terrorist group undercuts U.S. Mideast policy.
BY BOB DEANS
COX NEWS SERVICE
WASHINGTON - Israel's two-front conflict in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip has challenged the Bush administration's hopes for democratic gains in the region and spotlighted Syria and Iran as patrons of the Hezbollah guerrillas.

The renewed violence also has dimmed the prospects for a near-term Israeli-Arab peace accord, as the regional diplomatic focus shifts to efforts to try to prevent Thursday's escalating violence from boiling over into all-out war.

And the rockets that Islamic militants fired at Israel on Thursday also were a kind of proxy shot at the United States, analysts said, at a time when the grinding war in Iraq and the stalemate over Iran's nuclear program have undercut American clout in the region.

As events continued to unfold late Thursday, the early loser appeared to be the moderate Lebanese government, elected just 13 months ago amid celebrations and hopes for a democratic revolution on the streets of Beirut.

By Thursday, President Bush was publicly worried about the future of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and Bush's own stake in promoting a U.S. Middle East policy calling for greater democracy.

"Democracy in Lebanon is an important part of laying a foundation for peace in that region," Bush told reporters traveling with him in Germany.

"America was counting on Lebanon as a cornerstone for its forward policy in the Middle East -- democracy and winning allies to the U.S. side," said Joshua Landis, assistant professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Oklahoma. "This is a big blow."

Critics of Israel and the Bush administration blamed Israel for the escalating violence. They claim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert -- after just four months on the job -- overreacted to the June 25 capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants in Gaza, and then did the same by shelling Lebanon in response to the killing of eight Israeli troops and the capture of two more near southern Lebanon on Wednesday.

U.N. and U.S. diplomats were headed to the region Thursday in an effort to stem the violence.

But the events of the past two days demonstrated that the Lebanese government remains weak and Hezbollah appears to be the major political and military force in the country.

Since Israeli withdrew its forces from southern Lebanon in 2000, after an 18-year occupation that began during Lebanon's civil war, Hezbollah had restrained itself from conducting cross-border attacks.

Its brazen assault Wednesday on an Israeli convoy inside Israel, and the subsequent hostage-taking, presented a dangerous escalation and had analysts wondering whether Iran and Syria had given the green light.

"No government with any kind of capability anywhere in the world is going to sit tight and allow itself to be attacked across its borders on its own territory," said Robert Lieber, professor of government and international affairs at Georgetown University. "It's not surprising that Israel would respond with considerable force and determination."

In striking Israel with a well-planned attack, Hezbollah and its patrons also are challenging Israel's closest ally, the United States, when it is struggling with the three-year-old war in Iraq and seeking to halt Iran's nuclear ambitions.

"We're seeing the tables turn on U.S. might, and the decline in U.S. moral and military authority in the region is reverberating out of Iraq," Landis said. "This has emboldened America's enemies in the region."

As Bush prepares to huddle with his counterparts from the so-called Group of Eight wealthy democratic nations -- Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Russia -- this weekend in St. Petersburg, Russia, he's been unable to win support for tough sanctions against Iran over its alleged efforts to develop a nuclear weapon.

Bush also has worked to ostracize Syria over its alleged role in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in Beirut in early 2005. Damascus has bristled at U.S. economic sanctions and efforts to isolate Syria diplomatically.

Syria and Iran, Lieber said, appear to be using Hezbollah to try to undercut two of the Bush administration's Middle East objectives: establishing democratically-elected governments in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories; and working toward a settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

"The problem ultimately is radical Islamism, both in the form of nonstate terrorist actors like Hamas and Hezbollah and al-Qaeda," Lieber said.

"But it's amplified by the fact that Hamas and Hezbollah have state backing from Syria and Iran," he said. "So the blow to stability, the blow to peace, the blow to democratization and so forth is being inflicted by Iran and Syria and these particular groups, who do not want the kinds of things that the West and the Bush administration want."

link

Israel kills one Palestinian, bombs Hamas offices
14 Jul 2006 08:40:05 GMT

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA, July 14 (Reuters) - Israel bombed the offices of Hamas lawmakers, destroyed a bridge and fired a tank shell that killed one Palestinian on Friday as part of a Gaza Strip offensive aimed at forcing militants to release a captured soldier.

Israeli forces withdrew overnight from central Gaza after two days of fighting, and an army statement said the troops had "currently completed their activities in the area".

The Gaza Strip is ringed by Israeli tanks and troops. A contingent remains in the southern tip of Gaza, which troops entered on June 28 to try to force militants to free Corporal Gilad Shalit and to halt their cross-border rocket fire.

Israel has killed more than 80 Palestinians as part of the offensive.

Before withdrawing from central Gaza, Israeli troops fired a tank shell at a vehicle, killing one Palestinian and wounding another, Palestinian medics said.

Palestinian security sources said the men were driving on the main road in the territory when they came across Israeli tanks and troops, who had swept into central Gaza on Wednesday.

The Israeli army said troops shot in the air as the vehicle approached, then fired a tank shell. Palestinian security sources said the vehicle was reversing away from the tank when it came under fire.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli bulldozers overnight destroyed a large segment of the main central road and ripped down telephone and power lines.

"It's like an earthquake hit the road," Khamis Othman said while riding on a donkey cart with his son.

Stepping up attacks on the Hamas-led Palestinian government, an Israeli helicopter fired a missile into the north Gaza offices of several Hamas lawmakers, including Mushir al-Masri.

Masri has been outspoken in demanding that Israel release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit, who was captured in a cross-border raid on June 25.

Masri also hailed an attack on Israel's northern border with Lebanon in which Hizbollah guerrillas captured two soldiers.

BIT MORE

Almost 60 killed in two days of fighting
UN Security Council will meet today
Jul. 14, 2006
MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU

JERUSALEM—Shrugging off the worst enemy missile attacks in decades, Israeli leaders last night vowed to "break Hezbollah" with a massive and sustained air campaign.

The pledge of all-out war against the Lebanese militant Shiite Muslim movement capped a day that saw the Israeli military lay siege to its northern neighbour, crippling Beirut's airport with air strikes, imposing a naval blockade and bombing the main highway to the Syrian capital of Damascus.

Hezbollah militants launched more than 120 Katyusha rockets in response, terrifying a dozen northern Israeli communities and landing at least two rockets on the port city of Haifa, the deepest strikes ever into Israeli territory.

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz called the attack on Haifa a violation of a psychological red line in its sudden war with Hezbollah, which was sparked Wednesday morning by the capture of two Israeli soldiers on a routine border patrol.

"We expected that Hezbollah would break the rules and now we are going to break them," Peretz told the Hebrew daily Yedioth Ahronoth, urging Israeli civilians to remain steadfast in the coming days. "We have no intention of concluding this event with Hezbollah faring as well as it began a few days ago."

Israel's army chief Brig. Gen. Dan Halutz warned "nothing is safe" in Lebanon and said Beirut itself — particularly Hezbollah offices and residences — would be a target.

A predawn strike on Hezbollah's southern Beirut stronghold this morning killed at least two people and wounded 17, according to Al-Manar Television, the Hezbollah-controlled station which was itself targeted by Israeli warplanes yesterday.

Hezbollah officials denied responsibility for firing on Haifa, a densely populated industrial hub of 270,000 people on the Mediterranean coast.

But the obvious escalation raised concerns that Hezbollah's Syrian and Iranian sponsors could eventually be drawn into the spiralling conflict. World oil prices shot up to a record $76 (U.S.) a barrel even as the Israeli shekel dropped. Israeli diplomats later emphasized the fears of a broader regional conflict, citing undisclosed evidence that Hezbollah intends to transfer the Israeli prisoners to Iran. Syria and Iran, another Israeli diplomat said, are "playing with fire."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad answered with a warning of his own, cautioning Israel it would meet with "fierce response" if it expands air strikes into neighbouring Syria, according to the Iranian state news agency.

The 15-nation UN Security Council plans to hold an emergency session today after Lebanon urged the council to adopt a resolution calling for a ceasefire and an end to Israeli attacks.

The toll in Lebanon stood today at at least 55 civilians killed, along with an unknown number of Hezbollah militants. Most casualties came during a second day of Israeli air strikes directed at militant installations.

Two Israelis died and more than 90 others were injured in the barrage of Katyushas, which sent many northern Israelis southward in search of refuge. The uneven body count prompted international calls for Israeli restraint, including cautions from the United States and European Union.

One Israeli official turned aside the EU's message of concern over the disproportionate use of force, telling Reuters he was "concerned about the EU's disproportionate use of one-sided language."

The immediate impact of the aerial war effectively crushed the vibrant summer tourist season on both sides of the border. Lebanon, still recovering from the aftermath of a 30-year occupation by Syrian armed forces, saw a steady exodus of travellers from oil-rich Arab states on the road to Damascus. Thousands of deep-pocketed visitors from the Gulf States customarily escape the heat of summer in the mountain resorts above Beirut.

Hotels and guest houses in Israel's lush Galilee also emptied as visitors moved south to escape the threat of Katyushas. Rockets fell in Carmiel and Safed and in the coastal town of Nahariya, where one Israeli woman was killed in her home and 29 people injured, including children.

Israeli warplanes flew more than 50 sorties yesterday, targeting the runways and fuel reserves of Beirut airport and the headquarters of Al-Manar.

The IDF later dropped leaflets in Arabic, warning residents of south Beirut to avoid buildings linked to Hezbollah, whose assets include a vast network of Islamic charities in addition to political offices and militant sites.

The air attacks continued early today with Israeli strikes on five separate points of the main highway linking Beirut to Damascus. Israeli planes hit a bridge in the southern suburb of Beirut, a Hezbollah stronghold, and the fuel stores of the Jiyyeh power plant south of the city, witnesses and security sources said. The Lebanese Army responded with anti-aircraft fire.

Al-Manar remained on the air after the strike. The station later broadcast a report describing Hezbollah's Raad 1 missile as capable of hitting "military strongholds of the Zionist enemy." The rocket, with a 100-kg warhead, has a range sufficient to reach as many as 2 million Israelis, or a third of the country, the report said.

Hezbollah issued a midday statement warning, "The Islamic resistance will bombard Haifa as soon as the Israeli aggression reaches Beirut or the southern suburbs."

The violence in the north overshadowed the ongoing crisis in the Gaza Strip, where Israel Defence Forces are now in the third week of a ground campaign aimed at staunching Qassam rockets and securing the release of captured Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

More than 80 Palestinians have died during the operation, including a civilian family of eight killed on Wednesday in a failed Israeli air strike targeting the leader of the Hamas militant wing, Mohammed Deif.

The aggressive Israeli response to Wednesday's Hezbollah raid is consistent with its military reaction to the capture of Shalit in a June 25 raid on a remote IDF observation post by three Palestinian militant groups, including the militant wing of the ruling Hamas party.

Israel places an extraordinary premium on the recovery of soldiers lost in conflict, a national credo Hezbollah has exploited in the past, including the trade two years ago of one kidnapped Israeli businessman and the bodies of three soldiers for 400-plus Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners. But the onslaught of Hezbollah missiles so deep into Israeli territory appears to have sparked a new belligerence among Israelis, who are no longer prepared to tolerate a hostile militia that stands as the effective law of the land in southern Lebanon.

That mood was crystallized yesterday by hawkish former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who chided Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for allowing Hezbollah to erode the nation's deterrence.

"On this difficult day we must remember the basic facts: Israel is a strong country. The people of Israel are a strong people. The IDF is a strong army. The Israel government's policy is the weak link," Netanyahu wrote in the Hebrew daily Ma'ariv. "The time has come to change directions.

Toronto Star

Islamic group bids to fill power vacuum
But risks underestimating Israeli resolve
Jul. 14, 2006
MITCH POTTER
MIDDLE EAST BUREAU

JERUSALEM—There are multiple reasons why Hezbollah chose precisely this moment to throw an already turbulent Middle East into cartwheels of even greater turmoil.

But for most observers, none stands larger than the militant Shiite Muslim movement's overarching quest to elevate itself as the pre-eminent defender of the pan-Arab realm.

Whatever secondary reasons may come into play — and there is no question that for Hezbollah's sponsors in Syria and Iran the new crisis presents a convenient diversion from the critical issues confronting them — Arab-Muslim pride is paramount.

Scan the Arab press response to Wednesday's cross-border abductions of two Israeli soldiers and you will soon get the idea. The London-based daily Al-Quds al-Arabi cast the Hezbollah raid as "Arab-Islamic solidarity in its brightest form." The Saudi-financed Al-Hayat hailed it the best imaginable answer to Israel's "brutal terrorism in Gaza," proclaiming Hezbollah's expertise in "deterring the Israeli insolence."

The Syrian propaganda sheet Al-Thawra poured praise on Israel's "humiliation" as a tonic for the bruised Arab soul.

With Iraq sliding powerlessly toward civil war and the Palestinian Gaza Strip a mess as never before, Hezbollah seized a moment where intent, opportunity and impact blended for maximum synchronicity.

"Put the Hezbollah attacks in the context of history: Gamal Abdul Nasser the great Arab nationalist is gone, (Iraq's) Saddam Hussein is crushed, (Libya's) Moammar Gadhafi is domesticated and (the late Palestinian leader) Yasser Arafat was quarantined," said Dan Schueftan, a senior fellow at the Shalem Centre, a Jerusalem-based research centre. "Everyone is gone. So by acting now, Hezbollah is exploiting that vacuum to establish itself, at the service of Iran, as the last hope for radicals in the Middle East."

There is a huge gamble involved in Hezbollah's play — the bet that sooner or later Israel will submit to its ransom demands, as it has done in the past, and leave the group's Beirut-based leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah as the saviour of Arab dignity.

But the bellicose mood gathering momentum throughout Israel suggests that this time Hezbollah's bet is sorely misplaced.

"This is not arm-wresting or a test of false machismo. It is a fateful battle: a victory over Israel, even the symbolic-propaganda type ... will release demons across the entire Middle East," commentator Sever Plotzker wrote yesterday on the front page of Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel's largest-circulation daily.

-----

Hezbollah and the Israeli’s are certifiably insane. The dogs of war have been been unleashed and they are foaming at the mouth, snarling and barking.

Associated Press

UNITED NATIONS — The United States blocked an Arab-backed resolution Thursday that would have demanded Israel halt its military offensive in the Gaza Strip, the first UN Security Council veto in nearly two years.

The draft, sponsored by Qatar on behalf of other Arab countries, accused Israel of a “disproportionate use of force” that endangered Palestinian civilians, and demanded Israel withdraw its troops from Gaza.

The United States was alone in voting against the resolution. Ten of the 15 Security Council countries voted in favour, while Britain, Denmark, Peru and Slovakia abstained.

The United States. has periodically used its veto to block resolutions critical of Israel. The last council veto, in October 2004, was cast when the United States blocked a resolution condemning another Israeli operation in Gaza.

The draft was reworked repeatedly to address concerns that it was too biased against Israel. Language was added calling for the release of an abducted soldier and urging the Palestinians to stop firing rockets at Israel.

Nonetheless, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton said it was still unacceptable because it had been overtaken by events in the region — including the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah militants on Wednesday — and was “unbalanced.”

“It placed demands on one side in the Middle East conflict but not the other,” Mr. Bolton said. “This draft resolution would have exacerbated tensions in the region.”

Israel launched the operation two weeks ago in response to the June 25 capture of an Israeli soldier, 19-year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

The resolution called on Israel and the Palestinians to “take immediate steps to create the necessary condition for the resumption of negotiation and restarting the peace process.” It urged all parties to help alleviate the “dire humanitarian situation” faced by Palestinians.

The United States sought a text that said the Israeli actions were in direct response to rocket attacks against Israel and Mr. Shalit's capture.

Mr. Bolton said the United States remains “gravely concerned” at the escalation of the conflict and believes the best way to calm the situation is for Hamas to release Mr. Shalit.

The draft also demanded Israel release the Palestinian officials it has arrested.

The Palestinian observer to the UN, Riyad Mansour, said he was disappointed with the council's “continued inability to act while innocent Palestinian civilians continue to be brutally killed by the Israeli occupying forces.”

Referring to past U.S. practice of vetoing similar resolutions, Mr. Mansour said the council is failing the Palestinians. In Gaza, the Palestinian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Taher al-Nunu, said the United States must bear some responsibility for Israel's attacks.

“The veto is a political cover for the crimes of the occupation, and regrettably, instead of putting war criminals of this government that lost its mind on trial, they are giving a political cover to carry out more of these crimes,” Mr. al-Nunu said.

In a speech to the council immediately following Mr. Mansour, Israel's UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman thanked the U.S. for its “bold stand.” He defended Israel's actions and put the blame for attacks against Israel squarely on Iran and Syria.

“What we are seeing are the actions of Hamas and Hezbollah, but they are merely the fingers of the bloodstained hands and the executioners of the twisted minds of the leaders of the world's most ominous axis of terror, Syria and Iran,” he said.

Eight of the last nine vetoes in the council have been cast by the United States. Of those, seven concerned the Israel-Palestinian conflict.

Globe and Mail

-----

"Nothing to see here folks, move on!"

Jul. 14, 2006 4:26 | Updated Jul. 14, 2006 4:59
Saudi Arabia criticizes Hizbullah
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia

In a significant move, Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's political heavyweight and economic powerhouse, accused Hizbullah guerrillas - without naming them - of "uncalculated adventures" that could precipitate a new Middle East crisis.

A Saudi official quoted by the state Saudi Press Agency said the Lebanese Hizbullah's brazen capture of two Israeli soldiers was not legitimate.

The kingdom "clearly announces that there has to be a differentiation between legitimate resistance (to Israel) and uncalculated adventures."

The Saudi official said Hizbullah's actions could lead to "an extremely serious situation which could subject all Arab nations and its achievements to destruction."

"The kingdom sees that it is time for those elements to alone shoulder the full responsibility for this irresponsible behavior and that the burden of ending the crisis falls on them alone."

Saudi Arabia's comments on the crisis came after most moderate Arab governments reacted with relative restraint to Israel's offensive in Lebanon, condemning attacks on civilians and infrastructure but also implicitly criticizing Hizbullah.

LOL, isn't it special that Bolton is concerned how the UN looks

Israel pulls out of central Gaza

Israeli troops have withdrawn from central Gaza after the army said it had "completed" a two-day mission there.

Forces remain in other parts of the Gaza Strip, and are continuing a separate offensive against Lebanon.

There was fresh violence overnight as the troops withdrew from central Gaza. Sixteen Palestinians, mainly militants, died there in the two-day operation.

On Thursday, the United States vetoed a UN resolution calling on Israel to halt its military operations in Gaza.

Washington's UN ambassador, John Bolton, said the resolution laid disproportionate blame on Israel for the current crisis.

"Passage would have undermined the credibility of the Security Council, which itself must be seen by both sides as an honest broker in the Middle East conflict," he said.

Ten Security Council members voted in favour of Qatar's motion, while four abstained.

more

http://www.juancole.com/2006/07/is-arab-spring-turning-to-dust-under.html

[snip]

Hizbullah got off dozens of katyusha missiles in reply, which they would not have been able to do if the Israeli airforce had been hitting katyusha missile emplacements in the deep south instead of attacking the whole Lebanese economy up at Beirut. The missiles killed two Israeli civilians. One was said to hit the outskirts of Haifa, but Hizbullah denies that one and ordinary katyushas do not have that kind of range. Hizbullah's attacks on Israel during the past two days have been despicable.
.
As the Saudis pointed out, Hizbullah's latest actions are a form of ill-conceived adventurism that has plunged the region into greater crisis. On the other side, Condi Rice called on the Israelis to exercise restraint in their response in Lebanon. Given the power of the Israel Lobby in Washington, this statement is about as close as you would get nowadays to a denunciation of disproportionate Israeli attacks on the whole Lebanese people for the actions of a handful of Shiite guerrillas in the far south of the country.
.
Yes, I am saying that Wahhabi Saudi Arabia and the Bush administration Secretary of State are the adults in all this.

[snip]

One point to make about this incursion, the current government in Israel is fairly untested. They don't have Sharon's possibly dodgy but unquestionable military experience or even a military man in the position of secretary of defense. They come in as a centrist party after years of a right wing rule. Thus, they can mistakenly be thought to be softer than their predecessors and hence invite these kinds of responses from Hizballa and Hamas. But this is inherently flawed. First of all, it is a very standard tactic to use disproportionate force against the first perceived infraction. This is what teachers all over the world do the first week of classes to keep their students in line for the rest of the year, and obviously part of what Israel is doing. Second, even though his background is not military, Amir Peretz is not someone I would want to piss off, as the head of the Israeli labor union's he came across as vicious a pitbull as you can imagine. Also, in both cases, Hamas and Hizballa, the attacks against Israel came after a relatively extended period of calm (even though Israel has been thwarting terrorist attempts left and right of late), and there is no one more pissed off than someone whos calm has been shattered.

Syria's ambassador to the US said Washington should restrain Israel, but Israel's Justice Minister, Haim Ramon, told Army Radio his country was following guidelines set by the US and Russia. "We will act in the same proportions that Russia is using against the Chechens and the US has used against [al-Qaeda leader Osama] bin Laden in Afghanistan."

Global outcry at bombing

Well I guess we can anticipate the coming deaths in the thousands....

as Israel kowtowing to PA demands that they revert to 1967 borders and allow East Jerusalem to be the capital of Palestine.

"Round and round, round we go." - Tupac

Published: Friday, 14 July, 2006, 12:58 PM Doha Time

BEIRUT: Syria is holding Lebanon hostage by giving orders to the Lebanese Shia militant group Hezbollah which has captured two Israeli soldiers, a leading Lebanese minister said yesterday.

Syrian Vice-President “Faruq Shara gives the orders, Hezbollah executes them and Lebanon is the hostage,” said Communication Minister Marwan Hamadeh.

Shara said Israel’s occupation of Arab land lay at the root of escalation in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. Israel, in turn, has accused Syria and its key regional ally Iran - the main backers of Hezbollah - for sparking the unrest.

While Israel warned that no target in Lebanon was immune, other anti-Syrian leaders in Lebanon, including Druze chief and prominent MP Walid Jumblatt, said Lebanon should not be held responsible for the actions of Hezbollah.

“Where is the decision-making of Hezbollah?” asked Jumblatt. “If it is Lebanese, we respect it, but it has to be part of the Lebanese state.

“But if there is an Syrian-Iranian axe at the expense of Lebanon, then Lebanon will be caught in the middle, facing an unjustified Israeli savage aggression,” he told LBCI television.

Earlier, he told state Tele-Liban station that the Lebanese government could not be held “responsible for an action that it had not been consulted about before” it was taken.

“The Israeli aggression against Lebanon is unjustified, and can only bring destruction... If Israel thinks that this is how the soldiers will be returned, it is mistaken,” he said.

Former Lebanese President Amin Gemayel said that “it is inconceivable that Hezbollah takes decisions in the name of Lebanon, and which throw the country in war,” without consulting the government in which it participates, he said.

“These are unilateral initiatives which have dangerous consequences” on the country’s population and economy, he said. – AFP

Jul. 14, 2006
ASSOCIATED PRESS

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Israel tightened its seal on Lebanon, blasting its air and road links to the outside world and bringing its offensive to the capital for the first time today to punish Hezbollah — and with it, the country — for the capture of two Israeli soldiers.

Warplanes again smashed runways at Beirut’s airport with hours of airstrikes, trying to render it unusable, and destroyed mountain bridges on the main highway to Syria. Warships blockaded Lebanon’s ports for a second day.

Smoke drifted over the capital after strikes exploded fuel tanks at one of Beirut’s two main power stations, gradually escalating the damage to Lebanon’s key infrastructure. Apartment buildings were shattered by strikes in south Beirut.

Hezbollah said the home and office of its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, were destroyed by an Israeli airstrike but that he and his family were safe.

Lebanese guerrillas responded to earlier Israeli attacks by firing a barrage of at least 50 Katyusha rockets throughout the day, hitting more than a dozen communities across northern Israel.

The death toll in three days of fighting rose to 73 killed in Lebanon — almost all civilians, including five killed in strikes today — and 12 in Israel, including a mother and daughter killed in a rocket attack. The violence sent shock waves through a region already traumatized by the ongoing battles in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.

Israel’s strikes on the airport and roads and naval blockade all but cut off Lebanon from the world, while hits on infrastructure aimed to exact a price from its government for allowing Hezbollah to operate freely in the south.

more at the Toronto Star

-----

In other news today the Globe and Mail published Prime Minister Harper's comments, “its (Israel's) response to the kidnappings as "measured."

The Globe appears to have moved Harper's statement off their front page. The Star didn’t publish it or perhaps they buried it. It’s looking very grim at the UN if the United States will exercise its veto power to defeat motions that are made to reign Israel in. The carnage continues unabated. Will more countries be added to the flames that are engulfing the Middle East? Newspaper editors are making judgements as to what is responsibile journalism connected with happenings in the Middle East. It is MPO the news you read and see will most likely be consistent with 'judgements' you make as to your interpretation of what is 'responsible'.

Hizbollah rockets hit Sea of Galilee town
15 Jul 2006 20:07:25 GMT
Source: Reuters
Printable view | Email this article | RSS [-] Text [+]

(Adds Israel orders special measures for rocket-hit north)

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan

JERUSALEM, July 15 (Reuters) - Rockets fired by Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon struck deeper into Israel than ever before on Saturday, hitting the Sea of Galilee town of Tiberias, and wounding 15 people across northern Israel.

It was the fourth straight day of rocket barrages since fighting erupted after two soldiers were captured on a raid into Israel by Hizbollah militants, who also killed eight Israeli troops in ensuing clashes.

Four Israelis, including a five-year-old child, have been killed and 300 hurt by about 700 rockets fired since Wednesday at an unprecedented number of more than 20 towns. Over 100 Lebanese, mostly civilians, have died in Israeli air raids.

The Hizbollah rocket barrages have sparked widespread panic that has sent thousands of Israelis fleeing the north and many others heading for bomb shelters.

Israeli officials said three barrages of Katyusha rockets slammed into Tiberias, a town about 35 km (22 miles) from the border with Lebanon, injuring eight people and damaging two residential buildings.

"We could not believe this would happen to us. It was very scary. We are frightened and intend to escape with our children," Ayala Aloni told Israel's Ynet news Web site after the first rocket hit.

In Karmiel, another Israeli town struck by rockets, the mayor urged residents to stay with relatives in the south of the country until the violence subsides. Several people were injured in an Israeli Arab town across the road from Karmiel on Friday.

Defence Minister Amir Peretz issued an order giving authorities the power to shut schools, factories and public institutions in the north, in a bid to limit rocket casualties.

The "Special Situation" declaration falls short of a full state of emergency.

Israeli generals urged the public to remain calm in the region where about 750,000 Israelis were under rocket threat, but cautioned it may be weeks until they subside.

"We have to be ready for some more days, perhaps more than that, perhaps weeks, to face this reality," the Israeli army's operations chief, General Gadi Eizenkot, told reporters in Tel Aviv. "We have to prepare for a continued campaign, not to panic."

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L1552657.htm

Report claims Syria may face offensive
Big News Network
Saturday 15th July, 2006 (UPI)

Israel has given Syria 72 hours to release two captured soldiers or face a possible offensive, Al-Hayat, the London-based Arabic newspaper, reported.

The report said a senior Pentagon source warned that should the Arab world and international community fail in the efforts to convince Syria to pressure Hezbollah into releasing the soldiers and halt the current escalation, Israel may attack targets in the country, YNETnews.com said.

Al-Hayat quoted a source as saying that the U.S. cannot rule out the possibility of an Israeli strike in Syria.

The report comes despite the Bush administration's public call for Israel to refrain from military actions that could harm civilians

As to the current problems that have spiraled into a near full scale regional war, I’m convinced that the solution to the many issues rests solely upon one defining problem…from which all others emanate and from which all others can be resolved. In fact, in what some may call my fanciful Hollywood formulaic prescription, one particular movie quotation seems to capture the essence of my proposed story line…“If you build it, they will come”. The “it” is none other than a Palestinian state.

Read an analysis on the Middle East that posits that the solution to the regions turmoil rests in the immediate creation of an independent Palestinian state...here:

http://www.thoughttheater.com/2006/07/palestinian_state_if_we_build.php

I wonder if any major media has dared to poll the opinions of the Americans about this. Do they think that the offensive is justified and do they think that their government had done enough?

I think the world is changing. It is difficult to attack a country which has 25 000 Americans. At least CNN claims so. I wonder what they are doing in Lebanon.

-- Happy fishing in ocean of noise!

Bush didn't have the political ability to attack Iran so Israel is just going make sure it happens. My guess is, that's what this is all about.

Attacks In Response To Hezbollah Assault On Israeli Train Station
BEIRUT, Lebanon
July 16, 2006

The flattened area of rubble is what is left of the Hezbollah headquarters in the suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, after Israeli air strikes reduced them to rubble early Sunday morning, July 16, 2006. (AP)

Police said 130 people, almost all civilians, have died in Lebanon in the five-day Israeli onslaught. In Israel, 23 have died, including 15 civilians killed by rocket fire.

(CBS/AP) Israeli airstrikes reduced entire apartment buildings to rubble and knocked out electricity in swaths of the Lebanese capital Sunday, and Israel dramatically escalated the ferocity of its campaign after Hezbollah rockets hit the northern city of Haifa.

Eight people were killed in Haifa when Hezbollah rockets smashed into the city train station in retaliation for Israel's overnight barrage on the capital. Soon after, Israeli warplanes bombarded the guerrilla group's headquarters in south Beirut again with a barrage of missiles, sending palls of smoke over the crowded residential area.

The toll continued to rise: Police said 130 people, almost all civilians, have died in Lebanon in the five-day Israeli onslaught. In Israel, 23 have died, including 15 civilians killed by rocket fire.

Beirut, a city of 1.5 million people, was emptying as residents fled to the relative safety of the mountains and the eastern Bekaa Valley - though in the past 24 hours Israel expanded its strikes to the entire country.

Both sides warned of worse to come in the battle, sparked by Hezbollah's snatching of two Israeli soldiers last week. Fears mounted that the fight could expand as Israel accused Iran and Syria - top Hezbollah backers - of supplying the guerrillas with sophisticated new missiles that hit Haifa.

The Syrian government warned of an "unlimited" response if Israel attacks it. "Any aggression against Syria will be met with a firm and direct response whose timing and methods are unlimited," Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that there would be "far-reaching consequences" for the rocket attack on Haifa.

"Nothing will deter us," he said at the beginning of his government's weekly Cabinet meeting. "There will be far-reaching consequences in our relations on the northern border and in the area in general."

The head of Israel's northern command, Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, warned residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate "because in two or three hours we are going to attack the south of Lebanon heavily."

Hezbollah said its Haifa strike had avoided the city's petrochemical facilities, though an oil refinery was targeted. It warned on its Al-Manar TV station: "Next time, it will not spare anything in Haifa and its surroundings."

Israeli officials said the guerillas used Iranian-made Fajr missiles in the Haifa strike, with a longer range and far larger warhead than the relatively small Katyusha rockets they normally fire. But Shaul Mofaz, an Israeli Cabinet minister and former army chief of staff, later toured the Haifa train depot and said the missiles were Syrian-made.

Hezbollah rockets also hit the northern Israeli cities of Acco - which has a large Arab population - and Nahariya, and residents of the region were told to head to bomb shelters.

Iran denied Israelil claims it had provided missiles and had sent some 100 of its elite Revolutionary Guards to Lebanon to help the Shiite Muslim guerrillas.

It vowed its support for Damascus if Syria is attacked. "We hope the Zionist regime does not make the mistake of attacking Syria. Expanding the front of aggression and attacks ... would definitely face the Zionist regime with unimaginable damages," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi.

The damage in southern Beirut - a teeming Shiite district where Hezbollah's main headquarters complex is located - was colossal after Israel unleashed its worst bombardment yet overnight, before the Haifa strike. A series of 18 explosions rocked the city before sunrise.

Al-Manar television, Hezbollah's main voice to the world, was knocked off the air for eight minutes by the pounding. The Jiyeh power plant, on the southern outskirts, was in flames after being hit, cutting electricity to many areas in the capital and south Lebanon. Firefighters pleaded for help from residents after saying they didn't have enough water to put out the blaze.

The southern suburbs were repeatedly blasted by Israeli warplanes for most of Saturday, but the early Sunday raids were the heaviest since Israel launched its offensive Wednesday in retaliation to the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerillas.

Thousands of residents of those neighborhoods – by definition supporters of Hezbollah – have moved out, reports CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer. They are taking shelter in schools and other public buildings.

But, Palmer reports, not all of them are happy about Hezbollah's actions.

"This is impossible, we have sick kids," Zeinab, a young mother carrying her child, complained. "Why don't they just exchange the two soldiers?"

Large swaths of the capital were covered in fine white dust from the barrage. Around the Hezbollah compound in the southern district known as Dahiyah - entire blocks were littered with heaps of rubble and twisted metal, and fires raged.

One building collapsed on its side like a sandwich, and other apartment buildings were reduced to rubble or had their upper floors collapsed into those below. The steel gates of the Hezbollah compound was mangled and buried in the rubble of the demolished structures inside.

Furniture pieces, blankets, mattresses, clothes and soft toys were scattered on the streets. A copy of the Quran, Islam's holy book, lay in the street with its dusty pagers fluttering until it was reverently lifted and kissed by a Hezbollah gunman.

Dahiyah was empty except for guerrillas and a few residents who returned to their homes to collect belongings before fleeing again to their refuges elsewhere.

"We want to sleep on our own pillows in the shelter," Mariam Shihabiyah, a 39-year-old mother of five said as she emerged from scrounging a few supplies from her apartment in a badly damaged building. "I just want them and our clothes, that's all ...Can you believe what happened to Dahiyah?"

Hezbollah denied Israeli media reports that its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, had been wounded in an airstrike Sunday, the Arab and Lebanese media said.

The government appealed to residents not to hoard food, especially bread, assuring them that supplies in the country could last months. Throughout the capital, most stores were shut Sunday, and traffic was much lighter than usual even for a weekend morning.

Trying to defuse the crisis, Lebanon's Western-backed, anti-Syrian prime minister indicated Saturday night he might send his army to take control of southern Lebanon from Hezbollah guerrillas - a top U.N. demand but also a move that might risk civil war.

Choking back tears, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora went on television to plead with the United Nations to broker a cease-fire for his "disaster-stricken nation."

But on Sunday, Lebanon's president - a staunch pro-Syrian and close ally of Hezbollah - vowed that Lebanon "will not surrender" and blasted the United Nations, saying it was procrastinating in intervening to give Israel time to force Lebanon into submission.

Reacting to Saniora's statements, Israel's Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Lebanon must prove it was serious by deploying troops on the border.

The United States and United Nations have long demanded the Lebanese government deploy the army in the south, which Hezbollah guerrillas effectively control. But any effort by Saniora's Sunni Muslim-led government to use force against the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah guerrillas could trigger another bloody civil war in Lebanon. Many fear the 70,000-strong army itself might break up along sectarian lines, as it did during the 1975-90 civil war.

CBS News

-----

Allegedly the US has blocked the cease fire at the UN Deaths are now in the hundreds and no one is brokering peace. Six times as many deaths are being inflicted by Israel. Perhaps it’s not a good idea for the US to be the one to act as a broker—seems like Israel is attempting to drag them into this melee on their behalf. The US has used it's veto power once so far. If America did block Lebanon's UN call for a ceasefire, at a minimum, they're complicit in Israel's actions and both should be censured. That can wait...it's stopping the killing that is important. I'm ashamed of Prime Minister Harper's public statement that Israel is acting in a 'measured' manner! He hasn't apparently given any instructions to rescue Canadians who are stranded there. They're being told to stay inside! Jeez, isn't that just great...get caught in a war zone and our government isn't making any plans to evacuate them.

Deutche Presse (I think) is reporting that the Israeli patrol boat was hit not with an explosives laden RPV, but an Iranian-supplied C-802 missile, which I'm finding somewhat tough to believe given the limited numbers of them Iran apparently has.

Whatever, that's some scary shit - either there's some truly whacko arms transfers that have gone on, or someone's wanting us to believe that this is the case (or, as always, there's some bad data out there - but the notion that the missile was Iranian supplied seems to be being widely reported).

"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.

Israeli strikes are part of a broader strategy
U.S., Israel aim to weaken Hezbollah, region's militants

By Robin Wright
The Washington Post
Updated: 10:03 a.m. ET July 16, 2006

Israel, with U.S. support, intends to resist calls for a cease-fire and continue a longer-term strategy of punishing Hezbollah, which is likely to include several weeks of precision bombing in Lebanon, according to senior Israeli and U.S. officials.

For Israel, the goal is to eliminate Hezbollah as a security threat -- or altogether, the sources said. A senior Israeli official confirmed that Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah is a target, on the calculation that the Shiite movement would be far less dynamic without him.

For the United States, the broader goal is to strangle the axis of Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria and Iran, which the Bush administration believes is pooling resources to change the strategic playing field in the Middle East, U.S. officials say.

Whatever the outrage on the Arab streets, Washington believes it has strong behind-the-scenes support among key Arab leaders also nervous about the populist militants -- with a tacit agreement that the timing is right to strike.

"What is out there is concern among conservative Arab allies that there is a hegemonic Persian threat [running] through Damascus, through the southern suburbs of Beirut and to the Palestinians in Hamas," said a senior U.S. official who requested anonymity because of sensitive diplomacy. "Regional leaders want to find a way to navigate unease on their streets and deal with the strategic threats to take down Hezbollah and Hamas, to come out of the crisis where they are not as ascendant."

A 'unique moment'
Hezbollah's cross-border raid that captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others has provided a "unique moment" with a "convergence of interests" among Israel, some Arab regimes and even those in Lebanon who want to rein in the country's last private army, the senior Israeli official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the ongoing conflict.

Israel and the United States would like to hold out until Hezbollah is crippled.

"It seems like we will go to the end now," said Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon. "We will not go part way and be held hostage again. We'll have to go for the kill -- Hezbollah neutralization."

[More]

July 16, 2006
Israel Widens Scope of Attacks Across Lebanon
By GREG MYRE

METULA, Israel, Sunday, July 16 — Expanding the reach of its airstrikes, Israel on Saturday hit coastal radar installations in northern Lebanon that it said were targeting its warships and early Sunday bombed the southern suburbs of Beirut.

Israel also struck roads in Lebanon’s north and east on Saturday, with one attack killing at least 16 civilians, most of them children. At the same time, Hezbollah forces continued their rocket barrage into northern Israel, striking the resort city of Tiberias for the first time.

The widening conflict stirred a meeting of world leaders in Russia, where President Bush called on Syria to use its influence with Hezbollah to end the fighting. At an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo, the Arab League secretary general, Amr Moussa, said the participants “all decided that the peace process has failed,” and that they would turn to the United Nations Security Council for help.

Israel carried out dozens of airstrikes on Saturday, hitting Jounieh, Tripoli and other northern ports.

A Lebanese civilian convoy was hit near the coastal town of Tyre after fleeing the border village of Marwaheen, resulting in 16 deaths. The Israeli military said the area was a target because Hezbollah had used it to launch missiles, and regretted any civilian casualties. It was the deadliest single attack in the past four days of fighting.

The villagers left after the Israeli military told them to evacuate over a loudspeaker, Reuters reported.

Israeli aircraft also fired a missile at the new lighthouse in the seafront Manara district near downtown Beirut, the first time this part of the city was struck.

An Israeli commander, Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, said the new strikes at Lebanese port areas were meant to take out sea radar installations that were instrumental in the attack on Friday that heavily damaged an Israeli ship, killing one sailor. Three others are missing. The ship returned to Israel on Saturday.

The Israeli military said Saturday that the ship had been struck by a radar-guided C802 missile supplied by Iran, not by a drone aircraft, as previously reported.

General Nehushtan said the missile, which was fired from the Lebanese coast, was part of a system that required direct training from Iran. “We see this attack as a very clear fingerprint of Iranian involvement,” he said.

Dozens of Iranian fighters are in Lebanon, and they have been working with Hezbollah for more than two decades, the military says. Iran provides a large part of the group’s financing and weaponry.

[More]

photos of dead Lebanese children fleeing.
http://www.juancole.com/

http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2006/07/i-have-just-received-these-pictures.html

"who would Jesus bomb?"

Gideon Levy | July 14

Ha'aretz - Every neighborhood has one, a loudmouth bully who shouldn't be provoked into anger. He's insulted? He'll pull out a knife. Spat in the face? He'll draw a gun. Hit? He'll pull out a machine gun. Not that the bully's not right - someone did harm him. But the reaction, what a reaction! It's not that he's not feared, but nobody really appreciates him. The real appreciation is for the strong who don't immediately use their strength. Regrettably, the Israel Defense Forces once again looks like the neighborhood bully. A soldier was abducted in Gaza? All of Gaza will pay. Eight soldiers are killed and two abducted to Lebanon? All of Lebanon will pay. One and only one language is spoken by Israel, the language of force.

The war that the IDF has now declared on Lebanon and before it on Gaza, will never be considered another "war of no choice." Let's save that debate from the historians. This is unequivocally a war of choice. The IDF absorbed two painful blows, which were particularly humiliating, and in their wake went into a war that is all about restoring its lost dignity, which on our side is called "restoring deterrent capabilities." Neither in Lebanon nor certainly in Gaza, can anyone formulate the real goals of the war, so nobody knows for sure what will be considered victory or an achievement. Are we at war in Lebanon? With Hezbollah? Nobody knows for sure. If the goal is to remove Hezbollah from the border, did we try hard enough over the last two years through diplomatic channels? And what's the connection between destroying half of Lebanon and that goal? Everyone agrees that "something must be done." Everyone agrees that a sovereign state cannot remain silent when it is attacked within its own borders, though in Israel's eyes Lebanese sovereignty was always subject to trampling, but why should that non-silence be expressed solely by an immediate and all-out blow?

In Gaza, a soldier is abducted from the army of a state that frequently abducts civilians from their homes and locks them up for years with or without a trial - but only we're allowed to do that. And only we're allowed to bomb civilian population centers.

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The painful steps taken in Gaza, which included dropping a one-ton bomb on a residential building, or killing an entire family of seven children under cover of darkness in Lebanon, killing dozens of residents, bombing an airport, cutting off electricity and water to hundreds of thousands of people for months were a response lacking any justification, legitimacy or proportion. What goal did it serve? Was the soldier released? Did the Qassams stop? Was deterrence restored? None of that happened. Only lost honor was supposedly restored, and immediately the next evil wind showed up, this time from the north.

Two more soldiers were abducted and it was clearly proven that the deterrent power was not restored, while IDF failures repeated themselves. How does one erase those searing failures? On the backs of innocent populations. In Lebanon, the situation is more complicated. There is no Israeli occupation and no justification for provoking Israel. If Hezbollah is so worried about its Palestinian brethren, it should have first of all done something for the hundreds of thousands of refugees living in camps in Lebanon in conditions that are just as bad as those under the Israeli occupation, before it grabbed soldiers in their name.

But does the fact that Hezbollah is a cynical organization that exploits the misery of Palestinians for its own purposes justify the disproportionate reaction? The concept that we have totally forgotten is proportionality. While we're in no hurry to get to the negotiating table, we're eager to get to the battlefield and the killing without delay, without taking any time to think. That deepens suspicions that we need a war every few years, with terrifying repetition, even if afterward we end up back in exactly the same position.

The war we declared on Lebanon has already exacted from us, and of course from Lebanon, too, a heavy price. Did anyone give any thought to the question whether it should be paid?

Everyone knows how this war begins, but does anyone know how it ends? Heavy casualties in the Israeli rear? A war with Syria? A general war? Is it all worth it? Look what a new rookie government can do in such a short time.

Behind the operations in Lebanon and Gaza is the same foolish idea about pressure on the population leading to political changes that Israel wants. In the history of the Israeli-Arab conflict, that concept has only led us from one disaster to the next. We "cleansed" southern Lebanon of Palestinians in 1982, and what did we get? Hezbollahstan instead of Fatahland. Hamas won't fall because Gaza is in the dark, and not even because we bombed the Palestinian Foreign Ministry building at the weekend - another nonsensical move; Hezbollah won't be smashed because the international airport in Beirut has been put out of commission.

Israel once again is not distinguishing between a justified war against Hezbollah and an unjust and unwise war against the Lebanese nation. The camouflage concealing the war's real goals was ripped off by this defense minister, who says what he means: "Nasrallah is going to get it so bad that he will never forget the name Amir Peretz," he bragged, like a typical bully. Now at least we know that Israel went to war so that the name Amir Peretz is never forgotten. It's the war for the perpetuation of the name Peretz and the blurring of Dan Halutz's failures. And to hell with the cost.

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

Yuval Azoulay, Amos Harel and Yoav Stern | July 17

Ha'aretz - Hezbollah secretary general Hassan Nasrallah may decide to use the longer range missiles in his movement's arsenal against Israel, according to Israel Defense Forces assessments.

IDF sources say that use of such weapons will depend on authorization from Iran, which has equipped Hezbollah with long-range missiles and has played a formative role in shaping the character of the current fighting. If the confrontation continues to escalate, as it appeared to have done Sunday, the chances that Nasrallah's organization will launch such missiles increases.

Hezbollah guerillas continued firing rockets into Israel on Monday morning, with one lightly injuring two people near Acre. Two more suffered from shock.

A barrage of Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah militants in Lebanon late Sunday landed in the lower Galilee's Jezreel Valley for the first time.

[Comment: More at link above. The Jezreel is a comparatively long way inside Israel (Afula is on the map above south of Nazareth, presuming it displays). This is definitely the furthest into Israel we've seen. ~ JPD]

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

Ze'ev Schiff | July 17

Ha'aretz - The fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, has still not reached its zenith. The Israel Defense Forces' operational plans against the Shi'ite organizations have not yet been carried out. The next two days are the most critical and a lot depends on whether Tehran decides to take a chance and authorize Hezbollah to launch long-range missiles with more powerful warheads. This is a capability Hezbollah still retains, despite the heavy blows it has suffered in the IDF air strikes.

On Sunday, Israel bore witness to the use of more powerful rockets against Haifa, which killed eight people and injured dozens more. The Syrian-made 220 mm rocket has a warhead weighing more than 50 kilograms. Hezbollah was supplied with these rockets as the Syrian armed forces were receiving them off the production lines. The decision to give Hezbollah the rockets was made when it was concluded that the group would be considered part of the Syrian army's overall emergency preparedness.

The risk to Iran is not military, but rather that Hezbollah would suffer such damage that it would no longer be counted as the sole external element of Iran's Islamic Revolution. It is difficult to assess what the Iranian leadership will decide. If it does opt for aggravating the situation, it will certainly encourage the Syrians to become involved in the confrontation, but all indications suggest that Damascus is not eager to get dragged into war.

"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.

Robert Fisk | July 15

(Reprinted from "The Independent") - [snip]
Terrorist, terrorist, terrorist. There is something perverse about all this, the slaughter and massive destruction and the self-righteous, constant, cancerous use of the word "terrorist". No, let us not forget that the Hizbollah broke international law, crossed the Israeli border, killed three Israeli soldiers, captured two others and dragged them back through the border fence.

It was an act of calculated ruthlessness that should never allow Hizbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, to grin so broadly ay his press conference. It has brought unparalleled tragedy to countless innocents in Lebanon. And of course, it has led Hizbollah to fire at least 170 Katyusha rockets into Israel.

But what would happen if the powerless Lebanese government had actually unleashed air attacks across Israel the last time Israel's troops crossed into Lebanon? What if the Lebanese air force then killed 73 Israeli civilians in bombing raids in Ashkelon, Tel Aviv and Israeli West Jerusalem? What if a Lebanese fighter aircraft bombed Ben Gurion airport? What if a Lebanese plane destroyed 26 road bridges across Israel? Would it not be called "terrorism"? I rather think it would. But if Israel was the victim, it would also probably be Word War Three.

Of course, Lebanon cannot attack Tel Aviv. Its air force comprises three ancient Hawker Hunters and an equally ancient fleet of Vietnam-era Huey helicopters. Syria, however, has missiles that can reach Tel Aviv. So Syria - which Israel rightly believes to be behind Wednesday's Hizbollah attack is not going to be bombed. It is Lebanon which must be punished.

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

Robert Fisk | July 14
pej.org (reprinted from "The Independent")[snip] They came first to the little village of Dweir near Nabatiya in southern Lebanon where an Israeli plane dropped a bomb on to the home of a Shia Muslim cleric. He was killed. So was his wife. So were eight of his children. One was decapitated. All they could find of a baby was its head and torso which a young villager brandished in fury in front of the cameras. Then the planes visited another home in Dweir and disposed of a family of seven.

It was a brisk start to Day Two of Israel's latest "war on terror", a conflict that uses some of the same language - and a few of the same lies - as George Bush's larger "war on terror". For just as we "degraded" Iraq - in 1991 as well as 2003 - so yesterday it was Lebanon's turn to be "degraded".

That means not only physical death but economic death and it arrived at Beirut's gleaming new £300m international airport just before 6am as passengers prepared to board flights to London and Paris.

From my home, I heard the F-16 which suddenly appeared over the newest runway and fired a spread of rockets into it, ripping up 20 metres of tarmac and blasting tons of concrete into the air in a massive explosion before a Hetz-class Israeli gunboat fired on to the other runways.

Two of Middle East Airlines' new Airbuses were left untouched but, within minutes, the airport was deserted as passengers fled back to their homes and hotels.

The flight indicators told the whole story: Paris no flight, London, no flight, Cairo, no flight, Dubai, no flight, Baghdad - from the cauldron into the fire if anyone had chosen to take it - no flight. Someone was playing "Don't Cry For Me, Argentina" over the public address system.

Then the Israelis went for the Hizbollah television station, Al-Manar, clipping off its antenna with a missile but failing to put the station off air. That might be a more understandable target - "Manar", after all, broadcasts Hizbollah propaganda. But was it really designed to find or recover the two Israeli soldiers captured on Wednesday? Or to take revenge for the nine Israelis killed in the same incident, one of the blackest days in recent Israeli Army history although not as black as it was for the 36 Lebanese civilians killed in the previous 24 hours.

An Israeli woman was also killed by a Hizbollah rocket fired into Israel. So, in the grim exchange rate of these wretched conflicts, one Israeli death equals just over three Lebanese; it's a fair bet the exchange rate will grow more murderous.

And by afternoon, the threats had grown worse. Israel would not "sit idly by". It ordered the entire population of the southern suburbs - home to Hizbollah's headquarters - to flee their homes by 3pm.

Save for a few hundred families, they stubbornly refused to leave. Everywhere in Lebanon could now be a target, the Israelis announced. If Israel bombed the suburbs, the Hizbollah roared, it would fire its long-range Katyushas at the Israeli city of Haifa. One of them had apparently already damaged an Israeli air base at Miron, a fact concealed at the time by Israeli censors.

It certainly frightened Lebanon's Gulf tourists who packed the roads from Bhamdoun in their 4x4s, fleeing for the safety of Syria and flights home from Damascus. Another little economic death for Lebanon.

But what did all this mean, this ranting and threatening? I sat at home in the early afternoon, going through my files of Israeli statements. It turned out that Israel had threatened not to "sit idly by" (or occasionally "stand idly by") in Lebanon on at least six occasions in the past 26 years, most famously when the late Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin promised that he would not "stand idly by" while Christians were threatened here in 1980 - only to withdraw his soldiers and leave the Christians to their bloody fate three years later.

The Lebanese are always left to their fate. Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, says he holds the Lebanese government responsible for the attacks on the border that breached the international frontier on Wednesday.

But Mr Olmert and everyone knows that the weak and fractious government of the Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora isn't capable of controlling a single militiaman, let alone the Hizbollah.

Yet wasn't this the same set of Lebanese political leaders congratulated by the United States last year for its democratic elections and its freedom from Syria? Indeed, a man who sees Bush as a friend - perhaps "saw" is a better word - is Saad Hariri, son of the ex-Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri who built much of the infrastructure that Israel is now destroying and whose murder last year - by Syrian agents? - supposedly outraged Mr Bush.

Yesterday morning, Saad Hariri, the son, was flying into Beirut when America's Israeli allies arrived to bomb the airport. He had to turn round as his aircraft skulked off to Cyprus for refuge.

But it was the undercurrent of terror-speak that was particularly frightening yesterday.

Lebanon was an "axis of terror", Israel was "fighting terror on all fronts". During the morning, I had to cut across an interview with an Australian radio station when an Israeli reporter stated - totally untruthfully - that there were Iranian Revolutionary Guards in Lebanon and that not all Syria's troops had left.

And the reason why the Israelis had attacked Beirut's infinitely secure and carefully monitored airport, used by diplomats and European leaders, a facility as safe as any in Europe? Because, so said the Israelis, it was "a central hub for the transfer of weapons and supplies to the Hizbollah terrorist organisation." If the Israelis really want to know where that hub is, they should be looking at Damascus airport. But they do know that, don't they?[snip]

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

Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said Ottawa was sending ships to help evacuate up to 40,000 Canadians believed to be in Lebanon.

40 000 Canadians, 25 000 Yankees, 10 000 Britons etc. in Lebanon. And Security Council says no problem.

-- Happy fishing in ocean of noise!

Mideast crisis drives Bush to colorful language
Mon Jul 17, 2006 6:33am ET

ST PETERSBURG, Russia (Reuters) - A microphone picked up an unaware President Bush saying on Monday Syria should press Hezbollah to "stop doing this shit" and that his secretary of state may go to the Middle East soon.

Bush was talking privately to British Prime Minister Tony Blair during a lunch at the Group of Eight summit in St Petersburg about an upsurge of violence in the Middle East, not realizing a microphone was recording what he said.

"I think Condi (Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice) is going to go pretty soon," Bush said.

Blair replied: "Right, that's all that matters, it will take some time to get that together."

The two leaders also referred to an offer by Blair to help. Blair said Rice has "got to succeed" if she goes out to the region.

Bush replied: "What they need to do it to get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit." Shortly afterwards Blair noticed the microphone and hastily switched it off, but not before the recording had reached news media.

Much of the G8 summit has been devoted to discussing the Middle East crisis centering on Lebanese Hezbollah militant attacks on Israel and Israeli bombing of Lebanon. Washington and its allies say Hezbollah is backed by Syria.

G8 SUMMIT: UN's Annan calls on Israel to stop bombing infrastructure UPDATE
07.17.2006, 05:02 AM

SAINT PETERSBURG (AFX) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan called on Israel to stop bombing civilian infrastructure in Lebanon as he prepared to gather consensus on the make-up of an international stabilisation force among members of the UN Security Council.

Speaking after talks with UK prime minister Tony Blair on the sidelines of the G8 summit, Annan said the international community needed to 'get the parties to agree as soon as practicable to a cessation of hostilities to give diplomacy time and space to work'.

Both men said the only way to get the warring parties to stop was to send in an international force -- harder language than yesterday's statement from the G8 which referred only to a monitoring force.

Aides to Blair, who called the need for troops a 'blunt reality' said this was a deliberate change of tone after Annan had agreed that a force would be needed to police a ceasefire.

The UN leader said he would be pursuing the issue with G8 leaders on the security council today.

However, he also told Hezbollah and Israel they did not have to wait for an international peace package to be implemented to cease hostilities.

'We need to get the parties to agree as soon as practicable to a cessation of hostilities, but they need to do that to give diplomacy time and space for us to work, he said.

'In the meantime I have appealed to all concerned to spare civilian lives, to spare civilian infrastructure because these are things the civilian population need for their livelihood and their daily activities and we should not inflict any more suffering.'

'Both parties should bear that in mind and respect international humanitarian law.'

Annan said he expects security council members 'to work with us to get a package that will push this forward'.

He added that the package should be 'action-orientated' and pursues the 'idea of a stabilisation force'.

'We will want to move very quickly and...make sure we have well trained, well equipped troops.'

'The sooner that discussion and decisions are taken by the council the better it is. But the parties need not wait for the full implementation of the package to start the cessation of hostilities and spare the civilians.'

Blair said the 'stabilisation force' is now 'the only way...to get a cessation of hostilities' and 'stop the bombardment coming over into Israel and therefore gives Israel the reason to stop its attacks on Hezbollah'.

'The blunt reality is that this is the only way it is going to happen.'

Forbes

-----

By the way, Candy did you know that "sh*t" in England is equivalent to North America's use of the word, "Fu*k"? Prime Minister Tony Blair would have noticed Bush's obscenity. Amazing that politians have trained themselves not to express when they are offended. Betcha Bush wasn't of it--that was his best buddy he was speaking to at the time he used it!

Amos Harel and Avi Issacharoff

Ha'aretz - Where have the rockets suddenly come from? For six years the Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon were a source of contempt in the Israeli press. Analysts, economists and others argued that the defense establishment regularly exaggerated a peripheral threat to influence deliberations on the budget. Why else would the head of Military Intelligence decide that the Hezbollah had 12,000 rockets, when only a few months later he had claimed it held only 11,000? In the past few days it turns out that the imaginary Hezbollah arsenal is real, and it is striking Haifa, Safed and Tiberias.

The denial was not a press monopoly. Politicians and even some General Staff officers refused to regard the issue as a priority. The pullout from Lebanon, following 18 years of blood letting was accompanied with such an enormous sense of relief that any talk on what was left behind was considered troublesome.

The rocket deliveries continued on weekly flights from Iran to Damascus and Beirut, and Israel followed the movement with a near academic curiosity. In the immediate aftermath of the withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May, 2000, hundreds of Lebanese rushed to Fatma Gate, near Metula, and threw stones at the Israeli soldiers. In response, the Israel Defense Forces enclosed the soldiers in a metal cage, and then pulled the position away from the border all together in an effort to avoid friction.

[more at link above]

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

Lebanese PM accuses Israel of terrorism

11.00pm Monday July 17, 2006

NZ Herald
PARIS - Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora accused Israel of using terrorist methods to exert pressure on Lebanon and said its offensive would foster extremism in the Middle East.

"Israel accuses others of terrorism at the same time as it carries it out in the harshest forms," he said in an interview with the Le Monde daily published today.

"It creates problems and maintains them as open wounds to be used as a means of exerting pressure," he said.

The comments came as Israel continued its air strikes against Lebanon and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Security Council members would start hammering out a detailed agreement on deploying a multilateral security force to Lebanon.

Israel says the strikes it has carried out across southern Lebanon and parts of Beirut in the past six days are designed to destroy guerrilla group Hizbollah's ability to fire rockets into Israel and has said it regrets any civilian casualties.

It also says that the fighting was provoked by Hizbollah, a member of the Lebanese government, after some of its fighters captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid.

Siniora said Israel's detention of Lebanese prisoners, as well as air raids and minefields planted on Lebanese territory were all part of a strategy aimed at destabilising Lebanon.

"How can one explain behaviour like this if not out of a desire to maintain a state of tension and keep pressure on Lebanon," he said. "The lack of a definitive solution to these endemic problems favours extremism."

He repeated that the Lebanese government was not informed of the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbollah guerrillas and was not responsible for the incident which triggered the Israeli attack, but said his government was in contact with the group.

"There will be contacts. The contacts have never been interrupted and we will continue to work ceaselessly, on the basis of a clear position and keeping the interests of Lebanon and the Arabs in mind," he said.

niora expressed gratitude for French support but was more sceptical about US expressions of support.
.
"They are our friends but their friendship for others is greater," he said, a clear reference to Israel

Etgar Lefkovitz | July 17

The Jerusalem Post - A suicide bombing in downtown Jerusalem was thwarted Monday, after a 25-year-old Palestinian was caught carrying a bomb in a bag on a main city thoroughfare, police said.

The male suspect, a West Bank resident, was stopped by police on the city's Jaffa Road near the Jaffa Gate for a routine security check during the late-morning incident.

The man was arrested on the scene, after the estimated five kilograms of explosives were found in his bag.

During his initial police interrogation, the suspect confessed that he was carrying a bomb and said that he came to the area to carry out a terror attack, Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.

The Palestinian had planned to blow himself up in a suicide bombing, deputy Jerusalem police chief Shimon Koren told reporters.

It was not immediately clear if the suspect was affiliated with any major Palestinian terror organization or if he acted on his own.

[more at link]

[Comment: I suspect that we're going to see more of this as the attacks in Lebanon and Gaza continue. What a surprise. ~ JPD]

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

Staff | Beirut | July 17

The Daily Star - Israel's attacks on Lebanon intensified over the weekend with the Israeli military bombing Beirut's southern suburbs, in addition to targeting villages and infrastructure throughout the country.

At least 39 people were killed and 105 wounded in Israel's offensive on Sunday. Five straight days of Israeli bombardments and air strikes have claimed a total of 141 lives, with the vast majority of those killed civilians and children.

The Canadian government confirmed Sunday that eight of those killed earlier in the day held Canadian citizenship.

Shortly before The Daily Star went to press, at least 20 missiles struck the main fuel tank at Rafik Hariri International Airport and an adjacent tunnel. The attack was the fifth on the airport. Also Sunday, the power plant in Jiyye was struck for the third time.

In the most shocking attack of the day, Israeli warplanes raided a building in the Southern port town of Tyre that housed the Civil Defense. The attack killed more than 20 civilians and wounded at least 50, including foreign relief workers.

Israel's attacks have targeted vital infrastructure, forcing the closure of the country's only international airport and slicing through dozens of bridges, harbors, roads and the main highways leading into Syria.

[more at link]

"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.

Staff | Beirut | July 17

The Daily Star - Saudi Arabia led Arab accusations that Hizbullah ignited the ongoing crisis in Lebanon, while Egypt warned Israel Sunday that it was fighting a losing battle by continuing its offensive and called for an unconditional cease-fire.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saudi al-Faisal described as "unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible" the abduction by Hizbullah of two Israeli soldiers last week. He was speaking at an emergency meeting of foreign ministers at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo on Saturday. "These acts will pull the whole region back ... and we cannot simply accept them," he said.

Supporting his stance were representatives of Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

In a news conference, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak called on all warring sides to give talks a chance.

"It's impossible that anyone on either side will respond to any conditions except in a cease-fire and calm, and then we can talk with logic and reason," Mubarak said.

[more at link]

"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.