Palestinian Pundit

Sistani had issued the following announcement concerning the onslaught on Lebanon on July 16, 2006, calling upon "The world community needs to move on to stop the continuation of this flagrant aggression". There is not a single mention of the United States of America.
.
The following are a few questions that might be posed to him (as he is an authority to respond):
.
- Who is supporting Israeli to the hilt militarily, financially, diplomatically and politically?
- Who is claiming that what is happening to Lebanon are merely "birth pangs of a new Middle East" and that "Israel should ignore calls for a ceasefire"?
- Who is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel in order to swiftly replenish those American munitions that were dropped by Israel on the heads of Lebanese civilians, villages and cities?
- Who initiated, encouraged and promoted the original death squads in Iraq?
- Who has forcefully wedged religious strife into the Iraqi society that is leading to the death of thousands of Iraqis every month as a consequence of it?
.
Hence,
.
- Who issued an edict in March 2003 exhorting the faithful "not to fight the American occupiers" and has not, till now, rescinded it? (It should be noted that all edicts, and only those issued after the occupation, are posted on the www.sistani.org site)
- What will be the position of his eminence in the event that the conflict does expand to include an Israeli/American attack on Iran itself, as the neoconservatives and the Israeli government have been clamoring for? What will be the position of his eminence's religious/political parties? Will they defend those that are protecting them in the 'Green Zone' or scramble to assist their political mentors in Tehran?
.
These humble questions were posted to the sistani.org page where his eminence is hoped to answer them. They were posted under the section of "abortion".

As commander of a Nazi einsatzgruppen death squad in occupied Poland, Dr. Werner Best came to believe that the most effective response to terrorism was collective punishment. After the fall of France he went on to draft the Third Reich's counterterrorism policy for countries occupied by Germany. Towns where acts of "passive" resistance such as the cutting of telegraph cables had taken place were placed under curfews, fined and slapped with travel restrictions. "Active" resistance--the killing of a German soldier--would be met by reprisal killings of local civilians....

Now Israel is "reacting" to the capture of two of its soldiers by the Palestinian resistance organization Hezbollah by invading and bombing Lebanon. Death tolls that fall disproportionately heavily upon Palestinians have long been a hallmark of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. During the 2000-03 intifada, for example, at least seven Palestinians were killed by Israelis for every Israeli killed by a Palestinian. Now, as of this writing, more than 500 Lebanese civilians have been killed by Israeli bombs. On the Israeli side, 15 civilians have died in Hezbollah rocket attacks and 14 soldiers have been killed in combat.

Current ratio: 30-to-1.


Read the rest

The content of this video is familiar to anyone exposed to the Palestinian cause; it is an EXCELLENT free resource for people who have been shielded from the truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Please pass it on to everyone you know, ask people to post it on their websites and blogs.

Peace, Propaganda and the Promised Land

Here is a summary of the video from the Media Education Foundation:

Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land provides a striking comparison of U.S. and international media coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, zeroing in on how structural distortions in U.S. coverage have reinforced false perceptions of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This pivotal documentary exposes how the foreign policy interests of American political elites--oil, and a need to have a secure military base in the region, among others--work in combination with Israeli public relations strategies to exercise a powerful influence over how news from the region is reported.

Through the voices of scholars, media critics, peace activists, religious figures, and Middle East experts, Peace, Propaganda & the Promised Land carefully analyzes and explains how--through the use of language, framing and context--the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza remains hidden in the news media, and Israeli colonization of the occupied terrorities appears to be a defensive move rather than an offensive one. The documentary also explores the ways that U.S. journalists, for reasons ranging from intimidation to a lack of thorough investigation, have become complicit in carrying out Israel's PR campaign. At its core, the documentary raises questions about the ethics and role of journalism, and the relationship between media and politics.

The Israelis can rain bombs down on them, destroy their infrastructure, and kill their children--but nothing, N O T H I N G will kill the Lebanese OR the Palestinian spirit.

EL PASO (AP) — Four U.S. soldiers accused of murdering suspected insurgents during a raid in Iraq said they were under orders to "kill all military age males," according to sworn statements obtained by The Associated Press.

The soldiers first took some of the men into custody because they were using two women and a toddler as human shields. They shot three of the men after the women and child were safe and say the men attacked them.

"The ROE (rule of engagement) was to kill all military age males on Objective Murray," Staff Sgt. Raymond L. Girouard told investigators, referring to the target by its code name.

Continued

Iraqi speaker decries US 'butchery'

By Aljazeera

07/22/06

"Aljazeera" -- -- US forces have committed butchery in Iraq and should leave, the speaker of the country's parliament has said.

Mahmoud al-Mashhadani was speaking on Saturday at a UN-sponsored conference on transitional justice and reconciliation in Baghdad."

Just get your hands off Iraq and the Iraqi people and Muslim countries, and everything will be all right," he said in a speech as the conference opened.

"What has been done in Iraq is a kind of butchery of the Iraqi people." He also criticised US support for Israeli attacks against Lebanon.

The two-day conference, which was originally supposed to be opened by Nuri al-Maliki, the Iraqi prime minister, will address the issue of dealing with the crimes of previous regimes and a plan to reconcile warring factions.

The prime minister is expected to name a reconciliation committee on Saturday.Al-Mashhadani told the audience of UN officials, foreign experts, Iraqi politicians and civil society representatives that the Iraqi people had little use for foreign advice on running the country or for foreign-sponsored conferences.

"If a reconciliation project is going to work it has to talk to all the people," he said. "It must go through our Iraqi beliefs and perceptions. What we need is reconciliation between Iraqis only, there can be no third party."

He related an anecdote about how American soldiers keep people waiting in lines at checkpoints for hours because they insist on resting their bomb-sniffing dogs."The sleep of American dogs is more important than people being stopped in the street for hours," he said.

The UN representative who then opened the conference referred to al-Mashhadani's speech as "spirited".

Meanwhile on Saturday, the US moved to bolster American troop strength in Baghdad to cope with the escalating violence as seven Shia workers were shot dead in west Baghdad and explosions in the heart of the capital shattered a one-day calm after a ban on private vehicles expired. The seven Shia died in a drive-by shooting at noon in the Furat neighbourhood near Baghdad airport, police Lieutenant Maitham Abdul-Razzaq said. Two other workers were wounded.

Earlier, two large explosions occurred in eastern Baghdad about 20 minutes apart at midmorning. One targeted an Iraqi police patrol, but killed a civilian. The other occurred near the Rasheed military camp, killing an American soldier.

A ban on private vehicles had kept down violence on Friday after one of the most violent weeks in the capital this year. It expired on Friday evening, and within hours, heavy bursts of automatic weapons rang out.

A senior US defence official said the Pentagon was moving ahead with scheduled deployments to Iraq next month and was moving one battalion to Baghdad from Kuwait, where it was in reserve.Agencies

The exchange rate for Lebanese vs Israeli deaths now stands at 10 to one

Published: 22 July 2006

As many lies are now falling upon Lebanon as bombs. The explosions are easy to count – three on the southern suburbs of Beirut yesterday morning and many on the main highway to Syria, destroying more of the great viaduct at Mdeirej along with three passengers buses which were returning to Lebanon after carrying foreigners to Damascus. The lies were less obvious but just as powerful.

Continued

Fury Grips Syria Over Lebanon Attacks

By Dahr JamailInter Press Service

07/22/06 "IPS" -- --

DAMASCUS, Jul 21 (IPS) - The daily Israeli bombardment of Lebanon and the floods of refugees pouring in have set off a wave of anger through Syria.

"How can people watch this destruction in Lebanon and do nothing," Hassan Majed Ali, president of the Union of Engineers in Damascus told IPS. "What is happening in Lebanon is opposed by 100 percent of us here in Syria.

"Ali, who heads a union of 19,000 engineers, said "the Israelis have not complied with any of the UN resolutions since 1949. Why hasn't the world forced Israel to comply with UN resolution 224 which told them to withdraw from Arab lands? And now nobody is forcing them to stop their destruction of Lebanon."This will also be Israel's loss, he said. "The Lebanese, our brothers, have now lost everything.

And now the Israelis have lost what friendship they may have had left with the Arab world.

"Maher Skanderani, a 37-year-old merchant in downtown Damascus said everyone is furious over what is happening in Lebanon. "And everything which is happening illustrates the main problem -- which is Israel invading Palestine and taking Palestinian land."

Anger is spilling over against the U.S. government - and its citizens.

Ola Saleh, a 25-year-old civil rights volunteer from Latakia said: "In Syria people used to differentiate between the Bush regime and the American people. But now not only do Syrians not respect the Bush regime, they no longer respect the American people for allowing this to happen.

"Few believe that the Israeli attack is a reaction to the abduction of two soldiers. "Israel has a political and military strategy, they do not react," said 60-year-old Ibrahim Yakhour, information and communications advisor at the State Planning Commission in Damascus.

"They understand the region very well and know how to exploit it. When they lose two soldiers they exploit this for their own interests."

Syria could become involved in the conflict, he said. "It just depends if they (Israel) have this in their plans."

Yakhour said Israel has "used American actions in their own interests," and has in the past "pushed Arab states to reactions which they can exploit for their own interests."

Others, like 45-year-old literary critic Emad Huria, believe that Syria will inevitably become involved in the conflict. "The whole region is now involved," he told IPS. "If not today, then tomorrow."

Hamad al-Khatib, 26-year-old owner of a mobile phone shop told IPS that "Israel doesn't care about law, and eventually they will involve Syria in this disaster. But Syrians will always resist the plans of the Israeli government, because we have our dignity."

Ali from the Union of Engineers said Syria has been put in a difficult situation already by the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq.

"If we had said the invasion of Iraq was democratic, Bush would support us. We in Syria opposed Saddam, but we are not with this destruction and killing of Iraqis in Iraq. I don't know anyone in the world who supports what is happening in Iraq."Ali finally told this correspondent: "We welcome you to Syria. We welcome you to Damascus. But don't kick me from my house."

Dozens of dead buried in temporary mass grave until fighting ends

By Clancy Chassay in Tyre

07/22/06 "The Guardian"

In the driveway of Tyre's Government hospital yesterday the sour smell of rotting flesh mingled with spray paint as the chief coroner wrote the names of the dead on their coffins.

Empty wood caskets, which had been neatly stacked by a large white freezer truck - one of two being used to store the bodies of many of those killed during Israel's bombardment of south Lebanon - were now being filled; 86 of the 150 corpses in the truck were to be buried in the afternoon.

The continuous drone of Israel's Apache gunships could be heard over a clamouring crowd that had gathered to witness the burial. As an old man nailed coffins shut, friends and family members of the victims wept or stared at the bodies, loosely wrapped in plastic or bloodied blankets, as they were passed out of the truck. The noisy gathering quietened each time a smaller bundle emerged from the makeshift morgue.

Once sealed, the coffins were placed along the length of a wall outside the hospital each underneath a large black painted number. Several hours passed before they were finally ferried to a nearby field where two trenches had been dug to serve as a mass grave. It will not be their last resting place. They will lie there until the fighting subsides and the bodies can be exhumed and handed over to their families. The caskets, many only big enough to hold a small child were laid in two large trenches, less than 100 metres long, two metres wide and no more than a metre deep.

Watching the burial was Qasim Shaala, the chief medic at Tyre's Red Cross offices. "Most of the casualties are women and children," he said. "They [Israel] are not letting us save them.

Continued

REBIRTH OF THE "NEW M.E.?"

by Ehsan Ahrari

"There is little doubt that President Bush has opted to give diplomacy a chance in the case of North Korea and Iran. However, there is little reason to expect that such a course of action would be pursued for a long time, especially involving Iran. In the case of North Korea, Kim Jong Il seems to have reestablished the import of nuclear deterrence, even though there have been suggestions that it lost its primacy under the new untamed vagaries of the post-9/11 era.

The alleged presence of nuclear weapons in North Korea creates sufficient ambiguities in Washington about the rationality of using military strikes against that country. The presence of certainty that Iran does not have nuclear weapons emboldens the neocons to advocate a military strike against it. The neocons are saying what a whole lot of US government officials might be thinking."

Jordanians demonstrating in Amman, in support of Hizbullah and in protest against the barbaric Israeli savagery in Lebanon


Palestinians in Jabalia refugee camp, Gaza Strip, demonstrating in support of Hizbullah and protest against the barbaric Israeli savagery in Lebanon

Condoleezza Rice has described the plight of Lebanon as a part of the "birth pangs of a new Middle East" and said that Israel should ignore calls for a ceasefire

And the Princess of Darkness, acting as a midwife, is rushing more bombs to Israel to speed up the birth process.

By Mahmoud Darwish

"August, Beirut, 1982
Out of one dream, another dream is born:
-Are you well? I mean, are you alive?
-How did you know I was just this moment laying my head on your knee to sleep?
-Because you woke me up when you stirred in my belly. I knew then I was your coffin. Are you alive? Can you hear me?
-Does it happen much, that you are awakened from one dream by another, itself the interpretation of the dream?
-Here it is, happening to you and to me. Are you alive?
-Almost.
-And have the devils cast their spell on you?
-I don't know, but in time there's room for death.
-Don't die completely.
-I'll try not to.
-Don't die at all.
-I'll try not to.
-Tell me, when did it happen? I mean, when did we meet? When did we part?
-Thirteen years ago.
-Did we meet often?
-Twice: once in the rain, and again in the rain. The third time, we didn't meet at all. I went away and forgot you. A while ago I remembered. I remembered I'd forgotten you. I was dreaming.
That also happens to me. I too was dreaming. I had your phone number from a Swedish friend who'd met you in Beirut. I wish you good night! Don't forget not to die. I still want you. And when you come back to life, I want you to call me. How the time flies ! Thirteen years! No. It all happened last night. Good night!
Three o'clock. Daybreak riding on fire. A nightmare coming from the sea. Roosters made of metal. Smoke. Metal preparing a feast for metal the master, and a dawn that flares up in all the senses before it breaks. A roaring that chases me out of bed and throws me into this narrow hallway. I want nothing, and I hope for nothing. I can't direct my limbs in this pandemonium. No time for caution, and no time for time. If I only knew--if I knew how to organize the crush of this death that keeps pouring forth. If only I knew how to liberate the screams held back in a body that no longer feels like mine from the sheer effort spent to save itself in this uninterrupted chaos of shells. 'Enough!' 'Enough!' I whisper, to find out if I can still do anything that will guide me to myself and point to the abyss opening in six directions. I can't surrender to this fate, and I can't resist it. Steel that howls, only to have other steel bark back. The fever of metal is the song of this dawn.
What if this inferno were to take a five-minute break, and then come what may? Just five minutes! I almost say, 'Five minutes only, during which I could make my one and only preparation and then ready myself for life or death.' Will five minutes be enough? Yes. Enough for me to sneak out of this narrow hallway, open to bedroom, study, and bathroom with no water, open to the kitchen, into which for the last hour I've been ready to spring but unable to move. I'm not able to move at all.
Two hours ago I went to sleep. I plugged my ears with cotton and went to sleep after hearing the last newscast. It didn't report I was dead. That means I'm still alive. I examine the parts of my body and find them all there. Two eyes, two ears, a long nose, ten toes below, ten fingers above, a finger in the middle. As for the heart, it can't be seen, and I find nothing that points to it except my extraordinary ability to count my limbs and take note of a pistol lying on a bookshelf in the study. An elegant handgun--clean, sparkling, small, and empty. Along with it they also presented me with a box of bullets, which I hid I don't know where two years ago, fearing folly, fearing a stray outburst of anger, fearing a stray bullet. The conclusion is, I'm alive; or, more accurately, I exist.
No one pays heed to the wish I send up with the rising smoke: I need five minutes to place this dawn, or my share of it, on its feet and prepare to launch into this day born of howling. Are we in August ? Yes. We are in August. The war has turned into a siege. I search for news of the hour on the radio, now become a third hand, but find nobody there and no news. The radio, it seems, is asleep.
I no longer wonder when the steely howling of the sea will stop. I live on the eighth floor of a building that might tempt any sniper, to say nothing of a fleet now transforming the sea into one of the fountainheads of hell. The north face of the building, made of glass, used to give tenants a pleasing view over the wrinkled roof of the sea. But now it offers no shield against stark slaughter....
'Our Lady of Lebanon, protect him for all Lebanon!' The barely audible prayer spreads like a prophet's tent, like the raised turrets of Israeli tanks. The Israeli secret habit has now become an open marriage. Israeli soldiers stretch out on the shores of Junieh. And Begin on his birthday eats a whole tank made of halva and calls for signing a peace treaty, or for renewing the old one between Israel and Lebanon. And he chides America: 'We've made you a present of Lebanon.'
What is this old treaty, now up for renewal?
It is a fact that Begin doesn't live in this age or speak a modern language. He's a ghost, come back from the time of King Solomon, who represents the golden age of Jewish history that passed through the land of Palestine. In Jerusalem,
he made coins as common as stones. He built the luxurious temple on a hill and decorated it with cedar and sandalwood, and with silver, gold, and dressed stone; and he made the royal throne of gilded ivory. He struck a treaty with Hiram, king of Tyre, who offered metals and master craftsmen, and fished with him in the Mediterranean. Solomon built the boats, and Hiram gave him the seamen; he built the temple and ruled when he became king. His people learned metalworking and the making of weapons from the Philistines, navigation from the Phoenicians, and agriculture, house building, reading, and writing from the Canaanites.
Begin has assumed the persona of Solomon, pushing aside Solomon's wisdom, his songs, and his cultural resources. He's taken only the golden age, hoisted on combat tanks. He hasn't learned the lesson about the fall of the kingdom, when the poor became poorer and the rich, richer. His only concern with Solomon is to seek out the king of Tyre to sign a peace treaty. Where is the king of Tyre? Where's the king of Ashrafiya? Begin freezes history as of this moment, not seeing the end of the temple, of which nothing remains except a wall for crying--a wall that archaeology hasn't been able to prove Solomon built. But what have we to do with the history of what came out of history? For in the mind of the king of the legend everything has been frozen as it had been, and since that time history has done nothing in Palestine and on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean except wait for the new king of the legend....
Let Beirut be what it wants to be:
This, our blood raised high for her,
Is an unbending tree. I now wish,
I wish I knew where the heart will fly,
That I may release for her the bird of my heart
And from my body let him set me free.
I am not yet dead and know not if I'll grow
One day older, to see what can't be seen
Of my cities. Let Beirut be what it wants to be:
This, our blood raised high for her,
Is a wall holding at bay my sorrow.
Should she want it, let the sea be ours,
Or let there be no sea in the sea,
If that's what she wants.
Here, within her, I live,
A banner from my own shroud.
Here, I leave behind what's not mine.
And here, I dive into my own soul,
That my time may start with me.
Let Beirut be what it wants to be.
She will forget me,
That I may forget her.
Will I forget? Oh, would, oh, would I could
This moment bring back my homeland
Out of myself! I wish I knew what I desire
I wish I knew!
I wish I knew!"
From Mahmoud Darwish, Memory for Forgetfulness: August, Beirut, 1982, translated by Ibrahim Muhawi ( Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 1995 ).

By Amira Howeidy

"Strangely enough, Nasrallah's appeal seems most evident within leftist circles that, from an ideological viewpoint, should not be smitten with a turbaned religious Shia.

Left-leaning novelist and academic Radwa Ashour, who describes herself as an admirer of Nasrallah, offers an explanation. It takes in Nasrallah's victory in South Lebanon six years ago, and his success in transforming the image of Lebanon's Shia from a poor and weak group to a powerful, organised one. Then there is the "fascinating speed with which he managed to move from being a leader of one organisation among many to becoming a prominent nationalist figure in Lebanon and now the most credible Arab leader in the Arab world."

Nasrallah and his group, argues Ashour, are doing something extremely important. "They are sending a message to Arabs, Muslims and Third World peoples that victory is possible. His message is one of confidence, which is crucial in popular struggles."

And it is this, she says, that is a turning point in the Arab Israeli conflict."

By Graham Usher

"This dangerous mix of Israeli self-righteousness and miscalculation suggests the latest assault on Lebanon could last a while. There are some, Iran and Syria apparently among them, who believe an internationally brokered ceasefire, followed by a prisoner exchange, could lead all back to politics and the negotiating table.
But Israel is not interested in a ceasefire, still less in politics. This is not 1996, when operation Grapes of Wrath was eventually tamed via "understandings" reached between Israel, Hizbullah, America and Syria's Hafez Al-Assad. This campaign is closer to 1982, when Israel believed it could recast Lebanon and thence the region in line with its own ambition. "Israel is not looking for an understanding with Hizbullah," said Israeli analyst, Guy Becher, on 16 July. "It is looking for victory.""

By Azmi Bishara

"The timing is an Israeli-American one. And the answer resides with the Arabs and the US, and their inability to implement UN Security Council Resolution 1559 and dismantle the Lebanese resistance with Arab tools. So Israel stepped forward. The only difference between today and the earlier bombardments -- the "Day of Reckoning" and "Grapes of Wrath" between 1993 and 1996 -- is that Syrian forces are no longer present in Lebanon. Instead there is an American-sponsored project for the country, involving the rest of the Arab world, which was to change the structure of government in Lebanon and transform it into an ally of the US, a good neighbour to Israel and a participant in US- oriented alliances in the region.

International delegations will soon appear in Lebanon to reap the fruits of the aggression. They will promise the Lebanese a ceasefire if they implement 1559, saying that there is no longer any excuse for delaying implementation now that the Israeli army has demonstrated the consequences of non- implementation.

The US, meanwhile, is futilely trying to regulate Israel's cowardly assault against civilians and its destruction of civilian infrastructure. It wants Israel to target the resistance and the society that supports it without jeopardising the American project in Lebanon. It wants Israel to bully and blackmail America's allies without crushing them, alienating them completely or driving their supporters into the arms of the resistance. The difference between the Israel and the US, here, maybe tactical, but it is important. It is one of degree, of pushing or not pushing people over the edge. "

THE BLOODY HANDS OF CONDOLEEZZA/BOLTON

WITH BLOOD ON THEIR HANDS

المتظاهرون في الأردن ندووا بالموقف العربي الرسمي









تظاهر آلاف الأردنيين في وسط العاصمة عمان لنصرة الشعبين الفلسطيني واللبناني واستنكار العدوان الإسرائيلي عليهما.
وندد المشاركون في المسيرة التي نظمتها الحركة الإسلامية بالموقف الرسمي العربي، وقالوا إن هذا الموقف ساند العدوان سواء بالصمت أو بانتقاد المقاومة اللبنانية التي يقودها حزب الله.

وفي القاهرة اشتبكت قوات الأمن المصرية مع آلاف المتظاهرين في الجامع الأزهر عقب صلاة الجمعة لمنعهم من التعبير عن غضبهم إزاء استمرار العدوان الإسرائيلي على فلسطين ولبنان.
وندد المتظاهرون بموقف الحكومات العربية ووصفوه بأنه عاجز أمام التصعيد العسكري الإسرائيلي، وطالبوا بفتح باب التطوع لنصرة إخوانهم.

Southern Lebanese families from Tyre leaving their homes in a truck and heading north fleeing the savage Israeli destruction of the region.




Another Lebanese fiamily leaving the southern village of Adloun, heading north.

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

As the tv networks give unlimited airtime to Israel’s apologists, the message rolls out that no nation, least of all Israel, can permit bombardment or armed incursion across its borders without retaliation.

The guiding rule in this tsunami of drivel is that the viewers should be denied the slightest access to any historical context, or indeed to anything that happened prior to June 28, which was when the capture of an Israeli soldier and the killing of two others by Hamas hit the headlines, followed soon thereafter by an attack by a unit of Hezbollah’s fighters.

Memory is supposed to stop in its tracks at June 28, 2006.

Let’s go on a brief excursion into pre-history. I’m talking about June 20, 2006, when Israeli aircraft fired at least one missile at a car in an attempted extrajudicial assassination attempt on a road between Jabalya and Gaza City. The missile missed the car. Instead it killed three Palestinian children and wounded 15.

"St. Petersburg, Tuesday. The President of the United States, unplugged.

GWB: Hey Blair, howya doin'? Like your tie. You British do stripes real good.

TB: Thank you so much.

GWB: Not a problem. Now gimme your take on this Middle East shit.

TB: Well, you see, you've got Hezbollah …

GWB: Remind me, Blair. Them the Jewish guys or the Islamic guys?

TB: They're the bad guys.

GWB: Got it. Who's the chick over there with the hot boobies?

TB: Do you mean the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel?

GWB: Kraut, huh? Now here's what we do with the Middle East thing: the Israelis get two weeks to kick ass, let the UN screw up, then Condi fixes a ceasefire. Sound good to you, Blair?

TB: Just what I was thinking myself, actually.

GWB: Done deal. But, hey, gotta get back to Washington. Some serious stuff goin' down with Cheney and Rummy tonight.

TB: Iraq?

GWB: Nope. New York Yankees playin' the Boston Red Sox. Got $100 on the Sox with Dick.

TB: I hope that microphone is not turned on, George.

Bush's buffoonery in St. Petersburg - manhandling Merkel, dropping the "shit" word - were funny or offensive, depending on your take on these things. But there is no humor in the fact that American policy in the Middle East now lies in ruins. The neo-conservative fantasy of a swift war in Iraq magically spreading peace and democracy throughout the region has brought nothing but catastrophe.
Sooner or later, when Hezbollah has killed enough Israeli civilians, and the Israelis have killed enough Lebanese, some sort of ceasefire will happen. But new hatreds will pile upon the old. The seeds are sown. Next, the whirlwind."

"ISRAEL HAS THE RIGHT TO DEFEND ITSELF"

استخدام الضغط الدولي لإلزام لبنان بتفكيك حزب الله
حلمي موسى

وفي ظل انعدام أفق الحسم العسكري، تشكلت في إسرائيل طواقم من ديوان رئاسة الحكومة ووزارتي الدفاع والخارجية والاستخبارات لتحديد استراتيجية الخروج من الأزمة. وأشارت مصادر إسرائيلية إلى أنه يجري البحث في ثمانية سيناريوهات تفضل لأكثرها البحث عن مخرج سياسي. وتأمل إسرائيل أن تشكل زيارة وزيرة الخارجية الأميركية كوندليسا رايس نافذة للأفق السياسي. ويطالب وزراء إسرائيليون، اليوم أكثر من أي وقت مضى، بضرورة نقل المعركة الآن من مستواها العسكري إلى المستوى السياسي. ويرى هؤلاء وجوب استغلال التفكك العربي للحصول على قرار دولي يلزم لبنان بتفكيك حزب الله.

by Michael Scheuer

"Most damaging for G-8 leaders will be this week's validation for Muslims of bin Laden's assertion that the West considers Muslim lives cheap and expendable. They will see that three kidnapped Israeli soldiers and several dozen dead Israelis are worth infinitely more to the West than the thousands of Muslims held for years in Israel's prisons, the hundreds already killed in Lebanon, and the eradication of Lebanon's modern infrastructure.
So bin Laden wins without lifting a finger. The G-8 leaders, their Arab allies, and Israel have behaved in a way that will burn bin Laden's words deeper into Muslim perceptions and push more to accept jihad as the only recourse. Western leaders can argue forever that they are honest brokers but, because perception is reality, it will be bin Laden's words, not theirs, that echo long and tellingly in Muslim ears.
The impact of this Israel-Hezbollah round will not stop with the inevitable truce that will be declared after Israel ruins Lebanon. While temporary order may return to the Levant, America, Britain, and the West should not fool themselves. They have again gratuitously picked sides in a fight between two inconsequential nations; the survival of neither is a genuine national security interest for any G-8 state. Led by Washington's absurd, 30-year obsession with the minimal Shia threat to America, and blind to the hatred generated among Muslims by their foreign policies, the G-8 have mightily strengthened the enmity, durability, and resolve of the Sunni extremist movement that bin Laden leads and personifies."

It's day 10 – and Israel is still threatening the lives of 25,000 Americans in Lebanon

By Justin Raimondo

""A reliable source tells me that the reason the United States has been so slow in evacuating its citizens from Lebanon is that the public diplomacy (i.e., P.R.) issues raised by evacuating under Israeli assault are so complicated. Individuals within the State Department, I am told, have been reluctant to create an impression that the Israeli assault on Lebanon is as bad as it is or that civilian U.S. citizens are being threatened by U.S. ally Israel. If a conflict this severe had broken out in, say, Indonesia, the American embassy would have been shut down the next day and its personnel and families rapidly brought to safety. That's how things normally work. (See Laura Rozen on the evacuation from Albania here.) In this case, however, the diplomatic message sent by shutting down the U.S. embassy in the face of Israeli bombing would have contradicted the U.S. government message of support for the Israeli mission against Hezbollah terrorists, which, when added to the general concern within lower-level diplomatic circles about ever creating a Fall of Saigon-style visual for the news media, have led the Americans to be slower than they could have been about getting U.S. citizens out of harm's way."

Step 1 – Seize a pretext, any pretext, to goose-step into Lebanon.
Step 2 – Simultaneously denounce Syrian influence and a hidden "spy network" supposedly still remaining in Lebanon – this in spite of the recent bust-up of a Mossad cell by Lebanese intelligence, which had been responsible for several assassinations.
Step 3 – Restart the Lebanese civil war – and drag Syria into it.
Step 4 – Engage the enemy on two fronts:
A. Diplomatically, in the United Nations, by imposing sanctions on Iran and demanding inspections of its nuclear facilities. This long drawn-out ritual is meant largely for American and European consumption – to convince world opinion that every possible avenue for a peaceful settlement has been explored, before the second front is opened up.
B. Militarily, in Lebanon, and beyond. Bashar al-Assad is a pincer movement away from being deposed. A right hook from U.S.-occupied Iraq and a left from the Israelis would knock out the last remaining Ba'athists and open up a veritable Pandora's box of ethnic and religious conflicts long masked by the dictatorship of the Assads.
Step 5 – On to Tehran!"

Cartoon by Carlos Latuff

As a Palestinian who grew up in Lebanon, I lived through the Lebanese civil war and the multiple Israeli attacks on the country. Most of the attacks were targeting Palestinian and Lebanese resistance, not only by attacking obvious anti-aircraft sites and ammunition storage areas, but also by attacking highly populated civilian areas. Israeli strategy, ever since the war of 1947 has been to attack civilians, and even publicize its atrocities in megaphones as was the case of Deir Yassin, in order to achieve two objectives:

1) Either to depopulate the region so that it could conquer the land, or
2) To alienate the guerillas from their civilian support base.

Israel even has a euphemistic name for this illegal aggression, and is an accepted norm in military practice. The label is: Rational Prospect. If Israel’s battle is with the indigenous people, and not necessarily with the local bankrupt regimes that were setup by colonial rulers, then later on supported by the United States government, then it targets the people who produce the guerillas. In an interview during the 1982 invasion of Lebanon, the Israeli chief of staff was asked why target children as young as eight years old. He answered that some of these children are attacking Israeli tanks with magnetic explosives, and although it is a tiny minority participating in the resistance, there is a high probability that these children would grow up to become guerillas. The subtext: Kill them before the grow.

In short, no photographs or footage could capture the degree of devastation that Israel is capable of inflicting on a neighborhood. It has and continues to attack residential towers, with weapons such as vacuum and phosphorous bombs that facilitate the collapse of high rises to the ground, while scorching every piece of flesh within reach. Israel continues to use illegal nerve gas and cluster bombs, without the so-called international community flinching. It is now time to admit that although Israel is a violator of tens of UN resolutions, including 194, 242, 338 and 495, the UN is even less of an international body in a unipolar world. Even Kofi Anan attends the G8, where the real decisions are made. The United Nations, in its Security Council and powerless general assembly has become an occupation force for the Haitian people and a sick playground for the criminal John Bolton, who vetoed resolutions condemning the Zionist state for its actions. Mr. Bolton proudly proclaims that he engineered overturning Zionism is Racism.

I speak as a Palestinian and say that what is happening to the Lebanese people in intensity and scale is much more horrific than the brutality endured by the people of the West Bank and Gaza. It is devastation beyond the scope of human imagination, because it is unnatural for us to think that people ought to, or could be killed in this manner. Israel drops leaflets for people to leave their areas, and then bombs them on the roads. When we escaped Lebanon, the Israeli proxy militias, the Phalangists who helped Israel commit the massacres of Sabra and Chatilla, stopped us and tried to convince us that our convoy would be bombed and coerced us to join another. We quickly escaped from the new convoy and joined an international caravan and soon found out that our assigned car caravan was destroyed by Israel’s fighter jets.

In short, this is Israel and this is how it behaves and it is exactly for these reasons that George Bush and previous presidents have supported it with your tax dollars. A country that is built on settle-ethnic purity, left unchecked, has finally reached its natural outcome, a genocidal exclusionary state.

If we don’t rise up and mobilize during this all-out massacre, then we are complicit, for silence is an act of participation. We must intensify our actions and escalate in a manner that is compatible with the demands of the era. Iraq is occupied. Palestine is experiencing a systematic campaign of sociocide, displacement, and collective imprisonment coupled with starvation. The Lebanese people are being slaughtered in front of our own eyes, and yet there are Zionist apologists who feel that there is a place for them to participate in the discourse and come out to the streets waving these flags representing supremacy and devastation.

Shame on the Israel Action Committee, the new manifestation of the Ku Klux Klan. Shame on the JCRC for calling for an action in support of these atrocities, as if the words of the Holocaust survivors of “Never Again” simply ring hollow in their ears and empty conscience. It is time to protest, time to escalate and intensify our actions. It is time to stop the attacks on the Lebanese people. Moreover, we ask the Jewish community to rise up with us and break away from the criminal representative of their identity, the State of Israel and the local bankrupt institutions that support it. Let us all take to the streets and think Vietnam.


Eyad Kishawi

Two Israeli soldiers killed, 6 injured in the major battle with Hizballah ongoing for its second day at Maroun er Ras in S. Lebanon. Hizballah has suffered heavy losses

The two sides are pumping reinforcements to the battlefield opposite the Israeli town of Safed. Earlier, 3 Israeli soldiers were injured, one seriously, by Hizballah anti-tank fire in the same sector.

Maroun er Ras is where 1st Sgt. Yonatan Hadasi, 21, from Kibbutz Merhavia, and 1st Sgt. Yotam Gilboa, 21, from Kibbutz Maoz Haim lost their lives in a fierce battle with Hizballah Wednesday, July 19.

Nine members of the unit were injured in Wednesday's battle which was fought over Hizballah's bunkers at Maroun er Ras opposite Safed.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report the epic battle evolved from a small Israeli special forces operation just inside Lebanon at noon Wednesday, July 19, to blow up Hizballah positions and destroy small fortified tunnels riddling the hills around Maroun er Ras opposite the Israeli town of Safed. Hizballah suffered an unknown number of losses. Reinforcements and medical teams crossed the border and the fighting spreads.

DEBKAfile’s military sources report the epic battle evolved from a small Israeli special forces operation just inside Lebanon at noon Wednesday, July 19, to blow up Hizballah positions and destroy small fortified tunnels riddling the hills around Maroun er Ras opposite the Israeli town of Safed.

The tunnels were assumed to be unoccupied. The Israel force were horrified to find the first packed with Hizballah fighters heavily armed with automatic and anti-tank weapons. The force took casualties in the first blast of fire. At least one tank was blown up. The combat quickly spread to additional sectors of the warfront, joined by Hizballah fighters who sprang out of more secret tunnels which the Israeli force had not known were there.

Continued

Doesn't mean it stopped bombing Gaza.

Third of Lebanon casualties are children, says UN

07/20/06 "Irish Examiner"

Nearly one third of all casualties in the Lebanon-Israel conflict have been children, according to the United Nations’ emergency relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland.

He said it appeared neither Hezbollah nor the Israelis seemed to care about civilian suffering.
Nearly a third of the dead or wounded were children and the wounded could not be helped because roads and bridges had been cut by Israeli air strikes.

“It is nearly impossible in southern Lebanon to move anything anywhere because it is too dangerous. It is too dangerous for our people to move things,” Egeland said.Without a truce allowing aid agencies to begin the relief effort there would be a “catastrophe“.

© Thomas Crosbie Media 2006.

Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of U.S. aid since World War II. The $3-plus billion per year that Israel receives from the U.S. taxpayer is about one-fifth of the total U.S. aid budget, and amounts to more than $600 per Israeli.

Continued

07/20/06

The general surprise that Lebanese civilians are taking the brunt of Israel’s onslaught -- and the unwillingness in some quarters of the media to report the fact -- reflects a poor understanding of Israel’s historical use of violence. Since its birth six decades ago, Israel has always been officially “going after the terrorists”, but its actions have invariably harmed civilians in an indiscriminate manner.

The roll call of dishonour is long indeed, but its highlights include: the massacre of some 200 civilians in Tantura, as well as large-scale massacres in at least a dozen other Palestinian villages, during the 1948 war that established Israel; Ariel Sharon’s attack on the village of Qibya in 1953 that killed 70 innocent Palestinians; the Kfar Qassem massacre inside Israel when 49 farm workers were gunned down at an improvised army checkpoint; a massacre in the same year in the refugee camp of Khan Yunis, in Gaza, in which more than 250 civilians were killed; attacks on dozens of Palestinian, Egytian and Syrian villages during the 1967 war; the killing of six unarmed Arab citizens of Israel in 1976; the massacre of hundreds of Palestinian civilians in the Lebanese refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla in 1982; the unremitting use of lethal force by the army against unarmed Palestinians, often women and children, during the first intifada of 1987-93; the aerial bombardment of Qana in south Lebanon in 1996 that killed more than 100 civilians; and the endless “collateral damage” of Palestinian civilians during the second intifada, including a half-ton bomb that killed a husband and wide and their seven children a week ago.

Continued

Grim proof ordinary folk are dying in the killing zone

07/20/06 "SMH" -- -- PARKED outside the small general hospital in Tyre is a badly refrigerated lorry container in which are stacked the bodies of 91 Lebanese civilians, 55 of them children.

The bodies have been placed inside black plastic rubbish bags and labelled in anticipation of the time, days or weeks from now, when their surviving relatives - if any - can come to collect them.

"It's a disaster. It's making me cry," the hospital's director, Dr Salman Zeineddine said. "We can't move them anywhere else. Since the attacks came I've been trying to get wounded out of Beit Jbeil and I can't. How could I get critical patients to Beirut, much less move dead people?"

Since Israel began bombing and shelling south Lebanon last Wednesday, about 380 patients have passed through this 65-bed hospital, plus the 91 dead.

Not one of the victims, he says, has been a member of Hezbollah, the militia group that triggered Israel's onslaught with a border raid last week.

"The army and Hezbollah - I don't care if they kill all of them," he said. "But the civilians - it's very hard. Everyone who has come in here has been a civilian."

Even as he spoke, another volley of ordnance - perhaps shells fired from a ship, perhaps missiles from a helicopter - was crashing to earth a block away. Tyre, with the whole of south Lebanon, has become a killing zone.

While the Israeli Defence Force claims that it does its best to avoid harming civilians, it insists on its right to attack the terrorists who, it says, are using the population as "human shields". Its list of self-declared legitimate targets expanded yesterday to include all trucks south of the Litani River and all "structures used by terrorists".

Yesterday morning aircraft even attacked two trucks in the heart of Christian east Beirut that were reportedly carrying well-digging equipment.Judging by the list of actual targets hit so far, what Israeli security experts term "the target bank" includes, in practice, civilian homes, minibuses and cars, as terrified families try to run away.

No one in south Lebanon feels safe. Streets and roads are almost deserted, and the few cars still daring to flee north out of Tyre career towards Beirut at breakneck speed, filled with frightened women and children waving white rags at the sky.Bombing intensified yesterday morning - massive aerial bombs working up and down among the houses on a ridge line to the south, while closer to town sporadic bombs and rockets sent up clouds of debris and plumes of smoke.

There was no answering fire: Tyre is too far north to be a suitable launch site for Hezbollah missiles targeting Israel, and the city has no defence against air attack.The bombs always strike without warning. The constant sound of jets and unmanned drones overhead, out of sight in the hazy sky, makes it impossible to know an attack has been launched until the earth suddenly convulses and - a moment or two later - the concussion strikes.

Yesterday the Israelis dropped leaflets across the region to "ensure the safety of Lebanese civilian population". A statement said: "The leaflets are intended to warn the Lebanese public to stay clear of areas from which rockets are launched against Israel, as these will be targeted by the [Israeli Defence Force] and civilians present in those areas are endangering their lives."

Copyright © 2006.

The Sydney Morning Herald.

Tariq Ali

"Israeli recklessness is always green-lighted by Washington. In this case, their interests coincide. They want to isolate and topple the Syrian regime by securing Lebanon as an Israeli-American protectorate on the Jordanian model. They argue this was the original design of the country.

The latest Israeli offensive is designed to take the castle. Will it succeed? A protracted colonial war lies ahead, since Hizbullah, like Hamas, has mass support. It cannot be written off as a "terrorist" organisation. The Arab world sees its forces as freedom fighters resisting colonial occupation."

تمسك الأمين العام لحزب الله حسن نصرالله اليوم برفض تسليم الجنديين الإسرائيليين الأسيرين وتوعد بمفاجآت أخرى في المواجهة الدائرة بين مقاتلي حزب الله والجيش الإسرائيلي منذ ثمانية أيام.
وقال نصرالله في مقابلة مع الجزيرة إنه لو جاء الكون كله فإن الحزب لن يسلم أياً من الجنديين الإسرائيليين الأسيرين لديه إلا عبر تفاوض غير مباشر يقود إلى تبادل الأسرى.

By Uri Avnery

"Lebanese children, covered with wounds, in Beirut hospitals. The funeral of the victims of a missile in Haifa. The ruins of a whole devastated quarter in Beirut. Inhabitants of the north of Israel fleeing south from the Katyushas. Inhabitants of the south of Lebanon fleeing north from the Israeli Air Force.
Death, destruction. Unimaginable human suffering.
And the most disgusting sight: George Bush in a playful mood sitting on his chair in St. Petersburg, with his loyal servant Tony Blair leaning over him, and solving the problem: "See? What they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbullah to stop doing that shit, and it's over."
Thus spoke the leader of the world, and the seven dwarfs - "the great of the world" - say Amen.

Whoever longs for a solution must know: there is no solution without settling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. And there is no solution to the Palestinian problem without negotiations with their elected leadership, the government headed by Hamas.
If one wants to finish, once and for all, with this shit - as Bush so delicately put it - that is the only way."

BETTER THAN MOST ARAB REGIMES.

GRACIAS ZAPATERO!

AMY GOODMAN: Tell us what you wrote to President Bush.

RALPH NADER: I wrote him a letter that basically described the need for him to get advice from his father and Brent Scowcroft and James Baker about how he should deal with this Israeli invasion of Lebanon, which of course violates a whole range of international treaties and Geneva Conventions, to which the United States has been a longtime signatory. And the first priority that Bush should adopt is to recognize that the U.S.'s indiscriminate support of Israel's indiscriminate bombing of Lebanon -- ports and hospital and roads and wheat silos and residential areas -- puts a responsibility on the President, who is shipping a lot of tax dollars to Israel, as well as a lot of weapons, to put a stop to this through a ceasefire and to take a stronger initiative in resolving the core problem, which is the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

"What I fear is that the “Israeli lobby” is working overtime to influence American public opinion on behalf of Israel’s military effort to “roll back the clock” and “change the map” of the region, going far beyond issues like prisoner exchange. What I fear is that the progress of the American peace movement against the Iraq war will be diverted and undermined, at least for now, by the entry of Israel from the sidelines into the center of the equation. What I fear is the rehabilitation of the discredited U.S. neoconservative agenda to ignite a larger war against Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. The neoconservatives’ 1996 “Clean Break” memo advocated that Israel “roll back” Lebanon and destabilize Syria in addition to overthrowing Saddam Hussein. An intellectual dean of the neoconservatives, Bernard Lewis, has long advocated the “Lebanonization” of the Middle East, meaning the disintegration of nation states into “a chaos of squabbling, feuding, fighting sects, tribes, regions and parties.”

It is clear that apocalyptic forces, openly green-lighted by President Bush, are gambling on the impossible. They are trying to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in Iraq through escalation in Lebanon and beyond. This is yet another faith-based initiative. "

"God Speaks Through Me"

Hanady Salman writing from Beirut, Live from Lebanon, 20 July 2006

Dear Friends,The fear is growing in Beirut. Beirut is sad, scared, wounded and ... left alone. By yesterday morning, the UN said 150,000 people (foreigners and Lebanese holders of 2nd nationalities) had already left Lebanon. Evacuations are supposed to be completed by Friday. Today has been an exceptionally calm day: the US marines are evacuating US citizens. By tomorrow, the country will be left to its own people and Israeli shelling. In Beirut, by Saturday, there will only be those who have nowhere else to go and the very few who deliberately decided to stay. There were also be those who managed to flee the south and the southern suburb of the capital. What will happen to us on Saturday?A friend called a few minutes ago, scared and begging me to go hide with her in Baabdat in the mountains. She said her friend who works with the UN and lives in Washington called her to tell her to stay out of Beirut, because she heard that by Saturday, it will be hell, nothing will stop them. The city will be theirs : my city , my dearest city , my only home , is open to their warplanes and shells. Our kids, as of Saturday, will be the targets of Israeli fire. So it's said. What I fear the most is that by Saturday, July the 22nd, Beirut will be cut off from the rest of the country, and the world. Every morning, I rush to the office to make sure the internet is still working. Every day I ask myself: why didn't they stop it?As of Saturday, I fear every city or region will be cut off from the rest of the country. Maybe they won't bomb us. Maybe they will just leave us in our cities and villages to starve and rot to death. Maybe they will do both.Worse than not knowing what will happen is knowing that whatever the Israelis decide to do, nobody wants or can stop them.Hanady

WITH IRAQ, PALESTINE AND LEBANON IN SHREDS, THE REMAINS OF ARAB OFFICIALDOM

ISRAEL HAS FINALLY FOUND ITS MATCH. IT HAS THE RIGHT TO "DEFEND ITSELF."

By Jim Lobe
"There has been a lot of connecting of the dots back to Iran," said retired Colonel August Richard Norton, who teaches international relations at Boston University. "This goes well beyond the [neo-conservative] Weekly Standard crowd; we've seen the major newspapers all accept the premise that what happened July 12 was engineered in some way by Iran as a way of undermining efforts to impede its nuclear program." Graham Fuller, a former top Central Intelligence Agency and RAND Corporation Middle East expert, noted that there has been a "buildup of domestic forces that now see Iran as inexorably at the center of the entire regional spider web".

In much the same way that Saddam Hussein was depicted, particularly by neo-conservatives, as the strategic domino whose fall would unleash a process of democratization, de-radicalization, moderation and modernization throughout the Middle East, so now Iran is portrayed as the "Gordian Knot" whose cutting would not only redress many of Washington's recent setbacks, but also renew prospects for regional "transformation" in the way that it was originally intended. "

By Pepe Escobar

"There are reports that Israel "might" accept these blue helmets - but only temporarily. Israel, though - as Clean Break rules - does not feel any incentive to accept this solution. Its military logic points to a devastating preemption of both Hamas and Hezbollah - so Iran would have much reduced means to retaliate against Israel in the (likely) event of a US or US/Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear installations. No one at this point may predict with certainty what the Bush/Blair/Olmert troika is actually cooking. But there is the terrifying possibility that these may be the early stages of the Great Middle East war outlined in A Clean Break; the chance for the US/Israel axis to strike at both Syria and Iran - with no one, be it Russia, China or the cowardly EU, being able to stop it. "

"CREATIVE DESTRUCTION IS OUR MIDDLE NAME" -- MICHAEL LEDEEN

NO IT IS NOT OSAMA, IT IS OLMERT

AHMED AL-KAFARNAH wept for his dead brother yesterday as tank shells shook the northern Gaza Strip. While world attention is focused on Lebanon, there are still casualties at the original front of Israel’s current campaign.

BEIRUT: Israel switched gears in its military campaign
against Lebanon Monday and Tuesday, launching a series of
debilitating air strikes against privately owned factories
throughout the country and dealing a devastating blow to
an economy already paralyzed by a week of hits on
residential areas and crucial infrastructure.

The production facilities of at least five companies in
key industrial sectors - including the country's largest
dairy farm, Liban Lait; a paper mill; a packaging firm and
a pharmaceutical plant - have been disabled or completely
destroyed. Industry insiders say the losses will cripple
the economy for decades to come.

THE REAL aim is to change the regime in Lebanon and to install a puppet government.

That was the aim of Ariel Sharon's invasion of Lebanon in 1982. It failed. But Sharon and his pupils in the military and political leadership have never really given up on it.

As in 1982, the present operation, too, was planned and is being carried out in full coordination with the US.

As then, there is no doubt that it is coordinated with a part of the Lebanese elite.

That's the main thing. Everything else is noise and propaganda.

ON THE eve of the 1982 invasion, Secretary of State Alexander Haig told Ariel Sharon that, before starting it, it was necessary to have a "clear provocation", which would be accepted by the world.

Much has been made in recent days - at the G8 summit and elsewhere - of Israel's right to retaliate against the capture of its soldiers, or attacks on its troops on its own sovereign territory. Some, such as those in the US administration, seem to believe that Israel has an unqualified licence to hit back at its enemies no matter what the cost. And even those willing to recognise that there may be a problem tend to couch it in terms of Israel's "disproportionate use of force" rather than its basic right to take military action.

But what is at stake here is not proportionality or the issue of self-defence, but symmetry and equivalence. Israel is staking a claim to the exclusive use of force as an instrument of policy and punishment, and is seeking to deny any opposing state or non-state actor a similar right. It is also largely succeeding in portraying its own "right to self-defence" as beyond question, while denying anyone else the same. And the international community is effectively endorsing Israel's stance on both counts.

From an Arab point of view this cannot be right. There is no reason in the world why Israel should be able to enter Arab sovereign soil to occupy, destroy, kidnap and eliminate its perceived foes - repeatedly, with impunity and without restraint - while the Arab side cannot do the same. And if the Arab states are unable or unwilling to do so then the job should fall to those who can.

"It's clear the Americans have given the Israelis the green light. They [the Israeli attacks] will be allowed to go on longer, perhaps for another week," a senior European official said yesterday. Diplomatic sources said there was a clear time limit, partly dictated by fears that a prolonged conflict could spin out of control.

STILL BORN

These pictures leave me numb. Horrified and ashamed to live in a country that condones this barbarity. To think that the U.S./Israel have the unmitigated gall to lecture the Arab and Muslim world about human rights is just unbelievable. It's sickening. I can't even turn the television on anymore, the appalling bias of the journalists who just simply place no value on Arab life is intolerable. The journalists who cry and whine about the "poor Israelis" who are going through "shock" are revolting. Arab children have been going through shock since 1948--where were these reporters then? What about the shock that the little girl who lost her family on a Gaza beach will be going through for the rest of her life? What about the Palestinian children who go to sleep serenaded by the sounds of Apaches and Cobras and other U.S. donated killing machines? What about the horror that Palestinian parents face when they send their children to school, never knowing if it will be the last time they see them? What about the trauma that Palestinian children face when they see their mothers giving birth on the side of a road next to one of "God's chosen" soldiers? Or the humiliation of fathers who are abused in front of their families by 18 year old soldiers at checkpoints? What about the children who see their worlds crumbling down before their very eyes when Israel decides to destroy their homes to build their goddamn apartheid wall? When is Anderson Cooper going to interview them? Which is it? Is the American media completely controlled by Zionist entities or is the U.S. just rotten and racist to its very core?

America's moral abyss, Firas Al-Atraqchi

In early 2003, an Arabic-language newspaper ran a cartoon depicting the nation of Iraq as a young girl being raped by a US soldier while several Arabs in traditional garb enthusiastically egged the soldier on. The message was simple: Iraq was about to be plundered of its wealth, stripped of its manpower, its expertise, its middle and educated classes, its infrastructure and its knowledge base. Like a rape victim, the country would be scarred, mutilated and contorted, never again to appear fully sovereign.

This vision became horrific reality in the town of Mahmoudiya in March 2006 when 16-year-old Abeer Qassem Hamza Al-Janabi was raped, shot and burned by a team of US soldiers who allegedly had been planning for a week to perpetrate their crime. Their plan included discarding their military uniforms and donning dark clothes (resembling that of militia or fedayeen ) to avoid identification as US military personnel. Abeer's family were executed in the assault, including her seven-year-old sister, so that none may point a finger of blame at the US military.

In the immediate aftermath, the US military cordoned off the area surrounding Abeer's house, announcing that her family were Shia and were murdered by Sunni "insurgents". We now know neither claim was true. Al-Janabi's neighbours protested that the family were Sunni, and that the girl had complained of harassment by US troops at a nearby checkpoint some time earlier.

Three weeks before the US military announced and opened an internal investigation, the alleged lead perpetrator of the rape of Abeer was discharged from the army on grounds that he was mentally unstable. The undeclared reason, according to some sources, was that the US military was aware of his conduct in Mahmoudiya and sought to avoid further embarrassment to a military plagued by atrocities in Abu Ghraib and Haditha, among dozens of other reports of human rights violations. Continued

By Lily Galili, Haaretz Correspondent

The Lebanon 2006 war has produced its first conscientious objector - Staff Sergeant Itzik Shabbat, a 28-year-old TV producer. He refused to comply with an emergency order (Tsav 8) to report Tuesday for reserve duty in the territories in order to free forces in the standing army for the war in Lebanon. Shabbat, a resident of Sderot, had not yet decided Tuesday night whether he would go to his reserve unit Wednesday and announce there that he was refusing to do reserve duty or whether he would not report at all and be considered absent.

"I know people will attack me and ask how could I not take part in this war when Qassams are falling on my hometown and Katyushas on the towns in the north," he told Haaretz. "In my opinion, only this type of opposition that I've chosen will put an end to the madness that is going on now and will shatter the false feeling that the entire home front supports this unnecessary war that is based on deceptive considerations."

World Health Organization: Lebanese Residents Displaced by Israeli Bombardment Expected to Top 900,000

Israel continues to target Lebanon's infrastructure and bomb civilian neighborhoods. The United Nations is warning of a looming humanitarian disaster and the World Health Organization expects the number of Lebanese residents displaced to reach 900,000 by the end of today. Just before the program we reached Anthony Shadid in Beirut. He is a Pulitzer prize-winning reporter for the Washington Post. He spoke about the mounting crisis in Lebanon.

The images the Western media hides, God forbid they humanize Arabs.

"The Insane Brutality of the State of Israel"
Atrocities in the Promised Land
By KATHLEEN CHRISTISONformer CIA analyst

Words fail; ordinary terms are inadequate to describe the horrors Israel daily perpetrates, and has perpetrated for years, against the Palestinians. The tragedy of Gaza has been described a hundred times over, as have the tragedies of 1948, of Qibya, of Sabra and Shatila, of Jenin -- 60 years of atrocity perpetrated in the name of Judaism. But the horror generally falls on deaf ears in most of Israel, in the U.S. political arena, in the mainstream U.S. media. Those who are horrified -- and there are many -- cannot penetrate the shield of impassivity that protects the political and media elite in Israel, even more so in the U.S., and increasingly now in Canada and Europe, from seeing, from caring.

But it needs to be said now, loudly: those who devise and carry out Israeli policies have made Israel into a monster, and it has come time for all of us -- all Israelis, all Jews who allow Israel to speak for them, all Americans who do nothing to end U.S. support for Israel and its murderous policies -- to recognize that we stain ourselves morally by continuing to sit by while Israel carries out its atrocities against the Palestinians.

A nation that mandates the primacy of one ethnicity or religion over all others will eventually become psychologically dysfunctional. Narcissistically obsessed with its own image, it must strive to maintain its racial superiority at all costs and will inevitably come to view any resistance to this imagined superiority as an existential threat. Indeed, any other people automatically becomes an existential threat simply by virtue of its own existence. As it seeks to protect itself against phantom threats, the racist state becomes increasingly paranoid, its society closed and insular, intellectually limited. Setbacks enrage it; humiliations madden it. The state lashes out in a crazed effort, lacking any sense of proportion, to reassure itself of its strength.
The pattern played out in Nazi Germany as it sought to maintain a mythical Aryan superiority. It is playing out now in Israel. “This society no longer recognizes any boundaries, geographical or moral,” wrote Israeli intellectual and anti-Zionist activist Michel Warschawski in his 2004 book Towards an Open Tomb: The Crisis of Israeli Society. Israel knows no limits and is lashing out as it finds that its attempt to beat the Palestinians into submission and swallow Palestine whole is being thwarted by a resilient, dignified Palestinian people who refuse to submit quietly and give up resisting Israel’s arrogance.

We in the United States have become inured to tragedy inflicted by Israel, and we easily fall for the spin that automatically, by some trick of the imagination, converts Israeli atrocities to examples of how Israel is victimized. But a military establishment that drops a 500-pound bomb on a residential apartment building in the middle of the night and kills 14 sleeping civilians, as happened in Gaza four years ago, is not a military that operates by civilized rules.

A military establishment that drops a 500-pound bomb on a house in the middle of the night and kills a man and his wife and seven of their children, as happened in Gaza four days ago, is not the military of a moral country.

A society that can brush off as unimportant an army officer’s brutal murder of a 13-year-old girl on the claim that she threatened soldiers at a military post -- one of nearly 700 Palestinian children murdered by Israelis since the intifada began -- is not a society with a conscience.
A government that imprisons a 15-year-old girl -- one of several hundred children in Israeli detention -- for the crime of pushing and running away from a male soldier trying to do a body search as she entered a mosque is not a government with any moral bearings. (This story, not the kind that ever appears in the U.S. media, was reported in the London Sunday Times. The girl was shot three times as she ran away and was convicted to 18 months in prison after she came out of a coma.)

Critics of Israel note increasingly that Israel is self-destructing, nearing a catastrophe of its own making. Israeli journalist Gideon Levy talks of a society in “moral collapse.”

Michel Warschawski writes of an “Israeli madness” and “insane brutality,” a “putrefaction” of civilized society, that have set Israel on a suicidal course. He foresees the end of the Zionist enterprise; Israel is a “gang of hoodlums,” he says, a state “that makes a mockery of legality and of civil morality. A state run in contempt of justice loses the strength to survive.”

As Warschawski notes bitterly, Israel no longer knows any moral boundaries -- if it ever did. Those who continue to support Israel, who make excuses for it as it descends into corruption, have lost their moral compass.

Kathleen Christison is a former CIA political analyst and has worked on Middle East issues for 30 years. She is the author of Perceptions of Palestine and The Wound of Dispossession. She can be reached at kathy.bill@christison-santafe.com.

The Israeli-Hezbollah conflict threatens to drag Syria, Iran and the US into a regional war.
As'ad AbuKhalil, author of Bin Laden, Islam, and America's New 'War on Terrorism' as well as The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power, believes the recent violence is a symptom of an international conspiracy under way to enforce UN resolution 1559, which calls for the disarmament of militia groups in Lebanon - a reference to Hezbollah.

"Please Frame A Photo of Hassan Nasrallah For Me"

Israel Violates Law on U.S. Weapons in Mideast by Thalif Deen
Published on Tuesday, July 18, 2006 by the Inter Press Service
Israel Violates Law on U.S. Weapons in Mideastby Thalif Deen

UNITED NATIONS - Israel is in violation of U.S. arms control laws for deploying U.S.-made fighter planes, combat helicopters and missiles to kill civilians and destroy Lebanon's infrastructure in the ongoing six-day devastation of that militarily-weak country.

The death toll, according to published reports, is over 200 people -- mostly civilians -- while the economic losses have been estimated at about 100 million dollars per day.

"Section 4 of the (U.S.) Arms Export Control Act requires that military items transferred to foreign governments by the United States be used solely for internal security and legitimate self-defense," says Stephen Zunes, professor of politics at the University of San Francisco.

"Since Israeli attacks against Lebanon's civilian infrastructure and population centers clearly go beyond legitimate self-defense, the United States is legally obliged to suspend arms transfers to Israel," Zunes told IPS.

Frida Berrigan, a senior research associate with the Arms Trade Resource Center at the World Policy Institute in New York, is equally outraged at the misuse by Israel of U.S.-supplied weapons.

"As Israel jets bombard locations in Gaza, Haifa and Beirut, killing civilians (including as many as seven Canadians vacationing in Aitaroun), it is worth remembering that U.S. law is clear about how U.S.-origin weapons and military systems ought to be used," Berrigan told IPS.

She pointed out that the U.S. Arms Export Control Act clear states that U.S. origin weapons should not be used for "non-defensive purposes."

"In light of this clear statement, the United States has an opportunity to stave off further bloodshed and suffering by demanding that its weaponry and military aid not be used in attacks against Lebanon and elsewhere, and challenging Israeli assertions that it is using military force defensively," she added.

That would demonstrate the kind of "utmost restraint" that world leaders called for at the G8 Summit of the world's most industrialized nations, which just ended in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The 25-member European Union has said that Israel's military retaliation against Lebanon is "grossly disproportionate" to the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers last week by the Islamic militant group Hezbollah, which is a coalition partner of the U.S.-supported government in Beirut.

Israel has accused both Syria and Iran of providing rockets and missiles to Hezbollah, which has used these weapons to hit mostly civilian targets inside Israel.

Israel's prodigious military power -- currently unleashed on a virtually defenseless Lebanon -- is sourced primarily to the United States.

Armed mostly with state-of-the-art U.S.-supplied fighter planes and combat helicopters, the Israeli military is capable of matching a combination of all or most of the armies in most Middle Eastern countries, including Iran, Syria, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

The air force has continued to devastate Beirut and its suburbs with no resistance in the skies during six days of incessant bombings, causing civilian deaths and infrastructure destruction.

"The Israeli Air Force now flies only U.S.-origin fighters, a mix of F-15s and F-16s, and the rest of the service's fleet is almost completely of U.S. origin," says Tom Baranauskas, a senior Middle East analyst at Forecast International, a leading provider of defense market intelligence services in the United States.

While in earlier years Israel bought from a variety of arms suppliers, with the French in particular being strong sellers to Israel of such items as Mirage fighters, over the past couple of decades the United States has developed into Israel's preponderant arms supplier, he added.

"The U.S. domination as Israel's arms supplier can be seen in the Congressional Research Service's (CRS) annual study of arms sales," Baranauskas told IPS.

He said the latest CRS survey shows a total of 8.4 billion dollars of arms deliveries to Israel in the 1997-2004 period, with fully 7.1 billion dollars or 84.5 percent coming from a single source: the United States.

A major factor in this trend was the rise in U.S. Foreign Military Financing (FMF) -- outright U.S. grants to Israel -- which now totals about 2.3 billion dollars a year paid for by U.S. taxpayers.

By U.S. law, Baranauskas said, 74 percent of FMF assistance to Israel must be spent on U.S. military products. This U.S. assistance has now become the main source of financing for Israel's major arms procurements, especially its fighter planes.

From a historical perspective, he said, U.S. assistance to Israel during 1950-2005 has been staggeringly high: Foreign Military Financing (FMF) amounting to 59.5 billion dollars; 27 billion dollars in Foreign Military Sales (FMS) mostly government-to-government arms transactions; and eight billion dollars in commercial arms sales by the private sector.

Berrigan of the Arms Trade Resource Center said the United States is undoubtedly the primary supplier of Israeli firepower.

In the interest of strengthening Israel's security and maintaining the country's "qualitative military edge" over neighboring militaries, the U.S. Congress provides Israel with annual FMF grants that represent about 23 percent of its overall defense budget. Israel's 2006 military budget is estimated at 7.4 billion dollars.

According to the Congressional Research Service, FMF levels are expected to increase incrementally by 60 million dollars a year to a level of 2.4 billion dollars by 2008 compared with 2.2 billion dollars in 2005."

Israel has been the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid every year since 1976," Berrigan said.

Additionally, the United States provides Israel with billions of dollars worth of weaponry.

She pointed out that recent military sales to Israel include propulsion systems for fast patrol boats worth more than 15 million dollars from MTU Detroit Diesel; an eight-million-dollar contract to Lockheed Martin for high-tech infrared "navigation and targeting" capabilities for Israeli jets; and a 145-million-dollar deal with Oshkosh Truck Corp to build more than 900 armour kits for Israeli Medium Tactical Vehicles.

In December of last year, Lockheed Martin was awarded a 29.8-million-dollar contract to provide spares part for Israel's F-16 fighter planes.

Berrigan also said that Israel has one of the world's largest fleets of F-16 fighter planes, made in Fort Worth, Texas and also in Israel by Lockheed Martin Corporation.

Israel has a total of over 378 F-16s, considered one of the world's most advanced fighter planes -- besides 117 F-15s, 94 Skyhawks, 110 Phantoms -- all supplied by the United States.Copyright © 2006 IPS-Inter Press Service

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

by Ralph Nader

"You have been a weak president, despite your strutting and barking, when it comes to doing the right things for the American people within the Constitution and its rule of law. This trait is now in bold relief over the Israeli government's escalating war crimes pulverizing the defenseless people and country of Lebanon.

With systematic efficiency, the Israeli government has already destroyed innocent homes and basic public facilities-- ports, airports, highways, bridges, power stations-- which are critical to delivery of food, medicines, health care, ambulances, water, and other essentials for a civilian population. This bombardment, by U.S. made bombers, military vehicles, ships, and missiles with American taxpayer subsidies, places an inescapable responsibility upon your shoulders which does not mix with your usual vacuous messianic rigidity. "

By Tony Sayegh

It appears that the existing official Arab order that has been on life support for the past 20 years or so is finally expiring. The events of the past three weeks in both occupied Palestine and in Lebanon have made that abundantly clear.

To illustrate the slow death of this order, which includes the Arab League, all one has to do is to contrast the reaction of Arab officialdom in 1967 and in 1973 to what is happening (more accurately not happening) today. After the 1967 defeat of three Arab armies and the capture of the rest of Palestine, the Sinai and the Golan Heights, the Arab regimes had their famous summit in Khartoum with the three famous no's. No to recognizing Israel, no to negotiations and no to peace with the Zionist state. These were principled positions that received wide support in the Arab street.After the 1973 war, the Arab regimes took a united stand in support of both Egypt and Syria's drive to liberate their occupied land and even the reactionary Saudi Arabia went as far as imposing an oil embargo on the West, to force neutrality and objectivity by the West, led by the U.S.

It has been downhill from that date on. Today by contrast, when the Palestinians and Lebanese are resisting, the existing Arab order is accusing these resistance movements of irresponsibility and adventurism. It is really astounding, when one considers that Hezbollah was the first Arab movement that was actually able, through guerrilla resistance, all by itself, to force the withdrawal of occupying Israeli forces, unconditionally and without any negotiations, from any occupied Arab territory. In the same vein, the Palestinians have been able to elect the first truly democratic government in the entire Arab world and to withstand the ferocious Israeli attacks to destroy the elected Palestinian government and the resistance of Hamas and others.

One cannot, of course, ignore the Iraqi resistance and what it has been able to achieve in just three years. With the American military mired to its neck in Iraq and with its reputation and perceived supremacy in tatters, outright defeat is just a matter of time. And what does the existing Arab order do? It facilitated and encouraged the invasion and destruction of Iraq and now it is working with the occupiers to consolidate the occupation and to support and strengthen the puppet Iraqi government. The Arab League, by orders from the U.S., has undertaken a series of meetings of "conciliation" to help strengthen the puppet Iraqi government. Even the government of Syria, is cooperating with the occupiers, by sealing the border with Iraq, extraditing Iraqis wanted by the U.S. occupation to the U.S. occupiers and sharing intelligence information with the U.S. military.

The transformation is now total. While collaboration with Israel and the U.S. used to be behind the scenes and denied, it is now in the open. Jordan and Egypt have full diplomatic, economic and security relations with Israel. When one Israeli soldier was captured, the leaders of these two countries woke up and mounted a vigorous campaign to pressure the Palestinians to free that one soldier while never daring to even whisper about 10,000 Palestinians kidnapped, tortured and imprisoned by Israel. When Usrael imposed a total blockade on the Palestinians for daring to elect Hamas, the Arab order, in its entirety, including the Arab league, financial institutions and banks and the various governments complied with the Usraeli orders. Egypt and Jordan shunned the elected Palestinian officials and Egypt would not even dare to have sovereignty over the crossing between its territory to Gaza; enough said about Egyptian sovereignty.

The real signal that the Arab order has been fully transformed is the unprecedented Saudi attack on the resistance movements of Hamas and Hezbollah. This attack was repeated for the second time yesterday. Saudi Arabia, up to this point, has operated mostly in the shadows and this coming out of the closet is highly significant. It announces to the world that the American goal of shocking and awing the Arab regimes has been a total success and all the regimes now line up behind U.S. policies in the region against the interests of the people. This line up includes the puppet Abbas and his Palestinian Authority.

It is not an exaggeration to state that this is a historic moment, even more momentous than in 1948. At least in 1948, the regimes, while some of them were still occupied by British forces, made a token effort to help the Palestinians. Now they are besieging and fighting the Iraqis, Palestinians and the Lebanese. The stakes have never been higher; a final solution of the Palestinian question is being imposed which will see Israel dictating boundaries and probably expelling Palestinians. Lebanese are being expelled from the south of Lebanon and Israel may expand northward. Iraq is being split and the Israeli presence and influence (especially in the north) is greatly expanded.

Is it any wonder that when the Arab foreign ministers met, yet one more time, a few days ago and did not even dare to adopt a minimum position in support of the Palestinians and the Lebanese, that the reporters were so disgusted with them and in the face of shouts and demands from the journalist, the head of the Arab League could only say, "the peace process in dead?" This is the end of the Arab league and what remains of inter-Arab institutions. What has emerged are two distinct cultures: the culture of resistance by the oppressed and dispossessed majority and the culture of regimes totally subservient to Israel and actively implementing Usraeli policies by all means available, including force.

Israel "Defending" Itself Against Lebanese Children.

By Jim Lobe

"Seeing a major opportunity to regain influence lost as a result of setbacks in Iraq, prominent neo-conservatives are calling for unconditional US support for Israel's military offensives in Gaza and Lebanon and "regime change" in Syria and Iran, as well as possible US attacks on Tehran's nuclear facilities in retaliation for its support of Hezbollah.

In a Weekly Standard column titled "Our war", editor William Kristol called Iran "the prime mover behind the terrorist groups who have started this war", which, he argued, should be considered part of "the global struggle against radical Islamism".

"This is our war, too," said Kristol, who was also a founder and co-chairman of the recently lapsed Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

The effort to frame the current round of violence as part of a much larger struggle - and Israel's role as Washington's most loyal front-line ally - recalls the neo-conservatives' early reaction to the terrorist attacks on New York and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001.

While the Iraqi and Palestinian components of PNAC's agenda were soon adopted as policy and in essence achieved, neo-conservative hopes that Bush would move on Hezbollah - as well as Syria and Iran - eventually stalled as US military forces became bogged down in an increasingly bloody and costly counter-insurgency war in Iraq.

In another article for the National Review on Monday, bluntly titled "Eradication first", Rubin elaborated on that theme, arguing that diplomacy in the current crisis will only be successful "if it commences both after the eradication of Hezbollah and Hamas, and after their paymasters pay a terrible cost for their support. If ... peace is the aim, it is imperative to punish the Syrian and Iranian leadership," he wrote. Above all, according to the neo-conservatives, the US position in the region is now inextricably tied to the success or failure of Israel's military campaign. "

By Pepe Escobar

"Hezbollah may be writing the book - at least for now - of fourth-generation war. Hezbollah had a reputation as an extremely disciplined, mobile guerrilla force. Now Hezbollah has fully revealed itself as a more than competent asymmetrical actor.

Hezbollah controls a great deal of territory - Beirut's southern suburbs, vast areas in southern Lebanon and the Bekaa Valley, which is sandwiched between two mountain ranges along the Syrian border. Hezbollah enjoys staunch popular support running to probably one and a half million people, almost half the population of Lebanon. And Hezbollah has been capable of unleashing some relatively sophisticated military operations against Israel using both conventional and unorthodox weapons.

But the Arab street has certainly registered the communique by the House of Saud against Hezbollah, as well as the thunderous silence-cum-embarrassment displayed by the US client regimes of Egypt and Jordan.

A certified effect of the Israeli bombing barrage will be to draw newer, thicker waves of moderate Muslims toward political - and radical - Islam. The perception in the Arab street - as well as for most of the world's 1.4 billion Muslims - has been reinforced: the US/Israel axis seems to hold a license to kill Arabs with impunity.

For its part, Israel's Leviathan-run-amok tactic of trying to turn the Lebanese as a whole against Hezbollah seems to be doomed to failure.

Symbolically, fiercely independent Hezbollah represents the revenge of the oppressed - not only against the well off Sunni and Christians but against the Israeli invaders.

Hezbollah is a genuine resistance movement, such as Hamas in Palestine. Israel's military logic rules that it must crush any Arab resistance movement. Now Israel seems to have found two pretexts to try to crush simultaneously both Hezbollah and Hamas. Israel's modus operandi is to take entire populations hostage.

Thus Israel's real objective must be to provoke civil war in Lebanon - just as it did everything to provoke civil war in Palestine. The strategy is always the same. Israel wants Fatah to crush Hamas in Palestine, and now it wants the government in Beirut to crush Hezbollah. Or else ...

It was Hezbollah's hardcore warriors - trained by Syria and Iran - who ultimately expelled Israel from Lebanon in 2000. It's difficult for Westerners - or non-Arab Asians - to understand how powerfully symbolic this is in the Arab world: it means that Hezbollah was the only Arab military force ever to defeat Israel.

There's nothing sectarian about it. On the contrary, Hezbollah shows total solidarity with Hamas. And way beyond Israel identified as the common enemy, both Hamas and Hezbollah clearly identify the not-so-invisible big enemy behind, the US, for which Israel is a kind of "militarized offshoot", in the words of Noam Chomsky.

As Lebanese-born Gilbert Achcar, a political-science professor at the University of Paris-VIII, puts it, "The main source of destabilization in the region is this violent and arrogant behavior of Israel that is in full harmony with the equally arrogant and violent behavior the United States displayed in Iraq."

That's what the Stratfor Intelligence Report said would happen. "The Israeli Defense Forces is preparing for a major, sustained assault into southern Lebanon to eliminate the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah," said the report. "The assault will extend at least to the Litani River - the first natural barrier, roughly 20 miles into Lebanon - and possibly all the way to areas south of Beirut ... Israel stands on the verge of attempting to completely annihilate Hezbollah in southern Lebanon." "

By Mike Whitney

"Israel is planning to occupy the territory between its northern border and the Litani River in Southern Lebanon. This will provide access to an important water source for Israel and create a buffer-zone between itself and Arab militants. The demonstration of overwhelming force is intended to send a message to Syria and Iran that they’d better “shape up” or expect similar treatment in the near future.

This shows that Israel is not acting irrationally or spontaneously, but executing a carefully-considered master-plan for crushing potential enemies and reconfiguring the Middle East to accommodate the modern Israeli kingdom. (hence, the pretentious euphemism “Securing the Realm”)

We know now that the “Cedar Revolution” was just another clever “made-in-Washington” public relations scam orchestrated by skillful American NGOs and Israeli intelligence agencies. The “color-coded” revolutions have since been widely discredited as more of Uncle Sam’s tricks for bringing about regime change in countries where the leaders fail to conform to the economic diktats of the IMF and World Bank.

The probability of regime change in Tehran and Damascus has only intensified as Bush and Olmert’s objectives become more apparent. (Note: Israel needs a friendly government in Syria to protect future pipeline routes from Northern Iraq to Haifa. Currently the Mossad are working with the Kurds to ensure that Israel will become a main player in the energy markets in the coming century) Iran’s vast oil and natural gas wealth, make it the Middle East’s natural leader. This ensures that the Mullahs will be challenged and, perhaps, removed to allow for Israeli ascendancy.

From the Caspian to the Red Sea, from the Mediterranean to the western tip of Afghanistan, Israel and America are spreading their devastation across the Middle East transforming the entire region into one massive Gaza Strip. "

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

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

Members of the governing bloc in the Lebanese parliament, led by Saad Hariri, "are the most pro-American Arabs in the Middle East. They have promised, 'America will protect us if we stand against Syria,' " said Joshua Landis, a Middle East expert and professor at the University of Oklahoma.
Now Israel is "blowing the hell out of them, and America isn't taking one step to protect them," Landis said. "The whole Arab world is going to look and see that Hariri has been sacrificed on the altar of Israeli power. For the Arabs, this just rips the face of democracy right off."

There is new talk in the Arab world, Rabbani said, "about a clash of cultures, one between the culture of resistance and the culture of servitude. The official regimes don't like to be upstaged by upstart resistance movements who demonstrate they're able to indeed successfully confront Israel. They don't like to be confronted in a context that raises question marks about their own inertia."

by Danny Schechter

"'Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich says America is in World War III and President Bush should say so. In an interview in Bellevue this morning Gingrich said Bush should call a joint session of Congress the first week of September and talk about global military conflicts in much starker terms than have been heard from the president. "We need to have the militancy that says 'We're not going to lose a city,' " Gingrich said. He talks about the need to recognize World War III as important for military strategy and political strategy. "Gingrich said he is "very worried" about Republicans facing fall elections and says the party must have the "nerve" to nationalize the elections and make the 2006 campaigns about a liberal Democratic agenda rather than about President Bush's record."

But there is more. The always aggressive and often obnoxious Prince of Darkness, Richard Perle, a leading booster of war on Iraq is now lobbying the Administration to finish off the "axis of evil." In print pieces and TV appearances, he is calling for a wider war now.

Also on Meet The Press, Martin Fletcher, the NBC veteran Israel correspondent revealed that the Israeli war plan that is now being carried out is premeditated and has been FIVE years in the making. It was a plan just looking for a pretext.
"I think they will never say that publicly," he added, explaining the war plan that was not made by this current Israeli government but earlier by Sharon & his generals. Fletcher says Tel Aviv calls it a "work plan." He says it is being implemented "step by step." He added, "It will go on until someone steps in and stops them."

Summer is often called the silly season. While the Bush Administration is losing one war in Iran, and another with public opinion here at home, it seems to be opting for more conflicts with its backers banging the drum for a new world war.
Years ago, Che Guevara called for "I, 2, 3" Vietnams. The Busheviks today may be moving toward '1,2, 3' world wars.
Sound crazy? In our Orwellian political climate, a new generation of Dr Strangelove's are in command. Only they have mastered the art of the TV interview and can, with selective facts and ideology packaged as information, make insanity sound oh so sane.
They have convinced themselves, and now want to convince us, to join a new hegemonic adventure and expand their failed "GWOT," (Global War on Terror), whatever the costs. "

A microphone picked up an unaware George Bush saying that Syria should press Hezbollah to "stop doing this shit" and that his secretary of state may go to the Middle East soon.

Bush, chomping on a piece of bread and calling for a diet Coke, said: "I think Condi (Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state) is going to go (to the Middle East) pretty soon."

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

Rice said on Sunday she was thinking of going to the region if it would help.

Blair added: "See, if she goes out she's got to succeed as it were, where as I can just go out and talk."

"See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over." Bush replied, without specifying who "they" are.

طلال سلمان

على اللبنانيين أن يروا فيعتبروا: من أجل أسير واحد ضاع ما تبقى من فلسطين! وربما لم يكفِ تدمير لبنان ثمناً للأسيرين! ربما كان ضرورياً إكمال الحساب بإضافة سوريا إلى الفاتورة، وربما أضيفت إيران... أما العراق فإن الاحتلال الأميركي يتكفل به مباشرة! في أي حال، فاللبنانيون سعداء بهذا الالتفاف الدولي من حول حكومتهم. ولكن السؤال: هل يتطلّب الاعتراف بالحكومة شطب لبنان؟! إنهم يطالبون الحكومة بمهمة انتحارية! إنهم يطالبونها بأن تتولى وأد لبنان القائم، لكي تقوم إسرائيل وبمساعدة العالم كله باستيلاد لبنان جديد لن يعرفه أبناؤه! والنار الإسرائيلية قد تقدر على إحراق لبنان، ولكنها لن تقدر على محو هويته ولا على تهجينه ولا دفعه إلى الانتحار، بذريعة حماية حياة الأسيرين.

By Robert Dreyfuss

"Israel’s reckless , high-stakes decision to launch simultaneous wars against both Hamas and Hezbollah last week is a critical, perhaps world-shattering event. It cannot be seen merely in its local context, that is, as an act by the unilateralist regime in Jerusalem to crush the armed wings of two Islamic fundamentalist organizations in Gaza, the West Bank and southern Lebanon. Nor can it be seen merely in its regional context, that is, as an effort to raise the stakes in the struggle against Syria, Iran and rejectionist factions in occupied Iraq. Rather, Israel’s actions must be seen, first and foremost, in the context of global politics.

The key question: Is the Israeli offensive designed as a calculated effort to catapult the hard-right, neoconservative ideologues back to power in Washington?

Outflanked, temporarily, in the United States, the neocons are now flexing their muscle outside the United States in a way that can give them added new leverage at home.

As long as Israel has the support of the United States, it will forge ahead relentlessly. So far, in a shocking display of craven capitulation to the Israeli fait accompli, President Bush has repeatedly endorsed Israel’s aggression. But Israel is clearly counting on more than just Bush’s support for its actions in Gaza and Lebanon. More broadly, Israel is seeking to shift the balance in the Bush administration back in favor of the neocons, the hawks, and their radical “New American Century” comrades.

Make no mistake: Until last week, before Israel went to war, the neoconservatives were losing across the board. They watched in horror as the war in Iraq faltered, and they were appalled by President Bush’s Condi-led opening to Iran. Indeed, to many it seemed as if the entire post-9/11 project to remake the Middle East and build American hegemony on that cornerstone was in jeopardy.
Speaking at a forum at the American Enterprise Institute last week, Frederick Kagan warned that the United States is in “danger of losing everything” because the war in Iraq is not being pursued aggressively enough. “All of this success can and will be undone … if we do not get the security situation [in Iraq] under control, and fast,” he said, accurately enough. Now that Israel is at war, they have the chance once again to go on the offensive, against Iran, in Iraq, against Syria, and against the mythical Terrorist International that they warn about so regularly. You can imagine what Cheney and his allies are whispering to the president: Be resolute, be strong—and bring ‘em on! "

This is extraordinary. Usually, about 30,000 people take part in the Al-Jazeera on-line polls. The current one has shattered all records. So far, and in less than 3 days, 174,000 people participated!

It polls the Arab public, whether the resistance by Hezbollah is an uncalculated adventure (as the puppet Arab regimes led by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan claim) or that it is legitimate resistance.

92% said that it is legitimate resistance and disagreed with their dictators. This is quite an indictment of the servility of these regimes to Usrael. Do you see why Usrael does not want a true democracy in the Arab world?

هل ترى في مواجهة حزب الله مع إسرائيل؟

مغامرة غير محسوبة
8.4%

مقاومة مشروعة
91.6%

173780

نتيجة التصويت لا تعبر عن رأي الجزيرة وإنما تعبر عن رأي الأعضاء المشاركين فيه.

Israel says "Jump!"Americans ask: "How high?"
By Justin Raimondo

"What Israel wants is what they have always wanted: to use American power, American tax dollars and American lives to advance their own expansionist agenda.

The Israeli answer: invade Lebanon, force the issue, and go for the throat. With the Israel lobby going full-bore andthe propaganda mills churning, the invasion undermines the Rice faction and puts the issue of regime-change back on the administration's agenda. While that change of regime will, initially, be limited to southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah operates a de facto independent state, it will eventually –the neocons hope – extend to the whole of the country, toppleBashar al-Assad in Syria – and, eventually, spill over into Iran."

ARAB PUPPETS AND THEIR SERVITUDE

Six of the 22 members of the Arab League favour holding an Arab summit on the violence between Israel and Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said.

By Uri Avnery

"As in 1982, the present operation, too, was planned and is being carried out in full coordination with the US.
As then, there is no doubt that it is coordinated with a part of the Lebanese elite.
That's the main thing. Everything else is noise and propaganda.

ON THE eve of the 1982 invasion, Secretary of State Alexander Haig told Ariel Sharon that, before starting it, it was necessary to have a "clear provocation", which would be accepted by the world.

The idea of installing a Quisling in Lebanon is nothing new. In 1955, David Ben-Gurion proposed taking a "Christian officer" and installing him as dictator. Moshe Sharet showed that this idea was based on complete ignorance of Lebanese affairs and torpedoed it. But 27 years later, Ariel Sharon tried to put it into effect nevertheless. Bashir Gemayel was indeed installed as president, only to be murdered soon afterwards. His brother, Amin, succeeded him and signed a peace agreement with Israel, but was driven out of office. (The same brother is now publicly supporting the Israeli operation.) "

Hezbollah Rocket Attack Kills Eight in Haifa, Israel

U.S. Bombs On Israeli Jets Kill Eight Canadians

In Pictures: Israeli Attacks Kill Civilians

U.S. grants Israelis a green light

12 Egyptian Sailors Rescued from Israeli Attacks

Israeli army using bunker-buster bombs

Lebanon blames US for UN silence

Blog: U.S. lets Israel do its dirty work

Anti-Americanism made in US

Jonathan Cook: Covering up Gaza

George Galloway: "Recognize the Centrality of the Palestine Question"

Iraqi PM denounces 'criminal' strikes on Lebanon and Gaza

On Shabbat, Settlers Escalate attaks on Palestinians and Internationals

Palestinian elderly woman killed by Israeli shells in Rafah

Report: 92 Palestinians killed, 326 injured, in last ten days of Israeli attacks on Gaza

Detainees in Shatta on Hunger Strike for the fourth day

Israeli tanks are back in Gaza Strip

Hamas calls on captors to keep captive soldier alive

Lebanon accuses Israel of using forbidden weapons

Confrontation just starting: Hizbollah

Destroying the 'Bridges' of Negotiations

500 Israelis injured since fighting began

Children die in convoy attack as Israel widens Lebanon assault

The Road to War

Tony, I just went to Mohammed Omer's website (rafahtoday.org) where we get our pics of Israeli attacks on Gaza. I found this message:

Yesterday Mohammed was struck with shrapnel as he was taking those photographs. Thank God he was wearing a bullet-proof vest. [The webmaster]

I was looking at his website closely, his younger bother was killed by the Israeli Occupation Forces a few years back. We are lucky to have Mohammed alive, his pictures are accessed by many people and spread far and wide as a testament to Israeli atrocities.

Hanady Salman, a friend and editor at As-Safir in Beirut, sent a batch of pictures (some above) and this message: "Dear friends and colleaguesThe list is longer toady .the pictures are from everywhere . The scope of shelling was terrible today. They're hitting everywhere, killing everywhere. Apologies if it turns out to be inconveniant and many thanks to all of you who responded and offered to help.Hanady Salman"

An Audio, In Arabic, Of Nasrallah's Televised Speech Today.

Statement from the General Secretary of Hizballah, Hasan Nasrallah

To the Nation, the Lebanese people, the resistance fighters, the Zionists, and the Arab leaders.

Translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr

07/15/06

In this first address that I give in these days following Operation True Promise, I would like to say a few words – a word to the Lebanese people, a word to the resistance fighters, a word to the Zionists, and a word to the Arab rulers. I will not offer words to the international community because I have never for one day believed that there is any such thing as an international community, just as many in our nation feel.

First, I say to the Lebanese people: dear people – who embraced the resistance, by whom the resistance was victorious, and for whom the resistance won its victory on 25 May 2000 – this people who were the makers of the first victory in the history of the Arab struggle with the Israeli enemy, despite the basic inequality in forces, and in spite of the fact that the majority of our Arab brothers and the majority of our Muslim brothers abandoned us and despite the silence of the whole world, this Lebanese people made the miracle of the victory that stunned the world and humiliated the Zionists. Those Zionists look upon this people in a special, unique way because they accomplished in the history of the struggle with them a special and unique accomplishment. The battle today is no longer a battle over prisoners or the exchange of prisoners. It might be said that the Zionist enemy is responding any time there is any operation where men are captured anywhere in any part of the world, by any army or any state that has borders and regulations. What is taking place today is not a response to a capture of their soldiers; it is a squaring of accounts with the people, resistance, state, army, political forces, regions, villages, and families that inflicted that historic defeat on that aggressive usurper entity that has never accepted its defeat.

Today, therefore, this is a total war that Zionism is waging to clear its whole account with Lebanon, the Lebanese people, the Lebanese state, the Lebanese army, and the Lebanese resistance, in revenge and reprisal for the victory they won on 25 May 2000.

Dear steadfast, mujahid, and noble people, I know that the overwhelming majority of this people, in their minds, hearts, wills, culture, thoughts, love, passion, and sacrifice are a people of nobility, dignity, honor, distinction, and pride, not a people of servility, subservience, submissiveness, and surrender. I say to you that in this battle we are faced with two choices – not “we” as in Hizballah, or as in the resistance, the Hizballah resistance – but Lebanon as a state, a people, an army, a resistance, and a political power – we are faced with two choices: either to submit today to the conditions that the Zionist enemy wants to dictate to us all, using the pressure, support, and backing it has from America, from around the world, and, I’m sorry to say, from Arabs. Either we submit completely to its conditions, which means taking Lebanon into an Israeli age under Israeli domination – in total frankness this is the extent of the matter – or we stand steadfast. That is the other choice: that we persevere, that we persevere and confront....

During the Grapes of Wrath in 1996, or the clearing of accounts in 1993, in the beginning they had the upper hand and our situation was much worse. But today, the situation is different. Believe me, and I mean this, the situation now is different. All that we need is to persevere, stand steadfast, and confront them united, and I know and I will bet that the majority of our people are a people of steadfastness, a mujahid people who can sacrifice, who have no need for pep talks. What I’m saying now is only by way of completing the idea, and affirming the choice, and clarifying what this means.

Now, as for my words for the resistance fighters, for my dear and beloved brothers: upon them rest the hopes of every Lebanese, every Palestinian, every Arab, every Muslim, every free and decent person in this world, every oppressed, tortured victim of injustice, every lover of steadfastness, courage, dignity, values, and nobility – the characteristics they embody by their presence on the field of battle and in their fight with this enemy... To the Zionists, to the people of the Zionist entity at this hour I say to them: you will soon discover how foolish and stupid are your new rulers, your new leaders. They do not know how to assess reality. They have no experience in this area. You Zionists say in opinion polls that you believe me more than you believe your officials. So now I call on you to listen well and believe me. Today we have persevered despite the attack that took place last night in the southern suburbs. However the attacks multiply in every village, neighborhood, street, and home in Lebanon, there is no difference between the south Beirut suburbs, the City of Beirut, or any home in south Lebanon, in the Beqaa, or the north, or Mount Lebanon, or any corner of Lebanon.

The equation has now changed. I will not say today that if you strike Beirut, we will strike Haifa. I will not tell you that if you hit the south Beirut suburbs, we will hit Haifa. You wanted to get rid of that equation, so now we and you have got rid of it in actuality. You wanted open warfare, and we are going into open warfare. We are ready for it, a war on every level. To Haifa, and, believe me, to beyond Haifa, and to beyond beyond Haifa. Not only we will be paying a price. Not only our houses will be destroyed. Not only our children will be killed. Not only our people will be displaced. Those days are past. That was how it was before 1982, and before the year 2000. Those times have come to an end. I promise you those times have passed. Therefore you must also bear the responsibility for what your government has done, for what that government has undertaken. From now on, you wanted open warfare, so it will be open warfare. You wanted it. Your government wanted to change the rules of the game, so let the rules then be changed. You don’t know today whom you’re fighting. You are fighting the children of Muhammad, of Ali, of al-Hasan, of al-Husayn, of the Prophet’s family, the Prophet’s Companions. You are fighting a people who have faith such as no one else on the face of the earth possesses. And you have chosen open warfare with a people who take pride in their history, their civilization, and their culture, and who also possess material power, ability, expertise, knowledge, calm, imagination, determination, steadfastness, and courage. In the coming days it will be between us and you, God willing.

As to the Arab rulers, I don’t want to ask you about your history. I just want to say a few words. We are adventurers. We in Hizballah are adventurers, yes. But we have been adventurers since 1982. And we have brought to our country only victory, freedom, liberation, dignity, honor, and pride. This is our history. This is our experience. This is our adventure. In the year 1982 you said and the world said that we were crazy. But we proved that we were the rational ones, so who then was crazy? This is something else and I don’t want to get into an argument with anyone. So I tell them simply: go bet on your reason and we will bet on our adventure, with God as our Supporter and Benefactor. We have never for one day counted on you. We have trusted in God, our people, our hearts, our hands, and our children. Today we do the same, and God willing, victory will follow. The surprises that I promised you will begin starting now. Now, out at sea off the coast of Beirut an Israeli military vessel that attacked our infrastructure, that struck the homes of our people, our civilians; you can see it burning. It will sink and with it dozens of Zionist Israeli troops. This is the beginning. There will be a lot more said before the end. Peace be upon you and the mercy of God!

General Secretary of Hizballah, His Excellency Sayyid Hasan Nasrallah, to the Nation, the Lebanese people, the resistance fighters, the Zionists, and the Arab leaders.

Translated by Muhammad Abu Nasr Friday, 14 July 2006.

Arabic original at: http://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/phpfolder/loadpage.php?page=JOU214.html http://www.nna-leb.gov.lb/phpfolder/loadpage.php?page=JOU214.html

غزة-دنيا الوطنعلم ان لقاء سريا عقد في ساعة متأخرة من ليلة امس السبت جمع رئيس الوزراء اللبناني فؤاد سنيورة ووليد جنبلاط زعيم الحزب التقدمي الاشتراكي وسمير جعجع قائد الميليشيات المسماة بالقوات اللبنانية، بحضور مسؤول كبير في السفارة الامريكية ببيروت.ونقلت مصادر ان المجتمعين اجروا اتصالا هاتفيا مطولا مع مسؤول امني اسرائيلي كبير كان متواجدا في مكتب رئيس الحكومة ايهود اولمرت.واضافت المصادر ان الاتصال تناول خطة التفافية على حزب الله يجري الاتفاق عليها سريعا وتطبيقها على الحدود بدعم امريكي عربي.من جهة ثانية اكدت مصادر ان خلايا تخريبية من جماعات جعجع وجنبلاط والجميل تقوم بمهمات تجسسية واستطلاعية وفي اطلاق الشائعات داخل بيروت والساحة اللبنانية، وان هذه الجماعات تقوم بتجنيد عدد من المراسلين الصحفيين في لبنان في اطار المهمة الاستخبارية نفسها.

By Ehsan Ahrari

"We know well where the asymmetric war between the US is heading: an unmitigated disaster in Iraq. The question now is where will the asymmetric war between Israel and the Arabs (Palestinians and Lebanese) lead? It seems like another disaster in the making.

One side fights with awesome high-tech weapons; while the other side fights with whatever it can get its hands on. The Iraqis (and now the Afghans) did not invent the art of asymmetric warfare, but they seem to be writing a new chapter. In the process, Iraq and Afghanistan are steadily sliding toward mayhem. The "victor" in this war will be the one that has the political capability and resolve to outlast the other side.

Like the US in Iraq, the Israeli response was aimed at creating shock and awe. Like the US's "war strategies" that were focused in the 1991 and 2003 military campaigns in Iraq on destroying its civilian and military infrastructure, Israel is concentrating on the destruction of the most primitive infrastructure in the occupied territory and relatively well-developed civilian infrastructure in Lebanon.

In the case of the Palestinians as well the Lebanese, the past has proven that they have the capacity to absorb misery and continue their struggle. That reminds one of the third rule of the post-September 11 era. The Arab side is convinced that there is such a thing called the "Vietnam syndrome" in the US. That describes a psychological fear of remaining involved in a protracted and ostensibly losing war. It also describes a low to very low quotient for absorbing human losses in a war. "

U.S., Israel Aim to Weaken Hezbollah, Region's Militants

"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 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."

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.""

عزمي بشارة

لا علاقة لهذه المعركة بتحرير أسيرين. هؤلاء قضية جانبية بالنسبة لإسرائيل، وربما تقبل بصفقة تبادل حين يحين الوقت. للعدوان الحالي هدف وأجندة سياسية داخلية لبنانية وإقليمية. لا تلعب المقاومة دور الضحية، ولم تطلب تعاطفا دوليا مع الضحية، بل طلبت تضامنا نضاليا من قبل الأحرار. هذه قواعد لعبة أخرى، نسيها العرب، ولا أدري إذا كانت قد سمعت بها أصلا تلك الأنظمة التي لم تنحدر من مثل هذه اللغة. إنها أخيرا لغة حركات التحرر والمقاومة التي تجبي ثمن الاستعمار من المستعمر. والمقاومة تراهن على أن يدفع الخصم ثمنا لا يستطيع ولا يرغب مجتمعه بدفعه، وهي تحاول أن تقيده بحيث يستخدم فقط جزءاً من قوته. هكذا تحاول المقاومة أن تحيّد التفوق العسكري. لم تغامر المقاومة، فلم يكن لها اختيار التوقيت. إسرائيل هي التي اختارت هذا التوقيت من أجل فتح معركة شاملة ضد المقاومة. ومن ضمن عوامل اختيار إسرائيل لهذا التوقيت معرفتها برد فعل بعض العرب. السياق هو إذاً عكس ما يقولون تماما. وموقفهم ذاته الذي يتهم المقاومة بالمغامرة هو من عوامل اختيار التوقيت. الى هنا التحليل العقلي. ومن هذه النقطة يحتم الموقف كلاما آخر، بنبرة أخرى. ولذلك نقول: عمليا، يتهم هؤلاء المقاومة قائلين: <لماذا اخترتم هذا التوقيت، ألم تأخذوا بعين الاعتبار أننا أنذال؟ وإذا كنتم تعرفون أننا أنذال فما هي حجتكم للقيام بعمليات بطولية في هذا الوقت بالذات؟>. لا أستطيع أن أنسى كاركاتيرا إسرائيليا عنصريا حقيرا رأيته على ملصقات على جدران حيفا في طفولتي يصور العربي كمن يطعن سكينا في الظهر... أما الكاركاتير العربي الواقعي الذي رأيته في خريف هذا العمر فيقلد الرسم الإسرائيلي عن العرب الممسك بالخنجر نفسه، مع الفرق أن السكين إسرائيلي والظهر عربي. سجّل!! سجّل أنه بدلا من أن تفك لغة المقاومة لسان بعض الأنظمة أمام إسرائيل وأميركا، وبدلا من أن تتغطى على الأقل بهذه الفرصة التي لاحت كي تحتج على الصلف والاستهتار الإسرائيليين بها، حررت أيديها لتطعن المقاومة في ظهرها. لا يفترض أن ينسى التاريخ هذا الموقف. إذ إن الشعوب لن تنساه. حاول أن تكون أمينا لذاكرة الشعوب، فهذه لن تُسقط من دفتر ملاحظاتها المقارنة بين الشعر المصبوغ والمشاعر المصبوغة وبين المقاومة المستحكمة في وجه البوارج في مدن قطعت بينها الطرق. لن تدعه الذاكرة يمر عن غزة وبيروت وصور وصيدا مرور اللئام قبل أن يقطع لها عهدا، تريد الذاكرة التي ما زالت حية ترزق عهدا منه ألا يمحو من قيده الانتقائي الفرق بين شيب متصابين يصبغون شعورهم وأطفال شابت شعورهم لمرأى أشلاء إخوتهم. سجل!! احفر في صخرك صرح هذه الألوان!! ولا تخدعنا فترسم على رمال الصحاري!! طوبى للفقراء والمساكين لأنهم سوف يرثون السماء. طوبى للمقاومين لأنهم سوف يرثون الأرض. أما الزبد فيذهب جفاء، وأما ما ينفع الناس فيمكث في الأرض. صدق الله العظيم.

طلال سلمان

لوحدك! والكل يخافك. عدوك يقاتلك فتقاتله وجهاً لوجه. أما العضاريط من القادة والصناديد من الزعماء فيخافون ويهربون من المواجهة إلى المؤامرة!

لوحدك! والكل ممّن يتحكّمون بشعوبهم فيسجنونها يرتعدون من صورتك. لقد صالحوا العدو على دمك، ولكنك تفاجئهم كل حين بأنك تتوالد من إرادة شعبك فإذا أنت كثير كثير وهم قلة، وإذا أنت قد وأدْتَ الخوف وهم يرتعدون خوفاً من عدوك قليلاً ومنك كثيراً. أنت تفضحهم فيتبرّأون منك، ولو استطاعوا لقتلوك لكنك الأقوى. إذا كنت أقوى من عدوك جبار هذه الأرض، فأينهم من قوتك؟ لوحدك! لكأنك جميعنا. أنت بأرضك وهم باعة الأراضي. أنت بأهلك وهم من غدر بأهله. كلنا فيك، بنا تقاتل، وبنا تكسر الحصار. ألست رمز إرادتنا؟ لوحدك! لكأنك كلنا. وأنت الأقوى، وهم جمع كلما تكاثروا ازدادوا وهناً. وكلما تعاظمت ثرواتهم زاد فقرهم إلى الكرامة. عبد الثروة لا أمل له بالحرية. لوحدك! لاجئ أمام مجلس الأمن. تطرق فلا يفتح لك <الضمير الدولي>. يقولون لك، إخلع وجهك! إخلع تاريخك! إخلع أرضك، إخلع كرامتك وشرفك، ثم اذهب إلى باب الخدم، وانتظر قرارنا بإعدامك! لوحدك! وهم يرطنون بالعبرية! ومَن كان في منزلة أهلك يتبرّأ منك. أتريده أن ينحاز إليك، وأنت وحدك، ويتركهم وهم القدر؟! لوحدك تطرق باب جامعة الدول العربية، فلا تجد فيها دولة واحدة، تجد سماسرة وكتبة وفرّيسيين، يرتعدون وهم يلمحون <شبحك> وكأنك الدّيان. يقول لك بعضهم من خلف سور: أي أرض أنبتتك يا مفسد اللذات! يغطون وجوههم بالعباءات الثمينة. في علمهم أنك قضيت في الغارة الأولى، وهم قد باعوا جلدك... وها أنت تحاصرهم بجبنهم وبخيانتهم لدماء شعوبهم!

By Gideon Levy

"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. "

"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."

"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. "

"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. "

Overview: Arrangements for prisoner exchanges between Arab governments and Israel date back to 1948. During the early 1980s, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Israel exchanged prisoners, the most famous of which is known as the "Jibril Deal" in May 1985. Through third-party negotiations, Israel and Hizballah carried out three prisoner exchanges starting in 1996. Attempts to secure the release of Palestinian political prisoners through negotiations often failed because Israel regularly suspended talks over prisoners or renegotiated established criteria for their release. When negotiations resulted in an agreement, Israel ignored deadlines for the releases, released nonpolitical prisoners and claimed it had fulfilled its obligations, or simply dismissed agreements.

Israeli-Hizballah Prisoner Exchanges

To date, there have been three prisoner exchange deals between Israel and Hizballah, the details of which follow.

In July 1996, Hizballah released the remains of two Israeli soldiers, Joseph Fink and Rahamim Alsheich, in exchange for the remains of 123 Lebanese soldiers. On the same day, Hizballah released 25 members of the South Lebanon Army (SLA), an army loyal to Israel. In exchange the SLA released 25 Lebanese prisoners from the Khima Prison in south Lebanon.

In June 1998, Hizballah returned the remains of Sergeant First Class Itamar Ilya in exchange for the remains of 40 Hizballah soldiers, among them the body of Hizballah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah's son who was killed in 1997. The deal also included the release of Lebanese prisoners. The bodies of the Hizballah soldiers were transported by a French aircraft.

In January 2004, in the largest prisoner exchange, Israel released a total of 436 prisoners including 400 Palestinians; 23 Lebanese; two Syrians; three Moroccans; three Sudanese; a Libyan; and a German Muslim. Israel also returned the remains of 59 Lebanese soldiers. Israel received the remains of three Israel soldiers and the release of Elhanan Tennenbaum who Hizballah claimed was an Israeli intelligence officer. Sheikh Abdel Kareem Obaid, who Israel kidnapped from Lebanese territory in 1989, and Sheikh Mustafa Dirani, kidnapped in 1994, were among those released by Israel in exchange for its three soldiers and intelligence officer.

Israeli-PLO Prisoner Exchanges

The most famous prisoner swap between Israel and the PLO was in May 1985. In exchange for three Israeli soldiers held by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Israel released 1,150 Palestinian political prisoners. Among them was Fateh activist Jibril Rajoub who, under the Oslo Accords with Israel, established and headed the powerful West Bank branch of the Palestinian Preventive Security force and forged strong security arrangements with Israel. The exchange was called the "Jibril Deal."

Jordanian and U.S. Intervention

In an assassination attempt on Hamas' Damascus-based Khaled Mashaal in September 1997, the Israeli Mossad, under orders from Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu injected Mashaal who was living in Jordan at the time with a toxic substance. Two Mossad agents were arrested and the Israeli covert action was revealed. Jordan's King Hussein demanded the antidote and Israel, after pressure from U.S. President Bill Clinton, provided the antidote. In exchange for the two Mossad agents, Israel released Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the founder and spiritual leader of Hamas who was serving a life sentence in Israel. Israel assassinated Yassin in the Gaza Strip in 2004.

Israel and Hamas

About twelve years before Hamas' 25 June 2006 capture of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit in Gaza, Israeli soldier Nachshon Wachsman was taken prisoner in October 1994. Like today, Israel said it would not negotiate a release with Hamas. Then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin decided on a military option to free the Israeli soldier. The Israeli commando raid on a house in Bir Nabala near Jerusalem not only left the Hamas captors dead but with them Wachsman.Hamas has demanded the release of all female and minor Palestinian prisoners held by Israel in exchange for Shalit.

Palestinian Political Prisoners

According to the Ramallah-based Mandela Institute for Human Rights, there are 9,600 Palestinian political prisoners in Israeli jails and detention centers, among them 130 Palestinian women. Defense for Children International puts the number of Palestinian children in Israeli custody at 388.

According to a recent poll by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center (JMCC), 69 percent of Palestinians insist on an exchange for Shalit's release. The high support for a prisoner exchange stems from the sensitivity of the prisoner issue within Palestinian society. The vast majority of Palestinians have been directly or indirectly affected by Israel's policy of arbitrary or blanket arrests and hold deep resentment for political violations of their leaders' authority and autonomy.

Israel's imprisonment and detention of Palestinians is an example of its failure to abide by international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention. Administrative detentions, imprisonment without due process and imprisonment inside Israel are both illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention.

Furthermore, Palestinian prisoners are routinely tortured by Israel and held in detention centers and prisons that do not meet the minimum international standards and are routinely denied visitation rights by their legal representation and family members. The vast majority of Palestinian prisoners are held without trial. According to Amnesty International, the trials that do take place often fall short of international fair trial standards.

Israel's failure to release Palestinian political prisoners and its continued arbitrary arrest of Palestinian civilians serves only to highlight Israel's belief that it is above the law and that the Palestinians are beneath it.

Samar Assad is the Executive Director of The Palestine Center. This information brief may be used without permission but with proper attribution to the Center. The above text does not necessarily reflect the views of The Jerusalem Fund.

Israel's response to its soldiers' capture is part of a hamfisted attempt to redraw the region's map

By Amal Saad-Ghorayeb in Beirut
07/15/06 "The Guardian"

The capture of three Israeli soldiers by the Lebanese resistance movement, Hizbullah, to bargain for prisoner exchange should come as no surprise - least of all to Israel, which must bear its own responsibility for the abductions and is using this conflict to pursue its wider strategic aims.

The prisoners Hizbullah wants released are hostages who were taken on Lebanese soil. In the successful prisoner exchange in 2004, Israel held on to three Lebanese detainees as bargaining chips and to keep the battle front with Hizbullah open. These detentions have become a cause celebre in Lebanon. In a recent poll, efforts to effect their release attracted majority support, much more even than the liberation of Shebaa Farms, the disputed corridor of land between Syria and Lebanon still occupied by Israel.

The domestic significance of these hostages is ignored by those who choose to reduce the abductions to an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Indeed Israel's media are aware of recent attempts to capture soldiers, including a botched attempt a few months ago in which three Hizbullah fighters were killed. Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, confirmed the attack took five months to plan. Its timing was probably a coincidence. It would seem, though, Hizbullah exerts some influence over the fighters in Gaza - those who captured Corporal Shalit were at the very least inspired by Hizbullah.

The regional significance of the abductions has also been misconstrued. To suggest Hizbullah attacked on the orders of Tehran and Damascus is to grossly oversimplify a strong strategic and ideological relationship. Historically there has been an overlap of interests between Syria, Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas. Together they form a strategic axis - the "axis of terror" to Israel - that confronts US-Israeli designs to redraw the map of the region.

But the nature of that relationship has changed much over the years. Since Syrian forces left Lebanon, Hizbullah has become the stronger party. It has never allowed any foreign power to dictate its military strategy.

It is ironic, given Israel's bombing of civilian targets in Beirut, that Hizbullah is often dismissed in the west as a terrorist organisation. In fact its military record is overwhelmingly one of conflict with Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory. This is just an example of the way that the west employs an entirely different definition of terrorism to the one used in the Arab world and elsewhere, where there is a recognition that terrorism can come in many forms.

The attempt to frame Hizbullah as a terrorist organisation is very far from political reality in Lebanon, from public opinion across the Arab and Islamic world, and from international law.

Israel's disproportionate response to the soldiers' capture will have an impact on Lebanese domestic policy. Hizbullah has recently proposed a comprehensive national defence strategy; the Lebanese government has yet to come up with anything similarly convincing. If demands for a prisoner exchange are successful then it shows that what Hizbullah would term the logic of resistance is the most effective defence strategy. Israel's escalation has been a poor PR exercise. Even if it succeeds in showing the Lebanese people that Hizbullah can be a liability, this may well be cancelled out by Israel's own aggression, which will only confirm Hizbullah's repeated warnings of the constant threat posed by Israel.

Amal Saad-Ghorayeb is assistant professor of political science at the Lebanese-America University. - a.sghorayeb@gmail.com

"The Independent"
07/16/06

It will be called the massacre of Marwaheen. All the civilians killed by the Israelis had been ordered to abandon their homes in the border village by the Israelis themselves a few hours earlier. Leave, they were told by loudspeaker; and leave they did, 20 of them in a convoy of civilian cars. That's when the Israeli jets arrived to bomb them, killing 20 Lebanese, at least nine of them children. The local fire brigade could not put out the fires as they all burned alive in the inferno.

Jewish state must come to terms with demographics
By SAREE MAKDISI
July 15, 2006

The civilian infrastructure — notably Beirut International Airport — was the first target of the attack that Israel unleashed on Lebanon in response to the capture of two Israeli soldiers this week.

This mimicks Israel's earlier assaults on the essentially defenseless population of the Gaza Strip. Israeli missiles destroyed Gaza's only power plant, depriving half the population of electricity for the hot summer months (no fans, no fridges, no light after sunset). Israeli interdictions severely disrupted supplies of food, fuel, medicines and water. Midnight air raids, artillery bombardments, and sleep deprivation are taking a psychological toll, particularly on young children.

Israel is, in short, now punishing more than a million men, women and children in Gaza for a Palestinian guerrilla attack on an Israeli army post (an obviously military target), and the entire population of Lebanon for a Hezbollah attack on Israeli troops on its northern border.

As Israel lashes out indiscriminately, mocking international law, U.S. government officials and prominent pundits have expressed sympathy — not for the victims of these attacks, but for their perpetrators. Moreover, much of the arsenal that Israel uses against Lebanese and Palestinians is American, including the armored bulldozers it uses to crush homes, the missiles recklessly fired into crowded neighborhoods and the gunships that launch them.

Such support tarnishes U.S. standing in a strategically vital region of the world. More and more Americans realize that we pay a price for Israel's abuses — and receive nothing in return.
What we most urgently need to know is that the tragedy now unfolding in Gaza is not merely one more episode in a supposed "cycle of violence" (which implies proportionality), let alone a genuine military contest (for only one side has an army).

But if the current Israeli attacks are utterly disproportionate to their alleged provocations, that is because far more is at stake than Palestinian pinpricks. What is happening in Gaza is an expression of Israel's political vision.

Israeli politicians speak openly of that vision (indeed, the current Israeli government won recent elections with a pledge to fulfill it): the consolidation of a state with a Jewish majority in a land in which barely half the population is actually Jewish.

There is no way to implement such a program without violence. That was the case in 1948, when half of Palestine's non-Jewish population was driven into flight — never to be allowed to return — in order for a Jewish state to be created on what had been Palestinians' land. And it is the case today, as Israel seeks to forcibly isolate the land's remaining non-Jewish population into barren islands cut off from each other and the rest of the world.

Gaza is only one of these islands. The others are in the West Bank which, with Gaza and east Jerusalem, are what remained of Palestine after it was dismembered in 1948 — only to be captured by Israel in 1967.

Jerusalem is already off limits to most Palestinians. Israel has broken the West Bank into three separate cantons. A grid of roadblocks further fragments each canton internally. Israel's separation barrier only adds to the fragmentation, as do a road network barred to Palestinians — and a sprawling array of illegal Jewish settlements — whose annexation to Israel, while bypassing areas of indigenous, non-Jewish population, is Israel's objective.

Israel claims to hold the Palestinian "government" accountable for the raid on its Gaza outpost. But this archipelago of besieged territories does not — and it will never — amount to a "state." It is designed to be a collection of open-air holding cells for the land's non-Jewish population: spaces to detain them, isolate them from health-care, educational and infrastructural services, deny them access to land, resources and markets, until they either die or simply give up and go away. Gaza's suffocation over the past year illustrates this perfectly.

Each departing Palestinian will be triumphantly checked off the tally by Israeli demographers like Arnon Sofer who, anxiously monitoring what they unabashedly call the "demographic threat" to their country, obsessively calculate ratios of Jews to non-Jews.

Lacking an army, Palestinians do not pose a material challenge to Israel. They pose an ideological challenge. Raids like the one on the Gaza outpost remind Israelis that the Palestinians will not go away; this is why Israel cannot tolerate them.

Israel's announcement that it now intends to create by force a depopulated "security zone" in northern Gaza is eerily reminiscent of its futile attempt to enforce such a zone in southern Lebanon. Israel's northern border fell silent — not when it had finally used enough violence against Lebanon — but when it decided to end its illegal military occupation of Lebanese territory. That lesson has apparently been forgotten already, as Israel again holds an entire country hostage.

The same principle applies to Gaza. Israel's use of overwhelming force against civilian targets shows that it still fails to understand that occupation begets resistance — and that peace for Israelis is inseparable from justice for Palestinians.

These are lessons that Americans should learn as well.

Makdisi, a nephew of the late pro-Palestinian activist and writer Edward Said, is a professor of English and Comparative Literature at UCLA. He is a frequent commentator on the Middle East.