Palestinian Pundit

Fatima Jadallah, 55, killed by Israeli bullets while in her own home in Rafah Refugee Camp























Even coffee shops were targeted
Damage in Rafah

Children running to an UNRWA school

Right now in Rafah, I have seen people and children who had been bleeding for 12 hours, laying on the ground, while ambulances are no longer able to evacuate their bodies. The attack is still ongoing in the last 15 hours and so far more than 12 people were killed and over 40 were injured. the attack is still going on up till now, and the numbers of victims is increasing minute by minute. People in Rafah are appealing to the world and all humans who have hearts and mind to stop Israeli from killing and targeting people inside their houses.
Rafah has turned into a hell as a result of the incursion which seems to be a very heavy with a number of 70 tanks and bulldozers as well as the Israeli helicopters and F16s hovering allover the night and bombing all related to humans.
No water, no electricity in most of the areas in Rafah, as most of the families have evacuated to the schools runs by UNRWA in Rafah refugee camp, but so far and the number of the victims is increasing and many of the people whom injured and killed where very close to Abu Yousef Al Najjar hospital, which is the only hospital and when it comes not to be safe for a medical worker to get into the area or a journalist to get into the spot, then here we can say that this is the end of the most democratic country in the world!

"Thousands of people marched in Britain, South Africa and Egypt Saturday to protest the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, some demanding an immediate halt to the fighting and others pressing for sanctions against Israel.

Police in London said 20,000 people joined a march past the U.S. Embassy to Parliament. Organizers — a coalition of peace, Muslim, Palestinian and Lebanese groups — put the turnout at more than 100,000.
"There should be an immediate cease-fire," said Jeremy Corbyn, a lawmaker from British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party, adding "the government's line is incomprehensibly wrong."

In South Africa, thousands marched through Cape Town to Parliament to demand sanctions against Israel.
Demonstrators carried pictures of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Some carried posters declaring, "Israel the new Nazis."
Protesters urged the South African government to recall its ambassador from Israel and sever diplomatic ties, impose trade sanctions, and prosecute South Africans who serve in the Israeli defense force.

More than 2000 people marched in downtown Cairo, demanding authorities allow them to fight in Lebanon, police said. The protest was organized by Egypt's banned, but tolerated, main opposition Muslim Brotherhood and the Lawyers Syndicate, the national attorneys' union."

By PETER BOUCKAERT

"Israel's claims about pin-point strikes and proportionate responses are pure fantasy. As a researcher for Human Rights Watch, I've documented civilian deaths from bombing campaigns in Kosovo and Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq. But these usually occur when there is some indication of military targeting: high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's regime present in a house just before it is hit, for example, or an attack against militants that causes the collateral deaths of many civilians.

In Lebanon, it's a different scene. Time after time, Israel has hit civilian homes and cars in the southern border zone, killing dozens of people with no evidence of any military objective.

Not only has Israel failed to distinguish between military and civilian targets; its own officials suggest that they have decided any civilian still in the south is fair game. Last week, Justice Minister Haim Ramon reportedly said, "All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah.""

Tony Blair's Mad Speech About Iraq

By PATRICK COCKBURN

"Dear Prime Minister,

I was astonished, reading your speech on the Middle East delivered to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on August 1, to find all the traits of those insane letter writers. There is even the same mad person's obsessive capitalization. In the complex crises in the Middle East and beyond you say you see primarily 'a struggle between what I will call Reactionary Islam and Moderate, Mainstream Islam.' Your vision is an apocalyptic one. You see 'an elemental struggle about values' and it turns out that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq 'were not just about changing regimes but changing value systems. The banner was not actually "regime change" it was "values change."'

Traditional Islam is growing stronger in Sunni Iraq because it has shown that it can fight the foreign invader in a way that secular nationalists, like Saddam Hussein, demonstrably failed. Among the Shia it is the followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, the nationalist cleric, who won 30 seats in the Iraqi parliament. The political success stories in Iraq are of those who combine Islam, nationalism and an ability to fight. The US, with Britain trotting along behind, may soon find it embroiled in a war with the 15-16 million strong Shia community in Iraq as well as with the Sunni. "

Boycott Now!

By VIRGINIA TILLEY
Johannesburg, South Africa.

"It is finally time. After years of internal arguments, confusion, and dithering, the time has come for a full-fledged international boycott of Israel. Good cause for a boycott has, of course, been in place for decades, as a raft of initiatives already attests. But Israel's war crimes are now so shocking, its extremism so clear, the suffering so great, the UN so helpless, and the international community's need to contain Israel's behavior so urgent and compelling, that the time for global action has matured. A coordinated movement of divestment, sanctions, and boycotts against Israel must convene to contain not only Israel's aggressive acts and crimes against humanitarian law but also, as in South Africa, its founding racist logics that inspired and still drive the entire Palestinian problem.

That second goal of the boycott campaign is indeed the primary one. Calls for a boycott have long cited specific crimes: Israel's continual attacks on Palestinian civilians; its casual disdain for the Palestinian civilian lives "accidentally" destroyed in its assassinations and bombings; its deliberate ruin of the Palestinians' economic and social conditions; its continuing annexation and dismemberment of Palestinian land; its torture of prisoners; its contempt for UN resolutions and international law; and especially, its refusal to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. But the boycott cannot target these practices alone. It must target their ideological source."

By Robert Fisk

"In fact, one of the most profound changes in the region these past three decades has been the growing unwillingness of Arabs to be afraid. Their leaders - our "moderate" pro-Western Arab leaders such as King Abdullah of Jordan and President Mubarak of Egypt - may be afraid. But their peoples are not. And once a people have lost their terror, they cannot be re-injected with fear. Thus Israel's consistent policy of smashing Arabs into submission no longer works. It is a policy whose bankruptcy the Americans are now discovering in Iraq.

And all across the Muslim world, "we" - the West, America, Israel - are fighting not nationalists but Islamists. And watching the martyrdom of Lebanon this week - its slaughtered children in Qana packed into plastic bags until the bags ran out and their corpses had to be wrapped in carpets - a terrible and daunting thought occurs to me, day by day. That there will be another 9/11. "

Saturday August 5, 2006
The Guardian

Almost two years ago, Emma Brockes spoke to liberal Britons the morning after George Bush's re-election and found a collective sense of foreboding and depression. Now, she asks, have our worst fears come to pass?

"The surprising thing is that any of this has come as a surprise. The day after George Bush was elected for a second term, all those who had been rooting for the other guy (who was it, again?) predicted that the world as we knew it was shortly to end. It was comforting, in a gothic sort of way, to throw oneself around like Sybil Thorndike and imagine just how bad things were going to get. "The one consolation," a friend of mine emailed at the time, "is that he [Bush] will screw things up so badly in the next four years that the Democrats will move back into favour. That's if we still have a world."

Biblical prophesy sites have been quick to jump on the Israel/Lebanon crisis as a realisation of Thessalonians 5:3 ("While people are saying, 'Peace and safety,' destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape ...") and the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39. They must be the only people actively enjoying the situation. "Got that dancing feeling on the inside of me," posts one contributor to the Rapture Ready website, an outfit dedicated to scouring world events for signs of the second coming. Its talkboards are in a state of high excitement at the moment. "This is the busiest I've ever seen this website in a few years!" posts one contributor. "I have been having rapture dreams and I can't believe that this is really it! We are on the edge of eternity!!!!!!!"

These are strange times and the fact that everyone claimed to see them coming in 2004 hasn't made them any easier to deal with. It occasionally feels as if magnetic flip is taking place, the process of polar reversal that happens every 300 millennia or so when north becomes south and south north, and birds fly into buildings and people with pacemakers keel over in the street. What can you do? For the past 10 years I have taken William L Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich on holiday and for the first time, last week, I actually thought about reading it. (I didn't, obviously.) As multiple wars on multiple fronts drag on, you try to initiate a cycle of response that reminds you there are things to be grateful for; the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo going off without violence, for example, and Mel Gibson self-detonating. You reassure yourself that, as in all cycles of history, this one will come to an end, too. Then you remember that the man in charge of writing the ending is George Bush, and you have to start again."

The Guardian

· Hizbullah emerges as symbol of resistance
· Anger at Israel's actions unites Shias and Sunnis

"It was organised by Artists and Writers for Change, a liberal movement which campaigns for reform in Egypt. Its members, who include Youssef Chahine Egypt's foremost film director, are precisely the type of "mainstream" people that Tony Blair was pinning his hopes on earlier this week as a bulwark against extremism. As a result of the bombing of Lebanon they are now venting their wrath against Israel and the US and waving Hizbullah flags.

Whatever qualms Arabs once had about Hizbullah they have since been dissipated by Israel's attacks, the hundreds of deaths, the sight of up to a quarter of the Lebanese population fleeing their homes, and especially the bombing of UN observers and the massacre at Qana.

Other Arab governments including Egypt and Saudi Arabia - have also toughened their stance but this cuts little ice with many of the demonstrators."Egypt! Jordan! Saudi Arabia! Nasrallah has bested you all," they chanted in the Cairo square on Thursday. Hizbullah's defiance was contrasted favourably with the somnolence of Arab regimes. "The Arab world has changed," Mr Almaeena said. "It has a new breed of young people ... They will not put up with the same old status quo. The political scene in the Arab world is changing too. In a few years there will be those who will resist even more. ""

REAL THING

" Hezbollah's sophisticated anti-tank missiles are perhaps the guerrilla group's deadliest weapon in Lebanon fighting, with their ability to pierce Israel's most advanced tanks.

In the last two days alone, these missiles have killed seven soldiers and damaged three Israeli-made Merkava tanks – mountains of steel that are vaunted as symbols of Israel's military might, the army said. Israeli media say most of the 44 soldiers killed in four weeks of fighting were hit by anti-tank missiles. "

"DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Seventy-seven-year-old Mona Muzaber lights a candle for Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah at the Orthodox Church of the Cross in the center of Damascus.
"I love him. I never felt Nasrallah was a religious zealot. He is a patriot who doesn't seek personal gain," she said. "I light a candle daily for him to remain under God's protection."

Israel's offensive against Lebanon has brought Christians in neighboring Syria closer to Nasrallah, a Shi'ite Muslim, reviving Arab nationalist feelings and blurring sectarian divisions.

Bishops and priests say Syria's Christians, a devout community of around three million out of a population of 18 million, identify strongly with Nasrallah's battle with Israel, which has occupied Syria's Golan Heights since 1967.

"Pray for the resistance, pray for Hassan Nasrallah. He is defending justice," Father Elias Zahlawi told the congregation at special mass held at the Lady of Damascus, a Catholic church."

At a recent Palestine Center briefing, experts analyzed the current developments in the Middle East and addressed the root causes of the conflict. Halim Barakat explained the historical context which allowed for the eruption of the recent events and Laurie King-Irani discussed the meaning of democracy, terrorism and international law. Sam Husseini pointed out that the media could do a better job in informing the public of the events in the Middle East and Jim Lobe analyzed U.S. Foreign Policy toward the Middle East since 9/11.

Damascus has effectively cooperated with Washington on terrorism, says Syria's ambassador.

By Imad Moustapha
IMAD MOUSTAPHA is the Syrian ambassador to the United States.


"Gone are the days when U.S. special envoys to the Middle East would spend hours, if not days, with Syrian officials brainstorming, discussing, negotiating and looking for creative solutions leading to a compromise or settlement. Instead, this administration follows the Bolton Doctrine: There is no need to talk to Syria, because Syria knows what it needs to do. End of the matter."

Hanady sent this:

"Here. The 30 something workers killed today in qaa, in the bekaa, on the border with Homs Syria. They had just finished collecting apples, packing them to be put on board of a truck , and they were having lunch. The israeli wasted 2 air strikes on them. The first one hit some of them . The others gathered to try and help out the wounded and take the dead bodies out . Israel loves to kill those who help others. Israel loves to kill poor people. They're its favorite target , second best if you count kids."

SHOCKING AND AWFUL!

By Patrick Seale

"In a word of wise advice to pig-headed political leaders, Denis Healey, a former British Defense Secretary, used to say, "When you're in a hole, stop digging!" The United States and Israel are in a deep and dangerous hole. They urgently need to stop digging before the hole swallows them up.

They are fighting, and losing, on three fronts - Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. It seems that this is not enough for the more insane and hysterical among them who are clamoring to extend the war to Syria and Iran, and to the whole of what they like to call the "Islamo-Fascist" world. Israel denies it is involved in the Iraq war. But, in fact, it is as much part of that conflict as the United States is now part of the wars in Lebanon and Palestine. Israel participated in the strategic planning for the Iraq War, which was designed to remove any threat to it from the east. Its neocon friends in Washington egged on America and fabricated the phony intelligence which persuaded a gullible President that smashing Iraq was necessary for America's security. "

آية الله فضل الله يحذر من اي انجرار نحو فتنة تلبي اهداف سفير واشنطن: حرب المقاومة ضد حرب اميركا واسرائيل ستمتد الى العالمين العربي والاسلامي
04/08/2006
ألقى آية الله السيد محمد حسين فضل الله خطبة صلاة الجمعة، أكد فيها "ان المقاومة التي تحمل قرار النصر او الشهادة سوف تستكمل افشال حرب الابادة الاميريكية - الاسرائيلية، محذرا من اي انجرار نحو فتنة مذهبية او طائفية داخلية، تلبي اهداف سفير واشنطن في لبنان". ودعا الشعوب العربية والاسلامية و حكوماتها الى مؤازرة شعبي لبنان وفلسطين ومما جاء في خطبته السياسية: "انها الحرب الاميركية التي لا يزال الرئيس الاميركي واعضاء ادارته مصرون عليها، وكأنهم لم يرتوا بعد من دماء اطفال لبنان و نساءه و شيوخه، ولم يشبعوا من لحومهم، كما لو كان اللبنانيون بنظر هذا الرئيس وادارته من الهنود الحمر الذين كان الجنود الاميركيون يصطادونهم كما يصطادون الارانب. انها حرب اميركا على لبنان بصفتها جزءا من حرب اشمل، او على الاقل بكونها خطوة مهمة نحو احياء مشروع الشرق الاوسط الكبير او الموسع الذي تعثر في العراق او تعويض خسائرها النسبية في بلاد ما بين النهرين، عبر ربح دولا اخرى تعمل الادارة الاميركية لكي يكون لبنان اول حبة في عنقودها.

Former Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith is claiming President George W. Bush was unaware that there were two major sects of Islam just two months before the President ordered troops to invade Iraq, RAW STORY has learned.

In his new book, The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created A War Without End, Galbraith, the son of the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith, claims that American leadership knew very little about the nature of Iraqi society and the problems it would face after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

A year after his “Axis of Evil” speech before the U.S. Congress, President Bush met with three Iraqi Americans, one of whom became postwar Iraq’s first representative to the United States. The three described what they thought would be the political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. During their conversation with the President, Galbraith claims, it became apparent to them that Bush was unfamiliar with the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.

Galbraith reports that the three of them spent some time explaining to Bush that there are two different sects in Islam--to which the President allegedly responded, “I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!”

BEIRUT — Endangered turtles die shortly after hatching from their eggs. Fish float dead off the coast. Flaming oil sends waves of black smoke toward the city.

In this country of Mediterranean beaches and snow-capped mountains, Israeli bombing that caused an oil spill has created an environmental disaster. And cleanup can't start until the fighting stops, the United Nations said.

World attention has focused on the hundreds of people who have died in the three-week-old conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The environmental damage has attracted little attention but experts warn the long-term effects could be devastating.

Jonathan Steele in Tyre
The Guardian

"Hizbullah's victory may do less damage to Israel than to other Arab regimes. The success of a Shia insurgency will encourage other Shias around the region, including those in Saudi Arabia. To the consternation of his American protectors, Iraq's Shia prime minister, Nuri al- Maliki, did not condemn Hizbullah. But the Sunni/Shia issue should not be exaggerated. Hizbullah's appeal across the Arab world is a wider matter of Islamism and the struggle against corrupt despotism. Egypt and, to a lesser extent, Jordan - and even in the medium term Syria, which has backed and armed Hizbullah - will feel the shockwaves running through the Arab street."

BEIRUT - Israel's bombing of key highway bridges in northern Lebanon and strikes at a Hizbollah stronghold in south Beirut paralysed United Nations aid convoys on Friday, but other aid continued to arrive by air and sea.

Air strikes against four bridges on the main coastal highway linking Beirut to Syria stalled an eight-truck convoy carrying 150 tonnes of relief and cut what the United Nations called its "umbilical cord" for aid supplies.

The bridge at Maameltein, just north of Beirut, was split along its centre by a huge crater which partially engulfed the crushed shell of a minivan. Further north, another bridge lay stretched out in the valley it once spanned.

"The whole road is gone," said Astrid van Genderen Stort, senior information officer for the UNHCR refugee agency.

"It's really a major setback because we used this highway to move staff and supplies into the country."

The U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) called off planned convoys southwards to the port city of Tyre and Rashidiyeh after air strikes on a southern Beirut suburb prevented drivers from reaching the convoys' departure point.

[click here to keep reading]

Israeli authorities have sentenced an army officer to 28 days in a military prison for refusing to serve in the ongoing Israeli campaign in Lebanon.

32-year-old Reserve Captain Amir Paster, an infantry officer and student at Tel Aviv University, is the first Israeli soldier to be punished for refusing to serve in the current conflict and has received harsh criticism from the Israeli military for setting what it termed a bad example for his troops.

According to the soldier support group Yesh Gvul ("There Is a Limit"), Paster refused to serve on the grounds that Israeli operations were harming civilians, declaring at his trial "taking part in this war runs contrary to the values upon which he was brought up."

[click here to continue reading]

By Jim Lobe
Asia Times

"Not only is Washington's thus far staunch support for Israel losing Arab "hearts and minds" at an astonishing pace, but the "moderate" governments and non-governmental forces the administration had hoped would act as catalysts for reform are increasingly isolated across the region, according to Middle East specialists.

"I have never seen the United States being so demonized or savaged by Arab commentators, by Arab politicians," Hisham Melham, veteran Washington correspondent for Lebanon's An-Nahar newspaper, told a conference this week at the Brookings Institution, an influential think-tank.

"People are clinging to Hezbollah, clinging to Hamas, because they see them as the remaining voices or forces in the Arab world that are resisting what they see as an ongoing hegemonic American-Israeli plan to control the region," he said.

Shibley Telhami, an expert on Arab public opinion at the University of Maryland, observed at the same meeting, "Right now, the United States is the kiss of death."

PCHR is dismayed by the role of the European Union Monitors at the Rafah Crossing, which contributes in imposing collective punishment of the civilian population.The Centre calls upon these monitors to respect the rights of the Gaza Strip population to travel through the Rafah Crossing. The Centre calls upon the monitors to return immediately to the Crossing to reopen it for travel. Continued.

BEIRUT: Hizbullah's leader offered Thursday to stop pounding Israel's "northern settlements" if the Jewish state refrained from bombarding Lebanon's "cities and civilians." Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also issued a warning, however, in a televised speech: "Let my words be clear,
Hizbullah bombarding the Zionist entity's capital, TelAviv."In an almost immediate response aired on Israeli public television, a senior military official said Israel would destroy all of Lebanon's infrastructure if Tel Aviv were hit."We are ready to keep the whole thing restricted to a military fight with the Israeli Army," Nasrallah said, "on the ground, fighters to fighters."

But Israel dropped leaflets over the southern suburb of Beirut, warning residents of Bir al-Abed, Hay Madi and Al-Ruweiss to evacuate their homes. Nasrallah also refuted the Israeli claim that it had carved out a "security zone" by taking up positions "in or near 11 towns and villages in South Lebanon." An Israeli Army spokesperson said Thursday Israel was creating a new defensive line estimated at 6 to 8 kilometers inside Lebanon. This new zone would be comparable to the area it held until the pullout from Lebanon in May 2000. Three weeks into the conflict, about 10,000 Israeli troops are believed to be inside Lebanon."Our fight with the Israeli Army is based on the tactic of street fights against an organized army. This means we hit and run without holding our positions," Nasrallah said."The Israelis claimed they had heavy clashes with our fighters resulting in the taking over of a Hizbullah post in the southern town of al-Abbad. The truth is ourfighters had left the post when the aggression first started three weeks ago. I don't know with whom the Israelis had heavy clashes there." Nasrallah also described Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert as "an incompetent moron." Continued

As Israeli ground troops flood into southern Lebanon in abid to create a buffer zone to protect its territory fromrocket attacks, some military analysts believe Israel hasmade the same mistakes as the US in Iraq. They say itsfocus on high-technology warfare and tactical advantagehas led it to underestimate the strategic importance ofpublic opinion. Continued

TYRE -- A stinging odour hangs over the Palestinian refugeecamp of Bass, at the entrance to the southern Lebanesecity of Tyre, the chosen site for a mass grave for thedozens of victims of Israel's blistering bombardment ofthe area.

"Tyre has now become the morgue for the whole region,"says Tyre's mayor Abdel Mohsen Husseini bitterly. OnWednesday afternoon, 26 corpses of civilians killed byIsraeli bombardments were pulled out of a truck in thetown square at the entrance of Bass, where thousands ofPalestinian refugees live. Continued.

"I don't want to die. I want to go to school," says Jamal,a four-year-old Lebanese boy scarred by the Israelibombing of his country. Home for Jamal is now a"displacement centre" in the southern town of Jezzine,where his family fled in fear for their lives. Continued.

What to do when a militant Islamic group lobs rockets and graps some of your soldiers? Great cartoon (Flash) by Mark Fiore. Click here to watch it.

The following is a summary of the main points of a speech made by the Hizbullah leader, Shaikh Hasssan Nassrullah, which was aired by Al-Manar TV and several TV stations around the world today, Augsust 3, 2006.

I. Battlefield:

1. Hizbullah resistance fighters are still fighting the Israeli invading forces all over south Lebanon after 23 days of hostilities. This has been the real surprise for the Israeli leaders who expected to occupy south Lebanon and destroy Hizbullah in few days.

2. Hizbullah destroyed two Israeli naval warships, one off Beirut coast, the other off Saida coast. On both cases, Israelis denied the Hizbullah story. The first one was later confirmed. The Israelis are still in denial to hide the facts from their people about the second.

3. Hizbullah fighters follow a guerilla warfare. They do not keep geographical territory. Their goal is attacking the enemy quickly, then disappearing quickly, so the war can last forever or until the enemy leave south Lebanon.

4. Hizbullah's arsenal of rockets and missiles is intact as it was demonstrated yesterday (over 300 rockets and missiles on northern and central occupied Palestine) and also today.

5. Hizbullah's command and control over fighters and rocket launching units is intact, as evidenced in the two-day halt then the resumption starting from yesterday.

II. Threat to Target Tel Aviv with Long-Range Missiles

In reaction to today's Israeli threat to bomb Beirut, Nassrullah announced a counter-threat that Hizbullah will attack Tel Aviv with long-range Khaiber missiles if Beirut is attacked by Israeli warplanes. So far, Israelis left north Israel and took shelter in Tel Aviv. Now, Israelis have to leave Tel Aviv, if their leadership decides to escalate its aggression to include Beirut.

The rest of Nassrullah's speech will be updated shortly about the following points:

III. Two Israeli Great Achievements

In a sarcastic style, Shaikh Hassan Nassrullah said that he had to admit two Israeli great achievements.

First, they were capable to kill scores of civilians in Qana, most of them were women and children. He said that the Israelis said it was a mistake in information. He questioned that explanation saying what about the hundreds of civilians killed everywhere in Lebanon? He gave his explanation saying that this has been a deliberate Israel tactic to influence the morale of the Hizbullah resistance fighters as they see their families being massacred. What the Israelis don't know is that their war crimes against civilians increase the determination of the resistance fighters to defeat them.

The second disgraceful achievement of the Israelis was their air raid on Ba'albeck, in which they attacked the Dar El-Hikmah Hospital, following another wrong intelligence information that it was used as a Hizbullah command and control center. They were wrong and stupid. The hospital was empty because Hizbullah expected such an attack or an air raid on all Hizbullah facilities.

To maximize their stupidity, Nassrullah added, the Israeli acted on another wrong intelligence information. They attacked a house in Ba'albek owned by an elderly man called Hassan Nassrullah. They took him and other relatives as hostages with them. The Israeli raid was a perfect example about how much ignorant Israelis are to the extent of kidnapping a man and several members of his family just because of a name similarity with the Hizbullah leader, Hassan Nassrullah.

IV. Why did Olmert Start the War, Instead of Negotiating a Prisoner Swap?

Nassrullah said that the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, suffers from an inferiority complex because he is not a military general, like his mentor Sharon. He wanted to prove that he has the same credentials of killing Arabs and destroying their cities like Sharon, instead of just negotiating a swap of war prisoners, like Sharon also did.

Nassrullah added that Olmert, Peres, and General Halutz lied to the Israeli people and are still lying to them. After 23 days of war on Lebanon, they haven't been able to free the two captured soldiers and they haven't been able to stop the Hizbullah rocket and missile attacks despite all their mighty military machine. He vowed that no return of the soldiers or halt in rocket and missile attacks without mutual ceasefire and negotiations.

V. A Word for the Israeli People

For the Israeli people, Nassrullah said that their leaders are lying to them. The war was unwarranted. They could have negotiated the release of the two soldiers, like they did before but they were encouraged to start the war by the Bush administration, which has its own agenda.

He promised the Israelis that if their leaders stop air raids on Lebanon, Hizbullah will stop its rocket and missile attacks on Israel, limiting the fighting to the south Lebanon region between Israeli ground troops and Hizbullah resistance fighters. But if their leaders continue their criminal air strikes on Lebanon, the Hizbullah missile attacks will continue and increase to include Tel Aviv from now on.

VI. Role of the Bush Administration (Bush, Rice, Chenney, Rumsfeld)

Nassrullah said that the Bush administration allowed the Israeli leaders to continue their air raids on the Lebanese for the last week, after they blocked international efforts to stop the war in the Rome and UN meetings.

As a result, the Bush administration (Bush, Rice, Chenney, and Rumsfeld) are responsible for the blood of the Lebanese children and women, which was shed in Qana and all over Lebanon ever since. They are as guilty as Olmert, Peres, and Halutz for the massacres of the Lebanese civilians.

Then, addressing the Israelis, he said that the Bush administration will not provide you with the help you wish for simply because it cannot help itself, as it is bogged in its endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

VII. A Word for Arab Rulers

Nassrullah also addressed the Arab rulers, particularly those who criticized the Hizbullah military operation, which resulted in the capture of the Israeli soldiers to swap them with the Lebanese prisoners in Israeli prisons.

He said that they need to help Lebanon and stand by Hizbullah, not for Hizbullah's sake but for the sake of what's remaining of their humanity. He added that they need to do it for the sake of their chairs and thrones because the Bush-Olmert New Middle East will destroy their countries and partition them on ethnic and sectarian lines, like what they are doing in Iraq.

VIII. A Word for Friends of Lebanon

Nassrullah thanked friends of Lebanon who are trying to provide humanitarian assistance and trying to make a ceasefire. He told them that the Lebanese people who died were not killed in a natural disaster, rather in an Israeli aggression. The Lebanese infrastructure was destroyed by the Israeli war machine, alluding to the fact that the aggressors have to pay for their crimes.

IX. A Word for the Lebanese People and the Ummah (Arabs and Muslims Worldwide)

Nassrullah asked the Lebanese, Arabs, and Muslims for their spiritual and material support and promised them of nothing short of victory.

In a perfect world, a reporter at last week's press conference with George Bush and Tony Blair would have asked Bush, in the presence of his principal European ally, if he believes the European Union is the Antichrist.

Although it sounds like the kind of Pat Robertson lunacy that makes even the wingnuts run for the nearest exit, it's a question Bush should be forced to answer. Bush and other leading Republicans have lined up behind a growing movement of Christian Zionists for whom a European Antichrist figures prominently in an end-times scenario. So they should be forced to explain to the rest of us why they're courting the votes of people who believe our allies are evil incarnate. Could it be that the central requirement for their breathlessly anticipated Armageddon -- that the United States confront Iran -- happens to dovetail so nicely with the neoconservative war agenda?

At the center of it all is Pastor John Hagee, a popular televangelist who leads the 18,000-member Cornerstone Church in San Antonio, Texas. While Hagee has long prophesized about the end times, he ratcheted up his rhetoric this year with the publication of his book, "Jerusalem Countdown," in which he argues that a confrontation with Iran is a necessary precondition for Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ. In the best-selling book, Hagee insists that the United States must join Israel in a preemptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West. Shortly after the book's publication, he launched Christians United for Israel (CUFI), which, as the Christian version of the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee, he said would cause "a political earthquake."

At CUFI's kick-off banquet at the Washington Hilton, attended by over 3,500 members, Republican support for both Hagee's effort and his drumbeat for war with Iran were on full view. Republican National Committee Chair Ken Mehlman told the group that "no regime is more central to the global jihad" than Iran. Just two days before, Newt Gingrich and John McCain made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows to sound the same message, leading Benny Elon, a member of the Israeli Knesset, to comment to the Jerusalem Post that their remarks originated with Hagee. Rick Santorum and Sam Brownback also addressed the group, and Bush sent words of support to the gathering. Republicans, and even some Democrats, spoke at CUFI events to show their "support for Israel." But while public and media attention was on the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, Hagee's focus continued to be on Iran.

While the crisis at the Israel-Lebanon border drew more mainstream media attention to CUFI's activities, Hagee's supporters have long known that leading Republicans are listening. Rabbi Daniel Lapin, a prominent Jewish ally of the evangelical right (and friend of Jack Abramoff) has said that Hagee "without question, yes, absolutely" has the ear of the White House. Hagee's annual Night to Honor Israel at his church has drawn prominent Republicans, including Tom DeLay, who was the keynote speaker in 2002.

Although Republicans would never admit it -- they claim their support for Christian Zionists like Hagee is based on their own support for Israel -- it is clear that they know they need the votes of this constituency to win. In the same way that Karl Rove courted conservative evangelicals in 2004 by appealing to their homophobia, Republican campaign rhetoric for 2006 and 2008 has already shown signs of playing to voters who have been hearing hype for a war with Iran for months -- at church.

While Washington insiders wonder what it means when Republicans like Mehlman and presidential aspirants Gingrich and McCain finger Iran as the central player in an epic clash of civilizations, Hagee already has spent months mobilizing the shock troops in support of another war. As diplomats, experts and pundits debate how many years Iran will need to develop a viable nuclear weapon, Hagee says the mullahs already possess the means to destroy Israel and America. And although Bush insists that diplomatic options are still on the table, Hagee has dismissed pussyfooting diplomacy and primed his followers for a conflagration.

Hagee wields "a very large megaphone" that reaches "a very large group of people," said Rabbi James Rudin of the American Jewish Committee, who has studied the Christian right for 30 years. With CUFI, the pastor has exponentially expanded the reach of his megaphone beyond his television audience. Thanks to the viral marketing made possible by the hundreds of evangelical leaders who have signed on to his new organization, his warmongering has rippled through megachurches across America for months. Hagee calls pastors "the spiritual generals of America," an appropriate phrase given his reliance on them to rally their troops behind his message.

The CUFI board of directors includes the Rev. Jerry Falwell, former Republican presidential candidate and religious right activist Gary Bauer, and George Morrison, pastor of the 8,000-member Faith Bible Chapel in Arvada, Colo., and chairman of the board of Promise Keepers. Rod Parsley, the Ohio televangelist who is rapidly becoming a major political player in the Christian right, signed on to be a regional director.

For Hagee's new project, his influence in Washington is probably less important than his influence over his audience. With the clout of his listeners, he can serve Bush administration hawks by firing up grassroots support for a military strike against Iran. Over 700,000 people purchased his book, "Jerusalem Countdown," and countless more have heard him promote it on Christian radio and television programming. Dramatic, doomsday advertising has been heard by listeners of Christian media as well as on Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly's radio programs. The pages of "Jerusalem Countdown" provide a peculiar mix of biblical prophecy, purported inside information from Israeli government officials and a mixed-up, pared-down lesson in nuclear physics.

"I wrote this book in April 2005, and when people read it, they will think I wrote it late last night after the FOX News report," says the author without a trace of irony. "It's that close to where we are and beyond."

Hagee speaks simultaneously to two audiences about Iran's nuclear capabilities: one that fears a terrorist attack by Iran and another that embraces a biblically mandated apocalypse. To impress the fearful, he mimics Bush's deceptions about Iraq's capacity to attack the United States with weapons of mass destruction, Condoleezza Rice's warnings of mushroom clouds, and Dick Cheney's dissembling about an alliance between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida. Comparing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hitler, Hagee argues that Iran's development of nuclear weapons must be stopped to protect America and Israel from a nuclear attack. Preying on legitimate worries about terrorism, and invoking 9/11, he vividly describes a supposed Iranian-led plan to simultaneously explode nuclear suitcase bombs in seven American cities, or to use an electromagnetic pulse device to create "an American Hiroshima."

When addressing audiences receptive to Scriptural prophecy, however, Hagee welcomes the coming confrontation. He argues that a strike against Iran will cause Arab nations to unite under Russia's leadership, as outlined in chapters 38 and 39 of the Book of Ezekiel, leading to an "inferno [that] will explode across the Middle East, plunging the world toward Armageddon." In Hagee's telling, Israel has no choice but to strike at Iran's nuclear facilities, with or without America's help. The strike will provoke Russia -- which wants Persian Gulf oil -- to lead an army of Arab nations against Israel. Then God will wipe out all but one-sixth of the Russian-led army, as the world watches "with shock and awe," he says, lending either a divine quality to the Bush administration phrase or a Bush-like quality to God's wrath.

But Hagee doesn't stop there. He adds that Ezekiel predicts fire "upon those who live in security in the coastlands." From this sentence, he concludes that there will be judgment upon all who stood by while the Russian-led force invaded Israel, and issues a stark warning to the United States to intervene: "Could it be that America, who refuses to defend Israel from the Russian invasion, will experience nuclear warfare on our east and west coasts?" He says yes, citing Genesis 12:3, in which God said to Israel: "I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you."

To fill the power vacuum left by God's decimation of the Russian army, the Antichrist -- the head of the EU -- will rule "a one-world government, a one-world currency and a one-world religion" for three and a half years. (Hagee adds that "one need only be a casual observer of current events to see that all three of these things are coming into reality." The "demonic world leader" will then be confronted by a false prophet, identified by Hagee as China, at Armageddon, the Mount of Megiddo in Israel. As they prepare for the final battle, Jesus will return on a white horse and cast both villains -- and presumably any nonbelievers -- into a "lake of fire burning with brimstone," thus marking the beginning of his millennial reign.

Hagee doesn't fear a nuclear conflagration, but rather God's wrath for standing by as Iran executes its supposed plot to destroy Israel. A nuclear confrontation between America and Iran, which he says is foretold in the Book of Jeremiah, will not lead to the end of the world, but rather to God's renewal of the Garden of Eden. But Hagee is ultimately less concerned with the fate of Israel or the Jews than with a theocratic Christian right agenda. When Jesus returns for his millennial reign, he tells his television audience, "the righteous are going to rule the nations of the earth When Jesus Christ comes back, he's not going to ask the ACLU if it's all right to pray, he's not going to ask the churches if they can ordain pedophile bishops and priests, he's not going to ask if it's all right to put the Ten Commandments in the statehouses. He's not going to endorse abortion, he's going to run the world by the word of God The world will never end. It's going to become a Garden of Eden, and Christ is going to rule it."

Sarah Posner has covered the religious right for The American Prospect, The Gadflyer, and AlterNet. This article is adapted from "Pastor Strangelove," which appeared in the June 2006 issue of The American Prospect.

These two satellite images provided by GeoEye show the same area of Beirut, Lebanon before and after Israeli bombardment. The image on the left was taken Wednesday July 12, 2006, and the image on the right was taken Monday July 31, 2006. (AP Photo/GeoEye)

Gaza: Israeli attack leaves at least 8 Palestinians dead including 8 year old boy: Israeli invaded southern Gaza early today, killing at least eight Palestinians, including four resistance fighters and an 8-year-old boy.

Almost half the fatalities in the Gaza Strip in July were civilians : In July, the Israeli military killed 163 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, 78 of whom (48 percent) were not taking part in the hostilities when they were killed.

Gaza: Israeli occupation forces kill 7 Palestinians : Including a 10-year-old boy. Video and text

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Some have suggested that Americans are watching a different war in Lebanon than much of the world. We’re joined by three panelists -- Peter Hart of Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) in New York, Middle East Broadcasters editor Habib Battah in Beirut and Ha'aretz reporter Gideon Levy in Tel Aviv. [includes rush transcript] Continue.

Pulling the Plug on Israel
By DAVID HIMMELSTEIN

Whether or not it has reached critical mass, there exists a heterogeneous agglomeration of Jewish people around the world-- e.g., moi--for whom the state of Israel has come to represent an 800-pound albatross that needs to be pried from our necks before it drags us over a cliff. A sense of urgency is propelled by the U.S.-sanctioned bloodletting in Lebanon and Gaza (which now seems to have been planned in advance) and the evident flimsiness of its official justification. With Israeli adventurism on the march, there are well founded fears concerning the general threat that country poses to the peace of the world. Continue.

Thursday August 3, 2006
The Guardian

The US-backed Israeli assault on Lebanon has left the country numb, smouldering and angry. The massacre in Qana and the loss of life is not simply "disproportionate". It is, according to existing international laws, a war crime.

The deliberate and systematic destruction of Lebanon's social infrastructure by the Israeli air force was also a war crime, designed to reduce that country to the status of an Israeli-US protectorate. The attempt has backfired. In Lebanon itself, 87% of the population now support Hizbullah's resistance, including 80% of Christian and Druze and 89% of Sunni Muslims, while 8% believe the US supports Lebanon. But these actions will not be tried by any court set up by the "international community" since the US and its allies that commit or are complicit in these appalling crimes will not permit it.

It has now become clear that the assault on Lebanon to wipe out Hizbullah had been prepared long before. Israel's crimes had been given a green light by the US and its loyal British ally, despite the opposition to Blair in his own country.

In short, the peace that Lebanon enjoyed has come to an end, and a paralysed country is forced to remember a past it had hoped to forget. The state terror inflicted on Lebanon is being repeated in the Gaza ghetto, while the "international community" stands by and watches in silence. Meanwhile, the rest of Palestine is annexed and dismantled with the direct participation of the US and the tacit approval of its allies.

We offer our solidarity and support to the victims of this brutality and to those who mount a resistance against it. For our part, we will use all the means at our disposal to expose the complicity of our governments in these crimes. There will be no peace in the Middle East while the occupations of Palestine and Iraq and the temporarily "paused" bombings of Lebanon continue.

As our political leaders argue over the difference between a "cessation of hostilities" and a "ceasefire", more and more children die. The British government (unlike the US) has agreed to be bound by the UN convention on the rights of the child. This is a legally enforceable international treaty which enshrines the "right to life" as one of its four core principles. I would be very interested to know how the government justifies its actions in relation to its responsibilities under the convention and why our new children's commissioners have remained silent on what appears to be a flagrant disregard of children's rights, as well as a breach of our international obligations.Professor Steve TrevillionUniversity of Leicester

Ambulances are hit by Israeli forces

"It is very likely that the world will look back at the summer of 2006 as a seminal moment in Middle East history.
We may well be seeing, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says, “the birth pangs of a new Middle East.” But it is also quite possible a monster will be born.

The last time a U.S. administration tried to isolate and marginalize Syria and Iran, the result was the birth of Hezbollah, the dawn of suicide bombing and the humbling of a superpower. Now, America is at it again.
“Folly,” wrote historian Barbara Tuchman, is “the pursuit of policy contrary to self-interest.”
The Bush administration set out to redraw the map of the Middle East. Instead, it has set it on fire. Three weeks ago, Hezbollah was a militia/political party engaged in a domestic struggle to survive on the new Lebanese political landscape reshaped by the withdrawal of Syria’s forces. Today, it is the inspiration for a generation. Meanwhile, Iraq is becoming the new Afghanistan.
This is, President Bush tells us, “a moment of opportunity.” The question history will decide is, for whom? "

"Shias from southern and central Iraq have begun travelling to Baghdad in answer to Muqtada al-Sadr's call for a "million man march" in support of Lebanon's Hezbollah.
Waving Iraqi flags and chanting "Death to America! Death to Israel", the demonstrators mounted convoys of buses and headed for the capital on Thursday, some of them wearing white shrouds symbolising their readiness to accept martyrdom.
The demonstration is to be held following Friday prayers in the teeming Baghdad suburb of Sadr City, home to some two million people, and comes at a tense time for the capital."

BREAKING NEWS

Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah will be making a speech on Al-Jazeera shortly.

UPDATE

Nasrallah threatens to strike Tel Aviv if Beirut is bombed.

Nasrallah: If Israel bombs Beirut, we`ll bomb Tel Aviv

We will launch missiles into cities south of Haifa
We will continue to launch rockets, with even greater force
Hezbollah fighters` ability to hold back IDF troops is a miracle
Hezbollah, IDF ground battles now more widespread, violent

HIZBULLAH MUST BE IN ITS LAST THROES
IT HIT BACK WITH ONLY 300 MISSILES YESTERDAY

By The Rt. Rev. Riah H. Abu El-Assal
Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem

Dear Friends,

For the past forty years we have been largely alone on this desert fighting a predator that not only robbed us of all but a small piece of our historic homeland, but threatens the traditions and holy sites of Christianity. We are tired, weary, sick, and wounded. We need your help.

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This is a very important article- Please read it

Aug. 3, 2006 | The National Security Agency is providing signal intelligence to Israel to monitor whether Syria and Iran are supplying new armaments to Hezbollah as it fires hundreds of missiles into northern Israel, according to a national security official with direct knowledge of the operation. President Bush has approved the secret program.

Inside the administration, neoconservatives on Vice President Dick Cheney's national security staff and Elliott Abrams, the neoconservative senior director for the Near East on the National Security Council, are prime movers behind sharing NSA intelligence with Israel, and they have discussed Syrian and Iranian supply activities as a potential pretext for Israeli bombing of both countries, the source privy to conversations about the program says. (Intelligence, including that gathered by the NSA, has been provided to Israel in the past for various purposes.) The neoconservatives are described as enthusiastic about the possibility of using NSA intelligence as a lever to widen the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and Israel and Hamas into a four-front war.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is said to have been "briefed" and to be "on board," but she is not a central actor in pushing the covert neoconservative scenario. Her "briefing" appears to be an aspect of an internal struggle to intimidate and marginalize her. Recently she has come under fire from prominent neoconservatives who oppose her support for diplomatic negotiations with Iran to prevent its development of nuclear weaponry.

Rice's diplomacy in the Middle East has erratically veered from initially calling on Israel for "restraint," to categorically opposing a cease-fire, to proposing terms for a cease-fire guaranteed to conflict with the European proposal, and thus to thwarting diplomacy, prolonging the time available for the Israeli offensive to achieve its stated aim of driving Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon. But the neocon scenario extends far beyond that objective to pushing Israel into a "cleansing war" with Syria and Iran, says the national security official, which somehow will redeem Bush's beleaguered policy in the entire region.

In order to try to understand the neoconservative road map, senior national security professionals have begun circulating among themselves a 1996 neocon manifesto against the Middle East peace process. Titled "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm," its half-dozen authors included neoconservatives highly influential with the Bush administration -- Richard Perle, first-term chairman of the Defense Policy Board; Douglas Feith, former undersecretary of defense; and David Wurmser, Cheney's chief Middle East aide.

"A Clean Break" was written at the request of incoming Likud Party Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and intended to provide "a new set of ideas" for jettisoning the policies of assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Instead of trading "land for peace," the neocons advocated tossing aside the Oslo agreements that established negotiations and demanding unconditional Palestinian acceptance of Likud's terms, "peace for peace." Rather than negotiations with Syria, they proposed "weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria." They also advanced a wild scenario to "redefine Iraq." Then King Hussein of Jordan would somehow become its ruler; and somehow this Sunni monarch would gain "control" of the Iraqi Shiites, and through them "wean the south Lebanese Shia away from Hezbollah, Iran, and Syria."

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UNITED NATIONS - As Israel's bombing of Lebanon continues unabated into its fourth consecutive week, the United States says it stands ready to provide food, medicine and humanitarian assistance to the thousands of internally displaced Lebanese caught in the crossfire. But Washington has also decided to accelerate the supply of lethal weapons to Israel -- ''perhaps intended to kill the very Lebanese the United States is planning to feed and shelter,'' says one Arab diplomat at the United Nations.

''It is U.S. hypocrisy at its worst,'' he told IPS, speaking on condition of anonymity, because his country receives millions of dollars in U.S. economic aid.

''The right hand obviously does not know what its left hand is up to. Or does it?'' he asked.

Irene Khan, secretary-general of the London-based Amnesty International (AI), is equally harsh in her reaction. ''It is ridiculous to talk about providing humanitarian aid on the one hand, and to provide arms on the other,'' she says.

In the face of such human suffering in Lebanon and Israel, Khan says, ''It is imperative that all governments stop the supply of arms and weapons to both sides immediately.''

[click here to finish reading]

WHAT UN??

This report documents serious violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war) by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Lebanon between July 12 and July 27, 2006, as well as the July 30 attack in Qana. During this period, the IDF killed an estimated 400 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and that number climbed to over 500 by the time this report went to print. The Israeli government claims it is taking all possible measures to minimize civilian harm, but the cases documented here reveal a systematic failure by the IDF to distinguish between combatants and civilians.

Since the start of the conflict, Israeli forces have consistently launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military gain but excessive civilian cost. In dozens of attacks, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some cases, the timing and intensity of the attack, the absence of a military target, as well as return strikes on rescuers, suggest that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians.

The Israeli government claims that it targets only Hezbollah, and that fighters from the group are using civilians as human shields, thereby placing them at risk. Human Rights Watch found no cases in which Hezbollah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack. Hezbollah occasionally did store weapons in or near civilian homes and fighters placed rocket launchers within populated areas or near U.N. observers, which are serious violations of the laws of war because they violate the duty to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties. However, those cases do not justify the IDF’s extensive use of indiscriminate force which has cost so many civilian lives. In none of the cases of civilian deaths documented in this report is there evidence to suggest that Hezbollah forces or weapons were in or near the area that the IDF targeted during or just prior to the attack.

By consistently failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians, Israel has violated one of the most fundamental tenets of the laws of war: the duty to carry out attacks on only military targets. The pattern of attacks during the Israeli offensive in Lebanon suggests that the failures cannot be explained or dismissed as mere accidents; the extent of the pattern and the seriousness of the consequences indicate the commission of war crimes.

This report is based on extensive on-the-ground research in Lebanon. Since the start of hostilities, Human Rights Watch has interviewed victims and witnesses of attacks in one-on-one settings, conducted on-site inspections (when security allowed), and collected information from hospitals, humanitarian groups, and government agencies. Human Rights Watch also conducted research in Israel, inspecting the IDF’s use of weapons and discussing the conduct of forces with IDF officials. The research was extensive, but given the ongoing war and the scope of the bombings, Human Rights Watch does not claim that the findings are comprehensive; further investigation is required to document the war’s complete impact on civilians and to assess the full scope of the IDF’s compliance with and disregard for international humanitarian law.

While not the focus of this report, Human Rights Watch has separately and simultaneously documented violations of international humanitarian law by Hezbollah, including a pattern of attacks that amount to war crimes. Between July 12, when Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight, and July 27, the group launched a reported 1,300 rockets into predominantly civilian areas in Israel, killing 18 civilians and wounding more than 300. Without guidance systems for accurate targeting, the rockets are inherently indiscriminate when directed toward civilian areas, especially cities, and thus are serious violations of the requirement of international humanitarian law that attackers distinguish at all times between combatants and civilians. Some of these rockets, Human Rights Watch found, are packed with thousands of metal ball-bearings, which spray more than 100 meters from the blast and compound the harm to civilians.

This report analyzes a selection of Israeli air and artillery attacks that together claimed at least 153 civilian lives, or over a third of the reported Lebanese deaths in the conflict’s first two weeks. Of the 153 civilian deaths documented in this report by name, sixty-three of the victims were children under the age of eighteen, and thirty-seven of them were under ten. Israeli air strikes also killed many dual nationals who were vacationing in Lebanon when the fighting began, including Brazilian, Canadian, German, Kuwaiti, and U.S. citizens. The full death toll is certainly higher because medical and recovery teams have been unable to retrieve many bodies due to ongoing fighting and the dire security situation in south Lebanon.

The report breaks civilian deaths into two categories: attacks on civilian homes and attacks on civilian vehicles. In both categories, victims and witnesses interviewed independently and repeatedly said that neither Hezbollah fighters nor Hezbollah weapons were present in the area during or just before the Israeli attack took place. While some individuals, out of fear or sympathy, may have been unwilling to speak about Hezbollah’s military activity, others were quite open about it. In totality, the consistency, detail, and credibility of testimony from a broad array of witnesses who did not speak to each other leave no doubt about the validity of the patterns described in this report. In many cases, witness testimony was corroborated by reports from international journalists and aid workers. During site visits conducted in Qana, Srifa, and Tyre, Human Rights Watch saw no evidence that there had been Hezbollah military activity around the areas targeted by the IDF during or just prior to the attack: no spent ammunition, abandoned weapons or military equipment, trenches, or dead or wounded fighters. Moreover, even if Hezbollah had been in a populated area at the time of an attack, Israel would still be legally obliged to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize civilian casualties resulting from its targeting of military objects or personnel. In the cases documented in this report, however, the IDF consistently tolerated a high level of civilian casualties for questionable military gain.

In one case, an Israeli air strike on July 13 destroyed the home of a cleric known to have sympathy for Hezbollah but who was not known to have taken any active part in hostilities. Even if the IDF considered him a legitimate target (and Human Rights Watch has no evidence that he was), the strike killed him, his wife, their ten children, and the family’s Sri Lankan maid.

On July 16, an Israeli airplane fired on a civilian home in the village of Aitaroun, killing eleven members of the al-Akhrass family, among them seven Canadian-Lebanese dual nationals who were vacationing in the village when the war began. Human Rights Watch independently interviewed three villagers who vigorously denied that the family had any connection to Hezbollah. Among the victims were children aged one, three, five, and seven.

Others civilians came under attack in their cars as they attempted to flee the fighting in the South. This report alone documents twenty-seven civilian deaths that resulted from such attacks. The number is surely higher, but at the time the report went to press, ongoing Israeli attacks on the roads made it impossible to retrieve all the bodies.

Starting around July 15, the IDF issued warnings to residents of southern villages to leave, followed by a general warning for all civilians south of the Litani River, which mostly runs about 25 kilometers north of the Israel-Lebanon border, to evacuate immediately. Tens of thousands of Lebanese fled their homes to the city of Tyre (itself south of the Litani and thus within the zone Israel ordered evacuated) or further north to Beirut, many waving white flags. As they left, Israeli forces fired on dozens of vehicles with warplanes and artillery.

Two Israeli air strikes are known to have hit humanitarian aid vehicles. On July 18 the IDF hit a convoy of the Red Crescent Society of the United Arab Emirates, destroying a vehicle with medicines, vegetable oil, sugar and rice, and killing the driver. On July 23, Israeli forces hit two clearly marked Red Cross ambulances in the village of Qana.

As of August 1, tens of thousands of civilians remained in villages south of the Litani River, despite the warnings to leave. Some chose to stay, but the vast majority, Human Rights Watch found, was unable to flee due to destroyed roads, a lack of gasoline, high taxi fares, sick relatives, or ongoing Israeli attacks. Many of the civilians who remained were elderly, sick, or poor.

Israel has justified its attacks on roads by citing the need to clear the transport routes of Hezbollah fighters moving arms. Again, none of the evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch, independent media sources, or Israeli official statements indicate that any of the attacks on vehicles documented in this report resulted in Hezbollah casualties or the destruction of weapons. Rather, the attacks killed and wounded civilians who were fleeing their homes, as the IDF had advised them to do.

In addition to strikes from airplanes, helicopters, and traditional artillery, Israel has used artillery-fired cluster munitions against populated areas, causing civilian casualties. One such attack on the village of Blida on July 19 killed a sixty-year-old woman and wounded at least twelve civilians, including seven children. The wide dispersal pattern of cluster munitions and the high dud rate (ranging from 2 to 14 percent, depending on the type of cluster munition) make the weapons exceedingly dangerous for civilians and, when used in populated areas, a violation of international humanitarian law.

Statements from Israeli government officials and military leaders suggest that, at the very least, the IDF has blurred the distinction between civilian and combatant, and is willing to strike at targets it considers even vaguely connected to the latter. At worst, it considers all people in the area of hostilities open to attack.

On July 17, for example, after IDF strikes on Beirut, the commander of the Israeli Air Force, Eliezer Shkedi, said, “in the center of Beirut there is an area which only terrorists enter into.”1 The next day, the IDF deputy chief of staff, Moshe Kaplinski, when talking about the IDF’s destruction of Beirut’s Dahia neighborhood, said, “the hits were devastating, and this area, which was a Hezbollah symbol, became deserted rubble.”2

On July 27, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said that the Israeli air force should flatten villages before ground troops move in to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers fighting Hezbollah. Israel had given civilians ample time to leave southern Lebanon, he claimed, and therefore anyone remaining should be considered a supporter of Hezbollah. “All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah,” he said.3

International humanitarian law requires effective advance warnings to the civilian population prior to an attack, when conditions permit. But those warnings do not way relieve Israel from its obligation at all times to distinguish between combatants and civilians and to take all feasible precautions to protect civilians from harm. In other words, issuing warnings in no way entitles the Israeli military to treat those civilians who remain in southern Lebanon as combatants who are fair game for attack.

In addition to recommendations to the Israeli government and Hezbollah that they respect international humanitarian law, Human Rights Watch calls on the U.S. government immediately to suspend transfer of all arms that have been documented or credibly alleged to have been used in violation of international humanitarian law in Lebanon, as well as funding or support for such materiel, pending an end to the violations. Human Rights Watch calls upon the Iranian and Syrian governments to do the same with regards to military assistance to Hezbollah.

This report does not address Israeli attacks on Lebanon’s infrastructure or Beirut’s southern suburbs, which is the subject of ongoing Human Rights Watch research. It also does not address Hezbollah’s indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel, which have been reported on and denounced separately and continues to be the subject of ongoing Human Rights Watch investigations. In addition, Human Rights Watch continues to investigate allegations that Hezbollah is shielding its military personnel and materiel by locating them in civilian homes or areas, and it is deeply concerned by Hezbollah’s placement of certain troops and materiel near civilians, which endangers them and violates the duty to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties. Human Rights Watch uses the occasion of this report to reiterate Hezbollah’s legal duty never to deliberately use civilians to shield military objects and never to needlessly endanger civilians by conducting military operations, maintaining troops, or storing weapons in their vicinity.

The armed conflict between Israel and Hezbollah is governed by international treaties, as well as the rules of customary international humanitarian law. Article 3 Common to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 sets forth minimum standards for all parties to a conflict between a state party such as Israel and a non-state party such as Hezbollah. Israel has also asserted that it considers itself to be responding to the actions of the sovereign state of Lebanon, not just to those of Hezbollah. Any hostilities between Israeli forces and the forces of Lebanon would fall within the full Geneva Conventions to which both Lebanon and Israel are parties. In either case, the rules governing bombing, shelling, and rocket attacks are effectively the same.

By Robert Fisk

"The obscene score-card for death in this latest war now stands as follows: 508 Lebanese civilians, 46 Hizbollah guerrillas, 26 Lebanese soldiers, 36 Israeli soldiers and 19 Israeli civilians.
In other words, Hizbollah is killing more Israeli soldiers than civilians and the Israelis are killing far more Lebanese civilians than they are guerrillas. The Lebanese Red Cross has found 40 more civilian dead in the south of the country in the past two days, many of them with wounds suggesting they might have survived had medical help been available."

By Uri Avnery

"THE SIMPLE truth is that up to now, the 22nd day of the war, not one single military target has been reached. The same army that took just six days to rout three big Arab armies in 1967 has not succeeded in overcoming a small "terrorist organization" in a time span that is already longer than the momentous Yom Kippur War. Then, the army succeeded in just 20 days in turning a stunning defeat at the beginning into a resounding military victory at the end.
In order to create an image of achievement, military spokesmen asserted yesterday that "we have succeeded in killing 200 (or 300, or 400, who is counting?) of the 1000 fighters of Hizbullah." The assertion that the entire terrifying Hizbullah consisted of one thousand fighters speaks for itself.
According to correspondents, President Bush is frustrated. The Israeli army has not "delivered the goods". Bush sent them into war believing that the powerful army, equipped with the most advanced American arms, will "finish the job" in a few days. It was supposed to eliminate Hizbullah, turn Lebanon over to the stooges of the US, weaken Iran and perhaps also open the way to "regime change" in Syria. No wonder that Bush is angry.
Ehud Olmert is even more furious. He went to war in high spirits and with a light heart, because the Air Force generals had promised to destroy Hizbullah and their rockets within a few days. Now he is stuck in the mud, and no victory in sight."

By SAREE MAKDISI

"After three weeks of devastating bombardment, Israel's much vaunted army finds itself unable to fight its way more than a few kilometers into Lebanon. The heavy resistance they have encountered on the ground is the most obvious explanation for why the Israelis prefer on the whole to go on dropping bombs on children from a safe distance: not only is it less dangerous, it also involves much less effort.
The "deep penetration" raid on Baalbeck was meant to show off the capabilities of Israel's armed forces, to make up for their humiliating performance on the ground and their repeated massacres of civilians from the air, including the refugees sheltering in Qana (an event whose cover story has gone through at least three variations, none of them convincing to anyone other than the Israelis themselves).
Instead, it left a hospital in ruins, more than a dozen civilians dead, and elite forces in possession of an unfortunate middle-aged shopkeeper and an assortment of his friends and relatives.
Surely this would be the right moment for Israel to give up and call it quits."

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

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

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

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

So the brazen thug Halutz got the big job, just at the moment the Israeli high command was firming up plans for its long planned onslaught on Lebanon. It was Halutz who sold Olmert and Peretz on the fantasy of swift and devastating air force raids finishing off Hezbollah. "

FATE OF ISRAELI TANKS IN LEBANON

Smoke fills the air following air strikes on the Lebanese village ofAita al-Shaab, near the Israeli-Lebanese border. Israeli commandosstruck deep into Lebanon and snatched five suspected guerrillas in ahelicopter raid that provoked the heaviest rain of Hezbollah rocketfire in the 22-day-old conflict.(AFP/Denis Sinyakov)

A protester hangs a pacifier with a black ribbon to the gate of theUnited Nations House in Ankara August 2, 2006, during a demostrationagainst the killing of children as a result of the Israeli attacks onLebanon. REUTERS/Umit Bektas (TURKEY)

A Lebanese boy stands next to coffins of Qana's victims who werekilled during an Israeli air raid on Sunday, at the GovernmentHospital in the port city of Tyre (Soure) August 2, 2006. The burialof Qana's victims was postponed due to security reasons. REUTERS/ZohraBensemra (LEBANON)

A Lebanese man holds the body of his child after he was killed duringan overnight Israeli airborne operation on the eastern Lebanese cityof Baalbeck, 60 miles (100 km) northeast of Beirut, August 2, 2006.Israeli commandoes snatched three Hizbollah members, killing 19civilians in the raid. REUTERS/Mohammed Solh

A Christian Jordanian girl holds a candle during a vigil, held insolidarity with the Lebanese and Palestinian people during thethree-week-old war between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah, in the townof Fehais on the outskirts of Amman August 2, 2006. REUTERS/AliJarekji (JORDAN)

News on a Platter

By Matthias Gebauer in Israel

Propaganda is part of every war, just like bombs and soldiers. Still, it's remarkable how professionally Israel deals with foreign journalists, catering conscientiously to all their needs. Lunch included.

The phone rings at 9 a.m. -- right on time. "Hello, this is the Government Press Office," pipes a woman's voice. "What are you planning to do today? Do you need an idea?" And then the suggestions just keep coming -- interview partners; a tour to the houses in Haifa that were struck by Katyusha rockets, complete with victim interviews. An expert will come along too, one who explains the nature of the rockets -- "in clean sound bites, if you want."

There's more on the plate. "The highlight is still to come," says the lady from Israel's press office, the GPO. "We can offer an interview in Naharya with the parents of the kidnapped soldiers," she says. She explains that the parents of Ehud Goldwasser, who has been held by Hezbollah since July 12, are waiting in a hotel. An interpreter? No need. "They speak good English, don't worry."

Many journalists come along, most of them by GPO bus. About 15 camera teams have set up their equipment. Twenty radio and print journalists are enjoying their coffee and the specially prepared sandwiches. Then the parents arrive. The father self-consciously steps up to the microphone. The desk in front of him bristles with microphones -- as if a politician were giving a press conference. He's sweating slightly; the veins on his forehead are bulging.

Shlomo Goldwasser doesn't have much to say -- not much more than the banal phrases security officials often teach parents so they stay on message. "They, my son's kidnappers, are responsible for Ehud's safety," Goldwasser says. "They are also responsible for returning him to us soon -- and unscathed." He says he can't think of anything else to tell us. He's a father, he says, not a politician.

"Please don't smile"

Goldwasser has barely finished speaking when a journalistic scrum erupts and cameramen start to shout. "Mr. Goldwasser, over here," one of them calls. "Please don't smile." Others want to hear childhood stories -- "It tugs on the viewers' heartstrings." Elsewhere, the man's wife has to leaf repeatedly through the family photo album. She responds to the orders given her like a robot and would presumably even start crying if she were told to do so. Fortunately no one makes such a request.

The disgraceful spectacle goes on for 90 minutes. The parents say they've got nothing to do with politics, nor with the war. They've been told appearances in public could save their son. And it's all organized and choreographed by the Israeli government's press office -- organized for foreign journalists, so that one of the reasons for the current war, the suffering of parents and civilians, receives the public attention it is due. But the parents, in this story, somehow come off only as extras.

Propaganda is a part of war -- especially when a state wants the world to see its decision to take up arms as justified and just. It's no different than the run up to the first Gulf War or the more recent war in Afghanistan -- or, more perfidiously, to the second US war against Iraq. Vast armies of public relations workers develop an emotionally charged image meant to provide media and public support for the conflict's architects. It's standard procedure -- public relations for war.

Not all the information circulated in such a controlled atmosphere, of course, is to be believed. But it's hard to criticize Israel for wanting to see victims of Hezbollah rockets -- 17 killed since the beginning of the war against the militant group -- in the media. Indeed it is precisely these victims that fuel the Israeli operations currently raging in southern Lebanon.

PR warriors take to the mountains

Still, Israel's support and supervision of foreign journalists seems downright excessive. As soon as you've received your press credentials from the GPO, you're bombarded with e-mails and phone calls. When covering other crisis regions, German reporters often have to make an effort to be extra nice and polite and have to search out interviewees and contacts themselves. Not here. In Israel, reporters are on an all-inclusive package trip -- and are well looked after.

Well-thought-out story ideas including transportation, lunch and selected military experts -- all these things are offered without ever having to be asked for. Many journalists happily accept the offer. For days, images of Israeli artillery units flickered on TV screens the world over -- one reason of course being that the PR warriors always took the camera teams to the frontlines around sunset. The soft, warm twilight is favored by camera men and photographers.

An e-mail that arrived on Wednesday is a good example. It offers no less than 11 news stories. The Israeli refugees, perhaps. Or the problems with Arab Israelis? A feature about how an entire village has been dispersed across Israel? A report on people who had to leave their houses? Former hostages? Or a village that has been shot at for decades? It's all available.

There's no need to go anywhere. "The contacts can be reached by phone," the woman from the press office says. "It's better to do it that way, especially for the radio." The organizers know exactly what the reporters want. Radio and TV journalists often have to go on air so often that they barely get a chance to leave the hotel. So when a Katyusha rocket strikes, an e-mail containing a list of eyewitnesses, complete with their mobile phone numbers, is more than welcome.

Language barriers are willingly breached as well. Every list includes eyewitnesses with different language profiles. There's plenty to choose from in an immigrant country like Israel: English, French, Spanish, Russian and of course several German speakers in every city. Laborious simultaneous translations are rendered superfluous by the service.

The Israeli public relations experts, though, have their work cut out for them. With public opinion turning against the Israelis following the bombing of the UN outpost in southern Lebanon, the country's use of excessive force is once again a major issue. And the war doesn't seem as though it will come to an end any time soon.

CeaseFireNow!

Report to suggest Marines shot unarmed Iraqi women and children : Evidence collected on the deaths of 24 Iraqis in Haditha supports accusations that U.S. Marines deliberately shot the civilians, including unarmed women and children, a Pentagon official said Wednesday.

Soldier says comrades threatened him: A U.S. soldier testified Wednesday that four of his colleagues accused of murdering three Iraqis during a raid threatened to kill him if he told anyone about the shooting deaths.

U.S. Army commander investigated in Iraq killing spree : Col. Michael Steele, whose heroics were portrayed in the movie "Black Hawk Down," is under investigation for allegedly encouraging his men to go on a killing spree.

By Anders Strindberg
NEW YORK

As pundits and policymakers scramble to explain events in Lebanon, their conclusions are virtually unanimous: Hizbullah created this crisis. Israel is defending itself. The underlying problem is Arab extremism.

Sadly, this is pure analytical nonsense. Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 was a direct result of Israel's silent but unrelenting aggression against Lebanon, which in turn is part of a six-decades long Arab-Israeli conflict.

Since its withdrawal of occupation forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Israel has violated the United Nations-monitored "blue line" on an almost daily basis, according to UN reports. Hizbullah's military doctrine, articulated in the early 1990s, states that it will fire Katyusha rockets into Israel only in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanese civilians or Hizbullah's leadership; this indeed has been the pattern.

In the process of its violations, Israel has terrorized the general population, destroyed private property, and killed numerous civilians. This past February, for instance, 15-year-old shepherd Yusuf Rahil was killed by unprovoked Israeli cross-border fire as he tended his flock in southern Lebanon. Israel has assassinated its enemies in the streets of Lebanese cities and continues to occupy Lebanon's Shebaa Farms area, while refusing to hand over the maps of mine fields that continue to kill and cripple civilians in southern Lebanon more than six years after the war supposedly ended. What peace did Hizbullah shatter?

Hizbullah's capture of the soldiers took place in the context of this ongoing conflict, which in turn is fundamentally shaped by realities in the Palestinian territories. To the vexation of Israel and its allies, Hizbullah - easily the most popular political movement in the Middle East - unflinchingly stands with the Palestinians.

Since June 25, when Palestinian fighters captured one Israeli soldier and demanded a prisoner exchange, Israel has killed more than 140 Palestinians. Like the Lebanese situation, that flare-up was detached from its wider context and was said to be "manufactured" by the enemies of Israel; more nonsense proffered in order to distract from the apparently unthinkable reality that it is the manner in which Israel was created, and the ideological premises that have sustained it for almost 60 years, that are the core of the entire Arab-Israeli conflict.

Once the Arabs had rejected the UN's right to give away their land and to force them to pay the price for European pogroms and the Holocaust, the creation of Israel in 1948 was made possible only by ethnic cleansing and annexation. This is historical fact and has been documented by Israeli historians, such as Benny Morris. Yet Israel continues to contend that it had nothing to do with the Palestinian exodus, and consequently has no moral duty to offer redress.

For six decades the Palestinian refugees have been refused their right to return home because they are of the wrong race. "Israel must remain a Jewish state," is an almost sacral mantra across the Western political spectrum. It means, in practice, that Israel is accorded the right to be an ethnocracy at the expense of the refugees and their descendants, now close to 5 million.

Is it not understandable that Israel's ethnic preoccupation profoundly offends not only Palestinians, but many of their Arab brethren? Yet rather than demanding that Israel acknowledge its foundational wrongs as a first step toward equality and coexistence, the Western world blithely insists that each and all must recognize Israel's right to exist at the Palestinians' expense.

Western discourse seems unable to accommodate a serious, as opposed to cosmetic concern for Palestinians' rights and liberties: The Palestinians are the Indians who refuse to live on the reservation; the Negroes who refuse to sit in the back of the bus.

By what moral right does anyone tell them to be realistic and get over themselves? That it is too much of a hassle to right the wrongs committed against them? That the front of the bus must remain ethnically pure? When they refuse to recognize their occupier and embrace their racial inferiority, when desperation and frustration causes them to turn to violence, and when neighbors and allies come to their aid - some for reasons of power politics, others out of idealism - we are astonished that they are all such fanatics and extremists.

The fundamental obstacle to understanding the Arab-Israeli conflict is that we have given up on asking what is right and wrong, instead asking what is "practical" and "realistic." Yet reality is that Israel is a profoundly racist state, the existence of which is buttressed by a seemingly endless succession of punitive measures, assassinations, and wars against its victims and their allies.

A realistic understanding of the conflict, therefore, is one that recognizes that the crux is not in this or that incident or policy, but in Israel's foundational and per- sistent refusal to recognize the humanity of its Palestinian victims. Neither Hizbullah nor Hamas are driven by a desire to "wipe out Jews," as is so often claimed, but by a fundamental sense of injustice that they will not allow to be forgotten.

These groups will continue to enjoy popular legitimacy because they fulfill the need for someone - anyone - to stand up for Arab rights. Israel cannot destroy this need by bombing power grids or rocket ramps. If Israel, like its former political ally South Africa, has the capacity to come to terms with principles of democracy and human rights and accept egalitarian multiracial coexistence within a single state for Jews and Arabs, then the foundation for resentment and resistance will have been removed. If Israel cannot bring itself to do so, then it will continue to be the vortex of regional violence.

• Anders Strindberg, formerly a visiting professor at Damascus University, Syria, is a consultant on Middle East politics working with European government and law-enforcement agencies. He has also covered Syria, Lebanon, and the Palestinian territories as a journalist since the late 1990s, primarily for European publications.

Full HTML version of this story which may include photos, graphics, and related links

Israel’s cluster bombs and alleged phosphorus use have escaped attention
8/2/06

On July 24, Human Rights Watch reported that Israel was using cluster bombs "in populated areas of Lebanon," which it said "may violate the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks contained in international humanitarian law." But despite the extensive media coverage of the current conflict in the Middle East, almost no U.S. outlets are reporting on these findings.

The Los Angeles Times buried the news at the end of a July 25 report, which concluded that the "Israeli army said it was checking into the group's allegations, but added that the weapons were legal under international standards." On July 27, the New York Times reported that an Israeli general "acknowledged that Israel had used cluster munitions in the conflict."

The Times described the alleged use of such weapons as "another matter that has drawn criticism."Yet this reference was the first time the paper's readers heard of the matter—at least when it came to Israel's arsenal. On July 19, the Times did report that U.S. and Israeli officials claimed that Hezbollah had altered some of their rockets by "attaching cluster bombs as warheads, or filling an explosive shell with ball bearings that have devastating effect."

NBC Nightly News similarly (7/25/06) noted the lethality of Hezbollah's arsenal, with correspondent Martin Fletcher reporting that "the Katyusha is full of these tiny ball bearings that are aimed to kill and hurt as many people as possible." Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer (7/28/06) contrasted the ball-bearing packed Katyushas that "are meant to kill and maim" with Israel's "precision-guided munitions" as evidence that "Hezbollah is deliberately trying to create civilian casualties on both sides while Israel is deliberately trying to minimize civilian casualties, also on both sides."

Weapons loaded with ball bearings would seem designed to be anti-personnel weapons, and their use has been condemned by human rights organizations because of their wide and imprecise blast range (Human Rights Watch, 7/18/06). But cluster bombs, which likewise have a wide and imprecise blast range, pose an even deadlier threat to civilians, as they can spread hundreds of "bomblets" that become "de facto antipersonnel landmines" (Human Rights Watch, 3/03). Amnesty International called the use of cluster bombs by the U.S. in civilian areas of Iraq "a grave violation of international humanitarian law" (4/2/03).

Other reports have raised the strong possibility that cluster bombs may have been used in Gaza (Agence France Presse, 7/25/06). And some doctors and Lebanese officials believe that injuries in Lebanon indicate the use of incendiary weapons such as white phosphorus (Inter Press Service, 7/28/06; Agence France Presse, 7/30/06). White phosphorus causes severe and deep burns to the skin and cannot be extinguished with water; the New York Times once called it (3/22/95) one of "the worst chemical weapons" in existence. Israel's use of such weapons would not be without precedent; Human Rights Watch reported in 1996 (5/96) that there was "compelling" evidence that Israel used phosphorus weapons against civilians in its 1982 and 1983 attacks on Southern Lebanon. (The U.S. has admitted to using white phosphorus as a weapon in Iraq; see Extra!, 3-4/06.)

Few outlets have even addressed Israel's possible use of white phosphorus, but when it is reported the results are not particularly enlightening. On July 24, CNN asked its military analyst Gen. James "Spider" Marks about white phosphorus; though he seemed to know very little about its possible use in Lebanon, he nonetheless declared that it probably wasn't being used: "I don't know anything about Israeli targeting methods and specifically whether they're using white phosphorus or not.... But it's not used against civilians. So I can't comment on whether they're targeting civilians and I would be surprised--in fact, I would deny that they even were, frankly." CNN host Anderson Cooper gave his guest some help by reiterating the Israeli position: "What they certainly are saying is, 'Look, we're point blank not targeting civilians, we're targeting Hezbollah positions.' They say Hezbollah very knowingly, you know, has their infrastructure, has their mobile rockets, launching from residential neighborhoods, and that's why we're seeing the civilian damage to the extent that we have."

The next night, a CNN report assured that "Israel says all its weapons and ammunition comply with international law," a point underscored by a former Justice Department official who declared use of white phosphorus legal. The same source, on the other hand, determined that Hezbollah's rockets loaded with ball bearings were "primarily a terror weapon of no particular military utility. That would make this even more legally questionable."

These legal opinions are not shared by all experts. An official with the U.N. body that enforces the Chemical Weapons Convention told the BBC (BBC News Online, 11/16/05) that if white phosphorus were used to camouflage movement, it would be legal. However, if it is "specifically intended to be used as a weapon," that would be prohibited. (See Extra!, 3-4/06.) While Israel denies such intentions, the reports coming in of civilians severely burned by phosphorus raise serious questions that can't simply be dismissed with Israeli assurances. As Human Rights Watch reported (7/30/06), its researchers in Lebanon "have documented dozens of cases in which Israeli forces have carried out indiscriminate attacks against civilians while in their homes or traveling on roads to flee the fighting."

Anyone reading the coverage of the Israeli invasion and bombing of Lebanon is keenly aware of the weapons in Hezbollah's arsenal. (See the chart "Hezbollah Firepower" in USA Today's July 28 edition, for example.) As noted by Frida Berrigan and William Hartung (Foreign Policy in Focus, 7/26/06):

Much has been made in the U.S. media of the Syrian- and Iranian-origin weaponry used by Hezbollah in the escalating violence in Israel and Lebanon. There has been no parallel discussion of the origin of Israel's weaponry, the vast bulk of which is from the United States.

When roughly 800 have been killed in Lebanon—mostly civilians—and the civilian death toll in Israel stands at 19, media coverage that focuses on assurances by Israeli officials and pro-war pundits that Israel does not intentionally target civilians gives a false sense of reality. U.S. news outlets need to explain the consequences of Israel's cluster bombs and other weapons—along with Hezbollah's ball bearings.

القدس المحتلة – المركز الفلسطينيّ للإعلام
كشفت بعض المصادر المُقرَّبة من مكتب الرئاسة الفلسطينية، عن أنّ رئيس الحكم الذاتي الفلسطيني، محمود عباس "أبو مازن"، خضع لمطلبٍ من السفارة الأمريكية بالقدس المحتلة حيث حلّ لجنةً أشرفت على لجنة جمع تبرعات للأشقاء في لبنان الذي يتعرّض لحرب صهيونية أمريكية.
وأوضحت المصادر التي طلبت عدم الكشف عنها أنّه بعد الإعلان عن إطلاق حملة دعم الشعب اللبناني الشقيق تحت رعاية "عباس" والقطاع الخاص، التقى جميع أفراد اللجنة المنظمة والمشرفة على الحملة، وبعد تداولٍ استمرّ لساعاتٍ تم الاتفاق بين المنظّمين على خطوات عمل اللجنة والبرنامج الذي سيتمّ تنفيذه، كما تم تقسيم العمل على الأفراد.
وأضافت المصادر نفسها، أنّه لم تكدْ تمضي ساعات على هذا الاجتماع حتّى تمت المفاجأة التي لم تكنْ متوقّعة، حيث أصدر عباس أوامره بوقف الحملة، وذلك بناءً على قرارٍ سياسيّ اتُّخِذ!.
وبيّنت المصادر أنّ هذا القرار جاء بعد طلبٍ من السفارة الأمريكية بالقدس المحتلة طالب فيه عباس بعدم ربط نفسه ومجريات الأحداث بفلسطين بما يجري في لبنان.

خرج أكثر من 2000 من المسلمين الشيعة بمظاهرات في المنطقة الشرقية بالسعودية ليل أمس تعبيرا عن استنكارهم للعدوان الإسرائيلي على لبنان، ودعمهم لحزب الله وزعيمه حسن نصر الله.
وسار نحو ألفي سعودي بمظاهرة في مدينة القطيف شرق البلاد، بالتزامن مع خروج عدة مئات في مظاهرة مماثلة بالدمام.
وحمل المتظاهرون وبينهم نساء وأطفال خلال المظاهرات أعلام حزب الله الصفراء وصور أمينه العام السيد حسن نصر الله.
وذكر موقع للشيعة السعوديين على الإنترنت أن المتظاهرين رددوا شعارات تقول "لاشيعية لاسُنية وحدة وحدة إسلامية" وأيضا "نصر الله يا حبيب يا حبيب اضرب اضرب تل أبيب".
يُشار إلى أن الصحف السعودية تجاهلت المظاهرات التي تعتبر ممنوعة في المملكة ذات الغالبية السُنية.
وذكر أحد المشاركين أن المتظاهرين تفرقوا بهدوء بعد انتهائها، مشيرا إلى أن انتشارا أمنيا خفيفا واكب حركتهم.
ومعلوم أن السعودية اتخذت موقفا ناقدا من حزب الله بعد حادث أسر الجنديين الإسرائيليين، وهي الواقعة التي فجرت الحرب الحالية.

2,000 Saudi Shiites demonstrated in S.A. in support of Hizbullah. The demonstrations took place in Dammam and Qutaif. The demonstrators shouted for Sunni-Shi'a unity.This is a significant development since S.A. does not allow demonstrations; it is indicative that the pressure has reached such level that it could not be contained.

By Syed Saleem Shahzad
Asia Times

"SOUTH LEBANON - The US ruling political elite failed to understand (or deliberately ignored) the real pulse of the post-September 11, 2001, situation when they decided to invade Iraq in 2003, despite repeated opposition from top Pentagon and intelligence officials. The ongoing chaos in Iraq is evidence enough of the dire consequences of this miscalculation. Now, Asia Times Online has learned from contacts both in Lebanon and in the region that Israel, too, has embarked on a military adventure in defiance of warnings from within its establishment of the need for caution.

In Iraq, after the US-led invasion, people decided at the neighborhood level to form bands of resistance. These turned into Islamic groups, which in turn melted into the broader resistance. The Lebanese street, certainly in the south, appears much the same. But a trustworthy organization - Hezbollah - is already on the ground and people only need to join forces with this broad resistance. The next step, therefore, is for this resistance of Lebanon to become a part of the international anti-US Islamic movement. The Israelis were warned. "

By Patrick Cockburn

"A year ago he seemed a rebel without a cause. Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbollah, was an important figure in Lebanon but seemed destined to remain on the sidelines of Middle East politics. He was the most important leader of the 1.4 million-strong Shia community in Lebanon and nobody doubted the efficiency of Hizbollah as a paramilitary organisation. He was intelligent, charismatic and experienced but he seemed to have reached the peak of his influence.

There is no doubt that Nasrallah thought this summer was an opportune moment to heat up the border with Israel. But he can hardly have expected Israel and the US to forget their own grim experiences in Lebanon after the invasion of 1982 and play so completely into his hands. "

Leader
Wednesday August 2, 2006
The Guardian

"Another disconcerting issue, with even more unpredictable consequences, is the transformation of Hizbullah - at least in the eyes of the Arab public - from an essentially local and specifically Shia movement into a more generalised symbol of resistance and hope.

Hizbullah, on the other hand, is a mass grassroots movement and the main representative of the Lebanese Shia, who are the largest religious group in the country. Whatever they think of Shia Islam, Arab Sunnis and even Christians can be heard now declaring their respect - if not actual support - for Hizbullah as a resistance movement. In contrast to the old-style Arab leaders - corrupt and often blustering but acquiescent in the face of US power - Nasrallah is seen as free from corruption and as a man who does what he says he will do. The reality may be different, but it is the perceptions that count. He is an inspirational figure whom some are already likening to Gamal Abdul Nasser, the Egyptian leader who thumbed his nose at the British empire in the 1950s."

Karma Nabulsi
Wednesday August 2, 2006
The Guardian

"Israel has failed to understand that it cannot expel a people and call itself the victim; that it cannot conquer its neighbours and treat any and all resistance to that conquest as terrorism; that it cannot arm itself as a regional superpower and annihilate the institutional fabric of two peoples without incurring the fury of their children in the years that follow."

· Karma Nabulsi teaches politics and international relations at Oxford University. She is the author of Traditions of War: Occupation, Resistance and the Law karmanabulsi@hotmail.com

By NASEER ARURI

"Meanwhile, Condoleezza Rice continues to excuse her opposition to a halt of civilian killings by repeating a pathetic phrase: We seek a "sustainable cease-fire," as if a cease fire is the end of a negotiating process rather than the beginning and the necessary condition. Even more disingenuously, President Bush does the same thing by repeating an inane goal of getting to the "root cause," forgetting that his understanding of relevant history goes back to less than five years.

Should the Security Council acquiesce in this complicity, it will have forfeited its raison d'etre, i.e., responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security, and will have also rendered the office of the Secretary-General a virtual agency among the layers of the US foreign policy bureaucracy. Kofi Anan, who waited until July 21st to call for an immediate ceasefire, has no option now but to make good on his request, despite the opposition of the US pro-Israel lobby and its neo-conservative operatives, whose man at the UN is acting as a second ambassador from Israel, a fact which has dealt a severe blow to the humanitarian image of the UN system. Expressing his contempt for the United Nations, John Bolton had this to say about the United Nations in the year 2000 ""If I were doing the Security Council today, I'd have one permanent member [the United States] because that's the real reflection of the distribution of power in the world."

The UN Charter is being effectively put to the test. It will either be a catalyst of peace in the Middle East, or a witness to the "birth pangs of a new Middle East," as the US Secretary of State has crudely put it. It will either be upheld and implemented, or it will be consigned to the dustbin of history."

OLMERT: DID YOU PAINT IT?
PICASSO: NO, NO, YOU DID!

THE REAL SURPRISE

It was early in the morning on July 30, 2006 in Qana, Lebanon. A building housing more than sixty Lebanese was bombed by Israel with American bombs.

By now you have probably heard about it, but as the story progressed the truth started to reveal itself.

At first the Israeli military said they were responding to rocket fire from the village. Air Force Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Amir Eshel even showed video footage of rockets being fired. You might have seen the footage.

“Some 150 rockets were fired from the Lebanese village of Qana over the past 20 days, Air Force Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Amir Eshel said on Sunday evening.

Speaking to reporters, Eshel added that Hizbullah rocket launchers were hidden in civilian buildings in the village. He proceeded to show video footage of rocket launchers being driven into the village following launches.”

On FOXNews, Major General Edwards said that it was unlikely that rockets were fired from the village.

According to "Red Cross workers and residents of Qana, where Israeli bombing killed at least 60 civilians, [IPS was told] that no Hezbollah rockets were launched from the city before the Israeli air strike."

It gets worse…

“According to reporters at the scene, an Israeli missile hit a three-story building where relatives from two extended families were seeking refuge. There were only eight survivors. The youngest of the dead was 10 months old. The oldest was 95. One person was in a wheelchair. No weapons were found in the building that was hit.”

Robert Fisk quickly reported on this war crime too:

“And there was no doubt of the missile which killed all those children yesterday. It came from the United States, and upon a fragment of it was written: ‘For use on MK-84 Guided Bomb BSU-37-B.’ No doubt the manufacturers can call it "combat-proven" because it destroyed the entire three-storey house in which the Shalhoub and Hashim families lived. They had taken refuge in the basement from an enormous Israeli bombardment, and that is where most of them died.”

Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz informs of us new developments that put what Eshel said/showed in contradiction:

"It now appears that the military had no information on rockets launched from the site of the building, or the presence of Hezbollah men at the time.The Israel Defense Forces had said after the deadly air-strike that many rockets had been launched from Qana. However, it changed its version on Monday."

This change of version raises quite a few questions, but none more than those that do with the obvious lie and cover-up.

Some of you may have seen the photographs of the carnage in Qana. If not then you can view it here on a fellow blogger’s, Saracen, website.

WARNING: the images are graphic, which is why I did not include them. Amongst the images of the rubble and the dead is the infamous picture of the shrapnel that shows it was an American-made bomb. That image serves as an indictment to ALL of us.

Hear me NOW: know what YOU are paying for; know what YOU are responsible for.

Do YOU have children? Imagine these broken bodies as being YOURS or someone in YOUR family.

Sincerely upset,
Truth Addict

د. عادل سمارة

منذ أن بدأ العدوان الصهيوني على لبنان في 12 تموز وحتى الآن، وربما لمدة طويلة قادمة، والتحليلات تتفاوت وتتعدد عن أهداف هذا العدوان ومن ورائه. وربما ما من أحد لمس الهدف الأساس وهو أن هذا الكيان إستيطاني أصلاً وتوسعي بالطبيعة وعدواني تلبية لوظيفته ودوره الذي خلقه المركز الرأسمالي من أجله. لذا، لا يمكنه إلا اختلاق حروب ضد العرب لتحقيق ذلك. هذا الهدف هو جذر كافة السيناريوهات التي ليست إلا تفرعات له. يذكرني الجدل حول أهداف العدوان بما كتبه كثير من الفلسطينيين والعرب عن شارون عندما وصل إلى رئاسة الوزراء قبل بضع سنوات، حيث ساد الترويج بأن مرحلة شارون ستكون أكثر دموية ...الخ. وقد كتبت آنذاك في هذه النشرة وفي جريدة القدس المحلية، أن شارون لن يختلف عن غيره قط، وربما حتى في الدرجة فما بالك في النوع. وقد ارتكزت في تحليلي وما زلت على حقيقة أنه ما من حاكم وبطانته في هذا الكيان إلا وكان حريصاً على أن يكون دموياً أكثر من سابقيه، وأكثر ممن سيخلفوه. نعم لأننا نتحدث عن عقلية ونفسية سياسية مريضتين ملوثتين بخدمة رأس المال وبثقافة تلمودية كارهة وموتورة، وبزعم تفوق لا اساس له. وحين يكون نظام حكم مريض نفسياً، فهو لن يخضع قط للتحليل والقياس العلميين ولا للتوقعات البشرية الواعية. وما يمكن توقعه منه هو التطرف الأقصى، الذي يصعب التكهن به.
بالمقابل، يمكننا معرفة سلوك الأنظمة العربية لأن الإحاطة بها أمر ليس صعباً. فهي صنيعة المركز الرأسمالي، تابعة، ومحمية من عدو الأمة، وأمرها بسيط، لأن معادلتها بسيطة: أن تبقى في السلطة وأن تدفع مقابل ذلك وطناً. نعم رُفعت الأقلام وجفت الصحف. وهذا ما يجعل الكيان الصهيوني وهذه الأنظمة أكثر تحالفاً، وإن غير معلن، كلما ازدادت تبعيتها[1]. وهذا ايضاً ما كشفته مسيرة التسوية منذ كامب ديفيد إلى أوسلو إلى وادي عربة إلى اتفاق موريتانيا إلى اتفاقات كثيرة غير معلنة لكنها موجودة على الأرض. ولعل ما زاد انكشافه هو عملية حزب الله بأسر الجنديين الاسرائيليين في جنوب لبنان وصمود المقاومة اللبنانية لحزب الله. فثأر حزب الله لاستغاثة غزة وصموده في الجنوب كان في الحقيقة مثابة القول: انتبهوا في الطبقات الشعبية العربية، فالمعركة داخل الوطن العربي، مع الطبقات الحاكمة هناك، فهي معيقة أي انتصار وهي حليفة اسرائيل ومن ورائها. ومن هنا، فإن زعم رئيس الوزراء الصهيوين يوم 31 تموز بأن دولا عربية وإسلامية موافقة على عدوانه على لبنان، زعم له اساس، إذا قررنا النظر إلى الأمور حسب المصالح وبالتالي السلوك. ويصح كذلك زعمنا، أن صمود حزب الله وثأره لغزة هو ايضاً هجوم في الأساس على هذه الأنظمة أكثر مما هو هجوم على العدوان.
نعم، مختلف السيناريوهات ممكنة، ولننظر قبل تعدادها في مرجعيتها التاريخية والسياسية . يقول موشيه شاريت عن بن غوريون:
"في ذهن بن غوريون والضباط لا قلق لدينا من العالم، ولا على الاقتصاد. ليس للسلام مكاناً. لا يؤخذ بالاعتبار ما يدور في المنطقة او في العالم. فبرأيهم، ان على الدولة ان ترى الحرب كمسألة مبدأ، وربما الوسيلة الوحيدة لزيادة الرفاه وللحفاظ على التوتر الأخلاقي...(ان العمليات الانتقامية) هي إكسير الحياة...فهي التي تساعدنا على استمرار التوتر المدني والعسكري. وبدونها، لن تكون لدينا أمة مقاتلة، فعدم وجود نظام حكم حربي يعني ضياعنا. .. لهذا الغرض، فإن بوسعنا اختلاق مخاطر، في الحقيقة نحن مجبرون على فعل ذلك. أعطنا حرباً مع البلدان العربية، وعندها ستزول كل مشاكلنا... ذات مرة تفوَّه بن غوريون نفسه بأن علينا ان نجد عربيا ونعطيه مليون ليرة، ليقوم في النهاية بحرب ضدنا[2]" .
نعم، بن غوريون نفسه قال ذات مرة:
"ستكون حدود إسرائيل "طبيعية" حينما يكون نهر الأردن حدها من الشرق، ونهر الليطاني في لبنان حدها من الشمال"[3]".
أما الصهيوني يوسف عجنون، الحاصل على جائزة نوبل، والذي كان قبل شهرين في البتراء يدوس على المجد العربي، فقال: "أتمنى أن تحتل اسرائيل دمشق" ومع ذلك، وربما بسبب ذلك حصل على هذه الجائزة.
ألا توضح هذه الأقوال أن مسألة احتلال الفرات والنيل هي مسألة جدية؟ ألا تفسر هذه كلها لماذا لم تحترم إسرائيل اتفاق أوسلو مع أنه لصالحها تماماًَ؟ وباختصار، ألا يوضح حرق لبنان اليوم وبموافقة معظم العالم الرسمي والأمم المتحدة ألا يوضح هذا لإسرائيل الاستنتاج بأن بوسعها نهب أرض جديدة، ولتكن جنوب لبنان تمهيداً لترانسفير شامل للفلسطينيين من الضفة الغربية وغزة؟
هناك من قال أن هدف العدوان الحالي هو احتلال جنوب لبنان وضمه إلى إسرائيل، ولذا، تقوم إسرائيل بطرد سكانه بقنابل الطائرات. وهناك من يقول إن ما تريده إسرائيل هو إقامة منطقة عازلة مفرغة من السكان لكي لا تتمكن صواريخ حزب الله من وصول قلب شمال إسرائيل، وهناك من يقول إن هدف إسرائيل مشترك ومتفق عليه مع تركيا وأميركا وبريطانيا لاحتلال الجنوب لأنه يسهل وصول الماء من تركيا والنفط من اذربيجان. وهناك من يقول إنه تقاسم وظيفي، تحتل إسرائيل الجنوب وتستوطن فيه وتسيطر الولايات المتحدة على بقية لبنان وتقيم في مشيخة بدون دشاديش بيضاء، لتضع سوريا بين فكي كماشة أميركي، كخطوة لاحتلال كامل الوطن العربي احتلالاً مباشراً. وهناك من يرجح إخضاع الجنوب اللبناني لاحتلال جديد ، اي لقوات دولية في خدمة إسرائيل.
وقد لا يبدو مفاجئاً القول أن هذه جميعها سيناريوهات مطروحة صهيونياً، فلا تناقض بينها، بل كل واحد منها درجة في المشروع العدواني الأقصى، وما يحققه عدوان معين هو تمهيد لما قد يتحقق لاحقاً. لذا، يصبح تحديد ما تريده اسرائيل من هذا العدوان رياضة ذهنية لا أكثر. ولكن يكون المهم، أن على كل عربي أن يكون يقظاً بالمطلق، فهي حرب مفتوحة حقاً ودائمة حقاً، لذا، فإن إطلاق رصاصة يمكن أن يعني حرباً شاملة. المهم هو، طبيعة التحالف الرأسمالي الصهيوني والكمبرادوري العربي، المهم إستهداف هذا الوطن بلا مواربة.
يرجح الكثيرون أن تسير الأمور هذه المرة باتجاه دمار شامل للجنوب، وزرع قوات دولية فيه، وتثبيت حكومة عميلة في بقية لبنان، وبعدها يمهد العدو لعدوان آخر واغتصاب آخر. لذا، ستكون المعركة المقبلة داخل لبنان، اي بين من سيلجأ لطلب القوات الدولية، ومن يرفضها كعدو دولي هدفه في النهاية ليس فقط تثبيت الارض المحتلة عام 1948 وحماية الكيان الاستيطاني، بل كذلك تمكين هذا الكيان من التوسع بحماية دولية. هل سيغير "لبنانيو أميركا" موقفهم الحالي ويطالبوا بقوة دولية وبسلاح المقاومة ورأس لبنان؟ على الأرجح نعم. ولذا، قد تكون المعركة داخل لبنان.
سيكون غريباً إيراد كل هذه السيناريوهات. فالكل يتحدث عن وقف إطلاق النار، وليكن بعد ذلك ما يكون. ولا شك أن وقف إطلاق النار أمر هام وحساس، ولكن من يطلق النار ومن ورائه لا يمكن أن يوقفها إلا إذا كان سيحقق من ورائها أكثر مما يحقق بالنار نفسها. نعم، لن يوقفوا النار لحفظ الأرواح بل لقتل أجيال المستقبل. المقصود بهذا الوقف هو الوصول إلى إبقاء الوضع الراهن، لكلٍ ما كسب، اسرائيل تبقى طبيعية، ومن ثم .... لا قتال بعد اليوم؟ المقصود بالوقف هو وقف النار مع اسرائيل، وإشعالها بين اللبنانيين، دون إعادة الحقوق (بدءاً من عدم توطين الفلسطينيين في لبنان، وانتهاء بدمج اليهود في الوطن العربي بعد إنهاء الصهيونية) التي من أجلها كان كل ما حصل!!! ووقف النار في لبنان لاستئنافها لصالح الشرق الاوسط العميل.
فالمرحلة الحالية من سيطرة رأس المال الانجلو سكسوني على العالم، واستماتته للسيطرة بل إمتلاك الثروة والسوق العربيين، والتحكم بالنفط للتحكم بنمو عمالقة آسيا، وعجائز الامبريالية القديمة في أوروبا، وهذا لا يتحقق إلا بالحرب، وتوسيع المعركة. إنه يضع اميركا في موضع من لا يرى للحرب بديلا إلا الحرب. وهذا ما يبدو من إصرار الولايات المتحدة على عدم وقف النار رغم هزائم الدولة الوظيفية الصهيونية في الميدان البري. ومع ذلك، سوف تتوقف النار على لبنان، ولكن، على الكل أن يعرف أنها سوف تشتعل مجدداً. فهذا صراع لا حل له على المدى المرئي. وإذا توقفت النار في لبنان، فهي لن تتوقف في المعركة الشاملة معركة "الشرق الأوسط العميل"، معركة تقويض المشروع النهضوي العربي مرة وإلى الأبد.
لماذا قتل المدنيين والتدمير الشامل؟
لا مجال للقول أن قتل المدنيين بالمجازر وتدمير كل ما هو على الأرض كان صدفة أو بلا خطة. فكل سيناريو مما اشرنا إليها أعلاه يجعل هذا القتل والتدمير ضروريين وحتميين. ويؤكد أن وقف النار سيكون فاصلاً بين مجزرتين. فما يريده كل طرف لا يقبل به الطرف الأخر. لذلك، ليست المفاجأة هي الحرب السادسة بل هناك مفاجئتان كلتاهما في المستوى العربي:
الأولى: إعادة الاصطفاف الرسمي العربي ووضوح ذلك. لقد وقفت معظم الأنظمة العربية في صف العدو، وتوجتها بفتاوى أدواتها الدينية.
والثانية: بروز قوة عربية معنوية وإيمانية لجمت جموح العدو، وكسرت أنفه في الميدان. لذا، كان لا بد له من التميز، ولو بذبح المدنيين بعد ان عجز عن ما تميز به دوماً. وإن كان هذا الذبح والتدمير منسجم مع نظريته المعهودة بالوصول إلى ركوع العرب كلياُ؟ لتمرير ما يريد؟
من دمج المفاجئتين معاً، توصل العدو إلى استنتاجين:
الأول: إن ما قامت به الانظمة العربية من حرب أهلية مفتوحة ضد الأمة العربية، ضد الطبقات الشعبية ليس كافياً للإجهاز على المشروع النهضوي العربي والتقدم بمشروع شرق أوسط عميل، ولا بد من تكميل هذه الحرب بحرب دولية ضد الشعب العربي، والتي ستكون بدايتها قوات دولية في لبنان، قوات دولية ضد لبنان، كما هي قوات احتلال العراق، وضرب السودان وتمزيق الصومال، وتفكيك مصر طائفياً...الخ. وهذا يخالف ما توقعه كثرون، وانا نفسي في بداية هذا العدوان من أنه معركة وقد لا يتحول إلى حرب. أي أن تطورات الموقف العربي الرسمي، أو الكشف عنها، ونذالة العالم الرسمي قد تدفع وتشجع اميركا لتوسيع المعركة إلى حرب ضد هلال الممانعة.
والثاني: أن العدوان الحالي على لبنان يمكن توسيعه ليصبح حرباً ضد كل قوى الممانعة أو هلال الممانعة من طهران إلى بيروت. هي الحرب إذن، تبدأ بسيناريو وتنتهي بآخر، حسب التطورات على الأرض. لذا، ليس مستبعداً الهجوم على سوريا وإيران أو جرهما عبر حرق لبنان. وعند وصول هذه اللحظة تكون الولايات المتحدة قد حققت رؤيتها لمعركة مجدو! ولكن الرأسمالية هذه المرة بوشاح ديني مشوه. فهي تدرك أن لا بد من "صنعا وإن طال السفر"- وإن عظم الثمن، لا بد من التحكم بالنفط للتحكم في العالم، ولا تحكم بالنفط إلا عبر احتلال الوطن العربي وتحويله إلى فسيفساء من الانظمة العميلة.
إن العدوان على هلال الممانعة هام وضروري. فما دامت إيران بصدد امتلاك سلاح نووي، فهذا سيحول دون شرق أوسط عميل. سيحقق توازن رعب، وبعدها يمكن أن تتخذ حروب المنطقة شكلاً اقتصادياً، لكن لهذا حديث آخر.
___________
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[1] كتبت في كراس، أزمة الثورة العربية وانحطاط كامب ديفيد، 1978 (منشورات دار العامل- رام الله 1978)، أن جبهة سوف تتكون من أنظمة عربية وإسرائيل. وقد هوجمت إثر ذلك بتهمة التطرف والميل لاختلاق شعارات مثيرة!!!
[2] Quoted in, The Global Political Economy of Israel, by Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler, Ploto Press, 2002,note 8, p. 102.
[3] Ben Gurion, Israel's founding leader, Israel's border should be "natural", that is, the Jordan
River in the East, and the Litani River of Lebanon in the north. In 1967, Israel gained control over the Jordan River, in the occupied Palestinian land, but all its attempts to establish the Litani border have failed so far. As I argued in Israel/Palestine, already when the Israeli army left southern Lebanon in 2000, the plans to return were ready. Spotlight, Israel's "new Middle East" By Tanya Reinhart, 28 July 2006, note (12)
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# posted by Tony : 7:32 AM | links to this post

The Pentagon insists that South America's Triple Border region, where Brazil, Argentina and Paraguay meet near the spectacular Iguacu Falls, is crammed with terrorists funneling cash to the likes of Hezbollah and al-Qaeda. The place is a dizzying black void of contraband, narco-trafficking, weapons smuggling, money laundering, car theft, piracy and corruption - but where, oh where, are the terrorists? - Pepe Escobar

Continued.

By Dahr Jamail

""You can see here that everyone the Israelis are attacking are civilians and the Red Cross," Shaulan said. "And now we are having trouble reaching villages to collect bodies because they've bombed most of the roads and bridges before they told people to leave their homes."
Mohammad Zatar, who has been working for the Lebanese Red Cross in Tyre since 1993, said he had never before seen attacks on rescue workers. "

RED CROSS IS THE TARGET

Israel admits : There were no rocket launches from Qana on the day of the strike: It now appears that the military had no information on rockets launched from the site of the building, or the presence of Hezbollah men at the time.

'No Hezbollah Rockets Fired from Qana': Red Cross workers and residents of Qana, where Israeli bombing killed at least 60 civilians, have told IPS that no Hezbollah rockets were launched from the city before the Israeli air strike.

Qana bombs an Israeli 'war crime' : A human rights group says the Israeli air strike on Qana that killed 54 civilians is a "war crime". It said the failure to distinguish between civilians and combatants could be judged as a war crime, and called for an UN probe into the conflict.

To the Office of the Secretary General of the United Nations; Kofi Annan 08/01/06

Dear Secretary General,

I am writing to ask you to take swift action to address the threat of escalating violence in the Middle East. Yesterday, Israel’s Security Cabinet approved “an expansion of the ground campaign in Lebanon” removing any chance of a quick end to the present hostilities. The news was compounded by report in “The Jerusalem Post” which said that the Bush administration is asking Israel “to attack Syria”. This creates the strong probability that what was once a “border skirmish” could very well balloon into a region-wide conflagration. As Secretary-General it is your responsibility to discourage further aggression by persuading the other member states to call for an immediate cease-fire. Unfortunately, your attempts in this regard have been frustrated by the Bush administration's maneuvering and obstructionism.

In the last few days, 15 foreign ministers met in Rome to prepare a statement calling for an immediate cease-fire. As you know, all of the countries supported the motion except for the United States which blocked the measure to give Israel more time to carry out its vicious air-campaign. I think you'll agree that the UN cannot survive if one of its members on the Security Council supports the idea of unilateral warfare.

The obstructionism of the US in the last week has been nothing short of extraordinary. Condoleezza Rice has devoted all her energy to torpedoing the peace initiative, while US Ambassador, John Bolton has effectively impeded every attempt to condemn Israel’s decimation of Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure. The administration’s diplomatic strategy is a carefully-calculated plan to use the United Nations as cover for Israel’s brutal onslaught. In fact, just hours after Condi Rice blocked the Rome initiative, Israeli Justice Minister, Haim Ramon, boasted to the press that Israel had been given “international authorization” to continue its attacks “until Hezbollah is no longer present in southern Lebanon.”

No such “authorization” was ever given. Ramon distorted the statement to justify his belief that “everyone in southern Lebanon is a terrorist” and to continue Israel’s gratuitous assault on Lebanon. He was clearly acting in concert with Bolton and Rice.

The United States cannot be allowed to thwart the will of the majority. That would mean certain death for countless thousands of innocent civilians in the Middle East.

Will you be a part of this charade or will you take steps to avert the impending catastrophe? It is very likely that the hostilities in Lebanon will quickly spread to Damascus and Tehran unless something is done now. It’s up to you to use whatever power you have to prevent this tragedy from unfolding.

The United Nations is not expected to provide soldiers or weaponry to stop US/Israeli aggression. That would be impossible. It can, however, discourage aggression by using its “moral authority” to isolate and condemn the guilty states. We must realize, however, that preserving the peace is impossible if one of the offending nations has a place on the Security Council and can veto any resolution that is not in its interest. That is why drastic measures are needed to deal effectively with this dire situation. Here’s what you must do:

You must convene an emergency meeting of the General Assembly to decide whether the United States should be immediately removed from the Security Council. I think you will find that there is broad international support for this proposal. Once the matter is resolved then the US and Israel will be forced to prosecute their conflicts without the mask of international legitimacy. As you know, the United States depends quite heavily on the UN to conceal its meddling in the developing world. Even now, the Bush administration is trying to gain access Sudan’s oil and natural gas reserves by insisting that troops be deployed to the region for "humanitarian" reasons. This is just another cynical scheme to intrude militarily wherever there are vital resources.

The administration has decided that it will run the world directly from Washington; transforming the UN into a “cats-paw” for America’s geopolitical ambitions. In fact, John Bolton’s package of “Reforms” has been nothing more than a blueprint for turning the UN into a fully-owned franchise of the multinational corporations, the international banking establishment and Israel.

This must be stopped.

It is up to you, Mr. Secretary, to put an end to this farce and restore the credibility of the institution. Prove to the world that the medic at the Qana massacre was wrong when he said that the UN was nothing more than a “gravedigger”.

The United Nations needs to sever the cord that keeps the United States and Israel within the body of nations. Let them wander through the dessert of isolation for a decade or so while their fortunes change and their power dissipates. Eventually, they will return to the family of civilized countries eager to face our collective problems together with humility and greater regard for the lives of others.

Sincerely,

Mike Whitney

"Some advisers to the father are expressing increasingly deep unease with the Israel policies of the son," reads an article slated for the front page of Wednesday's New York Times.

The paper reports that there is "a generational and philosophical divide between the Bushes" which "is exacerbating the friction between their camps."

"When they first met as United States president and Israeli prime minister, George W. Bush made clear to Ariel Sharon he would not follow in the footsteps of his father," writes Sheryl Gay Stolberg for the Times.

"The first President Bush had been tough on Israel, especially the housing settlements Sharon had helped develop," Stolberg continues. "But over tea in the Oval Office that day in March 2001 the new president charted a different course, going beyond the usual expression of support by pledging to use force to protect Israel." Continued.

By Ray McGovern

"But the world desperately needs an "E" for EXIT from the march of folly toward a wider Middle East war that is increasingly likely to result from plural US foreign policy fiascos - in Iraq, Israel and Lebanon, for starters; in Syria and Iran for the next stage. Fortunately, Webster's does allow the insertion of an "E" and that's precisely what we must now do. We need to make a prompt exit from the endless string of fiascoes that have the Middle East marching to calamity.
If we do not take a sober look beyond the carnage of the last few weeks and weigh the reaction of still others in and outside the region, I fear there will be no exit. Perhaps it would be wise to start with a brief review: Who led our march into this modern-day Valley of Death?

There is a certain poetic justice in the fact that Rice, now secretary of state, is reaping the whirlwind. She has been trapped in the extremely awkward position of having to say "No" to a cease-fire to stop the burgeoning violence, and then being mocked by the Israelis who openly violated the cease-fire they had promised her.
Still an innocent abroad, Rice has loyally played piano accompaniment for the neo-con hit song, "Reshaping the Entire Region." She has, for example, described the violence in Lebanon and Israel as "the birth pangs of a new Middle East." On Friday, President Bush declared, "This is a moment of intense conflict ... yet our aim is to turn it into a moment of opportunity and a chance for broader change in the region."
Bush's remark elicited uncharacteristically acerbic ridicule from Richard Haass, who served under Bush as head of policy planning at the State Department. (Yes, this is the same Haass who in July 2002 begged Rice for an appointment with the president, whom he wanted to warn of the folly of invading Iraq. Rice reportedly told him, "The decision's been made; don't waste your breath.") Referring to Bush's remarks on Friday, Haass, now head of the Council on Foreign Relations, laughed at the president's optimism, according to a report by Peter Baker in yesterday's Washington Post. "That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time," said Haass. "If this is an opportunity, what's Iraq? A once-in-a-lifetime chance?"
It is far from funny. Rather, it is amateur-hour again at the White House, with Rice acting as the president's personal secretary under instruction to do what Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the neo-cons tell her to do. The results have been entirely predictable. Seldom before has Washington been so widely seen to be joined at the hip to an Israel on the rampage. Seldom has US stock in the region sunk to such depths as it did last week, with civilian casualties in Lebanon piling up (literally) and with Rice joining Israel in rejecting appeals for an immediate cease-fire on grounds that it must be "sustainable." Policy and performance alike have been myopic in the extreme, and have resulted in an embarrassing US setback from which it will take decades to recover. The ramifications are region-wide."

Before you read this article there are a number of things that Mr. Scowcroft left out. I emphasized a couple of things in bold because of the utter importance of the statement.

Scowcroft was partially right when he said "Hezbollah is not the source of the problem; it is a derivative of the cause, which is the tragic conflict over Palestine that began in 1948." The problem goes a little bit further back to the promises of T.E. Lawrence and what Arnold Toynbee overheard British Prime Minister David Lloyd George say to himself at the Paris Peace Conference:

"Mesopotamia...yes...oil...irrigation...we must have Mesopotamia; Palestine...yes...the Holy Land...Zionism...we must have Palestine; Syria...h'm...what's there in Syria? Let the French have that."

What Toynbee overheard was precisely what this problem is about: giving other people's land to foreigners.

Other things that Scowcroft fails to mention is that his "opportunity" is extremely similar to the numerous offers that Israel has rejected over the past few decades. Most recently has been the Saudi Peace Plan (1981 and 2002) and the Geneva Accords. The latter can be viewed via the sidebar on this website. Both offers were rejected by Israel. Also, the "opportunity" mostly resembles the Fatah-Hamas agreement from late June 2006 than anything the Israeli or American government have endorsed.

If you bother to read the links you will notice that the offer in 2002 was rejected because Israel was not willing to give up land that it is legally obligated to give up since they took it illegally.

The offer can easily be found online here. Notice that the offer stated: "the Arab countries affirm the following: "I- Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region. II- Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace."

As for the Geneva Accords, simply read the last paragraph of the article to get the attitude of the Israeli government.

Keep in mind that these Arab offers that have existed for decades offer peace with Israel if they will simply adhere to international law; withdraw back to the 1967 borders, dismantle illegal settlements, allow a Palestinian state and the issues of Jerusalem and right of refugees to return varies depending on the offer, but all make considerable concessions or ask Israel to adhere to international law (the latter would mean Jerusalem goes to Palestine and the refugees are allowed to return). Again, these are basic requirments of international law.

Scowcroft also mentions "President Bill Clinton's efforts [that] collapsed in 2000."

According to Robert Malley, a Special Assistant to President Clinton for Arab-Israeli Affairs, was also a member of the US peace team and participated in the Camp David summit:

"The final and largely unnoticed consequence of Barak's approach is that, strictly speaking, there never was an Israeli offer. Determined to preserve Israel's position in the event of failure, and resolved not to let the Palestinians take advantage of one-sided compromises, the Israelis always stopped one, if not several, steps short of a proposal. The ideas put forward at Camp David were never stated in writing, but orally conveyed. They generally were presented as US concepts, not Israeli ones; indeed, despite having demanded the opportunity to negotiate face to face with Arafat, Barak refused to hold any substantive meeting with him at Camp David out of fear that the Palestinian leader would seek to put Israeli concessions on the record. Nor were the proposals detailed. If written down, the American ideas at Camp David would have covered no more than a few pages."

In the article Scowcroft says: "The current crisis in Lebanon provides a historic opportunity to achieve what has seemed impossible."

Why does he think the "opportunity.. seemed impossible" when the Arabs were offering it?

Scowcroft ignores alot in this piece.

It ignores what the US has been vetoing and what the Israelis have been rejecting.

----------------

Beyond Lebanon
This Is the Time for a U.S.-Led Comprehensive Settlement
By Brent Scowcroft
Sunday, July 30, 2006; Page B07

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has stated that a simple cease-fire in Lebanon is not the solution to the current violence. She says it is necessary to deal with the roots of the problem. She is right on both counts. But Hezbollah is not the source of the problem; it is a derivative of the cause, which is the tragic conflict over Palestine that began in 1948.

The eastern shore of the Mediterranean is in turmoil from end to end, a repetition of continuing conflicts in one part or another since the abortive attempts of the United Nations to create separate Israeli and Palestinian states in 1948. The current conflagration has energized the world. Now, perhaps more than ever, we have an opportunity to harness that concern and energy to achieve a comprehensive resolution of the entire 58-year-old tragedy. Only the United States can lead the effort required to seize this opportunity.

The outlines of a comprehensive settlement have been apparent since President Bill Clinton's efforts collapsed in 2000. The major elements would include:

· A Palestinian state based on the 1967 borders, with minor rectifications agreed upon between Palestine and Israel.

· Palestinians giving up the right of return and Israel reciprocating by removing its settlements in the West Bank, again with rectifications as mutually agreed. Those displaced on both sides would receive compensation from the international community.

· King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia unambiguously reconfirming his 2002 pledge that the Arab world is prepared to enter into full normal relations with Israel upon its withdrawal from the lands occupied in 1967.

· Egypt and Saudi Arabia working with the Palestinian Authority to put together a government along the lines of the 18-point agreement reached between Hamas and Fatah prisoners in Israeli jails in June. This government would negotiate for the Authority.

· Deployment, as part of a cease-fire, of a robust international force in southern Lebanon.

· Deployment of another international force to facilitate and supervise traffic to and from Gaza and the West Bank.

· Designation of Jerusalem as the shared capital of Israel and Palestine, with appropriate international guarantees of freedom of movement and civic life in the city.

These elements are well-known to people who live in the region and to those outside who have labored over the decades seeking to shape a lasting peace. What seems breathtakingly complicated, however, is how one mobilizes the necessary political will, in the region and beyond, to transform these principles into an agreement on a lasting accord.

The current crisis in Lebanon provides a historic opportunity to achieve what has seemed impossible. That said, it is too much to expect those most directly implicated -- Israeli and Palestinian leaders -- to lead the way. That responsibility falls to others, principally the United States, which alone can mobilize the international community and Israel and the Arab states for the task that has defeated so many previous efforts.

مع بدء اليوم الثاني والعشرين للعدوان الإسرائيلي الغاشم على لبنان، كثفت قوات العدو محاولات التقدم البرية على أكثر من محور في بنت جبيل ومرجعيون، في محاولة مستميتة لتعويض خسائرها السابقة فمنيت بالمزيد منها، وخصوصا في بلدة عيتا الشعب التي سطر فيها المقاومون على مدى الساعات الماضية، فصلا جديدا من فصول ملحمة البطولة والرجولة التي بدأت في 12 تموز الماضي في عيتا الشعب نفسها، وسطعت على تلال مارون الراس ومثلث التحرير في بنت جبيل، ثم تكررت في مشروع الطيبة وعلى محور كفركلا - العديسة - الطيبة، لتعود اليوم وتبزغ مجددا في مكان اشراقها الأول. .."الجيش الذي لا يقهر"، قهر خلال الليلة الماضية واليوم، أكثر من مرة على مرتفع العويضة، ومحور كفركلا - العديسة، وخسر من نخبة قواته حوالى 35 قتيلا وجريحا في بلدة عيتا الشعب وحدها، وحتى الساعة الثالثة بعد ظهر اليوم فقط، اضافة الى تدمير العديد من الدبابات والجرافات. فقوات النخبة في هذا الجيش الذي ثبت انه يقهر، والمكونة من المشاة والمظليين المدعومين بالدبابات والجرافات والغطاء الناري، حاولت خلال الليلة الماضية التقدم الى بلدة عيتا الشعب في قضاء بنت جبيل، فتصدى لها رجال المقاومة وخاضوا معها اشتباكات عنيفة دارت في بعض الأحيان من منزل الى منزل. وتجددت قبل ظهر اليوم محاولات التقدم، فجوبهت بمقاومة ضارية أدت الى ايقاع خسائر كبيرة في صفوف الأعداء، حيث نقل تلفزيون "المنار" عن المقاومة الاسلامية أن رجالها دمروا دبابة وجرافة وأوقعوا عشرين عسكريا اسرائيليا بين قتيل وجريح. وأكدت وكالة الصحافة الفرنسية مقتل ثلاثة جنود اسرائيليين في هذه المواجهات. وبعد الظهر، حاولت قوة معادية التقدم الى مدرسة عيتا الشعب، فوقعت في كمين للمقاومة التي أكدت تكبيد المهاجمين 15 اصابة جديدة بين قتيل وجريح. كذلك تصدى المقاومون خلال الليلة الماضية وصباح اليوم، لمحاولتي تقدم اسرائيليتين الى محور كفركلا - العديسة، وصدوا محاولات تقدم عدة على مرتفع العويضة المطل على بلدات: كفركلا، الطيبة والعديسة. وحول كمين بعد الظهر في عيتا الشعب، صدر عن المقاومة الاسلامية، البيان الآتي: "ها هي عيتا الشعب تقدم نموذجا آخر للملاحم والبطولات، التي كان رجال الله قد سطروها في مارون الراس وبنت جبيل وعيترون والطيبة وكفركلا، حيث لا تزال الاشتباكات الضارية مستمرة بين المجاهدين وما يسمى بقوات النخبة الاسرائيلية في اطراف البلدة، وبعد تدمير دبابة وجرافة لها صباحا، عاودت هذه القوات الدخول الى البلدة، وعند وصولها الى مدرستها وقعت في كمين محكم لأبناء المقاومة، فأمطرها المجاهدون بنيرانهم المسددة من الله سبحانه وتعالى، ما أدى الى وقوع خمسة عشر اصابة للعدو في أرض المعركة بين قتيل وجريح، ومازالت الاشتباكات الضارية مستمرة، ويحاول العدو اجلاء خسائره من الميدان."

In both Arabic and English. Click on any square for a very detailed map of that area.

Yesha Rabbinical Council: During time of war, enemy has no innocents: All of the discussions on Christian morality are weakening the spirit of the army and the nation and are costing us in the blood of our soldiers and civilians," the statement said.

4 Minute Video: Apologists For Murder: A valid effort by CNN anchor to expose Israeli propaganda

By Dahr Jamail
Monday 31 July 2006

Today, Sunday, I write this from Beirut, which is being circled by Israeli unmanned military surveillance drones, the same kind I saw so often in Fallujah. I suppose they were spying on the raging demonstrators who clogged the streets in Beirut and assaulted the UN building in a rage of vengeance after the fresh massacre of civilians by Israeli warplanes in the small town of Qana in the south.

Hundreds of the protesters ran through the building's corridors smashing offices, walls and glass while rescue teams extracted the bodies of at least 34 children and scores of other civilians from the bowels of the refugee shelter they were hiding in.

"Fuck the UN! Fuck those bastards for not stopping this Israeli slaughtering of the innocents," screamed a young protestor waving a Lebanese flag outside the UN building, which by now had smoke billowing out of portions of it. "What good are they if they cannot do what they were designed to do - to stop the killing of innocents?"

This man, 22 years old, was but a baby when the first Israeli military massacre at Qana took place. Yet the parallels of this sordid history repeating itself were not missed by most in the seething crowd.

On April 11, 1996, Israeli Prime Minister Shimon Peres, under pressure to respond to a wave of suicide bombings in Israel, launched Operation Grapes of Wrath. One week later, on April 18, while 800 civilians sought shelter from the fighting at a UN peacekeeping base in Qana, the base was shelled heavily - killing 102 and wounding 120.

After the first Qana massacre, the Israeli military rejected responsibility for the deaths, instead blaming Hezbollah because they thought fighters had entered the UN base. A similar Israeli justification, albeit the very definition of collective punishment, was given today - that they suspected Hezbollah militants had fired rockets from Qana. After the 1996 massacre, a UN investigation found no evidence to support the claim made by the Israeli military, and I suspect a similar investigation will find a similar verdict this time - that the Israeli military had no reason to bomb innocent civilians.

Astounding as this level of blood thirst is, it really cannot come as much of a surprise. Why not? Because just last Thursday, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon announced on Israeli army radio, "All those in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah."

Using rhetoric that set the stage for justifying the collective punishment of the Lebanese people in southern Lebanon, Ramon added, "In order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops move in."

He rationalized his statements by saying that Israel had given the civilians of southern Lebanon ample time to leave the area; thus, anyone who remained could be considered a supporter of Hezbollah.

So of course by his definition, everyone in southern Lebanon supports Hezbollah.

I met some of these "supporters of Hezbollah" yesterday in the hospitals of Sidon.

I met five-year-old Hussein Jawad as his stiff little body lay prone on a hospital bed, one of his tiny legs in a cast. His eight-year-old sister Zayneb, also a "supporter of Hezbollah," lay next to him in the same bed. See, there were so many Hezbollah supporters in the southern hospitals that the small ones had to share beds.

They, along with their mother Yusah in a nearby bed, covered in the kind of shrapnel wounds received from cluster bombs, had stayed in their tiny village near the border during the first three days of the bombing because they were too scared to leave. The bombing got so close; they took their chances and managed to move to another village, where they stayed for another eight days.

They ran out of food, so Yusah and the two little "supporters of Hezbollah," compelled by fear and hunger, along with another car containing Yusah's two sisters, followed an ambulance to Kafra village. When they arrived there, the car carrying the two sisters was bombed by an American-made F-16.

Then there was Khuder Gazali, an ambulance driver, whose left arm was blown off by a rocket fired by an American-made Apache war helicopter while he was rescuing civilians whose home had been bombed. The ambulance then sent to rescue the rescuer was bombed, everyone in it killed. Miraculously, the third ambulance was able to retrieve him, only because the Apache had left.

16-year-old Ibrahim Al-Hama was surely supporting Hezbollah as he played in a river with a dozen of his friends before they were bombed by a warplane. He lay in the hospital bed, his lacerated chest oozing blood, his left ankle shattered and held together by gauze and medical tape. Two of his friends are dead, along with a woman who was near the bomb's impact zone. Perhaps she too was plotting a rocket attack against Israel?

It's wonderful to see the thoroughness of the Israeli military, their effectiveness at eradicating "supporters of Hezbollah." Like 51-year-old Sumi Marden Ruwiri. On July 14th his home in Bint Jbail was bombed while most of his family members were inside, killing his mother and sister while they surely were strategizing the next rocket launches for Hezbollah. When he and several others began to sift through the rubble for their loved ones, the warplanes returned to bomb the rescuers. He lay in bed, his back shredded by shrapnel, countless patches of gauze stuck to his wounds. His sheets were stained red by blood and yellow by pus that oozed from the wounds.

Alia Abbas, a 52-year-old, fled her village with five other family members after Israeli warplanes dropped leaflets instructing them to leave their village. She lay in bed shredded by shrapnel wounds, one of her eyes missing. 10 days ago when they tried to flee, hanging white flags out the windows of their car, they were bombed by warplanes. She's the only survivor. "Why did they bomb as after we did what they told us to do," she asked me. All I could do was clench my jaw to stave off the tears.

Apparently Alia didn't know she was a "supporter of Hezbollah," since her family was wiped out after Haim Ramon's preposterous remarks about half a million inhabitants of southern Lebanon.

I met dozens of other Hezbollah supporters, most of them women, children and elderly - the kind most ill-equipped to flee their homes on a moment's notice. They lay in their beds, many of them moaning, some crying, and others comatose and kept alive only by machines. The man comatose in this picture was fleeing his village on a motorcycle after receiving the leaflets of instruction to do so, according to his mother - the only one left alive from their family of 10.

Then I met Durish Zhair, a 43-year-old man whose home near the southern border was bombed by warplanes. Half of his face was burned his back horribly burned, and the rest of his body pocked by shrapnel. He sat with a stern look on his face, distraught and confused by what happened. I asked him where his 11 family members were and he told me, "They are all wounded, scattered in hospitals in the south, or in Beirut."

I thanked him for his time, and we walked out of his room. The nurse who accompanied me softly closed the door. She then said to me quietly, "All of his family is dead. We cannot tell him yet because he is so injured. He thinks they are still alive."

Surely, they too, along with his wife and young children were "supporters of Hezbollah."

My head spun. My head still spins and I feel sick inside. I wonder how much is enough? How many more will die? Over 600 Lebanese, mostly civilians, are dead. At least 51 Israelis, the majority civilians, are dead from this.

If we look back a few years, we find the answer. Speaking before the Conference on America's Challenges in a Changed World at the US Institute of Peace (yes, "Institute of Peace") in Washington DC on September 5, 2002, the Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage had the following exchange during a Q&A session:

Q: In this war on terrorism, a group that isn't mentioned very often is one that you're very familiar with, Hezbollah. It has killed more Americans than any other terrorist group before September 11th. I just would like to hear whether they are on the agenda sometime in the future.

Mr. Armitage: Well, let me, for those who don't know you, Buck, "Buck" Revell, formerly of the FBI, was one of the leading voices for anti-terrorism activities during the second Reagan administration and was absolutely key in some of the takedowns we had at the time. And I appreciate the question.

Hezbollah may be the "A team" of terrorists, and maybe al Qaeda is actually the "B team." And they're on the list and their time will come, there is no question about it. They have a blood debt to us, which you spoke to, and we're not going to forget it. And it's all in good time. And we're going to go after these problems just like a high school wrestler goes after a match. We're going to take 'em down one at a time.

And taking 'em down one at a time, or in the case of Qana today, scores at a time, is what they are doing in southern Lebanon. While Israel and their stalwart US backers continue to refuse pleas for a cease-fire, bombs and rockets rain down on women, children and other innocents as they huddle in their homes, in refugee shelters, or while they flee in their cars while holding white surrender flags.

Meanwhile, Israeli defense sources told Israel's Haaretz newspaper Sunday that the Israeli army's general staff had received orders to accelerate its offensive on Hezbollah before the declaration of any cease-fire.

Yet as War Criminal Rice and her cronies back in DC drag their feet, postponing any real cease-fire, Israel's military needn't hasten itself too much as they go about their daily slaughtering of the "supporters of Hezbollah."

Only the elderly and the infirm are left in Bint Jbail. Rescue services helped them from their basement shelters yesterday and lorries, vans and tractors took many to the relative safety of Tyre ALI HASHISO / REUTERS

Prosecuting Israel

By FRANCIS A. BOYLE

The United Nations General Assembly must immediately establish an International Criminal Tribunal for Israel (ICTI) as a "subsidiary organ" under U.N. Charter Article 22. The ICTI would be organized along the lines of the International Criminal Tribunal for Yugoslavia (ICTY), which was established by the Security Council.
The purpose of the ICTI would be to investigate and prosecute Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine--just as the ICTY did for the victims of international crimes committed by Serbia and the Milosevic Regime throughout the Balkans.
The establishment of ICTI would provide some small degree of justice to the victims of Israeli war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide against the Peoples of Lebanon and Palestine--just as the ICTY has done in the Balkans. Furthermore, the establishment of ICTI by the U.N. General Assembly would serve as a deterrent effect upon Israeli leaders such as Prime Minister Olmert, Defense Minister Peretz, Chief of Staff Halutz and Israel's other top generals that they will be prosecuted for their further infliction of international crimes upon the Lebanese and the Palestinians.
Without such a deterrent, Israel might be emboldened to attack Syria with the full support of the Likhudnik Bush Jr. Neoconservatives, who have always viewed Syria as "low-hanging fruit" ready to be taken out by means of their joint aggression.
The Israeli press has just reported that the Bush Jr administration is encouraging Israel to attack Syria. If Israel attacks Syria as it did when it invaded Lebanon in 1982, Iran has vowed to come to Syria's defense.
And of course Israel and the Bush Jr administration very much want a pretext to attack Iran. This scenario could readily degenerate into World War III.
For the U.N. General Assembly to establish ICTI could stop the further development of this momentum towards a regional if not global catastrophe.

By ROBERT FISK

"Indeed, how come the people of southern Lebanon have not been consulted about the army which is supposed to live in their lands? Because, of course, it is not coming for them. It will come because the Israelis and the Americans want it there to help reshape the Middle East. This no doubt makes sense in Washington, where self-delusion rules diplomacy almost as much as it does in Israel. But America's dreams usually become the Middle East's nightmares.

And this time, we will watch a NATO-led army's disintegration at close quarters. South-west Afghanistan and Iraq are now so dangerous that no reporters can witness the carnage being perpetrated as a result of our hopeless projects. But, in Lebanon, it's going to be live-time coverage of a disaster that can only be avoided by the one diplomatic step Messrs Bush and Blair refuse to take: by talking to Damascus.

So when this latest foreign army arrives, count the days, or hours, to the first attack upon it. Then we'll hear all over again that we are fighting evil, that "they"--Hizbollah or Palestinian guerrillas, or anyone else planning to destroy "our" army--hate our values; and then, of course, we'll be told that this is all part of the "War on Terror"--the nonsense which Israel has been peddling. And then perhaps we'll remember what George Bush senior said after Hizbollah's allies suicide-bombed the Marines in 1982, that American policy would not be swayed by a bunch of "insidious terrorist cowards".
And we all know what happened then. Or have we forgotten?"

By Kaveh L Afrasiabi
Asia Times

"Whereas a stalemate or even quagmire may benefit Iran's position with respect to the nuclear crisis, the obverse possibility of Hezbollah's substantial weakening, not to mention the squeeze on Damascus, will translate into a more vulnerable Iran confronted with the distinct possibility that Phase 1 of a multi-stage conflict with the US and Israel has already started in Lebanon and Gaza. On a related note, historian Immanuel Wallerstein has predicted that Israel's military gambit in Lebanon will prove to be a "catastrophic blunder" paralleling the United States' predicament in Iraq. This is a distinct possibility, if the net of Israel's ground invasion expands, as it has almost on a daily basis, one that Iran is banking on to happen. But the chances are reasonably high that Israel, learning from the past, will ultimately frustrate Tehran's hopes by making it a limited war followed by an international buffer that would tie the hands of whatever fighting was left in Hezbollah."

By Rami G. Khouri

"As attention shifts to the United Nations deliberations in New York, a striking new aspect of this novel political landscape is the isolation and perhaps even the temporary impotence of the United States. Washington is feeling the pain of its own self-inflicted diplomatic castration, as a consequence of siding so strongly with Israel. It refuses to talk to key players like Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran and the Syrian government, is now cold-shouldered by the Lebanese government, and speaks only to Arab governments with increasingly less credibility and impact."

SAN FRANCISCO - Lebanon marked a national day of mourning Monday, a day after Israeli warplanes bombed the village of Qana killing at least 57 people, most of them children.

According to reporters at the scene, an Israeli missile hit a three-story building where relatives from two extended families were seeking refuge. There were only eight survivors. The youngest of the dead was 10 months old. The oldest was 95. One person was in a wheelchair. No weapons were found in the building that was hit.

The attack brought the number of Lebanese deaths to over 750, most of them civilians, since Israel began its strikes in mid-July in response to the kidnapping of two soldiers. A total of 51 Israelis, 18 of them civilians, have been killed.

[click title to continue reading article.]

QANA - Red Cross workers and residents of Qana, where Israeli bombing killed at least 60 civilians, have told IPS that no Hezbollah rockets were launched from the city before the Israeli air strike.

The Israeli military has said it bombed the building in which several people had taken shelter, more than half of them children, because the Army had faced rocket fire from Qana. The Israeli military has said that Hezbollah was therefore responsible for the deaths.

"There were no Hezbollah rockets fired from here," 32-year-old Ali Abdel told IPS. "Anyone in this village will tell you this, because it is the truth."

Abdel had taken shelter in a nearby house when the shelter was bombed at 1 am. When the bombings finally let up in the morning, he went back to the bombed shelter to search for relatives.

He found his 70-year-old father and 64-year-old mother both dead inside.

"They bombed it, and afterwards I heard the screams of women, children, and a few men -- they were crying for help. But then one minute after the first bomb, another bomb struck, and after this there was nothing but silence, and the sound of more bombs around the village."

Masen Hashen, a 30-year-old construction worker from Qana who lost several family members in the air strike on the shelter, said there were no Hezbollah rockets fired from his village. "Because if they had done that now, or in the past, all of us would have left. Because we know we would be bombed."

Qana had been a shelter because no rockets were being fired from there, survivors said. "When Hezbollah fires their rockets, everyone runs away because they know an Israeli bombardment will come soon," Abdel said. "That is why everyone stayed in the shelter and nearby homes, because we all thought we'd be all right since there were no Hezbollah fighters in Qana."

[click on title of post to continue reading article.]

A Medic inspects burned bodies of Lebanese civilians who were attacked as they passed by a bridge that was targeted in north Saida (Tyre), southern Lebanon. (17 July, 2006).













Lebanese firefighters try to extinguish the fire while the dismembered and burnt corpses of two civilians killed in an Israeli air raid lie on the ground at the port in Beirut.






A member of the Lebanese Red Cross walks past a badly burnt body in Beirut's port.
















Lebanese civil defence member carries the corpse of a young girl from the southern village of Marwahin.

By Gilad Atzmon

"*Unlike, the Hamas and the Hizbullah, we never kill indiscriminately. We always kill very discriminately. We kill Arabs whether they are Arab women, Arab elders, Arab children, Arab refugees, Arab disabled hiding in a Red Cross shelter in Kafar Quana. We are after Arabs and to speak about us as if we are bombing and killing indiscriminately is an utter anti-Semitic lie.

*We the Israelis are at the forefront of the fight for democracy and humanism. You European and Westerners should support us. We are engaged in a dirty war you fail to fight. Is it a coincidence that Tony, George and Condy gave us a green light to bring Lebanon back to the Stone Age? Is it a coincidence that the Andrea’le Merkel sent us 3 Submarines as soon as she settled in office? Let’s face it, you all love us, and you better admit it, you love us strong and murderous. You all give us the green light to paint the region in red. And let me tell you, we love painting in red, moreover, we are really good at it.

*And don’t you ever forget, we are the only democracy in the Middle East, when we engage in one war crime or another, when we breach the Geneva Convention, when we violate any possible humanist call, we always express our people’s democratic choice. We always do it in the name of our people. Don’t you forget, this war was launched by an Israeli national unity centrist coalition. This war is the call of the moderate peace-seeking Jewish voice. Unlike the Hizbullah, a tiny group of a paramilitary militias, our terror is nothing but state terrorism in its making. Our state terrorism is our democratic choice and it is supported by the world’s leading democrats: Bush and Blair.

*Although we clearly punish the Arabs for the crimes committed against us by the Nazis, we are humanists, we never behave like the Nazis, we never schlep innocent Arabs in trains, we never ship them to death camps, we never gas them, instead, with the support of our American Brother, we bring the death directly to them, we kill them in their homes, in their beds sometime just before dawn when they are still in pajamas. "

THREE ISRAELI TANKS HIT BY HIZBULLAH

BREAKING NEWS!

Al-Jazeera is reporting that Hizbullah has just announced the destruction of an Israeli warship, Sa'er class, off the Tyre coast in southern Lebanon.

More details as they become available.

MORE BREAKING NEWS!

Israeli T.V. is reporting that an Israeli patrol on the occupied Golan Heights was attacked. Most likely this is a lie to drag Syria into the fight. Fasten your seatbelts!

By Mike Whitney

"The attack on Qana was motivated by revenge. After the IDF was rebuffed by Hezbollah guerillas at Bint Jubail last week, Olmert and his cast of blundering military advisors decided to "exact their pound of flesh" by recreating the massacre they staged 10 years ago at the same location. Just like today, the attack was purposely directed at people who sought refuge at a "clearly marked" United Nations shelter. In the April 18, 1996 attack 106 Lebanese civilians were killed. As Global Reaserch.ca reports, "The July 2006 attack on the Qana UN shelter replicates with meticulous accuracy the April 1996 IAF operation, entitled 'The Grapes of Wrath’".

In the wake of the massacre, Condoleezza Rice has been told by Lebanon’s Prime Minister Fouad Siniora that she should cancel her trip to Beirut. The State Dept is "spinning" Rice’s humiliation as simply "postponing" her trip, but its obvious to those who have followed recent developments, that Rice has been slapped in the face and that America’s threadbare diplomatic strategy is in now in a state of complete collapse.

We are now, perhaps, just one crisis away from the whole, rickety scaffolding of American imperialism crashing to the ground in a heap. Imagine if riots were to spontaneously break out in Riyadh or Cairo tomorrow? The puppet regimes in the Gulf States would fall like dominos leaving the American oil giants with the dismal prospect of buying their oil on the open market rather than extracting it at gunpoint.

In just one week the mystique of Israeli invincibility has been dashed and, now, the entire Muslim world is galvanized by Israeli war crimes at Qana. Things could not be better for Hassan Nasrallah and his tough-minded band of fighters. It’ll take more than the 40,000 IOF reserves that Olmert just called up to put the genie of "Arab resistance" back in the bottle. He'd be better off suing for peace."

A FAILING ATTACK DOG
AKA MIDWIFE FROM HELL

Ali Abunimah, The Electronic Intifada, 31 July 2006

"Israel's continued and deepening occupation of Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese territory, violations of their sovereignty, blatant interference in the internal affairs of Palestinians and Lebanese, and its mounting atrocities which have claimed Jordanian and Egpytian as well as thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian lives are not only crimes against humanity but violations of Israel's treaty commitments. Jordan and Egypt have a right and obligation to respond.Arab governments have a slim chance to play a genuine leadership role and prove that their earlier positions were simply being misinterpreted and exploited. Breaking off relations may seem like a small step in the current circumstances, but it is the minimum they must do and it will set an example for other international actors such as the EU and the UN who have also failed in their international responsibilities, siding with the aggressor against the victim and thereby enabling Israel's unspeakable crimes.After Qana, Jordan's foreign minister Abul-Ilah al-Khatib urged the international community "take a firm stand against the aggression." Amman and Cairo should lead the way with more than words."

[The following excerpt is from the Epilogue to Perilous Power: The Middle East and U.S. Foreign Policy, by Noam Chomsky & Gilbert Achcar, edited with a Preface by Stephen R. Shalom, to be published by Paradigm Publishers September 15, 2006, Hardcover $22.95. To order the book at a 15% individual customer discount please click here.]


Q: How would you assess the Israeli and U.S. responses to the election of Hamas, and to the ensuing conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon?

Noam Chomsky: The U.S. response reveals, once again, that the United States supports democracy if and only if it conforms to U.S. strategic and economic objectives.

Perhaps it would be useful to review some highlights since Hamas was elected in late January 2006.

On February 12, the statements of Osama bin Laden were reviewed in the New York Times by NYU law professor Noah Feldman. He described bin Laden's descent into utter barbarism, reaching the depths when he advanced "the perverse claim that since the United States is a democracy, all citizens bear responsibility for its government's actions, and civilians are therefore fair targets." Utter depravity, no doubt. Two days later, the lead story in the Times casually reported that the United States and Israel are joining bin Laden in the lower depths of depravity. Palestinians offended the masters by voting the wrong way in a free election. The population must therefore be punished for this crime. The "intention," the correspondent observed, "is to starve the Palestinian Authority of money and international connections" so that President Mahmoud Abbas will be "compelled to call a new election. The hope is that Palestinians will be so unhappy with life under Hamas that they will return to office a reformed and chastened Fatah movement." Mechanisms of punishment of the population are outlined. The article also reports that Condoleezza Rice will visit the oil producers to ensure that they do not relieve the torture of the Palestinians. In short, bin Laden's "perverse claim"; but when the United States advances the claim, it is not ultimate evil but rather righteous dedication to "democracy promotion."1

These paired articles elicited no comment that I could discover. Also overlooked was the fact that bin Laden's "perverse claim" is standard operating procedure. Familiar examples are "making the economy scream" when Chileans had the effrontery to elect Salvador Allende -- the "soft track"; the "hard track" brought Pinochet. Another pertinent illustration is the U.S.-UK sanctions regime that murdered hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, devastated the country, and probably saved Saddam Hussein from the fate of other monsters like him (often supported by the United States and Britain to the very end). Not quite bin Laden's doctrine; rather, much more perverse, not only in terms of scale but also because Iraqis could not by any stretch of the imagination be held responsible for Saddam Hussein.

The most venerable illustration is Washington's forty-seven-year campaign of terror and economic strangulation against Cuba. From the internal record, we learn that the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations determined that "[t]he Cuban people are responsible for the regime," so they must be punished with the expectation that "[r]ising discomfort among hungry Cubans" will cause them to throw Castro out (JFK). The State Department advised that "[e]very possible means should be undertaken promptly to weaken the economic life of Cuba [in order to] bring about hunger, desperation and overthrow of the government."2 The doctrine remains in force.

Without continuing, we find ample evidence that it is no departure from the norm to adopt bin Laden's most perverse claim in order to punish Palestinians for their democratic misdeeds.

The United States and Israel then proceeded to implement their "intention," with scrupulous care. Thus, for example, an EU proposal to provide some desperately needed aid for health care was stalled when U.S. "officials expressed concerns that some of this money might end up paying nurses, doctors, teachers and others previously on the government payroll, thereby helping to finance Hamas." Another achievement of the "war on terror." With U.S. backing, Israel also continued its terrorist atrocities and other crimes in Gaza and the West Bank -- in some cases, perhaps, in an attempt to induce Hamas to violate its embarrassing cease-fire, so that Israel could respond in "self-defense," another familiar pattern.3

In May 2006, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert announced his plan to formalize Sharon's West Bank expansion programs, which were announced along with the "Gaza disengagement." Olmert chose the term "convergence" ("hitkansut") as a euphemism for annexation of valuable land and resources (including water) of the West Bank, programs designed to break the continually shrinking Palestinian areas into separated cantons, virtually isolated from one another and from whatever corner of Jerusalem will be left to Palestinians, all imprisoned as Israel takes over the Jordan valley and controls air space and any external access. In a stunning public relations triumph, Olmert won praise for his courage in "withdrawing" from the West Bank as he put the finishing touches on the project of destroying any hope for recognition of Palestinian national rights. We were enjoined to lament the "anguish" of the residents of scattered settlements that would be abandoned as they "converge" into the territories illegally annexed behind the cruel and illegal "Separation Wall." All of this proceeds, as usual, with a kindly nod from Washington, which is expected to fork up the billions of dollars needed to carry out the plans, though there are occasional admonitions that the destruction of Palestine should not be "unilateral": It would be preferable for President Mahmoud Abbas to sign a surrender declaration, in which case everything would be just fine.

The people of Gaza and the West Bank are supposed to observe all of this submissively, rotting in their virtual prisons. Otherwise they are sadistic terrorists.

The latest phase began on June 24, when the Israeli army kidnapped two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from their home in Gaza. They were "detained" according to brief notes in the British press. The U.S. media mostly preferred silence.4 They will presumably join the 9,000 other Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, 1,000 reportedly in prison without charges, hence kidnapped -- as were many of the rest, in that they were sentenced by Israeli courts, which are a disgrace, harshly condemned by legal commentators in Israel. Among them are hundreds of women and children, their numbers and fate of little interest. Also of little interest are Israel's secret prisons. The Israeli press reported that these have been "the entry gate to Israel for Lebanese, especially those who were suspected of membership in Hezbollah, who were transferred to the southern side of the border," some captured in battle in Lebanon, others "abducted at Israel's initiative" and sometimes held as hostages, with torture under interrogation. The secret Camp 1391, possibly one of several, was discovered accidentally in 2003, since forgotten.5

The next day, June 25, Palestinians kidnapped an Israeli soldier just across the border from Gaza. That did happen, very definitely. Every literate reader also knows the name of corporal Gilad Shalit, and wants him released. The nameless kidnapped Gaza civilians are ignored; international law, while rightly insisting that captured soldiers be treated humanely, absolutely prohibits the extrajudicial seizure of civilians. Israel responded by "bombing and shelling, darkening and destroying, imposing a siege and kidnapping like the worst of terrorists and nobody breaks the silence to ask, what the hell for, and according to what right?" as the fine Israeli journalist Gideon Levy wrote, adding that "[a] state that takes such steps is no longer distinguishable from a terror organization." Israel also kidnapped a large part of the Palestinian government, destroyed most of the Gaza electrical and water systems, and committed numerous other crimes. These acts of collective punishment, condemned by Amnesty International as "war crimes," compounded the punishment of Palestinians for having voted the wrong way. Within a few days, UN agencies working in Gaza warned of a "public health disaster" as a result of developments "which have seen innocent civilians, including children, killed, brought increased misery to hundreds of thousands of people and which will wreak far-reaching harm on Palestinian society. An already alarming situation in Gaza, with poverty rates at nearly eighty per cent and unemployment at nearly forty per cent, is likely to deteriorate rapidly, unless immediate and urgent action is taken."6

The pretext for punishing Palestinians is that Hamas refuses to accept three demands: to recognize Israel, cease all acts of violence, and accept earlier agreements. The editors of the New York Times instruct Hamas leaders that they must accept the "ground rules that have already been accepted by Egypt and Jordan and by the Arab League as a whole in its 2002 Beirut peace initiative" and, furthermore, that they must do so "not as some kind of ideological concession" but "as an admission ticket to the real world, a necessary rite of passage in the progression from a lawless opposition to a lawful government" -- like us.7

Unmentioned is that Israel and the United States flatly reject all of these conditions. They do not recognize Palestine; they refused to end their violence even when Hamas observed a unilateral truce for a year and a half and called for a long-term truce while negotiations proceed for a two-state settlement; and they dismissed with utter contempt the 2002 Arab League call for normalization of relations, along with all other proposals for a meaningful diplomatic settlement. Even when it accepted the "Road Map" that is supposed to define U.S. policy, Israel added fourteen "reservations" that rendered it entirely meaningless, eliciting the usual tacit approval in Washington and silence in commentary.8

The Hamas electoral victory was eagerly exploited by the United States and Israel. Previously, they had to pretend that there was "no partner" for negotiations, so they had no choice but to continue their project of taking over the West Bank, as they had been doing systematically since the Oslo Accords were signed (extending earlier actions). The pace of settlement peaked in 2000, the last year of Clinton and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak, then escalated under Bush-Sharon. With Hamas in office, Olmert and his cohorts can lament that there is "no partner." Therefore, they must proceed with annexation and destruction of Palestine, counting on articulate Western opinion to applaud politely, perhaps with mild reservations about unilateral "convergence," and to suppress the fact that while Hamas's programs are in many respects entirely unacceptable, their own are comparable or much worse, and are not just rhetoric: They are systematically implementing their denial of any meaningful Palestinian rights, a crucial difference.

The next act in this hideous drama opened on July 12, when Hezbollah launched a raid in which it captured two Israeli soldiers and killed several others, leading to an all-out Israeli attack, killing hundreds and destroying much of what Lebanon has painfully reconstructed from the wreckage of its civil wars and the Israeli invasions. Whatever its motives, Hezbollah took a frightful gamble, for which Lebanon would surely pay dearly. Here we see the danger of processes that have led to the rise of "parallel or alternative leaderships that can protect [civilian populations] and deliver essential services" with their own military wings, as veteran Middle East correspondent Rami Khouri has noted.9

On the motives, analysts differ. "Hezbollah's official line," the Financial Times reports, "was that the capture was aimed at winning the release of the few remaining Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails. But the timing and scale of its attack suggest it was partly intended to reduce the pressure on the Palestinians by forcing Israel to fight on two fronts simultaneously." Many agree, recalling Hezbollah's reaction to the outbreak of the al-Aqsa Intifada in September 2000 -- when it seized soldiers in a cross-border raid that led to a prisoner exchange -- as well as its response to Israel's devastating attacks in the West Bank in 2002 (Amos Harel).10 Others highlight the prisoner motive, which is also suggested by the exchange in 2000, by the fact that Hezbollah had attempted capture of soldiers before the recent crisis, and by the matter of Israel's secret prisons, mentioned earlier. Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, a Lebanese academic specialist on Hezbollah, regards the Gaza connection as primary, but argues that one should not ignore "the domestic significance of these hostages."11

Still others regard Iran and/or Syria as the main actors. Many experts and Iranian dissidents disagree, though few doubt that Iran and Syria authorized Hezbollah's actions. Most Arab rulers place the blame on Iran. At an emergency Arab League summit, they were willing "to openly defy Arab public opinion" because of their concerns about Iranian influence. One Dubai military specialist commented that the Iranians, by means of Hezbollah, "are embarrassing the hell out of the Arab governments," who are doing nothing while "[t]he peace process has collapsed, the Palestinians are being killed. . . . And here comes Hezbollah, which is actually scoring hits against Israel." The criticism of Hezbollah was opposed by Syria, Yemen, Algeria, and Lebanon; the Iraqi parliament, "in a rare show of unity," condemned the Israeli attack as "criminal aggression," and Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose designation Washington applauded, "call[ed] on the world to take quick stands to stop the Israeli aggression." The fact that most Arab leaders, however, are willing to "defy public opinion" may have large-scale regional implications, strengthening radical Islamist groups. It is noteworthy that the "Supreme Guide" of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Mahdi Akef, sharply condemned the Arab states. "The Brotherhood would win a comfortable majority" in a free election in Egypt, according to Middle East scholar Fawwaz Gerges, and has broad influence elsewhere, including with Hamas, one of its offshoots.12

A broader analysis is suggested by retired colonel Pat Lang, former head of the Middle East and terrorism desk at the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency: "This is basically tribal warfare. If you have someone who's hostile to you and you're unwilling to accept a temporary truce, as Hamas offered, then you have to destroy them. The Israeli response is so disproportionate to the abduction of the three men it appears it's a rather clever excuse designed to appeal both to their public and to the U.S."13

Speculation about motives and conflicting factors should not blind us to the tragedy that is unfolding. Lebanon is being destroyed, Israel's Gaza prison is suffering still more savage blows, and on the West Bank, mostly out of sight, the United States and Israel are consummating their project of the murder of a nation, a grim and rare event in history.

These actions, and the Western response, illustrate all too clearly the amalgam of savage cruelty, self-righteousness, and injured innocence that is so deeply rooted in the imperial mentality as to be beyond awareness. One can easily understand why Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization, is alleged to have said that he thought it might be a good idea.

-- July 20, 2006

Notes

1. Noah Feldman, "Becoming bin Laden" (review of Messages to the World: The Statements of Osama bin Laden), New York Times Book Review, February 12, 2006, p. 12; Steven Erlanger, "U.S. and Israelis Are Said to Talk of Hamas Ouster," New York Times, February 14, 2006, p. A1.

2. Louis Pérez, "Fear and Loathing of Fidel Castro: Sources of U.S. Policy Toward Cuba," Journal of Latin American Studies 34, no. 2 (May 2002), pp. 227–254.

3. Steven R. Weisman, "Europe Plan to Aid Palestinians Stalls Over U.S. Salary Sanctions," New York Times, June 15, 2006, p. A10. See also Tanya Reinhart, "A Week of Israeli Restraint," Yediot Ahronot, June 21, 2006. A striking illustration of this pattern is the intense (and failed) effort to elicit Palestinian violence to justify the planned 1982 invasion. Palestinian violence does continue, however, notably in the form of Qassam rocket attacks from Gaza by groups that refused to accept the Hamas truce -- actions both criminal and foolish.

4. Jonathan Cook, "The British Media and the Invasion of Gaza," Medialens (UK), June 30, 2006; Josh Brannon, "IDF Commandos Enter Gaza, Capture Two Hamas Terrorists," Jerusalem Post, June 25, 2006; Ken Ellingwood, "2 Palestinians Held in Israel's First Arrest Raid in Gaza Since Pullout," Los Angeles Times, June 25, 2006, p. A20. Apart from the Los Angeles Times, there were only a few marginal words in the Baltimore Sun (June 25) and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (June 25). Moreover, no mainstream media source chose to refer to this event when discussing Shalit's capture. The only serious coverage I know of in the English-language press appeared in the Turkish Daily News (June 25). (Database search by David Peterson.)

5. Aviv Lavie, "Inside Israel's Secret Prison," Ha'aretz, August 22, 2003; Jonathan Cook, "Facility 1391: Israel's Guantanamo," Le Monde Diplomatique, November 2003; Chris McGreal, "Facility 1391: Israel's Secret Prison," Guardian, November 14, 2003, p. 2.

6. Gideon Levy, "A Black Flag," Ha'aretz, July 2, 2006; Christopher Gunness, "Statements by the United Nations Agencies Working in the Occupied Palestinian Territory," July 8, 2006; Amnesty International press release, "Israel/Occupied Territories: Deliberate Attacks a War Crime," AI Index: MDE 15/061/2006 (Public), News Service No. 169, June 30, 2006.

7. Editorial, "A Problem That Can't Be Ignored," New York Times, June 17, 2006, p. A12.

8. Israeli Cabinet Statement on Road Map and 14 Reservations by State of Israel, July 9, 2004, originally released on May 25, 2003.

9. Rami G. Khouri, "The Mideast Death Dance," Salon, July 15, 2006.

10. Roula Khalaf, "Hizbollah's Bold Attack Raises Stakes in Middle East," Financial Times, July 13, 2006, p. 5; David Hirst, "Overnight Lebanon Has Been Plunged into a Role It Endured for 25 Years -- That of a Hapless Arena for Other People's Wars," Guardian, July 14, 2006, p. 29; Megan K. Stack and Rania Abouzeid, "The Nation of Hezbollah," Los Angeles Times, July 13, 2006, p. A1; Neil MacFarquhar and Hassan Fattah, "In Hezbollah Mix of Politics and Arms, Arms Win Out," New York Times, July 16, 2006, pp. I:1; Amos Harel, "Israel Faces a Wide Military Escalation," Ha'aretz, July 12, 2006; Uri Avnery, "The Real Aim," July 15, 2006, Gush Shalom Web site.

11. Mouin Rabbani, Democracy Now!, July 14, 2006, transcript available online; Saad-Ghorayeb, quoted in Halpern and Blanford, "A Second Front Opens for Israel," p. 1. [The number of prisoners is unknown, apart from the one or two officially admitted. In what may be the first mainstream reference, Ha'aretz commentator Nehemia Shtrasler writes that in the course of the six years since Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon, "no one found it correct to neutralize the central demand of Hezbollah: freeing the Lebanese prisoners. The head of the Lebanese government, Fuad Siniora, stated two days ago that freeing these prisoners is a central condition for any agreement. In addition to Samir Quntar, Israel holds about 15 Lebanese prisoners, who have been held here for many years. It was possible to free them long before -- to the hands of the moderate Siniora." See Shtrasler, "A Path to Strengthen the Extremists," Ha'aretz, July 21, 2006 (in Hebrew). (Information added July 22, 2006.)]

12. Hassan Fattah, "Militia Rebuked by Some Arab Countries," New York Times, July 17, 2006, p. A1; Dan Murphy and Sameh NaGuib, "Hizbullah Winning over Arab Street," Christian Science Monitor, July 18, 2006, p. 1; Edward Wong and Michael Slackman, "Iraqi Prime Minister Denounces Israel's Actions," New York Times, October 20, 2006, p. A1; Fawwaz Gerges, Journey of the Jihadist: Inside Muslim Militancy (Orlando, FL: Harcourt Inc., 2006), p. 26.

13. Lang, quoted in Dan Murphy, "Escalation Ripples Through Middle East," Christian Science Monitor, July 14, 2006, p. 1.

THE "NEW" MIDDLE EAST

Lebanese Civilians Bear the Brunt of Israel's Destruction
by Dahr Jamail

"Large numbers fled the south after the Israeli military dropped leaflets warning of attacks. Others have been unable to leave, often because they have not found the means. The Israelis have taken that to mean that they are therefore Hezbollah.
Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon announced on Israeli army radio Thursday that "all those in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah."
Justifying the collective punishment of people in southern Lebanon, Ramon added, "In order to prevent casualties among Israeli soldiers battling Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops move in."
This policy explains the large number of wounded in the hospitals of Sidon in the south.
Wounded people from southern Lebanon narrate countless instances of indiscriminate attacks by the Israeli military. "

WE WILL NOT FORGET

The stakes are high for Hizbullah, but it seems it can count on an unprecedented swell of public support that cuts across sectarian lines.According to a poll released by the Beirut Center for Research and Information, 87 percent of Lebanese support Hizbullah's fight with Israel, a rise of 29 percent on a similar poll conducted in February. More striking, however, is the level of support for Hizbullah's resistance from non-Shiite communities. Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hizbullah along with 80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis.

Lebanese no longer blame Hizbullah for sparking the war by kidnapping the Israeli soldiers, but Israel and the US instead.

QANA, 2006.

عبد الباري عطوان

هذه الحرب في لبنان هي اهم الحروب في المنطقة واخطرها، لانها ستكون نقطة تحول فارقة ترسم شكل المنطقة وخريطتها لسنوات ان لم يكن لعقود قادمة.فهيبة الجيش الاسرائيلي انهارت في مارون الراس وبنت جبيل، وعقدة ذنب العالم تجاه اليهود تآكلت، وربمـــا تبخــرت، مع توارد صور مجزرة قانا.القوات الاسرائيلية تقيم محرقتها في لبنان، وتعيد امجاد النازية علي حساب الاطفال اللبنانيين العزل، امام بصر العالم وسمعه، بالصوت والصورة، وصور قانا لا تكذب.لعل الخير يأتي من باطن الشر، ولعلها مأساة تعيد الوعي الي العرب والمسلمين، وتقضي علي الفتنة التي بذرها الاحتلال الامريكي في العراق، وتعيد توحيد الأمة، ومذاهبها جميعا، في مواجهة مصدر البلاء الاساسي وهو الدولة العبرية وجرائمها، والدعم الامريكي غير المحدود لها.محور الشر الامريكي ـ الاسرائيلي يعيش هذه الايام اسوأ ايامه في لبنان، ومعه النظام العربي الرسمي المرتعش المتخاذل المتواطئ، بعد ان وجد من يتعامل معه بالطريقة التي يفهمها، ولم يجربها في السابق.

Cowboys Still in the Saddle

By GARY LEUPP

"But no! The Israelis through their heroic actions will force the president's hand. They will provoke actions that will serve as pretexts for the planned regime changes. A New Middle East---no, New Greater Middle East, a contiguous string of Israel-friendly U.S. client-states from the Mediterranean to Central Asia---will be George W. Bush's legacy. This surely must be the expectation in the Vice President's office, and in that curious office set up last March called the "Office of Iranian Affairs." Laura Rozen of the Los Angeles Times points out that this is a reincarnation of the Office of Special Plans under Douglas Feith that stove-piped the cherry-picked intelligence rejected by the CIA to the Oval Office as well as the press."

Bush and Blair: "Keep It Up!"

By Robert Fisk

"Of course not. But Israel has special privileges afforded to no other nation. It can do exactly what Blair would never have done--and still receive the British Government's approbation. It can trash the Geneva Conventions--because the Americans have done that in Iraq--and it can commit war crimes and murder UN soldiers like the four unarmed observers who refused to leave their post under fire.

The idea that Nasrallah is going to kneel before a Nato general and hand over his sword--that this disciplined, ruthless, frightening guerrilla army is going to surrender to Nato--is a folly beyond self-delusion.

But Blair and Bush want to send a combat force into southern Lebanon. Well, I shall be there, I suppose, to watch its swift destruction in an orgy of car and suicide bombings by the same organization that yesterday fired another new longer-than-ever range missile that landed near Afula in Israel."

By PATRICK COCKBURN

"The arrival of the multinational force in Lebanon in 1982 brought with it a train of disasters. I still recall that great concrete sandwich near the airport that was all that remained of the US barracks in which 241 Marines died after it was hit by a suicide bomber on 23 October 1983. Elsewhere in Beirut, 58 French paratroopers were entombed when the building in which they were living was rammed by a second vehicle packed with explosives.

A multinational force sent to Lebanon will be seen much as the US and British in Iraq. They will be fought as a new detachment of crusaders. The US is probably more unpopular than it has ever been across the Middle East. Even if there are no American troops in the new multinational force they will be seen as opening another front in the West's perceived war on Islam. They will be joining a war, not ending it."

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7/30/06-CFL ALERT: STOP ISRAELI WAR CRIMES IN LEBANON AND GAZA.

*In the past few days Israel has killed hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian civilians—most recently overnight in Qana where they attacked a four story building where women and children were seeking refuge from Israeli bombs. Israel is commiting war crimesi n clear violation of international law. I am dismayed that, despite the indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, the U.S. has stifled any attempts to bring the matter to the United Nations in hopes of reaching a resolution. I demand that my representatives speak out against the war crimes taking place in the Middle East right now.

* Tell your representatives that you support an end to aid to apartheid Israel until it learns to live in peace with its neighbors. The events taking place now did not occur in a vacuum. Israel occupied Lebanon in the early 1980’s and imprisoned thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian nationals. This is merely a continuation of that conflict.

*There are 9,000 political prisoners, including women and children as young as 9 years old, who have never been charged with a crime and have in some cases been sitting in Israeli prisons for decades.

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