Palestinian Pundit

Cleanup of Lebanon's massive oil spill has barely begun: The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) estimates that between 10,000 and 15,000 tonnes (11,000-16,500 tons) of fuel oil leaked from the Jiyeh electric power plant in mid-July after two Israeli air raids. The seaside plant, 30 kilometres (19 miles) south of Beirut, burned for 12 days. The spill has polluted about 200 kilometres (124 miles) of the Lebanese and Syrian coasts, the European Union said.

Report: Germany to send up to 1,200 troops to Lebanon force : A report released Saturday said the German contribution to a peacekeeping force in Lebanon - navy ships plus surveillance from the air - would involve around 1,200 service personnel.

Israel says will not lift blockade until forces man all borders: Israel will not lift its sea and air blockade of Lebanon unless Lebanese and international forces deploy at all border crossings, including those on the Lebanese-Syrian frontier to enforce an arms embargo on Hezbollah militants, an foreign ministry official said Saturday.

Two Palestinian Killed as Israeli Forces Kidnap Hamas Leader in Khan Younis: Israeli occupation forces continued their aggressions in the Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinians in the city of Khan Younis, and nabbing leader in Hamas from the city.

Israel attacks Reuters car: According to witnesses, a Reuters cameraman and a freelance cameraman working for an Arabic network were standing outside the vehicle in the Shajaiyeh neighborhood of Gaza filming a nearby Israeli raid when the missiles hit the car.

Gaza: 'why demolish the olive trees'? "They took two of my cousins and asked them about militants and tunnels that we don’t know about at all said the old farmer Ahmed Heles, 65, while cleaning the remains of his green houses, as the Israeli bulldozers demolished all his olive trees. ”We will stay strong and survive until we die in our land” he added. The man was waiting for the harvest time to come, so he can continue his dream and see his grandson getting married, but Israeli bulldozers made this dream impossible by demolishing his olive trees and all his belongings.

Israeli Army Kills 15 year old Demonstrator, Injures 12, and Demolishes: in the Jabal Shamali neighborhood of Nablus, soldiers of the Israeli Occupation Force (IOF) launched a 16 and a half hour incursion, wherein they killed one young boy, hospitalized at least twelve with many more injured, and destroyed twenty homes and apartments. The IOF entered the area around 2:00am, with over 26 military vehicles including armoured jeeps, hummers, border police jeeps, a Caterpillar D9 armoured bulldozer and Caterpillar “excavator” wrecking machines.

Israeli Army Shoots Civillians at Checkpoint, Destroys Houses in Nablus: The army has been very vocal with racist comments abusing the people at the checkpoints verbally and not letting them past this morning. The violence of the army escalated resulting in two Palestinian men being shot in the legs. The ambulance is seeing to them now but is not allowed to pass through to the hospital.

Israeli air force shells a house in Gaza, five residents injured: Targeting civilian infrastructure is in direct violations to the principles of human rights and to the Fourth Geneva Conventions. Recently, the Israeli army adopted a policy of calling families in the Gaza Strip informing them that their homes will be shelled within ten to fifteen minutes. By using this policy, the Israeli army demolishes Palestinian homes without giving the residents any opportunity to defend themselves in a court of law.

Gaza operations grinding to a halt, warns UN relief agency in Palestinian territory: In a statement released yesterday, UNRWA said it has just one week's supply of fuel left. The agency noted that it will not be able to start distributing food to 830,000 people next week unless the Karni crossing re-opens. The principal goods terminal, Karni has been closed since 15 August.

Hamas to lead future coalition govt: spokesman: "All the issue of commissioning portfolios would be subject to dialogue and negotiations, but Hamas would lead the government because of its majority in the parliament," Sami Abu Zuhri told reporters.

4-year old Palestinian girl killed in Iraq: Media sources reported that an unknown armed group shot fire at citizens in al-Doura area, southwest Baghdad, killing Maryam al-Murtadi. She was shot in the head while walking with her father in al-Seha neighbourhood.

Iraq: At least 13 killed as U.S. occupation continues: Gunmen in the town of Baquba 65 km (40 miles) north of Baghdad attacked a Shi'ite family, killing two women and two children and wounding 11.

Three US soldiers killed in Iraq: One was shot dead by gunmen who attacked his patrol. Another was killed by a roadside bomb. And a third fell during a raid the military says was aimed at capturing "foreign terrorists" -- two of whom were also killed in a firefight.

Gunmen kill translator in Basra: Gunmen in a speeding car opened fire Saturday on two sisters working as translators for the British consulate, killing one of them and seriously wounding the other, police said.

Ex-officer admits kickbacks in Iraq : A former U.S. Army Reserve officer from Spotsylvania County admitted yesterday that he steered millions of dollars in Iraq-reconstruction contracts in trade for jewelry, computers, cigars and sexual favors.

From Iraq and Lebanon to Afghanistan, the Anglo-American attempt to remake the world by force is failing

By Andrew Murray

08/26/06 "The Guardian" -- -- 'How goes the empire?" Perhaps Tony Blair will be tempted to repeat King George V's dying words as he prepares to shuffle off his own political coil. It is a measure of the extent to which the prime minister's foreign policy has restored imperialism to the political vocabulary of the country that, when his legacy is debated, the state of empire will be the main issue.

The answer is that it goes pretty badly. The new imperialism which will for ever be linked to the names Bush and Blair has taken just five years to hit the buffers of popular opposition and moral ignominy. Imperialism has moved from the realm of political jargon to be the central issue of our time - and is seen as such everywhere beyond the ramparts of the neoconservative-New Labour alliance.

In Iraq, the great testing ground for "liberal interventionism", the pitch of resistance to the armies of occupation, along with the failure of a parade of hand-picked premiers to deliver even a facade of stability, is, according to the New York Times, leading George Bush to consider abandoning his "democratic" experiment in favour of, presumably, a dictatorship.

In Afghanistan, to which British troops were rushed nearly five years after regime change was imposed, the Karzai government is floundering in epic levels of corruption. It has reinstated the power of opium-funded warlords, the suppression of whom was perhaps the Taliban's only popular achievement. The consequence has been a conflict of a ferocity that the British army has not seen since the Korean war, according to Lieutenant-General David Richards, the commander on the spot.

And despite Blair's determined green light to Israel's attack on Lebanon, the "long, strong arm of the US" in the region - as the Israeli commentator Sima Kadmon describes his country - has had to retreat with its objectives unmet. No one seems to be rushing to pick up the white man's burden there either. Continued.

Snap Judgments

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

"On August 17 we published a very interesting interview with Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah. A CounterPunch reader had found it on the Marxmail list, moderated by Louis Proyect, and passed it along to us. The interview was translated from Turkish, in which language it had appeared in the Turkish socialist daily, Evrensel, on August 12 and 13. We didn't publish the full interview, which had some sections on the war that had been somewhat overtaken by events. Of interest to us was the very radical timbre of Nasrallah's language and his remarks about the world struggle against imperialism.

The interview hadn't been up our website for long before it was the target of a rather blustering denunciation by As'ad AbuKhalil, on his Angry Arab website, claiming that this was clearly a forgery and was perhaps an interview with the Nasrallah kidnapped by Israelis in a raid on the hospital near Ba'albek. Around the same time a few readers forwarded to us a note to his list sent by Gilbert Achcar, the Paris-based writer on Middle Eastern politics, saying "the interview seemed quite bizarre for people familiar with the topic". Achcar said he'd contacted "a source in Beirut in close touch with Hezbollah" who "has confirmed to me that it is a forgery."

We established that the interview had indeed appeared in Evrensel, a serious newspaper, and Nasrallah's remarks had aroused some comment in the Turkish press, particularly because of his homage in the interview to the Turkish revolutionary Deniz Gezmis. CounterPuncher Ali Tonak in Beirut confirmed that the English translation from Turkish was good.

Of course there are always fakes floating around, but we weren't particularly impressed with the outburst on Angry Arab which seemed to verge on a sort of "proprietary" bark, almost as if he owned Nasrallah and resented trespass. There was even a whiff of orientalizing, about what a Shi'a leader should or should not be capable of saying. Our view is the Nasrallah is a very smart fellow, and knew perfectly well he was addressing a left Turkish audience."

By RAY CLOSE
(Ray Close was a top CIA analyst in the Near East Division. He is now a member of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity)

"Adding up all those factors, it seems clear to me that Bush has laid out the following course for American policy, adding up to a Catch-22 from which I see no escape:

a. Continuing futile efforts to achieve Iranian capitulation through weak and ineffective economic sanctions, to the accompaniment of counterproductive vituperation and bombast;

b. Quickly followed by a period of rapidly escalating threats of military action, during which international and domestic opposition to American policy will increase dramatically, making Bush's choices increasingly more painful and difficult in every respect;

c. A judgment by Bush that the immediate risks and costs of preemptive military action against Iran are, in the final analysis, less formidable than the risks and costs of tolerating Iranian nuclear possession --- and the personal and national humiliation that would result from passive acceptance of that outcome.

d. Sometime before the end of his term, a massive air military attack on a wide range of carefully selected targets in Iran, in partnership with Israel, and against the advice of many of his advisers --- justified by the conviction that a nuclear Iran would pose an intolerable threat to American national security, firm in his faith that God agrees with him on that point, and certain that history will eventually recognize and properly appreciate his courageous and visionary leadership."

The Lebanon Ceasefire

By GARY LEUPP
Counter Punch

"The deployment of a UN-legitimated, probably French-led force in south Lebanon is in theory designed to "secure the border." But UNIFIL itself has reported nearly daily violations of Lebanese airspace by Israel since the Israeli withdrawal from the area in 2000. (Lebanese of all faiths credit this withdrawal to the efforts of Hizbollah fighters.) In reality the expanded UNIFIL mission is intended to eliminate Iran's ability to respond to imperialist aggression against itself through the use of its Lebanese allies. It's a mission preparatory to that aggression, preceding Iran's expected rejection of the U.S.-backed "generous offer" to Iran and reiteration of its inalienable right according to the Non-Proliferation Treaty to enrich uranium.

"We are creating a situation where everything we're going to try short of military force is going to fail," says Ilan Berman, an Iran specialist with the American Foreign Policy Council, which advocates an aggressive posture towards Iran.

Back in May, when the U.S. agreed to join in talks with the Iranian regime if it agreed to suspend uranium enrichment," the U.S. ambassador to the UN John Bolton told Neil Cavuto of Fox News that Bush was "taking this step to show strength and American leadership. He's doing it to say 'We gave Iran this last chance to show they are serious when they say, "We don't want nuclear weapons." This is 'put up or shut up' time for Iran." It was in fact setup time for Iran.

So how indeed can this UN deployment in Lebanon, taking shape as I write, aid the neocons' and AIPAC's ambition to topple the government of Iran? By wedding the U.S. Europe, and Israel in the common cause of disarming the most admired armed force in the Middle East and broader Muslim world, and thus involving them all cooperatively in an effort calculated to provoke Syria and Iran. "

By ALEXANDER COCKBURN

"Disfigured by its "special relationship" with the US arms industry, of which the US Congress is an integral component, the IDF has been morally corrupted by years of risk-free brutalization of unarmed Palestinians, many of them children. It's one thing to level an apartment building with a missile from a plane or crush a protester with a bulldozer or lob shells at a Palestinian family having a picnic on a beach or kidnap middle-aged and democratically elected Palestinian politicians. It's another confront a foe, with modest but effectively deployed weaponry, prepared to fight back.

Years of racism have taken their toll too. Think of Arabs as subhuman "terrorists" and you end up making a lot of misjudgments, tactical and strategic.

You can read plenty of commentary round the world, most particularly Israel, saying this recent war was a benchmark event, which could conceivably teach Israel that security is not won by unending land grabs, by spouting hokum for US consumption about the "peace process", and by terror bombing of Lebanon and Gaza. But not in the United States. Open up the Washington Post and the strategic vision on display was an utterly mad piece co-written by one of the big boosters for war on Iraq, Kenneth Pollack, a hack thinker at the Brookings Institution, now an integral part of Israeli territory with its "Saban Center for Middle East Policy" named for the fanatic Zionist billionaire Haim Saban, majority owner of Paramount Pictures, a man who handed the Democratic Party a total of $12.3 million in 2002, a $7 million component of which was the biggest single contribution ever recorded up to that time.

Thirty years ago I used to be told that liberal American Jews were aghast at the rise of the ur-neocon fanatics like Norman Podhoretz, at Commentary, whose parent outfit was and is the American Jewish Committee. Soon, such liberals used to say to me off the record, there would be a counter-attack by the forces of reason, as embodied in liberal American Jewry. There never was, at least on any effective scale. The liberal Jewish intelligentsia here has, politically, speaking, sat on its hands for decades, mouths zipped shut, when it comes to criticizing Israel. Even more effectively than America's defense contractors they have contributed to, and indeed cheered on Israel's corrupt rejectionism. Will this war make them change their minds? I doubt it."

by Ray McGovern

"While you can't judge a book by its cover, you can glean insight these days from the titles given to National Intelligence Estimates and papers meant to supplant them. Remember "Iraq's Continuing Program for Weapons of Mass Destruction," the infamous NIE of October 1, 2002, by which Congress was misled into approving an unnecessary war? "Continuing" leaped out of the title, foreshadowing the one-sided thrust of an estimate ostensibly commissioned to determine whether WMD programs were "continuing," or whether they had been dead for ten years. (The latter turned out to be the case, but the title – and the cooked insides – provided the scare needed to get Congress aboard.)

Now suddenly appears a pseudo-estimate titled "Recognizing Iran as a Strategic Threat: An Intelligence Challenge for the United States." To wit, the challenge set before the Intelligence Community is to get religion, climb aboard, and "recognize" Iran as a strategic threat. But alas, the community has not yet been fully purged of recalcitrant intelligence analysts who reject a "faith-based" approach to intelligence and hang back from the altar call to revealed truth. Hence, the statutory intelligence agencies cannot be counted on to come to politically correct conclusions regarding the strategic threat from Iran.

Hoekstra's release of this paper is another sign pointing in the direction of a US attack on Iran. Tehran is now being blamed not only for inciting Hezbollah but also for sending improvised explosive devices (IEDs) into Iraq to kill or maim US forces. There is yet another, if more subtle, disquieting note about the paper. It bears the earmarks of a rushed job, with very little editorial scrubbing. There are misplaced modifiers, and verbs often do not take enough care to agree in number with their nouns.

One wag suggested that the president may have taken a direct hand in the drafting. My guess is even more troubling. It seems to me possible that the Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal told Hoekstra to get the paper out sooner rather than later, as an aid to Americans in "recognizing Iran as a strategic threat.""

by Aaron Glantz

"A chief prosecutor of Nazi war crimes at Nuremberg has said George W. Bush should be tried for war crimes along with Saddam Hussein. Benjamin Ferenccz, who secured convictions for 22 Nazi officers for their work in orchestrating the death squads that killed more than 1 million people, told OneWorld both Bush and Saddam should be tried for starting "aggressive" wars--Saddam for his 1990 attack on Kuwait and Bush for his 2003 invasion of Iraq.

Nuremberg declared that aggressive war is the supreme international crime," the 87-year-old Ferenccz told OneWorld from his home in New York. He said the United Nations charter, which was written after the carnage of World War II, contains a provision that no nation can use armed force without the permission of the UN Security Council.

Ferenccz said that after Nuremberg the international community realized that every war results in violations by both sides, meaning the primary objective should be preventing any war from occurring in the first place.

He said the atrocities of the Iraq war--from the Abu Ghraib prison scandal and the massacre of dozens of civilians by U.S. forces in Haditha to the high number of civilian casualties caused by insurgent car bombs--were highly predictable at the start of the war.

Which wars should be prosecuted? "Every war will lead to attacks on civilians," he said. "Crimes against humanity, destruction beyond the needs of military necessity, rape of civilians, plunder--that always happens in wartime. So my answer personally, after working for 60 years on this problem and [as someone] who hates to see all these young people get killed no matter what their nationality, is that you've got to stop using warfare as a means of settling your disputes.""

OLMERT'S NEW INVASION OF LEBANON

Elliot Abrams in Jerusalem
By TOM BARRY

Counter Punch

"In marked contrast, there is little public debate in the United States about the Bush administration's role in supporting Israel's failed and criminal war in Lebanon. As recent press reports reveal, President Bush and his foreign policy team had given Israel a green light to take out Hezbollah at least two months before Hezbollah guerrillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.

As was the case in U.S. policy toward Iraq, the neoconservative camp-led by such institutes as the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Center for Security Policy, and the now defunct Project for the New American Century and by such neocon pundits and strategists as Max Boot, Charles Krauthammer, Michael Ledeen, and Elliott Abrams-has long promoted that the United States and Israel implement regime change and preemptive strategies against Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran.

Also like the Iraq War, the neoconservatives inside and outside the Bush administration have seen their own causes embraced, to various degrees, by Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and the president himself.

Outside the administration the neocons have vociferously pressed for the U.S. government to proceed "faster, please," as AEI's Freedom Scholar Michael Leeden often says, with its Middle East transformation strategy. During the recent hostilities, Ledeen and others, notably Krauthammer, Boot, and William Kristol, have advocated that the United States and Israel take the war to Syria and Iran.

Since he joined the Bush administration in 2002 as the chief Middle East adviser at the White House's National Security Council, Elliott Abrams has quietly pushed for a transformational Middle East policy with Israel at its center. If one U.S. official were to be blamed-aside from the president, vice president, and secretary of state-for the U.S. government's disastrous stance with Israel in the recent war, it would be Elliot Abrams. Perhaps more than any other member of Bush's foreign policy team, Abrams embodies the administration's zealous, ideological, and dangerously delusional vision of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

Abrams, a neoconservative who has dedicated himself to reshaping U.S. foreign policy since the mid-1970s, is the Bush administration's point man for Middle East transformation. According to Seymour Hersh writing in the August 21 New Yorker, Cheney's foreign policy staff and Abrams in early summer had signed off on an Israeli plan to wipe out Hezbollah."

By Seth Meixner
Agence France-Presse

TYRE — Israeli cluster bombs dropped during a monthlong blitz against Hizbollah in southern Lebanon are taking an increasing toll on civilians trying to return home more than a week after the fighting ended, the UN and rights groups say.

"Every day we hear about casualties — it's a large number," said Dalya Farran, media officer for the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre in southern Lebanon.

"We're in an emergency situation," she said.

Several children have been among the 11 killed and 43 wounded by cluster bomb explosions since the ceasefire began on August 14, according to Lebanese military figures.

On Wednesday, three Lebanese bomb disposal experts were also killed by a cluster bomb in the village of Tebnin, some 15 kilometres from the Israeli border.

Priming us for war with Iran

By Justin Raimondo

"Laura Rozen, guest-blogging for the Washington Monthly, wonders if "the marketing campaign" for war with Iran has begun, noting what the deputy director of operations for the joint chief of staffs said over at the Pentagon the other day:

"The Iranian government is training and equipping much of the Shiite insurgency in Iraq, a senior U.S. general said Wednesday, drawing one of the most direct links by the Pentagon. ..."

The Iranians have had their hand in this pie from the word go. Our friend Ahmed Chalabi, touted by the neocons as the George Washington of "democratic" Iraq, was and is no doubt still quite friendly with the mullahs: such a good friend that he purportedly passed off to them vital U.S. secrets which seriously compromised our intelligence-gathering efforts in Iran.

Another interesting angle on Shulsky's academic hobbyhorse is the Staussian belief that the ignorant masses cannot be trusted with the truth, while the elite philosopher-kings fulfill the vital function of constructing and upholding "myths" necessary for social and political cohesion. Strauss, in short, is the philosopher of the "noble lie," and surely no thinker is more suited to providing a theoretical framework for the work carried out by Shulsky and his neocon confreres.

Already, the neocons have launched a trial balloon in the form of a congressional report [.pdf] taking the intelligence community to task for supposedly underestimating the Iranian nuclear capability and Tehran's hostile intentions.

As I have said before in this space, the Democrats are not above out-warmongering the GOP on the question of Iran, and that means there is no natural brake on the sociopathic militarism inherent in this administration. After their failure in Iraq, and a brief exile in the wilderness, the neocons are riding high again – and that means endless troubles for us all."

(click on to enlarge)

LET US PRETEND THAT THERE IS A PALESTINIAN "GOVERNMENT"
Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh meets Anita McNaught, the wife of kidnapped New Zealand cameraman Olaf Wiig, at his office in Gaza August 24, 2006.

YOU AND ME KID ARE IN THIS THING TOGETHER!
WE NEED EACH OTHER AS NEVER BEFORE!
This image released by the Jordanian Royal Palace in Amman shows King Abdullah II of Jordan, right, receives the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, left, in Amman, Jordan, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006. (AP Photo)

PALESTINIAN PUPPET POLICE KEEPING A TIGHT LID ON THE GAZA GHETTO
Palestinian police officers guard the border between Rafa refugee camp, southern Gaza Strip, and Egypt after militants from the Popular Resistance Committees tried to blow it up, Thursday Aug. 24, 2006.

OH, NO; NOT HIM AGAIN!
US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson, seen here in March 2006, is to visit Syria and Lebanon next week to urge the release of two Israeli soldiers, a government source said.(AFP)

LEBANON: ENJOY!
THE US HAS BROUGHT UPON YOU THE F-16, THE CLUSTER BOMBS AND.....THIS
(A man sits on a bench outside a branch of McDonalds on the Beirut coastline, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006)

Palestinian firefighters extinguish a fire in the rubble left after an Israeli airstrike on a building in Gaza City, early Friday, Aug. 25, 2006. Israeli aircraft attacked two buildings in the Gaza Strip early Friday, wounding at least nine people, Palestinian officials said.(AP Photo)

GOOD LUCK, BUDDY; YOU ARE GOING TO NEED IT IN SOUTH LEBANON
I HOPE YOU HAVE BOUGHT ENOUGH LIFE INSURANCE

A NEW OCCUPATION, A NEW FLAG

THE FRENCH ARE COMING....THE FRENCH ARE COMING
To rescue the government of the weeping Lebanese PM Siniora.
Informed sources said the French came with a large supply of Kleenex tissues.

DO YOU THINK FRENCH TROOPS WILL SUCCEED WHERE THE IOF FAILED?

By Khaled Amayreh
Al-Ahram Weekly

Could the formation of a national unity government solve the crisis of the Palestinian Authority? Very unlikely.

"Indeed, the Israeli government, bruised by the war with Hizbullah, is now viewing the entire Palestinian front as a secondary issue, especially with the Bush administration showing no sign of even nudging Israel to implement the now-moribund "roadmap plan for peace".

The EU, for its part, is continuing with its flimsy and indecisive posture vis-à-vis the entire Palestinian issue while influential Arab states are basking in their apparent powerlessness, making do with issuing periodic appeals to an unhearing international community to force Israel to resolve the Palestinian issue in accordance with international law.

It is highly unlikely that the overall situation will undergo any dramatic or substantive change in the coming few weeks, given Israel's recalcitrance, American tendentious apathy and official Arab impotence to help the Palestinians in any meaningful manner. American and European preoccupations with the Iranian nuclear crisis will also be translated into more negligence of the Palestinian issue, which will ultimately generate more volatility, extremism and violence.

Israel, of course, doesn't want to return to a pre- Oslo situation when Israeli army officers ran Palestinian affairs, from municipal functions to economic policies. Neither, however, does it want a national unity government that could oppose its slow strangling occupation with greater vigor. Rather, Israel wants the pre-Hamas status quo restored: a quisling Palestinian regime at Israel's beck and call."

Bum Rap at O'Hare Security Check-In

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE OF THE IDIOCY OF THOSE WHO BROUGHT YOU "THE WAR ON TERROR"
Mardin Amin, an Iraqi arrested at O'Hare airport now faces serious felony charges of disorderly conduct. He could get three years in prison. A female security guard claims Amin uttered the word "bomb" when she was examining a small black squeezable object she'd taken from his bag.

For his part, Amin, on his way to Turkey with his mother and his children, claims he was whispering to his mother that it was a "pump" ­ in fact a penis pump.

The judge believed the security guard and now Amin faces the felony charges.

CounterPuncher and Arabic-speaker David Price clarifies the affair.

"As an anthropologist and Arabic speaker," Price tells CounterPunch," let me call attention to a vital aspect of this story. Simply put, Arabic has no 'Ps' and all native Arabic speakers unvoice their bilabials as 'Bs', thus it is pretty obvious that any native Arabic speaker with an accent would say the word 'pump' as the word 'bumb' --which the poorly-trained and overly paranoid airport security worker mis-heard as 'bomb.'

"As has happened here, with newspapers such as the Chicago Sun Times, news pieces with the words 'penis pump' will generate guffaws from sea to shinning sea, but by not stating what the obvious context of this misunderstanding is, the Sun Times is adding to a dangerous climate of American anti-Arab sentiment."

Professor Price urges the chortling scriveners and newsreaders of Chicago's entyertrainment industry to do what they can to reduce climate of hysteria by shedding some public light on what actually happened in this case.

After Wednesday's hearing, Amin said airport security officials never gave him an opportunity to explain the misunderstanding. And he said he would never utter the word "bomb" while going through securi
"Come on -- what do you think?" said Amin, who lives in Skokie and works for a janitorial service.

Amin does not consider the pump unusual.

"It's normal," he said. "Half of America they use it."

By Azmi Bishara

"Journalist: When the war started, you said that Nasrallah would remember the name of Amir Peretz for years to come.

Peretz: Who's Amir Peretz?

The resistance had not anticipated the war; nor, for that matter, had Israel. However, the resistance had anticipated how Israel would handle a war and prepared itself accordingly. Israel, on the other hand, had no idea of the resistance's strength and was taken by surprise by the resistance's combat performance, in spite of the fact that Israel had had the offensive advantage. Such considerations are important in determining the success or failure of military leaders under given circumstances.

Hizbullah's real victory resides in its grassroots base. Just as some envy Lebanese society for its resistance movement, that movement should also be envied for its society. Specifically, I refer to the society of southern Lebanon, Dahiya and Bakaa -- that unique historical, cultural, political, literary, aesthetic blend of tobacco farmers and resistance fighters, neighbours to Palestine and Syria, on the dividing line between the acceptance and rejection of the Sykes-Picot agreement, mountain dwellers and coastal peoples from northern Galilee and southern Lebanon, theologians of the underprivileged and oppressed, advocates of ethnic-free Arabism and Lebanese authenticity and believers in communism, nationalism, pan-Arab nationalism, religious devotion and denominational pluralism, all within a small stretch of land each patch of which has its own name, its own story to tell and its own sense of identity.

Once the ceasefire went into effect the people of the south did not wait a single moment more than they had to in the public gardens and schools of Beirut. As soon as they could they headed back to their towns and villages to shoo away the Israeli army. That's the people of Lebanon for you: tougher than rock and gentler than a mother cradling her child. They are the people making the great march southward, even before the bridges are rebuilt and the roads repaired, because they are the country's roads and bridges."

"A series of strategic errors by the Bush Administration in its War on Terror has left Iran holding virtually all the cards in the power play of the Middle East, according to a report by Britain's most influential think-tank published today.

The report from the Royal Institute of International Affairs at Chatham House - entitled Iran, its neighbours and the regional crises - paints a bleak picture of the prospects for the United States and its Western allies as they try to put a cap on Iran's nuclear programme.

It describes Iran as a state that sits with "confident ease" in the region and says, crucially, that Iran has replaced the United States as the most influential power in Iraq, able to influence events on the street and not just behind the security barricades of Baghdad's Green Zone.

"There is little doubt that Iran has been the chief beneficiary of the War on Terror in the Middle East," says the report from Chatham House's Middle East Programme.

"The United States, with coalition support, has eliminated two of Iran’s regional rival governments - the Taleban in Afghanistan in November 2001 and Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq in April 2003 - but has failed to replace either with coherent and stable political structures."

The Chatham House experts wrote that their original report was to analyse Iran's regional influence in the context of international efforts to prevent it developing nuclear weapons.

Its scope was also to encompass the complexities of Iranian domestic politics and the clash between the "apocalyptic world-view" of President Ahmadinejad and the more pragmatic, conservative Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

But as the conflicts grew in Gaza and the Lebanon, where Iran is the key backer of the Hezbollah militia, the 50-page report was expanded to consider all other inter-connected regional crises.

"A recurring theme is the desire of most states to maintain good relations with Iran or, where the relationship is less strong, to avoid antagonisation or any further deterioration," the report says.

"There exist a variety of reasons for this which have generally been strengthened by the turmoil in Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon. Iran is in a powerful regional position and its co-operation and positive influence are needed to douse the many fires currently alight.

"Were Iran to feel seriously threatened by outside forces, it does have the potential to inflame the region yet further.""

DEMOCRACY NOW! INTERVIEW

"In a few minutes we are going to get a response on the report from Israel’s deputy ambassador to the UN, Daniel Carmon, but first we take a closer look at the report’s findings with Marty Rosenbluth. He is a specialist for Israel, the Occupied Territories and the Palestinian Authority for Amnesty International-USA. He was on one of the research missions for the group that helped compile this report.

AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you joining us in the Reuters studio. Can you talk about your major findings in this report?

MARTY ROSENBLUTH: Well, sure. What the report shows is that the Israeli claims that the damage to the civilian infrastructure was purely collateral damage just really doesn't match the facts. And you really only have to look at the statements by Israeli government officials. I mean, Dan Halutz, who’s the Israeli Defense Forces chief of staff, said at the very beginning of the war that the purpose of the air strikes was to send a message to the Lebanese government that if they didn't rein in Hezbollah, that the Lebanese population would pay a heavy price. I mean, that's prima fascia evidence that the strikes were designed as collective punishment. But also just the sheer level of the destruction, the destruction of the electrical infrastructure, the water infrastructure, the roads, the bridges, houses, businesses, etc., just doesn't match the Israeli claims that this was either collateral damage or due to the fact that Hezbollah was shielding amongst the civilian population.

JUAN GONZALEZ: When you say the principle of distinction -- for example, in your report you mentioned the many roads that were destroyed by Israel. Israel was claiming that these roads could potentially be used for military transport. But you raise the issue that while that may be true, they were principally used by civilians and that that should have been the overriding factor?

MARTY ROSENBLUTH: Correct. And that's really what the principle of distinction means: you have to distinguish between whether it's primarily a military purpose or primarily a civilian purpose to balance essentially what the military advantage is versus the effect on the civilian population. So when we met with senior IDF officials in Israel, they said, “Well, the electrical infrastructure is a military target, because Hezbollah needs electricity.” Well, of course Hezbollah needs electricity, but so do hospitals, so do civilians for refrigeration, so does the water infrastructure. The electrical pumps rely on electricity for water. So if you knock out the electricity infrastructure, you also knock out the water, which creates a major health hazard. So, simply claiming that there's some military potential or it contributes in some way to Hezbollah's military purposes doesn't mean that it can be targeted as a military target. That's a clear violation of the laws of war."

THIS IS WHAT STATE TERROR LOOKS LIKE
WHEN DO THE WAR-CRIME TRIALS BEGIN?
A Lebanese woman with her children stand next to rubble of a destroyed apartment building following Israeli bombardments during the 34-day war, in the village of Siddiqine, southern Lebanon, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006. (AP Photo)

WHERE ARE AMERICAN ENVIRONMENTALISTS?
In this photo made available by Greenpeace Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006, boats float near a dock in the seaport of Byblos, northern Beirut, Lebanon, Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006, which is heavily polluted by oil, as a result of the Israeli bombing mid-July of the Jiyeh power plant, south of Beirut. After a month slathered over waters off Lebanon's coast, an oil spill unleashed by Israeli bombardment has started sinking to the sea floor _ blanketing marine life with a tar-like sludge, experts and the U.N. said Tuesday. (AP Photo/Greenpeace)

A MAKE-BELIEVE PUPPET "PRESIDENT" ENJOYING HIS JOB
Mahmoud Abbas (R) meets Greece's Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyianni in Amman August 23, 2006.

Ali, last name not given, peers from the window of his damaged family home, attacked during the 34 day-long Israeli forces' offensive, in the southern border village of Maroun el-Ras, Lebanon, Wednesday Aug. 23, 2006. The house which was occupied for several days by Israeli forces was littered with soldiers' belongings, empty food cans and water bottles. During that time the family had fled the village. (AP Photo)

OLMERT WAS HERE!
Lebanese women and a child walk past a skeleton doll holding a piece of paper which reads 'Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert' in a southern suburb of Beirut August 24, 2006. REUTERS

THE GENIUS OF OSLO: THE STRUGGLE HAS BECOME A STRUGGLE FOR.... SALARIES!
Palestinian government employees, demanding to receive their salaries, participate in a protest in the West Bank town of Ramallah, Thursday, Aug. 24, 2006. (AP Photo)

"TERRORIST" WEAPONS DESTROYED
Mohammed Hamoud salvages his books from his house, which was damaged during the recent Israeli invasion of Lebanon, in a southern Beirut suburb August 24, 2006. (REUTERS)

THE EIGHTH WONDER OF THE WORLD

It's described by a senior official at the Ministry of Defence as "a dead duck ... expensive and obsolete". The editor of World Defence Systems calls it "10 years out of date". A former defence minister remarked that it is "essentially flawed and out of date". So how on earth did BAE Systems manage to sell 72 Eurofighters to Saudi Arabia on Friday?

One answer is that it had some eminent salesmen. On July 2 2005, Tony Blair secretly landed in Riyadh to persuade the Saudi princes that this flying scrapheap was the must-have accessory for every fashionable young despot. Three weeks later the defence secretary John Reid turned up to deploy his subtle charms. Somehow the deal survived, and last week his successor, Des Browne, signed the agreement. All of which raises a second question. Why are government ministers, even Blair himself, prepared to reduce themselves to hawkers on behalf of arms merchants? Continued.

President Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may be quite right about a new Middle East being born. In fact, their policies in support of the actions of their closest regional ally, Israel, have helped midwife the newborn. But it will not be exactly the baby they have longed for. For one thing, it will be neither secular nor friendly to the United States. For another, it is going to be a rough birth.

What is happening in the broader Middle East and North Africa can be seen as a boomerang effect that has been playing out slowly since the horrific events of Sept. 11, 2001. In the immediate aftermath of those attacks, there was worldwide sympathy for the United States and support for its declared "war on terrorism," including the invasion of Afghanistan. Then the cynical exploitation of this universal goodwill by so-called neoconservatives to advance hegemonic designs was confirmed by the war in Iraq. The Bush administration's dishonest statements about "weapons of mass destruction" diminished whatever credibility the United States might have had as liberator, while disastrous mismanagement of Iraqi affairs after the invasion led to the squandering of a conventional military victory. The country slid into bloody sectarian violence, while official Washington stonewalled and refused to admit mistakes. No wonder the world has progressively turned against America. Continued.

Fifty-one percent of those surveyed said the war in Iraq was separate from the U.S. government's war on terrorism. The findings were a considerable shift from polls taken in 2002 and early 2003, when a majority considered the two to be linked, The New York Times said. Continued.

For a moment there, I was almost encouraged. George W. Bush, the most resolutely incurious and inflexible of presidents, was reported last week to have been surprised at seeing Iraqi citizens -- who ought to be grateful beneficiaries of the American occupation, I mean "liberation" -- demonstrating in support of Hezbollah and against Israel.

Surprise would be a start, since it would mean the Decider was admitting novel facts to his settled base of knowledge and reacting to them. Alas, it seems the door to the presidential mind is still locked tight. "I don't remember being surprised," he said at his news conference yesterday. "I'm not sure what they mean by that."

I'm guessing "they" might mean that when you try to impose your simplistic, black-and-white template on a kaleidoscopic world, and you end up setting the Middle East on fire, either you're surprised or you're not paying attention. But that's just me. Continued.

The British government is facing claims it "aided and abetted" violations of international law by allowing US arms flights to Israel to use UK airports. Continued.

Agence France PResse
23 August 2006

KHAN YUNIS, Gaza Strip, Aug 23 2006

"I don't have the money to send my children to school," broods father-of-four Mohammed Abu Mur in depressed south Gaza. A Palestinian civil servant, he has not been paid for six months.

Like many other Palestinian parents facing the grim reality of worsening financial crisis in the Gaza Strip, he cannot afford books or uniforms to send his children back to the classroom after the long summer holidays.

"I don't know what to do. This year I can't buy anything for my children, not uniforms, books or school equipment" for the new term due to begin on September 2, says Abu Mur in the Khan Yunis refugee camp.

"I haven't been paid since March and I don't have any money to send my four children to school. Uniform and shoe-wise they could still use those from last year, but the books," he trails off.

It is not just Abu Mur who has gone unpaid. His children's teachers have also been without their salaries. Staff in state-run schools make up around a quarter of the 160,000 civil servants on the Palestinian Authority payroll who have received pratically no money since late February.

In protest, the teachers' union has announced that its members will not return to their classes in the Palestinian territories on September 2.

The European Union and United States suspended direct aid to the Palestinian Authority when Islamist party Hamas took office following an upset election win, citing its refusal to recognise Israel and renounce violence.

"I fear for my children as well as the others," said Abu Mur. "I'm frightened that they'll end up in the street."

Palestinians are currently among the most educated in the Middle East with literacy estimated at around 92.3 percent and an education drop-out rate of only 0.9 percent.

At the Abdullah Abu Sitta school in the depressed south Gaza town of Khan Yunis, teacher Hamam al-Faqawi is braced for a difficult start to the new academic year.

"Parents have to spend around 100 shekels (23 dollars) for their children's uniforms and shoes, and 100 shekels for books and school supplies. No one can do that," admits Faqawi, who teaches English.

"We are going to have to organise collections for those who cannot afford the uniforms, and for the books students can share."

In order to ease the parental burden, prime minister Ismail Haniya has reduced fees in state schools from the previous 60 shekels (14 dollars) to 20 shekels (4.5 dollars), although for many that is still too expensive.

Ziad Salman is the father of seven. "The school fees, plus expenses comes to more than 1,500 shekels (340 dollars) this year," he calculates.

"Therefore I've had to make do with last year's uniforms and then I borrowed money." A civil servant himself, he has only received one and a half month's salary since March -- around 680 dollars.

"There's cause for alarm. The situation has deteriorated seriously since last year," said Ali al-Farra, headmaster of Khan Yunis's Kamel Nasser Bey school and a member of the main teacher's union.

"People come and see me and complain about not being able to meet the costs of going back to school this year," he said.

"One pupil in two will experience difficulties in buying books, supplies and uniforms this year."

Israeli troops arrested education minister Nasseredine al-Shaer, who is also deputy premier, at the weekend, as part of a crackdown on the Hamas-led government after a deadly militant raid from Gaza on June 25.

Two Israeli soldiers were killed and a third captured by the gunmen, who included members of Hamas's armed wing, triggering a massive two-month offensive against the Palestinian territory.

"The worst thing," says Faqawi, is the effect on children's education and the risk that many parents will keep their children at home.

"Last year, pupils without uniforms were ordered out of class. This year I can't do that," he said.

Israel cluster bombed 170 sites in Lebanon

TYRE, Lebanon * Israel dropped cluster bombs on at least 170 villages and other places in south Lebanon during its 34-day war with Hezbollah guerrillas, a senior United Nations de-mining official said yesterday.

The bomblets that failed to explode are now a deadly trap for civilians who stayed in the south or who fled and are now returning, some to find their homes or workplaces pounded to rubble by Israeli air strikes and artillery. The devices are known to have killed eight people and wounded at least 25, including several children, since a truce took hold on Aug. 14, said Tekimiti Gilbert, operations chief of the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre in Lebanon.

"Up to now there are 170 confirmed cluster bomb strikes in south Lebanon," he said in the southern port of Tyre. Continued.

By Noam Chomsky

"The standard Western version is that the July 2006 invasion was justified by legitimate outrage over capture of two Israeli soldiers at the border. The posture is cynical fraud. The US and Israel, and the West generally, have little objection to capture of soldiers, or even to the far more severe crime of kidnapping civilians (or of course to killing civilians). That had been Israeli practice in Lebanon for many years, and no one ever suggested that Israel should therefore be invaded and largely destroyed. Western cynicism was revealed with even more dramatic clarity as the current upsurge of violence erupted after Palestinian militants captured an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, on June 25. That too elicited huge outrage, and support for Israel's sharp escalation of its murderous assault on Gaza. The scale is reflected in casualties: in June, 36 Palestinian civilians were killed in Gaza; in July, the numbers more than quadrupled to over 170, dozens of them children. The posture of outrage was, again, cynical fraud, as demonstrated dramatically, and conclusively, by the reaction to Israel's kidnapping of two Gaza civilians, the Muamar brothers, one day before, on June 24. They disappeared into Israel's prison system, joining the hundreds of others imprisoned without charge -- hence kidnapped, as are many of those sentenced on dubious charges. There was some brief and dismissive mention of the kidnapping of the Muamar brothers, but no reaction, because such crimes are considered legitimate when carried out by “our side.” The idea that this crime would justify a murderous assault on Israel would have been regarded as a reversion to Nazism.

The distinction is clear, and familiar throughout history: to paraphrase Thucydides, the powerful are entitled to do as they wish, while the weak suffer as they must.

We should not overlook the progress that has been made in undermining the imperial mentality that is so deeply rooted in Western moral and intellectual culture as to be beyond awareness. Nor should we forget the scale of what remains to be achieved, tasks that must be undertaken in solidarity and cooperation by people in North and South who hope to see a more decent and civilized world."

By Ilan Pappe

(Ilan Pappe is senior lecturer in the University of Haifa department of political science, chair of the Emil Touma Institute for Palestinian Studies and author of several books)

"It is too early to judge how solid is the ceasefire agreed upon in the second Lebanon war. But it is already possible to draw some initial conclusions - the most important of which is the resounding Israeli military failure. Such a failure can stop for a while the more ambitious US-Israeli plans to extend the military campaign against Iran and Syria, although the danger is not over.

The first buds of the local soul searching indeed indicate that this is going to be the major conclusion of both the army and the political system.
Thus, we should expect more bloodshed and more aggressive policies - if not immediately against Syria and Iran, then against the Palestinians. The second realm is the politics of the Arab world in general and that of Palestine in particular. Enormous admiration is felt in the Arab world and in Palestine for the success of Hizbollah.

However, with all the respect for the resistance and its steadfastness, secular and socialist movements are fearful that such an admiration is not just for the resilience of the Hizbollah but also for the dogma that guided it. This can and should lead to a more fruitful and meaningful dialogue between the left and the popular Islamic movements of resistance in order to find a common ground for the future. This future must be based on respect for tradition and religion, an aspiration for social and economic justice and, hopefully, careful observance of human and civil rights for all.

To sum up, Hizbollah's achievement may indicate that the days of the US empire in the Middle East are numbered and nearly over. However in history "nearly" can take years.

These can be dangerous years in which we who live in this area - especially the Palestinians - are going to undergo tough times."

ARAB "SUPPORT"
PUPPET ARAB RULER: "WE STAND BY OUR PALESTINIAN BROTHERS IN THEIR STRUGGLE"

Early in the morning of April 9, 1948, commandos of the Irgun (headed by Menachem Begin) and the Stern Gang attacked Deir Yassin, a village with about 750 Palestinian residents. The village lay outside of the area to be assigned by the United Nations to the Jewish State; it had a peaceful reputation. But it was located on high ground in the corridor between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Deir Yassin was slated for occupation under Plan Dalet and the mainstream Jewish defense force, the Haganah, authorized the irregular terrorist forces of the Irgun and the Stern Gang to perform the takeover. In all over 100 men, women, and children were systematically murdered. Fifty-three orphaned children were literally dumped along the wall of the Old City, where they were found by Miss Hind Husseini and brought behind the American Colony Hotel to her home, which was to become the Dar El-Tifl El-Arabi orphanage.

'Desperate Soundbites'

Evaluation of the July 2006 War by an Israeli war correspondent.

~EXCERPTS~
“The balance sheet of the second Lebanon War certainly does not point to an IDF victory. Even in points, it’s closer to a loss than to an achievement, when taking into account the home front’s extended suffering.”

“However, what happened to us is very similar to the defeat suffered by the American military in Vietnam and Iraq, and to the one suffered by the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and the Russians in Chechnya.”

“I covered some of those wars. I saw from up close how guerilla fighters overcame the most powerful, modern armies in the world because they knew how to fully utilize their intimate familiarity with the war zone and the local population’s support.” Continue to read here.

Israeli soldiers harass families, human rights workers in Hebron to facilitate Jewish 'tour' group: Today in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron, in the southern part of the West Bank, the Israeli army went from house to house and forcibly entered every Palestinian home in the neighbourhood, according to a report from international human rights workers in the area.

Palestinian Prime Minister endorses two-day weekend: For the first time in the history of Palestine, a 40-hour work-week with a two-day weekend has been declared by the Hamas-led Palestinian government. The declaration comes in the midst of negotiations for a Palestinian national unity government, and a major financial crisis due to the suspension of international aid money to Palestine.

17 Palestinians killed, 61 injured and 99 arrested in the last week: The Palestinian National Information Center – State Information Service, released a report on Wednesday on the Israeli violations and attacks against the Palestinians during the period between August 15 and August 21. The report revealed that Israeli troops killed 17 Palestinians, injured 61, and arrested 99 in one week.

Israeli Army Goes From House to House in Hebron, Harasses Palestinian Households: Today in the Tel Rumeida area of Hebron, the Israeli army went from house to house and forcibly entered every Palestinian home in the neighbourhood. It is likely that this was in response to settler pressure as they were organising a “tour of Hebron” for today, according to the website of the Hebron settlers. All checkpoints in the area remain closed.

Fourth National Child Conference starts in Bethlehem: Defense For Children International, (DCI) Palestine Branch, announced the opening of the four National Child conference in the West Bank city of Bethlehem. The conference will focus on “Child Neglect, Exploitation, and Abuse” and will involve one hundred boys and girls from all over the West Bank, in addition to Occupied Syrian Golan Heights, Nazareth and Jerusalem.

The occupier defines justice: The Palestinian detainees are led to a military court: The same military establishment that occupies and destroys and suppresses the civilian population is the one that determines that to resist occupation - even by popular demonstrations and waving flags, not only by killing and bearing arms - is a crime. It is the one to prosecute, and it is the one to judge. Its judges are loyal to the interest of defending the occupier and the settler.

PLC head charged by Israeli court: An Israeli court charged on Wednesday the head of the Palestinian Legislative Council, Dr. Aziz Dweik, with membership and and activity in “an outlawed organization”, referring to the Islamic Resistance Movement, Hamas.

Palestinian Companies Forced to Buy Israeli Products: In the past year, the price to import and process shipments has drastically risen, although it is only recently that companies in Nablus have been affected. One particular order got stuck in Israeli customs for more than 2 months and the company was forced to pay an additional import fee of 25,000 NIS (about $5,000 dollars) to access the order.

Crisis could bring Lieberman's Yisrael Beitenu into coalition picture: Sources close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday the coalition crisis would leave Olmert no choice but to invite Yisrael Beitenu to join the coalition. Yisrael Beitenu chairman MK Avigdor Lieberman said the only way he would join the coalition would be if his party replaced Labor.

Hamas forms team to discuss forming coalition government: Also on Sunday, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) urged a rapid formation of a coalition government to be able to respond to the current Palestinian situation. "The present situation requires speeding up the formation of a coalition government, otherwise, burdens will increase,"

Israeli army arrests 11 Palestinians in W. Bank: Witnesses said that the troops stormed Ramallah city and arrested two members of the governing Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) and two others from President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.

US campaigns put administration and Apartheid Israel on trial: On August 30th the International Campaign to demand accountability for US/Israeli war crimes is to hold a tribunal outside the United Nations building in New York. Witnesses to Occupation war crimes in Lebanon and Gaza will be speaking and campaigners, including former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark, will be presenting a body of evidence.

Dead Sea project may start soon, says World Bank: A study of a $2-$4 billion project to top up the shrinking Dead Sea with water from the Red Sea could start in the coming months, a World Bank official said yesterday. France, the United States, the Netherlands and Japan have signaled their willingness to help fund a $15 million feasibility study of how to reverse a 25 meter (82 feet) fall in the level of the Dead Sea in the past century.

Descent Into Moral Barbarism - By Noman Finkelstein :As Israel's military bravely fires away shells and missiles to lay waste the fragile human and physical infrastructure of Lebanon, Harvard Law Professor Alan Dershowitz, waging battle on a second front to legitimize Israel's criminal aggression, bravely fires away op-eds from his foxhole at Martha's Vineyard to lay waste the fragile infrastructure of international law. These are but the latest salvoes in Dershowitz's long and distinguished career of apologetics on behalf of his Holy State.

Palestine Today - August 23, 2006: Listen to the audio from the MP3 Player on the right column. Click here to Download MP3 file 5.8MB time: 6m18s

By Robert Fisk

"Hizbollah has trumped both the UN army and the Lebanese government by pouring hundreds of millions of dollars - most of it almost certainly from Iran - into the wreckage of southern Lebanon and Beirut's destroyed southern suburbs. Its massive new reconstruction effort - free of charge to all those Lebanese whose homes were destroyed or damaged in Israel's ferocious five-week assault on the country - has won the loyalty of even the most disaffected members of the Shia community in Lebanon.

A frightening side to this long-term promise for believers in the UN ceasefire is that Hizbollah has encouraged its Shia population to rent homes in Khalde, south of Beirut, since it intends to delay its entire city construction project for a year - because of its conviction that the ceasefire will break down and that another Israeli-Hizbollah war will only wreck newly built homes.

Driving more than 100 miles across the south of the country yesterday, the sheer enormity of Hizbollah's task - and of the Lebanese government's failure - becomes evident. Looking across thegreen countryside of southern Lebanon, the villages appear undamaged as they bask in thesun. But the closer you get, the more you notice vast grey fields of rubble that were once homes. Some villages - Bint Jbeil, for example, and Zibqin - have been half-destroyed."

Six Questions for Michael Scheuer on National Security

Michael Scheuer served in the CIA for 22 years before resigning in 2004; he served as the chief of the bin Laden unit at the Counterterrorist Center from 1996 to 1999. He is the formerly anonymous author of Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror and Through Our Enemies' Eyes: Osama bin Laden, Radical Islam, and the Future of America. I met him for breakfast last week at an IHOP in the Virginia suburbs outside of Washington. Over a plate of eggs and hash browns, he answered a series of questions about the current state of the Bush Administration’s “War on Terrorism.” His prognosis was illuminating and insightful—and, unfortunately, almost unrelentingly grim. Click HERE to read.

Today’s statistics indicate that Israeli forces killed 17 Palestinians during the third week of the month.

The Palestinian National Information Center of the General Authority for Information issued its weekly report Wednesday for the period of 15 through 21 August.

Israeli forces injured 61 Palestinians and arrested 99 others during attacks and raids during the week.

Israeli forces conducted 62 raid campaigns throughout the week with 175 invasions and 39 military campaigns to erect 116 barriers. Israeli settlers attacked Palestinians and their property three times while Israeli forces bulldozed agricultural land eight times and closed roads 359 times. This was all in the span of the week of 15 through 21 August.

From the Israeli website GAMLA

Our President, mild mannered Katzav, is not only being questioned
today (under police warning) about allegations of sexual abuse of two
women, he is also being asked about alleged bribery he may have
received for giving pardons to certain prisoners.

Our minister of Justice, Haim Ramon has stepped down as police open
officially a prosecution process also on sexual abuse charges.

Our Chief of staff, Dan Halutz, made sure his money was safe and sold
his stocks after IDF soldiers were kidnapped, and he knew what other
stock holders didn't know - that Israel would attack the Hizbollah in
force.

The police are also investigating how Prime minister Ehud Olmert
bought such an expensive apartment "from a friend" in Jerusalem's
Talbieh neighborhood.

Shimon Peres is also being looked into for getting all sorts of
"gifts" from his friends.

---

Normally I wouldn't care about corruption inside Israeli domestically, but I thought this list was striking, especially as it came from such a right-wing website.

Yuval Diskin blasts government over its conduct during Lebanon war, says government systems completely collapsed, northern Israel abandoned by officials

Ynet Published: 08.23.06, 22:23

"Shin Bet Director Yuval Diskin has issued a scathing attack over the government's conduct during the recent war in Lebanon, charging that "during the war, government systems collapsed completely."

"We have to acknowledge it, there were plenty of failures and the public sees them and understands it," Diskin said during a Shin Bet ceremony Tuesday. His harsh remarks were reported by Channel 2 news during Wednesday's evening newscast.

Diskin, who joined others who in recent days voiced their criticism over the government's conduct during the war, said that he thinks people like him, who are part of the government, should be speaking up.

"This is not the time to cover up and we need to tell the truth," he said. "No doubt, the north was abandoned and someone should provide explanations and take responsibility.""

by Matthew Rothschild

"In broken syntax, he laid it out: “The question facing this country is will—do—we, one, understand the threat to America? In other words, do we understand that a failed, failed states in the Middle East are a direct threat to our country’s security? And secondly, will we continue stay engaged in helping reformers, in working to advance liberty, to defeat an ideology that doesn’t believe in freedom? And my answer is, so long as I’m the President we will.”

In response to a question about Tehran’s growing influence, despite his efforts to curb it, he said, most threatening of all: “The final history in the region has yet to be written.”

This was Bush the Deluded speaking, the messianic militarist who believes he’s writing the final history of the region, or at least transcribing God’s wishes for it.

And his transcription machine is an F-16."

THE MERKAVAS HAD TO BE TOWED BACK!
ISRAEL IS OFFERING THE MERKAVA AT STEEP DISCOUT.

"AMY GOODMAN: Democracy Now!'s Ana Nogueira went to South Lebanon. She filed this report.

ANA NOGUEIRA: When Bilal Beydoun returned to his village of Bint Jbeil one week after the ceasefire, he discovered the war not over.

BILAL BEYDOUN: I found an unexploded bomb on my front porch and an unexploded missile on my back porch. And I don't know where I’m going to sleep tonight. I mean, I can't even go in my backyard, because the grass is high, and you just can't go back there. You don't know where you're going to step. Your next step might be your last step.

ANA NOGUEIRA: The United Nations interim force in Lebanon estimates that Israel dropped approximately 150,000 bombs during the 34-day military offensive. Many of these remain unexploded, even as villagers return home to start clearing away the rubble. The large unexploded missiles, while extremely threatening, are easier to find. It is the estimated 15,000 cluster bomb munitions, each carrying anywhere from 80 to 600 small bomblets, that pose the most immediate threat. Mark Garlasco is the senior military analyst for Human Rights Watch.

MARK GARLASCO: The use of submunitions here in Lebanon really is at a crisis point. We're seeing the contamination levels far higher than many areas during the Iraq war. Interestingly, though, we've also seen the exact same cluster bombs used here that were used in Iraq. And these same weapons were the main killers of civilians during the war in Iraq in 2003. We've seen dud rates from the American submunitions, which are not manufactured particularly well, on paper 14%, but in the field 30% to 40%. So the American stuff is much, much worse than the Israeli-manufactured, and primarily the Israelis have been using American weapons."

DEFIANT!

ALOT OF ORDINARY PEOPLE LIVED HERE!
Residents use a cherry picker to recover furniture form their destroyed apartment in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2006. The densely populated residential area was bombed repeatedly during the 34-day Israeli offensive. (AP Photo/str)

DELIBERATELY TARGETING CIVILIANS: A WAR CRIME ACCORDING TO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT
Residents of the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, recover furniture from their destroyed apartment Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2006. The densely populated residential area was bombed repeatedly during the 34-day Israeli offensive. (AP Photo/str)

DELIBERATELY BOMBED BRIDGES: A WAR CRIME ACCORDING TO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT
A Lebanese worker uses a blow torch to cut the wires as he starts repairing the destroyed Rmeileh bridge near the port city of Saida, in south Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2006, after it was destroyed during the 34-day offensive Israeli forces. (AP Photo)

A DEFINITE WAR CRIME ACCORDING TO AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL REPORT
Men stand on the rubble of a building in the southern suburbs of Beirut, which was destroyed by an attack by Israeli forces during the 34-day Israeli invasion, as another damaged building is seen in the background, Wednesday, Aug. 23, 2006. The densely populated residential area was bombed repeatedly by Israeli forces during the conflict. (AP Photo)

THE MERKAVA IS NOT WORTH SHIT, BUT IT MAKES A GOOD BED!

US PUPPETS NEED TO STICK TOGETHER, MORE THAN EVER BEFORE

WHAT DO I DO NOW? CAN I SALVAGE SOMETHING?

By Amira Hass

"On Jerusalem's Jabotinsky Street, opposite the President's Residence, a medium-sized plaque is fixed on a locked gate, enclosing a broad building and a lovely garden: "This building was the location of the British Mandate Government's High Military Court, which held the trials of the Hebrew resistance fighters from the Haganah, Etzel and Lehi." The sign bears the emblems of the Jerusalem municipality and the three resistance organizations. It further notes: "The resistance fighters refused to acknowledge the authority of the court to judge them, and asked to be recognized as prisoners of war."

The speaker of the Palestinian Authority's parliament, who was arrested two weeks ago by the Israel Defense Forces, also refused to acknowledge the authority of the Military Court to judge him. Obviously the two latest detainees, whose arrest was deemed by Israel to be the appropriate solution to its shortcomings in releasing kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, will make the same declaration. Nasser A-Shaer, the Palestinian education minister and deputy prime minister, and Mahmoud Ramahi, chief whip of the Palestinian Legislative Council, were arrested on Saturday and Sunday. Incidentally, the Palestinians have lately ceased using the verb "arrested" in regards to the arrests of Palestinians by Israeli soldiers. Instead they use the verb "abducted."

These three detainees/abducted join about 10,000 other Palestinian prisoners and detainees. As with the prisoners of the Hebrew resistance, who saw themselves as POWs regardless of their actions (killing British soldiers or Arab civilians), some Palestinians request that their prisoners be declared POWs. Others prefer the definition of political prisoners. Let's let the definitions rest. In any case, from the offense to the jailing, Israel, as an occupying force, plays around with the definitions as it sees fit."

A MUST READ!

Washington, D.C., August 10, 2006: “Here, as promised, is an interesting conversation that somehow accidentally got intercepted and transcribed. There are lots more where this came from!”

Transcription of telephone conversation on August 3, 2006

from

Israeli Embassy, Washington D.C. Telephone Number (202) 364-5582.

to

unidentified individual at AIPAC, Washington D.C., Telephone Number (202) 639-5201

Commenced 1821 hrs, concluded 1826 hrs.

Speaker A Reuven Azar - Counselor for Political Affairs, Embassy of Israel

Speaker B Unidentified individual located at AIPAC headquarters

A. Well, things are going as well as expected, better perhaps than expected. There is military progress there (Lebanon) and we have wonderful cooperation here.

B. For sure, but don’t forget the dangers in having too much cooperation. All right for this moment but in the long run, this can certainly backfire on us. You know, we are seen as being too much influential with the Bush people.

A. I wouldn’t worry too much about that. The media is certainly not to worry about and most Americans really do not care about things there (Lebanon) The main point is that by the time the U.S. makes itself felt at the UN, we will have accomplished our goals and established the buffer we need.

B. Absolutely but…there is still the future to think about.

A. Who cares? Once we establish the buffer, the rest is just shit. It will all be hidden soon in the coming press reports of Arab ‘attacks’ on the U.S. This is for the voting in November. You know, ‘many Arab groups will for sure attack American targets.’ They (the U.S. Government) will choose so-called target areas where they need the most support. We don’t need to worry about Miami, Skokie or Beverly Hills after all. (Laughter) and this is a little crude but the public here is terribly stupid and the warning color days worked before, didn’t they?

B. Yes, but there are second thoughts on all of that. If you go to the well too often, there are problems. People lose interest.

A. The British are being such swine about this, aren’t they? They are causing trouble about the bombs these days.

B. Just a few troublemakers. The press here does not cover that and who reads the foreign media? Most Americans can’t read anyway. But there is danger that the U.N. might be motivated to move a peace keeping force into Lebanon and this might negate our purposes. Hesbollah must be utterly wiped out and Syria must be made to realize…with force if necessary…that it cannot supply the terrorists with more Iranian rockets. Maybe an accidental airstrike on Syrian military units could say to them to mind their own business. We have done this before.

A. It is too bad that we cannot teach Tehran a lesson. The ultimate goal would be to have America attack Iran but I am afraid the American military is dead set against this…

B. They are all Jew-haters up there.

A. For sure but we know that Americans can bomb the shit out of Tehran and hopefully kill off a number of the militants, probably disrupt their atomic program and teach all of the area that the U.S. means business. We support them, they support us. But they cannot send in ground troops and if we did that, our losses would not be borne at home. As it is, there are the usual malcontents bleating about the Lebanon business.

B. They are just afraid they will get a rocket on their house and there are the same ones here. The Lieberman business is not that good, after all. Yes, of course he is a liberal Democrat but his support of us is too obvious. He could be a little critical too. We see the Bush people doing this, just to keep the people quiet. Yes, they say, see, we too are actually critical of Israel….

A. But not too critical, right?

B. No, never that. Too many pictures of dead jerks for example. We need to see more pictures of grieving Israelis, mourning lost sons and children. Can’t we get more of those? Fuck the Arabs.

A. I feel sorry for the American mediA. Their instincts are to defend dead Arab children…

B. But nits make lice, don’t they? Who mourns dead Israeli children?

A. I’m sure there would be more on this but not enough children are dead.

B. Not yet, anyway. But if they rocket Tel Aviv…

A. Well, then, for sure.

B. We should have pictures all ready if that happens. Do you think it will?

A. Tehran directs that part of the business. We don’t have as much inside gen on them there…

B. The fucking Russians are on their side.

A. We have always had trouble with those Slavic pricks. First weapons…

B. The Chinese assholes also do this, don’t forget.

A. No one around here will forget that, be assured. The time will come when we get them too. Say we cut off their oil from the Gulf? What then? They will dance to our tunes then, not Tehran’s.

B. If we had oil…

A. But we do not. The filthy Putin has the oil. They should get rid of him while they are at it. Our people almost had it but he forced them out.

B. They can always come back. The people here would really support this. We put our people back in after we get rid of Putin and then a guaranteed flow of oil to America.

A. And Russia is off the chessboard too.

B. They all want that badly here, too. Cheney is the strongest supporter of cutting the nuts off of RussiA. The military here are against fishing in troubled waters.

A. They can’t be replaced, Bush can’t sack them all.

B. Set an example. Sack a few more of the assholes and the rest will shut up. They always do. So, send me your latest list and I’ll see what I can do here.

A .Send someone to pick it up. The mail here is awful. It will take a week if some black doesn’t steal it, throw it away or wipe his ass with it.

B. Tomorrow for sure.

A. OK. And one other matter. We feel very strongly that if the current people get kicked out in November, as it looks like they might, we owe them to help them stay right where they are. It has taken a long time and much money to get all the ducks lined up and we don’t want to have to start in again. We can generally rely on sympathy from the Democrats but they will not support any more military ventures over there. That’s for sure.

B. Then what do you suggest?

A. The terrorism card works wonders. We were going to release a statement that Arabs were going to attack an El Al plane on takeoff, with rockets….

A. Probably leftovers from the CIA businesses in Afghanistan.

A. Let’s not get into that now. But this scare would only affect flights to Israel and we don’t think it would have any impact on the election.

B. Well then, why not have these attacks aimed at American aircraft? Where would they attack from?

A. Say at the perimeter fence lines at airports. Or better still, why not a plan cooked up to smuggle explosives on board transatlantic flights to or from America? Something clever that will catch the public imagination….

B. That stupid bomb in the shoe routine?

A. Don’t knock it. It worked, didn’t it? We can always find some suckers with a bent to this we can fill up with real enthusiasm and then turn them in, complete with plans. They actually believe they are going to paradise and fuck virgins and we have another propaganda coup. Let’s give this some effort. You know, a terrified public will not want to change horses in mid stream. So far, the Rove people have a good line: If you’re against the Republicans, you’re encouraging the evil terrorists sthick.

B. Well, they did that with the alert warnings and it worked…more or less.

A. Face it, they aren’t too bright here. They ran it into the ground, had to fire Ridge and Ashcroft, one of our very best friends ever, and put those things on ice. They need to discover a huge plot but in America

A. You know, as you said, infiltrate a group of crazies, plant things on them, call the FBI…

B. Oh, they do that themselves. That business in Florida was pathetic…

A. But it worked, didn’t it?

B. For about ten minutes at six o’clock for about three days.

A. Well, think about it and get back to me.

B. Right.

A. What’s the situation with your two people? Are they going to be tried or not?

B. Probably not, as far as the Bush people are concerned. But it is up to the courts and we are very careful not to fuck with them. They are expected to have the charges thrown out soon…

A. Well, I’ll pray for them. I have to go now so I’ll get back to you later. Don’t forget to send someone for the list

B. OK.

(Conversation terminated)

This is just the tip of a very large iceberg. Other inside information will be published in upcoming editions. On Monday, August 14, I will put up a complete listing of all members of Congress who have received money from AIPAC, state by state, amount by amount.

By Mike Whitney

"Israel is in a state of post-war trauma. Its 34 day pounding of Lebanon has achieved none of the stated goals and has left the public furious at the incompetence of the Olmert government. 118 soldiers were killed in the conflict and Israel’s celebrated "power of deterrents" was smashed to smithereens. Nothing was gained. In the north, industry and commerce were brought to a complete standstill while the local people were shunted off to fallout shelters for weeks on end.

What for?

Hizbullah hasn’t been “disarmed” and the 2 captured Israeli soldiers haven’t been returned. The whole travesty was a dead loss. The war was abruptly called off when Olmert couldn't bear the rising death-toll, a fact that was not lost on Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nassrullah. Nassrullah said from the very beginning that the only way to beat Israel was by “killing soldiers and destroying weapons”. Olmert’s retreat just proves that that Nassrullah was right.

So what does this firestorm of public outrage auger for Lebanon and the prospects for peace in the region?

The probability of peace “breaking out” has never looked more dismal. Public opinion is compelling Olmert to restart the war to salvage his battered career. Already, government officials have begun talking about a “second round” of hostilities, a euphemism that is being reiterated with worrisome regularity in the press. The mood in Israel is ugly and many believe that it foreshadows greater violence ahead.

Olmert is surrounded by “hawks” from the Sharon era who brush aside any plan that doesn’t involve force. That makes military action all the more likely even though the objectives are as ambiguous as they were before.

Restarting the conflict will only create greater threats to Israel’s security. It will strengthen the Lebanese resistance, weaken the already-feeble Siniora government, rouse more hatred for the United States, destabilize friendly Arab regimes, and further erode the perception of Israeli invincibility.

Israel has little to gain and everything to lose."

A POLL ON AL-JAZEERA ONLINE (ARABIC)

Should Iran abandon its nuclear program in exchange for the European incentives?

Of more than the 22,000 who participated so far, 92% said no.

This is very significant, since the puppet Arab regimes are trying to portray Iran and its nuclear program, and not Israel with its 300 nuclear warheads or more, as the main threat to Arabs.

Lebanon's Future
“Israel and the U.S. don’t like to lose”


"WHAT ARE the implications of the multinational force that is supposed to be deployed in Southern Lebanon?

QUITE CLEARLY, the multinational force will not be defending the Lebanese people from Israeli aggression. Nor do I think, tactically, that they are going to be defending Israel from rockets either. So what are they going to be doing?

The French initially said they would lead this force of 15,000 troops, but then said they would send only a few hundred.

The rumors that we’re hearing is that Israel is taking a break--and it will resume its aggression against Lebanon pretty soon, and then against Iran in maybe six months. And when that aggression resumes, the multinational force will not be able to do anything.

Even sadder is that fact that the 15,000 Lebanese Army soldiers now in the South are hostages to the Israeli military, because our army is equipped like a police force, not a military one. It is absurd to think the Lebanese Army has the means to defend our country--it never did. Nor will the international community allow it to equip itself like a decent army.

I want to make it clear that I am against any non-Lebanese military force on Lebanese soil in all aspects."

By Gareth Porter
Asia Times

"WASHINGTON - Even before Iran gave its formal counter-offer to the permanent-five-plus-one countries (the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia and China plus Germany) on Tuesday, the administration of US George W Bush had already begun the process of organizing sanctions against Iran.

The history of the international proposal shows that the Bush administration was determined from the beginning that it would fail, so that it could bring to a halt a multilateral diplomacy on Iran's nuclear program that the hardliners in the administration had always found a hindrance to their policy.

The partners of the US made one more effort to persuade Rice to reconsider the US position at their final meeting in Vienna on June 1 to reach agreement on a proposal. As Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov revealed in a talk with Russian media the following day, the issue of security guarantees for Iran was raised by the negotiating partners of the US at that meeting.

But the Bush administration again rebuffed the idea of offering positive security incentives to Iran. In the final text of the proposal, the European scheme for a regional security system was reduced to an anodyne reference to a "conference to promote dialogue and cooperation on regional security issues".

The Europeans, Russians and Chinese knew this outcome doomed the entire exercise to failure. In the end, only the US could offer the incentives needed to make a bargain attractive to Iran. A European official who had been involved in the discussions was quoted in a June 1 Reuters story as saying, "We have neither big enough carrots nor big enough sticks to persuade the Iranians, if they are open to persuasion at all."

Bush's objective was to free his administration of the constraint of multilateral diplomacy. The administration evidently reckoned that once the Iranians had rejected the formal offer, the US would be free to take whatever actions it might choose, including a military strike against Iran. Thus the June 5 proposal, with its implicit contempt for Iran's security interests, reflected the degree to which the US administration has anchored its policy toward Iran in its option to use force.

As Washington now seeks to the clear the way for the next phase of its confrontation with Iran, Bush is framing the issue as one of Iranian defiance of the Security Council, rather than US refusal to deal seriously with a central issue in the negotiations. "There must consequences if people thumb their noses at the United Nations Security Council," Bush said on Monday.

If the EU-3, Russia and China allow Bush to get away with that highly distorted version of what happened, the world will have taken another step closer to general war in the Middle East."

So about those hostages being held by Palestinians... you know the two Fox "news" guys...

So the kidnappers just released a video of the hostages and this is what they had to say:

"So, just want to let you know I am here and alive and give my love to my family and friends and ask to do anything you can to try to help us get out of here," he added.

"If you could apply any pressure on the local government here in Gaza and the West Bank, that would be much appreciated by Steve and myself," Wiig said.

Now why would the hostage takers distribute a video in which they allowed the hostages to say to put pressure on Hamas? That makes no sense. Who can believe that this is a legitimate kidnapping in which one Palestinian group is telling the hostages to demand that action be taken against Hamas?

And then this never before heard of group the Holy Jihad something or others are asking that ALL Muslim prisoners in the U.S. be released within 72 hours:

"We are going to exchange the Muslim female and male prisoners in American jails in return for the prisoners that we have. We are going to give you 72 hours beginning midnight tonight to take your decision," Ramattan quoted the statement as saying."

LOL.

Come on.

Who really thinks that Palestinians care more about American prisoners than they do about Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails?

It's an absurd video and it is an even more absurd demand.


None of it makes any sense at all. NONE OF IT.

Israel/Lebanon: Evidence indicates deliberate destruction of civilian infrastructure

Amnesty International today published findings that point to an Israeli policy of deliberate destruction of Lebanese civilian infrastructure, which included war crimes, during the recent conflict.

The organization's latest publication shows how Israel's destruction of thousands of homes, and strikes on numerous bridges and roads as well as water and fuel storage plants, was an integral part of Israel's military strategy in Lebanon, rather than “collateral damage” resulting from the lawful targeting of military objectives.

The report reinforces the case for an urgent, comprehensive and independent UN inquiry into grave violations of international humanitarian law committed by both Hizbullah and Israel during their month-long conflict.

"Israel’s assertion that the attacks on the infrastructure were lawful is manifestly wrong. Many of the violations identified in our report are war crimes, including indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks. The evidence strongly suggests that the extensive destruction of power and water plants, as well as the transport infrastructure vital for food and other humanitarian relief, was deliberate and an integral part of a military strategy," said Kate Gilmore, Executive Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International.

The Israeli government has argued that they were targeting Hizbullah positions and support facilities and that other damage done to civilian infrastructure was a result of Hizbullah using the civilian population as a "human shield".

"The pattern, scope and scale of the attacks makes Israel's claim that this was 'collateral damage', simply not credible,” said Kate Gilmore, Executive Deputy Secretary General of Amnesty International.

"Civilian victims on both sides of this conflict deserve justice. The serious nature of violations committed makes an investigation into the conduct of both parties urgent. There must be accountability for the perpetrators of war crimes and reparation for the victims.”

The report, Deliberate destruction or 'collateral damage'? Israeli attacks against civilian infrastructure, is based on first-hand information gathered by recent Amnesty International research missions to Lebanon and Israel, including interviews with dozens of victims, officials from the UN, Israeli Defence Force (IDF) and Lebanese government, as well as official statements and press reports.

The report includes evidence of the following:
Massive destruction by Israeli forces of whole civilian neighbourhoods and villages;
Attacks on bridges in areas of no apparent strategic importance;
Attacks on water pumping stations, water treatment plants and supermarkets despite the prohibition against targeting objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population;
Statements by Israeli military officials indicating that the destruction of civilian infrastructure was indeed a goal of Israel’s military campaign designed to press the Lebanese government and the civilian population to turn against Hizbullah.

The report exposes a pattern of indiscriminate and disproportionate attacks, which resulted in the displacement of twenty-five percent of the civilian population. This pattern, taken together with official statements, indicates that the attacks on infrastucture were deliberate, and not simply incidental to lawful military objectives.

Amnesty International is calling for a comprehensive, independent and impartial inquiry to be urgently established by the UN into violations of international humanitarian law by both sides in the conflict. It should examine in particular the impact of this conflict on the civilian population, and should be undertaken with a view to holding individuals responsible for crimes under international law and ensuring that full reparation is provided to the victims.

To see the report: Deliberate destruction or 'collateral damage'? Israeli attacks against civilian infrastructure

The Independent

"A force of around 4,000 British troops will stay behind in Iraq for an indefinite period, even after all provinces controlled by the UK are handed over to the Baghdad government in nine months' time, senior defence sources said yesterday.

The soldiers will be positioned at a base in Basra ready to act to "protect the investment" made by US and British forces in the country, it was disclosed.

The size of the British forces to be left behind, more than half of just over 7,000 deployed in Iraq at present, will raise criticism that no exit strategy is in sight.

The revelation about the long-term deployment in Iraq came as the same officials warned that Britain was in for the "long haul" in Afghanistan."
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How do you spell colonialism?

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Residents in southern Lebanon emerged from shelters over the weekend for a grim task: to bury their dead. The largest funeral took place in Qana where an Israeli airstrike on the town on July 30th killed 29 people - the majority of them women and children. We speak with longtime peace activist Kathy Kelly who attended the Qana funeral as well as a Michigan man who lost over 20 members of his family in the Israeli attack on the town. [includes rush transcript]

With a tenuous cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon holding, the ever-hotter war in Iraq is once again creeping back onto newspaper front pages and towards the top of the evening news. Before being fully immersed in daily reports of bomb blasts, sectarian violence, and casualties, however, it might be worth considering some of the just-under-the-radar-screen realities of the situation in that country. Here, then, is a little guide to understanding what is likely to be a flood of new Iraqi developments -- a few enduring, but seldom commented upon, patterns central to the dynamics of the Iraq war, as well as to the fate of the American occupation and Iraqi society.

1. The Iraqi Government Is Little More Than a Group of "Talking Heads"

A minimally viable central government is built on at least three foundations: the coercive capacity to maintain order, an administrative apparatus that can deliver government services and directives to society, and the resources to manage these functions. The Iraqi government has none of these attributes -- and no prospect of developing them. It has no coercive capacity. The national army we hear so much about is actually trained and commanded by the Americans, while the police forces are largely controlled by local governments and have few, if any, viable links to the central government in Baghdad. (Only the Special Forces, whose death-squad activities in the capital have lately been in the news, have any formal relationship with the elected government; and they have more enduring ties to the U.S. military that created them and the Shia militias who staffed them.)

Administratively, the Iraqi government has no existence outside Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone -- and little presence within it. Whatever local apparatus exists elsewhere in the country is led by local leaders, usually with little or no loyalty to the central government and not dependent on it for resources it doesn't, in any case, possess. In Baghdad itself, this is clearly illustrated in the vast Shiite slum of Sadr city, controlled by Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army and his elaborate network of political clerics. (Even U.S. occupation forces enter that enormous swath of the capital only in large brigades, braced for significant firefights.) In the major city of the Shia south, Basra, local clerics lead a government that alternately ignores and defies the central government on all policy issues from oil to women's rights; in Sunni cities like Tal Afar and Ramadi, where major battles with the Americans alternate with insurgent control, the government simply has no presence whatsoever. In Kurdistan in the north, the Kurdish leadership maintains full control of all local governments.

As for resources, with 85% of the country's revenues deriving from oil, all you really need to know is that oil-rich Iraq is also suffering from an "acute fuel shortage" (including soaring prices, all-night lines at gas stations, and a deal to get help from neighboring Syria which itself has minimal refining capacity). The almost helpless Iraqi government has had little choice but to accept the dictates of American advisors and of the International Monetary Fund about exactly how what energy resources exist will be used. Paying off Saddam-era debt, reparations to Kuwait from the Gulf War of 1990, and the needs of the U.S.-controlled national army have had first claim. With what remains so meager that it cannot sustain a viable administrative apparatus in Baghdad, let alone the rest of the country, there is barely enough to spare for the government leadership to line their own pockets.

2. There Is No Iraqi Army

The "Iraqi Army" is a misnomer. The government's military consists of Iraqi units integrated into the U.S.-commanded occupation army. These units rely on the Americans for intelligence, logistics, and -- lacking almost all heavy weaponry themselves -- artillery, tanks, and any kind of airpower. (The Iraqi "Air Force" typically consists of fewer then 10 planes with no combat capability.) The government has no real control over either personnel or strategy.

We can see this clearly in a recent operation in Sadr City, conducted (as news reports tell us) by "Iraqi troops and US advisors" and backed up by U.S. artillery and air power. It was one of an ongoing series of attempts to undermine the Sadrists and their Mahdi army, who have governed the area since the fall of Saddam. The day after the assault, Iraqi premier Nouri Kamel al-Maliki complained about the tactics used, which he labeled "unjustified," and about the fact that neither he, nor his government, was included in the decision-making leading up to the assault. As he put it to an Agence France-Presse, "I reiterate my rejection to [sic] such an operation and it should not be executed without my consent. This particular operation did not have my approval."

This happened because the U.S. has functionally expanded its own forces in Iraq by integrating local Iraqi units into its command structure, while essentially depriving the central government of any army it could use purely for its own purposes. Iraqi units have their own officers, but they always operate with American advisers. As American Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad put it, "We'll ultimately help them become independent." (Don't hold your breath.)

3. The Recent Decline in American Casualties Is Not a Result of Less Fighting (and Anyway, It's Probably Ending)

At the beginning of August, the press carried reports of a significant decline in U.S. casualties, punctuated with announcements from American officials that the military situation was improving. The figures (compiled by the Brookings Institute) do show a decline in U.S. military deaths (76 in April, 69 in May, 63 in June, and then only 48 in July). But these were offset by dramatic increases in Iraqi military fatalities, which almost doubled in July as the U.S. sent larger numbers of Iraqi units into battle, and as undermanned American units were redeployed from al-Anbar province, the heartland of the Sunni insurgency, to civil-war-torn Baghdad in preparation for a big push to recapture various out-of-control neighborhoods in the capital.

More important, when it comes to long-term U.S. casualties, the trends are not good. In recent months, U.S. units had been pulled off the streets of the capital. But the Iraqi Army units that replaced them proved incapable of controlling Baghdad in even minimal ways. So, in addition, to fighting the Sunni insurgency, American troops are now back on the streets of Baghdad in the midst of a swirling civil war with U.S. casualties likely to rise. In recent months, there has also been an escalation of the fighting between American forces and the insurgency, independent of the sectarian fighting that now dominates the headlines.

As a consequence, the U.S. has actually increased its troop levels in Iraq (by delaying the return of some units, sending others back to Iraq early, and sending in some troops previously held in reserve in Kuwait). The number of battles (large and small) between occupation troops and the Iraqi resistance has increased from about 70 a day to about 90 a day; and the number of resistance fighters estimated by U.S. officials has held steady at about 20,000. The number of IEDs placed -- the principle weapon targeted at occupation troops (including Iraqi units) -- has been rising steadily since the spring.

The effort by Sunni guerrillas to expel the American army and its allies is more widespread and energetic than at any time since the fall of the Hussein regime.

4. Most Iraqi Cities Have Active and Often Viable Local Governments

Neither the Iraqi government, nor the American-led occupation has a significant presence in most parts of Iraq. This is well-publicized in the three Kurdish provinces, which are ruled by a stable Kurdish government without any outside presence; less so in Shia urban areas where various religio-political groups -- notably the Sadrists, the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI), Da'wa , and Fadhila -- vie for local control, and then organize cities and towns around their own political and religious platforms. While there is often violent friction among these groups -- particularly when the contest for control of an area is undecided -- most cities and towns are largely peaceful as local governments and local populations struggle to provide city services without a viable national economy.

This situation also holds true in the Sunni areas, except when the occupation is actively trying to pacify them. When there is no fighting, local governments dominated by the religious and tribal leaders of the resistance establish the laws and maintain a kind of order, relying for law enforcement on guerrilla fighters and militia members.

All these governments -- Kurdish, Shia and Sunni -- have shown themselves capable of maintaining (often fundamentalist) law and (often quite harsh) order, with little crime and little resistance from the local population. Though often severely limited by the lack of resources from a paralyzed national economy and a bankrupt national government, they do collect the garbage, direct traffic, suppress the local criminal element, and perform many of the other duties expected of local governments.

5. Outside Baghdad, Violence Arrives with the Occupation Army

The portrait of chaos across Iraq that our news generally offers us is a genuine half-truth. Certainly, Baghdad has been plunged into massive and worsening disarray as both the war against the Americans and the civil war have come to be concentrated there, and as the terrifying process of ethnic cleansing has hit neighborhood after neighborhood, and is now beginning to seep into the environs of the capital.

However, outside Baghdad (with the exception of the northern cities of Kirkuk and Mosul, where historic friction among Kurd, Sunni, and Turkman has created a different version of sectarian violence), Iraqi cities tend to be reasonably ethnically homogeneous and to have at least quasi-stable governments. The real violence often only arrives when the occupation military makes its periodic sweeps aimed at recapturing cities where it has lost all authority and even presence.

This deadly pattern of escalating violence is regularly triggered by those dreaded sweeps, involving brutal, destructive, and sometimes lethal home invasions aimed at capturing or killing suspected insurgents or their supporters. The insurgent response involves the emplacement of ever more sophisticated roadside bombs (known as IEDs) and sniper attacks, aimed at distracting or hampering the patrols. The ensuing firefights frequently involve the use of artillery, tanks, and air power in urban areas, demolishing homes and stores in a neighborhood, which only adds to the bitter resistance and increasing the support for the insurgency.

These mini-wars can last between a few hours and, in Falluja, Ramadi, or other "centers of resistance," a few weeks. They constitute the overwhelming preponderance of the fighting in Iraq. For any city, the results can be widespread death and devastation from which it can take months or years to recover. Yet these are still episodes punctuating a less violent, if increasingly more run-down normalcy.

6. There Is a Growing Resistance Movement in the Shia Areas of Iraq

Lately, the pattern of violence established in largely Sunni areas of Iraq has begun to spread to largely Shia cities, which had previously been insulated from the periodic devastation of American pacification attempts. This ended with growing Bush administration anxiety about economic, religious, and militia connections between local Shia governments and Iran, and with the growing power of the anti-American Sadrist movement, which had already fought two fierce battles with the U.S. in Najaf in 2004 and a number of times since then in Sadr City.

Symptomatic of this change is the increasing violence in Basra, the urban oil hub at the southern tip of the country, whose local government has long been dominated by various fundamentalist Shia political groups with strong ties to Iran. When the British military began a campaign to undermine the fundamentalists' control of the police force there, two British military operatives were arrested, triggering a battle between British soldiers (supported by the Shia leadership of the Iraqi central government) and the local police (supported by local Shia leaders). This confrontation initiated a series of armed confrontations among the various contenders for power in Basra.

Similar confrontations have occurred in other localities, including Karbala, Najaf, Sadr City, and Maysan province. So far no general offensive to recapture the any of these areas has been attempted, but Britain has recently been concentrating its troops outside Basra.

If the occupation decides to use military means to bring the Shia cities back into anything like an American orbit, full-scale battles may be looming in the near future that could begin to replicate the fighting in Sunni areas, including the use of IEDs, so far only sporadically employed in the south. If you think American (and British) troops are overextended now, dealing with internecine warfare and a minority Sunni insurgency, just imagine what a real Shiite insurgency would mean.

7. There Are Three Distinct Types of Terrorism in Iraq, All Directly or Indirectly Connected to the Occupation

Terrorism involves attacking civilians to force them to abandon their support for your enemy, or to drive them away from a coveted territory.

The original terrorists in Iraq were the military and civilian officials of the Bush administration -- starting with their "shock and awe" bombing campaign that destroyed Iraqi infrastructure in order to "undermine civilian morale." The American form of terrorism continued with the wholesale destruction of most of Falluja and parts of other Sunni cities, designed to pacify the "hot beds" of insurgency, while teaching the residents of those areas that, if they "harbor the insurgents," they will surely "suffer the consequences."

At the individual level, this program of terror was continued through the invasions of, and demolishing of, homes (or, in some cases, parts of neighborhoods) where insurgents were believed to be hidden among a larger civilian population, thus spreading the "lesson" about "harboring terrorists" to everyone in the Sunni sections of the country. Generating a violent death rate of at least 18,000 per year, the American drumbeat of terror has contributed more than its share to the recently escalating civilian death toll, which reached a record 3,149 in the official count during July. It is unfortunately accurate to characterize the American occupation of Sunni Iraq as a reign of terror.

The Sunni terrorists like those led by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi have utilized the suicide car bomb to generate the most widely publicized violence in Iraq -- hundreds of civilian casualties each month resulting from attacks on restaurants, markets, and mosques where large number of Shia congregate. At the beginning of the U.S. occupation, car bombs were nonexistent; they only became common when a tiny proportion of the Sunni resistance movement became convinced that the Shia were the main domestic support for the American occupation. (As far as we can tell, the vast majority of those fighting the Americans oppose such terrorists and have sometimes fought with them.) As al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri wrote, these attacks were justified by "the treason of the Shia and their collusion with the Americans." As if to prove him correct, the number of such attacks tripled to current levels of about 70 per month after the Shia-dominated Iraqi government supported the American devastation of Falluja in November 2004.

The Sunni terrorists work with the same terrorist logic that the Americans have applied in Iraq: Attacks on civilians are meant to terrify them into not supporting the enemy. There is a belief, of course, among the leadership of the Sunni terrorists that, ultimately, only the violent suppression or expulsion of the Shia is acceptable. But as Zawahiri himself stated, the "majority of Muslims don't comprehend this and possibly could not even imagine it." So the practical justification for such terrorism lies in the more immediate association of the Shia with the hated occupation.

The final link in the terrorist chain can also be traced back to the occupation. In January of 2005, Newsweek broke the story that the U.S. was establishing (Shiite) "death squads" within the Iraqi Ministry of Interior, modeled after the assassination teams that the CIA had helped organize in El Salvador during the 1980s. These death squads were intended to assassinate activists and supporters of the Sunni resistance. Particularly after the bombing of the Golden Dome, an important Shia shrine in Samarra, in March 2006, they became a fixture in Baghdad, where thousands of corpses -- virtually all Sunni men -- have been found with signs of torture, including electric-drill holes, in their bodies and bullet holes in their heads. Here, again, the logic is the same: to use terror to stop the Sunni community from nurturing and harboring both the terrorist car bombers and the anti-American resistance fighters.

While there is disagreement about whether the Americans, the Shia-controlled Iraqi Ministry of Defense, or the Shia political parties should shoulder the most responsibility for loosing these death squads on Baghdad, one conclusion is indisputable: They have earned their place in the ignominious triumvirate of Iraqi terrorism.

One might say that the war has converted one of President Bush's biggest lies into an unimaginably horrible truth: Iraq is now the epicenter of worldwide terrorism.

Where the 7 Facts Lead

With this terror triumvirate at the center of Iraqi society, we now enter the horrible era of ethnic cleansing, the logical extension of multidimensional terror.

When the U.S. toppled the Hussein regime, there was little sectarian sentiment outside of Kurdistan, which had longstanding nationalist ambitions. Even today, opinion polls show that more than two-thirds of Sunnis and Shia stand opposed to the idea of any further weakening of the central government and are not in favor of federation, no less dividing Iraq into three separate nations.

Nevertheless, ethnic cleansing by both Shia and Sunni has become the order of the day in many of the neighborhoods of Baghdad, replete with house burnings, physical assaults, torture, and murder, all directed against those who resist leaving their homes. These acts are aimed at creating religiously homogeneous neighborhoods.

This is a terrifying development that derives from the rising tide of terrorism. Sunnis believe that they must expel their Shia neighbors to stop them from giving the Shiite death squads the names of resistance fighters and their supporters. Shia believe that they must expel their Sunni neighbors to stop them from providing information and cover for car-bombing attacks. And, as the situation matures, militants on both sides come to embrace removal -- period. As these actions escalate, feeding on each other, more and more individuals, caught in a vise of fear and bent on revenge, embrace the infernal logic of terrorism: that it is acceptable to punish everyone for the actions of a tiny minority.

There is still some hope for the Iraqis to recover their equilibrium. All the centripetal forces in Iraq derive from the American occupation, and might still be sufficiently reduced by an American departure followed by a viable reconstruction program embraced by the key elements inside of Iraq. But if the occupation continues, there will certainly come a point -- perhaps already passed -- when the collapse of government legitimacy, the destruction wrought by the war, and the horror of terrorist violence become self-sustaining. If that point is reached, all parties will enter a new territory with incalculable consequences.

By KENNETH ROTH

Human Rights Watch investigated some two dozen bombing incidents in Lebanon involving a third of the civilians who by then had been killed. In none of those cases was Hizbullah anywhere around at the time of the attack.

Human Rights Watch investigated some two dozen bombing incidents in Lebanon involving a third of the civilians who by then had been killed. In none of those cases was Hizbullah anywhere around at the time of the attack.

So what was the cause of so many civilian deaths? The IDF seemed to assume that, because it gave warnings to civilians to evacuate southern Lebanon, anyone who remained was a Hizbullah fighter. When the IDF saw a civilian home or vehicle that Hizbullah might use, it often bombed, even if, as in Kana, Srifa, Marwahin, or Aitaroun, there was no evidence that Hizbullah was in fact using the structure or vehicle at the time of attack. In weighing the military advantage of an attack against the civilian cost, the IDF seemed to assume no civilian cost, because all the "innocent" civilians had supposedly fled. Through these calculations, the IDF effectively turned southern Lebanon into a free-fire zone.

Yes, I know this was also posted on the Angry Arab website. But did you guys read it there, or just go to the comments section? :)

1. How many Palestinian prisoners are there?

As of August 8, 2006, there are 9,273 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons or detention camps. (2) Of these prisoners, 351 are children under the age of 18, (3) 75 are women and 42 are over the age of 50. Of the total number of prisoners, 433 Palestinians, who were imprisoned prior to the signing of the Oslo Accords, remain in prison despite the Accords’ call for their release. (4) The prisoners include members of the elected Palestinian Legislative Council.

2. Haven’t Palestinian prisoners been convicted of serious offenses against Israel?

In fact, of the 9,273 prisoners currently held by Israel, only an estimated 1,800 have actually been put on trial and convicted of any offense at all. According to Amnesty International, these trials often fall short of international standards for fair trials. (5)

Israel currently holds an estimated 800 Palestinians detained in prison camps who have not been charged with any crime under what is called “administrative detention.” Administrative detention violates international law. (6) Administrative detention orders may last for up to six months, with Palestinians held without charge or trial during this period. (7) Israel routinely renews the detention orders and may renew the orders without limitation, thereby holding Palestinians without charge or trial indefinitely. (8) During this period, detainees may be denied legal counsel. While detainees may appeal their detention, neither they nor their attorneys are allowed access to the State’s evidence, or know the purpose of the detention – thereby rendering the appeals procedure virtually useless.

3. Don’t most Palestinian prisoners have “blood on their hands”?

No. The vast majority of Palestinian prisoners are political prisoners who have been arbitrarily imprisoned or detained for no legitimate security reason, but for political expression, peaceful resistance or simply because they are Palestinian. According to B’Tselem:

“Security is interpreted in an extremely broad manner such that non-violent speech and political activity are considered dangerous...[This] is a blatant contradiction of the right to freedom of speech and freedom of opinion guaranteed under international law. If these same standards were applied inside Israel, half of the Likud party would be in administrative detention.” (9)

Furthermore, of those Palestinians currently being held, the overwhelming majority have not been put on trial.

Many Palestinians are arrested arbitrarily. For example, from February to March 2002, approximately 8,500 Palestinians were arrested arbitrarily. In many cities, all Palestinian males from the ages of 15 to 45 were rounded up and detained or imprisoned. Palestinians were blindfolded, handcuffed tightly with plastic handcuffs and forced to squat, sit or kneel for prolonged periods of time. Mass arrests and detention of this type have been condemned by Amnesty International as a breach of human rights.

4. How are Palestinian children treated in Israeli prisons?

The issue of child detainees and prisoners is perhaps the most striking example of Israel’s policy of arbitrary imprisonment. Approximately 2,000 Palestinian children were arrested and detained from September 2000 to the end of June 2003. (10) Children as young as 13 are held in Israeli prisons, and are housed with the adult prisoner population. Children aged 13 and 14 constitute approximately ten percent of all child detainees. Almost all child detainees have reported some form of torture or mistreatment, whether physical (beatings or placed in painful positions) or psychological (abuse, threats or intimidation). (11) Children are routinely held in detention centers under inhumane conditions. (12) For example, in some centers up to eleven children have been packed into cells as small as five square meters. (13)

5. How are Palestinian women treated in Israeli prisons?

Most Palestinian women political prisoners were previously housed with the general Israeli prison population in Neve Terze prison where drug addicts, prostitutes, and other hardened prisoners were held. After hunger strikes, most were transferred to Telmond prison. Some, however, including several administrative detainees, remain incarcerated at Neve Terze.

A few Palestinian women are raising very young children in prison; two, Mervat Taha and Manal Ghanem gave birth while under detention. For most others, contact visits with children and other family members are permitted twice every six months. However, as a condition for the visits, women are required to submit to full body searches in the nude. This is a condition most have rejected.

Prison guards have stormed Palestinian women prisoners’ cells, and searched and confiscated their personal effects without reason, beating the women prisoners in the process. Denial of medical services has been used to punish those who protest the conditions of their incarceration.

6. Does Israel subject Palestinian prisoners to torture, and other forms of cruel and degrading treatment?

Yes. Palestinian prisoners are routinely tortured in Israeli jails. A 1999 Israel High Court decision outlawing some forms of physical mistreatment of Palestinian prisoners has not ended Israel’s physical and psychological abuse of Palestinian detainees. According to Amnesty International:

“Among the thousands of Palestinians arrested after 27 February 2002, some hundreds were transferred to full-scale interrogation by the GSS [Israel Security Agency], in centers...Amnesty International has received reports that some of the detainees interrogated by the GSS were subjected to prolonged sleep deprivation, shabeh (prolonged standing or sitting in a painful position), beatings and being violently shaken.” (14)

The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel and B’Tselem report that methods of torture include the following: slapping, kicking, threats, verbal abuse and humiliation, bending the body in extremely painful positions, intentional tightening of the handcuffs, stepping on manacles, application of pressure to different parts of the body, choking and other forms of violence and humiliation (pulling out hair, spitting etc.), exposure to extreme heat and cold, and continuous exposure to artificial light. (15)

Palestinians are held in detention centers and prisons that do not meet the minimum international standards and are routinely denied visitation rights. (16) Amnesty International reports that:

“According to consistent reports received by Amnesty International, detainees’ conditions in Ofer and Ansar III/Ketziot are poor and may amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment...In both camps, detainees sleep in tents; in Ansar III/Ketziot nights are particularly cold. Conditions in Ofer are said to be overcrowded, with detainees sleeping 25 to 30 to a tent. In both camps detainees initially slept on pieces of rough wood...Detainees were said to be given frozen chicken schnitzels which they had to defrost in the sun; a tub of yoghurt, one or two cucumbers and two pieces of fruit between 10 prisoners.” (17)

7. Why is the release of Palestinian prisoners so important?

No issue illustrates Israel’s denial of freedom to the Palestinians more pointedly than that of political prisoners. The Palestinians have been subjected to the highest rate of incarceration in the world. Approximately 20 percent of the Palestinian population in the Occupied Palestinian Territories has, at one point, been arbitrarily detained or imprisoned by Israel. (18)

Israel’s imprisonment and detention of Palestinians is a manifestation of its failure to abide by international law and the Fourth Geneva Convention: administrative detentions and imprisonment inside Israel are both illegal under the Fourth Geneva Convention. (19) Israel’s failure to release Palestinian political prisoners and its continued arbitrary arrest of Palestinian civilians leads to an unfortunate conclusion: that Israel views itself as above the law and the Palestinians beneath it.

Every major political issue - Lebanon, Iraq, radicalism - links back to the festering Israeli-Palestinian conflict
by Rami G Khouri

We have a very simple choice before us in the Middle East: we can get serious about working together to give the people of this region a chance to live normal lives in peace and security; or we can all act silly in the ways of provincial chieftains, as many public figures in Lebanon, Syria, Iran, Israel and the US have done in recent days.

The chances of achieving a region-wide peace in the Middle East are slim to non existent right now, because the key non-Arab players are focusing on the wrong issues. They are trying to manage or eliminate the symptoms of our region's tensions instead of addressing the root causes. Hizbullah and Iran are among the best examples of this.

By Ehsan Ahrari

Asia Times

"Israel is licking its wounds from the embarrassment, if not humiliation, of not being able to "eradicate" Hezbollah, as its leaders declared at the beginning of hostilities. Consequently, the US had to start its own propaganda war, with President George W Bush initiated a campaign for the global community insisting that Israel was the real victor.

Even the name given to the war games carries enormous symbolic meaning, for both the US and the world of Islam. They are depicted as "Blow of Zulfiqar". Zulfiqar was the name of the sword of Imam Ali, who was the first imam of the Shi'ite sect and the son-in-law and first cousin of the Prophet Mohammed.

Zulfiqar is a highly revered phrase among the entire Muslim community as a symbol used for the protection and promulgation of Islam. The message to the US is quite unambiguous: if threatened by military action, the Islamic Republic is ready to strike a blow against the lone superpower and its client, Israel.

Iran is aware that the Lebanese conflict is far from over. The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is desperately looking for victory of some sort. That is why Israel violated the ceasefire over the weekend by sending its paratroopers into Lebanon. The apparent purpose was to capture or kill Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, who has emerged as the new hero of the Arab world, a hero who might have acquired greater respect and attention than the late Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt did in 1956 when he challenged the combined forces of Britain, France and Israel during the Suez crisis.

Finally, and most important, Iran knows the significance of the Persian Gulf as a source of energy to Japan, Europe and China. The uppermost question US military planners must be asking, as they watch Iran's war games from neighboring areas, is how far Iran will go in terms of blocking the passage of energy supplies in the Persian Gulf - and if this happens, what countermeasures they must take to minimize a disastrous outcome. That variable alone might be sobering enough to put a damper on the ostensibly uncompromising wish of the neo-conservatives to take military action against Iran."

A MAD MAN ON A "MISSION"

LOSERS!
Mahmoud Abbas' "security forces" practice what they do best.....surrender.

LOSERS!
These are the "security forces" of Mahmoud Abbas, in training (notice the toy wooden rifles). They have been issued new underwear, in case the Israeli occupation soldiers disarm them and force them to undress.

A Lebanese woman and her children, holding Hizbollah flags, walk past the rubble of houses damaged during the recent Israeli attack on Lebanon in Saddikine village, south Lebanon, August 22, 2006.

KIDNAPPED BY THE GOONS
Palestinian parliament speaker Abdel Aziz Duaik, who is currently jailed in Israel, reacts during a hearing at a military court in the Ofer army base between Jerusalem and the West Bank town of Ramallah, Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006.(AP Photo)

by Leon Hadar

"U.S. President George W. Bush has fancied himself playing Gary Cooper's role in High Noon. Yep, Sheriff W. and his loyal deputy Tony B. ride into Mideastville, where they confront a revenge-seeking killer by the name of Saddam and his Islamofascist gang, while cowardly lawmen Jacques C. and Gerhard S. hide in the Old Europe Café. W. vanquishes the enemy and spares the town from frontier justice brought on by a deadly group of outlaws. In the final scene, our cowboy rides into the sunset, leaving behind a once-dishonorable town that has now been transformed into the civilized and prosperous Greater Middle East.

President Bush's attempt to apply Hollywood's Western genre of Good vs. Bad Guys to make sense of the complex and atavistic political animosities of the Levant area and its peripheries was a costly misjudgment, as was his decision to recruit as his adviser on the Middle East an aging raconteur of oriental fantasies, Bernard Lewis.

Bush would have been better off killing two birds with one stone – watching a great film at the same time as he learned something about the Middle East – by watching Lawrence of Arabia. Perhaps he might have realized how difficult it would be to impose an imperial order in the Middle East."

Stephen Zunes | August 21, 2006

There is increasing evidence that Israel instigated a disastrous war on Lebanon largely at the behest of the United States. The Bush administration was set on crippling Hezbollah, the radical Shiite political movement that maintains a sizable block of seats in the Lebanese parliament. Taking advantage of the country's democratic opening after the forced departure of Syrian troops last year, Hezbollah defied U.S. efforts to democratize the region on American terms. The populist party's unwillingness to disarm its militia as required by UN resolution—and the inability of the pro-Western Lebanese government to force them to do so—led the Bush administration to push Israel to take military action.

In his May 23 summit with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President George W. Bush offered full U.S. support for Israel to attack Lebanon as soon as possible. Seymour Hersh, in the August 21 New Yorker, quotes a Pentagon consultant on the Bush administration's longstanding desire to strike “a preemptive blow against Hezbollah.” The consultant added, “It was our intent to have Hezbollah diminished, and now we have someone else doing it.” ...

On to Iran and Syria?

On July 30, the Jerusalem Post reported that President Bush pushed Israel to expand the war beyond Lebanon and attack Syria. Israeli officials apparently found the idea “nuts.”

Why did the British Empire and all colonial powers before it use "divide and
conquer" while the US government seems intent on unifying diverse groups
from Iraqi resistance to Sunni Hamas to Shi'i Hizballah to Arab
Nationalists? This administration talks and acts based on a supposed common
threat and in the process ofcourse unifying others and creating enemies.
Perhaps the Zionist coined "Islamofascism" term should be a hint. Perhaps
those who think tribally can only think of others as equally tribal: if
there is a Jewish nation and not simply a religion then there must also be
an Islamic nation and not simply a religion. If "goyim/gentiles" are
inherenltly anti Jewish then it would make sense to lump Castro, Chavez,
Nasrallah and Ahmedinujad (and hence help them find common ground)! Or does
it? Looking carefully at these questions sometimes generates discomfort in
both left and right circles. A lifelong pacifict once stated that they were
put on this earth to comfort the afflicted and make the comfortable
uncomfortable. It is IMHO important to engage in open discussion regardless
of where one stands on these matters. The following four pages are not
intended to be a comprehensive analysis but hopefully strings to begin this
needed discussion. I would suggest actually that the Council for National
Interest, ADC or other groups host a conference specifically to delve deeper
into the questions raised.
Howard Friedman, President of AIPAC, titled his letter of July 30 2006 to
friends and supporters of AIPAC "Look what you've done". He explained:
"Israel is fighting a pivotal war for its life...the expected chorus of
international condemnation of Israel's actions. ..only ONE nation in the
world came out and flatly declared: Let Israel finish the job.. That nation
is the United States of America--and the reason it had such a clear,
unambiguous view of the situation is YOU and the rest of America
Jewry....How do we do it? ... decades of long hard work which never ends."
Ari Berman in The Nation stated that "The congressional reaction to
Hezbollah's attack on Israel and Israel's retaliatory bombing of Lebanon
provide the latest example of why AIPAC's lock on US foreign policy in the
Middle East must be examined." (July 31, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/39679 ). So let us do a little research on
this lobby and cite some resources. Here we divide this into two sections:

a) Articles that describe the lobby and its influence (perhaps not "lock")
on US foreign policy, and

b) Examples of situations when other elite interests (oil, weapons
manufacturers) collided with the Israel lobby and the latter won. There are
of course other situations when the Israel lobby lost, especially early in
its career (e.g. 1956 with Eisenhauer and the Suez crisis).
First a relevant quote from Nehemia Stessler writing in Haaretz, May 12,
1989: "Israel’s dependence on the United States is far greater than
suggested by the sum of $3 billion. Israel’s physical existence depends on
the Americans in both military and political terms. Without the US, we would
not be equipped with the latest fighter planes and other advanced weapons.
Without the American veto, we would have long since been expelled from every
international organization, not to speak of the UN, which would have imposed
sanctions on us that would have totally paralyzed Israel’s international
trade, since we cannot exist without importing raw material"

THE MIGHTY IOF HAS FOUND ITS MAN
The Symbol of Israeli Failure in Lebanon: Hassan Deeb Nassrullah greeted as he returned to his home in the city of Ba'albek with five other Lebanese after being abducted by Israeli terrorist forces. The faulty Israeli intelligence led to the stupid Ba'albek air raid to abduct Hassan Deeb Nassrullah confusing him for the leader of Hizbullah, Shaikh Hassan Nassrullah, just on basis of name similarity!!!!!!!!! (Assafir, 8/22/06).

THE MIGHTY IOF IS "DEFENDING ITSELF"
An Israeli occupation terrorist soldier terrorizing a Palestinian family in Hebron yesterday (Assafir, 8/22/2006).

THE MIGHTY IOF HAS FOUND ITS MATCH
A Palestinian boy, blindfolded and handcuffed, after being arrested by Israeli occupation terrorist forces in Hebron yesterday (Al-Ayyam, 8/22/2006).

By GILAD ATZMON

"Indeed, the IDF military offensive doctrine is grounded on one basic axiom that was defined by David Ben Gurion in the early fifties: whatever it takes, Israel must always win! This axiom is indeed very powerful, yet, in reality, the Israeli army can’t provide the goods anymore. In the last three decades the Israeli army is constantly being beaten time after time by enemies that are getting smaller and smaller.

Yet, one may mention that the IDF isn’t very original in being defeated. The IDF fails exactly where the American army has been failing since Vietnam. Shockingly, the IDF has managed to copy every possible American mistake. It religiously adopted the new American military philosophy of a ‘compact highly sophisticated fighting force’. Undeniably, this very doctrine is very effective in producing some gigantic collateral damage i.e., war crimes. Yet, in the long run, it fails miserably in wining wars. The new American military doctrine may win a battle or two but no more than that. In the most recent years it has been totally beaten in Afghanistan, Iraq, Gaza and obviously in Lebanon.

This is exactly where the Israeli limbo is. In order to maintain its status as a winning regional super power, Israel needs the blind support of America (politically, financially and logistically). Yet American blind support can be grunted to Israel only if the Jewish State is indeed a regional super power to start with. Olmert and his government are fully aware of this very complexity. They know that without being a regional super power in the first place, they have nothing to offer their almighty American brothers. Israel is crucial for the strategy of the Americans as long as it can wipe out all its enemies in six days at the most. The way things appear now, the Israeli Army is basically defeated by the two smallest nations in the Arab world, the Palestinian and the Lebanese ones.

As much as it clear to the Israelis, it is clear to the Americans that unlike the bold Hezbollah, the IDF soldier has lost his will to fight. The IDF is a spoiled, confused and tired army that is specializing solely in terrorizing civilian populations while being engaged in constant tactical withdraw. This Israeli Army is not trained to win wars anymore. Instead, its tank battalions are mainly engaged in daily shelling of schools and hospitals. Its Air Force uses the best American fighter planes to flatten neighborhoods and shoot deadly rockets at cars in the streets of Gaza. Its command units are expert in abducting democratically elected middle-aged Palestinian politicians. The IDF is basically a heavy army specializing in merciless regional bullying. Yet, it cannot win a war, and as such it has nothing to offer the American empire.

The recent victory of the Hezbollah therefore must be realized as a major event with some global implications. While the Hezbollah regards itself a paramilitary organization concerned mainly with some local issues having to do with Israeli expansionism, it has managed to cause a serious blow to neo-conservatism as a political praxis as well as a philosophy. It has beaten the Zionized Anglo-American worldview. Standing up to Zionism and Americanism, it is the Lebanese, the Palestinians, the Iraqis, the Afghanis and the Iranians who happen to be at the vanguard of the war for humanity and humanism. For those who are yet to be convinced that this indeed the case, I will mention that the fact that it is Iran who rushed to pay 3 billion dollars to rebuild Lebanon after the destruction made by ‘American interventionism’ leaves no room for interpretation. While America spreads destruction and death all over the world, it is Iran and the Hezbollah that offers a new beginning."

It's hot, very hot, in the Gaza Strip. But over the last two months, ever since Israel bombed the new power station in the center of the Strip, the heat has become unbearable. The bombing has disrupted the supply of electricity to some 1.5 million residents; food in refrigerators goes bad, the patients in the hospitals groan, industry and work are paralyzed, traffic is gridlocked and there is a severe water shortage. Continued.

More land theft from Azzun and Kfur Laqif

21.8.06: Beatings and abuse in the shadow of war

This is no way to make a deal

Palestinians: Soldiers more violent due to war

Lessons from history

Four civilians, including two children, injured in Rafah

Israel to US: Fund Gaza sewage treatment

Troops install cameras at the Gaza International Airport

Papal nuncio visits Gaza

Palestinian PM urges Pope to help release Hamas officials

Diskin urges changes to Rafah deal

Since June, Israel has arrested 49 senior Hamas officials, including the 33 parliamentarians, as an extra bargaining chip in the prisoner exchange negotiations, which are being conducted by Egyptian mediators. Continued.

08/21/06 "AlterNet" -- -- What would we be saying if Hizbullah kidnapped the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and launched a daring raid inside Israel to disrupt a U.S. effort to resupply the Israeli Defense Force? We would be up in arms over their provocation and would be convening the UN Security Council to recommend new sanctions. Hell, we'd probably have the National Security Council in session and be ready to dispatch U.S. military forces to help Israel.

Okay. Back to reality. Hizbullah is minding its own business (or at least fostering that public image) and has embarked on public relief operation to counteract the devastation visited on the people of Lebanon by Israel's recent invasion and bombing campaign. The Hizbullah aid and recovery effort is so successful that some wags suggest that Nasrallah be hired to take over from FEMA in the event the U.S. is hit with another storm like Katrina. How inept are you when Hizbullah is able to organize a better public relief effort? But I digress.

Having helped transform Hizbullah from a band of terrorists into the rock stars of the Muslim world, Israel persists with being stupid. Ehud Olmert either never learned or forgot the first rule of crisis management--i.e., when you're in a hole, stop digging. With the reputation of the Isreali Defense Force in tattters after the debacle in Lebanon, Israeli leaders apparently decided to go all out to secure their reputation as the supreme rogue state in the Middle East. How else to explain the following?

Israel kidnaps elected official: The Palestinian's Deputy Prime Minister, Nasser Al Shaer was kidnapped by the Israeli army on Saturday, after hiding since the start of Israel's Palestine offensive in June. He was seized in a raid at his home in the West Bank town on Ramallah.

Israel breaches ceasefire: UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Israel's latest attack on Lebanon a violation of the UN backed truce that ended the 34-day war. "The secretary-general is deeply concerned about a violation by the Israeli side of the cessation of hostilities as laid out in Security Council resolution 1701," a spokesman for Annan said in a statement posted on the United Nations Web site.

I realize Israeli officials will justify the kidnapping as the capture of a wanted terrorist and the attack in Lebanon as an effort to prevent Hizbullah from rearming. Unfortunately for Jerusalem's sake, these acts feed the image of Israel as a renegade state that operates outside the normal boundaries of international law.

If you had a friend you cared deeply about engaging in self-destructive behavior you would do an intervention--sit them down and try to talk some sense into them. Apparently that is not an option with Israel. Witness what happens when a reporter tells the public that Israel was trying to manipulate public perceptions during the recent invasion of Lebanon:

Kurtz: One other note. On Reliable Sources two weeks ago, "Washington Post" Pentagon reporter Tom Ricks said he'd been told by U.S. military analysts that Israel was leaving some Hezbollah rocket launchers intact because the killing of Israeli civilians provided an image of moral equivalency in the war. "Post" editor Len Downie, responding to a letter from former New York mayor, Ed Koch, says he told Ricks he should not have made those statements.

Ricks told the New York Sun that he accurately reported the comments from analysts but that, quote, "I wish I hadn't said them, and I intend from now on to keep my mouth shut about it."

The last thing Israel needs now are a bunch of sycophants and fawning relatives telling it how great and good it is. They need to stop acting like adolescent fools and find the moral high ground they once occuppied. One key to Israel's longterm security is to solidify its reputation as a nation committed to law and the protection of human rights. When Israeli civilians were being blown up on buses and in market places during the Intifada, international public pressure forced Hamas and Hizbullah to shift away from suicide bombings.

When Israel acts with honor and restraint it has little difficulty portraying its enemies as crazy terrorists. But, when Israel lowers itself to the level of the terrorists, it is Israel, not the terrorists, who suffer. And let there be no doubt, Israel is suffering.

The time has come to look to the past for some answers. When Israel kidnapped Adolf Eichmann, the mastermind of the Final Solution, in the 1960s, the Israelis gave the Nazi a defense counsel, a public trial, and a chance to confront his accusers. That was a moment of greatness for Israel because it provided a graphic demonstration of the difference between a terrorist state and a civilized nation. Israel gave a mass murderer due process and, in the course of events, provided the ultimate condemnation of the Nazi regime.

Now we have the spectacle of Hizbullah acting with statesmanship and restraint while the Israelis destroy their credibility among the international community. That is a truth Israel's true friends need to communicate to Tel Aviv and Jerusalem in the strongest terms possible. And they need to do it soon.

© 2006 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Opposition among Americans to the war in Iraq has reached a new high, with only about a third of respondents saying they favor it, according to a poll released Monday.

Just 35 percent of 1,033 adults polled say they favor the war in Iraq; 61 percent say they oppose it -- the highest opposition noted in any CNN poll since the conflict began more than three years ago. Continued.

Israel insists Beirut flights go via Jordan: source

"BEIRUT (Reuters) - Airlines resumed flights to and from Lebanon's war-damaged capital Beirut on Monday, but at Israel's insistence all planes were routed through Jordan for security checks, a senior industry source said.

Lebanon's flag carrier, Middle East Airlines, announced it had resumed flights to all its destinations on Monday. It said they would be routed through Amman where passengers would stay on board for a transit time "not exceeding 50 minutes".

It gave no reason, but a senior industry source said the enforced stop in Amman was a condition set by Israel, which is determined to stop Hizbollah guerrillas from re-arming after a U.N.-backed truce took effect a week ago.

"They say it's for security checks. It's not an acceptable reason. It's part of the pressure that is being put on Lebanon by Israel," said the source, who asked not to be named.

"It's absurd. I don't think Hizbollah is going to smuggle weapons or hostages or part of their leadership on a commercial flight," the source added."

Palestinians in the larger Israeli occupation prison:

The Palestinian government in cell number 10

The Palestinian Legislative Council in cell number 12

The West Bank in cell number 17

Gaza Strip in cell number 22

(Nasser Al-Ja'afari, Alquds, 8/20/06).

UN RESOLUTION 1701

By Mike Whitney

"So, the US and Israel have found accomplices they need to help them achieve their goals of reshaping the Middle East and extending America’s dominance throughout the oil-rich region. If they succeed, they will have a stranglehold on the world’s most crucial natural resources and will be able to control the growth of China, India, Japan, and other potential rivals in the 21st century. Israel will also play a central role as regional leader in the oil trade; opening pipeline routes from Ceyhan to the Far East and from Kirkuk to Haifa. (check “Triple Alliance”: The US, Turkey, Israel and the war on Lebanon” Michel Chossudovsky)

But we shouldn’t underestimate the growing strength of non state actors and guerilla forces. In Iraq, the resistance has brought the world’s only superpower to a grinding standstill; frustrating all attempts to establish security, rebuild infrastructure, or transport vital resources.

Similarly, Hizbullah has won a stunning victory against a high-tech and well-disciplined Israeli army. They have shown the world that they are resourceful and ferocious fighters capable of forcing a fully-armed modern army of 30,000 men to withdrawal. That’s no small feat.

They have shattered the illusion of Israeli invincibility and emboldened a new generation of Arab youths to see beyond their present subjugation and despair and aspire to reclaim their countries from the corrupt US-backed regimes.

The imperial juggernaut will continue lurching recklessly through the Middle East until it is worn-down piecemeal by the bold actions of the resistance. Iraq and Lebanon foreshadow an even wider war extending from the Caspian to the Red Sea; destabilizing oil supplies and overturning the teetering Arab monarchies.

Bush and Olmert have thrown open Pandora’s Box thinking they can contain the chaos within, but have failed to achieve any of their objectives. They continue to misread the lessons of Afghanistan, Iraq, and Lebanon. High-altitude bombing and trigger-happy soldiers only swell the ranks of the resistance and feed their determination. If Bush and Olmert choose to fight a generation-long 4-G (4th Generation) war, they should at least consider the modest goals set out by their adversary, Hassan Nassrullah, in a recent public statement."

THE PALESTINIANS WOULD LOVE TO HAVE THESE

(An Iranian soldier launching a shoulder-fired anti-helicopter missile during war training on Monday southeast of Tehran. (Reuters))

"Sometimes I'm frustrated. Rarely surprised. Wars are not a time of joy. These are challenging times, and difficult times."

Lebanese bride, Hadiya (31), insisted that the wedding party start from the ruins of her house, which was destroyed by Israeli terrorist air raids on southern Beirut. Above: Hadiya walking beside her groom Hussain Dhaher who is originally from Sheba'a in south Lebanon (Alquds, 8/20/06).

FILL HER UP?
A car turned upside-down lies in the ruins next to a bombed-out gas station in the southern Lebanese village of Shhur near the port city of Tyre.

STOOGE FOR HIRE

Christian Lebanese Khalil Heshmeh, 82, guardian of the Mar Elias Church inspects the damage, as holy religious places did not escape the damage caused by the recent 34-day Israeli attack on Lebanon, in the southern town of Khiam, Lebanon Sunday, Aug. 20, 2006.

Christian Lebanese Lara Faqih, 16, left, and Hana Faqih, 23 walk through the rubble while looking at the damage in the Mar Elias Church, as holy religious places did not escape the damage caused by the recent 34-day Israeli attack on Lebanon, in the southern town of Khiam, Lebanon Sunday, Aug. 20, 2006

RECOMMENDED READING

By Mark LeVine

"For all who celebrated creative destruction, the United States was, in the words of neo-conservative philosopher and Bush adviser Michael Ledeen, "an awesome revolutionary force" for whom creative destruction was (and, we can assume, remains) "our middle name".

But in keeping with this philosophy, the Israeli military thought that by destroying thousands of Lebanese lives and buildings it could take out Hezbollah, and in so doing create a new and more favorable regional balance of power. What it didn't count on was that Hezbollah was using the same principle of violence as the instigator of social and political change, only in reverse: each bombed-out building and lifeless baby created another opportunity for Hezbollah to show its patriotism, charity and efficiency.

Now, as Israeli soldiers begin withdrawing from Lebanon in what almost every Lebanese believes is defeat, Hezbollah fighters exchange their Kalashnikovs for hard hats and bulldozers, clearing away the rubble, handing out money, food and furniture to the homeless, and rebuilding the roads and buildings that the war they precipitated destroyed - all with an unlimited supply of funds from Israel's and America's main enemy and ultimate target of the war, Iran.

In short, Hezbollah has been able to eat its cake and have it too: it has stood up to the mighty Israel Defense Forces and either co-opted or cowed its domestic opposition (which collectively had more support than Hezbollah did before the war). Then, before anyone could criticize it for the magnitude of destruction its actions unleashed, it has begun a massive, well-funded rebuilding effort. If only the Bush administration had acted as astutely in Iraq.

What can the US and Israel learn from the past five weeks? Well, they've been pretty creative about destroying things, as a tour of Iraq, Lebanon or Gaza makes clear, and in the process unleashing waves of chaos that they assumed could be managed to their advantage.

But Nasrallah's strategy has shown him to be a true master of both sides of the creative-destruction equation. That is, he understands that creative destruction must create a viable system that gives people a stake in their future if the process is to be completed."

An interview with James Bamford
James Bamford, author of A Pretext for War and a recent article in Rolling Stone on the neoconservative push for war with Iran, talks to INN's Lenny Charles in this video interview.

To Watch Video, Click Here

It isn't just Lebanon…

By Justin Raimondo

"If the two Israeli soldiers could be rescued, then so could Olmert's government – but it is more than just internal Israeli politics that is driving the IDF. As I pointed out last week, we were warned by Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who admitted "The war isn't over yet." Indeed, if the Israelis have their way, it has barely begun: they are now shifting their focus to a full-fledged effort to embroil Damascus in the conflict, and I wouldn't rule out air strikes on Syrian territory before all this is over.

Lebanon is just a pawn in the game: Israel's real objective is toppling Bashar al-Assad and militarily confronting the Iranian mullahs – using U.S. troops, of course. The resulting incredibly destructive regional war will see not a few of their old enemies tossed in history's dustbin.

Israel's partisans in the U.S. have, in some instances, been quite open about this objective: Michael Ledeen's infamous taste for "creative destruction" is vivid evidence of the neocons' nihilism. But this is nihilism with a purpose: out of all that death and destruction will come a new world, the vaunted "transformation" of the region that was supposed to lead to democratic societies in nations that had never known any such thing. But, as it turns out, democracy has nothing to do with it: it's all about destabilizing the region to pursue an Israeli agenda. That agenda is the breakup and atomization of the Arab-Muslim world, so that it is little more than a collection of splinters. Lebanon is only the first phase of this campaign, and the Israelis are pushing ahead no matter what Washington thinks.

For years, we've been telling our readers that American foreign policy has been hijacked, and here we have the confirmation. The invasion of Iraq, the campaign of threats and provocations directed at Iran, and the destruction of Lebanon have all served the interests of a single country, and that country is not the United States of America. In the most successful covert action in history, Israel's amen corner in the U.S. has essentially seized effective control of the American giant, and is now riding the dumb elephant for all he's worth through the rubble of the Middle East."

The late Hafez Assad had "his Palestinians." Ideologically
divergent, they served politically to forestall any move
by the PLO towards a negotiated settlement with Israel and
personally to thwart the man Assad loathed like no other:
Yasser Arafat.

Surely few in my generation have even heard of the
personalities comprising the Palestinian face of Assad's
crusade. Abu Musa, a celebrated Palestinian commander
early in the Lebanon War, in 1983 led his breakaway Fateh
faction into battle against what remained of Arafat's PLO
in the wake of Begin and Sharon's slaughter a year prior.
Thanks to Syrian patronage, his combat victory led him
into total obscurity and into early retirement in
Damascus. Ahmed Jibril, a Palestinian-born Syrian military
officer whose Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) broke from George
Habash's PLFP and later from the PLO entirely largely on
the issue of Syrian clientage, similarly led his
organization into irrelevance.

If anything, the Syrian groups deserve recognition as the
vanguard of the Palestinian national movement's plunge
into a moral abyss from which it has never fully emerged.
Special mention is owed to the PFLP-GC's string of raids
targeting children in northern Israel in the early 1970s.
The "Damascus alliance" of Palestinian leftist groups took
Assad's bait, its acts of barbarism sufficient to wipe out
Arafat's efforts to force a political compromise on
Israel, starting with the binational secular state
outlined in the PLO's Ten-Point Programme of 1974.

George Bush and Condoleezza Rice have "their Palestinian."
He is Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas).

Ideologically, he bears nothing in common with the
aforementioned Syrian puppetry. His nom de guerre is the
signature of a generation that, it must be remembered, led
the Palestinians back from certain extinction by a
combination of diplomacy, publicity, and armed resistance.
Abu Mazen was there from day one, and remained Arafat's
technocratic deputy through the PLO's successive exiles
until its arrival in Gaza in 1994.

Abu Mazen is neither a fighter nor a leader. Since Israel
renewed its destruction of Gaza last month, killing more
than 200 Palestinians, seemingly the only mention of him
has come in the context of Rice's deluded musings on a
"new Middle East." As America's allies from Great Britain
to Jordan try to impress on it Palestine's centrality in
the Middle East's troubles, the U.S. demurs by playing the
Abu Mazen card just as Hafez Assad played the Palestinian
rejectionist card.

by Jonathan Cook

"Israel regards the "home front" – its civilian population – as its Achilles' heel in the army's oppression of the Palestinians in the occupied territories, its intermittent invasions of south Lebanon, and its planned attacks further afield. The military needs the unconditional support of the country's citizenry and media to sanction its unremitting aggression against Israel's "enemies," but fears that the resolve of the home front is vulnerable to the threat posed by rockets landing in Israel, whether the homemade Qassams fired by Palestinians over the walls of their prison in Gaza or the Katyushas launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon.

Where does all this "defensive" Israeli activity leave us? Answer: on the verge of more war and carnage, whether inflicted on the Palestinians, on Lebanon, on Syria, on Iran, or on all of them. Iran's head of the army warned on Saturday that he was preparing for an attack by Israel. Probably a wise assumption on his part, especially as U.S. officials were suggesting over the weekend that the UN Security Council is about to adopt sanctions that will include military force to stop Iran's assumed nuclear ambitions.

In fact, Israel looks ready to pick a fight with just about anyone in its neighborhood whose complicity in the White House's new Middle East has not already been assured, either like Jordan and Egypt by the monthly paychecks direct from Washington, or like Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states by the cash-guzzling pipelines bringing oil to the West. The official enemies – those who refuse to prostrate themselves before Western oil interests and Israeli regional hegemony – must be brought to their knees just as Iraq already has been."

Declan Walsh in Yahmour
Monday August 21, 2006
The Guardian

When the guns went silent in Aitta Shaab, a war-ravaged village close to the Israeli border, three children skipped through the rubble looking for a little fun.

Hurdling over lumps of crushed concrete and dodging spikes of twisted metal, Sukna, Hassan and Merwa, aged 10 to 12, paused before a curious object. Sukna picked it up. The terrifying blast flung her to the ground, thrusting metal shards into her liver. Hassan's abdomen was cut open. Merwa was hit in the leg and arm.

"We thought it was just a little ball," said Hassan with a hoarse whisper in the intensive care ward at Tyre's Jabal Amel hospital. In the next bed Sukna, a ventilator cupped to her mouth and a tangle of tubes from her arms, said even less.

Her mother watched anxiously. "The Israelis wanted to defeat Hizbullah," said Najah Saleh, 40. "But what did these children ever do to them?"

Israel may be pulling out of Lebanon but its soldiers leave behind a lethal legacy of this summer's 34-day war. The south is carpeted with unexploded cluster bombs, innocuous looking black canisters, barely larger than a torch battery, which pose a deadly threat to villagers stumbling back to their homes.

"MARJAYOUN: Mohammad Ali Qobeissi, a member of the National Council for Scientific Research, said on Sunday that a crater caused by an Israeli munition in Khiam contained "a high degree of unidentified radioactive materials." Qobeissi, along with Ibrahim Rashidi from the Faculty of Sciences at the Lebanese University, have inspected the crater - which is 3 meters deep and has a diameter of 10 meters - in the Jlahiyyeh quarter in Khiam, with a Geiger-Muller radioactivity counter and nuclear material detector.

"A team from the council will test a sample from the crater in order to find out what kinds of radioactive materials it contains," Qobeisi told The Daily Star.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb

He added that the Israeli weapons launched on Khiam and the neighboring areas of South Lebanon "probably contained a high level of uranium.""

A broken statue of Virgin Mary is seen at the backyard of the St. Joseph's Christian Maronite church, moved there according to residents, from inside the church by Israeli forces when they occupied the building for some 16 days during their month-long offensive, in the southern village of Qaouzah, Lebanon, Sunday Aug. 20, 2006. (AP Photo/Lefteris Pitarakis, 8/20/2006).

By Tony Sayegh

Like clock work, every time there is a war in the Middle East, the circus known as the "peace process" is dusted off and with its clowns it heads to various capitals in the region to peddle the illusion that this time Usrael and Britain are really serious about starting the "process." The impotent Arab foreign ministers have met, again, and they are doing the preparatory work for the circus to begin. The same ministers who declared just about a month ago in Cairo that the peace process was dead, are now ready to resurrect it from the dead! The mighty Arab puppets, trying to cover up their shameful and pathetic behavior while Hizbullah was making history, by re-launching a "peace initiative" in the UN. Don't laugh now; these Arab leaders mean business this time, and if the UN does not respond positively, the Lebanese PM will burst into tears!

Chief Clown Blair has sent his adviser, Lord Levy, to the M.E. to prepare for the arrival of the Chief Clown himself next week. He is expected to visit the major puppets in the area: Egypt, Jordan, S.A., and the P.A. in addition to Israel, of course.

Having failed militarily against Hizbullah, the Anglo-Usraeli axis is shifting gears. The main objective is to lure Syria away from Iran to accomplish three objectives: complete an anti-Iran Arab alliance under the Usraeli umbrella in preparation for an attack on Iran, cut off arm supplies to Hizbullah and end any support of the Palestinian Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The carrot being dangled in front of Syria is the start of the "peace process" negotiations about the future of the occupied Golan Heights. The process will involve neutralizing Syria, demilitarizing it and taking it outside of the confrontation with Israel in return for some arrangement for a demilitarized Golan.

As for the Palestinians, the chief stooge Abbas is ready to execute his role as a junior clown. He, having failed to get rid of Hamas, is calling for a national unity "government" and another one-sided truce where the Palestinians agree not to fight back while Israel continues with the assassinations, demolitions and arrests. Chief Clown Blair will be calling for restarting the "Road Map" discussions and he will be asking Israel to make some minor concessions in order to help Abbas. Things such as opening the border crossings to Gaza and easing the financial noose imposed on the Palestinians.

The key question is whether Syria will fall for such a trap and end its strategic alliance with Iran. It is not beyond the Syrian regime to take such bait, and one will have to wait and see. Early indications are that Syria will resist the temptation, especially since the credibility of any promises made by Bush and Blair is very low now. Similar promises were made before to the Palestinians which were not kept. The last one was made by Blair just before the invasion of Iraq, when the "Road Map" was launched and Bush promised a Palestinian state by 2005. It was perhaps telling that Syria did not attend the latest Foreign Ministers conference in Cairo.