Palestinian Pundit

You Can't Stand on Principles When You're in Retreat

By MIKE WHITNEY
CounterPunch

"The Democrats did us all a favor by giving Bush his Iraq war-money. After all, the Dems have supported the war from the get-go; so why not expose them as the hypocrites they really are?

The truth is, no one is really surprised by Friday's vote. We have one party in America"the War Party---the Dems are merely a junior partner in that system.

It boggles the mind that so many so-called "liberals" continue to be hoodwinked by the Democratic Party. After all, what do they offer---a slight boost in the hourly wage? Better management of foreign massacres?!?......

What a disaster!

The Democratic Party is not the party that people think it is. This is the party of Rahm Emanuel and the DLC. The leadership is unwaveringly pro-war, pro Israel, and pro free trade. There's no room for anything else. The Democrats have no intention withdrawing from Iraq. That's just speculation on the part of blindly-optimistic voters who still believe that their voices will be heard. They won't be heard. The Democrats will NEVER get us out of Iraq.

The real position of the Dems on Iraq is even MORE IMMORAL than the Republicans. They want to redeploy outside of the country while reducing the number of troops on the ground. In other words, they want to build a "sustainable" model for stealing the world's second largest petroleum reserves......."

In just the first 25 days of this month, 101 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq. The total for the "Coalition" for the same period is 106. Thus, May is on track as the deadliest month since January 2005.

U.S. Troops Killed in Iraq so far......3,452

"Coalition" Troops Killed...............3,728

U.S. Troops Wounded.................25,549

"AMMAN, Jordan (AP) - A U.S. helicopter crashed during a routine training mission in Jordan, injuring both pilots, the U.S. military announced Saturday.

Both pilots were in stable condition after the crash, but one will be flown to a U.S. medical facility for additional treatment, according to the statement by U.S. Naval Forces Central Command. The other was expected to be released soon to return to duty.

The statement said the pilots were with the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit, but their names were not disclosed.

"The crash occurred Friday night south of Al Qatranah, near King Faisal Air Base, in an uninhabited area," said Deputy Public Affairs Officer Lt. John Gay. Al Qatranah is located about 80 kilometres south of the capital, Amman.

The AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter was participating in exercise Infinite Moonlight, an annual exercise between U.S. and Jordanian forces, according to the military's statement. The cause of the accident is under investigation. "

Are the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq the Beginning of the End of the American Empire?

By JAMES PETRAS
CounterPunch

"......Under the offensive military doctrine of 'Pre-emptive Wars' and the 'Global War against Terrorism', the United States' pursuit of military conquest was backed by Israel, Great Britain and several newly incorporated client states from Eastern Europe. The White House's grandiose scheme of world conquest was orchestrated and pre-maturely celebrated by top Zioncon (Zionist Conservative) officials embedded in the Pentagon, White House and the National Security Council.

The imperial wars of conquest however were stopped literally dead in their tracks at their starting point: Iraq and Afghanistan......

From a world historical perspective, the Iraqi and Afghan resistance has successfully stymied Washington's pursuit of world domination through a series of offensive wars. The success of the national liberation movements led to the over-extension of the US imperial armed forces ­ weakening efforts to launch programed ground wars against Iran, Syria and elsewhere. The prolonged resistance led to wholesale domestic opposition in the face of never-ending US casualties and skyrocketing financial costs......

The success of the resistance movements in Iraq and Afghanistan and the appeal of their examples has encouraged new formidable anti-colonial struggles, led by Hizbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine, the Islamic Courts Union in Somalia as well as having stiffened the resolve of Iranian leaders to resist US demands to unilaterally suspend their nuclear programs. Further abroad, the weakening of US global military interventionist capacity has taken the heat off of progressive governments in Venezuela and revolutionary Cuba. The consolidation of the Venezuelan nationalist-populist government has had a powerful demonstration impact throughout Latin America, encouraging new anti-imperialist movements and dissident governments in Ecuador and beyond. In an all out battle of ideas, programs, foreign aid and solidarity, Bush is losing out to President Chavez......"

Frustrated with Bush, the Veep Urges Israel to Attack Iran

By GARY LEUPP
CounterPunch

"......Clemens cites a Cheney aide as indicating "that Cheney himself is frustrated with President Bush and believes, much like Richard Perle, that Bush is making a disastrous mistake" by supporting the diplomatic approach to Iran apparently favored by the State Department. So Cheney plans to deploy an "end run strategy" around the president (who's more swayed at present by Condi Rice's "realists" than Cheney's neocons) if his flank doesn't prevail and Bush resists the demand of the neocons and the AIPAC lobby for a bloody showdown.......

This is the most frightening piece I've read some time, along with Justin Raimondo's latest column on antiwar.com that draws upon it. Raimondo citing a recent CNN interview with Seymour Hersh links Cheney and Deputy National Security Advisor Elliott Abrams (the most powerful neocon presently in the administration) to U.S. support for the Sunni Fatah al Islam militia in Lebanon as a means to weaken Hizbollah. "George W. Bush," he declares, "is totally out of the loop" in what Raimondo calls "the Cheney administration."......

It's been clear for five years at least that Cheney, the key figure in this administration formally headed by a hopelessly confused little boy still learning to talk, wants to get the boy to issue the orders necessary to bring down the Iranian and Syrian governments and crush their allies in Lebanon and Palestine. He and his chief of staff "Scooter" Libby, along with Perle and the whole cabal, seemed so in charge until the Iraqi people through their resistence to occupation caused the American people to realize the costs of imperialist aggression and created some space for critical journalism in an incipiently fascist atmosphere. Now there is indeed a "race underway" not just between two factions of the administration but between the antiwar movement and the Apocalypse Now movement spearheaded by Cheney....."

Mayssoun Sukarieh writing from Shatila Refugee Camp, Live from Lebanon, 26 May 2007

"......Nuhad, as well as almost everyone else I talked to in the camp, are very touched by an interview they heard with one of displaced, as he was leaving Nahr al-Bared. Apparently, someone had called for the extermination of Palestinians with chemical weapons. "It is better than this slow death we live, better than the uncertainty that haunts us, better than being displaced over and over and over again. We will relax and make others relax too." He said these words in tears, and everybody in the camp quoted him out of total disillusionment, anger and helplessness from their unbearable conditions living as refugees.

The state of solidarity in Shatila has nothing to do with Fateh al-Islam. No one talked about them; everybody felt unconcerned with what was going on between the Lebanese Army and this group. After all, they are not Palestinian and have no popularity anywhere. None of the people I spoke to in Shatila expressed any sympathy with Fateh al-Islam; they just showed concern and anger at the way the Lebanese Army is shelling the camp and destroying the houses of the people.

Nadia says that her cousin said seventy percent of his neighborhood in the camp is totally destroyed. "Maybe it is all leveled now." Nadia, as everybody else in the camp, feels that the Palestinians are paying a price for a fight that has nothing to do with them. It is not a Palestinian group, not a group fighting for the Palestinian or refugee cause, they just were operating from the camp. As for why they had come there, most of the people have the same answer: they always referred to the unbearable conditions of the refugees in the camp, a fact that made them subject to all sorts of exploitation.

Abu Hicham, a seventy-year-old from Sheikh Daoud in Akka (Palestine) -- as he insisted on being introduced -- suggests that it seems they are hitting two birds with one stone. If the government is the party that armed the group in the first place, positioning them in one of the Palestinian camps, to later play on this fact in order to suggest that the camps are places of terror that need to be under total control of the government, maybe this is a step towards a war they will wage on us before our normalization. "You know daughter, they will need to kill some of us before our domestification."......

How all this will unfold is still not clear. What is clear, though, it does not look good for us, daughter," Abu Hicham says. "The future is bleak, as bleak as watching Palestinians being displaced again, and again. How many Nakbas we have to witness before our return, who knows, my daughter, who knows."

If Shatila residents are pretty sure of their disconnection with Fateh al-Islam, they are pretty sure too that something is awaiting them, something that does not look good."

Dr. Marcy Newman, Electronic Lebanon, 26 May 2007
(Dr. Marcy Newman is a Visiting Professor at the Center for American Studies and Research at the American University of Beirut and a Fellow at the Initiative for Middle East Policy Dialogue)

"......The media in Lebanon is no better. The Lebanese army reported yesterday that only one Palestinian has died in Nahr al-Bared. In our brief mapping of the refugees from Nahr al Bared refugee camp, which is not anywhere near complete, we have found and confirmed the following people have been killed by the Lebanese army:

1. Montaha Kamal Khalil
2. Ahmad Daghloul
3. Ra'ed el Shans
4. Abd el Latif Al Kaza'
5. Oday Nser Ismail, 16 years old
6. Jihad Abo el Ez, 35 years old
7. Ashraf Akl, 30 years old
8. Adel Younes, a teacher, 50 years old
9. Lina Jabr, 18 years old, her house fell on her
10. Abo Leiman Bhnan
11. Sleiman Bhnan, a doctor
12. Nayef el Saleh
13. Amer Nadwa
14. Saeed Sleiman

The Lebanese army also bombed the following civilian institutions in Nahr al-Bared camp:

1. Jenin Medical Center
2. Amal Medical Center
3. Bayt el Maqdes
4. Palestine Center, Dr. Fathala
5. Khaled Ben Walid Mosque
6. Al Quds Mosque
7. Al Jalil Mosque

As the refugees continue flow into refugee camps around Lebanon, approximately 15,000 remain in Nahr al-Bared trapped for a variety of reasons. We will continue to administer aid through grassroots organizations on a house-to-house basis."

"Another Waco in the Making"

By FRANKLIN LAMB
CounterPunch

Bedawi and Nahr el-Bared Palestinian Refugee Camps, Lebanon.

".....The "security agents" on the slopes above the army looking down into al-Baled are the main sniper danger. People claim they are Hariri militia but I can not confirm that. The army told the PLO they would stop them but as of Saturday night they are still shooting. They are trying to shoot anyone they see inside or leaving al-Bared. Someone should stop them.....

One NGO group of three from Beirut left a few hours ago in tears from frustration, sadness and anger from repeatedly being stopped by the army from taking supplies to al Barad. Their cargo of water and blankets abandoned. On Saturday the Palestinian Red Crescent, which for a quarter century has provide the medical service to both camps has been formally and completely banned from al-Bared and told they will be shot if they try to enter al-Bared. I met with the PRCS leadership and drivers.

There is some-near panic in Bedawi caused by many rumors. One rumor, widely believed, is that the Lebanese government plans to demolish al-Bared to make room for the huge US/NATO airbase which is to be built next to the camp. 5,000 of the Palestinians in al-Bared are from the 1975 ethnically cleansed east Beirut camp Telazatter. The PLO moved them to al-Bared at the beginning of the Lebanese civil war (1975-90) and they live close together in one al-Bared neighborhood. Saw women wailing that they may be another Telazatter massacre and destruction of their homes.

Many Palestinian young men are being arrested as they leave al-Bared......

Fear among PLO camp leaders that there could be a blood bath. "It's the Bush complex," one German NGO volunteer said. "The Lebanese government wants to be macho like the Israelis to gain some respect. This could be another Waco in the making, for no reason." The PLO is trying to mediate with the army to avoid a slaughter that would occur if the army tries to enter al-Bared. "What is needed is leadership and for the warlords to keep quiet. The army has behaved very badly but it's the politicians fault."

The army moved the press position to more than one mile from al Bared, "for security". The army has orders to give no information to the press. Some journalists feel something terrible is going to happen here. Just heard the army has now completely sealed the camp. No access to the wounded still in basements and bombed houses needing help. Palestinians activist in Bedawi say that if the army goes into al-Bared and makes a massacre that Palestinian from all over Lebanon will fight. This may be what some here or outside Lebanon are hoping for.

The Welch Club wants the army to "wipe out the terrorists", and "protect our Palestinian brothers". Not one Palestinian in either camp or observer I know believes that. Rather the Palestinian community here believes that the whole Fatah al-Islam "very strange case" was designed to assault their 420,000 population here....."

Dear Hamas,

The above is our proposed standard uniform for your "Executive Force." Please consider, since it would make our targeting even easier.

Sincerely,

The IAF

"Gaza - Ma'an - Four Palestinians have been killed and over thirty injured in four strikes by Israeli planes on Executive Force positions in several towns across the Gaza Strip on Saturday at noon.

Director of emergencies and ambulances in the ministry of health, Dr Muawiya Hassanein stated that the four Palestinians were killed, and six injured, in an air strike on the Executive Force in the Zeitoun area of Gaza City.

The identities of the deceased have been revealed: Mohammad Ad Dairy, Ali An Nashshar, Adil As Siafi, and Ahmad Ad Dam. It is not yet clear if the killed men were members of the Executive Force.

Gazan medical sources stated that many injuries were admitted to Ash-Shifa' hospital after the Badr position was hit by Israeli planes.

In the south of the strip, Israeli planes launched a further two air raids on an Executive Force post in Tal As Sultan in Rafah, and upon a Hamas security body base in Khan Younis.

Medical authorities expect the death toll to rise dramatically because of the critical condition and injuries of many, with more people still to find under the damaged buildings.

He confirmed that medical and rescue crews are still working on retrieving people still trapped under the damaged buildings.

Al-Qassam members were also injured in the strikes against Ash-Shati refugee camp.

In Rafah, Israeli planes targeted a Qassam position, west of the city, with at least five rockets, causing the total devastation of several Al Qassam buildings.

Israeli planes also struck Al Qassam positions in the evacuated former settlement of Neveh Dakalim.

In the raid on the former settlement, an entire building was destroyed and fire continued to blaze in the area. A fire fighting crew arrived at the scene, accompanied by ambulances, yet Israeli jets launched another strike, causing damage to two ambulances and injuring a man.

These most recent strikes are considered the most intense raids since the Israeli escalation nine days ago."

***

A couple of days ago we were told that the Israeli air force has run out of targets to hit; it is clear that is not the case. It is not because of the skills of Israel, IT IS THE STUPIDITY OF HAMAS that is making this possible. Does Hamas not understand that this campaign is coordinated with the Israeli agents Abbas and Dahlan to wipe out the "Executive Force?" The goal is not just to topple Hamas politically, but to eradicate it as a movement. When your very survival as a movement is at stake, you have to shift gears and change your thinking dramatically. It is not Sulta and stupid "government" any longer. Dissolve all of these fixed, rigid and vulnerable structures and become a fluid and unpredictable movement that lies low when the enemy is hitting hard. You should preserve your forces and wait for when the enemy is vulnerable (read the "Art of War"). The Gaza strip is swarming with Israeli agents. All of the "security" apparatus of Abbas are eyes and ears for Israel. Don't put your fighters in cars at this time, there are informers guiding Israeli missiles. Don't send these fighters to their death unnecessarily; martyrdom can wait!

"New York, May 25, 2007—The Committee to Protect Journalists is deeply concerned that journalists have been prevented since Monday from entering a Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon during clashes between Islamist militants and the Lebanese Army......

The Lebanese Army has not publicly explained the restriction, although officials initially told journalists that it was imposed for safety reasons. Reporters told CPJ that some journalists followed aid convoys into the camp Wednesday night to report on conditions, but the Lebanese Army quickly forced them out.

In addition, journalists said, the Lebanese Army forced journalists to move out of a nearby high-rise building that had been one of the main press locations. Officials cited safety reasons in moving them on Tuesday to a building that is farther away and has obstructed views. Journalists told CPJ that they suspected the army was also attempting to hinder coverage of the humanitarian crisis inside the camp where, according to news reports, more than a dozen civilians were killed and 12,000 refugees forced to flee the camp.....

Attacks against journalists were also reported. Al-Akhbar photographer Wael al-Ladifi, Al-Balad photographer Asad Ahmad, Agence France-Presse photographer Ramzy Haidar, and Al-Alam cameraman Ali Tahimi said they were beaten by members of the Lebanese Army on Thursday.

The journalists told CPJ that they were covering the exodus of thousands of Palestinian refugees to the nearby Beddawi camp when Lebanese soldiers warned them not to take images of the army. When Lebanese civilians supporting the army also attempted to obstruct the journalists, they said, an argument broke out. Soldiers intervened by taking al-Ladifi to an army tank where they beat him and accused him of being an Israeli spy, he told CPJ. An army captain tried to grab Ahmad’s camera and began beating him in front of several journalists and civilians. Soldiers then pointed their weapons and beat the journalists, they said......"

***

I wonder why the Hariri scribe, Robert Fisk, doesn't bother to report from inside these two camps (Baddawi and Nahr El-Bared), since he seems to have good relations with "the troops" and he always writes about how courteous and well-natured they are.

By Imad Hajjaj

A Well-Written, Long Article

by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya

Global Research, May 25, 2007

"Syria was in the sights of the White House and Pentagon since the advent of the “Global War on Terror.” Attacks on Lebanon and Syria have long been expected as a phase in the American-led war march unfolding in the Middle East and Central Asia in the wake of the tragic events of September 11, 2001......

Syria is now the subject of intense covert and overt diplomatic U.S. and E.U. pressure as the Anglo-American war machine is running out of time. Attempts are also underway to create a wedge between Iran and Syria. Military provisions are additionally underway on the immediate borders of Syria for a possible war in the Levant and a broader Middle Eastern war that would stretch from the borders of Egypt and Turkey to the frontier of Western China. Israel is also making preparations for yet another war, while the U.S. and British militaries continue to marshal their armed forces into Afghanistan, Iraq, and the broader Middle East.....

In an interview, General Wesley Clark, the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO in Europe, frankly stated that the U.S. has been set on initiating a major military road map of international warfare that would start in Afghanistan and Iraq and end with Iran......And he said, “I just got this down from upstairs” — meaning the Secretary of Defence’s office — “today.” And he said, “This is a memo that describes how we’re going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and, finishing off, Iran.”.....

France and Germany, the Franco-German entente, are partners in this historic neo-colonial project: thus the project is no longer strictly Anglo-American, it is a NATO project. It is no coincidence that all these targeted nations, aside from Libya, fall within the operational-level military command boundaries of United States Central Command (CENTCOM). NATO expansion is also linked to the wars and the pending wars in this vast region......

The bills approved after the November 2006 U.S. Congressional elections by the U.S. Congress, which is controlled by the Democrats, are merely a continuation of the Bush Jr. Administration’s agenda. The U.S. Congress has approved and passed bills for the funding of the continued occupation of Iraq, given the White House additional powers, and paved the way for future wars in the Middle East......

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi visited Syria with a delegation that included Democrats and a Republican. [19] The visits to Damascus from the U.S. State Department and the House Speaker essentially were part of a combined effort and served the exact same interests, which was to get the Syrians to capitulate.......

It is no mere coincidence that fighting has broken out in Lebanon between Fatah Al-Islam, a previously unheard of radical militant group, and the Lebanese Armed Forces, days after David Welch, the Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs at the U.S. State Department, held unprecedented meetings with General Michel Sulaiman (Solomon) the Commander of the Lebanese Armed Forces. Although Saudi Arabian, Jordanian, and American channels created Fatah Al-Islam, Syria is conveniently being blamed as the perpetrator in a calculated move to strengthen the manufactured war dossier against Damascus."

Contributed by Datta

"Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, has cautioned the Lebanese government against storming the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon where fighters are holding out against Lebanese troops.

In a televised speech on Friday, he also criticised US weapons aid to the Lebanese army, saying that Lebanon risked getting dragged into America's war against al-Qaeda.

Nasrallah said: "The problem in the north can be solved politically and through the judiciary in a way that protects the Lebanese army, our Palestinian brothers, the state and peace and stability without transforming Lebanon into a battleground in which we fight al-Qaida on behalf of the Americans."
He said accepting US help would draw more fighters into the country and potentially destabilise it.......

Nasrallah said the Fatah Islam fighters who attacked the military should be brought to justice.

But he said Hezbollah opposed any military incursion into the camp to crush the fighters.

He said: "The Nahr el-Bared camp and Palestinian civilians are a red line. We will not accept or provide cover or be partners in this."

'Dangerous thing'

Hezbollah and its supporters accuse Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister, of being a puppet of the US and are pushing for his removal.

Nasrallah called a large airlifting of US military supplies to the Lebanese military to help in the Nahr el-Bared fight "a dangerous thing".

He said: "Does it concern us that we start a conflict with al-Qaeda in Lebanon and consequently attract members and fighters of al-Qaeda from all over the world to Lebanon to conduct their battle with the Lebanese army and the rest of the Lebanese?""

Al-Manar

"......
النقطة الثانية، موضوع مخيم نهر البارد، المدنيون الفلسطينيون والفصائل في مخيم نهر البارد، والمخيم كمخيم هذا يجب ان يكون من الثوابت وخط احمر اذا اردنا ان نكون عادلين ومنصفين وبقية المدنيين واللبنانيين والفلسطينيين، اذا كانت الدولة تشن حرب على الارهاب لايعني ان تقتل الناس في الشوارع، انتم دولة يجب ان تتصرفوا كدولة، مذكرة توقيف واعتقال وأصول التوقيف يجب ان تراعى والناس تذهب الى القضاء وتحاكم لا ان تكون الحرب على الارهاب على الطريقة (البوشية)، ان تقتل الناس في الطرقات ورجل الامن يصبح المدعي العام، وهو المحامي والقاضي والجلاد هذا شيء خطير ويهدد الامن والسلم في لبنان.

في اليوم الاول سمعت احد الابطال يدعو لإقتحام المخيم، هناك مخيم فيه 30 الى 40 الف نسمة ليس لهم علاقة، هل يعقل انه اذا اردنا اعتقال مسلحين ان اهجم على 40 الف نسمة وادمر المخيم، المخيم الفلسطيني من الناحية الانسانية والاخلاقية وحتى القانونية مثل أي بلدة لبنانية. هؤلاء يعيشون احلام ومشاريع قديمة، هذا خطأ هذا خطير جدا، هذا يستدعي الكثير من الذكريات الاليمة والقاسية والصعبة، نحن بكل صراحة ووضوح الجيش خط احمر ولا يجوز ان يمس به ومن قتل ضباط وعناصر الجيش يجب ان يحاكم وتتوفر له محاكمة عادلة ولا يجوز ان يسامح، لكن مخيم نهر البارد خط احمر، المدنيين لبنانيين وفلسطينيين، لا يمكن ان نقبل او نغطي او نكون شركاء بتغطية حرب مخيمات من هذا النوع لا نعرف الى اين تصل وفي النهاية الحرب حرب من.

يجب ان نتنبه الى التدخل الاميركي، في هذه الحادثة، يجب ان يحصل فيما بعد تحقيق حول اسباب الحادث من اخذ القرار كيف صار القرار، اليوم الاميركييون اقاموا جسرا جوياً لإرسال ذخائر للجيش اللبناني بناءا على طلب السنيورة ام لا، هذا شيء خطير، نحن ايام الحرب على لبنان كانت الدولة اللبنانية تطلب بالحد الادنى كان يقال، ان تتدخل اميركا من اجل وقف الحرب علينا، ولكن الولايات المتحدة رفضت ان تطلب من الاسرائيليين وقف الحرب بل طلبت مواصلة الحرب، لماذا الغيرة اليوم على الجيش اللبناني، هذا سؤال برسم اللبنانيين والفلسطينيين والشعوب العربية و14 اذار و8 اذار.
......."

Celebrate!
This is what Bandar Bush, Elliott Abrams, Saad Hariri and Fouad Siniora worked so hard to accomplish in Lebanon....
Congratulations to the "axis of moderates"

Contributed and Translated by Lucia

By Silvia Cattori

Click Here to Watch This Shocking Video

"This video is the only document that can give us an idea from what happened in Gaza from May 11th to May 18th. It shows us how President Mahmoud Abbas’ armed forces liquidate disarmed, defenceless men for being sympathizers or members of the Hamas democratically elected government.

The sequence - where can be viewed the execution of a disarmed young Palestinian by these faithless, lawless forces acting under the command of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and his henchman Mohamed Dahlan, was filmed from a balcony. It took place in a street close to the headquarters of the security forces acting under Abbas’ command. El Saraya neighbourhood.

This film does not show us the entirety from what happened. Missing is the scene where the young Palestinian, summoned to leave his car, immediately forced to get on his knees, falls under the shootings. The sequence starts at the moment when the man collapses, soaked in his blood.

It can be viewed how the ambulance is arriving; it can be viewed how president Abbas’ armed forces, in black gear, masked, prevent the ambulance personnel from helping the young man. It can be heard how one of the armed men shouts at the ambulance personnel: "Let him die". Then, it can be viewed how the man, trying to get up, falls under the shootings, dying.

The name of this young Palestinian, executed by armed Palestinians ready to kill the Hamas people, is reproduced on the list of the article: Palestine: Summary executions. (1) No media in Palestine spoke about it. Except rare media related to the Hamas movement. The proof that they are under the control of the Fatah party, Abbas’ party; the party related to these forces that are ready to betray their people in order to grab power again with the Israeli and United States’ support, willing to liquidate the people who are supporting the democratically elected Hamas government.

Where are the so-called representatives of the Palestinian people at the U.N., or the European Union, who enjoy of total freedom to denounce the traitors that are throwing their people down to even more horror and hatred? Why are they not so interested in denouncing what is being organised against their people? Are they waiting for Mr. Abbas (2) to come out victorious of this coup d'etat planned and consented by Condoleezza Rice?"

The Bush administration has spent most of its $84 million in aid to Palestinians to train an elite corps of Fatah-loyal fighters.

By Dan Murphy | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
and Joshua Mitnick | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
(A long Article)

".......That attack was a "wake-up call" to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas on the need to do more to strengthen forces loyal to the Palestinian president, says Gershon Baskin, codirector of the independent Israel-Palestine Center for Research and Information in Jerusalem.

"If Abbas's forces aren't strengthened with weapons, technical training, and money, Gaza is lost. That's the bottom line. Do the Americans and the Israelis want to write off Gaza to the Islamic fundamentalists?"

But the impression shared by many in Gaza that the US is helping Fatah in its power struggle with Hamas, rather than simply strengthening border security, could lead to a spiral of violence, some in Gaza warn.

"Palestinians believe the American support to Abbas is to take out Hamas rather than help secure the border crossings," says Omar Shaban, a political expert in Gaza who once worked as an adviser to Abbas.

The US has to "present it in a way that they are helping the PA and not the president's office," he said. Otherwise, "it puts more oil on the fire. There is a big fear within Hamas that these weapons will be used against them, which makes them take the initiative to get more weapons and to protect themselves … you are promoting the competition between the Fatah generals and Hamas."

While the US says that is not part of its goal, it will be difficult to convince Hamas supporters otherwise......."

Al-Manar

".......Seale also stated that some expert observers of the complicated Lebanese scene point to the fact that Lebanon's Sunni population has always felt the lack of an armed force of its own. Moreover, he added, the Sunnis in Lebanon have often felt that they could not rely on the Army, which is a mixed, multi-confessional and reasonably neutral force. "The late Rafiq al-Hariri tried to build up the Internal Security Force, largely recruited among Sunnis, and endowed with its own intelligence service, as a counterweight to the Army. But this was not entirely successful," Seale said.

Some analysts according to Seale, believe that a group like Fatah al-Islam was initially tolerated, and perhaps even funded, by Lebanese Sunnis who may have seen in it the embryo of the militia they needed. They certainly longed to be able to demonstrate that they could stand up to the Shi 'is and to Syria.

Seale's assessment intersected with US prominent Journalist Seymour Hersh's latest article in the New Yorker magazine, in which he stated that based on the International Crises group's report, the head of the Future parliamentary bloc Saad Hariri had paid a sum of 48 thousand USD to bail out four members of an Islamic militant group from the Donniyeh region in north Lebanon. They were arrested while attempting to establish a small "Islamic state in northern Lebanon." Hersh quoted a high ranking official in the Saniora government saying that there are Sunni Jihadists operating in Lebanon and that the government, according to the official, takes a liberal position that allows groups like al-Qaeda to have presence in Lebanon!"

It is imperative that Fatah and Hamas reach an accord sooner or later to prevent further infighting

By Khaled Amayreh in the West Bank
Al-Ahram Weekly

"......Some observes speculated that the disproportionate attacks on Hamas, coupled with renewed threats to assassinate Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal constitute pro-active Israeli intervention in the intermittent confrontations between Hamas and the so-called "pro-American trend" within Fatah, headed by Mohamed Dahlan.

Indeed, Israeli military leaders were hesitant about attacking Hamas while the infighting between the two Palestinian organisations raged. However, when it died down, the Israeli army moved specifically against Hamas.

Last week, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that unnamed Western governments, including presumably the US, had asked Israel to help Fatah defeat Hamas, following the example of Ethiopian intervention in Somalia against the former Union of Islamic Courts' fighters.

Fatah angrily dismissed these accusations as any veracity thereof would portray them as proxies of the Israelis and Americans fighting Patriotic Palestinians.

On Sunday, Urayeb Rantawi, a Palestinian commentator based in Jordan, urged Fatah to confirm their raison d'être and clarify their goals. "We want to know and the Palestinian people want to know, is Fatah still the glorious liberation movement that started and maintained the struggle for freedom and liberation over the decades or has it turned into an Israelised group that is being financed and armed by the United States and Israel?"......

On the political level, it is also safe to assume that confrontations will resume sooner rather than later if the forces and militias answerable to Dahlan, and Hamas's Executive Force continue to refuse to answer to the Palestinian Interior Ministry.

Indeed, it was due to this refusal that Hani Al-Qawasmeh, the former interior minister, angrily quit his job recently, arguing that the militias ignored orders from the Interior Ministry.

More to the point, it is also imperative that the Palestinian leadership make sure that the Fatah forces sever all contacts and coordination with American representatives, such as the United States Security Coordinator to the PA and Israel, Keith W Dayton, who make no secret of their desire to stoke the fire of civil war among Palestinians, apparently for the purpose of serving Israeli interests."

How Damascus can help US find its lost keys

By Sami Moubayed
Asia Times

"This is what is happening to the US administration, searching for solutions in Lebanon because there seemingly is no light in Iraq - the real place where they should be looking for their "lost keys".

Yet even Lebanon is falling into darkness. The situation in northern Lebanon, where the army is combating al-Qaeda-inspired Islamic insurgents called Fatah al-Islam, is worrying - to say the least. Veteran investigative reporter Seymour Hersh complicated matters even more by appearing on CNN to say that Fatah al-Islam, a Sunni militia, had actually been supported by the Lebanese government of Prime Minister Fouad al-Siniora, to serve as a counterbalance to Hezbollah, a Shi'ite group, in case further Sunni-Shi'ite hostilities erupted in Lebanon.

The idea was apparently the brainchild of Elliott Abrams, the deputy national security adviser, Vice President Dick Cheney and Saudi National Security Adviser Bandar bin Sultan......

Syria can also be a vital player in the "war on terror" that is so dear to America. They have had their own war with Islamists since the 1960s and have been keeping files on Syrian and non-Syrian Islamists, many of whom they handed over to the US after the attacks on the US of September 11, 2001.

The Islamists have seduced America into the sands of the Middle East. It's not the other way around, as many people believe. Syria knows this territory well and can be of great help to the Americans - if treated as an ally in the "war on terror". Syria wants to be seen as part of the solution to the Middle East, rather than a part of the problem. That is where the Americans should be looking: Damascus. It is one part of the Middle East where the streetlights still work and where America could find its "lost keys". "

By Mahan Abedin
Asia Times

"The success of Iran's policy in Lebanon, where the Islamic Republic exerts extensive influence through its local ally Hezbollah, has raised the question of whether Iran can repeat the same experience in war-torn Iraq.

If the Islamic Republic is seeking to create a Hezbollah-style ally in Iraq, its best partner would be the Sadrist movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr. But re-creating the Hezbollah experience in Iraq is a daunting task that is likely to take many years to bear fruit. The ill-disciplined and fragmented Sadr movement is worlds apart from the iron-clad discipline and sophistication of Lebanon's Hezbollah. And Muqtada is no Hassan Nasrallah.

But despite these challenges, the Sadr movement can be used by Iran to consolidate its influence in a steadily fragmenting Iraq and to manage hostilities with the United States. The Islamic Republic excels at developing and using non-state actors in unstable countries, and war-torn Iraq provides Iran with plenty of motivation to mobilize its unique skills and resources for this purpose.......

As this scenario unfolds, the Iranians will give more importance to their relationship with Muqtada and the different components and factions of his movement. While Iran would prefer to exert influence in a unified and stable (albeit weak) Iraq, it can still manage an extensive network of patronage and influence in an unstable and bloody situation.

In the final analysis, the Sadr movement will likely play an important role in how Iran and the United States manage tensions and eventually reach some kind of broad understanding, without necessarily normalizing relations. While tension is unlikely to escalate into a shooting war, the Mahdi Army still gives the Islamic Republic potent leverage in the increasingly aggressive positioning that is likely to precede any significant breakthrough in the Iranian-US cold war."

By Tony Karon

"Last March, I noted Seymour Hersh’s alarming report on the efforts by Dick Cheney and his friends in Saudi Arabia to wage a proxy war against Iran, by enlisting all manner of Sunni fundamentalist jihadis, notably in Lebanon where they would be beefed up as a counterweight to Hezbollah. At the time I wrote:

These people have no shame, nor sense of humor or history, it seems: After all, it was a similar strategy in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan that created al-Qaeda in the first place. This time, it will be different, Hersh’s sources insist, no doubt with a straight face......

All I can say is, it didn’t take long, did it? The radical Qaeda-oriented group fighting a pitched battle with the Lebanese Army at the expense of thousands of Palestinian refugees in Tripoli, Fatah al-Islam, appears to have been one of the beneficiaries of this strategy.

As Hersh told CNN this week, the carnage in Lebanon may be a sign of another Cheney-Abrams adventure gone bad.

CNN’s Hala Gorani begins by asking Hersh who is funding and arming groups such Fatah al-Islam in the Nahr el Bared refugee camp......"

A French translation of a comment I wrote and it appeared on the ism-suisse.org website

Contributed by Lucia

Par Tony Sayegh

"Pour les amis, comme pour les ennemis des Palestiniens, il est à la mode de déplorer ce qu’ils qualifient de combats inter-palestiniens. D’aucuns sont allés jusqu’à parler de guerre civile.
Le Hamas et le Fatah sont également tenus pour responsables, dans ce qui veut se faire passer pour de l’observation avisée et fiable, dans divers commentaires......."

The neocons are discredited – but not defeated

By Justin Raimondo

"You would think that a political tendency such as the neoconservatives, one that has presided over a disastrous war which is increasingly unpopular, and which has unleashed a wave of resentment and even hatred against them, would just crawl back under the rock from whence they sprang and lay low for the duration. Not the neocons, however: they may be down, but they are far from out, as this report from Washington policy wonk Steve Clemons makes all too ominously clear:

"Multiple sources have reported that a senior aide on Vice President Cheney's national security team has been meeting with policy hands of the American Enterprise Institute, one other think tank, and more than one national security consulting house and explicitly stating that Vice President Cheney does not support President Bush's tack towards Condoleezza Rice's diplomatic efforts and fears that the President is taking diplomacy with Iran too seriously.

"This White House official has stated to several Washington insiders that Cheney is planning to deploy an 'end run strategy’ around the President if he and his team lose the policy argument. The thinking on Cheney's team is to collude with Israel, nudging Israel at some key moment in the ongoing standoff between Iran's nuclear activities and international frustration over this to mount a small-scale conventional strike against Natanz using cruise missiles (i.e., not ballistic missiles).".......

As Colin Powell told Bob Woodward, after 9/11, the neocons centered around the office of the vice president set up "a separate government." That government – widely discredited, and reeling from the recent trial and conviction of one its principal figures – is now engaged in a struggle for power with the legal and duly constituted government, the outcome of which has yet to be determined. What is clear, however, is that the Cheney administration will stop at nothing in its effort to win that fight – even if it means starting World War IV. This is an outcome the neocons would dearly love to see, and I have to say that, sadly, their chances of success are quite good."

The Independent

"The Bush administration may be highlighting accusations that the Iranian government is behind attacks in Iraq in order to strengthen its hand in preparing for military strikes on Iran, according to a leading British think-tank.

In a report sifting the evidence produced by US authorities against Iran, the independent think-tank Basic cast doubt on the strength of the intelligence, saying that proved links between the Tehran regime and militia inside Iraq remained "sketchy".....

Turning to the US strategic motivation for highlighting the Iranian role in Iraq, Basic (British American Security Information Council) suggested that Iran could be a "useful scapegoat to divert the blame" for failures in Iraq away from the occupying powers. But also, "if Tehran can be cast as a source of regional instability in the eyes of the international community, then the US administration's hand will be strengthened as it seeks support for stronger measures to oppose Iranian nuclear ambitions"......."

"Bethlehem - Ma'an - Israeli TV Channel Two broadcast an interview on Thursday with the Palestinian Prime Minister's advisor, Dr Ahmad Yousef, in which Yousef described the homemade projectiles launched from the Gaza Strip at Israel as "fireworks".

The advisor said that these projectiles are not causing any damage or harm to Israel. Only one Israeli has been killed, he said, while 63 Palestinians were killed in the last week alone.

Yousef added that "Israel is using these projectiles in order to kill Palestinians. "Can the stick be compared with the sword?" he asked. "These projectiles are almost like fireworks; they are not killing. Only one Israeli woman has been killed, but the Israeli military machine killed 63 [Palestinians] last week." He added, "The president described them as useless."

After Ma'an News Agency published what was reported by the Israeli TV, Dr. Yousef contacted the agency denying what he said on the Israeli TV and told Ma'an, "What I said was taken out of context." He added, "What was published was partially broadcast from a whole sequence."

In his statement to Ma'an, Yousef said that the TV reported only part of what he said. He also told the TV that the Palestinian people have the right to retaliate for the "Israeli aggression with all available means."

He also added that "Israel succeeded in playing the role of the victim by showing its people as facing a wave of rockets from the Palestinian resistance in order to justify its aggression and massacres and to frustrate the government."

The advisor also said that the effects of the Palestinian projectiles "are not the same as what the Israel media try to show and publish."

Dov Weissglas, the chief advisor and office director of former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, described the Palestinian projectiles as "fireworks" in 2003. The Israeli political parties and politicians launched a campaign of criticism at the office at the time and called on the director to apologize as they considered the statement to be weakening the Israeli story in regard to these projectiles. "

Al-Manar

"25/05/2007 In response to the calls of head of the unconstitutional government of Fouad Saniora, demanding military aid, two military transport planes landed at the Beirut airport on Friday, bringing foreign military aid to the Lebanese army. The development comes after the United States said it would rush supplies to Beirut. Lebanese officials would not disclose where the military planes came from whether directly from the United States or from U.S. military depots in the Middle East.
Late Thursday, a United Arab Emirates air force plane also arrived with supplies.
A Pentagon official said earlier Thursday that the U.S. was rushing ammunition and other equipment to the Lebanese army in a military airlift of eight planes. But local Lebanese television stations said even more planes were expected to arrive.
A U.S. military official at the Pentagon said the 'Lebanese government had asked the United States several days ago to expedite the shipment of a broad range of equipment and ammunition that already was in the pipeline for delivery to the country. The Beirut government subsequently told the U.S. it needed the ammunition right away, a security official said.
In response, the U.S. sent the first planes loaded largely with ammunition, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue. All the materials en route had previously been requested, the agreements were already in place, and they were in the delivery process, the official stressed.
The official did not know exactly how much ammunition was included in the transports Friday. The planes, flying over the city in the morning, were spotted by many residents."

***

THIS IS THE "ARMY" WHICH YOU ARE SUPPORTING, HIZBULLAH; SHAME ON YOU!
YOU DISAPPOINTED US!

Sami Hermez, Electronic Lebanon, 25 May 2007

".......What is more disturbing is that the petition, with over 10,000 signatories thus far, echoes the general mood in the country, where we have seen people take to the streets in support and celebration of the army; and where people are expressing their hatred for the Palestinian refugees by uttering such things as: "Let the army finish us from the Palestinians once and for all." In other words, the "salvation" that we are to be guaranteed of by our support of the army in this petition is a salvation from the Palestinians. In our habitual, almost instinctive resort to religious imagery, this petition claims the army as Jesus Christ and the Palestinians as all things evil.

In Lebanon we have seen this before. In the 1970s it was the Christian Phalange party among others who resorted to this language; today we are hearing it across sectarian lines. Perhaps, as proof of a lack of any moral direction, the Lebanese national narrative will once and for all be determined through the claim of a common Palestinian enemy. And I will remain disgusted!

Have those who signed the petition and who have celebrated the Lebanese army in the streets not drawn any connections between the army they are so fond of and their Zionist neighbors? In the first three days of the recent events involving the Lebanese army and Fateh el-Islam in the Nahr el-Bared camp, the Lebanese army committed what would amount to war crimes in a similar fashion to that of the Israeli army in Gaza and in Lebanon last summer, firing on a civilian population indiscriminately. When the Israelis do this, we scream at the injustice, but when the Lebanese army does it we applaud them. These are double standards.

It is sad and distressing that over 30 Lebanese soldiers have been killed as they pursue the fanatic group, Fateh al-Islam, but the blood of those soldiers is on the hands of the Lebanese government who would send them into combat without armor, training or proper intelligence. Is no one blaming the government, internal security forces or the Lebanese army itself for either their incompetence or complicity in allowing this group, which is not Palestinian, to enter the country in the first place? The onus is on the government which was responsible for overseeing the borders, and, disregarding the conspiracies of having been involved in arming this group in the first place, Fateh el-Islam could only be what it is today because certain Lebanese figures or groups allowed this to happen. Is anyone else finding it hard to believe that a militia of a few hundred fighters could form in a country the size of Lebanon, without the army or internal security's knowledge? I wonder why it is, then, that the Palestinians alone must pay the price while we cheer to the beats of their misery with utter callousness?......

I recall last summer that when Israel realized it could not successfully enter Lebanon with ground forces to fight Hizballah it decided to bomb the entire country. That summer, the country was the camp. Today Lebanon enforces Israeli military policy on a smaller scale. Rather than the annihilation of a country, what we were seeing in the Palestinian camp of Nahr el-Bared was the collective punishment of an entire civilian population through the indiscriminate use of force on a hermetically sealed camp......

Sadly, accountability does not exist in Lebanon, and thus, there will be no equivalent to the Winograd commission, no call for the prime minister to resign, and no trial of the government or those responsible for starting the current conflagration. The best way to support the army and honor the dead Lebanese soldiers is to call for an internal investigation. Anything short of that is clear proof of our society's moral bankruptcy."

by Chris Floyd

Global Research, May 24, 2007

"If you have any doubt that the Bush Administration is planning a military strike against Iran, then check out the lead story in today's Guardian: Iran's secret plan for summer offensive to force US out of Iraq. The story, which is based entirely -- entirely -- on the unchallenged statements of three anonymous "American officials," not only alleges that Iran is "already committing daily acts of war against US and British forces" -- including the increasing mortar attacks on the Green Zone -- but also asserts that Tehran has entered into an active military alliance with al-Qaeda. Together, this new axis of evil will launch a "nationwide, Iranian-orchestrated summer offensive" aimed at undermining the scheduled September progress report from U.S. General David Petraeus on the vaunted "surge." Oh, and to top it all off, the same officials told the Guardian's stenographer, Simon Tisdall, that Iran has now also allied itself with its long-time enemy, the Taliban, and are helping kill Americans in Afghanistan as well.

To reiterate: the claim now from "top Bush officials" is that Iran has entered into an alliance with al Qaeda and is "committing daily acts of war" against American forces. As a casus belli, this beats the hell out of an "imminent threat" from undiscovered WMD, the entirely specious charge used by the Bush Faction to gull the nation into aggressive war with Iraq. In fact, at the time of that invasion, no Iraqi had killed an American in the 12 years since the first Gulf War; but here, we have the Bushists claiming that Iranians are killing Americans right this very minute -- every single day.

The clincher is the new charge that the Iranians are now actively allied with al Qaeda. It is by now a well-worn modus operandi of the Bush Terror Warriors simply to declare that anyone they don't like -- anyone who is a candidate for what Bush calls "the path of action" -- is an ally of al Qaeda. This is what was done in the last Terror War "regime change" aggression, in Somalia. And of course, this is what was done in the build-up to the Iraq invasion. At every turn, Bush explicitly equated the conflict with Saddam with the "war on terror," i.e., the fight against al Qaeda.......

Looking at the story on-line -- as Cole did, presumably, and as will the vast majority of American readers -- does not convey the lurid setting that the Guardian's print edition gives to the story. From every newsstand in Britain, you can see the large, double-decked banner headlines screaming of Iran's plans for a summer offensive -- with no quote marks, no qualifications, just a bald statement of fact. The headlines stream across the page underneath a full-length picture of a smoldering Bradley armored car that has just been destroyed by a roadside bomb. (Supplied -- or even planted! -- by those dastardly Iranians, no doubt.) In terms of its visuals, and the unsubtle message conveyed to passers-by and casual readers by the headlines and photo, the Guardian piece is a far more garish and effective piece of propaganda than any pre-Iraq War story that appeared in the staid New York Times.

So we should not be surprised to see the Guardian story blowing back across the water to be milked by the Administration and its many outside agitators for another act of aggression. But beyond its utility as a bloody shirt, the story is also important for the insight it provides on how the Bushists are laying the groundwork for the attack on Iran -- and how far along they are in the warmongering campaign. If we have already gotten to the "al Qaeda alliance" stage -- the hottest of hot buttons, and one that will give ample cover to the many Democrats eager to show how bristlingly butch they are despite their lukewarm opposition to the "mishandled" Iraq war -- then the first laments of Iranian children being torn to shreds by falling bombs cannot be too far off."

What is going on here?

Habila's close adviser (Ahmad Yousef) has mocked the launching of Qassam rockets, in pretty much the same fashion as the puppet Abbas. He said that they are pretty useless and you can't fight Israel since it has much more advanced weapons. He said that firing Qassams is just sending a political message!!!

Has Habila abandoned Hamas? Is fear of being killed in an Israeli air strike (today Israel fired a rocket at a shed next to his house) the reason for such statement? Or is it the spirit of "unity" that has finally caught the imagination of Mr. Yousef.

I have never trusted this Yousef character and I still maintain that he is a U.S. operative. It has become very embarrassing for Hamas; does Habila still speak for it, or has he joined Dahlan and company? As they say, the specter of possible death concentrates the mind, but to this extent?

"في خطوة نادرة للغاية هاجم مساء امس الخميس الدكتور احمد يوسف، المستشار السياسي لرئيس الوزراء الفلسطيني اسماعيل هنية، ظاهرة اطلاق الصواريخ من جانب المقاومة الفلسطينية باتجاه جنوب الدولة العبرية.
وقال الدكتور يوسف، وهو من قياديي حركة حماس في مقابلة مع القناة الثانية في التلفزيون الاسرائيلي ان القسام لا يجدي نفعا، وعلي المقاومين الفلسطينيين الكف عن اطلاقه.
واضاف يوسف، الذي كان يتحدث لمراسل التلفزيون من احد البيوت التي اختبأ فيها خشية استهدافه من جانب جيش الاحتلال الاسرائيلي، ان علي الفلسطينيين ان يكونوا واقعيين وان يفهموا معادلة القوة بينهم وبين الدولة العبرية وجيش احتلالها. واضاف قائلا ان صواريخ القسام التي اطلقت باتجاه جنوب الدولة العبرية ادت الي وفاة اسرائيلية واحدة، بينما انضم الي قافلة شهداء فلسطين جراء القصف الاسرائيلي المكثف علي قطاع غزة 65 شهيدا.
وزاد المستشار يوسف انه لا يمكن المقارنة بين العصا والسيف، فنحن نحمل العصا، والاسرائيليون يحملون السيف، ونحن نعلم ان اسرائيل تتفوق علينا من ناحية الاسلحة ومن ناحية التطور التكنولوجي، لانها دولة تملك الكثير مما نملكه نحن، ابناء الشعب العربي الفلسطيني .
وشدد في سياق حديثه علي ان صواريخ القسام التي تطلقها المقاومة الفلسطينية هي عبارة عن اشارات لا اكثر ولا اقل لاسرائيل، لكي تقوم بشن العدوان تلو العدوان علي الشعب الفلسطيني في قطاع غزة وفي الضفة الغربية المحتلة، علي الرغم من اننا، نحن مشاريع شهادة، الا انه يتحتم علينا فهم الواقع الذي نعيش فيه والتصرف بحكمة وبحنكة ، وعاد وكرر في نهاية اللقاء المتلفز ان صواريخ القسام ما هي الا مفرقعات نارية ليس الا......."

عبد الباري عطوان

"ما يجري حاليا من توترات وصدامات في مخيم نهر البارد في شمال لبنان، وقطاع غزة جنوب فلسطين، علاوة علي العراق وافغانستان، انعكاس، او بالاحري، مقدمات لصيف ملتهب ينتظر المنطقة بأسرها، ربما تكون ذروته حربا امريكية ـ ايرانية.
.....
.....
افتعال الحرب في مخيم نهر البارد قد يكون بهدف التغطية علي الخطط الامريكية لتسليح الجيش اللبناني بأسلحة حديثة لا للتصدي لجماعة فتح الاسلام وهي مجموعة لا يزيد تعدادها عن مئتي مسلح، وانما لتصفية حزب الله لمنع اقدامه علي اي رد فعل انتقامي من اسرائيل في حال حدوث اي هجوم علي ايران.
وليس صدفة ان الاعلان عن تسليح الجيش اللبناني باسلحة امريكية حديثة يتزامن مع خطة امريكية لتعزيز حرس الرئاسة الفلسطيني لتصفية حركة حماس من خلال دعمه بالمال والسلاح.
ما نريد قوله ان التصعيد باتجاه الحرب الكبري، وربما الاخيرة في المنطقة يسير علي قدم وساق، ولن يكون مفاجئا اذا ما افقنا في اي يوم من الايام المقبلة علي انباء القصف السجادي لايران بمختلف انواع الاسلحة والقنابل والصواريخ من البحر والجو، لاستعادة هيبة الولايات المتحدة، وانقاذ ماء وجهها المهدور في العراق.
فاذا كان الجيش اللبناني يريد استرداد كرامته المهدورة في نهر البارد، فما بالك بالقوة الاعظم في التاريخ؟
"

Palestinians inspecting the damage to a grocery store hit in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, early on Thursday. (AP)


And we sleep

"......But this time, the "target" wasn't some distant building or family gathering hall in Shija3iya or Jabaliya, it was a money changer on my very street, Omar al-Mukhtar, in Gaza's Remal neighbourhood. And the supermarket next door.

After things calmed down, I dozed off, only to be shocked out of bed at around 3am by a thunderous explosion, another attack. It shook us from our insides. My mother became hysterical, flailing her arms and screaming uncontrablly. We hugged each other, I tried to calm her down. "Its ok, its nothing, maybe an F-16..its ok".

But it was not ok. This explosion was closer than ever before. At first we thought maybe the "target" was a store in our building. It turned out to be another money changer only a few shops down from our house, no more than 50 metres. The store was leveled.

And then there was nothign left to do but sleep. But there was a horrible, sinking feeling in my stomach, the result of panic and fear and ugly certainty of it all. It took a few hours for the knots in my stomach to slowly unwind and settle. I felt nauseous.

What exactly the Israeli army is "targeting" is a mystery. But of course the media machine spins it as "Hamas targets". This is how it read the next morning in Haaretz-including a note on how the attacks resulted in "no damage or casualities". I thought, maybe the author shoudl come to Gaza.

The popular thinking seems to hold that they have simply run out of "legitimate" targets-whatever the hell that is anyway (MPS? Homes?)-and so have now resorted to bombing things like moneychangers and supermarkets. This is according to an Israeli army general himself in the radio, who said his army really did not know what else to strike.

And there is nothing left to do but sleep."

Ali Abunimah, Electronic Lebanon, 24 May 2007

".......EI: Palestinian refugees fleeing from Nahr al-Bared camp have been quoted in press reports saying that Fath al-Islam militants had infilitrated into the camp over the past year, that they were very separate and didn't have much contact with the camp residents except to condemn them for smoking, or playing music, or putting up posters. One of the things a refugee witness remarked on was that the camp is guarded on all sides by the Lebanese army. He wondered how these militants got in noting that they didn't drop in from the sky. How would you answer that question?

ABUKHALIL: I think it is certainly suspicious how all these people came into Lebanon, and all indications are that they came into Lebanon legally. We are not talking about infiltrations like those the American media talk about in Iraq. So they came to Lebanon with their passports, came through port entrances controlled by the Lebanese security forces and army and settled in those camps, and as you rightly indicated all these camps are under watch by the Lebanese army.

In an interview on Al-Arabiya television on May 23, the Lebanese defense minister, Ilyas Murr, stated that of the several dozen fighters killed in the battles, not a single a fighter is identified as Palestinian. He said they are mostly Lebanese, Saudi, Yemeni, Algerian, Tunisian, Moroccan and so on.....

EI: What has been the reaction to these events Lebanon and are any groups or parties condemning the bombardment of Nahr al-Bared camp?

ABUKHALIL: As far as reaction in Lebanon this is one of the most painful elements of this story at the personal level. I have never felt more isolation as someone who speaks out on Palestine as I have felt in the past few days. There is an overwhelming, unanimous competition by people and organizations to rally behind the Lebanese army and to pay tribute to the troops. Not a single political party in Lebanon has spoken out, none, against the indiscriminate shelling of the refugee camp of Nahr al-Bared. Hizbullah has taken a position in support of the army, as has the Lebanese Communist Party, and other organizations. Of course we didn't expect anything different from the March 14 movement, but among the opposition it has been a competition of who can show more support. General 'Awn, the main Christian opposition leader has been totally, unconditionally supportive of the Lebanese army and its resort to what is called the "decisive military option" -- which means to allow the Lebanese army to enter or invade the camps......

EI: The Lebanese government would certainly respond to you that they are not targeting the residents of the camp and they have even made statements that they understand that the group that they are targeting is alien to the Palestinians in Lebanon.

ABUKHALIL: What is so ironic is yes, they said all that and they said more. They used the same words uttered by the Israelis when they bombed the refugee camps in the West Bank and Gaza. It's the same language the US uses in Afghanistan and Iraq: 'They are hiding behind civilians. They are using civilians as human shields. Hitting civilians is a mistake, the army cares about the civilian population.' All this propaganda of collateral damage is being used by the government.

The Palestinians are also weak regionally and internationally. There is no support for them among Arab governments which explains why the Lebanese government was not only willing and able to do what it did, but yesterday the official statement of the Arab League not only offered support and expressed "satisfaction" to use their own language, for what is happening in Lebanon but offered military assistance as a reward for the shelling of the camp......."

Don't Support the Killers of Palestinians!
Shame on You Hizbullah

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman

"We go now to Lebanon to speak with Rania Masri, an assistant professor in the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Balamand in Lebanon. She is currently in the Beddawi refugee camp in northern Lebanon. Alastair Crooke also joins us, he is founder of the Conflicts Forum based in Beirut. He is a former British intelligence agent and former special Mid-East adviser to European Union High Representative Javier Solana.....


RANIA MASRI: .....with that, what we have in the Beddawi camp, if we can just -- the Beddawi camp has approximately 15,000 refugees in it already. The number of refugees now in the Beddawi camp has almost doubled, because we have approximately 12,000 refugees from the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp who are now in the Beddawi camp. That alone could give you an idea of the amount of lack of goods that is now available in the camp. I mean, there is a lack of extraordinarily basic goods, be it medicine, be it foods, be it mattresses, be it anything. Every individual that we talk to, every agency that we talk to said the same thing, which is that the international agencies have not operated quickly enough to be able to respond to the presence of 12,000 refugees almost overnight in this already extraordinarily impoverished camp of the Beddawi camp. Approximately 25% of these refugees are going to schools. Another 75% are going to homes. Unfortunately, the vast majority of the aid, approximately 80% of the aid, is going to those individuals in the schools. 20% of aid is going to the 75% of the refugees in the homes, which means we are having an extraordinary lack of goods that are being given to the people most in need. When we look at the situation and when we keep in mind the ultimatum that’s been given by the minister of defense, which is this threat of actually invading the Nahr al-Bared camp, then we can envision at the very least that the number of refugees we now have in the Beddawi camp from the refugee camp, Nahr al-Bared, is probably going to increase. So as bad and as horrific as the situation is currently in the Beddawi camp, we are expecting it to actually get worse tomorrow.....


Well, there has been a quote/unquote “truce” for almost a day and a half. But one thing I do want to emphasize with regard to the violence -- and, again, this is based upon numerous amounts of eyewitness reports -- that the violence isn’t simply extraordinarily indiscriminate heavy artillery coming from the Lebanese army into this -- let me stress again -- one of the most impoverished Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon, which is the Nahr al-Bared camp; in addition to getting this heavy artillery from the Lebanese army, in addition to that, there is a third factor: there probably is an armed civilian camp, you know, group militia, that is operating outside of the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, that is attacking both the refugees that are leaving, as well as lobbing sniper attacks into the camp itself. So not only do we have the Palestinians in the camp stuck between Fatah al-Islam, which is a non-Palestinian radical organization and the Lebanese army; they are also stuck between this third armed civilian militia group......


ALASTAIR CROOKE:....It’s a Salafi group, as Seymour described it, which means that their main characteristic is not concern about Palestine or a Palestinian state, but their main concern is their antagonism and their hatred for the Shia. And I think the reason that we saw them in Lebanon probably had something to do also with the conflict this summer, that took place last summer with Israel, and the aftermath of that, which seemed to presage an internal conflict within Lebanon, possibly between the Shia and the Sunnis and with Christians involved, as well. In other words, there was a real fear at some stages that Lebanon could be tipping back toward civil war. And I think in this context, therefore, this group, which is virulently anti-Shia, came across with the idea of defending the Sunnis. Of those that have been killed in this group so far, not one of them has been Palestinian. It’s true that the leader is Palestinian, but the other members of it that have been taken so far have turned out to be Saudi, Tunisian, Yemeni and Lebanese, but not Palestinians. So they ended up in this refugee camp -- they forced their way in; there’s not much refugees can do when 200 determined and armed men enter your camp -- and eventually set up a little satellite area of their own, adjacent to the camp. So I think that’s the context that you have to see this. And I think some Sunnis in Lebanon welcomed their arrival, if you like, as potential reinforcement. If you wanted someone to take on the ranks of Hezbollah, which is a Shia movement, then here was a determined group who hated them that could be co-opted on the basis of your enemy’s enemy is your friend. So I think this is very much the way in which to see what happened. And I think it’s quite true what Seymour said: in a sense, it’s a reflection of a wider policy. It’s not that someone sat down on a pin and said, “We’re going to give support to this particular group and build them up.” I think the rhetoric and the language that is being used by the United States and by Europe, in some cases, of trying to encourage, if you like, Sunni fears about a Shia threat and a Shia menace, the axis of or the crescent of Shia, a threat that faces the region, gives the opportunity and gives a space to these sort of groups to emerge and quite often ends with them getting the support and the financial resources that they require....."

Democracy Now!
With Amy Goodman

"......The Lebanese government accuses Fatah al-Islam of having ties with al-Qaeda and the Syrian government. But there's another theory of who is backing the militant group - the Lebanese government itself, along with the United States. Last March, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported in the New Yorker that the U.S. and Saudi governments are covertly backing militant Sunni groups like Fatah al-Islam as part of an overarching foreign policy against Iran and growing Shia influence. Seymour Hersh joins us now on the line from Washington DC.

SEYMOUR HERSH: Well, very simply -- this is over the winter -- the government made -- I think the article is called “The Redirection.” There was a major change of policy by the United States government, essentially, which was that we were going to -- the American government would join with the Brits and other Western allies and with what we call the moderate Sunni governments -- that is, the governments of Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt -- and join with them and with Israel to fight the Shia.

One of the major goals for America, of course, was the obsession the Bush White House has with Iran, and the other obsession they have is, of course -- is in fear -- is of Hezbollah, the Party of God, that is so dominant in -- the Shia Party of God that’s so dominant in southern Lebanon that once -- and whose leader Hassan Nasrallah wants to play a bigger political role and is doing quite a bit to get there and is in direct confrontation with Siniora.

And so, you have a situation where the Sunni government, pretty much in control now, the American-supported Sunni government headed by Fouad Siniora, who was a deputy or an aide to Rafik Hariri, the slain leader of Lebanon, that government has -- we know, the International Crisis Group reported a couple years ago that the son Saad Hariri, the son of Rafik Hariri, who’s now a major player in the parliament of Lebanon, he put up $40,000 bail to free four Sunni fundamentalists, Jihadist-Salafists -- which you will -- who were tied directly to -- you know, this word “al-Qaeda” is sort of ridiculous -- they were tied to jihadist groups. And God knows, al-Qaeda, in terms of Osama bin Laden, doesn’t have much to do with what we’re talking about. These are independently, more or less, you can call them, fanatical jihadists.

And so, the goal -- part of the goal in Lebanon, part of the way this policy played out, was, with Saudi help, Prince Bandar -- if you remember him -- we remember Prince Bandar, the Saudi prince, as a major player in Iran-Contra and also in the American effort two decades ago -- if you remember, we supported Osama bin Laden and other jihadists in Afghanistan against the Russians, and that didn’t work out so well. Well, we run right back to the well again, and we began supporting some of these jihadist groups, and particularly -- in the article, I did name Fatah al-Islam.

The idea was to provide them with some arms and some money and some basic equipment so -- these are small units, a couple hundred people. There were three or four around the country given the same help covertly, the goal being they would be potential enemies of Hezbollah in case of warfare; in case Nasrallah decided to do something physical, get kinetic, in Lebanon, the Sunni Siniora government would have some very tough guys on its side, period. That’s the policy......

You know, rational people don’t like being mistreated. And in any case, so what you have is, what seems to me, just a series -- the word you could use is “unintended consequences.” I don’t think anybody in the Siniora government anticipated that the people they were covertly supporting to some degree -- I got an email the other day, and I have not checked this out, from somebody who was in the community, in the intelligence community and still consults with the community, he says, “Why don’t we ask more about the American arms that the fighters of Fatah al-Islam have, are brandishing?” I don’t know if that’s true or not, but I did get that email. And so, that could be true. Both Saudi money and American money, not directly, but indirectly, was fed into these groups......

So I can’t -- I can tell you that -- you know, the thing that’s amazing about this government, the thing that’s really spectacular, is even now how they can get their way mostly with a lot of the American press. For example, I do know -- and, you know, you have to take it on face value. If you’ve been reading me for a long time, you know a lot of the things I write are true or come out to be more or less true. I do know that within the last month, maybe four, four-and-a-half weeks ago, they made a decision that because of the totally dwindling support for the war in Iraq, we go back to the al-Qaeda card, and we start talking about al-Qaeda. And the next thing you know, right after that, Bush went to the Southern Command -- this was a month ago -- and talked, mentioned al-Qaeda twenty-seven times in his speech. He did so just the other day this week -- al-Qaeda this, al-Qaeda that. All of a sudden, the poor Iraqi Sunnis, I mean, they can’t do anything without al-Qaeda. It’s only al-Qaeda that’s dropping the bombs and causing mayhem......"

US consul meets with Palestinian tourism minister in Bethlehem, discuss the importance of tourism in promoting peace

"Bethlehem - Ma'an - The United States consul general in Jerusalem, Jack Walles, visited the West Bank city of Bethlehem on Thursday, where he was received by the Palestinian minister of tourism and antiquities, Khouloud Daibes. The consular official for economic affairs Steven O'Dowd also attended the meeting.

The Palestinian minister updated the visiting delegation on the Palestinian and regional political and economic situation. She stressed that the international community must stick to their role in assisting the Palestinian people to gain their rights and in accomplishing a just and comprehensive peace in the region [I think I am going to get sick, excuse me while I go throw up]...... "

Fashion Wear for Summer 2007 in the "Arab" World

UN envoy: Israel, PA should weigh int'l peacekeepers in Gaza

"The United Nations' newly appointed special envoy to the Middle East said Thursday that Israel, the Palestinians and the UN should consider stationing international peacekeepers in the Gaza Strip.

Michael Williams said, however, that the format of the international force in southern Lebanon, bolstered in the wake of last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah, may not be the ideal model for Gaza.

Israel has been consistently opposed to the deployment of international peacekeepers in Gaza and the West Bank, saying such a move would interfere with its own security measures.

"I'm not sure this [Lebanon] is the right model for Gaza. But I think that this is one of the things that we - the UN - and Israel and the Palestinians need to be thinking about for the future," Williams said.

"It goes without saying it would be a hard task to pull it [a Gaza peacekeeping force] together," said Williams, who helped put together last year's force for southern Lebanon....."

CounterPunch Exclusive

Who's Behind the Fighting in North Lebanon?

By FRANKLIN LAMB
Tripoli, Lebanon

".....After three days of shelling and more than 100 dead and with no electricity or water, Nahr el-Baled reeks of burned and rotting flesh, charred houses with smoldering contents, raw sewage and the acrid smell of exploded mortars and tank rounds.

Press figures of 30,000-32,000 are not accurate. 45,000 live in Bared! Contrary to some reports food and water still not being allowed in.

15 to 70 percent of some areas destroyed. Some light shooting this morning and afternoon. Army shelling at rate of 10-18 shells per minute from 4:30 am to 10 am on Tuesday. Army will not allow Palestinian Red Crescent to move out civilians because they don't trust them. Only the Lebanese Red Cross is allowed. It is possible to enter Bared from the back (east side). The Army taking cameras of journalists they catch. The Lebanese government is controlling the information and don't want extent of damage known yet. Still unrecovered bodies. 40 per cent of the camp population have been evacuated. The rest don't want to leave out of fear of being shot or that they are losing their homes for the 5th time or more for some.

No electricity and cell phone batteries are dying. Relatives who fled are telling families to stay because there are not enough mattresses at Bedawi Camp. Bared evacuees are living up to 25 in one room in Badawi schools etc. 3,000 evacuees in one school in Bedawi. UN aid is starting to arrive at Badawi but workers not able so far to deliver it to Bared due to attack on relief convoy on Tuesday.....

The camp population all say that Fatah Al-Islam came in September-October 2006 and have no relatives in the camp. They are from Saudi, Pakistan, Algeria, Iraq, and Tunisia and elsewhere. No Palestinians among them except some hanger ons. Most say they are paid by the Hariri group......

I was told the army will have to destroy every house in Bared to remove Fateh al Islam......

.....the situation in Lebanon mirrors, in some respects, the early 1980's when groups sprung up to resist the US green lighted Israeli invasion and occupation. But rather than being Shia and pro-Hezbollah, today's groups are largely Sunni and anti-Hezbollah. Hence they qualify for US aid, funneled by Sunni financial backers in league with the Bush administration which is committed to funding Islamist Sunni groups to weaken Hezbollah.

This project has become the White House obsession following Israel's July 2006 defeat.

To understand what is going on with Fatah al-Islam at Nahr el-Bared one would want a brief introduction to Lebanon's amazing, but shadowy 'Welch Club'.....

The Club is named for its godfather, David Welch, assistant to Secretary of State Rice who is the point man for the Bush administration and is guided by Eliot Abrams.
Key Lebanese members of the Welch Club (aka: the 'Club') include:

The Lebanese civil war veteran, warlord, feudalist and mercurial Walid Jumblatt of the Druze party( the Progressive Socialist Party or PSP)

Another civil war veteran, warlord, terrorist (Served 11 years in prison for massacres committed against fellow Christians among others) Samir Geagea. Leader of the extremist Phalange party and its Lebanese Forces (LF) the group that conducted the Israel organized massacre at Sabra-Shatilla (although led by Elie Hobeika, once Geagea's mentor, Geagea did not take part in the Sept. 1982 slaughter of 1,700 Palestinian and Lebanese).

The billionaire, Saudi Sheikh and Club president Saad Hariri leader of the Sunni Future Movement (FM)......

Over a year ago Hariri's Future Movement started setting up Sunni Islamist terrorist cells (the PSP and LF already had their own militia since the civil war and despite the Taif Accords requiring militia to disarm they are now rearmed and itching for action and trying hard to provoke Hezbollah).

The FM created Sunni Islamist 'terrorist' cells were to serve as a cover for (anti-Hezbollah) Welch Club projects. The plan was that actions of these cells, of which Fatah el-Islam is one, could be blamed on al Qaeda or Syria or anyone but the Club......

According to members of both Fatah el-Islam and Jund-al-Sham their groups acted on the directive of the Club president, Saad Hariri.
So what went wrong? "Why the bank robbery" and the slaughter at Nahr el-Baled?

According to operatives of Fatah el-Islam, the Bush administration got cold feet with people like Seymour Hirsh snooping around and with the White House post-Iraq discipline in free fall. Moreover, Hezbollah intelligence knew all about the Clubs activities and was in a position to flip the two groups who were supposed to ignite a Sunni ­Shia civil war which Hezbollah vows to prevent.

Things started to go very wrong quickly for the Club last week.
FM "stopped" the payroll of Fateh el-Islam's account at the Hariri family owned bank.".......

Long story short, Fatah el-Islam must be silenced at all costs. Their tale, if told, is poison for the Club and its sponsors. We will likely see their attempted destruction in the coming days.

Hezbollah is watching and supporting the Lebanese army."

By Tony Sayegh

Seeing Hizbullah in the company of Condoleezza Rice, Sarkozy and the clown king of Jordan is distressing, to say the least. What I am referring to, of course, is Hizbullah’s jumping on the bandwagon by declaring its support for “The Troops.” This support was declared while the Fascist Lebanese “Army” was indiscriminately lobbing artillery and tank fire into the miserable Nahr El-Bared Palestinian refugee camp.
The irony is that the Fascist “Army” was and is using the same lies and the same strategy which the IOF used last summer against Hizbullah. The lie was that the “Army” does not target civilians and it is the fault of the “terrorists” who hide among civilians. Last summer the “terrorists” were Hizbullah fighters and the civilians were the Shia Lebanese populations. The aim of the strategy of the “Army,” just like the aim of the Israeli strategy last summer, is to force the Palestinian residents of the camp to fight the Fath Al-Islam thugs on behalf of the cowardly “Army,” even though most of the thugs are not Palestinian and none killed were Palestinian. By inflicting a lot of suffering on the innocent population, in both cases, the aim was and is to turn the population to the side of the illegitimate Siniora government.

However, Hizbullah knows that it was none other than the Siniora government and Saad Hariri who released some of these Fath Al-Islam thugs from Lebanese jails and who, with the covert support of the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, have been financing them and arming them. As a matter of fact CNN's interview with Seymour Hersh of two days ago (posted on this blog) was posted on Hizbullah's Al-Manar website. In the interview Hersh stated that Lebanese officials had told him of Saudi and U.S. backing for Fath Al-Islam, specifically, through the Siniora government and Saad Hariri. Instead of confronting the illegitimate Siniora government with its despicable role in creating the very same forces that it claimed to be fighting, Hizbullah decided to praise the very same “Army” that is under the command of Siniora. Hizbullah is under the illusion that since a majority of the foot soldiers are Shiite, then the “Army” is automatically a patriotic and a nationalist army. Hizbullah conveniently chooses to ignore that the “Army” is being financed, trained and armed primarily by the U.S.

One of the objectives of this dirty and bloody episode is to create the political background for a major increase in the U.S. arming and financing of this “Army” all in the name of fighting “terror” and taking advantage of this unanimity of support for this “Army.” The irony of all ironies is that the enlarged and strengthened “Army” is intended to open a second front against Hizbullah, when Israel attacks Hizbullah again. At that time, Hizbullah will be fighting on two fronts and will regret its support for the “Army.”

It would have been far better for Hizbullah to criticize the “Army” for its slaughter of scores of innocent Palestinians and the destruction of a part of the camp which has caused tens of thousands of its residents to flee for their life, all to restore its image (which never existed) after being humiliated by a few thugs.

If there is any good news for Hizbullah in all of this it is the knowledge that this incompetent “Army” which can’t fight its way out of a wet paper bag, would not be much of a force to contend with later on this summer when the orders are given to Siniora to order the “Army” to attack Hizbullah. That “Army” has repeatedly proven that, besides serving tea to the advancing IOF, the only thing it is capable of is raising the white flag and surrendering. No amount of flag waving and chants of, “Support Da Troops!” will change that.

Palestinian refugees, who fled their besieged camp of Nahr al-Bared, crowd to get bread from at the adjacent camp of Bedawi ,23 May 2007.

By Robert Fisk

"......Some of the buildings look like Irish lace and a mosque's green minaret has a shell hole just below the platform where the muezzin's call would be heard five times a day, as if a giant had punched at it in anger. There is even a field of ripped-up tents, which must have been what this camp looked like when the grandfathers of those wounded children arrived here from Palestine in 1948.....

I looked across the camp. Was it worth all this pain, the grotty, empty streets, the broken apartment block with dirty grey smoke still drifting from its windows? The Lebanese soldiers claim they try never to hurt civilians (I can think of another army which says that!), but did so many Palestinians have to be killed or wounded for the crimes of a few, some - we do not know how many - not even from "Palestine" but from Syria or Yemen or Saudi Arabia?......

All day, the ambulances ran a ferry service of wounded from the camp, sirens shrieking through the wards, spilling out the wounded and the sick and the ancient men and women who could bear no more. They were given small sacks of bread - like animals newly arrived at market, I couldn't help thinking - and led away.

They had heard all the political statements. Nicolas Sarkozy, the new French President, had been on the phone to the Lebanese Prime Minister, insisting that he should not give in to "intimidation" - perhaps he thought the Palestinians were the same kind of "scum" that he called the rioting Arabs of the Paris suburbs last year - and President Bush gave his his support to the Lebanese government and army......

What, I kept asking myself yesterday, have we unleashed now? Well, you can ask Suheila Mustafa who stood yesterday at the bedside of her 45-year-old sister, Samia, so terribly wounded by army shellfire in the face that she could neither talk nor focus upon us with her bloated left eye. "We had just woken up when we heard the first barrage of gunfire," she said. "My sister was beside me and fell down with her head bleeding. She haemorraged from 5.50 in the morning till 3 in the afternoon. At last my brother brought us all out in his car. But let me tell you this. The Palestinian people have heard Walid Jumblatt and we say 'thank you' to him and let us have more shelling. "And I would like to thank Prime Minister Siniora, and say thanks - really thanks - very much to George Bush and to Condoleezza Rice. I really want to thank them for these shells and these wounds we are suffering. And if Rice really wants to send more materiel to the Lebanese Army, she had better hurry up. There is a woman still in the camp who is very pregnant and the child in her womb will be born and will grow into a man - and then we'll see!"......"

Go Home
By Steve Bell, The Guardian

The Islamists at the centre of the fighting were built up by pro-government forces for sectarian reasons

Charles Harb in Beirut
Thursday May 24, 2007
The Guardian

".......The story of Lebanon's US-backed Siniora government and army battling an isolated al-Qaida-type terrorist group allegedly backed by Syria obscures a complex picture that has been years in the making, and which involves a peculiar social environment, Lebanese political manoeuvring, and the wider dynamics of an increasingly volatile region.

.....But impoverished conditions do not explain the rapid empowerment of radical Sunni movements in recent years; political cover was needed - and was provided by pro-government forces. In the 2005 national parliamentary elections, Saad al-Hariri, the son of slain prime minister Rafik Hariri, appealed to Sunni sentiment to woo northern voters. Significant efforts were made to bring the Sunnis of Tripoli and Akkar under his wing and away from the area's traditional leaders. Fulfilling an electoral pledge, the new parliament pardoned jailed Sunni militants involved in violence in December 2000. Those clashes in Dinnieh between Islamist radicals and the Lebanese army left dozens dead in a precursor of the violence of recent days......

This picture becomes more complicated when the regional dimension is factored in. The invasion of Iraq has inflamed the Sunni-Shia divide and is changing the dynamics of the Middle East. Fear of Shia influence in Arab affairs has prompted many Sunni leaders to warn of a "Shia crescent" stretching from Iran, through Iraq, to south Lebanon. Several reports have highlighted efforts by Saudi officials to strengthen Sunni groups, including radical ones, to face the Shia renaissance across the region......

Some perceive the fighting of recent days as a confrontation between regional forces - the US, Syria, Saudi Arabia - vying for control of the Lebanese political space. Others see it as a plan that went wrong, with Islamist groups escaping the control of the pro-government forces that nurtured them. And others perceive it as an attempt to draw the Lebanese army - regarded as the only genuinely national force in the country - into the fray of Lebanese politics.

The Siniora government is enfeebled. Claims that Syria is behind the current conflict have not so far been endorsed by the White House or other Arab leaders. The army, which has tried to remain neutral, is now muddied and its weaknesses made apparent to all.

The plight of thousands of Palestinian refugees trapped in the Nahr al-Bared camp echoes the Israeli bombing of Palestinian camps in occupied Palestine. Radical Islamist activists are moved by the atrocities in the north and attacks on their fellow militants. Palestinian factions are fractious, weakened, and infiltrated by foreign agents, further destabilising security within the refugee camps. The relations between Palestinian groups and Lebanese authorities are strained, and tensions can easily spill outside the refugee camps. The dangers of a conflagration that could spread across the country are serious. The US once nurtured the mujahideen in Afghanistan, only to pay the price much later. In the dangerous game of sectarian conflict, everyone stands to lose."

"Bethlehem - Ma'an - Respected human rights watchdog Amnesty International has released its 2007 annual report, revealing damning evidence against the Israeli authorities.

The report stated that Israel's killings of Palestinians had increased threefold during 2006, that Israeli soldiers and settlers in the occupied West Bank had committed "serious human rights abuses" and that Israel had committed war crimes during their assault upon Lebanon in the summer of 2006.

More than 650 Palestinians, including some 120 children, and 27 Israelis were killed last year, the report said.

The report continued to slam Israel's aggressive policies, stating that soldiers and settlers had committed unlawful killings of Palestinians, "usually with impunity".

The report also condemned the increase in the construction of illegal settlements and roadblocks, "causing a significant deterioration in living conditions for Palestinian inhabitants in the Occupied Territories".

The Amnesty report concluded that Israel had "littered south Lebanon with around a million unexploded cluster bombs which continued to kill and maim civilians after the conflict,” in grave violation of international law.

“Israeli forces also appear to have carried out direct attacks on civilian infrastructure intended to inflict a form of collective punishment on Lebanon’s people, in order to induce them and the Lebanese government to turn against Hizbullah.”

Last summer, Israel waged war against Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah's Hezbollah faction across southern Lebanon, resulting in over 1200 Lebanese deaths......."

Israeli forces arrest Palestinian minister of education, former minister of public works, mayors and PLC members

"West Bank - Ma'an - Israeli forces launched an extensive arrest campaign in several West Bank cities on Thursday morning, culminating in the arrest of the Palestinian minister of education, Nasser Addin Ash-Sha'er, and former minister of public works, Abdur-Rahman Zeidan, in addition to a number of Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) members and mayors. Some 33 Hamas-affiliated politicians and activists are reported to have been arrested in this most recent attack on the democratically elected Palestinian government.

Our Nablus correspondent reported that the minister of education was apprehended from his home in the Mu'ajeen area of Nablus in the northern West Bank after the Israeli forces broke into the home.

Furthermore, the Israeli forces arrested the Hamas members of the PLC in Nablus, Hamid Al-Beitawi and Dawood Abu Seir. They also arrested the mayor of Nablus, Adli Ya'ish; the mayor of Beita, Arab Ash-Sharafa; the director of the Islamic endowments office in Nablus, Fayyad Al-Aghbar; and several other Hamas-affiliated activists......

The Palestinian minister of education, Ash Sha'er, was apprehended in a previous Israeli sweep against Hamas legislators and politicians in 2006 following the capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Palestinian armed factions in the southern Gaza Strip in June 2006. At the end of June 2006, the Israeli army seized eight members of the Hamas cabinet, the speaker of the PLC, and over 20 legislators.

As for the mayor of Qalqiliya, Wajih Qawwas, he was arrested three times during the second Palestinian intifada, and he was elected mayor of the city whilst in prison after he got the highest number of votes in the 2005 elections. He was also arrested in the June 2006 sweep of Hamas politicians.

Palestinian minister of information Mustafa Barghouthi described the arrest of senior Hamas leaders on Wednesday as a "massacre against democracy."

A group of Palestinian doctors and academics have issued a press release condemning Dr. Ash-Sha'er's arrest and calling on "the international community, all academic institutions and all international civil society organizations" to demand his release and the "protection of civilian lives and property, as stipulated in international humanitarian law and international human rights law such as the Fourth Geneva Convention." "

By Tom Toles

The "Road Map" and Being Patient
By Baha Boukhari

John Pilger describes how Gaza in Palestine has come to symbolise the imposition of great power on the powerless, in the Middle East and all over the world, and how a vocabulary of double standard is employed to justify this epic tragedy.

By John Pilger

"Israel is destroying any notion of a state of Palestine and is being allowed to imprison an entire nation. That is clear from the latest attacks on Gaza, whose suffering has become a metaphor for the tragedy imposed on the peoples of the Middle East and beyond. These attacks, reported on Britain's Channel 4 News, were "targeting key militants of Hamas" and the "Hamas infrastructure". The BBC described a "clash" between the same militants and Israeli F-16 aircraft.

Consider one such clash. The militants' car was blown to pieces by a missile from a fighter-bomber. Who were these militants? In my experience, all the people of Gaza are militant in their resistance to their jailer and tormentor. As for the "Hamas infrastructure", this was the headquarters of the party that won last year's democratic elections in Palestine. To report that would give the wrong impression. It would suggest that the people in the car and all the others over the years, the babies and the elderly who have also "clashed" with fighter-bombers, were victims of a monstrous injustice. It would suggest the truth.

"Some say," said the Channel 4 reporter, that "Hamas has courted this [attack]..." Perhaps he was referring to the rockets fired at Israel from within the prison of Gaza which killed no one. Under international law an occupied people has the right to use arms against the occupier's forces. This right is never reported. The Channel 4 reporter referred to an "endless war", suggesting equivalents. There is no war. There is resistance among the poorest, most vulnerable people on earth to an enduring, illegal occupation imposed by the world's fourth largest military power, whose weapons of mass destruction range from cluster bombs to thermonuclear devices, bankrolled by the superpower. In the past six years alone, wrote the historian Ilan Pappé, "Israeli forces have killed more than 4,000 Palestinians, half of them children"....."

Abbas' Guard Practicing Subservience to IOF; Next Comes Tea Service to IOF, Lebanese Style


"Israel agreed to extensive training of members of the Presidential Guard of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in areas near Jericho, in the Jordan Valley.

The Palestinian Presidential Guard is undergoing similar training in Egypt. The training of units can reach battalion size formations, even though during their operations in the territories - in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank - the Presidential Guard is unable to operate in such formations.

The request for Israel to permit such extensive training was made through the Americans. Prior to this, Israel agreed to the transfer of thousands of rifles and ammunition to Abbas' Presidential Guard. The serial number of each weapon was registered in order to maintain at least minimal control over the weapons. On the other hand, Israel refused to approve another Presidential Guard request for the transfer of weapons of larger calibers than rifles, including heavy machine guns.

Meanwhile, in Israel, the debate still rages whether the fight for the Gaza Strip between Fatah and Hamas has been tipped in favor of the latter. Among the Israel Defense Forces, including Military Intelligence, the view is that Hamas holds the advantage in the Gaza Strip. On the basis of this view, Hamas is the leading military force in the Strip and it has the power to win the war. This is not the case in the West Bank, where Fatah has the advantage......

The assessment of the Shin Bet differs from that of the IDF. They maintain that the battle for the Gaza Strip is still not decided. Nonetheless, the Shin Bet is also not optimistic about the long-term future. This assessment will only change if there is a major revival in Fatah, and if a majority of the Palestinian public concludes that Hamas is the source of serious damage."

By Laila Anwar

".....I did mention in earlier posts that drugs were virtually unknown in the Iraq of "before". I also did mention that since the "after", all kinds of drugs circulate in the market.

I also noted that members of death militias of the "nationalist", "patriotic", "anti-occupation"(hahahaha) loving version of Mahatma Gandhi - Muqtada Al Sadr and Co, are regular users of drugs. That may partly explain their total numbness when on their drilling fix.

But now the "breaking news". Just read that opium is being grown in Southern Iraq. Under the agricultural expertise and auspices of Iran of course. Iraq turning into a poppy field, turning into an Afghanistan?Not far fetched at all. ( Read full article here) .

Now let me get this right, maybe am missing something here.

Alcohol shop owners are arrested, tortured and have their shops burned down because they are engaging in some "haram" (prohibited) behavior.
Women are forced to veil and keep a low profile otherwise they would be engaging in "haram" behavior...
But hey it is ok to grow opium.

Smoke it, sniff it, inject it ...that 's absolutely cool.
The Mullahs said so and they may even partake in your sanctified ceremenious activitiy every now and then.

So Iraqis are not only getting tortured, raped, slaughtered, blown to pieces, massacred.
They are not only made destitute and impoverished.
They are not only turned into refugees.
They are not only polluted with chemical and biological weapons.
They are not only deprived of water, electricity, food and basic services.
They are not only stripped of any basic rights in their own country...
No, there has to be more...
They will also be turned into drug traffickers and addicts...

What else can Iran and the U.S think of to exterminate us? Any more constructive loving ideas?

Is that not wonderful? Don't you just love this new Iraq of the "beatniks"?

Why don't you pass the joint, pipe, syringe and... lie next to me in my new roofless den. We can, then both contemplate our lovely Iraqi sky and see a thousand heavenly diamonds shining like bright stars...

But shhhhh....Don't tell the mullahs. It's haram!"

***

The U.S. is taking a page out of the British Imperial history:

"The Opium War, also called the Anglo-Chinese War, was the most humiliating defeat China ever suffered. In European history, it is perhaps the most sordid, base, and vicious event in European history, possibly, just possibly, overshadowed by the excesses of the Third Reich in the twentieth century.

By the 1830's, the English had become the major drug-trafficking criminal organization in the world; very few drug cartels of the twentieth century can even touch the England of the early nineteenth century in sheer size of criminality. Growing opium in India, the East India Company shipped tons of opium into Canton which it traded for Chinese manufactured goods and for tea. This trade had produced, quite literally, a country filled with drug addicts, as opium parlors proliferated all throughout China in the early part of the nineteenth century. This trafficing, it should be stressed, was a criminal activity after 1836, but the British traders generously bribed Canton officials in order to keep the opium traffic flowing. The effects on Chinese society were devestating. In fact, there are few periods in Chinese history that approach the early nineteenth century in terms of pure human misery and tragedy...."

No, This is Not the Israeli Army....
This is the Fascist Lebanese "Army" Imitating the Israelis

Refugees, Again!
Palestinians Running From One Refugee Camp to Another in Lebanon.....
Long Live Siniora....
Long Live the Lebanese "Army"....
Long Live the Arab League.....
Long Live Ehud Olmert!

Report, Human Rights Watch, 23 May 2007

".....Eyewitnesses told Human Rights Watch that the Lebanese army has repeatedly shelled the densely populated Palestinian refugee camp with tanks and mortars. Lebanese officials charged that the militants are using the camp's residents to shield themselves.[This sounds just like the IOF charges against Hizbullah!]......

"The indiscriminate shelling of a densely populated refugee camp can result in a bloodbath," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch. "The Lebanese authorities need to restore order in a way that minimizes civilian casualties."

The number of civilians killed in the fighting remains unknown, as the Lebanese authorities are restricting access due to the ongoing fighting. Health personnel who have gained access to the camp have focused on evacuating the wounded. A Lebanese Red Cross official told Human Rights Watch that the organization transferred at least 57 wounded from the camp to hospitals in the last 48 hours of fighting, including 40 on Tuesday......

Wounded civilians evacuated from the camp told Human Rights Watch that the Lebanese army's tank and artillery shells were falling indiscriminately on certain neighborhoods in the camp, killing and injuring civilians and damaging houses, water tanks, health dispensaries and mosques. Several other civilians told Human Rights Watch that they were injured by unidentified sniper fire often coming from areas outside the camp.

Under principles of international humanitarian law, warring parties are prohibited from using means and methods of attack that cannot discriminate between civilians and combatants, including indiscriminate shelling. Nor may they carry out attacks that are expected to cause loss of civilian life that is disproportionate to expected military gain....."

****

Support the Fascist Siniora "Army" ?? Hell No! Even though Hizbullah, of all parties, is supporting it!

Report, Electronic Lebanon, 23 May 2007

"BEDDAWI, 23 May 2007 (IRIN) - At least 10,000 Palestinians from Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon have fled to neighbouring Beddawi camp following a lull in fighting between the Lebanese army and Islamist militants, according to an official in one of the schools over-run with an influx of displaced people.

"We estimate 10,000 people have entered Beddawi camp since late afternoon yesterday [Tuesday]," Nadar Abdel Ghani, head teacher at Kawkab School in Beddawi camp, told IRIN. "We have around 1,500 people in each of our three schools here and the rest are staying with families in the camp, sometimes 40 people to a room.".....

However, many camp residents say tank and artillery fire has been indiscriminate.

More than 80 people have been killed in the fighting, according to news agencies, including 22 militants and 32 soldiers. Camp residents and doctors say there are dozens of dead civilians.

Late on Wednesday, a source in the Lebanese Ministry of Defence told IRIN the army was planning a possible attack to flush out remaining Fatah al-Islam fighters after receiving a green light to go into the camp from Sultan Abul Aynain, Fatah's chief in Lebanon. Fatah, a major Palestinian political party, is the largest Palestinian faction inside Nahr al-Bared and a secular rival to Fatah al-Islam. "The plan is to evacuate as many civilians as we can before attacking the camp in a few hours," said the source, who requested anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to the media. The claim has not been officially confirmed, but if Lebanese forces do enter Nahr al-Bared, it will break a decades-old precedent and raise the possibility of the army exerting security control inside Lebanon's 11 other refugee camps.....

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Wednesday distributed food parcels to last five days for 3,000 people in Kawkab School, where displaced people -- the majority women, children and infants -- are living in filthy conditions.....

On Tuesday, a UNRWA convoy reportedly came under fire from positions held by the Lebanese army, after moving only a few hundred metres into the camp. The army appeared to be targeting Fatah al-Islam positions close to the convoy.....

Nadim Houry, a researcher for NGO Human Rights Watch, interviewed families in Kawkab School and said he had heard the same story and confirmed the names of the dead men. Houry said the Lebanese army had failed to observe international humanitarian law in its bombardment of civilian areas in the camp......

"We do not believe the army directly targeted civilians, but in its use of indiscriminate shelling, which has a disproportionate affect on civilians to combatants, the army has failed under its obligations to humanitarian law," Houry told IRIN. "We are also concerned that the army failed to provide safe corridors for the evacuation of civilians and the delivery of aid. It has taken three days for this to happen."

Hoda al-Turk, a spokeswoman for UNRWA, confirmed that its convoy had come under fire yesterday and that three trucks had been hit, rendering them disabled and abandoned in the camp. Turk said UNRWA had contacted the concerned parties and that the Lebanese army had denied firing on the convoy.....

The PRC reported unrestricted access to the camp since Wednesday morning, according to Dr Yousef Assad of Safad Hospital in Bedawi camp. A total of 130 civilians were evacuated to Safad Hospital. They suffered severe injuries as well as shock with 12 undergoing emergency surgery, said Dr Assad. The LRC remains on the edge of the camp ferrying the wounded to local hospitals......"

A Good Piece

Hasan Abu Nimah, The Electronic Intifada, 23 May 2007

".......Those who have been describing the current carnage as the second Palestinian catastrophe, or Nakba as commonly known, are absolutely right in expressing their deep pain, but the real second catastrophe was the Oslo Agreement in 1993. In 1947, the tragedy that befell the Palestinians was the result of a combination of international and regional factors that neither the Arab people of Palestine nor the Arab states combined had the means to confront; it was an inevitable injustice fiercely and forcefully imposed. The Oslo agreement, on the other hand, was a self-inflicted disaster by leaders who had for long placed themselves at the top of the "Palestine Liberation Organisation", leaders who had hitherto shamed and accused of treachery anyone who ever dared contemplate any settlement with the "Zionist enemy" that did not reverse the course of history to the pre-1947 era.

Here, and according to the appalling Oslo arrangement, Israel succeeded for the first time in its history to secure the voluntary, if not enthusiastic, consent of the widely recognised "sole and legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" to legitimise its occupation and to consolidate all its war gains, practically at no cost......

It was Oslo, in fact, which divided the Palestinians. It did indeed take time before the depth of the split assumed such a violent nature, but problems have been building up, and there is always an ignition point.

Oslo was an Israeli opportunity, if not an Israeli device altogether, to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict without many -- indeed any -- changes on the ground. Rather than removing the occupation and liberating those suffering under it for decades, the acclaimed "liberators" opted to slip under it too, and to join those they loudly crowed they were determined to liberate. Under Oslo, the Palestinian Authority and its security forces were meant to act as an extension of the occupation, and to only relieve the occupiers of their burdens.....

Many Palestinians were opposed to the "Oslo sellout", but they either opted to patiently keep quiet in the hope that things may improve and that the promise of peace would one day materialise, or raised their voices in protest and were harshly dealt with by the many-faceted Palestinian security forces, for being "enemies of peace" and saboteurs.....

Instead of following up on the modest achievements of Mecca with serious efforts to build Palestinian consensus and reconcile policies, rather than allocate Cabinet seats and shares, ominous attempts to enable the PA presidency and Fateh to wipe out Hamas continued openly, with arms and money pouring in that direction......

Efforts have been exerted all along to create in Gaza conditions that turn everyone against everyone. It is not Palestinian foolishness and selfishness; it is rather mission accomplished for those who planned this state of affairs for debilitated Gaza."

Al-Manar

"23/05/2007 خلال اجتماعه مع وفد منظمة التحرير وممثلي الفصائل الفلسطينية تقدم رئيس الحكومة غير الشرعية فؤاد السنيورة منهم بثلاث طلبات:
اولاً ادانة اعمال منظمة فتح الاسلام، ثانياً التبرؤ من هذا التنظيم، وثالثاً مساعدة الجيش في القضاء على هذه الظاهرة.
بالنسبة للطلبين الاول والثاني فقد قامت الفصائل بما عليها قبل الاجتماع بالسنيورة اصلاً، اما الطلب الثالث، فقد استوقف عدداً من ممثلي الفصائل التي تخشى من نشوب حرب مخيمات جديدة وقودها اقتتال فلسطيني - فلسطيني، لا يمكن التنبؤ بنتائجه. لكن مقابل هذه المخاوف، لم يكن لدى حركة فتح، إشكالية بهذا الموضوع، فبحسب المصادر، تطوعت فتح بأن تقوم بالمهمة عسكرياً على عاتقها، خاصة بعد ان سمعوا من السنيورة تأكيداً مفاده، ان الموقف الرسمي اللبناني هو التالي: قرار سياسي بإلزام الجيش باستئصال فتح الإسلام، وتأكيد آخر بأن الجيش لن يدخل الى مخيم نهر البارد.
القصة لم تتنه عند هذا الحد، ففي الوقت الذي استمرت فيه مفاعيل هدنة هشة غير رسمية بين الجيش وفتح الإسلام، وهي الهدنة التي امنت دخول مساعدات إنسانية الى المخيم وخروج عدد كبير من اللاجئين، استمر السنيورة بتصويبه على الإجماع الفلسطيني من خلال اجتماعه مع ممثليهم فرادى، وفي هذا الإطار كان اجتماعه بعباس زكي.
وبحسب المصادر حصلت فتح على غطاء سياسي من الحكومة غير الشرعية لكي تقوم بالحسم العسكري وفي هذا الإطار تؤكد المصادر، دخول مئتين وخمسين مسلحاً من فتح وبعض فصائل منظمة التحرير الى مخيم نهر البارد على دفعتين، وذلك عند الساعة الثانية الا ربعاً من ظهر الأربعاء، حيث دخلت شاحنة مغطاة ولحقت بها شاحنة اخرى بعد حوالي العشرين دقيقة.
وبحسب المعلومات يفترض ان تقوم هذه العناصر بعمل عسكري ضد عناصر فتح الإسلام، الأمر الذي تخوفت منه بعض الفصائل الفلسطينية.
والى هذه المعطيات، جرى تداول لسيناريو آخر لم ينفه أمين سر حركة فتح في لبنان سلطان أبو العينين في اتصال مع المنار، ويلخص بالاتي: تتولى المنظمات الفلسطينية طرد عناصر فتح الإسلام العرب غير الفلسطينيين الى خارج مخيم نهر البارد وتقوم بالتعامل مع العناصر الفلسطينيين المنضوين تحت لواء التنظيم، وهو الاقتراح الذي أكدت مصادر فلسطينية عدم إمكانية تحقيقه حالياً مشيرة إلى أن هذا الأمر طرح منذ أكثر من شهرين على فتح إلا أنها رفضته."

A Repost, by Popular Demand

Adnan Daoud's tea party with the IDF

Click Here to Watch the Brave Lebanese "Army," Which Even Hizbullah is Praising, Serving Tea to the IOF and Raising the White Flag.

SUPPORT DA TROOPS!

The question is:

Do you agree that Syria is behind the Fath Al-Islam Group?

With almost 5,000 responding so far, 76% said no.

Contributed by Fatima

"Gaza - Ma'an - Reminiscent of the Lebanese war of 2006, the Israeli military have once again made a mockery of themselves in their latest offensive in the Gaza Strip. The Special Forces mistakenly arrested the wrong Palestinians, shelled buildings that were not real targets and now several Israeli officers have complained that operatives have "disappeared".

Some Israeli army officers have complained that targets for military strikes in the Gaza Strip are lacking. One officer said "the operatives have disappeared; we can't find anyone to shell."

Israeli security sources stated that the Israeli forces took all possible eventualities into account, but never considered that the operatives would go missing. As a result, said the sources, these so-called 'wanted' militants will not be killed any time soon.

The Israeli army admitted that some of the workshops and stores that were bombarded in Khan Younis were not real targets. A woman and her infant were injured in one of the shelling operations.

The Israeli sources also said "all the wanted political and field leaders of the factions disappeared, along with the [Hamas-affiliated] Executive Force members."

Untraceable

The Israeli military sources also lamented the fact that their targets had abandoned their mobile phones and disconnected even the batteries, so that the Israelis cannot pursue them.

The active members of Hamas left their homes and families, according to Israeli sources. They stopped seeing their associates and ceased contact with Fatah members, as they believe Fatah might inform Israel of their whereabouts.

Israeli political analysts have said that Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists are happy to hide, because they believe that Israel can only attack them from the air and would not dare to launch a ground incursion into the Gaza Strip......"

The Complicity of the Siniora Government

By RANNIE AMIRI
CounterPunch

"......The most disturbing aspect of the fighting in Tripoli though, has been lost--or deliberately obfuscated--by discussion of the above.

Namely, the absolute complicity of Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and allies like Saad Hariri, leader of the parliamentary majority in Lebanon, in bringing groups like Fatah al-Islam to Lebanon, where they knowingly allowed them to operate, all in a greater bid to stem the ascendancy of Hezbollah.

Fatah al-Islam and al-Qaeda more broadly, after all, have a visceral hatred for Shi'a Muslims, whom they regard as infidels. Who better to bring into the country via the squalid Palestinian camps of Lebanon than them?

It was Seymour Hersh, in the March 2007 New Yorker who recognized a shift in the policy of the United States and their cronies (Siniora government, Jordan, Saudi Arabia) in patronizing radical Sunni organizations to act as a bulwark against perceived widening Iranian influence.

How foreboding was Hersh's article?

Alastair Crooke, who spent nearly thirty years in MI6, the British intelligence service, and now works for Conflicts Forum, a think tank in Beirut, told me, "The Lebanese government is opening space for these people to come in. It could be very dangerous." Crooke said that one Sunni extremist group, Fatah al-Islam, had splintered from its pro-Syrian parent group, Fatah al-Intifada, in the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, in northern Lebanon. Its membership at the time was less than two hundred. "I was told that within twenty-four hours they were being offered weapons and money by people presenting themselves as representatives of the Lebanese government's interests-presumably to take on Hezbollah," Crooke said.

During an interview with Hasan Nasrallah, when Hersh posited if it was Israeli assassination he most feared, Nasrallah replied that it was other Arabs ­ Jordanian intelligence, and Salafi/Wahabi jihadists--who were his greatest threats. Was it also Fatah al-Islam and affiliates' ultimate mission, at the behest of the Siniora government, to assassinate Hasan Nasrallah?......

Again, Hersh:

In an interview in Beirut, a senior official in the Siniora government acknowledged that there were Sunni jihadists operating inside Lebanon. "We have a liberal attitude that allows Al Qaeda types to have a presence here," he said.

Along with Fatah al-Islam, the Siniora government has the blood of dozens of Lebanese soldiers and Lebanese and Palestinian civilians on their hands.

And that is a fact which hits us straight between the eyes."

What, Me Worry?
The Palestinians are Being Slaughtered Everywhere and These Two Clowns are Having the Time of Their Life! What Gives??

No Tea is Being Served to These Palestinian Refugees Escaping With Their Life From Nahr El-Bared Refugee Camp......
The Lebanese "Army" Reserves its Tea Service for the IOF, Only!

By Gilad Atzmon

"......As much as early Zionists had never tried to disguise the extent of their prophetic dream, they didn’t make any efforts to conceal their contempt towards their brothers either. In their emerging fantasy of national awakening, Jews were to divorce from their greed and money seeking as well as their cosmopolitan tendencies. In their vision, Zion was there to transform the Jew into an ordinary organic human being. The move to Zion was there to fill the chasm created by emancipation. The settlement in Zion was there to give birth to a new man. A Jew who looks at himself with pride, a Jew who fills Jewishness with meaning. A Jew that is defined by positive qualities rather than by mere negation.......

Evidently, Zionism has failed completely due to various reasons. Though the Israelis speak Hebrew and dwell on a land they associate with their collective past, the 'new Jew’ failed in transforming himself into an authentic humanist. Israel is an urban capitalistic society that maintains its existence at the expense of others. The bond to soil and nature didn’t last long. If this is not enough, Israelis didn’t really manage to divorce the dialectic of negation. Israel has never become a state of its citizens. It is still a racist state that employs racially orientated immigration laws.......

Early Zionists were critical enough to expose the non-ethical characteristics amongst their fellow brothers. Zionism was there to erect a new ethical Jew, a genuine moral being. Yet, the premise was flawed from the very beginning. Zionists wanted to make Jews 'people like other people’. To a certain extent they wanted Jews to convey the pretence of being people like other people. The failure of the Zionist dream made it clear that even the new Jew, the Zionist, cannot engage in authentic ethical thinking. At most, they look ethical instead of becoming ethically orientated.

As frightening as it may sound, looking at Israeli Hasbara as well as at Ziocon politics around the world and especially in America and the UK, it reveals the bitter truth of the matter. Ziocons and Hasbara always presents an 'ethical like’ argument. They would employ what seems as a moral excuse in order to introduce destruction and carnage. As we know the 'only democracy in the Middle East’ is also the one that has been starving millions of Palestinians in concentration camps for decades. Similarly, the Wolfowitzes and Perles dragged America and Britain into a futile criminal war in Iraq in the name of 'democracy’, 'human rights’ and 'liberalism’. Clearly the Palestinians and the Iraqis are victims of the politics of negation. But they are not alone. The Western subject who is stained with the crime of genocide is as well a victim of the Western shift towards politics of negation. Rather than defining ourselves by who we are, we get accustomed to our politicians defining us for how we hate (or whom is it we suppose to hate: red, 'axis of evil’, Islamofascists, etc.)......."

The Palestinian Karzai Has Left His Hiding Place in the Ramallah Green Zone....
Gaza Should Receive Him With His Due "Respect".....
But What Can I Say About People Who Elected Him in the First Place?
Fools? Desperate? Gullible? Would Settle for Anything? They Never Learn? All of the Above?

These are Abbas' Forces......
They Were so Inspired by the Performance of the Lebanese "Army"......
They Want to Learn From Them How to Serve Tea to the Invading IOF.....
Give Them Both a Big Hand!!

"Al Jazeera was the first international channel to broadcast exclusive footage from inside the Nahr al-Bared Palestinian refugee camp in northern Lebanon as fighting continues between fatah al-Islam and the Lebanese army"

Click Here to Watch Video

*** An Explosive Story And a Must Read ***

"In an interview on CNN International's Your World Today, veteran journalist Seymour Hersh explains that the current violence in Lebanon is the result of an attempt by the Lebanese government to crack down on a militant Sunni group, Fatah al-Islam, that it formerly supported.

Last March, Hersh reported that American policy in the Middle East had shifted to opposing Iran, Syria, and their Shia allies at any cost, even if it meant backing hardline Sunni jihadists.

A key element of this policy shift was an agreement among Vice President Dick Cheney, Deputy National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams, and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the Saudi national security adviser, whereby the Saudis would covertly fund the Sunni Farah al-Islam in Lebanon as a counterweight to the Shia Hezbollah.

Hersh points out that the current situation is much like that during the conflict in Afghanistan in the 1980's – which gave rise to al Qaeda – with the same people involved in both the US and Saudi Arabia and the "same pattern" of the US using jihadists that the Saudis assure us they can control.

When asked why the administration would be acting in a way that appears to run counter to US interests, Hersh says that, since the Israelis lost to them last summer, "the fear of Hezbollah in Washington, particularly in the White House, is acute."

As a result, Hersh implies, the Bush administration is no longer acting rationally in its policy. "We're in the business of supporting the Sunnis anywhere we can against the Shia. ... "We're in the business of creating ... sectarian violence." And he describes the scheme of funding Fatah al-Islam as "a covert program we joined in with the Saudis as part of a bigger, broader program of doing everything we could to stop the spread of the Shia world, and it just simply -- it bit us in the rear."

**********
TRANSCRIPT
**********

HALA GORANI: Well, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reported back in March that in order to defeate Hezbollah, the Lebanese government supported a Sunni militant group, the same ones they're fighting today. Seymour joins us live from Washington. Thanks for being with us. What is the source of the financing according to your reporting on these groups, such as Fatah al-Islam in these camps of Nahr el Bared, for instance? Where are they getting the money and where are they getting the arms?

SEYMOUR HERSH: The key player is the Saudis. What I was writing about was sort of a private agreement that was made between the White House, we're talking about Richard -- Dick -- Cheney and Elliott Abrams, one of the key aides in the White House, with Bandar. And the idea was to get support, covert support from the Saudis, to support various hard-line jihadists, Sunni groups, particularly in Lebanon, who would be seen in case of an actual confrontation with Hezbollah -- the Shia group in the southern Lebanon would be seen as an asset, as simple as that.

GORANI: The Senora government, in order to counter the influence of Hezbollah in Lebanon would be covertly according to your reporting funding groups like Fatah al-Islam that they're having issues with right now?

HERSH: Unintended consequences once again, yes.

GORANI: And so if Saudi Arabia and the Senora government are doing this, whether it's unintended or not, therefore it has the United States must have something to say about it or not?

HERSH: Well, the United States was deeply involved. This was a covert operation that Bandar ran with us. Don't forget, if you remember, you know, we got into the war in Afghanistan with supporting Osama bin Laden, the mujahadin back in the late 1980s with Bandar and with people like Elliott Abrams around, the idea being that the Saudis promised us they could control -- they could control the jihadists so we spent a lot of money and time, the United States in the late 1980s using and supporting the jihadists to help us beat the Russians in Afghanistan and they turned on us. And we have the same pattern, not as if there's any lessons learned. It's the same pattern, using the Saudis again to support jihadists, Saudis assuring us they can control these various group, the groups like the one that is in contact right now in Tripoli with the government.

GORANI: Sure, but the mujahadin in the '80s was one era. Why would it be in the best interest of the United States of America right now to indirectly even if it is indirect empower these jihadi movements that are extremists that fight to the death in these Palestinian camps? Doesn't it go against the interests not only of the Senora government but also of America and Lebanon now?

HERSH: The enemy of our enemy is our friend, much AS the jihadist groups in Lebanon were also there to go after Nasrullah. Hezbollah, if you remember, last year defeated Israel, Whether the Israelis want to acknowledge it, so you have in Hezbollah, a major threat to the American -- look, the American role is very simple. Condoleezza Rice, the secretary of state, has been very articulate about it. We're in the business now of supporting the Sunnis anywhere we can against the Shia, against the Shia in Iran, against the Shia in Lebanon, that is Nasrullah. Civil war. We're in a business of treating in some places, Lebanon in particular, a sectarian violence.

GORANI: The Bush administration, of course, officials would disagree with that, so would the Senora government, openly pointing the finger at Syria, saying this is an offshoot of a Syrian group, Fatah al-Islam is, where else would it get its arms from if not Syria.

HERSH: You have to answer this question. If that's true, Syria which is close -- and criticized greatly by the Bush administration for being very close -- to Hezbollah would also be supporting groups, Salafist groups -- the logic breaks down. What it is simply is a covert program we joined in with the Saudis as part of a bigger broader program of doing everything we could to stop the spread of the Shia, the Shia world, and it bit us in the rear, as it's happened before.

GORANI: Sure, but if it doesn't make any sense for the Syrians to support them, why would it make any sense for the U.S. to indirectly, of course, to support, according to your reporting, by giving a billion dollars in aid, part of it military, to the Senora government -- and if that is dispensed in a way that that government and the U.S. is not controlling extremist groups, then indirectly the United States, according to the article you wrote, would be supporting them. So why would it be in their best interest and what should it do according to the people you've spoken to?

HERSH: You're assuming logic by the United States government. That's okay. We'll forget that one right now. Basically it's very simple. These groups are seeing -- when I was in Beirut doing interviews, I talked to officials who acknowledged the reason they were tolerating the radical jihadist groups was because they were seen as a protection against Hezbollah. The fear of Hezbollah in Washington, particularly in the White House, is acute. They just simply believe that Hassan Nasrallah is intent on waging war in America. Whether it's true or not is another question. There is a supreme overwhelming fear of Hezbollah and we do not want Hezbollah to play an active role in the government in Lebanon and that's been our policy, basically, which is support the Senora government, despite its weakness against the coalition. Not only Senora but Mr. Ahun, former military leader of Lebanon. There in a coalition that we absolutely abhor.

GORANI: All right, Seymour Hersh of "The New Yorker" magazine, thanks for joining us there and hopefully we'll be able to speak a little bit in a few months' time when those developments take shape in Lebanon and we know more. Thanks very much.

HERSH: glad to talk to you.

Palestinians flee the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in the north city of Tripoli, Lebanon Tuesday, May 22, 2007. Thousands of people were fleeing late Tuesday during a lull in the fighting

Palestinian residents carry bread and water in Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon May 22, 2007. Lebanese tanks and artillery battered a Palestinian refugee camp

Red Crescent workers carry an injured Palestinian to an ambulance in this image taken from TV in Tripoli Lebanon. Tuesday May 22, 2007.

Palestinians gather at the entrance of the refugee camp waiting for a transportation to flee the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in the north city of Tripoli, Lebanon Tuesday, May 22, 2007.

Palestinians are evacuated by a Red Cross ambulance fleeing the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in the north city of Tripoli, Lebanon, Tuesday, May 22, 2007


Palestinians flee the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in the north city of Tripoli, Lebanon Tuesday, May 22, 2007. Thousands of people were fleeing late Tuesday during a lull in the fighting.(AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)

One of the best articles which I have read about current events in Lebanon

By Laurie King-Irani, Electronic Lebanon, 22 May 2007

".......I've spent much of the past 48 hours trying to get a better grasp on what is really going on in Tripoli. It's not easy to do, and it occured to me this morning that this may, in fact, be the story: the difficulty of interpreting these events stems from the lack of a comprehensive understanding of the ways that dramatic changes throughout the region, and indeed, the world, are echoing through Lebanon's war-damaged sociopolitical landscape.......

Over the next few days, Electronic Lebanon will be providing more insights into, and analyses of, the latest outbreak of conflict in Lebanon. For now, however, I'd like to outline some issues and realities that any comprehensive and valid explanation of this week's events must include:

1. A huge demographic swell of youth is now coming into their majority, and they have no real leadership or clear focus for political action, nor do they see much hope or options in the current political and economic system.

2. Shifting global configurations are key to any explanation of what is happening in Lebanon. Although the US remains the world's leading military power, that is no longer relevant or important to the regional politial system. US influence is on the wane, its status and reputation completely sullied during the last six years of the Bush Administration's disastrous and delusional "War on Global Terror." In fact, the US has now become more of a pariah or liability for the region's elite, particularly in Lebanon, where the government is characterized as "Pro-American, pro-democracy," while the Opposition (led by Hizbullah) is deemed a dangerous terrorist force. Iraq, as well as the horrors in Occupied Palestine, are now "exhibits A and B" in how and why not to trust the US. The US has given not only itself, but the very concept of democracy, a bad name in the region.

3. Although al-Qaida makes the news a lot, I don't think it (whatever "it" is) commands the attention, respect and support in Lebanon or Palestine as does Hizbullah, the only group in the region to successfully challenge and defeat the Israeli Army.

4. Shifting regional oppositions are also key to understanding this week's events in Lebanon. The Palestinian movement as an institution, i.e., the movement-turned-establishment of the 1960s-mid-1990s, is no more, although people are still very moved and mobilized by the Palestinian tragedy. Hamas is no longer a unified organization. Leftist groups are weak. Rapidly growing gaps between rich and poor mean that there's not much chance of middle class, broad-based movements for change or reform. But then, those sorts of social movements are usually rooted in national identity and nation-state projects, and the nation state is no longer a big draw, or at least not as big a draw as religion, family, ethnicity -- or movements for justice, usually theologically defined (but not always; Egyptian secular and leftist activism is now back on the streets of Cairo).

5. The largely manufactured tensions between Shi'is and Sunnis in Iraq (or, to be more precise, the "Lebanonization" of Iraq encouraged by the United States) will ultimately reverberate elsewhere, probably to the detriment of US allies like Jordan, Saudia Arabia and Egypt. And for non-allies, or quasi-allies, like Lebanon and Syria, this poses real dangers.

6. The ability of groups like Al-Qaida (and again, I don't think that this group exists in the way that the US government or media present it as existing) to do seriously dramatic actions does not hinge upon grass-roots support. They are not a broad-based movement, but could do (or people claiming to be them could do) major attacks that could influence various players' moves in the region and beyond.

7. It's no longer an "either/or" situation, and maybe it never was. It is not as if people have a choice: pro-US or anti-US. The situation now seems fluid enough that some new groupings and ideologies could emerge, that don't look to either the West or various permutations of political Islam to design a new project.

A major political firestorm may overtake the Middle East this summer. It's hard to predict just how it might start, and harder to predict what it will devour. The time for preventing disasters, such as the one now emerging in Lebanon, is long past, though. The irresponsibility of the United States had a lot to do with this. Although it is hard to define the new forms of leadership and political projects emerging in the Middle East, one thing is certain: they won't be directed from, or funded by, Washington, DC. Nor will they be comprehensible to mainstream US news reporters and analysts who remain blinded by past events or official explanations that tie everything to "terrorism.""

Al-Manar

" بدأت حقيقة "فتح الإسلام" تتأكد، إذ تبين أن لا فلسطينيين بين القتلى والموقوفين من تنظيم فتح الاسلام، جراء اشتباكاته مع الجيش اللبناني شمال لبنان، بل أن جنسيات القتلى موزعة بين لبنانيين وسورييين وسعوديين وجزائريين وتونسيين ومغاربة وجنسيات أخرى. وكشفت مصادر أمنية رفيعة إلى أن من أبرز قتلى "فتح الإسلام" السوري محيي الدين عبد الحي عبود، الملقب بأبو يزن الذي كان يتزعم المجموعة التي نفذت جريمة عين علق في المتن الشمالي في شباط فبراير الماضي والملاحق من قبل أجهزة الأمن السورية.

ومن بين القتلى أيضاً اللبناني صدام الحاج ديب من عكار المطلوب إلى القضاء الألماني بتهمة الاشتراك في محاولة تفجير القطارين والتي تبين لاحقاً أن تنظيم القاعدة وراءها، في حين يتم التحقق حالياً من هوية أحد القتلى المشتبه بأنه السعودي عبد الرحمن اليحيى الملقب بطلحة.

وإذا كانت جنسيات القتلى كذلك، فإن الموقوفين الثمانية عشر حتى اللحظة من أفراد فتح الإسلام" من جنسيات عربية مختلفة، جزائرية، تونسية، سعودية، إضافة إلى لبنانيين، ومن أبرزهم اللبناني أبو خالد حسين الذي كان يتزعم المجموعة التي اعتدت على جيب للجيش اللبناني كان في داخله 4 عسكريين استشهدوا على الفور في منطقة القلمون جنوب طرابلس.

وقال الدكتور أحمد موصللي المتخصص في شؤون الجماعات المتشددة" فتح الإسلام هي في بداية الأمر انشقاق عن فتح الانتفاضة، التي كانت جزء من النسيج الفلسطيني، لكن انشقاقها عن فتح الانتفاضة أدى بها إلى تبني ايدولوجيه مختلفة جدا، وخروجها عن السياق الفلسطيني وتبنيها مفهوم الجهادية التكفيرية الإسلامية على نمط أسامة بن لادن والقاعدة، وبالتالي هي لا تمثل النسيج الفلسطيني لا فتح ولا حماس ولا الجهاد الإسلامي بل هي خروج عن كل الأمور".

وزيادة في التأكيد على ماهية فتح الإسلام، لفت مؤسس التيار السلفي في لبنان الشيخ داعي الإسلام الشهال في حديث لصحيفة الحياة إلى أنه وبحكم تواصله مع هذا التنظيم فإن معظم أعضائه هم من الخليجيين واليمنيين والمغاربة والجزائريين، إضافة إلى اللبنانيين والسوريين.

وقال الدكتور موصللي" في حقيقة الأمر هذا التنظيم صغير لكن بسبب الأحداث التي وقعت في لبنان، ومحاولة تجييش الفتنة المذهبية بين السنة والشيعة، احد أقطاب السنة هو من قام بدعم هذه المجموعات من اجل الوقوف ضد حزب الله في مواجهة مفترضة مابين السنة والشيعة لكن في حقيقة الأمر ما حدث أن اتفاق الملك عبد الله السعودي مع الرئيس احمدي نجاد الإيراني على وأد الفتنة المذهبية بين السنة والشيعة، اخرج هذه المجموعات من تحت عباءة السلطة الموجودة، اليوم تحولوا الى مجموعة ليست فقط ضد الشيعة في لبنان بل أيضا ضد من دفع بها في الأساس إلى التسلح بهذا الشكل الكبير، واعطاءها التمويل اللازم، وأريد أن أشير إلى معلومة مهمة انه عندما كان مساعد وزيرة الخارجية الأميركية دايفيد ولش تحدث في موضوعين الأول هو رئاسة الجمهورية، لكن الموضوع الثاني الذي لم يتحدث احد عنه هو طلب دايفيد ولش تحديدا، ضبط الجماعات الإسلامية المتطرفة في شمال لبنان، وثلاثة ايام بعد مغادرته يحدث ما يحدث، وهذا ليس على سبيل الصدفة".

وعليه فان الوقائع والمعطيات المتوافرة تؤكد على عدم وجود جنسية محددة لفتح الإسلام، في ضوء تركيبة عناصرها وقياداتها ومعظمهم من خارج الإطار الفلسطيني، إضافة إلى غلبة كبيرة للعنصر اللبناني في هذا التنظيم."

The Haunted Woods of John Howard

By SONJA KARKAR
CounterPunch

"There is something worrying about a prime minister of a liberal, democratic country who imposes values on his country's citizens and those who wish to become citizens, yet does not adhere to those values when he regards it politically expedient to ignore them. This is precisely what Prime Minister John Howard has done in accepting the "honour" of having a forest named after him in Israel's Negev Desert and also the Jerusalem Prize for his support of Israel and its "values". And John Howard is in good company: Sir Robert Menzies and Bob Hawke - both former Australian prime ministers - also have forests in Israel named after them, as well as a former governor-general, Sir Zelman Cowen.

The naming of the John Howard forest was arranged by a quasi-private land agency, the Jewish National Fund (JNF) which deliberately discriminates against non-Jews in its allocation of long-lease agreements. This arrangement services Israel's apartheid policies aimed at bringing about the Judaisation of all of the land originally known as historic Palestine. The Israeli government relies on the JNF and international Zionist organizations to bring in Jews from abroad to settle on land forcibly taken from the non-Jewish inhabitants--a practice which is discriminatory and illegal. Already the JNF holds 13 per cent of the land and now is currently advertising its "Blueprint Negev" as "A Miracle in the Desert". Only Jews will have access to the new development in keeping with the JNF's charter, which is focused on looking after Jews globally......

The similarity of conditions between the Bedouin Arabs and black South Africans during the Apartheid era is obvious. Like the white South Africans, Jewish Israelis seek to preserve their privileged position in Israel at all costs, tragically to the detriment of the non-Jewish citizens. All Israel's policies, therefore, are geared to ensure the exclusivity and security of the Jewish state. Thus, mass expulsions followed by home demolitions and razing of villages is a familiar story in Israel just as forced removal was the modus operandi in South Africa. Under Israel's former Prime Minister Sharon, a five-year plan was approved by the Israeli cabinet, to force the Bedouins living in the unrecognised villages to leave......"

Militiamen Attack British Convoy Near Basra

Adnan Daoud's tea party with the IDF

Click Here to Watch Video

Militants from the recently formed Fatah al-Islam have emerged with guns blazing; they are now in their third day of fighting against the Lebanese Army. The al-Qaeda-inspired group has dramatically raised the stakes in Lebanon's parlous political landscape, threatening a complete breakdown of the country. And the Lebanese government's blaming Syria will not help matters.

By Sami Moubayed
Asia Times

"......Clearly a radical group like Fatah al-Islam makes the situation more complicated in the overall political situation in Lebanon, which is already on the verge of explosion. It will strain security for the Siniora cabinet and give it an additional thing to blame on the Syrians.

Yet it makes no sense for Syria to support a radical political and military Islamic group in Lebanon. Abssi's record in Syrian jails is enough proof of how illogical it would be to accuse him of being on the payroll of the Syrians. Radical political Islam has been a threat to Syria ever since the republic was created in 1932. It always has been a secular regime in Damascus - at times without the Syrians even knowing it.

The Syrians will not and cannot ally themselves with political Islam. Simply put, such an alliance would backfire and result in violence within Syria, something that President Bashar al-Assad will not tolerate. That explains why the Syrians have closed their border with Lebanon over the fighting, fearing the worst.

Some want to use Fatah al-Islam's outburst as further ammunition against Damascus. Some equally want to use the incident to justify a clampdown on Islamic groups in Lebanon, either Sunni or Shi'ite.

It is always easy for the Lebanese to blame Syria. But the Lebanese government and, particularly, its army and security forces are too weak to crack down on a bunch of terrorists on their own territory.

If anybody is to blame for Fatah al-Islam, it is the Siniora government, which has tolerated it for six months, knowing perfectly well that it has existed since last November. "

One of Robert Fisk's worst articles

"......And then comes the crackle-crackle of rifle fire and a shoal of bullets drifts out of the camp. A Lebanese army tank fires a shell in return and we feel the faint shock wave from the camp. How many are dead? We don't know. How many are wounded? The Red Cross cannot yet enter to find out. We are back at another of those tragic Lebanese stage shows: the siege of Palestinians.

Only this time, of course, we have Sunni Muslim fighters in the camp, in many cases shooting at Sunni Muslim soldiers who are standing in a Sunni Muslim village. It was a Lebanese colleague who seemed to put his finger on it all. "Syria is showing that Lebanon doesn't have to be Christians versus Muslims or Shia versus Sunnis," he said. "It can be Sunnis versus Sunnis. And the Lebanese army can't storm into Nahr el-Bared. That would be a step far greater than this government can take.".....

And yes, it is difficult not to feel Syria's hands these days. Fouad Siniora's government, surrounded in its little "green zone" in central Beirut, is being drained of power. The army is more and more running Lebanon, ever more tested because it, too, of course, contains Lebanon's Sunnis and Shia and Maronites and Druze. What fractures, what greater strains can be put on this little country as Siniora still pleads for a UN tribunal to try those who murdered ex-prime minister Rafik Hariri in 2005?

We read through the list of army dead. Most of the names appear to be Sunni. And we glance up to the fleecy clouds and across the mountain range to where the Syrian border lies scarcely 10 miles away. Not difficult to reach Nahr el-Barad from the frontier. Not difficult to resupply. The geography makes a kind of political sense up here. And just up the road is the Syrian frontier post......"

Attacks are often linked: when one unit is hit, another is sent out to help them. The second unit is then ambushed en route

Rounds of ammunition still inside the vehicle were exploding from the heat of the flames

The Bradley vehicle was hit by an IED in Amiriyah, a Sunni neighbourhood in west Baghdad

Amiriyah, Baghdad: Guardian photographer Sean Smith is embedded with the US military in Iraq. The pictures here were taken as the troops he is attached to were called to the site of an explosion - an improvised explosive device (IED) that had destroyed an armoured vehicle.

'The Bradley, upside down, was on fire. Seven died'

".....The Stryker vehicle platoon I was with was acting as the Quick Reaction Force that day, supporting the US military and Iraqi army in the area. When you hear an explosion you don't know what it is. We arrived to find a lot of smoke and moved into a house to assess whether there was shooting still going on.

As we came out, I saw the Bradley, which had been flipped upside down and was on fire. It's a heavy armoured and tracked vehicle, a cross between a tank and an armoured personnel carrier.

You can't patrol that area with Humvees - it's too dangerous. So the troops enter in heavy vehicles and then do foot patrols, visiting houses.

Those troops who could fetched fire extinguishers from their vehicles to try to put the fire out. There was ordnance - we didn't know how much - heating up and going off inside the vehicle.......

People have heard about bombs going off in the mainly crowded Shia areas and markets, but this seems to be a fairly sustained attack on Americans in Baghdad, on a different scale to recent activity in the city."

Sneh: Haneyya is an assassination target for Israel

"NAZARETH, (PIC)-- Ephraim Sneh, the Israeli deputy war minister, has clearly threatened to assassinate PA premier Ismael Haneyya if Palestinian retaliation to IOF aggressions continued.

In an interview with the Hebrew radio Tuesday, Sneh affirmed, “PA premier Ismael Haneyya could be killed by the IOF troops in the framework of the Israeli retaliation to Palestinian missile attacks by Hamas”.

When asked on whether or not Haneyya was placed on Israel’s hit-list, Sneh retorted, “I'll put it like this, there is no one who is in the circle of commanders and leaders in Hamas who is immune from a strike”.

He also charged that Hamas’ political leadership was approving retaliatory attacks on Israeli settlements.

Earlier, Avi Dichter, the Israeli internal security minister, threatened to assassinate Hamas’ supreme political leader Khaled Mishaal that comes in the frame of Israeli calls to dismantle Hamas’ infrastructure.

“Mishaal isn’t immune of Israeli strikes and we will get him in the first available chance” said Dichter.

Hamas’ political leader had repeatedly affirmed that they aren’t afraid of being killed as they know that they are dying for the cause of a noble and just issue that is the Palestinian issue."

"GAZA, (PIC)-- Hamas criticized strongly the Israeli participation in the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Jordan, which concluded on Sunday, considering it a step in a series of cumulative attempts by Arab regimes towards normalization with the Israeli Occupation Government, according to the Hamas spokesman in West Bank.

The spokesman added that the economic forum had been preceded by a series of meetings and semi-official or official visits from some Arab governments for the mere sake of diplomatic protocol and formalities which saved Israel from the absence of a political project and showed it as a peace-loving state.

He also said, "What makes things even worse is that all this came at the moment the Israeli government represented by Shimon Peres (who participated in the forum) is waging an unprecedented military campaign on the Gaza Strip where massacres have become a daily reality that does not move Arab regimes. "

The spokesman also said that what adds insult to injury, for the families of those being slaughtered in Gaza, was to see Saeb Erekat sitting next to Shimon Peres as a partner or a close friend, at the time it was incumbent upon him, as a head of the negotiations department in the PLO, not to be party to attempts aimed at breaking the Israeli isolation and getting it out of its political crisis."

***

"what adds insult to injury, for the families of those being slaughtered in Gaza, was to see Saeb Erekat sitting next to Shimon Peres as a partner or a close friend"

But Erekat and his boss, the Palestinian Karzai Abbas, ARE PARTNERS with the Zionist occupation. Why else do they finance them, arm them and provide them protection? That is why Erekat and the rest of the traitors feel close to Shimon Peres and the rest of the war criminals; they are partners in crime.

"Our resident nazi Minister of Strategic Affairs and Threats has come up with a solution to the ongoing conflict in the area, a final solution... It's not a One or Two State Solution as is being discussed in rational circles.... but, in his own words it is... "The present coalition has reached the moment of truth," Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday. "Either we dismantle Hamas, or we dismantle the government."

We dismantle Hamas? Is that not a total declaration of war?......"

عبد الباري عطوان

"كشفت الصدامات الدموية التي وقعت طوال اليومين الماضيين في مخيم نهر البارد الفلسطيني عن مدي ارتباك قيادة الجيش اللبناني، وانعدام الرؤية السياسية لديها، واستئسادها علي الفلسطينيين وحدهم، وسقوطها في اول اختبار مواجهة حقيقي مع قوي ضعيفة من حيث العدد والعتاد بالمقارنة مع عديده وعتاده.
........
قيادة الجيش اللبناني، وفي محاولة منها للتغطية علي هذا القصور الفاضح لجأت الي قصف المخيم بطريقة عشوائية انتقامية، مستهدفة المدنيين، ومستخدمة مدفعية ثقيلة في مواجهة اسلحة خفيفة غير مؤثرة، وهذا ما ادي الي تبخر التعاطف مع الجيش اللبناني في اوساط الكثيرين، باستثناء الطبقة السياسية اللبنانية الفاسدة التي تصدر دائما اخفاقاتها علي اطراف خارجية.
......
ادارة الجيش للأزمة في نهر البارد كانت سيئة بكل المقاييس، وتكشف عن انعدام الخبرة، وغياب الحكمة، ورغبة دموية متأصلة بالانتقام. فخطف مجموعة لطائرة او سفينة لا يبرر قصفها واسقاطها او اغراقها.
لبنان يعيش حالة من الاحتقان بسبب الانقسامات الحادة في صفوفه ليس بسبب فتح الاسلام وانما المحكمة الدولية، وهناك جهات لبنانية وغير لبنانية تريد تدميره وسورية والمنطقة بأسرها، سواء من خلال الاصرار علي تشكيل هذه المحكمة او وضع العقبات في طريقها.
.......
امر مؤسف ان نري النخبة السياسية اللبنانية تتحدث عن هيبة الدولة، وتتوحد جميعها ضد الفلسطينيين، تحت ذريعة الانتقام من فتح الاسلام ، وهي النخبة التي انقسمت في مواجهة العدوان الاسرائيلي علي لبنان، مثلما انقسمت علي المقاومة التي تصدت له، وكأن هؤلاء ليسوا عربا ومسلمين.
لم نسمع سياسيا لبنانيا واحدا يعترض علي القصف العشوائي لمخيم نهر البارد الذي يضم اكثر من اربعين الف لاجئ انحشروا في اقل من كيلومتر مربع هربا من القصف المدفعي العشوائي وكأن هؤلاء ليسوا بشرا، ولا يوجد بينهم اطفال ونساء.
عناصر فتح الاسلام ليسوا جميعا من الفلسطينيين، ولا يمثل هؤلاء الا اقل من ثلاثين في المئة منهم فقط، ومع ذلك يتعرض الفلسطينيون الي حملة تحريض غير مسبوقة من قبل السياسيين اللبنانيين في الجانبين.
.......
وتتحمل النخب اللبنانية السياسية الفاسدة، التي تورث فسادها لابنائها، مثل الحكام العرب تماما، المسؤولية الاكبر عن تحويل لبنان الي دولة فاشلة تستقطب التطرف بكل انواعه، تماما مثل العراق والصومال وافغانستان. فالابقاء علي المخيمات الفلسطينية علي حالها المزري الراهن، حيث تنعدم الخدمات كليا، ويمنع علي الفلسطيني العمل في اكثر من ستين وظيفة علي الاقل، وادخال كيس اسمنت واحد لبناء غرفة جديدة لاستيعاب اطفاله او تزويج من بلغ الرشد منهم، هذا الوضع جعلها غيتوهات تطرف، ومناطق جذب لكل الرافضين للعجز العربي الرسمي بمختلف اشكاله.
فمن غير المنطقي ان يجد الباكستاني والهندي والفلبيني العمل في لبنان في مختلف المجالات ولا يجد اللاجئ الفلسطيني في لبنان غير الخدمة في المنازل او الانضمام الي الجماعات المتطرفة لإطعام اطفاله الجوعي.
واذا كان تنظيم فتح الاسلام ليست له علاقة مع القاعدة، فان التنظيم سيصل الي لبنان في الايام القريبة، ان لم يكن قد وصل فعلا، فالعائدون من العراق بدأوا يعودون الي بلادهم لتوظيف خبراتهم التي اكتسبوها بفاعلية ضد الانظمة الحاكمة المتواطئة مع الامريكان والاسرائيليين حسب تصنيفاتهم.
العائدون من العراق سيكونون اخطر كثيرا من سابقيهم الذين عادوا من افغانستان، لان خبرة هؤلاء تأتي من مواجهتهم الجيش الامريكي الذي يعتبر الاكثر احترافية وخبرة وتسليحا في العالم بأسره، وهي مواجهة استمرت اكثر من اربع سنوات افشلوا خلالها المشروع الاحتلالي الامريكي، واسقطوا الحكم الطائفي في بغداد عمليا.
......."

"......Al Jazeera has been told that at least 40 people have died in the camp, with sources saying that conditions are worsening.

Fathallah Deeb, head of the camp's medical centre: "We are hearing heavy bombardment... We are receiving floods of injuries into the medical centre."

"We have many reports that houses inside the camp have been totally destroyed."

He described the shelling as a massacre and appealed through Al Jazeera for international aid. He said bodies were lying uncollected under rubble......

Ghassan bin Jiddo, Al Jazeera's Beirut bureau chief, said on Monday afternoon that a Palestinian delegation had contacted the Lebanese government to bring about a ceasefire.

Georges Kettaneh, head of rescue operations for the Lebanese Red Cross, told reporters that 17 Palestinians were evacuated from the camp on Monday afternoon.

"The Red Cross established, in co-ordination with the Lebanese army and the Palestinian Red Crescent, a safe evacuation corridor which helped us evacuate 17 cases from Nahr al-Bared," he said.

He said that some food and water supplies were taken in.

However, Zeina Khodr, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tripoli, reported late on Monday afternoon that Lebanese army shelling and gunfights around the camp had escalated.....

There are reports that water tanks in the camp have been destroyed by Lebanese army shelling.

Abu Hisham Laila, an official of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine [PFLP], speaking to Al Jazeera from inside the camp, called the Lebanese bombing of the camp "indiscriminate".

"All residents have stayed at home, taking shelter in lower floors," he said.

"We want ambulances to be allowed into the camp to transfer the civilian casualties. We also want fire brigades to enter the camp and put off the fire in many buildings."

The continued fighting has led to fears that violence could flare in other Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.....

By Dahr Jamail

"“We rely on Hezbollah and these other countries which are helping us now because it’s all we have,” Abu Khalil, an unemployed construction worker injured by bomb shrapnel during last summer’s war in Lebanon, told me. As we stood talking in the warm spring sun outside his largely destroyed village of Aita Ech Chaab, a few hundred yards from Lebanon’s southern border, he added, “And we rely on Hezbollah to protect us again from the next Israeli aggression, because our own government cannot and will not do that job.”

In its savage 34-day assault on Lebanon, the Israeli government had hoped to knock down precisely that sentiment. One of the stated aims of the war, in which more than a thousand Lebanese and more than 40 Israelis were killed, was to turn the Lebanese against Hezbollah for having triggered the conflict. An ironic assumption considering that the creation of Hezbollah was a direct response to an earlier Israeli attack......

Another irony is that nearly half the members of the massive opposition alliance joining Hezbollah against the U.S.-backed Lebanese government are Christians.....

Last summer, Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon announced on Israeli army radio that “all those in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah” and “villages should be flattened by the Israeli air force before ground troops move in.”

Such rhetoric and the ensuing actions have not had the effect desired by the U.S. and Israel. Instead of becoming unpopular, Hezbollah has garnered massive political alliances......"

Celebrate!

The Lebanese "Army" Which Served Tea to the Invading Israeli Army in South Lebanon and Fled Without Firing a Shot, Has Finally Found Some People to Brutalize, Subjugate and Kill: The Palestinian Refugees in Their Most Miserable Refugee Camps in Lebanon. The Heroic Lebanese "Army" has Been Indiscriminately Shelling the Refugee Camp of Nahr El-Bared, Home to 40,000 Palestinians. Food and Medical Supplies Have Run Out. Injured Palestinians are Bleeding to Death. Dozens Have Died so Far.

But, Don't Spoil the Party: The Lebanese "Army" Has Finally Found Someone to Beat Up.

Zionism and the Doctrine of Election

By M. SHAHID ALAM
(professor of economics at Northeastern University, and author of Challenging the New Orientalism: Dissenting Essays on America's 'War Against Islam')
CounterPunch

"No idea has played a more seminal role in the recent history of Jewish and Christian Zionism than the Jewish doctrine of divine election or chosenness.[1] Since this doctrine is the cornerstone of Zionism, divine sanction for Jewish uniqueness has been inseparable from Israeli exceptionalism and Israeli history.[2].......

However, it was the theological doctrine of chosenness that would most convincingly settle the morality of Zionist claims to Palestine.[5] The Zionists would have little difficulty convincing their Jewish and Christian audiences, the only ones that mattered at that time, that this was no 'theft.' It was widely believed by populations raised on Biblical myths that God had promised Palestine to the Jews as their eternal inheritance. Since Jewish ownership rights were divinely ordained, they could not be annulled by absence of the owners. In other words, Zionism was not a colonial movement to expropriate the natives: it was a 'messianic' movement to restore Palestine to its divinely appointed Jewish owners. The European Jews who arrived in Palestine could not be accused of stealing their lands; as the Jewish National Fund claims, they were only "redeeming" lands which had had always been theirs.......

The doctrine of election did not merely set the Jews apart from other nations; it also set them above other nations.[10] Over time, this has encouraged racist tendencies. Since the Jews were the chosen instruments of God's intervention on earth, this was interpreted by some Jewish thinkers to mean that Jews were not subject to the laws of nature and society.[11] In other words, as long as the Jews believed that they were acting as instruments of God's will, they did not have to follow the laws of gentile nations. As Israelis have moved to the religious right, a shift propelled by the rationale and experience of Zionism itself, Zionist advocates have shown an increasing willingness to justify their human rights abuses as a Jewish prerogative. As Zionist plans continue to be challenged by their victims, the 'chosen people' slowly but surely take on the hues of a 'master race:' they begin to imagine that they have the power to legitimize their actions by merely willing them into existence."

The difference between the Israeli Right, the Middle and the "Left" when it comes to Palestinian blood
By Jalal Rifa'i

Palestinian Blood: The Red Carpet of the Middle East; from Iraq, the Occupied West Bank and Now Gaza and Lebanon
By Baha Boukhari

خلال مشاركته في تشييع شهداء مجزرة الشجاعية

"غزة – المركز الفلسطيني للإعلام

شدد إسماعيل هنية، رئيس الوزراء الفلسطيني، على حق الشعب في مقاومة الاحتلال وصد عدوانه وعلى ضرورة تمسك الشعب بهذا الخيار، مؤكداً أن المقاومة "هي الطريق الأمثل للخلاص من الاحتلال الصهيوني".

جاء تصريحات هنية خلال كلمة له ألقاها في المسجد العمري الكبير بغزة، اليوم الاثنين (21/5) مخاطباً جموع مشيعي ثمانية شهداء ارتقوا الليلة الماضية في قصف صهيوني استهدف منزل القيادي في حركة "حماس" الدكتور خليل الحية في حي الشجاعية بغزة.

وأشاد هنية بصبر الشعب الفلسطيني على الحصار الذي تجاوز عامه الأول، معاهداً الشعب والأمة العربية والإسلامية على "المضي في طريق المقاومة حتى نيل الشهادة أو النصر".

وشدد رئيس الوزراء الفلسطيني في كلمته: "والله إن الكراسي (المناصب الوزارية) لا تساوي عندنا نعل ولا قطرة دم نزفت من طفل فلسطيني".

وقارن بين الهجمة التي يتعرض لها الشعب الفلسطيني بالتي شنها الكيان الصهيوني على الفلسطينيين في عام 2003، مؤكداً أن صمود الشعب الفلسطيني ومقاومته "ستفشلها كما أفشلت سابقتها التي لم تقل عنها ضراوة".

وركز هنية على أهمية وجود عناصر قوة لدى الشعب الفلسطيني تزيده صموداً في وجه الحصار والضغط الدولي قائلا: "لو أنكم ضعفاء لما حسب لكم أحد حساب وألقوكم بعيداً". حاثاً الشعب الفلسطيني إلى مزيد من الصمود والتمسك بخيار المقاومة، قائلاً: "أنتم لا تمثلون أنفسكم أنتم تمثلون القدس والأقصى".

وعبر هنية عن تضامنه مع نائب رئيس كتلة "التغيير والإصلاح" البرلمانية خليل الحية الذي فقد سبعة من عائلته في قصف الشجاعية ومساندته في طريق المقاومة، حيث قدم هنية التعازي إلى كل من عائلة الحية والفيومي وآل فروانة التي فقدت عدداً من أبنائها في القصف الصهيوني أمس. "

humanitarian news and analysis
UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

"BEIRUT, 20 May 2007 (IRIN) - Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in refugee camps across Lebanon could face an economic crisis, warned analysts, after 11 Lebanese Army soldiers were killed in heavy clashes with Islamist militants based in Nahr al-Bared camp near the northern city of Tripoli.

In what observers say is the worst fighting to hit Tripoli in two decades, army tanks opened fire on positions inside Nahr al-Bared camp held by militants from Fatah Islam, a Sunni al-Qaeda-styled group. The group’s presence spurred the army to close public access to the camp earlier this year, devastating local incomes.

After suffering its heaviest losses in many years, security analysts predict the Lebanese army may increase its military presence around all Palestinian refugee camps, home to over half of Lebanon's more than 400,000 Palestinian refugees, further limiting public access and damaging an already fragile economic and social environment.

"The Lebanese army will be shocked by this as they have not normally considered themselves a target for attack," Timor Goksel, a former United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) spokesman and long-time Lebanon security analyst, told IRIN.

"The army plays a very important internal security function and they will now need to restore their credibility. The army might consider putting camps across Lebanon under a similar kind of siege and all Palestinians could suffer. There might be more bloodshed," he added.

Under a decades-old agreement with Lebanon, internal security in the camps is left to the Palestinians, predominantly the Fatah party, which is the largest faction and a secular rival to the less popular Fatah Islam........"

Smoke rises from the Palestinian refugee camp of Nahr el-Bared in northern Lebanon. Photograph: Nabil Mounzer/EPA

Mark Tran and agencies
Monday May 21, 2007
Guardian Unlimited

"Lebanese troops today shelled a Palestinian refugee camp, a day after more than 55 people were killed in fighting between Sunni militants and government forces. Tank shells crashed into the coastal camp of Nahr el-Bared, home to some 40,000 refugees, near the northern city of Tripoli. Plumes of smoke rose into the sky as fighters of the little-known Fatah al-Islam group fired grenades and machineguns at army posts on the camp perimeter, witnesses said.

Palestinian sources in the camp said the shelling had killed two civilians. As Lebanese forces fired on the camp, witnesses said imams used loudspeakers to call on the army to stop the shelling.

At least 27 soldiers, 15 militants and 15 civilians died in yesterday's violence, the worst internal fighting since Lebanon's 1975-90 civil war......."

Scores dead as Lebanese army battles Islamists in bloodiest day since civil war

By Robert Fisk
The Independent

".......So here are a few facts. A group of armed men tried to rob a Tripoli bank on Saturday and got cornered in an apartment block. Others holed up in the Nahr el-Bared Palestinian refugee camp north of the city. When I arrived yesterday, army tank fire was bursting in the camp and black-hooded policemen were preparing to storm, Iraqi-style, into the city-centre building. But the robbers were said to have stolen only $1,500. Was that worth this massacre? And is "Fatah al-Islaam" - which has existed in the shadows of the camp for months - really a 300-strong armed group?.....

Well, Mr Siniora claimed it was an attempt to destabilise Lebanon - a good guess, to put it mildly - and Saad Hariri, son of the former prime minister murdered here more than two years ago, called the armed men "evil-doers who had hijacked Islam". This is the same Saad Hariri whom at least one American reporter - I refer to Seymour Hersh - suggested was indirectly helping to funnel Saudi money to these same gunmen in a recent article in The New Yorker. The Shia Muslim Hizbollah are supposed to be the bad guys in this scenario, not a Sunni group.

But Tripoli is the most powerful Sunni city in Lebanon - so powerful that not a drop of alcohol wets its restaurant tables - and the men and women running in terror across Tripoli's streets yesterday were also Sunnis. So are the Syrians really concocting an "al-Qaida" in Lebanon? And who are its enemies? The Nato army of the UN force in southern Lebanon, perhaps? But surely not the Lebanese army, the very same army which bravely prevented civil war last January? Yet in 2000, an al-Qaida-type group also ambushed the Lebanese army in northern Lebanon. Was this, too, supposed to be a Syrian invention?......"

"Ramallah - Ma'an - Palestinian information minister, Dr Mustafa Barghouthi, has issued a statement on Monday deeming Israel's incursions in the Gaza Strip "war crimes" against innocent civilians and has said that this cannot be ignored.

Barghouthi said "Israel has given itself the right to kill and destroy everything and target every Palestinian regardless of whether he is a man, a woman or a child."

He also said "Israel has reached an unprecedented degree of arrogance when its army announced that they killed only three Palestinian civilians in the raid on Gaza on Sunday. This implies that three innocent civilians are not important, but this is by itself a recognition by the Israeli army that they have committed the crime of killing the Palestinians."

The minister also said that what is going on in the strip should be stopped by the international community and that Israel's continued killing of Palestinians is due to the "world's silence on the crimes committed by Israelis.""

Israel warns Hamas leaders

"Israel has said it will kill Khaled Meshaal, the exiled Hamas political leader "at the first opportunity".

The threat to kill Meshaal and other leaders of the Palestinian resistance group came as Israel stepped up air attacks in the Gaza Strip on Monday, killing at least five people.

Avi Dichter, the Israeli public security minister, told army radio on Monday: "He [Khaled Meshaal] is a more than legitimate target and I am convinced that at the first opportunity we will rid ourselves of him, despite the difficulty of the task".

Another Israeli minister said all Hamas leaders should be killed with a view to end cross-border rockets being fired into Israel.

Assassination threat

Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, the national infrastructure minister, said on Israel Radio on Monday: "I don't distinguish between those who carry out the [rocket] attacks and those who give the orders. I say we have to put them all in the crosshairs".

Asked if Ismail Haniya, the Palestinian prime minister, could be a target, Dichter said: "If Haniya is part of those who give the orders to carry out attacks, that will make him a legitimate target."

Meshaal, who lives in exile in Syria, escaped a Mossad assassination attempt in Amman in 1997. Two Israel agents botched an attempt to poison him then .

"He is not safe anywhere, neither in Damascus or elsewhere," Dichter said. "And he knows this perfectly well."

Haniya also escaped an Israeli attack in Gaza in 2004 that killed Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, the movement's wheelchair-bound founder and spiritual leader......"

An Interview with a Hamas MP in Spanish Published in El Pais (May 21, 2007)

Contributed by Lucia, with her English Translation

"Hace dos décadas el farmacéutico Mohamed Shihab formaba parte del núcleo fundador del Movimiento de Resistencia Islámica (Hamás). A sus 50 años, es diputado desde la victoria de su partido en las elecciones de enero de 2006. En su casa del campo de refugiados de Yabalia, comenta la violencia que inunda Gaza de muerte. Convencido de que la lucha de Hamás contra Israel se prolongará décadas, la prioridad, asegura, no es sostener el Gobierno de unidad nacional. Adicto a los símiles, el dirigente islamista afirma de los dirigentes de Al Fatah que encabezan los cuerpos de seguridad leales al presidente: "Son un cáncer. Es el momento de aplicar el bisturí"......."

***

Lucia's Translation:

The Military chiefs loyal to president Abbas are a cancer that must be removed.

Interview with Mohamed Shihab
by J.M. Muñoz, Yabalia, 21.05.07

Two decades ago the apothecary Mohamed Shihad, formed part of the founding nucleus of the Islamic Resistance MOvement (Hamas). On his 50's, he is a M.P. since his partys victory in january 2006 elections. At his home, in Yabalia refugee camp, he comments on the violence flooding Gaza with death.

Convinced as he is that Hamas resistance struggle against Israel will last for several decades, the priority, he assures, is not to uphold the unity government. Addict to similes, the islamist leader affirms that the Fatah leaders heading the security bodies loyal to President Abbas: "Are a cancer. It is about time to apply the bistoury"

Q- Why a firm agreement with Fatah is not reached?

R- our problem is not with Fatah, but with certain trends within that party. The israeli collaborators do whatever they want and nobody can control them. They don't get the Palestinian people's interests to prevail, since they must be assured that their israeli and US bosses are satisfied with them. Just 10 days ago when a new security plan was put in force, the violence blasted anew. What is happening here is a coup d'etat orchestrated by the United States.

Q - Doesn't president Abbas control Al Fatah?

R-He is nowhere. He does not lead, but he wants his party to destroy Hamas. They won't be able. We've reached agreements with Abbas, but other officers follow different agendas. These groups are a cancer that is going to destroy Fatah too. They are Mohamed Dahlan, National security advisor, Rashid Abu Shabak, chief of preventative security, and their supporters, who are forming death squads. Abbas did not want to select Dahlan, but the United States and Israel forced him to.

Q- The unity government doesn't solve the people's problems. Is it on borrowed time?

R- What is most important now is to extirpate that tumor, because these people are the ones who destroyed the previous government, destroy the current one, and will destroy the next one. I'm not worried for the unity government. We have to apply the bistoury because Fatah cannot do it. Not even many of its leaders who are openly opposed to Dahlan. Everybody knows that if the clean Fatah members reached office, the collaborators would end up in jail or dead.

Q- How long will the violence last between the two parties?

R- Dahlan has been given two months to attack Hamas and try to destroy us. But he is going to end up the same way as Antoine Lahad, chief of the southern Lebanese army, (Israel's ally), who was abandoned by the christians. In case he is still alive. Our religion says that, he who kills, must die.

Q- What will be Israel's reaction?

R- Aerial strikes. They are aware that in case they go beyond that, they'll get nothing. It will only serve to uncover the collaborators who are helping Israel.

Q- Hosni Mubarak declared on Wednesday that Egypt pretends to oust Hamas from office. Are you alone?

R- Their represenative in Gaza denied those declarations. Whatever. On the ground, they prove to be true. While the Egyptian police mistreats the Hamas leaders at the Rafah border, they let the presidential guard in, so that these fight us. We are not interested in confronting the countries surrounding us.

Q- Many people think that the catastrophic economic situation and misgovern are going to affect Hamas too

P- People know how to diferentiate. Now they feel far more menaced by violence than by the economic situation. And they also know that Hamas is not responsible for the insecurity. The economy was already destroyed, prior to when we took office.

***

Thank you Lucia for great work!

(Click on cartoon to enlarge)
By Bendib

EE UU, Israel, la UE, Egipto y Jordania comparten el objetivo de derribar al Gobierno islamista
(Total war on Hamas)

An article in Spanish published in El Pais
Contributed by Lucia

Please read Lucia's comments in English below.

""No vamos a permitir que Hamás salga triunfadora". La sentencia suena de lo más normal en boca de cualquier dirigente israelí. Más difícil es escucharla de labios de gobernantes árabes. "Me consta que lo dijo Omar Suleimán, jefe de los servicios secretos de Egipcio", afirma un diplomático europeo acreditado en Tel Aviv. Es una frase que resume la situación que atraviesan los territorios palestinos, especialmente Gaza. Ya no importa el método. El derribo del Gobierno en el que participan los fundamentalistas es objetivo común de Israel, EE UU, la Unión Europea, pero también de los dos únicos países árabes que han formado acuerdos de paz con el Estado judío, Egipto y Jordania, presas del pánico por el efecto contagioso que un éxito de Hamás pudiera tener en sus pujantes partidos islamistas......"

***

Lucia's Comments:

The title is "The war of all against Hamas", author is Juan Miguel Muñoz, reporting from Palestine for El Pais (I don't like the pro-zionist bias of El Pais, specially noted in its editorials when touching the subject, but Muñoz and another pair of El Pais' reporters seem --and are allowed...-- to write reliable chronics, so far, if I judge for what I've seen in the Palestinian English sites I use to visit)

Well, the title says it all, doesn't it. The article says that the United States, the European Union, Egypt, Jordan and Israel are waging an all out war on Hamas. So, yanking down the Hamas government is the aim of these countries. Abbas had warned them (emphasis mine) in advance, prior to the elections.

Methods no longer matter.

The justification given by Jordan and Egypt is their panic of "islamist" contagion, the reporter says. An european diplomat in Tel Aviv declared it was proved to him that Omar Sulaiman (chief Egyptian spy)said: "We are not going to let Hamas come out triumphant".

Since the embargo only produced a mammoth economic crisis, but did not succeed to bring the Hamas cabinet to its knees, and since the unity government forced (sic.) by Saudi Arabia has changed nothing, the only way to bring them down is "por las armas" (literally, with weapons; a politically correct way of alluding to an armed coup, should I add). The reporter says that Mubarak declared to Haaretz last Wednesday that Egypt "is undertaking enormous efforts to end with the islamists presence in the Palestinian Executive but there is no way with Hamas, they will never sign a peace accord with Israel, while they stay holding power"

The plan is not new -the reporter says- it has been prepared for months and Washington is arming and training Abbas loyalists.

Fatah cliques loyal to Mohamed Dahland have tried by all possible means to make life umbearable for the Hamas government. And they succeeded. But it is less probable they can overcome them militarily, since the Hamas fighters are highly motivated and fight to death if need be, while many fatah gunmen, don't even attend their cadres calls and orders. The reporter adds that Hamas is somehow used to face these two fronts (Israel and Dahlan gangs), so the situation is not new for them; and the Hamas fighters have been preparing for months and (I'd say, tongue in cheek here) have been going to Iran and making bunkers and blah blah.

The article also speaks about israel's attacks on Hamas for these last days, and says that a high ranking Defence official in Tel Aviv assured "When we attack them, we'll do it with overwhelming force. Egypt and Jordan do support us. It is just a matter of time, if a rocket falls in the center of Ashkelon or kills someone in Sderot, that will be the moment". Olmert does not discard extreme meassures. And his diplomacy is already at work - ends saying the article -

"Gaza – Ma'an – Eight Palestinians were killed including 7 members of Al-Hayyah family as a result of an Israeli air strike which targeted the family's meeting hall on Sunday evening. The raid came in an attempt to assassinate the Hamas leader, Khalil Al-Hayyah at Shuja'iyya neighborhood east of Gaza city.

Palestinian medical sources stated that 8 people were killed and more than ten were injured. The corpses of the victims arrived at the Ash-Shifa hospital in Gaza city torn in pieces.

The medical sources named the victims as: Nimir Isma'il Al-Hayyah 60, Bakir Al-Hayya, 26, Jihad Abdul Hamid Al-Hayyah, 17, Abdul Hamid Al-Hayya 35, Ala' Al-Hayya 22, Ibrahim Al-Hayya 23, Muhammad Khalid Al-Hayya 16 and Samih Farawna 27.

Ma'an's correspondent reported that the Israeli raid came minutes after the Hamas and Fatah movements agreed to end the state of tension. The agreement was read by Khalil Al-Hayyah representing Hamas and Majid Abu Shamala representing Fatah.

Sources in Hamas confirmed that Dr Khalil Al-Hayyah was safe.

The Israeli attack was conducted hours after the Israeli security cabinet decided to intensify military action against the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders in an attempt to halt the heightened launching of Palestinian home made projectiles from Gaza Strip towards Israeli targets.

For his part, the spokesperson of Hamas bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council PLC, Salah Bardaweel affirmed that the Israeli attempt to assassinate a Hamas political figure, who was elected by the Palestinian people is a very dangerous indicator. He affirmed that Hamas would not remain hand-cuffed.

Bardaweel told Ma'an that the Israeli conduct is a new kind of criminality aimed to end Hamas politically. The Israeli occupation tries to deliver a message that they will not recognize any political existence of Hamas, explained Salah Bardaweel.

Dr Khalil Al-Hayya is the former speaker of the Hamas bloc in the Palestinian Legislative Council PLC, and member of the Hamas delegation in the political partnership, the Cairo dialogues and the Hamas-Fatah consultations."

Six killed as IAF strikes home of Hamas official

"The Israel Air Force fired missiles at the home of a Hamas leader Sunday evening, leaving at least six Palestinians dead, hospital officials reported.

The home belonged to Halil al-Haya, a member of the political arm of the Hamas party. Al-Haya was apparently not at home at the time of the strike.

Witnesses reported that the dead were members of al-Haya's family. Several wounded were also reported.

This strike is the first time in six months the Israel Defense Forces have targeted a non-military wing member of Hamas......."

***

Olmert is proving to be a reliable ally of the Palestinian Karzai Abbas and is responding to his pleas to intensify the attacks on Hamas.

Long live the Olmert-Abbas axis; celebrate it now!

Note to Hamas: This is what happens when you operate in the open; the enemy doesn't distinguish between military and political wings. Do you now see the foolishness of joining the PA "government" and the Oslo elections?? All your leaders have been brought out in the open as a result; not a bad scheme on the part of Usrael and their Palestinian agents. This finally proves that you either pursue serious resistance or play politics; you can't do both, which is the stupid theory of Hamas.

Even poor Habila might not be safe now.

Maj. Gen. Hammad denies rumours that Egypt is preparing a force to support Fatah in the clashes with Hamas

"Gaza – Ma'an – The head of the Egyptian delegation in the Palestinian territories, Major General Burhan Hammad, on Sunday expressed his astonishment at the rumours in the media and on the Palestinian streets that an Egyptian military force of 450 troops has entered from Egypt into the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing.

Some people interpreted the report as Egypt offering back-up to Fatah in the clashes against Hamas.

Hammad told the Ash-Sharq Al-Awsat (Middle East) news agency that the force belongs to the Palestinian national security service, which is in charge of protecting the borders of the Gaza Strip. Hammad said "they were being trained in Egypt in order to perform their duty as Palestinian border police.".....

With regards to the force being sent back during the Hamas-Fatah confrontations, Hammad affirmed that it was by coincidence that the force was sent from Cairo through Al-Arish, 24 hours before the inter-Palestinian fighting started. "The force returned back to the Gaza Strip after their training course had ended," he said.

Major General Hammad renewed Egypt's impartiality with respect to the Palestinian factions and said "Egypt treats the Palestinian people as one entity and supports their unity." He added "Egyptian solidarity with the Palestinians is a reality which needs no confirmation." "

(VIDEO) Calling it 'moment of truth', Yisrael Beiteinu leader says decision for harder action in Gaza must be made. Defense Minister Amir Peretz says Israel should stay out of Gaza infighting

""The present coalition has reached the moment of truth," Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Strategic Affairs Avigdor Lieberman said on Sunday. "Either we dismantle Hamas, or we dismantle the government.

"I am not giving an ultimatum, but eventually, the choice will be complete dismantling of either Hamas or the government. It's time to stop making bombastic statements, it's time for hard action," Lieberman said.

Saturday night, the Yisrael Beiteinu chairman called for more intense ground activity in the Gaza Strip, including taking over the Philadelphi route, until an international force arrives.

Lieberman did not take part in the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday, and preferred to keep his statements for the media.

During the Cabinet meeting, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, who declared a "special Home Front situation" earlier Sunday, analyzed the situation in the south, and the escalation between Palestinian factions......"

More on the nut case

"Minister for Strategic Threats Avigdor Lieberman, head of the hawkish Yisrael Beiteinu party, warned his fellow coalition partners Sunday that if the government failed to dismantle Hamas, the government itself would be dismantled......

Israel must launch bold military operations aimed at "dismantling Hamas totally and absolutely" and creating "an entirely new situation," Lieberman said.

"The current coalition has reached the moment of truth. Either we take apart Hamas, or we take apart the government," Lieberman told Israel Radio.

"This alternative is pure, it's the only one on the agenda. I emphasize that this is not an ultimatum and I am not setting a time limit, but in the end, this is the choice, either you break up Hamas, or you break up the government."

According to Lieberman, "I am speaking of a specific operation, I am speaking of dismantling Hamas totally and absolutely, the creation of an entirely new situation. It is time to stop making declarations and threats. It is time to carry out operations, tough operations, daring, non-routine operations, and I hope that this is what will be."

Kadima minister Ze'ev Boim said earlier Sunday that Israel must strike at Hamas leaders "with all our might," and warned that even Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh could be on Israel's list for potential assassination.

"We must strike their leaders with all our might," Boim told Israel Radio. "There's a list of them from the first of them to the very last."

"Now, with Hamas saying openly that it is the one who is firing the Qassams, we must strike at Hamas. There are people there who are launching them, there are their commanders there in the armed wing, and there is the political echelon, there is a prime minister."....."

Animated Cartoon

Iraq's Sadr Overhauls His Tactics
Shiite Woos Sunnis, Purges Extremists
The Washington Post

A Comment by Tony Sayegh

The sectarian thug is at it again. He has done so many twists and turns and has reinvented himself so many times that he makes John I-supported-the-war-before-I-voted-against-it Kerry envious. One day he is "fighting" the occupation, the next day he is supporting the "surge" plan of the occupation to bring "security" to Baghdad. He even cooperated with the U.S. military to implement the plan. One day he is supposedly against Iran and an "Iraqi nationalist," the next day we find out that Iran is his main financier and arms supplier. The same thug whose black-clad death squads have been responsible for thousands mutilated, tortured and their corpses dumped in the streets and who are responsible for ethnic cleansing of entire neighborhoods, that same thug wants to mend his fences with the "Sunni insurgents." The same thug who supported the quisling government of Maliki is now theoretically opposed to the government, even though his representatives are still in the puppet "parliament."

Why does he assume that the Iraqis are stupid? Why does he assume that their memory does not span more than a day or two? When you read this long article you become even more convinced that he is so unreliable that the resistance would be well-advised to not deal with him at all. It is quite possible that this latest attempt is nothing more than an attempt by the occupation to use him, as a Trojan horse, to penetrate the resistance, expose it and weaken it. A simple Iraqi woman who suffered at the hands of the Mahdi thugs put it this way: ""Moqtada is saying something, but on the ground they are doing something else," Habib said, tossing a glance at Ibrahim, 6, his left leg in a cast. Sadr's call to reconcile with Sunnis is "all nonsense," she continued. "They want to know who the Sunnis are, so they can start butchering people at their own pace.""

An excerpt from the article:

"The movement of Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr has embarked on one of its most dramatic tactical shifts since the beginning of the war.

The 33-year-old populist is reaching out to a broad array of Sunni leaders, from politicians to insurgents, and purging extremist members of his Mahdi Army militia who target Sunnis. Sadr's political followers are distancing themselves from the fragile Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, which is widely criticized as corrupt, inefficient and biased in favor of Iraq's majority Shiites. And moderates are taking up key roles in Sadr's movement, professing to be less anti-American and more nationalist as they seek to improve Sadr's image and position him in the middle of Iraq's ideological spectrum.

"We want to aim the guns against the occupation and al-Qaeda, not between Iraqis," Ahmed Shaibani, 37, a cleric who leads Sadr's newly formed reconciliation committee, said as he sat inside Sadr's heavily guarded compound here......"