Israeli Military Official: "Lebanon Will Be Dark For a Few Years"
The Israeli military is reportedly planning to ramp up its attacks on Lebanon by targeting more of the civilian infrastructure as well as symbols of the Lebanese government. One military official told the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, "It could be that at the end of the story, Lebanon will be dark for a few years."
Report: Israel Allowing Rocket Attacks to Give It "A Sort of Moral Equivalency"
On the military front, Thomas Ricks, a top reporter for the Washington Post, has said that Israel is purposely not bombing all of Hezbollah's rocket launchers. Sources have told him that the Israeli military feels that if Hezbollah continues to fire rockets at Israel it gives Israel a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon.
5,000 Israelis Protest in Tel Aviv Against Attacks
In Israel, over 5,000 protesters marched in Tel Aviv on Saturday to condemn the attack on Lebanon. The protest was one of the largest in Israel since the attacks on Lebanon began. Demonstrators called on Israel to negotiate with Hizbollah.
* Israeli Protester: "Hizbollah kidnapped two soldiers and Israel started a stupid war instead of talking to Hizbollah like it demanded. And we are protesting against those stupid acts. Israel is murdering people every day and we disagree."
The protesters also encouraged Israeli soldiers to disobey orders in Lebanon.
Reporter: Israeli Fighter Pilots Deliberately Missing Targets
The Observer newspaper reports that at least two Israeli fighter pilots have deliberately missed bombing targets in Lebanon because they were concerned they were being ordered to bomb civilians.
UNICEF Warns of Humanitarian Crisis in Gaza
In Gaza, the aid organization UNICEF is warning the region is facing a humanitarian crisis. This is UNICEF Special Representative Dan Rohrmann.
* Dan Rohrmann: "I just returned from Gaza and the situation there is quite dramatic for the children. And It is understandable that the international media is paying attention to what goes on in Lebanon right now, because there you have a humanitarian disaster. But I can tell you that for the children in Gaza the eight hundred and forty thousand, the humanitarian crisis there is very real to them."
Palestinian Government spokesperson Ghazi Hamad accused Israel of waging a war against the people of Gaza.
* Ghazi Hamad: "What happening in Rafah is something that is critical, because we feel that there is a comprehensive war against the people, against civilians and against their buildings so we think that in the last two days we lost about 15 people in the last aggression attack"
Palestinian Cultural Activists Call for Israeli Boycott
Meanwhile over 100 Palestinian cultural activists have begun distributing a letter urging artists and filmmakers to participate in an academic and cultural boycott of Israel. The letter reads in part "Like the boycott of South African art institutions during apartheid, cultural workers must speak out against the current Israeli war crimes and atrocities."
U.S. Sends 3,700 More Troops Into Baghdad
In Iraq, the U.S. is sending 3,700 more troops into Baghdad to help contain the increasing violence. An average of 100 people are dying a day in Baghdad. Last week General John Abizaid, the top US military commander in Iraq, admitted that Baghdad is now more violent than ever. The general warned that Iraq could be moving toward civil war.
The July report of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, completing only about its 50th project assessment out of some almost 2,000 U.S. government projects in Iraq. And in this assessment, the first to target Bechtel, as you reported, they found gross mismanagement: a planned critical children's hospital in Basra, simply mismanaged, incomplete; a chain of subcontractors that led to no work being done, and they canceled the contract. And the fact is, as the Special Inspector General has looked more closely at each contract, more and more and more of the U.S. contracts are being canceled.
However, while the U.S. has spent about $15 billion on reconstruction in Iraq, there's a time limit. September 30th is when all un-obligated funds are going to revert back to the U.S. Treasury. So now is a time that the audits have to be completed of these projects. The bad projects have to be canceled, and the money needs to be immediately turned over to Iraqi companies.
Bechtel? Because, first of all, of their horrific war profiteering, their push that brought us into the war in Iraq, their profiting from that war, and, as I explain in my book, their utter failure in providing the services that we and the Iraqis have paid them $2.8 billion to provide. And that includes the most basic services in Iraq: water, electricity, sewage.
As the Special Inspector General reports found, in these sectors, only 50% of projects have even been completed, and in the electricity sector, a full third have not yet even begun. This means that Iraqis, for example, in Baghdad, only have eight hours of electricity a day, again, after we have spent, just in this sector alone, $3 billion. We might recall that it was just three months after the 1991 U.S. invasion of Iraq that the Iraqi companies got these services up and running right away.
Electricity in Iraq controls water and sewage. So that means that without electricity, the country doesn’t have these other services, as well. Many people across Iraq over and over again in regular public protests point to the lack of electricity as one of the key sources of unrest and the insurgency in Iraq.
Monday, August 7, 2006
Syria offers to join Hezbollah
SYRIA'S foreign minister yesterday offered to join militant group Hezbollah in its fight against Israel and said a regional war would be "most welcome" as more than 30 people in Israel and Lebanon were killed on one of the worst days since the conflict began. Syria's foreign minister, Walid Muallem, defiantly trumpeted his country's support for Hezbollah and warned that Syria was ready for "the possibility of a regional war if the Israeli aggression continues".
"If you wish, I'm ready to be a soldier at the disposal of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah [the Hezbollah leader]," he said.
He was speaking after crossing into neighbouring Lebanon in the first visit by a senior Syrian official since Damascus - under international and Lebanese pressure - ended a 29-year military presence there last year.
Asked if he feared the conflict in Lebanon could spill over into a regional war, Mr Muallem said: "Most welcome.
"If you wish, I'm ready to be a soldier at the disposal of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah [the Hezbollah leader]," he said.
He was speaking after crossing into neighbouring Lebanon in the first visit by a senior Syrian official since Damascus - under international and Lebanese pressure - ended a 29-year military presence there last year.
Asked if he feared the conflict in Lebanon could spill over into a regional war, Mr Muallem said: "Most welcome.
Hezbollah Rides a New Popularity
By Dahr Jamail
BEIRUT, Aug 7 (IPS) - As the war in Lebanon approaches the one-month mark, and amid the destruction of much of Lebanon, Hezbollah appears to be gaining strength within the country and around the Arab world.
The Israeli aim of widespread bombing of the Lebanese infrastructure in order to create resentment against Hezbollah seems to have played into the strengths of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, known in many western countries as a "terrorist organisation", is widely seen in Lebanon as a legitimate political and social power.
One reason for this, according to an official representative of Hezbollah and member of the Lebanese Parliament, is that Hezbollah has never aimed to turn Lebanon into an Islamic state.
"Hezbollah is a democratic party whose principles are based on the Lebanese constitution," Tarad Hamade told IPS. "This means we have to respect the cultural and religious diversity in the country. We have never intended to establish an Islamic state."
Hamade, who is also labour minister, said: "Israel wants to terrorise the country and inflict as much damage as possible. They call us terrorists, at the same time as they are exercising state terrorism. Are they not terrorists?"
More and more Lebanese are beginning to hold this view.
Lebanese see the destruction by Israelis all around them. The damage to the civilian infrastructure will cost billions of dollars to fix.
All three of Lebanon's airports and all four of its ports have been bombed. Damage done to houses and businesses is estimated at above a billion dollars. At least 22 fuel and gas stations have been bombed. Scores of factories have been damaged or destroyed.
Red Cross ambulances, government emergency centres, UN peacekeeping forces and observers, media outlets and mobile phone towers have been bombed -- all in violation of international law.
Mosques and churches have been bombed, and illegal weapons such as cluster bombs and white phosphorous used. More than 90 percent of those killed, close to 1,000 according to official estimates, are civilians.
The result is that rather than pressuring Hezbollah by destroying Lebanon, Israel has increased popular support for the group, and brought the wishes of most Lebanese more in line with the stated goals of Hezbollah to keep Israel at bay.
BEIRUT, Aug 7 (IPS) - As the war in Lebanon approaches the one-month mark, and amid the destruction of much of Lebanon, Hezbollah appears to be gaining strength within the country and around the Arab world.
The Israeli aim of widespread bombing of the Lebanese infrastructure in order to create resentment against Hezbollah seems to have played into the strengths of Hezbollah.
Hezbollah, known in many western countries as a "terrorist organisation", is widely seen in Lebanon as a legitimate political and social power.
One reason for this, according to an official representative of Hezbollah and member of the Lebanese Parliament, is that Hezbollah has never aimed to turn Lebanon into an Islamic state.
"Hezbollah is a democratic party whose principles are based on the Lebanese constitution," Tarad Hamade told IPS. "This means we have to respect the cultural and religious diversity in the country. We have never intended to establish an Islamic state."
Hamade, who is also labour minister, said: "Israel wants to terrorise the country and inflict as much damage as possible. They call us terrorists, at the same time as they are exercising state terrorism. Are they not terrorists?"
More and more Lebanese are beginning to hold this view.
Lebanese see the destruction by Israelis all around them. The damage to the civilian infrastructure will cost billions of dollars to fix.
All three of Lebanon's airports and all four of its ports have been bombed. Damage done to houses and businesses is estimated at above a billion dollars. At least 22 fuel and gas stations have been bombed. Scores of factories have been damaged or destroyed.
Red Cross ambulances, government emergency centres, UN peacekeeping forces and observers, media outlets and mobile phone towers have been bombed -- all in violation of international law.
Mosques and churches have been bombed, and illegal weapons such as cluster bombs and white phosphorous used. More than 90 percent of those killed, close to 1,000 according to official estimates, are civilians.
The result is that rather than pressuring Hezbollah by destroying Lebanon, Israel has increased popular support for the group, and brought the wishes of most Lebanese more in line with the stated goals of Hezbollah to keep Israel at bay.
The Ever-Expanding War
Birth Pangs and Dead Babies
By SHARON SMITH
"Yet Israel's military bombardments of Lebanon and Gaza are failing in their aims, as are the U.S.' occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan-and for the same reasons. The parallels are too striking to ignore.
Do not expect, however, either the U.S. or Israel to retreat at this juncture. The stakes are too high for both, and neither can back down because humiliation at the hands of a resistance movement spells imperial defeat. In all likelihood, the war on terror will expand to include new targets-including possibly Syria, and more likely, Iran.
As Australian journalist Ghali Hassan noted, "In fact the current Israeli aggression on Lebanon a defenseless nation is designed to coerce not only the Lebanese people to rise up against Hezbollah, but also to blackmail other nations and to use the war as a rehearsal for a region-wide war against Iran or Syria.
As conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer commented, "America wants, America needs, a decisive Hezbollah defeat. The defeat of Hezbollah would be a huge loss for Iran, both psychologically and strategically. Iran would be shown to have vastly overreached in trying to establish itself as the regional superpower."
In contrast, as journalist Tamim Al-Barghouti argues, for Arabs and Muslims in the region, Hezbollah, as an indigenous resistance movement, "represents an all powerful example to Arabs and Muslims who have been longing to regain some of the dignity they lost at the hands of their leaders, who look more like employees in the American bureaucracy than heads of independent states.""
By SHARON SMITH
"Yet Israel's military bombardments of Lebanon and Gaza are failing in their aims, as are the U.S.' occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan-and for the same reasons. The parallels are too striking to ignore.
Do not expect, however, either the U.S. or Israel to retreat at this juncture. The stakes are too high for both, and neither can back down because humiliation at the hands of a resistance movement spells imperial defeat. In all likelihood, the war on terror will expand to include new targets-including possibly Syria, and more likely, Iran.
As Australian journalist Ghali Hassan noted, "In fact the current Israeli aggression on Lebanon a defenseless nation is designed to coerce not only the Lebanese people to rise up against Hezbollah, but also to blackmail other nations and to use the war as a rehearsal for a region-wide war against Iran or Syria.
As conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer commented, "America wants, America needs, a decisive Hezbollah defeat. The defeat of Hezbollah would be a huge loss for Iran, both psychologically and strategically. Iran would be shown to have vastly overreached in trying to establish itself as the regional superpower."
In contrast, as journalist Tamim Al-Barghouti argues, for Arabs and Muslims in the region, Hezbollah, as an indigenous resistance movement, "represents an all powerful example to Arabs and Muslims who have been longing to regain some of the dignity they lost at the hands of their leaders, who look more like employees in the American bureaucracy than heads of independent states.""
Goliath Pretending to be David
The Deadly US-Israeli Shell Game at the UN
By JONATHAN COOK
"If there were any remaining illusions about the purpose of Israel's war against Lebanon, the draft United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a "cessation of major hostilities" published at the weekend should finally dispel them. This entirely one-sided document was drafted, the Hebrew-language media have reported, with close Israeli involvement. The top adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, talked through the resolution with the US and French teams, while the Israeli Foreign Ministry had its man alongside John Bolton [yet another of Israel's men, Eds ] at the UN building in New York.
The reason for Israel's barely concealed pleasure is that Hizbullah now faces an international diplomatic and public relations assault in place of the unsuccessful Israeli military one. Israel, and the United States, are trying to set a series of traps for Hizbullah -- and Lebanon too -- that will justify Israel's reoccupation of south Lebanon, the further ethnic cleansing of the country, and a widening of the war to include Iran, and possibly Syria.
Israel and Washington, however, may hope that, given time, they can break that national solidarity by provoking a civil war in Lebanon to deplete local energies, similar to Israel's attempts at engineering feuds between Hamas and Fatah in the occupied Palestinian territories. Certainly, it is difficult to make sense otherwise of Israel's bombing for the first time of Christian neighborhoods in Beirut and what looks like the intended ethnic cleansing of Sunni Muslims from Sidon, which was leafletted by Israeli war planes at the weekend.
Not only will Washington and Israel blame Hizbullah for refusing to agree to the ceasefire but they will seek to use any retaliation against Israeli "defensive" aggression -- including, presumably, further invasion -- as a pretext for widening the war and dragging in the real target of their belligerence: Iran.This subterfuge was voiced at the weekend by Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, who told the BBC that if Hizbullah fired at Tel Aviv -- which it has threatened to do if Israel continues attacking Beirut -- this would be tantamount to an "act of war" that could only have been ordered by Iran. In other words, at some point soon Israel may stop blaming Hizbullah and turn its fire -- defensively, of course -- on Iran.
So in the coming days, in the wake of this US-Israeli concoction of an impossible peace, we are going to be hearing a lot more nonsense from Israel and the White House about Iran's role in supposedly initiating and expanding this war, its desire to "wipe Israel off the map" and the nuclear weapons it is developing so that it can achieve its aim."
By JONATHAN COOK
"If there were any remaining illusions about the purpose of Israel's war against Lebanon, the draft United Nations Security Council resolution calling for a "cessation of major hostilities" published at the weekend should finally dispel them. This entirely one-sided document was drafted, the Hebrew-language media have reported, with close Israeli involvement. The top adviser to the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, talked through the resolution with the US and French teams, while the Israeli Foreign Ministry had its man alongside John Bolton [yet another of Israel's men, Eds ] at the UN building in New York.
The reason for Israel's barely concealed pleasure is that Hizbullah now faces an international diplomatic and public relations assault in place of the unsuccessful Israeli military one. Israel, and the United States, are trying to set a series of traps for Hizbullah -- and Lebanon too -- that will justify Israel's reoccupation of south Lebanon, the further ethnic cleansing of the country, and a widening of the war to include Iran, and possibly Syria.
Israel and Washington, however, may hope that, given time, they can break that national solidarity by provoking a civil war in Lebanon to deplete local energies, similar to Israel's attempts at engineering feuds between Hamas and Fatah in the occupied Palestinian territories. Certainly, it is difficult to make sense otherwise of Israel's bombing for the first time of Christian neighborhoods in Beirut and what looks like the intended ethnic cleansing of Sunni Muslims from Sidon, which was leafletted by Israeli war planes at the weekend.
Not only will Washington and Israel blame Hizbullah for refusing to agree to the ceasefire but they will seek to use any retaliation against Israeli "defensive" aggression -- including, presumably, further invasion -- as a pretext for widening the war and dragging in the real target of their belligerence: Iran.This subterfuge was voiced at the weekend by Israel's ambassador to the UN, Dan Gillerman, who told the BBC that if Hizbullah fired at Tel Aviv -- which it has threatened to do if Israel continues attacking Beirut -- this would be tantamount to an "act of war" that could only have been ordered by Iran. In other words, at some point soon Israel may stop blaming Hizbullah and turn its fire -- defensively, of course -- on Iran.
So in the coming days, in the wake of this US-Israeli concoction of an impossible peace, we are going to be hearing a lot more nonsense from Israel and the White House about Iran's role in supposedly initiating and expanding this war, its desire to "wipe Israel off the map" and the nuclear weapons it is developing so that it can achieve its aim."
Israeli Intellectuals Love the War
All generalizations are wrong, except this one: Israeli liberal intellectuals are against war. They have always been against it, and they even suffered greatly for their critical views, as they stress proudly. They were against the previous war, they will be against the next war, they are against all wars. There is just one minor exception, though: the present war, every present war, which they always support. Because the present war - well, that's something totally different from all those other wars! How can you even compare?! The present war is always inevitable, and necessary, and just, and worthy of support.
For those who imagine Israel's intellectual elite as asane oasis of rational, moderate, peace-loving liberals,here are a few snapshots of Israel's intellectual cheerleaders on their current patriotic march supporting the devastation of Lebanon. Continued.
For those who imagine Israel's intellectual elite as asane oasis of rational, moderate, peace-loving liberals,here are a few snapshots of Israel's intellectual cheerleaders on their current patriotic march supporting the devastation of Lebanon. Continued.
No words to describe this one
Zionists Brutalize Handicapped Palestinian American
I want to tell you the story of what happened to my friend Maysoon Zayid when she left Ben Gurion Airport a few days ago to fly back to NYC.
She called me when she landed in NYC and said "Emily you won't believe what happened to me at Ben Gurion Airport. ( I should note that Maysoon has cerebral palsy and went through this whole process in a wheelchair at Ben Gurion airport.)
Maysoon began "Emily I was strip-searched. They took everything. They left me naked in the room and when they returned with my clothes they had taken my maxipad." Continued.
I want to tell you the story of what happened to my friend Maysoon Zayid when she left Ben Gurion Airport a few days ago to fly back to NYC.
She called me when she landed in NYC and said "Emily you won't believe what happened to me at Ben Gurion Airport. ( I should note that Maysoon has cerebral palsy and went through this whole process in a wheelchair at Ben Gurion airport.)
Maysoon began "Emily I was strip-searched. They took everything. They left me naked in the room and when they returned with my clothes they had taken my maxipad." Continued.
Unwilling troops obtain legal aid, solace in Canada
Army Pvt. Ryan Johnson drove off his Mojave Desert base at 3 a.m.
Sgt. Patrick Hart told his Army superiors he was going to watch one last Buffalo Bills football game.
Marine police officer Christian Kjar of Santa Barbara got permission to leave his base in North Carolina to visit a mall.
[Podcast: Three deserters on their decision to go AWOL and their response to criticism.]
Rather than go to the Iraq war, all three went to Canada, where a small community of military deserters is growing as the conflict drags on. They are drawn by Canada's history of helping Vietnam War-era draft evaders and the country's open opposition to the war. Continued.
Sgt. Patrick Hart told his Army superiors he was going to watch one last Buffalo Bills football game.
Marine police officer Christian Kjar of Santa Barbara got permission to leave his base in North Carolina to visit a mall.
[Podcast: Three deserters on their decision to go AWOL and their response to criticism.]
Rather than go to the Iraq war, all three went to Canada, where a small community of military deserters is growing as the conflict drags on. They are drawn by Canada's history of helping Vietnam War-era draft evaders and the country's open opposition to the war. Continued.
Poisoned package sent to Haniyeh
At least four Palestinian clerks hospitalized after opening package thought to contain dangerous substance. Package arrived at office of Haniyeh's deputy in Ramallah. Haniyeh himself doesn't go to West Bank and there are disagreements in PA if Israel had any connection to event, or if it is connected to internal conflict.
At least four Palestinian clerks working in the Palestinian Prime Minister's Office in Ramallah, lost consciousness Monday after opening a package thought to contain a poisonous substance. The package arrived at the Palestinian government building in Ramallah, sent to the office of Nasser al-Din Shaer, Ismail Haniyeh's deputy prime minister. Sources in the office said that the package was sent from an address in Tel Aviv. They refused to pass on details about the address.
One of the clerks opened the package, which emanated a strange smell, and passed out. After, at least another three clerks felt unwell and lost consciousness. According to some reports, seven clerks have been hospitalized following the incident.
Immediately after the package was opened and the employees injured, most of the people working in the Prime Minister's Office were evacuated and security began combing the building for additional dangerous substances or bombs potentially hidden in the building.
After the clerks lost consciousness, panic gripped the employees working in the office. This is due to the fact that Shaer himself is practically the only Hamas leader in the West Bank that wasn't arrested in the wave of recent arrests made by the IDF and the Shin Bet. Shaer said that the poisonous package was an Israeli attempt to hurt the Palestinian prime minister and his deputy, noting that the package was addressed to Haniyeh.
However, it must be mentioned that Prime Minister Haniyeh does not usually come to Ramallah, and hasn't been in the city at all since his appointment to the position out of fear that Israel will hurt, or arrest him. Shaer added that the office intends to open an investigation of the issue.
In Ramallah, opinions about the source of the package were divided – some said that there is no doubt that it was an Israeli attempt to hurt Shaer, and yet others said that the option must be checked that it may have been connected to the conflict and power struggles between the Palestinian ministers from Hamas, and the clerks in their offices, most of whom were appointed by Fatah.
At least four Palestinian clerks working in the Palestinian Prime Minister's Office in Ramallah, lost consciousness Monday after opening a package thought to contain a poisonous substance. The package arrived at the Palestinian government building in Ramallah, sent to the office of Nasser al-Din Shaer, Ismail Haniyeh's deputy prime minister. Sources in the office said that the package was sent from an address in Tel Aviv. They refused to pass on details about the address.
One of the clerks opened the package, which emanated a strange smell, and passed out. After, at least another three clerks felt unwell and lost consciousness. According to some reports, seven clerks have been hospitalized following the incident.
Immediately after the package was opened and the employees injured, most of the people working in the Prime Minister's Office were evacuated and security began combing the building for additional dangerous substances or bombs potentially hidden in the building.
After the clerks lost consciousness, panic gripped the employees working in the office. This is due to the fact that Shaer himself is practically the only Hamas leader in the West Bank that wasn't arrested in the wave of recent arrests made by the IDF and the Shin Bet. Shaer said that the poisonous package was an Israeli attempt to hurt the Palestinian prime minister and his deputy, noting that the package was addressed to Haniyeh.
However, it must be mentioned that Prime Minister Haniyeh does not usually come to Ramallah, and hasn't been in the city at all since his appointment to the position out of fear that Israel will hurt, or arrest him. Shaer added that the office intends to open an investigation of the issue.
In Ramallah, opinions about the source of the package were divided – some said that there is no doubt that it was an Israeli attempt to hurt Shaer, and yet others said that the option must be checked that it may have been connected to the conflict and power struggles between the Palestinian ministers from Hamas, and the clerks in their offices, most of whom were appointed by Fatah.
This draft shows who is running America's policy... Israel
By Robert Fisk
"So the great and the good on the East River laboured at the United Nations Security Council - and brought forth a lemon. You could almost hear the Lebanese groan at this draft resolution, a document of such bias and mendacity that a close Lebanese friend read carefully through it yesterday, cursed and uttered the immortal question: "Don't these bastards learn anything from history?"
A close analysis of the American-French draft - the fingerprints of John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, were almost smudging the paragraphs - showed just who is running Washington's Middle East policy: Israel. And one wondered how even Tony Blair would want to associate himself with this nonsense. It made no reference to the obscenely disproportionate violence employed by Israel - just a sleek reference to "hundreds of deaths and injuries on both sides" - and it made only passing reference to Hizbollah's demand that it would only release the two Israeli soldiers it captured on 12 July in return for Lebanese and other Arab prisoners in Israeli jails."
"So the great and the good on the East River laboured at the United Nations Security Council - and brought forth a lemon. You could almost hear the Lebanese groan at this draft resolution, a document of such bias and mendacity that a close Lebanese friend read carefully through it yesterday, cursed and uttered the immortal question: "Don't these bastards learn anything from history?"
A close analysis of the American-French draft - the fingerprints of John Bolton, the US ambassador to the UN, were almost smudging the paragraphs - showed just who is running Washington's Middle East policy: Israel. And one wondered how even Tony Blair would want to associate himself with this nonsense. It made no reference to the obscenely disproportionate violence employed by Israel - just a sleek reference to "hundreds of deaths and injuries on both sides" - and it made only passing reference to Hizbollah's demand that it would only release the two Israeli soldiers it captured on 12 July in return for Lebanese and other Arab prisoners in Israeli jails."
The New Munich
Lebanon, 2006, and Czechoslovakia, 1938 – the historical parallels
by Justin Raimondo
"There are two possible avenues of American intervention in this battle – aside from the rush of U.S. armaments to Israel and whatever covert cooperation is underway. The first is via the "international force" called for in the UN resolution: of course, an American presence is not stipulated, but, as I have said before, it is difficult to imagine what other country is either prepared or willing to undertake such an operation. Policing southern Lebanon will require anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 troops. Where will they come from? You guessed it…
As opposed to the heroic narrative marketed by the Lobby and its friends, which portrays this as a defensive war, a mere reaction to Lebanese attacks, the reality is that this is the most cynical exercise in brazen aggression since the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia in the run-up to World War II. Prior to offering the thinnest of pretexts to justify the invasion of Poland – the Germans claimed Polish soldiers had launched a raid into their territory – Hitler's wolves tore off a large chunk of Czech flesh in the form of the Sudetenland. Today, Israeli predators are biting off a similar-sized chunk of Lebanon on their way to a much larger meal.
One hopes the historical parallels will end there, but I fear not: just as the German push for Lebensraum ended in a world war, so an apparent campaign to give Israel a bit of elbow room may result in yet another global conflagration. The UN resolution, then, amounts to a new Munich agreement, which – if history teaches us anything – will serve to embolden the Israelis to go on the offensive against Syria, and, perhaps, Iran. If the appeasement of Israel continues while the U.S. sacrifices its own clear interest in lessening support for extremists in the Arab-Muslim world, Condoleezza Rice will go down in history as the Neville Chamberlain of her time."
by Justin Raimondo
"There are two possible avenues of American intervention in this battle – aside from the rush of U.S. armaments to Israel and whatever covert cooperation is underway. The first is via the "international force" called for in the UN resolution: of course, an American presence is not stipulated, but, as I have said before, it is difficult to imagine what other country is either prepared or willing to undertake such an operation. Policing southern Lebanon will require anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 troops. Where will they come from? You guessed it…
As opposed to the heroic narrative marketed by the Lobby and its friends, which portrays this as a defensive war, a mere reaction to Lebanese attacks, the reality is that this is the most cynical exercise in brazen aggression since the Germans invaded Czechoslovakia in the run-up to World War II. Prior to offering the thinnest of pretexts to justify the invasion of Poland – the Germans claimed Polish soldiers had launched a raid into their territory – Hitler's wolves tore off a large chunk of Czech flesh in the form of the Sudetenland. Today, Israeli predators are biting off a similar-sized chunk of Lebanon on their way to a much larger meal.
One hopes the historical parallels will end there, but I fear not: just as the German push for Lebensraum ended in a world war, so an apparent campaign to give Israel a bit of elbow room may result in yet another global conflagration. The UN resolution, then, amounts to a new Munich agreement, which – if history teaches us anything – will serve to embolden the Israelis to go on the offensive against Syria, and, perhaps, Iran. If the appeasement of Israel continues while the U.S. sacrifices its own clear interest in lessening support for extremists in the Arab-Muslim world, Condoleezza Rice will go down in history as the Neville Chamberlain of her time."
Israeli forces kill 177 & injure 1,010 Palestinians in July
Gaza's health and environment statistics are reaching record lows. The Palestinian Ministry of Health announced that Israeli forces killed 177 Palestinians in military operations during the month of July. This figure represents a 222 percent rise in the number of deaths in June. The number of injured in the attacks in July was 1,010, representing a 317 percent rise from the previous month. Continued.
Kid sitting in front of his home when an Israeli missile kills him. So what are the Israelis complaining about Hezbollah about, again?
Palestinian medical sources and eyewitnesses in Gaza reported that one child was killed after midnight Saturday night, east of Rafah, in the southern part of the Gaza Strip.
Jews suspected in drive-by killing of West Bank Palestinian
Hussein Mardawi, 48, of Habla village near the West Bank town of Qalqilya, was killed early Monday when gunfire hit the car.
Mardawi's 17-year-old son was also in the car, and was wounded in the incident.
The son said that settlers had opened fire on the car.
Palestinian witnesses said that the assailants' car bore Israeli license plates.
Judea and Samaria District police said they had no knowledge of the incident.
Mardawi's 17-year-old son was also in the car, and was wounded in the incident.
The son said that settlers had opened fire on the car.
Palestinian witnesses said that the assailants' car bore Israeli license plates.
Judea and Samaria District police said they had no knowledge of the incident.
Sunday, August 6, 2006
50% of Americans still incredibly stupid.
Do you believe in Iraqi "WMD"? Did Saddam Hussein's government have weapons of mass destruction in 2003?
Half of America apparently still thinks so, a new poll finds, and experts see a raft of reasons why: a drumbeat of voices from talk radio to die-hard bloggers to the Oval Office, a surprise headline here or there, a rallying around a partisan flag, and a growing need for people, in their own minds, to justify the war in Iraq.
Continued.
Half of America apparently still thinks so, a new poll finds, and experts see a raft of reasons why: a drumbeat of voices from talk radio to die-hard bloggers to the Oval Office, a surprise headline here or there, a rallying around a partisan flag, and a growing need for people, in their own minds, to justify the war in Iraq.
Continued.
Iraqi Medic Describes Carnage
Seems like the only freedom the U.S. brought to Iraq was the freedom for American soldiers to rape, pillage, murder and loot.
Testimony Begins in Hearing for U.S. Soldiers Accused of Rape
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post
Monday, August 7, 2006
BAGHDAD, Aug. 6 -- An Iraqi medic who responded to a home where U.S. soldiers allegedly raped and killed a teenage Iraqi girl and murdered her sister and parents described on Sunday a display of carnage so horrific he said it made him sick for two weeks.
In the opening day of testimony in a military hearing in Baghdad to determine whether there is enough evidence to hold a court-martial for five U.S. soldiers, the medic, whose name was withheld for security reasons, testified that he saw smoke when he arrived at the family's home in Mahmudiyah on the afternoon of March 12. Inside, on the floor of the living room by the window, a teenage girl lay dead on her back, her legs spread, her clothes torn off, her body burned from her waist to her head, a single bullet hole under her left eye, he said.
Her mother also lay dead on the floor with bullet wounds in her chest and abdomen, he said.
In another room, the medic found what remained of the girl's father in a pool of blood. "The brain was on the floor and parts of the head were all over the place," the medic said. Next to him was his other daughter, who was about 6years old. It appeared to him as if a bullet had "entered the front of her face and out the back of her head," he said.
With the help of Iraqi soldiers, the medic said, he put the remains of the family in bags and stored them in an air-conditioned ambulance because there was no room at the Mahmudiyah hospital.
The case is one of the most brutal in a series of recent incidents in which U.S. soldiers allegedly killed Iraqis. The sexual nature of the crime has outraged Iraqis, and the killings caused Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to call for a review of rules that prevent U.S. troops from being tried in Iraqi courts.
The U.S. military has charged four soldiers from the B Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment -- Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, Spec. James P. Barker, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard -- with rape and murder. A fifth soldier, Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe, was charged with dereliction of duty and making a false statement for allegedly failing to report the incident. And a sixth man, former Army private Steven D. Green, who was discharged for a "personality disorder," pleaded not guilty to rape and murder charges in a federal court in Kentucky.
At Sunday's hearing at Camp Liberty, near Baghdad International Airport, defense attorneys questioned the medic's medical training and posed the possibility that the family had already been dead before they were shot. During a cross-examination, the medic admitted he could only assume the family was shot to death, but said, "I believe that's how they were killed, which is what I've told you."
The soldiers' battalion commander, Lt. Col. Thomas Kunk, said he received a phone call on June 17 from the company commander, Capt. John Goodwin, informing him of the alleged murders and asking his guidance. At first incredulous, Kunk said, he went to the area south of Baghdad the next morning to begin his investigation.
"Absolutely not, I did not believe that report," he said. "I wanted to get on the ground."
Kunk recalled that Green, one of the alleged ringleaders in the incident, once said, "All Iraqis are bad people."
"I told him that that wasn't true, and that 90 to 95 percent of the Iraqi people are good people and they want the same thing that we have in the United States," Kunk said.
One of the defense attorneys, Capt. James D. Culp, who sucked on lollipops during his cross-examination, questioned Kunk about whether the unremitting violence in the area south of Baghdad patrolled by the soldiers caused combat stress. Kunk said most of the soldiers in the battalion were able to deal with the deaths of their fellow soldiers.
Two other Iraqi witnesses also testified at the hearing, but reporters were kept from hearing their statements out of concern that the witnesses might be later targeted.
The hearing took place on another violent day in Iraq. In Tikrit, a man detonated explosives attached to himself inside a funeral service. The blast killed 15 people and wounded 30 others, according to Iraqi army officials.
A witness, Omar Ghalib, 23, said the suicide bomber parked his car near the funeral hall and walked in wearing a light blue dishdasha , the traditional Iraqi robe.
"He went inside as if he wanted to offer condolences, and then a few seconds later, the explosion occurred," Ghalib said.
Police found the man's car also rigged with bombs, said 1st Lt. Norras Hamid of the Tikrit police. Tikrit General Hospital had received seven corpses and 14 injured people, said physician Jassim Dulaimi, but "we believe there are more dead bodies which have not been evacuated or were evacuated by their families directly."
[Early Monday, heavy gunfire and explosions rattled the Sadr City district of Baghdad. Government television and aides to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said U.S. aircraft were attacking buildings in the area, the Associated Press reported. Southwest of the capital, three U.S. soldiers were killed late Sunday in a roadside bombing, the U.S. military said.]
Special correspondent K.I. Ibrahim and other Washington Post staff contributed to this report.
Testimony Begins in Hearing for U.S. Soldiers Accused of Rape
By Joshua Partlow
Washington Post
Monday, August 7, 2006
BAGHDAD, Aug. 6 -- An Iraqi medic who responded to a home where U.S. soldiers allegedly raped and killed a teenage Iraqi girl and murdered her sister and parents described on Sunday a display of carnage so horrific he said it made him sick for two weeks.
In the opening day of testimony in a military hearing in Baghdad to determine whether there is enough evidence to hold a court-martial for five U.S. soldiers, the medic, whose name was withheld for security reasons, testified that he saw smoke when he arrived at the family's home in Mahmudiyah on the afternoon of March 12. Inside, on the floor of the living room by the window, a teenage girl lay dead on her back, her legs spread, her clothes torn off, her body burned from her waist to her head, a single bullet hole under her left eye, he said.
Her mother also lay dead on the floor with bullet wounds in her chest and abdomen, he said.
In another room, the medic found what remained of the girl's father in a pool of blood. "The brain was on the floor and parts of the head were all over the place," the medic said. Next to him was his other daughter, who was about 6years old. It appeared to him as if a bullet had "entered the front of her face and out the back of her head," he said.
With the help of Iraqi soldiers, the medic said, he put the remains of the family in bags and stored them in an air-conditioned ambulance because there was no room at the Mahmudiyah hospital.
The case is one of the most brutal in a series of recent incidents in which U.S. soldiers allegedly killed Iraqis. The sexual nature of the crime has outraged Iraqis, and the killings caused Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to call for a review of rules that prevent U.S. troops from being tried in Iraqi courts.
The U.S. military has charged four soldiers from the B Company, 1st Battalion, 502nd Infantry Regiment -- Sgt. Paul E. Cortez, Spec. James P. Barker, Pfc. Jesse V. Spielman and Pfc. Bryan L. Howard -- with rape and murder. A fifth soldier, Sgt. Anthony W. Yribe, was charged with dereliction of duty and making a false statement for allegedly failing to report the incident. And a sixth man, former Army private Steven D. Green, who was discharged for a "personality disorder," pleaded not guilty to rape and murder charges in a federal court in Kentucky.
At Sunday's hearing at Camp Liberty, near Baghdad International Airport, defense attorneys questioned the medic's medical training and posed the possibility that the family had already been dead before they were shot. During a cross-examination, the medic admitted he could only assume the family was shot to death, but said, "I believe that's how they were killed, which is what I've told you."
The soldiers' battalion commander, Lt. Col. Thomas Kunk, said he received a phone call on June 17 from the company commander, Capt. John Goodwin, informing him of the alleged murders and asking his guidance. At first incredulous, Kunk said, he went to the area south of Baghdad the next morning to begin his investigation.
"Absolutely not, I did not believe that report," he said. "I wanted to get on the ground."
Kunk recalled that Green, one of the alleged ringleaders in the incident, once said, "All Iraqis are bad people."
"I told him that that wasn't true, and that 90 to 95 percent of the Iraqi people are good people and they want the same thing that we have in the United States," Kunk said.
One of the defense attorneys, Capt. James D. Culp, who sucked on lollipops during his cross-examination, questioned Kunk about whether the unremitting violence in the area south of Baghdad patrolled by the soldiers caused combat stress. Kunk said most of the soldiers in the battalion were able to deal with the deaths of their fellow soldiers.
Two other Iraqi witnesses also testified at the hearing, but reporters were kept from hearing their statements out of concern that the witnesses might be later targeted.
The hearing took place on another violent day in Iraq. In Tikrit, a man detonated explosives attached to himself inside a funeral service. The blast killed 15 people and wounded 30 others, according to Iraqi army officials.
A witness, Omar Ghalib, 23, said the suicide bomber parked his car near the funeral hall and walked in wearing a light blue dishdasha , the traditional Iraqi robe.
"He went inside as if he wanted to offer condolences, and then a few seconds later, the explosion occurred," Ghalib said.
Police found the man's car also rigged with bombs, said 1st Lt. Norras Hamid of the Tikrit police. Tikrit General Hospital had received seven corpses and 14 injured people, said physician Jassim Dulaimi, but "we believe there are more dead bodies which have not been evacuated or were evacuated by their families directly."
[Early Monday, heavy gunfire and explosions rattled the Sadr City district of Baghdad. Government television and aides to radical Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr said U.S. aircraft were attacking buildings in the area, the Associated Press reported. Southwest of the capital, three U.S. soldiers were killed late Sunday in a roadside bombing, the U.S. military said.]
Special correspondent K.I. Ibrahim and other Washington Post staff contributed to this report.
IDF plans attacks on key civilian infrastructure in Lebanon
"We will continue hitting everything that moves in Hezbollah - but we will also hit strategic civilian infrastructure."
The real estate war
This miserable war in Lebanon, which is just getting more and more complicated for no reason at all, was born in Israel's greed for land. Not that Israel is fighting this time to conquer more land, not at all, but ending the occupation could have prevented this unnecessary war. If Israel had returned the Golan Heights and signed a peace treaty with Syria in a timely fashion, presumably this war would not have broken out. Continued.
George Galloway - Hizbollah Is Not A Terrorist Organization
Watch Galloway go at it with Sky News. Whether you love him or hate him it was a great interview. Favorite part comes at the end when the whiny newscaster tries to lecture him for the language he uses in describing Hezbollah's attacks against Israeli soldiers today, he said Hezbollah gave them a "good hiding." He asks her to name one single Palestinian that has been killed, then he asks if she knows the name of anyone from the family of Palestinians killed on the beach in Gaza. Priceless.
One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. George Galloway has spoken out in support of Lebanon, saying he believes Hizbollah is justified in defending Lebanon against Israeli attacks . The Respect MP also lambasted media coverage of the war and said the UN resolution means nothing. Watch here.
One mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter. George Galloway has spoken out in support of Lebanon, saying he believes Hizbollah is justified in defending Lebanon against Israeli attacks . The Respect MP also lambasted media coverage of the war and said the UN resolution means nothing. Watch here.
كيف تحولت بطولات المقاومة مغامرات بقواميس أنظمة عربية
يقول الأستاذ أحمد علي المدير العام لصحيفة الوطن القطرية في مقاله اليوم الأحد:
مع دخول العدوان الإسرائيلي على لبنان أسبوعه الرابع، وانقشاع غبار معارك "بنت جبيل" الصامدة و"عيترون" وسائر قرى الجنوب، يأتينا صوت الأمين العام لحزب الله السيد "حسن نصر الله" بروح معنوية عالية، وإرادة وطنية لا تنكسر، ليبشر الأمة بنصر قريب بإذن الله.
ولأن مقاييس النصر وحسابات الهزيمة تختلف في هذه الحرب غير المتكافئة عن غيرها من حروب إسرائيل ضد العرب، فإن مجرد ظهور حسن نصر الله على تليفزيون "المنار"، متحديا الغارات العشوائية يعني انتصارا لمبادئ الرجل الذي أصبح رمزا للمقاومة الوطنية بوجه الغطرسة الإسرائيلية.
ما من شك في أنه كلما استطاعت المقاومة الصمود يوما آخر في وجه الآلة العسكرية الإسرائيلية المدمرة والمدعومة أميركيا فإن ذلك يعني انتصارا لها، وهزيمة لمقولة الجيش الإسرائيلي الذي لا يقهر.
لقد تعدت الحرب الظالمة التي تشنها إسرائيل ضد لبنان بأهدافها الإستراتيجية قضية الإفراج عن الجنديين الأسيرين، وبات واضحا أنها جزء من مخطط تآمري لتغيير المعادلات السياسية بالمنطقة، بالتخلص من حركات المقاومة الوطنية بالعالم العربي، وإعادة تشكيل شرق أوسط يريدونه خاليا من المدافعين عن كرامة الأمة، بمشروع يحظى بموافقة بل مشاركة أنظمة عربية تريد دورا وموقعا مؤثرين.
وإذا كانت الحرب كشفت صلابة المقاومة وصعوبة هزيمتها، فإنها كشفت أيضا هشاشة مواقف حكومات عربية وجدناها مع إطلاق الرصاصة الإسرائيلية الأولى على الجنوب ترفع راية الاستسلام، بدلا راية الإسلام!
فوضى كبيرة وتخبط وتردد بل وعجز في حركة النظام الرسمي العربي الذي يقف ساكتا ولا يحرك ساكنا، إزاء مجازر إسرائيل الوحشية دون أن يسعى لقمة عربية طارئة, وكأن أطفال لبنان الذين قتلوا في "قانا" الأولى والثانية لا ينتمون إلى أمتنا العربية، ولا يمثلون مستقبلنا العربي الذي يبدو مظلما، خصوصاً مع إصدار فتاوى ملكية تفصل حسب مقاسات ومتطلبات وتقلبات الظروف السياسية تحرم نصرة "حزب الله"، مما يدعم موقف إسرائيل بعدوانها، ويساهم في تقسيم الأمة الإسلامية.
المؤسف، بل المخجل، أن هذه الأنظمة الخائفة على مصائرها ذهبت إلى حد توفير غطاء رسمي عربي لضرب المقاومة، بإعطاء الضوء الأخضر لشن العدوان بتحميل المسؤولية لحزب الله، ليكون ضربه عملا مشروعا بأذهان الرأي العام العالمي، وتكسير إرادته عملا مقبولا لدى رجل الشارع العادي، مما دفع رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي "إيهود أولمرت" إلى التفاخر بالتأييد الرسمي العربي.
سواء اختلفنا طائفيا أو مذهبيا أو سياسيا مع حزب الله، فالظرف لم يكن مناسبا أبدا لتصفية الحسابات الأيديولوجية، واتهامه بخوض "المغامرات"، وإنما كان مطلوبا رصّ الصفوف وبحث السبل الكفيلة بوقف العدوان الغاشم.
لا أدري ما الذي تغير في القواميس السياسية لأنظمة ابتعدت عن إرادة شعوبها حتى أصبحت المقاومة المشروعة من أعمال "المغامرات"، فالذي نعرفه أن "حزب الله" هو نفس الحزب الشيعي المقاتل الذي أجبر إسرائيل على الانسحاب من الجنوب اللبناني قبل ستة أعوام بعمل بطولي شجع الأمير الشاعر خالد الفيصل للتغني بإنجاز المقاومة اللبنانية بقصيدة "لبنان أكبر من بلد" والتي يقول فيها:
قالوا إسرائيل ما تُهزم أبد
وانسحب جيش العدو قبل الوعدْ
أرغموه أبطال لبنان الرّجال
ما انسحبْ لا لا تحجّم وانطردْ
يسبق اللّحظات في ليل الهروب
يدري إن الموت حظّه لو قعدْ
لو ظهر لبنان في حجمه صغير
بالنصر لبنان أكبر من بلد
مع دخول العدوان الإسرائيلي على لبنان أسبوعه الرابع، وانقشاع غبار معارك "بنت جبيل" الصامدة و"عيترون" وسائر قرى الجنوب، يأتينا صوت الأمين العام لحزب الله السيد "حسن نصر الله" بروح معنوية عالية، وإرادة وطنية لا تنكسر، ليبشر الأمة بنصر قريب بإذن الله.
ولأن مقاييس النصر وحسابات الهزيمة تختلف في هذه الحرب غير المتكافئة عن غيرها من حروب إسرائيل ضد العرب، فإن مجرد ظهور حسن نصر الله على تليفزيون "المنار"، متحديا الغارات العشوائية يعني انتصارا لمبادئ الرجل الذي أصبح رمزا للمقاومة الوطنية بوجه الغطرسة الإسرائيلية.
ما من شك في أنه كلما استطاعت المقاومة الصمود يوما آخر في وجه الآلة العسكرية الإسرائيلية المدمرة والمدعومة أميركيا فإن ذلك يعني انتصارا لها، وهزيمة لمقولة الجيش الإسرائيلي الذي لا يقهر.
لقد تعدت الحرب الظالمة التي تشنها إسرائيل ضد لبنان بأهدافها الإستراتيجية قضية الإفراج عن الجنديين الأسيرين، وبات واضحا أنها جزء من مخطط تآمري لتغيير المعادلات السياسية بالمنطقة، بالتخلص من حركات المقاومة الوطنية بالعالم العربي، وإعادة تشكيل شرق أوسط يريدونه خاليا من المدافعين عن كرامة الأمة، بمشروع يحظى بموافقة بل مشاركة أنظمة عربية تريد دورا وموقعا مؤثرين.
وإذا كانت الحرب كشفت صلابة المقاومة وصعوبة هزيمتها، فإنها كشفت أيضا هشاشة مواقف حكومات عربية وجدناها مع إطلاق الرصاصة الإسرائيلية الأولى على الجنوب ترفع راية الاستسلام، بدلا راية الإسلام!
فوضى كبيرة وتخبط وتردد بل وعجز في حركة النظام الرسمي العربي الذي يقف ساكتا ولا يحرك ساكنا، إزاء مجازر إسرائيل الوحشية دون أن يسعى لقمة عربية طارئة, وكأن أطفال لبنان الذين قتلوا في "قانا" الأولى والثانية لا ينتمون إلى أمتنا العربية، ولا يمثلون مستقبلنا العربي الذي يبدو مظلما، خصوصاً مع إصدار فتاوى ملكية تفصل حسب مقاسات ومتطلبات وتقلبات الظروف السياسية تحرم نصرة "حزب الله"، مما يدعم موقف إسرائيل بعدوانها، ويساهم في تقسيم الأمة الإسلامية.
المؤسف، بل المخجل، أن هذه الأنظمة الخائفة على مصائرها ذهبت إلى حد توفير غطاء رسمي عربي لضرب المقاومة، بإعطاء الضوء الأخضر لشن العدوان بتحميل المسؤولية لحزب الله، ليكون ضربه عملا مشروعا بأذهان الرأي العام العالمي، وتكسير إرادته عملا مقبولا لدى رجل الشارع العادي، مما دفع رئيس الوزراء الإسرائيلي "إيهود أولمرت" إلى التفاخر بالتأييد الرسمي العربي.
سواء اختلفنا طائفيا أو مذهبيا أو سياسيا مع حزب الله، فالظرف لم يكن مناسبا أبدا لتصفية الحسابات الأيديولوجية، واتهامه بخوض "المغامرات"، وإنما كان مطلوبا رصّ الصفوف وبحث السبل الكفيلة بوقف العدوان الغاشم.
لا أدري ما الذي تغير في القواميس السياسية لأنظمة ابتعدت عن إرادة شعوبها حتى أصبحت المقاومة المشروعة من أعمال "المغامرات"، فالذي نعرفه أن "حزب الله" هو نفس الحزب الشيعي المقاتل الذي أجبر إسرائيل على الانسحاب من الجنوب اللبناني قبل ستة أعوام بعمل بطولي شجع الأمير الشاعر خالد الفيصل للتغني بإنجاز المقاومة اللبنانية بقصيدة "لبنان أكبر من بلد" والتي يقول فيها:
قالوا إسرائيل ما تُهزم أبد
وانسحب جيش العدو قبل الوعدْ
أرغموه أبطال لبنان الرّجال
ما انسحبْ لا لا تحجّم وانطردْ
يسبق اللّحظات في ليل الهروب
يدري إن الموت حظّه لو قعدْ
لو ظهر لبنان في حجمه صغير
بالنصر لبنان أكبر من بلد
VIDEO OF ISRAELI ATTACK ON RAFAH
This video is about the Israeli invasion of Rafah in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, during the past three days. This invasion has caused the death of at least 17 Palestinians, mostly civilians. The audio is Arabic. The lady in white that appears early on complained of the constant shelling, lack of electricity, water or fuel. She said that injured people were everywhere, but they could not be transported to hospital, due to the shelling.
Tragically, that same woman, looking for shelter that same evening, with her three children, was hit by Israeli missiles. A son and a daughter were killed, with their bodies torn to pieces. She and another son are in critical condition in a hospital. The doctor describes the effects of a new weapon not used before. He said the limbs were torn off.
Seeking relative safety from the indiscriminate Israeli shelling, entire families flocked to the UNRWA schools, with no guarantee of safety.
Tragically, that same woman, looking for shelter that same evening, with her three children, was hit by Israeli missiles. A son and a daughter were killed, with their bodies torn to pieces. She and another son are in critical condition in a hospital. The doctor describes the effects of a new weapon not used before. He said the limbs were torn off.
Seeking relative safety from the indiscriminate Israeli shelling, entire families flocked to the UNRWA schools, with no guarantee of safety.
Thanks for bringing them freedom, Bush.
Gays flee Iraq as Shia death squads find a new target
Hardline Islamic insurgent groups in Iraq are targeting a new type of victim with the full protection of Iraqi law, The Observer can reveal. The country is seeing a sudden escalation of brutal attacks on what are being called the 'immorals' - homosexual men and children as young as 11 who have been forced into same-sex prostitution.
There is growing evidence that Shia militias have been killing men suspected of being gay and children who have been sold to criminal gangs to be sexually abused. The threat has led to a rapid increase in the numbers of Iraqi homosexuals now seeking asylum in the UK because it has become impossible for them to live safely in their own country.
Ali Hili runs the Iraqi LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) group out of London. He used to have 40 volunteers in Iraq but says after recent raids by militia in Najaf, Karbala and Basra he has lost contact with half of them. They move to different safe houses to protect their identities, but their work is incredibly dangerous. Continued.
(I wonder if this was the intention of the gay hating White House or if this was just an added *bonus* for them? I've certainly never heard them speak out against what is happening to gay Iraqis, for that matter I haven't heard them speak out against what is happening to women.)
Hardline Islamic insurgent groups in Iraq are targeting a new type of victim with the full protection of Iraqi law, The Observer can reveal. The country is seeing a sudden escalation of brutal attacks on what are being called the 'immorals' - homosexual men and children as young as 11 who have been forced into same-sex prostitution.
There is growing evidence that Shia militias have been killing men suspected of being gay and children who have been sold to criminal gangs to be sexually abused. The threat has led to a rapid increase in the numbers of Iraqi homosexuals now seeking asylum in the UK because it has become impossible for them to live safely in their own country.
Ali Hili runs the Iraqi LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) group out of London. He used to have 40 volunteers in Iraq but says after recent raids by militia in Najaf, Karbala and Basra he has lost contact with half of them. They move to different safe houses to protect their identities, but their work is incredibly dangerous. Continued.
(I wonder if this was the intention of the gay hating White House or if this was just an added *bonus* for them? I've certainly never heard them speak out against what is happening to gay Iraqis, for that matter I haven't heard them speak out against what is happening to women.)
Carter: Bush Israel's 'worst ally' in D.C.
PLAINFIELD TOWNSHIP, Michigan (AP) -- Former President Carter, who helped broker the historic Camp David peace accord, said President Bush has pursued an "erroneous policy" that has fostered violence in the Middle East.
Carter said the United States should work for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah and the world community should concentrate on a long-term solution, but he is uncertain whether Bush can accomplish a cease-fire.
"It depends on whether world opinion is strong enough to get the administration to change its erroneous policy, which has been to encourage the continuation of attacks on both sides," Carter, a Democrat, told The Grand Rapids Press in an interview Friday. Continue.
Carter said the United States should work for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah and the world community should concentrate on a long-term solution, but he is uncertain whether Bush can accomplish a cease-fire.
"It depends on whether world opinion is strong enough to get the administration to change its erroneous policy, which has been to encourage the continuation of attacks on both sides," Carter, a Democrat, told The Grand Rapids Press in an interview Friday. Continue.
أزمة اختطاف الدويك تتصاعد والفلسطينيون يهددون بانتفاضة ثالثة
طالب رئيس البرلمان الأوروبي جوزيب بوريل بالإفراج فورا عن رئيس المجلس التشريعي الفلسطيني عزيز الدويك، منددا بحزم باعتقاله الذي اعتبر أنه غير مقبول على الإطلاق.
كما أدانت مصر والجامعة العربية اختطاف الدويك، وقال محمد الصبيح الأمين العام المساعد للجامعة العربية إن إسرائيل تجاوزت كل حدود القوانين والأعراف المعمول بها دوليا، وانتهكت أبسط قواعد الديمقراطية "لتثبت أنها تتقن فقط فن الخطف والتعذيب والإرهاب".
وفي تطورات هذه المسألة أكد الدويك في تصريحات صحفية من سجنه أنه يرفض أن يتم الإفراج عنه بدلا عن أسرى فلسطينيين آخرين في مقابل الإفراج عن الجندي الإسرائيلي الذي أسره مقاومون فلسطينيون في غزة.
وقال الدويك بالأصالة عن نفسه ونيابة عن وزراء ونواب اعتقلوا نهاية يونيو/حزيران الماضي، "لا نريد ولن نقبل أن نكون بدائل عن الإخوة الأسرى في السجون، لن نكون ورقة مساومة في هذا المجال"، وأضاف "لو بقيت بقية سني عمري وراء القضبان لن أقبل أن أكون بديلا".
وبدورهم دعا نواب فلسطينيون الرئيس الفلسطيني محمود عباس ورئيس الوزراء إسماعيل هنية إلى التفكير في الإعلان عن حل السلطة الفلسطينية.
ومن المقرر أن يعقد المجلس التشريعي الفلسطيني يوم الأربعاء المقبل جلسة لبحث تداعيات اعتقال الدويك، حيث قال أكثر من نائب إن الباب سيكون مفتوحا أمام كل الخيارات، وقال النائب عن حركة حماس محمود مصلح الذي حاول الاحتلال اعتقاله أكثر من مرة "هناك رأي بحل السلطة الفلسطينية ووضع الاحتلال الإسرائيلي أمام مسؤولياته، ووضع القضية الفلسطينية برمتها أمام المجتمع الدولي".
د. دويك من داخل سجن "عوفر" الصهيوني
د. دويك من داخل سجن "عوفر" الصهيوني: (إسرائيل) بإمعانها في عدوانها وظلمها ترسم خريطة نهايتها
اعتبر الدكتور عزيز الدويك رئيس المجلس التشريعي الفلسطيني عملية اعتقاله على يد قوات الاحتلال الصهيوني فجر اليوم الأحد (6/8) من منزله في مدينة رام الله دليل عجز وفشل للعدو، مؤكداً في الوقت ذاته على أنه لن يقبل أن يكون ضمن صفقة تبادل مع الجندي الصهيوني الأسير في غزة "جلعاد شليط".
وقال دويك في مقابلة مع وكالة أنباء "رامتان" من داخل سجن "عوفر" الصهيوني: إن "(إسرائيل) بظلمها واستمرارها وإمعانها في عدوانها فإنها ترسم بذلك خريطة نهايتها، وإن اعتداءها على المؤسسات الشرعية الفلسطينية هو دليل عجز وفشل".
وعبر رئيس المجلس التشريعي عن رفضه القاطع أن يكون هو والوزراء والنواب المعتقلون داخل السجون الصهيونية ضمن أي صفقة تبادل في مقابل الإفراج عن الجندي الأسير في غزة، وقال: "نحن مختطفون ولسنا جزءا من أي صفقة بأي حال من الأحوال، ونحن لن نقبل أن نكون بديلا عن أولئك الذين أفنوا زهرات شبابهم خلف القضبان سعيا إلى حرية شعبهم ووطنهم ومقدساتهم".
يذكر أن 27 نائبا فلسطينيا اختطفوا في نهاية حزيران/يونيو الماضي إلى جانب 8 وزراء، وتقوم السلطات الصهيونية بتقديمهم للمحاكمة وتمديد فترات اعتقالهم، فيما تعتبر الجهات الفلسطينية اعتقالهم بأنه غير شرعي.
ووصف دويك عملية اعتقاله بأنها كانت وحشية وغير إنسانية، وقال: "الحقيقة المعاملة وحشية والجنود شدوا ملابسي في أكثر من موقع في جسدي، وقلت لهم هذه أخلاقكم وأنتم تعتقلون رئيس المجلس التشريعي الفلسطيني، الحقيقة أنا وجدت فيهم من الفظاظة ومن سوء الأخلاق ما تجاوز كل الحدود"، ومضى يقول " عصبوا عيني وربطوا يدي و آثار الرباط البلاستيك الشديد لا يزال على يدي".
واستذكر دويك (58 عاما) الذي انتخب عضواً في المجلس التشريعي عن دائرة الخليل في حديثه ظروف إبعاده في مطلع التسعينات مع مئات القادة من حركتي "حماس" و"الجهاد الإسلامي" إلى مرج الزهور بلبنان قائلاً: إنها كانت مماثلة لعملية اعتقاله أمس على يد الجيش الصهيوني في رام الله والذي عاث في منزله خرابا.
وندد دويك بالممارسات الصهيونية والمواقف الأمريكية الداعمة لتلك الممارسات وقال: "هذا العدو لا يعرف خلقا ولا يعرف ضميرا هذا يتعامل بشريعة الغاب مثله كمثل أسياده في واشنطن، الذين تسودهم حضارة رعاة البقر ولا تسودهم أخلاق الشعوب المتحضرة بأي حال من الأحوال".
وحول ظروف اعتقاله في سجن "عوفر" الذي يحتجز فيه، قال دويك: " أنا الآن في سجن "عوفر" بين أبطال فلسطين من شبابنا من كافة الفصائل، هذا الشباب البطل المتطلع للحرية، وفي عيون كل واحد منهم عزيمة وإصرار وثبات" مؤكدا على أنه يستمد المعنويات من المعتقلين الفلسطينيين المحيطين به داخل الزنازين الصهيونية.
وتابع قائلاً: "أنا الحمد لله رب العالمين استمد كل المعنويات من هذا الشباب الصابر، فحوالي ألف شاب من عوفر كلهم عزيمة وإصرار وهم على موعد إن شاء الله تعالى مع الحرية والنصر".
وكرر دويك في أكثر من مرة عبارات الصمود والتحدي قائلاً: "سنبقى إن شاء الله نبنى ونشيد صرح هذا الوطن في صمودنا وإبائنا وصبرنا وتحملنا، وإن شاء الله لن نذل ولن نخضع للمحتل".
واغتنم رئيس المجلس التشريعي الفرصة لتوجيه رسالة تحية للشعب الفلسطيني والشعوب العربية والإسلامية، ومحبي السلام في العالم، كما خص بالذكر الشعب اللبناني الذي وصفه بالبطل قائلاً: "إنه أظهر للعالم كله أن الشعوب إذا أرادت فإنها لن تقهر ولن تقهر إرادتها أبدا".
اعتبر الدكتور عزيز الدويك رئيس المجلس التشريعي الفلسطيني عملية اعتقاله على يد قوات الاحتلال الصهيوني فجر اليوم الأحد (6/8) من منزله في مدينة رام الله دليل عجز وفشل للعدو، مؤكداً في الوقت ذاته على أنه لن يقبل أن يكون ضمن صفقة تبادل مع الجندي الصهيوني الأسير في غزة "جلعاد شليط".
وقال دويك في مقابلة مع وكالة أنباء "رامتان" من داخل سجن "عوفر" الصهيوني: إن "(إسرائيل) بظلمها واستمرارها وإمعانها في عدوانها فإنها ترسم بذلك خريطة نهايتها، وإن اعتداءها على المؤسسات الشرعية الفلسطينية هو دليل عجز وفشل".
وعبر رئيس المجلس التشريعي عن رفضه القاطع أن يكون هو والوزراء والنواب المعتقلون داخل السجون الصهيونية ضمن أي صفقة تبادل في مقابل الإفراج عن الجندي الأسير في غزة، وقال: "نحن مختطفون ولسنا جزءا من أي صفقة بأي حال من الأحوال، ونحن لن نقبل أن نكون بديلا عن أولئك الذين أفنوا زهرات شبابهم خلف القضبان سعيا إلى حرية شعبهم ووطنهم ومقدساتهم".
يذكر أن 27 نائبا فلسطينيا اختطفوا في نهاية حزيران/يونيو الماضي إلى جانب 8 وزراء، وتقوم السلطات الصهيونية بتقديمهم للمحاكمة وتمديد فترات اعتقالهم، فيما تعتبر الجهات الفلسطينية اعتقالهم بأنه غير شرعي.
ووصف دويك عملية اعتقاله بأنها كانت وحشية وغير إنسانية، وقال: "الحقيقة المعاملة وحشية والجنود شدوا ملابسي في أكثر من موقع في جسدي، وقلت لهم هذه أخلاقكم وأنتم تعتقلون رئيس المجلس التشريعي الفلسطيني، الحقيقة أنا وجدت فيهم من الفظاظة ومن سوء الأخلاق ما تجاوز كل الحدود"، ومضى يقول " عصبوا عيني وربطوا يدي و آثار الرباط البلاستيك الشديد لا يزال على يدي".
واستذكر دويك (58 عاما) الذي انتخب عضواً في المجلس التشريعي عن دائرة الخليل في حديثه ظروف إبعاده في مطلع التسعينات مع مئات القادة من حركتي "حماس" و"الجهاد الإسلامي" إلى مرج الزهور بلبنان قائلاً: إنها كانت مماثلة لعملية اعتقاله أمس على يد الجيش الصهيوني في رام الله والذي عاث في منزله خرابا.
وندد دويك بالممارسات الصهيونية والمواقف الأمريكية الداعمة لتلك الممارسات وقال: "هذا العدو لا يعرف خلقا ولا يعرف ضميرا هذا يتعامل بشريعة الغاب مثله كمثل أسياده في واشنطن، الذين تسودهم حضارة رعاة البقر ولا تسودهم أخلاق الشعوب المتحضرة بأي حال من الأحوال".
وحول ظروف اعتقاله في سجن "عوفر" الذي يحتجز فيه، قال دويك: " أنا الآن في سجن "عوفر" بين أبطال فلسطين من شبابنا من كافة الفصائل، هذا الشباب البطل المتطلع للحرية، وفي عيون كل واحد منهم عزيمة وإصرار وثبات" مؤكدا على أنه يستمد المعنويات من المعتقلين الفلسطينيين المحيطين به داخل الزنازين الصهيونية.
وتابع قائلاً: "أنا الحمد لله رب العالمين استمد كل المعنويات من هذا الشباب الصابر، فحوالي ألف شاب من عوفر كلهم عزيمة وإصرار وهم على موعد إن شاء الله تعالى مع الحرية والنصر".
وكرر دويك في أكثر من مرة عبارات الصمود والتحدي قائلاً: "سنبقى إن شاء الله نبنى ونشيد صرح هذا الوطن في صمودنا وإبائنا وصبرنا وتحملنا، وإن شاء الله لن نذل ولن نخضع للمحتل".
واغتنم رئيس المجلس التشريعي الفرصة لتوجيه رسالة تحية للشعب الفلسطيني والشعوب العربية والإسلامية، ومحبي السلام في العالم، كما خص بالذكر الشعب اللبناني الذي وصفه بالبطل قائلاً: "إنه أظهر للعالم كله أن الشعوب إذا أرادت فإنها لن تقهر ولن تقهر إرادتها أبدا".
Haneyya describes kidnapping of Duwaik as plain piracy
Ramallah - The kidnapping of the PLC speaker Dr. Aziz Duwaik at the hands of the IOF troops in Ramallah city Saturday night left its impact on the PA officials as PA premier Ismail Haneyya described the abduction as "plain Zionist piracy".
In press statements, the PA premier urged all Arab and foreign legislatures and lawmakers to condemn the kidnapping of Duwaik, and to mobilize all their capabilities and energies to secure his unconditional release along with the freedom of the other kidnapped Palestinian lawmakers and PA ministers.
Duwaik has just finished his Isha'a (night) prayer with his wife when IOF troops surrounded his home and asked him to surrender. The unshaken PLC speaker resolutely accompanied his kidnappers apparently to block any possible harm on his family. He was reportedly taken to the Israeli Ofer detention center near Ramallah city.
Legislators of the Hamas-affiliated change and reform parliamentary bloc, which Duwaik belongs to, have deprecated the kidnapping, charging that the Israeli occupation government was deliberately undermining all international statutes and agreements."The abduction of Duwaik at the hands of the IOF troops reflects Olmert's government's political bankruptcy and panicking before the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance", the bloc's lawmakers said in statement they issued Sunday.They explained that Israel is mistaken if it thinks that such acts would subjugate the Palestinian people or blackmail them to free its captured soldier who has been in the hands of the Palestinian resistance fighters for more than a month."If they (Israelis) think they can extort the Palestinian people and resistance with those kidnappings to retrieve their captured soldier, then they are indeed mistaken", the bloc elaborated.
Kidnapped Palestinian lawmakers and elected officials as well as PA ministers have repeatedly asserted that they disagree to be part of any swap deal with Israel, and that they should be unconditionally freed being illegally detained.For his part, Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the PLC first-deputy speaker, affirmed that Israel meant to paralyze the PLC with the kidnapping of Duwaik, but, for sure, he stressed, its goal will fail.He further held the Israeli occupation government fully responsible for the safety of Duwaik and the rest of the kidnapped PA officials and deputies, adding that he will spare no time in relaying the Israeli "barbarism" to the rest of the world's parliaments.
In press statements, the PA premier urged all Arab and foreign legislatures and lawmakers to condemn the kidnapping of Duwaik, and to mobilize all their capabilities and energies to secure his unconditional release along with the freedom of the other kidnapped Palestinian lawmakers and PA ministers.
Duwaik has just finished his Isha'a (night) prayer with his wife when IOF troops surrounded his home and asked him to surrender. The unshaken PLC speaker resolutely accompanied his kidnappers apparently to block any possible harm on his family. He was reportedly taken to the Israeli Ofer detention center near Ramallah city.
Legislators of the Hamas-affiliated change and reform parliamentary bloc, which Duwaik belongs to, have deprecated the kidnapping, charging that the Israeli occupation government was deliberately undermining all international statutes and agreements."The abduction of Duwaik at the hands of the IOF troops reflects Olmert's government's political bankruptcy and panicking before the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance", the bloc's lawmakers said in statement they issued Sunday.They explained that Israel is mistaken if it thinks that such acts would subjugate the Palestinian people or blackmail them to free its captured soldier who has been in the hands of the Palestinian resistance fighters for more than a month."If they (Israelis) think they can extort the Palestinian people and resistance with those kidnappings to retrieve their captured soldier, then they are indeed mistaken", the bloc elaborated.
Kidnapped Palestinian lawmakers and elected officials as well as PA ministers have repeatedly asserted that they disagree to be part of any swap deal with Israel, and that they should be unconditionally freed being illegally detained.For his part, Dr. Ahmed Bahar, the PLC first-deputy speaker, affirmed that Israel meant to paralyze the PLC with the kidnapping of Duwaik, but, for sure, he stressed, its goal will fail.He further held the Israeli occupation government fully responsible for the safety of Duwaik and the rest of the kidnapped PA officials and deputies, adding that he will spare no time in relaying the Israeli "barbarism" to the rest of the world's parliaments.
IOF troops kidnap leader of Palestinian parliament
Ramallah – IOF troops, disguised in Arab clothes, helped by regular IOF troops surrounded, Saturday night, the house of Dr. Aziz Duwaik, speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), and kidnapped him from his home and took him to an unknown destination, according to his wife.His wife said that the IOF troops went into their house after kidnapping her husband and searched it thoroughly confiscating two computers and paper documents from the house.IOF troops had kidnapped at the end of last June about 20 Palestinian Lawmakers and ministers in response to the capture of an Israeli soldier in a military operation by three Palestinian resistance groups.Dr. Duwaik and a number of ministers managed to escape the wave kidnappings at the time by going into hiding and taking care when making public appearances.The deputy speaker condemned the kidnapping and called on parliamentarians around the world to pressure Israel to release all the kidnapped Palestinian lawmakers and ministers.
Where the shepherds tend guns by night
Peter Beaumont in Kfar Kila
Sunday August 6, 2006
The Observer
"But nothing appears to spook Yahia. A member of Amal, the group fighting alongside Hizbollah in the Islamic Resistance, he barely flinches as the Israeli shells crash in. The streets are open on one side to observation from the gunners around Metula. 'If they want to come, they'll come,' he said sombrely, showing off the rubble in his parents' house, where a shell had punched a hole through the wall. 'Then we will fight them.'
'I won't fight without a reason. But because I have a reason I will fight. Because this is my land, I am prepared to die for it. How could you stay silent when you see your land burn and your children get killed? The whole population here is now resisting.'
It is something that strikes you forcefully when you reach the front line of this war. In these villages that form the strongholds of the Islamic Resistance, the men - many of them obviously fighters out of uniform - do not talk much in terms of ideology or religious fanaticism. They are not the zealots and jihadis that Israel claims. Instead, they talk about their damaged property and their livestock scattered by the shelling on the mountains. They talk about family who have fled and those who have stayed. And all the time they carefully skirt talk of the fighters. If they do talk politics it is sometimes with an unexpected spin. Several say that it is not so much the Israelis they blame for this - indeed, who they suggest would agree to a truce - but US President George Bush, who they claim is the real force behind the war."
Sunday August 6, 2006
The Observer
"But nothing appears to spook Yahia. A member of Amal, the group fighting alongside Hizbollah in the Islamic Resistance, he barely flinches as the Israeli shells crash in. The streets are open on one side to observation from the gunners around Metula. 'If they want to come, they'll come,' he said sombrely, showing off the rubble in his parents' house, where a shell had punched a hole through the wall. 'Then we will fight them.'
'I won't fight without a reason. But because I have a reason I will fight. Because this is my land, I am prepared to die for it. How could you stay silent when you see your land burn and your children get killed? The whole population here is now resisting.'
It is something that strikes you forcefully when you reach the front line of this war. In these villages that form the strongholds of the Islamic Resistance, the men - many of them obviously fighters out of uniform - do not talk much in terms of ideology or religious fanaticism. They are not the zealots and jihadis that Israel claims. Instead, they talk about their damaged property and their livestock scattered by the shelling on the mountains. They talk about family who have fled and those who have stayed. And all the time they carefully skirt talk of the fighters. If they do talk politics it is sometimes with an unexpected spin. Several say that it is not so much the Israelis they blame for this - indeed, who they suggest would agree to a truce - but US President George Bush, who they claim is the real force behind the war."
One Ring to Rule Them
By Juan Cole
"It may be that that hawks are thinking this way: Destroy Lebanon, and destroy Hizbullah, and you reduce Iran's strategic depth. Destroy the Iranian nuclear program and you leave it helpless and vulnerable to having done to it what the Israelis did to Lebanon. You leave it vulnerable to regime change, and a dragooning of Iran back into the US sphere of influence, denying it to China and assuring its 500 tcf of natural gas to US corporations. You also politically reorient the entire Gulf, with both Saddam and Khamenei gone, toward the United States. Voila, you avoid peak oil problems in the US until a technological fix can be found, and you avoid a situation where China and India have special access to Iran and the Gulf.
The second American Century ensues. The "New Middle East" means the "American Middle East."
And it all starts with the destruction of Lebanon.
More wars to come, in this scenario, since hitting Lebanon was like hitting a politician's bodyguard. You don't kill a bodyguard just to kill the bodyguard. It is phase I of a bigger operation."
South African Solidarity
Thousands of people marched through the streets of Cape Town to Parliament on Saturday to demand diplomatic and trade sanctions against Israel. Continue.
Arundhati Roy on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict
This is a ten minute snippet from the video, to watch the video for free or to order a DVD see below.
To watch the entire video for free on Google, click here.
To order a DVD for free click here.
To watch the entire video for free on Google, click here.
To order a DVD for free click here.
Brzezinski: The Beginning of the End for Israel
"These neocon prescriptions, of which Israel has its equivalents, are fatal for America and ultimately for Israel. They will totally turn the overwhelming majority of the Middle East's population against the United States. The lessons of Iraq speak for themselves. Eventually, if neo-con policies continue to be pursued, the United States will be expelled from the region and that will be the beginning of the end for Israel as well". Continued.
UK: More than 100 MPs sign petition attacking Blair : The extent of the Labour backbench unrest over Tony Blair's handling of the Middle East crisis is laid bare for the first time today in a petition calling for an immediate ceasefire.
Fury at Blair as 100,000 take to the streets over Lebanon Some 100,000 protesters took to the streets of London on Saturday to demand an end to Israel's assault on Lebanon and Gaza - and to express their fury at Tony Blair's refusal to call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
Fury at Blair as 100,000 take to the streets over Lebanon Some 100,000 protesters took to the streets of London on Saturday to demand an end to Israel's assault on Lebanon and Gaza - and to express their fury at Tony Blair's refusal to call for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire.
Israeli pilots 'deliberately miss' targets
Fliers admit aborting raids on civilian targets as concern grows over the reliability of intelligence Inigo Gilmore at Hatzor Air Base, Israel
Sunday August 6, 2006
At least two Israeli fighter pilots have deliberately missed civilian targets in Lebanon as disquiet grows in the military about flawed intelligence, The Observer has learnt. Sources say the pilots were worried that targets had been wrongly identified as Hizbollah facilities.
Voices expressing concern over the armed forces' failures are getting louder. One Israeli cabinet minister said last week: 'We gave the army so much money. Why are we getting these results?' Last week saw Hizbollah's guerrilla force, dismissed by senior Israeli military officials as 'ragtag', inflict further casualties on one of the world's most powerful armies in southern Lebanon. At least 12 elite troops, the equivalent of Britain's SAS, have already been killed, and by yesterday afternoon Israel's military death toll had climbed to 45.
As the bodies pile up, so the Israeli media has begun to turn, accusing the military of lacking the proper equipment, training and intelligence to fight a guerrilla war in Lebanon. Israel's Defence Minister, Amir Peretz, on a tour of the front lines, was confronted by troubled reserve soldiers who told him they lacked proper equipment and training.
Israel's chief of staff, Major-General Dan Halutz, had vowed to wipe out Hizbollah's missile threat within 10 days. These claims are now being mocked as rockets rain down on Israel's north with ever greater intensity, despite an intense and highly destructive air bombardment.
As one well-connected Israeli expert put it: 'If we have such good information in Lebanon, how come we still don't know the hideout of missiles and launchers?... If we don't know the location of their weapons, why should we know which house is a Hizbollah house?'
As international outrage over civilian deaths grows, the spotlight is increasingly turning on Israeli air operations. The Observer has learnt that one senior commander who has been involved in the air attacks in Lebanon has already raised concerns that some of the air force's actions might be considered 'war crimes'.
Yonatan Shapiro, a former Blackhawk helicopter pilot dismissed from reserve duty after signing a 'refusenik' letter in 2004, said he had spoken with Israeli F-16 pilots in recent days and learnt that some had aborted missions because of concerns about the reliability of intelligence information. According to Shapiro, some pilots justified aborting missions out of 'common sense' and in the context of the Israeli Defence Force's moral code of conduct, which says every effort should be made to avoiding harming civilians.
Shapiro said: 'Some pilots told me they have shot at the side of targets because they're afraid people will be there, and they don't trust any more those who give them the coordinates and targets.'
He added: 'One pilot told me he was asked to hit a house on a hill, which was supposed to be a place from where Hizbollah was launching Katyusha missiles. But he was afraid civilians were in the house, so he shot next to the house ...
'Pilots are always being told they will be judged on results, but if the results are hundreds of dead civilians while Hizbollah is still able to fire all these rockets, then something is very wrong.'
So far none of the pilots has publicly refused to fly missions but some are wobbling, according to Shapiro. He said: 'Their target could be a house firing a cannon at Israel and it could be a house full of children, so it's a real dilemma; it's not black and white. But ... I'm calling on them to refuse, in order save our country from self-destruction.'
Meron Rappoport, a former editor at the Israeli daily Haaretz and military analyst, criticised the air force's methods for selecting targets: 'The impression is that information is sometimes lacking. One squadron leader admitted the evidence used to determine attacks on cars is sometimes circumstantial - meaning that if people are in an area after Israeli forces warned them to leave, the assumption is that those left behind must be linked to Hizbollah ... This is problematic, as aid agencies have said many people did not leave ... because they could not, or it was unsafe to travel on the roads thanks to Israel's aerial bombardment.'
These revelations raise further serious questions about the airstrike in Qana last Sunday that left dozens dead, which continues to arouse international outrage. From the outset, the Israeli military's version of events has been shrouded in ambiguity, with the army releasing a video it claims shows Katyusha rockets being fired from Qana, even though the video was dated two days earlier, and claiming that more than 150 rockets had been fired from the location.
Some IDF officials have continued to refer vaguely to Katyushas being launched 'near houses' in the village and to non-specific 'terrorist activity' inside the targeted building. In a statement on Thursday, the IDF said it the air force did not know there were civilians in what they believed was an empty building, yet paradoxically blamed Hizbollah for using those killed as 'human shields'.
Human rights groups have attacked the findings as illogical. Amnesty International described the investigation as a 'whitewash', saying Israeli intelligence must have been aware of the civilians'.
One Israeli commander from a different squadron called the Qana bombing a 'mistake' and was unable to explain the apparent contradiction in the IDF's position, although he insisted there would have been no deliberate targeting of civilians. He said he had seen the video of the attack, and admitted: 'Generally they [Hizbollah] are using human shields ... That specific building - I don't know the reason it was chosen as a target.'
Sunday August 6, 2006
At least two Israeli fighter pilots have deliberately missed civilian targets in Lebanon as disquiet grows in the military about flawed intelligence, The Observer has learnt. Sources say the pilots were worried that targets had been wrongly identified as Hizbollah facilities.
Voices expressing concern over the armed forces' failures are getting louder. One Israeli cabinet minister said last week: 'We gave the army so much money. Why are we getting these results?' Last week saw Hizbollah's guerrilla force, dismissed by senior Israeli military officials as 'ragtag', inflict further casualties on one of the world's most powerful armies in southern Lebanon. At least 12 elite troops, the equivalent of Britain's SAS, have already been killed, and by yesterday afternoon Israel's military death toll had climbed to 45.
As the bodies pile up, so the Israeli media has begun to turn, accusing the military of lacking the proper equipment, training and intelligence to fight a guerrilla war in Lebanon. Israel's Defence Minister, Amir Peretz, on a tour of the front lines, was confronted by troubled reserve soldiers who told him they lacked proper equipment and training.
Israel's chief of staff, Major-General Dan Halutz, had vowed to wipe out Hizbollah's missile threat within 10 days. These claims are now being mocked as rockets rain down on Israel's north with ever greater intensity, despite an intense and highly destructive air bombardment.
As one well-connected Israeli expert put it: 'If we have such good information in Lebanon, how come we still don't know the hideout of missiles and launchers?... If we don't know the location of their weapons, why should we know which house is a Hizbollah house?'
As international outrage over civilian deaths grows, the spotlight is increasingly turning on Israeli air operations. The Observer has learnt that one senior commander who has been involved in the air attacks in Lebanon has already raised concerns that some of the air force's actions might be considered 'war crimes'.
Yonatan Shapiro, a former Blackhawk helicopter pilot dismissed from reserve duty after signing a 'refusenik' letter in 2004, said he had spoken with Israeli F-16 pilots in recent days and learnt that some had aborted missions because of concerns about the reliability of intelligence information. According to Shapiro, some pilots justified aborting missions out of 'common sense' and in the context of the Israeli Defence Force's moral code of conduct, which says every effort should be made to avoiding harming civilians.
Shapiro said: 'Some pilots told me they have shot at the side of targets because they're afraid people will be there, and they don't trust any more those who give them the coordinates and targets.'
He added: 'One pilot told me he was asked to hit a house on a hill, which was supposed to be a place from where Hizbollah was launching Katyusha missiles. But he was afraid civilians were in the house, so he shot next to the house ...
'Pilots are always being told they will be judged on results, but if the results are hundreds of dead civilians while Hizbollah is still able to fire all these rockets, then something is very wrong.'
So far none of the pilots has publicly refused to fly missions but some are wobbling, according to Shapiro. He said: 'Their target could be a house firing a cannon at Israel and it could be a house full of children, so it's a real dilemma; it's not black and white. But ... I'm calling on them to refuse, in order save our country from self-destruction.'
Meron Rappoport, a former editor at the Israeli daily Haaretz and military analyst, criticised the air force's methods for selecting targets: 'The impression is that information is sometimes lacking. One squadron leader admitted the evidence used to determine attacks on cars is sometimes circumstantial - meaning that if people are in an area after Israeli forces warned them to leave, the assumption is that those left behind must be linked to Hizbollah ... This is problematic, as aid agencies have said many people did not leave ... because they could not, or it was unsafe to travel on the roads thanks to Israel's aerial bombardment.'
These revelations raise further serious questions about the airstrike in Qana last Sunday that left dozens dead, which continues to arouse international outrage. From the outset, the Israeli military's version of events has been shrouded in ambiguity, with the army releasing a video it claims shows Katyusha rockets being fired from Qana, even though the video was dated two days earlier, and claiming that more than 150 rockets had been fired from the location.
Some IDF officials have continued to refer vaguely to Katyushas being launched 'near houses' in the village and to non-specific 'terrorist activity' inside the targeted building. In a statement on Thursday, the IDF said it the air force did not know there were civilians in what they believed was an empty building, yet paradoxically blamed Hizbollah for using those killed as 'human shields'.
Human rights groups have attacked the findings as illogical. Amnesty International described the investigation as a 'whitewash', saying Israeli intelligence must have been aware of the civilians'.
One Israeli commander from a different squadron called the Qana bombing a 'mistake' and was unable to explain the apparent contradiction in the IDF's position, although he insisted there would have been no deliberate targeting of civilians. He said he had seen the video of the attack, and admitted: 'Generally they [Hizbollah] are using human shields ... That specific building - I don't know the reason it was chosen as a target.'
Saturday, August 5, 2006
MEANWHILE IN RAFAH, 17 PALESTINIANS WERE KILLED IN TWO DAYS
Fatima Jadallah, 55, killed by Israeli bullets while in her own home in Rafah Refugee Camp
Even coffee shops were targeted
Damage in Rafah
Children running to an UNRWA school
Right now in Rafah, I have seen people and children who had been bleeding for 12 hours, laying on the ground, while ambulances are no longer able to evacuate their bodies. The attack is still ongoing in the last 15 hours and so far more than 12 people were killed and over 40 were injured. the attack is still going on up till now, and the numbers of victims is increasing minute by minute. People in Rafah are appealing to the world and all humans who have hearts and mind to stop Israeli from killing and targeting people inside their houses.
Rafah has turned into a hell as a result of the incursion which seems to be a very heavy with a number of 70 tanks and bulldozers as well as the Israeli helicopters and F16s hovering allover the night and bombing all related to humans.
No water, no electricity in most of the areas in Rafah, as most of the families have evacuated to the schools runs by UNRWA in Rafah refugee camp, but so far and the number of the victims is increasing and many of the people whom injured and killed where very close to Abu Yousef Al Najjar hospital, which is the only hospital and when it comes not to be safe for a medical worker to get into the area or a journalist to get into the spot, then here we can say that this is the end of the most democratic country in the world!
Global Marches Protest Israeli Offensive
"Thousands of people marched in Britain, South Africa and Egypt Saturday to protest the Israeli offensive in Lebanon, some demanding an immediate halt to the fighting and others pressing for sanctions against Israel.
Police in London said 20,000 people joined a march past the U.S. Embassy to Parliament. Organizers — a coalition of peace, Muslim, Palestinian and Lebanese groups — put the turnout at more than 100,000.
"There should be an immediate cease-fire," said Jeremy Corbyn, a lawmaker from British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party, adding "the government's line is incomprehensibly wrong."
In South Africa, thousands marched through Cape Town to Parliament to demand sanctions against Israel.
Demonstrators carried pictures of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Some carried posters declaring, "Israel the new Nazis."
Protesters urged the South African government to recall its ambassador from Israel and sever diplomatic ties, impose trade sanctions, and prosecute South Africans who serve in the Israeli defense force.
More than 2000 people marched in downtown Cairo, demanding authorities allow them to fight in Lebanon, police said. The protest was organized by Egypt's banned, but tolerated, main opposition Muslim Brotherhood and the Lawyers Syndicate, the national attorneys' union."
Police in London said 20,000 people joined a march past the U.S. Embassy to Parliament. Organizers — a coalition of peace, Muslim, Palestinian and Lebanese groups — put the turnout at more than 100,000.
"There should be an immediate cease-fire," said Jeremy Corbyn, a lawmaker from British Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour Party, adding "the government's line is incomprehensibly wrong."
In South Africa, thousands marched through Cape Town to Parliament to demand sanctions against Israel.
Demonstrators carried pictures of Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. Some carried posters declaring, "Israel the new Nazis."
Protesters urged the South African government to recall its ambassador from Israel and sever diplomatic ties, impose trade sanctions, and prosecute South Africans who serve in the Israeli defense force.
More than 2000 people marched in downtown Cairo, demanding authorities allow them to fight in Lebanon, police said. The protest was organized by Egypt's banned, but tolerated, main opposition Muslim Brotherhood and the Lawyers Syndicate, the national attorneys' union."
For Israel, Innocent Civilians Are Fair Game
By PETER BOUCKAERT
"Israel's claims about pin-point strikes and proportionate responses are pure fantasy. As a researcher for Human Rights Watch, I've documented civilian deaths from bombing campaigns in Kosovo and Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq. But these usually occur when there is some indication of military targeting: high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's regime present in a house just before it is hit, for example, or an attack against militants that causes the collateral deaths of many civilians.
In Lebanon, it's a different scene. Time after time, Israel has hit civilian homes and cars in the southern border zone, killing dozens of people with no evidence of any military objective.
Not only has Israel failed to distinguish between military and civilian targets; its own officials suggest that they have decided any civilian still in the south is fair game. Last week, Justice Minister Haim Ramon reportedly said, "All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah.""
"Israel's claims about pin-point strikes and proportionate responses are pure fantasy. As a researcher for Human Rights Watch, I've documented civilian deaths from bombing campaigns in Kosovo and Chechnya, Afghanistan and Iraq. But these usually occur when there is some indication of military targeting: high-ranking members of Saddam Hussein's regime present in a house just before it is hit, for example, or an attack against militants that causes the collateral deaths of many civilians.
In Lebanon, it's a different scene. Time after time, Israel has hit civilian homes and cars in the southern border zone, killing dozens of people with no evidence of any military objective.
Not only has Israel failed to distinguish between military and civilian targets; its own officials suggest that they have decided any civilian still in the south is fair game. Last week, Justice Minister Haim Ramon reportedly said, "All those now in south Lebanon are terrorists who are related in some way to Hezbollah.""
Yes, It is a Crusade!
Tony Blair's Mad Speech About Iraq
By PATRICK COCKBURN
"Dear Prime Minister,
I was astonished, reading your speech on the Middle East delivered to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on August 1, to find all the traits of those insane letter writers. There is even the same mad person's obsessive capitalization. In the complex crises in the Middle East and beyond you say you see primarily 'a struggle between what I will call Reactionary Islam and Moderate, Mainstream Islam.' Your vision is an apocalyptic one. You see 'an elemental struggle about values' and it turns out that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq 'were not just about changing regimes but changing value systems. The banner was not actually "regime change" it was "values change."'
Traditional Islam is growing stronger in Sunni Iraq because it has shown that it can fight the foreign invader in a way that secular nationalists, like Saddam Hussein, demonstrably failed. Among the Shia it is the followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, the nationalist cleric, who won 30 seats in the Iraqi parliament. The political success stories in Iraq are of those who combine Islam, nationalism and an ability to fight. The US, with Britain trotting along behind, may soon find it embroiled in a war with the 15-16 million strong Shia community in Iraq as well as with the Sunni. "
By PATRICK COCKBURN
"Dear Prime Minister,
I was astonished, reading your speech on the Middle East delivered to the Los Angeles World Affairs Council on August 1, to find all the traits of those insane letter writers. There is even the same mad person's obsessive capitalization. In the complex crises in the Middle East and beyond you say you see primarily 'a struggle between what I will call Reactionary Islam and Moderate, Mainstream Islam.' Your vision is an apocalyptic one. You see 'an elemental struggle about values' and it turns out that the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq 'were not just about changing regimes but changing value systems. The banner was not actually "regime change" it was "values change."'
Traditional Islam is growing stronger in Sunni Iraq because it has shown that it can fight the foreign invader in a way that secular nationalists, like Saddam Hussein, demonstrably failed. Among the Shia it is the followers of Muqtada al-Sadr, the nationalist cleric, who won 30 seats in the Iraqi parliament. The political success stories in Iraq are of those who combine Islam, nationalism and an ability to fight. The US, with Britain trotting along behind, may soon find it embroiled in a war with the 15-16 million strong Shia community in Iraq as well as with the Sunni. "
The Case for Boycotting Israel
Boycott Now!
By VIRGINIA TILLEY
Johannesburg, South Africa.
"It is finally time. After years of internal arguments, confusion, and dithering, the time has come for a full-fledged international boycott of Israel. Good cause for a boycott has, of course, been in place for decades, as a raft of initiatives already attests. But Israel's war crimes are now so shocking, its extremism so clear, the suffering so great, the UN so helpless, and the international community's need to contain Israel's behavior so urgent and compelling, that the time for global action has matured. A coordinated movement of divestment, sanctions, and boycotts against Israel must convene to contain not only Israel's aggressive acts and crimes against humanitarian law but also, as in South Africa, its founding racist logics that inspired and still drive the entire Palestinian problem.
That second goal of the boycott campaign is indeed the primary one. Calls for a boycott have long cited specific crimes: Israel's continual attacks on Palestinian civilians; its casual disdain for the Palestinian civilian lives "accidentally" destroyed in its assassinations and bombings; its deliberate ruin of the Palestinians' economic and social conditions; its continuing annexation and dismemberment of Palestinian land; its torture of prisoners; its contempt for UN resolutions and international law; and especially, its refusal to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. But the boycott cannot target these practices alone. It must target their ideological source."
By VIRGINIA TILLEY
Johannesburg, South Africa.
"It is finally time. After years of internal arguments, confusion, and dithering, the time has come for a full-fledged international boycott of Israel. Good cause for a boycott has, of course, been in place for decades, as a raft of initiatives already attests. But Israel's war crimes are now so shocking, its extremism so clear, the suffering so great, the UN so helpless, and the international community's need to contain Israel's behavior so urgent and compelling, that the time for global action has matured. A coordinated movement of divestment, sanctions, and boycotts against Israel must convene to contain not only Israel's aggressive acts and crimes against humanitarian law but also, as in South Africa, its founding racist logics that inspired and still drive the entire Palestinian problem.
That second goal of the boycott campaign is indeed the primary one. Calls for a boycott have long cited specific crimes: Israel's continual attacks on Palestinian civilians; its casual disdain for the Palestinian civilian lives "accidentally" destroyed in its assassinations and bombings; its deliberate ruin of the Palestinians' economic and social conditions; its continuing annexation and dismemberment of Palestinian land; its torture of prisoners; its contempt for UN resolutions and international law; and especially, its refusal to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland. But the boycott cannot target these practices alone. It must target their ideological source."
A terrible thought occurs to me - that there will be another 9/11
By Robert Fisk
"In fact, one of the most profound changes in the region these past three decades has been the growing unwillingness of Arabs to be afraid. Their leaders - our "moderate" pro-Western Arab leaders such as King Abdullah of Jordan and President Mubarak of Egypt - may be afraid. But their peoples are not. And once a people have lost their terror, they cannot be re-injected with fear. Thus Israel's consistent policy of smashing Arabs into submission no longer works. It is a policy whose bankruptcy the Americans are now discovering in Iraq.
And all across the Muslim world, "we" - the West, America, Israel - are fighting not nationalists but Islamists. And watching the martyrdom of Lebanon this week - its slaughtered children in Qana packed into plastic bags until the bags ran out and their corpses had to be wrapped in carpets - a terrible and daunting thought occurs to me, day by day. That there will be another 9/11. "
"In fact, one of the most profound changes in the region these past three decades has been the growing unwillingness of Arabs to be afraid. Their leaders - our "moderate" pro-Western Arab leaders such as King Abdullah of Jordan and President Mubarak of Egypt - may be afraid. But their peoples are not. And once a people have lost their terror, they cannot be re-injected with fear. Thus Israel's consistent policy of smashing Arabs into submission no longer works. It is a policy whose bankruptcy the Americans are now discovering in Iraq.
And all across the Muslim world, "we" - the West, America, Israel - are fighting not nationalists but Islamists. And watching the martyrdom of Lebanon this week - its slaughtered children in Qana packed into plastic bags until the bags ran out and their corpses had to be wrapped in carpets - a terrible and daunting thought occurs to me, day by day. That there will be another 9/11. "
Oh God (redux)
Saturday August 5, 2006
The Guardian
Almost two years ago, Emma Brockes spoke to liberal Britons the morning after George Bush's re-election and found a collective sense of foreboding and depression. Now, she asks, have our worst fears come to pass?
"The surprising thing is that any of this has come as a surprise. The day after George Bush was elected for a second term, all those who had been rooting for the other guy (who was it, again?) predicted that the world as we knew it was shortly to end. It was comforting, in a gothic sort of way, to throw oneself around like Sybil Thorndike and imagine just how bad things were going to get. "The one consolation," a friend of mine emailed at the time, "is that he [Bush] will screw things up so badly in the next four years that the Democrats will move back into favour. That's if we still have a world."
Biblical prophesy sites have been quick to jump on the Israel/Lebanon crisis as a realisation of Thessalonians 5:3 ("While people are saying, 'Peace and safety,' destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape ...") and the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39. They must be the only people actively enjoying the situation. "Got that dancing feeling on the inside of me," posts one contributor to the Rapture Ready website, an outfit dedicated to scouring world events for signs of the second coming. Its talkboards are in a state of high excitement at the moment. "This is the busiest I've ever seen this website in a few years!" posts one contributor. "I have been having rapture dreams and I can't believe that this is really it! We are on the edge of eternity!!!!!!!"
These are strange times and the fact that everyone claimed to see them coming in 2004 hasn't made them any easier to deal with. It occasionally feels as if magnetic flip is taking place, the process of polar reversal that happens every 300 millennia or so when north becomes south and south north, and birds fly into buildings and people with pacemakers keel over in the street. What can you do? For the past 10 years I have taken William L Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich on holiday and for the first time, last week, I actually thought about reading it. (I didn't, obviously.) As multiple wars on multiple fronts drag on, you try to initiate a cycle of response that reminds you there are things to be grateful for; the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo going off without violence, for example, and Mel Gibson self-detonating. You reassure yourself that, as in all cycles of history, this one will come to an end, too. Then you remember that the man in charge of writing the ending is George Bush, and you have to start again."
The Guardian
Almost two years ago, Emma Brockes spoke to liberal Britons the morning after George Bush's re-election and found a collective sense of foreboding and depression. Now, she asks, have our worst fears come to pass?
"The surprising thing is that any of this has come as a surprise. The day after George Bush was elected for a second term, all those who had been rooting for the other guy (who was it, again?) predicted that the world as we knew it was shortly to end. It was comforting, in a gothic sort of way, to throw oneself around like Sybil Thorndike and imagine just how bad things were going to get. "The one consolation," a friend of mine emailed at the time, "is that he [Bush] will screw things up so badly in the next four years that the Democrats will move back into favour. That's if we still have a world."
Biblical prophesy sites have been quick to jump on the Israel/Lebanon crisis as a realisation of Thessalonians 5:3 ("While people are saying, 'Peace and safety,' destruction will come on them suddenly, as labour pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape ...") and the Old Testament Book of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39. They must be the only people actively enjoying the situation. "Got that dancing feeling on the inside of me," posts one contributor to the Rapture Ready website, an outfit dedicated to scouring world events for signs of the second coming. Its talkboards are in a state of high excitement at the moment. "This is the busiest I've ever seen this website in a few years!" posts one contributor. "I have been having rapture dreams and I can't believe that this is really it! We are on the edge of eternity!!!!!!!"
These are strange times and the fact that everyone claimed to see them coming in 2004 hasn't made them any easier to deal with. It occasionally feels as if magnetic flip is taking place, the process of polar reversal that happens every 300 millennia or so when north becomes south and south north, and birds fly into buildings and people with pacemakers keel over in the street. What can you do? For the past 10 years I have taken William L Shirer's Rise and Fall of the Third Reich on holiday and for the first time, last week, I actually thought about reading it. (I didn't, obviously.) As multiple wars on multiple fronts drag on, you try to initiate a cycle of response that reminds you there are things to be grateful for; the elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo going off without violence, for example, and Mel Gibson self-detonating. You reassure yourself that, as in all cycles of history, this one will come to an end, too. Then you remember that the man in charge of writing the ending is George Bush, and you have to start again."
Militants merge with mainstream
The Guardian
· Hizbullah emerges as symbol of resistance
· Anger at Israel's actions unites Shias and Sunnis
"It was organised by Artists and Writers for Change, a liberal movement which campaigns for reform in Egypt. Its members, who include Youssef Chahine Egypt's foremost film director, are precisely the type of "mainstream" people that Tony Blair was pinning his hopes on earlier this week as a bulwark against extremism. As a result of the bombing of Lebanon they are now venting their wrath against Israel and the US and waving Hizbullah flags.
Whatever qualms Arabs once had about Hizbullah they have since been dissipated by Israel's attacks, the hundreds of deaths, the sight of up to a quarter of the Lebanese population fleeing their homes, and especially the bombing of UN observers and the massacre at Qana.
Other Arab governments including Egypt and Saudi Arabia - have also toughened their stance but this cuts little ice with many of the demonstrators."Egypt! Jordan! Saudi Arabia! Nasrallah has bested you all," they chanted in the Cairo square on Thursday. Hizbullah's defiance was contrasted favourably with the somnolence of Arab regimes. "The Arab world has changed," Mr Almaeena said. "It has a new breed of young people ... They will not put up with the same old status quo. The political scene in the Arab world is changing too. In a few years there will be those who will resist even more. ""
· Hizbullah emerges as symbol of resistance
· Anger at Israel's actions unites Shias and Sunnis
"It was organised by Artists and Writers for Change, a liberal movement which campaigns for reform in Egypt. Its members, who include Youssef Chahine Egypt's foremost film director, are precisely the type of "mainstream" people that Tony Blair was pinning his hopes on earlier this week as a bulwark against extremism. As a result of the bombing of Lebanon they are now venting their wrath against Israel and the US and waving Hizbullah flags.
Whatever qualms Arabs once had about Hizbullah they have since been dissipated by Israel's attacks, the hundreds of deaths, the sight of up to a quarter of the Lebanese population fleeing their homes, and especially the bombing of UN observers and the massacre at Qana.
Other Arab governments including Egypt and Saudi Arabia - have also toughened their stance but this cuts little ice with many of the demonstrators."Egypt! Jordan! Saudi Arabia! Nasrallah has bested you all," they chanted in the Cairo square on Thursday. Hizbullah's defiance was contrasted favourably with the somnolence of Arab regimes. "The Arab world has changed," Mr Almaeena said. "It has a new breed of young people ... They will not put up with the same old status quo. The political scene in the Arab world is changing too. In a few years there will be those who will resist even more. ""
Friday, August 4, 2006
Israel's vaunted tanks are succumbing to Hezbollah's powerful missiles
" Hezbollah's sophisticated anti-tank missiles are perhaps the guerrilla group's deadliest weapon in Lebanon fighting, with their ability to pierce Israel's most advanced tanks.
In the last two days alone, these missiles have killed seven soldiers and damaged three Israeli-made Merkava tanks – mountains of steel that are vaunted as symbols of Israel's military might, the army said. Israeli media say most of the 44 soldiers killed in four weeks of fighting were hit by anti-tank missiles. "
In the last two days alone, these missiles have killed seven soldiers and damaged three Israeli-made Merkava tanks – mountains of steel that are vaunted as symbols of Israel's military might, the army said. Israeli media say most of the 44 soldiers killed in four weeks of fighting were hit by anti-tank missiles. "
Syria's Christians rally behind Hizbollah
"DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Seventy-seven-year-old Mona Muzaber lights a candle for Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah at the Orthodox Church of the Cross in the center of Damascus.
"I love him. I never felt Nasrallah was a religious zealot. He is a patriot who doesn't seek personal gain," she said. "I light a candle daily for him to remain under God's protection."
Israel's offensive against Lebanon has brought Christians in neighboring Syria closer to Nasrallah, a Shi'ite Muslim, reviving Arab nationalist feelings and blurring sectarian divisions.
Bishops and priests say Syria's Christians, a devout community of around three million out of a population of 18 million, identify strongly with Nasrallah's battle with Israel, which has occupied Syria's Golan Heights since 1967.
"Pray for the resistance, pray for Hassan Nasrallah. He is defending justice," Father Elias Zahlawi told the congregation at special mass held at the Lady of Damascus, a Catholic church."
"I love him. I never felt Nasrallah was a religious zealot. He is a patriot who doesn't seek personal gain," she said. "I light a candle daily for him to remain under God's protection."
Israel's offensive against Lebanon has brought Christians in neighboring Syria closer to Nasrallah, a Shi'ite Muslim, reviving Arab nationalist feelings and blurring sectarian divisions.
Bishops and priests say Syria's Christians, a devout community of around three million out of a population of 18 million, identify strongly with Nasrallah's battle with Israel, which has occupied Syria's Golan Heights since 1967.
"Pray for the resistance, pray for Hassan Nasrallah. He is defending justice," Father Elias Zahlawi told the congregation at special mass held at the Lady of Damascus, a Catholic church."
Seeds of Crisis: The U.S., Israel and the Middle East
At a recent Palestine Center briefing, experts analyzed the current developments in the Middle East and addressed the root causes of the conflict. Halim Barakat explained the historical context which allowed for the eruption of the recent events and Laurie King-Irani discussed the meaning of democracy, terrorism and international law. Sam Husseini pointed out that the media could do a better job in informing the public of the events in the Middle East and Jim Lobe analyzed U.S. Foreign Policy toward the Middle East since 9/11.
Syria Wants to Talk, But Bush Won't Answer the Phone
Damascus has effectively cooperated with Washington on terrorism, says Syria's ambassador.
By Imad Moustapha
IMAD MOUSTAPHA is the Syrian ambassador to the United States.
"Gone are the days when U.S. special envoys to the Middle East would spend hours, if not days, with Syrian officials brainstorming, discussing, negotiating and looking for creative solutions leading to a compromise or settlement. Instead, this administration follows the Bolton Doctrine: There is no need to talk to Syria, because Syria knows what it needs to do. End of the matter."
By Imad Moustapha
IMAD MOUSTAPHA is the Syrian ambassador to the United States.
"Gone are the days when U.S. special envoys to the Middle East would spend hours, if not days, with Syrian officials brainstorming, discussing, negotiating and looking for creative solutions leading to a compromise or settlement. Instead, this administration follows the Bolton Doctrine: There is no need to talk to Syria, because Syria knows what it needs to do. End of the matter."
THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!
Hanady sent this:"Here. The 30 something workers killed today in qaa, in the bekaa, on the border with Homs Syria. They had just finished collecting apples, packing them to be put on board of a truck , and they were having lunch. The israeli wasted 2 air strikes on them. The first one hit some of them . The others gathered to try and help out the wounded and take the dead bodies out . Israel loves to kill those who help others. Israel loves to kill poor people. They're its favorite target , second best if you count kids."
Losing the Three-Front War
By Patrick Seale
"In a word of wise advice to pig-headed political leaders, Denis Healey, a former British Defense Secretary, used to say, "When you're in a hole, stop digging!" The United States and Israel are in a deep and dangerous hole. They urgently need to stop digging before the hole swallows them up.
They are fighting, and losing, on three fronts - Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. It seems that this is not enough for the more insane and hysterical among them who are clamoring to extend the war to Syria and Iran, and to the whole of what they like to call the "Islamo-Fascist" world. Israel denies it is involved in the Iraq war. But, in fact, it is as much part of that conflict as the United States is now part of the wars in Lebanon and Palestine. Israel participated in the strategic planning for the Iraq War, which was designed to remove any threat to it from the east. Its neocon friends in Washington egged on America and fabricated the phony intelligence which persuaded a gullible President that smashing Iraq was necessary for America's security. "
"In a word of wise advice to pig-headed political leaders, Denis Healey, a former British Defense Secretary, used to say, "When you're in a hole, stop digging!" The United States and Israel are in a deep and dangerous hole. They urgently need to stop digging before the hole swallows them up.
They are fighting, and losing, on three fronts - Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. It seems that this is not enough for the more insane and hysterical among them who are clamoring to extend the war to Syria and Iran, and to the whole of what they like to call the "Islamo-Fascist" world. Israel denies it is involved in the Iraq war. But, in fact, it is as much part of that conflict as the United States is now part of the wars in Lebanon and Palestine. Israel participated in the strategic planning for the Iraq War, which was designed to remove any threat to it from the east. Its neocon friends in Washington egged on America and fabricated the phony intelligence which persuaded a gullible President that smashing Iraq was necessary for America's security. "
آية الله فضل الله يحذر
آية الله فضل الله يحذر من اي انجرار نحو فتنة تلبي اهداف سفير واشنطن: حرب المقاومة ضد حرب اميركا واسرائيل ستمتد الى العالمين العربي والاسلامي
04/08/2006
ألقى آية الله السيد محمد حسين فضل الله خطبة صلاة الجمعة، أكد فيها "ان المقاومة التي تحمل قرار النصر او الشهادة سوف تستكمل افشال حرب الابادة الاميريكية - الاسرائيلية، محذرا من اي انجرار نحو فتنة مذهبية او طائفية داخلية، تلبي اهداف سفير واشنطن في لبنان". ودعا الشعوب العربية والاسلامية و حكوماتها الى مؤازرة شعبي لبنان وفلسطين ومما جاء في خطبته السياسية: "انها الحرب الاميركية التي لا يزال الرئيس الاميركي واعضاء ادارته مصرون عليها، وكأنهم لم يرتوا بعد من دماء اطفال لبنان و نساءه و شيوخه، ولم يشبعوا من لحومهم، كما لو كان اللبنانيون بنظر هذا الرئيس وادارته من الهنود الحمر الذين كان الجنود الاميركيون يصطادونهم كما يصطادون الارانب. انها حرب اميركا على لبنان بصفتها جزءا من حرب اشمل، او على الاقل بكونها خطوة مهمة نحو احياء مشروع الشرق الاوسط الكبير او الموسع الذي تعثر في العراق او تعويض خسائرها النسبية في بلاد ما بين النهرين، عبر ربح دولا اخرى تعمل الادارة الاميركية لكي يكون لبنان اول حبة في عنقودها.
04/08/2006
ألقى آية الله السيد محمد حسين فضل الله خطبة صلاة الجمعة، أكد فيها "ان المقاومة التي تحمل قرار النصر او الشهادة سوف تستكمل افشال حرب الابادة الاميريكية - الاسرائيلية، محذرا من اي انجرار نحو فتنة مذهبية او طائفية داخلية، تلبي اهداف سفير واشنطن في لبنان". ودعا الشعوب العربية والاسلامية و حكوماتها الى مؤازرة شعبي لبنان وفلسطين ومما جاء في خطبته السياسية: "انها الحرب الاميركية التي لا يزال الرئيس الاميركي واعضاء ادارته مصرون عليها، وكأنهم لم يرتوا بعد من دماء اطفال لبنان و نساءه و شيوخه، ولم يشبعوا من لحومهم، كما لو كان اللبنانيون بنظر هذا الرئيس وادارته من الهنود الحمر الذين كان الجنود الاميركيون يصطادونهم كما يصطادون الارانب. انها حرب اميركا على لبنان بصفتها جزءا من حرب اشمل، او على الاقل بكونها خطوة مهمة نحو احياء مشروع الشرق الاوسط الكبير او الموسع الذي تعثر في العراق او تعويض خسائرها النسبية في بلاد ما بين النهرين، عبر ربح دولا اخرى تعمل الادارة الاميركية لكي يكون لبنان اول حبة في عنقودها.
Shortly before invasion, Bush didn't know there were two sects of Islam
Former Ambassador to Croatia Peter Galbraith is claiming President George W. Bush was unaware that there were two major sects of Islam just two months before the President ordered troops to invade Iraq, RAW STORY has learned.
In his new book, The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created A War Without End, Galbraith, the son of the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith, claims that American leadership knew very little about the nature of Iraqi society and the problems it would face after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
A year after his “Axis of Evil” speech before the U.S. Congress, President Bush met with three Iraqi Americans, one of whom became postwar Iraq’s first representative to the United States. The three described what they thought would be the political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. During their conversation with the President, Galbraith claims, it became apparent to them that Bush was unfamiliar with the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.
Galbraith reports that the three of them spent some time explaining to Bush that there are two different sects in Islam--to which the President allegedly responded, “I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!”
In his new book, The End of Iraq: How American Incompetence Created A War Without End, Galbraith, the son of the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith, claims that American leadership knew very little about the nature of Iraqi society and the problems it would face after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.
A year after his “Axis of Evil” speech before the U.S. Congress, President Bush met with three Iraqi Americans, one of whom became postwar Iraq’s first representative to the United States. The three described what they thought would be the political situation after the fall of Saddam Hussein. During their conversation with the President, Galbraith claims, it became apparent to them that Bush was unfamiliar with the distinction between Sunnis and Shiites.
Galbraith reports that the three of them spent some time explaining to Bush that there are two different sects in Islam--to which the President allegedly responded, “I thought the Iraqis were Muslims!”
Environmental Disaster Looms; Oil spill threatens Mediterranean after power plant hit; Cleanup along Lebanon's coast can't begin until fighting ends
BEIRUT — Endangered turtles die shortly after hatching from their eggs. Fish float dead off the coast. Flaming oil sends waves of black smoke toward the city.
In this country of Mediterranean beaches and snow-capped mountains, Israeli bombing that caused an oil spill has created an environmental disaster. And cleanup can't start until the fighting stops, the United Nations said.
World attention has focused on the hundreds of people who have died in the three-week-old conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The environmental damage has attracted little attention but experts warn the long-term effects could be devastating.
In this country of Mediterranean beaches and snow-capped mountains, Israeli bombing that caused an oil spill has created an environmental disaster. And cleanup can't start until the fighting stops, the United Nations said.
World attention has focused on the hundreds of people who have died in the three-week-old conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. The environmental damage has attracted little attention but experts warn the long-term effects could be devastating.
Arab despots, not Israel, are now under a greater threat
Jonathan Steele in Tyre
The Guardian
"Hizbullah's victory may do less damage to Israel than to other Arab regimes. The success of a Shia insurgency will encourage other Shias around the region, including those in Saudi Arabia. To the consternation of his American protectors, Iraq's Shia prime minister, Nuri al- Maliki, did not condemn Hizbullah. But the Sunni/Shia issue should not be exaggerated. Hizbullah's appeal across the Arab world is a wider matter of Islamism and the struggle against corrupt despotism. Egypt and, to a lesser extent, Jordan - and even in the medium term Syria, which has backed and armed Hizbullah - will feel the shockwaves running through the Arab street."
The Guardian
"Hizbullah's victory may do less damage to Israel than to other Arab regimes. The success of a Shia insurgency will encourage other Shias around the region, including those in Saudi Arabia. To the consternation of his American protectors, Iraq's Shia prime minister, Nuri al- Maliki, did not condemn Hizbullah. But the Sunni/Shia issue should not be exaggerated. Hizbullah's appeal across the Arab world is a wider matter of Islamism and the struggle against corrupt despotism. Egypt and, to a lesser extent, Jordan - and even in the medium term Syria, which has backed and armed Hizbullah - will feel the shockwaves running through the Arab street."
War Crimes Continue; Bridge Bombing Paralyses Lebanon Aid Pipeline by Michael Winfrey
BEIRUT - Israel's bombing of key highway bridges in northern Lebanon and strikes at a Hizbollah stronghold in south Beirut paralysed United Nations aid convoys on Friday, but other aid continued to arrive by air and sea.
Air strikes against four bridges on the main coastal highway linking Beirut to Syria stalled an eight-truck convoy carrying 150 tonnes of relief and cut what the United Nations called its "umbilical cord" for aid supplies.
The bridge at Maameltein, just north of Beirut, was split along its centre by a huge crater which partially engulfed the crushed shell of a minivan. Further north, another bridge lay stretched out in the valley it once spanned.
"The whole road is gone," said Astrid van Genderen Stort, senior information officer for the UNHCR refugee agency.
"It's really a major setback because we used this highway to move staff and supplies into the country."
The U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) called off planned convoys southwards to the port city of Tyre and Rashidiyeh after air strikes on a southern Beirut suburb prevented drivers from reaching the convoys' departure point.
[click here to keep reading]
Air strikes against four bridges on the main coastal highway linking Beirut to Syria stalled an eight-truck convoy carrying 150 tonnes of relief and cut what the United Nations called its "umbilical cord" for aid supplies.
The bridge at Maameltein, just north of Beirut, was split along its centre by a huge crater which partially engulfed the crushed shell of a minivan. Further north, another bridge lay stretched out in the valley it once spanned.
"The whole road is gone," said Astrid van Genderen Stort, senior information officer for the UNHCR refugee agency.
"It's really a major setback because we used this highway to move staff and supplies into the country."
The U.N.'s World Food Programme (WFP) called off planned convoys southwards to the port city of Tyre and Rashidiyeh after air strikes on a southern Beirut suburb prevented drivers from reaching the convoys' departure point.
[click here to keep reading]
Israeli Soldier Incarcerated for Refusing to Fight by Aaron Glantz
Israeli authorities have sentenced an army officer to 28 days in a military prison for refusing to serve in the ongoing Israeli campaign in Lebanon.
32-year-old Reserve Captain Amir Paster, an infantry officer and student at Tel Aviv University, is the first Israeli soldier to be punished for refusing to serve in the current conflict and has received harsh criticism from the Israeli military for setting what it termed a bad example for his troops.
According to the soldier support group Yesh Gvul ("There Is a Limit"), Paster refused to serve on the grounds that Israeli operations were harming civilians, declaring at his trial "taking part in this war runs contrary to the values upon which he was brought up."
[click here to continue reading]
32-year-old Reserve Captain Amir Paster, an infantry officer and student at Tel Aviv University, is the first Israeli soldier to be punished for refusing to serve in the current conflict and has received harsh criticism from the Israeli military for setting what it termed a bad example for his troops.
According to the soldier support group Yesh Gvul ("There Is a Limit"), Paster refused to serve on the grounds that Israeli operations were harming civilians, declaring at his trial "taking part in this war runs contrary to the values upon which he was brought up."
[click here to continue reading]
'The US is the kiss of death' in the Arab world
By Jim Lobe
Asia Times
"Not only is Washington's thus far staunch support for Israel losing Arab "hearts and minds" at an astonishing pace, but the "moderate" governments and non-governmental forces the administration had hoped would act as catalysts for reform are increasingly isolated across the region, according to Middle East specialists.
"I have never seen the United States being so demonized or savaged by Arab commentators, by Arab politicians," Hisham Melham, veteran Washington correspondent for Lebanon's An-Nahar newspaper, told a conference this week at the Brookings Institution, an influential think-tank.
"People are clinging to Hezbollah, clinging to Hamas, because they see them as the remaining voices or forces in the Arab world that are resisting what they see as an ongoing hegemonic American-Israeli plan to control the region," he said.
Shibley Telhami, an expert on Arab public opinion at the University of Maryland, observed at the same meeting, "Right now, the United States is the kiss of death."
Asia Times
"Not only is Washington's thus far staunch support for Israel losing Arab "hearts and minds" at an astonishing pace, but the "moderate" governments and non-governmental forces the administration had hoped would act as catalysts for reform are increasingly isolated across the region, according to Middle East specialists.
"I have never seen the United States being so demonized or savaged by Arab commentators, by Arab politicians," Hisham Melham, veteran Washington correspondent for Lebanon's An-Nahar newspaper, told a conference this week at the Brookings Institution, an influential think-tank.
"People are clinging to Hezbollah, clinging to Hamas, because they see them as the remaining voices or forces in the Arab world that are resisting what they see as an ongoing hegemonic American-Israeli plan to control the region," he said.
Shibley Telhami, an expert on Arab public opinion at the University of Maryland, observed at the same meeting, "Right now, the United States is the kiss of death."
EU Monitors at Rafah Contribute to its Strangulation
PCHR is dismayed by the role of the European Union Monitors at the Rafah Crossing, which contributes in imposing collective punishment of the civilian population.The Centre calls upon these monitors to respect the rights of the Gaza Strip population to travel through the Rafah Crossing. The Centre calls upon the monitors to return immediately to the Crossing to reopen it for travel. Continued.
Hizbullah offers to spare civilians if Israeli military does as well
BEIRUT: Hizbullah's leader offered Thursday to stop pounding Israel's "northern settlements" if the Jewish state refrained from bombarding Lebanon's "cities and civilians." Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also issued a warning, however, in a televised speech: "Let my words be clear,
Hizbullah bombarding the Zionist entity's capital, TelAviv."In an almost immediate response aired on Israeli public television, a senior military official said Israel would destroy all of Lebanon's infrastructure if Tel Aviv were hit."We are ready to keep the whole thing restricted to a military fight with the Israeli Army," Nasrallah said, "on the ground, fighters to fighters."
But Israel dropped leaflets over the southern suburb of Beirut, warning residents of Bir al-Abed, Hay Madi and Al-Ruweiss to evacuate their homes. Nasrallah also refuted the Israeli claim that it had carved out a "security zone" by taking up positions "in or near 11 towns and villages in South Lebanon." An Israeli Army spokesperson said Thursday Israel was creating a new defensive line estimated at 6 to 8 kilometers inside Lebanon. This new zone would be comparable to the area it held until the pullout from Lebanon in May 2000. Three weeks into the conflict, about 10,000 Israeli troops are believed to be inside Lebanon."Our fight with the Israeli Army is based on the tactic of street fights against an organized army. This means we hit and run without holding our positions," Nasrallah said."The Israelis claimed they had heavy clashes with our fighters resulting in the taking over of a Hizbullah post in the southern town of al-Abbad. The truth is ourfighters had left the post when the aggression first started three weeks ago. I don't know with whom the Israelis had heavy clashes there." Nasrallah also described Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert as "an incompetent moron." Continued
Hizbullah bombarding the Zionist entity's capital, TelAviv."In an almost immediate response aired on Israeli public television, a senior military official said Israel would destroy all of Lebanon's infrastructure if Tel Aviv were hit."We are ready to keep the whole thing restricted to a military fight with the Israeli Army," Nasrallah said, "on the ground, fighters to fighters."
But Israel dropped leaflets over the southern suburb of Beirut, warning residents of Bir al-Abed, Hay Madi and Al-Ruweiss to evacuate their homes. Nasrallah also refuted the Israeli claim that it had carved out a "security zone" by taking up positions "in or near 11 towns and villages in South Lebanon." An Israeli Army spokesperson said Thursday Israel was creating a new defensive line estimated at 6 to 8 kilometers inside Lebanon. This new zone would be comparable to the area it held until the pullout from Lebanon in May 2000. Three weeks into the conflict, about 10,000 Israeli troops are believed to be inside Lebanon."Our fight with the Israeli Army is based on the tactic of street fights against an organized army. This means we hit and run without holding our positions," Nasrallah said."The Israelis claimed they had heavy clashes with our fighters resulting in the taking over of a Hizbullah post in the southern town of al-Abbad. The truth is ourfighters had left the post when the aggression first started three weeks ago. I don't know with whom the Israelis had heavy clashes there." Nasrallah also described Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert as "an incompetent moron." Continued
Israel making same mistake as US in Iraq, say strategists
As Israeli ground troops flood into southern Lebanon in abid to create a buffer zone to protect its territory fromrocket attacks, some military analysts believe Israel hasmade the same mistakes as the US in Iraq. They say itsfocus on high-technology warfare and tactical advantagehas led it to underestimate the strategic importance ofpublic opinion. Continued
Tyre, the morgue of south
TYRE -- A stinging odour hangs over the Palestinian refugeecamp of Bass, at the entrance to the southern Lebanesecity of Tyre, the chosen site for a mass grave for thedozens of victims of Israel's blistering bombardment ofthe area.
"Tyre has now become the morgue for the whole region,"says Tyre's mayor Abdel Mohsen Husseini bitterly. OnWednesday afternoon, 26 corpses of civilians killed byIsraeli bombardments were pulled out of a truck in thetown square at the entrance of Bass, where thousands ofPalestinian refugees live. Continued.
"Tyre has now become the morgue for the whole region,"says Tyre's mayor Abdel Mohsen Husseini bitterly. OnWednesday afternoon, 26 corpses of civilians killed byIsraeli bombardments were pulled out of a truck in thetown square at the entrance of Bass, where thousands ofPalestinian refugees live. Continued.
Traumatised and afraid - 300,000 children who want to go home
"I don't want to die. I want to go to school," says Jamal,a four-year-old Lebanese boy scarred by the Israelibombing of his country. Home for Jamal is now a"displacement centre" in the southern town of Jezzine,where his family fled in fear for their lives. Continued.
Smarty Bombsalot
What to do when a militant Islamic group lobs rockets and graps some of your soldiers? Great cartoon (Flash) by Mark Fiore. Click here to watch it.
Hassan Nassrullah's Speech Highlights:
The following is a summary of the main points of a speech made by the Hizbullah leader, Shaikh Hasssan Nassrullah, which was aired by Al-Manar TV and several TV stations around the world today, Augsust 3, 2006.
I. Battlefield:
1. Hizbullah resistance fighters are still fighting the Israeli invading forces all over south Lebanon after 23 days of hostilities. This has been the real surprise for the Israeli leaders who expected to occupy south Lebanon and destroy Hizbullah in few days.
2. Hizbullah destroyed two Israeli naval warships, one off Beirut coast, the other off Saida coast. On both cases, Israelis denied the Hizbullah story. The first one was later confirmed. The Israelis are still in denial to hide the facts from their people about the second.
3. Hizbullah fighters follow a guerilla warfare. They do not keep geographical territory. Their goal is attacking the enemy quickly, then disappearing quickly, so the war can last forever or until the enemy leave south Lebanon.
4. Hizbullah's arsenal of rockets and missiles is intact as it was demonstrated yesterday (over 300 rockets and missiles on northern and central occupied Palestine) and also today.
5. Hizbullah's command and control over fighters and rocket launching units is intact, as evidenced in the two-day halt then the resumption starting from yesterday.
II. Threat to Target Tel Aviv with Long-Range Missiles
In reaction to today's Israeli threat to bomb Beirut, Nassrullah announced a counter-threat that Hizbullah will attack Tel Aviv with long-range Khaiber missiles if Beirut is attacked by Israeli warplanes. So far, Israelis left north Israel and took shelter in Tel Aviv. Now, Israelis have to leave Tel Aviv, if their leadership decides to escalate its aggression to include Beirut.
The rest of Nassrullah's speech will be updated shortly about the following points:
III. Two Israeli Great Achievements
In a sarcastic style, Shaikh Hassan Nassrullah said that he had to admit two Israeli great achievements.
First, they were capable to kill scores of civilians in Qana, most of them were women and children. He said that the Israelis said it was a mistake in information. He questioned that explanation saying what about the hundreds of civilians killed everywhere in Lebanon? He gave his explanation saying that this has been a deliberate Israel tactic to influence the morale of the Hizbullah resistance fighters as they see their families being massacred. What the Israelis don't know is that their war crimes against civilians increase the determination of the resistance fighters to defeat them.
The second disgraceful achievement of the Israelis was their air raid on Ba'albeck, in which they attacked the Dar El-Hikmah Hospital, following another wrong intelligence information that it was used as a Hizbullah command and control center. They were wrong and stupid. The hospital was empty because Hizbullah expected such an attack or an air raid on all Hizbullah facilities.
To maximize their stupidity, Nassrullah added, the Israeli acted on another wrong intelligence information. They attacked a house in Ba'albek owned by an elderly man called Hassan Nassrullah. They took him and other relatives as hostages with them. The Israeli raid was a perfect example about how much ignorant Israelis are to the extent of kidnapping a man and several members of his family just because of a name similarity with the Hizbullah leader, Hassan Nassrullah.
IV. Why did Olmert Start the War, Instead of Negotiating a Prisoner Swap?
Nassrullah said that the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, suffers from an inferiority complex because he is not a military general, like his mentor Sharon. He wanted to prove that he has the same credentials of killing Arabs and destroying their cities like Sharon, instead of just negotiating a swap of war prisoners, like Sharon also did.
Nassrullah added that Olmert, Peres, and General Halutz lied to the Israeli people and are still lying to them. After 23 days of war on Lebanon, they haven't been able to free the two captured soldiers and they haven't been able to stop the Hizbullah rocket and missile attacks despite all their mighty military machine. He vowed that no return of the soldiers or halt in rocket and missile attacks without mutual ceasefire and negotiations.
V. A Word for the Israeli People
For the Israeli people, Nassrullah said that their leaders are lying to them. The war was unwarranted. They could have negotiated the release of the two soldiers, like they did before but they were encouraged to start the war by the Bush administration, which has its own agenda.
He promised the Israelis that if their leaders stop air raids on Lebanon, Hizbullah will stop its rocket and missile attacks on Israel, limiting the fighting to the south Lebanon region between Israeli ground troops and Hizbullah resistance fighters. But if their leaders continue their criminal air strikes on Lebanon, the Hizbullah missile attacks will continue and increase to include Tel Aviv from now on.
VI. Role of the Bush Administration (Bush, Rice, Chenney, Rumsfeld)
Nassrullah said that the Bush administration allowed the Israeli leaders to continue their air raids on the Lebanese for the last week, after they blocked international efforts to stop the war in the Rome and UN meetings.
As a result, the Bush administration (Bush, Rice, Chenney, and Rumsfeld) are responsible for the blood of the Lebanese children and women, which was shed in Qana and all over Lebanon ever since. They are as guilty as Olmert, Peres, and Halutz for the massacres of the Lebanese civilians.
Then, addressing the Israelis, he said that the Bush administration will not provide you with the help you wish for simply because it cannot help itself, as it is bogged in its endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
VII. A Word for Arab Rulers
Nassrullah also addressed the Arab rulers, particularly those who criticized the Hizbullah military operation, which resulted in the capture of the Israeli soldiers to swap them with the Lebanese prisoners in Israeli prisons.
He said that they need to help Lebanon and stand by Hizbullah, not for Hizbullah's sake but for the sake of what's remaining of their humanity. He added that they need to do it for the sake of their chairs and thrones because the Bush-Olmert New Middle East will destroy their countries and partition them on ethnic and sectarian lines, like what they are doing in Iraq.
VIII. A Word for Friends of Lebanon
Nassrullah thanked friends of Lebanon who are trying to provide humanitarian assistance and trying to make a ceasefire. He told them that the Lebanese people who died were not killed in a natural disaster, rather in an Israeli aggression. The Lebanese infrastructure was destroyed by the Israeli war machine, alluding to the fact that the aggressors have to pay for their crimes.
IX. A Word for the Lebanese People and the Ummah (Arabs and Muslims Worldwide)
Nassrullah asked the Lebanese, Arabs, and Muslims for their spiritual and material support and promised them of nothing short of victory.
I. Battlefield:
1. Hizbullah resistance fighters are still fighting the Israeli invading forces all over south Lebanon after 23 days of hostilities. This has been the real surprise for the Israeli leaders who expected to occupy south Lebanon and destroy Hizbullah in few days.
2. Hizbullah destroyed two Israeli naval warships, one off Beirut coast, the other off Saida coast. On both cases, Israelis denied the Hizbullah story. The first one was later confirmed. The Israelis are still in denial to hide the facts from their people about the second.
3. Hizbullah fighters follow a guerilla warfare. They do not keep geographical territory. Their goal is attacking the enemy quickly, then disappearing quickly, so the war can last forever or until the enemy leave south Lebanon.
4. Hizbullah's arsenal of rockets and missiles is intact as it was demonstrated yesterday (over 300 rockets and missiles on northern and central occupied Palestine) and also today.
5. Hizbullah's command and control over fighters and rocket launching units is intact, as evidenced in the two-day halt then the resumption starting from yesterday.
II. Threat to Target Tel Aviv with Long-Range Missiles
In reaction to today's Israeli threat to bomb Beirut, Nassrullah announced a counter-threat that Hizbullah will attack Tel Aviv with long-range Khaiber missiles if Beirut is attacked by Israeli warplanes. So far, Israelis left north Israel and took shelter in Tel Aviv. Now, Israelis have to leave Tel Aviv, if their leadership decides to escalate its aggression to include Beirut.
The rest of Nassrullah's speech will be updated shortly about the following points:
III. Two Israeli Great Achievements
In a sarcastic style, Shaikh Hassan Nassrullah said that he had to admit two Israeli great achievements.
First, they were capable to kill scores of civilians in Qana, most of them were women and children. He said that the Israelis said it was a mistake in information. He questioned that explanation saying what about the hundreds of civilians killed everywhere in Lebanon? He gave his explanation saying that this has been a deliberate Israel tactic to influence the morale of the Hizbullah resistance fighters as they see their families being massacred. What the Israelis don't know is that their war crimes against civilians increase the determination of the resistance fighters to defeat them.
The second disgraceful achievement of the Israelis was their air raid on Ba'albeck, in which they attacked the Dar El-Hikmah Hospital, following another wrong intelligence information that it was used as a Hizbullah command and control center. They were wrong and stupid. The hospital was empty because Hizbullah expected such an attack or an air raid on all Hizbullah facilities.
To maximize their stupidity, Nassrullah added, the Israeli acted on another wrong intelligence information. They attacked a house in Ba'albek owned by an elderly man called Hassan Nassrullah. They took him and other relatives as hostages with them. The Israeli raid was a perfect example about how much ignorant Israelis are to the extent of kidnapping a man and several members of his family just because of a name similarity with the Hizbullah leader, Hassan Nassrullah.
IV. Why did Olmert Start the War, Instead of Negotiating a Prisoner Swap?
Nassrullah said that the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, suffers from an inferiority complex because he is not a military general, like his mentor Sharon. He wanted to prove that he has the same credentials of killing Arabs and destroying their cities like Sharon, instead of just negotiating a swap of war prisoners, like Sharon also did.
Nassrullah added that Olmert, Peres, and General Halutz lied to the Israeli people and are still lying to them. After 23 days of war on Lebanon, they haven't been able to free the two captured soldiers and they haven't been able to stop the Hizbullah rocket and missile attacks despite all their mighty military machine. He vowed that no return of the soldiers or halt in rocket and missile attacks without mutual ceasefire and negotiations.
V. A Word for the Israeli People
For the Israeli people, Nassrullah said that their leaders are lying to them. The war was unwarranted. They could have negotiated the release of the two soldiers, like they did before but they were encouraged to start the war by the Bush administration, which has its own agenda.
He promised the Israelis that if their leaders stop air raids on Lebanon, Hizbullah will stop its rocket and missile attacks on Israel, limiting the fighting to the south Lebanon region between Israeli ground troops and Hizbullah resistance fighters. But if their leaders continue their criminal air strikes on Lebanon, the Hizbullah missile attacks will continue and increase to include Tel Aviv from now on.
VI. Role of the Bush Administration (Bush, Rice, Chenney, Rumsfeld)
Nassrullah said that the Bush administration allowed the Israeli leaders to continue their air raids on the Lebanese for the last week, after they blocked international efforts to stop the war in the Rome and UN meetings.
As a result, the Bush administration (Bush, Rice, Chenney, and Rumsfeld) are responsible for the blood of the Lebanese children and women, which was shed in Qana and all over Lebanon ever since. They are as guilty as Olmert, Peres, and Halutz for the massacres of the Lebanese civilians.
Then, addressing the Israelis, he said that the Bush administration will not provide you with the help you wish for simply because it cannot help itself, as it is bogged in its endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
VII. A Word for Arab Rulers
Nassrullah also addressed the Arab rulers, particularly those who criticized the Hizbullah military operation, which resulted in the capture of the Israeli soldiers to swap them with the Lebanese prisoners in Israeli prisons.
He said that they need to help Lebanon and stand by Hizbullah, not for Hizbullah's sake but for the sake of what's remaining of their humanity. He added that they need to do it for the sake of their chairs and thrones because the Bush-Olmert New Middle East will destroy their countries and partition them on ethnic and sectarian lines, like what they are doing in Iraq.
VIII. A Word for Friends of Lebanon
Nassrullah thanked friends of Lebanon who are trying to provide humanitarian assistance and trying to make a ceasefire. He told them that the Lebanese people who died were not killed in a natural disaster, rather in an Israeli aggression. The Lebanese infrastructure was destroyed by the Israeli war machine, alluding to the fact that the aggressors have to pay for their crimes.
IX. A Word for the Lebanese People and the Ummah (Arabs and Muslims Worldwide)
Nassrullah asked the Lebanese, Arabs, and Muslims for their spiritual and material support and promised them of nothing short of victory.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)