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An Open Letter to America Ibrahim Ebeid
…Are we responsible for the acts of our government? Yes we are responsible because we allow such people to hold office; we have elected them and now we are paying the price. People around the world hate us. Our young men and women are being killed, and we are creating more enemies. We do not have enough jobs; our senior citizens cannot afford to buy medicine; we pay high prices for gasoline; and we pay heavy taxes to supply the costs of wars committed by our government an! d by our Zionist allies. We became the butchers of the world instead of the advocates of peace. We should stop supplying “Israel” with weapons of destruction. We should stop wasting our billions on the “Israeli” war machine. We should stop all the wars that we are launching around the world, especially in Afghanistan and Iraq…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25401
Israel: Blackmailing the world William Bowles
I’ve spent the last couple of days doing (almost) nothing but reading, trying to get a handle on events. Firstly, it’s obvious to anyone who knows anything about Lebanon and the place of Hizballah in Lebanese society realises that the idea of destroying Hizballah is ridiculous regardless that it’s Israel’s stated objective. Therefore what are the real objectives of the US/Israeli onslaught? Firstly, Israel is in no position to occupy Lebanon, either militarily or even! more importantly, economically, thus it needed to create the right conditions for some kind of foreign occupation force, ideally a NATO-led force (this explains why Israel is so opposed to the UN) to move in…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25396
After Qana massacre U.S.-Israeli war crimes exposed to the world Sara Flounders
…Israel has a history of using massacres to intimidate a population under occupation. In 1982 after Israel invaded and occupied Lebanon all the way up to Beirut to force the withdrawal of Palestinian resistance fighters, it sent death squads into the disarmed Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. Hundreds of defenseless refugees were executed. Ariel Sharon’s role in this massacre was so well known that ev! en the Kahan Commission set up by the Israeli Knesset, or parliament, found him guilty of war crimes. He was then dismissed as Israeli defense minister. This hardly hurt his support among hard-core Zionists. He never served a day in prison and went on to become prime minister. Zionist military policy has drawn on tactics, including massacres to drive out indigenous people, that have been used by the U.S. ever since its wars against the Native peoples in North America. Massacres of civilians who supported resistance to U.S. imperialism were used extensively in Washington’s wars in the Philippines, Korea and Vietnam…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25397
IOF War Crimes: HRW Issues a Meaningless Report Kurt Nimmo
Once again, in predictably worthless fashion, Human Rights Watch has complained about “serious violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war) by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Lebanon between July 12 and July 27, 2006, as well as the July 30 attack in Qana. During this period, the IDF killed an estimated 400 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and that number climbed to over 500 by the time this report went to print. The Israeli g! overnment claims it is taking all possible measures to minimize civilian harm, but the cases documented here reveal a systematic failure by the IDF to distinguish between combatants and civilians.” It should be common knowledge Israel is an outlaw, criminal state and has violated every humanitarian law on the books since its inception in 1948. It should be, but in fact it isn’t, as the corporate media continues to portray Israel as a poor besieged state, the only democracy in the Middle East, and increasingly the Arabs of the area are vilified as Hezbollah dupes deserving to be bombed and slaughtered…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25398
Son of Osama: Demonizing Hezbolla Kurt Nimmo
Like father, like son. Or maybe the acorn does not fall far from the tree. “A son of Osama bin Laden has gone from Iran to Lebanon with the mission to organize terror attacks against Israel,” reports the New York Post, a reliable source for neocon nonsense. If we are to believe the latest in a long line of absurd fairy tales, Saad bin Laden “was released by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard” and tasked with killing Israelis. “From the Lebanese border, he has the task of ! building Islamist terror cells and preparing them to fight with Hezbollah,” according to the German daily Die Welt. “Apparently, Tehran is counting on recruiting Lebanese refugees in Syria for the fight against Israel, using bin Laden’s help,” never mind that it was reported bin Laden the Younger was purportedly arrested in Iran, a natural occurrence considering the numerous threats issued by “al-Qaeda” and its dead lieutenant, Abu Musaab al-Zarqawi, against Shi’ites, regarded as heretics and infidels by fanatical Wahhabi Sunni Muslims…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25407
Hassan Nassrullah’s Speech Highlights: If Israelis Attack Beirut, Hizbullah Will Attack Tel Aviv
Aljazeerah.info
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…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25406
Making the Rubble Bounce in Lebanon Kurt Nimmo
According to a report posted on the Reuters site, Israel has threatened to “destroy Lebanon’s infrastructure if Hizbollah fires rockets at Tel Aviv as Hizbollah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah threatened on Thursday, a senior Israeli defense source told Israel’s Channel One television.” Excuse me, but it seems Israel has already done a mighty effective job of destroying Lebanon’s infrastructure. I guess the 60 bridges and 70 roads destroyed, the taking out of Beirut’s ! airport, the destruction of power plants, the fuel tanks and gas stations bombed, the food warehouses, dams, schools, television and radio stations, churches, mosques, hospitals, ambulances, and the thousands and thousands of homes targeted and destroyed are not, according to the Israelis, part of Lebanon’s critical infrastructure. In essence, what Israel is saying here is that if Tel Aviv is touched by Hezbollah’s tinker-toy rockets they will make the rubble bounce in Lebanon…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25405
UN Dithering on Qana and Meaningless Resolutions Hassan Hanizadeh, PalestineFreevoice
Although we are in the third week of the Zionist regime’s savage attacks on residential areas of Lebanon, the United Nations Security Council is still silent about these atrocities. The massacre of innocent Lebanese children in Qana is one of the most terrible atrocities committed by the savage Zionist. However, the international community has only been a bystander to these terrorist crimes without taking any appropriate measure! s. The silence of the United Nations as well as its failure to issue a resolution condemning the Zionist atrocities indicates that the neocolonial powers are determined to lead the world into chaos, institutionalize state-sponsored terrorism, and impose rule by the law of the jungle on the world.
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25400
De-Arabization of Arab League Nicola Nasser, www.dissidentvoice.org
The Israeli bombardment of Lebanon and Palestine as well as the ongoing U.S. process of abruptly and forcibly delivering to life a lifeless new US-modeled Iraqi regime are crushing the Arab League “system” in a life-or-death test and again pushing it into a collision course with the people. Almost all the constitutions and basic laws of the Arab League’s twenty-two states, including the stateless Palestinian Authority, stipulate that their people! s and countries are an integral part of the “Arab nation” and some explicitly pronounce Pan-Arab unity as a national goal. Yet almost all of them in practice pursue policies that flagrantly violate their constitutional stipulations, enveloping their contradiction in Pan-Arab rhetoric Jargon…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25399
US-Israeli onslaught on Lebanon intensifies Mike Head
Backed by the Bush administration, Israel has poured thousands more troops into Lebanon and escalated its aerial bombardment in its bid to crush all resistance and take control of the south of the country. With the US blocking all calls for an immediate ceasefire—to give the Israeli military more time to complete the job—Israeli leaders have openly declared that the offensive will continue for weeks. Aided by the lack of any opposition from the UN and the Euro! pean Union, the objectives set by the US and Israel from the outset of the war are being pursued methodically and with barbaric devastation. Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli Defence Force (IDF) soldiers has been used as a pretext to attempt to kill or drive out the population of south Lebanon and bring the entire country under its political sway…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25394
Mass Murder in Qana Charles Jenks, Traprock Writers Blog
…The US has been crystal clear that it wants to give Israel time to clear out Hezbollah from the south of Lebanon. These are the “birth pangs” of the new Middle East, after all, per Rice. Once Israel has accomplished its goals, it would have no reason to object to an international force to occupy and pacify the area. It’s own occupation of Lebanon was a disaster – let someone else do it this time. And Bush and Rice will look like peacemakers to many in th! e US, if CNN, FoxNews and the rest of government/corporate controlled can obscure the truth long enough…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25404
Lebanon: some media observations Eli Stephens, Left I on the News
I have heard on numerous occasions now, from various anchors and pundits, about “Hizbollah’s sophisticated PR operation.” I don’t recall hearing once about “Israel’s sophisticated PR operation.” This despite the fact that, as I’ve written previously, I can hardly watch TV for 15 minutes without seeing an Israeli government spokesperson, and if I include American apologists for Israel, the time is even shorter. Aside from a few brief clips of Hassan! Nasrallah, I don’t believe I have ever seen someone speaking on behalf of that “sophisticated PR operation.”…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25392
Israel, not Hizbullah, is putting civilians in danger on both sides of the border Jonathan Cook, GlobalResearch.ca
Here are some interesting points raised this week by a leading commentator and published in a respected daily newspaper: “The Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert embeds his soldiers in Israeli communities, next to schools, beside hospitals, close to welfare centres, ensuring that any Israeli target is also a civilian target. This is the practice the UN’s Jan Egeland had in mind when he lambasted Israe! l’s ‘cowardly blending … among women and children’. It may be cowardly, but in the new warfare it also makes macabre sense. For this is a propaganda war as much as a shooting one, and in such a conflict to lose civilians on your own side represents a kind of victory.”…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25391
Qana and Israel’s “full investigation” Lenin’s Tomb
It was sickening enough watching the initial news reporting, in which phrases like “another attack that will enter Arab folklore about the Zionist oppressor” were ubiquitous. I quote directly, by the way, in this instance from Sky News. Arabs have “folklore” – that’s the kind of people they are. Kosovars did not have “folklore” about the “Serb oppressor”, and – quite obviously – Americans do not have “folklore” about 9/11 or Pearl Harbour. “Folklore” is a nomadi! c discourse, the kind of knowledge passed on around desert fires by noble savages, with ever mounting accretions. Yes, we know those Arabs alright. Subsequent headlines included such nonsense as “Israel vows to end Terror Threat”. Israel is forever vowing this and that. The use of the word ‘vow’ connotes earnestness, a solemn promise, perhaps one made before God. This is its sense in common usage. Will we hear of how Hezbollah “vows” to end “Zionist Threat” (which is, after all, more real)? At least we didn’t have to hear that it was a beauty pageant…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25390
As Lebanon burns, Blair, Bush Sr. and Schultz will be at Bohemian Grove this weekend Jerry Mazza, Online Journal Associate Editor
As Israel shoves thousands of troops into Lebanon’s face to trash as much of the country as it can before a cease-fire, Tony boy Blair swept into Frisco to attend George and Charlotte Shultz’s swanky pad for a cocktail party. He kicked off his five-day West Coast tour rubbing shoulders with America’s richest men. Olive, Tony? The bash was arranged by George Schultz, who served Presiden! ts Nixon and Reagan, was adviser to the Bush II 2000 campaign and continues to be a GOP strategist. Mrs. Schultz provided the gush and glitz. Among the 90 guests, were “Call Chuck Schwab” stockbroker tycoon, Phil Bronstein (Sharon Stone’s media baron ex), and heavies from Chevron, Yahoo and Wells Fargo Bank, to mention a few…
Read the full article / Leggi l’articolo completo: www.uruknet.info/?p=25387
Fatal Strikes: Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against
Civilians in Lebanon
Human Rights Watch
8/3/2006
This report documents serious violations of international humanitarian
law (the laws of war) by Israel Defense Forces.. in Lebanon between
July 12 and July 27, 2006, as well as the July 30 attack in Qana.
During this period, the IDF killed an estimated 400 people, the vast
majority of them civilians, and that number climbed to over 500 by the
time this report went to print. The Israeli government claims it is
taking all possible measures to minimize civilian harm, but the cases
documented here reveal a systematic failure by the IDF to distinguish
between combatants and civilians.... In some cases, the timing and
intensity of the attack, the absence of a military target, as well as
return strikes on rescuers, suggest that Israeli forces deliberately
targeted civilians.... HRW found no cases in which Hezbollah
deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory
IDF attack. Download
PDF file of this report
Hizbullah and Israel threaten to escalate war
The Guardian 8/4/2006
Preparations for attack on Beirut met with promise to fire on Tel Aviv
-- The protagonists in the three-week Middle East conflict last night
threatened to intensify their bombing campaigns after a day of clashes
along the Israel-Lebanon border and as attempts to secure a diplomatic
solution continued to prove elusive. The Hizbullah leader, Sheikh
Hassan Nasrallah, warned in a taped television speech that rockets
would be fired at Tel Aviv if the centre of Beirut was attacked. "If
you bomb our capital Beirut, we will bomb the capital of your usurping
entity... We will bomb Tel Aviv," he said. The Israeli military said
any attack on Tel Aviv would be met with further attacks on Lebanon's
already severely depleted infrastructure. Last night Israeli jets
dropped leaflets over southern Beirut warning residents to leave...
Israeli military accused of whitewash
The Guardian 8/4/2006
An Israeli military investigation into the Qana bombing, which killed
at least 28 people, yesterday found that the air force did not know
there were civilians in the building and blamed Hizbullah for using "human shields. "The air force would not have hit the building, which
is close to the border in southern Lebanon, had it known there were
civilians present, the military said. Human rights groups have
criticised Israeli targeting in the air campaign. Amnesty International
described the investigation as "clearly inadequate" and a "whitewash".
In a report into Israeli air strikes on Lebanon, the New York-based
Human Rights Watch said the Israelis had "systematically failed to
distinguish between combatants and civilians. "
Israel Blocks Arrival of 2 Fuel Tank Shipments to Lebanon
An Nahar 8/3/2006
Israel, which has been blockading Lebanon's ports for three weeks, on
Thursday refused to allow the shipment of much-needed fuel for its
power plants, Lebanese government officials said. "Once again, Israel
which has been carrying out a maritime blockade, refused Thursday the
arrival of ships currently stationed in Cyprus," an official from the
Lebanese government High Relief Commission told AFP. "(Israel) has told
the United Nations, who acts as a communication channel, that paperwork
was still missing," he said. Earlier Thursday, the president of fuel
importers said that the UN had received Israel's agreement in principle
for delivery of the shipments.... But he said "there is still no
authorization for the delivery of petrol. "
Fuel crisis threatens to shut hospitals
The Daily Star
8/4/2006
BEIRUT: The fuel crisis has taken a dramatic turn for the worse when
hospitals, among other public services, have announced that if the
current situation continues, they may be forced to close within the
next week to 10 days. Health Minister Mohammad Khalifeh told The Daily
Star that the hospitals in the gravest conditions are those based in
the South, especially in Tyre and Sidon, where not only is it extremely
difficult to get supplies in, but they have the heaviest patient load,
and are quickly running out of fuel to generate electricity. "Our fuel
reserves are extremely low at the moment. If the situation continues
and we're still not able to receive the tankers that are waiting at
sea, then it is likely that the hospitals can close within a week;
those in the South maybe within five days," Khalifeh said...
VIDEO - What International Law? - Ambulances are hit by
Israeli forces
Information Clearing
House/YouTube 8/3/2006
Another challenging report from ITN, this time on ITV, about the
Israeli attack on ambulances in Tyre Lebanon. [Excellent reportage]
48 hours not enough for people of South Lebanon
ReliefWeb/Islamic
Relief 8/1/2006
Islamic Relief has spent the last two days delivering aid to people
trapped in south Lebanon, including Qana, where 60 people were recently
killed. The 48-hour ceasefire, agreed in the wake of the Qana tragedy,
will end tonight but thousands are still cut off from aid. "Two days
has not been long enough," said Marc Andre LaGrange, Islamic Relief's
Head of Mission in Lebanon. "The ceasefire has been unstable in many
southern areas and in the border towns it has been non-existent. "Islamic Relief is the only British aid agency currently known to have
ventured south of Beirut and one of the few international agencies
delivering food and relief items in Qana, Tyre, Sidon and other heavily
bombarded areas. "Some people in Qana had not received food for 20
days. When we arrived they were too scared to come out of their
homes... "
Stranded man, 83, survives 17-day ordeal
The Daily Star
8/4/2006
BEIRUT: Eighty-three-year-old Ali Dabaja was left behind for 17 days
without food or drink in Bint Jbeil as the fighting raged on around
him. Unable to move due to an operation on his legs, Dabaja lay
helpless in bed as Israeli ordnance pounded the area around his home.
His servant escaped as the attacks intensified, leaving Dabaja some
food near the bed, which lasted for just two days. Dabaja tried to
speak to The Daily Star about his ordeal, but failed due to sheer
exhaustion and his weakened state. "We kept begging the Red Cross, the
mayor of the town and even the neighbors to help him out as he couldn't
walk or do anything on his own, but no one could reach him due to the
constant bombings," said his daughter, Ghada Bazzi, who kept calling
her father until the phone lines died upon the siege.
Lebanon death toll
'exceeds 900', 250.000 displaced
International Middle
East Media Center 8/3/2006
The Lebanese prime minister has said more than 900 people have been
killed and 3,000 injured in Israeli attacks since the crisis in Lebanon
began three weeks ago. Fuad Siniora said one million people - a quarter
of the population - had been displaced by the fighting, which continued
unabated on Thursday. He made his remarks during a video statement sent
to an Organization of the Islamic Conference meeting in Malaysia on
Thursday. Lebanese security sources also said 80 Hezbollah fighters had
been killed during the crisis, but Israel put the number at 300. Beirut
attacksIsraeli warplanes resumed their attacks on Lebanon on Thursday,
a day after Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in its
largest attack to date. About 10,000 Israeli troops were engaged in
clashes with Hezbollah fighters in five areas of southern Lebanon.
France floats new cease-fire resolution at Security Council
The Daily Star
8/4/2006
France circulated a revised UN resolution Thursday calling for an
immediate cessation of hostilities in Lebanon and spelling of the
conditions for a permanent cease-fire and lasting solution to the
current crisis. The move came as Jordan's King Abdullah II rebuked
Israel for its offensive, saying it had turned Hizbullah into heroes,
amid renewed regional calls for the US to support an unconditional and
immediate cease-fire. France's UN envoy, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, told
reporters he was not as optimistic as he was on Wednesday about the
adoption of a resolution in the coming days, though he said: "I think
we are making progress, I would say real progress. "However, "yesterday
[Wednesday] morning I was confident that we could have a resolution
adopted in the coming days, but by the end of the day I was less
confident," he said as he prepared for a day of direct talks with US
Ambassador John Bolton. "I hope that today [Thursday] it will be a
positive day, that I will be again more confident.
Hizbullah offers to spare civilians if Israeli military does
the same
The Daily Star
8/4/2006
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, ina televised speech: "Let my words be clear, any
attack on Lebanon's capital, Beirut, will result in Hizbullah
bombarding the Zionist entity's capital, Tel Aviv. "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. "
U.N. Talks Focus on Terms of Cease-Fire
Washington Post
8/3/2006
Lebanon Sees No Solution to the Conflict Without a Role for Syria and
Iran -- UNITED NATIONS, Aug. 2 -- Lebanon's acting foreign minister,
Tarek Mitri, said Wednesday he doubts that his government would agree
to invite a European-led intervention force into southern Lebanon,
citing fierce opposition from Hezbollah and its key foreign backers,
Syria and Iran. Mitri said Hezbollah's political standing in Lebanon
has been greatly enhanced during its three-week battle with Israel, and
that its views on the size and mandate of an international force will
have to be taken into account. He also said that "no solution" to the
current violence in Lebanon can be found without the participation of
Syria and Iran in the search for a political settlement.
US State Department: UN official "troublesome"
Ma'an News 8/3/2006
Bethlehem--The United States has issued a strong scolding of the Deputy
Secretary-General of the United Nations, for what they see as a series
of more-than-frank comments in an interview on Wednesday. During the
interview with the British newspaper the Financial Times, Mark Malloch
Brown had allegedly said that Washington had made the formation of an
international force for deployment in Lebanon "difficult". Shaun
McCormack, the US State Department spokesman, told reporters, "We see a
troublesome pattern of a United Nations official having a significant
preoccupation, which seems to be the criticism of the United States.
Frankly, the criticism was not correct. " The criticism that McCormack
made for Mark Malloch Brown, the UN Deputy Secretary-General, was sharp
and outside the normal framework of diplomacy.
French FM Philippe Douste-Blazy: Humanitarian Situation in
Lebanon 'Disastrous'
An Nahar 8/3/2006
The humanitarian situation in Lebanon is "more and more worrying, I
would even say disastrous," French Foreign Minister Philippe
Douste-Blazy said Thursday. "We have passed the figure of one million
displaced people, and of these half are children," he said. "We have
passed the figure of 800 dead and sadly of these more than a third are
children.... In the south of the country only the old people are left
at home. "In the Bekaa valley, since yesterday's military operations, a
quarter of the population has left. Food is increasingly expensive in
Beirut. Medicine for children is beginning to run out," the minister
said. Douste-Blazy said France is to send a ship containing
humanitarian aid including medicine, blankets, mattresses and water
purification equipment. The ship will leave Marseille on August 11.
(AFP). [end]
Olmert Insists on Deployment of 15,000-Strong International
Force before Ceasefire
An Nahar 8/3/2006
Israel wants some 15,000 foreign troops to be deployed in southern
Lebanon to help end its fight with Hizbullah, Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert said in interviews published Thursday. The conflict, which
has entered its 23rd day, could be over as soon as the United Nations
Security Council authorizes such a force, he said. The Israeli leader
also defended his country's bloody campaign against the Hizbullah,
which has left hundreds of civilians dead. Laying out his vision for
peace, Olmert told The Times and, separately, The Financial Times, that
the international force must be robust. "It has to be made up of
armies, not of retirees, of real soldiers, not of pensioners who have
come to spend leisurely months in south Lebanon... "
Council conclusions on Lebanon and the Middle East
ReliefWeb/European
Union 8/1/2006
At its meeting on 1 August 2006, the General Affairs and External
Relations Council adopted the conclusions annexed hereto. -- The
Council expresses its utmost concern at the Lebanese and Israeli
civilian casualties and human suffering, the widespread destruction of
civilian infrastructure, and the increased number of internally
displaced persons following the escalation of violence. The Council
condemns the rocket attacks by Hezbollah on Israel. The Council
condemns the death of innocent civilians, mostly women and children, in
an Israeli air strike on the Lebanese village of Qana. The Council also
states that all attacks against UN personnel are unacceptable and
deplores the tragic deaths of four UN military observers.
Security Council president says Mideast crisis will top
August agenda
ReliefWeb/United
Nations News 8/2/2006
The ongoing crisis in the Middle East is expected to dominate the
Security Council's work this month, said Ambassador Nana Effah-Apenteng
of Ghana, which holds the Council presidency for August, but African
issues will also receive priority attention. “It is evident that the
Mideast crisis, particularly Lebanon, is going to feature prominently
on our agenda,” he said, noting that the Council expected to receive
Secretary-General's report on the attack on the Lebanese city of Qana
within a week and would “most likely” hold closed-door talks on it.
Asked about the need for action on the issue, he said all Council
members appreciate the sense of urgency, but cautioned that careful
preparation is needed. “The Council on such a crucial issue would be
better serving the international community if it acts unanimously...
Muslim Nations Call for Immediate Ceasefire in Lebanon
An Nahar 8/3/2006
Muslim nations Thursday demanded an immediate ceasefire in the Middle
East and warned that boiling anger over the Israeli offensive in
Lebanon could launch a new wave of terrorism. With Muslims around the
world enraged by the carnage in Lebanon, where the death toll has
topped 900, the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) convened
an emergency meeting here to map out a unified Islamic response. Key
nations from the 57-nation bloc, including Iran as well as allies of
the US "war on terror" such as Turkey and Pakistan, condemned what they
called the "relentless Israeli aggression" and called for an immediate
truce. In a joint statement they accused Israel of "blatant and
flagrant" human rights violations in carrying out "indiscriminate and
massive" air strikes in their three-week-old campaign against
Hizbullah.
Rice Signals Possible Lebanon 'Compromise'
The Guardian 8/4/2006
WASHINGTON (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed support
Thursday for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon as the first phase in
ending the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. It was the most
concrete signal yet that the U.S. may be willing to compromise on the
stalemate over how to end the fighting. Moving closer to the position
that France and other European countries are taking, Rice predicted
that a U. N. Security Council resolution would be approved within days
that would include a cease-fire and describe principles for a lasting
peace. On CNN's ``Larry King Live,'' Rice said the U.S. is moving
``towards being able to do this in phases that will permit first an end
or a stoppage in the hostilities and based on the establishment on some
very important principles... "
Siniora sees little chance of early peace
The Daily Star
8/4/2006
BEIRUT: Despite international indications of an imminent cease-fire
between Hizbullah and Israel, Lebanon's prime minister has said he does
not believe it is as near as it is being portrayed by international
players. "I hope we will reach a cease-fire as soon as possible, but I
do not thing that it is going to happen as soon as portrayed," Fouad
Siniora said in comments published Thursday in An-Nahar daily. "Perhaps
some people are speaking of what they hope will happen, as for me I
don't want to promise the Lebanese a cease-fire unless I have concrete
evidence," he added. Governmental sources said Thursday the prime
minister is convinced that "until Israel starts to score any real
success on the ground, it will refuse to end the fighting. "
Olmert declares the enemy tamed but rockets keep pounding
villages
The Guardian 8/4/2006
Israel suffered its worst day of the Middle East conflict yesterday,
despite government assertions that a three-week bombing campaign and
mounting ground operations had severely damaged the Hizbullah militia.
For the second straight day, Hizbullah fighters launched a barrage of
rocket fire into northern Israel. Eight civilians were killed and
dozens injured. On the battlefields of southern Lebanon, four soldiers
died and more were reported injured. As the fighting escalated,
Israel's defence minister, Amir Peretz, told the military to prepare
for a major push up to Lebanon's Litani river, Israeli television
reported. The river runs about 20 miles inside the country. More than
7,000 Israeli soldiers, including infantry, armoured and engineering
units, are now in southern Lebanon.
AUDIO - Inside Hizbullah
The Guardian 8/4/2006
Ghaith Abdul-Ahad in Tyre gains unique access to Hizbullah forces,
discusses organization, strategy and training of the armed resistance.
Reporters risk their lives to get the story and tell the world
The Daily Star
8/4/2006
'Reporting on Qana changed the course of events' -- BEIRUT: The war in
Lebanon has brought out the best in many and has put on the forefront
of events many reporters who often risk their own lives to transmit
what is really happening on the ground. Many local and Arab channels
have tasked female reporters to cover the most dangerous zones near the
borders in the South or in the southern suburbs of Beirut. Rima
Maktabi, who coveredthe bombardment of the Dahiyeh for Al-Arabiyya news
channel, described being a war reporter as "a strange but highly
enriching experience. " "When working under tremendous pressure you
grasp in few days much more than you learn in months of work at normal
times," Maktabi said. Maktabi believes in the strength of covering war
zones on the ground.
Hezbollah warns of Tel Aviv strike
AlJazeera 8/3/2006
The leader of Hezbollah has warned that the group will launch rockets
at Tel Aviv if Israel attacks central Beirut. Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
made the remarks in a televised statement on Thursday released hours
after Hezbollah launched over 100 rockets at northern Israel, killing
seven people. Nasrallah said: "If you strike Beirut, the Islamic
resistance will strike Tel Aviv and it is able to do so. "A senior
Israeli defence source said Israel would respond by attacking Lebanon's
infrastructure if a strike on Tel Aviv took place. Nasrallah also said
that Hezbollah would end its rocket attacks against northern Israel if
it stopped attacking civilian areas of Lebanon. However Naim Kassem,
Hezbollah's deputy leader, told Aljazeera that the group would not
accept a ceasefire that did not include the withdrawal of all Israeli
troops from Lebanese soil.
Among Militia's Patient Loyalists, Confidence and Belief in
Victory
Washington Post
8/3/2006
JWAYYA, Lebanon, Aug. 2 -- There were no cars in the winding streets of
this southern Lebanese village. Not many people, either. The signs of
life were the buzz of Israeli surveillance drones overhead and, below,
a gaggle of Hezbollah loyalists, sitting in a small storefront along an
abandoned street. There was a walkie-talkie, bottles of water and,
according to the half-dozen or so men, patience. "We are waiting," said
Jamal Nasser, a burly man in civilian clothes. "We are here, and we're
not going anywhere. " Three weeks into its war with Israel, Hezbollah
has retained its presence in southern Lebanon, often the sole authority
in devastated towns along the Israeli border. The militia is elusive,
with few logistics, little hierarchy and less visibility. Even
residents often say they don't know how the militiamen operate or are
organized.
Israel seeks 'security belt' in Lebanon; 15 Israeli soldiers
injured; further shelling in Lebanon and Israeli towns
Ma'an News 8/3/2006
Bethlehem--Israeli authorities say that they seek to build a 'security
belt' approximately 6-8 kilometers deep into Lebanese territory, along
the entire length of the Israeli-Lebanese border, in order to limit the
Lebanese resistance from launching rockets into Israel. An Israeli
spokesperson said Thursday that Israeli forces suffered further losses
in battles with Hezbollah fighters in the south of Lebanon. 15 injured
soldiers, the majority suffering shrapnel wounds, were transported to
Nahariyya Hospital for treatment. Hezbollah announced attacking a
collection of Israeli infantry soldiers and their machinery in the area
between the villages of Qozah, Ayta ash Shab and Talet-Wardeh, stating
that the resistance fighters were able to destroy a Merkava tank,
killing some of its crew and wounding others.
Evening Roundup: Nasrallah, Israel Trade Threats as Troops
are Locked in Heavy Battles with Hizbullah Fighters in the South
An Nahar 8/3/2006
Israel renewed airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs Thursday, and
Hizbullah retaliated by firing more than 130 rockets at northern
Israel, killing eight people in Acre and Maalot. It was the bloodiest
day in Israel since eight people were killed July 16 near a train
maintenance depot. Meanwhile, Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah
said his group would fire rockets into Tel Aviv if Israel strikes
Beirut proper. "If you bomb our capital Beirut, we will bomb the
capital of your usurping entity... We will bomb Tel Aviv," he said in a
taped televised speech. After Nasrallah's warning, an Israeli military
official told public television that the Jewish state will destroy all
Lebanese infrastructure if Hizbullah carries out its threat to hit Tel
Aviv.
Midday Roundup: Battles Rage in South as Muslim Nations Lash
Out at International Failure to Reach Ceasefire
An Nahar 8/3/2006
Fighting raged Thursday in south Lebanon where an Israeli missile
slammed into a house killing a family of three, as the world's Muslim
nations expressed outrage at international "double standards" over the
three-week-old offensive. The attack occurred in the border village of
Taibeh where Israeli forces have been battling Hizbullah fighters for
days. A missile crashed into the two-story house of Hani Abdo Marmar
destroying it. Marmar, his wife and daughter were killed instantly,
security officials said. Their bodies are still buried under the rubble
as rescue workers could not approach the village due to the fierce
fighting, they added. Another house was hit in the southern village of
Qleia. In the town of Nabatiyeh, fighter jets struck an ambulance
working for a local Muslim group, security officials said.
Lebanon counts human cost of 23 days in firing line
The Guardian 8/4/2006
Israel accused of targeting civilians indiscriminately · Suffering
worsens without aid corridor, say agencies -- As many as 900 Lebanese
have been killed by Israel's three-week onslaught, and one million, a
quarter of the population, have been forced to flee their homes, said
prime minister Fouad Siniora yesterday; a third of the dead are
children under 12. Three thousand people had been injured, he added, in
a video message to a conference of Islamic countries in Malaysia, which
called for an immediate ceasefire. As the full extent of Lebanon's
catastrophe began to emerge yesterday, the US-based watchdog Human
Rights Watch accused Israel of war crimes. "In some instances, Israeli
forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians...
Urgent call to stop spiralling Middle East violence
ReliefWeb/UNIFEM
8/3/2006
Statement by Noeleen Heyzer, Executive Director, UNIFEM; Convenor,
International Women's Commission for a Just and Sustainable
Palestinian-Israeli Peace (IWC) -- New York - As missiles and bombs
started flying across Israel, Lebanon and Gaza, taking a terrible toll
in civilian lives, I convened an emergency meeting of the International
Women’s Commission for a Just and Sustainable Palestinian-Israeli Peace
(IWC), comprising Israeli, Palestinian and international leaders. We
watched in dismay as the violence escalated, threatening to become a
full-scale regional war. Today, this violence has become regional, and
civilians are bearing the highest costs.... The International Women’s
Commission joins with the UN Secretary-General in calling for an
immediate cessation of hostilities and protection of civilian lives.
Crisis in middle east - children hit hardest
ReliefWeb/Save the
Children Alliance 8/3/2006
The situation in the Middle East continues to deteriorate rapidly.
Hundreds have already died and an estimated 700,00 to 800,00 people,
more than half of whom are children have had to flee their homes and
have been forced to shelter in buildings with little or no help to meet
their basic needs. Chief Executive, Jasmine Whitbread said "People must
be allowed to move to safety and reach hospitals. Humanitarian agencies
must be allowed access to the children who, as always, are being
hardest hit by this conflict. "Save the Children is in the region,
already distributing relief and preparing to respond immediately once a
humanitarian ceasefire makes a full emergency response possible.
CARE assessment team arrives in Lebanon later today
ReliefWeb/CARE
8/3/2006
3 August: CARE's emergency assessment team is due to be arriving in
Lebanon later today. The team travelled yesterday from CARE's Jordan
office in Amman to Syria and are due to be crossing the Syrian border
into Lebanon today as part of a humanitarian convoy. Once in Lebanon,
the team will travelling as much as possible within the country to
assess how CARE is best placed to help respond. 2 August: Ahead of
their arrival the team urged international support for the civilians
suffering from conflict in Lebanon and Syria. Emergency co-ordinator,
Megan Chisholm, described the situation of some 800,000 people
suffering from the current crisis as terrible and urgent. She warned: "Further violence will limit the ability of humanitarian agencies to
reach those in need.
14-Year-Old Nasrallah Recounts Ordeal During Baalbeck
Commando Operation
An Nahar 8/3/2006
Nasrallah is a bad surname to have in Lebanon, as Israel tries to break
Hizbullah. Fourteen-year-old Mohammed Hassan Nasrallah found out the
hard way when Israeli airborne commandos seized his father and four
other men in eastern Lebanon, even though they are unrelated to
Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. Mohammed was asleep, together
with his father, mother, brothers and sisters, when Israeli elite
troops broke into his home on August 2, breaking the doors and
shattering the windows of their house in Hay al-Osseira near the
eastern city of Baalbeck. "They started shouting, they took us out one
after the other and tied our hands behind our backs," he told an Agence
France Presse correspondent in the Bekaa Valley.
Mental hospital nearly out of medicine
Electronic
Intifada/IRIN 8/3/2006
Hospitals in Lebanon are suffering severe shortages in medicinal
supplies. -- ZEFTA - A mental hospital in south Lebanon is just days
away from running out of the medicine used to treat its 250
schizophrenic patients, its director said on Thursday. "We have very
little Epanutin left," said Adela Dajani Labban, director of the
private Al Fanar Mental Hospital in Zefta, a village 60km south of
Beirut. Epanutin is an anti-convulsion drug that can be used to treat
schizophrenia. Staff nurse Hossam Mustafa said doctors had been
reducing dosages to patients in an attempt to conserve supplies. "If we
do not get more medicine soon we will be faced with a very difficult
situation. The patients will become very aggressive. "
Limited safe passage hampers aid agencies
Electronic
Intifada/IRIN 8/3/2006
TYRE - Despite being granted safe passage by Israel for some of their
humanitarian convoys, relief agencies say limited security clearances,
bombed access routes and intensified fighting between Hezbollah
militants and the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) are hampering their aid
efforts. The current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah began on 12
July after Hezbollah captured two IDF soldiers. Israel says its aerial
bombardment of parts of Lebanon is aimed at dismantling Hezbollah's "terror infrastructure". Hezbollah has responded by firing thousands of
rockets into northern Israel and has demanded the release of hundreds
of Lebanese from Israeli jails and Israel's withdrawal from all
Lebanese territory. The IDF has imposed a land, sea and air blockade on
Lebanon for the claimed reason of preventing weapons and supplies
reaching Hezbollah.
Bil’in to Mourn over 1,000 dead in Lebanon and Gaza
International
Solidarity Movement 8/3/2006
Tomorrow, August 4th, 2006, at 1pm the people of Bil’in and their
Israeli and international supporters will demonstrate against the
Apartheid Wall and settlements. They will march to the wall carrying a
black flag as a sign of mourning for the people who have died,
numbering over 1,000 in Gaza and Lebanon in the past few weeks. The
Palestinian Human Rights Center reports that 174 Palestinians have been
killed since the Israeli offensive began June 25th, and al-Jazeera
reports that over 900 Lebanese have been killed since the Israeli
aggression began July 13th. Since January 2005 Bil’in villagers have
demonstrated at least once every week against the wall and settlements.
Even as the wall was built and completed they continue their
non-violent protests despite continuous Israeli military aggression.
[end]
Young Jews stage "die-in" in Boston to protest Israeli war
By Marjorie Dove,
Electronic Intifada 8/3/2006
Photo story: A group of young American Jews staged a "Die In" on
Tuesday August 1, 2006 at South Station in downtown Boston to
demonstrate their opposition to recent actions by the Israeli
government in Lebanon and Gaza. Young Jewish protesters in Boston stage
a "die-in" against Israeli war on Lebanon and Palestine. (Photo:
Jonathan McIntosh)"We want to break the false consensus of unequivocal
support for Israel and make it known that many American Jews disagree
with our government's support of Israeli aggression. We also want to
call attention to the human rights crisis occurring in Gaza and
Lebanon," commented group member Matt Soycher of Jamaica Plain. "As
young American Jews, we are outraged and frightened... "
Some seethe, others are sanguine
The Guardian 8/4/2006
Guardian reporters look at how Tony Blair's policy is viewed in Europe
-- Russia: Russia is quietly seething over attempts by Mr Blair to
stall a ceasefire in Lebanon. President Vladimir Putin has so far
refrained from direct criticism of Mr Blair and Mr Bush, but deputy
foreign minister Alexander Saltanov handed a message to British
ambassador Anthony Brenton in a meeting yesterday calling for a UN
security council resolution that would demand an immediate cessation of
hostilities. Spain: Although the Spanish government disagrees with Tony
Blair's Lebanon policy, it has been left to those outside the
government to criticise.... Italy: Prime minister Romano Prodi is
determined to build good relations with Mr Blair... So no one in Mr
Prodi's circle is uttering a word of criticism against the British
prime minister.
Blair begins fightback against backbench critics
The Guardian 8/4/2006
Hints he will lead Israel Palestine peace drive · Bombing of Lebanon
unacceptable, says PM -- Tony Blair battled to quell the Labour revolt
over his Lebanon policy yesterday by saying he had not given a green
light to Israel's military operations, and insisting he was only
interested in securing a long-term settlement that must also encompass
a Palestinian state. He also suggested he would personally lead a drive
to re-energise the Palestinian peace process in September, claiming he
would regard it as a personal failure of his leadership if he could not
help negotiate a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. Mr
Blair's hour-long exposition of his policy at a Downing Street press
conference came after a cabinet and backbench revolt in the wake of the
conflict in Lebanon and his own five-day absence in California.
PM admits divisions but says UN peace plan imminent
The Guardian 8/3/2006
Tony Blair admitted today that his cabinet colleagues have doubts about
his refusal to call for a ceasefire in the Israel-Lebanon conflict but
told his critics that a United Nations resolution to bring about an "immediate ceasefire" would be agreed within days. But Mr Blair told
reporters at his monthly press conference that reports of a split with
his foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, were "complete rubbish" and
that both were "at one" in working hard for a practical solution to the
crisis. "The US, the UK, France and others have been working very hard
to get agreement on a United Nations resolution and I am now hopeful
that we will have such a resolution... very shortly and agreed within
the next few days," Mr Blair said.
Entire Lebanese family killed in Israeli attack on hospital
By Robert Fisk, Information Clearing House/The Independent 8/3/2006
An attack on a hospital, the killing of an entire Lebanese family, the seizure of five men in Baalbek and a new civilian death toll - 468 men, women and children - marked the 22nd day of Israel's latest war on Lebanon.
The Israelis claimed that helicopter-borne soldiers had seized senior Hizbollah leaders although one of them turned out to be a local Baalbek grocer. In a village near the city, Israeli air strikes killed the local mayor's son and brother and five children in their family.
The battle for Lebanon was fast moving out of control last night. Lebanese troops abandoned many of their checkpoints and European diplomats were warning their colleagues that militiamen were taking over the positions. Up to 8,000 Israeli troops were reported to have crossed the border by last night in what was publicised as a military advance towards the Litani river. But far more soldiers would be needed to secure so large an area of southern Lebanon.
The Israelis sent paratroopers to attack an Iranian-financed hospital in Baalbek in the hope of capturing wounded Hizbollah fighters but, after an hour's battle, got their hands on only five men whom the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, later called "tasty fish". The operation suggests what Hizbollah has all along said was the purpose of the Israeli campaign: to swap prisoners and to exchange Hizbollah fighters for the two Israeli soldiers who were captured on the border on 12 July.
Hizbollah continued to fire dozens of missiles over the border into Israel, killing one Israeli and wounding 21, with Israeli artillery firing shells back into Lebanon at the rate of one every two minutes. For the first time, a Hizbollah rocket struck the West Bank as well as the Israeli town of Beit Shean, the longest-range missile to have been fired so far. Yet still the West seems unable to produce an end to a war which is clearly overwhelming both Hizbollah and the Israelis.
Fatal Strikes: Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon
Human Rights Watch 8/3/2006
Includes links to Full Report - Summary: This report documents serious violations of international humanitarian law (the laws of war) by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in Lebanon between July 12 and July 27, 2006, as well as the July 30 attack in Qana. During this period, the IDF killed an estimated 400 people, the vast majority of them civilians, and that number climbed to over 500 by the time this report went to print. The Israeli government claims it is taking all possible measures to minimize civilian harm, but the cases documented here reveal a systematic failure by the IDF to distinguish between combatants and civilians.
Since the start of the conflict, Israeli forces have consistently launched artillery and air attacks with limited or dubious military gain but excessive civilian cost. In dozens of attacks, Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some cases, the timing and intensity of the attack, the absence of a military target, as well as return strikes on rescuers, suggest that Israeli forces deliberately targeted civilians.
The Israeli government claims that it targets only Hezbollah, and that fighters from the group are using civilians as human shields, thereby placing them at risk. Human Rights Watch found no cases in which Hezbollah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack. Hezbollah occasionally did store weapons in or near civilian homes and fighters placed rocket launchers within populated areas or near U.N. observers, which are serious violations of the laws of war because they violate the duty to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties. However, those cases do not justify the IDF’s extensive use of indiscriminate force which has cost so many civilian lives. In none of the cases of civilian deaths documented in this report is there evidence to suggest that Hezbollah forces or weapons were in or near the area that the IDF targeted during or just prior to the attack.
By consistently failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians, Israel has violated one of the most fundamental tenets of the laws of war: the duty to carry out attacks on only military targets. The pattern of attacks during the Israeli offensive in Lebanon suggests that the failures cannot be explained or dismissed as mere accidents; the extent of the pattern and the seriousness of the consequences indicate the commission of war crimes.
Download PDF file of this report
Hezbollah’s Attacks Stem from Israeli Incursions into Lebanon
By Anders Strindberg, Palestine Chronicle/Christian Science Monitor 8/3/2006
Neither Hezbollah nor Hamas are driven by a desire to "wipe out Jews," but by a fundamental sense of injustice that they will not allow to be forgotten.
NEW YORK (CSM) – As pundits and policymakers scramble to explain events in Lebanon, their conclusions are virtually unanimous: Hezbollah created this crisis. Israel is defending itself. The underlying problem is Arab extremism.
Sadly, this is pure analytical nonsense. Hezbollah’s capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12 was a direct result of Israel's silent but unrelenting aggression against Lebanon, which in turn is part of a six-decades long Arab-Israeli conflict.
Since its withdrawal of occupation forces from southern Lebanon in May 2000, Israel has violated the United Nations-monitored "blue line" on an almost daily basis, according to UN reports. Hezbollah’s military doctrine, articulated in the early 1990s, states that it will fire Katyusha rockets into Israel only in response to Israeli attacks on Lebanese civilians or Hezbollah’s leadership; this indeed has been the pattern.
In the process of its violations, Israel has terrorized the general population, destroyed private property, and killed numerous civilians. This past February, for instance, 15-year-old shepherd Yusuf Rahil was killed by unprovoked Israeli cross-border fire as he tended his flock in southern Lebanon. Israel has assassinated its enemies in the streets of Lebanese cities and continues to occupy Lebanon's Shebaa Farms area, while refusing to hand over the maps of mine fields that continue to kill and cripple civilians in southern Lebanon more than six years after the war supposedly ended. What peace did Hezbollah shatter.
Ominous signs of the war's potential regional consequences
Editorial, The Daily Star 8/4/2006
Events as momentous as the current war between Israel and Hizbullah, and Israel's assault on all of Lebanon, have a tendency to impact on the entire region, where the political repercussions are likely to be serious. We see signs of this in the usual channels of public opinion, including street demonstrations, political protests, fund-raising campaigns, and media statements. The Organization of the Islamic Conference and the Arab League secretary general offered the expected sentiments, and assorted Arab leaders have spoken out recently in strong terms against Israel. Some of these leaders had spoken out against Hizbullah initially, naming it as the reckless party that pushed Lebanon into its current state of siege and destruction. Anger and protest have not been limited to the Arab world, either, as has usually been the case when Israel attacks and kills Arabs.
All of this is predictable and sincere, but does it have any impact? Past experience suggests that such manifestations of public political anger rarely change or significantly alter the political configurations and power realities of the day in this region. Yet important signs abound that this wave of public anxiety and anger around the Arab world is different from previous ones. Demonstrations have taken place, unusually, in several Gulf countries, and the authorities have not interfered. In Saudi Arabia, the government last week put out a strong statement that spoke of the "war option" before the Arabs if peace with Israel did not happen. Also - quite amazingly, given the reticent, private nature of Saudi political expression - Riyadh singled out the United States by name as needing to rethink its support of Israeli policies. Thursday in Amman, Jordan, we witnessed another symbolically important development, when scores of top senior officials, including several prime ministers, lashed out at Israel, and at the US, UK and others who have stood by and watched Israel wreak havoc on Lebanon and Palestine. When governments and individuals who are historically so closely aligned with the US and UK publicly take them to task, the sober observer should grasp an important fact: The foundation of stable public opinion and tacit regime support that underpins the prevailing Arab political order is agitated, and perhaps shifting.
Entire Lebanese family killed in Israeli attack on hospital By Robert Fisk
An attack on a hospital, the killing of an entire Lebanese family, the seizure of five men in Baalbek and a new civilian death toll – 468 men, women and children – marked the 22nd day of Israel’s latest war on Lebanon.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14341.htm
Human Rights Watch Accuses Israel of War Crimes By Jim Lobe
The 50-page report, “Fatal Strikes: Israel’s Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon,” detailed nearly two dozen cases of IDF attacks in which a total of 153 civilians, including 63 children, were killed in homes or motor vehicles.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14343.htm
What International Law? Ambulances hit by Israeli forces
Another challenging report from ITN, this time on ITV. This one on the Israeli attack on ambulances in Tyre Lebanon.
Click here to view
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14352.htm
War crimes and Lebanon By Professor Steve Trevillion
The deliberate and systematic destruction of Lebanon’s social infrastructure by the Israeli air force was also a war crime, designed to reduce that country to the status of an Israeli-US protectorate. The attempt has backfired.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14355.htm
U.S. to Supply Food with One Hand, Arms with Other By Thalif Deen
The United States says it stands ready to provide food, medicine and humanitarian assistance to the thousands of internally displaced Lebanese caught in the crossfire. But Washington has also decided to accelerate the supply of lethal weapons to Israel — “perhaps intended to kill the very Lebanese the United States is planning to feed and shelter,” says one Arab diplomat at the United Nations.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14348.htm
Uncensored News Reports From Across The Middle East Video News Reports
Warning
This video contains images depicting the reality and horror of war and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
Click here to view
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14350.htm
40 Lebanese dead in Israeli strikes :
Three weeks into the fighting, Israel’s battle looked likely to be bitter and long. In Lebanon, villagers wept as heavy machinery carried off the bodies of those killed in the overnight raid against a Hizbollah stronghold, while across northern Israel, forests and fields lay scorched from rocket fire.
www.thenews.com.pk/top_story_detail.asp?Id=2327
Hear Our Voices – “We’ve lost so much”:
An extended family came under Israeli fire as they were fleeing Marwahin in south Lebanon on 15 July. Of the 27 people in the truck, 23 died. Maya Abdallah, 18, lost many family members in the attack.
tinyurl.com/gqaqv
Little respite in Lebanon — even for the dead:
From a refrigerator truck, soldiers and civil defence workers removed the bodies of 80 civilians and laid them out in the car park.
www.theage.com.au/articles/2006/08/03/1154198268168.html
Thirteen “Hezbullah Activists” Killed:
13 “Hezbullah activists” were killed in operation of Israeli army in the region of the villages Shihin and Radjameen in Southwest part of Lebanon, Yedioth Ahronoth reports
tinyurl.com/p69lg
Hizbollah rockets kill 8:
Hizbollah guerrillas killed eight people in Israel in a rocket barrage on Thursday. Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the war had killed 900 people in Lebanon and wounded 3,000, with a third of the casualties children under 12.
tinyurl.com/s9do3
3 Israeli Soldier Killed In Fighting In Lebanon – Army :
The soldiers were killed when an anti-tank rocket hit their tank in during fighting, the army said.
tinyurl.com/rsgsa
Hezbollah’s Top Ally in Israel:
“Israel is doomed,” said a friend of mine some months ago, returning to the U.S. after a trip to Israel. I asked him why, and my friend, who spent twenty years working at a high level in the Pentagon, answered, “They’ve put in an Air Force man as chief of the General Staff.”
www.counterpunch.org/cockburn08032006.html
No ceasefire if single Israeli soldier still in Lebanon: Hezbollah :
Hezbollah will reject a ceasefire with Israel until the Jewish state pulls all its troops out of Lebanon, the militant Shiite movement’s spokesman said today.
www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2006/08/03/afx2925446.html
IDF can stay in Lebanon:
While the IDF needs until the end of the week to deal Hizbullah a fatal blow, the military is prepared to remain in southern Lebanon for as long as it takes, even several months, until a multinational force takes control of the territory, IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.
tinyurl.com/qo57f
Israeli envoy: US will not stop operation in Lebanon:
Israeli ambassador to US says that American government not intending to pressure Israel to stop military operation. US secretary of state declares in interview with Fox News that Hizbullah will surrender
www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3285123,00.html
U.S. To Install Puppet Army - U.S. to Help Train, Equip Lebanon Army:
The United States plans to help train and equip the Lebanese army so it can take control of all of the nation’s territory when warfare between Israel and Hezbollah eases, the State Department said Thursday.
tinyurl.com/oy7dx
HRW: Some Israeli Attacks Amount to War Crimes: Full report.
The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes.
hrw.org/english/docs/2006/08/02/lebano13902.htm
Blair signals no objection to arms flights:
Prime Minister Tony Blair signalled on Thursday that he did not object to the United States using British airports to depatch weapons to Israel, provided procedures were obeyed.
tinyurl.com/rnyag
Is America Watching a Different War?
American, Lebanese and Israeli Panel on How the US Media is Covering the Invasion of Lebanon
www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/03/1359222
Uri Avnery: Knife in the Back:
AFTER THE war, the enthusiasm will simmer down, the inhabitants of the North will lick their wounds and the army will start to investigate its failures. Everybody will claim that he or she was against the war from the first day on. Then the Day of Judgment will come.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14353.htm
Index On Illegal US Weapons In Lebanon:
Since the war started, there has been much discussion concerning the use of (US) cluster bombs, bunker-busting bombs and chemical weapons – all illegal – presently being used in Lebanon. Some have also said illegal bombs are also being used in Palestine.
indexresearch.blogspot.com/2006/07/index-on-illegal-us-weapons-in-lebanon.html
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