Bombing is backed by most American voters From Tom Baldwin in Washington
ISRAEL’s military campaign in southern Lebanon is still being backed by most American voters, according to a survey published yesterday that shows public opinion in the US once again sharply at odds with views in Europe.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14365.htm

For Israel, innocent civilians are fair game Peter Bouckaert
International Herald Tribune
Israel’s claims about pin-point strikes and proportionate responses are pure fantasy.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14372.htm

More Time To Bomb
Blair and Bush: Killing To Go On Until We Find A Plan.
5 Minute Video
Click here to view
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14258.htm

Blair, Olmert and Bush are murderers By George Galloway MP
George Bush, with Tony Blair at his heel, is backing Israel to the hilt because the US wants Hizbollah’s resistance in Lebanon smashed as a prelude to an attack on Iran. In Washington, Blair alluded to such a war.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14376.htm

Civilian deaths ‘should be seen as war crime’ By Leonard Doyle, Foreign Editor
Israel’s defence forces were yesterday condemned for systematically and deliberately targeting civilians in Lebanon, acts which the respected New York organisation Human Rights Watch described as “serious violations of international law” or war crimes.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14368.htm

Blood on his hands By John Kampfner
Blair knew the attack on Lebanon was coming but he didn’t try to stop it, because he didn’t want to. He has made this country an accomplice, destroying what remained of our influence abroad while putting us all at greater risk of attack.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14367.htm

Ground to a Halt
Evidence of the broad nature of Hezbollah’s resistance to Israeli occupation can be seen in the identity of its suicide attackers.

By Robert Pape
Israel has finally conceded that air power alone will not defeat Hezbollah. Over the coming weeks, it will learn that ground power won’t work either. The problem is not that the Israelis have insufficient military might, but that they misunderstand the nature of the enemy.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14370.htm

Brzezinski: The Beginning of the End for Israel By Daniel M Pourkesali
“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”.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14371.htm

Lebanon: 57 killed – buried under rubble :
Lebanese security officials and the state news agency reported that Israeli air strikes on two villages in south Lebanon on Friday flattened two houses, and 57 people were reported buried in the rubble.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14361.htm

Israeli Attack Kills 40 Civilians:
The air strike hit a farm near Qaa in the Bekaa Valley where workers, mostly Syrian Kurds, were loading plums and peaches on to trucks, local officials said. Most of the dead and 20 wounded were taken to nearby Syria.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14360.htm

3 Israeli troops killed:
Two soldiers and an officer of the Golani Brigade were killed overnight Friday by an anti-tank rocket fired by Hizbullah, the army said.
tinyurl.com/n5xyx

Lebanon: Israel wages war of starvation:
Israel is waging a “war of starvation” on Lebanon’s civilians in an effort to force the government to agree to Israel’s demands, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said in a statement issued Friday.
www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/15198153.htm

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 Israeli bombing 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.
news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1212793.ece

Reporter sees no choice but to help in Lebanon:
Minutes after our convoy of five press cars rolled into town, women, children, elderly men and disabled people began emerging from the ruins, pleading for escape from the bombing.
www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/world/15178152.htm

Help save Lebanon’s children :
The Independent and Save the Children are launching an appeal for the children of Lebanon, for urgent food, medicine and clothing desperately needed as the violence continues to escalate.
news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1211692.ece

3 weeks in, Hezbollah surprises with its might:
Three weeks into its war with Israel, Hezbollah has retained its presence in southern Lebanon, and its ability to keep firing rockets has been a source of surprise and dismay to Israeli commanders, officials and the public.
tinyurl.com/n35s2

William S. Lind: Hezbollah outmaneuvers Israel :
Slowly, reluctantly, Israel has been forced toward a ground invasion of Lebanon, for which Hezbollah devoutly prays. When air power fails, what other choice did Israel have?
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14362.htm

Robert Pape: Tackling Hezbollah in Lebanon:
We look at the long-term challenge posed by Hezbollah with Joel Greenberg, who’s on the border between Israel and Lebanon for the Chicago Tribune and political scientist Robert Pape at the University of Chicago.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14369.htm

Hezbollah Backgrounder : Video and transcript:
When Israel first invaded Lebanon back in 1978, and then again in 1982, their objective was to remove the old PLO from its northern border. They got rid of the PLO but their incursion into Lebanon gave rise to a new and equally defiant foe we now know as Hezbollah
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14375.htm

Justice Is Dead, If You’re Born an Arab:
I still feel a shudder of deja-vu at the irony with which I wrote last week about the ‘generosity’ of the US government’s gift of 2,000 rolls of plastic sheeting to the Lebanese as it rushed precision guided missiles to its henchmen in Israel.
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14377.htm

Jordans U.S. puppet “king”: Israel must end offensive:
“The Arab people see Hezbollah as a hero because it’s fighting Israel’s aggression,” he said Thursday. “This is a fact that the U.S. and Israel must realize: As long as there is aggression, there’s resistance and there’s popular support for this resistance.”
tinyurl.com/s5vdg

Venezuela pulls out Israel ambassador:
Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, said he had recalled his country’s ambassador to Israel to show his “indignation” over the military offensive in Lebanon.
tinyurl.com/kwqey

Mutiny grows as Blair admits Cabinet dissent:
TONY BLAIR admitted yesterday that the Cabinet was split over his handling of Lebanon but continued his refusal to condemn Israel for its military tactics.
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-2298573,00.html

The War on Lebanon and the Battle for Oil:
Is there a relationship between the bombing of Lebanon and the inauguration of the World’s largest strategic pipeline, which will channel more a million barrels of oil a day to Western markets?
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14233.htm

Iraqi protesters march in support of Hezbollah:
Hundreds of thousands of Shias marched through the streets of Baghdad chanting “Death to Israel” and “Death to America” on Friday in support for Hezbollah.
www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2006/08/04/iraq-protests.html

US forces trying to prevent mass rally in support of Lebanon :
The US occupation forces attempted to prevent Iraqi demonstrators from reaching Baghdad for participation in public protests on Lebanon, scheduled for tomorrow, by opening fire on the bus that was taking them from Najaf to the capital. One demonstrator was killed and 16 injured.
www.arabmonitor.info/news/dettaglio.php?idnews=15210&lang=en

Aid lifeline broken after Israelis hit highway
The Guardian 8/5/2006
Israeli aircraft struck deep into Lebanon yesterday, killing at least 33 Syrian Kurdish farm workers and destroying four bridges on a key aid route leading north from Beirut. The attack on the farm workers, who were loading peaches and plums on to trucks at Qaa in the north of the Beka'a valley, was one of the single deadliest strikes of the war.... In Qaa, the bodies of the dead were laid in a row at the scene of the bombing..... The Syrian minister of information, Mohsen Bilal, appeared on state TV late last night, saying "Syrian blood is now mixed with Lebanese blood. The United States and Condoleezza Rice are responsible for this crime. " UN aid officials said the bombing of the main coastal highway north from Beirut to the Syrian border earlier in the day had cut an "umbilical cord" of aid supplies.

Three killed, one critically hurt in Katyusha attacks in Hadera
Ha'aretz 8/5/2006
Hezbollah on Friday struck deeper inside Israel than ever before, firing missiles which struck open fields near the town of Hadera, 75 kilometers (50 miles) south of the Lebanese border, police said. No injuries were reported. Medical crews rushed two people to Hillel Yaffeh Medical Center in the city, where they were treated for shock. Police Northern Command chief Major General Dan Ronen confirmed that at least one missile struck the Hadera region, marking the southernmost point that was hit by Hezbollah missile fire since the start of fighting with Israel three weeks prior. Earlier Friday, three people were killed and 29 wounded, including one critically and three seriously, as Hezbollah fired more than 200 Katyusha rockets into northern Israel throughout the day.

Israeli envoy to U.S.: No cease-fire until soldiers released
Ha'aretz 8/5/2006
Israel's ambassador to the United States said on Friday that Israel would only agree to a cessation of hostilities if Hezbollah released two Israeli soldiers whose capture sparked the 24-day conflict. "The immediate one (goal of Israel) is the unconditional release of the two hostages, the two soldiers that were kidnapped, which would constitute the end of hostilities," Daniel Ayalon said. To be acceptable to Israel, he said a final UN resolution on ending hostilities would have to include freedom for the soldiers, who could be passed on by Hezbollah to the Lebanese government for release. Ayalon said Israel was pressing for implementation of UN Resolution 1559, which includes the disarming of Hezbollah and the deployment of the Lebanese Army into southern Lebanon.

Hizbullah: We fired Khaibar-1 rockets at Hadera
YNet News 8/4/2006
Terror group says attack on Hadera response to IDF ‘massacres’ in Lebanese town of Qaa -- Hizbullah announced on Al-Manar TV Friday night that it attacked Hadera with Khaibar-1 rockets. The group said in a statement “the attack came in response to the massacres and criminal acts in the border town of Qaa, near the Syrian border. At least 33 people were killed in an IAF attack on the town Friday; the Lebanese claim that those killed were farm workers loading produce onto trucks. Hizbullah initially fired Khaibar-1 (or Fajr-5) rockets a week ago at Afula. The long-range rockets have an improved range of about 100 kilometers (62. 1 miles) and are equipped with 100-kilograms of explosives each.

Israel's vaunted tanks are succumbing to Hezbollah's powerful missiles
Santa Barbara News-Press 8/4/2006
JERUSALEM (AP) - 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. Experts say this is further evidence that Israel is facing a well-equipped army in this war, not a ragtag militia. Hezbollah has fired Russian-made Metis-M anti-tank missiles and owns European-made Milan missiles, the army confirmed on Friday. 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.

Dozens killed in Israeli air raids
AlJazeera 8/5/2006
Israel also bombed four bridges that connect Beirut to the north -- Israeli air raids have killed more than 40 people in Lebanon while two Hezbollah rockets have struck 80km into Israeli territory, the deepest attacks since fighting began. In the deadliest attack on Friday, 33 people were killed and 20 injured when an Israeli strike hit a farm near Qaa, close to the Syrian border in the Bekaa Valley where workers, mostly Syrian Kurds, were loading plums and peaches onto trucks. Television footage showed bodies of what appeared to be farm workers lined up near the ruins of a small structure in fruit groves. Strewn nearby were fruit baskets. Mohammad Rashed, one of the wounded, said: "I was picking peaches when three bombs hit. Others were having lunch and they were torn to pieces. "

Report: IAF raids kill 57 in s. Lebanon
Jerusalem Post 8/4/2006
IAF airstrikes on two villages in south Lebanon on Friday flattened two houses, and 57 people were reported buried in the rubble, security officials and the state news agency reported. The number of dead was not immediately known. The warplanes hit Taibeh, about 5 kilometers from the Israeli border, destroying a house where 7 people had taken refuge. The second attack reportedly flattened a building in Aita al-Shaab, 2 kilometers inside Lebanon. Fifty people were reported covered in the rubble there. The number of dead could not yet be independently verified. Earlier this week, it was initially reported that 57 people were killed by an IAF bomb in the village of Kana, but later the Lebanese Health Ministry said the death toll stood at 27. IDF spokesman Capt. Jacob Dallal denied the attacks took place...

Iran: We supplied Zelzal-2 to Hizbullah
Jerusalem Post 8/4/2006
Iran admitted for the first time on Friday that it did indeed supply long-range Zelzal-2 missiles to Hizbullah. Secretary-general of the "Intifada conference" Mohtashami Pur told an Iranian newspaper that Iran transferred the missiles so that they could be used to defend Lebanon, Channel 1 reported. The extent of Iran's intimate involvement in Hizbullah attacks is starting to emerge. According to the defense establishment, the reason Hizbullah has not fired long-range Iranian-made Fajr missiles at Israel is due to Teheran's opposition. Israel now understands that without direct orders from the ayatollahs, Hizbullah is not allowed to use Iranian missiles in attacks against Israel. The IDF also believes that it seriously damaged the long-range rocket array in the first night of air strikes almost three weeks ago...

Iranian official admits Tehran supplied missiles to Hezbollah
Ha'aretz 8/4/2006
A senior Iranian official admitted for the first time Friday that Tehran did indeed supply long-range Zelzal-2 missiles to Hezbollah. Mohtashami Pur, a one-time ambassador to Lebanon who currently holds the title of secretary-general of the "Intifada conference," told an Iranian newspaper that Iran transferred the missiles to the Shi'ite militia, adding that the organization has his country's blessing to use the weapons in defense of Lebanon. Pur's statements are thought to be unusual given that Tehran has thus far been reluctant to comment on the extent of its aid which it has extended to Hezbollah. Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah warned Thursday night in a televised broadcast that his organization would target Tel Aviv if Beirut was attacked by Israel.

Oil slick threat to wildlife of Mediterranean
The Guardian 8/5/2006
A major oil slick was spreading north from Lebanon along the Syrian coast last night and could devastate beaches as far away as Turkey and Cyprus, local ecologists and the UN have warned. The slick, which has been growing since the start of hostilities, follows the bombing by the Israelis of fuel tanks at the Jiyyeh power station south of Beirut. Up to 35,000 tonnes of crude oil are believed to have escaped, making it one of the worst pollution incidents recorded in the eastern Mediterranean. Tourist resorts along the Lebanese coast have been covered with a thick layer of sludge and fish spawning grounds have been destroyed. The slick is estimated to be more than 50 miles (80km) long and to have polluted six miles of Syrian coastline.

'We hardly notice the blasts now' - a journey through Lebanon's ravaged south
The Guardian 8/5/2006
Amid the ruins, a Hizbullah fighter gathers breath while a Christian family recalls the Israelis warmly -- On the first day of the 48-hour cessation of the Israeli aerial bombardment, I found a man walking through the field of rubble that was Bint Jbeil. He held a bottle of water in one hand and a cellphone in the other. It was the first time anyone had been able to get to Bint Jbeil for more than two weeks. "I am trying to find a mosque to pray in," he said. Tamim, as he identified himself, was a Hizbullah fighter in his early 30s, a father of two who had studied engineering in Damascus and who lives in Bint Jbeil. For the last 20 days he had been fighting on a hilltop overlooking the town. He had been given a few hours' leave during the break in air attacks to evacuate the few family members he had left in the destroyed town.

Three soldiers killed in south Lebanon clashes
Ha'aretz 8/4/2006
IDF says captured Hezbollah prisoners of war -- An Israel Defense Forces officer and two soldiers were killed and six others hurt in fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas Friday as Israel continued its ground forces campaign in South Lebanon. The officer and two soldiers were killed in fierce gunbattles in the village of Markaba. Golani Brigade infantrymen were marching near the village when an anti-tank missile was launched at the force. Since the outbreak of hostilities, 44 IDF soldiers have been killed. Two other soldiers were wounded, one seriously and the other lightly.... Northern Command Brigadier General Shuki Shihrur said Friday that IDF soldiers operating in Lebanon had taken into captivity at least six Hezbollah gunmen in addition to the two men seized on Thursday.

Bridge bombings cut Lebanese lifeline
The Guardian 8/4/2006
Major setback' for aid effort · 33 workers killed in attack -- Israel today extended its assault on Lebanon, making its first major attack on the Christian heartland north of Beirut and destroying four key bridges providing a vital aid supply route. The Israeli air force strikes severed Lebanon's last significant road link to Syria, stopped a convoy carrying 150 tonnes of relief and cut what the UN called its "umbilical cord" for aid supplies. Five Lebanese civilians were killed and 19 wounded in the bombing raids, which hit Christian areas in which Hizbollah has little support or presence. More than two dozen farm workers died in a separate air strike near the Lebanon-Syria border. The Israeli army said three of its soldiers were killed by an anti-tank missile during fighting in southern Lebanon...

38 people killed in IAF strikes on Beirut, northeast Lebanon
Ha'aretz 8/4/2006
Israeli military strikes on Beirut and northeast Lebanon claimed the lives of 38 people on Friday. Lebanese security sources reported Friday evening that 57 people remain trapped under the rubble of homes destroyed in Israeli strikes against two villages in southern Lebanon - Taibeh and Ayta a-Shab. The identity of those missing as well as the number of killed or wounded remain unclear. Four Israeli missiles slammed into a refrigerated warehouse where farm workers were loading vegetables near the Lebanon-Syria border on Friday, killing at least 33 people, according to officials at the Syrian hospitals where the dead and wounded were taken. At least 20 other workers were wounded in the attack.

ANALYSIS: IAF chiefs admit air power can't subdue rocket fire
Ha'aretz 8/4/2006
Hezbollah adopted a murderous tactic Thursday. On Wednesday, when a barrage of 230 rockets hit Israel, most people remained in shelters. So on Thursday, Hezbollah sent a drizzle of rockets throughout the day. Then, at 4 P. M. , as people emerged from the shelters for air, a heavy volley arrived, killing eight. It was the worst strike since the rocket landed in a train depot in Haifa on July 16. By evening, Nasrallah was already threatening to fire Zelzal missiles at Tel Aviv should Israel resume its bombardment of Shi'ite neighborhoods in Beirut. The strikes on the home front are becoming worse as the IDF sends more and more brigades into Lebanon. Launchings from areas in which the army is operating have been reduced by half, but Hezbollah combatants simply relocate to the next range of hills and fire from there.

4 soldiers killed in south Lebanon; Peretz to IDF: Plan to take territory up to Litani
Ha'aretz 8/5/2006
Defense Minister Amir Peretz told Israel Defense Forces officials on Thursday evening to begin preparing for the next stage of the military offensive in south Lebanon, which would extend the IDF's control to all Lebanese territory south of the Litani River. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, however, is said to be reluctant about expanding Israel's ground operation. While Peretz believes that the short-range rocket threat posed by Hezbollah can be neutralized by taking the area up to the Litani, Olmert feels that such a move would not be able to counter the longer-range missile threat posed by the Shi'ite organization. The directive issued by Peretz was made in the wake of Hezbollah rocket attacks that killed eight people in northern Israel earlier Thursday, officials said.

VIDEO - 3 killed in rocket attacks on north
YNet News 8/4/2006
Heavy barrages land in north: Mother of two killed in Mghar; two killed by rocket barrage in Majdel Krum; army reserves soldier seriously wounded near Kiryat Shmona -- VIDEO - A number of rockets landed in the village of Mghar in the Galilee on Friday afternoon, killing 27 year-old mother of two Manal Azzam. Later on Friday two Majdel Krum residents were killed when rockets fell on the northern village, located near Carmiel. The lethal barrages landed at 2:15 p. m. and at around 5:45 p. m. Forty two people injured by the rocket barrages fired on Carmiel and Majdel Krum arrived at a Nahariya hospital. One of the wounded is listed in serious condition and he will apparently be transferred to Rambam Hospital in Haifa.

In Pictures - Lebanon crisis: Qana aftermath
AlJazeera 8/4/2006
Eight photos -- A bulldozer digs a mass grave for the victims of Israel’s raid on Qana near flowers offered by the Lebanese Army commander-general. / Israel shows no sign of letting up its offensive in Lebanon. / Women in the West Bank town of Ramallah express support for Hezbollah and its leader Hassan Nasrallah...

Home Front Command: New procedures apply to Tel Aviv
YNet News 8/4/2006
IDF says should the need arise residents of areas south of Haifa will be warned one minute prior to landing of rocket or rockets -- Following Friday night's rocket attack on the Hadera area, Colonel Yechiel Kuperstein, head of the Home Front Command's defense department, told Ynet that the new procedures issued for residents south of Haifa apply to all residents on Israel's coastline plane, including Tel Aviv. According to Kuperstein, an evaluation of the situation will be held on Saturday and will be followed by renewed procedures to the public for next week. The colonel said that should the need arise residents of areas south of Haifa a warning one minute prior to the expected landing of a rocket or rockets.

AUDIO - Israeli split over ground operation
The Guardian 8/4/2006
Audio: Heavy fighting continues in southern Lebanon as the Israeli government debates how far north to push. Rory McCarthy reports from Metula, Israel. (mp3 - 4mins).

Hezbollah destroy three Israeli tanks; Israel kills 32 Lebanese civilians
Ma'an News 8/4/2006
Bethlehem--Hezbollah has announced that their fighters have killed 6 Israeli soldiers and destroyed three Merkava military tanks on Friday in south Lebanon. At the same time, a Katyusha attack on northern Israel killed a 27 year old Palestinian woman, who is an Israeli citizen, when Hezbollah missiles fell on the town of Maghar. Hezbollah have today launched dozens of Katyusha missiles at towns in northern Israel. Seven Israelis were injured, five of which seriously. Three Israeli citizens were seriously injured in the city of Kiryat Shmona. Another woman was seriously injured in the Israeli town of Hurfeish, while in Safad a man was lightly injured. The Israeli army has announced the deaths of two of its soldiers and claimed that their forces in Lebanon have killed 10 Hezbollah fighters.

Israel extends Lebanon occupation plan
The Guardian 8/3/2006
Israel today threatened to reoccupy most of the strip of southern Lebanon it withdrew from in 2000, as Hizbullah recorded its most deadly day of attacks on Israel since the start of the 23-day conflict. At least 11 Israelis were killed in fighting today, including eight civilians killed in a barrage of 100 rockets that were fired into northern Israel in the space of half an hour and at least three soldiers who were killed by an anti-tank missile in southern Lebanon. The Hizbullah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, released a taped video message saying the group's fighters were inflicting "maximum casualties" on Israeli troops and fighting had become more widespread and violent. But there was no diminution in the Israeli military campaign across southern Lebanon.

Assad smuggling weapons to Hizbullah
Jerusalem Post 8/1/2006
Three weeks into the war with Hizbullah, the IDF's intelligence picture is growing clearer, although at the same time darker. According to new intelligence obtained by the defense establishment, Syrian President Bashar Assad, alongside senior military officials, is directly involved in the attempts to smuggle weapons and rockets to Hizbullah in Lebanon.... In addition, the extent of Iran's intimate involvement in Hizbullah attacks is also starting to emerge. According to the defense establishment, the reason Hizbullah has not fired long-range Iranian-made Fajr missiles at Israel is due to Teheran's opposition. Israel now understands that without direct orders from the ayatollahs, Hizbullah is not allowed to use Iranian missiles in attacks against Israel.... Hizbullah fighters were also found to be using special thermal suits that... curtailed IDF attempts to discover them at night.

U.S., France near deal on draft of Lebanon cease-fire proposal
Ha'aretz 8/5/2006
The United States and France are nearing completion of a United Nations resolution designed to halt the fighting in Lebanon and to set out principles for a lasting cease-fire, the U.S. State Department said Friday. "We are very close to a final draft with the French on a text," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. The work will continue in Washington and Texas over the weekend, as U.S. President George W. Bush hosts his secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, at his ranch. Bush spoke by phone on Friday with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in what White House spokesman Tony Snow described as a 15-minute conversation. He had no immediate details, but earlier Snow said both the United States and France seemed confident that an agreement on a UN resolution will be sealed soon.

Venezuela pulls out Israel ambassador
AlJazeera 8/4/2006
Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan president, said he had recalled his country's ambassador to Israel to show his "indignation" over the military offensive in Lebanon. In a televised speech on Thursday, he called the Israeli attacks "genocide". He said: "It really causes indignation to see how the state of Israel continues bombing, killing... with all of the power they have, with the support of the United States. "Chavez has repeatedly criticised the Israeli offensive. He said: "It's hard to explain to oneself how nobody does anything to stop this horror. "His government has until recently said it had good relations with Israel. During a recent visit to Iran, Chavez called Israeli attacks on Lebanon a "fascist outrage".

Israel Waging "War Of Starvation" - Lebanese President_
War in Iraq 8/4/2006
BEIRUT (AP)--Israel is waging a "war of starvation" on Lebanese civilians in an effort to force the Lebanese government to agree to Israel's demands, Lebanese President Emile Lahoud said in a statement issued Friday. His comments came after Israeli warplanes bombed bridges and roads in Christian neighborhoods north of Beirut, killing five civilians and making travel between suburbs increasingly difficult. Missiles struck the country's main north-south highway, its primary artery to the outside world, through Syria in the north. "The Israeli enemy's bombing of bridges and roads is aimed at tightening the blockade on the Lebanese, cutting communications between them and starving them, " Lahoud said.

Judges in Egypt: Scrap peace deal with Israel
YNet News 8/4/2006
Egyptian judges ask government to cancel peace accord with Israel; Strike scheduled for Sunday -- Judges in Egypt called upon the government to dissolve its peace agreement with Israel, on the grounds that it is inconceivable for Egypt to coexist peaceably with Israel while the IDF operates in Lebanon. The judges expressed support of popular resistance against Israeli advances, which, in their eyes, is the only way to protect the Arab ummah (greater nation).... Egyptian judges censured "the barbaric Israeli attacks on the Palestinian and Lebanese people. " They also warned of American attempts "to rearrange the Middle East, based on the 'Greater Middle East' plan, via Israeli pride and American hegemony, in whose eyes the lives of hundreds of Arab children are not worth the wounds of one Israeli child. "

Goldwasser family to meet Sen. Clinton
Jerusalem Post 8/4/2006
The family of Ehud Goldwasser, who, together with Eldad Regev, was kidnapped by Hizbullah three weeks ago, was scheduled to meet on Thursday night with New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton. Goldwasser's wife and parents, speaking in a press conference on Thursday, said that any UN resolution on the Israeli-Lebanese conflict must include a clause calling for the release of the kidnapped soldiers, Army Radio reported. The three were expected to meet with officials in the US State Department on Friday. With the help of the Jewish Federation and American politicians, they hoped to ensure that the issue of the soldiers' release would not be delayed to a later date.

U.S. Ripped For Inaction On Israeli, Syrian Front
Forward 8/4/2006
WASHINGTON — As Jerusalem mobilizes reserves and Damascus puts its troops on the highest state of alert, the Bush administration is not taking overt steps to prevent Israel's war with Hezbollah from spilling over into Syria. Even as Israeli officials repeatedly accuse Damascus of supporting Hezbollah and Hamas, Jerusalem insists it has no intentions of attacking Syria. In turn, spokesmen for the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad are sending similar messages back in the other direction. But both sides are suspicious of the other's intentions and are concerned about an armed conflict being sparked unintentionally. In the past, when tensions between Jerusalem and Damascus approached a boiling point, the United States intervened, typically by sending an envoy with chilling messages for leaders in both countries.

Israeli Military Policy Under Fire After Qana Attack
Forward 8/4/2006
WASHINGTON — As Jerusalem defends itself against worldwide condemnation over a deadly air strike that killed dozens of Lebanese children, current and former Israeli officials acknowledge that the Israeli military has loosened the restrictions on targeting militants in populated areas. After an Israeli air force raid Sunday on the Lebanese village of Qana left dozens of civilians dead, many of them children, human rights groups accused Israel of committing a "war crime. " Many critics — including Israeli ones — are questioning the military's policy of bombing in densely populated Lebanese areas. As of earlier this week, more than 550 civilians had been killed in Lebanon during the current conflict, with Lebanese officials claiming that the civilian death toll has exceeded 750.

Militants merge with mainstream
The Guardian 8/4/2006
Hizbullah emerges as symbol of resistance · Anger at Israel's actions unites Shias and Sunnis -- Nour, a 19-year-old university student, came with two friends to one of Cairo's biggest squares on Thursday night carrying Lebanese and Hizbullah flags. "This is the first time I ever take part in a protest," she said. 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.

Degel Hatorah leader: Israel must heed world's peace proposals
Ha'aretz 8/3/2006
The leader of the Degel Hatorah political party as well as the ultra-Orthodox Lithuanian community in Israel, Rabbi Yosef Shalom Eliashiv, went against the official position of the government in recent days, and expressed his support of a cease fire between Israel and Lebanon. Eliashiv said recently "the decision makers must take into account the position of the world nations. They shouldn't ignore or take lightly the ideas raised by other nations. If the United States raises solutions that could bring about the end of the war and save Jewish lives, they should be heeded. No offer or idea should be dismissed offhand. We mustn't anger the nations of the world. "

FBI monitors Detroit area for activity related to Hezbollah
Ha'aretz 8/3/2006
U.S. federal agents are keeping close tabs on the Detroit area for activity linked to Hezbollah, as weeks of an Israeli offensive in Lebanon stirs growing discontent among southeast Michigan's vibrant Arab American community. Eric Straus, chief of the counterterrorism unit at the U.S. attorney's office in Detroit, said that law enforcement authorities, including the FBI, renewing contacts with informants and monitoring theeffect of the unrest in the Middle East on the local Arab American population. "Our office's No. 1 priority is preventing another terrorist attack," Straus told the Detroit Free Press for its Thursday edition. "We will continue to use whatever lawful tools we have available to disrupt any financial or material support of Hezbollah originating in this district. "

Petrol bombs thrown at British embassy
Bahrain Tribune 8/4/2006
TEHRAN (AFP) The British embassy in Tehran was pelted with petrol bombs and rocks yesterday as more than 50 Iranian militiamen protested London’s support of the Israeli offensive in Lebanon against the resistance movement Hizbollah. The demonstrators, mainly from the official Basij militia, jostled with scores of anti-riot police after lobbing Molotov cocktails, rocks and pails of paint at the gate of the downtown compound. The protestors pulled down the British embassy sign at the gate before police forced them away from the building.... The demonstration took place after Tehran’s weekly Friday prayer sermon in which one of Iran’s most senior clerics, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, urged his countrymen to financially help Hizbollah, marking a break with Iran’s usual position of emphasising “moral support” only for the movement.

Ground to a Halt
By Robert Pape, Palestine Chronicle 8/4/2006
      Evidence of the broad nature of Hezbollah's resistance to Israeli occupation can be seen in the identity of its suicide attackers.
     Israel has finally conceded that air power alone will not defeat Hezbollah. Over the coming weeks, it will learn that ground power won't work either. The problem is not that the Israelis have insufficient military might, but that they misunderstand the nature of the enemy.
     Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Hezbollah is principally neither a political party nor an Islamist militia. It is a broad movement that evolved in reaction to Israel's invasion of Lebanon in June 1982. At first it consisted of a small number of Shiites supported by Iran. But as more and more Lebanese came to resent Israel's occupation, Hezbollah - never tight-knit - expanded into an umbrella organization that tacitly coordinated the resistance operations of a loose collection of groups with a variety of religious and secular aims.
     In terms of structure and hierarchy, it is less comparable to, say, a religious cult like the Taliban than to the multidimensional American civil-rights movement of the 1960's. What made its rise so rapid, and will make it impossible to defeat militarily, was not its international support but the fact that it evolved from a reorientation of pre-existing Lebanese social groups.
     Evidence of the broad nature of Hezbollah's resistance to Israeli occupation can be seen in the identity of its suicide attackers. Hezbollah conducted a broad campaign of suicide bombings against American, French and Israeli targets from 1982 to 1986. Altogether, these attacks - which included the infamous bombing of the Marine barracks in 1983 - involved 41 suicide terrorists.
     In writing my book on suicide attackers, I had researchers scour Lebanese sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and the biographies of the Hezbollah bombers. Of the 41, we identified the names, birth places and other personal data for 38. Shockingly, only eight were Islamic fundamentalists. Twenty-seven were from leftist political groups like the Lebanese Communist Party and the Arab Socialist Union. Three were Christians, including a female high-school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.

Rallying behind Hizbullah
By Lucy Fielder, Al-Ahram Weekly 8/3/2006
      Support for Hizbullah among the Lebanese is at an all time high
     Gaby Elias is proud of his daily sorties to the southern city of Sidon to bring displaced people to shelters in Beirut. "I see bombs, I see planes, and I am not scared," he says. He pulls a pendant from under his T-shirt and a cross beaten into the metal catches the light. "Jesus saves me. Do you know Jesus?" In this orange house in the Beirut area of Achrafieh, the headquarters of Christian leader Michel Aoun's Free Patriotic Movement, people clad in its trademark orange run around registering the displaced and handing out whatever supplies local donors or concerned Beirutis have brought in.
     If Israel hoped one by-product of its devastation of the Shia-dominated areas of Beirut and the south would be to stoke smoldering conflicts, as many here believe, there are few signs of success, for now at least. A segment of Lebanese opinion remains quietly against Hizbullah. But in response to the killing of more than 800 Lebanese civilians, at the time of writing, and displacement of approximately one million people -- nearly a quarter of Lebanon's population -- opinion has rallied.
     Despite the tendency of Hizbullah's critics to dismiss its support-base as a hard core of brainwashed Shias, the last couple of weeks have seen a clear emergence of majority support for the self- styled 'Islamic Resistance', in fractured Lebanon as well as across the Arab world. A poll by the Beirut Centre for Research and Information between 24 and 26 July found that 70 per cent of respondents, spread across Lebanon's main sects, supported Hizbullah's seizure of the soldiers on 12 July. Support for Hizbullah's current resistance against Israel rose to 87 per cent of the 800 respondents.

Israel's Raid on Baalbeck's Hospital
By Saree Makdisi, Palestine Chronicle 8/4/2006
      After three weeks of devastating bombardment, Israel's much vaunted army finds itself unable to fight its way more than a few kilometers into Lebanon.
     Israeli commandos staged a daring raid the other night on the ancient Lebanese town of Baalbeck, catching Hassan Nasrallah asleep, bundling him into a waiting helicopter, and spiriting him back to Israel.
     But as the dust settled and reports from the ground began to emerge, it turned out that the Hassan Nasrallah that Israel's most elite military unit had captured-with the assistance of the formidable intelligence capabilities of the legendary Mossad-was apparently not Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizballah, but rather Hassan Nasrallah, the owner of a small toyshop on the dusty outskirts of Baalbeck. They also nabbed his son, another relative, and a neighbor for good measure. Israel claims that the men are members of Hizballah, albeit not the ones they were hoping for. Their relatives and neighbors, and Hizballah itself, deny this.
     The raid was focused on the Dar al Hikma hospital, which was heavily damaged by the Israeli raiders and supporting fire from aircraft. The hospital, however, was found to be empty. The kidnapped men were, according to local sources, taken from their homes.
     To provide cover before and during the raid on the hospital, Israeli aircraft subjected residential neighborhoods of Baalbeck and neighboring towns to a withering bombardment, in which seventeen people, almost all of them civilians, were killed. The dead included the son of the mayor of al Jamaliyeh, his brother, and five other relatives. The mayor of al Jamaliyeh, incidentally, held a distinctly anti-Hizballah position in local politics.

How do we sleep while Beirut is burning
By Hamid Dabashi, Al-Ahram Weekly 8/3/2006
      The battlefront of Lebanon against Israel has an inroad that will generate a national liberation movement, akin to that in Palestine. Both are more likely to export democracy back to Iran than to import an Islamic Republic into Lebanon and Palestine
     How can we dance when our earth is turningHow do we sleep while our beds are burning-- From the lyrics of Beds are Burning , the 1988 hit by Australian band Midnight Oil
     ONE MONTH AGO my wife, Golbarg Bashi, and I left Beirut. We were in Beirut in part for work and in part for the sheer joy of being with our friends, colleagues and comrades. Golbarg had decided to expand her work on human rights and women's rights in Iran to include a wider range of issues and areas, and I to work out the details of the Arabic translation of my forthcoming edited volume on Palestinian cinema.
     Over the years, I have developed a deep-rooted and inarticulate affection for Beirut. If I were to get too metaphysical about this affection, it would probably be because the ashes of my fallen friend, colleague, and comrade Edward Said are buried there, over which a couple of years ago I placed a fistful of Palestinian soil I had snatched from under the nose of its occupiers. If I were to get a bit meta- geographical about my affection for Beirut, it is probably because something in its cosmopolitan disposition, its recent despairs and its rising aspirations, is very much reminiscent of Iran of the 1970s.
     In Beirut we stayed with our friends, the Traboulsis (Fawwaz and his wife Nawal), immersing ourselves in the joys of this unique city: having our mid- day man'usha at a bakery near the Traboulsis'; going to Palestinian refugee camps where Golbarg talked to human rights activists; having lunch with our other friends at our favourite spot, a seaside restaurant locally known as Rawda; taking a short nap right there and then, before going for a swim at a nearby beach; then going home, taking a quick shower and going for dinner with more of our Lebanese and Palestinian friends -- with Mai Masri, for example, the prominent Palestinian documentary filmmaker, her husband Jean Chamoun, the equally distinguished Lebanese filmmaker, and their children and friends one night, or having dinner at a restaurant by the sea with a leading Lebanese public intellectual, Samah Idriss, who is the editor-in-chief of Al-Adab, the longest continuously running literary and political journal of the Arab world, and his wife and colleague Professor Kirsten Scheid, who teaches anthropology at the American University in Beirut.