Israeli Troops Raid Lebanon, Bomb Gaza

[Christina Marie]

Israeli Troops Raid Lebanon, Bomb Gaza

cbs13.com
July 12, 2006
We also hold Syria and Iran -- which directly support Hezbollah -- responsible for this attack and for the ensuing violence.

Israel bombed and shelled southern Lebanon and sent ground troops over the border for the first time in six years Wednesday after Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers. The fighting killed eight Israeli soldiers and three Lebanese.

Hezbollah's brazen cross-border raid opened a second front for the Israeli army. The army is now fighting Islamic militants in both Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, where it is looking for another soldier who was captured more than two weeks ago by Hamas-linked militants.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the Hezbollah raid an "act of war" by Lebanon and threatened "very, very, very painful" retaliation. The Cabinet, meeting in the wake of the military's highest daily death toll in four years, decided to continue the army operation and call on the international community to disarm Hezbollah, according to participants.

Residents of northern Israeli towns were ordered to seek cover in underground bomb shelters as Hezbollah, an anti-Israel guerrilla group that essentially runs southern Lebanon, launched rockets across the border throughout the day.

Two Lebanese civilians and a Hezbollah fighter also were killed in the border violence. Still, jubilant Hezbollah supporters and Palestinians in Lebanon fired guns in the air and set off firecrackers at the news of the soldiers' capture.

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said he would free the Israeli soldiers only in a prisoner swap, adding that he was open to a package deal that would include the release of the soldier held in Gaza.

"The capture of the two soldiers could provide a solution to the Gaza crisis," he told reporters in Beirut.

At least 23 Palestinians were killed in Gaza on Wednesday. And an Israeli airstrike early Thursday destroyed the building housing the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Foreign Ministry.

Early Wednesday, an Israeli aircraft dropped a quarter-ton bomb on a house in Gaza City where Hamas commanders were meeting. That killed a Palestinian family of nine - including seven children, reports CBS News chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan. "As bodies were pulled from the rubble here, you could feel the crowd, the anger of the crowd," Logan said in an exclusive report from the scene.

Analysts in Lebanon said Hezbollah also might have launched the raid to improve its standing in the Arab world and at home, where the militants have come under pressure to disarm.

That crisis began June 25 when Palestinian militants dug a tunnel out of the Gaza Strip and attacked an army position inside Israel, seizing Cpl. Gilad Shalit and demanding the release of 1,500 prisoners held by Israel. Although Israel has made prisoner exchanges in the past, Olmert ruled out any negotiations for Shalit's return, saying that would only encourage more kidnappings.

Instead, Israel unleashed an offensive against Gaza, sending in troops, firing artillery and carrying out airstrikes on militant targets in an effort to force the Palestinians to free Shalit.

In an attempt to assassinate top Hamas fugitives Wednesday, Israel dropped a quarter-ton bomb on a home in Gaza City, killing a couple and seven of their children, ages 4-18. Hamas said its leaders escaped harm, but militants took over the intensive care unit of a hospital, barring reporters.

Palestinian security officials said Mohammed Deif, leader of Hamas' military wing and No. 1 on Israel's wanted list for more than a decade, was among the wounded -- suffering severe back injuries that could paralyze him. At least 14 other Palestinians were killed in separate Israeli attacks Wednesday.

Palestinians in Gaza welcomed the attack in Lebanon, hoping it would force Israel to shift its focus away from them.

"People are cheering this attack ... because they view it as a kind of revenge and reprisal against what Israel has been doing in Gaza," said Salah Bardawil, a spokesman for Hamas in the Palestinian parliament. "Militarily, by opening a new front against Israel, it would ease the pressure on us. Israel is using a huge force in Gaza now. It will have to use part of its military capacity in Lebanon."

However, an Israeli military official said the army had no intention of moving any forces from the Gaza theater. The troops already on the northern border would deal with the conflict with Lebanon, backed by reinforcements if needed, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss troop movements.

It is not clear whether Hezbollah, a Shiite group, coordinated their attacks with Hamas, which is Sunni, says CBS News 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon, but Hezbollah's action give Hamas just what it needs: a second front for Israel. Both groups are similar, Simon reports, in their aim of wiping Israel off the map.

Israel and Lebanon have a history of conflict, punctuated by a full-scale Israeli invasion in 1982, and its 18-year occupation of a buffer zone in southern Lebanon that was intended to prevent attacks on Israel. The United Nations certified that Israel's 2000 withdrawal from Lebanon was complete, but Lebanon laid claim to a sliver of border territory, still held by Israel, that the U.N. said was actually part of Syria.

Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria and branded a terror group by the U.S. and Israel, used the dispute to justify cross-border attacks. But the fighting Wednesday was by far the worst since Israel withdrew six years ago, and it threatened to escalate.

"This is a terrorist attack and it is clearly timed to exacerbate already high tensions in the region and sow further violence," U.S. National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones said. "We also hold Syria and Iran -- which directly support Hezbollah -- responsible for this attack and for the ensuing violence."

Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa denied his country had a role in either of the abductions and instead blamed Israel. "For sure, the occupation (of the Palestinian territories) is the cause provoking both the Lebanese and Palestinian people, and that's why there is Lebanese and Palestinian resistance," he said.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for restraint. "We would not want to see an expansion, an escalation, of conflict in the region," he said.

He also condemned "without reservations the attack" by Hezbollah fighters. Annan at first said he condemned the violence in southern Lebanon, but his aides later said he meant Hezbollah's cross-border attack into Israel.

Hezbollah fighters began their attack Wednesday by firing a barrage of rockets at communities in northwestern Israel. The guerrillas then crossed the border and launched a surprise attack on two Israeli Humvees, killing three soldiers, wounding two and capturing the two others, the Israeli army said.

Israel quickly sent armored vehicles over the border on a rescue mission, but one of the tanks rolled over a large mine, killing the four soldiers inside and sparking a battle that killed another soldier, the army said.

Israel also sent warplanes deep into southern Lebanon -- targeting bridges, roads and Hezbollah positions. One blast hit a major junction along the main north-south coastal highway, wrecking the road and wounding two people. Two civilians were killed in the attacks, Lebanese officials said. Another airstrike targeted a Palestinian guerrilla base south of Beirut, Lebanese security officials said.

Israeli artillery and gunboats fired into the area as well. The military said it attacked 40 targets to stop Hezbollah from moving the soldiers. It did not say how many ground troops were involved, but witnesses said dozens entered southwestern Lebanon.

Army Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz warned that the assault would widen, Israeli TV reported. If the soldiers are not returned, he said, the military would target infrastructure and "turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years."

http://www.topix.net/content/cbs/347824 ... B8BAN3DBHQ

[useless_person]

*Sigh.* WW3, here we come!!!

PS can I swear at Jews for doing that???

I'm jokin...

The Israelis bombed the Bairut airport, some bridges and so on in Lebanon, plus the air raids, artillary bombardments and warplanes in Gaza.

Hazbollah or whatever was said to have launched 100+ missles so far.

CNN said that there is like 50+ civillians dead already, along with a few soldiers...

If you brake the neighbour's window, you're paying for it. If you bomb another country, you've got yourself a war.

[Christina Marie]

Three Lebanese killed, 55 wounded in Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon




BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Israel has widened its offensive on Lebanon, with fighter bombers blasting the airport and residential buildings in the southern suburbs of the capital.

The attacks also ignited fuel storage tanks and cut the main highway to Syria. Police say three people were killed and 55 wounded.

Beirut airport officials say two Israeli missiles hit a runway today.

The latest deaths bring to at least 51 the number of Lebanese killed since Wednesday when Israel began retaliating for the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah guerrillas. All but one of the Lebanese dead were civilians.

Many Israelis were shocked yesterday when two rockets hit Haifa, the country's third largest city 18 miles south of Lebanon. No guerrilla rocket had ever reached that far into Israel.

Guerillas fired more rockets into Israel today but there are no reported injuries.

http://www.kcoy.com/news/world/story.as ... A63AC876E0

[Christina Marie]

PS can I swear at Jews for doing that???

What THE HELL are talking about!!!!??? Hezbollah executed an Israeli border gaurd and kidnapped I think 3 others. What are they supposed to do...allow this?

[punamusta]

PS can I swear at Jews for doing that???

What THE HELL are talking about!!!!??? Hezbollah executed an Israeli border gaurd and kidnapped I think 3 others. What are they supposed to do...allow this?

Those Israelian soldiers were on the Libanon's side of the border. Any country would capture other countries soldiers if they would come over the border without any kind of permission. So.. "what are they supposed to do...allow this?"

Here's more about that:

"Now that Hezbollah has "abducted" two Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, we can expect a "wider Mideast military confrontation," according to Bloomberg. Ehud Olmert holds "Lebanon responsible for the fate of the missing soldiers," who were captured near Aita al-Shaab on the Lebanese side of the border, that is to say the soldiers violated the sovereignty of Lebanon, a common occurrence."

http://uruknet.info/?p=m24569



I hope UN would come up with a resolution to condemn Israel's terrorist acts, but as the past has shown, Israel can get away with anything, even nuclear weapons. Here's some UN resolutions they have managed to avoid (mostly because US has voted against those resolutions) -> http://www.ifamericansknew.org/stats/un.html (that link says that there has been 65 resolutions targeting Israel, but the number now is 66)

AND READ THIS ASWELL:


"There is another major area, largely ignored, that at some point must be faced. It involves the serious distortion of the official Security Council record by the profligate use by the United States of its veto power. In 29 separate cases between 1972 and 1991, the United States has vetoed resolutions critical of Israel. Except for the U.S. veto, these resolutions would have passed and the total number of resolutions against Israel would now equal 95 instead of 66."

http://www.washington-report.org/backis ... 303040.htm

[Christina Marie]

Those Israelian soldiers were on the Libanon's side of the border. Any country would capture other countries soldiers if they would come over the border without any kind of permission.

No they were'nt. They were patrolling the Gaza strip which they still have a right to patrol.

[Christina Marie]

Israel Destroys HQ Of Hezbollah's Leader in Beirut

cbs5.com
July 14, 2006

As time goes by, they will all realize that Sayyed Nasrallah is right and is working in the interest of Muslims.

Israel destroyed the home and office of Hezbollah's leader Friday and tightened its seal on Lebanon, blasting its air and road links to the outside world to punish the guerrilla group -- and with it, the country -- for the capture of two Israeli soldiers.

Hezbollah's Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and his family were safe after missiles demolished the two buildings in Beirut's crowded southern neighborhoods, Hezbollah said.

While Nasrallah and the top leadership of the group have offices and residences in the high-security area, they were on the move during the Israeli offensive.

Smoke rose from the Haret Hreik neighborhood late afternoon, after four huge explosions shook the capital. They were followed minutes later by a fifth blast.

Earlier Friday, Israeli warplanes renewed attacks on the southern suburbs, targeting a Hezbollah radio station and starting a fire in a building, but its broadcasts continued.

Israeli aircraft pounded the neighborhood overnight, destroying overpasses and punching large holes in an intersection.

But the strike underlined Israel's determination to take the fight directly to Hezbollah's leadership, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert vowed the massive campaign would continue until the guerrillas were neutralized.

Warplanes again smashed runways at Beirut's airport with hours of airstrikes, trying to render it unusable, and destroyed mountain bridges on the main highway to Syria. Warships blockaded Lebanon's ports for a second day.

Smoke drifted over the capital after strikes exploded fuel tanks at one of Beirut's two main power stations, gradually escalating the damage to Lebanon's key infrastructure. Apartment buildings were shattered by strikes in south Beirut.

Lebanese guerrillas responded by firing a barrage of at least 50 Katyusha rockets throughout the day, hitting more than a dozen communities across northern Israel.

The death toll in three days of fighting rose to 73 killed in Lebanon -- almost all civilians, including five killed in strikes Friday -- and 12 in Israel, including four killed in rocket attacks. The violence sent shock waves through a region already traumatized by the ongoing battles in the Gaza Strip between Israel and Hamas.

Israel's strikes on the airport and roads and naval blockade all but cut off Lebanon from the world, while hits on infrastructure aimed to exact a price from its government for allowing Hezbollah to operate freely in the south.

At the same time, strikes on Hezbollah, including ones targeting its leadership in south Beirut, aimed to pressure the Shiite Muslim guerrillas to release the Israeli soldiers captured Wednesday and push the militants away from Israel's northern border.

President Bush, in Russia for the G-8 summit, spoke by phone with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, and "reiterated his position" that the Israeli attacks should limit any impact on civilians, White House spokesman Tony Snow said.

At an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting requested by Lebanon, special envoy Nouhad Mahmoud warned that Israeli attacks "will not resolve the problem, but will further complicate it." Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman said Israel had no choice but to react to the "absolutely unprovoked attack" by Hezbollah.

Oil prices rose to above $78 a barrel, and OPEC tried to reassure the market by stressing its commitment to "order and stability."

Olmert said Israel would not halt its offensive until Hezbollah was disarmed in a telephone call with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan. Olmert agreed to let a U.N. team try to mediate a cease-fire, an official close to Olmert said on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to speak to the media.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned Israel against extending its assault into Syria and said the Jewish state couldn't harm Iran, which also backs Hezbollah.

French President Jacques Chirac said Israel's actions were "totally disproportionate" but also condemned Hezbollah's attacks. He implicitly suggested that Syria and Iran might be playing a role in the crisis.

The U.N.'s top humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, said Israel's attacks against transportation infrastructure violated international law and held grave consequences for civilians.

Israeli officials said the campaign by the air force was the biggest since the Israeli invasion in 1982. The only comparable military action since then was the "Grapes of Wrath" offensive in 1996, also sparked by Hezbollah attacks.

But the casualties were mounting faster than in 1996, when at least 165 people were killed in 17 days of fighting. By contrast, 73 people in Lebanon have been killed in only three days of Israel's bombardment.

On the Israeli side, eight soldiers have died and two civilians were killed by Hezbollah rockets on northern towns. At least 11 were wounded in Friday's rocket attacks.

Israel says it holds the government responsible for Hezbollah's actions, but Saniora's Cabinet has insisted it had no prior knowledge of the raid that seized the soldiers and that it did not condone it.

Hezbollah operates with near autonomy in south Lebanon, and the government has resisted international pressure to disarm it _ a step that could break the country apart. Saniora's government is dominated by anti-Syrian politicians, some sharply critical of Hezbollah, but the guerrilla group also has two ministers in the Cabinet.

The fighting in Lebanon is Israel's second front. It launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip two weeks ago in response to the June 25 capture by Hamas militants of an Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

Throughout the morning, Israeli fighter-bombers pounded runways at Beirut's airport for a second day, apparently trying to ensure its closure after the Lebanese national carrier, Middle East Airlines, managed to evacuate its last five planes to Amman.

Another barrage hit fuel tanks at one of Beirut's two main power stations at Jiye.

For the first time in the assault, strikes targeted the crowded Shiite residential neighborhoods in south Beirut, a stronghold of Hezbollah's leadership.

An initial wave before dawn hit near Hezbollah's security headquarters and targeted roads, damaging two overpasses. The facades of nearby apartment buildings were shorn away, balconies toppled onto cars and the street was littered by glass from shattered windows. Firefighters struggled to put out several blazes.

A young man with blood pouring down his face was shown on Lebanese TV walking out of a damaged apartment building.

An afternoon strike hit an apartment building near Hezbollah's Al-Nour radio station. The radio continued broadcasting, and Hezbollah TV showed smoke billowing from an apartment in the area and firefighters running toward the building.

"I have huge debts and now my store is damaged," said Fadi Haidar, 36, cleaning away broken glass at his appliances shop, which had an estimated $15,000 in damage.

Still, he supported Hezbollah in its decision to seize the soldiers.

"Israel is our enemy and every Muslim must make a sacrifice," he said. "As time goes by, they will all realize that Sayyed Nasrallah is right and is working in the interest of Muslims."

Israeli planes also hit transmission antennas for local TV stations in the eastern Bekaa Valley, a Hezbollah stronghold.

Warplanes also bombed the highway between Beirut and Damascus -- Lebanon's main land link to the outside world -- forcing motorists onto mountainside roads.

In northern Israel, 220,000 people hunkered down in bomb shelters amid Hezbollah's rocket barrage.

At least 50 rockets hit seven towns and communities in Israel, including Safad and Nahariya -- where two people were killed a day earlier. Since Wednesday, 61 Israelis have been hurt in the rocket fire.

The Israeli offensive was causing political waves in Lebanon, with some anti-Syrian politicians accusing Hezbollah of dragging the country into a costly confrontation with Israel.

"Hezbollah is playing a dangerous game that exceeds the border of Lebanon," Druse leader Walid Jumblatt said in comments published Friday. Jumblatt, a leading anti-Syrian figure, also denounced the Israeli attacks.

http://www.topix.net/content/cbs/229491 ... BQ38L4VEEU

[Christina Marie]

December 1968: Israeli commandos attack Beirut International Airport on December 28, 1968, damaging or destroying more than a dozen airplanes in retaliation for an attack on an Israeli civilian airplane at the airport in Athens, Greece. Two Palestinians were charged in the Athens attack that left an Israeli passenger dead.

November 1969: Lebanese army commander in chief Emile Bustani and Arafat sign an agreement in Cairo that recognizes the "Palestinian revolution" and allows Palestinians in Lebanon "to join in the armed struggle without undermining Lebanon's sovereignty and welfare." This agreement will stay in effect for nearly 20 years, until Lebanon rescinds it in May 1987.

1970-1971: Faced with fighting in Jordan that left thousands dead, the PLO moves its base to Lebanon, where it carries out raids on Israel. A Palestinian terrorist group linked to the PLO is formed. Its name is "Black September" -- a reference to the Jordanian crackdown on Palestinians in September 1970.

1972: Black September attacks the Israeli Olympic team during the games in Munich, Germany. After a struggle that left a coach and an athlete dead, the terrorists take nine Israeli athletes hostage, demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners in return for the hostages' release. Israel refuses, and a shootout between the attackers and West German authorities leaves all nine hostages, four terrorists and a policeman dead.

April 1973: Israeli elite commandos -- dressed as women and led by future Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak -- kill three PLO leaders in Beirut.

1975: Civil war breaks out in Lebanon, pitting Palestinians and pro-Palestinian Lebanese militias against Lebanon's Christian militias. The war would last nearly 15 years, officially ending in 1990.

1976: Syria sends military peacekeepers during the early months of the civil war to help end it. The troops would remain there nearly 30 years, until April 2005.

March 1978: A PLO attack on a bus in northern Israel prompts Israeli military forces to move into Lebanon to push the PLO back from the border. Israel withdraws after the U.N. Security Council passes a resolution for the immediate withdrawal of Israeli forces. Under the leadership of Lebanese army Maj. Saad Haddad, an Israeli ally, a 12-mile wide "security zone" is established to protect Israeli territory from cross-border attacks.

September 1978: The Camp David Accords, brokered by U.S. President Jimmy Carter, lead to a peace treaty between Israel and Egypt. The accords lay the groundwork for a similar treaty between Israel and Lebanon, as well as its other Arab neighbors.

July 17, 1981: Israeli forces bomb PLO headquarters in West Beirut, killing more than 300 civilians. The attack leads to a U.S.-brokered cease-fire between Israel, the PLO and Syria, whose troops were in Lebanon.

1982: The cease-fire lasts until June 6, 1982, when Israel invades Lebanon with about 60,000 troops in a push to destroy the PLO, after an assassination attempt on Israel's ambassador to Britain. Arafat and the PLO flee Lebanon in August and settle in Tunis, Tunisia, where they remain until moving to Gaza in 1994.

The Israel-backed Lebanese president-elect, Bashir Gemayel, is assassinated September 14, shortly before his inauguration. Israeli troops enter West Beirut a day later, and the following day, nearly 800 Palestinian refugees are massacred at the hands of Lebanese Christian militias in the Sabra and Shatila camps. Israel is accused of doing nothing to prevent or stop the massacre.

Hezbollah, a fundamentalist Shiite Muslim militant group, emerges as a force in Beirut, the Bekaa Valley and southern Lebanon. Sponsored by Iran, modeled after Iran's Revolutionary Guards and supported by Syria, Hezbollah aims to establish a Shiite Islamic state in Lebanon and force Western interests like Israel and the United States out of the region.

April 18, 1983: A suicide attack by Hezbollah on the U.S. Embassy in West Beirut kills 63 people, a harbinger of future attacks against U.S. and Western interests.

May 17, 1983: Lebanon and Israel sign a U.S.-brokered peace agreement, spelling out terms of Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon, conditional on the withdrawal of Syrian forces. Syria opposes the agreement.

October 23, 1983: A Hezbollah suicide bomber blows up the headquarters of U.S. Marine and French forces in Beirut, killing 298 people -- 241 of them U.S. Marines and other military personnel. U.S. troops are withdrawn from Lebanon a few months later.

January 18, 1984: American University of Beirut President Malcolm Kerr is assassinated.

March 1984: With pressure mounting from Syria, Lebanon cancels the May 17, 1983, peace agreement.

September 20, 1984: The U.S. Embassy annex in East Beirut is bombed, and 23 people are killed.

June 1985: Israel withdraws from most of Lebanon but keeps control of the 12-mile-wide security zone in the south. Israel remains there until May 2000.

1990: Lebanon's 15-year civil war officially ends.

July 1993: Israel attacks southern Lebanon in a weeklong operation aimed at ending Hezbollah attacks on Israeli towns.

April 1996: Israel and Hezbollah militants engage in a 16-day battle, in which at least 137 people, mostly Lebanese civilians, are killed.

May 2000: Israeli troops withdraw from southern Lebanon, and the United Nations establishes the "Blue Line" as a border between the two countries.

September 2003: Israeli warplanes hit southern Lebanon in response to Hezbollah's firing antiaircraft missiles at Israeli planes in the area.

October 2003: Israel and Lebanon exchange gunfire in the disputed area known as Shebaa Farms.

February 14, 2005: Former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri is assassinated. Pressure builds on Syria to withdraw its remaining troops from Lebanon, which it does in April.

July 2006: Hezbollah militants cross into Israel, kill three Israeli soldiers and kidnap two others in a bid to negotiate a prisoner exchange, a demand rebuffed by Israel. Another five Israeli soldiers are killed after the ambush. Israel responds with a naval blockade and by bombing hundreds of targets in Lebanon, including Beirut's airport and Hezbollah's headquarters in southern Beirut. Hezbollah responds with rocket attacks targeting northern Israeli cities. Fighting leaves dozens of Lebanese civilians dead and coincides with a two-week-old Israeli military campaign in Gaza in response to the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/ ... index.html

[punamusta]

Those Israelian soldiers were on the Libanon's side of the border. Any country would capture other countries soldiers if they would come over the border without any kind of permission.

No they were'nt. They were patrolling the Gaza strip which they still have a right to patrol.

Gaza strip isn't even near Lebanon. Those two that Lebanon captured were said to be on their (Lebanon) side of the border, even though mainstream media seems to insist that they were on the Israel's side (or that they were on the borderline). Obviously that was something Israel's army stated. They needed a reason, and saw an opportunity to make one.

I'll come back to write more at the evening/night when I get back home...

[Mahmoud Siddiqi]

Israel's response to its soldiers' capture is part of a hamfisted attempt to redraw the region's map

The capture of three Israeli soldiers by the Lebanese resistance movement, Hizbullah, to bargain for prisoner exchange should come as no surprise – least of all to Israel, which must bear its own responsibility for the abductions and is using this conflict to pursue its wider strategic aims.

The prisoners Hizbullah wants released are hostages who were taken on Lebanese soil. In the successful prisoner exchange in 2004, Israel held on to three Lebanese detainees as bargaining chips and to keep the battle front with Hizbullah open. These detentions have become a cause celebre in Lebanon. In a recent poll, efforts to effect their release attracted majority support, much more even than the liberation of Shebaa Farms, the disputed corridor of land between Syria and Lebanon still occupied by Israel.

The domestic significance of these hostages is ignored by those who choose to reduce the abductions to an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Indeed Israel’s media are aware of recent attempts to capture soldiers, including a botched attempt a few months ago in which three Hizbullah fighters were killed. Hizbullah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, confirmed the attack took five months to plan. Its timing was probably a coincidence. It would seem, though, Hizbullah exerts some influence over the fighters in Gaza – those who captured Corporal Shalit were at the very least inspired by Hizbullah.

The regional significance of the abductions has also been misconstrued. To suggest Hizbullah attacked on the orders of Tehran and Damascus is to grossly oversimplify a strong strategic and ideological relationship. Historically there has been an overlap of interests between Syria, Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas. Together they form a strategic axis – the “axis of terror” to Israel – that confronts US-Israeli designs to redraw the map of the region.

But the nature of that relationship has changed much over the years. Since Syrian forces left Lebanon, Hizbullah has become the stronger party. It has never allowed any foreign power to dictate its military strategy.

It is ironic, given Israel’s bombing of civilian targets in Beirut, that Hizbullah is often dismissed in the west as a terrorist organisation. In fact its military record is overwhelmingly one of conflict with Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory. This is just an example of the way that the west employs an entirely different definition of terrorism to the one used in the Arab world and elsewhere, where there is a recognition that terrorism can come in many forms.

The attempt to frame Hizbullah as a terrorist organisation is very far from political reality in Lebanon, from public opinion across the Arab and Islamic world, and from international law.

Israel’s disproportionate response to the soldiers’ capture will have an impact on Lebanese domestic policy. Hizbullah has recently proposed a comprehensive national defence strategy; the Lebanese government has yet to come up with anything similarly convincing. If demands for a prisoner exchange are successful then it shows that what Hizbullah would term the logic of resistance is the most effective defence strategy. Israel’s escalation has been a poor PR exercise. Even if it succeeds in showing the Lebanese people that Hizbullah can be a liability, this may well be cancelled out by Israel’s own aggression, which will only confirm Hizbullah’s repeated warnings of the constant threat posed by Israel.

['X']

Gaza strip isn't even near Lebanon....

[Christina Marie]

I was wrong about the Gaza strip. But Hezbollah did cross into Israel and thats the bottom line. And the media sure is twisting shit. If you saw a military map of the airstrikes you would see that Lebanon is striking far more than Israel. Doesnt matter anyway....we are all going to pick sides. Obviously we have.

[Christina Marie]

Israel's response to its soldiers' capture is part of a hamfisted attempt to redraw the region's map

The capture of three Israeli soldiers by the Lebanese resistance movement, Hizbullah, to bargain for prisoner exchange should come as no surprise – least of all to Israel, which must bear its own responsibility for the abductions and is using this conflict to pursue its wider strategic aims.

The prisoners Hizbullah wants released are hostages who were taken on Lebanese soil. In the successful prisoner exchange in 2004, Israel held on to three Lebanese detainees as bargaining chips and to keep the battle front with Hizbullah open. These detentions have become a cause celebre in Lebanon. In a recent poll, efforts to effect their release attracted majority support, much more even than the liberation of Shebaa Farms, the disputed corridor of land between Syria and Lebanon still occupied by Israel.

The domestic significance of these hostages is ignored by those who choose to reduce the abductions to an act of solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Indeed Israel’s media are aware of recent attempts to capture soldiers, including a botched attempt a few months ago in which three Hizbullah fighters were killed. Hizbullah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, confirmed the attack took five months to plan. Its timing was probably a coincidence. It would seem, though, Hizbullah exerts some influence over the fighters in Gaza – those who captured Corporal Shalit were at the very least inspired by Hizbullah.

The regional significance of the abductions has also been misconstrued. To suggest Hizbullah attacked on the orders of Tehran and Damascus is to grossly oversimplify a strong strategic and ideological relationship. Historically there has been an overlap of interests between Syria, Iran, Hizbullah and Hamas. Together they form a strategic axis – the “axis of terror” to Israel – that confronts US-Israeli designs to redraw the map of the region.

But the nature of that relationship has changed much over the years. Since Syrian forces left Lebanon, Hizbullah has become the stronger party. It has never allowed any foreign power to dictate its military strategy.

It is ironic, given Israel’s bombing of civilian targets in Beirut, that Hizbullah is often dismissed in the west as a terrorist organisation. In fact its military record is overwhelmingly one of conflict with Israeli forces inside Lebanese territory. This is just an example of the way that the west employs an entirely different definition of terrorism to the one used in the Arab world and elsewhere, where there is a recognition that terrorism can come in many forms.

The attempt to frame Hizbullah as a terrorist organisation is very far from political reality in Lebanon, from public opinion across the Arab and Islamic world, and from international law.

Israel’s disproportionate response to the soldiers’ capture will have an impact on Lebanese domestic policy. Hizbullah has recently proposed a comprehensive national defence strategy; the Lebanese government has yet to come up with anything similarly convincing. If demands for a prisoner exchange are successful then it shows that what Hizbullah would term the logic of resistance is the most effective defence strategy. Israel’s escalation has been a poor PR exercise. Even if it succeeds in showing the Lebanese people that Hizbullah can be a liability, this may well be cancelled out by Israel’s own aggression, which will only confirm Hizbullah’s repeated warnings of the constant threat posed by Israel.

There has been a conspiracy since the beginning of time to "redraw" the map over there. As for Israel bombing civilian targets...BS!!! Hezbollah and Hamas headquarters just so happen to be nested in the middle of civilian population.

[Christina Marie]

Hizbollah rockets hit Haifa

By Allyn Fisher-Ilan
Reuters
Sunday, July 16, 2006


HAIFA, Israel (Reuters) - Hizbollah killed eight people in the Israeli city of Haifa on Sunday in its deadliest rocket attack on the Jewish state, and Israeli planes killed 36 people in Lebanon in a fifth day of strikes.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Hizbollah's attack would have far-reaching consequences for Lebanon, while the Lebanese guerrilla group threatened more.

Leaders of the world's major powers meeting in Russia urged restraint but said Israel had a right to self-defense, putting the onus on Hizbollah to stop the violence by first releasing two Israeli soldiers it captured on Wednesday.

Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said the attack on Haifa, Israel's third-biggest city, was retaliation for the Jewish state's killing of civilians and promised more "surprises." "We are just at the beginning," he said.

Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, launched after Hizbollah captured the two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others, has killed 140 people, all but four of them civilians.

In Lebanon's southern city of Tire, 16 people were killed, many of them in an attack on a building used by rescue workers.

A separate Israeli strike killed eight people including five with dual Canadian and Lebanese citizenship, a Lebanese official said. Canada's foreign minister said eight Canadians died.

Sources at Beirut's international airport said Israeli aircraft fired rockets at fuel tanks at the airport, which was closed on Thursday after Israeli planes bombed its runways. They also struck again at the main road between Beirut and Damascus in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon, witnesses said.

Israel's strikes have drawn only a mild plea for restraint from the United States, which blames Hizbollah and its allies, Syria and Iran.

"Our message to Israel is defend yourself but be mindful of the consequences, so we are urging restraint," President Bush said at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.

A total of 24 Israelis have been killed in the fighting since Wednesday, including 12 civilians killed in rocket attacks. Hundreds have been wounded.

ITALIAN ROLE

Lebanon said Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi had relayed Israeli conditions for a ceasefire. A government statement quoted Prime Minister Fouad Siniora as saying Israel had demanded the return of the two soldiers and a Hizbollah pullback to behind the Litani river, 20 km (12 miles) north of Israel.

An Italian government source confirmed the demands and said Prodi was acting as a "go-between."

A U.N. team sent to Lebanon said it supported the Lebanese government's call for a ceasefire but urged the release of the two Israeli soldiers. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana arrived in Beirut on Sunday and met Siniora.

Bombs thudded into Beirut's Shi'ite southern suburbs in raids which set fire to Hizbollah's al-Manar television complex and nearby buildings, witnesses said. The station's signal disappeared briefly several times.

http://www.dose.ca/calgary/news/story.h ... 77uQ%3d%3d

[Christina Marie]

Beirut pounded after rockets hit Haifa
Hezbollah strikes deeper into northern Israel from Lebanon

Sunday, July 16, 2006; Posted: 5:18 p.m. EDT (21:18 GMT)


BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- Israeli airstrikes pounded the southern suburbs of Beirut on Sunday, hours after a rocket attack on Haifa killed eight Israelis.

South of Beirut, 20 people were killed and 50 were wounded Sunday in an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese port city of Tyre, according to Lebanese television.

Later Sunday, Hezbollah rockets hit three northern Israeli towns more than 40 kilometers (25 miles) south of the Lebanese border, the farthest south of any rocket attacks to date, the Israeli military said.

Those reports came shortly after an Israeli warship struck the area of Beirut's airport with four missiles, setting on fire a fuel storage tank, The Associated Press reported, citing security officials who were not identified.

The militant group Hezbollah claimed responsibility for the attack on Haifa, saying it was responding to overnight Israeli airstrikes inside Lebanon.

Shortly after Haifa was hit, the head of Israel's northern command, Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, warned civilians in southern Lebanon to head north because "in two or three hours we are going to attack south Lebanon heavily."

CNN's Alessio Vinci described the scene in the southern part of Beirut as "utter destruction," with buildings collapsed and large areas devastated. (Watch devastation in southern Beirut -- 4:30)

The Israeli military said the airstrikes hit buildings where Hezbollah members lived and worked.

The airstrikes reduced entire apartment buildings to rubble and knocked out electricity in parts of Beirut, the AP reported.

Earlier, journalist Anthony Mills said he heard at least six bombings near the Lebanese capital between 11 a.m. and noon (4 a.m. and 5 a.m. ET).

Lebanese officials said Sunday that 104 people have been killed and 286 wounded in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah militants that began Wednesday.

A total of 12 Israeli civilians and 12 Israeli military personnel have been killed since Wednesday. More than 100 others have been wounded.

Eight Canadians were among those killed Sunday in southern Lebanon, a spokesman for Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay said.

In the attack on Haifa, one of the Hezbollah rockets hit a railway depot in the city's industrial zone, killing at least eight and wounding 17 others -- six of them seriously -- Israeli medical services said. (Watch train depot shattered by rocket -- 2:29)

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said Sunday that his fighters still have plenty of weapons and the will to keep fighting.

"Our fighters are ready, and they love the confrontation and have the determination to defeat," he said in a televised address in Arabic to the Lebanese people.

"And as we surprised [Israel] in the sea, and as we surprised them in Haifa, we will surprise them with what's beyond Haifa," Nasrallah said.

He accused Israel of attacking civilian targets, while insisting that Hezbollah was patient and has aimed its rocket attacks only at the Israeli military.

"The enemy does not know our capabilities. ... We are still in the beginning," he said.

In Israel, Prime Minister Shimon Peres acknowledged that civilian casualties have occurred but said the Israeli military "are extremely careful" about distinguishing between Hezbollah and civilian targets.

"We are being attacked indiscriminately," he said.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said the attacks on Lebanon will not end until Israel is sure "the reality will change" so there are no threats on Israel by Hezbollah.

Peretz spoke in Haifa hours after the Hezbollah rocket attack.

"Everyone who has attacked and harmed the city of Haifa and the Israeli home front will pay a very expensive and costly price for this," Peretz said.

Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said the missile contained Syrian ammunition.

"The Iranians supply Hezbollah with weapons and technology," said Mofaz, Israel's former defense minister. "Syria is taking part."

The weapon was a Katyusha rocket with a range of 35 to 40 kilometers (22-25 miles), Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman Miri Regev said. Haifa, Israel's third largest city, is about 35 kilometers south of the Lebanese border.

Iran rejected a similar Israeli assertion that it supplied Hezbollah the missile that struck an Israeli warship off the coast of Lebanon on Friday, killing four Israeli sailors.

The Israeli military found the bodies of three of the sailors Sunday. The body of the fourth sailor had been found the day before.

Rockets also hit the northern towns of Akko and Nahariya on Sunday, and residents of northern Israel were told to take cover in bomb shelters. (Watch fear gripping Israeli towns -- 1:45)

Israel on alert as far south as Tel Aviv
The Israeli military warned residents as far south as Tel Aviv to raise their level of awareness, as the country is on alert against conventional weapons, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The Israeli military said Hezbollah has fired more than 450 rockets into northern Israel since Wednesday.

Speaking before his weekly Cabinet meeting, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the attack "will have far-reaching implications" on Israel's relationship with its "northern neighbors."

A spokesman for the Italian government said Lebanon has been given a list of Israeli conditions for a cease-fire that includes the release of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah, the withdrawal of the group from south Lebanon and an end to rocket attacks on Israel.

The conditions were relayed to Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in a phone call by Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi, according to Italian spokesman Silvio Sircana.

In Beirut's Parliament building, Siniora met during the afternoon with European Union Foreign Affairs and Security Chief Javier Solana; observers said they were likely discussing Sinior's calls for a cease-fire.

"The gates of hell have been opened on Lebanon," Siniora told CNN's "Late Edition" on Sunday.

He called Israel's actions "disproportionate," and predicted they would encourage the extremists.

In St. Petersburg, Russia, the Group of Eight countries issued a statement expressing "deepening concern" about the situation, particularly "the rising civilian casualties on all sides and damage to infrastructure," and called for an end to the violence.

Despite the agreements expressed in the statement, the G-8 countries are divided over who is to blame and how to move forward, with France, Russia and Italy suggesting Israel went too far in its actions.

Hezbollah, which is backed by Syria and Iran, is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and Israel. The group holds 23 of the 128 seats in Lebanon's parliament. (What is Hezbollah?)

Other developments:

Israeli forces bombed the Jiyeh power plant south of the Lebanese capital early Sunday, sending plumes of smoke billowing across the sky, Lebanese army sources said. The sources said they had no report on casualties in the strike. Israel also struck northern Lebanon near its border with Syria.


Israeli forces redeployed to Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza early Sunday to halt Qassam rocket launches, the IDF said. The Israeli military moved in after launching three airstrikes overnight Saturday to quell "terror infrastructures" in northern Gaza. (Full story)


Plans are being drawn up but have not been finalized for the large-scale evacuation of Americans from Lebanon, State Department officials told reporters Sunday.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/ ... index.html

[punamusta]

I was wrong about the Gaza strip. But Hezbollah did cross into Israel and thats the bottom line. And the media sure is twisting shit. If you saw a military map of the airstrikes you would see that Lebanon is striking far more than Israel. Doesnt matter anyway....we are all going to pick sides. Obviously we have.

Ok. Let's say those two Israelian soldiers were captured at the borderline and not at the Lebanon's ground. Still that don't justify Israel's acts at the Lebanon ground. First of all, it was Hizbollah that captured those soldiers, not Lebanon. Lebanon's new government is supported by US and is mainly Christian as US wanted it that way. The government there has nothing to do with Hizbollah, although Hizbollah has a pretty firm supporting among the people of Lebanon.

Secondly, Israel itself has hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian people locked up in their prisons (lot of them are under 16-years old kids). Huge majority of those prisoners are captured in Lebanon or Palestine soil. Both, Palestine and Lebanon has demanded those prisoners to be free or atleast move them to their own prisons. Israel has always denied that and on top of that they even captured a short time ago 20 Palestinian ministers and members of the parliament! What crimes have they been accused? Why Israel arrested them?

And now Israel is bombing government departments, hospitals, electricity plants, roads, bridges, civilian houses, fleeing citizens. Already hundreds of dead civilians, nearly two million people without electricity, no food supplies, no proper health care. And all that for a 3 soldiers (2 held in Lebanon, 1 in Gaza)! Do they really expect us to believe that all this is just because of those 3 soldiers? No, Israel has bigger plans behind this. As I said earlier, they looked for an excuse, and now they found one.

And you really can't say that Israel is defending themselves. What they do now is trying to overthrow Palestinian government that is democraticly and legally chosen.

[punamusta]

There has been a conspiracy since the beginning of time to "redraw" the map over there. As for Israel bombing civilian targets...BS!!! Hezbollah and Hamas headquarters just so happen to be nested in the middle of civilian population.

Oh, come on now. Israel don't even know where those Hizbollah and Hamas members and leaders are. All they do is GUESS and ASSUME. It's impossible to know exact locations of those people. And Israel has killed whole families there, shooted missiles on football fields (during the game) and crowded beaches killing whole families.

[punamusta]

A GOOD ARTICLE TO GIVE A BACKGROUND INFORMATION OF THE PRESENT SITUATION:






BLAMING THE VICTIM IN GAZA

Traditionally, British media reporting of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been heavily biased in favour of the United States' major ally in the region, Israel. A 2002 Glasgow University Media Group report found that television broadcasters were six times as likely to present Israeli attacks as "retaliating" or in some way hitting back as Palestinian attacks. This caused many viewers to believe that the Palestinians were to blame for the conflict. (Greg Philo and Mike Berry, 'Bad News from Israel';
http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/
sociology/units/media/israel.htm)

Reporting of the June 25 capture of an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, by Palestinian militants at an army post at Kerem Shalom near Gaza demonstrated the same bias. The BBC, ITV News, the Guardian, Independent and most other media described the incident as a "kidnapping". We emailed Guardian journalist David Fickling:

"In today's article, 'Israel detains Hamas ministers,' you write:

"'Israeli troops arrested dozens of Hamas ministers and parliamentarians today as they stepped up their campaign to free a soldier kidnapped by militants in Gaza at the weekend.' (http://www.guardian.co.uk/
israel/Story/0,,1808570,00.html)

"Why do Israeli militants 'detain' and 'arrest', whereas Palestinian militants 'kidnap'?" (Email, June 29, 2006)

Fickling replied:

"There is a well-attested distinction between arrest - an action carried out by a state as the first step of a well-defined legal process - and kidnap, which is an action carried out by private individuals with no defined outcome, enforceable purpose, or rights of review or release." (Email, June 29, 2006)

In reality [b[there is no "well-defined legal process" protecting the Hamas politicians "arrested" by the Israelis. Of what crimes have they been accused? Are we to believe that they have any rights of review or release whatever? Quite the reverse; the press reports that the subsequent bombings of empty Hamas political offices were intended as a clear signal that Hamas's leaders can be assassinated if Israel so desires[/b].

The media have emphasised the capture of the Israeli soldier as key in escalating tensions. On June 29, Stephen Farrell reported in The Times "a dramatic escalation of the conflict sparked by the abduction". (Farrell, 'Tanks go into Gaza as Jewish settler is murdered,' The Times, June 29, 2006)

On June 30, the Financial Times reported "the rapid escalation of the crisis sparked by last Sunday's kidnap" (Ferry Biedermann and Roula Khalaf, 'Abbas appeals to UN over arrests,' Financial Times, June 30, 2006). The BBC described the Palestinian attack as "a major escalation in cross-border tensions". (BBC World News, June 25, 2006)

Few readers will be aware that on June 24, the day before the "kidnapping", Israeli commandos had entered the Gaza Strip and captured two Palestinians claimed by Israel to be members of Hamas. (See our Guest Media Alert by Jonathan Cook, 'Kidnapped by Israel'; )

Nor have the press suggested that the one-sided nature of the killing in the weeks leading up to the capture of the Israeli soldier might have "sparked" Palestinian actions.

On June 8, the Israeli army assassinated the recently appointed Palestinian head of the security forces of the Interior Ministry, Jamal Abu Samhadana, and three others. On June 9, Israeli shells killed seven members of the same family picnicking on Beit Lahiya beach. Some 32 others were wounded, including 13 children.

On June 13, an Israeli plane fired a missile into a busy Gaza City street, killing 11 people, including two children and two medics. On June 20, the Israeli army killed three Palestinian children and injured 15 others in Gaza with a missile attack. On June 21, the Israelis killed a 35-year old pregnant woman, her brother, and injured 11 others, including 6 children. Then came the Israeli capture of two Palestinians, followed by the Palestinian capture of the Israeli soldier and the killing of the two other soldiers.

After the beach deaths, Hamas, the ruling party in the Palestinian Authority, broke an 18-month ceasefire and joined other militant groups in firing Kassam rockets into Israel. The Financial Times reported on June 23 that the missiles, principally targeted towards the Israel town of Sderot, have caused damage and some casualties but no fatalities in the recent barrages. A June 29 Guardian leader noted that the home-made Kassam rockets are "not in the same league as Israel's hi-tech (though not always accurate) weaponry". (Leader, 'Storm over Gaza,' The Guardian, June 29, 2006)

In an interview for Democracy Now, Norman Finkelstein, Professor of Political Science at DePaul University in Chicago, compared the lethality of Israeli and Palestinian weapons:

"Since Israel withdrew from Gaza in September 2005 'til today, the estimates run between 7,000 and 9,000 heavy artillery shells have been shot and fired into Gaza. On the Palestinian side, the estimates are approximately 1,000 Kassam missiles, crude missiles, have been fired into Israel. So we have a ratio of between seven and nine to one.

"Let's look at casualties. In the last six months, approximately 80 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza due to Israel artillery firing... There have been exactly eight Israelis killed in the last five years from the Kassam missiles. Again, we have a huge disproportion, a huge discrepancy." ('AIPAC v. Norman Finkelstein: A Debate on Israel's Assault on Gaza,' June 29, 2006; http://www.democracynow.org/
article.pl?sid=06/06/29/1420258)

Finkelstein also compared the situation with regard to hostages: "let's talk about those 9,000 Palestinians who are effectively hostages being held by Israel. 1,000 of them are administrative detainees... Administrative detainees who are being held without any charges or trial. And the other 8,000 are being held after military courts have convicted them, almost always on the basis of confessions which were extracted by torture. So if we're going to look simply at the numbers, we have one hostage on the Palestinian side, and effectively we have about 9,000 on the Israeli side."

Earlier this month, the Israeli human rights organisation, B'Tselem, published fatality figures for June 2006 in the Occupied Territories and Israel. Forty-two Palestinians, six of them minors, were killed by Israeli armed forces. Twenty-four of the fatalities were bystanders not involved in the conflict. (http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWB.NSF/db9
00SID/EKOI-6RC53K?OpenDocument&rc=3&cc=isr )

B'Tselem's figures do not include the seven members of the Ghaliya family killed on Beit Lahiya beach. However, a June 17 report by Donald Macintyre in the Independent "cast doubt on crucial elements of the conclusion of the military investigation which absolved Israel of any responsibility". (Macintyre, 'Hospital casts doubt on Israel's version of attack that killed seven Palestinians,' The Independent, June 17, 2006)

According to B'Tselem, in May 2006, 36 Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces, one Israeli civilian died from injuries he sustained the previous month. At time of writing, Israeli soldiers have killed a total of six Palestinians since the re-invasion.

Collective Punishment - Frailer Palestinians Are Dying

Having killed many more people in recent weeks, Israel's response to the soldier's capture has been to heap yet more suffering on the Palestinian people. Israel re-invaded Gaza with 5,000 troops on June 27 and then bombed Gaza's only electrical generating station, so depriving half a million people of electricity. Human Rights Watch commented:

"The destruction of the power station could quickly cause a humanitarian crisis in Gaza, as electricity is essential to power the water system, sewage treatment, and medical services". ('Gaza: Israeli Offensive Must Limit Harm to Civilians,' June 29, 2006; http://hrw.org/english/docs/2006/06/29/isrlpa13662.htm)

In the same attack, Israel destroyed three bridges, and the main water pipes for two refugee camps. Will Hutton noted in the Observer: "Sealing off access to water and food can only inflict acute discomfort on the people there; already, frailer Palestinians are dying." (Hutton, 'Israel's act of war is inexcusable,' The Observer, July 2, 2006)

The Guardian wrote: "The electricity supply to half of Gaza has been cut, and all supplies of fuel and food have been halted." Amazingly, the same article added: "Israeli aircraft and forces operated without harming anyone." (Conal Urquhart, 'Israel rounds up Hamas politicians,' The Guardian, June 29, 2006)

Prior to these attacks, Save the Children's UK Programme Manager Jan Coffey reported that 78% of the population in Gaza were living below the poverty line with 10% of children under five suffering from chronic malnutrition. In June, the World Food Programme reported that 51% of Palestinians - 2 million people - were unable to meet their food needs without aid, and that in Gaza, "the situation is becoming critical". (Justin Podur, 'Summer rains,' ZNet; www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10500)

The extent of media bias is exemplified by the New York Times which reported July 3: "for all the pyrotechnics, the [Israeli] operation has been relatively restrained". (Ian Fisher and Steven Erlanger, 'Israel steps up Gaza raids in bid to free soldier,' New York Times, July 3, 2006)

This represents the view of Western journalists numbed to the suffering the West and its allies consistently heap on impoverished Third World people. To merely inflict intense suffering on hundreds of thousands of people, rather than to kill them, is "relatively restrained" for elite media executives. On July 2, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported that "Israel's 'public diplomacy' efforts", aimed at getting the Western media to support Israeli army operations had borne fruit: "The American newspapers The New York Times and The Washington Post have published editorials that placed responsibility for the crisis on Hamas." (Aluf Benn, 'US warns Israel not to harm Abbas or civilians,' Ha'aretz, July 2, 2006) Quite an achievement.

On the BBC's July 3 Newsnight programme, anchor Jeremy Paxman reported breaking news that a Palestinian had been killed and two wounded in an Israeli airstrike in Northern Gaza. Paxman then went on to interview an Israeli government spokesman, Mark Regev. Regev said: "Our preference, our chosen policy preference, is that he [Shalit] is released and this can end peacefully." Paxman said not a word in response about the death he had just reported, about the five other deaths, or about people dying because of the attack on the power station.

In a rare departure from Western silence, the Swiss Foreign Ministry declared this week: "A number of actions by the Israeli defense forces in their offensive against the Gaza Strip have violated the principle of proportionality and are to be seen as forms of collective punishment, which is forbidden." (Bradley S. Klapper, 'Switzerland: Israel violating law in Gaza,' Seattle Post-Intelligencer, July 3, 2006;
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/
national/1103AP_Switzerland_Israel.html)

The Swiss statement referred to provisions of the 1949 treaty of the Geneva Conventions, regarded as the cornerstone of international law on the obligations of warring and occupying powers. A key section reads:

"It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render useless objects indispensable to the survival of the civilian population." (Cited, 'PCHR Warns of a Humanitarian Crisis in the Gaza Strip,' July 2, 2006; www.pchrgaza.org/files/PressR/English/2006/66-2006.htm)

At time of writing, the word 'Gaza' has been mentioned in 314 UK newspaper articles over the previous two weeks. The words 'Geneva conventions' have been mentioned in just 12 of these.

http://www.medialens.org/alerts/06/0607 ... victim.php

[Christina Marie]

I was wrong about the Gaza strip. But Hezbollah did cross into Israel and thats the bottom line. And the media sure is twisting shit. If you saw a military map of the airstrikes you would see that Lebanon is striking far more than Israel. Doesnt matter anyway....we are all going to pick sides. Obviously we have.

Ok. Let's say those two Israelian soldiers were captured at the borderline and not at the Lebanon's ground. Still that don't justify Israel's acts at the Lebanon ground. First of all, it was Hizbollah that captured those soldiers, not Lebanon. Lebanon's new government is supported by US and is mainly Christian as US wanted it that way. The government there has nothing to do with Hizbollah, although Hizbollah has a pretty firm supporting among the people of Lebanon.

Secondly, Israel itself has hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian people locked up in their prisons (lot of them are under 16-years old kids). Huge majority of those prisoners are captured in Lebanon or Palestine soil. Both, Palestine and Lebanon has demanded those prisoners to be free or atleast move them to their own prisons. Israel has always denied that and on top of that they even captured a short time ago 20 Palestinian ministers and members of the parliament! What crimes have they been accused? Why Israel arrested them?

And now Israel is bombing government departments, hospitals, electricity plants, roads, bridges, civilian houses, fleeing citizens. Already hundreds of dead civilians, nearly two million people without electricity, no food supplies, no proper health care. And all that for a 3 soldiers (2 held in Lebanon, 1 in Gaza)! Do they really expect us to believe that all this is just because of those 3 soldiers? No, Israel has bigger plans behind this. As I said earlier, they looked for an excuse, and now they found one.

And you really can't say that Israel is defending themselves. What they do now is trying to overthrow Palestinian government that is democraticly and legally chosen.

Hezbollah is'nt even a military organization! Hezbollah decided to do this all on their own. The UN voted and decided to disarm these types of groups and Hezbollah has not complied. Iran is supplying them and Syria is allowing movement of weapons through their country.

[Sentenza]

I was wrong about the Gaza strip. But Hezbollah did cross into Israel and thats the bottom line. And the media sure is twisting shit. If you saw a military map of the airstrikes you would see that Lebanon is striking far more than Israel. Doesnt matter anyway....we are all going to pick sides. Obviously we have.

Ok. Let's say those two Israelian soldiers were captured at the borderline and not at the Lebanon's ground. Still that don't justify Israel's acts at the Lebanon ground. First of all, it was Hizbollah that captured those soldiers, not Lebanon. Lebanon's new government is supported by US and is mainly Christian as US wanted it that way. The government there has nothing to do with Hizbollah, although Hizbollah has a pretty firm supporting among the people of Lebanon.

Secondly, Israel itself has hundreds of Lebanese and Palestinian people locked up in their prisons (lot of them are under 16-years old kids). Huge majority of those prisoners are captured in Lebanon or Palestine soil. Both, Palestine and Lebanon has demanded those prisoners to be free or atleast move them to their own prisons. Israel has always denied that and on top of that they even captured a short time ago 20 Palestinian ministers and members of the parliament! What crimes have they been accused? Why Israel arrested them?

And now Israel is bombing government departments, hospitals, electricity plants, roads, bridges, civilian houses, fleeing citizens. Already hundreds of dead civilians, nearly two million people without electricity, no food supplies, no proper health care. And all that for a 3 soldiers (2 held in Lebanon, 1 in Gaza)! Do they really expect us to believe that all this is just because of those 3 soldiers? No, Israel has bigger plans behind this. As I said earlier, they looked for an excuse, and now they found one.

And you really can't say that Israel is defending themselves. What they do now is trying to overthrow Palestinian government that is democraticly and legally chosen.

Hezbollah is'nt even a military organization! Hezbollah decided to do this all on their own. The UN voted and decided to disarm these types of groups and Hezbollah has not complied. Iran is supplying them and Syria is allowing movement of weapons through their country.

Its all a fucked up game.....
I can understand both sides. On one hand Israel in spite of their military power is surrounded by enemies that wait for their chance. They have to defend themselves for sure and that takes drastic measures sometimes.

On the other hand i can understand the Hizbollah because they are the only and last effective organization fighting and defending themselves against Israel (just like the fundamentalists Israel DOES terroristic acts against arab civilians).
If they would allow themselves to be disarmed, there would be no one left and Israel would reign supreme in that region and i dont believe that it would be to for the best of the arabs.
The demand of Israel to disarm Hizbollah is futile, cause it would just mean that palestinians and Lebanese would be completely defenseless.
No one would do the of course. Its a question of common sense that you dont put down your gun, when your enemy has still one.

[Sentenza]

And Israel is aiming at the destruction of Hizbollah, which is completey unrealistic.
Even if they kill Nasralla, the chief of the Hizbollah, there are already ten people in line to follow him.
And every killed Lebanese civilian will only create ten more suicide bombers that will hit Israel when the next chance is given.
Every orphan they create will grab an AK 47 when old enough and hate Israel even more.

What they are doing now CANT be the solution.War and killings cant be the solution. They try it like that for almost 60 years now. Has it worked? Obviously no.

This way they are only digging their grave in the long run, because time is playing for the arabs.

[Christina Marie]

And Israel is aiming at the destruction of Hizbollah, which is completey unrealistic.

And I completely agre with you there, but they are fighting "the good fight".

Even if they kill Nasralla, the chief of the Hizbollah, there are already ten people in line to follow him.

Once again...agreed.

And every killed Lebanese civilian will only create ten more suicide bombers that will hit Israel when the next chance is given.
Every orphan they create will grab an AK 47 when old enough and hate Israel even more.

Sad but true, yes

What they are doing now CANT be the solution.War and killings cant be the solution. They try it like that for almost 60 years now. Has it worked? Obviously no.

It is written.:cry:

This way they are only digging their grave in the long run, because time is playing for the arabs.

It is written

[Sentenza]

And I completely agre with you there, but they are fighting "the good fight".

Under certain circumstances yes. But Israel has also participated in senseless bloodshed and massacres.
The average olive-farmer in Palestine does not care too much about politics, but if Israel bombs his house and kills his family because his neighbour was a terrorist he will jump the band-wagon of israel haters.

And i also think Israel wants to keep Terrorism alive in a sense.

Without Terrorism, there would be no need and reason for the US to pay for Israel anymore.

[Sentenza]

In addition,Israel has killed more civilians, than Terrorists have. 620 children in the last four years alone.

They should stop that and just fight the terrorists.

[Sentenza]

Than these fucking terrorist idiots would have less support in the arab world.

[Christina Marie]

In addition,Israel has killed more civilians, than Terrorists have. 620 children in the last four years alone.

They should stop that and just fight the terrorists.

Thats impossible when the terrorists are scattered amongst civilians. Its called casualties of war.

[punamusta]

Hezbollah is'nt even a military organization! Hezbollah decided to do this all on their own. The UN voted and decided to disarm these types of groups and Hezbollah has not complied. Iran is supplying them and Syria is allowing movement of weapons through their country.

Hizbollah is both military and political organization that was formed to fight against Israel's occupation 1982. Western world sees them as a terrorist organization, as arabs sees it as a "revolutionary" political organization that sustains schools, hospitals and orphan asylums. I guess you could compare Hizbollah to old Black Panthers... Religion is not that dominant aspect for Hizbollah as Western media tells it to be.

And Hizbollah is not going to give up their guns as long as Israel is threatening neighboring arab countries and shooting missiles to them. They want to sustain their ability to defend themselves.

[punamusta]

And about these "terrorists". There is no way to fight against terrorism with violence. How you going to fight a war against the terrorism as the war is what is terrorizing?

To stop the kind of acts that Western world has defined to be terrorism people need to start to respect their culture even though it's different from ours, and try to help them on things they want to be helped. Also all the western (meaning American) military bases should be moved away from the arab countries. Besides that Israel needs to recognize Palestine as an independet country and pull out their forces from Palestine's soil. Also every colony needs to be pull down and Israel has to withdraw from the occupied territories. If that won't happen, Middle East will never be peaceful.

And western world must also let arab countries (and every other country also) to let them make business with their own terms. They have a right to sell their natural resources to anyone they like or keep those resources for themselves.

[punamusta]

Here's few blogs to follow up what's happening currently in Lebanon:

http://siegeoflebanon.blogspot.com/
http://lebanonupdates.blogspot.com/
http://sanayehreliefcenter.blogspot.com/

[Christina Marie]

2 young boys killed by missile in Nazareth
GABE ROSS
Associated Press

NAZARETH, Israel - Hezbollah rockets Wednesday slammed into this Arab-Israeli town revered as the place where Jesus grew up, killing two young brothers as they played outside and wounding 18 other people, Israeli authorities said.

The attack on Nazareth - the first by the Lebanese guerrillas to reach near important holy sites - came hours after Israeli troops engaged in a fierce firefight with Hezbollah inside Lebanon, a clash that killed two soldiers and one militant.

Nazareth residents ran to a building in flames from one of the airstrikes to help firefighters unwind hoses. Another strike killed brothers ages 3 and 9, police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld said. Television footage showed a large crater in the middle of the road.

"It's a vacation and it's afternoon so where will they go if not to play in the streets?" Mohammed Assawi, who saw the attack, told Israel's Channel 10. "It is unpleasant to say what we saw."

Nazareth is the largest Israeli-Arab town in the country and the center of Arab life in northern Israel.

It also is a key site in Christian tradition. The Galilee town of 70,000 people is filled with churches, including the Basilica of the Annunciation, the largest basilica in the Middle East, which towers over the town center. The basilica stands on the site where Christians believe the Angel Gabriel appeared before Mary and told her of the coming birth of Jesus.

Previous attacks during the 8-day-old rocket barrage have hit the nearby Jewish town of Upper Nazareth.

A total of 18 people were wounded in the attacks on Nazareth, Rosenfeld said. Police had previously reported that a third person was killed but later said that report was incorrect.

No sirens went off to warn Nazareth of the impending rocket strike, said Cabinet Minister Haim Ramon, expressing regret and saying the problem needed to be fixed. Air raid sirens routinely sound in many Jewish towns before a rocket attack, but local Arab leader Shawki al Khatib said the town had no sirens.

He said he was not surprised the town was hit.

"A Katyusha that is fired does not discriminate," he told Israel's Channel 2 TV.

Earlier Wednesday, a special unit of Israeli troops entered several miles into southern Lebanon in search of tunnels and weapons, sparking an intense clash with Hezbollah guerrillas, military officials said.

Two soldiers were killed in the fighting and nine others were wounded, two moderately, the army said.

Hezbollah then pounded the area with mortars, making it difficult for Israel to rescue the wounded soldiers, military officials said. The mortar attack damaged an Israeli tank that was part of the rescue mission, military officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to reveal details of the attack.

Medics in northern Israel said more than 100 rockets had been fired from south Lebanon during the day. Since fighting began on July 12, 16 Israelis have been killed in rocket attacks.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryn ... 073978.htm

[Christina Marie]

Hezbollah Sharply Rejects Cease-Fire, Say It Will Continue Rocket Strikes
Monday, July 17, 2006

Hezbollah sharply rejected talk of a cease-fire Monday, accusing international proposals for the end of violence a ploy to help Israel continue striking Lebanon.

"The international envoys have conveyed Israeli conditions. These conditions are rejected," said Hezbollah legislator Hussein Haj Hassan. "We accept what secures our country's interest and pride and dignity and not to submit to Israeli conditions," he said on al-Jazeera television.

Hezbollah's Al-Manar television said the envoys arriving in Lebanon are coming for a "clear-cut objective to give more time for enemy aircraft to carry out more destruction and devastation so that someone can raise the banner of surrender."

The guerrilla group remains that it wants an unconditional cease-fire. Al-Manar said it will continue to fire rockets on Israel, warning: "This is the beginning. Beware of our cyclone."

Earlier, a new round of rocket attacks showered several northern Israeli cities, hitting several targets including a hospital and shattering a brief lull in a day fraught with violence.

Guerrillas launched rockets from southern Lebanon striking near a hospital in Safed, the city of Haifa and the border town of Kiryat Shemona, according to Israeli security officials. There were no immediate reports of injuries.


In his first address to the Knesset since the nation began an offensive against Hezbollah six days ago, Olmert pledged that Israel would "not be a hostage" to terrorists and the fight was one "for the right to live a normal life."

"When missiles are launched at our residents and our towns, our answer will be war waged at full strength, with all determination, courage and sacrifice," he said after a day of attacks on the Lebanese border, including a hail of Lebanese-fired rockets raining down on the northern Israeli city of Haifa.

"We are not looking for war or direct conflict, but if necessary we will not be frightened by it," he added.

An airstrike in Lebanon destroyed at least one long-range Iranian missile capable of hitting Tel Aviv, Israeli military officials said.

Israeli aircraft targeted a truck carrying the weapons before they could be launched, the officials said speaking on the condition of anonymity because of military regulations.

Earlier Israeli bulldozers protected by tanks entered Lebanon to knock out Hezbollah-controlled buildings and guerrilla holdouts, an Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson said.

Three U.S. military helicopters were being used to transport Americans from Beirut to Cyprus, with more expected to arrive Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told FOX News. A Greek ship, the Orient Queen, was set to arrive Tuesday to ferry people from Lebanon to Cyprus; it will travel under U.S. Naval escort, if necessary, Whitman said.

Lebanese television broadcast video of what it said was an Israeli F-16 being shot out of the sky. But the IDF denied that any of their aircraft had been shot down.

Israel "is actually doing its work in the war against terror," Dan Gillerman told FOX News. Gillerman, the Israeli ambassador to the U.N., likened Hezbollah to a cancer in the body of Lebanon.

"If we succeed in removing Hezbollah and disarming Hezbollah, Lebanon will be better off, the region will be better off and the whole world will be better off," Gillerman said.

At least six people were injured, including one seriously, when Hezbollah rockets caused a building to partially collapse in Haifa, Israel's third-largest city.

Initially, medics feared other people could be trapped beneath the rubble. Holes were blown in the building's two top stories, and the inside was singed black by the rocket's blast.

More rockets also fell on the city of Tiberias, the Sea of Galilee, and Safed and Acre.

Israeli missiles hit the Lebanese capital shortly after sunrise, as three loud explosions rocked the southern suburbs while another strike sparked a large fire in Beirut's port, witnesses said.

"It will lead to further despair, further extremism in the region," Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora told FOX News. "This is not the way to deal with the situation."

The strikes came as the Israeli military said a Hezbollah rocket had fallen south of Haifa, the southernmost point hit by the Lebanese guerrilla in six days of escalating conflict.

In Beirut's southern suburbs, Lebanese TV showed columns of smoke rising from the Hezbollah stronghold, which was pummeled on Sunday after a Hezbollah rocket killed eight people in Haifa.

Israeli air raids had killed 13 people and wounded at least 53 throughout Lebanon on Monday. Eight of the dead were Lebanese soldiers killed when aircraft bombed a position at the country's northern border.

The Israeli army spokesman said there were about 60 Israeli strikes overnight, including aircraft and artillery, concentrated around the Baalbek area in the eastern Bekaa valley, where two people died.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,203908,00.html

[punamusta]

Pictures from the demonstration held in Tel Aviv, Israel against Israel's act of war -> http://gush-shalom.org/pics/telaviv-16-7-06/ [takes a while to load] Good to see that peace activist in Israel are voicing out their concerns! There's also been demonstrations all over Europe and US aswell. Here's a link to an Israelian page that gathers up different kind of solidarity actions held all over the world -> http://zope.gush-shalom.org/home/en [find out if your city has demonstrations and take part!]

Already 56 Lebanese civilians died today on Israel's air strikes and Israel's ground forces crossed the Lebanon's border. Things really don't look good at this moment.


Israeli kids writing their hellos to the missiles that will be shooted to Lebanon.