For Mr Shami and others from the successful and settled Lebanese community in the US the relief at escaping the violence is mixed with deep feelings of anger and guilt at the actions of their government.Indeed, this man understands because he has lived it. It is only when you have watched your home destroyed, your friends and family murdered, that you can See the inhumanity, you can See that someone consciously ordered these inhuman acts and that they themselves must embody that inhumanity. Few are like Condi Rice, it is true, but a handful of Condi Rices, Dick Cheneys, Donald Rumsfelds and Ehud Olmerts are all that is needed to ensure the murder of millions.
"My father is of Lebanese birth and my mother is American", said Mr Shami, a 21-year-old student from Michigan. " I am very proud of my mother and the American people. All I can say is that most American people are not like Condoleezza Rice, they are not like George Bush; they have a sense of decency."
I don't know what has happened to Cpl. Gilad Shalit. I don't know if he was captured, or, if he was, I don't know how he was captured. Frankly, I don't even know that he actually exists apart from the pictures of him that we have all seen. One hopes that these are all questions that will eventually be answered.
I do know, however, that there is something extraordinarily odd about the story the Israeli Defence Force claim is behind his disappearance. In particular it's the part about the tunnel which I can't get to grips with.
As an engineer I've given the notion of digging a tunnel which the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs tells us was some 650 metres long,[1] dug under sand across the Gaza border into Israel some thought. I'm beginning to wonder whether this is actually feasible especially considering that it would have to be built covertly and across the terrain that Israel claims. A 650 metre long covert tunnel being constructed under sand is a considerable undertaking the logistics of which would be enormous. The tunnel, even a crawl tunnel measuring 900mm x 900mm in cross section, would require 100% full shoring if actually constructed in sand and at least 60% if constructed in clay/soil. That means all that shoring material, literally tonnes of it, would have to be loaded down the shaft of the tunnel head and then transported along the tunnel to the tunnel face where one man at the face would have to position it and then excavate out the next section of tunnel with all the problems that that involves in shifting the excavated material back down the tunnel to the head shaft where it would have to be disposed of. Rock would be out of the question because of the noise of hammering through it and the extra logistics of getting hammer equipment to the face.
Now, 0.9m wide x 0.9m high x 650m long tunnel would require 526 cubic metres of excavation to be removed at, say, 1.3 tonnes per cubic metre if dry, that's 684 tonnes of dirt to dispose of. A good three-axle semi trailer would take about 30 tonnes a load so that's about 23 semi-trailer loads.
A tunnel this size will also require ventilating. This could be done by boring vertical holes to the surface and simply casing the holes with flexible plastic pipe. However, there is a very large section of ploughed-up no-mans land that is under constant surveillance and a few bits of pipe sticking up out of the ground could arouse a suspicion that we be an unacceptable risk. Alternatively, a simple fan could be used to pump air along the tunnel but to fully ventilate a 650m long tunnel would require a fairly large fan to counter the back pressure of such a long pipe. Not impossible, but a lot of work.
The real problems in building a tunnel under these conditions is 1) the problem of disguising the head shaft of the tunnel, which could be solved by building from within an existing structure like a house or a shed, though this would not solve the problem of 2) disguising the delivery of equipment and shoring material and, worse, disposing of the excavated material.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs in their communiqué have included a photo-map of where they claim the incident took place and even where the tunnel is supposed to be. From this it is very easy to locate the same spot on Google Earth.[2]
The images for this area are exceptionally clear and one can see very clearly the area being referred to and the adjoining and adjacent areas including the old and now disused Gaza airport. (One can clearly see that sections of the runways have been ripped up rendering them unserviceable.) One can also see clearly the area of no-mans land between the paddocks on the Israeli side of the fence where the Israeli soldiers were said to be and the sole small building that appears to be no larger than a shed where, if a tunnel was built at all, the head shaft would be located. Running the computers cursor from the paddocks to the shed and surrounding area one will notice that elevations vary only a few feet over many hundreds of metres. In other words the land is all but flat. One will also notice that it is featureless in terms of trees. All of this means that Israeli observation conditions of the area is very good. Very little over a period of time would escape surveillance their.
The bottom line is that it would be impossible to build a tunnel, especially under these conditions of secrecy that one needs to ask; was there really a tunnel? And, if not, then what's the real story? Why have the Israelis lied - again?
[1] Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs Communiqué, 'Two soldiers killed, one missing in Karem Shalom terror attack', 25 June 2006. Available online here. Accessed 15 July 2006.
[2] Go to 'Google Earth', 31° 14' 22.34" N, 34° 17' 03.50" E, Zoom in to Eye Altitude of around 10,000ft for clear view of entire area then zoom in for closer detail as required.
Editor's comment: The clear fact is that the state of Israel is entirely dependent on a state of "war", the continued existence of "Arab terrorism", to enable it to continue its expansionist goals. Israel has a history of provoking and staging fake terror attacks that it then uses as justifcation for the further oppression and marginalisation of Palestinian aspirations to a state of their own.
The current opportunity for Israel to implement its long-held plans for the dismemberment of neighboring Arab states was provided by the "capture" of Gilad Shalit. The capture of one Israeli soldier is a ridiculous premise on which to initiate a Middle Eastern war, and it is entirely possible therefore that Israel is indeed lying about the capture of Shalit. While it is possible that no such tunnel existed and the entire Hamas operation transpired in another way, or indeed, that Hamas was not involved at all, it is also possible that this was a case of "LIHOP" - let it happen on purpose. As reported by the Israeli daily Harretz, Israeli intelligence was aware months in advance that a plan to attack the look-out post was planned by Hamas, yet they did nothing to stop it. This fact leads us to conclude that it is very likely that, if the tunnel existed, Israel knew about it also.
It has been alleged that the area of the southern border of the Gaza strip with Egypt has long been the source of Palestinian gun-running from Egypt. For this reason, the Israeli military has focused on this area in its attempts to develop technology to pinpoint such tunnels. Indeed, in 2004, it was stated that the Israeli military was on the verge of developing just such technology. Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Boim is on record as having stated:
"I think we are on the verge of finding such a technical solution. At least for detecting tunnels in the Philadelfi area, which cross the international border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, and this will prevent the Palestinians from smuggling in weapons."
The tunnel that was allegedly used by Hamas to attack the post where Shalit was captured just happens to be right in this area. It is highly probable then that the Israeli military and government was indeed well aware of this tunnel but chose to leave it open in order to facilitate the attack on the post and the capture of Shalit who along with his comrades, it seems likely, was simply used as bait and ultiamte justification for Israel to launch it final solution to its Arab problem.
Some things never change it seems in this phony "war on terror".
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Israeli planes dropped leaflets telling residents to clear the zone after officials met to decide how big a force to send in, according to senior military officials.
They said Israel would not stop its offensive until Hizbullah was forced behind the Litani river, 20 miles north of the border - creating a new buffer zone in a region that saw Israeli occupation between 1982 and 2000. Reservists in northern Israel were ordered to report for duty later today.
"It's possible that in the coming days our ground operations will increase," Brigadier General Alon Friedman told the Maariv newspaper. "We have many forces, we will carry out a massive recruitment of reserves and it's possible that many more forces ... will reach the border in the next few days."
The Lebanese defence minister said Lebanon's army was ready to defend the country against any land offensive by Israel. Elias al-Murr, when asked if the Lebanese army would fight alongside Hizbullah against any land incursion by Israel, told al-Arabiya: "Our constitutional duty is to defend Lebanon as a Lebanese army. This is our role."
This morning Israeli warplanes launched a sustained aerial attack on Tyre. Television pictures showed numerous plumes of smoke rising above the southern Lebanese port city. Shortly after, Hizbullah fighters retaliated, launching a volley of at least five missiles at the Israeli city of Haifa. Ten people were injured in the attack, Israeli authorities said.
At least 319 people have been killed in Lebanon by the Israeli campaign, according to Lebanese security officials. At least 34 Israelis have been killed, including 19 soldiers - two of them killed in yesterday's fighting. Early today, one air force officer died and three were injured when two Israeli helicopters collided near the Lebanese border.
Hizbullah said two of its fighters had been killed in the latest fighting with Israeli troops, bringing to five the number of guerrillas killed since Israel launched a massive military campaign against Lebanon and the militant Shia Muslim group on July 12.
Meanwhile, the evacuation of foreigners from Beirut continued. The Royal Navy assault ship HMS Bulwark was today expected to head back to the area after it dropped off around 1,800 Britons evacuated yesterday in Cyprus.
It also emerged that the radical Muslim preacher, Omar Bakri Mohammed, who abruptly left Britain last summer, had been barred from boarding HMS Bulwark in Beirut. The founder of the hardline al-Muhajiroun group asked to be allowed to leave on humanitarian grounds to see his family who still live in the UK. Mr Bakri's indefinite leave to remain in Britain was revoked by the former home secretary Charles Clarke after he left the country.
Around 2,200 evacuated Americans were also arriving in Cyprus today as the island's foreign minister, Georgios Lillikas, said authorities were braced to receive 20,000 Canadians among the tens of thousands of evacuees.
US Brigadier General Carl Jensen, who is in charge of the operation to remove Americans from Lebanon, told Reuters that a second country may offer to take evacuees and help ease the burden on Cyprus.
"It's another country in the area. We may know as early as today or tomorrow," he said. US diplomatic sources said it was most likely to be Turkey, where a Canadian ship with evacuees had already docked, according to Reuters.
The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, who yesterday denounced Israel for "excessive use of force", is due to meet the US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, later today to discuss the crisis. The Bush administration - which has resisted calls for it to press Israel to halt the fighting - is likely to send Ms Rice to Israel on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Lebanese people continued leaving the south of the country, streaming north to Beirut and other regions, where they crowded into schools, homes of relatives or hotels. Taxi drivers in the south were charging up to $400 (£215) per person for rides to the capital, more than 40 times the usual price. In remote villages of the south, cut off by air strikes, residents made their way out over the mountains by foot.
The UN estimated that about a half a million people had been displaced in Lebanon, with 130,000 fleeing to Syria and about 45,000 believed to be in need of assistance.
A World Food Programme official in Lebanon, Amer Daoudi, expressed concern about getting food to the displaced, saying "damage to roads and bridges has almost completely disrupted the food supply chain, hurting large numbers of the displaced".
The Lebanese prime minister, Fuad Saniora, said more than 55 bridges across the country had been destroyed, and that Israeli forces had also targeted ambulances and medical convoys. "This attack is no longer against Hizbullah; it is an attack against the Lebanese and Lebanon," Mr Saniora told CNN.
With the Israelis blockading ports and bombarding roads to Syria, it has been almost impossible to replenish Lebanon's food and fuel supplies. The cost of goods was therefore rising steeply, with the price of cooking gas nearly doubling to $20 (£11) and that of some vegetables nearly quadrupling.
The UN and Red Cross said the humanitarian situation in Lebanon was deteriorating rapidly as the country became more isolated.
A large explosion shook Beirut shortly after daybreak today. Media reports said the strike had hit the Lebanese capital's southern suburbs, a Hizbullah stronghold. Al-Jazeera reported that one person had been killed and another wounded. Israeli aircraft hit the town of Nabi Sheet in the eastern Bekaa valley, witnesses said.
More than 300,000 people are believed to live south of the Litani - which has twice been the borderline for Israeli buffer zones. In 1978, Israel invaded as far as the Litani to drive back Palestinian guerrillas, withdrawing from most of the south months later.
Israel invaded Lebanon again in a much bigger operation in June 1982, when its forces seized parts of Beirut. It eventually carved out a buffer zone that stopped at the Litani. That zone was reduced gradually but the Israeli presence lasted until 2000, when it withdrew its troops completely from the country.
"Israeli warplanes targeted for the first time a Christian area [the Ashrafiyah neighborhood] of eastern Beirut on Wednesday morning," reports Adnkronos International.
"During the night the Israeli air and naval forces also targeted another prevalently Christian area, the southern suburb of Hadeth. The junction that takes to the closed Semaan tunnel was struck and a fire broke out in a shrine with a votive cross on top. The areas of Shweifat and Choueifat were targeted in the south-eastern suburbs," adds Spero News.
"Lebanese believe that not a single inch of their country is beyond the whir of Israeli warplanes, the hiss of a falling bomb or the devastating explosion when one hits," explains the Mercury News.
Meanwhile, the Brits are taking issue with the Israelis, not for bombing Lebanon per se but rather because "right-wing Israelis" are celebrating killing British.
"The rightwingers, including Binyamin Netanyahu, the former Prime Minister, are commemorating the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquarters of British rule, that killed 92 people and helped to drive the British from Palestine," reports the Times Online. "They have erected a plaque [in tribute to the terrorist group Irgun] outside the restored building, and are holding a two-day seminar with speeches and a tour of the hotel by one of the Jewish resistance fighters involved in the attack.... The controversy over the plaque and the two-day celebration of the bombing, sponsored by Irgun veterans and the right-wing Menachem Begin Heritage Centre, goes to the heart of the debate over the use of political violence in the Middle East. Yesterday Mr. Netanyahu argued in a speech celebrating the attack that the Irgun were governed by morals, unlike fighters from groups such as Hamas."
In other words, terrorism is moral when it is unleashed by Zionists. Likewise, we are told ad nauseam by the pro-Israel corporate media, Israel's mass murder campaign in Lebanon is moral because it is "self defense," never mind that the babies and grandmothers slaughtered never lifted a hand against Israel. Obviously, it is a punishable offense to be born Arab. The fact one is a Christian does not serve as a hall pass.
While the Brits whine about "right-wing" (in a word, fascist) Israelis killing their colonial officers and celebrating it, few talk about the crimes perpetuated against the Lebanese.
In 1982, during "Operation Peace for Galilee" (as in the tombstone epitaph, rest in peace), Lebanon was not only a killing ground, it was also systematically looted. "Twenty thousand Palestinians and Lebanese died, 25,000 were wounded and 400,000 were made homeless during the first months of the 1982 Israeli invasion. The tonnages dropped on Beirut alone surpassed those of the atomic bomb which devastated Hiroshima. Schools and hospitals were particularly targeted," writes Ralph Schoenman (The Hidden History of Zionism).
Virtually all rolling stock and heavy equipment from Lebanese factories were looted and taken to Israel. Even the lathes and smaller machine tools from the U.N.R.W.A. vocational training centers were pillaged.
The citrus and olive production of Lebanon south of Beirut was destroyed. The Lebanese economy, whose exports had competed with Israel's, became moribund. The south of Lebanon became an Israeli market even as the headwaters of the Litani River, like the Jordan River before it, were diverted by the Israelis.
The author of this book experienced the bombing and siege of West Beirut in 1982, lived with Palestinians in the ruins of Ain El Helweh during Israeli occupation and witnessed the devastation in the Palestinian camps of Rashidya, El Bas, Burj al lamali, Mieh Mieh, Burj al Burajneh, Sabra and Shatila, as well as the destruction of the Lebanese towns and villages throughout the south.
The accounts of Israeli enactment of the massacre of Sabra and Shatila have been substantiated by this author, who was present in the camps on the final day of slaughter. He and Mya Shone photographed Israeli tanks and soldiers in Sabra and Shatila and spoke to the survivors over a period of four days.
Israel is currently revisiting these horrors on Lebanon as I write. Lebanon, an example of a modern and multi-ethnic Arab society that works, must be destroyed, as the Arabs, according to the vile ideology of "right-wing" Israelis such as Binyamin Netanyahu, must never be allowed to prosper.
Moreover, Lebanon serves as the template for the larger Zionist plan to balkanize the neighborhood. "Lebanon was the model, prepared for its role by the Israelis for thirty years, as the Sharett diaries revealed. It is the expansionist compulsion set forth by Herzl and Ben Gurion even as it is the logical extension of the Sharett diaries. The dissolution of Lebanon was proposed in 1919, planned in 1936, launched in 1954 and realized in 1982," Schoenman continues, and then quotes the late Israel Shahak:
Lebanon's total dissolution into five provinces serves as a precedent for the entire Arab world including Egypt, Syria, Iraq and the Arabian peninsula and is already following that track. The subsequent dissolution of Syria and Iraq into ethnically or religiously unique areas, as in Lebanon, is Israel's primary target on the Eastern front in the long run. The dissolution of the military power of these states serves as the primary short-term target.
"Each Arab state is examined with a view to assessing how it may be disassembled. Wherever minority religious groupings are present in the army, [Oded Yinon] sees opportunity," Schoenman explains.
Yinon's plan for Arab and Muslim balkanization, drafted at the precise time Israel was bombarding Lebanon in 1982, was "shared by many people in power" in Israel, according to its author.
"But the article clearly doesn't represent any official Israeli view. Instead, it's an example of the contentious internal debate about Israeli policy that goes on daily in the Hebrew press. Moreover, the Arab reaction to the article may indicate more about Arab fears than the article itself does about Israeli intentions," opined a dismissive Wall Street Journal on December 8, 1982. "Still, given the current fragile situation in the Middle East, in which some Lebanese leaders are accusing Israel of encouraging religious strife between Lebanon's Christian and Druse Moslem sects, Mr. Yinon's article makes interesting reading."
"Every Arab state ... especially those with cohesive and clear nationalist directions, is a real target sooner or later," writes Khalil Nakhleh in the publisher's note of Israel Shahak's translation of Yinon's A Strategy for Israel in the Nineteen Eighties. "This is not a new idea, nor does it surface for the first time in Zionist strategic thinking. Indeed, fragmenting all Arab states into smaller units has been a recurrent theme," as revealed by Livia Rokach.
In her book, Israel's Sacred Terrorism, Rokach argues that the "inter-Lebanese conflict," invented by Ben Gurion "from scratch," was "attributed, shamelessly, to Israeli security needs," a cynical effort to exploit "terror and aggression to provoke or create the appearance of an Arab threat to Israel's existence" in order to force the "partition and subordination of that country to Israel." According to Rokach, "a detailed blueprint... was elaborated by Israel more than fifteen years before the Palestinian presence became a political factor in Lebanon," that is well before Israel used Palestinian "terrorism" (resistance to occupation and brutality) as an excuse to decimate its neighbor in 1982.
Now the excuse is Hezbollah. Lebanese PM "Siniora told Milan-based newspaper Corriere della Sera that the Shi'ite militia has been doing the bidding of Syria and Iran, and that it can only be disarmed with the help of the international community and once a cease-fire has been achieved in the current Middle East fighting," reports Haaretz. "It's not a mystery that Hezbollah answers to the political agendas of Tehran and Damascus," Siniora was quoted as saying by Corriere. "The entire world must help us disarm Hezbollah. But first we need to reach a cease-fire."
Of course, attempting to disarm Hezbollah-that is to say set the resistance organization up to be slaughtered by Israel-will result in yet another Lebanese civil war, as Shi'ites will once again turn against Christians, with international "peacekeepers" caught in the middle, and this will further reduce the country, as long planned.
Finally, the corporate media, working feverishly to blame Hezbollah for Israel's provocations, admits Hezbollah is a military force to be reckoned with.
"Hezbollah's ability to use relatively advanced weapons in the last week of fighting against Israel, as well as the variety of its armaments, has surprised U.S. military experts, current and former officials involved in Middle East policy said," writes the Los Angeles Times, making sure to blame the next target on the neocon hit list. "The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because intelligence matters are involved, said Hezbollah fighters, once viewed as a ragtag group of guerrillas, appear to have received training by Iran in sophisticated missile technologies. Some of the training may have taken place in Iran, they said.... Israeli intelligence officials said assistance, including basic weapons and supplies, continues to flow from Iran. One Israeli intelligence official said there was new evidence that Iran had stepped up arms shipments through Camp Zabadani, a longtime base that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard maintains in Syria, near the Lebanese border."
In other words, in order to take out Hezbollah, according to these Israeli "analysts," Syria and Iran must be attacked. Of course, even if Israel or the United States attack Syria and Iran, this will not end the resistance in Lebanon.
"The
Israelis believe they have had some effect, but Hezbollah remains in
this fight," Jon B. Alterman, a senior fellow at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies in Washington and a Bush neocon,
told the LA Times. "They can sustain this for quite some time," thus
providing the criminal and genocidal state of Israel all the reason
more to attack the innocent and defenseless, including their erstwhile
"friends," the Maronite Christians of Lebanon. If Wayne Madsen's sources are correct, the Israelis are now using poison gas against the "uncivilized tribes" of Lebanon. "According to a former U.S. weapons expert who served in Iraq, the artillery shell in a photo taken in Lebanon (see photo here) is a chemical weapon delivery device. It is being handled by an Israeli Defense Force soldier and Hebrew lettering can be clearly seen on the armored vehicle. Another chemical weapons shell of the same type can be seen lying on the ground to the right. It is not known what type of chemical is in the chemical canister, however, gas dropped by the Israelis in villages in southern Lebanon has resulted in severe vomiting among the civilian population" (see as well this schematic). "Media commentators have scoffed that Israel, with its relatively unique history, would ever use chemical weapons or poison gas in any war. It is precisely because of that perception that they are using such weapons. The deniability factor prevents the media from taking seriously the credible reports of banned weapons being used by the Israelis." Of course, the stenographers laboring diligently for the corporate media would not dare to mention Israel's well-documented history of biological and chemical terrorism against innocent and unwitting Arab non-combatants. In 1948, as the Zionists ethnically cleansed Palestine, the Acre aqueduct was targeted. "The Zionists injected typhoid in the aqueduct at some intermediate point which passes through Zionist settlements," writes Salman Abu-Sitta, president of Palestine Land Society in London. According to Abu-Sitta, a report issued by the Lebanese Red Cross stated that there are at least 70 known civilian casualties, others may not be reported. It was determined that the infection is "water borne", not due to crowded or unhygienic conditions as claimed by the Israelis. It was decided that a substitute water supply should now come from artesian wells or from the agricultural station, just north of Acre (see map), not from the aqueduct. Water chlorine solution was applied, inoculation of civil population started, movement of civil population was controlled (lest refugees heading north towards Lebanon will carry the typhoid epidemic with them, as intended by the Zionists).... The city of Acre, now burdened by the epidemic, fell easy prey to the Zionists. They intensified their bombardment. Trucks carrying loudspeakers proclaimed, "Surrender or commit suicide. We will destroy you to the last man." That was not a figure of speech. Palumbo, in The Palestinian Catastrophe, notes the "typical" case of Mohamed Fayez Soufi. Soufi with friends went to get food from their homes in a new Acre suburb. They were caught by Zionist soldiers and forced at gun point to drink cyanide. Soufi faked swallowing the poison. The others were not so lucky, they died in half an hour. In addition, the Zionist state attempted to poison a water system in Gaza. The commander of the Egyptian Forces in Palestine communicated the following to General Headquarters in Cairo: 15.20 hrs, 24 May [1948] Our Intelligence forces captured two Jews, David Horeen and David Mizrahi, loitering around army positions. They were interrogated and confessed they had been sent by Officer Moshe to poison the army [and the peoples'] water supply. They carried with them water bottles divided in the middle. The top part has potable water and the bottom part has a liquid contaminated with typhoid and dysentery, equipped with a rear opening from which the liquid can be released. They confessed they were members of a 20-strong team sent from Rehovot for the same purpose. Both have written their confession in Hebrew and signed it. We have taken the necessary medical precautions. Salman Abu-Sitta also suspects two cholera outbreaks, one in Egypt and a second in Syria, claiming the lives of over 10,000 people, were caused by the Israelis, although the evidence is less convincing. In a report entitled Bioterrorism and Biocrimes: The Illicit Use of Biological Agents since 1900, Dr. W. Seth Carus of the Center for Counterproliferation Research, National Defense University, stated under a subtitle, Case 1947-01: "Zionist" Terrorists 1947-1948, "Jews plan to use this inhuman weapon against the Arabs in the Middle East in their war of extermination." Carus also documents the comments of David Horeen's sister, Rachel Katzman: "I met one of [my brother's] commanders in a lecture in Jerusalem. I asked him whether my brother had really attempted to poison wells. 'These were the weapons we had', he said, 'and that's that.'" Israel has plenty of other weapons, gratis the United States and its own burgeoning weapons program, but it appears it prefers to augment its arsenal with chemical weapons. "The Palestinian ministry of health revealed on [July 11, 2006] that the Israeli army has used a new type of explosive in its offensive on the Gaza Strip. These explosives contain toxics and radioactive materials which burn and tear the victim's body from the inside and leave long term deformations.... The ministry showed that most of the injuries which the hospitals receive result from huge explosions which cause burning and severing of limbs, including the inner parts of the body. This causes long term deformations.... It is added that doctors in Gaza have been forced to amputate limbs of at least 12 injured Palestinians as a result of injuries sustained in the current Israeli offensive on the Strip," reports Electronic Intifada. In an earlier instance, the IOF apparently used an "unidentified gas" in the Khan Younis refugee camp. "Medical sources at Nasir Hospital in Khan Yunis have announced that more than 40 Palestinians suffered a strange case of hysteria and nervous breakdown because they inhaled a toxic gas fired for the first time by the occupation army during the bombing of Palestinian areas," the Voice of Palestine in Ramallah reported (see the script for the documentary film, Gaza Strip, a PDF document). "Specialists believe that this is an internationally banned nerve gas. Dr Muhammad Abdallah Abd-al-Mun'im, official in charge of medical teams who treated the injured, said that the gas bombs fired last night on the western camp of Khan Yunis gave off heavy yellowish and highly-concentrated smoke. Those who inhaled it, he said, suffered a nervous breakdown and vomited blood. Abd-al-Mun'im said this gas is not the same kind that was fired by the occupation forces previously and that it is the first time that the doctors have seen this." Indeed, the corporate media, faithfully pro-Israel, may "scoff" at the allegation Israel is now using chemical weapons in Lebanon. However during the 1982 invasion the Soviet Union accused Israel of using "barbarous" weapons, including chemical weapons (see this timeline posted on the Vermonters for a Just Peace in Palestine/Israel website). When it comes to using biolog
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Belgian doctors accuse Israel of using chemical weapons in Lebanon
July 20, 2006
IRNA
Eight bodies of victims killed by the use of chemical weapons have been found in Lebanon, a group of Belgian doctors of Lebanese-origin told a press conference in Brussels Thursday.
Professor Bachir Cham, a Belgian surgeon of Lebanese origin, addressed the press conference via mobile phone direct from Beirut.
He said all the eight bodies bought to the hospital in Sidon turned black but bore no burn marks and chemical substances were found on their bodies.
Cham said the chemical bombs were dropped by Israeli planes.
Dr. Mohammad Farran, an heart specialist, said they had sent letters to the United Nations and the European Union drawing their attention to the use of chemical weapons by Israel in Lebanon.
Michel Aoun, former Lebanese prime minister and current head of the 'Free Patriotic Movement' also spoke directly from Lebanon by mobile phone.
He said 650 people have been killed till now and over 1,000 injured by the Zionist aggression in Lebanon.
Aoun, a Christian Maronite, said a church was also attacked and damaged by Israel.
He said the crisis will not be resolved even if Hizbollah released the two Zionist soldiers and called for a comprehensive settlement of the Middle East problem.
Professor Rudolf Al Kareh of the Belgo-Lebanese society urged the international community to put pressure on Israel for an immediate ceasefire.
He showed a picture displaying Israeli children writing 'gift from Israel' on artillery shells which were fired on Lebanon.
"This is their gift to our children," said al-Kareh.
Jean Abboud, a senior priest representing Tripoli and North Lebanon, said he was ready to go to Israel to mediate a ceasefire and exchange of prisoners between Hizbollah and the Zionist state, but he added that the time was not ripe as yet.
Meanwhile, for the fourth consecutive day Thursday, Arab, Lebanese and Belgian peace activists held a gathering in front of the EU headquarters in Brussels to against the Israeli aggression in Lebanon.
'Israel today is committing a deliberate crime against Lebanon' and 'Stop Israeli terrorism', read placards carried by the demonstrators.
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Dead left to rot in the rubble
Times Online
21/07/2006
UN armoured convoys in Lebanon are unable to retrieve bodies or deliver food, water and other basic supplies, for fear of being shelled by Israeli forces
Yelling for people to move aside, medics burst into the emergency room of the Jabel Amel hospital in Tyre carrying a woman, her head lolling and her body daubed in blood. "Allahu akbar," moans the latest victim of Israel's onslaught on southern Lebanon.
The woman was one of five people - four women and one young man - whose car had been targeted by an Israeli jet on a road near Bourgheliyeh, a tiny, ramshackle village off the coastal road four miles north of Tyre. "Two bombs fell next to each other 15 metres in front of the car," Jihad Daoud, 22, said as he watched his relatives being treated by doctors.
The woman was fortunate. She made it to the hospital. But out in the hinterlands between the Israeli border and the Litani River, the heart of the war zone where the bombardment is most relentless, witnesses say casualties are dying untreated.
UN armoured convoys cannot retrieve the dead and wounded for fear of being shelled themselves and because the roads are so badly cratered. The dead are being left to rot beneath the rubble of their homes. Nor can the UN force, Unifil, deliver food, water and other basic supplies to either its own observation posts near the border, or to scores of Lebanese villages cut off by the fighting.
Unifil is unable even to retrieve its own casualties. Two civilian staff members, a husband and wife from Nigeria, are thought to have been killed in an Israeli raid on Horsh, just south of Tyre, on Tuesday. A convoy of Chinese engineers was unable to reach the scene that day because of Israeli shelling. Yesterday Unifil could not send out any armoured convoys because of the intensity of the shelling and air raids around Tyre.
Ahmad Mrowe, director of the Jabel Amel hospital, said that one casualty who arrived yesterday had been ferried from the village of Siddiqine by eight cars, each driving from one crater to the next. It took eight hours to cover a distance that usually takes 20 minutes.
In the hospital's intensive care unit lay Alia Alieddine, 30, one of only two casualties to reach the hospital from the village of Srifa, ten miles east of Tyre. Israeli jets flattened four homes there overnight. Villagers recovered ten bodies but another twenty-five are thought to be under the rubble.
Connected to breathing tubes and her head heavily bandaged, Ms Alieddine stared blankly at the ceiling. "She suffered major head wounds. Her arm is broken and she lost a lot of blood," Abdullah Abbas, a doctor, said. "Her chances are not good. It is in God's hands."
With Tyre almost cut off from the north, the hospital is running short of supplies. Dr Mrowe said: "We only have enough food and drinking water to last another five or six days. We will stay anyway. We'll never leave."
The Israeli military has broadcast warnings before its raids and hundreds of villagers fled before the shells and missiles struck. The Israelis are also hitting targets that they believe have links to Hezbollah.
But among the refugees in the Rest House hotel in Tyre, few blamed Hezbollah for their misery. When the TV said that Haifa had been struck again by the group's rockets yesterday, one man said to general assent: "Let them suffer as we are suffering."
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The Politics of War
Russia Criticizes Israel for Offensive
By ANTON TROIANOVSKI
Associated Press
Jul 20, 2006
MOSCOW - Russia on Thursday sharply criticized Israel for its offensive against Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, saying it went "far beyond the boundaries of an anti-terrorist operation" and repeating calls for an immediate cease-fire.
The Foreign Ministry said Russia affirms the need to fight terrorism and called for the immediate release of captive Israeli soldiers, but it added that "the unprecedented scale of the casualties and destruction" in Lebanon indicates that Israel is using too much force.
The comment echoed a statement by President Vladimir Putin, who said while hosting a summit of the Group of Eight nations Saturday that Russia had the impression Israel was "pursuing wider goals" than the return of abducted soldiers.
While G-8 leaders cobbled together a statement on the Mideast conflict in a bid to display unity, the criticism of Israel and the cease-fire call contrasted with the U.S. stance. Washington has rejected calls for an immediate cease-fire and blamed Hezbollah for the conflict's intensity.
Russia's Foreign Ministry said "international humanitarian law" demands that strikes be launched only against military targets, even if there are suspicions that civilian facilities could be used to support military actions.
Russia has consistently rejected Western accusations that it has used too much force during its wars against rebels in Chechnya, in which thousands of civilians have been killed. The Kremlin refers to the conflict in Chechnya as an anti-terrorist operation.
The statement also echoed Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's calls for an immediate cease-fire, saying it was a "first step that cannot be delayed." The United States has said Israel has the right to defend itself and that what is needed is a "meaningful" cease-fire.
A cease-fire would allow civilians to safely leave areas affected by the fighting, the ministry said.
Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov met Thursday in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar Assad, who said Syria was prepared to help promote a cease-fire, according to another Foreign Ministry statement.
But Israel's ambassador to Russia rejected the notion of an immediate cease-fire, saying it would not end the Hezbollah threat.
"Let's say a cease-fire is declared tomorrow - 8,000 rockets will continue to threaten Israel," Ambassador Arkady Mil-Man told a news conference. "The essence of Hezbollah won't change overnight."
Mil-Man also underscored Israel's friendship with Russia, while criticizing Russia for not recognizing Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organizations.
"We believe it's wrong and it's not helping things," Mil-Man said of Russia's position.
Russia is prepared to provide Lebanon with urgent humanitarian aid, the Foreign Ministry said.
It also said that Russia hoped the U.N. Security Council would take a broad approach to the growing crisis, warning that "it is unlikely to be successfully overcome" if efforts to tackle the problem do not encompass all its aspects.
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Asia calls for Mideast intervention, mulls sending troops
AFP
July 21, 2006
JAKARTA - Indonesia and Malaysia said they could send troops as part of a UN deployment to the Middle East as Asia showed mounting concern and urged the international community to intervene.
With the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon well into its second week, countries in the region warned of spiralling violence if world powers failed to check the current conflict.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono wrote to UN General Secretary Kofi Annan to express concern over the conflict and pledge Jakarta's readiness to contribute to a possible UN force there, his spokesman said.
"The president expressed support for the formation of an international force under a UN mandate and Indonesia is willing to participate in such a force by contributing at least a battalion," spokesman Dino Patti Djalal said.
The letter followed his call Tuesday for a ceasefire between
Israel and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah militia, whose capture of two Israeli soldiers 10 days ago triggered the violence.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation, has no diplomatic ties with Israel.
More than a week of Israeli airstrikes and incursions into Lebanon have left more than 330 dead in Lebanon and hundreds of thousands had fled their homes fearing that the Jewish state could mount a full-scale ground offensive.
Annan has called for an immediate cessation of hostilities and for an expanded contingent of peacekeeping troops to be deployed in the region.
G8 leaders -- from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Russia and the United States -- have also proposed an international stabilisation force for Lebanon, where the UN currently has a 2,000-strong contingent.
Muslim-majority Malaysia said it was also considering sending troops, pending UN Security Council approval.
Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak said that Malaysia, the current chair of the world's largest grouping of Islamic countries, the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, was well placed to send soldiers.
Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar added: "The international community ... should make every effort to ensure that these aggressive military actions by Israel do not lead to a widening of the conflict involving other countries."
"It is no good for the United Nations to say they are concerned about the humanitarian catastrophe. What are they doing about the humanitarian catastrophe? That is important," he said.
Asian newspaper editorials also called for the international community to act swiftly to prevent an escalation.
Japan's most-read paper, the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun, commented: "Before it becomes too late, the international community must take quick actions to prevent the situation from deteriorating."
The Asahi Shimbun, an influential liberal daily, said in an editorial: "Isn't it a time to establish a framework in which extremists would take part in dialogue? It is the role of the international community to build the foundation for it."
Australia's Financial Review criticised world leaders for taking too long to respond to the crisis, singling out the United States.
"The international community led by the United States, has been slow to respond to what is becoming an extraordinarily destructive regional conflict that threatens a wider war.
"This tardiness reflects poorly on the US's international leadership role and is partly a consequence of the fact that its energies have been dissipated on a war in Iraq gone awry."
China's People's Daily called for both sides to sit down and talk.
"History tells the peoples of the Middle East that armed force does not solve the enmity between the Arabs and the Israelis.
"Only if a political road is followed will it be possible to replace war with talks, fighting with consultation, extremism with reason, and hostility with tolerance."
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post also said more needed to be done.
"Only a multinational stabilising force will bring peace to the region, but those capable of making that happen -- the UN, the US and Britain among them -- are watching and commenting instead of taking action," it said.
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Ministers accused of giving Israel green light to bomb
Ben Russell and Colin Brown
UK Independent
21 July 2006
Ministers faced strong criticism from across the House of Commons yesterday as MPs accused the Government of helping to fuel the crisis in the Middle East.
Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, faced angry claims from Labour and Opposition benches that the Government had given diplomatic cover to continued Israeli bombing by failing to call for an immediate ceasefire.
In the Commons, Labour MPs led by Clare Short, the former international development secretary, attacked the Government for its stance on Israeli attacks.
Ms Short warned that "massive killing of innocent Lebanese civilians and destruction of infrastructure" amounted to a war crime. She said: "We are heading for further violence and catastrophe. And I'm sad to say that our Government is following President Bush's errors and pouring petrol on the flames."
Privately some senior ministers said they were "appalled" that Mrs Beckett had failed to visit the region to demonstrate British concern at the scale of the Israeli bombardment. Mrs Beckett told the Cabinet that those calling for a halt to hostilities, including the French government, were in effect demanding a one-sided ceasefire.
She told MPs Britain was committed to ending the conflict and maintained that Britain had urged restraint on all sides, and said she "regretted" loss of life.
But MPs queued up to criticise the Government. Joan Ruddock, Labour MP for Lewisham Deptford and a former minister, asked Mrs Beckett: "There can be no doubt that Hizbollah started this conflict. But would she not agree that the response by Israel with 300 Lebanese civilians dead, 1,000 injured, and half a million people dispossessed, is utterly disproportionate?"
Michael Ancram, the former shadow foreign secretary, asked: "Does she believe that the action taken by the Israeli government, understandable initially as a response against terrorism, is proportionate or disproportionate?"
Chris Mullin, a former Foreign Office minister, said: "Is it not just a tiny bit shameful that although we rightly condemn Hizbollah for what they have done, we can find nothing stronger than the word regret to describe the slaughter and misery and mayhem that Israel has unleashed on a fragile country like Lebanon?"
Mrs Beckett insisted that Syria and Iran were "giving support" to Hizbollah. She said: "Syria finances Hizbollah and facilitates the transfer of weapons including thousands of weapons which appear to be supplied by Iran."
Sir Menzies Campbell, the Liberal Democrat leader, said: "Both myself and others have repeatedly asked for the Prime Minister to support an even-handed response. We all accept the Hizbollah should be condemned.
"Tony Blair must now accept that Israel's actions are disproportionate and amount to collective punishment. There should be an immediate ceasefire as Kofi Annan has now confirmed."
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British Anger At Terror Celebration
Timesonline
20/07/2006
As Israel wages war against Hezbollah "terrorists" in Lebanon, Britain has protested about the celebration by right-wing Israelis of a Jewish "act of terrorism" against British rule 60 years ago this week.
The rightwingers, including Binyamin Netanyahu, the former Prime Minister, are commemorating the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, the headquarters of British rule, that killed 92 people and helped to drive the British from Palestine.
They have erected a plaque outside the restored building, and are holding a two-day seminar with speeches and a tour of the hotel by one of the Jewish resistance fighters involved in the attack.
Simon McDonald, the British Ambassador in Tel Aviv, and John Jenkins, the Consul-General in Jerusalem, have written to the municipality, stating: "We do not think that it is right for an act of terrorism, which led to the loss of many lives, to be commemorated."
In particular they demanded the removal of the plaque that pays tribute to the Irgun, the Jewish resistance branch headed by Menachem Begin, the future Prime Minister, which carried out the attack on July 22, 1946.
The plaque presents as fact the Irgun's claim that people died because the British ignored warning calls. "For reasons known only to the British, the hotel was not evacuated," it states.
Mr McDonald and Dr Jenkins denied that the British had been warned, adding that even if they had "this does not absolve those who planted the bomb from responsibility for the deaths". On Monday city officials agreed to remove the language deemed offensive from the blue sign hanging on the hotel's gates, though that had not been done shortly before it was unveiled last night.
The controversy over the plaque and the two-day celebration of the bombing, sponsored by Irgun veterans and the right-wing Menachem Begin Heritage Centre, goes to the heart of the debate over the use of political violence in the Middle East. Yesterday Mr Netanyahu argued in a speech celebrating the attack that the Irgun were governed by morals, unlike fighters from groups such as Hamas.
"It's very important to make the distinction between terror groups and freedom fighters, and between terror action and legitimate military action," he said. "Imagine that Hamas or Hezbollah would call the military headquarters in Tel Aviv and say, 'We have placed a bomb and we are asking you to evacuate the area'."
But the view of the attack was very different in 1946 when The Times branded the Irgun "terrorists in disguise". Decades later, Irgun veterans are unrepentant. Sarah Agassi, 80, remembers spying in the King David Hotel.
She and a fellow agent posed as a couple. They danced tangos and waltzes, sipped whisky and wine while they cased out the hotel.
On the day her brother and his fellow fighters posed as Arabs delivering milk and brought seven milk churns, each containing 50kg of explosives, into the building. Ms Agassi waited across the street until her brother rushed out. She said that she then made the warning call to the British command in the hotel.
Sitting in the luxurious hotel lobby, she expressed no regret. "We fought for our independence. We thought it was the right way . . . If I had to fight for Israel, I swear even now I would do anything."
Comment: It is a little 'rich' is it not, for the British to feel "annoyed" by Israeli government glorification of an act of Israeli state terrorism 60 years ago when the British state has been at the forefront of state-sponsored terrorism for much longer than 60 years.
This story, from the traditionally right-wing paper the London Times is strange. Note the first sentence and the use of quotation marks which calls into question whether Hizb'allah attacks against Israel really are "terrorism". We can't remember a time when the British establishment and it's media questioned whether Arab attacks on Israel really is "terrorism". Is the tide turning against Israel? Was this the plan all along? Time will tell, or maybe the London Times will tell us first.
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'Why is there not a murmur of protest from Washington?'
UK Independent
Kim Sengupta in Nicosia
21 July 2006
Outside the cavernous US government-run holding centre in Nicosia, Mohammed Shami shook his head. "I feel embarrassed to be an American. They have given Israel the green light to destroy Lebanon. What they are doing is wrong; it is immoral."
Mr Shami, who is of Lebanese-American descent, arrived here with 1,000 fellow Americans early yesterday, part of the exodus to Cyprus expected to reach more than 80,000 people fleeing the ferocity of the conflict in Lebanon.
For Mr Shami and others from the successful and settled Lebanese community in the US the relief at escaping the violence is mixed with deep feelings of anger and guilt at the actions of their government.
"My father is of Lebanese birth and my mother is American", said Mr Shami, a 21-year-old student from Michigan. " I am very proud of my mother and the American people. All I can say is that most American people are not like Condoleezza Rice, they are not like George Bush; they have a sense of decency."
There are 25,000 US nationals in Lebanon and they will arrive in Cyprus at 2,000 a day. The 2,300-strong 24th Marine Expeditionary Force is offshore with assault ships and destroyers. The purported reason for such a heavy military presence is to "help the civic powers" in the evacuation. But US diplomats privately acknowledge fear of an attack by Hizbollah. The first batch of Americans who came, on chartered ferry, the Orient Queen, are staying at the International State Fair complex in Nicosia, two huge halls with 1,152 orange camp-beds.
For many, the 10-hour journey out was fraught. More than 100 had forced their way out of the ship at the port of Larnaca after waiting more than an hour in stifling heat. Some objected to the barrack-like accommodation and the basic facilities. "I was hungry and when I tried to get food at four in the morning they stopped me," said a tearful woman. "Now I am told I am not on the list to go out tonight. We have to put up with more of this."
Mona al-Makki, 48, from Chicago, holding her three-year-old niece, Samira, on her knees, added: "I know they are having to look after a huge number of people, but this is not a place you want to spend any amount of time.
"I guess our attitudes are coloured because while we are sitting here, good homes belonging to our relations in Beirut have been destroyed by the Israelis without a murmur of protest from our President. I was asking, 'Why the hell is no one in Washington doing anything about this?' "
Gabriel Mansouraty left Beirut in 1981 during fierce fighting that led to an Israeli invasion. He settled in El Paso, Texas, as a manager of a plastics company, and took his American wife and two sons to Lebanon to show how the land of his birth had made a success of itself after years of strife.
"None of my family had seen Lebanon and I have not been back for 25 years," said 53-year-old Mr Mansouraty. "I was amazed by what has been achieved, the new buildings, the restaurants, the roads the great lifestyle. One only really appreciates that if one knew how devastated the place was. And now this.
"The Israelis have destroyed the buildings, the roads and that lifestyle. They have put the country back 30 years. I cannot believe this all happened because of the capture of two soldiers. This must have been months in planning.
"The only good thing is this; back in 1981 it was Christians fighting Muslims with the Israelis instigating much of it. This time the Israelis have united the people. I stayed in a Christian neighbourhood and people there opened up their homes to the Muslims."
Emile Maroud, also a Christian, believes there is an Israeli agenda aimed at stopping Lebanon making progress. He said: "I had no time for the PLO and I have no time for Hizbollah. But this is about more than that. Israel does not want to see another modern, progressive state in the region."
A Royal Navy assault ship, HMS Bulwark, has evacuated more than 2,000 British and dual-nationals. Martin and Denise Carlin, from Burnley, in Lancashire, were visiting their daughter, son-in-law and three grandchildren.
Mrs Carlin, 48, said "It has been a nightmare. It was a war zone. I won't be back for a long time, if at all. This has really put me off."
The conflict: Day nine
* US marines land on Lebanese soil for the first time in 20 years to assist with evacuation of more than 1000 Americans. The US military pulled out of Lebanon in 1983 after a suicide bomber destroyed a barracks in Beirut killing 241 service personnel. British citizens continue to be evacuated.
* Fierce fighting breaks out on the Lebanese side of the border after an Israeli patrol is ambushed by Hizbollah fighters. Al-Jazeera says four Israeli soldiers were killed. Israeli military says it sustained six casualties.
* Hizbollah fire 30 rockets into northern Israel but no casualties are reported. Israeli jets drop 23 tonnes of explosives on a bunker in south Beirut hoping to assassinate Hizbollah's leader.
* Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, whose country holds the EU presidency, calls for a ceasefire to the conflict and expresses 'grave concern' over humanitarian situation. EU gives Lebanon €10m in aid.
* UN Secretary General Kofi Annan calls for immediate cessation of violence and condemns Israel for using excessive force. Hizbollah's actions are holding "an entire nation hostage," he says but Israel's actions are weakening the Lebanese government and putting civilians at risk.
* A Palestinian teenager is killed in central Gaza's Mughazi refugee camp as militants and troops exchange fire. Israel carries out a series of air strikes on Mughazi, killing two militants and injuring dozens of civilians. A 10-year-old Palestinian girl dies from wounds sustained in an air strike on Wednesday.
* Washington refuses to pressure Israel into declaring an immediate ceasefire. "We seek a long-term cessation of hostilities that's part of a comprehensive change in the region and part of a real foundation for peace but no one has explained how you conduct a ceasefire with terrorists," says US Ambassador John Bolton.
Comment: Yes indeedy, most Americans are not like George and Condi. Listen to this week's podcast for more information.
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U.S. Congress takes on cheerleader role for Israel
North Korea Times
Thursday 20th July, 2006
The U.S. House of Representatives, in a 98% vote in favor, has dramatically thrown its weight behind Israel in its conflict with Lebanon.
House Republican leader, John Boehner, pointed to Israel's 'unique relationship' with the United States as a reason for his colleagues to swiftly go on the record supporting Israel in the latest flare-up of violence in the Mideast.
A resolution solidy backing Israel was passed 410 votes to 8.
The overwhelming endorsement was a positive boost to the Bush administration which has exclusively backed Israel in the conflict, blaming Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.
The resolution follows a similart unanimous vote by the Senate on Tuesday, which together with the House delivers a virtual 100% endorsement of Israel's policies in the Middle East.
Senator John McCain said the Lebanese people and government must pay a price for Hezbollah attacking Israel from its territory.
He and others were attacked by the minute number of reprsentatives who voted against the resolution, saying it went too far, and was supported as a result of the Israeli lobby,and the self-interest of members who were pandering to Jewish voters.
'I'm just sick in the stomach, to put it mildly,' said Rep. Nick J. Rahall.
Rahall, together with a small band of others opposing the resolution, submitted a draft alternative that left out reference to holding Lebanon responsible for Hezbollah's actions, and called for restraint from all sides. Rahall said the proposal was 'politely swept under the rug,' which he says reflects the influence Israel has in Congress.
'There's a lot (of lawmakers) that don't feel it's right, but vote yes, and get it the heck out of here,' Rahall said.
Rep. Darrell Issa, who co-sponsored the alternative resolution was in agreement. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee lobby 'throws in language that AIPAC wants. That isn't always the best thing for this body to endorse,' Issa said.
'This is the usual problem with any resolution that talks about Israel, there are a lot of closet naysayers up there in Congress, but they don't want to be a target of the lobby' of Israel, said Eugene H. Bird, president of the Council for the National Interest, a group that harshly condemns Israel's military campaign.
'These guys aren't legislating. They're politicking,' said James Zogby, president of the Arab American Institute.
According to The Associated Press, an AIPAC spokeswoman said Congress's overwhelming support for Israel reflects the support of U.S. voters and not any pressure applied by lobbyists. 'The American people overwhelmingly support Israel's war on terrorism and understand that we must stand by our closest ally in this time of crisis,' said Jennifer Cannata.
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Diplomacy in Slow Motion
By TONY KARON
Time
July 20, 2006
If warfare is a violent contest of political will, then cease-fire agreements are its scoreboards. And the Bush Administration wants to make sure that when hostilities are halted in Lebanon, Hizballah's score is a round zero. That's why even as most of the international community clamors for an immediate cease-fire to end the fighting that has so far killed 300 Lebanese (mostly civilians) and 29 Israelis (15 of them civilians), the U.S. is dragging its feet - as a matter of policy. While other Western and Arab powers will engage players from Hizballah and the Lebanese government to Iran and Syria, the U.S. remains key to the diplomatic process - for the simple reason that it is the only one capable of persuading Israel to accept a truce. But Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won't head for the region until early next week, a delay calculated to give Israel more time to succeed in its objective of eliminating Hizballah as a military threat. A senior Administration official told CNN Wednesday that the U.S. was giving Israel's military operation time to "defang" Hizballah, saying Rice would press for an end to the fighting only "when conditions are conducive to do so."
The Administration recognizes that anything short of what it calls "a permanent cessation of hostilities," in which Hizballah is deprived of the means of restarting them, will be counted as a victory for the radical Shi'ite movement. Having acknowledged that the Lebanese government is too weak to disarm Hizballah, as required by U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, the Administration views Israel's military campaign as the best way to achieve the same outcome, by pummeling Hizballah until it is ready to put down its weapons and allow the Lebanese army to take control of the border.
But Secretary Rice, who heads for New York Friday to coordinate activities with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, will face pressure from diplomatic allies who want an immediate cease-fire. European, Arab and U.N. diplomats share the goal of a deal that not only frees the two captive Israeli soldiers and stops Hizballah rocket fire, but also puts the Lebanese army in control of its southern border, protects Israel from further provocations and pursues the disarmament of Hizballah. But they're not convinced those goals can be achieved through a military campaign that has destroyed much of Lebanon's communication infrastructure and energy supplies, and looks likely to send hundreds of thousands of refugees pouring into an already tense and overburdened Beirut. The Israelis are hoping their retaliation for Hizballah's blatant provocation will turn the majority of Lebanese more forcefully against the Iran-backed group, which retains massive popular support among Lebanese Shi'ites. Even if that were to occur - which is far from certain - it could threaten a resumption of civil war, particularly if the Israeli offensive has weakened the already shaky central government.
Implicitly criticizing the U.S. delay in starting a peace mission, Annan's deputy, Mark Malloch Brown, on Wednesday stressed the need for an immediate cessation of hostilities. "The Middle East is littered with the results of people believing there are military solutions to political problems in the region," he told reporters.
But analyst Jon Alterman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies sees Rice's late entrance into the diplomatic fray as prudent: "At this point, both Hizballah and the Israelis feel they can advance their cause by turning the screw a few more times," he says. "That's not where you want to start a negotiation. You want to start when both sides are starting to look around and say, where's this really going?"
But it's more complicated than that, because there are many more with a stake in the outcome of the crisis than the two sides fighting. They include:
- The U.S., which finds itself balancing its desire to see Hizballah "defanged" with some of its other regional interests that may be damaged by the fighting, and the rising pressure from most of its allies to expedite its intervention.
- The Lebanese government - a fragile coalition at the best of times, whose leaders, though outraged at Hizballah's dragging them into war, nonetheless see Israel's campaign as threatening the democracy they've tentatively been constructing since a U.S.-led international campaign forced Syria to leave.
- The pro-Western Arab regimes, who have, uncharacteristically, largely avoided criticizing the Israeli offensive - because they see the Hizballah provocation as an Iranian power play in their backyard - but whose citizenry hail HIzballah as a champion of the battered Palestinians. Nowhere will the street-level passions stoked by Israel's campaign be more fierce than in Iraq, where Shi'ite followers of Muqtada al-Sadr are already rallying in support of Hizballah.
- Iran and Syria, the key regional sponsors of Hizballah, who each arguably have their own reasons for wanting to see the crisis first escalated, then resolved on terms favorable to Hizballah.
- Washington's European allies, many of whom fear the U.S. is gambling recklessly on Israel's being able to achieve its military objectives, at risk of the crisis spiraling out of control and creating a humanitarian and political disaster.
If the gamble pays off, and Hizballah is crying uncle a week from now, the U.S. will have vindicated itself in the eyes of allies, and inflicted a stinging defeat on the likes of Iran and Syria. If not, the Bush Administration may find itself drawn into some hitherto unthinkable diplomatic minuets to untangle a dangerous mess in southern Lebanon.
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Rice to Present U.S. Peace Plan
By ANNE GEARAN
AP Diplomatic Writer
July 21, 2006
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will lay out U.S. plans for a diplomatic solution to the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting Friday, an administration official said.
Rice plans a trip to the Mideast as soon as early next week, and will carry the U.S. strategy for ending the 10-day-old warfare and establishing stability in southern Lebanon, a senior Bush administration said. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because Rice has not yet made her plans public.
The secretary is expected to detail her itinerary and agenda in Washington later Friday.
The plans emerged following two days of meetings in New York with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and envoys he sent to the region this week. Although Annan called Thursday for an immediate cease-fire, that is opposed by the United States. The Bush administration says the United States and the U.N. agree on the wider diplomatic goals for the region.
Earlier, White House press secretary Tony Snow said the administration is working hard to end violence in the Mideast and that criticism of its measured response is coming from people who want "egg-timer diplomacy."
"Nobody has been more active than we have," said Snow, defending administration policy amid continuing U.S. opposition to a quick cease-fire without built-in steps for longer-term stability in both Israel and Lebanon.
Making the rounds of the morning network news shows a day after Rice went to the U.N., Snow said most of the peacemaking efforts have been behind the scenes.
Meanwhile, Israel resumed airstrikes Friday and prepared for a possible ground invasion, warning people in the south to flee.
Asked on NBC's "Today" show whether Washington was trying to discourage Israel from any notion of a ground invasion, Snow replied: "We have not been doing military collaboration or planning with the Israelis. But what we have been doing instead is urging the Israelis to use restraint."
Also, the White House announced on Friday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair, a leading U.S. foreign policy ally, will meet with Bush next Friday at the White House. The Middle East crisis will be high on the agenda.
The administration also made plans to press for another Senate vote on U.N. ambassador John Bolton, whose temporary appointment expires at the end of the year.
A key Republican who had opposed Bolton's confirmation before, Sen. George Voinovich, R-Ohio, said he would now support Bolton for the post, citing the tense Middle East situation and what he said was Bolton's good performance.
Bolton's nomination remains before the Senate. Snow said White House officials are discussing with Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Richard Lugar, R-Ind., how to proceed - whether to begin committee hearings again or to try to bring Bolton's nomination up directly for a Senate vote without new hearings.
Bush appointed Bolton during a congressional recess in 2005 after Senate Democrats and Voinovich blocked a vote.
On the Middle East violence, Snow on Friday urged patience with the administration's methodical approach.
"The people who are talking about too little, too late, they may not be keeping the diplomatic scorecard," he told NBC.
"Everybody who wants this kind of egg-timer diplomacy, who thinks, OK these things ought to happen quickly, you don't understand human nature," Snow said. "Terrorists are not going to say, 'You know, that's right, I'm going to pick another career.' "
"Many times, they're going to fight to their death, and we hope that doesn't happen in Lebanon."
Comment: Luckily, our roving reporter Ignacious O'Reilly was able to obtain a copy of Condi's Top Secret peace proposal:
- All members of Hezbollah will be required to surrender to the Israeli military. Rice is expected to state that she has been reassured by the Israeli Prime Minister that no harm will come to the Hezbollah members; Israeli forces just want a chance to talk peace with their neighbors over tea and cookies.
- The land now known as Lebanon will become part of Israel.
- In exchange, any remaining Lebanese civilians will NOT be mercilessly slaughtered by the Israeli army.
Rice is expected to announce that the Bush administration believes that this is the only way toward a "free and peaceful and democratic" Middle East, and that anyone who disagrees is quite obviously "with the terrorists".
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Australia flies in reinforcements for 'chaotic' Middle East evacuation
AFP
Friday July 21, 2006
Australia has despatched 65 military personnel to the Middle East to help thousands of citizens flee Israel's bombing of Lebanon, as the government rejected charges of bungling the evacuation.
The unarmed soldiers will handle logistics operations and will join an extra 29 diplomatic staff who have been sent to the region to help process some 7,000 Australians trying to escape the violence, officials said.
The government announced it had arranged for six ships to arrive in Lebanon from Friday to transport up to 6,000 people to safety by Sunday evening.
Prime Minister John Howard said he was satisfied with the progress of the evacuation plans and defended the government's handling of the situation.
"It could be the largest movement of Australians overseas ever in our history, and I think the Department of Foreign Affairs has done a remarkable job in very difficult circumstances," he told national radio.
"And I think some of the criticism is quite unfair and I reject it."
Some leaders of Australia's large Lebanese community have complained that the government's response has been slow and uncoordinated compared to the evacuations organised by countries such as the United States and Britain.
More than 160,000 Australians claim Lebanese ancestry, making them one of the largest ethnic groups after Britons, Italians and Greeks. There are also some 25,000 dual Lebanese-Australian nationals living in Lebanon.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer rejected as "absolutely, completely and utterly untrue" suggestions that Australia was making less effort in evacuating its citizens because those at risk were of Arab descent.
"We don't discriminate between people on the basis of their ethnicity, we focus very much on just getting Australians out," he said.
It was hoped every Australian citizen who wanted to get out of Beirut would be out by Sunday, he said.
"We can't give any guarantees because it's going to depend on the situation in the port there in Beirut which is fairly chaotic," Downer said.
Australian taxpayers would cover the cost of the rescue effort and those evacuated would not be asked to contribute.
Downer said the government faced fresh problems on what to do with the evacuees once they were out of the danger zone.
"Having got them out, to either Turkey or Cyprus, which is basically the situation, then of course there becomes a question about what happens to them next," he told ABC Radio.
"In the case of Cyprus, there just isn't going to be the infrastructure to support all these foreigners arriving there.
"So we are going to have to get people out of Cyprus to hubs, probably hubs in the Middle East and Europe, but we haven't finalised the details."
Several hundred Australians have managed to get out of Lebanon on ships operated by other nations, including Britain and Greece.
But Australia's own rescue efforts have suffered several setbacks, including the double-booking of a ferry chartered via a Turkish company which failed to arrive at Beirut's increasingly crowded port on Wednesday.
"I stress it's very chaotic," Howard said. "Arrangements have broken down in the past, not only for Australia but for other countries, and there's no guarantee that won't happen in the future."
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El Al flight from New York brings 220 American immigrants TO Israel
By Ira Moskowitz
Haaretz.com
Fri July 21, 2006
SHARON, Massachusetts - A special El Al flight from New York brought 220 American immigrants to Israel yesterday. The flight was the second of seven Jewish Agency/Nefesh B'Nefesh charters planned for this summer, and the first to arrive since warfare erupted on Israel's northern front. According to the Nefesh B'Nefesh organization, 20 prospective immigrants who had signed up for yesterday's flight decided to postpone their arrival at least for a week or two.
On the eve of the flight, Haaretz visited with Joel and Debbie Wine in Sharon, Massachusetts as they struggled to finish packing their belongings, complete a list of last-minute errands, tend to their three young children and say good-bye to friends and family. "Yes, it's crazy globally and crazy in our little world, getting everything done," Joel acknowledged, sitting on a folding chair among the open suitcases and sprawl of unpacked items.
After the war in the north began, people started asking them whether they still planned to move to Israel. "With what's going on now, we're being made out to be some sort of heroes," Joel said. "But this is Israel, and if you think of yourself as Israeli, you realize there's really not a choice. We've mentally, psychologically, emotionally made the commitment to be part of the people of Israel in the Land of Israel, and unfortunately, this [war] is part of the reality." When he received an email from Nefesh B'Nefesh this week confirming that the flight was still on, he sent a one-word reply: "Good."
Moving to Israel is something Joel and Debbie have talked about for years. "It was really part of our dialogue ever since courtship," Joel said, adding that Debbie was more of the driving force behind their decision to finally come. Joel, 37, and Debbie, 36, met during their student days at Columbia University. After marrying, they lived for several years in Riverdale, New York before settling in Joel's hometown of Sharon, a wooded community of some 18,000 people about 22 miles southwest of Boston.
Sharon is known for its strong Jewish presence. According to the web site of the local Catholic church, the town?s population is 75 percent Jewish. Joel was not sure of the exact numbers, but recited a list of the local Jewish congregations: three Orthodox, two Conservative, one Reform and one Reconstructionist.
For a committed Jew, the town is about the best place one can imagine in the Diaspora, Joel said. He made it clear that the family's decision to relocate to Modi'in was not because they were unhappy in Sharon. "It's an amazing community. We enjoyed a wonderful suburban lifestyle, with three kids and a dog, a wonderful house [about 2,400 square feet], a two-car garage, eight-tenths of an acre, and it's close to my parents."
Debbie, originally from Los Angeles, has also come to love New England and said that she will especially miss the fall, when the leaves change colors and the family goes apple picking. Israel may lack this verdant charm, but it offers a different kind of beauty, she explained. More importantly, the Israeli landscape is imbued with a deeper sense of purpose for her: "You sense not only the physical history of the land, but also the history of all the people who have died to protect it and worked so hard to build up this incredible gift for the Jewish people, and I feel like I have to accept it if I'm able to do that."
American history fails to engage Debbie in the same personal and profound way. "I don't feel that same connection, and it's ironic, because I'm a seventh-generation American and that's pretty rare."
Joel and Debbie hope their children - Noam (7), Meirav (5) and Liron (four months) will develop the same type of ties toward Israel. "We're hoping that they'll look to Israeli soldiers as heroes rather than the commercial superheroes and princesses that seem to dominate American children's media," Debbie said.
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Israelis Adopt Poison Gas "Fashion"
Kurt Nimmo
Thursday July 20th 2006
"It is absurd to consider morality on [using poison gas] when everybody used it in the last war without a word of complaint from the moralists or the Church. On the other hand, in the last war bombing of open cities was regarded as forbidden. Now everybody does it as a matter of course. It is simply a question of fashion changing as she does between long and short skirts for women," wrote Winston Churchill during the Second World War, long after the Geneva Protocol had outlawed the use of poison gas. The Brits used mustard gas against Bolsheviks in 1919 and Kurdish rebels in Iraq. As to the latter, Churchill wrote: "I do not understand this squeamishness about the use of gas.... I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes" (see Winston Churchill's Secret Poison Gas Memo).