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By Mark Heisler
$23.96
By Gina B. Nahai
$25.00
$19
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Donors attending a conference in Sweden have pledged $940 million for Lebanon’s reconstruction, almost twice as much aid as organizers had hoped for. Although he said his country had sustained billions of dollars in damage, Lebanese Prime Minister Siniora expressed his “great appreciation” of the donors’ support.
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flickr.com/panafnewswire
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Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, said in a Lebanese TV interview that he would not have ordered the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers had he known the scale of violence that was to follow. If he had it to do all over again, Nasrallah said, with a 1% chance that Israel would respond as it did, he would say: “No, definitely not, for humanitarian, moral, social, security, military and political reasons.”
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Fickr/mdot
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Not to be outdone by the Italians, France has raised its troop commitment to 2,000, hoping to retain its leadership role in the peacekeeping effort in Lebanon. Kofi Annan was initially displeased with Europe’s response to the call for a peacekeeping force.
Posted on Aug 25, 2006
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amnesty.ca
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Amnesty International has referred to some of Israel’s actions in Lebanon as “war crimes that give rise to individual criminal responsibility.” A report by the human rights organization condemned the deliberate bombing of civilian infrastructure and the loss of civilian life, noting: “Entire families were killed in air strikes on their homes or in their vehicles while fleeing the aerial assaults on their villages ... as the Red Cross and other rescue workers were prevented from accessing the areas by continuing Israeli strikes.”
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Italy’s prime minister has tentatively offered to take the leadership role in Lebanon’s peacekeeping mission with a deployment of 3,000 troops. France, which was to lead the mission, has offered only 200 troops after expressing concern over the force’s mandate.
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Illustration by Peter Scheer
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In the search for a sense of dignity, basic services and honesty, Arabs from all walks of life are turning to fundamentalist groups that have succeeded where their own governments have failed. ?I have more faith in Islam than in my state; I have more faith in Allah than in Hosni Mubarak,? said one educated middle-class Egyptian woman.
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Despite the tenuous cease-fire, Israel has launched an attack some 60 miles north of its border in Lebanon. Israeli officials said they were trying to halt a weapons transfer to Hezbollah, and will continue to engage targets until a peacekeeping force can take its place to prevent Hezbollah’s rearming.
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Hezbollah, flush with cash from Iran, has already begun the work of reconstruction in Lebanon, enhancing its reputation in the country. Hezbollah?s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, promised a year?s rent to anyone who lost their home during the conflict, and hundreds of Hezbollah members have been spotted surveying and clearing damaged property.
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Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh defends his claim that the Bush White House effectively signed off on Israel’s planned offensive against Hezbollah earlier this summer—as a preparatory step for a potential attack on Iran. Hersh: “It’s ... time to decide whether we’re a democracy or not. This president is doing an awful lot of foreign policy without sharing it with the rest of us.”
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AP / Emilio Morenatti
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Even though Israel has halted its attacks in the wake of the U.N.-brokered peace deal, Hezbollah says it is “our natural right” to fight any Israeli troops remaining in Lebanon. And many Israeli soldiers will, in fact, remain—until an international peacekeeping force reaches the area.
Posted on Aug 14, 2006
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The Lebanese cabinet has indefinitely postponed talks on the implementation of the impending cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. According to the BBC, ?the issue of Hezbollah’s disarmament and its military presence in southern Lebanon continues to cause major tensions within the fragile government.?
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The cease-fire in Lebanon will take effect Monday morning, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has announced. Israel and Lebanon agreed to the timing during a meeting with Annan on Saturday.
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From interet-general.info
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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (above) said his Islamic militant group (and political party) will abide by the U.N. cease-fire resolution but will continue fighting as long as Israeli troops remain in south Lebanon.
With the U.S., the U.N., Israel’s Olmert, Lebanon’s parliament and now Hezbollah’s leader all on board, all the pieces of the peace puzzle seem to be in place.
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AP / Frank Franklin
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The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution that calls for an end to the war between Israel and Hezbollah and authorizes 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to help Lebanese troops take control of south Lebanon as Israel withdraws. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert endorsed the deal, and the Lebanese cabinet looks set to do so as well.
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George Galloway, the Scottish MP who came to international prominence for his outspoken opposition to the war in Iraq, engages in a heated (and abusive) debate with a Sky News anchor over the morality of the Israel-Hezbollah conflict. We don’t agree with Galloway on everything, but this is the rare shouting match with substance.
NOTE: Broken link to video is now working
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wikipedia.org
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Hugo Chavez, Venezuela?s feisty president, said he intends to cut diplomatic relations with Israel in protest of its attack on Lebanon, which he called “a new holocaust.” Tensions began to build between Venezuela and Israel after Chavez visited Iran last month, saying he would ?stand by Iran at any time and under any condition.?
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From the AP: “Lebanon’s government rejected a U.N. cease-fire plan backed by President Bush on Monday, demanding Israel immediately withdraw even before a peacekeeping force arrives and promising to send 15,000 troops to take control of the Hezbollah stronghold along the border.”
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From devrije.nl
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In the above photo, arch neoconservative William Kristol takes a pie in the face while delivering a pro-Iraq war speech in 2005. Bestselling author Glenn Greenwald describes (Salon, ad wall) how pundits like Kristol are on the run everywhere—after their bloodthirsty, imperialist policies have proved disastrous for America and global stability.
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On Friday’s “Democracy Now,” the radio program’s host, Amy Goodman, spoke with Mideast expert and Truthdig contributor Juan Cole, whom she asked about the recent protests in Iraq over Israel’s incursion into Lebanon.
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The brutal logic that Israel and Hezbollah are following goes like this: Inflict as many deaths on the enemy as possible in the next few days—in order to strengthen your hand before sitting down at the bargaining table.
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The draft Security Council resolution seeks an immediate halt to fighting in Lebanon, and calls for the mobilization of international peacekeepers.
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Want to know some of the main reasons Hezbollah commands so much respect in Lebanon? “They cover medical bills, offer health insurance, pay school fees and make seed money available for small businesses. They are invisible but omnipresent, providing essential services that the Lebanese government through years of war was incapable of offering.”
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After Israel pounded a Christian community in north Beirut, the historical allies of the Israelis are now lining up in support of Hezbollah. ?Public opinion is 100% against Israel from this area,? said a prominent Christian Lebanese woman.
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From amazon.com
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It may be the first ray of hope: Secretary of State Rice told Larry King that the U.S. would accept an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon as the first phase in ending the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. (more…)
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The king of Jordan, a U.S. ally, has publicly criticized America and Israel over the fighting in Lebanon, and said the only way to achieve peace is to end Israeli occupation of Arab lands.
Apparently the entire Mideast is against America and Israel
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Hezbollah rockets killed at least six in Israel; almost 10,000 Israeli troops have crossed in Lebanon; and a U.S. veto is blocking the U.N. Security Council from demanding an immediate cease-fire.
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As 8,000 Israeli troops pour over the Lebanese border and Hezbollah militants launch a record 230 rockets into Israel, the studiously neutral Associated Press concludes that there is no hope for a short-term cessation to the hostilities.
Posted on Aug 2, 2006
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Two Hamas leaders recently released from detention in the West Bank say the Israelis mistreated them while in custody. Israel says they got the same treatment as other prisoners. Also, the allegations—being forced to sit for long stretches in backless chairs and living in squalid conditions—don’t appear to rise to near Abu Ghraib or Gitmo levels.
Posted on Aug 2, 2006
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From CNN via YouTube
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Interviewing a flack for the Israeli government about the killing of women and children at Qana in Lebanon, this CNN anchor channels Anderson Cooper with her refusal to meekly accept meaningless government platitudes. Watch the sparks fly.
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By Robert Scheer — The Jewish state’s die-hard supporters in the White House, Congress and the media seem unable to understand that Israel will never be able to bomb its way to security.
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As the Islamic world rallies to the support of the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia, Iran is feeling more and more emboldened to press its confrontational foreign policy and efforts to silence political opposition at home.
Posted on Aug 1, 2006
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s security cabinet approved a widening of the ground war. Olmert apologized for the deaths of Lebanese women and children but said “we will not give up on our goal to live a life free of terror.”
Posted on Jul 31, 2006
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The FAIR organization reminds us that Hezbollah’s attacks on Israel, though deplorable, did not spring from a vacuum. Drawing on an Alexander Cockburn column, FAIR notes that within the last two months, Israeli attacks on suspected militants ended up killing almost two dozen innocent Lebanese and Palestinian women and children. (more…)
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Israel had promised a 48-hour cease-fire in the wake of a deadly attack that killed dozens of Lebanese women and children, but it hit Hezbollah after it reserved the right to strike targets to stop imminent attacks on its own forces.
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AP / Kevin Frayer
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Images of Lebanese children killed by Israeli missiles, like the one above, were being broadcast almost nonstop on all Arab-language satellite channels on Sunday. The pictures have splashed gasoline on the flames of international outrage directed not only at Israel but also at America, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan—all of which in effect condoned Israel’s actions at the start of the hostilities.
Update: Israel said it bombed Qana because “it was a base for hundreds of rockets launched at Israel, including 40 that injured five Israelis on Sunday. Israel said it had warned civilians several days before to leave the village. ... “Hezbollah is using their own civilian population as human shields,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir.”
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The move comes in the wake of its airstrike in the Lebanese village of Qana that killed at least 56 people, most of whom were women and children.
This is only a pause—a concession the U.S. extracted from Israel in the wake of withering international criticism. The Israeli attacks will likely continue apace for at least 10 more days, and perhaps more.
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If you’re feeling confused about the significance, roots and ramifications of the violence now racking the Middle East, read this brief, piercing essay by NYU professor Noah Feldman.
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The Israeli missile attack on a southern Lebanese village, which killed at least 57, has thrown the incipient peace process into complete disarray.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice canceled her trip to the region after the Lebanese prime minister told her not to come unless she was willing to press for a complete cease-fire—which she wasn’t.
Israel expressed deep regret for the incident but vowed to continue its campaign for 10 days to two weeks more.
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The terrorist group’s No. 2 leader, Ayman al Zawahri, called for Muslims to rise up against Jews in Lebanon and Gaza until Islam reigns from “Spain to Iraq.”
Already, over 250 Iranians have heeded the call, and are headed to Lebanon via Turkey.
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By Molly Ivins — The Middle East crisis is a big story, and the media know what to do with a big story: hammer at it nonstop, drench it in fear, report just a little bit of what’s going on and be sure never to let facts get in the way.
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More than 100 Hezbollah fighters staged a fierce ambush on Israeli ground forces entering a Lebanese border town, killing at least eight Israeli soldiers. Meanwhile, 24 Palestinians were killed in fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Looking to make sense of the roots of this carnage? Read Truthdig contributor Chris Hedges’ new Dig, “Israel’s Barrier to Peace.”
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The United Nations peacekeepers were holed up at an observation post in southern Lebanon. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was “shocked” at the “apparently deliberate targeting” of the post.
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During her surprise visit with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora in Beirut on Monday, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “assured a largely powerless leader that America was sympathetic to the suffering of his people, though it has stopped short of pressuring Israel to let up on its campaign against militants.” (story—quote on p. 2)
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Liberal Democrat leader Menzies Campbell challenged Tony Blairs stance on Lebanon during the last Prime Ministers Questions. Blair defended his governments position regarding the conflict, despite growing pressure in Europe to take a harder line toward Israel.
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