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By Cormac McCarthy
Sam Harris
$19.74
$20
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NBC’s Tim Russert grilled White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten on Sunday about an Oval Office press release that praised an L.A. Times Op-Ed calling for Israel to attack Syria. Watch as Bolten tries to prevaricate his way out of it. (h/t: Alternet, Think Progress)
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Criticizing the U.S. for the first time in the Lebanon crisis, the UK’s foreign minister found fault with Israel’s military tactics and urged America to “understand” the price being paid by ordinary Lebanese civilians.
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In a reconsideration of its goals, Israel has deemed a disarmed (as opposed to destroyed) Hezbollah an acceptable outcome to its actions in Lebanon.
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Israeli troops have taken the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras, which they claim has been used as a rocket base by Hezbollah. Israel has said it has no plans for a large-scale invasion but intends to use ground forces to attack targets unavailable to its jets.
Posted on Jul 22, 2006
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As the conflict in Lebanon continues to develop, Terry Gross brings context to the names in the news. Here are two interviews by the “Fresh Air” host that offer some insight into Hezbollah.
Posted on Jul 22, 2006
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The United States has agreed to a request from Israel to expedite a shipment of precision munitions.
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AP
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Reservists called for duty will most likely be sent to Gaza in order to free soldiers in compulsory service for deployment in Lebanon. This is definitely not a good sign of things to come. Hezbollah continued to fire Katyusha rockets while Israel rained down missiles on cities in southern Lebanon.
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According to The Times (of London), British officials dispute the effectiveness of Israel?s bombing campaign and warn of a potential backlash.
Posted on Jul 20, 2006
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U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan demanded a cease-fire while also condemning Hezbollah and attacking Israel for “excessive use of force.” The European Union made similar demands for a cessation of violence and pledged 10 million euros in aid. Bombed-out roads in southern Lebanon are hampering aid efforts.
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By Joe Conason — The recent bloodshed in Israel, Lebanon and Iraq is a tough lesson in “what happens when the leadership of ‘the indispensable nation’ takes a mental vacation.”
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Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister, called for an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah and announced that more than 300 people had been killed in his country during the week of attacks. Twenty-nine Israelis have been killed since the fighting began.
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“The Daily Show” host offers a roundup of Lebanon reporting and confronts the media’s seeming inability to process the crisis.
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That’s apparently the consensus emerging from the two countries; Israel would be given a week to further weaken Hezbollah, at which point Condoleezza Rice would travel to the region and try to establish a buffer zone.
Strange, to be hearing about such plans in advance.
Meanwhile, the first Israeli ground troops have entered Lebanon
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Courtesy Rep. Dennis Kucinich
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Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced a resolution Wednesday that calls on President Bush to appeal to all sides for a cessation of hostilities in the Israeli-Lebanon conflict and to commit the United States to multiparty negotiations, along with support for an international peacekeeping mission during the talks.
Also, read the speech that Rep. Kucinich delivered on the House floor on Tuesday that warned of “mutually assured destruction” if saner heads do not soon prevail in the Middle East.
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By Robert Scheer — In the midst of a Middle Eastern crisis that threatens to destabilize the entire region and perhaps beyond, it was unnerving that what most seemed to interest President Bush at the G8 summit is that China is a long flight from western Russia.
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AP / Sebastian Scheiner
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A nauseating sign of the times:
Preteen Israeli girls at a heavy artillery position in northern Israel are photographed apparently gleefully scrawling their names and other inscriptions on shells destined to be dropped on Lebanon. One reads “Nazrala with love”—a reference to Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasarallah. (h/t: Zak Brown)
We find it disgusting whenever the ordnance of ANY country bears these kinds of messages. But to see children doing the writing is almost beyond the pale.
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By Tom Hayden — The veteran social activist, drawing upon his own rude political awakening to the realities of Israeli and Middle East politics during the 1980s, warns that the Israel lobby in the U.S. aims to ?roll back the clock? and ?change the map? of the region and that its neoconservative supporters will probably try to use the current Middle East crisis to ignite a larger war against Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran.
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Responding to Monday’s “open mike” incident in Russia, The Guardian said Blair “all but offers to carry [Condoleezza Rice’s] bags” to the Middle East (Bush denied him), revealing Blair’s subservient role in the relationship. (article, British press reactions)
Not to mention the fact that Bush carried on the conversation about one of the most dangerous powder kegs in the world while chewing with an open mouth and barely looking at Blair.
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That’s the assessment of the head of Israel’s northern army command. Meanwhile, an Israeli strike killed at least 16 people near Beirut and Hezbollah killed at least one with another rocket volley into northern Israel; the toll has risen to at least 227 killed in Lebanon and 25 in Israel.
However, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni gave the first hope that earnest efforts are underway to find a cease-fire solution.
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As violence once again wracks that troubled region, “The Colbert Report” host reminds us that the 2006 Miss Universe Pageant is this weekend. “Let’s forget about the conflict between Israel and Lebanon, and focus instead on the competition between Miss Israel and Miss Lebanon.”
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The Israeli prime minister appeared to drop his country’s insistence that Hezbollah must be dismantled before Israel discontinues its attack. (You have to scan down the article to see the “softening.” Israel is still demanding release of its two captured soldiers, a cessation of rocket attacks on Israel, and the deployment of the Lebanese army along the border.)
This may be just a blip, but it’s encouraging to see Israel appearing to be open to compromise.
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The University of Michigan professor and Middle East expert is horrified at Bush’s belief (caught on an open mike) that Hezbollah is entirely to blame for the violence wracking Lebanon, and that Syria could easily stop Hezbollah if it chose to do so. “It is an astonishingly simple-minded view of the situation…. I come away from it shaken and trembling.”
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Although some in Lebanon hail members of the militant group as national heroes, others call them outright terrorists who are dragging the country into an unwinnable war. The future of Hezbollah—and perhaps its imitators and spawn across the Middle East—would seem to hang in the balance over this conflict.
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After spending years blasting the idea that the U.S. is “bogged down” in Iraq, the Wall Street Journal editorial page did just that—saying that the Israel-Lebanon situation stems from a worldwide perception that America is so “bogged down” in Iraq that it can’t flex any muscle in the Middle East.
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AP / Ben Curtis
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By Chris Hedges — The former Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times and author of the bestseller “War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning” argues in this Truthdig column that the bloodshed now engulfing Lebanon and Israel will only worsen as long as extremists on both sides continue to indulge in “collective necrophilia.”
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AP Photo / Mohammed Zaatari
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As Israeli warplanes ravage Beirut in retaliation for Lebanon-based Hezbollah raids, a prominent Beirut-based blogger decries being made a “pawn on the board of an imaginary game.” He is “infuriated that such risks and actions can be taken with absolute disregard of the lives that are at stake, the lives of the people that make a country what it is.”
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CNN features a rare interview: a homosexual Lebanese man who is unafraid of going public about his sexuality.
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