.
“We received yesterday at the Rome conference permission from the world, a green light …. to continue the operation, this war, until Hezbollah won’t be located in Lebanon and until it is disarmed ,” Haim Ramon, the hawkish Israeli Justice Minister, told Israel Army Radio. “Everyone understands that a victory for Hezbollah is a victory for world terror.”
Ian McKinnon, Times Jerusalem Correspondent, said that public opinion in Israel was still pushing Mr Olmert and his ministers firmly in favour of war.
“The editor-in-chief of Maariv newspaper says today in a front page column that the time has come for Israel to wage war in the Lebanese border villages without caring for the consequences, and not to be afraid to send soldiers into difficulty and danger in fraught hand-to-hand combat without caring how many people get killed.”
BOSTON (Christian Science Monitor) July 27 — Israel’s war with Hizbullah shows no sign of relenting, despite the extraordinary human and economic costs on both sides of the border.
More than 400 Lebanese have been killed, at least 17 Israeli civilians have been felled by rockets that threaten the northern third of Israel, Lebanon’s infrastructure has been decimated, and many poor Lebanese (mostly Shiite Muslims) are now homeless.
Both belligerents are attacking indiscriminately. Hizbullah’s weapons are notoriously inaccurate and more likely to kill innocent civilians than soldiers. And Israel has targeted noncombatants in southern Lebanon as though the area were a free-fire zone.
[Similar to the Katrina hurricane disaster, the poor and elderly without transportation are being killed under unrelentless bombing by the IAF in Southern Lebanon – Oui]
With the Bush administration providing diplomatic cover, Israel is playing for time. Israel’s premise is that the longer its war continues, the more it will wear down Hizbullah. The Israeli military is fighting intense battles to capture border villages with a view to re-creating a buffer zone. Hizbullah fighters, honed by two decades of Israeli occupation, are defending their soil fiercely.
Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz did duty as a fighter pilot in Israel’s War of Attrition with Egypt under Nasser – Egyptian school bombed: 48 children died.
Under his command, execution of extra-judicial assassinations in Gaza and the West Bank occupied territories. He defended the bombing of an appartment building killing 16 civilians including nine children by F-16 precision strike, dropping a one ton bomb to take out a ‘terrorist’.
Controversy lasted through appointment cycle as new chief of staff, ended before the Israel Supreme Court where he lied out of the dilemma.
Pilots have no concern or responsibility for consequences of target where the bomb is dropped. The leadership is culpable, let the protesters come to me, according to Dan Halutz of Iranian descent!
Excellent qualification for indictment before a war crimes tribunal.
Support for Hizbullah is growing in the Arab world with every day that it confronts Israel. In Iraq, the parliament has spoken out forcefully against Israel’s campaign, and last week Ayatollah Ali Sistani issued a powerful fatwa (religious opinion) condemning the attacks on Lebanese civilians and infrastructure and calling on all Shiite clerics to take action.
Al-Qaida Calls for Holy War Against Israel
CAIRO, Egypt (ABC/AP) 40 minutes ago — Al-Qaida’s No. 2 leader issued a worldwide call for Muslims to rise up in a holy war against Israel and join the fighting in Lebanon and Gaza until Islam reigns from “Spain to Iraq.”
In the message broadcast by Al-Jazeera television, Ayman al-Zawahri, second in command to Osama bin Laden, said that al-Qaida now views “all the world as a battlefield open in front of us.”
Blown to pieces – UN bunker Where 4 Died
NEW YORK (United Nations) by Evelyn Leopold
The Scotsman July 27 — PICTURES were released yesterday of the UN outpost destroyed by an Israeli attack in Southern Lebanon. They came as Finland identified the 29-year-old naval officer who was one of four observers who died there.
Lieutenant Jarno Makinen, who had been part of the UN monitoring team in the Middle East since November, was killed with three other unarmed UN officers from Canada, China and Austria.
“It is feared that Makinen was killed in the strike on the Khiam observation post on 25 July,” the Finnish statement read, but did not say that Lt Makinen’s body had been found.
Tarja Halonen, the Finnish president whose country holds the European Union presidency, said that there was “no justification” for the attack and demanded “full clarification from Israeli officials”.
The strike was also condemned by other Finnish officials, including Matti Vanhanen, the prime minister, who phoned his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Olmert, demanding an investigation.
Finland has provided more than 43,000 personnel for UN peace missions since the 1950s, and has 14 peacekeepers in the Middle East. Forty-five Finnish soldiers have been killed in on UN duty.
Israel has apologised for the incident, describing it as a mistake, but China was in no mood to let the matter rest at the UN yesterday, warning the United States that its opposition to a statement condemning the attack could have a “negative impact” on UN talks on Iran’s nuclear ambitions.
The US was blocking a UN Security Council statement on the incident. But the envoys said there was some hope a policy statement would be adopted.
China's UN ambassador, Wang Guangya
“This is a serious matter,” China’s UN ambassador, Wang Guangya, said after a private meeting with the US negotiators. “It is an attack on the UN peacekeepers. “If the Security Council cannot send a strong political message supporting our guys on the ground, it will be difficult for people to understand.”
UN officials had said numerous calls had been made to the Israeli military and its diplomats in New York to protest at repeated firing on the outpost.
Huffington Post: Lincoln Chafee Shoves John Bolton Around Senate Hearing Room Floor
RECENT DIARIES ON ISRAEL and WAR IN LEBANON
● Notorius Torture Prison of Khiam Destroyed ¶ UN Bunker on Hilltop near Khiam
● Saudi King Abdullah: “… no other option but WAR”
● Rice in Beirut – Did Our Bunker Busters Arrive On Time?
● Diplomacy Gaining Support in ME
● Israelis Celebrating on Graves of 92 Victims of Terror
● ‘HezbSjitan’ ¶ A Blogger from Beirut
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
.
SYDNEY (AFP) July 26 — Australia has withdrawn troops helping evacuate its citizens in southern Lebanon because the situation in the area is too dangerous, Defence Minister Brendan Nelson said.
Nelson said 12 unarmed Australian Defence Force troops were being moved north to Beruit following an Israeli air strike on a UN post in the town of Khiam in southern Lebanon that killed four UN observers.
“Late yesterday we made a decision to bring our 12 ADF personnel back from southern Lebanon to Beirut,” Nelson told national radio.
“I am not prepared to say at the moment precisely where they are. We have made the decision to bring them back to Beirut and they are being transferred in an appropriate and timely manner.”
● Australia’s Downer warns of UN ‘suicide mission’ to Lebanon
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
Oui, Thanks again for such detailed and well documented information. I genuinely wish I had your gift for imparting an incredible amount of valuable information in the succinct and direct fashion which you always supply everyone here. You are terrific!!!
Both Israeli and the U.S. of A. government leaders can not only be prosecuted in the International Court for War Crimes, the very fact that Israel, supplied by the criminally insane administration in Washington DC, is continuing to escalate hostilities, and preventing other countries from evacuating their nationals, is at a bare minimum called manslaughter, with Depraved Indifference in the United States court. This means that the 8 Canadians, and any other foreign national killed would be one count of manslaughter with Depraved Indifference. Where are our lawyers who can file these charges and make this happen??
Juan Cole reports this morning that British troops in the south came under heavy attack yesterday, including assault by anti-tank weapons. I read this as another move on the chess board. As readers of this site well know, the U.S. establishment in Iraq depends on keeping open the single supply line coming out of Kuwait. I anticipate a further ‘message’to the Americans, if this one goes unheeded. As Dr. Johnson said, ther is nothing like the immediate prospect of hanging to focus the concentration. There is a counter to the ‘big stall’.
The British troops being attacked is not a surprise. Actually, given the tenseness of the situation, I am somewhat impressed that Shia Arab leaders are showing this much “restraint”.
Pat Lang former top echelon Dept of Intelligent Affairs (DIA), which is under the Pentagon, had an excellent editorial on this last week.
It would seem that the Shia Leaders are just sending a “message” Otherwise they could have easily put American troops in a situation of unbelievable slaughter. My “gut” reaction is that Al Malaki must have been promised X Million or Billion dollars in Washington DC, and they are choosing not to “piss off” the Administration until they have gotten every last penny they can.
What military in the world that wanted to be considered professional would want a blood crazed kid killer like this as one of their officers. I await the IDF to strip him of his rank and imprison this monster.
is basically the Israeli approach to this adventure. How long before their own citizens grow sick of all the massacres committed in their names?
.
Rice’s spokesman, Adam Ereli, took strong issue with an assertion by Israel’s Justice Minister Haim Ramon, who said the failure of world leaders to call for an immediate cease-fire at a summit in Rome gave Israel a green light to carry on with its campaign to crush Hezbollah.
“Any such statement is outrageous,” Ereli said. “The United States is sparing no effort to bring a durable and lasting end to this conflict.”
Justice Minister Haim Ramon Under Criminal Investigation
TEL AVIV (Haaretz) July 28 — Justice Minister Haim Ramon has been barred from making any decisions on professional matters relevant to his ministry while a criminal investigation is being conducted against him.
Haim RamonThe decision to restrict Ramon’s activities was made Thursday night by Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, following the start of a criminal investigation against the minister over allegations of sexual harassment against an officer serving in the military secretariat of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Ramon was questioned by the Fraud Squad for seven hours, and then asked Mazuz for advice on how he is expected to behave, “so that there will be no impression that I have any influence over the investigation.”
Mazuz met with State Prosecutor Eran Shendar, as well as with the police officers in charge of the investigation.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
.
July 28, 2006 — By Lin Noueihed, Reuters
BEIRUT — Along Lebanon’s sandy beaches and rocky headlands runs a belt of black sludge, 10,000 to 30,000 tonnes of oil that spilled into the Mediterranean Sea after Israel bombed a power plant.
A sea of oil disfigures the bay of Byblos. The EC is to help Lebanon contain a huge oil spill south of Beirut caused by an Israeli air strike on a power plant, officials said. AFP/Nicolas AsfouriLebanon’s Environment Ministry says the oil flooded into the sea when Israeli jets hit storage tanks at the Jiyyeh plant south of Beirut on July 13 and 15, creating an ecological crisis that Lebanon’s government has neither the money nor the expertise to deal with.
“We have never seen a spill like this in the history of Lebanon. It is a major catastrophe,” Environment Minister Yacoub al-Sarraf told Reuters.
Lebanon has turned to oil producer Kuwait for help. A plane load of equipment is due to arrive from Kuwait via Syria by the end of the week. But one of the main problems is that an Israeli air and sea blockade in place since the war began on July 12 is hampering both the clean-up and the delivery of equipment.
MARINE LIFE DEAD
The spill is especially threatening since fish spawn and sea turtles nest on Lebanon’s coast, including the green turtle which is endangered in the Mediterranean, local ecologists say.
… the marine ecosystem could take years to recover, local environmentalists say. Commercial fishing and tourism has been at a standstill since the war began because of the air and sea blockade.
“July is hatching season for turtle eggs and baby turtles have to reach deep water as fast as possible to avoid predators. With the oil in their way, they will not survive,” Wael Hmaidan, a local environmental activist said.
“The oil spill, part of which has settled on the sea floor, threatens blue fin tuna, which is an important but overfished commercial fish, as well as shark species.”
● EU to help Lebanon contain giant oil spill
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY
I read somewhere this morning(can’t remember where) that the oil has reached to Syria’s coast now also.
And I’m sure the US is just going to be rushing aid and expertise to help out with this hideous environmental and health disaster to the country..yeah right.
.
SYDNEY (AFP) July 29 — Scuffles broke out between protesters and police guarding Australian Prime Minister John Howard when demonstrators surrounded his car in the western city of Perth.
«« click for SkyNews storyScuffles broke out between protesters and police guarding Australian Prime Minister John Howard, seen here, when demonstrators surrounded his car in the western city of Perth AFP/File/Greg WoodAbout 200 protesters, many carrying Lebanese and Palestinian flags, rallied outside a conference being held by Howard’s Liberal party, calling for peace in the Middle East.
Television footage showed a number of demonstators attempting to stop Howard’s car leaving the function venue by trying to drape themselves across the bonnet before police pulled them off.
The Australian Associated Press (AAP) news agency reported protesters also hurled projectiles at Howard’s car, which sped away from the scene as police wrestled people to the ground.
Sky News reported two people had been arrested although no official figures were immediatly available from police.
Protest leader Muhammad El Khatib said he had family in Lebanon and the Australian government was not doing enough to broker peace in the region: “Hizbollah is protecting Lebanon, they are freedom fighters, not terrorists.”
≈ Cross-posted from JimStaro’s diary — ACTIONS Tomorrow In Israel ≈
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."▼ ▼ ▼ MY DIARY