Diplomacy and the Hounds of Hell, Part XVII

Has Iran released Osama bin Laden's son so that he can go fight the Israelis in Lebanon? That's what one report indicates. Iran had been holding bin Laden's son, along with several other al Qaeda members.

As far as the diplomatic efforts go, Israel thinks that 15,000 troops would be needed for a multinational force to ensure the peace after Israel is through with Hizbullah. Tony Blair thinks that a Security Council resolution will be forthcoming in the next few days. I think he's wrong about that. The UN #2 guy behind Kofi Annan, Mark Malloch Brown, thinks that calling Hizbullah a terrorist group isn't helpful. Sorry, but has he or anyone else in the Secretariat actually read the UNIFIL reports that show Hizbullah repeatedly using UNIFIL positions to attack Israel and then shield themselves from Israeli fire, putting UNIFIL in the line of fire on purpose?

Iran, of course, thinks that the solution to the diplomatic crisis is to destroy Israel. And reports that Iran is working with North Korea on long range missiles shouldn't surprise anyone either. This is the Axis of Evil after all, and they're doing all that they can do and more considering that the UN and IAEA are completely useless in dealing with these crises. The logjam in the Security Council guarantees that no action will be taken against either country until it's too late.

Hizbullah keeps firing missiles into Israel and threatens to hit Tel Aviv if Beirut is hit. Well, Israel did hit Beirut again, and thus far no missiles have hit Tel Aviv, although sirens have gone off up and down Northern Israel. 26 rockets have hit Israel so far on Thursday. Israel has also pushed deeper into Lebanon.

The IDF continued to widen its operations in south Lebanon on Thursday. Thousands of soldiers – about six brigades – are operating in the area. Bitter battles are currently taking place in several places.

Among the units operating are Golani, Nahal, Brigade 7 of the Armored Corps, Engineering Corps and more – and all under heavy aerial cover.

Troops are operating in around 20 villages along the border, including some on the coast, within six kilometers of the border.

Israeli forces on the ground face a variety of threats, but the biggest one appears to be RPGs, which while called anti-tank weapons, are being used against infantry positions from a distance.

The term "antitank" is misleading; the missiles were originally designed to be used against tanks, but the IDF's Merkava tanks and upgraded armored fighting vehicles are capable of withstanding most missiles in Hizbullah's arsenal. But Hizbullah isn't using them only against tanks. The range of these missiles - up to three kilometers - and the force of their explosive charges make them ideal for attacking groups of soldiers and IDF positions from afar.

Hizbullah have been preparing for this war for six years, and the two main weapons they have been stockpiling have been the Katyushas and other rockets now being fired at Israeli towns and antitank missiles. The organization has thousands of Soviet-built Sagger, Cornet and Fagot antitank missiles, the French MILAN and the US-built TOW, all supplied by Iran and Syria. These missiles are usually fired by a two- or three-man team.

Over the last two weeks, the tactic used by many of the Hizbullah teams has been to avoid close-range combat, where IDF soldiers' high level of training gives them the upper hand. Instead, the Hizbullah men have been moving to positions high above villages and continuing to fire missiles at the IDF forces. Large stores of missiles were prepared in the hills in advance, for this eventuality.

Bloggers to check in with for daily updates are Blue Crab Boulevard, Carl in Jerusalem, Israellycool, Dave Bender, Meryl Yourish, Euphoric Reality, Pajamas Media, Hot Air, Jameel at the Muqata, Greetings from the French Hill, R'Lazer, and Live from an Israeli Bunker. Check back with them regularly for updates.

The uproar over the Qana incident isn't over either. And while there are some folks who think that there's no reason to believe that the photographers and journalists staged photos or otherwise lied about the incident scene, and some even claim that these are professional journalists, I can't help but wonder about just how professional they were when other journalists from Jayson Blair to Dan Rather were busted for lying, plagarizing, or otherwise pushing bogus stories that wouldn't stand the scrutiny of an objective observer. Claiming professionals wouldn't do such a thing isn't a valid argument when we see journalists repeatedly push their agendas over the facts. Has that happened at Qana. Based on the visual evidence thus far, and the grossly reduced body count, that still doesn't quite add up, I'd say that the journalists have quite a ways to go before the facts are all gathered, though the chances we'll ever know the whole story is practically nil considering that this was in the middle of Hizbullahland and who knows what evidence has disappeared in the interim.

UPDATE:
Seven Israelis have been killed by Hizbullah's rocket barrages today. Where's the UN outcry to call on Hizbullah to refrain from killing civilians. Don't hold your breath. They'll find a reason to blame Israel for those Israelis dying. Hizbullah says that there will be no ceasefire without an Israeli pullout. That's not going to happen. Hizbullah knows it. So does Israel. And there's no one to pressure Hizbullah to surrender either, and considering that Iran and Syria are pushing this conflict, all the pressure falls on to Israel.

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA), late of calling for immediate withdrawal of US forces from Iraq and claiming that US Marines engaged in massacres in Iraq without proof or a trial, is now calling for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon. This guy has never met a ceasefire or withdrawal he didn't fall in love with, despite the fact that a ceasefire is a losing proposition for the US, Israel, and the West in general and benefits genocidal terrorists and their state sponsors.

Mr. Murtha offered the analogy of U.S. fighting to defeat insurgents in the Iraqi city of Falujah: That battle was a military success, he said, but the inevitable destruction it caused alienated hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, turning a tactical victory into a setback for the broader strategy of trying to bring peace to Iraq.

Fallujah was a mess because the US didn't engage in overwhelmning military force the first time they went through the city and it became a terrorist magnet. The insurgents still have their supporters in the city, regardless of what the US did there. Israel is facing a similar situation in that they're fighting in Hizbullahland, which was established by Hizbullah in the very areas that Israel vacated after its withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000 and the UN and Lebanon failed to do what it needed to ensure Lebanon's territorial integrity and disarm the militias, including Hizbullah. Instead, Hizbullah turned South Lebanon into a weapons cache, all ready for use against Israel at the time and place of its choosing. That war restarted three weeks ago.

Are the New York Times reporters sympathetic to Hizbullah? Polipundit thinks so, based on this report, which ostensibly is about how Israel has swung from an air campaign to a ground campaign because of the difficulties in the air war. Of course the Times is short on their historians, who would have noted that the US did something similar in Iraq in 1991, 2003, and even in Bosnia. It's called preparing the battlefield, but the media thinks that it's a sign of difficulty or weakness on the part of Israel, combined with Hizbullah's strength.

This website thinks that we should reexamine Hizbullah's campaign in the context of a resistance movement against foreign occupation. Well, let's examine that a little closer. Israel wasn't going to bombard Lebanon or Gaza until Israeli soldiers were killed and/or taken into Lebanon or Gaza respectively more than three weeks ago. Israel didn't begin its military actions until Palestinian terrorists refused to hand over the Israeli soldier. The Palestinians response was to launch rockets. Israel then began its campaign in Gaza. Hizbullah similarly invaded Israel to kill and capture Israeli soldiers, and then has proceeded to launch more than 2,000 rockets into Israel.

Israel's response has been to go after the terrorists launching the rockets, and Israel cannot look at this solely as a resistance movement or a liberation movement, especially when Hizbullah, Hamas, and Fatah's operating goals and charters call for Israel's destruction. That's not a resistance movement, but movement of demicide and genocide.

UPDATE:
Today's death toll in Israel from the rocket attacks is now eight. Not so much as a peep from those folks who are so quick to condemn Israel for killing civilians in hunting down terrorists. Figures. Three Israeli soldiers were also killed in close combat in Lebanon. 15 Hizbullah were killed, and six were captured. Expect Hizbullah to say that the Israelis have the wrong guys.

Israel meanwhile, has resumed strikes on Hizbullah in Beirut.

HRW offers this helpful advice: Israel must differentiate between Hizbullah and civilians. Well, that would be all the more helpful if HRW told Hizbullah to wear uniforms and stop operating in and among civilians. The war crimes being committed here are not on Israel, but on Hizbullah, whose disregard of all human rights is such that they get a pass because even the NGOs realize that the terrorist groups simply ignore all rules of war.

Victor Davis Hanson, on the other hand, offers a more practical insight. This isn't just about the land. There's something far deeper than just land involved here. There's the cult of victimization perpetuated by the Islamists and Arab leaders, and Israel is the biggest target as to why the Arab/Islamic Middle East is so weak when compared to the West or Israel. It Shines For All notes that Lebanon is a center for distributing anti-Semitic and anti-Israel vitriol. Jed Babbin, meanwhile sees that Israel and the West must rid Hizbullah from Lebanon's political landscape, which is no easy feat.

Meanwhile, AJ Strata notes that Sid Blumenthal (who has never met a leak he didn't love), is blabbing about how the Israelis might be obtaining intel assistance from the NSA, and in the process alerting our enemies to the fact that they're under surveillance such that they might change tactics to shield their activities from US or Israeli eyes.

UPDATE:
Today's death toll from the Hizbullah rocket strikes is now 10. *crickets* chriping describes the sound from the UN on this, and the fact that UNIFIL positions have come under direct fire from Hizbullah, which also happens to be using their positions as cover for yet another day.

One rocket from the Hezbollah side impacted directly on a UNIFIL position in the general area of Hula yesterday evening, causing extensive material damage, but no casualties. Half an hour later, another rocket from the Hezbollah side impacted directly on the same UNIFIL position, causing additional material damage, but no casualties. Hezbollah also fired rockets from the vicinity of four UN positions in the areas of Alma Ash Shab, Marwahin, Tibnin, and At Tiri. There were two incidents of firing from the Israeli side close to a UNIFIL position in the general area of Kafr Kila.

Furthermore, an IDF tank fired machine gun rounds from the vicinity of a UN position in the area of Marwahin. UNIFIL strongly protested all these incidents to the Lebanese and Israeli authorities respectively.

Indeed, you'd be hard pressed to find a day when Hizbullah wasn't using UNIFIL positions for cover.

Ralph Peters finally has something positive to say about Israel's ground campaign kicking into high gear. He's wondering what took the Israelis so long. Now, he's concerned that they stop fighting too soon. Wars are never fought on schedule, and the Israelis beleived that they needed to prepare the battlefield with airstrikes on various targets throughout the country. Unfortunately, that included hitting civilians, but with Hizbullah dug into civilian areas, it was unavoidable. Now, the Israelis will force Hizbullah to fight or flee, opening up Hizbullah to airstrikes and ground fire.

Vital Perspective has what appears to be Israeli video from the Baalbek raid. Dan Riehl also noticed and has more background on the raid.

Pajamas Media has ongoing coverage.

UPDATE:
Hizbullah launched 130 rockets in 90 minutes, injuring 47 people (10 seriously). And for all the Palestinian talk about how Israel is evil and must be destroyed, Israel has permitted a large convoy of aid to go into Gaza. That's aid destined to a bunch of folks whose leaders call for Israel's destruction.

Nasrallah, meanwhile, had a few more things to say today:

In issuing the threat, Nasrallah offered his first opening toward diminishing the three-week-old conflict, which has taken more than 500 Lebanese lives and killed more than 50 Israelis.

"Anytime you decide to stop your campaign against our cities, villages, civilians and infrastructure, we will not fire rockets on any Israeli settlement or city," he said in a taped video statement broadcast on Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV and carried simultaneously on all other Lebanese and Arab satellite channels.

Never mind that Hizbullah started this war, he's hoping that if Israel backs off, he will decide when to stop firing rockets. Cute. Israel isn't going to buy that one, not when it's on the offensive in Lebanese territory hunting Hizbullah down. Oh, and he's got to speak with his fact checker:

"If you bomb our capital Beirut, we will bomb the capital of your usurping entity... We will bomb Tel Aviv," he said in a taped televised speech.

Now, unless he's referring to Jerusalem in the portion of this excerpt that was excluded, Nasrallah is incorrectly stating Tel Aviv as Israel's capital. Israel has considered Jerusalem its capital since 1948 and has been part of the Israeli Basic Law since 1980. Not that it matters all that much. A few Hizbullah rockets here, a few ones there, and pretty soon there'll be lots of dead and injured Israelis.

Just a day after France said that Iran was a stabilizing influence, France slammed Iran for calling for Israel's destruction. Stick a finger in the wind, and that's how you'll be able to figure out the French position.

Japan has said it wont participate in an international force in Lebanon. They're running out of countries that will even consider participating.

UPDATE:
Syria is telling the EU that they're willing to help rein in Hizbullah. That and two bucks will get you on the NYC subway. Is it surprising that Hugo Chavez is withdrawing Venezuela's ambassador from Israel? It shouldn't considering how chummy Chavez is with Ahmadinejad. Chavez calls Israel's acts of defense genocidal on the same day when Hizbullah kills eight civilians with its rocket barrages. Of course Chavez is simply parroting Ahmadinejad's line, which should give you an inkling of their future plans.

Meanwhile, Amir Taheri has a most provocative essay on the fight in Lebanon. It's more than just land, but about the future of the fight between the Islamist movements and the West.

Technorati: terrorism, fatah, Gilad, Shalit, Olmert, Eliyahu, Asheri, Ashri, Abbas, Rains, Summer, cavaliers, wrath, PRC, Hamas, Gaza, palestinian, Israel, hizbullah, hezbullah, hezbollah, lebanon, syria.