Diplomacy and the Hounds of Hell, Part XXI

The Lebanese Prime Minister says that Hizbullah's actions are based on revenge, and that Hizbullah has bombarded hospitals and UN outposts. Oh wait, he was talking about Israel. How is it that so many Muslim and Arab leaders project the actions of their own and fellow travellers on to Israel? It's a curious question, and no good answers. Israel may make a great bogeyman for all these 'leaders' but the fact is that Israel is doing what it must to protect itself and its citizens from Islamic terrorist groups that have carved out South Lebanon for its own dominion - Hizbullahland. Indeed, it sounds more like something Assad or Ahmadinejad would say.

"We need help in putting an end to this aggression and in enforcing the Lebanese sovereignty all across our territory. We want to salvage the common life in Lebanon. You and us are facing a difficult test by the international community," Siniora declared.

"This is the 26th day of the Lebanese holocaust. Israel is committing state terror," he stated, stressing that Lebanon's aim was to reach an immediate ceasefire based on the "Seven Points Plan."

"We need to consolidate a unified Arab stance and push for a different Security Council resolution," he said.

Siniora spoke about the villages and towns hit by Israel air strikes, and mentioned the destruction of infrastructure and "the killing of some 1000 civilians, a third of them under the age of 12. A million people displaced."

Considering that Hizbullah's mission statement calls for the eradication of the State of Israel, we're seeing Siniora projecting yet again. If Israel truly wanted to destroy all of Lebanon, it could do so quite easily and without any loss of Israeli soldiers on the ground. It could do exactly what Hafez Assad (Baby Assad's dad) did to Hama when faced with an Islamic threat of his own. He destroyed the city with an artillery bombardment and then had his tanks and engineering corps raze the entire city. More than 20,000 people were killed. That's men, women, and children. There was no outcry from the Arab world about that very real holocaust. Syria has not been threatened by Islamists since that time.

And yet, Israel pursues no such strategy of scorched earth. It limits its attacks to where Hizbullah operates or hides, and even then, has limited rules of engagement. While that reduces, but not eliminates civilian casualties, it also means Hizbullah continues operating and using those very civilians and UN outposts as human shields. Hizbullah launched this war of aggression against Israel without provocation with the assistance of a massive infusion of weapons and training from Iran and Syria over the past six years. This, despite a UNIFIL mandate to disarm all militias operating within Lebanon. This, despite a Lebanese military that is unwilling or unable to control Hizbullah because Hizbullah has penetrated the Lebanese government as well. Siniora says that there will be increased deployment of the Lebanese military to South Lebanon. Isn't that nice. What have they done in the six years prior to Hizbullah starting its own little war from Lebanon?

Who is Hizbullah killing in Israel? 40% of those Israelis killed are Arabs. Go figure. Israel, meanwhile, has cut one of the main roads leading into South Lebanon. They've also continued hitting Hizbullah targets throughout the country.

Earlier Monday, IDF forces destroyed Hizbullah's headquarters in the western sector of south Lebanon.

Combat engineers and infantry troops planted explosives, demolishing the outpost, which once served as the IDF's Karkoum outpost. Before the explosion, the soldiers discovered several rocket launchers in the outpost.

IDF troops killed two Hizbullah gunmen and discovered an ammunition cache inside a home in the south Lebanese village of Rabat-Taltin.

Another four Hizbullah operatives were killed in the village of Itaron in the western sector on Monday morning when IDF troops opened fire on an anti-tank rocket cell spotted in the area.

On the diplomatic front, France has said it would not vote for the draft resolution unless Lebanon approves it. Well, consider the resolution dead because Lebanon has rejected it. Iran wants a resolution to its liking passed. Of course they do. They want Israel's destruction of Iran's prized asset and top Arab/Islamic military force stopped at all costs. As the Israeli Foreign Minister says, Hizbullah is representing Iran's interests in Lebanon.

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.

UPDATE:
Need more proof that Hizbullah is using residential areas to conduct its war against Israel? How about watching katuysha rockets fired from apartment buildings in Lebanon against Israel (via BabbaZee at LGF). Hizbullah purposefully puts civilians in harms way. The onus of the civilian casualties in Lebanon is on them, not Israel.

UPDATE:
From 40 to 1. PM Siniora said earlier today that 40 people were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Houla. Well, check that figure. It's actually only one person killed in the raid. Quite a difference. How could such a thing happen? Which figure do you think will be touted by the usual suspects? The 40 or the 1?

Look, I know we're talking about a warzone and that the information coming into the various authorities is going to be confused and sometimes wrong, but how is it that the information invariably coming out of Lebanon is uniformly biased against Israel? Could it be that the sources of the information are biased and hence the result?

UPDATE:
As this CNN story indicates, Siniora informed various Arab ministers of the 40 dead at Houla. Did he correct his figure to those same ministers or will that figure go uncorrected? I have a sneaking suspicion that I know the answer to that one. The answer would be no. The media will highlight the possibility that many kids could have been killed in the strike, but the facts are quite different.

Israel continues to hunt down and kill Hizbullah terrorists. 14 were killed in heavy fighting in South Lebanon.

UPDATE:
Ha'aretz reports the UAV was shot down over the Med near Haifa.

IDF brought down an unmanned drone over the Mediterranean Sea on Monday night, near the coast of the northern city of Haifa. It is not clear whether it had explosives onboard.

In the past year, Hezbollah has twice managed to fly a drone into Israeli airspace, both of which returned safely to Lebanese territory.

"I can confirm that the airforce destroyed a Hezbollah drone," an army spokesman said, but would not provide any other details, including where the drone was flying.

PM Olmert says Israel will not stop the IDF assault on Hizbullah rockets regardless of the diplomatic posturing. Lebanon wants the UN resolution to include a requirement that Israel withdraw from Lebanon. That's nice, but who exactly will take their place? The UN peacekeeping force deployments around the world show a frightening inability to actually make peace or even maintain it. Lebanon needs peacemakers - a military force that can actively disarm Hizbullah or destroy Hizbullah if they refuse to do so peacefully.

Defense Minister Peretz says that Israel will continue operating anywhere in Lebanon to eliminate the Hizbullah threat. Meanwhile, Israel says they've killed 450 Hizbullah since the fight started. They've also continued targeting and destroying rocket launchers.

Vital Perspective notes that Howard Kurtz interviewed WaPo reporter Thomas Ricks on CNN's Reliable Sources about the situation in Lebanon and Ricks made some pretty startling accusations against Israel. He claims that Israel is purposefully leaving rocket launchers in the hands of Hizbullah so that they can continue their attacks and Israel can continue its offensive in Lebanon. Shameful doesn't even begin to cover this nonsense. It's Eason Jordan's spawn. Who are Ricks' supposed sources and where is he getting this pablum?

UPDATE:
So who would be involved in the proposed international force should that even come to pass? This article provides some insight, and raises more questions than it answers.

The NYT produced a fawning piece about Hizbullah's terror master Nasrallah. Newsbusters has the details.

Al Arabiya says that the IDF is gunning for Nasrallah. What gave that away? The raids on Beirut that dropped 23 tons of ordnance on a Beirut bunker complex? The raids in Baalbek and elsewhere in Lebanon? Nasrallah is the head of the Islamic terrorist group dedicated to Israel's annihilation. What did they think Israel would do to someone who leads such a nihlistic and genocidal group?

Syria is continuing to provide a useful conduit to Hizbullah by resupplying Hizbullah across the Syria-Lebanon border. Once again, we see the reluctance to completely shut down the Syria-Lebanon border causing problems. Close that border, and Israel will have a better chance of eliminating Hizbullah in Lebanon. The IDF believes that the rocket launchers are apparently moving east and north in Lebanon. That would put them even closer to the Hizbullah bastions in the Bekaa Valley. It might suggest that Israel's strategy has been effective despite the rocket attacks against Israel.

The UN has postponed discussion of the proposed draft resolution agreed to by France and the US.

Israel has also released video of the captured Hizbullah terrorist who was involved in the original terror operation against Israel that led to eight Israeli soldiers killed and two others taken into Lebanon.

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