Hounds of Hell Lurking

Round one wasn't sufficient. Hizbullah wants to inflict still more carnage on Israel and Lebanon. The feckless one, Kofi Annan, wants to limit Israel's ability to constrain Hizbullah until UN and Lebanese forces are in position to take a handoff of oversight in South Lebanon.

All the while, Hizbullah is doing everything within its power (and that of its terror masters in Damascus and Iran), to regroup and rearm.

Kofi is too busy trying to disarm Israel to worry about disarming the terror group that happened to turn South Lebanon into a warzone. Kofi complains about Israel's use of cluster munitions in Lebanon, but not a word on Hizbullah's indiscriminate and purposeful use of rockets against civilian populations in Israel. Ed Morrissey has more.

Meanwhile, reports indicate that prisoner swaps are back in vogue.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said Thursday that a prisoner swap with Israel was being considered by his government but "nothing has materialized."

Fuad Saniora said Lebanon was "continuing the contacts" with Israel about a possible swap in which two Israeli soldiers would be released in exchange for all Lebanese detainees in Israeli prisons.

Israel must not engage in any prisoner exchange - such releases undermine Israel's national security and ensure the inevitabiity that further attacks to take Israelis to exchange for prisoners or land.

The Lebanese government also wants to assure the West that any aid going to Lebanon will not end up in the hands of Hizbullah, but those assurances are empty claims considering that Hizbullah is still part of the Lebanese government, and refuses to put down its arms.

Siniora also complains that Israel is hindering reconstruction efforts in South Lebanon. Maybe he should focus more on Hizbullah, which had no problem building its bunkers and military infrastructure in South Lebanon unhindered for six years after Israel withdrew in 2000. Israel would not be in this situation now had Lebanon and the UN done what they were obligated to do under UN SCR 425, 426, 1559, and now 1701.

Syria says that they intend to implement UN SCR 1701, but I think their definition of implementation is different from mine. Disarming Hizbullah is part of 1701, but Syria will go ballistic if you try to disrupt Hizbullah's capabilities to regroup and rearm, including putting UN troops along the Syria/Lebanon border.

Lest we think that things have quieted down in Gaza, Fatah takes credit for rocket launches from Gaza.

Two women suffered shock and property was damaged when five rockets landed in the region.

For those who have been keeping track, Fatah is the so-called moderate group in Gaza. They're only moderately trying to destroy Israel. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad are fanatically trying to destroy Israel.

And there are fears that even more radical Islamist terror groups are materializing in Gaza.

UPDATE:
The New York Times would like you to think that the Palestinian terrorists fired a rocket barrage into Israel for the first time in weeks. They couldn't be more hopelessly wrong. As I reported earlier today, Fatah took credit for rocket fire into the Negev, and additional rockets were fired yesterday at Karni Crossing, which is a border control point between Israel and Gaza. The Palestinians haven't stopped trying to hit Israel. It's not for a lack of trying. Israel has managed to do a good job of eliminating the terrorist infrastructure in Gaza and limited Fatah, Hamas, and PIJ terrrorists' capabilities to fire rockets into Israel.

Just yesterday, a major attack was thwarted when Israeli forces discovered a Hamas tunnel at Karni Crossing.

The IDF reports that in the wake of intricate and ongoing intelligence-gathering activity by both the IDF and General Security Service, security forces succeeded earlier this week in finding a long tunnel dug from within Gaza towards the Karni crossing. Terrorists were apparently planning to carry out a major attack against Israeli personnel at the crossing itself.

Israel, meanwhile, has its own version of Whiplash Nagin as Olmert has pulled Israeli troops back from portions of Lebanon just a day after saying that it wouldn't. Who is Olmert trying to fool? Reports indicate less than 50% of South Lebanon controlled by the IDF has been transferred to UN control.

And there are new reports that say Israel is backing off its stance on an unconditional release of Shalit, Goldwasser, and Regev. I have a real bad feeling about that.

Technorati: terrorism, fatah, Gilad, Shalit, Olmert, Eliyahu, Asheri, Ashri, Abbas, Regev, Goldwasser, PRC, Hamas, Gaza, palestinian, Israel, hizbullah, hezbullah, hezbollah, lebanon, syria.