A blog for all seasons; A blog for one; A blog for all. As the 11th most informative blog on the planet, I have a seared memory of throwing my Time 2006 Man of the Year Award over the railing at Time Warner Center.
Justice. Only Justice Shall Thou Pursue
Now, in the wake of the bank’s exposure and arranged sale, its ledgers have been opened to reveal deeper secrets: a glimpse at the clandestine methods that Hezbollah — a terrorist organization in American eyes that has evolved into Lebanon’s pre-eminent military and political power — uses to finance its operations. The books offer evidence of an intricate global money-laundering apparatus that, with the bank as its hub, appeared to let Hezbollah move huge sums of money into the legitimate financial system, despite sanctions aimed at cutting off its economic lifeblood.
At the same time, the investigation that led the United States to the bank, the Lebanese Canadian Bank, provides new insights into the murky sources of Hezbollah’s money. While law enforcement agencies around the world have long believed that Hezbollah is a passive beneficiary of contributions from loyalists abroad involved in drug trafficking and a grab bag of other criminal enterprises, intelligence from several countries points to the direct involvement of high-level Hezbollah officials in the South American cocaine trade.
One agent involved in the investigation compared Hezbollah to the Mafia, saying, “They operate like the Gambinos on steroids.”
On Tuesday, federal prosecutors in Virginia announced the indictment of the man at the center of the Lebanese Canadian Bank case, charging that he had trafficked drugs and laundered money not only for Colombian cartels, but also for the murderous Mexican gang Los Zetas.
The revelations about Hezbollah and the Lebanese Canadian Bank reflect the changing political and military dynamics of Lebanon and the Middle East. American intelligence analysts believe that for years Hezbollah received as much as $200 million annually from its primary patron, Iran, along with additional aid from Syria. But that support has diminished, the analysts say, as Iran’s economy buckles under international sanctions over its nuclear program and Syria’s government battles rising popular unrest.
Yet, if anything, Hezbollah’s financial needs have grown alongside its increasing legitimacy here, as it seeks to rebuild after its 2006 war with Israel and expand its portfolio of political and social service activities. The result, analysts believe, has been a deeper reliance on criminal enterprises — especially the South American cocaine trade — and on a mechanism to move its ill-gotten cash around the world.
“The ability of terror groups like Hezbollah to tap into the worldwide criminal funding streams is the new post-9/11 challenge,” said Derek Maltz, the Drug Enforcement Administration official who oversaw the agency’s investigation into the Lebanese Canadian Bank.
In that inquiry, American Treasury officials said senior bank managers had assisted a handful of account holders in running a scheme to wash drug money by mixing it with the proceeds of used cars bought in the United States and sold in Africa. A cut of the profits, officials said, went to Hezbollah, a link the organization disputes.
Despite efforts to crack down and track such money laundering and trafficking operations, Hizbullah has thrived and expanded its drug and money laundering business. It is less dependent on Iran than in previous years, and that makes the group even more dangerous. While it still relies on Syria and Iran for arms shipments, the ability to raise money through its own channels allows it to expand its tentacles into other areas of Lebanese politics and it remains an existential threat to Israel.
The money laundering allows Hizbullah to make significant land purchases in Lebanon that it would not be otherwise capable of doing. Much of those land purchases are in militarily strategic areas and can fortify Hizbullah's position within the fragmented Lebanese society. That further destabilizes the Lebanese political situation, which remains in flux.
Hizbullah operates with impunity in Southern Lebanon, despite UN SCR 1701 that calls for all militia groups to be disarmed. Neither UNIFIL nor the Lebanese military has the ability to disarm the terror group, and Hizbullah forced itself into the Lebanese government and has therefore thwarted further efforts to stop the group's ongoing militarization in Southern Lebanon.
Five years after the Second Lebanon War broke out, Lebanese soldiers and IDF troops exchanged gunfire along the border earlier Monday.
IDF troops were operating along the border near the Hatzbani River when a Lebanese soldier opened fire at them. Israel returned fire at the Lebanese soldier. No IDF soldiers were injured in the incident. Lebanese media reported that one Lebanese soldier was injured from gunfire.
The IDF reported the incident to the UNIFIL force stationed in Lebanon along the border, stating that Israel was not interested in an escalation of violence.
The army added that they believed the incident was contained and it did not appear that a larger operation would follow.
Lebanese news website Naharnet reported that the LAF opened fire when IDF soldiers crossed over to the Lebanese side of the border. The IDF emphasized that they were operating on the Israeli side of the border.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that the soldiers "behaved like they were supposed to. They are determined to defend themselves and the border."
Hizbullah issued a statement condemning Israel and attempted to spin this as Israeli provocation, even though it was the Lebanese soldier who opened fire on the Israelis. The terror group also admitted that they spurned millions of dollars to disarm - they rather like holding on to their weapons stockpile to carry on their war against Israel at the time and place of their choosing.
Hopefully this can remain an isolated incident, and not part of some plan by Hizbullah or Assad to take pressure off the Syrians by manufacturing a conflict with Israel to divert media attention from the horrendous crackdown in Syria.
A similar border skirmish occurred nearly a year ago to a day; in that incident, one Israeli soldier was killed and several others wounded.
Lebanon's political situation remains exceedingly fragile as Hizbullah has pulled out of the government and has forced the Lebanese President to bring about talks for a new Prime Minister. Those talks are scheduled to begin on Monday.
Hizbullah didn't like the fact that Prime Minister Saad Hariri was backing efforts to investigate the assassination of his father, Rafik Hariri. His assassination has been tied back to Hizbullah and its terror masters in Syria and Iran and Hizbullah is doing all it can to avoid responsibility and culpability.
Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said that his party will "calculate our steps" after withdrawing from the Lebanese government, at a meeting of party leaders on earlier on Thursday, Al-Jazeera reported.
Nasrallah explained that his party left the government because the "expected result of the international tribunal for the former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri is aimed at the resistance."
Suleiman asked Hariri, as well as other members of his party, to remain in their positions in a transitional government, Lebanese news sources reported on Thursday.
Hizbullah told Suleiman that it will not allow Hariri to continue as prime minister, according to a Thursday report by Lebanese paper Al-Akhbar.
"He is not fit to have this responsibility, as experience has proven," a Hizbullah source told Al-Akhbar.
Another Hizbullah source told Lebanese daily A-Safir that Hariri will not be prime minister anymore "because he is part of the problem, not the solution."
Thus, it has resorted to bringing down the Hariri government.
Iran is playing its role in all this as well. It's claiming that the fall of the Hariri government is the fault of the Israelis and the US government, which makes no sense unless you think that getting to the bottom of Rafik's assassination and bringing those responsible for his assassination to justice is somehow blame-worthy.
Hizbullah isn't a resistance group. It's a terrorist group that continues operating in contravention of UN SCR 1701, which requires that all militias operating in Lebanon be disarmed. Hizbullah continues to maintain a significant military force, particularly in Southern Lebanon and UNIFIL attempts at disarmament have been limited at best. Hizbullah may at one time have been a resistance group when Israel had invaded Lebanon to deal with the PLO in 1981-2 and thereafter, but Israel has withdrawn from Lebanon since 2005. Hizbullah is not resisting Israel's occupation of Lebanon - it's resisting Israel's existence and uses its position in Lebanon to maintain a destabilizing element on Israel's northern border.
The US is working through France to try and keep Syria on the sidelines and to avoid any violent outbreaks in the coming days and weeks. France has long had a relationship with the Levant and still has good relations in Lebanon and Syria dating back to France's colonial days.
Ten ministers from Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and its political allies announced their resignation on Wednesday and called on President Michel Suleiman to form a new government.
Eleven ministerial resignations would be enough to bring down the government of Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri. There was no immediate news on whether another minister, Adnan Sayyed Hussein, who Hezbollah supporters also expect to resign, was stepping down.
Lebanon would be better off if they fulfilled the requirements under UN SCR 1701, which required the Lebanese and UNIFIL to disarm all militias operating in Lebanon, including Hizbullah, but they have repeatedly failed to do so because Hizbullah is well entrenched and heavily armed - moreso than either Lebanon or UNIFIL would care to admit.
Southern Lebanon is essentially Hizbullahland and this may be a step in furtherance of resuming attacks against Israel and/or destabilizing the government of Prime Minister Hariri so that they can increase their reach further.
This is yet another sad day for the Lebanese who are trying to rebuild after decades of sectarian violence, the Israeli invasion to stop the PLO, and Hizbullah's disastrous war.
The announcement took place as Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri was in the United States where he has been meeting with various US and United Nations officials.
US President Barack Obama was set to meet Wednesday with the Lebanese prime minister to discuss political tensions in his country stemming from the Hariri investigation, the White House said Tuesday.
The Hizbullah ministers had said they were planning to resign in the afternoon unless Western-backed Hariri — the son of the slain leader — agreed to their demand to convene an urgent Cabinet meeting over the tribunal crisis, Health Minister Mohammed Jawad Khalifeh said on Hizbullah 's Al-Manar TV.
Earlier in the week, Prime Minister Hariri said that he would "seek all means to reach solutions that can guarantee stability, calm and maintain national unity," Lebanon's Daily Star reported.
Hizbullah members are expected to be indicted by the Hariri tribunal, which will hand over its findings within "hours or days," according to a Wednesday report in Lebanese newspaper An Nahar.
Hizbullah has denounced the tribunal as an "Israeli project" and urged Hariri to reject any findings by the court, which has not yet announced any indictments.
The border skirmish along the Lebanese-Israeli border that left four people dead was initiated by the Lebanese military. That was the finding of UNIFIL, which continues its investigation.
So, if that's the case, when will Lebanon's military finally disarm Hizbullah, which has carved out Southern Lebanon as a state-within-a-state where Hizbullah continues stockpiling weapons and turning the place into an armed camp under the nose of UNIFIL and the Lebanese military. Both the Lebanese government and UNIFIL are mandated to disarm all militias operating in Southern Lebanon as part of UN SCR 1701. They've failed miserably to do so. Yet, when Israel is on Israel's side of the border and has informed UNIFIL of their plan to clear brush and trees leaning on Israel's security fence, Lebanese troops opened fire.
Israel has the right to protect its sovereignty with force, and it did so by returning fire on Lebanese forces that attacked its troops.
The greatest threat to Lebanon's sovereignty isn't Israel. It's Hizbullah, which threatens to overturn the apple cart and exert its power and authority by force and all means at its disposal.
Yet, there are still people who think that Israel is somehow to blame for the incident. Juan Cole thinks that Israel should have left the tree-clearing to UNIFIL.
Couldn’t they, like, have called in the UNIFIL United Nations peacekeepers to cut down the trees? That is what UNIFIL is there for. Some trees were worth the lives of Lebanese troops and a journalist and that of an Israeli officer?
One surprising thing is that the Lebanese army showed such spunk in the face of the perceived Israeli affront. They know very well that they are vastly outgunned, and of course the Israeli military hit them with fire from helicopter gunships and artillery pieces. What made them so bold, that they shot and killed an Israeli officer over the tree removal?
Another surprise is that the secretary general of the Hizbullah party and militia, Hasan Nasrullah, called on his people to show restraint. Even so, he threatened to intervene if there was another Israeli provocation.
That's nonsense. Israel informed UNIFIL of the maintenance operation, received approval to do so at a time of UNIFIL's choosing, and yet the Lebanese opened fire on that approved project.
Moreover, it's easy to show spunk when you've set up an ambush to attack the Israelis while they were doing maintenance work. If this was a straight up fight, which it turned into, the Lebanese troops got hammered hard.
Hizbullah realized very quickly that this attack could be blamed on them, and they didn't want any part of the fight because they also know how devastating Israel's response was in the 2006 Hizbullah war. While it didn't result in victory for Israel, Hizbullah got pasted and Israel's military is notable in how it learns from its previous mistakes. Hizbullah isn't quite ready to initiate another conflict with Israel, so it is merely biding its time.
The bottom line is that Lebanon's military has to be held accountable for this incident. They refuse to enforce UN SCR 1701, but are trigger happy to go after Israel when Israel is operating on the Israeli side of the Blue Line.
UPDATE:
Media mendacity continues apace. Various captions on photos showing Israelis working along the border where the skirmish between Israeli and Lebanese soldiers occurred makes it appear that the fighting broke out over a tree.
Israeli soldiers use a mechanical grabber to cut trees in disputed land, claimed by both Israel and Lebanon near the southern village of Adaisseh, Lebanon, Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010. The Israeli military said it would cut more trees Wednesday in the tense border area where Israel and Lebanon fought the most serious battle between the countries in four years, touched off by a dispute over a cypress tree.
That's factually wrong.
It broke out when a Lebanese soldier opened fire on Israelis carrying out planned maintenance along the fence after consultation and notice to UNIFIL. The precipitating event leading to the deaths was the Lebanese opening fire. UNIFIL clearly stated that Israel was working on clearing brush and trees from its side of the border.
UNIFIL is still conducting its investigation of yesterday's incident, but thus far has corroborated Israel's version of events. Israel was wholly within its rights to carry out maintenance operations on the Israeli side of the Blue Line, which marks the border between Lebanon and Israel. Lebanese forces opened fire and Israel responded with both small arms fire and artillery. After a short lull called by the Lebanese to evacuate their wounded, someone on the Lebanese side opened fire on an Israeli tank with an RPG.
While both Lebanon and Israel traded claims that the other violated UN SCR 1701, it clearly appears that Lebanon was in the wrong and that someone on the Lebanese side initiated the fighting despite Israel having every right to carry out the maintenance of the security fence that was wholly within Israeli territory.
We also now know that UNIFIL requested that Israel delay its maintenance work until UNIFIL could get its people in to the area and to alert the Lebanese forces.
Kadima MK Shaul Mofaz on Wednesday called the incident on the Lebanon border a "planned terror attack."
In an interview with Army Radio, the former defense minister added that he had no doubt that Hizbullah was involved in the Lebanese army's actions on the border on Tuesday.
Mofaz was very critical of the UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon, stating that their inability to prevent the Lebanese army from firing on IDF soldiers proves their incompetence.
Also Wednesday, a senior official in Jerusalem told Israel Radio that the Lebanese army had taken advantage of the fact that the IDF delayed by several hours maintenance work near the Lebanese border on Tuesday, in order to plan and prepare an ambush on IDF forces.
According to the report, the IDF told UNIFIL at 6 a.m. on Tuesday that they planned to do maintenance work at approximately 9 a.m. UNIFIL responded that their forces needed time to prepare for the IDF presence in the enclave between the Israeli border and the international border and requested that the IDF delay the maintenance work until 11 a.m. UNIFIL relayed to the Lebanese Army forces in the area the IDF's plans and the Lebanese used the extra time to prepare an ambush on the IDF forces and to invite journalists and photographers to the site.
The IDF prepared Wednesday to complete the routine maintenance it was conducting on the Lebanese border Tuesday when Lebanese Armed Forces opened fire. A large security force returned to the area of the clash in armored vehicles in order to finish the tree clearing activities.
It's that latter part that suggests to the Israelis that this was a planned attack where the Lebanese used the extra time to set up the ambush.
Well, the latter part could be answered by looking at the calendar. Yesterday marked the fourth anniversary of the 2006 Hizbullah war and while Hizbullah's leadership denied any involvement all while praising the attacks on Israel, Nasrallah wanted to distance himself because he knew that he'd be targeted once again by the Israelis if his group were indeed connected with the attack. The Lebanese, along with the Syrians and other Arabs quick to condemn Israel for carrying out the provocations, quickly had to back down because the facts clearly didn't support them. In fact, it was astonishing how quick the facts outed that Israel did no wrong here and that it was someone on the Lebanese side who initiated the attacks and that UNIFIL confirmed the Israeli position.
UPDATE:
Multiple reports across the media make this incident about Israel attempting to uproot a tree, even if it was wholly located in Israel. This is part and parcel of a larger propaganda effort delegitimizing Israel's claims to its territories. After all, when you consider that Israeli territory is all expropriated from the Palestinians as Hamas, Hizbullah, and Fatah do - then every tree uprooted is propaganda. After all, why else do the Palestinians wail and moan when Israel tears out olive trees in the West Bank for building housing or because those Palestinians are squatters who are not legally entitled to that land under Oslo, etc.
With apologies to Monty Python, this is the mantra of the anti-Israel propagandists:
Every tree is sacred.
Every tree is holy.
If a tree is wasted,
God gets quite irate.
Let the heathens chop theirs
on the dusty plains
Let the heathen chop theirs
On the dusty ground.
God shall make them pay for
Each tree that can't be found.
The earliest reports are frequently wrong or misstate events as they actually occurred, but this much we know for certain. Lebanese forces opened fire on an Israeli patrol and there were casualties on both sides. At least four Lebanese soldiers were killed when the Israelis returned fire with both small arms and artillery called in against Lebanese military positions.
The Israeli military released a statement that indicates that they had not only informed UNIFIL that they would be operating near the border, but that the work was being done on the Israeli side of the border. The IDF is holding the Lebanese military responsible for the incident.
Earlier today during the mid-day hours, the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) fired at an IDF position along the Lebanese border in northern Israel. The force was in Israeli territory, carrying out routine maintenance and was pre-coordinated with UNIFIL. The border area is east of the Israeli town Metula. The incident occurred west of the internationally recognized “Blue Line” (the border between Israel and Lebanon) and east of the security fence, thus lying in Israeli territory.
The IDF force immediately returned fire with light arms at a force of the LAF, and the IDF also made use of artillery fire. Several minutes later an Israel Air Force (IAF) helicopter fired at the LAF Battalion Command Center in Al-Taybeh, damaging several LAF armored combat vehicles.
The IDF holds the LAF responsible for the incident that disrupted the calm in the region, and its consequences.
The IDF Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi arrived at the Israeli-Lebanese border, is following the events closely as they unfold, and is constantly holding situation assessment reports with the OC Northern Command, Maj. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot, as well as the Galilee Regional Division commander and additional commanders.
The work involved removing trees that had come down along the fence line. The fence is heavily monitored and rigged with detection equipment to prevent terrorists from infiltrating into Israel via the Lebanese border such that if a tree had come down on the fence, it would interfere with the detection equipment.
UNIFIL has its hands full and is urging both sides to show restraint. If the Israeli military had informed UNIFIL that they would be undertaking the repairs along the fence (and within Israel's border) then someone at UNIFIL failed to pass along that information to the Lebanese military, where someone decided that this was an Israeli attack and opened fire. UNIFIL doesn't come off looking good here (and it never does), but neither does the Lebanese military who opened fire first before inquiring as to what the Israelis were doing.
UPDATE: Aussie Dave and the Muqata are both liveblogging the situation along the Northern border. The IDF is also updating their statements here.
Israel Defense Forces GOC Northern Command Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot announced Tuesday that two Israeli officers had been very seriously hit during the exchange of fire. Eizenkot said that the incident had been a "deliberate ambush."
Eizenkot told Israeli media that "a routine operation was carried out during the afternoon near Misgav Am – an operation whose purpose was to trim some bushes near the border, in our [Israeli] territory. It was on both sides of the border but still within [Israeli] territory. Officers oversaw the operation from a permanent position. Sniper fire was directed at the officers, and two of them were wounded as a result."
The GOC Northern Command stressed that "this was a pre-planned event, aggression by the Lebanese army who shot at soldiers inside Israeli territory without any provocation. We view this as a very severe incident."
It was a deliberate ambush and now raises questions over what UNIFIL and the Lebanese military knew and when.
UPDATE:
Here's video showing how the incident broke out. There are UNIFIL soldiers from the Indonesian contingent who were shouting towards the Israelis to stop working along the Israeli fence within Israeli territory but then someone among the Lebanese soldiers' contingent opened fire.
There have been scattered reports over the past couple of weeks that Hizbullah has obtained Scud missiles from Syria. Today, Hizbullah announced that they indeed obtained the missiles, but goes on to claim that they aren't in working order. Yet, Hizbullah also said that they'd use them and the other missiles in their arsenal if Israel attacked Lebanon.
Hizbullah sources confirmed on Thursday that the group had received a shipment of Scud missiles from Syria, the Kuwaiti paper Al-Rai reported.
But the missiles were old and unusable, according to the sources. Hizbullah also accused Israel of blowing the incident out of proportion to provoke a media ruckus.
“Our organization has many surface-to-surface missiles spread across all of Lebanon, in case Israel attacks the country again,” the Hizbullah sources said.
Despite this confirmation of what Jerusalem has been saying for days, the Syrian Foreign Ministry denied the reports, saying Israel was trying to stoke tensions in the region and could be setting the stage for an Israeli “aggression” to avoid Middle East peace requirements.
Thursday’s Syrian statement came after President Shimon Peres accused Syria of supplying the Lebanese group with Scuds for the first time.
Israeli defense officials also have said they believe Hizbullah has Scud missiles, and that the projectiles could alter the strategic balance with the Islamist group.
Let's remind everyone of what's going on here. The UN, through UNIFIL, is supposed to disarm all militias operating in Southern Lebanon including Hizbullah pursuant to UN SCR 1701.
This is a direct violation of that Security Council resolution, but don't expect anyone to demand compliance. It just isn't going to happen so Israel will have to take matters into its own hands eventually.
Hizbullah started a war in 2006 and subsequently fired thousands of short range missiles into Israel and Israel responded by invading Southern Lebanon to root out the weapons caches that Hizbullah placed in and around civilian areas and even UNIFIL outposts.
A Scud missile is a significant upgrade over the kassam/katuysha missile used since it provides significantly longer range and a higher payload. It is a terror weapon since its guidance systems are anything but accurate. Those firing the missiles merely point it in the general direction of their target and hope that it hits. Such a scenario is more than sufficient to pose a serious threat to Israel, where the bulk of Israel's population is along the Mediterranean coast and on an axis between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Hizbullah's intent is to maximize casualties - both among Israelis and among Lebanese civilians who happen to be living in and around the Hizbullah weapons caches as Hizbullah hopes to maximize the body count for propaganda purposes.
Israeli troops shelled the U.N. headquarters in Gaza after coming under fire from Palestinian militants, a senior Israeli military officer said on Thursday.
The artillery attack set the compound on fire, destroyed tons of food and humanitarian supplies, reportedly injured three people and forced hundreds of refugees to flee.
Israel says it does not target U.N. buildings or personnel. But the Israeli officer said troops opened fire after militants inside the compound shot anti-tank weapons and machine guns. He said the troops used 155 mm artillery shells. Throughout its 20-day offensive in Gaza, Israel has accused Hamas militants of hiding in civilian areas to stage attacks.
The officer spoke on condition of anonymity pending a formal announcement expected later Thursday.
U.N. secretary-general Ban Ki-moon, who is in the region to press Israel, and Gulf leaders gathered to discuss the conflict, expressed "outrage" over the bombing.
So now Secretary Ban Ki-Moon is expressing outrage? Where was the outrage over Hamas using UN facilities to target Israel? Where was the UN to block Hamas terrorists from infiltrating the UNRWA? Outrage?
You want outrage?
I'll give you outrage:
Hamas has been assisted time and time again by UNRWA and UN largesse and condoning of Hamas activities. Hamas openly indoctrinates terrorists in UNRWA facilities, using schools to fire rockets at Israel and you have the temerity to feign outrage because Israel hit one of your precious buildings? Seriously? That any aid is getting to Gaza is the result of Israel doing more humanitarian relief than the Gazans care to do for themselves. The UN has done nothing to end the years of terrorist attacks and war crimes by Palestinians against Israel. That's right - war crimes. Purposefully attacking Israeli civilians is a war crime. Do you think we'd forget or not notice the thousands of kassams fired - each with an intent to murder and maim Israelis?
Where was your outrage then?
The UN has outlived its usefulness in Gaza, and it is part of the problem there, not the solution. By playing moral equivalents, the UN aids and abets a terrorist group while undermining the sovereign rights of a member nation. No other nation would ever tolerate such an affront, and yet it's expected when Israel is involved.
You want to see the situation in Gaza improve? Kick the UN out altogether. UNRWA, UNDP, the whole bunch.
The outrage is that the UN has done nothing while Hamas has turned Gaza into an armed camp for war against Israel using the population of Gaza as human shields. The outrage is the moral bankruptcy of the UN, even as they're dictating that Israel stop fighting to defend itself while demanding no such actions on behalf of Hamas or the other terrorists.
Yet, we're supposed to believe that the UN will protect Israel from further attack? UNIFIL is useless in preventing Hizbullah from arming in Lebanon, carrying out invasions and wars against Israel (Hizbullah war in 2006), subsequent rearming of Hizbullah despite UN resolutions reiterating the prior resolutions demanding disarmament of militias in Lebanon.
It has played host to Hamas and other terrorists operating from UN facilities. Most egregiously, the UNDP is now going to be headed by Iran, which also seeks Israel's destruction.
Morally bankrupt and yet we're hearing him talk about outrage. That's outrageous.
UPDATE: MSNBC has edited the story to remove the content I previously quoted. It's since been replaced with the following:
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the military fired artillery shells at the U.N. compound after Hamas militants opened fire from the location. Three people were wounded.
"It is absolutely true that we were attacked from that place, but the consequences are very sad and we apologize for it," he said.
John Ging, director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency operations in Gaza, described the Israeli claim as "total nonsense" and "typical misinformation."
U.N. officials said hundreds of people sheltering in the compound were forced to flee, and that the Israeli shells contained white phosphorus, an incendiary agent that can cause horrific injuries. After the shelling, fire spread to nearby fuel tankers in the compound, triggering another massive explosion.
It's total nonsense and typical misinformation? Perhaps Ging needs a refresher on what Hamas does with UNRWA facilities.
Overnight, the Israeli military announced that three more Israeli soldiers were killed. They were members of the elite Golani Brigade, whose predecessors defended Israel's northern borders and who saved Israel from ruin during the 1973 Yom Kippur War when their unit went into the breach and stopped the oncoming Syrian armor from pouring down and out of the Golan Heights. The incident involved an errant tank shell, which shows just how difficult things are for Israeli soldiers fighting in the urban warrens of Gaza City and the refugee camps.
Hamas is busy trying to spin things in their favor, but the fact is that Hamas is desperate for a timeout. They've been hit hard, but they need a hudna. There's no way Israel should relent. Now is time to slam the hammer down on Hamas. Israel's future deserves no less than to ensure that Hamas is destroyed.
Speaking of the diplomatic effort, there's much talk, but not a whole lot of action. It's diplomats doing what they do to look important, but not much else. The UN continues to make statements of moral equivalence - putting Hamas and Israel on equal footing when anyone who knows the difference between good and evil would demand that the UN support Israel against Hamas and see that the terrorist group is destroyed. Of course, the history of the UN since 1948 has been one to try and undermine Israel's right to exist at every turn and the anti-Israel lobby is constantly trying to stop Israel from defending itself. Any ceasefire or truce demands concessions of Israel while the terrorists walk scot-free. Just look at Hizbullah in Lebanon. UNIFIL continues looking the other way as Hizbullah maintains their military forces, despite UNIFIL mandates to disarm Hizbullah.
Israeli Defense Minister Barak is prepping for a long term operation, knowing that Hamas has squirreled away significant weapons caches for a prolonged fight. He needs Prime Minister Olmert to give him the time to carry out the necessary operations to take out Hamas leaders and their thugs who have brought nothing but pain and misery to Gaza.
It was at that meeting that ministers confided that Mubarak had told them 'Hamas must not be allowed to emerge from the fighting with the upper hand.'
Hamas believes Egypt is trying to broker a ceasefire and sent a delegation to the city on Monday. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meantime has told visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy that Israel will not honour a ceasefire imposed by the UN Security Council. It will only honour an agreement that it agrees to, the Israeli prime minister told Sarkozy.
Israel wants the rocket attacks to stop, and the smuggling of weapons from Egypt to cease. Mubarak, whose country patrols the border with Egypt, was insisting Monday there was no smuggling, that supplies to Hamas were coming from ships off Gaza.
Israel has said it is a member state of the UN and should not be put on the same basis as Hamas, which it says is a 'terrorist organization.'
Still, there are two jihadis in particular who are notably quiet about the situation in Gaza. You would think that they'd be out front leading the charge against Israel and the West especially given their prior statements and how they've repeatedly tried to tie everything that happens around the world to Israel and the Palestinians.
You know who I'm talking about: Al Qaeda's own top two - Ayman al Zawahiri and Osama bin Laden.
Both are notable by their silence. Perhaps they're having problems getting their videos out from the undisclosed locations near the ninth plane of Hell or the NWFP (interchangeable under certain circumstances as a little know fact is that Hell can freeze over)? Maybe they're dead? I find it hard to believe that they're having trouble find the words to put together to a video or audio tape, although their propagandists might be having trouble getting the video and audio to sync up properly.
Silence is usually golden, but in this case, it speaks volumes.
Now, it's possible that they will be heard from soon enough. Maybe their next video or audio will mention the situation in Gaza. I just wouldn't hold my breath and I certainly wouldn't expect to hear anything new from them. It's the same story we've been hearing for decades; someone is going to destroy Israel and yet when the latest terrorists and their terror masters try, Israel swats them hard. Each time restraint is mistaken as weakness, although Israel's reluctance means that we have to keep replaying the same stories every few years and more civilians die than if Israel simply fought to defeat its enemies.
The great equalizer, however, is the media war. Hamas still benefits greatly from media sympathizers who will unquestioningly run agitprop for Hamas and savaging Israel's defensive actions. MSNBC is particularly awful at maintaining objectivity in US media. The British media is far worse and I wont even begin to get into the sewers and fever swamps of the state-run propagandists of the Arab world.
I've been going through the photos regularly on Getty Images and Daylife, and if you counted all the photos of injured children and those of injured adults, you'd think that Israel targeted only children. There's a stunning lack of adults being captured on film being brought to the hospitals or receiving medical care at all.
I can't imagine why that's the case. Maybe it has something to do with media bias and the bias of the stringers taking the photos - knowing full well that showing images of terrorists being wheeled in to the hospitals isn't going to make a convincing case that Israel stops bombing, but show a bunch of children dead or injured, and you might get the sympathies sufficiently riled to get the diplomats to stop Israel before Hamas is thoroughly dismembered.
Reuters makes nonsensical claims and headlines, which do nothing but bolster Hamas. They claim that Israel is ignoring the possibility of a truce, but even Reuters had to report that Hamas is urging its fellow terrorists to fight every street and to the last breath and last man. Gabriel Malor at Ace of Spades has the details. So does Omri at Mere Rhetoric, who notes the New York Times doing the same thing.
There's a reason that the Gazan hospitals are crowded with patients and it's left out of practically every report. Israel has stated that Hamas is using hospitals as terror command posts, although doctors there deny it (with the omnipresent Hamas thugs at the facilities, there's no way to trust that without searching every inch of the hospital to be sure). Reports also suggest that Hamas thugs have set up hospital facilities for their wounded terrorists, but are taking aid and relief supplies meant for civilians injured in the fighting.
Israel would not have gone into Gaza had Hamas not fired thousands of rockets at Israel.
Israel left Gaza in 2005, and all it got for that unilateral effort was kassams that rain down on Sderot and other Israeli communities throughout Southern Israel. People within range of the kassams have less time to react than they do to read this post. They have seconds.
That conditions for Gazans is bad now is the fault of no one but the Hamas terrorists who wished for a war with Israel, and Hamas all they could to ensure that one would bring the maximium amount of civilian casualties.
None of this matters to the many anti-Israel demonstrators around the world who display their real intentions. It isn't anti-war sentiments driving much of the demonstrators, but raging anti-Semitism. Israel's existence is sufficient for the demonstrations, and the grievance theater surrounding these displays shows just how deluded so many of these people are. They demand nothing less than jihad and the destruction of Israel - in so many words.
Hamas thugs call for killing Israeli children, as though Hamas hasn't been busy trying to achieve that goal. After all, they tried to blow up this kindergarden class. Sadly, that's not a new call either, as Hamas has routinely called for the murder of Israelis of all ages, and has managed to succeed in their terror attacks on occasion. That they haven't killed more people is the result of Israel securing its borders, manning checkpoints to stop suicide bombers and gunmen, and sealing the border with Gaza to prevent terror attacks.
It was that latter part that sent Hamas scrambling for rockets. Since they couldn't infiltrate Israel with suicide bombers, they went with the next best thing - rockets. And they've sent thousands into Israel - each with the murderous intent to slay Israelis.
The UN Security Council will be meeting shortly to discuss the situation in Gaza. I have no doubt that the focus will be on Israel to stop attacking Hamas. Much less discussion will be had on Hamas and dismantling the terrorist infrastructure. The US has already said that it will veto any plan that is unbalanced.
Much will be made of the fact that Prime Minister Olmert rejected a 48 hour ceasefire, but the fact is that Hamas has said that they would never entertain a ceasefire unless Israel stops attacking and destroying Hamas terrorists. Hamas has never said it would stop firing its rockets into Israel.
Bret Stephens posits an endgame for Israel, one that includes the possibility for peace. Key among Israel's options is that it must assert aggressive deterrence, a policy that had been all but abandoned by Olmert in the runup to both the Hizbullah war and the operation in Gaza.
And, as a reminder to anyone who thinks that Fatah is a preferable alternative to Hamas, many Fatah are sympathizing and showing solidarity with Hamas. They have short memories given that Hamas took to throwing Fatah thugs off rooftops in the Palestinian civil war and has been murdering Fatah in Gaza during the current conflict claiming that they are collaborating with Israel. Both terrorist groups have sought the destruction of Israel, but Hamas has been the more violent of the two, if only because Fatah was lured by kleptocracy.
MSNBC continues its pro-Hamas stance, by claiming that 500,000 Gazans are in danger. No word in the headline about the nearly equal amount of Israelis endangered by Hamas rockets that can reach as far as Ashdod and Beersheeba.
UPDATE: Two separate reports from Gaza indicate that Israeli airstrikes have apparently hit two schools. The NY Daily News reports that an attack on one school killed three, while another wire report says that 30 have been killed in a second attack.
No doubt that the anti-Israel brigade will try to do as much damage politically and with the full force and effect of propaganda from the airstrikes if they killed civilians. The problem is that Hamas is operating in and among civilians, and there's no way to know if Hamas wasn't operating in close proximity to those schools at the time of the attacks. Hamas has no regard for human lives, least of all Gazans, who are simply props for use as propaganda against Israel. If they can't kill Israelis with their rockets, dead Palestinians will suffice since it means that they can use the dead to increase pressure on Israel to stop attacking and destroying Hamas capabilities.
Hamas has repeatedly used UNRWA facilities to operate. The Islamic terrorists have used UN ambulances to transport weapons and equipment, and have repeatedly taken advantage of the refugee camps to wage war against Israel. UNRWA has an obligation to maintain the peace, but has repeatedly chosen to look the other way.
UPDATE: Carl in Jerusalem is reminding readers not to jump to conclusions about what happened in Gaza and the early reports of Israel attacking schools. He reminds people of the Qana incident, which was claimed to be a massacre, but turned out to be no such thing. It was a hoax. He also makes the same observation I did that Hamas is using human shields, and notes Israeli radio reports claiming Hamas was dragging children into buildings where they were operating.
UPDATE: Elder of Ziyon notes that the Guardian has published an op-ed agitprop piece courtesy of Hamas terror master Khalid Meshaal. It's full of lies, distortions, and propaganda claiming that Israel is behind the attacks. Elder of Ziyon cuts through the agitprop and rebuts each of the lies succinctly. Sadly, I expect to see Meshaal's writings (or those of other terrorist sympathizers or spokesthugs) included in the Washington Post or New York Times within the next few days as they make the rounds.
This is why Israel is doing what it must. Hamas is steadfast in their demands that Israel be destroyed. Honor and elevate bloody murdering terrorists. That's what they are, that's what they call for, and the world ignores all that to find fault with Israel instead.
Meanwhile Israeli humanitarian aid to Gaza continues to roll into Gaza to help Gazans, who will take the aid and still demand Israel's destruction; Hamas will steal it and/or use it for their terror purposes, but the world finds fault with Israel.
Ah, now this seems odd. We've got a Reuters caption claiming that the following photo is of the school where an airstrike killed 3.
6 hours ago: Palestinians survey the scene after an Israeli air strike at a United Nations school in Gaza January 6, 2009. An Israeli air strike killed three Palestinians in the United Nations school in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday, medical workers and U.N. officials said.
What exactly was fired? Machine guns? Because it certainly wasn't anything larger than that - Hellfires blow up cars and leave craters and bombs leave gaping craters. Here? A small hole punched in the wall and smaller shrapnel holes. I think we've got some real questions about what happened at that school.
Israel may have opened fire on Hamas operating in close proximity to the school, and by the looks of it, used limited firepower in the process. The only sources providing details on who was killed or injured in the attack are Palestinians, who aren't exactly going to say that Hamas thugs were involved.
UPDATE: As a vivid reminder of what Israel is up against, here's Hamas busy firing kassams from outside a Gaza school in 2007. Some things don't change. They're still at it today:
More at Gateway Pundit. So, keep that in mind as the reports come in on the incident in Gaza.
UPDATE: Jules Crittenden kicks the media like a rented mule for its ongoing horrid coverage of the situation in Gaza and how they repeatedly present only one side of the conflict in any detail - that of Hamas and the Gazans, instead of focusing on why Israel is fighting back against Hamas in the first place - because Hamas couldn't stop itself from trying to destroy Israel.
UPDATE: Kenneth at LGF points out that there are now conflicting reports about what happened in or near a school in Gaza. An AP report notes that Hamas fired on Israeli forces from the school and the Israeli return fire set off secondary explosions - meaning that Hamas used the school as a weapons depot:
n Israeli official says Palestinian militants fired on Israeli soldiers from the courtyard of a U.N. school where dozens of people died in fiery explosions.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he said the army is still drafting the country's official response to the incident.
The Israeli official said "hostile fire" was directed at the soldiers from within the school. He said soldiers returned fire and multiple explosions went off, presumably emanating from munitions stored there.
John Ging, head of Gaza operations for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, said most of the casualties at the U.N. school in Jebaliya, where some 350 people had taken refuge, were outside the building. He did not say whether the artillery came from Israeli forces.
For additional coverage of the Gaza school incidents, see my separate post here.
UPDATE: I'd been wondering when we'd hear from Zawahiri. Well, here he goes...
We will never stop until we avenge the death of all who are killed, injured, widowed and orphaned in Palestine and throughout the Islamic world," said Ayman al-Zawahiri in a new 10-minute audio recording released today on extreme Islamist Web forums.
The message is entitled "The Massacre in Gaza and the Siege of the Traitors".
Zawahiri refers directly to President-elect Barack Obama saying he has partnered with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, whom Zawahiri labels as a traitor to Islam.
So, let's see - Zawahiri still considers the US as the enemy, and that Obama isn't going to be treated any different than President Bush.
The mention of Mubarak makes sense, since Mubarak imprisoned Zawahiri and Zawahiri led the Muslim Brotherhood there before joining up and forming al Qaeda.
Not only has Hizbullah managed to regroup and rearm despite the presence of the UN's peacekeeping force (UNIFIL), but they've openly flaunted this and have all but assumed control of the Lebanese government with a veto say on anything the Lebanese government does.
Tens of thousands of rockets and missiles have made their way into Lebanon for rearming Hizbullah, including long range missiles that could hit the heart of Israel from North of the Litani River.
Now, we learn that Syria is doing its best to provide Hizbullah with anti-aircraft systems that will be used to defend those sites from IAF attack. Hizbullah has spent considerable amounts of money to buy properties throughout Lebanon in order to stockpile weapons, build elaborate emplacements and preparations for a war with Israel.
Yet the most worrisome development has to do with a new component that Hizbullah is attempting to set up in Lebanon with Syrian assistance. We are talking about an anti-aircraft system that is aimed at limiting Israel’s ability to gather intelligence above Lebanon, and later make it more difficult for the Israeli Air Force to strike in Lebanon and Syria. Should Iran, Syria, and Hizbullah be able to establish a massive anti-aircraft system in Lebanon, this will fundamentally change the strategic balance of power.
Hizbullah already possesses old models of anti-aircraft missiles and cannons; our Air Force has an answer for them. Some of them have already been deployed in the Second Lebanon War. Yet what the Syrians and Iranians may give Hizbullah at this time poses a different danger and is of a different scope than anything we have known so far (it should be noted these weapons have not yet been received by Hizbullah.) In fact, this system is supposed to provide aerial defense to the entire Syrian-Iranian rocket and missile arsenal in Lebanon and western Syria. Israel cannot reconcile itself to such development alongside Hizbullah’s rocket arsenal and ground fortifications.
War will surely come again to Lebanon at Hizbullah's time and place of choosing because the Lebanese failed to thwart Hizbullah and the UN's fecklessness enabled the terrorists and Syria to succeed. UNIFIL sat on its hands instead of disarming Hizbullah as per UN SCR 1701.
Keep that in mind as the diplomats have repeatedly attempted to claim that peace can be achieved between Israel and Syria. Syria and Iran both use Hizbullah as a proxy army, and arming that terrorist group with sophisticated weapons to be used in a war against Israel shows that Syria has no intention of peace with Israel - and would use the existence and presence of Hizbullah to extort further concessions from Israel.
Lebanon's new government has recognized Hezbollah's "right" to fight Israel, a move that politicians fear could pave the way for war. Hezbollah, the self-styled "resistance movement" which America and Britain consider a terrorist organization, could effectively receive official approval for its weaponry in southern Lebanon.
This may total about 30,000 missiles. The new weapons will be held in readiness to strike Israel, possibly in retaliation for any American attack on Iran, Hezbollah's chief paymaster. Such a move breaches United Nations resolution 1701, which ended the last war with Israel in 2006 by demanding Hezbollah's disarmament.
Hizbullah and Lebanon have been in violation of UN SCR 1701 from the outset, and this latest pronouncement effectively concedes that 1701 is no longer operative since the government will not even attempt to enforce the demilitarization of all militias operating in Lebanon.
Hizbullah has been stockpiling weapons for use against Israel for months, and Israeli intel suggests that the terrorist group has surpassed the amounts of weapons on hand at the start of the 2006 Hizbullah war and many of those weapons are likely of a greater range that puts far more of Israel in harm's way.
The failure of the UN is all but complete. It has failed Lebanon, and the Lebanese government has been thoroughly co opted by the terrorists in Hizbullah.
Although MSNBC notes that rival factions and the terrorist group Hizbullah have come to a deal on the government, which has been at impasse for the past 18 months, they ignore the 800 pound gorilla in the room. Hizbullah got veto power over the government. MSNBC reports:
Rival Lebanese leaders signed a deal on Wednesday to end 18 months of political conflict that had pushed their country to the brink of a new civil war.
The agreement was reached after six days of Arab-mediated talks in Qatar. It paves the way for parliament to elect army chief General Michel Suleiman as president, filling a post vacant since November because of the political deadlock.
Lebanon's parliament is scheduled to convene on Sunday to elect Suleiman in the role.
The deal between the U.S.-backed ruling coalition and the Hezbollah-led opposition resolved a dispute over a parliamentary election law and met the opposition's long-standing demand for veto power in the 30-member cabinet.
81 killed Hezbollah, backed by Iran and Syria, increased pressure on the ruling alliance this month by routing its followers in a military campaign. The Qatari-led negotiations in Doha built on mediation that ended violence in which 81 people were killed.
So, how did Hizbullah get veto-power? Well, they got 11 seats in the 30 seat parliament, and based on how the Parliament operates, that's an effective veto over anything the government does. It's what the terrorist group had been clamoring for all along, and now they've gotten it.
How long will it be before Hizbullah agitates for UNIFIL to be sent packing? UNIFIL's mission and presence are supposed to be to disarm Hizbullah and ensure that the state is the only legitimate militia operating in the country. Hizbullah has accomplished a two-fer, as it not only has coopted the Lebanese government, but can now exercise veto power over how the government operates so that it can tell UNIFIL to take a hike at a time and place of its choosing.
The real issue has been, and remains, Hizbullah's presence complete with a fully armed terrorist force. For now, the various groups have decided that civil war had to be avoided, so everyone put down their weapons for the moment. I'm not nearly so optimistic.
UPDATE: Allahpundit also weighs in. Sometimes negotiation is appeasement, and this is one astounding case. While everyone says that this is to avoid further bloodshed, have no doubt that this will lead to a far bloodier war.
Is this the first step in arranging the stage for the fight against Israel to come?
Explosions and gunfire rang out across Lebanon's capital. The cause of the explosions was not immediately known and there was no word on casualties.
The violence deepened tensions in a country already mired in a 17-month-old political crisis pitting the Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah against the government of Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. The troubles have left the country without a president since November.
Labor unions had called for the strike after rejecting a last-minute pay raise offer by the government. Instead, it turned into a showdown between Hezbollah and the government.
The clashes began when government and opposition supporters in a Muslim sector of Beirut exchanged insults and began throwing stones at each other. Witnesses said security forces intervened and gunshots were heard, apparently troops firing in the air to disperse the crowds.
A cameraman for Hezbollah's al-Manar television was beaten by a soldier, the station reported. The state-run National News Agency reported that he was struck in the forehead during the clash.
Bystanders wrapped a shirt on his head to stop the bleeding before he left on his motorcycle.
A soldier was hit in the mouth by a stone and two other news photographers also were hurt by stones, according to witnesses and television reports.
I suspect that it is precisely the situation. Hizbullah needs to get control over the Lebanese government or sufficiently cow it into submission so that it can operate even more freely than it has to date. The UN is spineless and gutless in its ongoing oversight of UNIFIL and UN SCR 1701 that demands Hizbullah's disarmament. Hizbullah's very actions show that the UN has no will to fight to impose the resolution, which was meant to provide security for Israel.
The Hizbullah militia and its supporters spent a good part of the day terrorizing Beirut citizens, blocking major roads, and dumping dirt along the airport road, blocking access to the airport.
Flights to and from Beirut's Rafik Hariri airport have been canceled.
Hooligans on motorcycles are touring Beirut neighborhoods, throwing insults and beating residents. Clashes between Hizbullah/Amal and March 14 supporters erupted in several mixed neighborhoods in the city.
The media is reporting heavy gunfire and use of rocket propelled grenades. The pro-Hizbullah labor unions, meanwhile, have called off today’s strike, which LBC said, quoting government sources, was used by Hizbullah as an excuse for unleashing violence and exact revenge after Monday's cabinet decision to crack down on Hizbullah's spy network in the country.
Hizbullah has decided that now is the time to unleash hell on the Lebanese people and it shows once again that Hizbullah is not interested in peace or simply ridding Israel's presence from territory claimed for Lebanon, but rather to institute its own power over Lebanon so that it can engage in a wider conflict with Israel at a time and place of its choosing.
Once again, the failure to fight Hizbullah with the full power and effect of the Israeli military and a reluctance of the UN to fulfill its own mission has left the door open to a wider conflict that will be far more damaging.
Yet again, the Palestinian terrorists fire rockets at Israel, and yet the diplomats act as though nothing is happening. This time, the target was in Northern Israel - Shlomi.
The firing of two Katyushas at Shlomi is a "severe incident but we do not plan to allow a change in the status quo," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday, the day after two 107-millimeter rockets landed in the northern neighborhood.
During a tour of the northern border, Barak added that he spoke with Shlomi Municipality head Gabi Ne'eman and that together with IDF officers he intended to examine the incident, carefully assess the situation and then decide how to respond. "We will do what needs to be done," added Barak.
In the overnight attack, one of the rockets landed on the balcony of a house while the other hit a lamp post. No one was wounded but the house sustained slight damage.
It was not yet clear which group fired the rockets, but the defense establishment was examining the possibility that they were fired as an attempt by Hizbullah or other terror groups in Lebanon to disrupt Wednesday's visit of US President George W. Bush.
President Bush should be keen to understand that the terrorists sense weakness in Israel by continuing negotiations while under fire. They have accelerated their attacks on Israel, and don't fear repercussions knowing that Israel is far too restrained to take the necessary action to break the terrorist groups in Gaza, West Bank, and Hizbullah in Southern Lebanon. Therefore, those terrorist groups continue to plot further attacks.
Once again, UNIFIL has failed to do its job in clearing Southern Lebanon of terrorist groups and militias, which is nothing new since that's how the August War began in 2006. UNIFIL failed to fulfill its duties under UN SCR 1559, which called for the disarming of all militias operating in Southern Lebanon and to ensure the territorial integrity of Lebanon. UNIFIL failed on all counts, and Israel suffered greatly for it - as did Southern Lebanon as Israel engaged Hizbullah dug into civilian dominated areas and used them as human shields to exploit should casualties occur.
That's not to say that UNIFIL isn't safe from the terrorists either - a roadside bomb injured two Spanish peacekeepers just days after the Spanish Prime Minister visited Lebanon. I suspect Hizbullah was following the al Qaeda plan in trying to get Spain to withdraw its contingent from UNIFIL just as the pro-US government was voted out after the Madrid bombings. [ed: see updates below.]
Sec. State Rice continues to equate Jerusalem construction with that of the West Bank, which is extremely troublesome given that US law notes that Jerusalem is the undivided capital of the State of Israel.
The diplomats are also considering an international force to police the West Bank. That's quite an interesting idea given that the Palestinians have shown absolutely no interest in a two-state solution and international forces in Southern Lebanon have failed to disarm the terrorist group Hizbullah that operates in full view of everyone in the region.
Hamas continues to engage Israel in firefights, the latest incident occurring offshore Gaza. Terrorists firing mortars fell short of the Gaza/Israel border.
Meanwhile, al Hayat is reporting that a deal is in place to swap Gilad Shalit for the murderous terrorist Marwan Barghouti. No confirmation from Israeli sources, but if true, it's a bad precedent and foreshadows still more kidnappings to pressure Israel to make still more prisoner swaps.
UPDATE: Israel has filed a complaint with the UN over the katuysha rocket firing from Lebanon into Israel. I'm sure the UN diplomats will get right on the case and demand action by UNIFIL and the Lebanese government to crack down on Hizbullah directly. Meanwhile, Sec. State Rice continues to ignore federal law on the status of Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, the AP doesn't have any problem with telling the world how the US plans on protecting President Bush during his ill-advised visit to Ramallah. Why provide that level of detail? That's not a good idea as you have terrorists running all over the place that seek to disrupt the visit and maybe take a shot at President Bush.
UPDATE: Earlier reports that indicated that it was Spanish UNIFIL peacekeepers who were injured appear to be incorrect. The nationality of the peacekeepers isn't clear, but it isn't Spanish according to both UN and Spanish officials.
UNIFIL's leader in Lebanon was stopped at a Hizbullah checkpoint in South Lebanon in order to thwart his review of the situation there.
The commander of UNIFIL's forces in Lebanon, Major General Claudio Graziano of Italy, was recently stopped by Hizbullah militants at a checkpoint in Beirut to prevent him from gathering information on the terror group's activities in the capital's south.
According to a report published by Kuwaiti newspaper Al Seyassah, the militants acted under direct orders from senior Hizbullah officials.
UNIFIL is tasked with keeping Hizbullah weapons out of the area south of the Litani River, and a number of confrontations between the sides have been reported in the past few months. However, it appears that UNIFIL's method of operation will not change drastically as a result.
Need I remind anyone that UNIFIL's mission is to enforce UN SCR 1701, which requires the disarmament of all militias in Lebanon, including Hizbullah.
Way to go UNIFIL. You've accomplished much in your time. Like giving Hizbullah time to rearm with more missiles that can reach deeper into Israel.
And what is UNIFIL doing about it? *crickets*
Oh wait, it's written a report.
Hizbullah has succeeded in rearming itself and has obtained missiles with a range of 250 km., a UN report on the implementation of UN Resolution 1701 stated. Such missiles would be capable of striking areas south of Tel Aviv.
Weapons smuggling from Syria into Lebanon, in violation of 1701, is continuing as well.
According to the report, which was quoted by Army Radio, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon called the continued arms smuggling "grave."
The report also noted that according to information provided by Israel, Hizbullah was rearming itself south of the Litani River, and that given this development, UNIFIL forces and the Lebanese army were increasing their efforts to patrol the area.
Further, Israeli intelligence passed on to the UN stated that the number of land-to-sea missiles in Hizbullah's stockpile has tripled.
The report also criticized Israel for not relaying details of its cluster bombing campaign during the Second Lebanon War, and for not ending continued IAF overflights in Lebanese airspace.
No UN report is complete without bashing Israel. Never mind that those overflights would not be required had UNIFIL been doing its job and stopping Hizbullah from rearming. Indeed, the UN only became aware of the rearmament because of Israel's intel. It has done nothing to stop it.
If you want a reason to understand why another war is coming to Lebanon, this is it.
The Lebanese army resumed its air raids and shelling of islamist gunmen holed up at Nahr al-Bared on Saturday after evacuating the last remaining civilians from the battered refugee camp. Helicopters carried out repeated raids dropping 250- and 400-kilogram bombs on the small area still controlled by the Al-Qaeda-inspired Fatah al-Islam members while tanks shelled the camp, AFP reported.
"Pressure on the militants will be maintained until they heed our call to surrender," an army spokesman said. According to him, information gathered from the 63 women and children who were evacuated from the camp on Friday could help the army in its final assault on the militants.
Lebanon's military has been fighting Fatah al Islam for nearly three months now and has reduce large parts of Nahr al-Bared to rubble in heavy fighting.
Meanwhile, the Lebanese have requested that the UN peacekeeping forces (UNIFIL) stay on for another year. UNIFIL could stay on indefinitely, but unless UNIFIL and the Lebanese start disarming Hizbullah throughout the country, the threat of war hangs over the country. Right now, UNIFIL's mandate only permits them to deal with Hizbullah South of the Litani River, but Hizbullah has regrouped and swarmed the area to the North, placing its forces inside civilian areas - knowing that if they fire on Israel, the counterbattery fire will result in Lebanese civilian casualties.
Meanwhile, there is still no word on Goldwasser and Regev, who have been held by Hizbullah for more than a year.
UNIFIL has also failed to implement all the terms of UN SCR 1701, including securing Lebanon's borders and preserving its territorial integrity from militias and incursions by countries, including Syria. I've repeatedly noted that Syria's interference in Lebanon is a tremendously destabilizing factor - and that interference includes assassinating political opponents and funding and supporting terrorists who operate within Lebanon.
"The cease-fire acted as a life jacket for the organization [at the end of the Second Lebanon War]," a Hizbullah officer said in an interview aired by Channel 10 on Tuesday.
In the interview, the unnamed officer said Hizbullah gunmen would have surrendered if the fighting last summer had continued for another 10 days.
His statement sharply contrasted with those made by Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah on several occasions since the month long war.
At the end of the war, Nasrallah said his organization had gained a "divine victory."
The officer shown on Channel 10 said the organization's gunmen had been running low on food and water and facing rapidly diminishing arms supplies.
The officer also said that many Hizbullah commanders were ordered to hide before the war started, and that the gunmen who remained were forced to fire Katyusha rockets from inside urban populations because of the IDF's efficiency in destroying launchers minutes after a launch had been detected.
He said that when the gunmen relocated to cities and villages, they knew innocent civilians would be hurt as a consequence.
The quick arrival of IAF jets at rocket-launch sites, sometimes only four to five minutes after a Katyusha was fired, "surprised" Hizbullah, the officer said.
Lawhawk has always claimed, and I completely concur, that the Israeli government mishandled the war, and that they never went all out. This also shows the doves out there that going at a war half hearted and leaving a job half done is counter productive. Lets take this interview at face value and assume that it is true, Hizbullah would have surrendered after 10 more days. Now, instead of pressing the offensive when they could have and eventually obtaining victory, the peacenicks in Washington and the U.N. have created a situation where Hizbullah is now rearmed (thank you Syria and Iran), rested, better schooled, better trained, battle hardened, and given more time to study Israeli tactics and world reaction. Add in the ineffective job of the U.N. peacekeepers, and you have a more serious situation and the potential for a second, more deadly war.
Will the world take heed of this? Will this basically go unreported everywhere except on here and LGF and similar sites? If Israel is forced into another war against Hizbullah, will the world restrain them and force a false resolution before the job is complete? Will everyone learn their lessons from this? Inquiring minds want to know.
Hizbullah has the ability to launch rockets against any point in Israel, the organization's leader, Hassan Nasrallah said on Sunday.
He told Al Jazeera that Hizbullah had the capability to strike every part of Israel during last summer's war, and retains that capability. "Even in the months of July and August 2006 there was not one place in occupied Palestine that we could not reach, every point and every corner," Nasrallah was quoted as saying. "I stress that we can do this today as well."
The full interview is due to be broadcast by the Qatari-based satellite television on Monday.
Meanwhile, Hizbullah guerrillas have moved most of their rockets in south Lebanon among civilians in villages, an apparent attempt to avoid detection by Israel and UN troops, Israeli military officials said Sunday.
Hizbullah doesn't have the capability to produce these rockets and missiles on its own. It requires the aid and support of others - Iran and Syria. Both those countries are using Hizbullah to further their own goals in the region, and destabilizing Lebanon and fighting Israel are chief among them.
Still, this indicates quite a bit of puffery on Nasrallah's part since they weren't actually able to fire rockets into all parts of Israel, whether it was into Tel Aviv or Jerusalem. It isn't clear whether it was because of a lack of weapons or because should they have succeeded in hitting Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, the Israeli response would have been overwhelming and crushing to Hizbullah. I lean to towards the former because had Hizbullah had the weapons, they would have used it or else possibly seen it destroyed by Israeli forces operating against them inside Lebanon.
Also, Hizbullah is simply reorganizing north of the Litani River with longer range missiles - both to avoid being in the UNIFIL areas proper, and to bring more civilians in Lebanon into range of Israeli counter battery fire. Realigning its forces North of the Litani makes sense if Hizbullah has longer range weapons because they can simply fire into Israel from further away and avoid the UNIFIL positions between the Litani and the Israeli border.
UPDATE: Syria appears to have learned lessons from last summer's war between Hizbullah and Israel. They're busy focusing on long range missiles with which they can hit strategic and civilian targets deep inside Israel, negating Israel's advantages on the battlefield.
Taqi said Syria took an important lesson from last summer’s war between Hizbollah and Israel: The Israeli rear is vulnerable to long-range artillery rockets. Hizbollah fired some 4,000 rockets in 33 days of intense fighting that battered the Israel Defense Force and damaged its ability to deter others.
One Syrian defense official said Syria would avoid a direct, classic war with Israel, seeking instead a guerrilla conflict on the front lines while firing rockets and ballistic missiles at strategic and civilian installations.
Syria has Soviet-made SS-21 missiles and has built a large arsenal of Scud ballistic missiles, the D variant with a 700-kilometer range. Syria also builds artillery rockets of various calibers ranging from 122mm to 240mm, and has bought other types from Russia and Iran with ranges up to 200 kilometers.
“The next possible Syrian-Israeli war will be more like a war of cities rather than battles on fronts or in the fields,” the Syrian defense official said. “It’ll be a war of attrition that Israelis are not good at.”
Israel would not tolerate such a situation, and it is possible that Syria's Assad would trade land to fight an insurgency much as the Ba'athists did in Iraq against the US and coalition forces. This might leave Syria and Damascus devastated, but Israel would still be in harm's way from ongoing rocket attacks, much as Southern Israel remains threatened from kassams fired from Gaza.
