"Crisis" In Israel/Palestine/Lebanon/Syria

[Magus]

Bon Soir, Mes Amis et Amies,

Let us not forget that the Zionists are the world's foremost artists in the use of False Flag attacks. They've given us the False Flags of 9/11, the 1972 "Black Tuesday terrorist group" slaughtering Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games, (thus introducing the idea of Muslims as "Organised Global Terrorists" into the belief systems and consciousness of all humanity), the 7/7 London bombings, and countless "suicide bombings" and car bombings aimed at tearing Iraq apart, and only Mossad knows how many more.

Israel has had covert operatives in Iran and Syria for years, as well as in Palestine and in Lebanon. It is probable that almost all of the nations on this earth have at least a very few covert Mossad or other Zionist operatives "on duty" for the glory of Ha'aretz Israel. There is every possibility, as Joe and others have pointed out, that the "kidnapped" soldier being "held" in Gaza was either fictional or else was disappeared by Israeli agents. The same applies to those "loyal" Hezbollah members who killed and/or kidnapped the Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon. They too could well be Israeli "assets." If not, then they were exceedingly stupid, which has not generally been a Hezbollah characteristic before. For them to have undertaken such an act when Israel had already gone Insane in its response to the Gaza "kidnapping" of just one soldier seems too convenient, for Israel's purposes.

The msole purpose of Israel's actions is to draw the U.S. into wars with Iran and Syria, and they are losing all traces of subtlety in pursuing that objective now. The military analyst for MSNBC, General Tommy Franks, U.S. Army, Ret., said tonight, 21/07/3006, on "Countdown with Keith Olbermann", that he had "never seen anything so stupid, just plain stupid, militarily, strategically" as Israel's amassing of all those troops out on the main roads, while their locations are being broadcast around the world constantly, with worldwide media and press coverage present and rolling. He used the term "sitting ducks" to describe the massed IDF force's tactical situation.

Their location and all else about them has been put on display AS THOUGH ISRAEL'S LEADERS WANT THEM TO GET BLOWN TO BITS. As the good SotT Crew and Maestra Laura herself have said, time and again, the Pathocrats care nothing for the well being and lives of their human cattle, least of all for any of those soldiers who are the cannon fodder for their wars.

Ah yes, of course. Then the bombs can be "proven" to have come from Syria and Iran, and the U.S. will then be free to start bombing both of those nations from the big, new air bases in Iraq. The only staunch opponents of Israel still left standing, Syria and Iran, will be blown to smithereens by the U.S., and Israel will then be able to bask in its glory, as the sole and ruling Power of the entire MIddle East, or so its deluded rulers believe.

As with many another possible grim or dire near future event foreseen, one yearns to be entirely wrong. However, the PTB are now utterly desperate to speed up their "Armageddon" plans, and there is nothing they will not do, no one they will not happily murder to achieve their goals.

Could their sudden desperate "lunge for the brass ring" be an indication of the Wave being much nearer and sooner to arrive than previously expected? Or might it be a different sort of "wave", that of a new found awareness and recognition, growing faster than a weed among ordinary folks the world around, of exactly who and what the Pathocrats Truly are, psychopaths one and all, that is now driving them to absolute recklessness?

 

[henry]

South Lebanon, Has Become A Killing Zone

Grim proof ordinary folk are dying in the killing zone

By Ed O'Loughlin [...]

"It's a disaster. It's making me cry," the hospital's director, Dr Salman Zeineddine said. "We can't move them anywhere else. Since the attacks came I've been trying to get wounded out of Beit Jbeil and I can't. How could I get critical patients to Beirut, much less move dead people?"

Dr Salman Zeineddine

Zinedine Zidane

Interesting....

 

[Joe]

It is fortunate, I suppose, that expletives are not allowed on this forum...

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060722/WIRE/60722009/1117/news

U.S. rushes bombs to Israel

The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.

The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran's efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.

The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel's request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel had a long list of targets in Lebanon still to strike. [...]

 

[Approaching Infinity]

It is fortunate, I suppose, that expletives are not allowed on this forum...

http://www.gainesville.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060722/WIRE/60722009/1117/news

U.S. rushes bombs to Israel

The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.

The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran's efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.

The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel's request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel had a long list of targets in Lebanon still to strike. [...]

In a world that was even half sane, this article would read as follows:

U.S. rushes bombs to Israel

The Bush administration is launching a delivery of precision-guided bombs against Israel, which requested a swift kick in the pants last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.

The decision to quickly launch the weapons into Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger relatively few governments.

The munitions that the United States is firing into Israel are part of a multimillion dollar campaign approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel's request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel had a collectively guilty conscience. [...]

In a sane world, there would be NO bombs...

 

[paulnotbilly]

I wouldn't be surprised if there's a 'weapons malfunction' onboard one of the US ships in the area which would result in a cruise missile ending up in downtown Beirut.

 

[Joe]

Rice sees bombs as "birth pangs"

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/124EB0C2-1CEE-4EF5-A3F6-048836DD2A59.htm

Condoleezza Rice has described the plight of Lebanon as a part of the "birth pangs of a new Middle East" and said that Israel should ignore calls for a ceasefire.

"This is a different Middle East. It's a new Middle East. It's hard, We're going through a very violent time," the US secretary of state said.

"A ceasefire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo.

"Such a step would allow terrorists to launch attacks at the time and terms of their choosing and to threaten innocent people, Arab and Israeli, throughout the region."

Ah yes, the 'she-devil' herself. And what would Condi know about "birth pangs" being a soul-less, sterile zombie-woman? A woman who brings shame to the very concept of womanhood. Rice is a sick, disgusting individual. Birth pangs? What of the pangs of unimaginable grief of the mothers whose beautiful babies have been disemboweled and beheaded by Israeli "precision bombs"? In their despair, Lebanon's mothers may be wishing they could turn back time and erase those pangs of birth that brought their children into a world where their fate was to be eviscerated by Israeli bombs, with Condi and Co cheering them on.

 

[Ryan]

Condoleezza Rice has described the plight of Lebanon as a part of the "birth pangs of a new Middle East" and said that Israel should ignore calls for a ceasefire.

"This is a different Middle East. It's a new Middle East. It's hard, We're going through a very violent time," the US secretary of state said.

So the wholesale murder of Lebanese civilians is merely the "birth pangs of a new Middle East" to Rice. This goes to show that the US administration have no interest whatsoever in stopping the violence, and would rather see it expand until the region is reshaped to suit their own twisted vision and agenda. This is a green-light to the Israeli pathocrats to do whatever they wish. Considering the Lebanese are incapable of stopping them, the only remaining question is: How far will Israel go?

Contemplating an answer to that question generates a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach.

 

[henry]

The latest report from Silvia Cattori in Palestine. It follows up on the situation in Nablus where the population has been awaiting the usual collective punishment after the killing of an Israeli soldier.

Tzahal: A Barbarian Army

Silvia Cattori
22 July 2006

A Nablus, as soon as night falls, one feels even more violently the climate of terror coming from Tsahal, that army of vandals equipped with such an impressive arsenal.

Every night dozens of vehicles loaded with soldiers invade the besieged city. Recently, however, the population of Nablus is even more choked and persecuted than is usual. During the night of July 17, after four of their own were arrested, some youths threw a bomb at a patrol, killing an Israeli soldier. Ever since the population has been expecting an even more violent collective punishment.

They weren't wrong. The following night, F-16s and drones overflew the city, and then the tanks and jeeps arrived. Soldiers were firing everywhere and the bullets, resonating off of doors and walls, raised a deafening noise. It was very distressing. The few clients at the hotel gathered together in the same room with a handful of employees. In the presence of such a terrifying army, the life of these people - held under Israel's domination, reduced to hiding and waiting until this madness ends - means little.

That is the most insupportable thing: this superiority of arms held by these brutal colonizers - originally from Brooklyn, Buenos Aires, Marseille, etc... - imbued with their own supremacy and servants of a State welding a policy founded on the contempt of the other, the Palestinian, the Arab.

How can some humans trample on the humanity of others? Among whom we find thousands of children, the old, those with heart problems, pregnant women, and so many brave people, helpful and generous like nowhere else in the world; people who know they will die simply because they are Palestinians, an entire nation deprived of their rights, deprived of everything that makes life worth living. There is no cure. Only anti-Arab racism can explain this behaviour.

Humiliated at all of these terrible check-points, thrown into such unimaginable misery, their bodies marked by multiple wounds, numerous Palestinians have been imprisoned, brutalized by torturers of Shin Bet, and by the soldiers who invade their streets, hiding behind the grills on their jeeps, using their loudspeakers to hurl sexual and religious insults in Arab - and that Palestinians translated for us- of the type "Fucking Arabs", and, targeting the women, "fucking mothers and sisters...". Women who, contrary to the prejudices spread in the West, are very respected by men in Muslim society. Every night they remain in their clothes so they won't be surprised in their pajamas by those soldiers who force their way in looking for "terrorists", who violate the intimacy of the home, who oblige the families to take to the street.

The Palestinians are the natives of this country that is called Palestine. Israel has swallowed it almost whole: 90%. Five million Palestinians are refugees and exiles. Another four million get by on small strips of land that are ever more poor and ghettoized. But there is no doubt: for as long as necessary, they will fight. Let it be said for once and for all: what Israel calls a "terrorist", a "wanted", a "fanatic", and our complacent media label an "activist", is in fact a civilian, an innocent, a father of a family, a child, for whom, when at times they can't take it anymore, their dignity and honour is to respond with a violent gesture against the permanent brutality of the occupying army.

You feel it, there in their midst, crushed by powerlessness, full of anger against all of those democratic states who speak of peace, of the rights of man, of democracy, and who allow Israel to act in this way. Anger as well against the journalists who spread Israeli propaganda or who, at best, report through rose-coloured glasses. Anger as well against those people whose adulterated discourse we know and who - like Bernard Ravenel, Dominique Vidal, Michel Warshavsky, Michele Sibony, Pierre Stambul, Richard Wagmann, to speak only of France, use the specter of anti-Semitism to prevent lucid and sincere people from clarifying the debate and elaborating strategies susceptible to really helping the oppressed Palestinians. While they accuse those who wish to see the Palestinian resistance win their fight of anti-Semitism, they support those who collaborate with Israel, the Palestinian elite. Objectively, they do nothing more than shed crocodile tears for the Palestinians when Israeli brutality becomes too embarrassing.

You feel ashamed. Ashamed to belong to that society that deluded the Palestinians, that betrayed them, and that continues to offer them charity while deciding in their place what is good for them.

The traumatic shooting lasted two hours. "It's their way of playing Beethoven", my neighbour commented with surprising detachment. The M-16 and M-18 machine guns, with, for the connoisseur, munitions of type 250 and 500, along with tanks armed with Doska-type cannon, leave enormous holes in the walls and mutilate people in horrible ways.

It must be repeated: the Israeli army is equipped to fight against another army. However, on the other side there is no army with real fighters, only civilians. After two hours, the sounds of the arms of war go silent. And, against all expectations, the soldiers leave in early morning without having killed or wounded anyone. People remained all day on the alert, asking themselves what it meant, what even more threatening events might be brewing.

The soldiers returned the following night, by the battalion. They took up their position where no one expected: around an administrative building, just off from the old town, where, it was said, a hundred or so wanted "suspects", "having no other place to hide had hidden". No one could approach this zone, and the population has remained uncertain of what is happening since the morning of July 19. As I write, the operation is ongoing. It isn't clear if there were hundreds of "wanteds" inside the building, now destroyed by the soldiers. What is certain is that 150 members of the Palestinian security force gave themselves up during the first hours of the siege. And that the shooting and explosives used claimed victims: six killed and 60 wounded. Among them, a nurse.

All of this seems like nothing, you may think, compared to the terrifying things happening in Lebanon. However, since 2000 these practices have already reaped the lives of a thousand children and several thousand adults, not to mention those tens of thousands left mutilated. And their ordeal is not over.

The war that Israel has broadened into Lebanon is part of a larger war. It aims to destroy all those people who resist their barbarism.

Translated by Signs of the Times.
http://www.signs-of-the-times.org/

 

[anart]

when at times they can't take it anymore, their dignity and honour is to respond with a violent gesture against the permanent brutality of the occupying army.

Reminds me of a certain French soccer player, as well.

 

[Anders]

Condoleezza Rice has described the plight of Lebanon as a part of the "birth pangs of a new Middle East" and said that Israel should ignore calls for a ceasefire.

"This is a different Middle East. It's a new Middle East. It's hard, We're going through a very violent time," the US secretary of state said.

It makes it clear how they see the new Middle East. A stone age society with no modern infra-structure, running water, sewerage or buildings. Go figure.

 

[paulnotbilly]

Condoleezza Rice has described the plight of Lebanon as a part of the "birth pangs of a new Middle East" and said that Israel should ignore calls for a ceasefire.

"This is a different Middle East. It's a new Middle East. It's hard, We're going through a very violent time," the US secretary of state said.

It makes it clear how they see the new Middle East. A stone age society with no modern infra-structure, running water, sewerage or buildings. Go figure.

Sounds like a land grab to me, much the same that Hitler did in the 1930's. I suppose you could say that the zionists had the best teacher...

 

[Windmill knight]

Rice sees bombs as "birth pangs"

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/124EB0C2-1CEE-4EF5-A3F6-048836DD2A59.htm

Condoleezza Rice has described the plight of Lebanon as a part of the "birth pangs of a new Middle East" and said that Israel should ignore calls for a ceasefire.

She is absolutely mad. The woman should be in a psychiatric hospital. It's not just the monstruous lack of humanity, but also the dellusional twisting of reality. Even if one is not familiar with the studies of psychopathy, it should be plain clear that there is something very sick about the mind of this lady.

 

[Laura]

That ain't no lady.

 

[Joe]

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-dershowitz22jul22,0,7685210.story?coll=la-opinion-rightrail

'Civilian Casualty'? It Depends

Those who support terrorists are not entirely innocent.

By Alan Dershowitz, ALAN DERSHOWITZ is a professor of law at Harvard. He is the author, most recently, of "Preemption: A Knife that Cuts Both Ways." (He is also a loud mouth asshole and psychopath)

July 22, 2006

THE NEWS IS filled these days with reports of civilian casualties, comparative civilian body counts and criticism of Israel, along with Hezbollah, for causing the deaths, injuries and "collective punishment" of civilians. But just who is a "civilian" in the age of terrorism, when militants don't wear uniforms, don't belong to regular armies and easily blend into civilian populations?

We need a new vocabulary to reflect the realities of modern warfare. A new phrase should be introduced into the reporting and analysis of current events in the Middle East: "the continuum of civilianality." Though cumbersome, this concept aptly captures the reality and nuance of warfare today and provides a more fair way to describe those who are killed, wounded and punished.

There is a vast difference - both moral and legal - between a 2-year-old who is killed by an enemy rocket and a 30-year-old civilian who has allowed his house to be used to store Katyusha rockets. Both are technically civilians, but the former is far more innocent than the latter. There is also a difference between a civilian who merely favors or even votes for a terrorist group and one who provides financial or other material support for terrorism.

Finally, there is a difference between civilians who are held hostage against their will by terrorists who use them as involuntary human shields, and civilians who voluntarily place themselves in harm's way in order to protect terrorists from enemy fire.

These differences and others are conflated within the increasingly meaningless word "civilian" - a word that carried great significance when uniformed armies fought other uniformed armies on battlefields far from civilian population centers. Today this same word equates the truly innocent with guilty accessories to terrorism.

The domestic law of crime, in virtually every nation, reflects this continuum of culpability. For example, in the infamous Fall River rape case (fictionalized in the film "The Accused"), there were several categories of morally and legally complicit individuals: those who actually raped the woman; those who held her down; those who blocked her escape route; those who cheered and encouraged the rapists; and those who could have called the police but did not.

No rational person would suggest that any of these people were entirely free of moral guilt, although reasonable people might disagree about the legal guilt of those in the last two categories. Their accountability for rape is surely a matter of degree, as is the accountability for terrorism of those who work with the terrorists.

It will, of course, be difficult for international law - and for the media - to draw the lines of subtle distinction routinely drawn by domestic criminal law. This is because domestic law operates on a retail basis - one person and one case at a time. International law and media reporting about terrorism tend to operate on more of a wholesale basis - with body counts, civilian neighborhoods and claims of collective punishment.

But the recognition that "civilianality" is often a matter of degree, rather than a bright line, should still inform the assessment of casualty figures in wars involving terrorists, paramilitary groups and others who fight without uniforms - or help those who fight without uniforms.

Turning specifically to the current fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and Hamas, the line between Israeli soldiers and civilians is relatively clear. Hezbollah missiles and Hamas rockets target and hit Israeli restaurants, apartment buildings and schools. They are loaded with anti-personnel ball-bearings designed specifically to maximize civilian casualties.

Hezbollah and Hamas militants, on the other hand, are difficult to distinguish from those "civilians" who recruit, finance, harbor and facilitate their terrorism. Nor can women and children always be counted as civilians, as some organizations do. Terrorists increasingly use women and teenagers to play important roles in their attacks.

The Israeli army has given well-publicized notice to civilians to leave those areas of southern Lebanon that have been turned into war zones. Those who voluntarily remain behind have become complicit. Some - those who cannot leave on their own - should be counted among the innocent victims.

If the media were to adopt this "continuum," it would be informative to learn how many of the "civilian casualties" fall closer to the line of complicity and how many fall closer to the line of innocence.

Every civilian death is a tragedy, but some are more tragic than others.

People are reading this stuff! Hundreds of thousands of people, and they are absorbing it. Read what this psychopath is saying and wonder no more why the world is the way it is.

Joe

 

[Laura]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3280755,00.html

Blair: Situation in Lebanon a catastrophe

British prime minister speaks during meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, who is visiting London. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice holds series of meetings in Beirut, says she is very concerned over Lebanese people's conditions


British Prime Minister Tony Blair on Monday afternoon defined what is taking place in Lebanon as a "catastrophe." According to Blair, the situation is harming the state and weakening democracy.

He said he hoped a peace plan for Lebanon can emerge within days that could lead to a cessation of
hostilities, but said details need to be worked out for an international force before a ceasefire could be declared that would hold on both sides.

"I don't want the killing to go on. I want the killing to stop. Now. It's got to stop on both sides and it's not going to stop on both sides without a plan to make it stop," Blair said.

Blair spoke during a press conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki, who is visiting London, while US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Lebanon for a surprise visit.

Rice is visiting Lebanon and will arrive in Israel as part of international efforts to find a diplomatic solution for the crisis between Israel and Hizbullah. Upon the landing of her helicopter in Beirut, Rice rushed to meet with Lebanese Prime Minister Foud Siniora.

"Thank you for your courage and steadfastness," she told Siniora, who has repeatedly pleaded for an immediate ceasefire.

'Concerned about humanitarian situation'

She later met with Shiite Muslim Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, who is affiliated with Hizbullah and Syria. At the start of the meeting she said: "I am deeply concerned about the Lebanese people and what they are enduring."

"I am concerned about the humanitarian situation," she said, without giving details of any American assistance.

An American source noted that the aim of the surprise visit by the secretary of state is to support the Lebanese government. The source added that during the visit, Rice will declare the American government's plan to provide assistance to Lebanon.

Later Monday, Rice is expected to land in Israel. In her visit, the US secretary of state will meet with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Later in the week, Rice is expected to attend an international conference in Rome, where she will discuss the Lebanese issue.

On her way to the region, Rice said she wanted to create conditions for a sustainable ceasefire in a war that has cost 373 dead in Lebanon and at least 37 Israeli lives in 13 days.

Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak on Monday also called for an immediate ceasefire in Israel's military campaign against Hizbullah in Lebanon, saying a longer term solution could be worked out later.

In a statement carried by the nation's Middle East News Agency, Mubarak also warned that the onslaught could cause "a humanitarian catastrophe."

"The situation is very grave and needs an urgent action to reach a cease-fire and put an end to hostilities," Mubarak said. "After the cease fire we can deal with all issues causing the current problem."

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291980474&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Jul. 23, 2006 22:35 | Updated Jul. 24, 2006 19:00
Palestinians: 'Day of rage' against Rice visit
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH

Palestinians are calling for a general strike in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip to protest US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's visit to the region scheduled for later this week, accusing Washington of backing Israel's military campaigns against Hamas and Hizbullah.

Leaflets distributed in the West Bank and Gaza by representatives of several Palestinian factions called for a "day of rage" [a euphemism for violent protests] against Rice's visit. The groups also called on Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to refrain from meeting with Rice.

"We reject Rice's visit to the Middle East and we will expose its real goals," read the leaflets, signed by the National and Islamic Forces in Palestine. "This visit comes in the wake of Israel's US-backed comprehensive aggression against the Palestinians and Lebanese."

The factions accused Israel of waging a war of "genocide" against the Palestinians and Lebanese after receiving a green light from the US administration. They also strongly condemned the US for vetoing a United Nations Security Council resolution that would have condemned Israel for its offensive operations in Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.

The Popular Resistance Committees, an alliance of armed organizations, including Hamas and Fatah, called on Abbas to boycott Rice, saying she was planning to hold separate talks about the situations in Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories.

In a statement issued in the Gaza Strip, the committees claimed that Rice was "plotting" behind the scenes "to isolate Lebanon from Palestine."

The US, the statement continued, wanted to calm the situation in the PA territories to give Israel time to crush Hizbullah.

"We call on President Mahmoud Abbas to respect the feelings of the Palestinian people and to refrain from meeting with Rice and succumbing to her arrogant dictates that will only bring our people more humiliation and suffering," the committees said.

Osama al-Mazini, a Hamas political leader, said Rice's visit was designed to help Israel following its "defeat" in the PA territories and Lebanon.

"The Americans are 120 percent biased in favor of Israel," he said. "That's why Rice is coming to save Israel from defeat and humiliation. The US always intervenes when Israel is in trouble."

Islamic Jihad leader Khaled al-Batsh said the main purpose behind Rice's visit was to ensure the continued support of certain Arab governments for the US. "She's also coming here to provide Israel with political and moral support after the severe blows it suffered at the hands of Hizbullah in Lebanon," he said.

Palestinian political analysts and commentators also lashed out at the US for supporting Israel.

Columnist Imad Afaneh said the US was hoping to punish Syria and Iran through the IDF offensive in Lebanon.

"The Americans want to teach Iran and Syria a lesson for using Hizbullah to undermine US influence in the Middle East," he said. "The Americans and the Israelis are also hoping to defeat the Palestinians by waging a war on Hizbullah in Lebanon.

"The Americans want a new Middle East devoid of jihad, resistance, liberation, martyrdom, retaliation and dignity. These are all terms that disturb the Americans.

"They want to see a Middle East full of Arab presidents, monarchs and princes who serve as slaves for their American masters," Afaneh said.

Abdel Bari Atwan, editor-in-chief of the London-based Al-Quds daily, said Rice wanted a new Middle East without Hamas and Hizbullah, where the Arabs would normalize their relations with Israel and form a joint front against Iran.

"The Americans' problem is that they have never learned from their past mistakes," he said. "They are continuing to rely on the same corrupt and weak horses in the Middle East."

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20060724/D8J2LDQ00.html

Israeli Forces Push Deeper Into Lebanon

Jul 24, 7:24 PM (ET)

By LEE KEATH

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) - Backed by tanks, Israeli troops battled their way to a key Hezbollah stronghold in south Lebanon on Monday, seizing a hilltop in heavy fighting and capturing two guerrillas. The U.S. completed its evacuation of 12,000 Americans and said it would switch to bringing in humanitarian aid.

On the 13th day of Israel's offensive, its forces moved one step deeper into Lebanon as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made her first diplomatic foray since the conflict began - and immediately met resistance.

The tangled knots in the negotiations meant fighting was likely to drag on just as the pace of Hezbollah rockets raining down on Israel shows no signs of letting up despite the aerial bombardment of its positions. Air power alone is proving insufficient to rout the guerrillas, who are proving tough opponents on the ground as well. Mideast observers say Hezbollah only has to remain standing - not beat Israel - to emerge victorious in Arab eyes.

Rice paid a surprise visit to Beirut on the way to Israel, trying to push a blanket plan that would call for a cease-fire simultaneous with the deployment of international and Lebanese troops into southern Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah attacks on Israel.

Parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a prominent Shiite Muslim who has been negotiating on behalf of Hezbollah, rejected the idea and said a cease-fire should be immediate, leaving the other issues for much later. Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora took a similar stance and complained bitterly to Rice about the destruction wreaked by U.S. ally Israel.

Israel "is taking Lebanon backward 50 years and the result will be Lebanon's destruction," he told Rice, the prime minister's office said.

But a day after criticizing Israel for "disproportionate" strikes against civilians, U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland accused Hezbollah of "cowardly blending" among Lebanese civilians.

"Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending ... among women and children," Egeland said. "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."

Israel appeared to be easing bombardment in populated areas and roads in Lebanon that has killed hundreds, displaced as many as 750,000 and dismembered the transportation network. Instead, it appeared to be focusing its firepower on Hezbollah at the front. Beirut saw no strikes all day in apparent deference to Rice's visit.

Lebanese security officials reported three civilian deaths, without specifying where they occurred. Thirty strikes in and around towns and on roads were reported by security officials and Lebanese media - down from 37 the day before.

The numbers do not include strikes on Hezbollah positions that are not in populated areas. Israel reported 270 strikes on Sunday, suggesting that a large number were in more isolated regions.

Still, Hezbollah was able to launch 80 rockets into northern Israel, wounding 13 people, a rate only slightly lower than in past days.

Israel's overall death toll stands at 39, with 17 people killed by Hezbollah rockets and 22 soldiers killed in the fighting. Sixty-eight soldiers have been wounded, and 255 civilians injured by rocket fire, officials said.

On the Lebanese side, security officials said 384 people had been killed, including 20 soldiers and 11 Hezbollah guerrillas.

Israeli military officials say several thousand troops are moving in and out of southern Lebanon, but there are fewer there at any one time.

At the front, Israeli ground forces waged a fierce battle Monday with guerrillas dug in at the closest large town to the border, Bint Jbail, known as "the capital of the resistance" for its vehement support of Hezbollah during Israel's 1982-2000 occupation of the south.

Four Israeli soldiers were killed - two in fighting and two in a helicopter crash - and 20 were wounded, military officials said.

The army said it captured two Hezbollah guerrillas, the first time it has taken any into custody during the fighting. "When the enemy surrenders, we take them prisoner. The two prisoners are located in Israel and will be held here with the aim of interrogating them," said Brig. Gen. Alon Friedman.

Nearly constant gunfire and explosions could be heard, and large plumes of gray smoke rose over the area. Israeli tanks and armored bulldozers entered the fray as guerrillas fought back with anti-tank missiles and mortars. Two tanks sped across the rocky hills back into Israel to ferry out wounded soldiers.

Backed by an intense artillery barrage, troops seized a hilltop inside the town, but the rest of Bint Jbail remained in the hands of up to 200 Hezbollah guerrillas, military officials said.

An Israeli tank was hit by Hezbollah fire, they said. Hezbollah released no casualty figures. It has claimed 11 dead in the entire campaign, though Israel says it has killed more than 100 of its fighters.

A day earlier, a Red Cross doctor visited Bint Jbail and reported an unknown number of families hunkered down in schools and mosques for protection, though much of the population of about 30,000 had fled.

Bint Jbail holds a legendary reputation with Hezbollah, because it was one of three large towns inside Israel's buffer zone and backing for the guerrillas remained strong throughout the occupation. Signs in the town tout its nickname. When Israel withdrew from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah held a large celebration in Bint Jbail, proclaiming that the guerrillas now stood on Israel's border.

The move into Bint Jbail, about 2.5 miles from the border, represents the spear point of Israel's advance, moving forward from Maroun al-Ras, a frontier village captured in more heavy fighting over the weekend.

At the same time, Israeli forces were working to destroy every Hezbollah post within a half mile of the 40-mile Israeli-Lebanese border, Israeli Maj. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot said.

The Israeli bombardment hit the southern cities of Tyre and Nabatiyeh. An Israeli shell crashed into a house near the Lebanese town of Marjayoun late Monday, wounding two children, witnesses said.

President Bush ordered U.S. Navy ships that have ferried nearly 12,000 Americans out of the country the past week to start on Tuesday taking in humanitarian aid for Lebanon. Tens of thousands of refugees are in temporary shelters, supplies of medicine are tight at many hospitals and fuel is slowly running out.

"We are working with Israel and Lebanon to open up humanitarian corridors," White House spokesman Tony Snow said. So far Israel has loosened its blockade of Lebanese ports to let aid ships into Beirut, but has not defined any safe land routes for convoys to the south.

At a hospital in Tyre, where Israeli rockets frequently hit nearby, dirty bandages hid the worst of 8-year-old Zainab Jawad's swollen, bloodied nose. Her arm was strapped to her chest and fractured in two places.

Stretched out on a bed a Najem Hospital, Zainab squeezed shut her brown eyes as memories of the attack flooded back, some of her words muffled as she fought sobs.

A day earlier, Israeli bombs destroyed her family's home in the southern village of Ayta Chaeb. Then rockets slammed into the car as they fled.

"I don't want to remember, but I can't help it. What I remember most is the sound, the sound of the planes and I was scared because I thought there were so many," she said. "I fell asleep last night, but all I could hear in my sleep were planes."