"Crisis" In Israel/Palestine/Lebanon/Syria

I think you are right about that, actually - they say (or write) what they are told - and there is really no meaning behind any of it, other than the subtle, or not so subtle, manipulation of public opinion. This, of course, leads to the question of exactly what are 'they' trying to accomplish here? Is it really the beginning of a 'pulling back' from 'support' of Israel? That seems so unlikely with the history, the current control that the Straussian NeoCons have, the duel citizen-ship of high level officials, the probable blackmail already in place - but, as I write this, I realize that at this point - I would be surprised by nothing.
 
Not a word about the fact that Israel has illegal WMDs and refuses to acknowledge it officially or be inspected; or that Israel has been waging a war of attrition against the Palestinians for over 50 years, or that Israel itself is an invader and occupier of another country, or that the US is an invader and occupier of another country... I mean, NO factual context whatsoever... just evil Hezbollah, evil Syria and Iran for daring to defend against bullies...

Disgusting.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/world/middleeast/19missile.html?ei=5065&en=3d0d943e18a69f22&ex=1153886400&partner=MYWAY&pagewanted=print

July 19, 2006
Weapons
Arming of Hezbollah Reveals U.S. and Israeli Blind Spots
By MARK MAZZETTI and THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON, July 18 - The power and sophistication of the missile and rocket arsenal that Hezbollah has used in recent days has caught the United States and Israel off guard, and officials in both countries are just now learning the extent to which the militant group has succeeded in getting weapons from Iran and Syria.

While the Bush administration has stated that cracking down on weapons proliferation is one of its top priorities, the arming of Hezbollah shows the blind spots of American and other Western intelligence services in assessing the threat, officials from across those governments said.

American and Israeli officials said the successful attack last Friday on an Israeli naval vessel was the strongest evidence to date of direct support by Iran to Hezbollah. The attack was carried out with a sophisticated antiship cruise missile, the C-802, an Iranian-made variant of the Chinese Silkworm, an American intelligence official said.

At the same time, American and Israeli officials cautioned that they had found no evidence that Iranian operatives working in Lebanon launched the antiship missile themselves.

But neither Jerusalem nor Washington had any idea that Hezbollah had such a missile in its arsenal, the officials said, adding that the Israeli ship had not even activated its missile defense system because intelligence assessments had not identified a threat from such a radar-guided cruise missile.

They said they had also been surprised by the advances that Hezbollah had made in improving what had been crude rockets - for example, attaching cluster bombs as warheads, or filling an explosive shell with ball bearings that have devastating effect.

The Bush administration has long sought to focus attention on Iranian missile proliferation, and regularly discusses with journalists intelligence evidence of those activities. But American officials in Washington made clear this week that they were reluctant to detail Iran's arming of Hezbollah in the current conflict.

The reason, according to officials across the government, was a desire by the Bush administration to contain the conflict to Israeli and Hezbollah forces, and not to enlarge the diplomatic tasks by making Iranian missile supplies, or even those of Syria, a central question for now.

Still, some officials in Washington admitted to being blindsided by the abilities of Hezbollah's arsenal.

"You have to acknowledge the obvious - we've seen a new capability in striking the naval vessel and in the number of casualties that have been sustained from the Hezbollah missile attacks," a Bush administration official said.

"In the past, we'd see three, four, maybe eight launches at any given time if Hezbollah was feeling feisty," the official added. "Now we see them arriving in large clusters, and with a range and even certain accuracy we have not seen in the past."

The officials interviewed agreed to discuss classified intelligence assessments about Hezbollah's capabilities only on condition of anonymity.

While Iranian missile supplies to Hezbollah, either by sea or overland via Syria, were well known, officials said the current conflict also indicated that some of the rockets in Hezbollah's arsenal - including a 220-millimeter rocket used in a deadly attack on a railway site in Haifa on Sunday - were built in Syria.

"The Israelis did forensics, and found several were Syrian-made," said David Schenker, who this spring became a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy after four years working on Middle East issues at the Pentagon. "Everybody recognizes that Syria has played an important role in facilitating transshipment - but not supplying their own missiles to Hezbollah."

Officials have since confirmed that the warhead on the Syrian rocket was filled with ball bearings - a method of destruction used frequently in suicide bombings but not in warhead technology.

"We've never seen anything like this," said one Western intelligence official, speaking about the warhead.

But it was Friday's successful launching of a C-802 cruise missile that most alarmed officials in Washington and Jerusalem.

Iran began buying dozens of those sophisticated antiship missiles from the Chinese during the 1990's, until the United States pressured Beijing to cease the sales.

Until Friday, however, Western intelligence services did not know that Iran had managed to ship C-802 missiles to Hezbollah.

Officials said it was likely that Iran trained Hezbollah fighters on how to successfully fire and guide the missiles, and that members of Iran's Al Quds force - the faction of the Revolutionary Guards that trains foreign forces - would not necessarily have to be on the scene to launch the C-802.

At the same time, some experts said Iran was not likely to deploy such a sophisticated weapon without also sending Revolutionary Guard crews with the expertise to fire the missile.

An administration official said intelligence reports have concluded that a small number of Iranians are currently operating in Lebanon, but the official declined to disclose their number or mission.
 
I hope I'm posting this in the correct thread. Regarding the SITE Hizbollah information posted earlier - Jason's research. I sent that post to a guy who runs the Iraqi electronic newsletter to get his take on it. He uses Arab sources and provides us with daily news from the red zone (it's all a red zone at this point).

Here's what he had to say:

First of all, why should anybody believe what's on
SITE? That's a totally Zionist disinformation
operation.

I just copied this from the "about SITE" section on
their website"

"Rita Katz, Director and co-founder of the SITE
Institute, has studied, tracked, and analyzed
international terrorists and their financial
operations for more than six years. Since well before
September 11, she has personally briefed government
officials, including former terrorism czar Richard
Clarke and his staff in the White House, as well as
investigators in the Department of Justice, Department
of the Treasury, and the Department of Homeland
Security on the financing and recruitment networks of
the terrorist movement. Many of her leads have
prompted the government to investigate and take legal
action against individuals and organizations suspected
of ties to terrorism."


Second, I don't know that "Nasrollah" site (even SITE
says it was last "confirmed" in 2004!) but the
Hizballah Resistance website is:

http://www.moqawama.net

They have an English-language page there too if you
want to check it out, but mostly that consists of
articles culled from various places.

Hizballah's TV station used to have an informative
website at: http://www.manartv.com.lb/

But apparently the champions of free speech are
jamming it.


Third, check out the "list of terrorist websites" on
the SITE site:

http://www.siteinstitute.org/websites.html

Four of them are Palestinian, one is Lebanese, and one
is Iraqi. In other words those so-called "terrorists"
are all fighing occupations - five fighting the
Zionists and one fighting the American occupation of
Iraq.

What's these people's problem? Can't they grasp that
if you invade people's country they're going to
resist? But when they do, as you would naturally
expect, Ms Katz and her friends can make money
alarming the press, jumping up and down about
"terrorists on the internet" but those "terrorists"
are only people defending their homes and countries!

Fourth, it's completely ridiculous to think that
because some site supposedly associated with Hizballah
uses a server that is owned by a person who gives his
address in the compound owned by a contractor in
business with the US that somehow that makes the US in
charge of Hizballah! First that website is apparently
defunct. Second, the website is probably under the
authority of a webmaster who was the one who had to go
looking for a server.

Hizballah is not a website. Hizballah is a big
organization. It's deluded to think you've uncovered
Hizballah's "real identity" by finding out the server
of their (supposed) website. Anyway, when you set up
a website and get a host you often have no idea about
whom they're associated with. You compare the rates
and terms and go with the one you can work with.

These people think Hizballah is some kind of shadowy
conspiratorial organization. They're a big movement.
They are a political party with deputies in the
Lebanese Parliament. They run a TV station that's one
of the big ones in the Arab world. They have all
sorts of activities in southern Lebanon and the Shi'i
areas of Beirut - welfare, social services, etc., and
yes they also have an armed wing that fights the
Zionists. But I mean they're not sneaking around.
They set up websites and get servers like anybody
else.

So basically Staples has done a lot of useless
research into a website that is off the air. A big
waste of time.
 
How much you want to bet that we will hear about the two Israeli children forever... while the Palestinian children and the Lebanese children and the Iraqi children are just silent numbers...


http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/740309.html

Massive wave of Katyusha rockets strikes northern Israel
Two children killed in Katyusha rocket strike on Nazareth

Hezbollah rocket attacks on the northern town of Nazareth killed two Israeli Arab children, brothers aged 3 and 9, on Wednesday afternoon, bringing to 15 the death toll from rocket strikes since the crisis in Lebanon began a week ago.

Another 12 people sustained light wounds in the attack, and were evacuated to the Italian Hospital in the town.

The two siblings, Rabia Abed Taluzi and his older brother Mahmoud, were killed by a direct hit from a rocket while playing in the yard of their family's home, the Israel Defense Forces said. It was the first time the town had been attacked.

Upper Nazareth, the mainly Jewish town adjacent to predominantly Arab Nazareth, was hit over the weekend.

A second rocket struck a building in the city's commercial center. Smoke billowed from a damaged building and its roof appeared mostly destroyed, television footage showed. Local residents ran to the building and helped fire fighters unwind their water hoses.

Mohammed Assawi, who saw the attack, told Channel 10 television that the rocket that killed the two children struck in the middle of a downtown street.

"It's a vacation and it's afternoon so where will they go if not to play in the streets?" he said. "It is unpleasant to say what we saw."

Hours later, a Katyusha fell in an open area in Haifa. There were no injuries.

Katyushas also hit the northern town of Nahariya in the late afternoon.

Also Wednesday, two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed during heavy exchanges of fire with Hezbollah guerillas inside Lebanese territory, across the Israel-Lebanon border.

A massive wave of rockets battered northern Israel at around 3 P.M. Wednesday, with strikes in Haifa, Carmiel, Tiberias, Afula and communities in the Galilee.

Some 70 Katyushas were fired at Israel within the space of an hour.

There were no reports of injuries in the strike, although houses in Carmiel and Tiberias sustained direct hits. One person was treated for wounds from shattered glass in Aful, another in Tiberias was treated for shock.

Rockets also struck Kiryat Shmona, Rosh Pina, Dishon, Moshav Sde Eliezer, Hatzor Haglilit, Amuka and the Jezreel Valley. There were no injuries in those strikes.

Earlier Wednesday, two rockets hit Haifa and others fell in the Western Galilee and the Hula Valley.

A building in Haifa was hit by one of the rockets, but it was empty at the time. One resident was lightly injured by shrapnel, and six people suffered from shock. Soon after, several rockets landed in open spaces near Nahariya, causing no injuries or damage.

Over 100 Katyusha rockets were fired into Israel throughout the day on Tuesday, killing Nahariya resident Andrei Zelinksy, 37, as he rushed to the bomb shelter. Another person was hurt in a rocket strike on Gush Halav, in the Mount Meron area of the Galilee.

The rocket salvos on Tuesday also struck Safed, Hatzor, Carmiel, Moshe Sde Eleizer, Acre, Kiryat Shmona, Tiberias, the Krayot region (Haifa suburbs of Kiryat Yam, Kiryat Haim, and Kiryat Ata), Hatzor Haglilit, Yesod Hama'ala, the central Golan Heights, and the Haifa Bay region.

Eye witness Eli Dayari told Channel 10 television that the rocket hit a two-story building in Nahariya, and an apartment there was on fire.

"I was near the bomb shelter, there was a humongous boom, and I saw it was two meters next to my house, really two meters," he said. "People are panicking and the house was on fire, really big flames, the fire fighters are here."

Zelinsky, who had moved to Israel with his family from the Ukraine several years ago, was walking toward the bomb shelter in a public park 20 meters from his home when he was directly struck by the rocket.

When the siren sounded to warn of an incoming rocket, he insisted that his family enter the bomb shelter before him. His wife and four-year-old daughter managed to enter the shelter in time, but Zelinsky was still outside when the rocket hit, killing him. His wife, who was waiting to receive her husband at the entrance to the shelter, witnessed the incident as it unfolded.

Acquaintances said that Zelinsky, who worked in a local factory, was known as a diligent and dedicated worker.

Tuesday afternoon's first barrage, which included more than 80 rockets, was one of the more fierce to have struck Israel since the outbreak of hostilities.

The rocket fire also ignited fires in the northern Golan Heights near the town of Goshrim and the Nahal Amod and Rosh Pina regions.

The injured victim in Gush Halav suffered shrapnel wounds to his head. In contrast with other cities and municipalities in the north, a warning siren was heard in Gush Halav just prior to the landing of the Katyushas.

Gush Halav municipality chief Henry A'alam said that while the village comprises 2,900 residents, there are only seven bomb shelters available, four of which are public shelters.

One month ago, A'alam requested that the IDF Homefront Command erect more bomb shelters in the town. A'alam said he was told that most of the IDF's budget allocated for reinforcing structures has been invested towards the south due to the constant threat of Qassam rockets.

The train depot in Haifa where eight people were killed in a rocket strike Sunday was hit for a second time Tuesday afternoon, as fresh barrages of Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon struck the northern towns of Haifa and Safed.

Israel Radio said that six rockets struck Haifa, Israel's third city, earlier Tuesday.

There were no immediate reports of casualties in the first strikes in Haifa, medics said.

Several rockets landed near the west Galilee town of Shlomi before noon, but no injuries or damage were reported.

GOC Northern Command Major General Udi Adam said Tuesday that the rocket attacks have begun to drop, but the Israel Defense Forces is not about to ease off in its offensive against Lebanon.

"Overall, knock on wood, there have been less rockets lately," Udi Adam, head of Israel's northern command, told Channel 1 Television.

"We have hit a large part of their weapons arsenal, their anti-aircraft missiles and their rockets. [The operation] will take time, even three to four weeks."

On Monday night, Hezbollah fired more than 50 rockets, including a barrage which landed after 10 P.M. in the northern towns of Safed, Rosh Pina, Tzivon, Sakhnin, Hatzur Haglilit and Peki'in.

Nine people were wounded in the rocket barrage, including eight hurt when a rocket hit a hospital in Safed.

The Katyusha struck the Rebecca Sieff Hospital at around 11 P.M. Most of the wounded were hit by shrapnel.

The rocket hit the hospital's northern external wall. Five patients, two doctors and two other hospital employees were hurt in the attack. The casualties were treated in the hospital's emergency room.

Hospital deputy director Dr. Klein Shapira said after the attack that the rocket damaged the air conditioning system in the building.

"It is hard to know if the fire was intentionally directed at us. We know from the movies that hospitals are not attacked (in war), but when it comes to Katyushas the rules must be different," he said.

"It was a miracle that the hit didn't cause more serious damage," said one of the hospital employees wounded in the attack.

On the border with Lebanon, IDF troops on Monday night opened fire at a group of Hezbollah militants who approached the fence, thwarting an attempt to infiltrate Israel.

An unknown number of militants are suspected to have been wounded in the exchange of fire. No IDF troops were wounded, IDF officials said.

On Monday, an Israel Air Force air strike in Lebanon destroyed at least ten long-range Iranian-made missile capable of hitting Tel Aviv, the IAF's chief operations officer, Brigadier General Ram Shmueli, said.

The officials said an IAF aircraft targeted a Hezbollah truck carrying the weapons before they could be launched. The force of the blast sent at least one missile flying into the air, but it fell nearby. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity under military regulations.

Officials said the destroyed missile was an Iranian-made "Zilzal," which has a range of about 200 kilometers.

Lebanese TV stations broadcast video pictures of the downed missile which they initially reported was an IAF aircraft falling to the ground.

During nearly a week of fighting, Hezbollah militants have fired missiles up to 40 kilometers into Israel. But officials have raised concerns the guerrilla group could strike Tel Aviv, roughly 120 kilometers south of the border with Lebanon.
 
Lisa's friend said:
First of all, why should anybody believe what's on SITE? That's a totally Zionist disinformation operation.
I think this was about a different site wasn't it? This one: http://haganah.org.il/harchives/003473.html
 
Man following this hurts my head. So much contradiction, distortion, noise.... and now that the media has this story iraq is completely ignored. Figures. Harsh lesson.
 
Will anybody listen???

Lebanon appeals for international help to end war
Reuters
Wednesday, July 19, 2006; 1:45 PM

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora called on the international community on Wednesday to intervene to end an Israeli onslaught against the country and to rush in badly needed humanitarian aid.

"I call on you to respond immediately and without reservation to our call for a ceasefire and to provide urgent international humanitarian aid," Siniora said in a televised appeal to the international community.

"I hope you won't let us down."

He said more than 300 people had been killed and 1,000 wounded in the eight-day-old Israeli assault. He said more than 500,000 Lebanese had been displaced.

Siniora added that hospitals had been crippled and there were shortages in food and medical supplies.
 
Muhammad said:
Will anybody listen???
Those of us who listen and have the will to do something have been so marginalized, impoverished, and otherwise attacked, that there is little we can do. We spend every day doing the SOTT page, writing, publishing, trying to think of new ways to present material so that people will wake up, getting people together to talk, teaching about psychopathy, and so on.

If I had a few million, I'd probably give books away for free, produce DVDs and flyers and do a mass mailing to everyone in the U.S. - or drop flyers from airplanes.. or buy advertising... Just do anything to counteract the MSM and get information out there. There are all kinds of things that could be done that would be a better way to spend money than the millions that get collected to pay for political campaigns that won't change anything except exchange one psychopath for another.

But we don't have a few million. We operate on a shoestring doing the only thing we can... and we feel as frustrated and angry as if we were right in the middle of Lebanon or Gaza ourselves. It's maddening to not be able to do more...
 
Muhammad said:
Will anybody listen???
Nope, the MSM is only interested in how poor Israel has had its soldiers kidnapped and only wants them back, it's all the fault of Hamas/Hizbollah/Lebanon/Syria/Iran*

http://www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/news_service/b17.asp?offset= - there's a lot of 'Israel... ' stories, I remeber the it being mentioned about the Iraq IOC employees being kidnapped, no further mention of what's happened to them.

*delete the names you don't want to invade today.
 
Laura said:
Muhammad said:
Will anybody listen???
Those of us who listen and have the will to do something have been so marginalized, impoverished, and otherwise attacked, that there is little we can do.
Well, interestingly, there seem to be a few celebrities in Hollywood that are voicing their concerns on occasion. I'm aware that some of it could be publicity stunts or just other public-manipulation nonsense that they don't really mean or really care about. But of all the people in the world, I am sure it may be possible to find someone relatively wealthy who might be willing to contribute to this cause and provide substantial financial assistance to do what you just described. Just a thought.

Sadly people who offer money usually have a condition, often one that this group cannot follow because it leads away from the goal. I remember something about money being offered for you guys if u were to change your focus to free-energy devices and research that instead. Unless the C's wanna help out with lottery numbers lol. I remember them saying that you can't really get that info if you have any selfish intent or anticipation though, but that it's possible.
 
ScioAgapeOmnis said:
there seem to be a few celebrities in Hollywood that are voicing their concerns on occasion.
Um, I don't want to appear too easily swept up in generalizations but if you look at the last names of the power brokers in Hollywood you will see a trend. I'm sure standing up for the rights of the Palestinians is a Career Limiting Move in the movie industry.

What is going on in Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza is that the Zionists are making the Palestinians a deal they cannot accept.

Like the scene in "Independence Day" where Bill Pullman, as the Commander In Chief asks the alien "What do you want from us?" and receives the clear answer "We want you to die."

President Thomas Whitmore said:
I saw... its thoughts. I saw what they're planning to do. They're like locusts. They're moving from planet to planet... their whole civilization. After they've consumed every natural resource they move on... and we're next.
 
Yeah that did seem a bit wishful-thinking of me to say celebrities. They seem to like to voice sometimes seemingly "alternative" opinions but they never go far enough. It's like they see a little but always propose some pathocratic solution without realising it. I don't know if that's on purpose to manipulate the public even more, or just their own naiveness. Speaking of celebrities though, I wonder if psychopaths could ever be truly good actors? I know they are good actors because they sure fool most, but can they be GREAT actors and basically get to a legendary status as some great actors have? My thought is probably no because I think a true master actor probably requires to empathize with his role to truly understand it and become it. A psychopath can only go so far without truly feeling his role with his whole being, he cannot act from the heart because he doesn't have one, osit. But on the other hand, the celebrity lifestyle must be extremely attractive to psychopaths so I'd expect them to surely try.

Also, I remember SOTT mentioning that there are some politicians that may not be psychopaths that may in fact be on our side. I don't know if I am remembering this correctly though, but if so, I wonder if someone like that might contribute.
 
Laura said:
How much you want to bet that we will hear about the two Israeli children forever... while the Palestinian children and the Lebanese children and the Iraqi children are just silent numbers...


http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/740309.html

Massive wave of Katyusha rockets strikes northern Israel
Two children killed in Katyusha rocket strike on Nazareth

Hezbollah rocket attacks on the northern town of Nazareth killed two Israeli Arab children, brothers aged 3 and 9, on Wednesday afternoon, bringing to 15 the death toll from rocket strikes since the crisis in Lebanon began a week ago.
I have my doubts that we would hear about these children for too long, since they were Arab Israelis - i.e. Palestinians living in Israel proper.
 
Laura said:
But we don't have a few million. We operate on a shoestring doing the only thing we can... and we feel as frustrated and angry as if we were right in the middle of Lebanon or Gaza ourselves. It's maddening to not be able to do more...
Arithmetically this cause is hopelessly lost. We are so small in front of giants (armies, secret services, medias, governments).

It's already so difficult and energy consuming to manage minor psychopathic tendencies in this forum, so Middle East crisis is like a gigantic burning stone that looks impossible to handle.

However, this world might not work in a totally arithmetical way.

One way could be to keep on giving our best and trying to find the spark, initiate a butterfly effect, reach a critical mass that might lead to demultiplied effects. Trigering the vibrational mode of the shoestring we operate on.

Apparently one of the main domain of interest and expertise for Ark and others is quantum physics. Would it be a mere coincidence ?
 
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/740870.html

Last update - 05:11 20/07/2006


Hamas, Egypt resume talks over release of Corporal Gilad Shalit

By Avi Issacharoff

Hamas recently resumed both diplomatic and military contacts with the Egyptian team working in Gaza to effect the release of kidnapped soldier Corporal Gilad Shalit.

Palestinian sources said that over the past several days, Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has tried to convince the Hamas leadership that it is important to prevent the creation of a link between Shalit's abduction and Hezbollah in the mind of the international community.

He therefore tried to persuade Hamas officials that they must present a different position than that of Hezbollah with regard to negotiations with Israel over a prisoner exchange.

Mediators in Gaza told Haaretz that no breakthrough has been made in the negotiations, and Hamas is still refusing to negotiate over Shalit's release in isolation from Hezbollah.

Nevertheless, this represents the first Palestinian-Egyptian attempt to break up the united Hamas-Hezbollah front that was forged after the abduction of two soldiers in the north last week.

And some Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip support the move, fearing that should anything happen to Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, Israel would no longer be willing to free Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Shalit and would wage an all-out war until Hamas is vanquished.

The deal currently being discussed with Hamas involves not only the release of Shalit in exchange for Palestinian prisoners, but also an end to Israeli military operations and targeted assassinations in Gaza as well as an end to the Qassam rocket fire.

On Tuesday, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that he told Abbas in a recent phone conversation that an end to the crisis over Shalit may be imminent.

A Syrian military delegation recently visited Cairo to discuss a deal to release all the Israeli prisoners in exchange for Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners


i: i don't find it a bad idea for Hamas to negotiate their prisoners from a position that seperates them from Hezbollah. Hezbollah has a different agenda than that of Hamas, and the two issues must not be viewed as one, because that is what Israel is doing: puts both Hamas and Hezbollah on the same level and calls them all terrorists. And the real issues become obscured in this. Hamas wants back Palestinian prisoners from the Israeli prisons and real negotiations with Israel regarding the Palestinian state, the safety and prosperity of it's people, with no comings and goings in their land by the israeli army whenever the latter feel like it. Hezbollah wants an exchange of prisoners too, but from all i've been reading these days, i think is using the Palestinian problem for its aims.
 
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