Haifa Rocket attack Wounds 5 Israeli Civilians
Israel Bombs Numerous Lebanese Towns Again
Wave of Protests in Muslim, Western Capitals
A wave of protests swept the Middle East and Europe on Friday against the Israeli war on Lebanon. Thousands rallied in Sanaa in Yemen; in Amman, Jordan; in Cairo, Egypt; in Tripoli, Libya; and in Iraq, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Malaysia and Indonesia, etc. Also Berlin, with more European and N. American demonstrations planned for this weekend. The big Muslim Brotherhood demonstration in Amman would not have been allowed by the Jordanian authorities if they were not even more afraid that if they did not let the public blow off steam on the issue, the consequences in public turmoil would be even worse.
The estimates for the size of the crowds in these reports are in my view too low. I saw some of the demonstrations on Arab satellite television and they were enormous.
In Iraq, young Shiite clerical nationalist Muqtada al-Sadr gave an incendiary sermon in which he
' predicted Israel would collapse like New York's twin towers on Sept 11, 2001, if Sunnis and Shiites join in their fight. "I will continue defending my Shiite and Sunni brothers, and I tell them that if we unite, we will defeat Israel without the use of weapons," Sadr said during a speech in the southern city Iraqi city of Kufa. '
Yes, Bush has certainly created a model democracy in Iraq. (Muqtada has 30 members in parliament, and in conjunction with the Da'wa Party, he is a king maker in the new system).
The Daily Star reports, "Israel was attacked again on Friday, Hizbullah fighters fired two salvos of rockets at the port of Haifa Friday, wounding five people and damaging shops . . .
I continue to maintain that if the Israelis had tried harder to target missile launching pads instead of droping 80 percent of their bombs on non-Hizbullah areas or on infrastructure, they could have stopped these rocket attacks. Military action specifically to take out the missiles is legitimate, since they are being used in a war crime, which is the indiscriminate bombing of Haifa civilians.
The Daily star reports:
' Friday saw 12 more civilian deaths, 50 wounded and 12 reported missing. Israeli artillery, fighter-bombers and warships continued their bombardment of the South, the Bekaa and Mount Lebanon. At least 10 civilians were buried under rubble in the Southern town of Aitaroun after Israeli warplanes targeted a residential building. Witnesses reported hearing cries for help.
Of course, this article was filed very early Friday, and we don't know that whole day's outcome yet.
The report continues,
' Baabda was attacked by Israeli warplanes early Friday, killing one civilian and severely wounding another. The municipality building was also damaged in the air strike. [Baabda is way up at Beirut, and far from any Shiite area. The presidential palace is there, and foreign diplomats, including France's Villepin, have been in and out of Baabda in the last few days.]
Then there is this:
' Separately, Lebanese security sources said towns along the border had been targeted by 2,500 bombs, missiles, rockets and shells between Thursday night and dawn Friday. The sources also accused Israel of using cluster bombs in an attack on the Southern town of Blida. The sources added that phosphorous and cluster munitions were also on Al-Orqoub, Hasbayya, Ramta, Zaaourta, Amfit and other border villages. Israeli shelling also destroyed a pharmaceutical plant Tyre.
The Daily Star report continues
I wouldn't have thought you would want to "target" three "residential buildings." Ordinary civilian people tend to live in residential buildings.
' In the Bekaa Valley, eight more air strikes on the Mdeirij bridge, part of the main Beirut-Damascus highway, finally toppled the Middle East's tallest bridge on Friday after daily attacks since July 12 . . . Towns in the Chouf, Damour and Naameh regions were also bombarded Friday, leaving one civilian dead and one wounded.
The bodies of 30 Lebanese remained under rubble in the Southern town of Srifa. The civilians have been trapped since three residential buildings were targeted by air strikes Wednesday. Aid and Civil Defense workers have not been able to reach the town due to heavy Israeli bombing.'
Israel has killed so many civilians in South Lebanon that health authorities are forced to stick them in mass graves. Megan Stack writes:
' "I've been a doctor for years, and I've never seen anything like this," said Nabil Harkus, who stood over a trio of unidentified corpses. "They can't fight Hezbollah because Hezbollah is not an army," he said, referring to the Israeli warplanes overhead. "They kill the people because they think it's the only way to stop Hezbollah." The Lebanese government has confirmed the deaths of 350 people in the fighting so far, but rescue workers here warn that the true tally is probably much higher. Relentless bombing has wrecked roads and rendered communication so spotty that no one knows how many people have died. '
The Nabatiyah Hospital serves a city of over 100,000. Reuters reports, "Water is cut off, the electricity is down, and medicine can only reach Nabatiyeh hospital across broken roads and through Israeli air strikes. But the injured still come, and doctors fear worse is ahead. The hospital, in the rolling hills of southern Lebanon, has treated 75 people wounded in Israeli bombardment since the start of a 10-day-old conflict triggered by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by the Shi'ite Muslim guerrilla group Hizbollah. Director Marwan Ghandour says the hospital could be flooded with patients if Israel launches a ground offensive across the border, just 20 km (12 miles) to the south."
Some 70 percent of the 500,000 persons that the Israelis have rendered homeless by their intensive bombing of Lebanon are from the Shiite south.
Saudi Defence Minister Prince Sultan bin Abdul-Aziz told reporters on Friday, “We cannot let Israel pursue its actions. We cannot tolerate that Israel plays with the lives of citizens, civilians, women, old people and children.” He supported an international force along the border of the two countries. This is going to be hard on Abraham Foxman.
The humanitarian crisis is growing in Lebanon. We're going to be seeing a lot of this headline in the next few weeks.
A congressional resolution on Israel/Lebanon that we can support.
posted by Juan Cole @ 7/22/2006 12:30:00 AM
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Israel is flouting international law in its prosecution of the war. How much easier it is for them when their ally, the United States, openly does the same. We've set such a fine example for them.
Thank you very much for your continuous stream of news, Juan Cole. You've become a beacon on the internet during this long, dark, violent night.
For some reason, my original post did not go through, so I am reposting it:
Professor Cole:
I respect your opinions a great deal, but I wonder if you are not wrong in your initial assessment that Hezbollah crossed into Israeli territory to capture these soldiers. If Hezbollah captured them inside Lebanon, then Israel has no casus belli in this case, whatsoever.
I have checked a number of papers from that day when Hezbollah captured the Israeli soldiers (July 12), and there is complete ambiguity in the news stories of that day about whether the abduction happened in Israel or over the border in Lebanon.
In fact, quite a few news reports, including the Hindustan Times, the Asian Times, and the Associated Press carry articles that claim with no equivocation that the abduction occurred in Lebanon, not Israel.
Here is the link to the one from Associated Press:
http://www.forbes.com/technology/feeds/ap/2006/07/12/ap2873051.html
Did you find information later on that confirmed without any doubt that it actually happened in Israel?
Best wishes,
Brian Lockey
Assistant Professor of English
St. John's University
Incoming (...profits for everyone's military-industrial organizations)
US rushes precision-guided bombs to Israel: NYTimes [Link]
Also see: Iranian Cleric Ahmad Khatami:
Islamic Countries Should Supply Hizbullah with Weapons; Israeli Atomic Arsenals Are in Haifa - MemriTV [Partial Transcript]
"I will continue defending my Shiite and Sunni brothers, and I tell them that if we unite, we will defeat Israel without the use of weapons"
I'd say that is as close as you are going to get to non-violence from Sadr. But on the other hand, without weapons is pretty close to non-violence.
He is definitely not calling for mass murders of Israelis. I'd say the most reasonable interpretation is that he expects Israel to be pressured to accept enough Arabs to not be a "Jewish" state and that would constitute athe final "defeat" of Israel.
That does not strike me as a particularly bad objective.
RE: "...continue to maintain that if the Israelis had tried harder to target missile launching pads instead of droping 80 percent of their bombs on non-Hizbullah areas or on infrastructure, they could have stopped these rocket attacks..."
The purpose of the (155mm, typical) artillery barrage by the IDF appears to be twofold: (1) immediate response; ie., "we are doing SOMETHING," they are signalling their population, as well as their own troops, their opponents, and the rest of the world; and, (2) to prevent, or at least hinder (ground based) further incursions by Hezbollah fighters across this "No-Man's Land," thus.
Given their circumstances, imho this immediate, reactionary response was, indeed the best course of action for the IDF to take.
Now, insofar as the deeper (aerial bombardment, typical) damage done to urabn areas, roads & bridges -- imho this will prove to be quite counter-productive to the IDF: (1) there is the immediate propaganda fallout, vis-a-vis "inappropriate, dis-proportionate response," along with what, ~500,000 persons immediate refugees, humanitarian crisis, as well as the perceived COLLECTIVE punishment creating not a Divide & Conquer scenario, rather a BONDING of socio-economic classes, faiths, etc., as everyone huddled in The UnderGround whilst enduring The Blitz overhead share their indiscriminate burden -- and if the only folks with GUNS, with any means of fighting back the external threat happen to be "that street gang from the 'wrong side of the tracks'," well ~ no one is going to quibble with whether or not these are unsavoury fellows {grin}; and, (2) as we can see, the IDF are preparing TANK COLUMNS, and rubble-izing their path will only create superb "tank traps" as well as excellent sniper, readymade-for-guerrilas fighting foxholes, vis-a-vis Stalingrad, circa 1942...
...iow, rubble-izing the battlefield has been not only counter-productive in the local, global psyche ~ it will, imho prove to be a SERIOUS TACTICAL ERROR, militarily :-/
Just sent to my Congresswoman
Dear Congresswoman Pelosi:
Earlier this week I called and emailed your office to express my opposition to HRes 291 which is in fact a guarantee of a blank check from this country for Israel's wanton attacks on Lebanon. As the UN High Commissioner Louise Arbor and the Secretary General have all but said, the Israeli leadership is guilty of war crimes in this action in which 35% or more of all casualties have been children.
Moreover, and more dangerous, is the reaction in Iraq and the rest of the Muslim world to this US sponsored and US funded aggression. Iraq will not exist as a unitary state six months to a year from now and you can say you read it here first.
Please support H. Con. Res. 450 [Dennis Kucinich and with 23 co-sponsors] which calls for an immediate cease-fire, multi-party negotiations and an international peacekeeping force. As a "peace voter", I note the endorsement of the Jewish Voice for Peace.
I fear ita passage might be too little too late but at least you will be on record with a vote for peace instead of slaughter.
Thank you.
Watching "Mosaic" on Link-TV and IBA on World Harvest, I am constantly hearing that the Israeli strategy is to punish the Lebanese severely enough by destroying infrastucture and creating a crisis of such proportions that the population will turn against Hezbollah and the Lebanese army will then attack (Druze, Maronite, or Sunni militias instead?)Hezbollah. Civil war is seen as a possibly positive outcome.
It appears that Israel wants a DMZ of some twenty or forty miles, with any Arab population expelled. (the current program of forcing the Arabs out of the south is seen as the first step in this program)
Punishing a population for an indigenous guerrilla force operating in its territory has never worked. It only strengthens the guerrilla force and weakens the conventional forces in the eyes of the locals. Didn't the incursion of 1982 teach the Israeli military anything? Right now, I am hearing commentary trying to wipe out the Israeli pullout as being an Israeli defeat and trying to rewrite the incursion as an Israeli success. (they are also rewriting the Suez event so that it was a victory for France, England and Israel after great Egyptian provocation)
Yes, America has been a fine example for Israel! And Israel is waging this war with the full support and encouragement of America!
A report by the Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa), datelined Beirut and Tel Aviv, July 12, 2006, 19:40 GMT
Link at --
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1180368.php/Kidnapping_of_soldiers_act_of_war_by_Lebanon_Israel__3rd_Roundup_
...points to the source of the confusion about where exactly the two soldiers were captured -- conflicting claims by the two sides:
Lebanese police said that the two [Israeli] soldiers had been
captured as they 'infiltrated' into the town of Aitaa al-Chaab
inside the Lebanese border.
But Israel vehemently denied this, saying the soldiers had been
on patrol on the Israeli side of the border fence.
Conflicting accounts of incidents that spark much more dire events are unfortunately all too common in history, and not all of them can be resolved to the satisfaction of both the protagonists and independent observers.
András Riedlmayer
Perhaps the apparent ambiguity - where were the soldiers captured - is explained simply.
The western 2/3 of the border with Libanon is guarded and patrolled by an Israeli Druze battalion. The eastern 1/3 is not. Were the kidnapped soldiers Druze ?
If the kidnapped Israeli soldiers do not have Druze names, perhaps they were captured in the area of Shebaa Farms,at the eastern edge of Israel's northern border, where Syria, Libanon and Israel come together. Israeli news reports would characterize this as Israeli territory; Arab news outlets would consider this Libanese territory.
The one thing done by the UN that Israel is most vocal about supporting is the decision that Shebaa Farms is part of Syria, and thus legitimately occupied and annexed. The farmers who were there when Israel came in and took over were paying taxes, apparently, to the government in Bayrut. That's the basis for saying it is Libanese land.
According to the information reported by Deutsche Presse-Agentur, the capture of the two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah fighters took place somewhere in the vicinity of the southern Lebanese village of Aitaa al-Chaab, which is in the westernmost 1/3 segment of the Lebanese-Israeli border. You can see a detailed map of the area at
[Map of southwestern Lebanon]
No matter which side of the border the two soldiers were on when they were snatched, they were nowhere near the disputed area of Shebaa Farms, which is far to the east on the slopes of Mount Hermon on the frontier with Syria.
The two Israeli soldiers captured in the incident, Ehud Goldwasser, 31, and fellow reservist Eldad Regev, 26, both have Jewish names -- and thus presumably they are not members of the IDF's Israeli-Arab Druze battallion.
"The border of Southern Lebanon and Israel is a seamless web of intervisible Israeli outposts with night vision devices, tied together with ground surveillance radar, plowed-flat and raked daily to see footprints, and backed by quick reaction forces. Israelis routinely make incursive patrols into Lebanon. It is nearly impossible for an organized group of Hezbolla or anyone else to cross the border south, much less capture prisoners there. The very notion that this was an incursion INTO Israel is propped up solely by the credulity of the general public that knows nothing about military operations. In reality, the idea is as ludicrous as the Easter Bunny." - Stan Goff
"Hezbollah and Israel stand along this border every day observing each other through binoculars and waiting for an opportunity to kill each other. They are at war. They have been for 25 years, no one ever declared a cease-fire between them. … They stand on the border every day and just wait for an opportunity. And on Tuesday morning there were two Humvees full of Israeli soldiers, not under observation from the Israeli side, not under covering fire, sitting out there all alone. The Hezbollah militia commander just couldn't believe it -- so he went and got them.
The Israeli captain in charge of that unit knew he had really screwed up, so he sent an armored personnel carrier to go get them in hot pursuit, and Hezbollah led them right through a minefield."
quote from Mark Perry, co-director of the Conflicts Forum, a Beirut-based nongovernmental organization that has, over the past three years, put former senior American and British policy-makers and intelligence officials in talks with Hezbollah and other militant political Islamic groups in Lebanon
...a post Prof. Cole pointed to some time ago.
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