re Lebanon ….

Sophie Black claims that there are “around 57,000 foreign citizens” awaiting evacuation from Lebanon, but her detailed accounting suggests the figure is closer to 300,000.

Meanwhile, Jane Nethercote wonders whether the Howard government is doing enough to secure the safe escape of its 25,000 citizens, whilst reprising the logistics challenges confronting Alexander The Great Downer.

Whilst this is interesting stuff, what should be of greater interest is that all three foundation members of the “coalition of the willing”, who didn’t hesitate to proudly engineer the illegal invasion & occupation of Iraq, whilst heroically trumpeting their determination to “keep us safe” from the world’s “evildoers”, & who, between them, have more than 80,000 of their citizens exposed to the ferocity of Israel’s war machine, have failed to publicly demand her observance of a ceasefire, thereby allowing effective evacuation arrangements to be made.

Surely the situation must give rise to speculation that Israel’s behaviour is either beyond the control of our mighty warrior princes or, more cynically, that securing the safety of 80,000 of their citizens is of less import than the attainment their strategic imperatives in the middle east.

And whilst Christian Kerr concludes that “voters don’t care”, both scenarios suggest that we should all have reason to be more than a little concerned.

From the BBC

Annan demands Lebanon ceasefire

Hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon must stop immediately, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has said. He condemned Hezbollah for sparking the latest violence in the country, but also attacked Israel for what he called its "excessive use of force".
In the absence of a ceasefire, it was "imperative" to establish safe aid corridors in Lebanon, Mr Annan said.
Bombed roads are hampering aid efforts as the fighting continues.
Israeli soldiers are fighting militants inside Lebanon, Israeli officials say.

"We are not going to desert the people of Lebanon in their time of need, but we have to proceed with caution" Kofi Annan

Israel is also continuing its bombing campaign, carrying out 80 air strikes early on Thursday.

The offensive has killed about 300 people and displaced an estimated 500,000 in Lebanon.

The nine days of fighting - triggered by the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid - have left 29 Israelis dead, including 15 civilians killed by rockets fired by Hezbollah into Israel.

Mr Annan's call for a ceasefire followed a similar demand by the EU, which pledged 10m euros (£6.8m) in aid.

---------------------

The world community has to MORE — urgently — to stop "Unreal" Israel for doing what it is doing... and start proper dialogue with Hizbollah, no matter how repugnant it could seem... Because the destruction Israel is inflicting on Lebanon is far more repugnant.

From the ABC
...........
Israel believes its bombing campaign in Lebanon has destroyed 50 per cent of Hezbollah's military capability.

Israel Radio quoted the former Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz says Hezbollah's appeal for assistance from Iran is evidence of the group's difficulties.

Earlier, a member of the Israeli Prime Minister's inner security cabinet, Isaac Herzog, said any political solution to the crisis had to be viable.

"We have to make sure that there will be no Hezbollah military presence or capability in that area," he said.

"We have to make sure a coercive sovereign body takes over the border with Israel.

"We have to make sure that this pattern of behaviour that somebody can kidnap or attack again and again when Israel takes steps for peace, will not recur. We are changing the rules of the game here."

-----------------------

Is he really serious? A Game?

Not taking away from his "Israel takes steps for peace" but I have not seem many of these in the past few decades... just retaliation, revenge and more settlements of the "unoccupied territories" as some Jewish organisations refer to the West Bank...

Does he think that wiping out Hizbollah will be the "final" solution?

From Al Jazeera

Lebanon crisis an international conspiracy'

By Firas Al-Atraqchi

Tuesday 18 July 2006, 20:49 Makka Time, 17:49 GMT

The Israeli-Hezbollah conflict threatens to drag Syria, Iran and the US into a regional war.

As'ad AbuKhalil, author of Bin Laden, Islam, and America's New 'War on Terrorism' as well as The Battle for Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power, believes the recent violence is a symptom of an international conspiracy under way to enforce UN resolution 1559, which calls for the disarmament of militia groups in Lebanon - a reference to Hezbollah.

A professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus, and visiting professor at the University of California at Berkeley, AbuKhalil just returned from Lebanon. He also maintains the Angry Arab blogsite (http://angryarab.blogspot.com/ ).
-----------
Aljazeera.net: Israel says its assault on Lebanon is in self-defence against Hezbollah's Katyusha rocket attacks and the capture of two of its soldiers.

Hezbollah says southern Lebanon has long been an area of conflict with Israel occupying Lebanese land and that it wants indirect negotiations to secure the release of its prisoners in Israeli jails. How did the situation deteriorate so rapidly and so violently?

As'ad AbuKhalil: This particular conflict, and Israel's act of aggression on Lebanon, did not take place in a vacuum, and Israel did not act in some spontaneous fashion.

Hezbollah did not surprise Israel with the capture of the two Israeli occupation soldiers. Hezbollah leader Hasan Nasrallah has repeatedly warned that if Israel does not release its Lebanese prisoners, he will be compelled to take Israeli soldiers as bargaining chips.

And Israel has not been sitting idly by since its partial withdrawal from South Lebanon in 2000. It has not only continued to occupy parts of South Lebanon, but also has been violating Lebanese sovereignty, by air, sea, and land.

Israel has also been kidnapping innocent Lebanese citizens: fishermen and shepherds. And one fisherman from Tyre - my hometown - is still missing, and at least one shepherd was killed last year.

Furthermore, Israel has adamantly refused to give to Lebanon a map of the more than 400,000 land mines that it left behind in South Lebanon, and which continue to kill Lebanese children in the region.

The recent crisis, as the article in the Washington Post by Robin Wright pointed out yesterday, is an international/regional conspiracy to implement United Nations Security Council resolution 1559.

The groundwork for this aggression began with the work of Rafiq al-Hariri [the slain former Lebanese prime minister] in 2004, when he worked with the US and France to pass that resolution in the Security Council.

The plan has the full support of Israel and client Arab regimes of the US: Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Egypt. But it will not work, and Hezbollah will not lay down its arms.

If the Lebanese government, led by the Hariri camp, thinks that it can now convince Hezbollah to lay down its arms and to trust the Lebanese Army - which has been sitting idly over the last week - to take care of Lebanon's defence, it is wildly mistaken.

Al Jazeera: What are Israel's goals? What are Hezbollah's goals?

I think that Israel often acts in revenge. The Zionist movement is a vengeful movement; it always has been.

read the rest at Al Jazeera

From the new York Times

THE CONFLICT
Marines Return to Beirut to Aid U.S. Evacuation

By JAD MOUAWAD and STEVEN ERLANGER
Published: July 21, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 20 — United States marines landed in Beirut on Thursday for the first time in more than 20 years to help evacuate Americans from Lebanon, as Israeli officials suggested that Israeli ground troops might take a more active role in combating the Hezbollah militia. There were also more strong condemnations of Israel’s heavy use of force in Lebanon.

With the fighting continuing for a ninth day, fierce clashes erupted between Israeli troops and Hezbollah fighters inside Lebanon. Hundreds of Israeli troops were trying to destroy Hezbollah outposts and storage facilities, Israeli Army officials said.

Two Israeli soldiers and a Hezbollah fighter were killed late Wednesday as Israel discovered a warren of storage rooms, bunkers and tunnels. The death toll in Lebanon for the nine days passed 300; the vast majority were said to be civilians.

On Thursday evening, two Israeli soldiers were killed and three others wounded in further fighting. At least two Hezbollah fighters were believed to have been killed.

The Israeli defense minister, Amir Peretz, visiting northern towns hit by scores of Hezbollah rockets, hinted at a broader ground operation. “We have no intention of occupying Lebanon, but we also have no intention of retreating from any military measures needed,” he said. “Hezbollah must not think that we would recoil from using all kinds of military measures against it.”

-------------------

Gus would like to suggest that — as Israel may be getting bogged down in Southern Lebanon despite the bombing of the whole country — the next move may be for a few, (oh, not so many), US "advisors" to help Israel (as if the US weren't supplying Israel with satellite maps of the region to the centimetre resolution with updates every hour) —to help the balance tip in favour of our good Jewish friends... Then, a small US contingent will strut its fare under the guise of more strategic "help" until the public, within a month or so. gets used to the idea of US troops doing some real fighting over-there... And by then an entire US battalion would do the clean up operations...

Of course the US troops would stay for another 20 years to "maintain the peace.."

Halliburton (or its replacement — probably Hal under a new banner) would be contracted to coordinate the rebuilding of highways and buildings at an inflated price (market price, you know, if you want things done, no matter what)... meanwhile Hizbollah survives and becomes the leading political party in Lebanon...

So some Christians and some Jews will be disappointed that this is not the start of the big judgement day... Yes these are hoping the world is coming to an end with "good" fighting "evil", while the war over-there is only due to a pair of thugs trying to protect their patch, at the expense of the landlord.

No, we won't see Christ's second coming for the Christians nor his first appearance for the Jews... Just senseless death and explosion galore carrying the smell of gunpowder, not yet the smell of hellfire... although for some poor bombed bastards, it may appear that way...

From the BBC

Last Updated: Friday, 21 July 2006, 07:48 GMT 08:48 UK

Israeli air force pounds Beirut

Israel is continuing its Lebanon military offensive, bombing more than 40 targets, mainly in southern Beirut, in the early hours of Friday.
Troops are also fighting Hezbollah militants inside the Lebanese border.
The Israeli army says four of its soldiers were killed and several others hurt in those clashes, but that there were also Hezbollah casualties.
Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah has appeared on TV, saying Israel has not dented the group's capabilities.
'Ambulances targeted'

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said the number of Lebanese killed in the 10 days of violence was more than 33

In an interview with CNN he said that more than 55 bridges had been destroyed, and that Israeli forces had also targeted ambulances and medical convoys.
"This attack is no longer against Hezbollah, it is an attack against the Lebanese and Lebanon," he said

------------------

Gus: It seems obvious that Israel is trying to get a violent reaction from other Arab states... Then it will serve its full power including nukes should some Arab nation come to the rescue of Lebanon... The rest is history of the future...

From Al Jazeera

Israelis against the war

By Rob Winder in Tel Aviv

Thursday 20 July 2006, 7:45 Makka Time, 4:45 GMT

An overwhelming majority of Israelis support their country's assault on Lebanon, opinion polls suggest, but despite the clamour for military action, voices of dissent continue to be heard.

Arab-Israelis, many of whom live in northern areas under threat from Hezbollah rocket attacks, are some of the strongest critics of Israeli airstrikes that have left at least 270 Lebanese dead.
"We are very concerned about what is happening," said Hassan Jabareen of Adalah - a body that campaigns for the legal rights of Arab-Israelis.

"I live in Haifa - but Haifa is a paradise compared to what is happening in Lebanon.

"This government has one policy - no negotiations - and if you have this policy then there is no room for diplomacy."

Discrimination

Arab-Israelis - or Palestinian citizens of Israel - make up 20 per cent of the population yet have long complained of state-sanctioned discrimination against their people.

Some Arab-Israelis have said this week, that even while under rocket attack, they have not been given the same access to bomb shelters and information as Jewish Israelis.

Mainstream Jewish Israeli parties such as Ysrael Beytenu regularly call for their mass expulsion from Israel.

Last week, the Knesset passed a law - believed to be aimed at Arab parliamentarians - allowing the expulsion of any "disloyal" member who "supports terror organisations".
And on Wednesday, the Israeli interior minister, Roni Bar-on, described Jamal Zahalkha, an Arab-Israeli parliamentarian, as "a snake born to a snake" after he criticised the government's actions in Lebanon.

"I'd be happy if you would join some of your friends in Lebanon to enjoy what they are enjoying now," he said in comments reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
----------------

From Al jazeera

Lebanese question world's silence
By Christian Henderson in Beirut

Wednesday 19 July 2006, 16:12 Makka Time, 13:12 GMT

The Lebanese army is unable to rein in Hezbollah

Many Lebanese say the failure of the international community to resolve the crisis in their country is worsening the situation.

They fear the escalation has become a zero-sum game that will get worse unless pressure is put on both sides, but so far there is no sign that intervention will come.

Amal Saad-Ghoreyeb, author of Hizbu'llah: Politics and Religion told Aljazeera.net that "The international community is doing very little to end the conflict. If you look at the G8 and the UN Security Council none of the members have the inclination to call for a ceasefire.

"I don't think any of these parties have much clout to put pressure on Israel to end the onslaught apart from the US, and there is an absence of resolve on the behalf of the US to pursue any ceasefire," she said.

Many in Lebanon were puzzled by Monday's proposal by the UN secretary-general and the British prime minister to send an international force to the country as there has been a UN force on the border with Israel since 1978.

-------------------

Gus: Someone has to invite George "I'm a War-President" to impeach himself for being a stupid leader of the world — his latest imbecility being to allow Israel "one week" to pulverise Lebanon into the ground. You never know: it might work...

From the BBC site

It takes true courage to wage peace, and not one leader in all of mid-east... or anywhere else has that courage.
Jared, US

 On a day when the Middle East is descending into total chaos, CROO (Current Resident Oval Office) is cracking lame ass jokes. First it was profanity, then groaping, and now....... sliced pig?

 

A Pig on Pigs

 

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation. ~~ Marian Wright Edelman

From Al Jazeera

Saudi king warns of Middle East war

Tuesday 25 July 2006, 17:06 Makka Time, 14:06 GMT

The king of Saudi Arabia has warned that war could break out in the Middle East if attempts to broker peace in the region fail.

In a statement read out on state television on Tuesday, King Abdullah said, "If the option of peace fails as a result of Israeli arrogance, then the only option remaining will be war, and God alone knows what the region would witness in a conflict that would spare no one."

The king appealed to the world to stop Israeli attacks on Lebanon, and also pledged to donate over $1.5 billion to the country, according to the statement by the royal court.

The king has assigned $500 million for the reconstruction of Lebanon, and $1 billion to be deposited in Lebanon's central bank to support the economy.

He said that the Saudi government had been trying to bring a halt to the violence since it began on July 12

----------------

Gus: Hopefully the Saudis won't have to cut supplies like in the early 1970s...

 

When other countries such as NK or Pakistan or Cuba or which ever dictators step over the line the US draws in the sand, the rest of the world is called on to impose sanctions, to quit selling goods to that country even if it means the children starve. It is time for these same sanctions to be imposed on the United States as the instigator of the horror that is Iraq, and on Israel. Let the two of them try to keep each other fed.

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation. ~~ Marian Wright Edelman

When I drew the cartoon that heads this line of blog on July 20, 2006, I thought the response by the world leaders to the escalating war that Israel had started on July 14 against Lebanon, was pathetic then...
Israel response — to the kidnap of two of its soldiers as a trade off for some Hizbollah prisoners that Israel had herself taken — was far too bloody, and as in most instances such as this, innocents would die...
So far the scale of the confrontation has nearly destroyed Lebanon, displaced nearly one million people, killed at least 1,000 civilians, not counting those below rubble, and yet the UN is still contemplating its US constipated bowels and UK navel... So fat this talkfeist, cease-fire lukewarm by some but stymied by the US and the UK has achieved zilch except that the UN pushes the most unrealistic demands to achieve peace, conditions already rejected by Lebanon's moderate government.
In fact the delay in coming to a "traditional" cease-fire, (if one can call such things traditional) in which both parties stop firing, then talk and come to an agreement, has been create by the desire of the US and the UK to see Israel wipe Hizbollah out of the landscape before a cease-fire so the balance of an agreement would be strongly in favour of Israel.
Yes, the US want Hizbollah blown to smithereens! Yet no matter how cute the hairdo of Ms Rice is, she's deluded in her most intimate body part if she thinks an unbalanced cease-fire is acceptable. No Ms Rice.

" We're trying to deal with a problem that has been festering and brewing in Lebanon now for years and years and years, and so it's not going to be solved by one resolution in the Security Council. " [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/50DDDFD8-8322-456F-BED5-13A98C2FC82B.htm|Ms Rice says]...

No... Ms Rice. Like all simplistic views of history, this one takes the cake... The problem can be solved if the conditions for all are just and fair, and if one take the time to think and formulate better solutions. It may be difficult but not impossible... But her master Mr Bush unilateral support for Israel, and his little wars as "a War President" in Iraq and other places can only be met with strong and growing resistance by those who get the rough end of the pineapple of his chosen lies and desires as the "decider"...
The UN should and can do better... The resentment and vengeance growing for this lengthening conflict could last for the next ten decades... The UN present fly-in-a-jar-activity is more like standing still, feet nailed to the floor...
Yes I know, Mr Bolton, that wearing corduroy Hitlerian bovver boy of US politics, is rubbing his hands at the prospect of driving one more nail.
Today is the 7th of August... more than two weeks after I drew a cartoon I though was going to be proven wrong, quickly... But more people are killed. More are dying for nothing... even if Hizbollah is wiped out... so far an unlikely scenario.

Cease-fire NOW!

[http://www.guardian.co.uk/syria/story/0,,1838869,00.html|Lebanon rejects UN truce] proposal which it claims favours Israel

Oliver Burkeman in New York
Monday August 7, 2006
The Guardian

Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, piled pressure on Hizbullah to comply with a proposed United Nations call for a truce yesterday.
French and American diplomats at the security council overcame weeks of differences at the weekend to agree on a draft resolution, demanding a "full cessation of hostilities" but requiring Israel only to halt "offensive operations". A vote was expected today or tomorrow, but the plans met with immediate opposition from the speaker of Lebanon's parliament, along with Syria and Iran, Hizbullah's main backers in the region.

--------------
Gus: For the deal to be rejected by the innocent party the most hurt in this affair, it show that this deal is the most crooked, despicable concoction of bad will... We expect better from the UN. Cease-fire NOW!

From the New York Times

The Militia
A Disciplined Hezbollah Surprises Israel With Its Training, Tactics and Weapons

By STEVEN ERLANGER and RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr.
JERUSALEM, Aug. 6 — On Dec. 26, 2003, a powerful earthquake levelled most of Bam, in southeastern Iran, killing 35,000 people. Transport planes carrying aid poured in from everywhere, including Syria.
According to Israeli military intelligence, the planes returned to Syria carrying sophisticated weapons, including long-range Zelzal missiles, which the Syrians passed on to Hezbollah, the Shiite militia group in southern Lebanon that Iran created and sponsors.
As the Israeli Army struggles for a fourth week to defeat Hezbollah before a cease-fire, the shipments are just one indication of how — with the help of its main sponsors, Iran and Syria — the militia has sharply improved its arsenal and strategies in the six years since Israel abruptly ended its occupation of southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah is a militia trained like an army and equipped like a state, and its fighters “are nothing like Hamas or the Palestinians,” said a soldier who just returned from Lebanon. “They are trained and highly qualified,” he said, equipped with flak jackets, night-vision goggles, good communications and sometimes Israeli uniforms and ammunition. “All of us were kind of [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/07/world/middleeast/07hezbollah.html?ei=5094&en=f5a5acb4fe90c083&hp=&ex=1155009600&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print|surprised].”

-------------------

Surprised? says Gus... I cannot believe that the Israeli government did not have any idea about what it would find in Lebanon... I thought that was the reason Israel went for full on war... to flush out the "militants"... Anyway, Israel should have negotiated and the US helped for a better settlement for the region but no... The present administration support of Israel versus anyone else has the great potential to set the region ablaze... or push it into another more deadly unresolved "mission accomplished" chaos...

From The Independent
...
...So the great and the good on the East River laboured at the United Nations Security Council - and brought forth a lemon. You could almost hear the Lebanese groan at this draft resolution, a document of such bias and mendacity that a close [http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article1217413.ece|Lebanese friend] read carefully through it yesterday, cursed and uttered the immortal question: "Don't these bastards learn anything from history?"

 

Maybe it would be easier to learn from history were the truth recorded in the annals of history. Napoleon once said "History is lies agreed to by the victors", and those victors always spin like mad. 

 

On the other hand they could just not care, or be so bloody arrogant that they are convinced they can do it better than the last bloke. Either way is deadly.

 

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation. ~~ Marian Wright Edelman

Global Eye
Running Scared

By Chris Floyd
Published: August 4, 2006

Like a gang of twitchy hit men afraid they've botched the job, the Bush regime is creeping back to the scene of the crime: the Congressional backrooms where they thought they'd put the kibosh on the American Republic once and for all.

But it seems there is still a flicker of life in the victim, and thus a threat that the [http://context.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2006/08/04/120.html|gangsters] might have to pay the piper somewhere down the line. So they went back to the bagmen on Capitol Hill this week, ordering their minions to provide retroactive legal cover for the rank offenses committed by the big boys at the top when they devised their torture regimen -- in knowing, deliberate violation of the U.S. War Crimes Act, which was passed by acclamation in the Republican-led Congress in 1996, and toughened up the following year with the Pentagon's support, The Washington Post reports...

Australian Broadcasting Corporation
TV PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT
LOCATION: http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s1708873.htm
Broadcast: 07/08/2006
Professor George Joffe on the Middle East
Reporter: Tony Jones

TONY JONES: Well to discuss the international ramifications of the conflict in southern Lebanon and the Iranian connection we're joined now by Professor George Joffe. Professor Joffe is research fellow at the Centre for International Studies at Cambridge University specialising in the Middle East and North Africa, and he joins us from Cambridge.

TONY JONES: [http://www.abc.net.au/lateline/content/2006/s1708873.htm|The Americans have been lucky] up until now because the main Shiia religious figures are moderate and they distance themselves from Iran, but that could change fairly quickly if there's a civil war, could it not?

PROF GEORGE JOFFE: I have to say, I think the argument that this is linked into Shiia Islam is really a chimera. It takes away attention from the real problems of the region. They're all political in nature. In the case of Iraq it's to do with the process of governance. It's to do with the fact of the occupation and the consequences that has brought. In the case of Lebanon, it's to do with the question of occupation and the role played by Hezbollah as a form of national resistance, now supported it should be noted, by the Lebanese governments. Behind all that there is the political problem of the Palestinians and the Palestinian crisis that has now not been addressed properly for six decades. Now those things all come together. They reflect a series of political problems that if the West doesn't address them and address them very soon, will become part of a major confrontation and the terms of the confrontation at the moment are moving against Western interests...

read more at the abc

From the Independent

Toll of a war that [http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article1217588.ece|shames the world]

It is 28 days since Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers, prompting a ground and air assault on Lebanon by the Israeli army. In that time, 932 people have been killed in Lebanon, with 75 missing, presumed dead.

Published: 08 August 2006

29 Lebanese Army soldiers have been killed. 3,293 Lebanese have been wounded. 45 per cent of the casualties have been children. 913,000 Lebanese have been displaced (300,000 of whom are children). 94 Israelis have been killed and 1,867 wounded.

10,000 Israeli soldiers are currently fighting Hizbollah in southern Lebanon. 3,000 rockets have been fired at Israel by Hizbollah. The average number of rockets fired daily by Hizbollah in the first week of the conflict was 90. Over the past five days, it has been 169.
Israel has flown 8,700 bombing sorties, destroying 146 bridges and 72 roads. Damage caused to Lebanon's infrastructure is estimated at $2bn. Up to 30,000 tons of oil have spilled into the Mediterranean since an Israeli air strike on Jieh power station.

The international community (apart from Britain and the US [and Australia]) has called for an immediate ceasefire.
As yet, the number of UN resolutions: 0
----------------------
Gus: anti-Semitism? If Zionism means the destruction of Lebanon's infrastructure with the help of the US administration for a titbit reason — which in reality is the result as a reaction to Israel behaviour as a bully in the region — then the international community has no choice but presently condemn Israel for overuse of force... It is not Jew bashing, but political justice to do so. The Jews, the Christians, the Muslims can believe in what they want as long as they do not wage stupid wars as war always is... Israel as to come to term to live within its true borders and not pinch "territories" using settler's keeper's bad logic... and more often than most hypocritical use of previous UN resolutions...

In the above analysis of the damage done by Israel bombs in Lebanon, Gus, knowing the price of fish, can tell you the estimate of 2 billion dollars is way below the mark... By the time the whole mess is cleaned up, housing and infrastructure rebuild, the bill can reach up to 20 billion dollars in two second flat, and this without the helped of inflated Halliburton prices... If the conflict last another week, one can add another 20 billions on top of that... But look on the bright side if you are a builder in New Orleans: whoa! pick of the crop... Bring on the Aussie cement mixer trucks and Dubya's your dummy... He always was but I thought I'd bring him in...

Keep an eye on the cartoon leading this line of blogs, just in case I have to draw another one when the UN is waking up from its nightmare... : John Bolton as a huge ballon at a thanksgiving parade....

From the Guardian
...
... Since Israel's withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May 2000, there have been hundreds of violations of the "blue line" between the two countries. The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) reports that Israeli aircraft crossed the line "on an almost daily basis" between 2001 and 2003, and "persistently" until 2006. These incursions "caused great concern to the civilian population, particularly low-altitude flights that break the sound barrier over populated areas". On some occasions, Hizbullah tried to shoot them down with anti-aircraft guns.[http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,1839280,00.html|George Monbiot]
Tuesday August 8, 2006
Read more at The Guardian

Gaza doctors say patients suffering mystery injuries after Israeli attacks

Rory McCarthy in Gaza City
Tuesday October 17, 2006
The Guardian

Doctors in Gaza have reported previously unseen injuries from Israeli weapons that cause severe burning and deep internal wounds often resulting in amputations or death. The injuries were first seen in July, when the Israeli military launched a series of operations in Gaza following the capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants. Doctors said that, [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1924524,00.html|unlike traditional combat injuries from shells or bullets], there were no large shrapnel pieces found in the patients' bodies and there appeared to be a "dusting" on severely damaged internal organs.
Tissue samples from patients in Gaza were given to journalists from the Italian television channel RAI. In a documentary shown last week, the channel said the injuries appeared similar to the effects of the Dime. An Italian laboratory that analysed the samples reportedly said its results were "compatible with the hypothesis" that a Dime weapon was involved.
However, the Israel Defence Force (IDF) denies the use of Dime weapons
-------------------
Gus: the weapons used by Israel, whether they are Dime or not, create horrible disfiguring and flesh shredding unseen before... Pictures: [http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2006/10/11/italian-tv-exposes-experimental-idf-use-of-us-weapon-which-severs-and-burns-limbs-below-genitals/|DIME (Dense Inert Metal Explosive)]

[http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=13818|"GAZA. INEXPLICABLE WOUNDS AND NEW WEAPONS":DIME]

[http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=11879|a "focused lethality" weapon]
------------------
Gus: There seem to be countless "new" ways to kill people, but is there still only one old-fashioned way to love people?... unless this new weaponry is a way to love people to death? Uuurghhh....

Israel May Have Violated Arms Pact, U.S. Officials Say

By DAVID S. CLOUD and GREG MYRE
Published: January 28, 2007

WASHINGTON, Jan 27 — The Bush administration will inform Congress on Monday that Israel may have violated agreements with the United States when it fired American-supplied cluster munitions into southern Lebanon during its fight with Hezbollah last summer, the State Department said Saturday.

The finding, though preliminary, has prompted a contentious debate within the administration over whether the United States should penalize Israel for its use of cluster munitions against towns and villages where Hezbollah had placed its rocket launchers.

Cluster munitions are anti-personnel weapons that scatter tiny but deadly bomblets over a wide area. The grenadelike munitions, tens of thousands of which have been found in southern Lebanon, have caused 30 deaths and 180 injuries among civilians since the end of the war, according to the United Nations Mine Action Service