U.N. versus Israel

[Shammu]

U.N. envoy says Gaza siege breaks human rights law
05 Jul 2006 16:54:12 GMT
Source: Reuters
Israeli-Palestinian conflict


By Richard Waddington

GENEVA, July 5 (Reuters) - A U.N. human rights envoy accused Israel on Wednesday of violating the "most fundamental norms" of international human rights law with its siege of the Gaza Strip.

Israel's military action, launched after an Israeli soldier was kidnapped by Palestinian militants, was a "disproportionate use of force against civilians," said John Dugard, U.N. special rapporteur on human rights in the occupied Palestinian territory.

"It is clear that Israel is in violation of the most fundamental norms of humanitarian law and human rights law," Dugard said in an address to a special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council.

At the insistence of Arab and Muslim states, the newly formed council is holding a special session to debate their call for the U.N.'s top human rights forum to censure Israel and demand a halt to its military assault in Gaza.

A draft resolution from the 57-country Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) accuses Israel of arbitrarily arresting Palestinian leaders and of destroying bridges and water and power plants.

It also requests that Dugard lead an urgent mission to the region and report back "on the Israeli human rights violations."

A simple majority of the 47 members will be required on Thursday for adoption of the resolution, the first involving a single country to be presented to the Council since it replaced the discredited Human Rights Commission earlier this year.

U.S. ambassador to the U.N. in Geneva Warren Tichenor expressed "regret" at the resolution, saying it focused on only one side of the situation and made no mention of the "failure of the Palestinian Authority government to denounce terror".

Israel's ambassador Itzhak Levanon rejected the allegations and said the OIC's sole aim was to "villify" his country.

The current crisis was not provoked by Israel but by an attack by "Palestinian terrorist groups with the aim of sowing death", he said.

Israel quit Gaza last year after 38 years of occupation, but launched its offensive following the abduction of Corporal Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid from Gaza on June 25.

Dugard said people in Gaza were without water, food was scarce and medicines were running out. More than 1,500 rounds of artillery were showered on Gaza over the past week, while sonic booms terrorised the population, he said.

"Israel's conduct is morally indefensible," said the envoy who last visited the area in June and made his report at the request of the OIC.

U.N. envoy says Gaza siege breaks human rights law

[Shammu]

 UN: IDF Operation Violates Human Rights Law
18:15 Jul 06, '06 / 10 Tammuz 5766

(IsraelNN.com) Israel was accused of violating the international humanitarian law on Thursday in a 29-11 vote by the United Nations Human Rights Council.

The body condemned the IDF military operations in Gaza, Judea and Samaria, approving a resolution made by the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The resolution was amended prior to the vote to call upon the Palestinian Authority to refrain from violence against civilians.

There were five abstentions in the Council vote.

UN: IDF Operation Violates Human Rights Law

Abstentions (5): Cameroon, Mexico, Nigeria, Republic of Korea, and Switzerland.

[Shammu]

Qatar Circulates UN Draft Resolution Condemning Israel
   
UNITED NATIONS (AP)--Acting on behalf of Arab nations, Qatar circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution on Thursday demanding that Israel end its offensive in the Gaza Strip and release the Palestinian officials it has arrested.

The draft faced immediate opposition from the U.S. and France, which called it unbalanced in its criticism of Israel. France's ambassador said he would offer changes, but U.S. Ambassador John Bolton suggested that Washington opposed the resolution entirely.

That raised the possibility that the U.S., as a permanent member of the Security Council, would veto the resolution. It has done so in the past when it believed resolutions condemning Israeli action did not include criticism of Palestinian actions.

Experts from the 15 Security Council nations were to meet later Thursday to discuss the draft, but Bolton was not optimistic.

"I'm not sure there are amendments that we could propose that would make it into an acceptable resolution, but we want to attend this experts meeting at 3 today and see what comes of it," he said.
Israel launched the offensive last week in response to the capture of an Israeli soldier, 19-year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Earlier Thursday, Israeli troops seized empty Jewish settlements and pushed toward densely populated towns, killing at least 12 Palestinians. One Israeli soldier was killed, its first fatality in the offensive.

The resolution calls on Israel to "scrupulously abide by its obligations and responsibilities under the Geneva Convention," and expresses its "grave concern" about the dire humanitarian situation of the Palestinian people.

It demands that Israel "cease its aggression against the Palestinian civilian population" in Gaza, and also demands that Israel withdraw its forces immediately.

The document makes no mention of Shalit's kidnapping or of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel.
France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere said his nation would try to make the resolution more acceptable to the wider council.

"We think that this text needs to be balanced, it's not balanced enough and we will propose amendments," he said. "It requires, we think, a lot of work."

Qatar Circulates UN Draft Resolution Condemning Israel
===============================================

Looks like the United States is the only one not against Israel right now, thank you Ambassador John Bolton.

[Shammu]

UN urges Israel halt 'violations'
John Dugard, UN special rapporteur on human rights for the Palestinian territories The UN Human Rights Council has passed a resolution demanding a halt to Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Twenty-nine of the council's 47 member states backed the resolution, 11 voted against, five abstained and two members were absent.

The recently-formed council also said it would send a fact-finding mission to investigate the human rights situation in the Palestinian territories.

It will be led by John Dugard, a UN special rapporteur on human rights.

"[The council expresses] grave concern at the violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people caused by the Israeli occupation"
UN Human Rights Council

Israel, backed by the US and European countries, has accused the UN council of bias, because it did not also criticise violence perpetrated on the Palestinian side.

On Wednesday, Mr Dugard said Israel was violating the most fundamental norms of humanitarian and human rights law in its actions in Gaza.

Its military operation violated prohibitions on collective punishment, intimidation, while last week's arrest of officials from the governing Hamas movement appeared to constitute hostage-taking that was prohibited by the Geneva Conventions, Mr Dugard said.

"I am concerned with the law. And here it is clear that Israel is in violation of the most fundamental norms of humanitarian law and human rights law," he Mr Dugard said.

Council split

The resolution, which was brought by Islamic states, expressed "grave concern at the violations of the human rights of the Palestinian people caused by the Israeli occupation, including the current extensive Israeli military operations".

"A historic opportunity to address the human rights situation in a fair, equitable and balanced way has instead resulted in an unbalanced effort to single out and focus on Israel alone"
Warren Tichenor
US ambassador

The Council urged "Israel, the occupying power, to immediately release the arrested Palestinian ministers... and all other arrested Palestinian civilians".

The text also called "for a negotiated solution to the current crisis".

European Union member states on the council, including Britain, France and Germany, voted against the resolution.

Finland, speaking on behalf of the EU, took the floor to say that the situation needed to be addressed in a "more balanced manner".

'Opportunity missed'

The resolution did urge "all concerned parties to respect the rules of international humanitarian law and to refrain from violence against civilians".

This text was added at the last moment in an unsuccessful bid to placate European concerns about what they saw as a one-sided resolution, correspondents said.

The resolution went on to call on both sides to "treat under all circumstances all detained combatants and civilians in accordance with the Geneva Conventions".

The United States, which is only an observer at the Council, called the resolution a wasted opportunity.

"A historic opportunity to address the human rights situation in a fair, equitable and balanced way has instead resulted in an unbalanced effort to single out and focus on Israel alone," US Ambassador to the UN in Geneva Warren Tichenor said.

Israel's ambassador, Itzhak Levenon said: "We find ourselves in an absurd situation in which the Human Right Council convened into urgent session ignores the rights of one side and holds a special meeting to defend the rights of the other side".

However, the Palestinian representative, Muhammad Abu Koash called it a "very mild and diluted resolution".

"While we gather here in this hall, Israeli tanks are moving and shelling Palestinians, the office of our parliament has been besieged by Israeli troops," he told the Council.

UN urges Israel halt 'violations'

[Soldier4Christ]

Where is their statement to the Palestinians?

[Shammu]

Where is their statement to the Palestinians?

You know better then that brother, there never will be one. Specally since Russia Upper House Gives Putin Wider Powers To Hunt Down Terror Suspects Abroad Course you know Russia has in the past called Israel terrorist.

[Soldier4Christ]

You know better then that brother, there never will be one. Specally since Russia Upper House Gives Putin Wider Powers To Hunt Down Terror Suspects Abroad Course you know Russia has in the past called Israel terrorist.

You couldn't read the sarcasm in my post.   

[Shammu]

You couldn't read the sarcasm in my post.   

Wanna bet...................

I'm thinking about whats happened in Russia, with extra powers given to Putin.

[Shammu]

The Anti-Israel talking of the day.

The European Union accuses Israel of “disproportionate force.”

The European Union accused Israel on Friday of a disproportionate use of force against Palestinians in Gaza and of making a humanitarian crisis there worse.

It was the first time the 25-nation bloc had made such a sharp criticism of the Jewish state in the crisis triggered by the abduction of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit from a border post by Palestinian Islamic militants on June 25.

“The EU condemns the loss of lives caused by disproportionate use of force by the Israeli Defense Forces and the humanitarian crisis it has aggravated,” Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, whose country holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said in a statement on a visit to St Petersburg.

Kofi Annan accuses Israel of “disproportionate force.”

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) - UN chief Kofi Annan called for an immediate stop to what he called Israel’s “disproportionate use of force” in Gaza but also pressed for the release of an Israeli soldier snatched by Palestinian militants.

“I call again for an immediate halt to the disproportionate use of force by Israel, which has already killed and wounded many civilians, for the release of Israeli army corporal Gilad Shalit and for the cessation of rocket fire into Israel,” he said in a statement issued in Berlin and released here.

Meanwhile, Corporal Gilad Shalit is still at the mercy of terrorists who may kill him at any time. And the rockets keep falling.

On Friday, numerous Kassams were launched into the western Negev, falling near several kibbutzim, including Sa’ad, Nahal Oz, Gevim and the southern development town of Netivot. The total number of Kassam rockets that hit Israel on Friday was 17, Army Radio reported.

Now the Russian upper house has given Putin wider powers to hunt down terrorist.  Russia has called Israel terrorist in the past, I'd bet you she calls Israel terrorist again soon. When that happens, I'd be looking up, if I was you.

[Soldier4Christ]

When that happens, I'd be looking up, if I was you.

I already am.

[Shammu]

Annan urges Security Council to take stand on Gaza incursion
By The Associated Press

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the UN Security Council on Friday to take a stand on Israel's violent standoff with Hamas, as diplomats continued to grapple with a draft resolution proposed by Qatar.

In his statement, Annan again appealed to Israel and the Palestinians to "pull back from the brink for the sake of all civilians in the region."

He called on Israel to halt what he said was the disproportionate use of force, demanded Shalit's release, and reminded both sides of their humanitarian obligation to spare civilians from violence.

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The council has been stymied because several council members rejected a draft that would have condemned Israel's offensive. They said it was unfairly critical of the Israelis and did not mention Palestinian abuses.

On Thursday, Qatar circulated a draft resolution demanding that Israel end the offensive in the Gaza Strip and release the Palestinian officials it has arrested.

It faced immediate opposition from the United States and France. On Friday, a UN diplomat said the draft only had the support of one or two members of the 15-nation council, and Qatar was reworking it. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss details of the text.

Annan urges Security Council to take stand on Gaza incursion

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Annan warning on Gaza 'disaster'
A boy climbs amid the wreckage of his damaged home in Beit Lahiya UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has demanded that Israel take urgent action to prevent a humanitarian disaster in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli jets continued to pound Gaza targets on Sunday in operations aimed at securing the release of a soldier captured by Palestinian militants.

A Palestinian rocket hit the Israeli town of Sderot, injuring one man.

Mr Annan called on Israel to restore supplies of food and fuel and to repair a power plant hit in an air strike.

Blunt statements

Mr Annan urged Israel to lift restrictions on the movement of basic goods such as foodstuffs into Gaza.

Israeli tanks

He said UN agencies must be allowed to work in the region.

Israel has rejected a call by the head of the Hamas-led Palestinian government for a ceasefire.

Mr Annan's statement was his second in as many days about the situation in Gaza.

The BBC's Richard Galpin at the UN in New York says Mr Annan is clearly becoming increasingly alarmed by what is happening and is becoming increasingly blunt in his statements.

Mr Annan said the strike on the region's only power station had affected hospitals, water and sanitation plants, as well as food production.

In a separate statement, UN agencies including the World Health Organization, Unicef and the World Food Programme said Gaza was on the brink of a public health disaster.

They said there were water shortages and the situation at the sewage plants was now critical.

The WHO said hospitals and health centres - which are having to use their own generators for electricity - have at most two weeks' supply of fuel.

Ceasefire rejected

Earlier, Israel rejected a call by the head of the Hamas-led Palestinian government, Ismail Haniya, for all parties to restore calm through a mutual cessation of hostilities.

Officials in the Israeli PM's office said there would be no truce until the captured Israeli soldier, Cpl Gilad Shalit, was freed.

Hamas has confirmed that Cpl Shalit, 19, is alive and is being treated well and humanely.

Israel on Saturday said its troops had left their positions in northern Gaza.

But air strikes continued on Sunday.

Israel bombed a bridge in northern Gaza, saying it wanted to stop militants transporting rockets to launch sites.

Israeli aircraft also carried out early morning raids near the Karni commercial crossing with Gaza, injuring at least three militants.

Meanwhile, the Israeli army said Palestinian militants had fired a rocket from the north of Gaza into the Israeli town of Siderot, injuring one Israeli.

Heavy casualties

Dozens of Palestinians and an Israeli have died since Israel launched an offensive on 28 June to secure the release of Cpl Shalit.

Most of the Palestinians who have been killed were militants.

But Palestinian sources said a six-year-old girl, her 20-year-old brother and their mother died in an air strike on a house just east of Gaza City on Saturday.

Witnesses said an Israeli missile hit the house. Israel said its inquiry was continuing but it did not believe it was responsible for the incident.

Israeli forces remain in the south of the territory, as well as east of Gaza City.

Israel's incursion into Gaza is its biggest military operation there since it ended its 38-year occupation nine months ago.

Annan warning on Gaza 'disaster'

[Shammu]

'United Nations killed my son'
Terror victims' families blame global body for kickbacks that funded suicide attacks
Posted: July 11, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

By Aaron Klein
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com

JERUSALEM – The United Nations bears responsibility for the murder of Israeli civilians killed in the past few years by Palestinian suicide bombers, families of terror victims here said.

"The U.N. is partly responsible for the death of my son," said Miri Avitan, whose son Assaf was killed in Jerusalem by a Palestinian suicide bomber in December 2001.

"Money that was meant for the Iraqi [people] got to Saddam and he wrote a check to reward the murderers of my kid," Avitan said.

Avitan was one of several family members of Israeli terror victims to blame the U.N. for revenues from its oil-for-food program kicked back to deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein and funneled by Hussein to Palestinian terror organizations.

The family members made their statements in a recently released book, "The U.N. Exposed: How the United Nations Sabotages America's Security and Fails the World" by the Fox News Channel's Eric Shawn.

Shawn documents how some of the $10 billion obtained illegally by Hussein as part of the oil-for-food program between 1997 and 2002 was used to fund families of Palestinians suicide bombers.

Israel has said the aid received from Hussein provided major financial motivation to underprivileged teenagers who could help their cash-strapped families with the large payments that would be issued upon completion of a suicide mission.

The U.N. Security Council launched the oil-for-food program in 1996 so Iraq could raise funds for food, medicine and other humanitarian goods in spite of sanctions against the Hussein regime.

Iraq sold more than $67 billion worth of oil before the program was ended by the U.S. invasion in 2003.

According to the rules outlined by the Security Council, Iraq was allowed to choose its own suppliers and oil traders. Under the program, the Security Council established a separate committee made up of member states, the so-called "661 Committee," to approve all contracts issued by the Iraqi government.

The General Accounting Office, the auditing arm of the U.S. Congress, reported Hussein illegally diverted and sold goods intended for the Iraqi population.

Shawn writes the House International Relations Committee revealed the Hussein regime deposited the diverted funds from oil-for-food kickbacks in the Rafidain bank and other financial institutions in Amman, Jordan. The money was then transferred to another account controlled by the Iraqi ambassador to Jordan, Sabeh Yaseen.

Investigators say Yaseen and other Iraqi officials then cut checks from the accounts to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers to honor and encourage the murder of Israeli civilians.

Over a two-and-a-half year period, from September 2000 to just before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq began in March 2003, Hussein officials held public ceremonies in which they shelled out $35 million for the families of Palestinian "martyrs."

According to documents captured in 2002 by Israel's Operation Defensive Shield, Hussein set up an "Arab Liberation Front" – a Ba'ath party department in the Palestinian areas used to encourage terrorism and issue checks, usually through the Palestine Investment Bank, to the families of suicide bombers.

The payments were $15,000 at the start of the intifada, and were later raised to $25,000.

Hussein would also issue checks of $10,000 to the families of "ordinary" Palestinians killed in the intifada by other means, such as "through the aggression of the Zionist army."

Along with the checks came the martyrdom certificates, signed by Hussein, that read: "A gift from President Saddam Hussein to the family of a martyr in the al-Aqsa intifada. To those who irrigate the land with their blood. You deserve the honor you will receive from Allah and you will defeat all who bow before your will."

A $25,000 check and martyrdom certificate, for example, was transferred June 23, 2002, to Khaldiya Isma'il Abd Al-Aziz Al-Hurani, mother of the Hamas terrorist Fuad Isma'il Ahmad Al-Hurani, who carried out a suicide attack on March 19 of that year in Jerusalem's Moment Cafe. Eleven Israelis were killed and 16 wounded in the attack.

Checks for $15,000 each were given along with the martyrdom certificates to the families of Hamas suicide terrorists who blew themselves up in Zion Square in Jerusalem Dec. 1, 2001.

Among the victims of the Zion Square suicide attack was 15-year old Assaf Avitan.

Avitan had joined his friends to celebrate the 16th birthday of twins from his Jerusalem neighborhood. He was accompanied by his friend, 15-year-old Golan Turgeman, and was standing on a sidewalk near Zion Square when two Palestinian suicide bombers blew themselves up, killing both teenagers and nine others. A car bomb exploded 20 minutes later, intending to kill and maim the police and paramedics who responded to the carnage.

"[The checks from Hussein enabled by the U.N.] helped enforce the culture of terrorism," Avitan's mother Miri said in "The U.N. Exposed." "It makes me furious."

Writes Shawn, "The U.N. Security Council paid for the bombings. It contributed to the murders of Assaf and Golan and the nine other victims that night. The Security Council also provided the ability to massacre hundreds more who have fallen victim to Palestinian terrorism."

[Shammu]

Israel to UN: We'll do everything necessary to free our soldiers
By Gideon Alon, Aluf Benn, Amos Harel and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents and Haaretz Service

Israel has complained to the United Nations that Lebanon should be held responsible after Hezbollah guerrillas seized two Israel Defense Forces soldiers, its UN ambassador said on Wednesday.

The government has filed a complaint with the UN Security Council and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan saying that taking the soldiers was an act of war against Israel by Lebanon, Ambassador Dan Gillerman told reporters.

The complaint urges the international community to enforce council resolutions calling on the Lebanese government to disarm all militias within its borders and to extend its authority throughout its territory and specifically to southern Lebanon and its shared border with Israel, he said.

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There was no Israeli call at this time for an emergency meeting of the 15-nation Security Council or any other specific council action, Gillerman said.

Asked if Israel might now invade Lebanon, he responded that it would "react in every way it deems necessary" to obtain the soldiers' release and protect its border and its people.

While the government of Lebanon was the responsible party to be dealt with, "one cannot disregard the bloodstained fingerprints and the twisted minds of Iran and Syria, who are the main perpetrators, harborers, financiers and initiators of terror in this world," he added. Both countries are widely believed to support Hezbollah.

"This axis of terror must be stopped," Gillerman said. Iran, Syria and Hezbollah were threatening not only Israel's northern border "but the whole region and the world," including moderate Arab states, he said.

Gillerman spoke as the Security Council met in closed session to weigh a resolution put forward by Qatar, its sole Arab member, condemning a two-week IDF incursion in Gaza.

That draft measure would demand the unconditional release of an Israeli soldier captured earlier as well as Israel's immediate withdrawal from Gaza and the release of dozens of Palestinian officials detained by Israel.

Palestinian UN Observer Riyad Mansour said the council should view the Gaza incursion as a separate matter from the situation along the Israeli-Lebanese border. He said it should act quickly due to the deaths of more Palestinian civilians.

But John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said Washington, Israel's closest ally, saw no need at this point for such a resolution. "We don't see anything productive coming from it," he told reporters.

PM Olmert calls Hezbollah border attack an 'act of war'
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday declared that Hezbollah's attack on the northern border earlier in the day, during which two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were kidnapped, was "an act of war."

The two were captured as rockets were fired at northern towns, during residents took to their bomb shelters.

Olmert, who was to hold an emergency cabinet meeting later Wednesday, said the attack was not an act of terror but an attack by a sovereign state on Israel.

He said that Israel held the Lebanese government responsible for the attack, vowing that the Israeli response "will be restrained, but very, very, very painful."

Defense Minister Amir Peretz also said that the responsibility for the sharp escalation on Israel's northern border lies with the Lebanese government.

Senior Israel Defense Forces officers said Wednesday that "if the abducted soldiers are not returned we'll turn Lebanon's clock back 20 years."

The IDF held a buffer zone in southern Lebanon for 18 years, from the outbreak of the Lebanon War in 1982 until the withdrawal of its last troops in May 2000.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt. General Dan Halutz said that the abduction is a turning point in the region, and that the Lebanese government is responsible for the crisis.

NRP-National Union to join national emergency government
The National Union-National Religious Party announced Wednesday it would join a national emergency government with no preconditions and without receiving cabinet portfolios.

The leaders of the two parties said that as long as the security situation continues, they would support the government from outside. MK Avigdor Lieberman said: "In times like these there is no opposition and no coalition, we are one people, committed to restoring security for
Israel's citizens."

At the Knesset, rightist legislators called on the government to declare war in response to the abduction. Former Knesset speaker MK Reuven Rivlin (Likud) said "we cannot move on without responding after such an incident."

"We must come to grips with the fact that we are at war and act accordingly," he said.

MK Ariyeh Eldad (National Union-National Religious Party) said that the abduction of soldiers in the north and that of the soldier on the Gaza Strip border prove there is no escape from facing terrorism.

"Terror can only be stopped by going out to war in the north and in the Gaza Strip and destroying terror organizations," he said.

Likud faction chairman MK Gideon Sa'ar said "only very aggressive moves would rehabilitate Israel's weakened deterrence and the Likud will support such moves, if they are made."

MK Effi Eitam (NU-NRP) called on Peretz to resign. According to Eitam, all the warnings against fleeing from southern Lebanon and the Gaza Strip have materialized.

"There is no other choice. War has been forced upon us, we must go out to war and break the siege of terror. We must carry out a response that would rock Lebanon and the Hamas government," Eitam said.

MK Avshalom Vilan of the leftist Meretz party said "something disconcerting is happening at the defense establishment. Events are recurring and the Israel Defense Forces is not finding the appropriate remedies."

Hamas: Capture of two more soldier strengthens our position
The spokesman of Hamas in Lebanon, Osama Hamdan, said Hezbollah's seizure of two soldiers in a raid Wednesday strengthens the position of the Hamas as a whole, which captured an Israel soldier on June 25.

"We have proven to this enemy (Israel) that the one option is the release of Palestinian, Lebanese and Arab captives. All captives, without exception," Hamdan told Al-Jazeera television.

"What happened has strengthed the issue of the captives, and the enemy will submit to our choice, which is the exchange of the captives in return for the release of the soldiers," he said.

Hamdan did not say whether Hamas had consulted with Hezbollah over Wednesday's seizure. But he said they may be subsequent "coordination and an understanding" between the two groups, suggesting they might coordinate their demands.

Israel has carried out several prisoner swaps with Hezbollah in the past to obtain freedom for captured Israelis. In January 2004 swap, an Israeli civilian and the bodies of three IDF soldiers killed by Hezbollah were exchanged for 436 Arab prisoners and the bodies of 59 Lebanese fighters.

In 1985, three IDF soldiers captured in Lebanon in 1982 were traded for 1,150 Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners.

Israel to UN: We'll do everything necessary to free our soldiers

[airIam2worship]

The Anti-Israel talking of the day.

The European Union accuses Israel of “disproportionate force.”
Kofi Annan accuses Israel of “disproportionate force.”
Meanwhile, Corporal Gilad Shalit is still at the mercy of terrorists who may kill him at any time. And the rockets keep falling.
Now the Russian upper house has given Putin wider powers to hunt down terrorist.  Russia has called Israel terrorist in the past, I'd bet you she calls Israel terrorist again soon. When that happens, I'd be looking up, if I was you.

Oh if only these people knew exactly who they are comming up against.
Boy are they in for a big surprise. They will find themselves fighting against the Almighty Lord of Lords and King of Kings.