Biblical countries, in the news.

[Shammu]

Dump Condi: Foreign policy conservatives charge State Dept. has hijacked Bush agenda

Conservative national security allies of President Bush are in revolt against Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying that she is incompetent and has reversed the administration’s national security and foreign policy agenda.

The conservatives, who include Newt Gingrich, Richard Perle and leading current and former members of the Pentagon and National Security Council, have urged the president to transfer Miss Rice out of the State Department and to an advisory role. They said Miss Rice, stemming from her lack of understanding of the Middle East, has misled the president on Iran and the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"The president has yet to understand that people make policy and not the other way around," a senior national security policy analyst said. "Unlike [former Secretary of State Colin] Powell, Condi is loyal to the president. She is just incompetent on most foreign policy issues."

The criticism of Miss Rice has been intense and comes from a range of Republican loyalists, including current and former aides in the Defense Department and the office of Vice President Dick Cheney. They have warned that Iran has been exploiting Miss Rice's inexperience and incompetence to accelerate its nuclear weapons program. They expect a collapse of her policy over the next few months.

"We are sending signals today that no matter how much you provoke us, no matter how viciously you describe things in public, no matter how many things you're doing with missiles and nuclear weapons, the most you'll get out of us is talk," former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said.

Miss Rice served as Mr. Bush's national security adviser in his first term. During his second term, Miss Rice replaced Mr. Powell in the wake of a conclusion by the White House that Mr. Bush required a loyalist to head the State Department and ensure that U.S. foreign policy reflected the president's agenda.

"Condi was sent to rein in the State Department," a senior Republican congressional staffer said. "Instead, she was reined in."

Mr. Gingrich agrees and said Miss Rice's inexperience and lack of resolve were demonstrated in the aftermath of the North Korean launch of seven short-, medium-, and intermediate-range missiles in July. He suggested that Miss Rice was a key factor in the lack of a firm U.S. response.

"North Korea firing missiles," Mr. Gingrich said. "You say there will be consequences. There are none. We are in the early stages of World War III. Our bureaucracies are not responding fast enough. We don't have the right attitude."

Several of the critics have urged that Mr. Bush provide a high-profile post to James Baker, who was secretary of state under the administration of Mr. Bush's father. They cited Mr. Baker's determination to confront Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein in 1990.

A leading public critic of Miss Rice has been Richard Perle, a former chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board and regarded as close to Mr. Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Mr. Perle, pointing to the effort by the State Department to undermine the Reagan administration’s policy toward the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, has accused Miss Rice of succumbing to a long-time State Department agenda of meaningless agreements meant to appease enemies of the United States.

"Condoleezza Rice has moved from the White House to Foggy Bottom, a mere mile or so away," Mr. Perle wrote in a June 25 Op-Ed article in the Washington Post that has been distributed throughout conservative and national security circles. "What matters is not that she is further removed from the Oval Office; Rice's influence on the president is undiminished. It is, rather, that she is now in the midst of—and increasingly represents—a diplomatic establishment that is driven to accommodate its allies even when (or, it seems, especially when) such allies counsel the appeasement of our adversaries."

Mr. Perle's article was said to have reflected the views of many of Mr. Bush's appointees in the White House, Defense Department and State Department. Mr. Perle maintains close contacts to U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control Robert Joseph, Deputy National Security Advisor Elliot Abrams and Mr. Cheney's national security adviser, John Hannah.

A major problem, critics said, is Miss Rice's ignorance of the Middle East. They said the secretary relies completely on Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns, who is largely regarded as the architect of U.S. foreign policy. Miss Rice also consults regularly with her supporters on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Chairman Richard Lugar and the No. 2 Republican, Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska.

The critics said Miss Rice has adopted the approach of Mr. Burns and the State Department bureaucracy that most—if not all—problems in the Middle East can be eased by applying pressure on Israel. They said even as Hezbollah was raining rockets on Israeli cities and communities, Miss Rice was on the phone nearly every day demanding that the Israeli government of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert exercise restraint.

"Rice attempted to increase pressure on Israel to stand down and to demonstrate restraint," said Stephen Clemons, director of the American Strategy Program at the New America Foundation. "The rumor is that she was told flatly by the prime minister's office to back off."

The critics within the administration expect a backlash against Miss Rice that could lead to her transfer in wake of the congressional elections in 2006. They said by that time even Mr. Bush will recognize the failure of relying solely on diplomacy in the face of Iran's nuclear weapons program.

"At that point, Rice will be openly blamed and Bush will have a very hard time defending her," said a GOP source with close ties to the administration.

Dump Condi: Foreign policy conservatives charge State Dept. has hijacked Bush agenda

[Shammu]

Norway 'Nazi cartoon' irks Israel
map
Israel's ambassador to Norway has complained to press regulators about a cartoon showing Israeli PM Ehud Olmert as a Nazi concentration camp commander.

Miryam Shomrat told the BBC the caricature in Oslo's Dagbladet newspaper went beyond free speech.

Ms Shomrat said it would be open to prosecution in some European countries.

Dagbladet's editor said the caricature was "within the bounds of freedom of expression," according to Norway's NRK state broadcaster.

Ms Shomrat made the official complaint to the Norwegian Press Trade Committee following the publication of the cartoon on 10 July.

In an interview with the BBC's Europe Today, she said however that her protest could not be compared to the outcry in the Muslim world over the publication in a Danish newspaper of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

Lars Helle, Dagbladet's acting editor-in-chief, said the newspaper was taking the complaint seriously.

"But I do not fear that Dagbladet will be found guilty," Mr Helle told the NRK.

The cartoon shows Mr Olmert standing on a balcony in a prison camp.

He is holding a sniper's rifle and a dead man is seen lying on the ground.

The drawing clearly alluded to the Hollywood film Schindler's List, in which a sadistic Nazi commander shoots Jewish prisoners for fun, according to Dagbladet.

Norway 'Nazi cartoon' irks Israel

[Shammu]

US Blocks UN Council From Condemning Israel Strike On Post

UNITED NATIONS (AP)--The U.S. blocked the U.N. Security Council from issuing a statement that would have condemned Israel's bombing of a U.N. post on the Lebanon border that killed four military observers.

U.S. diplomats refused to comment and U.S. Ambassador John Bolton was in Washington preparing for a new confirmation hearing before the Senate. But several diplomats said the U.S. objected to one paragraph, which said the council "condemns any deliberate attack against U.N. personnel and emphasizes that such attacks are unacceptable."

Earlier Wednesday, Bolton had said that the thrust of a council statement should be to express regret, send condolences and support an investigation to find out exactly what happened - not "to make it a back door to get into other political and military questions."

After several hours of negotiations that ran late into the evening, the council gave up on a statement addressing the Tuesday bombing of the U.N. post and agreed to come back tomorrow.

As a last-ditch bid, China, which had sponsored the draft because a Chinese national was one of the four killed, proposed dropping the language entirely. But Qatari diplomats refused because they couldn't reach anyone back home to get permission to do so, the diplomats said. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they didn't want to speak on behalf of those nations.

US Blocks UN Council From Condemning Israel Strike On Post
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

What person would leave, personal in a war zone??  If anyone is to blame, it should be Kofi. 

[Shammu]

Iranian Volunteers Set Off for Lebanon

By BRIAN MURPHY
Associated Press Writer
Last Updated:July 26. 2006 4:59PM
Published: July 26. 2006 4:59PM

Surrounded by yellow Hezbollah flags, more than 60 Iranian volunteers set off Wednesday to join what they called a holy war against Israeli forces in Lebanon.

The group - ranging from teenagers to grandfathers - plans to join about 200 other volunteers on the way to the Turkish border, which they hope to cross Thursday. They plan to reach Lebanon via Syria over the weekend.

Iran says it will not send regular forces to aid Hezbollah, but apparently it will not attempt to stop volunteer guerrillas. Iran and Syria are Hezbollah's main sponsors.

Organizers said the volunteers were not carrying weapons, and it was not clear whether Turkey would let them pass.

A Turkish Foreign Ministry official, speaking on condition of anonymity, would not say Wednesday if they would be allowed to cross. Iranians, however, can enter Turkey without a visa and stay for three months.

"We are just the first wave of Islamic warriors from Iran," said Amir Jalilinejad, chairman of the Student Justice Movement, a nongovernment group that helped recruit the fighters. "More will come from here and other Muslim nations around the world. Hezbollah needs our help."

Military service is mandatory in Iran and nearly every man has at least some basic training. Some hard-liners have more extensive drills as members of the Basiji corps, a paramilitary network linked to the powerful Revolutionary Guard.

Other volunteers, such as 72-year-old Hasan Honavi, have combat experience from the 1980-88 war with Iraq.

"God made this decision for me," said Honavi, a grandfather and one of the oldest volunteers. "I still have fight left in me for a holy war."

The group, chanting and marching in military-style formation, assembled Wednesday in a part of Tehran's main cemetery that is reserved for war dead and other "martyrs."

They prayed on Persian carpets and linked hands, with their shoes and bags piled alongside. Few had any battle-type gear and some arrived in dress shoes or plastic sandals.

Some bowed before a memorial to Hezbollah-linked suicide bombers who carried out the 1983 blast at Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 U.S. servicemen. An almost simultaneous bombing killed 56 French peacekeepers.

Speakers praised Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and laid scorn on Muslim leaders - including their own government - for not sending battlefield assistance to Hezbollah since the fighting erupted two weeks ago.

Even if the volunteers fail to reach Lebanon, their mobilization is an example of how Iranians are rallying to Hezbollah through organizations outside official circles.

In Iraq, dozens of volunteers helped enlist Iraqis willing to fight along Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon at a Shiite party headquarters in the southern city of Basra. The party's Secretary General Yousif al Mousawi said about 200 people signed up within two hours on Wednesday night.

Iran insists it is not directly involved in the conflict on the military side, but it remains the group's key pipeline for funds. Iran has dismissed Israel's claims that Hezbollah has been supplied with upgraded Iranian missiles that have reached Haifa and other points across northern Israel.

"We cannot stand by and watch out Hezbollah brothers fight alone," said Komeil Baradaran, a 21-year-old Basiji member. "If we are to die in Lebanon, then we will go to heaven. It is our duty as Muslims to fight."  (I hate to burst their bubble, the only place they are going is hell..... DW)

Iranian Volunteers Set Off for Lebanon

[Shammu]

 American Public Backs Israel
08:04 Jul 27, '06 / 2 Av 5766

(IsraelNN.com) A newspaper survey reveals that 54 percent of the American public identify with Israel and only 11 percent with the Arabs in the Hizbullah terrorist war. Half of the respondents to the Wall Street Journal survey also said they back letting the United States supply Israel with weapons.

American President George W. Bush, whose popularity sunk to all-time lows before the war, received support for his handling of the crisis, with 45 per cent approving and 39 percent opposing his stance.

American Public Backs Israel

[Shammu]

A peace to end all peace
Evelyn Gordon, THE JERUSALEM POST    Jul. 26, 2006

David Fromkin's excellent study of the World War I peace settlement's effect on the Middle East was titled A peace to end all peace. That title would be equally apt for a proposal put forth by Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and France for ending the current round of fighting in Lebanon.

According to Haaretz, the proposal calls for an immediate, unconditional cease-fire, followed later by implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1559, which mandates Hizbullah's disarmament and the deployment of the Lebanese army along the Israel-Lebanon border.

However, there are two catches: Resolution 1559 would be implemented only via negotiations among the various Lebanese factions, and only if Israel agrees to withdraw from a small piece of land called Shaba Farms.

Conditioning the resolution's implementation on the agreement of all Lebanese factions, including Hizbullah, virtually guarantees that it will never be implemented at all.

These factions have already been conducting a so-called "national dialogue" on this issue for a year, yet far from producing progress toward Hizbullah's disarmament, Hizbullah's arsenal has grown steadily during this period.

There is no reason to believe that another round of "national dialogue" would end any differently: Not only would Hizbullah certainly veto its own disarmament; the other Lebanese factions seem unlikely even to press very hard, given their unanimous public defense over the last two weeks of Hizbullah's "right" to attack Israel.

EVEN MORE serious, however, is the proposal that Hizbullah's disarmament be conditioned on an Israeli withdrawal from Shaba Farms, thereby rendering meaningless the UN's own certification, just six years ago, that Israel had withdrawn from every last inch of Lebanese territory.

This certification, unanimously issued by the UN Security Council following Israel's pullout from Lebanon in May 2000, was based on the recommendation of UN experts who carefully studied old maps of the border and compared them to Israel's withdrawal line.

However, Hizbullah rejected the UN's determination, claiming that an additional bit of land, Shaba Farms, was also Lebanese (the UN experts deemed this land Syrian). Therefore, it announced, it had every right to continue attacking Israel in order to "liberate" Shaba Farms.

SUCCESSIVE Lebanese governments - both the former Syrian-controlled government and the new government elected following Syria's ouster from Lebanon - promptly backed this claim, and the international media followed suit: Within months, the UN determination that Shaba Farms was not Lebanese had virtually disappeared from coverage of the region; instead, the area was referred to as "disputed territory."

Now the Saudi-Lebanese-French proposal seeks to reverse the UN's finding entirely: By declaring that Israel must withdraw from additional territory before Beirut is obliged to take the steps needed to stop attacks against Israel from Lebanon, it essentially implies that Israel is still occupying part of Lebanon, and therefore continued attacks against it are justified.

Moreover, the UN itself appears to be backing this proposal: While UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has not (as of this writing) formally thrown his weight behind it, the UN delegation that he sent to the region last week to draft recommendations on ending the fighting reportedly told him that the Shaba Farms issue must be resolved as part of any deal, since otherwise Hizbullah would continue using it as a pretext to attack Israel.

IF THE international community gives into this Hizbullah blackmail it will decisively preclude peace in the Middle East for decades to come - because it will ensure that no deal is actually final. Instead, each agreement will merely be the starting point for a new round of territorial claims.

Clearly, Israel would have no incentive to withdraw from additional territory under these circumstances.

The point of withdrawing fully to a recognized international border is to (a) eliminate the other country's reasons for hostilities and (b) ensure the international community's backing should the other country nevertheless continue hostilities. If instead, the international community decides that continued attacks against Israel are grounds for redrawing the recognized international border in the aggressor's favor, such withdrawals are not only pointless from Israel's standpoint, they are actually counterproductive, simply inviting further territorial losses, salami-style.

Even more importantly, a Hizbullah victory over Shaba Farms would completely eliminate the incentive for other countries to ensure that radical organizations within their borders keep the peace with Israel.

Why should they, if a mere six years of laying claim to a new bit of territory, accompanied by sporadic guerrilla and/or terror attacks against Israel, are sufficient to get the international community to back the new claim?

This is particularly true given that even in countries that have signed treaties with Israel, hatred for Israel remains intense.

A Pew Global Research poll from June 2003, for instance, found that 85 percent of Jordanians, 80% of Palestinians and 90% of Moroccans believe that "the rights and needs of Palestinians" cannot be met unless Israel is eradicated. (This poll did not include Egypt, but other polls show similar anti-Israel sentiment in that country.)

Thus if Hizbullah's tactic proves successful, it will be a win-win proposition for every government in the Middle East: They can simultaneously satisfy their populations by allowing hostilities with Israel to continue, retain international backing and support by pleading inability to control the radicals, and expand their borders at Israel's expense into the bargain by claiming that additional Israeli concessions are needed to persuade the radicals to stop fighting.

WHEN ISRAEL left Lebanon in 2000 it obtained the most binding international certification possible that it had withdrawn fully. By declaring that Israel must nevertheless make further territorial concessions in order to end cross-border aggression from Lebanon, the Saudi-French-Lebanese proposal effectively overturns the longstanding UN principle that acquiring territory through force is unacceptable and legitimizes such cross-border aggression as a means of achieving territorial goals.

Thus unless the rest of the international community decisively rejects the idea of conditioning Hizbullah's disarmament and the Lebanese army's redeployment on an Israeli withdrawal from Shaba Farms, the Lebanese cease-fire deal will prove the death knell of Middle East peace for many years to come.

A peace to end all peace

[Shammu]

Arabs want unconditional ceasefire; Khatib in Rome
   
King calls Annan

Agencies

THE ARAB WORLD wants an immediate Mideast ceasefire without conditions but Israel won't stop its bloody offensive until its captured soldiers are released and a defanged Hizbollah is pushed back from its northern border.

Among the possible solutions to be discussed at a meeting of key Mideast players in Rome on Wednesday is letting Arab leaders figure out what to do about Hizbollah's weapons and assembling a strong international peacekeeping force along Israel's border.

The meeting will have some common ground. Most of the participants — which include Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United States, the European Union, Russia and others — agree on the need for a ceasefire and a beefed up multinational force on the Israel-Lebanon border.

Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib left yesterday for Rome to take part in the event, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

"There will be a clear Arab stance in Rome demanding an immediate ceasefire and strengthening the Lebanese government to allow it to assert its authority on all Lebanese territory," Khatib said.

"We want an effective international presence that is capable of stopping the shelling and the war launched against Lebanon.”

Most also agree that something needs to be done about Hizbollah's armed “state within a state” in south Lebanon, which it has used during the current crisis to launch nearly 1,300 rockets at Israel.

But Hizbollah, the Lebanese government and moderate Arab countries have said discussion of the above issues can only come after a ceasefire, not before — a position rejected by Israel and the United States.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan said Tuesday that all the pieces of a ceasefire package must be implemented at the same time to avoid the same fate as other failed Mideast peace plans that relied on the “sequential approach.”

King Abdullah telephoned Annan yesterday and discussed the crisis, urging more UN efforts to end the fighting, Petra said.

The international effort to broker a ceasefire will not succeed unless Israel feels it has achieved its main goals: To remove the threat of future Hizbollah attacks and to secure the freedom of two Israeli soldiers whose July 12 capture by Hizbollah fighters precipitated the current crisis.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's calls for an “enduring” and “sustainable” peace during her visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Tuesday reflected the Bush administration's support for Israel's aims.

It's more than just a matter of pride. Israel fears that any perceived weakness in its current fight against Hizbollah will be a boost to all Islamic fighters out to destroy it and to their main patron, the potentially nuclear-armed Iran.

“From the Israeli point of view to reach a ceasefire right now without reaching some or most of its strategic goals is not just counterproductive but dangerous,” said Israeli counter-terrorism expert Boaz Ganor.

Because of the near impossibility of beginning a negotiating process with either Hizbollah or its main supporter Iran — and considering the weakness of the pro-Western Lebanese government — Ganor argues that the right address for negotiations is Syria, which like Iran supports, arms and funds Hizbollah.

Arab diplomats reported some progress on that front over the weekend, saying both Egypt and Saudi Arabia — Mideast heavyweights which are struggling to combat the growing influence of Islamic fighters at home — were working to entice Syria to end its support for Hizbollah.

However, the Bush administration has made it a policy not to speak with regimes it doesn't like, so it's hard to see how diplomacy with Syria could end the fighting, which so far has killed 422 people in Lebanon and 43 in Israel.

During Rice's visit to Beirut on Sunday, Lebanese politicians reportedly proposed to her that the country's factions sit down together after a ceasefire to figure out how to implement the 1989 Taif Accord, which calls for extending the central government's sovereignty throughout Lebanon, with a single army.

Having Arab leaders take charge of efforts to disarm Hizbollah is likely to be one of the options discussed in Rome on Wednesday, as is the creation of an international “stabilisation” force that could help the Lebanese army take control of areas vacated by Hizbollah.

Assembling such a force is likely to prove difficult.

Israel says it prefers a NATO-led coalition, but the alliance's member states are already stretched in missions elsewhere. And the traumatic history of peacekeeping in Lebanon — often ending in bloody quagmires — works against nations committing themselves to another try.

The complexity of the required negotiations make a quick resolution of the crisis “almost unimaginable,” said Aaron David Miller, a former US Mideast negotiator who is now a public policy scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Centre.

However, Miller suggested that Rice use her influence with Israel to win a promise from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to halt fire as soon as Washington decides that basic conditions have been met, such as a Hizbollah-free buffer zone in south Lebanon, an international force and “maybe some sort of prisoner deal way out in the future.”

“She can use that leverage with the Arabs to get them to lean on the Syrians. She can use that leverage with the Europeans to get them to commit forces,” Miller said.

The feeling that the crisis is not likely to end any time soon gained credence on Tuesday when Olmert told a group of immigrants from France that Israel has “the stamina for a long struggle.” Each of the parties to the current conflict have different issues they'd like addressed in any ceasefire deal.

Lebanon, for instance, says Israel must withdraw from a tiny border region called Shebaa Farms, in addition to handing over maps of mine fields Israel laid during its 18-year occupation of south Lebanon.

Hizbollah wants to swap Arab prisoners held in Israel for the two Israeli soldiers, and insists its future role in south Lebanon be worked out — after a ceasefire — in an internal Lebanese conference.

Mahdi Abdul-Hadi, the director of the Palestinian think tank Passia, argues that negotiations on the Lebanon fighting should not be handled separately from Israel's other crisis: A monthlong battle in the Gaza Strip with Hamas, which also captured an Israeli soldier during a brazen cross-border raid on June 25.

“I don't see Hamas selling out Hizbollah for a separate deal,” Abdul-Hadi said, adding that the people are in no mood to give in to Israeli demands.

“People in Gaza as well as in Beirut are accepting the sacrifices, are accepting the pain and they are filled with steadfastness, with national pride and no surrender,” he said.

Arabs want unconditional ceasefire; Khatib in Rome

[Shammu]

The roaring Iranian rat
Posted: July 27, 2006
1:00 a.m. Eastern

© 2006

Ultimate responsibility for the intense fighting between Israeli and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon can be directly traced to several American presidents, especially to one Democrat who has been busy building houses ever since he left the Big Bungalow on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Fearing an East-West clash of apocalyptic proportions, Lyndon Johnson thought it best to confront the powerful Soviet Union and China in an indirect manner. He would inflate John F. Kennedy's mini-war against Soviet and Chinese-backed fighters in relatively insignificant Vietnam into a major conflict. His successor, Richard Nixon, further fanned the flames before finally agreeing to a cease-fire in January 1973. After the Communist north violated it, Nixon rushed to pull remaining war-weary U.S. forces out of the southern half of the divided Southeast Asian country, climaxing with a humiliating final retreat in April 1975. As expected, South Vietnam was then completely overrun by Communist fighters, who subsequently proved uninterested in conquering their neighbors as part of the dreaded "domino" disaster that had long been forecast if America did not decisively win the costly war.

Tired of overseas adventures, a majority of American voters were then ready to scale back their country's international policeman role. This led to Jimmy Carter's election as commander in chief in 1976 after running on a fairly pacifist platform.

During the latter years of his watch, a turban bound mullah named Ruhollah Khomeini took over a Middle East country called Iran. His January 1979 Shiite Islamic Revolution was met with shocked surprise in Washington, which was then obsessed with Soviet designs on nearby Afghanistan. After all, the radical Muslims were our allies against the red superpower giant that was preparing to end all life on planet Earth in some insane nuclear showdown – not!

The Muslim fundamentalist leader was fit as a fiddle to move to Tehran and take over the reigns of power. This was largely because Carter had naively allowed him to come to America the previous October to receive first-class medical attention.

After ousting the pro-West Shah, the Shiite ayatollah repaid Carter's kindness by sanctioning the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran. Over 50 Americans, mostly government diplomats and employees, were taken captive in the November 1979 action, being held hostage for over one year. Operating in the still strong shadow of the Vietnam fiasco, Carter refused to see the seizure for what it was – a clear act of war – and ordered relatively feeble (and definitely ineffective) military measures to free the hostages, who were only released when Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president in January 1981.

Flagging American resolve to take on its declared enemies when actually necessary was thankfully reversed during the Reagan years. But the tall ex-actor also contributed to the current Mideast crisis. Fearing an atomic showdown with Moscow, he ordered Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to cancel his defense minister's rational plan to fully oust Syrian occupation forces from all of Lebanon in 1982. Thus, Ariel Sharon's prescient goal to free Lebanon from Syrian (and thus Iranian) domination was thwarted, which opened the door for Khomeini to establish an enduring alliance with Syria that rapidly led to the formation of the extremist Lebanese Hezbollah militia.

The Shiite force quickly proved to be a faithful Iranian-Syrian anti-American puppet when its operatives destroyed U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut in October 1983 – the deadliest terrorist atrocity against American servicemen to this day. But this clear act of war was also basically ignored by Soviet-obsessed White House personnel, who simply ordered a humiliating retreat from the battle zone. Hezbollah-Iran-Syria had won, and this fact would set the tone for their later "victory" over war-weary Israeli forces that were rushed from the Land of the Cedars in a virtual summer rerun of the U.S. flight from Saigon.

The May 2000 Israeli getaway left its faithful Maronite-run South Lebanese Army allies dazed and confused, and in instant mortal danger from advancing Hezbollah forces. This guaranteed that no Lebanese Christian groups would ever fully ally themselves again with the Jewish-run state.

Meanwhile, Iran had succeeded in crushing the U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian "land for peace" process. It began supplying weapons and training to Hamas and Islamic Jihad Palestinian terrorists – mainly via Hezbollah channels – soon after the 1993 Oslo peace accord was signed on the White House lawn by Yassar Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin. Emulating Hezbollah's mushrooming suicide attacks against IDF soldiers in Lebanon, Hamas launched its first deadly bus bombing in April 1994, followed by a flood of such wicked assaults in early 1996. Two months later, Hezbollah let loose with a massive rocket blitz upon northern Israel, leading to the election of Binyamin Netanyahu in May and the total collapse of the peace process four years later.

And so we come to today. Israel has been forced to re-enter Lebanon and the Gaza Strip with its relatively big guns blazing, leading to inevitable Arab and international condemnation. Its unilateral pullouts from both places – demanded by Lebanese and Palestinian leaders – have been tragically reversed amid a flood of blood. All this as Iran's outrageous "president," under orders from chief dictator Ayatollah Khameini, repeatedly vows to wipe Israel off of the Middle East map, probably with nuclear weapons.

Is the current White House occupant finally ready to admit that the insidious theocratic Iranian regime has long ago declared war to the death not only against its main Mideast ally Israel, but also against America? Stay tuned. I'm not overly optimistic that the gravity of Iran's threat to Western interests is fully understood yet in Washington's halls of power, given that so much time, money and military lives have been spent going after a regional mouse named Saddam, followed by hopeless attempts to bring enduring "democracy" (how about simple stability?) to his basket-case, internally divided country. All of that has only served to divert vital attention from the far more dangerous regional rat lurking right next door – Iran – and its supplicant surrogates, Syria and Hezbollah.

[Shammu]

Chinese team to head for Lebanon on aftermath of dead UN observer
2006-07-27 15:29:02

    BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A Chinese team is to set off late Thursday for Lebanon to handle the case of a Chinese UN observer's death there, according to diplomatic sources.

    The Chinese victim Du Zhaoyu was killed in an Israeli air raid on a UN post in south Lebanon on Wednesday.

    The team, consisting of six personnel from the Chinese Foreign Ministry and the Peacekeeping Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense, is to deal with the aftermath and escort Du's remains back home.

    Du's wife Li Lingling will also go to Lebanon along with the team.

    Du, a Lieutenant Colonel of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA) with a postgraduate degree, was born in Jinan, capital of east China's Shandong Province. He was sent to Lebanon last December as a UN observer.

    After Du's death, the Peacekeeping Affairs Office of the Ministry of National Defense has made several representations to the Israeli side in different ways, and required the Israeli side to properly handle the aftermath and well protect Du's remains.

    Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday expressed his "deep condolences" over Du's death, and demanded the Chinese departments concerned to properly deal with the aftermath of the incident and take every measure necessary to ensure the safety of Chinese nationals in Lebanon.

    Chinese Defense Minister Cao Gangchuan has urged relevant departments to intensify negotiations with the UN and the conflicting parties of Lebanon and Israel. He also called for efforts to prevent similar accidents from happening again.

    Liang Guanglie, chief of the PLA general staff, sent a letter of condolences to Du's family and has made specific requirements for the aftermath. Both Cao and Liang expressed their deep condolences over Du's death and sincere sympathy for his family.

    Wednesday's air raid killed four UN observers. Besides Du, the other three were from Finland, Austria and Canada. Enditem

Chinese team to head for Lebanon on aftermath of dead UN observer

[Shammu]

  Chirac: France Has Proof Of Iran's Involvement In Lebanon

PARIS (AP)--French President Jacques Chirac said Wednesday Iran supplied arms and funds to the Lebanon-based Hezbollah guerrillas and had a measure of responsibility in the conflict.

In response to a question about Iran, Chirac said, "Information that we possess proves that sophisticated arms and financing are sent by Iran, apparently via Syria, to the Hezbollah. This is a problem."

He was confirming reports that Hezbollah was using Iranian weapons in its strikes.

"Indeed, Iran has its share of responsibility in the current conflict," Chirac said. He didn't, however, specifically accuse Tehran of triggering the violence with Hezbollah's capture two weeks ago of two Israeli soldiers.

Chirac said also the North Atlantic Treaty Organization shouldn't lead a proposed international force in Lebanon, saying the alliance is seen in the region as "the armed wing of the West."

"As far as France is concerned, it is not NATO's mission to put together such a force," Chirac told the daily newspaper Le Monde, saying there were technical as well as political reasons for his stance.

"Whether we like it or not, NATO is perceived as the armed wing of the West in these regions, and as a result, in terms of image, NATO is not intended for this," he said.

Israel has suggested it would prefer a NATO-led coalition in Lebanon, not the traditional U.N. peacekeeping force that has tried but failed to bring peace to Lebanon over the last three decades.

France said earlier this week that a multinational force should be placed under U.N. authority.

Chirac insisted a ceasefire was "essential" followed by a political accord, " to be implemented after the ceasefire," before any multinational force is put in place.

"This implies that the Israeli soldiers held by Hezbollah should be freed, as should the soldiers taken hostage by Hamas," Chirac said.

France said earlier this week that a multinational force should be placed under U.N. authority. However, Chirac's interview was the first time the French position had been spelled out in detail.

He said the hoped-for political accord should be negotiated on the one hand between the Lebanese government and Hezbollah and, on the other, between the international community, Lebanon and Israel.

Chirac pledged EUR15 million in humanitarian aid for Lebanon and said France would consider leading an international force if conditions were met.

He said he didn't believe the force should have the responsibility of disarming Hezbollah, but that it was up to Lebanon. "Hezbollah, once disarmed, is set to be a political force in Lebanon," Chirac said.

Distancing himself from the U.S. stance, Chirac reiterated the need for an immediate ceasefire in the Middle East, saying Israel's bombing of a U.N. observation post in southern Lebanon showed how dire the situation was. Four peacekeepers were killed.

"We can only condemn this act, which demonstrates more than ever how urgent it is to end the fighting," Chirac said.

Chirac: France Has Proof Of Iran's Involvement In Lebanon

[Shammu]

Syria demands truce, prisoner swap in Lebanon crisis
July 27, 2006    

Lebanese civil defence rescue workers carry the body of an eight-year-old Lebanese girl, buried under the rubble of a residential building hit by Israeli air strikes in the southern Lebanese port city of Tyre. Syria has called for a ceasefire, an exchange of prisoners and Israel's withdrawal from oc

Syria has called for a ceasefire, an exchange of prisoners and Israel's withdrawal from occupied Arab lands in order to resolve the current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

"To resolve the crisis in the region it is necessary to decree a ceasefire, proceed with a prisoner exchange and for Israel to withdraw from all occupied Arab territory," Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said Wednesday.

Quoted by the official SANA agency, Bilal said such a withdrawal must encompass the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967 and subsequently annexed, including the Shebaa Farms, now claimed by Lebanon with Syria's blessing.

Bilal also said the people of the Middle East would themselves define their region after Washington repeatedly called for "a new Middle East".

"The peoples of the region will define the Middle East that they want. No force can replace them. The people will determine their future," Bilal was quoted as saying.

His comments came after Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem said Syria could intervene in the ongoing crisis, laying down similar conditions in an interview.

"We are ready to intervene to play a positive role. We ask that the United States put pressure on Israel to accept a ceasefire and an exchange of prisoners," Muallem told Italian daily La Repubblica.

The minister, whose country is not taking part in Wednesday's international conference in Rome on the crisis, also reiterated denials that Syria supplies Hezbollah with arms.

"Hezbollah has an arsenal allowing it to fight for weeks, and the arms definitely do not go through Damascus," he was quoted as saying.

Muallem also rejected Israel's position that it could defeat the Shiite movement.

"It can't happen, because Hezbollah represents a third of the Lebanese population," he said.

He also said he regretted "not having been invited" to the 15-nation talks in Rome, although he "appreciated" Italy's initiative to host the meeting.

Syria demands truce, prisoner swap in Lebanon crisis

[Shammu]

Syria expects gains from war
Web posted at: 7/27/2006 8:5:49
Source ::: Agencies

damascus • Two weeks after Israel began its onslaught on Lebanon, Syria feels confident the outcome will lessen its isolation and help the Baathist government negotiate a deal to regain the Golan Heights, officials and diplomats say.

"Bashar Al Assad must feel pretty confident right now. Hezbollah has proved more than a match for the Israelis," one diplomat said.

"He is receiving calls left and right. Syria is vital to help end this crisis," he said, referring to calls from Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and other foreign officials to the Syrian president.

A senior German diplomat visited Syria last week and a Norwegian envoy is expected yesterday as fighting rages between Hezbollah fighters and Israeli forces in south Lebanon.

However, there has been no contact between Syria, which resolutely backs Hezbollah, and Washington, Israel's chief ally.

Damascus has offered to engage in a dialogue with Washington to end the war and find the basis for regional peace. The US ambassador to the UN, John Bolton, said it was "hard to see" benefits from a Syrian-US dialogue.

"The irony is that Syria and the United States want both to reshape the Middle East. There is a lot of common ground between them although the Golan Heights is paramount on the Syrian agenda," the diplomat in Damascus said.

Syria has ignored calls by the US to pressure Hezbollah to free two Israeli soldiers captured by its fighters on July 12, setting off massive Israeli reprisals against Lebanon, and stop rocket attacks on Israel.

Syria, a self-proclaimed champion of Arab rights and the issue of Arab land occupied by Israel, was further isolated after last year's assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Al Hariri.

Israel's attack on Lebanon, however, has thrust Syria back into the international arena, with fears growing of the confrontation expanding into a regional war.

Any settlement, Syrian officials say, will have to address the status of Hizbollah and its demands, which Syria supports.

These include a prisoner exchange and an Israeli withdrawal from Shebaa Farms, an area near the Golan Heights that Lebanon says is Lebanese but the United Nations and Israel consider Syrian.

Syria has denied reports in the Israeli press that it has approached Israel to restart negotiations in the Golan, an area of 1,759 sq km (680 sq miles) in southern Syria.

Israel occupied the Golan Heights 1967. Syria lost 3,000 soldiers defending the mountainous plateau overlooking Damascus.

The last round of talks between Israel and Syria over the Golan came close to a deal but foundered in 2000, mostly over who would control the eastern shore of the Sea of Galilee. The state newspaper Tishreen indicated that Syria was keen not to be left out of US plans for a post-war settlement.

"The peace process has been placed in the American freezer with an Israeli lock for the last five years. The US administration has to employ its huge capability for a sustainable peace," Tishreen said.

Syrian officials say Israel cannot afford to become bogged down in a war of attrition in Lebanon. "There is no need to contemplate whether Syria should re-supply Hezbollah with arms. It still has missiles to last for months," one official said.

Syria expects gains from war

[ibTina]

American Public Backs Israel
08:04 Jul 27, '06 / 2 Av 5766

(IsraelNN.com) A newspaper survey reveals that 54 percent of the American public identify with Israel and only 11 percent with the Arabs in the Hizbullah terrorist war. Half of the respondents to the Wall Street Journal survey also said they back letting the United States supply Israel with weapons.

American President George W. Bush, whose popularity sunk to all-time lows before the war, received support for his handling of the crisis, with 45 per cent approving and 39 percent opposing his stance.

American Public Backs Israel

 ummm I guess the 11% were on another Planet during 9/11/2001??

[Rookieupgrade1]

I find it interesting that they back the war on terror...........as long as someone else fights it

[Soldier4Christ]

I find it interesting that they back the war on terror...........as long as someone else fights it

Yep while they stay snug and secure in their own private little lives.