Biblical countries, in the news.

[Shammu]

Rice: Cease-fire at this time pointless

 

US Secretary of State rules out quick cease-fire as ‘false promise,’ says ‘Syria knows what it needs to do, Hizbullah is the source of the problem.’ Israeli ambassador to US: This is a war not of our choosing
Associated Press

 
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, heading for a weekend trip to the troubled Middle East, said Friday she would work with allies in the region to help create conditions for "stability and lasting peace."

 
She ruled out a quick cease-fire as a "false promise" and defended her decision not to talk to officials from Hizbullah or Syria.

 
"Syria knows what it needs to do and Hizbullah is the source of the problem," Rice said at the State Department as she outlined US hopes for a diplomatic solution to the current crisis.

 
Rice said she was meeting not only with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert but also with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as well as with allies at a gathering in Rome.

 

'Cease-fire return to status quo’

 

Asked why she didn't go earlier and engage in quick-hit diplomacy to try to end the death and destruction that has gripped the region,
she replied, "I could have gotten on a plane and rushed over and started shuttling and it wouldn't have been clear what I was shuttling to do."

 
Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to Washington, told The Associated Press that Israel would not rule out an eventual international stabilization force. But he said Israel was first determined to take out Hezbollah's command and control centers and weapons stockpiles.

 
He described it as a "mop up" operation, and said that Israel had no desire to repeat its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon that ended in 2000.

 
"They overplayed their hand, they miscalculated," Ayalon said of Hizbullah militants based in southern Lebanon and supported by Syria and Iran.

 
"This is a war not of our choosing," he said. The flare-up in violence began after Hizbullah captured two Israeli soldiers last week.

 
Rice said the United States was committed to ending the bloodshed, but didn't want to do it before certain conditions were met. The United States has said all along that Hizbullah must first turn over the two Israeli soldiers who were captured and stop firing missiles into Israel.

 
"We do seek an end to the current violence, we seek it urgently. We also seek to address the root causes of that violence," she said. "A cease-fire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo."

 
Rice said that it was important to deal with the "root cause" of the violence, echoing what has been the US position since last week.

 
President Bush, asked what he hopes Rice will achieve on her trip, said he would discuss it with her when he returns to the White House on Sunday. He was speaking at a restaurant in Aurora, Colo., as he met with 10 members of the military who recently returned from Iraq.

 

Talking to reporters aboard Air Force One as Bush was en route to an appearance in Colorado, she said the idea was "to provide the president and Dr. Rice a chance to continue to strategize with a key partner in the region on a diplomatic solution that will address the root causes of violence and terror in the region."

 
Bush and Rice will meet at the White House Sunday with Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, chief of the Saudi National Security Council.

 
The plans emerged following two days of meetings in New York with United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan and envoys he sent to the region this week. Although Annan called Thursday for an immediate cease-fire, that is opposed by the United States. The Bush administration says the United States and the UN agree on the wider diplomatic goals for the region.

 
The United States has resisted international pressure to lean on its ally Israel to halt the fighting. Rice was likely try to point the way to a relatively quick cease-fire, but not an immediate one. She is expected in Israel on Tuesday, Israeli officials said on condition of anonymity because the schedule was not yet confirmed.

 
Rice is also expected to meet with European foreign ministers and representatives from Arab nations that have been unusually critical of Hezbollah. That meeting would take place somewhere in the Mideast, but the location is not set.

 

'Serious obstacles'

 

Rice's mission would be the first US diplomatic effort on the ground since the Israeli onslaught against Lebanon began.

 
The Rice initiative likely would be designed to give the United States a major role in brokering peace there. She is not expected to try to get a signed deal during her brief visit, however, and she risks laying out the U.S. goals only to have either side refuse to bargain.

 
Annan outlined the basic terms of a proposed cease-fire and the longer-range goals to remove the Hizbullah threat in southern Lebanon in a speech on Thursday.

 
Hizbullah is an Islamic militant group that also exerts political control over southern Lebanon, overshadowing the weak democratic central government in Beirut. The UN and US plan for long-term stability would give international help to the Beirut government to expel Hizbullah and install its own Army troops, something it has been unable to do on its own.

 
Israel called up reserve troops Friday and warned civilians to flee southern Lebanon, as it prepared for a likely ground invasion to set up a deep buffer zone.

 
UN mediator Vijay Nambiar stressed the urgent need for "a cessation of hostilities" in Lebanon despite "serious obstacles" and appealed to Israel to allow humanitarian access to beleaguered civilians.

 
Nambiar, who led a three-member team sent by UN chief Kofi Annan to the region to assess the worsening Middle East crisis, spoke during a public debate of the 15-member Security Council on how to bring a quick end to the bloodshed in Lebanon and Israel.

 
Nambiar cited "serious obstacles to the achievement of a comprehensive ceasefire in the immediate future" in the deadly fighting between Israel and Hizbullah in Lebanon.

 
But he stressed that some form of "cessation of hostilities" as called for by Annan Thursday was "essential so that captives are protected, humanitarian access is assured, civilian casualties are dramatically reduced, and the political space is opened to negotiate a full and durable ceasefire.

Rice: Cease-fire at this time pointless

[Shammu]

ICJ: Israel, Hizbullah committing war crimes

International group of jurists on Friday accused both Israel and Hizbullah of committing war crimes, says Israel’s ‘disproportionate and indiscriminate’ use of force amounts to ‘collective punishment’
Reuters

An international group of jurists on Friday accused both Israel and Hizbullah of committing war crimes in a conflict that has so far killed more than 370 people, mainly civilians.

The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), which links 60 senior judges and lawyers worldwide, said Israel's “disproportionate and indiscriminate" use of force through air raids against Lebanese civilian targets amounted to "collective punishment", which is outlawed.

"Collective punishments constitute a war crime under international law," ICJ Deputy Secretary-General Federico Andreu-Guzman said in a statement.

Hizbullah rockets fired at northern Israeli towns could also be considered a violation of international humanitarian law because armed groups are also covered by the Geneva Conventions protecting civilians in times of conflict, the ICJ added.

The Geneva-based organization called for an immediate halt to the violence and accused the international community of not doing enough to restrain Israeli actions in both Lebanon and Gaza.

"The organization is extremely concerned by the apathy of the international community and the inactivity of key governments toward the ongoing Israeli military actions," it said.

In recent days both the United Nations' High Commissioner for Human Rights, Louise Arbour, and the International Committee of the Red Cross have warned both sides – and particularly their leaders – that they could be held legally responsible for their actions under international law.

ICJ: Israel, Hizbullah committing war crimes

[Shammu]

Shiite cleric: Israel will fall like Twin Towers

Muslims use day of prayer to protest Israel’s attacks on Lebanon
Associated Press

Thousands of demonstrators across the Muslim world used Friday’s Islamic day of prayer to protest Israel’s attacks on Hizbullah, urging Sunni-Shiite unity to defeat the Jewish state.

Police clashed with anti-Israeli demonstrators in Egypt, Bahrain and Indian-run Kashmir.

In Cairo, thousands of protesters waving giant posters of Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Shiite group Hizbullah, gathered after Friday prayers at Al-Azhar Mosque, the most prominent Sunni Muslim institution in the Arab world. “Sunnis or Shiites (there is) no difference; all together to resist the enemy,” Sameh Ashour, head of the Arab Lawyers Union, told the crowd. “Resistance is the solution.”

'We'll defeat Israel without use of weapons'

The fighting between Israel and Hizbullah has exposed divisions across the Muslim world as leaders in some predominantly Sunni countries such as Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt have criticized Hizbullah’s actions. But many ordinary people and religious leaders - both Sunnis and Shiites - have given their support to Hizbullah because of its willingness to fight Israel.

During a fiery sermon at a Damascus mosque, one of Syria’s most prominent Sunni Islamic clerics assailed his Arab neighbors for condemning the kidnapping earlier this month of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah guerillas. “Our Arab people have been surprised by our Arab leaders who have ignored what is being said on the streets,” Sheik Salah Keftaro said.

Meanwhile in Iraq, radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr on Friday predicted Israel would collapse like New York’s Twin Towers on Sept. 11, 2001, if Sunnis and Shiites join in their fight.

'No to Arab silence on Zionist crimes'

“I will continue defending my Shiite and Sunni brothers, and I tell them that if we unite, we will defeat Israel without the use of weapons,” Sadr said during a speech in the southern city Iraqi city of Kufa.

Under the watchful eye of security police, protesters in Cairo shouted both anti-Israel slogans and condemned Arab leaders’ reluctance to show their support for Hizbullah.

Thousands of police surrounded the protesters in Cairo, beating back some with batons when they tried to move into the streets. Police said three protesters were injured when they clashed with authorities.

Protesters in other cities also took to the streets including several thousand in Tripoli, Libya. About 2,000 angry demonstrators shouted praise for Hizbullah in downtown Amman, Jordan.

“No to the Arab silence on the Zionist crimes,” read one of the Jordanian banners.

In Manama, Bahrain, about 500 people demonstrated as close as they were allowed to the US Embassy, a frequent site of protests owing to US support of Israel. Witnesses said clashes developed when protesters threw stones at police photographers, and the police retaliated with rubber bullets and tear gas.

Interior Ministry spokesman Maj. Mohammed Bin Daina said one woman was treated for tear gas inhalation, and one policeman was lightly wounded.

Bin Daina denied that police fired rubber bullets, saying they used only tear gas. Nobody was arrested. Police used batons and smoke grenades to break up hundreds of protesters who had blocked traffic in Indian-controlled Kashmir. Demonstrators in Pakistan burned Israeli and US flags, and protesters in Indonesia and Malaysia accused the Jewish state of terrorism.

About 2,000 Muslims also marched through the streets of the Bangladesh’s capital of Dhaka.

Shiite cleric: Israel will fall like Twin Towers

[Shammu]

 India, Russia to make 1,000 BrahMos missiles
New Delhi, July 21, IRNA

India-Russia-Missiles
India and Russia intend to make 1,000 BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles over the next 10 years through their joint venture company, with nearly 50 per cent of them expected to be sold in third countries, defence sources said Friday.

"We already have a capacity to produce 100 missiles a year. One thousand missiles in 10 years is a reasonable target. Nearly 50 per cent will go to exports," PTI report said here quoting defence sources.

India and Russia have so far invested $ 300 million in BrahMos Aerospace, which was established to design, develop, produce and market the missile by using the technological skills and capabilities of both countries.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had earlier announced that BrahMos (named after the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers) had been inducted into the Indian Navy.

BrahMos Aerospace CEO A Sivathanu Pillai said that the missile's land-based version is expected to be inducted into the Army in 2007.

Pillai, who is also the chief controller of research and development in the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO), said that the company was undertaking a project to install BrahMos missiles on the Sukhoi-30MKI combat jets of the Indian Air Force.

"Now, we are fitting one BrahMos in the belly (of the Su-30) to start with. With certain reinforcement of the wings, we can fit up to three," he said.

Pillai said the joint venture company, established in India in 1998, is now looking at an upgraded version of BrahMos but added that no final decision has been taken.

He however, hinted that one area of focus could be increasing the speed of the missile. "It can be speed", he said.

Noting that BrahMos is the world's only supersonic cruise missile -- others are subsonic -- and that there is no competition for it, he stressed the need for retaining the competitive edge.

The 2.5 tonne BrahMos has a strike range of 290 km and has a maximum speed of Mach 2.8 (one km per second).

Pillai said BrahMos would be sold in third countries "very soon" but did not name the nations or give any time frame.

He said the price of BrahMos depends on several variables like "country-to-country (relations), political situation and credit line." "There is no competition for BrahMos. Our prices are competitive."

India, Russia to make 1,000 BrahMos missiles

[Shammu]

 India will speed up work on Afghan, Iran road
New Delhi, July 21, IRNA

ndia-Iran-Afghanistan
New Delhi is likely to send reinforcements to accelerate the work of constructing a network of roads linking Afghanistan with Iran.

They will supplement the Border Roads Organization personnel working there, according to well-placed sources tracking India's involvement in the region.

The reinforcements in significant numbers will go towards an additional section of road that India is expected to build.

This will be in addition to some of the projects which the Indian agencies, like the BRO, are already undertaking on the outskirts of Kabul, Asian Age reported here quoting sources.

The decision to despatch engineers and other personnel comes despite New Delhi suffering reversals of the killings of Indian personnel working in Afghanistan.

India, Iran and Afghanistan signed a memorandum of understanding in January 2003 to augment Afghanistan's connectivity and access to the coast.

The BRO is constructing the 218-km road that will link Delaram on the main Kandahar-Herat highway in Afghanistan and Zaranj on the Iran border.

The US $ 850 million project is being funded by India and will provide the landlocked nation a shorter transit route (by about 700 km) to the sea via the Iranian port of Chahbahar than it now has through Pakistan.

It was cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security on February 4, 2004.

Under this project, Iran is building a new transit route to connect Milak in the southeast of Iran to Zaranj in Afghanistan.

The sources said India would be able to use Chahbahar port for transit.

India and Iran have also agreed to build a railroad from Chahbahar to the Iranian Central Railway System to link with the Karachi-Tehran Railway line, which goes further westward, the sources added.

During Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai's visit to India, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged an additional $ 50 million in assistance to Kabul, bringing the total Indian pledge to $ 650 million.

Several Indian companies are engaged in Afghanistan and undertaking infrastructure projects.

A BRO driver, Maniappan Raman Kutty, was killed by the Taliban last year.

Another Indian engineer, K. Suryanarayana, was killed in May this year.

India will speed up work on Afghan, Iran road

[Shammu]

 OIC to play more active role in developments in Lebanon, Palestine
United Nations, New York, July 21, IRNA

Iran-Lebanon-OIC
Permanent envoys of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to the United Nations supported Iran's proposal for the OIC playing a more active role vis-a-vis recent developments in Lebanon and Palestine.


In a meeting that was held on Wednesday by Iran's demand, the OIC member sates' ambassadors to the UN supported a proposal put forward by Iran's permanent ambassador to the UN, Mohammad-Javad Zarif, which called on the Islamic body to make more contacts with the UN Security Council on its decision-making process about the ongoing tragic situation in Lebanon and Palestine.

Zarif also criticized the support of some of the UN Security Council's members for the Zionist regime's current savage offensive against the defenseless people in Palestine and Lebanon, including women and children.

The ambassador said that Israel has shown it was not committed to any international or humanitarian laws and norms.

Zarif stressed that advocates of the Zionist regime at the UNSC were assisting Tel Aviv in practice, by their silence and by not making timely measures, to continue its inhuman attacks against innocent people.

The OIC envoys to the UN issued a statement at the end of their meeting voicing their support and solidarity with the Lebanese people.

They also called on the Zionist regime to stop its hostilities and targeting people of Lebanon, its infrastructure areas and properties.

The statement also expressed the OIC members' "deep concern" over the process of following up the escalating situation in Lebanon by the council stressing that the ongoing situation was threatening peace and security in whole the Middle East region.

The statement went on calling on the council to issue an emergency resolution urging for a comprehensive cease-fire in Lebanon and for halting Lebanon's seizure by Israel.

The OIC considered Israel's measures a threat against
international peace and security and the UN Charter as well.

It said that Israel's ongoing savage aggression to Lebanon runs against all the international laws and regulations, particularly, the Fourth Geneva Convention in 1949 to support civilians in armed clashes.

Stressing that the OIC gave specific importance to establishment of a fair, comprehensive and lasting peace in the Middle East region, the Islamic body's members to the UN called on international community to help Lebanese people with their humanitarian supports.

OIC to play more active role in developments in Lebanon, Palestine

[Shammu]

Russia Signs USD 1 Bln Contract on Supplies of Fighter Jets, Helicopters With Venezuela

Created: 21.07.2006 18:54 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 19:02 MSK, 11 hours 10 minutes ago

MosNews

Russia has signed a contract on supplies of military planes and helicopters to Venezuela worth over $1 billion, the defense minister is quoted by RIA Novosti news agency as saying.

Sergei Ivanov said 30 Su-30 Flanker air-superiority fighters and 30 helicopters would be supplied to Venezuela.

The Russian Su-30 Flankers will replace a Venezuelan contingent of U.S. F-16 multi-role fighters after Washington imposed an embargo on arms sales to the country May 15, which it says poses a threat to regional stability.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has moved to curb American influence in the region and consolidate ties with other South American nations since he came to power in 1998, earlier accused the United States of breaching an agreement to supply parts for Venezuela’s F-16s.

Oil-rich Venezuela is a major purchaser of Russian weapons and hardware. In late 2004, the two countries signed a $54 million contract for the supply of 100,000 automatic rifles. In June this year, the outspoken Chavez said he planned to build a plant to make Kalashnikov rifles and cartridges in the country.

In mid 2005, Caracas signed a contract to buy six Mi-17 Hip and eight Mi-35 Hind multi-purpose helicopters from Russia, which has already supplied three of the aircraft.

Russia Signs USD 1 Bln Contract on Supplies of Fighter Jets, Helicopters With Venezuela

[Shammu]

Iran, Syria nourishing Hezbollah
By KATHERINE SHRADER

, Associated Press Writer
July 21, 2006

WASHINGTON - The Hezbollah military machine that has been attacking Israel draws much of its strength from two shadowy sources that are proving difficult to cut off: Syria and Iran.

The two countries, which President Bush blames for fomenting terrorism and destabilizing the Middle East, provide Hezbollah with training, weapons and financing, according to Western intelligence officials who are working to stem the flow of aid.

Hacienda Palo Verde

Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., a House Intelligence Committee member who was briefed on the Middle East situation during a recent trip to Iraq, said Syria has more than 1,000 agents in southern Lebanon, working either directly for Syrian intelligence or compensated by Syria for information. He says they are there "to cause trouble" and help prop up Hezbollah militarily.

Lebanon is two-thirds the size of Connecticut. In a country that small, Rogers said, "a thousand intelligence agents is unbelievable. It's huge."

Along with Syria's agents, Iran's well-trained Revolutionary Guard is believed to be providing military advisers to Hezbollah, with some level of coordination with Syria, according to U.S. officials and Anthony Cordesman, a Middle East expert with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject's sensitivity.

Cordesman said the Iranian role has evolved over time. Earlier, significant numbers of Iranians could be seen operating at terrorist training camps in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. Syria provided them safe haven in the region. "Now, what you have is people who are less visible," he said.

While intelligence agencies may try to pin down such details with spies, eavesdropping equipment and overhead surveillance, the details are among any government's most classified secrets. And some of what is public may be misinformation.

"I'll be perfectly blunt: Israeli intelligence is political, and you can't trust it," Cordesman said.

The United States lists Hezbollah as a terror organization. Yet the complicated 24-year-old Shiite Muslim organization has stepped in to fill vacuums left by the country's anemic government and controls much of the southern part of Lebanon, operating schools, health care and other social services.

It was created to counter Israeli occupying forces after Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and still provides much of the security along the border with the Jewish state. Tensions have mounted between Israel and Hezbollah's base in southern Lebanon since Hezbollah's brazen July 12 raid into northern Israel during which it kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others.

Experts have disputed claims from Hezbollah's leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, who has said repeatedly that his group has more than 12,000 rockets.

Other estimates suggest that the supply of rockets rose to 10,000 this year. That includes some Iranian-made rockets with a range of perhaps as much as 45 miles, but the vast majority - the Katyusha-type rockets - have a range of less than 20 miles.

Israel says Hezbollah has missiles and rockets that can go much farther. Israeli officials said the naval warship struck Friday was hit with an Iranian-made, radar-guided C-802 cruise missile, which has a range of up to 74 miles. Iran denies the claim, and U.S. officials have no information to confirm the missile was the C-802.

Numerous security and intelligence experts caution that estimates on Hezbollah's rocket arsenal aren't firm because they're based on calculations about the potential volume of known weapons shipments, rather than any actual count. Israel has been trying to cut off any resupply by destroying land routes from Syria into Lebanon.

Hezbollah can do limited reconnaissance. The group launched at least two unmanned aerial vehicles in 2004 and in 2005. Both Hezbollah and Israel have said the light, low-flying crafts were made by the group itself, while American analysts believe the drones were Iranian-made.

So far, U.S. officials and other experts have seen no sign that the group's drones have been armed with weapons.

How Hezbollah makes and spends its money is difficult for Western officials to determine. Hezbollah gets significant support from Iran and from Lebanese people living abroad, and more limited financing from Syria, a relatively poor country.

The organization also has been linked to almost every type of organized crime, including drug trafficking, drug counterfeiting and selling stolen baby formula.

Iran, Syria nourishing Hezbollah

[Shammu]

Marine Families: Hold Iran Accountable

The current flare-up of hostilities in Lebanon is for some American families a poignant reminder of events two decades ago, when Hezbollah militants attacked the U.S. barracks in Beirut, killing 241 Marines who had been stationed as an international peace-keeping force. Those Marines were members of the same unit that is currently helping to evacuate American citizens trapped in Lebanon.

"We understand only too well how Hezbollah uses terrorism to advance its radical goals,” said Lynn Smith Derbyshire, whose brother was killed in the Beirut bombing. "Hezbollah must no longer be allowed to terrorize the citizens of the world, whether in Israel, the United States or in Lebanon.”

Derbyshire is a member of a group called: "Justice For Marine Corps Families – Victims of Terrorism” that for years has pushed the U.S. government to hold Hezbollah’s sponsors in Iran and Syria accountable for the actions of their proxy army.

In March 2003, a judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia ruled that when Hezbollah attacked the Marines in October 1983, the terrorist organization carried out the direct will of the Islamic Republic of Iran and its Ministry of Information and Security. As punishment, the judge found Iran financially liable for the attacks.

The government of Iran retains commercial investments in the U.S. and is using profits made on American soil to finance more terrorism through Iranian-controlled banks that have invested Iranian funds in U.S. property. Legislation is pending in Congress that clarifies language in existing laws so that the families and victims of the 1983 Beirut bombing may target these illicit investments to collect on court-ordered damages.

"By passing H.R. 865 and S. 1257, Congress can stop Iran from funding more attacks by Hezbollah with money that is made right here in the United States,” said Steve Forbes.

"Hezbollah militants killed our loved ones without consequence, and now they are attacking other nations,” said Derbyshire. "We can stop this is by passing laws that will take action against Hezbollah for atrocities already committed.”

Marine Families: Hold Iran Accountable

[Shammu]

U.N. Mission Headed To Iran

    Stewart Stogel
    Saturday, July 22, 2006

UNITED NATIONS -- NewsMax has learned that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's Mideast negotiating team expects to head to Iran next week.

In New York to brief members of the Security Council and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the three-man contingent has been given the OK to meet with Iranian officials on the conflict in southern Lebanon.

Israel has repeatedly complained that the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah had been receiving new long-range surface-to-surface missiles from Iran.

Last week, an Israeli naval vessel moored off the coast of Lebanon was stuck by a surface-to-surface missile, which Israel Defense Forces claim was of Iranian origin.

The attack damaged the Israeli vessel and killed one sailor.

U.N. Mission Headed To Iran

[Shammu]

Why Israel must attack targets in Lebanon

A letter on July 18 asked why Israel is destroying the Beirut airport, port and roads to Syria in Lebanon. The answer is that the Lebanese government, for whatever reason, has allowed Hezbollah terrorists to operate freely in Lebanon, allowing repeated unprovoked attacks on Israel. Israel does not occupy any territory in Lebanon. Hezbollah manufactures no weapons, but imports them from Syria and Iran.

These weapons are imported via Beirut Airport and highways from Syria, all destined to randomly terrorize and kill innocents in Israel. So, Israel not only wants to prevent its kidnapped soldiers from being spirited out of the country, but must stop the import of terrorist weapons, which the Lebanese government has failed to do.

Lebanon also has violated its U.N.-mandated commitment to Israel to responsibly control its borders after Israel withdrew from south Lebanon six years ago. A responsible Beirut government would have prevented all this wanton destruction.

How long would the United States allow terrorists to sit on the Canadian border, with Canadian government sanction, for the purpose of terrorizing and murdering innocents in Detroit, Chicago, etc.? The U.S. response would be swift and overwhelming, devastating! And, we would not heed the cries to "Limit your response!"

[Shammu]

 Israel: When Diplomacy Turns Deadly
Written by Alan Burkhart
Saturday, July 22, 2006

Recent events in Israel and Lebanon should be the final nail in the coffin for Middle Eastern diplomacy.  Is there anyone left in the world besides Kofi Annan who believes in the possibility of peace through treaties and diplomacy where Radical Islam is involved?

 In the quest for a peaceful existence, Israel has done just about everything the world has asked her to do.  She’s given up huge pieces of land to Palestine and showed admirable restraint in the face of aggression from Hamas and Hezbollah.  Israel has openly embraced the notion of a Palestinian state as long as the attacks from Palestinian terrorists stop for all time.  What has Israel gained from her sacrifices?

Nothing but more aggression from those who wish to see her wiped from the face of the Earth.

What we must understand is that Radical Islam has no intention of honoring any agreements it makes with Israel--or for that matter, any other non-Muslim nation.  Gaining concessions from Israel, especially in the form of land, is simply another method of chipping away at Israel’s existence.  Islamics don’t see Israel’s many concessions any differently than if they’d gained the land through violence.

And yet the United Nations still expects Israel to show restraint after this most recent aggression by Hezbollah.  Kofi Annan still wants to declare a cease fire even though the blue-helmeted U.N. peace keepers are for the most part as corrupt and inept as Kofi himself.  And don’t forget that Russia and China are members of the United Nations.  Where’d Hezbollah get those missiles it’s firing out of Lebanon?  If you guessed “Iran,” give yourself a gold star.  Both Russia and China have been instrumental in Iran’s development of advanced weaponry.  And Hezbollah is little more than a puppet of Iran.

It is failed diplomacy that has placed Israel in its current predicament.  It is failed diplomacy that has led to the deaths of thousands of innocent Israeli citizens over the years.

Why have all diplomatic efforts failed to win a peace for Israel?

Diplomacy only works when all parties involved desire peace. Radical Islam seeks the destruction of Israel and the United States, and the subjugation of the entire planet.  Radical Islam will never honor any agreement with a non-Muslim nation, and it is complete idiocy to believe otherwise.  These are people who believe that they are on a mission from Allah to create a worldwide Muslim state.

So, how can we deal with them?

It is unfortunate that there is only one way to deal with Muslim extremists.  We have seen the results of attempting to appease them. Radical Islamics sees any attempt at a diplomatic solution as a sign of weakness.  They will not honor a cease fire agreement.  They will break any and all treaties. U.N. resolutions are as meaningless to them as the United Nations itself.

At the risk of sounding like a bit of an extremist myself, I’ll be the one to say what most civilized people are already thinking, though it pains them (and me) to do so:

“The only good terrorist is a dead terrorist.  Kill them all, and let Allah sort them out.”

As long as even one radical Muslim cleric still lives, as long as even one Islamic extremist still plots to kill, none of us are safe--not even the millions of peaceful Muslims who play no part in the Global Jihad.  The sooner the appeasers of the world face this unpleasant fact, the sooner we can eradicate an implacable evil from our world.

"We know Bush is the enemy of God, the enemy of Islam, and the enemy of the Moslem people.  America has declared war against God, [Israeli Prime Minister] Sharon declared war against God, and God has declared war against America, Bush, and Sharon."

Israel: When Diplomacy Turns Deadly

[Shammu]

Two fronts in Israel's brutal war
By Kim Bullimore
Green Left, July 22, 2006

Two Israeli soldiers were captured on July 12 by members of Hezbollah, the Lebanese Islamic Resistance Movement. Eight Israeli soldiers were killed during clashes, reported the Haaretz newspaper. According to a Deutsche Presse-Agentur article, Israeli media reports claimed that “Hezbollah offered Israel an all-inclusive prisoners exchange, which would include the release of the two soldiers and a third held in Gaza against that of thousands of Palestinian and three Lebanese prisoners held in Israel”.

Israel responded to the soldiers’ capture with air strikes on Lebanese targets, including roads and the Qasmiya Bridge. On July 13, Israeli jets bombed Beirut’s international airport. Two military air bases were also targeted. Associated Press reported that Israel was imposing a total sea and air blockade on Lebanon. According to a July 13 Haaretz report, at least 60 people had been killed by Israeli air strikes.

The Israeli government has blamed the abduction and deaths of its soldiers on the Lebanese government. At least half of the soldiers were killed after they entered Lebanese territory.

According to Haaretz, Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has told the Israeli government that “no military operation will return” the captured soldiers. According to Nasrallah, the soldiers will only be returned “through one way: indirect negotiations and a trade [of prisoners]”.

Hezbollah formed in response to the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon and has long supported the struggle of the Palestinian people against the illegal Israeli occupation. The group has previously threatened to open a second front in support of the al Aqsa intifada, the Palestinian uprising that began in September 2000.

As a new war front opened up on the Israeli-Lebanese border, Israel continued its relentless assault on the Gaza Strip. “Operation Summer Rain” — launched by Israel on June 28, ostensibly in response to the capture of a soldier during a Palestinian guerrilla attack on the Israeli artillery base at Kerem Shalom — has seen more than 120 air strikes carried out by the Israeli Air Force in its first three weeks.

The attacks have destroyed Gaza’s only electricity station, and the three main bridges and roads into the Gaza Strip, resulting in the closure of all entry points into the region. This has made it near impossible for people, food, water and medical supplies to reach the region.

On July 11, Haaretz reported that “more than 3000 Palestinians, including 578 deemed 'urgent humanitarian cases’ have been stranded”, on the Egyptian side of the Rafah border crossing since before the recent assault began. Israel has refused to open the crossing. According to the Red Cross, conditions at the crossing are deteriorating, as there are no proper waiting facilities and no organised food or water distribution.

Israel has used military bulldozers to destroy Palestinian farmland and houses, and has carried out more than 30 sonic boom attacks, which cause widespread fear and psychosis, particularly among children.

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, more than 71 Palestinian men, women and children were killed by the Israeli military assault between June 28 and July 12. Another 197 people were wounded and at least 12 people have had their limbs amputated as a result of the onslaught.

On June 30, Amnesty International issued a statement accusing Israel of carrying out war crimes in Gaza. The group claimed Israel had violated section 33 of the Fourth Geneva Convention, which prohibits the collective punishment of a civilian population and the deliberate destruction of public infrastructure.

Initially, it claimed that the primary reason for the current assault was to secure the release of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was captured by a Palestinian militia group on June 25. It later claimed the assault was to stop Qassam rockets being fired into Israel and to secure Israel’s borders.

However these have been mere pretexts to allow it to carry out its plan to topple the democratically elected Palestinian Authority (PA) government, which is dominated by Hamas, and to distract world attention as its brings more of the occupied West Bank under its control through the destruction and confiscation of Palestinian land, the expansion of its illegal colonies (“settlements”) and the building of the apartheid wall.

The current Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip is neither exceptional nor unusual. During its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territory seized in the 1967 war Israel has regularly carried out military assaults on the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. In late 2004, Israeli forces attacked Gaza as part of “Operation Days of Penitence”, killing more than 100 Palestinians. In 2002 “Operation Defensive Shield”, the largest Israeli military operation in the West Bank, included brutal invasions of Jenin and Nablus.

Over the past 10 months, Israel has carried out “arrests” (i.e. kidnappings) and assassinations of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories. The most recent Israeli “incursion” took place just two days before the capture of Shalit, when Israeli security forces invaded Gaza and kidnapped two men, a doctor and his brother, from their homes.

Israel’s unilateral “disengagement” from Gaza in 2005, while resulting in the dismantling of illegal Israeli settlements, was not a step towards Palestinian self-determination or towards peace, as claimed by Israel and the corporate media. Instead, the Gaza Strip was turned into what Israeli human rights organisation B’Tselem described as “one big prison”, with Israeli occupation forces continuing to control the land, sea and air.

Since the beginning of the year, the Karni crossing, one of the main entry points from Israel into Gaza used to transport food and medical supplies, has been closed over 43% of the time.

For over six months, Israel has continued to fire, each day, hundreds of heavy artillery shells into the region from the sea and from within Israeli territory. In the first three weeks of June, before the current military invasion and assault, 24 Palestinians were killed and another 77 wounded, including seven children and adults from the Ghalia family who were carrying out the dangerous terrorist act of picnicking on Gaza Beach.

However the Israeli assault on Gaza has increased support for the Hamas government, rather than marginalising the group. It has also resulted in, at least for the moment, a dissolution of the tensions between Fatah and Hamas militants, who have returned to fighting a common enemy instead of each other.

In the months leading up to the assault, PA president and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas had played a dangerous game of brinkmanship with Hamas. Fatah, which in the past has dominated Palestinian politics and controlled the PA since its inception in 1994, has refused to accept the defeat dealt to it in January, when Hamas swept the PA elections.

Abbas, backed by the US, Israel and the European Union, has sought to undermine Hamas and Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh at every turn.

Danny Rubenstein, writing in Haaretz on July 10, noted that “the damaging strikes in the Gaza Strip, the casualties and destruction have stirred up frustration, rage and hatred, both in Gaza and the West Bank. None of these emotions is directed against the Hamas-led government. Everyone considers Israel responsible: for unemployment, the failure to pay salaries, the power outages. No one dares to criticise the Hamas government and no one considers it to be responsible for what is happening.”

According to a poll carried out by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Centre, 70% of Palestinians believe Hamas should not release Shalit until Israel agrees to free Palestinian prisoners. Over 66% of the 1197 people polled expressed support for continued raids aimed at capturing Israeli soldiers. The poll also revealed that support for Hamas had increased 3% despite the international economic blockade, while support for Abbas and Fatah had dropped at least 1%.

Hamas’s popularity will increase further if it is able to secure the release of even a small percentage of the 9000 Palestinian political prisoners being held in Israeli jails. In return for freeing Shalit, Hamas is asking for the release of the more than 400 child prisoners, 120 women prisoners and several hundred prisoners who are suffering major illness and medical problems.

However, despite Israeli governments previously engaging in prisoner exchanges, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert does not want to be seen to be tying the release of Shalit directly to the release of Palestinian prisoners, as this will be viewed as a clear victory for Hamas.

But Olmert’s stance is increasingly being questioned by commentators within Israel. Many have begun to criticise Olmert for not having any concrete plan or “exit strategy” in relation to Gaza. Olmert is being seen as increasingly backed into a corner. A war with Hezbollah, which could possibly also draw in Syria and Iran, would be a disaster for Olmert.

Israel is now fighting on two war fronts in territories it had supposedly withdrawn from. If the war front in the north was to expand, it would force Israel to ease the assault in Gaza, but could mean Israel was once again engaged in a possibly disastrous and protracted war with Lebanon.

Two fronts in Israel's brutal war

[Shammu]

Denver Muslims Blame Israel For Ongoing Conflict

(CBS4) DENVER The Colorado Muslim Society in Denver believes Israel is to blame for the escalating violence.

They held a meeting Friday with the Muslim American society to discuss the conflict and the political issues involved.

The Muslims wanted to hear more support for ending the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon and criticized President Bush and the U.S. government for its support. They said Israel is responsible and America shares the blame.

"We had the sympathy of our allies and our enemies alike after (September 11th) and all that is gone because of the behavior of our government," said Raeed Tayeh from the Muslim American Society.

"We stand before you today because we feel it is our obligation to help those who are helpless and speak out against the injustice that has befallen Muslim and Christian Lebanese and Palestinians, not just this month but for decades," said Najwa Jad with Colorado Muslim Society.

Denver's Muslim community said they're calling for a cease-fire and wants more dialogue among Muslims, Christians, and Jews to foster a better understanding of the conflict.

Denver Muslims Blame Israel For Ongoing Conflict

[Shammu]

New York Times: U-S rushing munitions to Israel

JERUSALEM The New York Times is reporting that the Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel after receiving a request last week.
The Times is reporting on its Web site that the munitions were part of a multi- (m) million-dollar arms-sale package approved last year that Israel could tap at any time.

New York Times: U-S rushing munitions to Israel