Biblical countries, in the news.

[Shammu]

IDF Stepping-Up Ground Forces Operation in Lebanon
09:47 Aug 02, '06 / 8 Av 5766
by Yechiel Spira and Hillel Fendel

IDF officials announced Wednesday morning that a major anti-Hizbullah operation in the Baalbek area of Lebanon has ended. They said the mission was successful.


The operation took place during the night, some 50 miles from Beirut and near the Syrian border. There were no reports of injuries to IDF soldiers.

Infantry soldiers were brought in by helicopter, receiving cover from the air. According to Lebanese sources, air force craft fired near a hospital in Baalbek, a known Hizbullah stronghold. Electricity to the area was cut shortly after the operation began, and IDF fighter craft began pounding Hizbullah targets in the area under cover of darkness.

According to an Al-Jazeera report, not confirmed by Israeli sources, commando forces landed in a hospital in Tel Al-Abayed in the hope of capturing a senior Hizbullah commander reportedly being treated in the hospital. They did not find him, but left with 3-5 other suspects in his stead.

The last time IDF forces were known to have operated so far into Lebanon was in 1994, when senior terror commander Mustafa Dirani was taken hostage. Israel hoped to use him towards negotiating the release of Air Force navigatorRon Arad, but he was released in a prisoner exchange ten years later after Israel’s Supreme Court ruled he could no longer be held as a negotiating pawn towards obtaining Arad’s release.

Galei Tzahal (Army) Radio reported that the Baalbek area operation ended without injuries to IDF troops, adding a number of Hizbullah gunmen were taken prisoner and an unspecified number were killed. Fighting was reported to have been heavy during the night.

On Tuesday, five brigades were operating in Lebanon, and that number is expected to increase in line with the Security Cabinet decision to step-up ground forces operations, seeking to push Hizbullah deeper into Lebanon in an effort to minimize the threat to Israel’s northern border. The security cabinet gave the ‘green light’ for ground forces to operation as far as the Litani River, 25 kilometers to the north of Israel.

The major counter-terror offensive has not been without a toll to Israel as well. In Tuesday’s heavy fighting in Ayta A-Sha’ab, three IDF paratroopers were killed, and 25 sustained light and light-to-moderate wounds.

Justice Minister Chaim Ramon, a member of the Security Cabinet, estimates as many as 300-400 Hizbullah gunmen have been killed, out of a total of 2,000, since the start of the fighting a little over three weeks ago. Intelligence community officials say Hizbullah has been hurt hard, and that the ongoing IDF operation is taking a major toll on the terror organization.

While public sentiment for the anti-Hizbullah effort remains strong, opposition continues to grow among Israeli-Arab citizens, with some taking part in a stormy anti-war protest in eastern Jerusalem on Tuesday. Analysts point out that while some Israeli-Arabs are chanting pro-Hizbullah slogans, the Katyusha rockets slamming into Israeli population centers do not discriminate between Jewish and Arab-Israelis, and have led to three deaths and several injuries among the latter. Nevertheless, Israeli-Arabs by and large are using the ongoing anti-terror war in Lebanon to show their support for Arab brethren against Israel.

On the southern front, one Israeli is listed in light-to-moderate condition after a Kassam rocket fired from Gaza hit the southern industrial area of Ashkelon this morning. The IDF continues to attacks Hamas strongholds in the Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled area, and the Air Force targeted a number of Hamas weapons storage facilities over the night. Navy gunships also fired at Hamas targets in Gaza. Despite tenacious IDF efforts to date, the Kassam rockets have continued all the while to slam into civilian population centers in Sderot, the western Negev, and even deeper into southern Israel.

World pressure in support of an Israeli ceasefire continues to mount, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert continues to stand firm, insisting this will not take place until the Hizbullah threat is eliminated from along Israel’s northern border. Government officials, including Olmert, are signaling that the military operation would halt when a multi-national stabilization forces is deployed in the area, a move that most experts believe will take a number of weeks.

Speaking from Washington following meetings in Jerusalem on Saturday and Sunday, US Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice stated a ceasefire in Lebanon is a matter “of days, not weeks.”

Seemingly contradicting the senior US official was Vice Premier Shimon Peres, who stated, following a meeting with Rice, that the fighting would most likely continue for a number of weeks.

IDF Stepping-Up Ground Forces Operation in Lebanon

[Shammu]

En route to Damascus
By Akiva Eldar

Major General (reserve) Amos Gilad, who headed the research division of Military Intelligence in the 1990's, earned a reputation for being a serial doomsdayer. Yasser Arafat was planning to destroy the State of Israel and Saddam Hussein was on the verge of sending a nuclear weapon in our direction. His opinion of withdrawing unilaterally from Lebanon, without involving the Syrians, was not very favorable either. But in view of the current situation in the north, his predictions were apparently not pessimistic enough.

At a cabinet session on November 29, 1998, after Hezbollah attacked an Israel Defense Forces and Southern Lebanese Army outpost in South Lebanon, Gilad presented the following assessment of the situation: Even if Israel withdraws unilaterally from Lebanon, Syria will continue to run Hezbollah as a means of getting the Golan Heights back. He warned that any attempt to disassociate the problem of South Lebanon from the peace process with Syria would return the IDF to Lebanon.

Apparently, assuming the job of the defense minister's diplomatic-security coordinator has not changed the veteran intelligence officer's assessment of the situation. According to sources in the defense establishment, Gilad has succeeded in convincing the minister, Amir Peretz, and those around him that the key to the crisis in Lebanon lies in a peace agreement with Syria. Major General (reserve) Uri Saguy, who was chief of Military Intelligence and head of the negotiating team with Syria, relates that his public appeal (Haaretz, July 18) to open a channel of communication with Syria fell on open ears among his former colleagues in the IDF top brass. They told him that there are those in the General Staff who agree with his every word.

According to Haaretz's archives, during a cabinet debate held in late 1998, Gilad was not alone. Among those who supported his views were then defense minister Yitzhak Mordechai, then chief of staff Shaul Mofaz, then Shin Bet security service head Ami Ayalon, and Meir Dagan, then the prime minister's adviser on terror. Then prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel should remain in south Lebanon until the Lebanese army deployed there. Who supported the idea of unilateral withdrawal? The then foreign minister, Ariel Sharon. He maintained that after the IDF left Lebanon, Damascus would no longer have any interest in hitting Israeli targets. "Israel is interested in peace talks with Syria," he said, "but we cannot tie the talks with Syria to what is happening in Lebanon."

In retrospect, we can see here the first signs that Sharon's unilateral philosophy regarding the occupation of territory also applied to withdrawals from that same territory. The war on terror and in Iraq turned American President George W. Bush into Sharon's partner in adding Syrian President Bashar Assad to the list of non-partners.

When Ehud Olmert became prime minister, his advisors briefed him, explaining that Syria was out of bounds. Israel does not want a war with Damascus. And the United States is not interested in hearing about peace with it.

In recent days, Washington has started to send hints about a new American assessment of relations with Syria. James Baker - who, as secretary of state in the Bush Senior administration, invited Assad Senior to the Madrid Conference - expressed his willingness to go to Damascus as an envoy of Bush Junior. Even Edward P. Djerejian, who is director of the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy and has maintained ties with the Syrian government since he served as American ambassador to Damascus, packed his suitcases.

The U.S. State Department and the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem have been informed that if the United States continues to delay, planes carrying European foreign ministers will be waiting in line for permission to land in Damascus airport. And if that were not enough, the French, who have not forgiven the Syrians for murdering their friend Rafik Hariri, are threatening that in the absence of American activity on the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah track, the French will offer Iran asylum from the axis of evil.

Damascus is obviously interested in seeing this lethal game bog down. That would enable it to raise the price of a rescue. An editorial in the Syrian government daily Al-Ba'th declared this week that anyone who thinks that an international force on Lebanese soil is the solution is wrong. "These forces ... would be occupation forces, like the forces that have occupied Iraq and other places in the world," it said. The next sentence mentions the Golan Heights: "Whoever puts his trust in the [idea that] destruction, murder, and even occupation can impose solutions that violate sovereignty and national honor - he is wrong" (translation by MEMRI).

Shaba is not alone

Meir Ben-Dov does not really care if the Shaba Farms are handed over to Syria or Lebanon. The Jerusalem archaeologist, a grandson of the founders of Metula, expects that after Israel reaches a territorial arrangement with its neighbors, Lebanon will return the land owned by the farmers of Metula, thereby rectifying an injustice done to them by the British and French.

In a book that is soon to be published, Ben-Dov presents documents that prove that Metula was founded in 1896 on land in the Ayoun Valley that Baron Rothschild bought from Effendi Notzri of Sidon. The land was divided up and sold to the settlers of Metula, and it is owned by them to this day.

In 1923, a joint committee of British and French army officers drew the border between the British Mandate in Palestine and the French Mandate in Syria-Lebanon. The mukhtars of all the surrounding villages were invited to the committee's meeting. The minutes expressly note that the mukhtar of Metula, Meir Lishanski, who was visiting Tiberias that day, was absent from the meeting. The border was drawn such that the lands of the Ayoun Valley and its environs, an area of 4,000 dunams (four square kilometers), were included in the Syrian-Lebanese mandate. When the mukhtar of Metula learned this, he appealed to the committee, and after a brief study of the facts, the committee realized that an injustice had indeed been done to the Jewish farmers. It therefore decided that the land would remain in Jewish hands, and the farmers would be given laissez-passer documents so that they could continue to farm their land.

In World War II, the British built an airfield on part of Metula's land in the Ayoun Valley. They promised to compensate the farmers of Metula for their loss of income, and added that when the war was over, the airfield would be dismantled and the land returned to its owners. But it never happened. After Lebanon won its independence in 1945, the land remained in the hands of the Metula farmers, and they worked them under the same conditions, paying taxes to the British Mandatory government.

In 1951, after the oil pipeline from Saudi Arabia to Sidon was laid by American oil companies, the government of Israel, at the request of the American authorities, ordered the farmers to stop traveling to their land. The government of Lebanon appointed an official whose job it was to lease the lands in the Ayoun Valley to Lebanese farmers. In order to prevent any claims of possession, the rights were transferred to others every three years. In return for their land, the farmers of Metula received 1,675 dunams in the Hula Valley. Ben-Dov and the other heirs have been negotiating with the Israel Lands Administration ever since over the compensation they should receive for the missing 2,250 dunams.

Ben-Dov also has other memories of the north that relate to a border dispute that could arise in the wake of a diplomatic settlement in the region. In his childhood in Metula, Lebanese farmers from the village of Ghajar used to come every week to Metula to sell the fish they caught in the Hatzbani River (then called the Wazani). But during the early days of the Yom Kippur War, when he was fighting on the Syrian front, a group of Ghajar residents suddenly appeared at the Tank Junction carrying a white flag. "They said that they were Syrians and asked why we weren't occupying them."

A master's thesis written by Yigal Kipnis, who lives in the Golan Heights, offers a solution to the riddle. In the French Mandate's population report for 1945, Ghajar does not appear as a Syrian village. The same is true on official French maps and Lebanese maps, as well as Israeli maps from before 1967. The entire village is located inside Lebanese territory. But in the Syrian census carried out in 1960, it appears among the towns of Quneitra County. Geographer Zvi Ilan maintains that the border had been changed following an official agreement between the governments of Lebanon and Syria a short time earlier, against the background of the military confrontation between Syria and Israel.

En route to Damascus

[Shammu]

Exclusive: IDF can stay in Lebanon
Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST    Aug. 2, 2006

While the IDF needs until the end of the week to deal Hizbullah a fatal blow, the military is prepared to remain in southern Lebanon for as long as it takes, even several months, until a multinational force takes control of the territory, IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky told The Jerusalem Post Tuesday.

"The IDF knows how to operate for as long as it takes even if it means remaining in the territory for a long time," Kaplinsky told the Post during a visit to a military base along the northern border. The general said the IDF was currently working according to an operational plan in which IDF troops would push their way through southern Lebanon until the Litani River, some 40 kilometers from the border with Israel. But if necessary, he said, the IDF was prepared to travel even further northward.

On Tuesday, the largest military force was operating in Lebanon since Israel launched Operation Change of Direction on July 12 following the abduction of two soldiers in a cross-border Hizbullah attack. Paratroopers were operating in the village of Aita al-Sha'ab near Shtula, troops from the Golani Brigade were operating near the village of Al Adisya north of Metula, the Nahal Brigade was operating near the village of Ataybah close by and the Armored Corps 7th Brigade was operating near Maroun a-Ras.

Also Tuesday, thousands of IDF reservists were gearing up for the first incursion of reservists into southern Lebanon.

The IDF, a high-ranking source in the Northern Command said Tuesday, needed at least one more week to clear the area south of the Litani River of Hizbullah guerillas. The troops on the ground, he said, would not spend more than one-to-two days inside the Hizbullah strongholds and would operate at a faster pace than in the past.

"We will sweep through the area in an effort to exterminate the Hizbullah presence in the villages," the officer said, expressing hope that the objective would be achieved before the UN Security Council passed a resolution calling for a cease-fire, expected to happen by the end of the week.

Signifying, however, that the IDF might also try to send troops north of the Litani, IAF fighter jets dropped tens of thousands of leaflets over villages north of the river on Tuesday calling on the residents to flee further north in anticipation of IDF operations in the area.

Brig.-Gen. Alon Friedman, deputy commander of the Northern Command, said Tuesday evening that while it would take until the end of the week for the IDF to take up positions within southern Lebanon, it could take over a month to destroy Hizbullah terror infrastructure in the area.

"If we will need to operate north of the Litani," Friedman said, "we will also operate there." A high-ranking officer said the IDF was slightly disappointed with the progress of the ground operations in southern Lebanon and was hoping that the current incursion would bring the results. "We would have liked things to go faster," the officer said. "The enemy, however, had six years to get ready and infantry units can only go as fast as they can walk."

Exclusive: IDF can stay in Lebanon

[Shammu]

Spain's Moratinos due in Beirut, Damascus
02 Aug 2006 07:38:27 GMT
Source: Reuters

NICOSIA, Aug 2 (Reuters) - Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, a former EU envoy to the Middle East, was to travel to Beirut and Damascus on Wednesday.

Moratinos planned to travel to Beirut from neighbouring Cyprus with humanitarian aid. Diplomats declined to give full details of his trip.

The European Union presidency on Wednesday said Moratinos also planned to visit Damascus. Syria is a key regional backer of Hizbollah, fighting Israeli forces for the past three weeks.

EU foreign ministers on Tuesday called for an immediate end to hostilities in Lebanon, but fell short of calling for an immediate ceasefire at the insistence of the United States' closest allies in the bloc.

"He will be taking in seven tonnes of humanitarian aid, mainly medical supplies. Hopefully he will be flying in today on a Spanish military plane," a Spanish diplomat in Cyprus told Reuters. The diplomat would not comment on the Damascus leg of the trip or on Moratinos's contacts in Beirut.

Moratinos would travel back to Cyprus with a number of Spaniards who wanted to leave Lebanon, the diplomat said.

Spain's Moratinos due in Beirut, Damascus

[Shammu]

Analysis: Watching Damascus
amir mizroch,
THE JERUSALEM POST
Aug. 2, 2006

Three weeks have passed since Israel embarked on a military campaign to change the status quo in southern Lebanon, exact a price from Hizbullah and get its kidnapped soldiers back.

In these three weeks of battle, the army has dropped a variety of bombs, launched a wide range of rockets, missiles and shells and has deployed all of its elite reconnaissance units. All of this against a well dug-in guerrilla Hizbullah army, what one official closely associated with determining the government's defense policy on Tuesday called "a division of the Iranian armed forces."

"There is a lot of Iranian activity within Hizbullah relating to actual fighters, supply of ammunition and other means. In the fighting so far, we have damaged some of this Iranian activity," the official told The Jerusalem Post.

On the 21st day of this war, with the situation resembling more a stalemate than a decisive victory, and with the fighting taking place so close to the border, the IDF has finally unsheathed its ultimate weapon: its reserve soldiers. Thousands of reservists are set to pour into southern Lebanon to take part in the battle.

Critics of the IDF's performance so far point to the still-existent Hizbullah capability to fire rockets at northern Israel, and its threatened capability of launching rockets even further south. Despite the army's contention that Hizbullah has been badly weakened operationally with hundreds of its fighters killed and many of its rocket launchers destroyed, Hizbullah has only to survive until a cease-fire is imposed on the region to claim victory, even if that victory is largely ephemeral.

The fact that at least three divisions of reservists are going to be sent into action now, and not deployed at the outset of the fighting, gave Hizbullah enough breathing room to battle a large part of the IDF's standing army and its air force, the critics say. Had the reservists been called up the day Hizbullah carried out its cross-border raid on July 12, and deployed them as soon as they could have been made operational, the past three weeks of battle may have looked different.

So the question arises, why were the reserves not activated earlier? The main reason, according to the official, lies with how Syria perceives the unfolding events. Had Israel called up its reserves at the outset of the battle, Damascus could have potentially "freaked out" and open a second front against the IDF. The Syrians could have perceived the move as an immediate threat and acted accordingly.

This way, with reservists mobilized three weeks into the war, the Syrians were "massaged", and could see the IDF's gradual build up forces in southern Lebanon. Damascus could clearly see how Israel is building its forces in "stages and steps" and not giant leaps. This is why the Syrians, despite their latest saber rattling, are not "that freaked out" right now. They are on alert, worried, and tense, and are watching events, but they have not been jolted into hysterics.

Political and defense officials have been saying since the start of the war that Israel has no intention to fight Syria, and that Syria is not part of this war. "As you can see the Hermon is quiet, the Golan Heights are quiet, and that is important, as we still have the Gaza front," the official said.

The mobilization of reserves at this stage of the game leaves the government the option of widening the scope of its campaign, without the immediate threat of a Syrian overreaction. Initially, the IDF's plan was to send in small forces to hit Hizbullah positions and rocket launchers, and leave to come back for more pin-point strikes. Officers fighting in the North say they want to hit Hizbullah as hard as they can, in as little time as possible, and are heartened to be joined by thousands of battle-ready and experienced reservists, many of whom have fought in Lebanon before.

Another reason Israel didn't mobilize its reserves at the beginning was that when reservists [read: fathers, businessmen, factory workers, etc.] are called up, they should be used immediately and not made to wait. Once reservists are called up and not deployed, they sit around playing backgammon, smoking cigarettes and drinking Turkish coffee, while their family situation, businesses, as well as the general economy, starts to decline, and quickly.

As the government's goals for the war crystallize operationally, reservists could be mobilized and sent into battle.

Analysis: Watching Damascus

[Shammu]

Over 300 Rockets Fired At Israel Since Dawn -Officials
Wednesday August 2nd, 2006 / 12h20
   
BEIRUT (AP)--Hezbollah fighters have fired more than 300 rockets toward Israel since dawn Wednesday, Lebanese security officials reported.
Israel medics said one of the rockets hit near the town of Beit Shean, the deepest rocket strike into Israel so far.
Israeli police and rescue services put the total number of rockets much lower, saying at least 84 were fired by Hezbollah at towns across northern Israel. The reports said at least seven people were wounded.
An AP corespondent in the southern Lebanese hilltop hamlet of Bourj al-Mulouk, near the border village of Kfar Kila, reported seeing at least two dozen outgoing rockets flying overhead and landing in northern Israel.
The reporter said the rockets appeared to have been fired from the area between Khiam and Marjayoun.
Israeli artillery was returning fire, the reporter said, with a shell falling about every two minutes.


Over 300 Rockets Fired At Israel Since Dawn

[Shammu]

 Blair warns of 'arc of extremism'

Tony Blair has warned that an "arc of extremism" is stretching across the Middle East and said "an alliance of moderation" was needed to defeat it.

Mr Blair also told the World Affairs Council in Los Angeles that Syria and Iran had to stop supporting terrorism or they would "be confronted".

His speech was planned some weeks ago but he said the Lebanon crisis had "brought it into sharp relief".

He said there was now a war "of a completely unconventional kind".

The prime minister said: "There is an arc of extremism now stretching across the Middle East and touching countries far outside that region."

He said in Iraq, Syria had allowed al-Qaeda operatives to "cross the border" while Iran had supported extremist Shia.

"The purpose of the terrorism in Iraq is absolutely simple - carnage, causing sectarian hatred, leading to civil war," he said.

'Export of instability'

Mr Blair added: "We need to make clear to Syria and Iran that there is a choice: come in to the international community and play by the same rules as the rest of us; or be confronted.

"Their support of terrorism, their deliberate export of instability, their desire to see wrecked the democratic prospect in Iraq, is utterly unjustifiable, dangerous and wrong.

"If they keep raising the stakes, they will find they have miscalculated."

Mr Blair also spoke about the conflict between Israel and Lebanon and said that the "purpose of the provocation" that began it "was clear".

"It was to create chaos, division and bloodshed, to provoke retaliation by Israel that would lead to Arab and Muslim opinion being inflamed, not against those who started the aggression but against those who responded to it," he said.

However, he said it was still possible to come out of the crisis "with a better long-term prospect for the cause of moderation in the Middle East succeeding".

He added: "But it would be absurd not to face up to the immediate damage to that cause which has been done."

Mr Blair said all would be done to try to halt the hostilities in the conflict.

"But once that has happened we must commit ourselves to a complete renaissance of our strategy to defeat those that threaten us," he said.

'Alliance of moderation'

Mr Blair spoke of how he believed "global extremism" should be tackled.

"To defeat it will need an alliance of moderation that paints a different future in which Muslim, Jew and Christian, Arab and Western, wealthy and developing nations can make progress in peace and harmony.

 "We will not win the battle against this global extremism unless we win it at the level of values as much as force, unless we show we are even-handed, fair and just in our application of those values to the world."

He said this "unconventional" war must be won through these values.

"This war can't be won in a conventional way, it can only be won by showing that our values are stronger, better and more just, more fair than the alternatives," he said.

'Values change'

However, he said this required a dramatic change in strategy.

The prime minister told his 2,000-strong audience there was now an "elemental struggle" about values that was set to shape the world's future.

He said it was a part of struggle between what he called reactionary Islam and moderate mainstream Islam.

And in Iraq and Afghanistan he said "the banner was not actually regime change it was values change".

"What we have done therefore in intervening in this way, is probably far more momentous than we appreciated at the time," he said

Blair warns of 'arc of extremism'

[Shammu]

Terrorists Plot to Attack Americans Through Food Supply
Jim Kouri

While airport security, seaport protection, illegal immigration and other functions of the Department of Homeland Security garner more attention and news headlines, one of the most fear terrorist tactics is the use of the United States' domestic food supply chain to kill as many Americans as possible.

Intelligence sources believe that this type of terrorist plot is being considered by members of several groups including Al-Qaeda. In fact, the DHS has a term to describe such a tactic: Agroterrorism.

US agriculture generates more than $1 trillion per year in economic activity and provides an abundant food supply for Americans and others. Since the September 11, 2001, attacks, there have been new concerns about the vulnerability of US agriculture to the deliberate introduction of animal and plant diseases.

Several agencies, including the US Department of Agriculture, the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Department of Defense, play a role in protecting the nation against agroterrorism.

After the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, federal agencies’ roles and responsibilities were modified in several ways to help protect agriculture from an attack.

First, the Homeland Security Act of 2002 established DHS and, among other things, charged it with coordinating US efforts to protect against agroterrorism. The act also transferred a number of agency personnel and functions into DHS to conduct planning, response, and recovery efforts.

Second, the President signed a number of presidential directives that further define agencies’ specific roles in protecting agriculture. Finally, Congress passed legislation that expanded the responsibilities of USDA and HHS in relation to agriculture security.

In carrying out these new responsibilities, USDA and other federal agencies have taken a number of actions. The agencies are coordinating development of plans and protocols to better manage the national response to terrorism, including agroterrorism, and, along with several states, have conducted exercises to test these new protocols and the response capabilities.

Federal agencies also have been conducting vulnerability assessments of the agriculture infrastructure; have created networks of laboratories capable of diagnosing animal, plant, and human diseases; have begun efforts to develop a national veterinary stockpile that intends to include vaccines against foreign animal diseases; and have created new federal emergency coordinator positions to help states develop emergency response plans for the agriculture sector.

However, the United States still faces complex challenges that limit the nation’s ability to respond effectively to an attack against livestock. For example, USDA would not be able to deploy animal vaccines within 24 hours of an outbreak as called for in a presidential directive, in part because the only vaccines currently stored in the United States are for strains of foot and mouth disease, and these vaccines need to be sent to the United Kingdom to be activated for use. There are also management problems that inhibit the effectiveness of agencies’ efforts to protect against agroterrorism.

For instance, since the transfer of agricultural inspectors from USDA to DHS in 2003, there have been fewer inspections of agricultural products at the nation’s ports of entry. According to anti-terrorism experts, this is completely unacceptable and the transfer of inspectors from the USDA to Homeland Security should have increased inspections, not reduced them.

To enhance the agencies’ ability to reduce the risk of agroterrorism, security experts recommended, among other things, that USDA examine the costs and benefits of developing stockpiles of ready-to-use vaccines and that DHS and USDA determine the reasons for declining agricultural inspections.

USDA, DHS, and HHS generally agreed with many recommendations. However, according to officials at the Government Accountability Office, the Defense Department and EPA made technical comments but took no position on the report’s recommendations.

Terrorists Plot to Attack Americans Through Food Supply

[Shammu]

IDF calls on south Lebanon residents to leave their homes

The Israel Defense Forces called on residents of the southern Lebanese town of Nabatiyeh to leave their homes.

Air force aircraft dropped leaflets asking residents to leave for their safety and similar warnings were given by the Arab media.

IDF calls on south Lebanon residents to leave their homes

[Shammu]

Hezbollah Rocket Hits West Bank
Wednesday, August 2, 2006
 
(08-02) 03:45 PDT JERUSALEM, Israel (AP) --

Hezbollah guerrillas fired more than 300 rockets from Lebanese border towns into northern Israel on Wednesday, Lebanese security officials said, including one that hit the West Bank for the first time.

Israel medics said that rocket hit near the town of Beit Shean, about 42 miles from the border, which makes it the deepest rocket strike into Israel so far. Witnesses said it struck between the West Bank villages of Fakua and Jalboun, causing no injuries.

Hezbollah said it was a Khaibar-1 rocket, which Israel claims is Iranian-made.

Israeli police and rescue services said at least 84 rockets were fired by Hezbollah at towns across northern Israel. The Israeli reports said at least seven people were wounded.

The discrepancy in the number of launches could not immediately be reconciled.

An Associated Press reporter standing on a hilltop overlooking the Lebanese border town of Kfar Kila, about 1 1/2 miles from Israel, saw outgoing rockets fly overhead and across the Israeli border.

They were fired from a region in southeastern Lebanon that includes Khiam, Marjayoun and Ibl el-Saqi — all within about three miles of the Israeli border and the scene of heavy ground fighting and artillery shelling in the past two days.

Plumes of black smoke rose from the hills above Kfar Kila and the nearby village of Adeisse, where the thud of Israeli artillery was constant. Shells were falling about once every two minutes.

Hezbollah Rocket Hits West Bank

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Chabad distributes books of Psalms in North
Matthew Wagner, THE JERUSALEM POST    Aug. 1, 2006

Chabad have printed a million copies of Psalms, which were being distributed to residents and IDF soldiers in the North, it was reported on Tuesday.

"During our activities in the North we discovered there was a huge demand for psalms," said Habad spokesman Rabbi Menahem Brod.

Russian-born business tycoon and Betar Jerusalem owner, Arkady Gaydamak, was funding the initiative.

Brod noted that all the books of Psalms were placed in a nylon pouch in order that they could be put in a pocket and brought into the bathroom. According to Jewish law it is prohibited to take holy books into the restroom.

Chabad distributes books of Psalms in North

[Shammu]

Hezbollah claims of combat successes become less and less believable
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent

If Hezbollah-run media are to be believed, then 35 Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed or wounded in Ayta a-Shab , militants downed an Israeli helicopter and destroyed a house in which IDF soldiers were hiding, and IDF troops are always hit in the back because they are running away.

All these statements are baseless because - despite the impression Hezbollah has made for straight talk - credibility is not its strong suit.

Hezbollah's reports have become less and less believable in recent days. On Monday, Al-Manar television - the central component of Hezbollah's well-oiled media empire - reported that the organization had destroyed an Israeli ship off the coast of Tyre, which had some 50 sailors aboard - a charge the IDF dismissed completely.

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It's not clear what incident, if any, the report was referring to, and the Arab world has been asking questions. Al-Arabiya television asked Mahmoud Kamati, a member of the Hezbollah political bureau, about the Hezbollah claim and he repeated that an Israeli ship had been hit, but said no pictures were broadcast because visibility was poor.

Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, is a superb tool for the propaganda machine. Nasrallah, 46, is one of the most impressive speakers in the entire Middle East. He is a virtuoso of the Arabic language, although he doesn't forget to spice his comments with a few words in the Lebanese dialect. It nearly always seems as though he is speaking about the most important matters in an offhand way, but he is really getting his listeners to follow his thought process.

"I sometimes take the tape of his comments and watch it, for pleasure," said a Haifa resident who has been forced to go down to the nearest bomb shelter every few hours over the last few weeks. "He is simply an excellent speaker."

Hezbollah's media empire - which includes the Al-Nur radio station and the Web site moqawama.net - has been an inseparable part of the psychological war. Sometimes, Hezbollah also transmits its messages through other media, such as the Iranian television station Al-Alam. The crown jewel of the empire, Al-Manar, is broadcast in Lebanon and throughout the Arab world, by satellite.

At every stage of the fighting, Al-Manar was the station that broadcast Hezbollah's messages. Its role in the war began the morning of July 12, when Hezbollah abducted IDF soldiers Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. Al-Manar was the first station to report the kidnapping, about two hours after it took place. Since the fighting began, the pronouncements of Al-Manar have had a major influence on other media.

"Al-Manar has had an enormous impact on all the Arab press, and in effect on the Hebrew press as well," said Amir Levy from Satlink Communications, which monitors Arab-language media.

Although there were a few slight technical glitches in Al-Manar's broadcasting after its south Beirut offices were destroyed, overall it continued broadcasting normally and showcasing its high technical standards. "It is very high-quality work," said Levy.

"They always broadcast new clips, update the subtitles in real time, broadcast from the field via satellites. It's a very impressive broadcasting quality."

Hezbollah claims of combat successes become less and less believable

[Shammu]

Islamic Movement: Prevent Jewish groups from visiting Temple Mount on Thursday
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent

The Islamic Movement warned Wednesday against the possibility that Jewish groups would try to reach the Temple Mount on Thursday (The Ninth of Av) and damage the Al Aqsa Mosque.

The group's warning follows a Supreme Court decision made earlier this week, ordering police to allow whoever wants to visit the Temple Mount during regular visiting hours on the Ninth of Av.

Two MKs from the Islamic Movement, Sheikh Ibrahim Sarsur (Ra'am-Ta'al) and Sheikh Abbas Zkoor (Ra'am-Ta'al) sent an urgent letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, requesting that the government prevent members of the Temple Mount Faithful from reaching the area outside the Al Aqsa Mosque.

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"Extremist Jewish groups may damage the Al Aqsa Mosque. If this were to happen, heaven forbid, it would inflame the region," the MKs wrote.

The Islamic Movement's Northern Branch also warned of what could take place Thursday in the vicinity of the Temple Mount. The head of the movement, Sheikh Raed Selah, said in a radio interview that the Supreme Court does not have the authority to rule on the matter.

According to Selah, "The Supreme Court isn't worthy of deciding on matters pertaining to the Al Aqsa Mosque, because Israel does not have sovereignty over it. Selah called on Islamic Movement supporters to reach the Al Aqsa Mosque on Thursday.

Islamic Movement: Prevent Jewish groups from visiting Temple Mount on Thursday

[Shammu]

Israel Expands Raids After Hezbollah Rocket Attacks (Update1)

Aug. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Israeli ground forces engaged in what a military spokeswoman described as severe fighting early today with Hezbollah militiamen in Ayta al-Shab near the border in southern Lebanon.

The nighttime clashes came after a day when Hezbollah fired 231 rockets -- its highest single-day volley of the conflict -- and Israeli warplanes attacked 100 sites in southern Lebanon. Hezbollah's al-Manar TV said there was ``fierce'' combat in an attempt to prevent Israeli soldiers from taking Ayta al-Shab.

Most of the Hezbollah rockets landed in eight Israeli towns or cities, including Haifa, Carmiel, Kiryat Shmona, Tiberia and Afula, according to a military spokeswoman who talked on condition of anonymity. One person was killed and 49 were injured. Most of those hurt were treated for shock, the military said.

``If we have to go deeper into Lebanon, then we'll go deeper,'' Lieutenant General Dan Halutz, Israel's military chief of staff, told reporters yesterday in remarks broadcast from Beit Hillel, about 8 kilometers (5 miles) south of the border.

As many as 8,000 soldiers were sent across the border, the Associated Press reported. The deployment followed a commando raid yesterday on Baalbeck, a thrust into eastern Lebanon, where Israel said it captured five Hezbollah fighters and killed 19.

Diplomacy Slows

Prospects for a diplomatic solution receded after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel wouldn't agree to stop fighting until a United Nations-backed peacekeeping force large enough to contain Hezbollah is deployed. The UN postponed a meeting to discuss the force when the French government said the world body must first agree on truce terms.

The air strikes yesterday were concentrated on bunkers and sites from which missiles were being fired at Haifa and Afula, according to the Israeli military spokeswoman.

In ground fighting, five soldiers were hurt by anti-tank missiles fired by Hezbollah. Artillery batteries fired from northern Israel toward Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon.

Ground fighting took place near Lebanese villages adjacent to Israel's border, an army spokeswoman said. Residents in villages near the Litani River, about 29 kilometers inside Lebanon, were advised to leave, the army said.

Olmert Pressured

Olmert late yesterday deflected pressure from the National Union-National Religious Party in Israel to keep pushing toward the Litani.

``Olmert has all the backing of the opposition as long as he insists on reaching the goals we have set, which are dismantling and neutralizing Hezbollah,'' Effie Eitam, an official of the party, said in a telephone interview. ``They need to complete the ground operation. It must reach the Litani.''

Olmert met with Eitam about the remarks and said the war is tied to Hezbollah's June 12 cross-border attack ``and is entirely unrelated to future diplomatic moves in other arenas,'' according to an e-mailed statement from the prime minister's office. The statement said ``the complete unity of the army and the home front must be maintained in order to succeed in this harsh war.''

The UN has made little progress toward a cease-fire since U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice left Israel July 31 after failing to broker an agreement. A resolution drafted by France, which administered Lebanon from after World War I until 1944, calls for an immediate cease-fire. The U.S. has resisted such a truce until a political framework is in place to disarm Hezbollah and bar the group from control of southern Lebanon.

Political Role

John Bolton, the U.S. ambassador to the UN, said yesterday that Hezbollah needs to decide what role it will play in Lebanon. ``If it wants to be a political party, it needs to be a real political party,'' he said in New York.

Hezbollah, founded in 1982, is sponsored by Syria and Iran. It has been linked to scores of terrorist attacks on Israelis and Americans, including rocket assaults on Israeli towns, the 1983 bombings that killed 241 U.S. and 58 French soldiers in Beirut, and the 1994 attack that killed 85 people at a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires.

Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, has made the group a major player in Lebanon by controlling seats in parliament and Cabinet posts. While participating in politics, Hezbollah has defied a UN Security Council resolution that calls for the disarming and disbanding of militias in Lebanon.

Death Toll

The conflict has so far claimed the lives of at least 570 Lebanese, according to police in Lebanon, and 52 Israelis, according to the military and police in Israel. Hundreds of thousands of people have been forced from their homes by Hezbollah rocket attacks on northern Israel and Israeli air raids in Lebanon. A Lebanese police spokesman said 2,131 people have been injured.

``Israel has clearly damaged Hezbollah,'' former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger said on the ``Charlie Rose'' show. ``Israel can achieve significant military gains.''

Israeli ground troops are trying to root out Hezbollah fighters from the border strip and create an isolated zone that might be patrolled by multinational forces.

``We have no intention to occupy Lebanon,'' Air Force Brigadier General Ido Nehushtam said yesterday. ``We moved out six years ago now we have to create a new reality.''

Islamic Movement: Prevent Jewish groups from visiting Temple Mount on Thursday

[Shammu]

Hezbollah used civilians as shields in Qana
By The Associated Press

Israel Defense Forces' inquiry on the bombing of a building in the south Lebanese village of Qana that killed 56 civilians admits a mistake but charges that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as shields for their rocket attacks, according to a statement released early Thursday.

Israel Air Force planes attacked an apartment house in Qana in the early hours of Sunday. The house collapsed, and rescue workers pulled the bodies of civilians, most of them women and children, out of the rubble. An international outcry led Israel to call a halt to its airstrikes in Lebanon for 48 hours and increased pressure on Israel to agree to a cease-fire in its three-week offensive against Hezbollah.

In a statement summarizing the inquiry report, the Israeli military said Israel did not know there were civilians in the building. "Had the information indicated that civilians were present ... the attack would not have been carried out," the statement said.

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The bombing followed guidelines regarding attacking "suspicious structures" in villages where civilians have been warned to evacuate, the statement said, adding that Hezbollah forces "use civilian structures inside villages to store weaponry and hide in after launching rocket attacks." The statement said more than 150 rockets have been launched from Qana and the area around it since July 12, when the current conflict erupted.

As a result of the incident, the statement said, the guidelines would be evaluated and updated.

IDF chief of staff, . Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, apologized for the loss of civilian life but charged that Hezbollah "uses civilians as human shields and intentionally operates from within civilian villages and infrastructure."

On Wednesday, Human Rights Watch questioned the death toll in the Qana attack. The international group listed the names of 28 known dead from the attack and said that 13 others were missing and might still be buried under the rubble. The discrepancy was attributed to an assumption that only nine of the people who took shelter in the basement of the building survived, but it emerged that at least 22 escaped, the group said.

Human Rights Watch called for an impartial international investigation of the incident.

Hezbollah used civilians as shields in Qana