Biblical countries, in the news.

[Shammu]

Germany: Iran letter attacks Israel

BERLIN, Germany (AP) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made no mention of his country's nuclear program in a letter to Chancellor Angela Merkel, but made statements about Israel and the Holocaust that are "not acceptable," the German government said Friday.

"The letter contains ... no statements on the Iranian nuclear program" and also does not address the current fighting in Lebanon, Merkel's spokesman, Ulrich Wilhelm, told reporters. He said it was devoted largely to criticism of Israel and its right to exist.

"It contains many statements that are not acceptable to us, in particular about Israel, the state of Israel's right to exist and the Holocaust."

Wilhelm did not elaborate on the contents and said the German government did not plan to release the text.

Germany has sharply criticized previous comments by Ahmadinejad in which he labeled the Nazi Holocaust a myth and called for Israel's destruction. It also is among the countries leading diplomatic efforts to resolve concerns over Iran's nuclear program.

"The German government does not have the intention of entering into correspondence with the Iranian president," Wilhelm said, adding that Berlin would instead continue to support multilateral efforts to bring about a suspension of Iran's nuclear program.

Germany: Iran letter attacks Israel

[Shammu]

Ground zero for Mideast instability is Iran: Arab world, take notice
By Peter Brookes
Saturday, July 22, 2006

While the world focuses on the smoldering conflict in the Middle East, the war’s instigator and puppeteer, Iran, must be pretty darn pleased with itself.
    While Iranian-backed Hezbollah jolts Israeli cities with rockets and Israeli forces ferret out terrorist militants across Lebanon, Iran has suffered nary a nick, verbally or otherwise.
    Moreover, Tehran was skillfully able to keep its atomic aspirations out of the limelight at the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg, Russia.
    But when the current clash ultimately subsides, the international community, especially the Middle East, should turn its attention to Tehran’s treachery and expose Iran for what it is - a serious threat to regional stability.
    Some major Arab states (e.g., Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia), while no fans of Israel, are already grumbling about Iran plunging the region into war. While instability may be good for boosting the price of oil, it’s good for little else.
    Indeed, the war may lead to a full-scale Israeli ground invasion of southern Lebanon.
    The conflict may also spread into neighboring Syria, another state pulling Hezbollah’s and Lebanon’s strings. And we can put hopes for any progress on the Middle East peace process on ice.
    If there’s any possibility of an upside to the conflict, other than the possibility that Israel may be able to snuff Hezbollah out, it’s that Middle Eastern states may finally realize that Iran’s mullahs are a major problem and could easily turn on them, too, at some point.
    Sure, some Middle East states might feel secure in the fact that Iran is also a Muslim country. But, Iran is a Shia Muslim country. Most of the Middle East is Sunni.
     In effect, Iran is a Shia Persian country living in a Sunni Arab neighborhood. This makes for cordial but cautious relations between Iran and its neighbors, even in the best of times.
    Plus, Iran wants to export Shia fundamentalism to other parts of the Muslim world. This doesn’t sit well with predominantly Sunni countries, such as Saudi Arabia or other Persian Gulf states with large, restive Shia minorities.
    And Iran’s increasing willingness to underwrite militancy, terrorism and instability in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Gaza Strip and now Israel and Lebanon, can’t make anyone in the Middle East comfortable.
    The region’s nations are keenly aware of Iran’s big power aspirations, too. In addition to large oil/gas reserves, Iran dwarfs most other Middle Eastern states in terms of population (70 million) and land mass (three times the size of Iraq).
    Spiritually, Tehran also wants to see Shia Iran lead the Muslim world, putting them in direct head-to-head competition with Sunni Saudi Arabia just across the Persian Gulf, and home to Islam’s holiest sites in Mecca and Medina.
    And how can its neighbors not be unhappy with Tehran’s nuclear program? If Iran joins the once exclusive nuclear club, others will feel obligated to follow for their own security, causing a cascading proliferation effect.
    Rumors of covert Egyptian and Saudi Arabian nuclear programs as a hedge against Iran abound. Turkey has openly said that if Iran goes nuclear it will have to reconsider its current non-nuclear stance. Tehran could give Damascus the bomb.
    Iran has stealthily advanced its anti-American, anti-Israeli agenda by proxy and terrorism in the past. But it may have overplayed its hand this time, fomenting more death and destruction in the crisis-weary Middle East.
    This latest provocation may finally convince Iran’s neighbors that Tehran isn’t just a serious threat to the United States and Israel, but to themselves as well. The searing question is: Will they do anything about it?

Ground zero for Mideast instability is Iran: Arab world, take notice

[Shammu]

 Thousands march in Berlin against Israeli atrocities in Lebanon, Palestine
Berlin, July 22, IRNA

Germany-Lebanon-Demonstration
Over 5,000 people, among them Lebanese, Palestinians, Iraqis, Iranians, Turks and Germans, on Friday marched in Berlin's city center for the second time in five days to demonstrate against Israel's military atrocities in Lebanon and the Palestinian-run territories.

Demonstrators, carrying Lebanese, Palestinian, Iraqi and Islamic Republic of Iran flags, chanted slogans such as `Death to Israel', `Down with USA', `Zionist are fascists' and `Bush is a murderer and fascist'.

The protestors also held up signs which read: `Children targeted by Israeli military', `Israel is murderer of women and children', 'Israel has to leave Lebanon and Palestine now', `Bush terrorist number one' and `Stop Israeli war'.

An organizer of the march, Abu Iman, who is a Lebanese Muslim and a long-time resident in Germany, told IRNA, "As a Muslim and Lebanese, I condemn the silence of most of Islamic countries towards Israeli crimes."
He also criticized Germany's die-hard support for Israel.

"The German government is biased on this issue and this benefits Israel. We are urging the German government to stop its one-sided policies towards Israel," Abu Iman added.

More than 12 Lebanese, Palestinian and Iraqi groups organized the demonstration.

On Monday thousands of people rallied at Berlin's historic Brandenburg Gate to condemn Israel's ongoing brutal military onslaught of innocent civilians in Lebanon and Gaza.

The protestors urged Germans not to remain silent in the wake of the Israeli military crimes against the civilian population in Lebanon and Gaza.

Thousands march in Berlin against Israeli atrocities in Lebanon, Palestine

[Shammu]

Israel calls spook jittery Lebanese

South Lebanon residents say called by State of Israel to assist with info on Hizbullah
Reuters

At first, Bushra Khayyat tried to ignore the incessant ringing of the phone at her house in Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon. It was 4 am, but she finally got out of bed.

“I said hello and got a recorded message from Israel,” she told Reuters.

In clear Arabic, the strong voice on the phone said: “Oh Lebanese people, we tell you not to follow Hizbullah. We will continue to strike and no one will bring your prisoners back from Israel except the Lebanese government.”

Other residents of the south have received similar calls.

“My grandmother got two calls at 5 and 6 in the morning saying the Israeli state would not stop the attacks and asking everyone to leave the area south of the Litani,” said one woman who is stranded in Sidon. “She slammed the phone down.”

Israel has dropped flyers on Lebanon during its 10-day-old conflict with Hizbullah terrorists, warning people to stay away from the group’s strongholds, warning them to evacuate their villages in the south or caricaturing the chief of Hizbollah.

But there was something eerie about the phone calls.

“It was a shock to get a call from Israel,” said Khayyat, who has since fled the bombardment to Syria and then France.

“I have caller ID on my landline and when I checked it came up as ‘out of area’. It’s not that I was scared, I just wished I could talk back to the voice but it was a recorded message.”

Khayyat got a similar call two nights later, this time answered by her maid, who, panicking when she heard a voice announce “This is Israel”, immediately put down the phone.

Israel calls spook jittery Lebanese

[Shammu]

Report: US to deliver 'smart bombs' to Israel

New York Times reports that Israel asked US delivers shipment of smart bombs under deal signed last year; Washington believes Israel has long list of targets in Lebanon requiring precision-guided missiles
Yitzhak Benhorin, Washington

Washington - Smart bombs on the way: The Bush administration has complied with Israel's request for an expedited delivery of satellite and laser-guided bombs, the New York Times reported Saturday.

The newspaper reported that the decision could anger Arab countries who have accused Washington of giving Israel the green light to push ahead with its offensive against Lebanon.

Israel and the United States have kept silent on the type of bombs and the size of the delivery.

The delivery is part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale deal signed between Washington and Jerusalem last year, which Israel can draw on as needed.

But US officials said the arms delivery is not similar to that supplied by Washington to Israel during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, which helped Israel gain momentum against the attacking Arab armies.

Estimates are that Israel needs a large number of precision-guided bombs to bombard Hizbullah bunkers with little collateral damage.

Although the Pentagon refused to give details of the delivery, the newspaper said last year's agreement included 100 precision-guided bombs weighing two and a half tons each. The bombs are used to destroy underground concrete bunkers.

Israel is eligible to purchase "bunker buster" bombs capable of penetrating underground Hizbullah bunkers. The bombs can be fitted on F-15 jets.

The Bush administration has also approved a six-billion arms sale deal with Saudi Arabia, which the newspaper say is aimed at soothing Arab anger at Washington's support for Israel.

Report: US to deliver 'smart bombs' to Israel

[Shammu]

Air force raids 70 Lebanon targets

Warplanes bombard rocket launchers, Hizbullah buildings and telecommunication center; Lebanon says 362 civilians killed, 6 of whom are members of Hizbullah, Israel disputes this
Ynet and News Agencies

The air force struck 70 Hizbullah "terror targets" in Lebanon overnight. Most of the targets were situated in south Lebanon.

The targets included a 4-canon rocket launcher in Affouna in south Lebanon, and five other launchers.

The army said it also targeted buildings used to store rocket launchers, suspicious vehicles traveling on roads leading to rocket launching pads.

Two warehouses used to store Hizbullah weapons and six buildings belonging to the Shiite group were also targeted.

Telecommunication centers used by Hizbullah were also destroyed.

Air force warplanes targeted 43 launching pads and roads leading to them in a bid to stem rocket fire at Israel.

Canon batteries fired artillery rounds at launch pads in south Lebanon all night.

1,800 targets hit

The army said that since the operation was launched on July 12, over 1,800 targets were struck.

Lebanon said 362 people were killed and 1,350 were injured since Israel launched its offensive against Hizbullah. Lebanese authorities said only six of those killed were Hizbullah members and 20 were soldiers.

IDF Chief of General Staff Lit.-Gen. Dan Halutz said Friday that over 100 Hizbullah members were killed in aerial attacks.

Thousands of reserve soldiers have been called to beef up military presence along the border.

In another development, the New York Times reported that Washington has sped up the delivery of smart bombs to Israel according to a deal signed last year.

Air force raids 70 Lebanon targets

[Shammu]

 Iran, Maghreb discuss Middle East crisis
Algeria, July 22, IRNA

Iran-Maghreb-Middle East
Iranian Ambassador to Maghreb Mohammad Masjed-Jamei and Maghreb Foreign Ministery Director-General Omar Helal discussed the situation in Lebanon and Palestine on Friday.

In the meeting, Ambassador Masjed-Jamei condemned the criminal acts of the Zionist regime in the Middle East against the Lebanese people.

Alluding to the political stances of the Kingdom of Maghreb, Helal expressed sympathy for the people of Lebanon and Palestine.

"We voice our unity and sympathy with the governments and nations of Palestine and Lebanon," he said, adding that the King of Maghreb has condemned the ongoing military offensive of the Israeli regime in Lebanon and Palestine during a meeting with Maghreb ministers on Thursday.

Helal further said that the spokesman of the Rabat government has also condemned Israel's criminal acts and called on international communities to help end the Israeli attacks on the oppressed people of Lebanon and Palestine.

He said Maghreb was the first nation to send two C-130 planes carrying humanitarian aid, including food and medicines, to Lebanon.

The two sides in the meeting also agreed to hold further consultations with regard to the current crisis in the Middle East.

Iran, Maghreb discuss Middle East crisis

[Shammu]

Saniora, Jumblatt agree: Hizbullah must be disarmed
Khaled Abu Toameh and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST    Jul. 21, 2006

Lebanese politicians at the highest levels, in a rare move, publicly criticized Hizbullah's "state within a state" on Thursday, calling for the group to be disarmed and accusing Syria of seeking to destroy Lebanon.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, in an interview published Thursday in the Milan-based newspaper Corriere della Sera, said that the Shi'ite terrorist organization had been doing the bidding of Syria and Iran and had to be disarmed with the help of the international community, once a cease-fire had been achieved.

"Hizbullah has become a state within a state. We know it well," said Saniora, leveling such an accusation for the first time against the Syria- and Iran-backed terrorist organization that effectively controls southern Lebanon.

"It's not a mystery that Hizbullah answers to the political agendas of Teheran and Damascus," Saniora was quoted as saying by Corriere. "The entire world must help us disarm Hizbullah. But first we need to reach a cease-fire."

Lebanese Druse leader Walid Jumblatt accused Syria of seeking Lebanon's destruction and also called for Hizbullah to be disarmed. Jumblatt said that Iran had asked Hizbullah to kidnap Israeli soldiers to divert attention from its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons.

"Syrian President Bashar Assad is destroying Lebanon because he wants the international country to talk to him," Jumblatt said. "He is trying to send a message to the world that Syria is capable of destroying Lebanon and that's why it's worthwhile talking to the Syrians."

Jumblatt said in a phone interview that the decision to kidnap the IDF soldiers was taken by Teheran after failing to reach an agreement with the European Union over its nuclear weapons program. "A senior Iranian government official visited Damascus days before the abduction of the soldiers," the Druse leader added.

"The visit came on the eve of the G-8 summit, which was planning to discuss Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons. The Iranians managed to change the summit's agenda by putting the Lebanon crisis at the top."

Jumblatt also scoffed at statements by Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah to the effect that Hizbullah is fighting the battle of all the Arabs and Muslims.

"Lebanon is still a democratic country and Nasrallah does not have the right to make important decisions about war and peace on his own," he said. "We will never be able to establish a modern state as long as we have an armed organization."

Saniora, seeking international assistance in disarming Hizbullah, said Lebanon was still too weak to attack the organization's stranglehold in the south of the country on its own.

"The important thing now is to restore full Lebanese sovereignty in the south, dismantling any armed militia parallel to the national army," he said. "The Syrians are inside our home and we are still too weak to defend ourselves. The terrible memories of the civil war are still too alive and no one is ready to take up arms."

The prime minister was quoted as saying that, to disarm the militia, it was also necessary for Israel to help by releasing Lebanese prisoners and withdrawing from the Shaba Farms, a disputed territory that Lebanon claims and Hizbullah uses as a pretext to keep attacking Israeli forces.

Once that happens, "our government will be able to say that Hizbullah has no legitimate reason to maintain an armed militia," he said. "It will inevitably be forced to become a purely political force in our democratic system."

Saniora has said in the past that disarming Hizbullah was impossible while some Lebanese territory is still under Israeli occupation.

Earlier this month, Jumblatt lashed out at Syria, saying he "feared the Syrian regime is trying to turn Lebanon into another Iraq by exporting al-Qaida fighters into the country." He has also accused Assad of being behind the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

Saniora also reiterated his harsh criticism of Israel's air and sea attacks against Lebanon, saying that "Israel's criminal bombardments must be stopped immediately," and adding that these were counterproductive for all sides.

"They are bombing civilians and creating sympathies for Hizbullah where otherwise there wouldn't be any," he told Corriere.

Meanwhile, Lebanese government officials said on Thursday that the current crisis has cost Lebanon's economy more than $2 billion. They pointed out that this year's tourism season was expected to be the best since the civil war hit Lebanon in 1974.

According to the officials, the industrial sector has paid the heaviest price so far, with over 700 factories in West Beirut closed or destroyed and thousands of workers left unemployed. They added that hundreds of investors from the Gulf had fled Lebanon since the beginning of the current conflict. Most were planning to invest in real estate and what had been a booming tourism industry, especially in Beirut.

Saniora, Jumblatt agree: Hizbullah must be disarmed

[Shammu]

Lebanese PM: Disarm Hizbullah
Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST    Jul. 20, 2006

Hizbullah has created a "state within a state" in Lebanon and must be disarmed, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said in an interview published Thursday in an Italian daily.

Saniora told Milan-based newspaper Corriere della Sera that the Shi'ite group has been doing the bidding of Syria and Iran, and that it can only be disarmed with the help of the international community and once a cease-fire has been achieved in the current Middle East fighting.

Later Thursday, Saniora's office said the prime minister had been misquoted, adding that his words had been translated from English into Italian and that Corriere's journalist had chosen sentences that were not connected and did not report the literal meaning of what he had said.

According to the statement, the premier had said that international help was needed to persuade Israel to withdraw from the Chebaa Farms, a disputed territory that Lebanon claims and Hezbollah uses as a pretext for attacking Israeli forces.

"What the prime minister said was that the international community has not given the Lebanese government the chance to deal with the problem of Hezbollah weapons, since the continued presence of Israeli occupation of Lebanese lands in the Chebaa Farms region is what contributes to the presence of Hezbollah weapons," the statement said. "The international community must help us in (getting) an Israeli withdrawal from Chebaa Farms so we can solve the problem of Hezbollah's arms."

"It's not a mystery that Hizbullah answers to the political agendas of Teheran and Damascus," Saniora was quoted as saying by Corriere. "The entire world must help us disarm Hizbullah. But first we need to reach a cease-fire."

Saniora said Lebanon is still too weak to attack Hizbullah's stranglehold in the south of the country on its own.

"The important thing now is to restore full Lebanese sovereignty in the south, dismantling any armed militia parallel to the national army," he said. "The Syrians are inside our home and we are still too weak to defend ourselves. The terrible memories of the civil war are still too alive and no one is ready to take up arms."

The prime minister was quoted as saying that to disarm the militia it is also necessary for Israel to help delegitimize it by releasing Lebanese prisoners and withdrawing from the Chebaa Farms, a disputed territory that Lebanon claims and Hizbullah uses as a pretext to keep attacking Israeli forces.

The UN has ruled that Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 was completed, and that Israeli forces were deployed on the international border. The Chebaa Farms were inside Israel, according to the internationally-recognized boundary line.

Lebanese PM: Disarm Hizbullah

[Shammu]

Rice rejects quick action

Secretary of State calls immediate cease-fire in Mideast a ‘false promise’

Associated Press
Posted Saturday, July 22, 2006

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice rejected the “false promise” of an immediate cease-fire in the spreading war between Israel and Hezbollah on Friday and said she would seek long-term peace during a trip to the Mideast beginning Sunday.

The top U.S. diplomat defended her decision not to meet with Hezbollah leaders or their Syrian backers during her visit.

“Syria knows what it needs to do, and Hezbollah is the source of the problem,” Rice said as she previewed her trip, which begins with a stop in Israel.

Rice said the United States is committed to ending the bloodshed, but not before certain conditions are met. The Bush administration has said that Hezbollah must first turn over the two Israeli soldiers whose capture set off the 10-day-old violence, 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,” Rice said. “A cease-fire would be a false promise if it simply returns us to the status quo.”

The United States has resisted international pressure to lean on its ally Israel to halt the fighting. The U.S. position has allowed Israel more time to try to destroy what both nations consider a Hezbollah terrorist network in southern Lebanon.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan demanded an immediate cease-fire Thursday, and denounced the actions of both Israel and Hezbollah. Lebanon’s beleaguered prime minister has also asked for an immediate halt to the fighting.

Daniel Ayalon, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, said Israel has destroyed about 40 percent of Hezbollah’s military capabilities.

“Most of the long-range (missiles) have been hit, a lot of the medium range, but they still have thousands and thousands of rockets, short-range and others,” Ayalon said in an interview.

He described the Israeli military assault 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 Hezbollah militants based in southern Lebanon and supported by Syria and Iran.

Rice’s mission would be the first U.S. diplomatic effort on the ground since the Israeli effort against Lebanon began.

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.”

The crisis started last week when Hezbollah, an Islamic militant group that operates in southern Lebanon, captured two Israeli soldiers. Israel retaliated by carrying out bombing across Lebanon and slapping a naval blockade on the country. Hezbollah fired hundreds of missiles into Israel.

At least 335 people have been killed in Lebanon in the Israeli campaign, according to the Lebanese health minister. Thirty-four Israelis also have been killed, including 19 soldiers.

Rice plans meetings in Jerusalem and the West Bank with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as sessions in Rome with representatives of European and moderate Arab governments that are meant to shore up the weak democratic government in Lebanon’s capital Beirut.

Rice’s trip resumes a role the United States has long played as the key Mideast peace broker, but Rice is not expected to try to get a signed deal during her brief visit.

“I know that there are no answers that are easy, nor are there any quick fixes,” Rice said. “I fully expect that the diplomatic work for peace will be difficult.”

The United States is relying on Arab and other intermediaries to pressure Hezbollah and Syria. The United States considers Hezbollah a terrorist group, and has cut high-level ties to Damascus in a dispute over what it says is Syrian meddling in Lebanon.

Hezbollah also exerts political control in southern Lebanon, overshadowing the democratic central government. The U.N. and U.S. plan for long-term stability would give international help to the Beirut government to expel Hezbollah and install its own Army troops, something it has been unable to do.

Hezbollah “extremists are trying to strangle it in its crib,” Rice said of the Lebanese government.

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.

Announcing plans earlier for a weekend meeting that Bush and Rice will have with Saudi officials, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said, “This is part of the president’s broader diplomatic outreach on the developing situation in the Middle East.”

Bush and Rice will meet at the White House 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 Annan and envoys he sent to the region this week. Annan outlined basic terms of a proposed cease-fire and the longer-range goals to remove the Hezbollah threat in southern Lebanon in a speech on Thursday.

Rice rejects quick action

[Shammu]

U.S. increasingly isolated while violence escalates in Mideast

By Tom Raum of The Associated Press - 07/22/2006

WASHINGTON — President Bush’s uncompromising support for Israel in its battle with Hezbollah, a stance now backed by Congress, is threatening to isolate the United States even further from the international community.

It is also putting the administration at odds with fragile democratic governments in the Middle East that it is simultaneously trying to prop up, and sowing increasing anger across the Arab world.

The democratically elected prime ministers of both Iraq and Lebanon have been among the most vocal critics of U.S. policy in the 10-day Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.

Some foreign policy analysts question whether Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice can make much headway on her trip to the region early next week — especially given U.S. rejection of international calls for a cease-fire and refusal to talk to key players such as Hezbollah or its Iranian and Syrian sponsors.

‘‘You don’t just negotiate with your friends. Sometimes you negotiate with your enemies, or at least your adversaries,’’ said Sandy Berger, former national security adviser in the Clinton White House. ‘‘We negotiated with the Soviet Union for 50 years.’’

Both the first President Bush and President Clinton met directly with then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in efforts to advance Mideast peace prospects.

But the current Bush administration is adamant in resisting any direct contact with Syrian President Bashar Assad, son of the former president, or with Hezbollah leaders.

‘‘The track record stinks’’ in terms of what both former Presidents Bush and Clinton achieved in their meetings with Assad’s father, White House press secretary Tony Snow said. And Rice told reporters on Friday, ‘‘Syria knows what it needs to do, and Hezbollah is the source of the problem.’’


Hezbollah is an Islamic militant group based in southern Lebanon that is supported by both Syria and Iran. The crisis began when Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and Israel retaliated by widespread bombing in Lebanon and with a naval blockade. Hezbollah upped the ante by firing hundreds of missiles into northern Israel, provoking more Israeli counterattacks and displacing what the U.N. estimates as a half-million people.

Arab anger is rising toward both Israel and the United States, even though moderate governments throughout the region do not wish to see Hezbollah’s tentacles grow any further, viewing the group as an extension of Iran’s ambitions to increase influence throughout the Middle East.

The U.S. has not yet been able to capitalize on that Arab ambivalence toward Hezbollah.

‘‘The administration does the rhetoric of war well, but is not very good with diplomacy,’’ said Judith Kipper, a Middle East specialist at the private Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

Both the House and Senate passed resolutions this week by overwhelming margins supporting Israel — and Bush administration policy — in the conflict.

But the votes were probably more of a reflection of midterm election year politics — and a desire not to offend Jewish voters — than any newfound appreciation of Bush’s foreign policy skills.

The combined effect of the administration’s hardline pro-Israel stance and Congress’ echoing of it is to undermine U.S. diplomacy, said Shibley Telhami, a Mideast scholar at the University of Maryland.

‘‘We’re acquiescing in what is obviously a humanitarian disaster, regardless of who’s to blame. And that is not a message that helps the United States,’’ Telhami said.

While leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan have condemned Hezbollah’s tactics, ‘‘they’re going against public opinion in their countries. You have an overwhelming outpouring of public support for Hezbollah.’’

Daniel Ayalon, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, said Israel understands public opinion has been inflamed in the Arab world. He said he expects ‘‘a spike against us’’ in the days to come, but he emphasized that Israel was not prepared to give up its campaign until Hezbollah is sufficiently weakened.

At that point, Israel might consider supporting an international peacekeeping presence, Ayalon said in an interview.

U.S. increasingly isolated while violence escalates in Mideast

[Shammu]

HEZBOLLAH IN LEBANON Will Israel do what's necessary?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

There is crisis and there is opportunity. Amid the general wringing of hands over the seemingly endless and escalating Israel-Hezbollah fighting, everyone asks: Where will it end? The answer begins with understanding that this crisis represents a rare, perhaps irreproducible, opportunity.

Every important party in the region and in the world, except the radical Islamists in Tehran and their clients in Damascus, wants Hezbollah disarmed and removed from south Lebanon so it is no longer able to destabilize the peace of Lebanon and the broader Middle East.

Which parties? Start with the great powers. In September 2004, they passed U.N. Security Council Resolution 1559, demanding that Hezbollah disarm and allow the Lebanese army to take back control of south Lebanon. The resolution enjoyed the sponsorship of the United States and, yes, France.

Then there are the Arabs, beginning with the Lebanese who want Hezbollah out. The majority of Lebanese bitterly resent their country being hijacked by Hezbollah and turned into a war zone. And in the name of what Lebanese interest? Israel evacuated Lebanon six years ago.

The other Arabs have spoken, too. The 22-member Arab League criticized Hezbollah for provoking the current crisis. It is unprecedented for the Arab League to criticize any Arab party while it is actively engaged in hostilities with Israel. But the Arab states know Hezbollah, a Shiite militia in the service of Persian Iran, is a threat not just to Lebanon but to them as well. Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan have openly criticized Hezbollah for starting a war on what is essentially Iran's timetable (to distract attention from Iran's pending referral to the Security Council for sanctions over its nuclear program). They are far more worried about Iran and its proxies than about Israel. They are therefore eager to see Hezbollah disarmed and defanged.

Who to do it? No one. The Lebanese are too weak. The Europeans don't invade anyone. After its bitter experience of 20 years ago, the U.S. has a Lebanon allergy. And Israel could not act out of the blue because it would immediately have been branded the aggressor and forced to retreat.

Hence the golden, unprecedented opportunity. Hezbollah makes a fatal mistake. It crosses the U.N.-delineated international frontier to attack Israel, kill soldiers and take hostages. This cross-border aggression is so naked that even Russia joins in the G-8 summit communique blaming Hezbollah for the violence and calling for restoration of Lebanese sovereignty in the south.

But only one country has the capacity to do the job. That is Israel, now recognized by the world as forced into this fight by Hezbollah's aggression. The road to a solution is therefore clear: Israel liberates south Lebanon and gives it back to the Lebanese.

It starts by preparing the ground with air power.

What must follow is a land invasion to clear the ground and expel the occupier. Israel must retake south Lebanon and expel Hezbollah. It would then declare the obvious: that it has no claim to Lebanese territory and is prepared to withdraw and hand south Lebanon over to the Lebanese army, bringing about what the world has demanded - implementation of Resolution 1559 and restoration of south Lebanon to Lebanese sovereignty.

Only two questions remain: Israel's will and America's wisdom. Does Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have the courage to do what is so obviously necessary? And will Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's upcoming peace trip to the Middle East force a premature cease-fire that spares her the humiliation of coming home empty-handed but prevents precisely the kind of decisive military outcome that would secure the interests of Israel, Lebanon, the moderate Arabs and the West?

HEZBOLLAH IN LEBANON Will Israel do what's necessary?

[Shammu]

U.S. support for Israel complicates Mideast diplomacy

July 22, 2006
By TOM RAUM The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — President Bush's uncompromising support for Israel in its battle with Hezbollah, a stance now backed by Congress, is threatening to isolate the United States even further from the international community.

It is also putting the administration at odds with fragile democratic governments in the Middle East that it is simultaneously trying to prop up, and sowing increasing anger across the Arab world.

The democratically elected prime ministers of both Iraq and Lebanon have been among the most vocal critics of U.S. policy in the 10-day Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.

Some foreign policy analysts question whether Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice can make much headway on her trip to the region early next week — especially given U.S. rejection of international calls for a cease-fire and refusal to talk to key players such as Hezbollah or its Iranian and Syrian sponsors.

"You don't just negotiate with your friends. Sometimes you negotiate with your enemies, or at least your adversaries," said Sandy Berger, former national security adviser in the Clinton White House. "We negotiated with the Soviet Union for 50 years."

Both the first President Bush and President Clinton met directly with then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in efforts to advance Mideast peace prospects.

But the current Bush administration is adamant in resisting any direct contact with Syrian President Bashar Assad, son of the former president, or with Hezbollah leaders.

"The track record stinks" in terms of what both former Presidents Bush and Clinton achieved in their meetings with Assad's father, White House press secretary Tony Snow said. And Rice told reporters on Friday, "Syria knows what it needs to do, and Hezbollah is the source of the problem."

Hezbollah is an Islamic militant group based in southern Lebanon that is supported by both Syria and Iran.

The crisis began when Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers and Israel retaliated by widespread bombing in Lebanon and with a naval blockade. Hezbollah upped the ante by firing hundreds of missiles into northern Israel, provoking more Israeli counterattacks and displacing what the U.N. estimates as a half-million people.

Arab anger is rising toward both Israel and the United States, even though moderate governments throughout the region do not wish to see Hezbollah's tentacles grow any further, viewing the group as an extension of Iran's ambitions to increase influence throughout the Middle East.

The U.S. has not yet been able to capitalize on that Arab ambivalence toward Hezbollah.

"The administration does the rhetoric of war well, but is not very good with diplomacy," said Judith Kipper, a Middle East specialist at the private Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.

Trips by Rice to the region "don't accomplish anything," she said.

Both the House and Senate passed resolutions this week by overwhelming margins supporting Israel — and Bush administration policy — in the conflict.

But the votes were probably more of a reflection of midterm election year politics — and a desire not to offend Jewish voters — than any newfound appreciation of Bush's foreign policy skills.

The combined effect of the administration's hardline pro-Israel stance and Congress' echoing of it is to undermine U.S. diplomacy, said Shibley Telhami, a Mideast scholar at the University of Maryland.

"We're acquiescing in what is obviously a humanitarian disaster, regardless of who's to blame. And that is not a message that helps the United States," Telhami said.

While leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan have condemned Hezbollah's tactics, "they're going against public opinion in their countries. You have an overwhelming outpouring of public support for Hezbollah."

Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to Washington, said Israel understands public opinion has been inflamed in the Arab world. He said he expects "a spike against us" in the days to come, but he emphasized that Israel was not prepared to give up its campaign until Hezbollah is sufficiently weakened.

At that point, Israel might consider supporting an international peacekeeping presence, Ayalon said in an interview with The Associated Press. But not before.

For the Bush administration, it's a hard balancing act.

It wants to show it is reaching out to allies in the Middle East and in Europe, as with Rice's trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories and then to Rome for a broader meeting. But the administration also doesn't want to meet with Syria, Hezbollah or Iran — and it wants to give Israel time to try to find and destroy Hezbollah command centers and weapons stockpiles.

It all results in what critics suggest is a one-sided form of shuttle diplomacy.

Rice defended the style of her diplomacy — as well as the late start. "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," she said Friday.

U.S. support for Israel complicates Mideast diplomacy

[Shammu]

Annan warns Israel on invasion of Lebanon

Saturday, July 22, 2006 - ©2005 IranMania.com
 
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that an Israeli invasion of Lebanon would see a dramatic escalation of Hezbollah attacks and said Syria and Iran should be involved in resolving the crisis, AFP reported.

LONDON, July 22 (IranMania) - UN Secretary General Kofi Annan warned that an Israeli invasion of Lebanon would see a dramatic escalation of Hezbollah attacks and said Syria and Iran should be involved in resolving the crisis, AFP reported.

He also lobbied on behalf of an international security force in the border region that Israel so far has refused to back as its troops mass near southern Lebanon where the Hezbollah militia is based.

"I think it's going to be a serious escalation" if Israel invades southern Lebanon, Annan said on CNN television as violence that has claimed some 350 lives stretched into a 10th day.

"Obviously, there is going to be heightened tensions between them and Hezbollah" should Israeli ground forces move in to Hezbollah-controlled territory, he said on CNN's "Larry King Live."

Annan said if Israeli troops stay long-term "to establish what they have called, in the past, a security zone or a security accord, it will be a security zone for them, but for the others will be occupation and that will intensify the resistance."

His comments came as the UN Security Council debated for the second day Friday whether to call on an Israeli ceasefire or accept other measures, and as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice prepared for a brief crisis mission to the region.

Annan said he believed Rice's trip had been delayed until now "because obviously she would want to go to the region, but go with a package and proposals that would facilitate an agreement and negotiations."

Rice and Annan have differed in their approach. She has refused to back his calls for Israel to implement an immediate ceasefire and instead laid the blame on Hezbollah allies Syria and Iran.

Annan responded Friday that Syria and Iran "are two friendly country" that clearly have influence on the Shiite militia group, which refuses to recognize Israel's right to exist.

"And therefore, the two countries have to be a part of the solution," Annan said.

"They will have to work with the international community and cooperate with the international community for us to help to find long-term solutions," he said.

"Whether we like it or not, we have to engage those two governments if we're going to find a long-term solution."

Rice has refused to hold contacts with either state for their sponsorship of groups viewed as terrorist organizations by Washington and her stopover in the Middle East is due to focus an talks with Palestinian and Israeli leaders.

She is set to hold a broader international discussion in Rome.

Annan warns Israel on invasion of Lebanon

[Shammu]

Reaping the whirlwind
BY CHARLES A KUPCHAN AND RAY TAKEYH

21 July 2006

THE Middle East is burning. From Baghdad to Beirut, car bombs, suicide attacks, air strikes and a grim tally of civilian deaths are the new currency of daily life. The extremist and rejectionist machinations of Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hezbollah are partly to blame.

But so is an American administration that thought it could transform the Middle East overnight, using regime change in Iraq to jump start rapid democratization throughout the region. Instead, Washington's ideological hubris and practical incompetence have succeeded only in setting the region ablaze, awakening extremist and militant voices.

The toppling of Saddam Hussein was intended to send shock waves across the Arab world, intimidating the region's brittle tyrannies while encouraging the spontaneous civic movements that have brought democracy to much of post-Communist Europe. In Iraq itself, democrats were to replace a brutal autocrat, providing a model for the region.

Precisely the opposite has happened. The war has not only engulfed Iraq in violence and made the country a magnet for jihadists, but it has also awakened sectarian tensions that are spreading beyond Iraq's borders. From Saudi Arabia to Lebanon, Shias and Sunnis are cautiously eyeing each other, heading for a mounting rivalry that has already helped plunge Lebanon into chaos.

From its strategic outpost in Iraq, the United States was to have hemmed in Iran and Syria. Instead, Iran is enjoying an unprecedented bout of muscularity, its Shia allies now having gained the upper hand in neighbouring Iraq. Syria continues to turn a blind eye as militants transit its territory to join the fight in Iraq. And Damascus has now teamed up with Teheran to aid and abet the alliance between Hamas and Hezbollah.

Far from taming the region's politics, Washington's policies have succeeding in putting a truculent Iran in command of the Islamic street. In Teheran, a dogmatic leadership imbued with messianic aims is both behind Hezbollah's forays and capitalising on them to establish itself as the vanguard of political Islam. A defiant Iran is leading the Shia masses once more abandoned by their corrupt and illegitimate leaders.

Again, it did not have to come to this. The reformists formerly in power in Teheran sought moderation at home and peace abroad, but were ignored by Washington. Had the Bush administration been more forthcoming, and taken advantage of the bilateral cooperation that emerged amid the war in Afghanistan, it could have empowered the reformers.

The Bush administration has done no better on the Palestinian-Israeli front. Preoccupied with Iraq, Washington has effectively disengaged from the peace process. The Bush team not only abandoned Bill Clinton's diplomatic efforts, but also derided them as naïve and ineffectual. But for all its faults, Clinton's diplomacy sustained a process of reconciliation that kept an uneasy peace.

Since the inception of Israel in 1948, every decade has been plagued by an Arab-Israeli war -- except the 1990s. In contrast, Bush's disengagement has only led to the radicalisation of Palestinian politics. Even major Israeli concessions, such as withdrawal from Gaza, are unable to quell the extremist fervour when they take place absent the cover of consensual diplomacy.

In the aftermath of the Sept. 11th tragedies, the guardians of the American imperium perceived it all to be so easy. A political culture that had sanctified suicide bombings and militant ideologies was to be remolded by America's power. The war in Iraq was to be the key to solving the Arab predicament.

The Bush administration may well be seeking the right end in the Middle East -- the pacification of the region through economic and political liberalisation.

But we already have ample proof that it has chosen the wrong means. Its errant attempt to impose democracy through force has backfired, only stirring up a hornet's nest and risking a region-wide crisis. Iraq lies in ruins, Islamist forces are strengthening, and the Palestine-Israel conflict threatens to become a full-scale war. Even more ominously, the Middle East is being polarised along sectarian lines, empowering an Iran with nuclear ambitions. The mistakes of the Bush administration are coming home to roost.

Reaping the whirlwind