NPR Archives
Report on Hariri's Death Rocks Syria, Lebanon
by Scott Simon and Deborah Amos
Read the Report
Weekend Edition - Saturday, October 22, 2005 · A U.N. report on the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri implicates Syria in his death and raises more dark questions about Syrian involvement in Lebanon.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4969871
United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559
http://daccessdds.un.org/doc/UNDOC/GEN/N04/498/92/PDF/N0449892.pdf?OpenElement
United Nations Security Council Resolutions
http://www.un.org/Docs/sc/unsc_resolutions04.html
The Jerusalem Post
IDF forces gathering in North for possible ground incursion
By YAAKOV KATZ
The IDF was gearing up for a large-scale ground incursion into Lebanon on Friday. Thousands of reservists were being mobilized to the North throughout Friday to beef up forces stationed in the area in preparation for a possible operation.
In total, three to four ground divisions will be operating along the Lebanese front.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz said on Friday that the defense establishment was evaluating the size of the force needed to conduct a large-scale operation in Lebanon.
"We have no intention of being dragged into something that Hizbullah wants to drag us into," Peretz said. "Nevertheless, we will operate in every place that we find it necessary."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291966928&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
5,000 called up in latest mobilization
By YAAKOV KATZ, JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP
The IDF sent out emergency calls for 5,000 reserve soldiers on Friday in addition to the reserves already called up.
OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam stated that the move was done in order to relieve some of the forces currently operating in northern Israel. He noted that ground forces were necessary to penetrate Hizbullah bunkers that could not be reached by the Air Force.
Meanwhile, in its continuing attacks on terrorist infrastructure, the IDF struck two rocket launch cells in southern Lebanon on Friday, apparently killing the operatives. The terrorists were struck as they were launching rockets. The IDF believed the people struck were the same ones who launched the barrage of rockets that assailed Haifa and the northern Galilee early Friday afternoon.
Hizbullah headquarters and communication lines were also among the targets struck during the day.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1153291965198&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
UNIFIL post struck in southern Lebanon
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
A United Nations-run observation post just inside Israel was struck during fighting between Israel and Hizbullah operatives on Friday. The army blamed Hizbullah rockets, but a UN officer said it was an artillery shell fired by the IDF.
A UN officer, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said an artillery shell fired by the IDF "impacted a direct hit on the UN position overlooking Zar'it." The post is part of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
But an IDF spokesman said the position, located just inside Lebanon, was hit by rockets fired by Hizbullah that fell short of their targets in northern Israel.
The UN official said the facility was severely damaged but none of the Ghanian troops inside the bomb shelters inside were injured.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?c=JPArticle&cid=1153291965660&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Police lower terror alert for TA
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Tel Aviv Police lowered the alert level for the Dan Region on Friday night after special police forces arrested a woman and another person suspected of being involved in a planned suicide terror attack in central Tel Aviv.
The two were reportedly arrested near the beach-side Dan Hotel on Hayarkon Street in central Tel Aviv after the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) passed an intelligence alert to the Israel Police of a possible terrorist who had infiltrated Israel and was currently in central Tel Aviv.
Intelligence indicated the terrorist was headed to an entertainment establishment in Tel Aviv. Friday night is customarily the most popular time for clubbing and entertainment in Tel Aviv, Israel's largest city.
Earlier, roadblocks were set up at the entrance to the city, causing traffic jams throughout the Dan region.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291967349&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
26 wounded in Haifa rocket attacks
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Three homes were hit directly by Katyusha rockets that fell on Nahariya on Friday evening, police said.
No one was hurt in the attack, despite the fact that residents were inside the homes that were hit. According to local police, the residents were saved by the fact that they were inside the protected area in their home.
At least three rockets also fell near the city of Haifa on Friday afternoon as alert sirens sounded in Nahariya and Rosh Pina.
Police and the IDF's Home Front Command ordered all residents to enter bomb shelters and protected rooms.
In the early afternoon on Friday, 26 people were wounded after rockets fired by Hizbullah landed in Haifa.
One rocket scored a direct hit at the fourth floor of a residential building and managed to penetrate into two other floors of the same building. An empty post office branch was also hit.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291956762&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Halutz: Hizbullah loses 100 fighters
By JPOST.COM STAFF
"The fighting in Lebanon has cost the Hizbullah a high price," IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz said on Friday evening. "About 100 Hizbullah fighters were killed in IDF operations."
Speaking to reporters about the fighting in the North and in the Gaza Strip, Halutz said that the two facts that "the Hizbullah does not publish its dead or damage and has lied to the media are indicative [of its condition]."
Halutz warned Israelis that the success of operations in Lebanon could take time.
"This war is difficult and complex," he said. "The enemy has no restraints, moral or otherwise, and no responsibility for the country it is destroying. The 'protector of Lebanon' is destroying Lebanon."
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291967600&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Five IDF soldiers laid to rest
By JPOST.COM STAFF
Five funerals were underway throughout Israel on Friday for five IDF soldiers, killed in the line of duty since Wednesday.
First Sergeant Yotam Gilboa, 21, was laid to rest in his hometown of Maoz Haim late Friday morning. Gilboa was killed on Wednesday in a heavy cross-border battle with Hizbullah across from Avivim in the northern Galilee.
On the day following Gilboa's death, four additional soldiers from an elite unit were also killed in the very same place. Five others were wounded in the battle. As of midday Friday, only three of those names were approved for publish: Maj. Benji Hillman, 27, from Ra'anana, First Sergeant Muskal Refanael, 21, from Mazkeret Batya and 21-year-old First Sergeant Nadav Baeloha from Karmiel.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291965414&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Nasrallah: Nazareth kids are martyrs
By JPOST.COM STAFF AND AP
Hizbullah leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, spoke on Thursday for the first time since the beginning of the week, saying Hizbullah's entire infrastructure and leadership hierarchy were still intact and functional.
"I can confirm without exaggerating or using psychological warfare, that we have not been harmed," he said, referring to an overnight strike early Thursday in which the IDF dropped 23 tons of explosives on Hizbullah headquarters in Beirut.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291961718&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Saniora, Jumblatt agree: Hizbullah must be disarmed
By KHALED ABU TOAMEH AND AP
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.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291962297&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
Lebanese PM: Disarm Hizbullah
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
ROME
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.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291957056&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
The Arab News
Abdullah Has Won Hearts of Citizens, Residents Alike
Arab News
JEDDAH, 22 July 2006 — It has been one year since Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah ascended to the throne of the Kingdom, according to the Hijrah calendar. (The Gregorian anniversary date is Aug.1.) Over this past year the king has won the hearts of citizens and residents in the country alike.
King Abdullah is a caring father to all the people in the Kingdom. His kindness recognizes no borders, going out to succor any place in the world where calamity or war has hit. Every order the king has issued has been for the welfare of the people, aimed at lessening their economic burdens, increasing their educational facilities, employment opportunities and above all the rapid national progress. For instance, anyone who visits a fuel station in the Kingdom hears each driver invoking a prayer: “May Allah prolong our king’s life” because the great burden of rising fuel prices has been taken off the backs of the people by a royal decree.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=85752&d=22&m=7&y=2006
Saudi Women Demand End to Israeli Barbarity
Siraj Wahab, Arab News
JEDDAH, 22 July 2006 — As the world watches Israel’s brutal bombardment of Lebanon and Gaza, the response of Saudi civil society is growing with each passing day.
Yesterday a large group of prominent Saudi women strongly called for world leaders to get into action to stop the bombardment of “innocent civilians, women, children and the elderly.”
The women from different parts of the Kingdom have come together to call upon world leaders and decision-makers to stop the war in Lebanon and Palestine and to pressure Israel to cease interfering in those two countries.
Among the women who have signed the petition are Sameera A. Bitar, Hatoon Al-Fassi, Fatin Bundagji, Samar Fatany, Ghada Ghazzawi, Hanan Al-Madani, Naila Attar and Manal Al-Shareef.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=85749&d=22&m=7&y=2006&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom
Monkey Business Leads to Herd of Dead Goats
Arab News
ABHA, 22 July 2006 — Once upon a time a farmer had a problem with some baboons. They would often raid his farm and eat from his crops. According to a report yesterday in the Al-Riyadh daily, the farmer decided to do something about it. So he put rat poison in pieces of fruit and placed them around his property. But the farmer had another little problem: For some reason he didn’t think that his goats would eat the fruit. Thus, due to the farmer’s lack of foresight, he poisoned his livestock. He did manage to save some of the goats by rushing the ill creatures to a veterinarian — but somewhere in the underbrush near his farm, the baboon scourge is poised for the next opportunity to raid the farmer’s crops.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=1§ion=0&article=85741&d=22&m=7&y=2006&pix=kingdom.jpg&category=Kingdom
Tribesmen Hold Crucial Meeting in Fresh Peace Bid
Azhar Masood & Agencies
ISLAMABAD, 22 July 2006 — Pakistani tribesmen held a rare meeting yesterday to try to broker a peace deal between the government and Taleban and Al-Qaeda militants operating near the Afghan border, officials said.
The 45-member “grand jirga” or council including tribal elders, local legislators and Islamic scholars gathered in Miranshah, the capital of restive North Waziristan region.
Hundreds of people have died in recent clashes between security forces and militants in the semi-autonomous tribal zone, but the insurgents launched a unilateral cease-fire there last month.
The government and the tribesmen say they are trying to find a political solution in accordance with tribal customs and traditions, instead of dealing with the problem through military means.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=85733&d=22&m=7&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World
Four More Palestinians Killed
Hisham Abu Taha, Arab News
GAZA CITY, 22 July 2006 — Four more Palestinians were killed yesterday as the death toll from Israel’s Gaza offensive shot to over 100 and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan renewed calls for an end to “disproportionate” violence.
At least 106 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have now been killed in the impoverished territory since Israel stepped up its operation with the aim of retrieving a captured soldier and stopping rocket fire.
The Jewish state has ignored repeated international calls for restraint, and the latest Palestinians to die — a fighter from the armed wing of the governing Hamas, and his family — were killed when tank fire hit their home.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=85772&d=22&m=7&y=2006
Scared Lebanese Shift Anger to Israel, for Now
Reuters
BEIRUT, 22 July 2006 — The video on Hezbollah’s Al-Manar television shows an armed fighter standing near the border with Israel with a voice in the background urging all Lebanese to stand united behind the guerrilla group.
Razan Sheheim says she will heed such a call only until Israel’s war on Lebanon in retaliation to Hezbollah attacks ends. Then, she says, the Shiite Muslim group should disarm. “Israel has to stop its crimes and destruction, and then we will reach a solution about Hezbollah’s weapons,” said Sheheim, a Sunni Muslim who works at a mobile phone shop in a Christian district of Beirut. “I just hope we will be still alive then.”
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=4§ion=0&article=85747&d=22&m=7&y=2006&pix=world.jpg&category=World
US Media Promote Their Version in Lebanese Conflict
Tariq A. Al-Maeena, close_encounters@gawab.com
Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon captured two Israeli soldiers along their southern border. Provocations had been running high for some time. The Israeli Defense Forces response was to start a murderous campaign by employing their generously supplied US aircraft to bomb civilian targets, resulting in rising death toll of the innocent.
Meanwhile, Israel’s biggest cheerleader George Bush, between letting out a few 4-word expletives at the G-8 Summit and attempting to manipulate some neck therapy on the German chancellor, stated that Israel had two of their soldiers captured and they were justified in their response.
And while the rest of the civilized world calls for restraint and introduction of a UN peacekeeping force in view of the rise of human casualties, this person in charge of a democratic nation that has lost most of its credibility in the region and around the world, vetoes such a move, and continues to shoot off his mouth by first trying to involve Syria and then Iran in this round of the conflict.
http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=85734&d=22&m=7&y=2006
Haaretz
Halutz: Ground operations will be limited in scope
By Amos Harel and Eli Ashkenazi, Haaretz Correspondents, and AP
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz told reporters in Tel Aviv on Friday that any military incursion into Lebanon will be limited in scope.
"We will fight terror wherever it is because if we do not fight it, it will fight us. If we don't reach it, it will reach us," Halutz said in a nationally televised news conference. "We will also conduct limited ground operations as much as needed in order to harm the terror that harms us."
When the army presented its plans for an operation in Lebanon, the timeframe that it provided was one of "weeks".
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"It takes time to hit at terror," Halutz said.
"The restraint which we showed over the course of years is interpreted by those among the terrorists as weakness," the army chief said. "On this count, they made a horrible mistake by assuming that we would persist in holding back and restraining ourselves. Our duty as an army was - and we did as such - to recommend a halt to this development, which stems from a sense of us not having an answer."
Halutz said that close to 100 Hezbollah gunmen have been killed over the course of the IDF offensive.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741318.html
Eight injured by Katyusha rocket fire in Upper Galilee
Eight people were injured Saturday morning by Katyusha rocket fire in the Upper Galilee region.
In Israel's northernmost city of Kiryat Shmona, six people were lightly injured as over 20 rockets landed in and around the city.
In Carmiel, one person was moderately injured and another lightly injured in direct strikes on their homes. Rockets also landed in Nahariya, lightly injuring several people.
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Alerts were sounded in Haifa, Tiberias, and several northern towns and villages to warn residents of further rocket strikes.
Four people suffered moderate wounds and 12 were lightly hurt by rocket attacks in Haifa on Friday. After a reprieve of nearly a day, Hezbollah renewed its attacks, firing ten rockets into the northern city and its suburbs in two waves.
The wounded were taken to Rambam Medical Center, Carmel Medical Center and Bnei Zion Medical Center (Rothschild) for treatment.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/740309.html
Tel Aviv police arrest 3 suspects in plan to carry out terror attack
By Roni Singer-Heruti, Haaretz Correspondent
Tel Aviv police apprehended three people Friday night suspected of planning to carry out a terrorist attack in the city.
The three, who matched the descriptions of suspected terrorists received by security forces, were apprehended in a car at the entrance to the Tel Aviv port and were taken into custody for questioning by police.
Sappers who searched the vehicle, however, did not find any weapons or explosive devices nearby.
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The car's make and model also matched the description received by authorities a few hours prior to the arrest. Police remain on high alert although it is possible the level will be lowered in the next few hours.
Security forces were deployed throughout the city after Tel Aviv District Police received information stating that a female terrorist had managed to sneak into Israel with the intention of carrying out a terrorist attack in central Tel Aviv.
Dozens of policemen combed bars and nightclubs frequented by patrons in central Tel Aviv as well as the the city's beachfront promenade for suspicious objects.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741382.html
IDF launches raid in West Bank targeting Hezbollah militants
By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and News Agencies
Israel Defense Forces launched a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus on Friday, because it believed that Hezbollah operatives were preparing to carry out attacks across the country, a military source said on Saturday.
The IDF destroyed a Nablus government compound where Israel believed the Hezbollah militants and others were holed up.
"There were Hezbollah operatives in the building who were told by their leadership in Syria and Lebanon to send out attackers across Israel. That is why we were in such a hurry to get them," the military source told Reuters.
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Earlier Friday, IDF soldiers killed a Palestinian doctor as he tried to help wounded protesters in the West Bank on Friday, witnesses and medics said.
The doctor had stopped to help three protesters after they were wounded in a clash with soldiers in the city of Nablus. He was killed by IDF gunfire, witnesses said. Palestinian medics later confirmed his death.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741235.html
IAF planes batter targets in Lebanon as fighting reaches 10th day
By The Associated Press
Israel Air Force warplanes resumed strikes on Lebanon on Friday, pounding the country's main road link to Syria with missiles and setting passenger buses on fire, Lebanese police said.
Israel warned hundreds of thousands of people to flee the south "immediately," preparing for a likely ground invasion to set up a deep buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
In the mountains of central Lebanon on the Beirut-Damascus highway Friday, IAF warplanes fired four missiles on a bridge linking two steep mountain peaks. Part of the bridge collapsed. It has been hit several times since the fighting began.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741386.html
Lebanese defense minister: Army will fight ground invasion
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
Lebanon's army, which so far has sat on the sidelines of the violence raging in the country, will fight an Israeli ground invasion, Defense Minister Elias Murr said on Al-Jazeera television Thursday.
"The Lebanese army - and I stress - the Lebanese army will resist and defend and will prove that it is an army that deserves respect," he said.
In most of the previous Israeli attacks, including in 1978 and the 1982 invasion in which Beirut was occupied, the Lebanese army largely stayed out of the fighting.
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Some 20 Lebanese soldiers have been killed in strikes on their bases during the Israeli bombardment of Lebanon.
Nasrallah: Hezbollah leadership intact
Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said Thursday that the group's leadership remains intact, appearing in an interview on Al-Jazeera TV a day after Israel claimed to have bombed a bunker where he may have been hiding.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/741100.html
The Gulf News
Rice rejects possibility of immediate cease fire
Agencies
Washington: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday said that a cease fire between Israel and Hezbollah would be a "false promise" with no solid indication of a resolution to the conflict.
"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."
Rice, speaking to reporters in Washington said "there is a political framework and a political solution that could both stop the violence and leave Lebanon and the region in a much better place so that this doesn't happen again. And I think that's what we have to pursue."
http://www.gulfnews.com/region/Lebanon/10054058.html
Hezbollah was founded in 1982
Reuters
Hezbollah, or Party of God, was founded by Iranian Revolutionary Guards during Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982.
The Shiite group adhered to the teachings of the late Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who vowed holy war against Israel and its Western allies.
Funded and armed by Tehran, the group began a war to evict Israeli forces from Lebanon. Shadowy groups linked to Hezbollah launched suicide attacks on Western targets and took Westerners hostage in Beirut. The most spectacular attack was a suicide bombing that destroyed the US Marine headquarters in Beirut in October 1983, killing 241 servicemen.
Hezbollah announced its political programme in 1985, aimed at establishing an
Iranian-style republic in Lebanon. It fought rival Lebanese groups until the civil war ended in 1990 and kept up attacks on Israeli forces.
An Israeli helicopter strike killed Hezbollah chief Shaikh Abbas Al Musawi in February 1992, sparking a wave of sympathy with the group among many Lebanese. Al Musawi had set up a welfare arm caring for the long-deprived Shiite community. Current Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah replaced him. The group entered parliament in 1992 in the first general election after the war, effectively abandoning its goal of setting up an Islamic state.
Hezbollah withstood large-scale Israeli bombing campaigns in 1993 and 1996.
Israel ended its 22-year occupation in Lebanon and pulled out in May 2000. Lebanese from various sects and political affiliations hailed Hezbollah as liberation heroes. The group vowed to keep fighting as long as Israel remained in the disputed Shebaa Farms border area. It also declared support for a Palestinian uprising against Israel. Hezbollah has since launched sporadic attacks in the Shebaa Farms.
Hezbollah and Israel exchanged prisoners in January 2004.
Israel swapped more than 400 Palestinians and Lebanese for a captive Israeli businessman and the remains of three soldiers.
UN Security Council Resolution 1559, sponsored by the United States and France and adopted in September 2004, called for all Lebanese rebel forces to be disbanded and disarmed. Hezbollah has defied the resolution.
http://www.gulfnews.com/indepth/israelattacks/puffs/mid_left/10052998.html
'Embarrassing for international community'
Compiled by Manal Alafrangi, Staff Writer
Dubai: Arabic newspapers in the Middle East have reacted strongly following the escalation of violence in Lebanon and Israel's continued airstrikes. Following are excerpts from some of the comments published.
Al Bayan (UAE), editorial:
Has international impuissance (or more accurately, international hypocrisy) reached the stage of indifference towards the Israeli abuse of international law and legitimacy whereby massacres and daily war crimes in Lebanon and Palestine are being ignored?
This is an embarrassing and shameful thing for the international community, which should be guarding humanitarian laws and authoritative documents, to be competing in trying to justify Israeli [criminal] aggression in Lebanon.
Al Safeer (Lebanon), comment by Sameer Al Zain:
It seems that behind the crazy Israeli war on Lebanon, there is a new functional role in the Middle East [for Israel].
The retreat of their role in the past two decades came hand in hand with America's direct involvement in the region during the first Gulf War.
It was also accompanied [by] the collapse of the dual system in the world, which prevailed during the cold war era.
[This made] Israel lose two strategic privileges: its geographic location south of the Soviet Union, and, secondly, its ... role in the region as an authorised regional agent.
Lebanon could be the first country to pay the price for this change in the regional roles but it will not be the last one.
What causes the state of affairs to regress is the crimes committed by Israel, claiming they are implementing international law.
Israel is being supported internationally in such a peculiar manner, which brings forward the possibility of more savage and bloody Israeli crimes taking place.
Addustour (Jordan), editorial:
What mentality accepts this 'despicable' [Israeli] aggression on the Palestinian and Lebanese people?
There is enjoyment in murder, hatred and violence coupled with the belittlement of countries and peoples of the world, who try to restore some security for their people but cannot seem to find anyone from the Israeli front that could keep a word of honour.
Look at the intentional operations of displacing people in Lebanon.
Notice how the basic supplies for the continuation of life in Lebanon and Palestine have been cut off: water, food, medicine, electricity and fuel.
This is how we can measure the amount of evil that the Israeli psyche encompasses.
http://www.gulfnews.com/indepth/israelattacks/sub_story/10053688.html
Hillary backs Israeli attacks
AP
New York: Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, Jewish leaders and elected officials including Senators Hillary Clinton and Frank Lautenberg rallied thousands of Israel supporters on Monday as fighting continued in Lebanon between the Jewish state and Hezbollah.
"I want us here in New York to imagine if extremist terrorists were launching rocket attacks across the Mexican or Canadian border, would we stand by or would we defend America against these attacks from extremists?" said Clinton, a New York Democrat.
"We will stand with Israel because Israel is standing up for American values as well as Israeli ones."
The rally near the United Nations, one of several being held around the United States this week, was intended to support Israel during escalating Mideast violence.
Organisers estimated the crowd at 10,000.
Israel's UN ambassador, Dan Gillerman, said at the New York rally: "To those countries in there who claim that we're using disproportionate force, I have only this to say: You're right we are. Because if your cities were shelled the way ours were, if your citizens were terrorised the way ours are, you would use much more force than we are using."
Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, said Israel is threatened "by two totalitarian movements, Hamas and Hezbollah, whose unique goal is to destroy the Jewish state."
"Israel defends herself," he said. "And we must say to Israel, 'Go on defending yourself."'
Lautenberg, a New Jersey Democrat, said other countries must not tell Israel how to meet Hezbollah aggression.
http://www.gulfnews.com/indepth/israelattacks/sub_story/10053654.html
The Daily Star
Israel builds up forces for expected ground invasion of South
By Leila Hatoum and Mohammed Zaatari
Daily Star staff
Saturday, July 22, 2006
BEIRUT: The Israeli military said it was holding corpses of Hizbullah fighters killed in clashes along the border Friday - and had killed a resistance leader during other raids on Lebanon. The claims could not be independently confirmed, but a Hizbullah statement said two of its fighters had died during clashes Friday in the South.
Israel also claimed to have killed nearly 100 Hizbullah fighters over the past 10 days.
"Hizbullah is not revealing the real extent of its casualties," Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz told reporters.
Halutz said at least 13 Hizbullah guerrillas were killed Thursday alone in clashes just inside Lebanon. Four Israeli soldiers were killed in that fighting.
Hizbullah has said eight of its fighters have been killed since July 12, when the conflict began.
Meanwhile, the Israeli Army called up a rapid deployment division of 5,000 soldiers Friday as security sources said throngs of Israeli tanks and military forces were massed along the border .
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74169
The time to to prepare for Lebanon's uncertain future is now
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Editorial
Israel's insistence on imposing its own demands before accepting a cease-fire in its relentless assault on Lebanon and Hizbullah's refusal to back down have combined to erect a situation of diplomatic and political stalemate that demands careful attention from Lebanese leaders. The logjam may break up quickly or only after several weeks, and it could produce a major setback for Hizbullah or a symbolic victory: The only certainty is that the current conflict will radically alter the Lebanese political equation, and the country's political elite needs to have cogent plans for a variety of contingencies. Participants in the national dialogue need to take the lead at this stage, and to work together with the legislature in order to resurrect a functioning political process that can cope with a permanently altered landscape.
Hundreds of innocent people are dead, something like half-a-million are displaced, and tens of thousands have probably been made homeless. However the crisis ends, the needs of its numerous victims will constitute a national obligation to which solutions can and must transcend artificial and therefore unhelpful divisions based on faith and/or faction. The phenomenal endurance of the Lebanese has once again been put on display for the whole world to see, and that steadfastness can best be sustained if those who are suffering know that help will eventually come their way. The example set by a variety of organizations - cultural, business, political and religious - has been a heartwarming one as a wise vanguard struggles mightily to transform diversity from a driver of divisiveness to a source of collective strength and national unity.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&article_id=74155&categ_id=17
Day 10 sees heaviest damage in Bekaa, South
Saturday, July 22, 2006
BEIRUT: Israel's onslaught targete several parts of the country on its 10th day Friday. In addition to bridges and roads, Israeli jets bombed an already destroyed wood factory, a pharmaceutical plant in Tyre, two water-pumping stations, an agricultural center, two petrol stations, a municipal swimming pool, a school, and a municipal building in Baabda-Aley.
Around midnight Israeli warplanes bombed the Haboush bridge near Nabatieh, as wells as others connecting Naameh, Haret Naameh, and Damour with the coastal highway.
A little more than one hour later Israeli jets attacked an Internal Security Forces vehicle distributing bread to residents in Blida, near Marjayoun, destroying the vehicle and seriously wounding three ISF troopers.
In Baalbek, four raids around 6 a.m. destroyed bridges and overpasses linking Nabi Sheet to Jenta, and Khreibeh, and Ham to Khreibeh, in addition to the bridge on the Litani River in the town of Hawsh al-Rafiqa.
The attacks continued into the afternoon, with the bombing of an Al-Manar transmission antenna in Toumat Niha near Jezzine, followed by the shelling of the Aishieh-Rihan road, the Jermaq bridge, and a series of other transportation links in the Jezzine area.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=74168
Effects of war come ashore in form of oil slick at Beirut's Ramlet al-Baida beach
Daily Star staff
Saturday, July 22, 2006
BEIRUT: Part of Beirut's shoreline has become covered in oil, threatening marine life, according to an article published in An-Nahar daily. The shore at Ramlet al-Baida, where Israeli warships have been firing from, has been covered in the thick toxic liquid, the report said.
Beirut Mayor Abdel Monem Ariss, who toured the area, has stated that the source of the diesel oil could either be the heavy traffic of ships and boats that have come to Lebanon to evacuate foreigners, or the Israeli warship that was hit by Hizbullah rockets. The warship might have had to empty an extra load of oil, Ariss said.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb
Ariss ruled out the possibility that the diesel oil might have resulted from the burning gasoline tanks at the airport because he said "its combination differs from that of diesel oil found on the Ramlet al-Baida's shore and the smell differs as well."
Ariss said that he had delegated Marwan Chidiac, the head of the Civil Defense, to investigate the case.
Environment Minister Yaacoub Sarraf was to coordinate a shore cleanup
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=74151
Sfeir Foundation organizes dinner
The Nasrallah Butros Sfeir Foundation recently organized a gala dinner at the Habtoor Grand Hotel's Emirates Hall . A bevy of personalities were present from the media, politics and society as well as entertainers from the film and music business. A great time was had by all.
Phttp://www.dailystar.com.lb/starscene.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=6&article_id=73978
World Bank manager hosts gala
BEIRUT: Omar Razzaz, country manager for the World Bank in Lebanon, held a special reception at the Movenpick Hotel and Resort in Raouche last week, attended by business leaders, politicians and members of the press.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/starscene.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=6&article_id=73922
British mark queen's birthday
British Ambassador James Watt hosted three celebrations to honor the birthday of Queen Elizabeth II last month - one for officials and the diplomatic corps, one for the press, and one heartfelt party for business leaders and the British community in Lebanon. Some 200 British nationals gathered together to say happy birthday to the monarch.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/starscene.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=6&article_id=73778
Is Tehran emerging as regional winner?
By Iason Athanasiadis
Commentary by
Friday, July 21, 2006
Lebanon is under bombardment, Iraq writhes in civil war and Palestine is consumed by strife. Might Tehran emerge as the ultimate winner?
"A Saudi delegate approached me at a Gulf conference recently and explained to me the Arab perspective on Iran," an Iranian professor said in a recent interview with me. "He told me that Iran and the United States are two elephants. When they fight, or even when they make love, the grass underneath gets trampled."
If Iran is an elephant and the Arab world is the turf on which it carries out the vast majority of its foreign policy calculations, it makes for a terrifying Middle Eastern future. But this Iraq specialist is confident of his prediction. The holder of a degree from the London School of Economics, he is well-connected inside Iran's power structure, and holds an enviable track record on the international conference circuit.
Sitting in the high-ceilinged offices of a Qajar-era villa functioning as a Middle East studies institute in central Tehran, he expounds at length and with great conviction upon his theory that Israel, Turkey and Iran are the great powers of the Middle East today. Not one of them is Arab, he points out. As political heavyweights Egypt and Syria did little to prevent Israeli jets from pounding Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, in an unprecedented way, criticized Hizbullah. With Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine in flames, have we arrived at another twilight period for the Arab world?
"The new Iran has emerged in the Middle East and America and Europe are coming to terms with it," the Iranian professor concludes.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=74116
Lebanon or Palestine: Israel is after the wrong addresses
By Paul Scham
Commentary by
Saturday, July 22, 2006
The news from Gaza and Lebanon is bad and getting worse. Unfortunately, Israel's response follows in the footsteps of the American response to the September 11, 2001, attacks - that is, purporting to "hold responsible" parties who cannot really control the situation.
According to reports, Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit's kidnappers were not connected with the Hamas government of the Palestinian Authority, and likely not even with the "outside leadership" of Khaled Meshaal in Damascus. Despite this, Israel has repeatedly announced that it is holding Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyya responsible for Shalit's welfare, and has launched punishing air and ground strikes - many of which killed only civilians. At this point, there is little reason to believe that either the mainstream Hamas leadership or the Abbas has any real control over Shalit's fate.
On the contrary, those who are holding Shalit have no interest in a peaceful resolution. They are playing the role that Hamas did until a few years ago, basing their strategy on the assumption that the more violence, the better for them. This is the jihadist, Al-Qaeda worldview and indeed a New York Times article indicates that Arab intelligence services see Shalit's kidnappers as ideologically embracing this strategy. These groups actively welcome Israeli attacks in the belief that they serve to radicalize the population and to delegitimize the Palestinian Authority.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=10&categ_id=5&article_id=74153
USA Today
Israel massing troops, tanks on Lebanese border
Updated 7/22/2006 3:00 AM ET
By Khalid Tanveer, AP
Pakistani protesters burn replicas of the U.S. and Israeli flags Friday during a protest over the ongoing military campaign in Lebanon.
ON THE ISRAEL-LEBANON BORDER (AP) — Israel massed tanks and troops on its border with Lebanon and called up reserves Friday, announcing plans for a ground operation to destroy Hezbollah's tunnels, hideouts and weapons stashes.
Early Saturday Israeli aircraft and artillery pounded Lebanese roads and villages in the path of its troops. Witnesses said the attacks appeared focused on areas across the border from where the Israeli military presence was heaviest.
With Hezbollah's rocket attacks and Israeli bombings undiminished, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would visit the Middle East beginning Sunday — her first trip to the region since the crisis erupted 10 days ago. But she ruled out a quick cease-fire between Israel and the Shiite guerrillas as a "false promise."
Israel, which pulled its troops out of Lebanon just six years ago after a lengthy and costly occupation that caused painful divisions within the Jewish state, was poised to carry out its third large-scale ground operation in Lebanon since 1978. This time, however, the Israelis signaled they did not want to stay long.
Israel hopes the operation will end in the neutralization of Hezbollah. But the operation carries great risks for the country and the region. If Lebanon's weak central government is undermined, it could immerse the country again into disorder and ignite fresh passions in many Arab countries against Israel and the United States.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-07-21-lebanon-israel_x.htm
Rice outlines strategy for Middle East crisis
Updated 7/21/2006 6:56 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.
VIDEO:Rice outlines plan for Mideast peace
"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, told The Associated Press that Israel has destroyed about 40% of Hezbollah's military capabilities.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-07-21-mideast-whitehouse_x.htm
200 militants surrender to Pakistan authorities
Posted 7/22/2006 12:30 AM ET
By Arshad Butt, AP
Para-military troops look at rocket-propelled grenades surrendered by renegade tribal chieftains to the authorities in Dera Bugti, about 180 miles southeast of the provincial capital, Quetta, Pakistan, on Friday.
QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — About 200 militant supporters of a renegade tribal chieftain blamed for attacking security forces and the country's main gas pipelines and surrendered to authorities in southwestern Pakistan on Friday, an official said.
Six commanders also surrendered, said Abdul Samad Lasi, the top government official in the region.
He said hundreds of residents witnessed the public ceremony, in which the men denounced Nawab Akbar Bugti, their chieftain who has been leading the insurgency in the district of Dera Bugti, about 180 miles southeast of the provincial capital, Quetta.
"Bugti has lost the support of his own men and now he is on the run in the mountains," he said. The government has granted amnesty to the men since they expressed regret for their actions and have agreed to obey the law.
He also advised to Bugti to "unconditionally surrender without any further delay."
Bugti, about 80, has not been seen in the region since June, when authorities claimed that he had moved to a nearby area controlled by the Marri tribe, which is also accused by the government of fomenting insurgency.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-07-22-pakistan-militants_x.htm
Tsunami death toll jumps to 659 in Indonesia
Posted 7/22/2006 12:16 AM ET
PANGANDARAN, Indonesia (AP) — The death toll from the Indonesian tsunami earlier this week rose to 659 after emergency workers reached a previously inaccessible area along Java island's southern coast, the government said Saturday.
Drajat Santosa, an official at the government's National Disaster Management Coordinating Board, said nearly 100 bodies were found in a part of Ciamis district that had been cut off by a broken bridge.
The toll climbed to 659 with 330 others missing, he said. Previously, the government said 547 had been killed.
A magnitude 7.7 earthquake triggered Monday's tsunami, which pummeled a 110-mile stretch of Java island's southern coast, destroying scores of houses, restaurants and hotels. Cars, motorbikes and boats were left mangled amid fishing nets, furniture and other debris.
On Thursday, rescue workers dug decomposed corpses from ruined homes and hotels in the tsunami-devastated town of Pangandaran, Indonesia, and a mass burial was held.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono vowed to have a nationwide tsunami warning system in place by mid-2008, months ahead of schedule, following criticism that the government failed to tell residents about the impending disaster. There is none despite the 2004 tsunami that killed tens of thousands in Indonesia.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2006-07-22-indonesia-tsunami_x.htm
Probe finds Pentagon sold sensitive military equipment to public
Posted 7/21/2006 11:27 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) — Undercover government investigators purchased sensitive surplus military equipment such as launcher mounts for shoulder-fired missiles and guided missile radar test sets from a Defense Department contractor.
Much of the equipment could be useful to terrorists, according to a draft report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
In June, two GAO investigators spent $1.1 million on such equipment at two excess property warehouses. Their purchases included several types of body armor inserts used by troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, an all-band antenna used to track aircraft, and a digital signal converter used in naval surveillance.
"The body armor could be used by terrorists or other criminal activity," noted the report, obtained Friday by The Associated Press. "Many of the other military items have weapons applications that would also be useful to terrorists."
Thousands of items that should have been destroyed were sold to the public, the report said. Much of the equipment was sold for pennies on the dollar.
The list included circuit cards used in computerized Navy systems, a cesium technology timing unit with global positioning capabilities, and 12 digital microcircuits used in F-14 Tomcat fighter aircraft.
At least 2,669 sensitive military items were sold to 79 buyers in 216 sales transactions from November 2005 to June 2006.
"DOD has not enforced security controls for preventing sensitive excess military equipment from release to the public," the report concluded. "GAO was able to purchase these items because controls broke down at virtually every step in the excess property turn-in and disposal process."
In the report, the GAO said it had briefed Pentagon officials on its findings but that the Pentagon had no response because it had not had time to perform a detailed review.
Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn., chairman of the House Government Reform Committee's national security panel, will hold a hearing on the matter Tuesday. Earlier GAO reports also had found lax security controls over sensitive excess military equipment.
"During previous hearings we learned DOD was a bargain basement for would-be terrorists due to lax security screening of excess military equipment," Shays said in a statement Friday. "Based on GAO's most recent undercover investigation it looks like the store is still open."
Shays added: "We've seen partial changes that have resulted in over $34 million savings, but they still have a long way to go to make this system functional."
The GAO findings were first reported by CBS News and ABC News.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-07-21-pentagon-surplus_x.htm
Va. teen loses legal fight to use alternative cancer treatment
Posted 7/21/2006 8:32 PM ET
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A judge ruled Friday that a 16-year-old boy fighting to use alternative treatment for his cancer must report to a hospital by Tuesday and accept treatment that doctors deem necessary, the family's attorney said.
The judge also found Starchild Abraham Cherrix's parents were neglectful for allowing him to pursue alternative treatment of a sugar-free, organic diet and herbal supplements supervised by a clinic in Mexico, lawyer John Stepanovich said.
Jay and Rose Cherrix of Chincoteague on Virginia's Eastern Shore must continue to share custody of their son with the Accomack County Department of Social Services, as the judge had previously ordered, Stepanovich said.
The parents were devastated by the new order and planned to appeal, the lawyer said.
Stepanovich said he will ask a higher court on Monday to stay enforcement of the order, which requires the parents to take Abraham to Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk and to give the oncologist their written legal consent to treat their son for Hodgkin's disease.
"I want to caution all parents of Virginia: Look out, because Social Services may be pounding on your door next when they disagree with the decision you've made about the health care of your child," Stepanovich said.
Phone calls to the Cherrix home went unanswered.
The lawyer declined to release the ruling, saying juvenile court Judge Jesse E. Demps has sealed much of the case.
Social Services officials have declined to comment, citing privacy laws.
After three months of chemotherapy last year made him nauseated and weak, Abraham rejected doctors' recommendations to go through a second round when he learned early this year that his Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymph nodes, was active again.
A social worker then asked a judge to require the teen to continue conventional treatment. In May, the judge issued a temporary order finding Abraham's parents neglectful and awarding partial custody to the county, with Abraham continuing to live at home with his four siblings.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2006-07-21-youth-cancer_x.htm
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