Monday, July 31. 2006'Apologize, But Keep Up Pressure'/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
By Nachman Shai
In 1996, "Operation Grapes of Wrath" was one of the extended campaigns that the IDF periodically carried out in southern Lebanon. Then, as today, the IDF operated against the terror infrastructure in the region. That operation was halted after misdirected artillery fire killed over 100 civilians. Israel had to apologize and stop the operation prematurely. Israel also had to absorb great international criticism that made the military effort even more complex to carry out.Nachman Shai is senior vice president and director-general of United Jewish Communities' Israel Office. He also is a former IDF Spokesperson who served in that capacity during the first Gulf War.
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23:45
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"Disproportionate" in What Moral Universe?/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
From Charles Krauthammer (Washington Post)
What other country, when attacked in an unprovoked aggression across a recognized international frontier, is then put on a countdown clock by the world, given a limited time window in which to fight back, regardless of whether it has restored its own security? What other country sustains 1,500 indiscriminate rocket attacks into its cities - every one designed to kill, maim, and terrorize civilians - and is then vilified by the world when it tries to destroy the enemy's infrastructure and strongholds with precision-guided munitions that sometimes have the unintended but unavoidable consequence of collateral civilian death and suffering?
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23:35
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Photos that Damn Hezbollah/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
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23:34
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Iran Assists Hezbollah/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
From MEMRI
On July 29, 2006, the London Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported on assistance extended to Hezbollah by Iran's Revolutionary Guards.
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23:25
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Noteworthy Headlines/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
Israel to Suspend Air Attacks for Two Days After Strike in Lebanese Village
"After intense negotiations with the U.S., Israel agreed to suspend air attacks on southern Lebanon for 48 hours, State Department spokesman J. Adam Ereli announced." Related Headline; Israeli Strikes Resume After Brief Lull "Israel left open the option of striking targets to stop imminent attacks or if the military completed its inquiry. After Hezbollah guerrillas hit an Israeli tank near the village of Taibeh with an anti-tank missile, Israel said, the army carried out the airstrikes to protect ground troops." PM: No Ceasefire Now, Nor in the Coming Days 140 Rockets Hammer North on Sunday "Five Katyusha rockets landed in open areas near Kiryat Shmona Monday afternoon. The attack was the first by Hezbollah since the IDF's partial suspension of airstrikes early Monday morning. On Sunday, 140 rockets - the highest number in a single day since the beginning of hostilities on July 12 - rained down on northern cities. Eight people were wounded, Some 29 people suffered from shock." Israel to Limit Air Operations in Beirut "Israel has acceded to an American request to limit air force operations in the area of Beirut.... made several days ago. Israel was told that this recommendation came from President Bush." Israelis in Bomb Shelters for Weeks, First Time Since War of Independence "For the first time since the War of Independence, masses of Israelis have taken cover for days on end in bomb shelters and thousands of citizens are tasting the bitterness of being refugees." IDF Hacks Hezbollah TV "Caricatures of Nasrallah appeared on the screen, accompanied by captions reading: 'Your days are numbered' and 'Nasrallah, your time is up. Soon you won't be with us anymore.'"
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23:15
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Sunday, July 30. 2006Analysis: The Later the Better for An International Force/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
By By David Horovitz (Jerusalem Post)
23 years later, the attack remains the deadliest on Americans overseas since World War II.
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17:08
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Where's It All heading?/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
By Ron Ben-Yishai (Ynet)
Without a crushing victory over Hezbollah, Israel's long-term viability will be at risk.To read the entire article, click Where's It All heading?
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17:03
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Why Israel Must Win This War for the Free World/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
By Dan Diker and Maj.-Gen. (res.) Yaakov Amidror (Jerusalem Post)
Israel went to war to remove Hezbollah's strategic missile threat on its northern border. An Israeli victory over Hizballah may offer the Lebanese people another window of opportunity to become a democratic sovereign state free from the fear and tyranny Syria and Iran, via Hezbollah, have imposed on it. Radical Islam is nurtured by its perceived successes, as it is poisoned by its perceived failures. The Israeli counteroffensive in Lebanon is one of the last stations at which the seeming runaway train of radical Islam can be stopped or certainly slowed in its tracks.
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16:57
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Justified, Essential, and Timely/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
By Avraham Tal (Haaretz)
The IDF is not fighting a small guerrilla organization. It is dealing with a trained, skilled, well-organized, highly motivated infantry that is equipped with the cream of the crop of modern weaponry from the arsenals of Syria, Iran, Russia, and China, and which is very familiar with the territory on which it is fighting. In such a showdown, the going is very slow, and, sadly, you must also pay a heavy price in terms of casualties.
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16:54
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Just Cause/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
By Martin Peretz (New Republic)
Let's face it: Aside from fighting for themselves, the Israelis are also fighting for us. For the Iranians, Israel is the first front in the war against the West, and they supply Hezbollah to do their fighting for them. The introduction of easily launched rockets and more advanced long-range missiles across the borders of Israel is an augury of what other countries could soon face internally: India, for example, and Russia, too. One day, and soon, ethnic and sectarian terrorists - operating out of relatively self-contained regions or smaller population centers - will catapult projectile weapons into adjoining cities and areas. The countries so attacked will not respond any more gently than Israel has.
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16:52
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Hamas and the End of Palestinian National Aspirations/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
By Yossi Klein Halevi (New Republic)
Some insist on distinguishing between Hezbollah and Hamas. While Hezbollah is an operational extension of the Shia Iranian revolution, Hamas, they argue, represents the national aspirations of the Palestinian people. In fact, Hamas represents the undoing of Palestinian national aspirations. For Hamas, a Palestinian state is merely a means to an end: the resurrection of the medieval caliphate and the transformation of the Middle East into a single Islamist state. In rejecting mere nationalism, Hamas is returning the Palestinians to their pre-national consciousness, when Palestinians were part of an amorphous Arab or Muslim identity. The first casualty of the jihad, then, has been a viable Palestinian national identity, and, with it, the possibility of a viable Palestinian state.
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16:50
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Noteworthy Headlines/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
60 Killed in IAF Strike on Qana in Southern Lebanon
"A high-ranking IAF officer said that the IDF warned the residents of Qana to evacuate the village in anticipation of the airstrikes on Katyusha launchers." Over 100 Rockets Hit Northern Israel on Sunday Meir: Hezbollah Using civilians as Human Shields "Gideon Meir, a senior Foreign Ministry official, said on Sunday that Hezbollah was using their own civilian population as human shields." Eldad: Har Dov Withdrawal Would be Humiliating "Withdrawal from Har Dov would be the country's most shameful surrender." IDF: Hezbollah Tried to Kidnap Soldiers Again "Hezbollah had intended to kidnap IDF soldiers in Saturday fighting in the south Lebanon village of Bint Jbail. The plan was foiled due to the soldiers' alertness." Six Wounded as Rockets Pound North "In one barrage of at least 10 rockets, a house sustained a direct hit. Other damage was also reported. A total in Kiryat Shmona and Acre as over 80 rockets rained down again on northern cities. Twenty-nine people suffered from shock. All of the casualties were taken to Nahariya Hospital." IDF: Syria Smuggling Weapons, Rockets to Hezbollah 2 Would-be Bombers Caught Near Nablus "The would-be bombers were caught inside a Palestinian cab just outside of Nablus in the area of the Shavei Shomron settlement. The terrorists were affiliated with Fatah and the PFLP movements. Palestinian terrorist groups in the West Bank were working in conjunction with Hezbollah in an effort to carry out attacks in Israel while the IDF was fighting in Lebanon." West Fears Hezbollah's Fighting Style "'Few nations want to confront Hezbollah because the terrorist group has an unquenchable lust for martyrdom fueled by a radical Islamic ideology,' said retired Army Lt.-Col. Robert Maginnis, a military analyst. 'I'm not optimistic about the so-called peacekeeping effort.' There is still the memory of Hezbollah suicide bombers blowing up a Marine barracks in Beirut in 1983, killing 241 American service members." Tide of Arab Opinion Turns to Support for Hezbollah "With hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for more than two weeks, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming Hassan Nasrallah into a folk hero." Christians Fleeing Lebanon Denounce Hezbollah "Some of the Christians who had made it out in the convoy from Tyre in southern Lebanon wanted to talk about their ordeal at the hands of Hezbollah." Choosing Between a Shoe and a Husband , By Rana Saed "In Arab society a woman is not perceived as an independent person, but rather as someone who is always under the control of members of her family, until she is passed over to her husband's control. Most Arab women are not even aware that things could be different, and accept it submissively." A Soldier's Sacrifice in Lebanon "Klein threw his body over a hand grenade, sacrificing his life for the sake of his soldiers. In the last seconds of his life, he was heard to shout the 'Shema Yisrael' prayer."
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16:46
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PM Olmert Agrees to a Multinational Force Along Northern Border/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
By Yechiel Spira (Israel National News)
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has agreed to a US plan calling for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force along Israel?s border.Continue reading By PM Olmert Agrees to a Multinational Force Along Northern Border US to Present Lebanon Truce Wednesday "The resolution, according to reports in the US, will not demand the disarming of Hezbollah as a precondition for deployment of the international force."
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06:57
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Diplomatic Cease-Fire Efforts Intensify/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
By Herb Keinon and Nathan Guttman
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Saturday night with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, as diplomatic efforts to reach an overall agreement in Lebanon intensified and Thursday loomed as a possible deadline for the IDF to meet its military objectives.For more background, click France, Lebanon to Deploy to Border With Israel
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06:47
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Bush: No Fake Peace for Lebanon/script type="text/javascript" src="/JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.js"> // include_once ("../JavaScripts/google_iris-blog_top.inc"); ?>
From The White House
President Bush said Thursday: "The Middle East is littered with agreements that just didn't work. And now is the time to address the root cause of the problem. And the root cause of the problem is terrorist groups trying to stop the advance of democracies. Hezbollah attacked Israel. I know Hezbollah is connected to Iran. And now is the time for the world to confront these dangers."
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