IRIS Blog

By Ze'ev Schiff (Haaretz)

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is the figure leading the strategy of changing the situation in Lebanon, not Prime Minister Ehud Olmert or Defense Minister Amir Peretz. She has so far managed to withstand international pressure in favor of a cease-fire, even though this will allow Hezbollah to retain its status as a militia armed by Iran and Syria.

As such, she needs military cards, and unfortunately Israel has not succeeded to date in providing her with any. Besides bringing Hezbollah and Lebanon under fire, all of Israel's military cards at this stage are in the form of two Lebanese villages near the border that have been captured by the IDF.

If the military cards Israel is holding do not improve with the continuation of the fighting, it will result in a diplomatic solution that will leave the Hezbollah rocket arsenal in southern Lebanon in its place. The diplomatic solution will necessarily be a reflection of the military realities on the ground.

Also from the Syrian perspective there seems to be a contradiction between the American strategy and the steps Israel has taken with regards to Syria. Washington wants the solution to the problem of Hezbollah as a militia to be found in Lebanon. There are those in Washington who are recommending a connection to Syria must be found on this matter, but at the State Department and the White House they say this would simply invite Syria back into Lebanon...

Damascus must be worried about a foiling of the American-Lebanese diplomatic plans. Syrian concerns should have stemmed from Israel, but for days now Israel is doing everything possible to convince Damascus it is not in any danger. If there is no danger from Israel, Damascus can certainly allow itself to undermine any possible plan meant to weaken and defeat Hezbollah. It will act on its own and with Iran without any fear.

Israel has limited options for continuing the fighting. Since it has not succeeded to date to restrict Hezbollah's war of attrition against urban centers in Israel, including the targeting of Afula, the only option is a rapid operation for the capture of southern Lebanon in order to destroy the Hezbollah rocket arsenal prior to the transfer of a multinational force to the area. It may have other serious options, but these will not affect the rocket arsenal of Hezbollah. This is a race against time and against Hezbollah that is aided by Syria and Iran.

By Ezra HaLevi (Israel National News)

Pam Waechter, 58, was shot dead and five are in serious condition after a Muslim man opened fire inside a Jewish Federation building in Seattle, Washington Friday.

The Arab man entered the building Friday afternoon at 4 PM, following behind a woman who had just punched in her security code, shooting a receptionist and demanding that she call 911 and tell them he was holding everyone hostage. ?He told the police that it was a hostage situation and he wanted us to get our weapons out of Israel," an employee told the Seattle Times.

According to Jewish Federation official Amy Wasser-Simpson, the man had told staff members, "I'm a Muslim American; I'm angry at Israel," and then began shooting.

Most of the employees were able to escape through a back door and once police teams arrived, the man, 31-year-old Naveed Afzal Haq, soon surrendered. He was charged with one count of murder and five of attempted murder. He is reportedly a US citizen, from outside the Seattle region.

Rice Pushing Deal on Shaba Farms and International Force
"The deal being put forth by Rice is for the deployment in Lebanon of an 'international stabilization force' comprising 10,000 to 30,000 troops in return for Israel's withdrawal from the controversial Shaba Farms, on the western slopes of Mount Hermon."

Five Hurt as Over 90 Rockets Strike Across Northern Israel
"The injuries occurred in Nahariya and Ma'alot, where several homes sustained direct rocket strikes. In Ma'alot, five Katyushas also fell in open areas. At least four rockets fell in open areas in Safed, causing no injuries or damage. One rocket struck a medical facility in Acre, causing a large amount of damage but no injuries."

For more background, click here.

IDF Readies for New Ground Offensive in South Lebanon
"The IDF wrapped up its operations in the southern Lebanese village of Bint Jbail on Saturday and withdrew most of its troops from the area. At the same time, the army was gearing up for a new ground incursion into Lebanon."

IAF Strikes Over 60 Hezbollah Targets

IDF Troops Kill Islamic Jihad Leader in Nablus
"Islamic Jihad said the group's Nablus leader, Hani Awijan, 29, was killed by undercover IDF troops. The soldiers came to arrest him while he was playing soccer with friends and relatives, the group said. Another Islamic Jihad operative was also killed in the operation."

UN to Enter IDF Control Room

IDF Official: Missiles Fired at Afula Were Syrian

International Aid Goes to Pay Hamas Salaries

New FBI Division to Focus on Terrorist WMDs

IDF Sets Up Security Zone in Northern Gaza to Block Tunnels into Israel
"A senior officer said the area will be "clean" of buildings under which tunnels can be dug."

In the Midst of War, Israel's Disabled Soldiers Reach Out to Others

650 French Jews Emigrate to Israel
"The number of Jews leaving France this year to more than 3,500, the highest in 35 years."

By Melanie Phillips (melaniephillips.com)

British pathology now runs so deep that the hostility towards Israel's activities in Lebanon is currently far more pronounced than in much of the Arab world. The BBC in particular has turned into the Beirut Broadcasting Corporation, reporting the war almost entirely from the perspective of a Lebanon that is entirely innocent and victimized.

All this with scarcely a nod at the scores of Israeli dead and hundreds of casualties, or the thousands of Israeli refugees being taken in by families in the south of the country. And despite the fact that those Israeli casualties are being specifically targeted for death, whereas the Lebanese casualties are the inadvertent victims of attacks directed against Hezbollah terrorists. Hezbollah is using the civilian population as human shields, deliberately siting its rockets and other weapons in the basements of apartment blocks, schools, and mosques.

By Daniel Henninger (Wall Street Journal) Summarized by The Daily Alert

• The all-too-visible reality for the inhabitants of Katyusha World in northern Israel is that there is no defense against incoming rocket barrages other than hiding and hoping. After this week it is getting hard to pretend that the threat of missiles is something we don't have to think about.



• Uzi Rubin, former head of the Arrow project, says smaller, free-flying rockets are now evolving into relatively sophisticated and accurate ballistic missiles, "thanks to the steep decline in the cost of accuracy - the falling prices of onboard inertial and satellite navigation systems, the availability of cheap, commercial grade, high-speed computing power and low-cost control systems." That is, the same dynamic that makes cheap, fast electronic products available to consumers will do the same to electronic missile weaponry.



• Very short-range missiles fall outside any existing export-control regime, and these small missiles can carry chemical or biological agents. Rubin calls them "ideal weapons for terrorizing population centers." It generally requires state power to manage and deploy such weapons, but that power is of course a goal of radical Islam.



• Israel's population, with Katyushas raining down on them by the thousands, is a metaphor for the world ahead of commoditized missile weaponry. Not thinking about how to survive in that world is foolhardy.

Upgraded Hezbollah Rocket Hits Israeli Hospital

Katyushas Hit Communities Across North; 13 Lightly Wounded
"The Upper Galilee was hit by a heavy Katyusha barrage on Thursday afternoon, as 25 rockets landed in and around Kiryat Shmona. Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon fired over 100 Katyusha rockets at targets in northern Israel on Thursday, landing across the Galilee and Hula Valley."

Mossad and IDF Disagree Over Damage to Hezbollah

IDF Pulls Out of Northern Gaza Strip
"IDF troops and tanks pulled out of northern Gaza early Friday after a bloody two-day sweep..., but IAF aircraft continued to pound the area.
The body of a Palestinian operative was found after the IDF pulled back."

Air Force Destroyed Missile Command Center in Tyre
"A direct hit destroyed the building that included the 12th story Hezbollah center. The command unit controlled Syrian-made 220 mm rockets which have caused most of the civilian fatalities in the Hezbollah terrorist war."

Haifa University Students Demonstrate in Support of War

24 Wounded as Kassam Falls Near Zikim Kindergarten

IDF Eliminates 3 Terrorists in Bint Jbeil
"IDF soldiers eliminated three terrorists in the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbeil overnight.... There were no injuries reported among the IDF troops."

Apparent Terror Victim Identified
"The victim was identified on Friday as Dr. Danny Ya'akovi, the physician of the settlement of Yakir. His charred body was found late Thursday in the trunk of an Israeli vehicle in the West Bank, police said. Ya'akovi had been kidnapped and then killed by Palestinians in a terror attack."
For background on Dr. Yaakovi's kidnapping and murder, click here.

IDF Hits Over 130 Sites in Lebanon Thursday Night
"The Air Force bombed 57 Hezbollah structures, six rocket launchers, and a Hezbollah base in the Lebanon Valley."

2 Employers, 31 Illegal West Bank Workers Arrested

By Caroline Glick (Jerusalem Post)

In his address to the Knesset last week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert framed Israel's war in Lebanon as a war for "our right to be normal." His emphasis on our right to drink coffee led many to wonder if he understands the immensity of the threat we face as he curries favor with Israel's aging baby boomers.

The government's plan for prosecuting the war aimed at Hezbollah's dismantlement places the IAF as the main component of the campaign. The IAF is supposed to be assisted by limited ground operations that should not rise above the brigade level. Although this plan's logic fell apart a week ago when it became clear that the IAF bombings had not done enough to damage Hezbollah's war waging capabilities and its ability to rain down 100 rockets and missiles a day on northern Israel, the government maintains its devotion to the plan because it is unwilling to admit that its entire political vision for the country is based on lies.

The Olmert government insists that Israel can separate itself from terror and jihad and live a "normal life" by building a big fence and hiding behind it. The government knows that nothing will prove to the public the emptiness of its political rhetoric better than a serious ground invasion of southern Lebanon. And so, rather than shed its hallucinatory agenda, it clings to it with all the fervor of a Communist true-believer in Stalin's gulag.

The government's refusal to acknowledge that it cannot win a war through half-measures and the General Staff's insistence on believing, contrary to all evidence, that the IAF can win this war almost on its own have caused the IDF to commit avoidable tactical failures that if left uncorrected are liable to entrap us on a strategic level.

Even ideal commanders would have difficulty achieving victory when the Israeli government, in the interest of its narrow and misguided political agenda, is denying the IDF the resources needed for victory. The security cabinet's decision Thursday afternoon to reject the IDF's request to intensify the ground campaign and to call up more reserve units is nothing less than a gift to Hezbollah - a gift the IDF will be hard pressed to take back no matter who its commanders are.

A nation that sends its best sons into battle to defend its liberty and its very survival has the right and the duty to require its government to act responsibly and to discard hallucinatory ideological agendas before they lead us to yet another disaster.

By Anshel Pfeffer (Jerusalem Post)

The small group of Ghanaian soldiers manning UNIFIL Position 6-52, to the west of the village of Maroun a-Ras, less than a kilometer from the border, hasn't left its base in the last two weeks.

"Those are the orders of our superior officers," explains one of them who presents himself as commander of the post, but refuses to give his name.

Even the deaths of four UNTSO members on Tuesday night in an IAF bombardment, at a base not so far away, wasn't communicated to them from headquarters. That, too, they learned from TV.

"The problem is not UNIFIL," says the soldier at the gate. "It's the mandate we have from the UN. That is what decides our job..., if UNIFIL's mandate was changed and the force increased, it would be more efficient."

The Ghanaian soldiers weren't even aware of the breach in the fence they are supposed to monitor, by mandate of the United Nations.

From Israel National News

A CNN reporter has exposed tactics used by Hezbollah terrorists to stage media events in order to give the impression of a large number of civilian casualties caused by Israeli bombing attacks on terrorist position, according to a report issued by the Honest Reporting organization.

Rich Noyes said he was assigned to photograph buildings damaged in the bombings. "After letting us take pictures of a few damaged buildings, they take us to another location, where there are ambulances waiting. This is a heavily orchestrated Hezbollah media event. When we got here, all the ambulances were lined up," and the drivers turned on their sirens and sped away for photographers. "These ambulances aren't responding to any new bombings. The sirens are strictly for effect," Noyes said.

BY Morton A. Klein, ZOA National President & Dr. Daniel Mandel, Director (ZOA Center for Middle East Policy)

Ever since Israel struck back in the last two weeks at Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorist groups that have kidnapped Israeli soldiers and kept up an incessant barrage of rockets and missiles upon Israel from Gaza and southern Lebanon, various governments have criticized Israel's response as "excessive"' and "disproportionate."

Although several of Israel's critics have said Israel has a right to self-defense, they have not even hinted in which ways Israel should exercise it, except urging it to desist from its current military operations.

The reason for this is simple: the claims of disproportionate use of force are legally false and politically motivated. Claiming Israel has behaved disproportionately sidelines the real issue of Israel pursuing justifiable self-defense. Instead, it subjects Israel to a bogus test of proportionality which actually distorts the international legal concept of proportionality in war.

Proportionality is defined by the military objective, not the strength of the original aggression. For example, the unprovoked Japanese assault on Pearl Harbor did not limit America in its response to sinking a dozen Japanese warships and killing 2,500 Japanese, the size of the American losses sustained at Pearl Harbor. The US was entitled to wage unremitting war upon Japan until it achieved its objective, which was to have Japan relinquish its dreams of conquest and deprive it of the means to wage war on America - which is precisely what President Franklin Roosevelt did.

Therefore, if Hezbollah attacks Israel, as it has done here, it would be absurd to claim that Israel may return fire with only one bullet or one rocket or one artillery shell for each fired at it. Yet, in criticizing Israel for being disproportionate, this is essentially what its critics are saying.

All countries possess the right and duty of self-defense and the protection of their citizens from armed assault from external forces under Article 51 of the UN Charter. If Israel, as in the present case, is under such attack, proportionality means it can respond militarily with whatever use of force is reasonably required to deal with the assault to eliminate the danger and prevent its recurrence.

The claim that Israel is behaving excessively or disproportionately because more Lebanese than Israelis have been killed or because Israel has used more firepower than Hezbollah is false as a matter of law, history and morality.

From CBC/IMRA

Retired Canadian Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie told CBC radio Wednesday that the Canadian soldier killed at a UN post in Lebanon Tuesday had complained in e-mails that Hezbollah fighters were all over his position.

"They use the UN as shields knowing that they can't be punished for it."

See also; UN: Hezbollah Firing from Positions Near UNIFIL Posts (United Nations)

See also; IDF: UN Post Unintentionally Hit in Response to Hezbollah Missile Attacks (Israel Defense Forces)

See also; Annan's Claims on UN Casualties May Unravel (New York Sun)

See also; U.S. Blocks UN Condemnation of Israel By Irwin Arieff (Reuters/Washington Post)
"The UN Security Council failed to agree on a statement Wednesday condemning an Israeli attack on a UN observer post in Lebanon after the U.S. blocked language referring to a 'deliberate' attack against UN personnel."

Rice Resists Calls for Immediate Cease-Fire at Rome Conference

84 Rockets Cause Damage, Few Injuries

Air Force Pounds Hezbollah Hideouts
"The IAF staged a series of raids in northern, eastern and southern Lebanon on Thursday, targeting suspected Hezbollah hideouts, striking a Lebanese army base and destroying roads. Three rocket launchers and a convoy were also bombarded."

Katyushas Fired at Israel at a Glance

Lebanese Army Cooperating with Hezbollah
"Lebanese army cooperation with Hezbollah terrorists was behind the bombing of a radar station. Cooperation between the army and Hezbollah resulted in the death of four Navy men when a Hezbollah missile hit their ship 13 days ago. Israel has said it would not attack the Lebanese army so long as it does not cooperate with Hezbollah."

Al Qaeda Calls on All Moslems To Attack Jews
"A call to Moslems throughout the world to join in an international war against Jews 'until [our] religion prevails. We will attack everywhere,' threatened Ayman Al Zawahri, second in command to Osama Bin Laden. 'All the world is a battlefield open in front of us.'"

Iranian Volunteers Set Off for Lebanon
"'We are just the first wave of Islamic warriors from Iran, more will come from here and other Muslim nations around the world. Hezbollah needs our help.'"

By Jonathan Saul

Eliezer Asulin lives alone in the remains of his home in Safed, half-destroyed by a direct hit from a Hezbollah rocket fired from Lebanon. "Every day we play Russian roulette even before we wake up," says Asulin. "I have sent my family south. Most of the town has left." In the mainly Christian Arab village of Gush Halav, 4 km from the border, many blame Hezbollah. "I am an Arab and proud to be one. But make no mistake, I would like Nasrallah to be assassinated for what he has done to all of us," said Bashir Zubran, 24.

See also; Residents Evacuate Northern Israel En Masse

By Nir Hasson and Tomer Levi (Ha'aretz)

Wounded soldiers who took part in heavy combat Wednesday on the outskirts of the Hezbollah stronghold of Bint Jbail described the enemy ambush. "There was heavy fire from rocket launchers, missiles, and rocket-propelled grenades," said Sgt. Tzachi Duda. Sgt. Ohed Shalom said the soldiers did all in their power to prevent Hezbollah gunmen from reaching their comrades' bodies, and described how "they carried soldiers on stretchers while simultaneously shooting at terrorists." One of the most troublesome positions was the towering mosque in the village from which terrorists fired at the soldiers.

See Also; Stories of the Fallen Soldiers