“To those countries who claim that we are using disproportionate force, I have only this to say: You’re damn right we are.”
- Dan Gillerman, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations at a pro-Israel Rally in New York
"Everyone in southern Lebanon is a terrorist and is connected to Hezbollah"
-Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon on July 27
Thursday, August 03, 2006
LEBANON
Independent via ICH: Entire Lebanese family killed in Israeli attack on hospital
by Robert Fisk
An attack on a hospital, the killing of an entire Lebanese family, the seizure of five men in Baalbek and a new civilian death toll - 468 men, women and children - marked the 22nd day of Israel's latest war on Lebanon.
The Israelis claimed that helicopter-borne soldiers had seized senior Hizbollah leaders although one of them turned out to be a local Baalbek grocer. In a village near the city, Israeli air strikes killed the local mayor's son and brother and five children in their family.
The battle for Lebanon was fast moving out of control last night. Lebanese troops abandoned many of their checkpoints and European diplomats were warning their colleagues that militiamen were taking over the positions. Up to 8,000 Israeli troops were reported to have crossed the border by last night in what was publicised as a military advance towards the Litani river. But far more soldiers would be needed to secure so large an area of southern Lebanon.
The obscene score-card for death in this latest war now stands as follows:
508 Lebanese civilians, 46 Hizbollah guerrillas, 26 Lebanese soldiers, 36 Israeli soldiers and 19 Israeli civilians.
In other words, Hizbollah is killing more Israeli soldiers than civilians and the Israelis are killing far more Lebanese civilians than they are guerrillas
by Robert Fisk
An attack on a hospital, the killing of an entire Lebanese family, the seizure of five men in Baalbek and a new civilian death toll - 468 men, women and children - marked the 22nd day of Israel's latest war on Lebanon.
The Israelis claimed that helicopter-borne soldiers had seized senior Hizbollah leaders although one of them turned out to be a local Baalbek grocer. In a village near the city, Israeli air strikes killed the local mayor's son and brother and five children in their family.
The battle for Lebanon was fast moving out of control last night. Lebanese troops abandoned many of their checkpoints and European diplomats were warning their colleagues that militiamen were taking over the positions. Up to 8,000 Israeli troops were reported to have crossed the border by last night in what was publicised as a military advance towards the Litani river. But far more soldiers would be needed to secure so large an area of southern Lebanon.
The obscene score-card for death in this latest war now stands as follows:
508 Lebanese civilians, 46 Hizbollah guerrillas, 26 Lebanese soldiers, 36 Israeli soldiers and 19 Israeli civilians.
In other words, Hizbollah is killing more Israeli soldiers than civilians and the Israelis are killing far more Lebanese civilians than they are guerrillas
Monday, July 31, 2006
LEBANON: QANA
ICH: Pictures From Qana
Warning: Graphic images depicting the reality and horror of Israel's Invasion and destruction of Lebanon
ICH: Video Report of QANA Massacre
Witnesses said the early-morning strike hit the three-storey building where families had been sheltering in the basement, crushing it sideways into an enormous crater.
One survivor said the "bombing was so intense that no-one could move".
Elderly, women and children were among those killed in the raid, which wrought destruction over a wide area.
This report contains some images you may find distressing
07/30/06 BBC Report - Runtime 3 Minutes
Warning: Graphic images depicting the reality and horror of Israel's Invasion and destruction of Lebanon
ICH: Video Report of QANA Massacre
Witnesses said the early-morning strike hit the three-storey building where families had been sheltering in the basement, crushing it sideways into an enormous crater.
One survivor said the "bombing was so intense that no-one could move".
Elderly, women and children were among those killed in the raid, which wrought destruction over a wide area.
This report contains some images you may find distressing
07/30/06 BBC Report - Runtime 3 Minutes
LEBANON: MASSACRE
AP: '57 killed' as Israeli air strike hits children
Dozens of children were feared dead today after Israeli missiles struck the southern Lebanese village of Qana, flattening houses on top of sleeping residents. Survivors said that more than 50 adults and children had died.
The Israeli army said missiles had been fired from the area before the 1am air strike in which a three-story building took a direct hit.
Rescuers aided by villagers were digging by hand to look for casualties.
The bodies of at least 27 children were found in the rubble, said Abu Shadi Jradi, a civil defence official at the scene. At least 10 children's bodies had been pulled out, placed in plastic bags and loaded in ambulances, he said.
LEBANON
ICH: Mobilize to avenge the blood of Qana
by Uri Avnery
George Bush and his vassal, Tony Blair, are no statesmen. They are war criminals. They claim to be pious Christians. They are the physical manifestation of the devil himself.
Interviewed by the BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson, on Saturday 30 July, Blair repeatedly declined to call for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.
"Give Israel time to do its job of destruction. Let Israel annihilate Hizbullah and, preferably, Syria as well. When this is done, we shall call for a ceasefire." This is the conclusion which any reasonable person watching Blair's interview would draw. Indeed, it is the conclusion which Nick Robinson himself drew - he said so himself in conversation with the television news presenter after the interview.
Well, Israel has done its job. At least 60 innocent civilians, including many children, were murdered on Sunday 30 July, the very next day after Blair's interview, when Israeli warplanes bombed the basement in which they were sheltering. And still, Bush's vassal will not call for an immediate ceasefire. The closest he would come to this is to call for a ceasefire "as soon as possible", i.e. when Israel has completed its job of murder and destruction.
by Uri Avnery
George Bush and his vassal, Tony Blair, are no statesmen. They are war criminals. They claim to be pious Christians. They are the physical manifestation of the devil himself.
Interviewed by the BBC's political editor, Nick Robinson, on Saturday 30 July, Blair repeatedly declined to call for an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon.
"Give Israel time to do its job of destruction. Let Israel annihilate Hizbullah and, preferably, Syria as well. When this is done, we shall call for a ceasefire." This is the conclusion which any reasonable person watching Blair's interview would draw. Indeed, it is the conclusion which Nick Robinson himself drew - he said so himself in conversation with the television news presenter after the interview.
Well, Israel has done its job. At least 60 innocent civilians, including many children, were murdered on Sunday 30 July, the very next day after Blair's interview, when Israeli warplanes bombed the basement in which they were sheltering. And still, Bush's vassal will not call for an immediate ceasefire. The closest he would come to this is to call for a ceasefire "as soon as possible", i.e. when Israel has completed its job of murder and destruction.
LEBANON
Independent via ICH: 'How can we stand by and allow this to go on?'
by Robert Fisk
They wrote the names of the dead children on their plastic shrouds. "Mehdi Hashem, aged seven - Qana," was written in felt pen on the bag in which the little boy's body lay. "Hussein al-Mohamed, aged 12 - Qana',' "Abbas al-Shalhoub, aged one - Qana.'' And when the Lebanese soldier went to pick up Abbas's little body, it bounced on his shoulder as the boy might have done on his father's shoulder on Saturday. In all, there were 56 corpses brought to the Tyre government hospital and other surgeries, and 34 of them were children. When they ran out of plastic bags, they wrapped the small corpses in carpets. Their hair was matted with dust, most had blood running from their noses.
You must have a heart of stone not to feel the outrage that those of us watching this experienced yesterday. This slaughter was an obscenity, an atrocity - yes, if the Israeli air force truly bombs with the "pinpoint accuracy'' it claims, this was also a war crime. Israel claimed that missiles had been fired by Hizbollah gunmen from the south Lebanese town of Qana - as if that justified this massacre. Israel's Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, talked about "Muslim terror" threatening "western civilisation" - as if the Hizbollah had killed all these poor people.
LEBANON
Independent via ICH: Under fire in Beirut
by Robert Fisk
In his second weekly dispatch from the front line, our veteran war reporter confesses he was so scared after one attack that he could not put pen to paper
To Sidon. Ed Cody has found a cool, 120-mile-an-hour driver called Hassan - he has a black Mercedes which I nickname "Death Car" (because that will be the fate of anyone who gets in our way) and we zip down the coast road and turn east into the hills at Naameh, where the Israelis have just blown the bridge.
Thirty years ago, Cody was an Associated Press correspondent in Beirut and taught me how to cover wars. "Get in the car, drive to the battle and find out what the arseholes are doing," he used to say. Cody is from Oregon, a slim, brilliant, highly subversive journalist who is now Beijing correspondent for the Washington Post. A great guy to travel with, eyes sharp for F-16s, brave without being a poseur, fluent in Arabic, he understands the dirty war we are watching and thrives on cynicism.
"Look," he says, pointing to a blown-up highway interchange. "It's a terrorist bridge! And if you take the road to Zahle, you'll find a burned out terrorist flour and grain lorry!" If the world became a better place, I fear Cody would contemplate suicide.
by Robert Fisk
In his second weekly dispatch from the front line, our veteran war reporter confesses he was so scared after one attack that he could not put pen to paper
To Sidon. Ed Cody has found a cool, 120-mile-an-hour driver called Hassan - he has a black Mercedes which I nickname "Death Car" (because that will be the fate of anyone who gets in our way) and we zip down the coast road and turn east into the hills at Naameh, where the Israelis have just blown the bridge.
Thirty years ago, Cody was an Associated Press correspondent in Beirut and taught me how to cover wars. "Get in the car, drive to the battle and find out what the arseholes are doing," he used to say. Cody is from Oregon, a slim, brilliant, highly subversive journalist who is now Beijing correspondent for the Washington Post. A great guy to travel with, eyes sharp for F-16s, brave without being a poseur, fluent in Arabic, he understands the dirty war we are watching and thrives on cynicism.
"Look," he says, pointing to a blown-up highway interchange. "It's a terrorist bridge! And if you take the road to Zahle, you'll find a burned out terrorist flour and grain lorry!" If the world became a better place, I fear Cody would contemplate suicide.
LEBANON
Wayne Madsen Report:
July 28, 2006 -- Countering the spin. Hezbollah sources have an entirely different story about the incident that triggered the Israeli attack on Lebanon. The counter-story lends credence to the pre-meditated nature of a plan that was hatched in a three-way meeting between Dick Cheney, Binyamin Netanyahu, and Natan Sharansky at an American Enterprise Institute conference in Colorado last month.
Hezbollah reports that on July 12, two Israeli Defense Force (IDF) troops were captured by Hezbollah after they entered Lebanese territory. Hezbollah put out feelers that they would entertain a prisoner swap, something that had occurred many times in the past. However, already looking for an incident on the Israeli-Lebanese border, the Israeli government dispatched a Merkava-2 tank into Lebanon to retrieve its two captured troops. The tank hit a land mine, killing four Israeli soldiers. Haaretz confirmed that the tank was destroyed by a mine and not in a Hezbollah attack.
The neo-con spin machine, including George W. Bush, claims that Hezbollah entered Israel in an unprovoked attack and kidnapped the two Israelis.
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