An editorial in the Syrian government daily Al-Ba'th, titled "International Force or New Occupation?' read: 'Whoever thinks that the presence of international forces on Lebanese soil is the solution is wrong - since these forces, in the eyes of the resistance fighters and in the nationalist and pan-Arab view, would be occupation forces, like the forces that have occupied Iraq and other places in the world." ... [Pat Lang writes] [I]f these translations are correct, then the chance that existed for the US and Israel to make a deal with Syria is now gone."

Israel has captured 7 Hezbollah soldiers

No. A hypocrite is someone who won't condemn Cuba's civil rights violations while harping continualy about the US.

And I'm glad to know that ppj thinks the insurgents 'captured' the American soldiers they ended up beheading.

Witnesses in Baalbek said they saw dozens of IAF helicopters hovering over the city. They said the hospital in Baalbek, filled with patients and wounded people, was bombed by IAF helicopters late Tuesday. Plumes of burning smoke billowed from the hospital after it was directly hit, they said.

Lebanese police reported at least twelve civilians were killed in an air strike on a village near Baalbek, Israel Radio reported. They said Israel Air Force planes bombarded the village of Jammaliyeh during clashes nearby in Baalbek. They said five members of the same family were found dead in one house and two more were found dead in another collapsed house. Six other villagers were killed and two wounded.

Human Rights Watch researchers have been in Lebanon since the onset of the current hostilities and have documented dozens of cases in which Israeli forces have carried out indiscriminate attacks against civilians while in their homes or traveling on roads to flee the fighting.... Human Rights Watch has also documented Hezbollah's deliberate and indiscriminate firing of Katyusha rockets into civilian areas in Israel, resulting in 18 civilian deaths to date. These serious violations of international humanitarian law are also war crimes. "War crimes by one party to a conflict never justify war crimes by another," Roth said.

There is every reason to believe that the horrors of the past three weeks--the bombardments that have reduced much of south Lebanon and southern Beirut to rubble and crippled a large part of the country's infrastructure, claiming some 700 lives, wounding thousands more and turning over three quarters of a million people into refugees--is only the prelude to an even greater slaughter. The war crime that claimed the lives of more than 60 people--most of them children--in the village of Qana is to be repeated throughout the region in the coming days and weeks. ... It is by now clear to all but the willfully blind that Hezbollah's capture of two Israeli soldiers July 12 was not the cause of the present war, but merely the pretext for launching a long-planned aggression. Nor was this war simply determined by the government of Israel, with Washington providing its blessing after the fact. On the contrary, it represents an extension and deepening of the US imperialist intervention in the Middle East launched with the invasion of Iraq more than three years ago. The aims of this war are not merely to secure Israel against Hezbollah, but to further US strategic goals in Central Asia and the Middle East, using the so-called "global war on terrorism" as the justification for a predatory policy directed at establishing Washington's stranglehold over the oil reserves concentrated in the region. This, in turn, is seen as critical to US imperialism's goal of achieving global hegemony.

The wanton destruction of the Beirut airport and civilian aircrafts are blatant examples of these destructions. Similarly, the bombing of undefended towns, villages and dwellings that are not military objectives, as well as the intentional attacks that will knowingly cause incidental loss of life or injury to civilians also constitute war crimes for which individuals can be held criminally responsible. "While Israel has a legitimate right to defend itself against hostage-taking and the launching of rockets by the Hezbollah over Israeli territory, this right is not unlimited and is subject to the restrictions of international law," said Mr Andreu-Guzman. "Indeed, the disproportionate and indiscriminate reactions of the Israeli military are reprisals against the civilian population and thus amount to collective punishment. Collective punishments constitute a war crime under international law", added Mr Andreu-Guzman.

Andreas, WOW. The WSWS.

The operations have a multi-operational value. They give us a good intelligence picture. Tonight five Hizbullah members whose ages range from 20 to 54 were kidnapped and their names are known to us," the officer said.

At this stage, it is very important to obtain bargaining chips among Hizbullah members in order to secure the release of our abducted soldiers," says Major General (Res.) Uzi Dayan, who during his 17-year career with the security establishment also headed elite IDF commando unit Sayeret Matkal.

Calls for the disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias;

Resolution 252 (1968) Israel
Urgently calls upon Israel to rescind measures that change the legal status of Jerusalem, including the expropriation of land and properties thereon. 262 (1968) Israel
Calls upon Israel to pay compensation to Lebanon for destruction of airliners at Beirut International Airport. 267 (1969) Israel
Urgently calls upon Israel to rescind measures seeking to change the legal status of occupied East Jerusalem. 271 (1969) Israel
Reiterates calls to rescind measures seeking to change the legal status of occupied East Jerusalem and calls on Israel to scrupulously abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the responsibilities of occupying powers. 298 (1971) Israel
Reiterates demand that Israel rescind measures seeking to change the legal status of occupied East Jerusalem. 446 (1979) Israel
Calls upon Israel to scrupulously abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the responsibilities of occupying powers, to rescind previous measures that violate these relevant provisions, and "in particular, not to transport parts of its civilian population into the occupied Arab territories." 452 (1979) Israel
Calls on the government of Israel to cease, on an urgent basis, the establishment, construction, and planning of settlements in the Arab territories, occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem. 465 (1980) Israel
Reiterates previous resolutions on Israel's settlements policy. 471 (1980) Israel
Demands prosecution of those involved in assassination attempts of West Bank leaders and compensation for damages; reiterates demands to abide by Fourth Geneva Convention. 484 (1980) Israel
Reiterates request that Israel abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention. 487 (1981) Israel
Calls upon Israel to place its nuclear facilities under the safeguard of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency. 497 (1981) Israel
Demands that Israel rescind its decision to impose its domestic laws in the occupied Syrian Golan region. 573 (1985) Israel
Calls on Israel to pay compensation for human and material losses from its attack against Tunisia and to refrain from all such attacks or threats of attacks against other nations. 592 (1986) Israel
Insists Israel abide by the Fourth Geneva Conventions in East Jerusalem and other occupied territories. 605 (1987) Israel
"Calls once more upon Israel, the occupying Power, to abide immediately and scrupulously by the Geneva Convention relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Times of War, and to desist forthwith from its policies and practices that are in violations of the provisions of the Convention." 607 (1986) Israel
Reiterates calls on Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention and to cease its practice of deportations from occupied Arab territories. 608 (1988) Israel
Reiterates call for Israel to cease its deportations. 636 (1989) Israel
Reiterates call for Israel to cease its deportations. 641 (1989) Israel
Reiterates previous resolutions calling on Israel to desist in its deportations. 672 (1990) Israel
Reiterates calls for Israel to abide by provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention in the occupied Arab territories. 673 (1990) Israel
Insists that Israel come into compliance with resolution 672. 681 (1990) Israel
Reiterates call on Israel to abide by Fourth Geneva Convention in the occupied Arab territories. 726 (1992) Israel
Reiterates calls on Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention and to cease its practice of deportations from occupied Arab territories. 799 (1992) Israel
"Reaffirms applicability of Fourth Geneva Convention...to all Palestinian territories occupied by Israel since 1967, including Jerusalem, and affirms that deportation of civilians constitutes a contravention of its obligations under the Convention." 904 (1994) Israel
Calls upon Israel, as the occupying power, "to take and implement measures, inter alia, confiscation of arms, with the aim of preventing illegal acts of violence by settlers." 1073 (1996) Israel
"Calls on the safety and security of Palestinian 1303 (2000) Turkey/Cyprus
Reiterates UNSC resolutions 1283 and 1251. 1322 (2000) Israel
Calls upon Israel to scrupulously abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention regarding the responsibilities of occupying power. 1402 (2002) Israel
Calls for Israel to withdraw from Palestinian cities. 1403 (2002) Israel
Demands that Israel go through with "the implementation of its resolution 1402, without delay." 1405 (2002) Israel
Calls for UN inspectors to investigate civilian deaths during an Israeli assault on the Jenin refugee camp. 1435 (2002) Israel
Calls on Israel to withdraw to positions of September 2000 and end its military activities in and around Ramallah, including the destruction of security and civilian infrastructure.

Strictly from a military tactical perspective they should mount a massive invasion, cutting off the border with Syria and cutting off the northern mountainous region of Lebanon, trap the Hezbollah fighters in a pocket and push them toward the sea where they can be isolated and wiped out.

Che - Hypocrites? No. A hypocrite is someone who won't condemn Cuba's civil rights violations while harping continualy about the US.

Israeli's are backing their country's actions: Polls in Israel show wall-to-wall support for Israel's fight against Hezbollah, even with Israeli civilians enduring a barrage of rocket fire and the army poised for a sweeping ground offensive that is sure to lead to more casualties.

According to a poll released by the Beirut Center for Research and Information, 87 percent of Lebanese support Hizbullah's fight with Israel, a rise of 29 percent on a similar poll conducted in February. More striking, however, is the level of support for Hizbullah's resistance from non-Shiite communities. Eighty percent of Christians polled supported Hizbullah along with 80 percent of Druze and 89 percent of Sunnis.

Polling Data Poll highlights Support for the Lebanese-backed resistance against Israel 86.9% Agreement with the capture of the two Israeli soldiers 70.1% Belief that Israel will never defeat Hezbollah 63.3%

After the war, The situation will be As it was before. A hundred speeches Of Olmert Will not change that. There is no military solution. Only a political settlement.

Israel's foreign policy has been predicated on the United States remaining a superpower indefinitely. But nothing goes on indefinitely, and it is questionable whether a nation that must borrow $2 billion a day is still a "super" power. When it is no longer in the strategic interests of China to support our consumerism (and that day will come), what happens to Israel? Nations are coldhearted; they rarely do what, in their vision (however flawed or blind), is not in their interest. No one but the U.S. has a strategic interest in Israel; it benefits no one else to support it financially. If the day comes that we cannot, then, having followed our lead in alienating most of the world, how does Israel survive? Can it?

George Bush is in Russia face-to-face with leaders of the world's great powers. It simply is not credible that, at such a crucial juncture, the guy who's paying the freight doesn't have final say on whether or not such an escalation takes place. Whatever the provocation, the scale of escalation was a Bush-Cheney decision because, I believe, a larger plan was envisioned

He came to the G8 with a very large carrot for Vladimir Putin, something Putin has desired very much: Russian entry into the World Trade Organization. For weeks, reports from all quarters signaled that the U.S. was ready for Russian entry to the WTO. According to The Christian Science Monitor (July 14, p.5): "Analysts say this 'carrot' that the White House is dangling is really more about Iran and winning Russia's support for a tougher stance." A much tougher stance. Action of some sort.

Putin turned Bush down flat. As much as he's wanted membership in the WTO, whatever Bush was planning for Iran was too high a price. That is the only way to make sense of Putin's statement after Bush blocked membership: "We will not participate in any crusade, in any holy alliances." Putin made a point of calling the Iranians "our partners." Russia has oil. Lots. That oil could have mitigated the effects of an attack on Iran. Putin said no. In no uncertain terms. By his language he said clearly that anyone attacking Iran is attacking "our partners."

Bush thought he could buy Russia's collusion on Iran with a WTO membership. It didn't work. And Israel and Lebanon are left holding the very bloody bag. Palestinians, too.

A report by columnist Sidney Blumenthal in Salon claims that Israel is receiving intelligence from the US's National Security Agency. Blumenthal claims to be in touch with "a national security official with direct knowledge of the operation" to supply Israel with signals intelligence from American assets to help it monitor armament transfers from Syria and Iran to Hezbollah. He states that President Bush has approved the intelligence sharing. Bush is being influenced by neoconservatives in his administration led by Vice President Dick Cheney's staff and Elliot Abrams, senior director for the Near East on the National Security Council. The group, according to Blumenthal, seeks to start a 'four front war' by giving Israel the pretext to strike Iran and Syria. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been briefed, but is not a central actor in the plan.

Leaked UK document sees "civil war" in Iraq Iraq is more likely to slide into civil war than turn into a democracy, Britain's outgoing ambassador to Baghdad wrote in a leaked diplomatic cable, the BBC public broadcaster reported on Thursday.

Iraq Moving Toward Civil War, Top U.S. Commanders Say