http://d.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/afp/20060723/capt.sge.teg83.230706231345.photo00.photo.default-359x512.jpg?x=242&y=345&sig=DwB_Y5Ox_Ms5puN3ch7mUg--
An injured Lebanese woman and her daughter from the southern village of
al-Tiri sit in the hospital following Israeli air strikes on a convoy of people
fleeing their villages in the southern city of Tyre. Israel captured two
fighters from Hezbollah as it kept up its blistering air and ground blitz on
Lebanon despite accusations from the UN relief chief it was "violating
humanitarian law".(AFP/Hassan Ammar)
An injured Lebanese girl is seen at the Nejm Hospital while waiting for
treatment at the southern Lebanon city of Tyre, Sunday, July 23, 2006.
Villagers from the village of Et Tiri were evacuating their village in a convoy
toward Tyre when they came under attack by an Israeli warplane missile, several
were injured including women and children.
Lebanese Hizbollah supporters prepare a banner that reads 'America and Israel
destroyed the homes as they could not confront Hizbollah' to be hanged in a
Hizbollah stronghold that was targeted by Israeli attacks, in southern Beirut,
July 23 2006
A general view shows destruction caused by Israeli air strikes in the
southern suburbs of Beirut, a strong hold of Hezbollah. Queen's iconic anthem
"We Will Rock You" takes on a new meaning when you hear it in a Beirut bar just
a few kilometres from the booms of Israeli missiles.(AFP/Ramzi Haidar)
A man looks at the rubble after an Israeli air raid hit the Fatima al-Zahra
building which contains a library, a school and a mosque linked to Hezbollah in
the southern Lebanese city of Sidon. The United States and Israel said that
they were ready to support an international force led by NATO in south Lebanon
to ease tensions.(AFP/Anwar Amro)
People walk in the rubble of a religious complex, that used to consist of a
mosque and a religious school, destroyed by Israeli warplane missile attacks
inside the port city of Sidon, Sunday, July 23, 2006. Israel hit inside Sidon
for the first time in its campaign, destroying the complex linked to Hezbollah
and wounding four people.
Lebanese Ali Gharib, who was wounded by Israeli forces' bombardment in the
outskirts of the southern port city of Tyre, Lebanon two days before, lies at a
hospital bed in the port city of Sidon, Sunday July 23, 2006. (AP Photo/Mohamed
Zaatari)
Zaina Abbas and her husband Mohammed, who were both injured in an Israeli
missile strike as they fled their village in southern Lebanon, are seen in an
old jail that has been turned into a center for displaced people after arriving
in the port city of Sidon, southern Lebanon, Sunday, July 23, 2006. (AP
Photo/Kevin Frayer)
Mariam al-Baba (top) talks to her wounded 77-year-old sister Nadira al-Baba
at a hospital after Nadira was injured by an Israeli air attack near her house
at the port-city of Sidon in south Lebanon July 23, 2006. REUTERS/Ali Hahsisho
(LEBANON)
Eight-year-old Hala rests on a hospital bed in Bekaa Valley in eastern
Lebanon July 23, 2006 after she received treatment. Israel unleashed more air
strikes on Lebanon and Hizbollah fired rockets at Haifa on Sunday as a senior
U.N. official demanded a halt to the violence to allow aid to reach desperate
civilians. REUTERS/Afif Diab (LEBANON)
An Lebanese man from the village of Mansuri lies injured with burns at Najm
private hospital in south Lebanon's town of Tyre (Soure) July 23, 2006. He was
injured in the Israeli Apache helicopter missiles attack early morning when his
family tried to enter Tyre to be evacuated by German and French joint boat
missions on Monday. REUTERS/Nikola Solic
Ali Safiyeddin carries his six-year-old daughter after she was killed during
an Israeli air attack on their house in Tyre (Soure) in southern Lebanon July
23, 2006. REUTERS/Ali Hahsisho (LEBANON
Two injured Lebanese boys are seen at the crowded Nejm Hospital while waiting
for treatment at the southern Lebanon city of Tyre, Sunday, July 23, 2006.
Villagers from the village of Et Tiri were evacuating their village in a convoy
toward Tyre when they came under attack by an Israeli warplane . Several were
injured including women and children
An injured Lebanese girl and a woman lay on the floor at the crowded Nejm
Hospital while waiting for treatment at the southern Lebanon city of Tyre,
Sunday, July 23, 2006. Villagers from the village of Et Tiri were evacuating
their village in a convoy toward Tyre when they came under attack by an Israeli
warplane . Several were injured including women and children
An injured Lebanese girl lays on the floor in the Nejm Hospital while waiting
for treatment at the southern Lebanon city of Tyre, Sunday, July 23, 2006.
Villagers from the village of Et Tiri evacuated their village in a convoy
toward Tyre when they came under attack by an Israeli warplane missile, several
were injured including women and children. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser)
Two injured Lebanese boys are carried in an ambulance pn their arrival at the
Nejm Hospital for treatment in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, Sunday, July
23, 2006. Villagers from the village of Et Tiri evacuated their village in a
convoy toward Tyre when they came under attack by an Israeli warplane missile,
several were injured including women and children.
Palestinian Mona Abu Awad, holding her nephew, mourns during the funeral of
her brother Ahamed, 18, in the Mughazi refugee camp in central Gaza Sunday July
23, 2006. Abu Awad was killed by an Israeli air strike on the refugee camp on
Thursday
Babies Abdul-Rahman, 6 months old, center-left, and Ali al-Hadi, 4 months
old, center-right, lie on a mattress cared for by Ali-al-Hadi's mother Sahar
Sebaei, right, at a school in the mountain village of Qabr Chmoun, south of
Beirut, Lebanon Sunday, July 23, 2006. The small school had taken in seven
families who had fled the Burj el-Barajneh neighborhood of the capital, to seek
refugee in the mountains, following Israeli airstrikes on the nearby airport.
The journey from the south is very dangerous.
This car had all its windows blown out by an explosion from an Israeli air
strike.
Many of the refugees say they fled the south
of Lebanon for the sake of their children.
Hiyam Darwish Hiyam is lying in a coma in Jabal Amil hospital,
after her family home was bombed in the village of Qleileh, 10km (six miles)
south of Tyre.
Zeinab Haidar "The first cars in our convoy were bombed and
when we tried to hide among the trees the planes came back and dropped two more
bombs on us."
Zeinab Jawad Zeinab, left, is in hospital with her aunt.
Zeinab's family ran out of food where they were sheltering in a Christian
village. When they tried to escape to Tyre, Israeli planes bombed the car,
killing two of her aunts.
Hatim Hassan "I was driving up to see my house in Aitat. It was
destroyed. "When I was driving home my car was attacked. The missile exploded
inside the car."
Israeli air strikes on Lebanon have left roughly 500,000 people homeless in
the region. (ABC News)
Nearly 500 Lebanese women and children have taken refuge in Damascus at the
school for the blind, after fleeing the war at home. (ABC News)
Collateral Damage An Israeli air strike in southern Lebanon hits a bus
filled with women and children trying to flee the region, raising questions
about whether Israel is doing enough to avoid civilian casualties read more>>
http://hotzone.yahoo.com/b/hotzone/blogs7803
Lebanon's Humanitarian Crisis Growing
An Estimated Half Million Are Homeless, as Israel Warns Villagers to Leave
Region - By DAVID WRIGHT
BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 21, 2006 The Israeli air strikes on Lebanon have
flattened entire neighborhoods, killing more than 330 people and leaving
another half a million homeless.
Anything that looks like it could be of use to the enemy is a potential
target in the region where a humanitarian crisis of major proportions is
growing.
In the southern city of Tyre, Israel's bombers are so relentless it's not
safe to give the dead a proper burial. Today local residents put 84 corpses
into a mass grave, before rushing inside for cover.
Israel is dropping leaflets all along the border, telling 400,000 Lebanese
villagers to get out. But many have ignored that advice fearing worse on the
roads. Others refuse to leave their homes out of principle.
One man told us, "We will not surrender to psychological warfare," while
tearing up the leaflet.
But thousands of Lebanese are fleeing north, and among the roughly 550,000
now homeless, half are children.
Deliveries to Region Challenged
The UN is warning that the situation is deteriorating quickly and getting
relief supplies where they're needed most is difficult and dangerous. Israel
has shattered much of the infrastructure, which includes roads, bridges and
also gas stations, power lines, factories and farms.
One warehouse just south of Beirut airport was still smoldering when we
visited today. It's a Proctor and Gamble warehouse housing canned goods, soap
and shampoo all of which now sit scattered in the ruins.
Israel is also targeting trucks crossing over from Syria on the grounds they
might contain munitions. A shipment that used to cost $250 to have delivered
can now command five times that price. Demand is high and willing drivers are
scarce.
"Today I took the minivan, because I was afraid my larger truck would get
shot at," said one driver.
That means prices for goods are higher too, at a time when civilians can
least afford it.
-----------------------------
Rally against Israeli attacks LONDON (AFP)
Thousands call for peace in Lebanon
Peace for Lebanon! rang the chant of thousands of protestors who took to the
streets of London yesterday in one of several rallies across Britain against
Israels offensive in the Middle East.
Waving Lebanese and Palestinian flags and banging drums the demonstrators
demanded an immediate end to the Jewish states bombardment of Lebanon and Gaza
that has left hundreds of people dead.
They also called on British Prime Minister Tony Blair to end what they
described as his support of the Israeli attacks and demanded that he join
international calls for an immediate ceasefire.
End Israel attacks on Lebanon and Palestine! read one of the many banners and
posters brandished by the peaceful protestors.
Stop the killing, stop to the bombs. Israel out of Lebanon, some of them
shouted as the march got under way at 1.00 pm (1200 GMT) from near to the
government ministry quarter of Whitehall, through central London, watched
closely by police.
Others yelled: Hezbollah is here to stay. Zionism go away,
Andrew Burgin of Stop the War Coalition, one of the groups behind the march,
said he hoped to see 10,000 protestors. It was impossible to put an exact
figure on the impressive turnout straight away.
Betty Hunter, general secretary of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, another
of the groups that organised the event said it was vital to protest about the
two-pronged military campaign by Israel against alleged Hizbollah targets in
Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
The main purpose of this demonstration is to say to Tony Blair and our
government that we are ashamed of the position they are taking which is
basically to collude with the war crimes of Israel, she said.
We are here to demand that the British government changes its policy. We
really must have an immediate ceasefire and the Israelis must leave Lebanon and
stop attacking and leave the occupied territory, Hunter said.
Israels 11-day air offensive has left well over 300 people dead, destroyed
hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure and leveled whole villages
and neighborhoods as half a million Lebanese have fled their homes.
Adding to the protestors outrage is a second military offensive by Israel,
this time in Gaza, in which at least 106 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier
have been killed since July 5.
Protestors, young and old, some immigrants from the Middle East others born and
bred Britons, united to call for an end to the violence and destruction that
has rocked the region.
I am furious about the atrocities being carried out by Israel and I think it
is disgusting that Britain is again aligning itself with the United States in
support of the operation, said Jenny McKenzie, a 32-year-old lawyer living in
London, who took part in the march with two friends.
Wissam Wehbe, 30, a refugee from Lebanon, trampled on a dirty US flag as he
demanded an end to the Israeli attack on his country, where his mother, father,
sister, brother-in-law and their children are still living.
We are all of us Hizbollah, everyone in Lebanon is Hezbollah, he said, saying
that as far as he was concerned Bushs idea of democracy meant the spilling of
innocent blood.
I have heard nothing from my family since the fighting started. I am very
worried, said Wehbe, who works at a Lebanese restarant in the British capital,
where he has lived for four years.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Civilians fleeing Lebanon board a landing craft that will transport them to
a US military ship at Dbaiyeh port. Picture: Ramzi Haidar/AFP
The innocent pay as war returns to Beirut BRIAN BRADY
HISTORY is repeating itself for Denise Nassif in a grim, terrifying fashion.
The American lived in Lebanon before she married, and was forced to flee in
1982 and in 1990. Now she is escaping for the third time, this time with a
husband and three children, after returning to the country on holiday.
"We were due to fly out from Beirut, but we can't," she said. "They are
bombing the airport over and over again. Last night the children were
screaming. They could hear Israeli bombs destroying a bridge. They were
window-rattling bombs.
"It was so nice here until now. We actually had friends from the States
visiting three weeks ago and they loved it. Their son was planning to move
here."
Nassif and her family are among thousands of tired, frightened evacuees,
including over 5,000 Britons, flooding into Cyprus by boat. Yet they are the
lucky ones. The United Nations estimates that half a million people have been
displaced in Lebanon by the current conflict, with 130,000 fleeing to Syria and
about 45,000 believed to be in need of assistance.
Of those forced out of their homes by the Israeli bombardment, only a
minority qualify to be rescued in the massive naval evacuation being undertaken
by western countries on the grounds that they have foreign passports or dual
nationality. Thousands of Lebanese from the south of the country are streaming
north and are crowding into schools, relatives' homes or hotels.
After 20 years of rebuilding their country following a disastrous war, the
Lebanese are now witnessing its ruin all over again. They cannot be certain
what the future holds - but the forecasts are desperate.
The scale of the Israeli bombing so far is thought to have radicalised large
sections of the Lebanese people - most of whom previously hated Hezbollah. Now,
with Israel expected to launch a ground invasion of southern Lebanon - seeking
to rid itself of an organisation on its northern border committed to its
destruction - the Lebanese troops are likely to be forced into an uneasy
alliance with Hezbollah in an attempt to repel the invaders.
And while Israel says any action in Lebanon will last no more than a few
weeks, inevitably there is the prospect of a long, drawn-out conflict between
the guerilla tactics of the mujahideen and the Israeli army, and the consequent
battle between its own troops and the Israelis.
As bombs are fired and shots are exchanged, there is a grave geopolitical
backdrop to the conflict. Lebanon is a pawn in the game being played between
Hezbollah's sponsors, Iran and Syria, and their opponents in the West. And it
is innocent Lebanese civilians who are paying with their lives.
Israel denies that its attacks are indiscriminate, but admits it has expanded
its objective from what started as a bid to rescue two Israeli soldiers
captured by Hezbollah in a cross-border raid, into what is now a full-frontal
onslaught on the resistance organisation and its bases in Lebanon.
For 12 days and nights it has bombed roads, bridges, airports, sea ports,
fuel stores, petrol stations and electricity generators. So far, at least 343
people have died - many in their homes - and more than 10 times the number
killed in Israel.
After two weeks of furious exchanges, of killings and livid wounds, the cries
for a pause in the firing, an immediate halt to the terrible bloodshed, have
grown louder. This option has duly been adopted as official policy by 189 of
the United Nations' 192 member states. Only Israel, the United States and the
United Kingdom stand apart.
The numbers are striking. It is not, however, the result of some callous
political chicanery that these three nations refuse to countenance a simple end
to the fighting. When Margaret Beckett told her Cabinet colleagues last week
that "what people are really saying is they want a ceasefire with rockets still
going into Israel", the Foreign Secretary was articulating a suspicion that is
shared in London, Washington and Tel Aviv.
As Beckett addressed her colleagues in private, the Americans were making it
known that there was no question of a return to the status quo ante, "whereby
groups like Hezbollah can simply regroup, rearm only to fight again another
day". In short, the offensive in southern Lebanon will not be allowed to become
just another border skirmish. If Israel is prepared to see its cities shelled,
to order its population into shelters to escape retribution for its offensive,
it is not prepared for peace at any price.
Almost 200 UN members remain desperate for a ceasefire. But in the new
diplomacy surrounding the latest phase of the Israeli-Arab conflict, George
Bush is prepared to give war a chance. "What they really need to do is to get
Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over," Bush told Blair
over bread rolls during their overheard conference in St Petersburg. The
reaffirmation of support for Israel was not simply a blind rush to the side of
one of America's closest allies during its latest crisis; it was also an
attempt to address what he saw as the underlying cause of the conflict.
During the week, Bush administration officials began to talk of a "tactical"
solution to the current fighting - that is, one which went some way towards
meeting Israel's long-term security requirements, rather than simply dampening
the present conflagration.
For the Americans, the strategic context of the current struggle is based not
on an urgent requirement to silence the guns but to rid itself of a thorny
problem in the region. In a more scripted and elegant assessment later in the
week, Bush himself warned that: "I want the world to address the root causes of
the problem, and the root cause is Hezbollah."
Or, in fact, he was happy for Israel to address Hezbollah, while he, Blair
and other helpers, demanded action from the organisation's supporters in Syria
and Iran. The brutal military exchanges had continued for 10 days, following
Hezbollah's kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, and Israel had advertised its
intention to mount a ground war to drive Hezbollah out of Lebanon, before
Condoleezza Rice began serious planning for a visit to the region.
But even this visit, accompanied by a trip to a peace conference involving
Arab nations in Rome on Wednesday, will not mark a return to the "shuttle
diplomacy" trademarked by Henry Kissinger in his desperate attempts to broker
agreements in the region more than 30 years ago.
"Look, we are living in a different era, and we are also seeing a changing
Middle East," explained State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "And... our
diplomacy is going to conform to that different reality and that different
Middle East in helping bringing about, ultimately, the kind of Middle East
where we have greater freedom, greater democracy, [and] you don't have
terrorist groups dragging people into this kind of situation."
Put simply, Bush is not interested in doing deals in order to fashion
stability. He rejected the concept of "Middle East stability" after September
11, 2001, because he blamed it for the terrorist attacks on New York and
Washington. However, the alternatives - regime change and democratisation,
invading Iraq and driving the Syrians out of Lebanon - have provoked further
radicalisation of militias in Lebanon and Palestine.
The Bush imperative is therefore to use Israel as another front in the war on
terror. As analysts now agree that the air offensive has failed and only a
ground campaign will flush out Hezbollah, Bush must be prepared for a long
haul.
The president has personally reassured the Israeli prime minister, Ehud
Olmert, of this fundamental position several times during the past week, and
yesterday it emerged his administration is rushing precision-guided bombs to
Israel.
Similarly, Bush has been in "almost daily" contact with Blair in order to
maintain a united front. The Prime Minister has underlined his support, while
insisting that a ceasefire can only be contemplated on Israel's terms. This
concentration on Israel's perils represents a shift away from the longer-term
UK commitment to the roadmap for peace in the region, and is directed entirely
from Downing Street.
Less than 200 yards away, in the Foreign Office, the career diplomats are
becoming more and more concerned about what they see as the long-term damage of
the Bush dictum and Blair's support for it, and how counter-productive the
Israeli bombardment may become. "This might make some political sense at this
moment," one source conceded last night. "It is possible that it might fall
into a wider political approach. But it does not conform completely with
recognised UK foreign policy. Taking short-term advantage of a twist in a
long-term problem is not always wise."
No matter. Downing Street will continue conducting operations in conference
with Washington, disregarding the views of a Foreign Office many feel is
irretrievably "pro-Arabist". Israel will continue pounding into southern
Lebanon until its security requirements are satisfied.
Israel is sensitive to charges that it is targeting civilians, and it fell to
Captain Jacob Dallal to explain its strategy. "A lot of rockets are stored in
people's homes in urban areas, fired from within villages and brought in from
the Damascus-Beirut highway," he said. "If there is a rocket stored in an
apartment building we attack the apartment in the building in which it is
stored." But the Lebanese claim Israeli war planes have attacked highly
questionable targets. In one mission they destroyed a convoy near the town of
Zahle, which the Red Crescent Society of the United Arab Emirates said included
several ambulances and was carrying medicines, vegetable oil, sugar and rice.
There are reports of entire families being killed in their cars while
attempting to flee.
Whether Israel's "root and branch" attack on Hezbollah will succeed is
dividing the experts, even within Israel itself. Hezbollah has fired more than
900 rockets at northern Israel, and has also shattered an Israeli taboo by
firing rockets into Haifa, the country's third-largest city. An Israeli attempt
to kill the Hezbollah leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, by heavy air strikes on
an underground bunker in south Beirut also failed. Israel may now be seeing the
truth of the old military adage that you cannot win a war from the air. "I
don't know one single army in the world which has succeeded in conquering a
terrorist organisation only from 30,000 feet," says Ephraim Sneh, an Israeli
politician and general who commanded an Israeli security zone in south Lebanon
in the early 1980s.
The next stage is likely to be an Israeli ground attack. The first sign that
this might be about to happen came on Friday, when Israel called up thousands
of reservists and dropped leaflets over south Lebanon, warning Lebanese
civilians to leave border villages. Yesterday, Israeli forces carried out short
incursions a few kilometres inside southern Lebanon.
One Israeli military analyst, Shlomo Brom, said he expected "limited ground
operations to draw Hezbollah out of its hideouts, destroy the units, and then
get out". However, other experts say that despite its massive superiority of
fire-power, it is not clear that the Israeli army will succeed on the ground
because Hezbollah has spent much of the past six years since Israel withdrew
preparing for such a battle.
"We are talking about hundreds of guerrillas, all of them well-trained,
intensely motivated, and fighting autonomous of Hezbollah's high command," says
Alon Ben-David, Israel analyst for Jane's Defence Weekly.
"They are deployed in a Viet Cong-style network of trenches and tunnels,
which allow them to emerge for quick Katyusha rocket or gun attacks and take
cover again.
" The mayhem in Lebanon could have a significant impact on funding for
Hezbollah, not just from Iran and Syria but also from Lebanese people living
abroad.
Many of the Lebanese diaspora are wealthy Shi'ites living in the US, Europe
or Africa. Thousands of them have supported Hezbollah's social service network
to the extent of several hundred million dollars a year, but have not supported
the military wing of Hezbollah. That may now change, as the Israeli bombardment
drives them into the arms of the extremists.
If Israel does invade Lebanon, it will come up against not just Hezbollah but
the Lebanese army. Lebanon's defence minister Elias al-Murr said: "Our
constitutional duty is to defend Lebanon as a Lebanese army. This is our role."
Israel blames the Lebanese government for failing in its obligation to act on
UN Resolution 1559 and disarm Hezbollah, allowing the mujahideen group to act
with impunity as a "state within a state" inside Lebanon.
Yet the Lebanese government and the Lebanese army have been in no position to
carry out the UN resolution, because Hezbollah is the strongest military force
in Lebanon.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora promised to reassert his government's
authority over all Lebanese territory, suggesting he might deploy the Lebanese
army in the south.
But any attempt by his Sunni Muslim-led government to use force against the
Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah could trigger another bloody civil war in Lebanon.
And, by weakening Lebanon's fragile government even further, Israel could end
up creating an even more out-of-control monster in Hezbollah.
At present, there are only bad options - and worse ones.
--------------------------
Nader IV: US Responsible For Israeli War CrimesMonday, 24 July
2006, 11:45 am
Article: Democracy Now
Ralph Nader: U.S. Carries "Inescapable Responsibility" for "Israeli
Government's Escalating War Crimes"
Thursday, July 20th, 2006
Listen to Segment || Download Show mp3
Watch 128k stream Watch 256k stream
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/20/1434256 Former
Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader wrote a letter to President Bush this week
that harshly criticized the White House for its response to Israel's
bombardment of Lebanon. [includes rush transcript] Lebanon's Prime Minister
Fouad Siniora has issued an urgent appeal to the international community to
intervene saying his country has been "torn to shreds." While many countries
have called on Israel to halt its military assault, the Bush administration has
so far openly rejected calls for a ceasefire. U.S. and Israeli officials have
reportedly agreed the bombings will continue for another week. In a letter to
President Bush this week, former Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader harshly
criticized the White House for its response to the crisis. Nader is perhaps the
most well known Lebanese-American in the world. He ran against George W Bush
for president twice - in 2000 and 2004. He is also the most prominent
consumer advocate in the country.
Ralph Nader, independent presidential candidate for 2000 and 2004
Little dissent as Israelis support war
By Raffi Berg
BBC News, Haifa
The withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon in 2000 was brought about in
part by increasing public pressure to pull out. Anti-war
protesters are in a tiny minority in Israel
But, just six years on, Israelis stand almost unanimously behind the decision
to wage a new war across the country's northern border. According to recent
opinion polls, as many as 90% of Israeli citizens approve of the offensive
against Hezbollah and want it to continue. "The situation with Hezbollah and
Iran created a siege mentality among the Israeli people," said veteran Israeli
pollster, Rafi Smith. "Whenever Israel is attacked, people are always more
patriotic and support the government, which is why so many people support this
war." Voices of dissent are scarce, but despite overwhelming public approval
for the campaign, there is still a small number of Israelis who have come out
against the conflict. In Tel Aviv's Rabin Square on Saturday night, some
2,000 protesters, both Jews and Arabs, held a demonstration against the war,
and - unusually in Israel - the country's alliance with the United States.
The Israeli government thinks by bombing Lebanon they will make peace, but
they did it many times before and it didn't work
Yoav Bar
"[Israeli Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert and Bush have struck a deal, to carry
on with the occupation," demonstrators chanted. Others called on Israeli
soldiers to refuse to do their duty. One of the protesters, Prof Galia Golan,
acknowledged that opponents of the war are in a tiny minority, but said she
expected their numbers to grow. "It's very hard for an Israeli to demonstrate
in time of war - the people who are dying and fighting are our kids and
neighbours - it's a very difficult thing. "We saw this in the first Lebanon
war of 1982, when it took the public three weeks to react against the war and I
think we're going to see the same thing now." 'Ceasefire now' Several
anti-war protests have also taken place in other parts of the country. In the
northern port city of Haifa, which has suffered dozens of missile strikes,
around 50 demonstrators held a road-side protest on the corner of Lebanon Gate
street, under the watchful eye of the border police.
People curse us and call us whores, but it makes me feel stronger to
be with people who believe in peace and want to pursue it
Ornat Turin, teacher
The protesters, some of them teenagers, waved placards and shouted slogans
such as "Unconditional ceasefire now" and "Get out of Lebanon", as passing
motorists honked their horns in rebuke and yelled abuse out their windows.
"The Israeli government thinks by bombing Lebanon they will make peace, but
they did it many times before and it didn't work," said protest organiser Yoav
Bar, 51. "In a few months, no one will admit they were ever for this war," he
predicted. Across the road, a lone counter-demonstrator held aloft a sign
reading: "State of Israel, exchange these people for our kidnapped soldiers!"
Opinion polls show most Israelis support their government's actions
"I also want an end to the war," the protester, 54-year-old architect Simcha
Sherer told me. "But what can we do, let Hezbollah kill us? These people are
in a minority, but Israel is a democracy and they have the right to say what
they want, even if I don't agree with them." Outside one of the city's hotels
where foreign media are encamped, a 20-strong group of women gathered to try to
generate publicity for their anti-war campaign. The protesters I spoke to
said they had received a hostile reaction from other members of the public, but
that they were determined to make a stand. "People curse us and call us
whores, but it makes me feel stronger to be with people who believe in peace
and want to pursue it," said 41-year-old teacher Ornat Turin. "We might be a
minority now but the spiral might grow day-by-day." 'Not 1982' However,
opponents of the war remain outside Israel's conventional peace camp. Even
the anti-settlement movement Peace Now has not come
out in their support. Anti-war protesters say their numbers
will grow
"The anti-war protesters are very far on the fringe," said Gerald Steinberg,
professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University. "Even people who are
on the Israeli Left have been very active in condemning them because they don't
seem to care about the value of Israeli lives." Prof Steinberg says it is
wrong to draw comparisons between this conflict and the 1982 Lebanon war,
against which the tide of public opinion ultimately turned. "I think there
was some expectation on the part of Hezbollah and others that the Israeli
opposition would rise up in the way it did in 1982, but this is an entirely
different war and the 1982 analogy is not applicable. "Israelis understand
the stakes, which are the survival of the State of Israel and the potential for
a confrontation with Hezbollah and Iran in the future, and the stakes are far
too high for that."
-------------------
'They're Not Afraid of Anything'
Israelis say Hezbollah's mujahideen is well-prepared, intelligent and
ruthless as forces press ground assault; Secretary of State Rice to arrive in
Israel in morning
In the 12th day of fighting, guerrillas launched a new barrage of more than a
dozen rockets against the Israeli city of Haifa, killing two people and setting
an apartment building on fire. Israeli missiles struck a convoy of fleeing
Lebanese, killing four people, including a journalist.
In the far south, fighting with Hezbollah raged around the Israeli military's
foothold in Lebanon the border village of Maroun al-Ras, where the Israeli
army has maintained a significant presence since Saturday. But so far they were
not advancing. Hezbollah reported three of its fighters killed.
With Israel and the United States saying a real cease-fire is not possible
until Hezbollah is reined in, Arab heavyweights Egypt and Saudi Arabia were
pushing Syria to end its support for the guerrillas, Arab diplomats in Cairo
said.
A loss of Syria's support would deeply weaken Hezbollah, though its other
ally, Iran, gives it a large part of its money and weapons. The two moderate
Arab governments were prepared to spend heavily from Egypt's political capital
in the region and Saudi Arabia's vast financial reserves to break Damascus from
the guerrillas and Iran, the diplomats said.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said that once the offensive had gotten
Hezbollah away from the border, his country would be willing to see an
international force move in to help the Lebanese army deploy across the south,
where the guerrillas have held sway for years.
"Israel's goal is to see the Lebanese army deployed along the border with
Israel, but we understand that we are talking about a weak army and that in the
midterm period Israel will have to accept a multinational force," Peretz told
the Cabinet, suggesting NATO be in charge of the force.
President Bush's chief of staff, John Bolten, said Sunday that the
administration would be open to an international peacekeeping force but does
not expect U.S. forces to participate in one.
Israeli troops returning from the front described Hezbollah guerrillas hiding
among civilians and in underground bunkers two or three stories deep
evidence, they say, that Hezbollah has been planning this battle for many years.
"It's hard to beat them," one soldier said. "They're not afraid of anything."
The soldiers, most of whom declined to give their names under orders from
superiors, described exchanges of gunfire in between houses on village streets,
with Hezbollah guerrillas sometimes popping out of bushes to fire Kalashnikovs,
rocket-propelled grenades and anti-tank missiles.
Peretz said the military would not launch a full-fledged invasion but instead
carry out a series of small scale raids into the south. "The army's goal is to
create a new reality, mostly that Hezbollah won't be along the border," he told
the Cabinet.
Meanwhile, a campaign to get humanitarian aid into Lebanon was gearing up.
Officials were trying to speed the delivery of food, medicines, blankets and
generators down bomb-shattered roads to the south where they are needed most
though Israel has not defined a safe route to the region. Tens of thousands
have fled the war zone, packing into the southern port city of Sidon and other
areas.
The sea-lift evacuating Americans and Britons from Lebanon was nearing
completion as more streamed out by ship from Beirut's port. Some 12,000
Americans and 4,500 British citizens have left. British officials said they had
no more citizens asking to go.
The top U.N. humanitarian official, Jan Egeland, called for at least $100
million in immediate aid but said billions of dollars would be needed to repair
the damage from a conflict that has stunned Lebanon just as it had emerged from
reconstruction after years of civil war.
Egeland, on a mission to organize the aid effort, toured the rubble of
Beirut's bombed-out southern suburbs, a once-teeming Shiite district where
Hezbollah had its headquarters. He condemned civilian casualties on both sides
but called Israel's offensive "disproportionate" and "a violation of
international humanitarian law."
At least 381 people have been killed in Lebanon, including 20 soldiers and 11
Hezbollah fighters, according to security officials. At least 600,000 Lebanese
have fled their homes, according to the WHO with one estimate by Lebanon's
finance minister putting the number at 750,000, nearly 20 percent of the
population.
Israel's death toll stands at 36, with 17 people killed by Hezbollah rockets
and 19 soldiers killed in the fighting, which began when the guerrillas
snatched two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others in a brazen cross-border
raid July 12.
Along the seafront in Sidon, flames and smoke were visible farther up the
coast from a fuel depot still burning days after it was hit by missiles. The
city was chaotic, teeming with 35,000 refugees from the south. Cars were parked
four deep along streets near schools and the municipality building where
families sought housing.
A mosque run by Hezbollah lay in ruins from Israeli strikes the night before,
which raised worries that Sidon about 20 miles south of Beirut was no
longer the safe haven it has been.
But there was no mass flight out of the city of 100,000. Instead, Sidon tried
to absorb all the new people. Food markets were open longer, and pedestrians
looked up glumly to the sound of far-off explosions echoing over the
mountainous landscape.
The bombardment across the south grew, with over 120 targets attacked,
according to the Israeli military.
A convoy of nearly 70 people fleeing Tairi a border village Israel warned
residents to evacuate a day earlier was driving with Lebanese Red Cross
ambulances when missiles hit nearby, some of the ambulance drivers told
journalists in the port city of Tyre, where the wounded were taken.
A minibus was struck, knocking a hole in the roof and killing three people
and wounding 16 including 10 women and four children, said Hassan Nasreddine,
an International Red Cross doctor who arrived at the scene soon afterward and
saw the bodies in the van.
Layal Nejib, a photographer for a Lebanese magazine, was also killed as her
taxi approached the convoy and the missiles landed, said her driver, who
escaped unharmed and returned to Tyre. The 23-year-old Nejib, a photographer
for Al-Jaras magazine, which confirmed her death, was the first journalist
killed in the Israeli campaign.
Outside Tyre, a bombardment left another victim: an 8-year-old boy
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berhemah.. insha ALlah
layari laman web>> http://www.maskahwin.com/index.php?ref=delete
untuk keterangan lanjut
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