8/11 Middle East Live Thread

al-Manar, Reuters, other correspondents assaulted by Lebanese yoots

http://64.233.179.104/translate_c?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&langpair=ar%7Cen&u=http://www.intiqad.com/view.php%3Fid%3D9608&prev=/language_tools

Bwahahaha!!

Feel better Jeffers!

Aren't we talking about this event?

UN force tries to evacuate Lebanese troops detained by Israeli forces

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1681738/posts

JPost.com » Headlines

Two wounded when three rockets fall in Safed
[ 11/08 15:11 - ISRAEL ]
St.-Sgt. Elad Dan to be buried at 5 p.m.
[ 11/08 15:05 - ISRAEL ]
IAF drops leaflets listing Hizbullah casualties
[ 11/08 13:40 - ISRAEL ]
Bangladesh: Muslims protest Israeli assault
[ 11/08 13:29 - INTERNATIONAL ]
Officer moderately wounded in prison stabbing
[ 11/08 13:19 updated 13:21 - ISRAEL ]
Name of soldier killed in Leboneh released
[ 11/08 12:16 - ISRAEL ]
Haifa home hit by rocket; earlier barrage wounds 2
[ 11/08 10:47 - ISRAEL ]
India: US Embassy warns of possible terror attacks
[ 11/08 10:36 - INTERNATIONAL ]
Pakistan: UK nationals arrested over terror plot
[ 11/08 09:57 - INTERNATIONAL ]
Man killed by fall from building in Tel Aviv
[ 11/08 09:39 updated 09:39 - ISRAEL ]
UN force to evacuate Lebanese force from Marjayoun
[ 11/08 09:15 - ISRAEL ]
Afghanistan: 3 suspected al-Qaida members killed
[ 11/08 09:03 - INTERNATIONAL ]
IAF struck 100 targets in Lebanon overnight
[ 11/08 08:37 - ISRAEL ]
Five IDF soldiers lightly wounded in s. Lebanon
[ 11/08 08:06 - ISRAEL ]
IDF destroys two weapons warehouses in n. Gaza
[ 11/08 07:57 - ISRAEL ]

Israeli Objections to Ceasefire Proposal
13:00 Aug 11, '06 / 17 Av 5766
by Hillel Fendel and Hana Levi Julian

Former Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom of the Likud has stinging criticism of the ceasefire plan being formulated in the United Nations. He calls it a "disgrace" and a "historic tragedy."

Shalom, who served as Foreign Minister under former Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for nearly three years until early this year, said that the proposal under consideration by the Security Council "mortgages the country's future" and would be a "weeping for generations."

Lebanon, too, has objections, which may cause another delay in the Council vote. Lebanon feels that the Shab'a Farms area, which it still demands from Israel, is not significantly mentioned, nor does it like the fact that the international peacekeeping force would be empowered to open fire. Lebanon also insists that Israel withdraw entirely from south Lebanese territory before any ceasefire is carried out.

Israel initially objected to the ceasefire proposal for its lack of a clause requiring Hizbullah to disarm prior to a ceasefire. Nonetheless, Jerusalem appears willing to accept the proposal.

Israel has rejected a Russian proposal to hold a 72-hour humanitarian ceasefire. Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, Dan Gillerman, says it would only give Hizbullah ”time to regroup and recover. We think this is a bad idea."

Speaking with Voice of Israel Radio on Friday morning, Minister Shalom said if the UN proposal is accepted, "Israel's position would be worse than it was at the beginning of the war: It does not call for a large multi-national force in southern Lebanon, Hizbullah would not be disarmed, and a parallel is made between our abducted soldiers and murderous Lebanese terrorists held by Israel such as Samir Kuntar."

"It could even be," Shalom said, "that Syria might conclude that it can get the Golan Heights back by sending over some missiles to Israel."

Shalom's party colleague, former Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Chairman MK Yuval Shteinitz, took an even stronger stance. If Israel accepts this "shameful" ceasefire, Shteinitz said Friday morning, "the government must resign and new elections must be held."

Shteinitz took issue with the fact that the new proposal would replace Resolution 1559 of two years ago, which calls for the Lebanese Army to take over southern Lebanon from Hizbullah:
"The fact that Israel is willing to significantly erode 1559, and even give Hizbullah a territorial achievement in the form of half of Israel's Mt. Hermon (Shab'a) will be understood as a clear victory for Hizbullah. This will invite a difficult war of rockets and commandos from Syria in the near future."

"If this is an existential war, as [Prime Minister Ehud] Olmert said, then the results of it are dangerous to Israel's existence," Shteinitz concluded.

On the other hand, the left-wing peace forces are pleading with the government to accept the ceasefire proposal. Meretz MK Zahava Gal'on said, "It is in Israel's interest to accept this plan and to thus end the warfare. Israel must take advantage of the agreement being formed to call for the inclusion of Syria in the negotiations, and to thus turn it into an entity with which we can reach a diplomatic agreement."

A diplomatic agreement with Syria, almost by definition, would entail ceding the Golan Heights to that country.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/news.php3?id=109802

Yes. But the accounts don't match up. The AP makes it sound like the Israelis are holding the Lebs hostage. Hizzies are waiting outside for the kill.

Polls: Drop in support for Olmert
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
JERUSALEM

Israel's government is losing domestic support for its conduct of the conflict against Hizbullah guerrillas in Lebanon, and doubt is growing among Israelis that they are winning the war, according to polls published Friday.

The army's failure to end incessant attacks is likely one reason for the drop in the government's popularity figures.

A poll in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper showed 37 percent of the 500 people questioned believed Israel would cripple Hizbullah, compared with 40% in a previous survey. 17% thought Israel would lose the war and Hizbullah would return to south Lebanon, up from 13% previously, said the poll conducted by the Dahaf organization. It had a margin of error of 4.5%.

The percentage of people supporting a broad ground operation to push Hizbullah guerrillas beyond the range of short-range rockets fell to 64% from 73%, the poll said, indicating a growing - though still a minority - public desire for diplomatic initiatives.

On Wednesday, the Security Cabinet gave Prime Minister Ehud Olmert the authority to send more troops into south Lebanon. Officials said Israel will hold off on any new offensive for a few days for diplomatic efforts to play out at the UN Security Council, where the United States and France were working on a cease-fire resolution that could come to a vote as early as Friday.

The Dahaf survey showed Olmert's personal approval rating fell to 66% from 73%.

Another poll of 570 Israelis, conducted by Dialogue for the Haaretz daily, said just one Israeli in five believes that if the war ended now, it could be considered a victory, while 30% said Israel is losing the war and 44% said neither side would emerge a winner. The poll's margin of error was 4.8%.

Though the Security Cabinet vote overwhelmingly approved broadening ground operations - nine in favor with three abstentions - reports indicate that divisions run deeper in Olmert's inner circle. Haaretz reported Olmert vetoed an appearance at the Security Council by Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who has been counseling military restraint and greater attention to diplomacy.

On Thursday, three of Israel's most successful left-wing authors and intellectuals - Amos Oz, David Grossman and A.B. Yehoshua - joined together to urge Olmert to respond positively to an initiative by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora offering to deploy the Lebanese army to southern Lebanon, aided by an international force, and an exchange of prisoners.

"Israel was right when it chose to respond with force to Hizbullah's violent provocation," said Oz, an eloquent voice of the Israeli left. But the Lebanese plan "was not only a turning point, it was a victory for Israel's basic demand," Oz said. Israel should have told Saniora his plan was a good basis for negotiation and halted its offensive.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525852528&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

trapped by who?

----Another poll of 570 Israelis, conducted by Dialogue for the Haaretz daily, said just one Israeli in five believes that if the war ended now, it could be considered a victory, while 30% said Israel is losing the war and 44% said neither side would emerge a winner. The poll's margin of error was 4.8%.---

Bad impact psychologically for the Israelis. What happens when a dove administration wages a war....

Do you get tired of people saying thank you for your efforts?
Great picture to start off.

Reutersgate strikes other news outlets
Sheera Claire Frenkel, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 11, 2006

At first everyone thought they were just blowing smoke, but the debunking of a Reuters photograph by a group of Web sites has launched a fiery online war in which bloggers have taken on the mainstream media.

Bloggers, or writers on web logs, were the first to reveal that a Reuters photograph depicting plumes of black smoke rising over Beirut was doctored to enhance smoke above the city. The Web site www.LittleGreenFootballs.com is credited with first revealing the scandal, which has been dubbed Reutersgate, but the affair has spread far wider than the Reuters News Agency and into several of the most esteemed media outlets.

More than a dozen accusations of staged or doctored photographs have made their way through various Web sites in the past several weeks. None has been treated by the news outlets as seriously as the original Reuters incident, which saw the photographer Adnin Hajj fired and over 900 of his photos removed from the Reuters wire list. But numerous other outlets - including the BBC, The New York Times and AP - have been forced to recall photos or change captions following inaccuracies pointed out in online forums.

The fact that the online community rather than fellow mainstream media has become a watchdog of accuracy has surprised many who originally derided blogs as being "devoid of accuracy."

"In a blog you don't have to be accurate to anyone but yourself and your readers," said Laya Millman from the Jewlicious.com blog. "There is a great deal of accountability because, if you get anything wrong, the readers will quickly, very quickly, point it out."

As was demonstrated in the case with the Reuters photograph, blogs come with their own teams of investigators: the thousands of readers who stream through the site. Within hours of Charles Johnson's posting on Little Green Footballs, readers of the Web site had gone to work uncovering an array of damning evidence against Hajj, the most serious of which - a second doctored photograph, an Israeli plane altered to make it look as though it was dropping a series of bombs - may have pushed Reuters to fire Hajj after initially announcing that the freelance photographer would be suspended. That photograph, which was discovered by blogger Rusty Shackleford of The Jawa Report, included an illustrated account of how the photos had been doctored.

Photographs whose veracity has been questioned by blogs in the past few weeks since Reutersgate began include:

# Two pictures used by The Associated Press and Reuters, in which the same woman appeared to be crying over the destruction of her Beirut home. Distinguished by a red-checkered scarf and scar on her right cheek, the woman was pictured crying in front of two different locations two weeks apart.

# Several photographs of a bombed bridge in Beirut which appear on Reuters and AFP with the different captions stating that the bridge had been bombed on July 18, July 24 and August 5. Bloggers claim that the striking image was photographed to look like several different bombings in order to make destruction in Beirut appear more severe.

# In The New York Times photo essay "Attack on Tyre," a photograph of a man who appears dead is accompanied with the caption reading "bodies were still buried under the rubble." However, in a later photograph in the same series, the same man appears to be walking in the foreground of a photo. The Times issued a correction for the first photograph, stating that the man was injured.

Some claim that the online controversy over the photos has gotten out of hand, with many blogs now launching investigations and hurling accusations at a variety of news sources.

"These accusations can be very damning, and need to be handled with care and not thrown out by any angry blogger," said one anonymous poster on Little Green Footballs.

In the meantime, however, Little Green Footballs - along with many other online forums - has been flooded with investigations into mainstream media, with the entire army of its hundreds of thousands of readers eagerly at hand.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1154525850241&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

So you are telling me that Hizballah has showed up, surrounded the barracks, and not yet wiped out by the IDF. You need to get real. Once the Hizballah terrorists are seen in the battlefield, he is dead. They can only survive by hiding, the way they fight is that they hit, run, and hide.

Interesting to learn one of Sharon's former cabinet members is dead set against this cease-fire proposal. I can only imagine how Sharon would have handled this..but I doubt it would look the way it does now.

second shift reporting a little bit late, but here.

Winner of the 2006 Rachel Corrie Award--

Peace activist murdered by Palestinian

Angelo Frammartino, a 24 year-old Palestinian student, planned to set up summer camp for Palestinians; He was attacked and murdered by Arab knifeman
Nir Magal

Angelo Frammartino, a 24 year-old student from Italy who arrived in Israel as a human rights organization activist, was stabbed to death Thursday by an Arab knifeman.

"He believed in what he did and was always ready to help others," a friend described him.

The website of Italian newspaper Corriere Della Sera reported that Frammartino was working for the setting up of a children's supper camp for Palestinians in Jerusalem's Old City, and was supposed to return to Italy on Friday.

The youth was stabbed in the back while walking with four friends in the Sultan Suleiman street in the capital, near the Prahim Gate.

The attacker left the knife at the scene of the crime and fled. Police set up checkpoints in the area and arrested three suspects for suspected involvement.

It is believed that the attack was a nationalistically motivated terror attack, and not an attempted robbery.

Resuscitation attempts by Magen David Adom paramedics who arrived on the scene could not save him, and Frammartino was declared dead due to loss of blood.

Frammartino, a resident of Monta Rotondo, arrived in Israel at the start of the month with an Italian organization, ARCI, working to advance human rights in the world.

He planned for the experience for a year and was chosen with another youth from his city to take part in the project.

Frammartino was a law student. "He was very interested in politics and in the issues of society, like his father," said Monta Rotondo's Mayor, Anonino Lopi. "Something so beautiful ended in such a tragic way," he added.

The mayor expressed his condolescenes on behalf of the whole city.

'Not an extremist, just a pacifist'

In a letter sent a few months ago to a local newspaper, Angelo expressed his world
view: "We must recognize that in a situation with no violence is a luxury in many parts of the world, but we are not seeking to prevent legitimate self defense operations. I never dreamt of condemning the resistance, the blood of the Vietnamese, the blood of nations under colonial occupation, or the blood of Palestinian youths from the first intifada," he said.

Angelo's neighbor said his parents were worried by their son's request to go on a 'different holiday,' but were proud of it and did not oppose. They set out on holiday, leaving their eldest daughter, Francesca, at home. She was alone when the news from Jerusalem came.

"My parents are on holiday. When they return, the house will never be the same as before," said a neighbor who burst out in tears. "He was a golden guy. He dealt with politics but he wasn't an extremist. He was just a pacifist, the poor guy."

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3289726,00.html

(08.11.06, 14:48)-

I'm not 'telling' you anything. I merely posted a link to an article. It may or may not be true.

Israel blasts key bridge to Syria

By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA, Associated Press Writer

MARJAYOUN, Lebanon - Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded Hezbollah positions Friday in attempts to gain unchallenged command of strategic high ground and disrupt guerrilla rocket attacks across the border. In far north Lebanon, Israeli jets blasted a key bridge to Syria and killed at least 12 people.

The conflict for the first time touched the entire length of Lebanon — from skirmishes on the Israeli border in the south to the airstrike on the northern frontier about 105 miles away — and sent the message that no place was safe from the widening Israeli attacks.

But Hezbollah delivered a similar statement to northern Israel with another barrage of more than 150 rockets, it said. Rescue workers said seven people in the port of Haifa were injured by shrapnel.

U.N. diplomats held out hope that an end could be in sight. Negotiators reported progress on a cease-fire plan — which has been stuck over a timetable for Israeli withdrawal. America's ambassador to the U.N., John Bolton, said a vote was possible Friday.

Israel has delayed a major new ground offensive to give diplomacy some room. But officials warn that they would unleash the fresh infantry forces — and even more firepower — if the talks fail.

The most severe fighting continued around Marjayoun, an important hub just north of Israel's Galilee panhandle that juts into Lebanon. An Associated Press reporter briefly entered the embattled city and saw intense Israeli bombardment of dug-in Hezbollah fighters.

The city, which is mostly Christian, gives Israeli gunners a view of the Litani River valley and other areas used as launching grounds for Hezbollah rockets. Israeli tanks rolled into Marjayoun on Thursday after coming under withering Hezbollah ambushes along the way.

U.N. peacekeepers arrived Friday to evacuate about 350 Lebanese soldiers and police from Marjayoun, but they delayed any attempt to leave because of the combat.

By taking Marjayoun, the Israeli army was closer to Beirut than at any time since the fighting began July 12 after a cross-border raid in which Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three.

Powerful explosions resounded across Beirut. Local media reported Israeli warplanes hit Hezbollah strongholds in the southern Dahieh suburb.

In the propaganda war, Israeli planes dropped leaflets over parts of Beirut saying Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah is "cheating" the Lebanese and hiding the number of losses among the militiamen. The paper included the names of about 90 fighters Israel said were killed.

On Thursday, leaflets wafted down on Beirut threatening a "painful and strong" response to Hezbollah rocket attacks, which have reached deep into northern Israel.

Israel has imposed a virtual lockdown on traffic across southern Lebanon and key northern routes, seeking to cut off weapon and aid shipments to Hezbollah. The attack on the Abboudiyeh border crossing apparently reflected Israeli fears that Hezbollah was still being supplied via Syria — which is Hezbollah's main sponsor along with Iran.

At least 12 people were killed in the attack on the bridge, spanning the northern border, security officials said. That left the northern coastal road as the only official border crossing to Syria open for those trying to flee war-ravaged Lebanon.

At the same time, Israeli forces were still locked in relentless clashes with guerrillas along the southern border.

Hezbollah reported it killed or wounded 15 Israeli soldiers near the border village of Aita al-Shaab. It also said Israeli forces suffered casualties near the southern village of Rachaf.

Israel did not immediately release information on battlefield losses. On Wednesday, 15 soldiers were killed in Israel's worst single-day toll in Lebanon since the war erupted last month.

More than 800 people in Lebanon and Israel have died since fighting erupted — 727 on the Lebanese side and 122 on the Israeli side.

At the United Nations, the United States and France have been trying to overcome differences over a timetable for an Israeli pullout.

Russia, increasingly impatient that diplomacy has taken so long, pushed for a temporary cease-fire in its own Security Council draft Thursday that would call for a blanket 72-hour humanitarian cease-fire.

Lebanon has demanded Israeli troops start pulling out once hostilities end and Beirut sends 15,000 troops of its own to the south to join international forces in a buffer zone. Israel has insisted on staying in southern Lebanon until a robust peacekeeping force is deployed, which could take weeks or months.

"We've closed some of the areas of disagreement with the French," Bolton said.

Assistant Secretary of State David Welch held talks Friday with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, who said afterward there was "slight" progress on a cease-fire plan.

Welch, who has been shuttling between Jerusalem and Beirut, did not make any comments after his meeting. He also visited Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Hezbollah's de facto negotiator.

Asked whether there was any breakthrough in talks to end the fighting, Saniora said: "There is slight progress," but he did not elaborate.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, planned to visit Beirut on Friday to press for a peace pact.

Suggestions that a new U.N. resolution was in the works also emerged.

"A new proposal is being drafted, which has positive significance that may bring the war to an end," Israeli member of parliament Otniel Schneller quoted Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as saying. "But if the draft is not accepted there is the Cabinet decision."

The Israeli Security Cabinet authorized Olmert to expand the current offensive in Lebanon, but Israeli officials said they would hold off to give diplomacy more time to work.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz also warned that the military was ready to use "all of the tools" to cripple Hezbollah if efforts toward a cease-fire failed.

In other developments:

• Poll results in Israel showed people growing more pessimistic about the military action. A survey in the Yediot Aharonot newspaper showed 37 percent of the 500 people questioned believed Israel would cripple Hezbollah, compared with 40 percent in a previous survey. Seventeen percent thought Israel would lose the war and Hezbollah would return to south Lebanon, up from 13 percent previously, said the poll conducted by the Dahaf organization. It had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. The poll also showed Olmert's personal approval rating fell to 66 percent from 73 percent.

• The spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross, Ronald Huguenin, said that Israel refused to let a Greek ship carrying humanitarian aid and food to dock in either Tyre or Sidon. On Thursday, the top U.N. humanitarian official Jan Egeland said it was a "disgrace" that Israel and Hezbollah hindered aid convoys to civilians.

• Near the Lebanese port of Tyre, relief officials expressed concern about conditions in swelling refugee settlements. In some places, Lebanese civilians fleeing the fighting took shelter with Palestinians who had left tensions in the West Bank and elsewhere.

15:30 Report: Israel asks U.S. to speed delivery of short-range antipersonnel rockets (Haaretz)

For those of you who have time, here is an article by Bill Bennett: Why Israel Fights....

http://article.nationalreview.com/print/?q=NWU2M2YyNjFmZDViZmVkN2I2OGEyNjAwOWU1YzQ3ZDM=

Khaibar 1 long range missile strikes Haifa

Security forces say a long-range Khaibar missile was fired at Haifa. The missile has a 302 millimeter range. (Raanan Ben Tsur)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3289743,00.html

(08.11.06, 15:18)