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Posted on 07/29/2006 10:30:17 PM PDT by BurbankKarl
Israeli combat soldiers walk along the Israeli northern border with Lebanon. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is pursuing a new round of Middle East diplomacy as the Lebanon conflict moved into its 19th day, with Israel and Hezbollah exchanging firepower and threats in defiance of international moves toward a ceasefire
Goodnight hipaatwo.
Sleep well.
Only a temperory occupation ( one month or two) will be considered a defeat for Hizballah. These incursions that Israel is doing even if it is effective will not break Hizballah. Olmert is weak, very weak, I really despise him. In time of war only men of war can win, men of peace like Olmert must step aside and let the men of war win the war.
France offers new UN resolution on Mideast crisis
*******************************************************
Sun Jul 30, 2006 1:12 AM ET
By Evelyn Leopold
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - France has drawn up a draft U.N. Security Council resolution that would call for an immediate cessation of hostilities in Israel and Lebanon and prepare for the deployment of an international force.
The document, distributed to the 15 Security Council members on Saturday and obtained by Reuters, anticipates a draft resolution the United States is planning that would place up to 20,000 peacekeepers along Lebanon's borders with Israel and with Syria.
On Monday, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will preside over a meeting of possible troop contributors to such a force, which would include the 25-member European Union, which has expressed interest, as well as Turkey and nations now contributing to a U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon.
Later in the week, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, now in the Middle East, is considering a foreign minister meeting at the United Nations should a resolution be in the offing, U.N. officials said.
President Jacques Chirac of France, whose country has emerged as the potential leader of the force, has said troops could not be sent until there was a ceasefire accompanied by a political deal.
In many respects, the French draft is similar to proposals the United States and Annan have been discussing, except that it calls for an immediate end to the fighting. The United States alone has refused to back such calls, arguing that conditions first had to be ripe for a sustainable ceasefire.
At least 483 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in Lebanon in the conflict, and 51 Israelis have died.
In addition to an immediate cessation of hostilities, France, in its draft resolution, outlined the following conditions for a permanent ceasefire:
-- the release of abducted Israeli soldiers and "settlement of issue" of Lebanese prisoners in Israel
-- disarmament of all militia in Lebanon, such as Hizbollah, and the deployment of the Lebanese army along the Israeli-Lebanese border and throughout the country;
-- a buffer zone in southern Lebanon between the Israeli border and the Litani River, free of any armed personnel and weapons, except those of the Beirut government's security forces and U.N.-mandated international forces
-- Annan, in coordination with regional and international parties, is to help secure agreement in principle from Lebanon and Israel for a political framework on the above ceasefire conditions
-- the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, after fighting has stopped, is to monitor implementation of an agreement and help humanitarian access and the return of the homeless.
-- delineation of international borders in Lebanon, especially the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms area, now part of Syria but claimed by Lebanon. Hizbollah, before the current fighting, has used the Shebaa Farms to justify armed resistance against Israel.
-- The Security Council, after confirmation that Lebanon and Israeli have agreed in principle on a political framework for a sustainable ceasefire, should authorize deployment of an international force to support the Lebanese armed forces.
PM Olmert Agrees to a Multinational Force Along Northern Border
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has agreed to a US plan calling for the deployment of an international peacekeeping force along Israel’s border.
Following an almost two-hour meeting in his Jerusalem residence with US Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice on Saturday night, the prime minister agreed to the US plan, calling for the deployment of a multinational force between Israel and Lebanon and Syria. It was announced that France and Lebanon would take part in the force, but other details have yet to be decided upon.
According to reports following the high-level meeting, the size of the force and the timing for such a move must still be agreed upon, but Olmert has given his approval to the idea of such a force being positioned between Israel and Hizbullah in southern Lebanon.
Secretary Rice will leave for Lebanon on Sunday, and she will return to Israel following talks with officials in Beirut as she continues her shuttle diplomacy mission in the hope of actualizing a ceasefire. The US-brokered plan includes yet another land withdrawal by Israel, from the Har Dov area, also known as Shab’a Farm. The area today has a vital strategic significance, permitting IDF troops to man outposts along the border area.
- SNIP -
While Secretary Rice did not call upon Israel to stop the military offensive in Lebanon at this time, French President Jacques Chirac released a statement that he would not authorize the deployment of his troops until Israel ceases its fire.
Reports quoting senior Defense Ministry officials state that the Americans will permit the ongoing Israeli offensive against Hizbullah to continue for another 7-10 days, but no such official statement has been released.
France on the other hand is preparing to turn to the UN Security Council, demanding an immediate Israeli ceasefire. The French resolution was distributed to council members over the weekend, calling for a stabilization force numbering some 20,000 troops.
- SNIP -
Calls for Hizbollah to be disarmed....
I did that a few nights ago, too! LOL.
Glad you came over this way now, though! :-)
thanks Karl...yeoman effort.
Wait...
...and watch closely.
Things are happening.
Leaders evolve during wars, no one is born to it.
If nothing significant happens by say, noon Monday EDT, I am inclined to agree with you, but recent events raise the possibility that Olmert, probably with a bit of help from his cabinet, may have found his stride.
We'll see.
JPOST had a headline that said the current battle is for Ain Qana??
If so that is a SIGNIFICANT distance inside Lebanon!
Now it's GONE, replaced with "Israel attacks 40 targets"?
(Go Israel, Go! Slap 'Em Down Hezbullies.)
As a sign of friendship, Olmert has agreed to kiss Nasrallah's butt on Al Jazeera. He has stood firm for Israeli honor by refusing to blow him.
Seriously thought, what the f#ck is Rice thinking.
FOUND IT AGAIN!!
Jul. 30, 2006 9:53 | Updated Jul. 30, 2006 10:09
Report: Dozens killed as IAF hits southern town of Qana
By YAAKOV KATZ
IAF fighter jets bombed the southern Lebanese town of Qana on Sunday morning, destroying several houses in which dozens of people were trapped.
A high-ranking officer said Sunday that the IDF warned the residents of Qana to evacuate the village in anticipation of the airstrikes on Katyusha launchers. The officer said that Hizbullah guerillas had fired at least 10 rockets from within the village and dozens more from nearby.
The IAF officer said that the air force had been targeting the village for the past three days and on Saturday night struck ten different targets inside the village. He said the building hit Sunday was picked since intelligence indicated that Hizbullah guerillas were hiding inside together with Katyusha rockets and launchers.
"We have been attacking in Qana for three days," the high-ranking IAF officer said. "They have fired dozens of rockets from there over the past week at Kiryat Shmona, Afula and Ma'alot."
bttt
Iran Hangs in Suspense as War Offers New Strength, and Sudden Weakness
*************************AN EXCERPT *******************************
TEHRAN, July 29 — These should be heady days for Iran’s leaders. Hezbollah, widely regarded as its proxy force in Lebanon, continues to rain down rockets on Israel despite 17 days of punishing airstrikes. Hezbollah’s leader is a hero of the Arab world, and Iran is basking in the reflected glory.
Yet this capital is unusually tense. Officials, former officials and analysts say that it is too dangerous even to discuss the crisis. In newspapers, the slightest questioning of support for Hezbollah has been attacked as unpatriotic, pro-Zionist and anti-Islamic.
As the war in Lebanon grinds on, Iranian officials cannot seem to decide whether Iran will emerge stronger — or unexpectedly weakened.
They are increasingly confident of an ideological triumph. But they also believe the war itself has already harmed Hezbollah’s strength as a military deterrent for Iran on the Israeli border.
And foreign policy experts and former government officials said that Iran had come to view Israel’s attack on Lebanon as a proxy offensive. They now view the war as the new front line in the decades-old conflict with Washington.
“They are worried that what’s happened in Lebanon to Hezbollah is the United States’ revenge against Iran,” said Hamidreza Jalaipour, a sociologist and former government official. “The way they are attacking them and fighting against them is like waging a war against Iran.”
“The way they are attacking them and fighting against them is like waging a war against Iran.”
Perhaps because THEY ARE??
Note to Islamonazi Iranians:
You see how easily those 50+ planes fly through the sky's, annihilating everything they see??
Now imagine 1,000 of them, and that's what you elected Nutjob is trying to bring upon you....
Dozens of others said to be trapped in the rubble
By Ze'ev Schiff and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies
Some 35 Lebanese civilians were killed, 21 of them children, in an Israel Air Force strike on a building in the south Lebanon village of Qana on Sunday morning. Dozens of others were reportedly trapped in the rubble.
Some 40 targets were hit in IAF strikes overnight across Lebanon. Among the targets were buildings used by Hezbollah, rocket launchers and bridges.
Several houses collapsed and a three-story building where about 100 civilians were sheltering was destroyed, witnesses and rescue workers said.
The IDF said it had warned residents of Qana to leave and said Hezbollah bore responsibility for using it to fire rockets at Israel.
In April 1996, Israeli shelling of a base of United Nations peacekeepers in Qana killed more than 100 civilians sheltering there during Operation Grapes of Wrath. The international outcry over the Qana village shelling effectively ended the operation
"Several houses collapsed and a three-story building where about 100 civilians were sheltering was destroyed, witnesses and rescue workers said."
Hmmm...
You think the ROCKET LAUNCHERS in the underground parking area might have had anything to do with it??
I hope you are right and I am wrong, but I have followed the developments in the Middle East for such a long time that I think I recognize the patterns.
This has been a long time coming. Norman Podhoretz warned about this development years and years ago, during the Oslo process. So far almost all his warnings have turned out to be true.
But we can pray that any cease fire initiative stumbles in Arab intransigence. I don't hold that for very likely this time around, though.
[I am sure, partly by adding a number of little noted reports] that things have been happening on the battle field that puts the IDF in a much better position than it appears. But in Middle East politics appearances are almost as important as realities, and at the moment Hezbollah appears to have stood up against the IDF and fought them to a draw.]
Key words-
"At the moment"...
Things change, and we don't really have a clue what's actually happening on the ground, do we?
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