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Hezbollah would not have abducted two Israel Defense Forces soldiers on July 12 had it known that the action would lead to war in Lebanon, the leader of the militant group, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, said in an interview televised Sunday. Reservist soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were kidnapped on July 12 in a cross-border raid by Hezbollah guerillas, sparking a 34-day conflict. Hezbollah is demanding the release of some of the thousands of Arabs in Israeli prisons in exchange for the kidnapped soldiers. We did not think, even one percent, that the capture would lead to a war at...

Hizbullah's leader Hassan Nasrallah claimed in the first post-war interview on Sunday that contacts were being held to bring about a prisoner swap between Israel and Hizbullah. Nasrallah, who spoke with Lebanese NTV television, announced that he was willing to begin negotiations and that Italy had taken an interest in playing a lead role. The UN, he added, was also keen on being involved in the process, which would occur with the help of Lebanon's Parliament Chairman Nabia Berry who was said to be in good ties with the organization. Only selected pieces of the interview were played during the...

Head of the Hizbullah faction in the Lebanese parliament, Muhammad Raad, denied a report in the Egyptian newspaper al-Ahram that negotiations on the release of the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers are expected to be completed within three weeks. "We have no information on the issue, other than what we are hearing from the Israelis," he stated. (Roee Nahmias)

Humbling of the supertroops shatters Israeli army morale HUNDREDS of feet below ground in the command bunker of the Israeli air force in Tel Aviv, a crowd of officers gathered to monitor the first day of the war against Hezbollah. It was July 12 and air force jets were about to attack Hezbollah’s military nerve centre in southern Beirut. Among the officers smoking tensely as they waited for news, was Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, 58, a daring fighter pilot in the 1973 Arab-Israeli war who had become chief of staff a year earlier and now faced the biggest test of his...

From the remnants of Saddam's Baathists at Uruknet: What Types of Gruesome Weapons Did Israel Use in Lebanon? Nada Sayad, Global ResearchAugust 23, 2006Some doubts have been expressed regarding the use by Israel of Internationally Forbidden Weapons in its war on Lebanon.The South Medical Complex in Saida is investigating this matter. It is examining 24 samples from corps that were hit in the area of South Lebanon in a trial to discover the nature of the substances that lead to death.In a phone call done by "Assafir", the Lebanese local newspaper, Dr. Omar Morabi, the president of the Association of...

What did you do in the war, UNIFIL? You broadcast Israeli troop movements. by Lori Lowenthal Marcus 09/04/2006, Volume 011, Issue 47 DURING THE RECENT month-long war between Hezbollah and Israel , U.N. "peacekeeping" forces made a startling contribution: They openly published daily real-time intelligence, of obvious usefulness to Hezbollah, on the location, equipment, and force structure of Israeli troops in Lebanon . UNIFIL--the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon , a nearly 2,000-man blue-helmet contingent that has been present on the Lebanon-Israel border since 1978--is officially neutral. Yet, throughout the recent war, it posted on its website for all...

ALARM - the Lebanese army on the border with Israel for the first time since 1975 BEIRUT - the Lebanese army has been installed Saturday for the first time for 30 years on the border with Israel by giving an opinion with the "Door of Fatima", in the south-east of the country, affirmed with AFP the General Charles Chikhani, ordering 10è brigade of infantry.

'Israel can only lose once' Posted: August 18, 2006 1:00 a.m. Eastern © 2006 During one of Israel's many wars, Golda Meir offered this famous – and tragic – observation: "The Arabs can fight, and lose, and return to fight another day. Israel can only lose once." Golda's assessment became a truism of the Middle East up until now. And the jury is still out as to whether her assessment remains true to this day. In the strange and surreal world that is the Middle East, Israel lost its war with Hezbollah. And while it remains intact at the moment,...

Secretary-General Kofi Annan visited U.N. peacekeepers in south Lebanon on Tuesday, a day after Italy and Turkey moved to join the international force there. Annan and his entourage left Beirut Tuesday morning in two white United Nations helicopters, and landed in Naqoura, a town on the Mediterranean coast about 2.5 miles north of the Israeli border, and home to headquarters of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL.

Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin reiterated on Tuesday at a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee meeting that Palestinian terrorist organizations were studying the Lebanese-Israeli war to learn how to play on Israel's weaker points. Diskin said the terror groups were stepping up efforts to smuggle long-range missiles - as well as experts in building and launching them - through the Philadelphi route. MK Natan Sharansky (Likud) said, "For ten years, we've been hearing these types of reports, but there has never been such an immediate need for action. Every kind of weapon is getting into the Gaza Strip, and Hamas...

"Hezbollah's staged mini-demonstration in the southern suburb of Beirut has been exposed by unauthorized media footage. During a visit to the Hezbollah former "security square," destroyed during the war with Israel, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan was greeted by a prepared crowd of Hezbollah militants. Accompanied by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Seniora, Dr. Annan was escorted by Lebanese Army security, apparently very friendly with Hezbollah Department of Security. The Lebanese Army officers and Hezbollah were seen smiling at each other and coordinating the staged demonstration. A camera linked to an international media agency was broadcasting live from behind the Hezbollah's...

We have published articles on both sides of the question, and the argument is far from settled. But the latest evidence includes this remarkable statement from Nasrallah himself, “We did not think, even one percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude,” Nasrallah told Lebanon’s New TV network. “You ask me, if I had known on July 11 … that the operation would lead to such a war, would I do it? I say no, absolutely not, for humanitarian, moral, social, security, military and political reasons. Neither I, Hezbollah, prisoners in Israeli...

Sharansky: Now We Can't Say We Weren't Warned 13:17 Aug 29, '06 / 5 Elul 5766 (IsraelNN.com) MK Natan Sharansky (Likud), responding to Shabak (General Security Service) chief Yuval Diskin’s briefing to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Security Committee Tuesday, said it was the most alarming security assessment he had ever been privy to in his lengthy political career. "For ten years I have been hearing security reports. I have never heard such an unequivocal and frightening report that calls for immediate action,” Sharansky said. "Every kind of weapon, except for tanks and airplanes, are getting into the Gaza Strip...

Palestinian witnesses and medics say Israeli forces have killed five Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They say Israeli troops killed three Palestinians near Gaza City Tuesday, as Israel pressed ahead with its Gaza offensive. Palestinian sources say one of the dead belonged to the militant Islamic group Hamas. The Israeli army said its troops fired at a group of militants preparing a bomb, but did not confirm any deaths. Earlier Tuesday, Israeli troops killed two Palestinians in clashes that broke out when Israeli forces raided the Balata refugee camp in the West Bank town of Nablus. The...

US scholars: Israel planned Lebanon war in advance Nathan Guttman, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 29, 2006 The two US scholars, who stirred controversy several months ago after claiming that US foreign policy is skewed in favor of Israel due to the work of the pro-Israeli lobby, are now accusing the lobby of leading the administration, Congress and public opinion to support Israel's actions in Lebanon against America's best interests. Profs. Stephan Walt and John Mearsheimer also claim that Israel had planned the war in Lebanon in advanced and used the kidnapping of its soldiers as a pretext to launch the...

TIBERIAS, Israel, 30 August 2006 — Prime Minister Ehud Olmert denied yesterday that Israel had aimed to destroy the Hezbollah Shiite militant group during the monthlong Lebanon war. “The government made a decision on the 12th of July. They never said the goal was to destroy Hezbollah. It was to implement UN Resolution 1559, to have the Lebanese Army in the south and that was achieved,” he said here. UN Resolution 1559, adopted by the UN Security Council in September 2004, called for all foreign troops to leave Lebanon and for all militias there to disband. Olmert spoke a day...

Statement issued by Counter-Terrorism Bureau warns all Israelis visiting Sinai to leave area immediately. 'Threat to kidnap Israelis on Sinai beaches has become extremely severe and concrete in recent days,' statement says

ABOARD THE GARIBALDI, Aug 29 (Reuters) - The first 800 troops of the Italian contingent for a major U.N. peacekeeping force for Lebanon set sail on Tuesday on a mission that the Rome government warned would be "long and risky". The aircraft carrier Garibaldi, flagship of the Italian fleet, met four other Navy ships off the Mediterranean port of Brindisi for an official send-off for the landing force of 803 plus 1,350 sailors and air defence crew taking them to Lebanon. Italy will eventually send a total of 3,000 troops, making it the biggest contributor to a force authorised by...

Analysis by a captain in the IDF reserves, just back from the war, that will leave you with A LOT to think about — guaranteed Contrary to what is now the accepted wisdom in the media, Hezballah in its recent offensive against Israel neither "badly bloodied the Israel Defense Force," nor "fought it to a standstill" in Southern Lebanon. In fact, the opposite is the case. By any legitimate measure Hezballah was handed a resounding military defeat by the IDF in the recent fighting, and while the cancer that is Hezballah was not cured by Israel's soldiers, it was put...

Survivors in Lebanon: 'What am I going to do?' TYRE, Lebanon (CNN) -- In a village not far from Tyre, mine-clearing teams worked to destroy unexploded bombs, mortars and other weaponry scattered across the landscape. "Do you think there will be another war again?" a young girl said as she ran up to me, her pink sunhat flopping in the breeze. Her mother smiled dryly. "See what even the children are saying?" she said. "Their innocence is gone." More than two weeks after a cease-fire in the 34-day conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, the effects of the war are seen...