Free Republic

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert must go. He is endangering the security of Israel and he now poses a serious liability to American security as well. Good leadership is indivisible – Olmert cannot be bad for Israel and simultaneously be good for America. Just who is Ehud Olmert, the ex mayor of Jerusalem? In June 2005 he actually made the following statement to the Israel Policy Forum in New York. “We are tired of fighting, we are tired of being courageous, we are tired of winning, we are tired of defeating our enemies, we want to be able to live...

At around 4 a.m. Saturday, Lt. Col. Emanuel Moreno, a senior commander in the General Staff Reconnaissance Unit (Sayeret Matkal), was killed in a fierce battle with Hizbullah fighters near Baalbek in the Bekaa valley not far from the Lebanese-Syrian border. From the details of the commando raid that have filtered into the media, we learned that Moreno and his men were airdropped into the area by helicopter along with their two Hummer vehicles, with the mission of attacking a Hizbullah base in the nearby village of Bodei used by the Iranian-sponsored guerrilla fighters for weapons smuggling.Iran is now working...

All Your Fakes Are Belong to Us A jawa video spoof on Beirut Fauxtography.

It was a war Israel was more afraid of winning than of losing. It was a war whose battlefield strategy was based on posturing – on acting as if Israel were conducting an actual all-out war. It was a war in which Israel attempted to defeat the enemy by not defeating him. It was a war of the make-pretend. Let us be clear. Every war has its share of mishaps, glitches, and human errors, and this one was no exception. But this war was fought after many years of massive budget cuts for the military. Convinced that the era of...

TONY BLAIR’S peace mission to the Middle East appeared in jeopardy last night after Hezbollah declared that the Prime Minister would not be welcome in Lebanon because of his support for Israel during the war. A senior member of Hezbollah’s politburo has told The Times that Mr Blair should stay away from the country because he was “up to his ears in the blood of Lebanese women and children”. British officials are confident that Mr Blair would be welcomed by the government of Fouad Siniora, the Prime Minister. But Hezbollah, which has emerged as the real force in the country,...

In the face of Iran's race to obtain nuclear power, Israel signed a contract with Germany last month to buy two Dolphin-class submarines that will, according to foreign reports, provide superior second-strike nuclear capabilities... The submarines will be assembled in Germany and provided with a propulsion system allowing them to remain underwater for far longer than the submarines currently in the Israel Navy's fleet... The navy is considering installing a Fixed Underwater Sonar System (FUSS) off the coast to detect foreign submarines. In 1993, Iran bought two Russian Kilo-class submarines and eight mini-submarines from North Korea, although officials said this...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel should prepare for the possibility of a missile attack from Iran, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday. "We are liable to face an Iranian missile attack. The Iranians have said very clearly that if they come under attack, their primary target would be Israel," Rafi Eitan, a member of the decision-making inner cabinet, told Israel Radio. Iran could fire missiles at the Jewish state "therefore we must prepare for what could come, and prepare the entire country for a missile strike attack, to prepare all the civilian systems so they are ready for this," Eitan said....

Proposed rules of engagement for an expanded U.N. force in southern Lebanon would allow troops to open fire in self-defense, protect civilians and back up the Lebanese army in preventing foreign forces or arms from crossing the border, according to a U.N. document obtained Tuesday. The 20-page draft was circulated to potential troop-contributing countries last week by the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping Operations, which is trying to get an additional 3,500 troops on the ground by the end of next week to strengthen the 2,000 overstretched U.N. peacekeepers already there. The rules of engagement for the expanded force —...

Opposition leader MK Benjamin Netanyahu called on the government to authorize a state commission to probe deficiencies in the army's and the government's conduct in the war with Hizbullah . Speaking on Channel 2 TV, Netanyahu said: "I say this unexcitedly, there must be a probe. The government itself said so. We have to prevent a hopeless situation the next time." Asked whether his calls are aimed at smearing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert 's government for political gain, Netanyahu said his Likud party stood behind the government throughout the war but now that the fighting ended, criticism is legitimate. Netanyahu...

August 21, 2006   The Honorable Jimmy Carter The Carter Center 453 Freedom Parkway Atlanta, Georgia 30307 Dear Mr. President: I just read the transcript of your interview with the German magazine, Der Spiegel, in which you accuse Israel of launching an “unjustified attack on Lebanon.”   Even after the interviewer reminded you that Israel was the first to get attacked, you charged Israel with lacking “any legal or moral justification for their massive bombing of the entire nation of Lebanon.” As someone who served in the White House as a spokesman for a President, I am reluctant to criticize...

Defusing the present dangerous confrontation between Islam and the West demands rational, impartial and cool heads to untangle facts from myth. We must seek to understand the Muslims’ mindset in comparison with that of the West, acknowledging vast individual and cultural differences within each group, while seeking outlines of meaningful distinctions. The Muslims’ perennial complaint is that the imperialist West—all colonial powers of the past, as well as the United States of America today—have victimized them for decades and even centuries and continue to do so in every conceivable way. The litany of the alleged wrongdoings by the West is...

Washington has let Jerusalem know that for now Israel should not expect any financial aid to help defray the cost of the war in Lebanon, The Jerusalem Post has learned. According to sources in Jerusalem, the government was considering requesting US aid - one report estimated a request of $2 billion - to help pay the cost of the war. There was talk in Washington of a large-scale financial package to help rebuild southern Lebanon, and in the process keep the Iranians out of the process. Israel was apparently hoping to fold its aid request into this package. However, according...

Israeli reservists, fresh from fighting in southern Lebanon, demanded yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resign over what they describe as the debacle of the monthlong war with Hezbollah. The calls of the reservists will make it more difficult for Mr. Olmert's Cabinet to avoid appointing a formal "state commission of inquiry," panels that helped bring down two prominent Israeli leaders in the past 33 years. Reservists told of insufficient provisions, of having no water in the summer heat and being forced to drink from canteens of dead Hezbollah guerrillas, shortages of combat equipment and indecisive orders. One group...

A Hizbullah Cabinet minister on Tuesday said the government may attempt to break the Israeli naval and air blockade of Lebanon by calling on ships and aircraft to travel to Lebanese ports without prior Israeli approval. The government has condemned the blockade, saying it violates the UN cease-fire resolution, and the foreign minister Tuesday called on the international community to force Israel to end the blockade. The Cabinet met late Monday but did not publicly challenge to the blockade, although it called the siege one of Israel's "terrorist practices." "Entry to Lebanon by sea and from air is a matter...

ANKARA, Turkey - Aug. 21, 2006 (UPI) -- Five Iranian and one Syrian aircraft were barred from flying into Lebanon by Turkey, which claimed they were ferrying arms for Hezbollah militants. The Turkish Hurriyet newspaper reported Monday the last flight diversion was Thursday when an Iranian airlines Parsair flight was forced to land at Diyarbakir military airport in eastern Turkey. The newspaper said U.S. intelligence reports indicated the plane carried three missile launchers and containers with Chinese C-802 land-to-sea missiles, and it was ordered to turn around. From Jerusalem, the Ha'aretz newspaper said Turkish authorities would not elaborate on whether...

Iran and Syria are working to replenish weaponry and funding for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, a London Arabic newspaper reported Monday. The daily al-Sharq al-Awast quoted a senior officer of the Revolutionary Guard in Tehran saying huge quantities of weapons reached Damascus during the last three weeks and are waiting to be transferred to Lebanon. A spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, Hamid Rada Asafi, confirmed Sunday "the government is learning the need for aid and ways to transfer it to Lebanon." Ynetnews also quoted sources from the office of spiritual leader Ali Khamenei, who reportedly ordered the Iranian government...

Israel's Lost Moment Israel's leaders do not seem to understand how ruinous its disappointing performance in Lebanon has been to its relationship with America. At critical moments in the past, Israel has indeed shown its value. In 1970 Israel saved King Hussein and the monarchy of Jordan. In 1982 they shot down 86 MiGs in one week without a single loss, revealing Soviet technological backwardnesss. Hezbollah's unprovoked attack on July 12 gave them our green light to defend themselves; an act of clear self-interest, because America needed a decisive Hezbollah defeat. Hezbollah is a wholly owned Iranian subsidiary, making Islam...

The Arab world's silence has left the last word to those we call extremists While Israel receives unanimous western support, this crisis is dragging the region ever faster into the abyss Alain Gresh Tuesday August 22, 2006 The Guardian (UK) Killers slaughter dozens of civilians in Iraq every day just because they are Sunni Muslims. Suicide attacks are increasingly common in Afghanistan, where they used to be unknown. On the Gaza Strip, 1.5 million Palestinians are caught in a trap, hemmed in by the Israeli offensive and the decision by the US and the EU to freeze all direct aid....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2006 – The United States will provide funding and other assistance to support a U.N. plan to end warfare between Lebanon-based Hezbollah guerrillas and Israel, President Bush said here today. Recently passed U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 has authorized a 15,000-strong international force to deploy as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah. A brokered cease-fire has reduced fighting between the two antagonists after they fought a month-long trans-border battle using rockets, mortars and ground troops. “America will do our part. We will assist the new international force with logistical support, command and control, communications and intelligence,” Bush...

Israeli reserve soldiers accuse government of 'cold feet' over conflict · Brigade signs letter calling for Lebanon inquiry· Newspaper demands general's resignation Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem Tuesday August 22, 2006 The Guardian (UK) A brigade of reserve soldiers angrily accused the Israeli government yesterday of fighting a war with "indecision" and "cold feet" as criticism mounted over the handling of the conflict in Lebanon. In the most outspoken acknowledgment of Israel's failings in the war, one retiring senior army officer also admitted that the military felt "a certain sense of failure" after 34 days of combat. Brigadier Yossi Heiman, head...