Free Republic

A tank missile defense system, developed by the Rafael Armament Development Authority will be ready for installation on IDF tanks in "several months" if the Treasury decides to fund the purchase of the system, The Jerusalem Post has learned. In addition, Rafael is currently hoping to gain from a Senate decision ordering US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld to bring outside experts to assess the need for and use of tank defense systems for the US Army. The order from the Senate came following an NBC in-depth investigation into why the US Army had decided to purchase Raytheon's active protection...

Israel lifted its two-month-old aerial siege of Lebanon on Thursday afternoon, but kept its naval blockade in place because the international force was not yet in a position to enforce the arms embargo to Hizbullah. Senior government officials said that Israel agreed on Wednesday to lift the blockade because United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the international force would be ready to enforce the arms embargo. "We were ready, the UN wasn't," the officials said. The officials said that it would likely be another 48-hours before a naval force made up of French, Italian, Greek and British troops off the...

Hizbullah Chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah says he hopes Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will remain in office. "If we have to choose between a foolish prime minister and another who is strong and capable, we prefer that the fool remain,” he told Lebanese Al-Safir newspaper Tuesday. He made the comments when asked about the prime minister’s recent claims, based on Nasrallah’s statements, that Israel had won the war. "I don't mind that Olmert is benefiting from [my statements that we did not expect Israel’s response],” Nasrallah said. “Olmert says he achieved something because he put me in a bunker. All his...

Local terror groups are working with Hizbullah to turn the Gaza Strip into the Palestinian version of southern Lebanon by smuggling in heavy weaponry and rockets, building war bunkers and preparing for a large-scale confrontation with Israel , a senior terror leader in Gaza told WorldNetDaily. "We learned from Hizbullah's victory that Israel can be defeated if we know how to hit them and if we are well prepared," said Abu Ahmed, northern Gaza leader of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades terror group. "We are importing rockets and the knowledge to launch them and we are also making many plans for...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The United States used Israel's attack on the Hizbollah militia in Lebanon as a prelude to "settling accounts" with Iran, Interfax news agency quoted a senior Russian diplomat as saying on Wednesday. Vladimir Trofimov, deputy head of the foreign ministry's Middle East department, was quoted making the comments the day before Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov begins a visit to the Middle East that will include Israel. "If we look at Israeli and U.S. plans, they aim at removing the Hizbollah factor ahead of the forthcoming U.S. settling of accounts with Iran," Interfax quoted Trofimov as saying....

There is the possibility that some of the Likud renegades in Kadima, rueing the day on which they decided to throw in their lot with that ill-starred political creation, will return to the ranks of the Likud. And that some of the Labor rejects, now eating humble pie, will be mercifully accepted into the ranks of Labor. And that a politically reshuffled Knesset will bring down the Olmert government and vote confidence in a new prime minister and his government. Or else, perish the thought, new elections. This political uncertainty is painful to contemplate at a time when Israel faces...

IT'S bad enough that friends of Hezbollah terrorists could trick so many journalists with just a tall story and a rusty Lebanese ambulance. Worse is that some of those journalists seemed so eager to believe this ambulance was indeed wickedly blown up by an Israeli missile fired straight through the big red cross on its roof -- leaving not even a scorch mark. But worst is that even now that this hoax has been exposed, none of the countless writers and commentators who fell for it have admitted to passing on as fact the propaganda of terrorists. It is this...

The media war against Israel Early in the recent Lebanon war, the blogosphere revealed the fabrication of images by Reuters, whose reputation is now in shreds among those dwindling numbers in the western mainstream media who still acknowledge there is such a thing as the truth. Since then, the nature and scale of the various frauds perpetrated by the media during that war put those doctored Reuters pictures into the shade. The western media are no longer merely producing questionable professional practices in reporting a war. They are now active participants in it — and on the wrong side of...

International journalists discuss Lebanon war coverage; NYT bureau chief: Israel 'not interested in Lebanese deaths' A number of journalists claimed during a convention in Jerusalem Monday evening that Israel and the IDF were mostly to blame for the way the foreign media covered the Lebanon war. The panel of journalists, largely from the international media, convened to discuss their coverage of the war, at a conference arranged by the Media Line agency's Mideast Press Club. "Journalists' access to the battlefield is controlled exclusively by the IDF," said Simon McGregor-Wood, Chairman of the Foreign Press Association, and Bureau Chief of ABC...

War In The Middle East: U.N. peacekeepers may have done more than just look the other way as Hezbollah created its armed state within a state. The blue helmets may have served as Hezbollah's military intelligence. Real-time battlefield intelligence is a keystone of 21st century warfare, especially when you're up against a terrorist enemy that has had six years to construct hardened underground bunkers and tunnels from which to fight while not having to obey the rules of war. The situation gets complicated and your task becomes harder when that real-time intelligence is being provided to that enemy, Hezbollah, by...

TEL AVIV -- Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said yesterday that he would not have ordered the July 12 seizure of two Israeli soldiers had he known it would provoke a war that leveled Shi'ite villages and neighborhoods throughout Lebanon.     "We did not think, even 1 percent, that the capture would lead to a war at this time and of this magnitude. 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," he told Lebanon's New TV station.     The sheik also...

You would think that Reuters learned its lesson about publishing to the world photos doctored to create a false image. After all, they were caught with multiple false photos from Lebanon, and had to take down more than 900 images from one stringer. Reuters promised it would have "experienced editors" look at all such photos in the future.

By 8 a.m. May 26, 2000, the day after the Israeli withdrawal from south Lebanon was completed, there were already some spectators at Fatima's Gate, a former checkpoint between Israel and Lebanon, and the new Lebanese frontline with Israel. Some were armed Hizbullah men with yellow flags, others curious citizens who came to observe the Israeli soldiers patrol the border just a few meters away. Here you could buy some refreshments with which you could more fully enjoy your time at the border, or perhaps some Hizbullah memorabilia such as yellow T-shirts with the organization's emblem or pins of Sheikh...

The Americanization of Canada by Harper Prime Minister walking in lockstep with Bush, says Haroon Siddiqui Aug. 27, 2006. 01:00 AM HAROON SIDDIQUI -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In 2003, much of our media and the Bay St. establishment, along with some conservative politicians, such as Ernie Eves, favoured George W. Bush's plans to invade Iraq. Most Canadians didn't. Jean Chrétien sided with the people. This year, much of our media and part of the corporate establishment, along with most Conservatives and even some Liberals, favour the American combat tactics in Afghanistan. They also back Bush's full support of the Israeli war on Lebanon....

DAMASCUS (Reuters) - Syria backs efforts to free captured Israeli soldiers and Arab prisoners held by the Jewish state, U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson said after meeting President Bashar al-Assad on Sunday. "President Assad supports the finding of their status and release. He uses influence and appeal to find out what their status is and ultimately their release," Jackson told a news conference held at the foreign ministry. Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad said: "We look kindly toward Reverend Jackson's mission and encourage it. He is someone who is concerned about the human dimension of crisis." Jackson is...

MP George Galloway has congratulated Hizbollah on its "victory" in Israel. At a news conference in a Beirut hotel, the controversial politician said: "I came here to extend my congratulations to the Lebanese people on a great and historic victory against this aggression. "I want to congratulate the Lebanese resistance and their leading edge, Hizbollah, whose martyrs and her s have achieved this great victory. "And in particular to their leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whose name now rings in joy around the world." Galloway is in Beirut to present a phone-in radio show for a British radio station. He also...

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 to see precise information about the movements of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers and the nature of their weaponry and materiel, even specifying the placement of IDF...

Fauxtography Defender's Faux News Turns out that Greg Mitchell, the Editor & Publisher editor who has been attacking the blogosphere like a rabid ferret for pointing out the bogus news from the Middle East, has first-hand experience with staging news. (Hat tip: Confederate Yankee.) Since the press seems to be in full-disclosure mode these days, I want to finally come clean. Back when I worked for the Niagara Falls (N.Y.) Gazette (now the Niagara Gazette), our city editor asked me to find out what tourists thought about an amazing local event: Engineers had literally “turned off” the famous cataracts,...

I have never been a big fan of Kofi Annan. He has presided over a UN that is pro-terror, Anti-Israel, Anti-American and (if that is not enough) has taken bribes via the Oil for Food Scandal. It has been puzzling to understand why Annan’s UN is so morally corrupt and partial to terrorists, That is, until today when studying the Torah parsha Shoftim, and I read these words: You shall not judge unfairly: you shall show no partiality; you shall not take bribes, for bribes blind the eyes of the discerning and upset the plea of the just. Justice, justice...

Political earthquake: A poll published on Friday in the Yedioth Ahrnonoth daily shows that 63 percent of Israelis feel that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert failed in managing the war in Lebanon and should resign. Only 29 percent believe the prime minister is fit to continue leading the country. About 74 percent of those polled said Defense Minister Amir Peretz mishandled the war and should resign his post. A mere 20 percent said Peretz should keep his post. Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Dan Halutz faired slightly better than his superiors with 54 percent saying he should resign...