Free Republic

"The combat vests are ready and the weapons are greased," one soldier said."Our parents are calling but we just don't answer,' said another. On Sunday, IDF soldiers from a wide-range of units converged on the Gaza Strip, setting up positions along the border in the south and north. Tanks from Brigade 7 were deployed not far from the northern Gaza border as soldiers from the Paratrooper's and Golani Infantry Brigades arrived at bases throughout the south ahead of a possible operation. Soldiers from Battalion 101 of the Paratrooper's Brigade said that they expected an operation to be launched in the...

With an eye to a future conflict with Hamas and Hizbullah, the IDF's Artillery Corps is preparing to integrate a new radar system that will help locate and destroy rocket launchers more quickly than ever before, Chief Artillery Officer Brig.-Gen. Michel Ben-Baruch has told The Jerusalem Post. Under production by Elta Systems - a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries - the new radar will be able to provide artillery cannons with a 360-degree view of a battlefield and detect the exact location of rocket launchers The location will then be transmitted digitally to the cannons or rocket systems deployed nearby,...

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Islamic Jihad fired rockets similar to Hizballah's katyushas at the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Monday just as the cease-fire between Israel and the Hizballah terrorist organization was beginning to take hold. But even before the cease-fire, a Hamas columnist said that Palestinians would be the greatest beneficiaries of what he called the Hizballah victory. He said it paved the way for a third Palestinian uprising. Writing in the Hamas paper Al-Risala, columnist Ibrahim Abu Heija said that the "Palestinian resistance" [a euphemism for terrorism] would be the "greatest beneficiary" of what he called Hizballah's victory....

Hizbullah's spiritual leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, lauded the Hizbullah for the attack in which seven IDF soldiers were killed and two others kidnapped. Speaking at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon, he warned Israel that the Hizbullah would only release the captives in exchange for security prisoners. "Our operation succeeded, we have results and honor," the sheikh declared. "We kept our promise to kidnap soldiers [to secure] the release of prisoners, and therefore are calling the attack 'Operation Promise Fulfilled.'" The Lebanese government later rejected blame for the capture of the two soldiers and distanced itself from the Hizbullah operation...

Lebanon is sending an urgent complaint to the United Nations over Israeli land, sea and air space violations, Information Minister Ghazi Aridi announced Thursday. It would be the second such complaint in just over a month. The Foreign Ministry has been instructed to ask the world community, the UN and Secretary General Kofi Annan to pressure Israel to stop such violations "in order to prevent further deterioration of the tense situation along the border" between Lebanon and Israel, Aridi said. Aridi was reading a statement following a four-hour Cabinet meeting.

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Lebanon has launched a military build-up along the Syrian border. Officials said the Defense Ministry has ordered the deployment of thousands of Lebanese Army troops along the mountainous frontier with Syria. They said the order came in wake of a recommendation by the National Security Council on Sept. 28. Over the weekend, the military shut down smuggling routes established by Syria during its 30-year presence in Lebanon. The routes have been used by the Syrian-sponsored Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. Officials said Syria has facilitated the flow of PFLP-GC insurgents and weaponry into Lebanon....

3/8/2005 Clip No. 594 Hizbullah Leader Hassan Nasrallah threatens the US and Supports Syria in a Beirut Rally The following are excerpts from an address by Hizbullah Leader Hassan Nasrallah to a pro-Syrian rally in Beirut. Al-Manar TV aired this address on March 8, 2005 Hassan Nasrallah: We say to Syria, as your president, Bashar Al-Assad has said: "In Lebanon, your presence in not material or military. You are present in the souls, the hearts, the minds, the present, the past, and the future…" I say to you, no one can get Syria out of Lebanon, or out of...

Hizbullah TV: brought to you by Pepsi BY AVI JORISCH Oct. 17, 2002 Why are local Lebanese subsidiaries of major American corporations like PepsiCo, Proctor & Gamble and Western Union lending comfort and support to terrorists by advertising on Hizbullah television? With so much focus on the "heart and minds" aspect of the war on terrorism, I set off to Lebanon several weeks ago to see first hand the operation of the world's premier television station devoted to glorifying terrorism, al-Manar TV. Al-Manar, the Arabic word for "beacon," is the official television station of Lebanon's Party of God, more...