The original story, as most media tell it, goes something like this: Hezbollah attacked an Israeli border patrol station, killing six and taking two soldiers hostage. The incident happened on the Lebanese/Israel border in Israeli territory. The alternate version, as explained by several news outlets, tells a bit of a different tale: These sources contend that Israel sent a commando force into southern Lebanon and was subsequently attacked by Hezbollah near the village of Aitaa al-Chaab, well inside Lebanon’s southern territory. It was at this point that an Israel tank was struck by Hezbollah fighters, which resulted in the capture of two Israeli soldiers and the death of six.
If Israel was the one that started this war, then there is no justification for all the woe-is-me we must go after Hizbullah going around. But I remain doubtful: after all, didn’t Nasrallah confirm the excursion into Israel version of events and boast the operation took five months to plan? And why is it not denying the rest of the world’s version of events? If anyone knows different (original Arabic reports best) say so in the comments.
Nasrallah profiled, by the Nation’s Adam Shatz, who’s done good work before. He suggests Nasrallah has a death wish, I’m not so sure. I have a biography of Nasrallah in Cairo that I haven’t read, will do so next week when I get back.
The ICG has a report on the Israel-Palestine-Lebanon crisis. They say “an immediate Israeli-Lebanese ceasefire is necessary: pursuing a military knockout is unrealistic and counterproductive” and aren’t pushing 1559 as an urgent issue like the White House. This is perhaps the most respected think tank on earth, remember.
Today on the train to Casablanca I listened to yesterday’s Democracy Now radio show very interesting interview of Yonatan Shapira, a refusenik Israeli air force pilot, and former Palestinian resistance fighter Bassem Aramim, who co-founded Combatants for Peace with former Palestinian resistance members. It was a really moving interview, I highly recommend it.
From the longest-serving Conservative MP in Britain:
Sir Peter Tapsell, a Tory MP, said Tuesday that British Prime Minister Tony Blair was “colluding” with U.S. President George W. Bush in giving Israel the okay to wage “unlimited war” in Lebanon – a war crime he claimed was “gravely reminiscent of the Nazi atrocity on the Jewish quarter of Warsaw.”
AFP has an article about Egyptians making the parallel between Nasser and Nasrallah, mentioning an Al Arabi headline that said “Nasser 1956 – Nasrallah 2006.” For some reason it reminds me that the London Times (for which I work for) called Nasser (edit: originally wrote “Hitler) “Hitler on the Nile” in 1956, which makes you think about how some papers are describing Nasrallah now. But anyway, Nasrallah’s rising profile around the Arab world is one consequence of this war we may have to live with for a while…
Interesting juxtaposition: the New York Times finds resentment against Hizbullah in Iran but AFP finds that its government is very supportive indeed. I have no idea about Iran but I do find it a bit hard to swallow that there are no ordinary Iranians supportive of Hizbullah (at least none quoted in the NYT story).
This is a little bit old, but here’s the Aardvark on Al Jazeera’s war coverage.
Carnegie Endowment does a roundtable analysis on the current crisis, country-by-country:
One common point emerges clearly from all the analyses, however: the crisis cannot be solved by a single grand strategy that would broaden the conflict to Syria or even Iran and would change the face of the Middle East forever. As in all other crises in the Middle East, at the heart of the problem is the difficult task of negotiating coexistence in a small, overpopulated, and resource-poor part of the world among population groups that have strong identities, different cultures, conflicting interests, and seemingly irreconcilable goals. No grand strategy will alter this most fundamental of Middle East realities.
An Egyptian diplomat has told AFP that Egypt and Saudi Arabia will propose a ceasefire in Rome. The EU has said it will also push for one. As we know they will most likely be ignored. Condi Rice didn’t sound eager to have a ceasefire fast today:
So I will go to Israel, we’ll go to Rome, and I’ll go to Kuala Lumpur for the Asia Regional Forum. I have a little work to do there on North Korea. And I’m fully prepared to return to the region if that would be necessary or helpful. But I’m going to leave David Welch and Elliott Abrams in the region to continue to work on the humanitarian situation as well as the underlying conditions for a cease-fire.
Lebanon reports that four UN peacekeepers were killed today in an Israeli air strike. The UN has confirmed two for now. Kofi Annan says he’s “shocked.” Really, Kofi?
It’s being said that the war will last 10 more days. A lot can happen in 10 days.
Thanks for the great news reporting on this site. Yes, a lot can happen in 10 days, and for anyone who doesn’t have regards to the potential human lives that may be lost in these 10 days, they are simply cruel.
Can I get some help from your readers and the contributor on this site? I just published an article about Israel/Palestine, expressing my support to Palestine. But I’m getting lots of oppositions. I’m an Asian, and I must say that I don’t know all the details about Israel/Palestine, but I’ve read enough to side with Palestine.
While I appreciate people expressing their own opinions, I would like to have more people cut & paste links into my comment sections from public news reporting for the FACTS between Israel and nearby countries. I appreciate any of you who can help me solidifing my arguments against Israel by using real facts, because I felt like I’m a bit under-attacked by pro-Israel comments.
My article is here:
http://www.1stmillionat33.com/2006/07/why-9-11-palestine-israel-conflict/“ rel=”nofollow”>http://www.1stMillionAt33.com/2006/07/why-9-11-palestine-israel-conflict/
To be fair to Pro-Israel, if you can be factual, instead of vehemently arguing, that would be the best to promote the understanding of Israel/Palestine conflict.
Thanks in advance.
Given the US stated intention to give Israel more time to “mop up” Hizballah (yeah, good luck with that), it would be much smarter (if dishonest, but we’re not talking about a fair game her) to disengenuously propose some sort of ceasefire plan that Hizballah would surely reject, thereby putting the onus on them.
I had thought that’s what the US was doing, but then Condi’s quote there doesn’t go with such an approach, or is a screw up.
“The original story”
UNIFIL has shot some videos of the incident that proove the Israeli version. BUT I have not seen the lebanese government sending a request to Annan to show the videos. As long as the lebanese government has not affirmed the current media-version it is still unofficial.
Btw. “conspiracy”: “The United Nations on Friday admitted “mistakes made” in handling an Israeli request for a videotape made after the capture of three of its soldiers last year.” [Juli 2001]. It happened again with some videos this time and thats why the Israelis killed 4 UN-observers.
Praktike – they did put out such a “ceasefire” plan, informally, essentially asking Lebanon to stop the attacks and return the soldiers and promise to disarm Hezbollah in exchange for a halt to Israeli shelling, and it was duly rejected – I read several news stories to that effect yesterday.
I also read yesterday about a possible deal between Mahmoud Abbas and the Israelis to return Corporal Shalit in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, but they were still waiting for approval from Hamas’ leaders in Syria and from the Israeli govt (some “deal”) but have heard nothing further since – anyone know?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1830232,00.html
SP – wouldn’t hold my breath on the gaza deal. sounded like a state department leak being used for unclear purposes.
ITA, praktike – or a gimmick by Mahmoud Abbas to position the PLO as the Only Partner for Peace once more.
Shual, would you have a link for these videos online?
Shual – the Lebanese government reported the UN observer killings before the UN itself confirmed them (in fact Lebanon reported 4 killed, UN confirmed two and waited on confirming the other two). The UN commander in southern Lebanon also noted that he had been in constant contact with the Israeli military through the day to ensure the UN post was not hit.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N25237440.htm
No, Issandr. I don’t think that they willl publish them. You can send a request/question about the videos to UNIFIL. [I have never received an answer from such organisations.]
To SP: German medias confirm that version. Between 13:20 and 19:40 the UNIFIL-commander [… his staff…] called the Israeli responsible liaison-officer 9 times to stop the bombardment. Ehud olmert has ordered an investigation. “Human error”, I guess.
Issander: After useless searching I can only tell you the same thing: In any case the 5-42-post must have videos of the incidents. See map below.
SP: I checked the latest reports of UNIFIL. Since 07/15 they counted 101 “close” IDF-hits near UN-Positions and 10 direct hits. The Khiam area was already hit at 07/23. And the direct hit No11 was the one with the 4 casualities. Meanwhile the involved countries like China said that they called Israel several times in the last two weeks to be cautious about the observers.
http://www.un.org/Depts/Cartographic/map/dpko/unifil.pdf