Refusenik

Capt. (Res.) Amir Paster Imprisoned

Capt. (Res.) Amir Paster (32) an infantry officer and student at Tel Aviv University, has been sentenced to 28 days in military prison for refusal to take part in the current Lebanon campaign.

At his trial, Capt. Paster declared that "taking part in this war runs contrary to the values upon which he was brought up".

Speaking on behalf of the refusenik support group Yesh Gvul, movement spokesman Ishai Menuchin reported contacts with about a dozen reserve officers and soldiers who have received emergency call-up and plan to refuse to take part in the Lebanon operation.

You have been warned

Haaretz

When hundreds of thousands of people are warned, and women and children are warned, of the bombs and missiles and shells that are about to land on their heads, one must consider the fact that not all of them will flee. It is not so easy to leave home - and who will save those fleeing from the dangers lying in wait along the road? It has happened, and recently, that South Lebanon's refugees were attacked and killed on their miserable way north, and in those cases too we really didn't mean it - sorry! - and we expressed regret.

The contemptible Hassan Nasrallah has also warned us here in northern Israel. He has launched about 2,000 warnings in the form of rockets at our address in the past 20 days, apparently expecting us to be gripped by terror and to get the hint. Some did not understand, didn't want to or couldn't understand it: the elderly and frail and sick and poor and disabled and children with special needs and their parents couldn't. Nor could the owners of chicken coops or orchards, still desperately hoping to save the remnants of their living. Nor could all sorts of stubborn, infuriatingly obstinate people - those not interested in being refugees in their own land.

Latest news

BBC

Israel has violated its own cease fire follozing the heinous massacre in Qana. Tsahal killed three Lebanese soldiers, and Amir Peretz (I remember secretly hoping he would be PM) expressed regret, as the army had thought they were Hezbollah militants...

If only the Lebanese army had super power backing and shipments of high tech war toys. Then perhaps it could fight back in 'self defense'...

Myth

Full article

But this claim is almost always false. My own reporting and that of other journalists reveals that in fact Hezbollah fighters -- as opposed to the much more numerous Hezbollah political members, and the vastly more numerous Hezbollah sympathizers -- avoid civilians. Much smarter and better trained than the PLO and Hamas fighters, they know that if they mingle with civilians, they will sooner or later be betrayed by collaborators -- as so many Palestinian militants have been.

For their part, the Israelis seem to think that if they keep pounding civilians, they'll get some fighters, too. The almost nightly airstrikes on the southern suburbs of Beirut could be seen as making some sense, as the Israelis appear convinced there are command and control bunkers underneath the continually smoldering rubble. There were some civilian casualties the first few nights in places like Haret Hreik, but people quickly left the area to the Hezbollah fighters with their radios and motorbikes.But other attacks seem gratuitous, fishing expeditions, or simply intended to punish anything and anyone even vaguely connected to Hezbollah. Lighthouses, grain elevators, milk factories, bridges in the north used by refugees, apartment buildings partially occupied by members of Hezbollah's political wing -- all have been reduced to rubble. In the south, where Shiites dominate, just about everyone supports Hezbollah.

The nation is 40 percent Shiite, and of that 40 percent, tens of thousands are employed by Hezbollah's social services, political operations, schools, and other nonmilitary functions. The "terrorist" organization Hezbollah is Lebanon's second-biggest employer.

The Hezbollah guys, on the other hand, know that letting their fighters near outsiders of any kind -- journalists or Lebanese, even Hezbollah supporters -- is stupid.

Hezbollah's political members say they have little or no access to the workings of the fighters. This seems to be largely true: While they obviously hear and know more than the outside world, the firewall is strong. Israel, however, has chosen to treat the political members of Hezbollah as if they were fighters. And by targeting the civilian wing of the group, which supplies much of the humanitarian aid and social protection for the poorest people in the south, they are targeting civilians.

So the analysts talking on cable news about Hezbollah "hiding within the civilian population" clearly have spent little time if any in the south Lebanon war zone and don't know what they're talking about. Hezbollah doesn't trust the civilian population and has worked very hard to evacuate as much of it as possible from the battlefield.

Robert Fisk From Qana

Full article

The Israelis had dropped leaflets over Qana, ordering its people to leave their homes. Yet twice now since Israel's onslaught began, the Israelis have ordered villagers to leave their houses and then attacked them with aircraft as they obeyed the Israeli instructions and fled. There are at least 3,000 Shia Muslims trapped in villages between Qlaya and Aiteroun ­ close to the scene of Israel's last military incursion at Bint Jbeil ­ and yet none of them can leave without fear of dying on the roads.

On Thursday, the Israeli Army's Al-Mashriq radio, which broadcasts into southern Lebanon, told residents that their villages would be "totally destroyed" if missiles were fired from them. But anyone who has watched Israel's bombing these past two weeks knows that, in many cases, the Israelis do not know the location in which the Hizbollah are firing missiles, and ­ when they do ­ they frequently miss their targets. How can a villager prevent the Hizbollah from firing rockets from his street? The Hizbollah do take cover beside civilian houses ­ just as Israeli troops entering Bint Jbeil last week also used civilian homes for cover. But can this be the excuse for slaughter on such a scale?

Dissenting voice

Yaba Yaba

What now? Simple. Ulmert and Peretz are responsible. Ulmert and Peretz must go. If we Israelis want the world to know that this was not done in our name, that’s the only way to go.

Are we forgetting Gaza?

BBC

More than 100 Palestinians have been killed, many of them civilians, in Israeli air strikes and incursions since Palestinian militants kidnapped a young Israeli soldier more than a month ago.

The intense attacks on Lebanon have overshadowed the continuing violence in the Gaza Strip, the BBC's Arab affairs analyst Magdi Abdelhadi reports.

Wrong target

KTLA

Haq reportedly shouted about his anger toward Jews, toward Israel and its war in Lebanon, and toward U.S. policy in Iraq. One woman, Pam Waechter, 58, the federation's assistant director, was killed, and five other women were injured.

Jews are not guilty of this. Neither are Israeli citizens. I hope Israeli citizens feel responsible enough to speak out, though. I know some already do.

And what do the Israeli government and media call the callous attack on Qana? An incident. MOFA says

Eighteen Israeli civilians have been killed and over 400 have been wounded by these rocket attacks which have disrupted the lives of tens of thousands of Israeli citizens.

What beggars belief most, is that the so called democratic leaders of Israel are allowed to get away with such sickening justification for killing hundreds and wounding and displacing hundreds more. So, they gave a warning to residents to move north of the Litani. Wow. What roads will the residents use to get to the north which has also been bombed? Where will they get petrol? How will they afford it? But there's no need to counter such justifications, since it is quite obvious Israeli leaders are only paying lip service to justifying their actions. No need to: the US and Britain will stand behind Israel no matter what.

Arutz Sheva doesn't want to be left behind in the callousness game

Lebanon Seeking to Escalate Qana Incident

Robert Fisk from Lebanon

Full article

What was it Condoleezza Rice said? That "a hasty ceasefire would not be a good thing"? What was Blair's pathetic excuse at the G8 summit? That it was much better to have a ceasefire that would last than one which might break down? Yes, I entirely understand. Blair and his masters - we shall give Rice a generic title to avoid the obvious - regard ceasefires not as a humanitarian step to alleviate and prevent suffering but as a weapon, as a means to a political end.
Let the war last longer and the suffering grow greater - let compassion be postponed - and the Lebanese (and, most laughably, the Hizbollah) will eventually sink to their knees and accept the West's ridiculous demands. And one of those famous American "opportunities" for change - ie for humbling Iran - will have been created.

Martyn Turner of the Irish Times

Quote for today

Knocker O'Connell quoted by Tony Benn

'F' stands for Freedom, what Britain brags about
If you can't afford your dinner
Your free to go without

Israeli Opposition

Yesh Gvul

Dear friend,

Saturday's peace march in Tel Aviv was mounted by a coalition of left-wing parties and non-parliamentary peace groups, Yesh Gvul included. Participation turned out much larger than anyone had foreseen ("over 2,500" according to Ha'aretz, "almost 5000" by Uri Avnery).

Bystanders looked on in amazement as the noisy demonstration chanted slogans against the war (one offered a Hebrew version of a Vietnam era cry: "Defence Minister Amir Peretz, how many kids have you killed so far ?"). The Israeli media have promoted the false impression of 100% unity behind the attack on Lebanon, and citizens seemed stunned to hear such outright voices of dissent.

Among the speakers at the concluding rally, Yesh Gvul coordinator Ishai Menuchin focussed on the war crimes being committed daily, calling on soldiers to refuse any part in such excesses, and warning that perpetrators will ultimately face justice, before Israeli courts if possible; if not, he promised that the movement would act to bring them before foreign courts.

Further protests are in preparation. The anti-war coalition is determined to step up its efforts, and we rely on our friends and supporters worldwide to spread the word about internal Israeli opposition to the war. We need your help and solidarity !

We will also be thankful for donations. details appear here:
http://www.yeshgvul.org.il/about_e.asp
Members of the Coalition:
Yesh-Gvul, Maki, ICAHD, Hadash, Women's Coalition For Peace, Gush-Shalom, Tandi,Bat-Shalom, Banki, AIC, Combatants For Peace, Shministim, Taayush

Media Bias

Znet

But in the BBC’s lexicon, escalation has nothing to do with the enormous destruction Israel can unleash on Lebanon; only the occasional, smaller-scale blow Hizbullah scores against Israel.

At noon James Reynolds as good as gave the game away: the Hizbullah strike on Haifa, he said, proved that the rockets are “no longer just an irritant”. Now it was clear why a “serious escalation” had begun: Israel was actually being harmed by Hizbullah’s rockets rather than just irritated. Until then the harm had been mainly inflicted on Lebanese civilians, so no escalation was taking place.

It wasn’t till the 7pm news that I saw meaningful images from Lebanon, as Gavin Hewitt followed a fire crew trying to put out an enormous oil refinery blaze in Tyre. Although we saw some of the suffering of the Lebanese population, the anchor felt obliged to preface the scenes from Lebanon with the statement that they were Israeli “retaliation” for the Haifa attack, even though Israel had been launching such strikes for four days before the lethal rocket strike on Haifa.

In the same broadcast, an Israeli cabinet minister, Shaul Mofaz, was given air time to make the claim that parts of the rockets that landed in Haifa were Syrian-made. Allegations by the Lebanese president, Emile Lahoud, widely shown on Arab TV that Israel had been using phosphorus incendiary bombs -- illegal under international law -- received no coverage at all.

Israeli precision

BBC

UN peacekeepers in south Lebanon contacted Israeli troops 10 times before an Israeli bomb killed four of them, an initial UN report says.

The post was hit by a precision-guided missile after six hours of shelling, diplomats familiar with the probe say.

Israel is conducting an investigation into the incident.

It has rejected accusations made by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan that the targeting of the UN position was "apparently deliberate".

Why conduct an investigation if it already knows the outcome?
The familiar justification for killing non-combatants is, that fighters are hiding amongst them. So, we are meant to believe, that bombing indiscriminately is the only solution. What exactly has this 'solution' led to, other than killing innocent civilians and aid workers? Has it increased the safety of israeli civilians? And does Tsahal actually believe Red Cross ambulances are hiding Hezbollah fighters?

Fisk

And how come - since this now obsesses the humanitarian organisations working in Lebanon - that the Israelis bombed two ambulances in Qana, killing two of the wounded inside and wounding the third civilian for the second time in a day. All the crews were injured - one with a piece of shrapnel in his neck - but what worried the Lebanese Red Cross was that the Israeli missiles had clearly pierced the very centre of the red cross painted on the roof of each vehicle. Did the pilots use the cross as their aiming point?

Thirteenth day

BBC

At least 362 Lebanese, the great majority civilians, have been killed during the conflict, which is now into its 13th day. Thirty-seven Israelis have been killed, about half of them civilians.

Israeli soldiers are captured and it's headline news the world over. Israel kidnaps enemy combatants and it's 'another development' .

In other developments:

Israel said it has captured two Hezbollah militants

I love my city on a summer Sunday (at 8 am)

Other Pics

Negotiation?

Ynet

Al-Hayat reported that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin met in Jordan, where Diskin promised to release large number of Palestinian prisoners, including prisoners "with blood on their hands," directly responsible for Israeli deaths.

If Corporal Gilad Shalit doesn't have palestinian blood on his hands, it is likely that, if he is released and resumes his job, he will do before long.

Milestones

Egyptian Pharaohs

Reminder

Rassemblement pour la Démocratie au Liban

All exits and entrances out of and into Lebanon are being bombed. The Lebanese need all the help they can get. The RDL are purchasing as many goods as possible in Lebanon.
The ICRC also needs help.

The Flag as a symbol of freedom