Annan Calls For Cease-Fire
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060720/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel

Third of Lebanon casualties are children, says UN

Nearly one third of all casualties in the Lebanon-Israel conflict have been children, according to the United Nations’ emergency relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland.

He said it appeared neither Hezbollah nor the Israelis seemed to care about civilian suffering.

Nearly a third of the dead or wounded were children and the wounded could not be helped because roads and bridges had been cut by Israeli air strikes.

“It is nearly impossible in southern Lebanon to move anything anywhere because it is too dangerous. It is too dangerous for our people to move things,” Egeland said.

Without a truce allowing aid agencies to begin the relief effort there would be a “catastrophe“.

www.irishexaminer.com/breaking/story.asp?j=189629482&p=189630188&n=18963

UN warns of war crimes in Lebanon



Killing of civilians in Lebanon is likely to subject Israeli soldiers to war crime trials in international courts, UN human rights high commissioner says
Ronen Bodoni




The continuation of Israel's operation in Lebanon and the rising civilian death toll is likely "could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control," Louise Arbour, the high commissioner for human rights, told the New York Times.




“International humanitarian law is clear on the supreme obligations to protect civilians during hostilities,’’ she said.



Head to Head

US to France: Too early for ceasefire / Yitzhak Benhorin

Washington, which declared its support of Israel's right to defend itself, provides 'diplomatic umbrella' for strikes in Lebanon, convincing France not to promote ceasefire at this stage. Ambassador Ayalon: We have time
Full story




“Indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians,” she said in a statement released by her office in Geneva. “Similarly, the bombardment of sites with alleged innocent civilians is unjustifiable.”



“Hizbullah fighters too are bound by the rules of international humanitarian law, and they must not target civilian areas,” it said, referring to the indiscriminate shelling of Israeli cities.



The statement was issued following calls for a cease-fire by Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora who warned of a humanitarian crisis in his country.



Siniora said over 300 civilians have been killed by Israeli air strikes on his country.



Europe fearing response by Islamists



If the death toll in Lebanon continues to rise, pressure on Israel to stop its operation will increase and so will pressure on Washington to press its ally to stop the offensive.



According to a Washington Post report, European officials are concerned that the Bush administration's siding with Israel will fuel tension between the west and Arab nations, encourage Islamists to carry out terror attacks against western targets, strengthen support for Osama Bin Laden, and escalate the fighting between coalition forces and insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.



"The one thing that is guaranteed to send the Arab world and the Persian world over the edge is for the US to be seen ultimately to be doing what they always believed - to be fully in cahoots with Israel," a European official told the Washington Post on the condition of anonymity. "The danger of allowing it to continue is that the United States is more and more despised. It's not like the US had a good reputation within the region to start with."




The White House denied it is coordinating with Israel or "sitting around at the war table saying 'Do this, this and this,'" press secretary Tony Snow said.



"We're not colluding, we're not cooperating, we're not conspiring, we're not doing any of that," he told reporters. "The Israelis are doing what they think is necessary to protect their borders."



The State Department also denied that the Bush administration is backing Israel's military operation in Lebanon.



"I don't think anybody disagrees on the desire to end the violence in the region, but let's remember what the root causes of the violence are," spokesman Sean McCormack said.




A senior administration official told the Post that it is too early to speak of a diplomatic solution. "The conditions that the G-8 (Group of Eight industrialized nations) talked about are not in place to get a real and permanent cease-fire that addresses the fundamental problems of the region," he told the newspaper.

He said Israel faces "a terrible problem" because Hizbullah is operating from within civilian areas. "They make mistakes, and there are accidents," he said. "It is impossible for them to avoid all the collateral damage."

www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3278907,00.html

Israel may launch large-scale ground offensive in Lebanon - Peretz
www.forbes.com/business/feeds/afx/2006/07/20/afx2892447.html

This is what the Olmert Government had planned from the start. Are you willing to sacrifice your children, brothers and sisters, for the Madness of the Extremists in control of Israel?

Kidnapped by Israel
The British Media and The Invasion Of Gaza


by Jonathan Cook

July 20, 2006
Media Lens

Few readers of a British newspaper would have noticed the story. In the Observer of 25 June, it merited a mere paragraph hidden in the “World in brief” section, revealing that the previous day a team of Israeli commandos had entered the Gaza Strip to “detain” two Palestinians Israel claims are members of Hamas.

www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=COO20060720&art

Americans Reject Involvement in Middle East War
www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm/fuseaction/viewItem/itemID/12604

Too bad they don't get to choose. When the planned False Flag is carried out, against foreigners on slow-moving ships, or Marines brought in to ferry them to safety, the war planned by the Bush/PNAC Regime, and its partners in Israel, will be on.

Marines in Beirut to help with evacuation
news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060720/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_fighting_evacuation

No, We're Not 'All Israelis Now'
www.antiwar.com/orig/lynch.php?articleid=9353

WHY IT'S TAKING SO LONG.
www.prospect.org/weblog/2006/07/post_880.html#003571

Foreign Governments are allowing their citizens to languish, so that Israel won't look as bad in the eyes of their respective publics.

Israeli Censor Wielding Great Power
www.startribune.com/722/story/562903.html

IDF: Mossad “has significantly infiltrated Hizbullah”
wakeupfromyourslumber.blogspot.com/2006/07/idf-mossad-has-significantly_

Was the capture of Israeli soldiers a False Flag?

'Nobody cares about Arab lives'
www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__interna

President Bush Uncut: Why Israel Gets Away with Murder

By Joshua Frank
It was a candid moment. President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair were chatting over lunch at the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg on Monday when a Russian microphone sitting in front of Bush was unknowingly live. After almost three minutes of Bush/Blair uncut (we saw Bush eating with his mouth open and found out he prefers Diet Coke), the focal point of their conversation took a turn toward the Israel/Lebanon conflict.

Bush confided in Blair that getting Syria to intervene would end the conflict immediately. "See, the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbullah to stop doing this shit and it's over." And how’s he going to do that? By threatening Syria I’m sure.

Hearing Bush tell it, one would think that the latest bloodshed in the Middle East is the result of Hizbullah’s barbaric habits, not Israel’s. But the entire reason Hizbullah even exists is because of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. As Lebanon based writer Bilal El-Amine writes in the forthcoming print edition of Left Turn:

“An amalgam of political party, armed resistance and social movement, Hizbullah (“Party of God”) was born of a perfect storm that saw the convergence of several factors in the early 1980s: 1) the long-term changes inside the Shia community, described at length above, 2) the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, and 3) the 1982 Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon. Although Iranian support was certainly critical to the emergence of the party, the Israeli invasion appears to have been the decisive factor.”

Hizbullah has remained a popular organization throughout Lebanon and much of the Middle East. Putting resistance before radical Islamic beliefs, Hizbullah has garnered great support from diverse sects in the region, which is quite rare among radical Islamic movements. After fending off Israel’s invasion of Southern Lebanon in the early 1980s, Hizbullah again grew in popularity when Israel’s military aggression in April of 1996 resulted in the massacre in the village of Qana where 108 innocent civilians were mutilated.

Bush's off-the-cuff remark to Tony Blair in St. Petersburg deliberately ignored the deep history of Hizbullah, which is deemed a terrorist organization by the state of Israel and the US State Department. And lest you forgot, it was Israel who first marched forces into Lebanon in the 1990s, not the other way around. Hizbullah came about as a result of Israeli's invasion. Since then, Hizbullah has tightened their relationship with Palestine, which likely has struck fear in the Israeli government. The latest chapter of this saga came about when two Israeli soldiers were captured by Hizbullah inside Israel last week. But of course only Israel has the right to defend themselves. Israel has imprisoned thousands of Hamas and Hizbullah members.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any leading Democrats standing up to Bush’s unapprised diplomacy. Senator Hillary Clinton says she’ll support “whatever steps are necessary” for Israel to prevail. I wonder if she’ll support another slaughter like that in Qana?

Rep. Nancy Pelosi took Clinton’s remarks a bit further, clarifying the Democrats’ position, “The House Democratic leadership strongly condemns the seizure of Israeli soldiers by Hezbollah terrorists operating from Lebanon ... Israel has an inherent right to defend itself, and the United States supports our ally." Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid also chimed in, “Hezbollah must be dismantled, and all nations have an obligation to cease any and all assistance to this terrorist organization. Israel has a right to live in peace and security, and the United States will stand by our ally in this difficult time."

One would expect such perverse language from the neocons, but sadly the Democrats are just as heinous when it comes to supporting Israel aggression. How are these clowns going to end the war in Iraq if they continue to support hostility that is only escalating the tension between the West and Arab countries?

If the Bush administration and their Democratic enablers were truly serious about ending the violence in the Middle East, the first honest step would be for the US to cut off all funding to Israel. But I think we are more likely to see Syria step in than for that to happen.

www.whatreallyhappened.com/bushuncut.php

FURY AT PM
TONY Blair was blasted yesterday after he refused to urge the Israelis to call a ceasefire.
www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=17415819&method=full&siteid=94762&head

It seems as if compromised world Governments are having a contest to see who can prove they are the most loyal to Israeli Extremists. Perhaps they're being threatened in some way?

LEBANON-ISRAEL FACTS THE MEDIA ISN'T TELLING YOU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKq38COoTG8