Israeli-Arab War

[Jag]

http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtri...ran_11_06.html

Report: Missile system captured by Hizbullah, sent to Iran

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COMMonday, November 6, 2006

TEL AVIV — Hizbullah has captured an Israeli-origin advanced anti-tank guided missile system.

Israel state-owned television said an unidentified army unit left the launcher and missile in southern Lebanon, Middle East Newsline reported. The television said in a Nov. 3 report that Hizbullah found the Spike system and transferred it to Iran.


Israeli military sources said the Ground Forces Command has determined that Hizbullah seized the Spike anti-tank guided missile system. The sources said Hizbullah captured the Israeli system during the war in Lebanon in the summer of 2006.

"We know that one Gil [Spike] system has gone missing in an area where Hizbullah operated," a source said.

The Spike was developed and produced by the state-owned Rafael, Israel Armament Development Authority. The system, sold to several countries, was widely used against Hizbullah in the 34-day war in Lebanon, which ended on Aug. 14.

"It obviously went to Iran," Yoav Limor, the television's military commentator, said.

The television report said Israel's military has assessed that Iran would seek to reverse-engineer the Spike ATGM, with a range of four kilometers. Limor said this would allow Iran to develop counter-measures.

During the war, Hizbullah used Russian-origin anti-tank missiles obtained from Syria. They included the AT-14 Kornet missile, with a range of 5.5 kilometers.

Jag

---

[Sean Osborne]

Syrian FM Walid Mualem threatens to start “countdown to war” with Israel failing progress on peace track

November 6, 2006, 9:58 PM (GMT+02:00)

DEBKAfile cites Mualem’s words at a joint news conference in Damascus with Norwegian foreign minister Jonas Gahr Steore Monday, Nov. 6, as an explicit threat of war to be launched against Israel at a time of Syria’s choosing.

The Syrian minister welcomed a debate going on in Israel about whether to resume negotiations with Damascus on the Golan Heights, which Syria lost to Israel in the Six-Day War. He went on to say: “We now have a window of opportunity of several months. If there is no progress, the countdown will begin for a new Syrian-Israeli war.”

On Nov. 3, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 276 revealed that on Oct. 30 British PM Tony Blair had sent his senior political adviser Nigel Sheinwald (picture) on a mission to Damascus, hoping to turn the coming British exit from Iraqi towns round as leverage for a comeback to the Arab world and make up for his failed Iraq policy. One of the items in the British official’s briefcase for his meeting with president Bashar Asad and Mualem was a secret message from Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert: an offer to start peace talks. It was posted through Blair. The Syrian president sent a return message to the British prime minister: Tell Olmert I’m ready to talk.
This move connected with a broader deal: Damascus would break away from its pact with Tehran in return for normal relations with the West. Israel-Syrian talks would kick off this process.

Both parties agreed that the Sheinwald mission and the business they discussed would be kept secret.

No sooner had the British emissary flown out of Damascus, when the Syrians leaked word of his visit together with the Syrian president’s rejection of Olmert’s offer to talk, barring a prior Israeli commitment to cede the Golan.

This was not what the Syrian president had told his British vistor. When Sheinwald arrived in London, he found out that Asad had been stringing him along before killing the Blair initiative stone cold.

All along the Syrian ruler had kept faith with Tehran. He had rolled out his usual line of peacespeak, which is routinely welcomed by European nations and others, to sugar-coat his scheme for a war against Israel with full Iranian military and intelligence backing.

Walid Mualem was more frank. “If Israel is thinking of launching a war next year this is not the way,” he said. He was evidently responding to the Haaretz report of Nov. 11 which quoted the IDF General Staff as expecting a Syrian-Hizballah war to be launched in the summer of 2007.
DEBKAfile’s military sources note that if this reflects their thinking, Israel’s army chiefs are over-optimistic. But many Israeli generals, including the new OC Northern Command, Maj-Gen.Gaby Eisenkott, judge from Syrian and Iranian military preparations that major hostilities could erupt a lot earlier and will try and catch Israel unready.

[falcon]

This article also puts light on the current situtation. Here is the link

THE "IRANIZATION" OF SYRIA

http://www.transasianaxis.com/vb/sho...78&postcount=1

[Aplomb]

Here we go again...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061108/...l_palestinians

Hamas chief: Truce with Israel is over

By IBRAHIM BARZAK, Associated Press Writer 15 minutes ago



BEIT HANOUN, Gaza Strip - Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal says that a truce with

Israel is finished and is appealing to all Palestinian factions to resume attacks. Israeli tank shells ripped through a residential neighborhood in the northern Gaza Strip early Wednesday, killing at least 18 members of an extended family, including eight children, and wounding dozens of others, Palestinian health officials said.

"There must be a roaring reaction so that we avenge all those vicitms," Mashaal said.

The military wing of the Palestinians' ruling group called on Muslims around the world to attack U.S. targets, a call disavowed by the Hamas-led Palestinian government.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed regret over the deaths and, along with Defense Minister Amir Peretz, offered "urgent humanitarian aid" to the Palestinian Authority and immediate medical treatment to the wounded.

Israel halted artillery attacks in Gaza while it investigated the incident, but said it would press forward with operations meant to halt Palestinian rocket fire on Israeli communities.

Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh suspended talks on forming a more moderate government with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and both men declared a three-day mourning period. Abbas said the negotiations must continue.

Russia and the European Union condemned the attack.

The tank shells landed around a compound of four apartment buildings in Beit Hanoun, the northern border town that has been the latest focus of the Israeli offensive. Gaping holes were torn into the structures, owned by four brothers from the al-Athamna family who lived alongside each other.

Blood pooled in front of the houses.

Asma al-Athamna, 14, said her family was awakened early Wednesday by the sound of an explosion and her mother quickly ordered everyone out of the house.

"She was saying, 'There is shelling,'" Asma recalled.

As the family exited their home, another shell landed, killing the girl's mother, older sister and brother-in-law.

"They were killed when they came out of our house into the corridor. A tank shell killed them. I was behind them and I was wounded," the weeping girl said from her hospital bed.

A woman's headscarf, children's boots and slippers, and a pair of jeans — all burnt — were strewn outside the houses.

Khaled Radi, a health ministry official, said all the dead belonged to the same family. More than 50 people were wounded, 14 of them seriously, Radi said.

A military spokeswoman said artillery rounds had been fired at Palestinian rocket-launching sites, but far from the apartment compound.

Abbas warned that Israel would have to "shoulder all the consequences for these crimes," and Haniyeh said the Palestinians reserved the right to "self-defense."

Rahwi Hamad, 75, said he rushed outside after being awoken by blasts around 5:15 a.m.


"I saw people coming out of the house, bleeding and screaming. I carried out a young girl covered with blood," Hamad said. "Inside the houses, we evacuated dismembered bodies ... There was a smell of blood and the stench of burnt bodies."

Weeping relatives gathered outside the homes. Thousands, including relatives of the dead, massed outside Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, where some of the bodies were brought, along with. white shrouds for burial.

Hospital director Mahmoud Al-Asali said ambulances carried three and four victims at a time, in some cases heaping bodies over the wounded in their rush to get to the hospital.

"I have worked here as director for five years, and this is the most terrible scene I've ever seen," Al-Asali said.

Mashaal said that his group's militants will answer the deaths with "deeds, not words."

"The truce (with Israel) ended at the end of 2005," Mashaal told a news conference in the Syrian capital. "The armed struggle is free to resume, and the resistance is dictated by local circumstances."

The truce expired on Dec. 31, but it had continued to be honored, with some infractions.

Hamas' military wing called on Muslims around the world to target "the American enemy."

"America is offering political, financial and logistic cover for the Zionist occupation crimes, and it is responsible for the Beit Hanoun massacre.

Therefore, the people and the nation all over the globe are required to teach the American enemy tough lessons," Hamas said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.

Hamas has historically directed its violence against Israeli targets, carrying out dozens of suicide attacks over the past decade and killing dozens of Israelis, but not in recent years.

Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led Palestinian government, said the group had no intention of attacking American targets.

The killing of Palestinian civilians in the past has often preceded a sharp escalation of violence. A series of deadly incidents last summer, including a June 9 explosion on a Gaza beach that killed eight civilians, was followed by the capture of an Israeli soldier and an ensuing Israeli invasion of Gaza.

Spontaneous demonstrations erupted across Gaza after Wednesday's attack.

In the town of Beit Lahiya, thousands called for revenge and chanted, "Death to Israel! Death to America!"

Black smoke billowed into the skies over Beit Lahiya and neighboring Jebaliaya as angry residents burned tires in protest.

Witnesses said dozens of schoolchildren hurled stones and bottles at the empty EU mission in Gaza City, and that Palestinian security officials were trying to prevent them from storming the building.

Haniyeh urged the U.N. Security Council to discuss the shelling incident.

Abbas accused Israel of trying to destroy peace, not promote it.

"This is no doubt a terrible, despicable crime that Israel has committed against our people," he told Palestine TV. "We tell the Israelis, you are not seeking peace at all, but are destroying all chances for peace. You must therefore bear all the consequences of these crimes."

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said Israel "has no intention of harming innocent people," but "to our great regret, in the course of the fighting, regrettable things sometimes happen, such as the incident this morning."

(oh, if you are still reading, don't miss this...the reporter adds a significant piece of news at the end of the emotional story, er article...

The bloodshed in Beit Hanoun followed a weeklong Israeli takeover of the town in pursuit of militants who launch rockets at southern Israel. More than 50 Palestinians, most of them militants, were killed in that operation and in clashes after the Israeli troops withdrew early Tuesday.
"The Israeli operation throughout the Gaza Strip will continue as long as Qassam rockets land in Israel, as long as the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip continues and as long as the Hamas government chooses for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to continuously provoke Israel," spokewoman Miri Eisin said.

[American Patriot]

Coming on the tail of the scandal in America... electing the Democrats and turning the HOUSE over to them, makes this very significant indeed.

[American Patriot]

Nov. 8, 2006 11:20
Hamas calls on Muslims to attack American targets
By ASSOCIATED PRESS
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip Hamas' military wing on Wednesday called on Muslims around the world to attack American targets after a deadly Israeli tank strike in the Gaza Strip.
"America is offering political, financial and logistic cover for the Zionist occupation crimes, and it is responsible for the Beit Hanun massacre. Therefore, the people and the nation all over the globe are required to teach the American enemy tough lessons," Hamas said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.


The threat signaled a possible change in tactics by Hamas, which has historically focused its violence only against Israeli targets.

[falcon]

This meeting will not be in the best interests of Isreal. I hate to say it but Barker and Hamilton will likely push everything on to Isreal to change her way.


DEBKAfile Exclusive: The White House intimates to Israeli PM that his scheduled visit to Washington next Monday, Nov. 13, would be untimely
November 8, 2006, 11:38 PM (GMT+02:00)

The Democratic midterm election victory and the defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld coming replacement by Robert Gates will usher in radical Middle East policy changes that will apply also to Israel. For now, policy-making is in a state of flux, and as long as Bush has not got together with Democratic leaders to forge a bipartisan position, there is no point in the prime minister’s visit, it was indicated.


A senior US official told DEBKAfile sources Wednesday night: Olmert would be wise not to insist on the visit going ahead on time,” but rather take note of the president’s stress in his first speech after the election that he is waiting for the bipartisan Iraq commission headed by ex-secretary of state James Baker and former Democratic congressman Lee Hamilton to submit their report.


Bush means to base his work with the Democrats on these findings. Since the report is not just about Iraq but encompasses the full range of US policies for the Middle East and the Arab and Muslim world which will require time to air, the Olmert visit next week would be premature.


According to this official, the Baker-Hamilton panel is charting drastic changes in administration policy on Israel, whose speedy implementation is recommended as the key to extricating the US from its imbroglio in Iraq. Hinging the solution of Middle East problems as a whole on the Palestinian-Israeli issue has always been the Democratic way. It is favored in particular by Nancy Pelosi of California who, as her party’s candidate for next Speaker of the House of Representatives, will become one of Washington’s most influential politicians.


This was also Baker’s line under George Bush senior in the 1980s, when he dragged prime minister Yitzhak Shamir to the Madrid Peace Conference against his will.


The White House also has a bone to pick with Olmert over his remark in a television program this week when he said that two world-class leaders were working to arrange a meeting for him with Lebanese prime minister Fouad Siniora. US officials deny this and say this indiscretion placed in jeopardy the efforts to bolster the Lebanese government and even put Siniora in danger of his life.


Olmert has a perfectly valid pretext for postponing his Washington visit in the extremely high security tension following the Beit Hanoun episode



http://www.debka.com/

[samizdat]

Highest alert declared nationwide by Israel police – Daled = to war footing
November 10, 2006, 3:57 AM (GMT+02:00)
Police and security forces are tensed for threatened Palestinian terrorist attacks over the week-end, Israeli Arab street protests, Muslim riots on Temple Mount and demonstrations against the Gay Pride spectacle in Jerusalem .

geez- One thing that surprised me is that the msm did not bite into Israel for a misplaced shelling in gaza. I was frankly surprised that this was not headlined everywhere as horrible zionist massacre.

This leads me to believe more and more that convergence is the goal, and "the enemy" is content with a commie sweep at the polls- for now. This generates concern that a timetable is firmly established and small incidents such as French UN troops flirting with fire over IDF jets is non-news.

Rather depressing.

[samizdat]

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satelli...cle%2FShowFull

Visit the article to see a classic photo of Ohlmert- fed up to the neck.

Specifically, Olmert said that he was already willing to meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and would be willing to release many prisoners to him in exchange for the release of the kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit.

According to a government source, Olmert might be willing to give up 90 percent of the West Bank.

[Aplomb]

This is how I see it, and I hope I'm right: Olmert is not going to do that. Here's the quote:

According to a government source, Olmert might be willing to give up 90 percent of the West Bank. The source added that this scenario would only be implemented if the Palestinians completely halt terrorism.
This interview, along with speeches Olmert gave on Thursday in which he spoke of the unique and substantive offers he would make to the Palestinians if they relinquished terror and recognized Israel, have raised expectations for his Washington trip.

Palestinians will never recognize Israel, so there is no reason to believe that their terrorism is going to end; but having this trade and compromise in the press does serve to throw right back at the Palestinians that they are actually the ones who do not want peace even if it would gain them 90% of the land.

Regarding the prisoners exchange, it doesn't look like that is a real offer by Israel for any prisoners of major significance, thank God:

The release of imprisoned Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti is not an option, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told reporters


Specifically, Olmert said that he was already willing to meet with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and would be willing to release many prisoners to him in exchange for the release of the kidnapped Cpl. Gilad Shalit.
"Hamas's extreme inflexible attitude prevents the prisoners from being released because they refuse to let us have our soldier [Shalit]... Hamas is not really interested in the well-being of its prisoners. They want to topple Abu Mazen at any cost," he said.

[Sean Osborne]

What terrorism? I keep harping on the fact that words mean things.

I will say it yet again.

There is not now nor has there been "terrorism" in or against the State of Israel since the launching of the so-called Intifada nor even going as far back as the 1948 War of Independence.

It is NOT "terrorism" - it IS open warfare designed to eventually annihilate the State of Israel. This is the specific meaning of a explicitly identified "existential threat."

Along with this article and others like it, the reality the world will witness is that this mass of secular, non-observant Judaism will cast their national lot with the appeasers from the West and their false promises. Hundreds of thousands if not millions of Israeli's will die as a direct result of this "peace" process.

[Aplomb]

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/789739.html

IDF cancels air strike to avoid harming Palestinian human shields
The IDF canceled a planned air strike on the home of a militant in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday after several hundred Palestinians barricaded themselves inside the building, an IDF spokesman and witnesses said.

Palestinian sources said the protest against the planned IAF strike was first of its kind to have in effect prevented an air strike. An IDF spokesman said the strike had been called off so to avoid inflicting civilian casualties.

Hundreds of Palestinians formed a human shield around the home of the militant in Beit Lahia late Saturday to prevent an Israel Air Force air strike on the building, residents said.

"The attack plan was canceled because of the people there," the spokesman said. "We differentiate between innocent people and terrorists," he added.

The spokesman vowed Israel would continue its strikes against militants, and accused gunmen of using the civilians in the camp as human shields.

People flocked to the home of Mohammed al-Baroud after he received a warning from the army late Saturday giving him 30 minutes to leave the house. Barhoud is a commander in the Popular Resistance Committees in the town who is in charge of firing homemade rockets at Israel. Crowds of people stood on the rooftop and in the yard of the home.

Israel routinely orders occupants out of homes ahead of air strikes on suspected weapons-storage facilities, saying it wants to avoid casualties. The incident in Beit Lahia was the first time Palestinians have tried to prevent such an airstrike.

The crowd chanted anti-Israel and anti-American slogans, and people said they were prepared to give their lives to protect the home. "Yes to martyrdom. No to surrender," the crowd chanted.

"We came here to protect this fighter, to protect his house and to prove that we are capable of defeating this Zionist policy," said Nizar Rayan, a local Hamas leader who joined the protest,

Speaking of terminology, does one correctly identify as "civilians" those who state that the reason they are here is to protect a terrorist and the place of terrorist operations/home of the terrorist, and willingly, I might add?

[Aplomb]

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...331460,00.html

New in Gaza: Priest, nun human shields


Priest, nun from Michigan join dozens of Palestinians gathered at Gaza houses in effort to prevent bombing, say ‘If Israel claims family member involved in violence, arrest them, don’t’ destroy home populated by entire family’ Ali Waked

Published:

11.22.06, 16:17

For the past two months, the IDF has been called activists and their family members in Gaza to warn them of their intent on bombing their homes.


Palestinians have found away to prevent the bombings; dozens, even hundreds, gather at the homes of those wanted, thereby thwarting the destruction. In recent days, Father Peter and Sister Mary Ellen of Michigan have joined them.

At the end of last week, the IDF informed the Brudi family in Jabalya of their intent to bomb and demolish their home in protest of their son’s activities with the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC).


Since then, hundreds of neighbors and activists of all organizations congregated at the house in an effort to prevent the demolition. The same idea was adopted at the home of a prominent Hamas activist in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya.


Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh even held a press conference there.


These homes have become pilgrimage sites in recent days not only for locals. Foreign peace activists have started to show interests in the phenomenon, and two Americans, a priest and a nun from Michigan, arrived at Jabalya from Michigan to take part in the human shield mission at the Brudi family home.


Sister Mary Ellen told Ynet, “We are here to find out the truth and to be with the family and these people, who are trying to prevent the demolition of a home where an entire family lives.”

The Sister continued, “We are against any type of violence, whether from the Palestinian side or the Israeli side, by we are here to be with a family that may have their house bombed and demolished because of the claim that one or two members are involved in violence.”


She explained, “We are against any type of collective punishment and feel this punishment is wrong, a complete mistake. If the Israelis claim a family member is involved in violence, then they can arrest them, but not destroy a home populated by an entire family.”


She also explained that she was well aware of the Qassam rockets fired from the northern Gaza Strip towards Sderot, and said, “I adamantly oppose and condemn the firings like I condemn all violence.”

...so...would you consider standing over in Sderot??? Um, why not, did you say???

[Aplomb]

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/795290.html

At least 800,000 Hezbollah followers rally in Beirut

By News Agencies

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hundreds of thousands protesters from Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies descended on downtown Beirut on Friday in a peaceful but noisy protest to force the resignation of U.S.-backed Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, who was holed up in his office ringed by hundreds of police and combat troops. The protesters created a sea of Lebanese flags that blanketed downtown and spilled onto the surrounding streets. Many chanted slogans demanding Siniora quit amid the deafening sound of Hezbollah's revolutionary and nationalist songs, but no clashes were immediately reported. Lebanon's Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun told the rally in Beirut that Prime Minister Fouad Siniora and his cabinet had to resign. "I call on the prime minister and his ministers to quit," Aoun said to the cheers of protesters. "I wish that the prime minister and his ministers were among us today, not hiding behind barbed wire and army armored carriers. He who has his people behind him does not need barbed wire," Aoun told the crowd. The prime minister went about his schedule, in what appeared to be a tactic to ignore the throngs who quickly began filling the streets and squares before the demonstration was set to begin later Friday afternoon. As heavy traffic was reported on highways leading to downtown, pro-government factions continued to urge supporters for calm. Opposition groups led by the Shi'ite Muslim Hezbollah have mobilized their bases for the afternoon protest and were making arrangements to bus supporters from all corners of Lebanon to downtown Beirut for the massive show of popular support. Hezbollah deputy chief Sheikh Naim Kassem said the protests would not end until Siniora's government fell. "This government will not take Lebanon to the abyss," he told Hezbollah's al-Manar television. "We have several steps if this government did not respond, but I tell them you will not be able to rule Lebanon with an American administration." The guerrilla group hopes the mass demonstration, which police estimated at 800,000 but Hezbollah claimed was larger, will generate enough popular pressure to further paralyze Siniora's government, forcing it to step down. Heavily armed soldiers and police closed all roads leading to the sprawling government complex in downtown Beirut, feverishly unfurling barbed wire and placing barricades to prevent any protests from spilling over into the stone-walled, brick-roofed historic building during what some newspapers billed as the "great showdown" between the government and the opposition. Although there have been assurances by organizers of a peaceful demonstration, the stringent security measures came amid fears that the protests may turn into street clashes between the two sides or that Hezbollah supporters could try to storm Siniora's government headquarters. Launching a long-threatened campaign to force Lebanon's U.S.-backed government from office, Hezbollah and its pro-Syrian allies on Thursday called for the mass demonstrations Friday followed by a wave of open-ended protests. But a defiant Siniora vowed his government would not fall, warning in a nationally televised speech Thursday night that "Lebanon's independence is threatened and its democratic system is in danger." The call for protests threatens to turn a political power struggle between pro- and anti-Syrian factions into a violent showdown in sharply divided Lebanon. Ironically, Siniora asked Lebanese to show support by raising the Lebanese flag on their windows and balconies. Hezbollah's leader has called on protesters to also carry the same banner, the national red and white flag with the historic Cedar tree in its middle. But both camps seemed wide apart on what kind of Lebanon they want. Government supporters accuse Syria of being behind the Hezbollah campaign, trying to regain its lost influence in its smaller neighbor. Hezbollah and its allies, in turn, say the country has fallen under U.S. domination and that they have lost their rightful portion of power. Hezbollah had threatened to call mass demonstrations unless it and its allies obtain a veto-wielding share of the cabinet - a demand that Siniora and the anti-Syrian parties have rejected. The aim of the protests is to generate enough popular pressure to further paralyze the government, forcing it to step down. Hezbollah has proven in past rallies that it can draw hundreds of thousands of its Shi'ite supporters into the streets. The United States has made Lebanon a key front in its attempts to rein in Syria and its ally, regional powerhouse Iran. U.S. President George W. Bush warned earlier this week that the two countries were trying to destabilize Lebanon. Hezbollah's leader, Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, called for the protests to be peaceful. From the other camp, the head of the anti-Syrian bloc in parliament, Saad Hariri, said his supporters should not hold counter-demonstrations. "Tomorrow is a day when we will show our resolve," Hariri told The Associated Press on Thursday. Still, he vowed to be "strong with the government... We will not accept to be part of an axis of Syria and Iran." In announcing the protests, Nasrallah said that Siniora's government "has proven it is incompetent and has failed to fulfill its promises and achieve anything significant." Tensions are high in Lebanon after a string of assassinations of anti-Syrian figures over the past two years, including a prominent Christian government minister gunned down last week and Hariri's father, former prime minister Rafik Hairi, who was killed in a February 2005 bomb blast. The political fight has paralyzed the government, with anti-Syrians dominating the parliament and the Siniora Cabinet pitted against the pro-Syrian president and parliament speaker. The battle is a fallout from the summer war between Hezbollah and Israel that ravaged parts of Lebanon. The militant force's resistance against Israeli troops sent its support among Shi'ites skyrocketing, emboldening it to grab more political power. Hezbollah also feels Siniora did not do enough to support it during the fight. Pro-government groups, in turn, resent Hezbollah for sparking the fight by snatching two Israeli soldiers, dragging Lebanon into a conflict with the Israel Defense Forces.

[Sean Osborne]

My post of 9 days ago in another thread ("Possibilities Of War In The Middle East") within this forum:

"Iran, through its Lebanese military proxy Hezbollah, will attempt the seizure of Lebanon before Christmas this year."

Apparently Hezbollah was told by their Iranian islamofascist overlords to "git r done" now.

[samizdat]

Is·ra·el¹ (ĭz'rē-əl)
n.

1. Bible.
   1. Jacob.
   2. The descendants of Jacob.
2. Judaism. The Hebrew people, past, present, and future, regarded as the chosen people of God byvirtue of the covenant of Jacob.
3. Shema Israel- be upright with God: looks like it may happen in winter.

[Middle English, from Old English, from Latin, from Greek Israēl, from Hebrew yiśrā’ēl, God has striven, God has saved : yiśrā, he has striven, saved + ’ēl, God.]
Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal escalates threats, declares his Palestinian group has embraced strategic option of armed conflict against Israel
December 9, 2006, 10:42 PM (GMT+02:00)
Speaking from his Damascus base, Meshaal says the US and Israel must undertake a withdrawal to 1967 boundaries, and accept a Palestinian state with Jerusalem its capital and return of Palestinian refugees. In Tehran, Palestinian PM Ismail Haniya said Friday: Hamas will never recognize Israel or give up jihad. Iran is the Palestinians’ strategic support. The Islamic Republic’s had transferred $120 m to break the Western and Israeli boycott of his government, he reported.

[American Patriot]

HEADS UP!!!

(Israeli) Cabinet to reconsider truce
JTA ^ | 12/22/06

Israeli Cabinet ministers urged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to consider ending a truce that the Palestinians have failed to honor.


Israeli media reported that Olmert’s inner “Security Cabinet” would convene next week to consider the appeal, led by Defense Minister Amir Peretz.

Palestinian terrorists have launched as many as 50 rockets into Israel since the truce was forged two weeks ago. Peretz’s hometown is Sderot, the southern Israeli town hardest hit by the rocket fire.

[American Patriot]

Israeli think tank says only military strike will stop Iran: Report
International Herald Tribune ^ | 12/22/2006



JERUSALEM: Nothing short of a military strike will stop Iran from developing nuclear weapons, an Israeli newspaper quoted a respected Israeli think tank as concluding on Friday.


"There is no longer a possibility for effective sanctions to stop Iran," retired Brig.-Gen. Zvi Shtauber, of Tel Aviv University's Institute for National Security Studies, told The Jerusalem Post.


"Our conclusion is that without military action you won't be able to stop Iran," Shtauber said.


Shtauber and former Israel Air Force intelligence officer Yiftah Shapir compiled the institute's annual report on the military balance in the Middle East.


Shtauber would not comment on The Jerusalem Post article, and said he would not comment on the report until it is released Jan. 2. Shapir also declined to comment.


(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...

[American Patriot]

Interject my OPINION now...

Given that many seem to be pointing to the US Government as being LAX and not tending the needs of the world, and ignoring terrorism for what it is... I see Israel standing and, dusting off their hands and taking off their jacket.

Next... the gloves will come off.

[American Patriot]

One State Plan
http://www.onestateplan.com/background.html ^ | Michael L. Wise




Israel must resolve the status of the West Bank.


Previous proposals to resolve the status of the West Bank have failed. Terrorism and its leaders will flourish and attract followers if the State of Israel continues to pursue short-term solutions. Israel can no longer permit the West Bank Arab population to remain in an indeterminate ill-defined status. A clear, well-defined and permanent solution must be implemented. Efforts to destroy the terrorist infrastructures on the West Bank should continue, but they do not solve the underlying problems.


Destroying the terrorist infrastructure may create temporary lulls in the ongoing violence. But, new terrorists will appear as a consequence of the perceived plight, condition and state of limbo represented by the status quo in the West Bank. West Bank Arabs in the prevailing circumstances will continue to struggle against what they perceive to be an occupation force.


It is unrealistic to expect that West Bank Arabs will tolerate, coexist or condone a situation in which they are indefinitely treated as stateless persons. A people in a state of limbo, without passports, limited rights and subject to a strict police force will be receptive to demagogic, brutal and corrupt leadership. The PLO/PA, Hamas, and Islamic Jihad, whose primary purpose is Israel’s destruction, have captured the loyalties of the West Bank Arabs.


The status quo on the West Bank is bitterly opposed by serious minded persons across the Israel political spectrum, West Bank Arabs and the international community. Even Prime Minister Sharon acknowledged that there has been a state of “occupation” of the West Bank for 36 years and concludes that it is unacceptable.


(Excerpt) Read more at onestateplan.com ...