Sometimes the news are so self-explanatory that there is no need to add anything. So:
The tears
Mr Siniora called for help to seek "an immediate and unconditional ceasefire" and wiped away tears as pleaded for his country not to become an "arena for conflicts and confrontations whatever the justification".
The Prime Minister of Lebanon was meanwhile forced to withdraw a tearful claim made at a meeting of Arab League ministers that an Israeli air strike had just killed 40 civilians in the border village of Houla.
"One hour ago there was a horrible massacre in the village of Houla, a deliberate massacre, in which there were more than 40 martyrs," said Fouad Siniora at the emergency meeting of Egyptian, Syrian and Jordanian foreign ministers in Beirut.
The deception
Lebanon balked yesterday at a UN plan to call a halt to the fighting without an immediate Israeli withdrawal.
The vehemence of Lebanon’s rejection, reflecting Hezbollah’s hardline stance, took Western officials by surprise and threatened to derail proposals to end the conflict agreed by France and America.
The vermin
United Nations peacekeepers at a post near Houla reported that Hezbollah had fired rockets towards Israeli twice today, from positions near the UN base.
Cross-posted on Yourish.com
The following quote comes from a longer post by JudeoSphere which is worth reading in its entirety.
"No one is denying Israel the right to defend its borders. But rockets fired across the border don't threaten the existence of a state," writes Claudia Kuhner in the Swiss daily Zurcher Tages-Anzeiger, for example.
Is your flabber gasted? I know, it takes some time to get your head around that shining example of mental acrobatics. And you know what: I do not doubt that Ms Kuhner was driven by the best motives writing this. I am absolutely sure she is not anti-Israeli or, deity forbid, anti-Semitic.
And she truly regards a few (or a few thousands) of puny Katyushas as a minor bother that could be shrugged off as easily as a tepid cappucino she may get from an inattentive waiter in a Zurich cafe.
She is just plain stupid.
to JudeoSphere.
Many gullible bloggers and media outfits have been celebrating the victory over Al Reuters in the unfortunate case of Reuters photographer Adnan Hajj doctoring a picture of Beirut under attack.
The Reuters news agency admitted Sunday that it had published a doctored photograph of Beirut after an Israel Air Force strike on Saturday morning. In the original image, thin smoke can be seen rising over the Lebanese capital, but in the second photograph, thick, black smoke can be seen billowing over the buildings.
Being of generally friendly disposition, we, the Elders, do not want to piss on anyone's parade. But the truth must out, and we just have to make it clear that Adnan Hajj is in no way to be blamed for the whole hullabaloo. As our junior operative of good standing, he was merely following his orders. Which orders were clear and explicit: to replace the clearly seen image of our secret giant reptilian that we, the Elders, have unleashed on Beirut, by a cloud of non-threateningly looking smoke. Here is the original picture that Adnan had to doctor:
Under normal operational conditions, the reptilian is completely invisible. But due to some dietary problems that caused an unusually strong bout of flatulence, which, in turn, damaged the invisibility mechanism, the reptilian became visible briefly.
Our sincere apologies to Reuters, and we promise to take care of Adnan Hajj and his future.
to Jewlicios.
Following the lead of Putin's strange behavior and Mahmoud A.'s uninterrupted stand-up appearances all over the world, Hugo Chavez enters the scene as a competitor.
"Israel has gone mad," Chavez said. "They are massacring children, and no one knows how many are buried," he added, accusing Israel of being guilty of a "new Holocaust" and the "terrorist" U.S. government of complicity.
It is not that the text above is startingly original or that the character in question could surprise anyone by his eccentric behavior. The mere fact of Comical Hugo's sudden interest in Middle Eastern affairs is surprising. But then, the same article explains the background:
Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have pledged to support one another in disputes with Washington. Ahmadinejad has drawn international condemnation with calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.
Now it is much clearer. After all, tell me who your friends are...
Of course, it is difficult to impossible to top that Mahmoud's green glow, but one can try, can't one?
In any case, his act beats our foreign ministry mealy-mouthed diplomatic lingo hands down:
Israel's Foreign Ministry rebuffed Chavez's statements on Monday. "Unfortunately, he (Chavez) is not known for his objectivity when it comes to the Middle East conflict," said ministry spokesman Mark Regev. "He has embraced the regional leaders who have called for the destruction of the Jewish state and I think there is a serious question as to his judgment when it comes to Middle East issues."
His judgment? My hamster has more judgment in his sleep than Comical Hugo ever dreamed about. And I don't even have a hamster.
I am almost sure there is a link between having lots of oil and mental instability. These three examples prove that point to my satisfaction.
Cross-posted on Yourish.com
Update: somebody pointed out to me a nice picture:
I am sure the lady in the picture and her friends could open Hugo's eyes on what Holocaust means to them. And to his newly acquired friend Mahmoud A.
No, this is not this Peacemaker:
It is this famous peacemaker, according to CNN:
The caption under the picture is mind-boggling, to say the least:
Former President Jimmy Carter says that Bush has encouraged Israel and Hezbollah to attack.
And the follow-up in the article is also exciting enough:
Former President Carter, who helped broker the historic Camp David peace accord, said President Bush has pursued an "erroneous policy" that has fostered violence in the Middle East.
"It depends on whether world opinion is strong enough to get the administration to change its erroneous policy, which has been to encourage the continuation of attacks on both sides," Carter, a Democrat, told The Grand Rapids Press in an interview Friday.
Not being a great fan of the current Washington administration, I am still amazed at the picture of GWB calling Nasrallah and egging him on:
"Hey, Hassan, how about raising some hell on the border with them Zionists? Why dontcha kidnap a few soldiers, blow up a jeep or two? Then I shall call whatishisname in Jerusalem, and we'll have us some war. Are you game, man?"
I think that another visit of North Korea is quite overdue, Jimbo. Time to exchange some spit with the young Kim and explain to him how his peaceful little country contributes to the world stability. And do not forget to call on Mahmoud the Mad on the way home. His peaceful nuclear program is in dire need of additional encouragement.
Duh.
Cross-posted on Yourish.com
Don Radlauer of On The Contrary tends to disappear for rather longish periods of time, but when he appears, it is usually with an excellent post on the subject of his choosing. Here is another one.
I do not remember seeing analysis of the current hostilities of a quality close to this.
The task of fisking is sometimes a challenge. When your opponent's IQ is above that of a hedgehog, enabling the said opponent to create an artful mix of reality, half-truths and outright lies, it may be difficult to wade through the material at hand.
Strangely, the person in whose honor the occupation of fisking was named, is so deranged lately that fisking his own stuff has become a child's play. Since I do not have a child handy at the moment, I have decided to review Fisk's latest ravings as a recreational activity. Instead of having a cigarette, that is.
If the Israelis crossed the Lebanese border, the Palestinians jumped in their cars and drove to Beirut and went to the cinema. Now when the Israelis cross the Lebanese border, the Hezbollah jump in their cars in Beirut and race to the south to join battle with them.
There were no intelligence (or other) reports about Hezbollah members racing south. But there are plenty of reports about them changing into civilian clothes and hiding themselves and their rocket launchers and other assorted armory amidst general population. A useful trick that, in addition, enables subsequent reports about the bloody Israelis targeting innocents.
But the key thing now is that Arabs are not afraid any more. Their leaders are afraid, the Mubaraks of this world, the president of Egypt, King Abdullah II of Jordan. They're afraid. They shake and tremble in their golden mosques, because they were supported by us. But the people are no longer afraid.
Everyone is afraid. IDF sodiers, Hezbollah "activists", civilians on both sides of the border. Only a mad person does not experience fear. Contrary to the newly hatched myths about Hezbollah's valiant struggle, our soldiers know better. Most of the IDF casualties are caused not by the small arms fire, but by the astonishing quantities of anti-tank weaponry accumulated by Hezbollah. Hezbollah fighters do not like to look at the whites of our eyes any more than they did years ago.
Fisk will do much better trying to answer why had Hezbollah accumulated such an enormous stock of armory - is it to "liberate" the puny piece of land called Shaaba farms (that, according to all experts, was in Syrian jurisdiction)? But could he?
It's not the same enemy, and they're not running away anymore, and that is what is going to doom us in this crazed conflict, which we continue to provoke...
So it is Israeli side that "provoked" this crazed conflict? That beating administered by the Afghani farmers many years ago has, evidently, caused irreversible damage to that brain, never amounting to much in the first place.
Bolton keeps saying in the United Nations that Syria is behind Hezbollah. Bush said the same at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg when he was caught in his [expletive] comments by the microphone. And they're right, but for the wrong reasons, of course.
Hmm... They are right - but for the wrong reasons... Have I already mentioned that beating in... oh yes, I have. Anyway, there is no explanation of that mysterious statement in the following text. On the other hand, there is a curious outburst:
I mean, Bolton, most Arab leaders and diplomats realize that Bolton is a bit cracked. I mean, he needs medical, rather than political, help.
There was a psychiatrist that said something to the effect that when one person calls another an idiot it is not clear which one of the two really is an idiot. But have I already mentioned that beating in... oh, yeah.
And the whole piece is crowned by a statement of faith:
I am not going to let 19 Arab murderers change my world and nor should you in America. I am not going to let the 7th of July bombs on the [inaudible] in front of the Picadilly London train that blew up, I am not going to let that change my world...
Indeed - why would one care about changing that sad little world of a habitual word-twister and spinmeister gone off?
Feh...
Cross-posted on Yourish.com
As if Iranians have been open to an advice from me, they have decided to add some variety to the assortment of fellow travelers they are sending to Lebanon to become martyrs for the cause.
Iran has freed a son of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden from house arrest, a German newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Die Welt said the Iranian Revolutionary Guard released Saad bin Laden on July 28 with the aim of sending him to the Syria-Lebanon border. It linked the reported move to the outbreak of war between Israel and Lebanese-based Hizbollah.
"From the Lebanese border, he has the task of building Islamist terror cells and preparing them to fight together with Hizbollah," Die Welt said, quoting intelligence information.
What can one say? A turd does not fall far from the bird...
Cross-posted on Yourish.com
These days (quite shitty sometimes, one must confess) it is vitally important to have a good laugh as frequently as possible. And gnotalex here definitely made my day. Enjoy.
Trying to understand the disagreements between US and France on the forthcoming UNSC Lebanon resolution is not that simple. Besides that special diplomatic lingo that the sides (especially the politically astute French folks) are generating, there is a scarcity of details on the ongoing negotiations between France and US. I have chosen three sources: Guardian, AFP and Ynet in order to understand the outstanding issues.
According to a brief reference by AFP, the differences are so subtle it is only a question of wording:
UN chief Kofi Annan spoke by telephone with both US President George W. Bush and French President Jacques Chirac as the two governments remained at odds over how to phrase a first resolution on the conflict.
Is it so? The Guardian more or less agrees, reducing the whole business to a definition of the point where the future international peace force will get to the peacekeeping:
The split on the UN security council between France and the United States hinges on exactly what would happen in the immediate aftermath of a halt to the fighting. France wants the violence to stop before the details of any peacekeeping force are discussed, not least because such a force would probably be French-led, and Paris does not want its soldiers caught in crossfire between Israel and Hizbullah.
The US has little international support for its contrasting view, that a cessation of hostilities must be immediately followed by steps towards a multinational force, except Israel.
So, the issue here is the timing of the peacekeeping force getting onto the ground. Nothing more. Oh, and of course, since this is what US (and Israel) want, it must look bad, according to Guardian. But this is to be expected, coming where it comes from .
But even this problem seems to be in no way unsolvable. So what is it that keeps the UNSC from issuing that first resolution? Ynet is more forthcoming. It appears that, in addition to the issue of timing of the international force getting in, there are three major issues so far unresolved.
Issue 1
The United States also wants monitoring of Lebanon's border with Syria to make sure Hizbullah is not supplied with new arms, diplomats close to the talks said.
Must be clear to anyone (with the possible exception of France, it seems) that if the replacement rockets and other arms keep flowing down the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah food chain, there will never be any disarming of that murderous gang.
Issue 2
France's draft resolution calls for existing UN peacekeepers and Lebanon's army to monitor the truce, while the United States favors the Israeli army staying in southern Lebanon until the arrival of an international force, which France may lead.
In other words, France wants IDF to be out of south Lebanon even before the international force starts organizing, leaving the area in the hands of totally impotent (and unwilling to be anything but impotent) UNIFIL observers and non-existing Lebanon's army. Which effectively means getting Hezbollah back a few hours after IDF is out. Who is kidding whom?
In fact, it appears that the French stance on this issue echoes that of Hezbollah:
The militia's chief spokesman said on Thursday Hizbullah would not approve a cessation of hostilities until Israeli troops are out of Lebanon.
Strange, eh?
Issue 3
Also unclear is when and by whom Hizbullah would be disarmed.
Of course, vagueness is the most potent ammunition of a diplomat. However, without a clearly defined path to Hezbollah's disarmament it takes hardly a genius to understand that France is paving a way for a truce that will in effect be just a postponement of a new war, to exceed anything we have seen up till now.
One could wonder at the seemingly strange behavior of the French diplomats. There is not need, though, when AFP courteously provides a first clue to this behavior:
France, the former colonial power in Lebanon, commands the existing UN peacekeeping force deployed in the border area and is widely expected to lead a beefed up international force being advocated by Israel and its US ally.
Clearly, Frenchies do not give a flying donut about Israeli lives that will continue to be lost if they get their wishes. What they care about is to get the status-quo back. And to come out of the bloodshed smelling like a rose, with some additional brownie points from their Lebanese and other Arab friends.
The only thing they ignore is the transparent nature of their pathetic maneuvering.
And one more quote from AFP:
Israeli troops were engaged in deadly clashes with Hezbollah guerrillas as world powers bickered over the wording of a UN Security Council call for an end to a conflict now in its 25th day.
World powers? Plural? Time for that universal confusion sign.
Somebody should explain to Jacques the basic facts of life...
Cross-posted on Yourish.com
There is no doubt that the modern means of transportation and communications reduced the size of our globe into something easily manageable for a tourist. Our unquenchable thirst to know, while living in a point A, what it is exactly that they eat, drink and listen to at the point B, made the globe even smaller. Albeit much more polluted and dirty.
In the majority of the cases, though, we rarely learn anything from our intrepid traveling to all these foreign points. We prefer to eat at the same junk food eateries we frequent at home, get drunk on the same beer/wine/vodka we prefer to anything else and listen to the good old iPod that is faithfully stuck in the same pocket.
So, the only thing that is really different in our overseas jaunts is the variety of local hazards. Instead of being mugged in Central Park (NYC) or boinked on a head by a blunt object held by a footie hooligan in London or crashed into by an irate driver on an Israeli highway, you get eaten by a Bengali tiger or bitten by an African green mamba or just catch HIV after a romantic evening in Thailand. Whatever.
Not so with our Persian friends. Instead of sharing the fate of other garden variety tourists, they prefer hazards of a different type:
IRAN'S involvement in the Middle East crisis emerged last night after four of its soldiers were killed fighting Israel in Lebanon.
The elite Revolutionary Guards' bodies were ferried in secret from the frontline.
It was damning evidence Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is deeply involved in pulling the strings in Hezbollah's war with Israel.
And did I mention that most of tourists do not learn much from our travails? It is definitely not so with this special brand of tourists from Iran: they do learn. Lately they have decided to move from the, how to say it, reactive death in Lebanon as described above, to a proactive version:
Iranian news agency claims expeditionary force of suicide bombers sent from Tehran via Syria to Lebanon. Its goal: To wreak havoc near military, civilian targets, trigger civil war in Lebanon.
Is Tehran stepping up its involvement in the Israeli-Lebanese confrontation? Iran is set to send the first group of suicide bombers to Lebanon on Wednesday, the Iranian news agency ILNA reported.
The expeditionary force, dubbed by the Iranian regime as "Loyalists of Islamic Justice," will be the first ever to be sent to Lebanon. According to the report, the force is compiled of seekers of the Shahadah (death for the sake of heaven), who are set to depart from Tehran after the noontime prayer on Wednesday.
It is really laudable, how Iran is contributing to the well-being of their Shia Muslim brethren all over the world, solving the population explosion (no pun intended) problem at the same time.
Maybe, just to streamline the problem and save all that back and forth shipping expenses, these "Loyalists of Islamic Justice" could blow themselves up where they are? More efficient all around, I think.
As for me - put to a choice between an encounter with a pissed off Golani soldier and a green mamba, I would go for a green mamba, thank you all the same.
Why have I put a picture of a green mamba here? Don't rightly know - I guess I just like the critter.
Cross-posted on Yourish.com
Says Chris Link, author of this article.
The images, obtained exclusively by the Sunday Herald Sun, show Hezbollah using high-density residential areas as launch pads for rockets and heavy-calibre weapons.
Dressed in civilian clothing so they can quickly disappear, the militants carrying automatic assault rifles and ride in on trucks mounted with cannon.
The photographs, from the Christian area of Wadi Chahrour in the east of Beirut, were taken by a visiting journalist and smuggled out by a friend.
Indeed damning, but would it change a single person's opinion? Maybe.
This article provides an interesting answer to the question our friend Pat Buchanan asks:
Where are the Christians?
Now you know - if you really want to...
Pat Buchanan is, probably, the best known adversary of Israel in the Washington corridors of power. If his bio linked above is to be believed, the man is an odious mixture or saurian conservatism, racism, isolationism and a few other isms*, not the least of them ZOG-ism. He so strongly believes in Elders' control of everything that one wonders at his courage. After all, he rarely opens his big mouth without spewing some anti-Israeli drivel. Unless he is our paid agent**, this valiant approach leaves one wondering about his health.
Lately he publishes anti-Israeli articles non-stop. He seems to become an expert in Middle-Eastern affairs, although after a few reads the articles start to blur into a jumble of self-contradictory and bellicose utterings by somebody who is so used to descend to the general public with the tablets, that he could be hardly bothered to check his own texts for contradictions.
There is a lot of stuff in the four articles linked above (out of many more, no doubt) that shows the unmatched stupidity of the author. From the advice to use ground offensive (thanks, IDF probably knows better when to start it) and a diagnosis of the Vietnam syndrome here (we call it Lebanon syndrome, but thanks anyway) via the usual complaints about the almighty ZOG(true!) to stupid questions that seem self-evident to Pat:
But is it Hezbollah that is using U.S.-built F-16s, with precision-guided bombs and 155-mm artillery pieces to wreak death and devastation on Lebanon?
No, Pat - Hezbolla is using Syria and Iran produced rockets - some of 220 mm caliber and a lot of larger ones are in waiting. So?
But there is one passage that takes the proverbial cake:
Within 48 hours, it was apparent Israel was exploiting Hezbollah's attack to execute a preconceived military plan to destroy Lebanon -- i.e, the collective punishment of a people and nation for the crimes of a renegade militia they could not control.
Aha! We are caught with our pants down. The only country in the whole blue world that has a military plan dealing with potential hostilities against a neighbour that is in a state of war with this country! Wow! Good job, Pat, the CIA could use a talent like this.
And that burp re "renegade militia" - somebody please call Pat and tell him that Hezbollah is represented in the parliament and even in the government of Lebanon.
Regarding the inability of Lebanese government to control Hezbollah: my glands responsible for generation of spit are out of my control right now, so that wet 20mm caliber globule flying in Pat's direction is not followed by an apology. And all the following ones too...
But the passage in question does not stop there:
It was the moral equivalent of a municipal police going berserk, shooting, killing and ravaging an African-American community, because Black Panthers had ambushed and killed cops.
Of all the earthly images our valiant fighter against "disproportional response" has chosen the one involving African-American community, so close to his (dark, no question about it) heart! Would the wonders ever cease? Since when has Pat Buchanan become a champion of the African-American community problems? But to answer this mind-boggling parallel: if the above mentioned community will decide to become a collective warehouse of 12,000 rockets for the Black Panthers use, I think that even the ardent protector of this community like Pat B. may reconsider his stance...
Our Israeli friends appear to be playing us for fools.
The royal "we" in use by a citizen of American republic? There is one fool on my horizon at the moment to play with. Guess who it is, Pat.
(*) No, we would not blame Pat in anti-Semitism. SimplyJews rarely use this accusation, save in some clear-cut cases. Besides, if you look (again) at Pat's bio, he accused Hitler of anti-Semitism. Does one need other proof that Pat is absolutely not anti-Semitic?
(**) No, he isn't - failed the entrance IQ test.
Cross-posted on Yourish.com
The Qana disaster is a tragedy where right or wrong doesn't mean a lot. Innocent lives are taken, and a person cannot be but silent for some time before coming forth with his/her opinion of that human catastrophe.
But of course, some didn't wish to remain silent, or ponder the events or consequences. The outcry in the mass media was deafening, the shrill vitriol coming from the Israel-haters who hitherto were only armed with "disproportionate response" buzzword to resort to, suddenly got themselves a fresh and shiny tragedy to abuse to their little hearts' content.
Of course, the stammering and mumbling IAF briefing did not help. The pitiful excuses of the sort used by the IAF Chief of Staff, like the Hezbollah munitions that exploded in the building or the delayed collapse of the building (7 hours after the air strike), do not add credibility to the IDF in general and IAF in particular, nor do the idle speculations like those in the Bloggers raise questions about Kana article in JP.
The IAF must own up to the tragic reality, show empathy and humility: these children, women and elderly were killed by our bomb. Everyone, from the pilot that pressed the bomb release button to the IDF CoS, will have to live with the moral weight and personal part played in this tragedy.
It would be grossly unjust to assign sole guilt to the IDF. We cannot ignore the gross miscalculation these murderous bastards took in starting this war, as we cannot ignore the fact that they used Kafr Qana, indeed that building as a launch site for Katyushas with blatant disregard for those innocent lives. This is what a Lebanese source has to say about the real cause of the tragedy:
Knowing very well that Israel will not have the heart to bombard civil targets, militants of Hezbollah installed a rockets launching base on the roof of building in Qana and piled crippled children in the firm intention to provoke an attack by Israeli aviation and to create a new situation, using the massacre of these innocents against the negotiations initiative .
(Translation mostly by Google. For the full translation look here.)
For uncounted years our military is put in a lose-lose situation perfectly expressed by the following picture:
We protect our homes but do not use our homes for protection - unlike the adversary. And the inevitable result of hostilities, where our adversary is totally indifferent to the fate of the innocents and abuses their tragic deaths for political gains in a totally brazen way, results in more and more civilian deaths. Israel's adversaries seem to thrive in a death cult culture, where innocents can be assigned a fate of martyrdom without consent, just to provide more and more PR material for Hezbollah.
Fortunately, many people see through this bloody murderous PR ruse, employed by fanatics hiding behind this brand of Islam: Here is what a Russian journalist Dmitry Sidorov has to say about this:
More than fifty Lebanese that have died in Kafr Qana were sacrificed by Hezbulla to unite the Arab street, part of the Eropean community and, of course, the leaders of UN against Israel and to press Washington into withdrawing its support from Jerusalem.
Thank deity for sanity that will eventually prevail, I hope.
