ISRAEL - IRAN - SYRIA - HAMAS - HEZBOLLAH - WWWIII?

I believe the argument put forward by Pat Buchanan is largely accurate. He points out clearly the real excesses in Israeli policy, excesses that are exacerbated by a weak government lacking security credentials with the Israeli people.and perhaps too eager to establish them.

He is also accurate with respect to the effectiveness of AIPAC in the U.S. Congress. American Jews are understandably well-organized politically and active in countering what they perceive to be international indifference (and in some cases opposition) to the survival of the Jewish state, and by implication, Jews everywhere. Certainly the indifference of most Europeans (and the opposition of some) was amply demonstrated in the Holocaust.

The problem is that fixed ideas in a changing world will inevitably bring eventual harm both to those who hold them and those directly affected by them. The fixed idea in this case is the need and justification for an exclusively Jewish state. It was this fixed idea that led israel to a 30+ year occupation of the West Bank without granting any real political rights to the population living there. This folly amply matched the intransigence of the neighboring Arab states and the Palestinian resistence organizations in preventing the development of any resolution of the otherwise irreconcilable differences among the zealots on both sides of this issue.

The truth is that the world and Europe in particular have long since moved on from the indifference and hostility that characterized the Holocaust and were once the rationalization of the need for an exclusively Jewish state. As a result, the principle of a necessarily Jewish Israel is every bit as much an anachronism in the modern world as are the claims of Moslem zealots for Sharia law and exclusively Moslem states. Peace and tolerance will not come easily to the Middle east, but the process will not even begin until the people there, Moslem, Christian, Jewish and secular accept the necessity of living together with peace and justice for all.

For American Jews, the U.S. Government and Israel this means recognizing that this fixed idea has outlived its usefulness and that they must allow a transition to begin, or at least to step back from the fixed notion of a beseiged, utterly innocent Israel, beset by hordes of murderous barbarians. It is this idea that has rationalized the worst inequities that have occurred. The challenge for the Palestinians and the neighboring Moslem states is similar and analogous - Israel as a potentially tolerant state, embracing a diverse population with equal rights for all inhabitants is not an irreversable, intrinsic threat to the identity, economic development, and security of the surrounding population.

For our many European critics I suggest levels of criticism and moral outrage more befitting those whose past crimes and misdeeds created this awful situation, and whose fears of an aroused and neighboring Moslem world have bred rather high levels of hypocrisy and duplicity in behavior surrounding this issue.

Cheney Unleashes the Dogs of War
by Dean Andromidas

Vice President Dick Cheney has ignited a new Middle East war that threatens to spread from Israel and Lebanon, to Syria and Iran. As EIR recently exposed, (EIR June 30, "Cheney and Netanyahu Conspiring for War?"), this latest war was planned at a secret meeting between Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu, during a conference organized by the American Enterprise Institute in June at Beaver Creek, Colorado.

This war is not intended to make Israel safe from Hamas, Hezbollah terrorism, or Iran's alleged intentions to build nuclear weapons, but is rather a drive by the synarchist financial forces represented by the likes of George Shultz and Felix Rohatyn, who stand behind Cheney and Netanyahu. Their aim is to escalate a global clash of civilizations, to maintain their political and financial hegemony, as their own global financial system crumbles.

Israel is their chosen instrument to launch a war against Syria and Iran, now that U.S. military forces are bogged down in Cheney's insane Iraq war. Their war plan is well known to readers of EIR, and is the policy the Bush Administration has been implementing, with disastrous results, for the last three years. This is based on the notorious policy paper, "A Clean Break: New Strategy for Securing the Realm," which was presented to Netanyahu when he became Israeli Prime Minister in 1996. Its authors included the "Prince of Darkness" Richard Perle, former Defense Department official Douglas Feith, and neo-conservative fanatics such as David and Meyrav Wurmser. That document called for a "clean break from the slogan 'comprehensive peace' to a traditional balance of power." They called for Israel to "seize the initiative along its northern border," against Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran, including "striking at select targets in Syria proper" (emphasis in the original).

Hezbollah is a Lebanese umbrella organization of Islamic Shi'ite groups, and the Shi'ites are the largest religious bloc in Lebanon.

Israel's War Policy
Netanyahu came back from his meeting on the weekend of June 17-18 with Cheney at Beaver Creek, and announced that Israel must reject any form of negotiations with the Palestinians, and instead reassert its military "deterrence." This policy has been embraced by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, a former Likudnik who enjoys many of the same U.S. financial supporters as does Netanyahu. The June 25 capture of the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, served as a pretext to launch Netanyahu's policy of "rebuilding Israel's deterrence" against the Palestinians, by destroying Hamas. After rejecting political negotiations with the Hamas government of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah, as well as President Abu Mazen, the Gaza Strip was reoccupied, after chunks of its infrastructure were destroyed, leading to a humanitarian catastrophe.
http://www.larouchepub.com/other/2006/3329isr_palestine_war.html

And don't forget about that 9/11 plane/Pentagon hoax!

Brand, and dont forget ever Rebuilding America's Defenses. .

"Rebuilding America's Defenses" - A Summary
Blueprint of the PNAC Plan for U.S. Global Hegemony

Some people have compared it to Hitler's publication of Mein Kampf, which was ignored
until after the war was over.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article3249.htm

I'll be sure and wear my tin foil hat.

Fierce fighting as IDF commandos launch raid deep in Lebanon

By Amos Harel and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents, Haaretz Service and Agencies

Israel Defense Forces commandos landed by helicopter late Tuesday night near the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek in what Lebanese security sources described as a major operation against suspected Hezbollah positions. (Click here for map)

Lebanese security sources said the troops landed as aircraft launched several strikes near Baalbek, which is located in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley.

One Lebanese officer saying the Israel Air Force presence in the air above the ancient city was "unprecedented."

The IDF refused to comment on the reports.

Witnesses in Baalbek said they saw dozens of IAF helicopters hovering over the city. They said the private hospital in Baalbek, filled with patients and wounded people, was bombed by IAF helicopters late Tuesday. Plumes of burning smoke billowed from the hospital after it was directly hit, they said.

"The extreme, unprecedented number of aircraft indicates the possibility that the Israelis are planning to land troops, but we cannot yet confirm that," a security official said earlier on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

Flares held aloft by parachutes lighted the night sky to a daytime brilliance, the official said.

Other security officials, also speaking anonymously for the same reason, denied IDF troops were on the ground.

Hezbollah said that the IDF commandos were trapped inside the hospital and were engaged in fierce fighting with guerilla fighters who surrounded the facility.

"A group of Israeli commandos was brought to the hospital by a helicopter. They entered the hospital and are trapped inside as our fighters opened fire on them and fierce fighting is still raging," Hezbollah spokesman Hussein Rahal told AP.

There was no independent confirmation.

Rahal said IAF jets were attacking the surrounding guerillas with rockets.

"The units have been surrounded by Hezbollah fighters and heavy fire is covering the area," said a Hezbollah source.

"They [the Israelis] are firing everywhere and trying to get out of the area," the source said.

Rahal said Hezbollah guerrillas were using automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. He dismissed as "untrue" reports that the commandos managed to snatch some patients from the hospital and spirit them away in helicopters.

Four hours into the operation the fighting continued, witnesses said. IAF warplanes staged more than 10 bombing runs at 2.20 A.M. (2320 GMT) Wednesday around the hospital as well as on hills in east and north Baalbek. The planes also dropped flares over the city while the heavy fighting was raging around the hospital, they added.

IAF helicopters also opened machine-gun fire on Hezbollah fighters entrenched outside the hospital. witnesses said.

Shortly after the IAF raids began, electricity was cut off, plunging Baalbek and other neighboring villages in total darkness.

Repeated telephone calls to the Dar al-Hikma hospital went unanswered.

A Lebanese security source said the troops had attempted to land near Dar al-Himkeh hospital west of Baalbek.

"The battles are fierce... there are casualties among the civilians who live in the area," the security source said.

Al-Jazeera reported that the commando force landed at the hospital in the village of Tel Al-Abayed in an apparent effort to strike a senior Hezbollah official Israel suspected was hospitalized there. According to the report, the hospital was evacuated prior to the start of the IDF operation.

The operation began with at least five rapid air strikes three hours before the end of Israel's self-imposed two-day pause in air attacks.

IAF warplanes and helicopters started the operation on Baalbek and its surroundings at 10:20 P.M.

Baalbek is about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of the Litani River, which Israel had set as a northern boundary for an expanded ground operation that was announced in the early hours Tuesday.

An ancient city with spectacular Roman ruins, Baalbek was a former Syrian army headquarters and included the barracks of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards when they trained Hezbollah guerrillas there in the 1980s.

IAF helicopters also attacked a target 15 kilometers west of Baalbek, starting a huge fire, witnesses said. It was not immediately known if the target was controlled by Hezbollah or the Lebanese army.

The last time Israel forces were know to have penetrated so far into Lebanon was in 1994, when they abducted Lebanese guerrilla leader Mustafa Dirani, hoping to use him to get information about missing Israeli airman Ron Arad. Dirani was released in a prisoner exchange 10 years later.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/745276.html

GeorgeOB1 writes


Hey friend. I took mild exception to an earlier post of yours in which you addressed moral issues going back to those past crimes and misdeeds that have contributed to the current situation. While we of course should know and learn from our various histories, I don't think we can assign modern day morality based on those histories.

Very few modern day Arabs and very few modern day Jews were around or remember much of the events of 1948 and even fewer of those who do are in any position of power anywhere. I think we have to assign judgment and blame on the situation as it exists now, not as it once was. Not one of our respective countries is the same as it was 50 or 60 years ago. And though the image of Christians, Jews, Moslems, and other all living together in harmony is beautiful and worthy to be a universal goal, the reality is that is isn't going to happen in the face of fundamenal Islamic fanaticism so long as that part of Islam declares itself the sworn enemy of all who do not pray correctly to Allah.

Craven and I had a discussion recently on the concept of reasonable response (proportionality) of response to perceived and real threats to Israel's security and self determination. And I was persuaded that sometimes it is essential for Israel to pull its punches in favor of higher goals. Of course Israel's leadership is not 100% guilt free and noble in its treatment of others. What nation can say that it is?

But the reality is that if Israel is not allowed to maintain its own authority and control over its own tiny jurisdiction, Israel will very likely be methodically dismantled and made into another Arab state.

Israel appears to be trying to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of Arabs in its midst and has at least tried to make things better. One
illustration:



Israel agreed to land for peace by withdrawing from most of the Arab land it occupied for those 30 years.

So where are concessions from the Arab side? Where are the Arab olive branches and offers of peace? Where is the condemnation of Hezbollah and demands on it while Israel is being pressured to stand down and make peace?

We have to deal with the reality of now, not what is the perfect scenario. That pesky world opinion thing still seems to have Israel in the crosshairs of negative public opinion. And all things considered, I think that's just plain nuts.

One who intentionally kills an innocent is a murderer.

One who allows murderers sanctuary, abets murderers.

One who abets murderers is an accomplice of murderers.

One who is an accomplice of murderers is not an innocent.

The good news is that the hezbullies continue to get their asses kicked in, and that their ability to wage terror war appears to have been significantly degraded:

http://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://www.gamla.org.il/english/news

Israeli raid on Baal Bek ends as all IDF troops return to Israeli territory

GAMLA: News and Views from Israel

"Haaretz" just reported (in Hebrew) that all the operating forces in the daring night time raid on a hospital in Baal Bek, have returned to Israel with no casualties.

The reports say that they returned with several Hizbullah terrorists and killed several others.

After nearly three weeks of fighting, a total of 54 Israelis, including 18 civilians, are known to have been killed by Hezbollah.
About 750 people - mainly civilians - have been killed by Israeli action in Lebanon.

If Hezbollah was not hiding like cowards behind the women and children, I would bet no civilians would have been killed on the Lebanese side of the border. On the other hand, Hezbollah continues to try to deliberately kill Israeli civilians. They aren't very successful because a) Israel doesn't put its women and children in the line of fire and b) Israel cares enough about its people to provide them protection from terrorist rockets.

And then 3) according to reports several have posted the last several days, a lot of those Hezbollah 'civilians' killed are in fact the terrorists themselves--they don't wear uniforms. And we all know that Hezbollah isn't above creating a few casualties for the benefit of the news cameras too.

For the life of me, I cannot see how any thinking person would not think Hezbollah's behavior is beneath contempt.

Well, I agree, obviuosly the Lebanese government wasn't only weak but did nothing to built shelters against an Israelian attack.

GeorgeOb1, always thoughtful, and lucid, presents what appears to be a worthy goal, But, I am very much afraid that Foxfyre is more realistic in his argument.
I am certain that George Ob1 is aware of the fundamentalist insanity behind the idea that Islam is destined to rule, not only the Middle East, but the rest of the world, Bernard Lewis, famous scholar of Islam, has given us the story of the incredible thrust of the fundamentalists in Iran toward the total destruction of Israel.

Many of the shiite Imams, who are not under the leadership of a central religious authority like the Roman Catholics who look to the Pope for basic dogma, believe in the coming of the Twelfth Imam. The vision of an apocalyptic event( nuclear destruction of Israel) followed by the return of the Twelfth Imam and the re-establishment of the Caliphate is not a fantasy but an event earnestly touted by hundreds of Imams throughout the Middle East.

Such fanaticism can only be countered by a strong and well armed Israel. The Israelis are showing that a violation of their sovereignty will indeed result in very painful consequences for the fanatic murderers from Hezbollah. If a movement needs a central theme, fanatic Islamo-fascists can be depicted by the horrendous video of the death of the newsman, Mr. Pearl, by decapitation.

Such animals are like berserk rabid dogs who must be destroyed.
The Israelis are destroying them!

A recent poll, from Rasmussen Reports, shows Americans blame Hezbollah by a large margin--

Middle East: Hezbollah to Blame for Current Strife, 56% Say

Many Fear a Wider Regional Conflict to Come

July 20, 2006
A week into the renewed violence between Israel and Lebanon triggered by the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers, 56% of Americans say that Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah is to blame for the conflict. Just 18% place the blame on the government of Lebanon and 12% say Israel. Men and Republicans are more likely than women and Democrats to blame Hezbollah.

Our survey was conducted Monday and Tuesday, July 17 and 18. The question wording did not identify Hezbollah in any way. Respondents were simply asked about "the government of Israel, the government of Lebanon, or Hezbollah." (See question wording and crosstabs).

A plurality of 46% say protecting Israel's right to exist is more important than securing an immediate ceasefire. Again, men (55%) and Republicans (62%) are more likely than women (37%) and Democrats (36%) to say protecting Israel should be the priority.

Americans are paying steady attention to the story, with 81% following it either somewhat or very closely.

Except for statements of broad support of Israel, plus a few words of caution, the Bush Administration has been taking a hands-off approach so far, although Secretary of State Rice reportedly may travel to the region at some point to try to help resolve it.

In any case, most Americans suspect things may get worse before they get better. With Iran and Syria often being cited as enablers of Hezbollah, 82% are at least somewhat concerned that the conflict may soon include fighting between Israel and Iran, and other countries. Fifty-three percent (53%) are "very" concerned about the prospect.

Decades of Middle Eastern violence have left Americans divided as to whether peace is even possible in that region.

Forty-one percent (41%) say it is possible for Israelis and Palestinians to eventually live side by side in peace; 38% say No to that proposition. Many more Democrats (51%) than Republicans (32%) say such peaceful coexistence is possible. Almost twice as many Republicans as Democrats say No, it's

(The Guardian, 02.08.2006, page 40)

'You go a bit crazy when you see little body after little body coming up out of the ground'

Yes, I certainly agree with Mr. Walter Hinteler. Some of the Lebanese must be asking themselves why the Hezbollah puts its military facilities so close to women and children so that they are endangered.

Foxfyre has already given a complete report of the usage of women and children by Hezbollah as human shields, so I need not cover that ground again.

I do agree with Mr. Walter Hinteler that the deaths of innocents, especially children, is heart rending, however, I will wait for a full investigation and report before I render an opinion. There is no evidence at this time that Israel deliberately targets non-combatants. If and when that evidence is forthcoming, the world will, of course, excoriate Israel, but any judgment before a thorough investigation serves no purpose but to enhance Hezbollah propaganda.


I am always reminded of the vicious propaganda utilized in World War I when it was claimed( erroneously, of course) that German Soldiers threw Belgian babies into the air to catch them on their bayonets.

Propaganda has always been a part of wars. Thorough investigations, not off the cuff reporting, is needed before rational judgments can be made.

I don't think any inquiery with whatever result will bring those children back to life again.

Israel ready for massive invasion

Hizbullah, Israel fight 'house-to-house'

You are quite right, Mr. Walter Hinteler. No inquiry will bring those children back to life. Neither will any inquiry on what happened to the World Trade Center bring those 3,000 people back to life , but it is my position that inquiries must be made. Careful inquiries after the fact often show that spot judgments are many times loaded with emotion.
It may be that the Israelis intentionally targeted women and children although that has not been a practice for them. It may be that the Israelis actions killed those women and children UNINTENTIONALLY as a result of collateral damage. It may be that the women and children were killed because the Hezbollah inadvertently put their military equipment( rocket launchers) close to the dwellings. It may be that the Hezbollah placed their equipment close to women and children so that they could( in Foxfyre's felicitous phrase--Hide behind the women's skirts knowing that the Israelis would not hit targets where civilians were grouped intentionally and it might even be possible that the damage was caused by the Hezbollah intentionally for propaganda purposes.

As, I stated, a full investigation is necessary!!!