Australian Pests

Discussion with Aussie work mates last night moved to the subject of possums, and they being a pest in NZ. Can't remember why we were talking about that. Anyway, it got me thinking this AM, and here is the result:

Possums

The possum is high on cuteness, and equally high in nuisance value. The Australian brush tailed possum was introduced into New Zealand in 1837 to establish a fur trade.

In its native land the possum is up against dingoes, bush fires and less palatable vegetation, but in New Zealand conditions are so favourable it often breeds twice in one year. It is estimated that the New Zealand possum population now tops 70 million and chomps its way through seven million tonnes of vegetation per year.

 

 

From: Possums, http://www.doc.govt.nz/Conservation/002~Animal%2DPests/Possums/

 

The above link also describes eradication techniques.

 

I wonder if these work on other Australian pests? There are some links at the bottom about poisoning too. Very useful......

Other links useful to getting rid of Aussies, er, Possums:

Poisoning Possums
http://www.ew.govt.nz/enviroinfo/pests/animals/possums1/poisoning.htm

 

1080 Poison
http://www.ew.govt.nz/enviroinfo/pests/teneighty/index.htm

 

Possum Shooting, Repellents and Barriers
http://www.ew.govt.nz/enviroinfo/pests/animals/possums1/shooting.htm##Heading2

 

Trapping Possums
http://www.ew.govt.nz/enviroinfo/pests/animals/possums1/trapping.htm

• Using lures 
• Leg-hold traps
• Live capture traps
• Kill traps
• Disposing of trapped Aussies, er, possums

Other Aussies in NZ:

 

Magpies

 

-- Fun to shoot and hang from power lines along the route from Hastings to Palmerston North - the Hawkes Bay NPC team is called The Magpies.

 

 

  - May be they were just pissed? Pretty common in Melbourne on a Saturday night.

http://www.ew.govt.nz/enviroinfo/pests/animals/magpie/index.htm

• Why magpies are pests
• Identifying features
• How to recognise magpies
• Responsibility for control
• Control methods

Australian Sedge -- NZ Cows say it tastes like shit. Aussie cows know no different.

http://www.ew.govt.nz/enviroinfo/pests/plants/australiansedge.htm

 

 

 

Israelis use Phosphorus and cluster bombs on Lebanese Civilians.

Reported in the Guardian as part of a different column:

Israel has been accused of pursuing a scorched-earth policy in the region, using aerial weapons and phosphorus shells in a manner human rights organisations claim is in breach of international law.

As Lebanese medical staff reported that an Israeli air strike had killed a woman and her six children in a house in the southern village of Nmeiriya, western diplomats in Beirut admitted they were 'baffled' by Israel's targeting policy. Ambulances, refugee columns and civilian homes, infrastructure and UN posts have all been hit - and evidence has begun to emerge that civilians may have suffered phosphorus burns.

Footage has also emerged of the increasingly widespread use of cluster munitions in areas with civilian inhabitants. Concern has been further heightened by the delivery to Israel by the US of at least 100 GBU-28 'bunker-buster' bombs containing depleted uranium warheads for use against targets in Lebanon.

Human rights organisations are also examining whether Israel's 'order' for hundreds of thousands of Lebanese residents south of the Litani river to abandon their homes is a breach of international law and UN conventions.

A field researcher from the American based Human Rights Watch (HRW), Lucy Mair, sent pictures to military experts at the organisation's New York office of munitions being transported to Israel's northern border and fired into Lebanon from howitzers. She was shocked to discover they were cluster munitions.

Mair said researchers on the other side of the border documented an attack using the munitions on the village of Blida last week which killed one person and injured 12 and that the explosives - which disperse after impact - are 'inaccurate and unreliable', and should not be used in populated areas.

Mair, who heads HRW's Jerusalem office, said a disturbing picture was emerging of the use of weapons, fired from air and land, which pointed at best to a lack of due care regarding civilian life and at worst to the direct targeting of civilians.

'The overwhelming impression is that time and time and again civilians are attacked and only civilian infrastructure is targeted. In cases of civilian casualties our investigators have studied, they have not been able to find the presence of Hizbollah rockets or launchers - only civilian targets,' she said.

The group believes the use of cluster munitions in populated areas may violate the prohibition on indiscriminate attacks contained in international humanitarian law. Critics say the law of war requires a distinction between soldiers and civilians, so when an army is using an outdated, unreliable weapon in a populated area it is likely the attack will violate international law.

Regarding reports that Israel was intentionally trying to depopulate a large swathe of territory in the south, Mair said: 'It's hard for us to speak about this. But given there is such a massive displacement, it's difficult to imagine a situation where the population can move back.'

There have also been reports in Lebanon that Israel is using phosphorus munitions, with doctors reporting burn wounds to civilians. Israel has commented that it believes that it has used its weapons legally.

Guardian Unlimited: Israelis withdraw from Hizbollah border stronghold
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1833618,00.html

John Pilger - Empire: war and propaganda

The US role in supporting Israel’s military assault on Lebanon falls into a pattern of imperial tyranny, where history is rewritten to suit America’s needs while Europe stands cravenly by.

John Pilger provides a personal assessment from Washington.

The National Museum of American History is part of the celebrated Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC. Surrounded by mock Graeco-Roman edifices with their soaring Corinthian columns, rampant eagles and chiselled profundities, it is at the centre of Empire, though the word itself is engraved nowhere. This is understandable, as the likes of Hitler and Mussolini were proud imperialists, too: on a "great mission to rid the world of evil", as President Bush has also said.

One of the museum's exhibitions is called "The Price of Freedom: Americans at war". In the spirit of Santa's Magic Grotto, this travesty of revisionism helps us understand how silence and omission are so successfully deployed in free, media-saturated societies. The shuffling lines of ordinary people, many of them children, are dispensed the vainglorious message that America has always "built freedom and democracy" - notably at Hiroshima and Nagasaki where the atomic bombing saved "a million lives", and in Vietnam where America's crusaders were "determined to stop communist expansion", and in Iraq where the same true hearts "employed air strikes of unprecedented precision".

The words "invasion" and "controversial" make only fleeting appearances; there is no hint that the "great mission" has overseen, since 1945, the attempted overthrow of 50 governments, many of them democracies, along with the crushing of popular movements struggling against tyranny and the bombing of 30 countries, causing the loss of countless lives. In central America, in the 1980s, Ronald Reagan's arming and training of gangster-armies saw off 300,000 people; in Guatemala, this was described by the UN as genocide. No word of this is uttered in the Grotto. Indeed, thanks to such displays, Americans can venerate war, comforted by the crimes of others and knowing nothing about their own.

In Santa's Grotto, there is no place for Howard Zinn's honest People's History of the United States, or I F Stone's revelation of the truth of what the museum calls "the forgotten war" in Korea, or Mark Twain's definition of patriotism as the need to keep "multitudinous uniformed assassins on hand at heavy expense to grab slices of other people's countries". Moreover, at the Price of Freedom Shop, you can buy US Army Monopoly, and a "grateful nation blanket" for just $200. The exhibition's corporate sponsors include Sears, Roebuck, the mammoth retailer. The point is taken.

To understand the power of indoctrination in free societies is also to understand the subversive power of the truth it suppresses. During the Blair era in Britain, precocious revisionists of Empire have been embraced by the pro-war media. Inspired by America's Messianic claims of "victory" in the cold war, their pseudo-histories have sought not only to hose down the blood slick of slavery, plunder, famine and genocide that was British imperialism ("the Empire was an exemplary force for good": Andrew Roberts) but also to rehabilitate Gladstonian convictions of superiority and promote "the imposition of western values", as Niall Ferguson puts it.

Ferguson relishes "values", an unctuous concept that covers both the barbarism of the imperial past and today's ruthless, rigged "free" market. The new code for race and class is "culture". Thus, the enduring, piratical campaign by the rich and powerful against the poor and weak, especially those with natural resources, has become a "clash of civilisations". Since Francis Fukuyama wrote his drivel about "the end of history" (since recanted), the task of the revisionists and mainstream journalism has been to popularise the "new" imperialism, as in Ferguson's War of the World series for Channel 4 and his frequent soundbites on the BBC. In this way, the public is "softened up" for the rapacious invasion of countries on false pretences, including a not unlikely nuclear attack on Iran, and the ascent in Washington of an executive dictatorship, as called for by Vice-President Cheney. So imminent is the latter that a supine Congress will almost certainly reverse the Supreme Court's recent decision to outlaw the Guantanamo kangaroo courts. The judge who wrote the majority opinion - in a high court Bush himself stacked - sounded his alarm through this seminal quotation of James Madison: "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether her editary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."

The catastrophe in the Middle East is a product of such an imperial tyranny. It is clearly a US-ordained operation, with the long-planned assault on Gaza and the destruction of Leba non pretexts for a wider campaign with the goal of installing American puppets in Lebanon, Syria and eventually Iran. "The pay-off time has come," wrote the Israeli historian Ilan Pappe; "now the proxy should salvage the entangled Empire."

The attendant propaganda - the abuse of language and eternal hypocrisy - has reached its nadir in recent weeks. An Israeli soldier belonging to an invasion force was captured and held, legitimately, as a prisoner of war. Reported as a "kidnapping", this set off yet more slaughter of Palestinian civilians. The seizure of two Palestinian civilians two days before the capture of the soldier was of no interest. Neither was the incarceration of thousands of Palestinian hostages in Israeli prisons, and the torture of many of them, as documented by Amnesty. The kidnapped soldier story cancelled any serious inquiry into Israel's plans to reinvade Gaza, from which it had staged a phoney withdrawal. The fact and meaning of Hamas's self-imposed 16-month ceasefire were lost in inanities about "recognising Israel", along with Israel's state of terror in Gaza - the dropping of a 500lb bomb on a residential block, the firing of as many as 9,000 heavy artillery shells into one of the most densely populated places on earth and the nightly terrorising with sonic booms.

"I want nobody to sleep at night in Gaza," declared the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, as children went out of their minds. In their defence, the Palestinians fired a cluster of Qassam missiles and killed eight Israelis: enough to ensure Israel's victimhood on the BBC; even Jeremy Bowen struck a shameful "balance", referring to "two narratives". The historical equivalent is not far from that of the Nazi bombardment and starvation of the Jewish Warsaw Ghetto. Try to imagine that described as "two narratives".

Watching this unfold in Washington - I am staying in a hotel taken over by evangelical "Christians for Israel" apparently seeking rapture - I have heard only the crudest colonial refrain and no truth. Hezbollah, drone America's journalistic caricatures, is "armed and funded by Syria and Iran", and so they beckon an attack on those countries, while remaining silent about America's $3bn-a-day gift of planes and small arms and bombs to a state whose international lawlessness is a registered world record. There is never mention that, just as the rise of Hamas was a response to the atrocities and humiliations the Palestinians have suffered for half a century, so Hezbollah was formed only as a defence against Ariel Sharon's murderous invasion of Lebanon in 1982 which left 22,000 people dead. There is never mention that Israel intervenes at will, illegally and brutally, in the remaining 22 per cent of historic Palestine, having demolished 11,000 homes and walled off people from their farmlands, and families, and hospitals, and schools. There is never mention that the threat to Israel's existence is a canard, and the true enemy of its people is not the Arabs, but Zionism and an imperial America that guarantees the Jewish state as the antithesis of humane Judaism.

Government silence

The epic injustice done to the Palestinians is the heart of the matter. While European governments (with the honourable exception of the Swiss) have remained craven, it is only Hezbollah that has come to the Palestinians' aid. How truly shaming. There is no media "narrative" of the Palestinians' heroic stand during two uprisings, and with slingshots and stones most of the time. Israel's murders of Rachel Corrie and Tom Hurndall have left them utterly alone. Neither is the silence of governments all that is shocking. On a major BBC programme, Maureen Lipman, a Jew and promoter of selective good causes, is allowed to say, without serious challenge, that "human life is not cheap to the Israelis, and human life on the other side is quite cheap actually . . ."

Let Lipman see the children of Gaza laid out after an Israeli bombing run, their parents petrified with grief. Let her watch as a young Palestinian woman - and there have been many of them - screams in pain as she gives birth in the back seat of a car at night at an Israeli roadblock, having been wilfully refused right of passage to a hospital. Then let Lipman watch the child's father carry his newborn across freezing fields until it turns blue and dies.

I think Orwell got it right in this passage from Nineteen Eighty-Four, a tale of the ultimate empire:

"And in the general hardening of outlook that set in . . . practices which had been long abandoned - imprisonment without trial, the use of war prisoners as slaves, public executions, torture to extract confessions . . . and the deportation of whole populations - not only became common again, but were tolerated and even defended by people who considered themselves enlightened and progressive."

John Pilger's new book, "Freedom Next Time", is published by Bantam Press (£17.99)
New Statesman - Empire: war and propaganda

John Pilger, Monday 31st July 2006

Kidnapped in Israel or Captured in Lebanon?

As a follow up to my note in the previous post that the Israeli soldiers were "kidnapped" in Lebanon, not Israel as the Israeli's claim, here is an interesting article that analyzes the question properly:

Official justification for Israel's invasion on thin ice
Article By Joshua Frank - Jul 26 2006

As Lebanon continues to be pounded by Israeli bombs and munitions, the justification for Israel’s invasion is treading on very thin ice. It has become general knowledge that it was Hezbollah guerillas that first kidnapped two IDF soldiers inside Israel on July 12, prompting an immediate and violent response from the Israeli government, which insists it is acting in the interest of national defense.

Israeli forces have gone on to kill over 370 innocent Lebanese civilians (compared to 34 killed on Israel’s side) while displacing hundreds of thousands more. But numerous reports from international and independent media, as well as the Associated Press, raise questions about Israel’s official version of the events that sparked the conflict two weeks ago.

The original story, as most media tell it, goes something like this: Hezbollah attacked an Israeli border patrol station, killing six and taking two soldiers hostage. The incident happened on the Lebanese/Israel border in Israeli territory. The alternate version, as explained by several news outlets, tells a bit of a different tale: These sources contend that Israel sent a commando force into southern Lebanon and was subsequently attacked by Hezbollah near the village of Aitaa al-Chaab, well inside Lebanon’s southern territory. It was at this point that an Israel tank was struck by Hezbollah fighters, which resulted in the capture of two Israeli soldiers and the death of six.

As the AFP reported, “According to the Lebanese police force, the two Israeli soldiers were captured in Lebanese territory, in the area of Aitaa al-Chaab, near to the border with Israel, where an Israeli unit had penetrated in middle of morning.” And the French news site VoltaireNet.org reiterated the same account on June 18, “In a deliberated way, Israel sent a commando in the Lebanese back-country to Aitaa al-Chaab. It was attacked by Hezbollah, taking two prisoners.”

The Associated Press departed from the official version as well. “The militant group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes Wednesday across the border in southern Lebanon, prompting a swift reaction from Israel, which sent ground forces into its neighbor to look for them,” reported Joseph Panossian for AP on July 12. “The forces were trying to keep the soldiers’ captors from moving them deeper into Lebanon, Israeli government officials said on condition of anonymity.”

And the Hindustan Times on July 12 conveyed a similar account:

“The Lebanese Shi’ite Hezbollah movement announced on Wednesday that its guerrillas have captured two Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon. ‘Implementing our promise to free Arab prisoners in Israeli jails, our strugglers have captured two Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon,’ a statement by Hezbollah said. ‘The two soldiers have already been moved to a safe place,’ it added. The Lebanese police said that the two soldiers were captured as they ‘infiltrated’ into the town of Aitaa al-Chaab inside the Lebanese border.”

Whether factual or not, these alternative accounts should at the very least raise serious questions as to Israel’s motives and rationale for bombarding Lebanon.

MSNBC online first reported that Hezbollah had captured Israeli soldiers “inside” Lebanon, only to change their story hours later after the Israeli government gave an official statement to the contrary.

A report from The National Council of Arab Americans, based in Lebanon, also raised suspicion that Israel’s official story did not hold water and noted that Israel had yet to recover the tank that was demolished during the initial attack in question.

“The Israelis so far have not been able to enter Aitaa al-Chaab to recover the tank that was exploded by Hezbollah and the bodies of the soldiers that were killed in the original operation (this is a main indication that the operation did take place on Lebanese soil, not that in my opinion it would ever be an illegitimate operation, but still the media has been saying that it was inside ‘Israel’ thus an aggression first started by Hezbollah).”

Before independent observers could organize an investigation of the incident, Israel had already mounted a grisly offensive against Lebanese infrastructure and civilians, bombing Beirut’s international airport, along with numerous highways and communication portals. Israel didn’t need the truth of the matter to play out before it invaded Lebanon. As with the United States’ illegitimate invasion of Iraq, Israel just needed the proper media cover to wage a war with no genuine moral impetus.

GNN contributor Joshua Frank is the author of Left Out!: How Liberals Helped Reelect George W. Bush, just published by Common Courage Press. You can order a copy at a discounted through Josh’s blog at www.brickburner.org.

Independent News Portal COAnews: coanews.org : Kidnapped in Israel or Captured in Lebanon?

Myths of the Israeli attack on Lebanon

Crossing red lines, The Guardian, 24 July 2006:

Israel and Hizbollah have identical objectives: both are targeting economic and military assets with careless disregard for civilians.

Jonathan Cook, The Guardian

July 24, 2006

Two myths are taking root as the carnage mounts in Israel and Lebanon. The first is that, while Israel is doing its best to target "terrorists" and fight a clean war, Hizbullah is interested only in killing Israeli civilians with its rockets and in endangering Lebanese innocents by hiding among them. The second myth claims that Israel's current bombardment was triggered not simply by Hizbullah's attack on an army post on July 12, in which three soldiers were killed and two captured, but by an unprovoked barrage of rockets from the Shiite militia on Israeli towns.

Both ideas are shaping the British government's understanding of current events, including that of Foreign Office minister Kim Howells as he tours the region. However, there is little evidence that Hizbullah is acting any worse, or better, than Israel in the confrontation between them.

Regarding the first proposition, the casualty figures alone should be grounds for refuting claims by Israel that it is taking the moral high ground. The bombardment of Lebanon has been paid for mostly in the blood of Lebanese civilians, not Hizbullah fighters. If Mr Howells' suggestion yesterday is right that Hizbullah is hiding among the Lebanese population, why then are civilians the ones being found amid the rubble left by Israeli air strikes?

Examining the same statistics, one might infer, conversely, that Hizbullah, not Israel, is trying to keep the war on a military footing. For every Israeli civilian killed in a rocket strike, an Israeli soldier is paying with his life on the battlefield. But in truth, the two sides have almost identical objectives. Both are seeking to weaken the other side by targeting its economic and military assets, with careless disregard for the toll on civilians. Israel is doing a better job on all counts because it has far superior firepower.

The fact that Hizbullah's rockets are not precision-guided should not lead us to conclude that they are entirely inaccurate or random. It is clear from the main targets Hizbullah is selecting that its priority is to hit sensitive sites: Haifa, the economic hub of the north, its satellite towns, as well as military installations that are dotted across the Galilee.

In a limited sense, that strategy has been successful: many Israelis have fled Haifa, forcing the closure of its port and commercial and financial centres for more than a week, as well as other northern cities like Karmiel, Safed and Nahariya. That is a significant dent to the Israeli economy, though not on the scale of the damage inflicted on Lebanon.

Even the most problematic Hizbullah strike, one that killed two Muslim children in the Israeli Arab city of Nazareth last week, is not quite as it appears. Although it was of little consolation to the residents here, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah used a rare televised appearance immediately afterwards to apologise for the deaths.

Not only did his words of regret confound those commentators, including the Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert, who have claimed that the Shiite militia wants to kill Christians in the Holy Land - Nasrallah, unlike many in our media, knows the city is mainly Muslim - but the apology also confirmed that the strike was intended for a target other than Nazareth.

Local inhabitants did not doubt that. They understand too that Israeli media reports that Hizbullah has repeatedly hit areas near Nazareth's neighbour, the mixed Jewish and Arab city of Upper Nazareth, are glossing over the facts. Close by both Nazareths is a major weapons factory that Hizbullah has clearly identified and is trying to strike. Many of the other sites Hizbullah has been targeting on a regular basis are military. Its chances of damaging these fortified positions are low, but it is striking at them nonetheless. It may be hoping to send a deterrent signal that, if it knows where Israel's military Achilles' heels are to be found, so do its patrons, Syria and Iran.

No doubt in the balance of terror it aspires to with Israel, Hizbullah is happy to trumpet the death toll it is inflicting on its southern neighbour. But there is no reason to assume Nasrallah's tactics are any more ignoble than Israel's. In another irony, Israel has located many of its military installations in the north close to population centres, including Arab towns and villages. Mr Howells, it should be noted, is not suggesting that the Israeli army is "hiding" its arsenals among Israeli civilians.

As for the second claim, there appears to be a growing confusion about the chronology of this war. Observers forget that Hizbullah did not begin by firing on the distant targets of Haifa, Tiberias and Afula. It was Israel that started the pounding of civilian areas in Lebanon. Israel's severe response was launched on the same day, July 12, that Hizbullah killed three soldiers and captured two more (Über Kiwi adds: in Lebanese territory), and arranged a brief rocket attack on border areas that the Israeli army characterised at the time as a "diversionary tactic". (A further five soldiers died shortly afterwards in fighting when they entered Lebanese territory in pursuit of Hizbullah.

The reorganised timetable of war is preventing proper scrutiny of Israel's later justifications. It seems Israeli officials quickly calculated that the deaths of so many Lebanese civilians, nearly 400 so far, would be difficult to defend as a "proportionate" response to the capture of its two soldiers - whose release Hizbullah says it will agree to in return for some of the thousands of Lebanese and Palestinian detainees in Israeli jails. As the Israeli historian Tom Segev observed of Lebanon's devastation at the weekend: "The kidnapping of two soldiers does not justify it."

On the other hand, Israel's claims of indiscriminate and unprovoked rocket fire by Hizbullah on civilians provide a far more convincing pretext for the launch of military operations. But, if we cast our minds back, it was Israel that began the bombardment of civilian areas with its savage attacks on south Lebanon and on Beirut in the immediate wake of the soldiers' capture. Hizbullah responded with limited fire on border communities like Kiryat Shemona, Safed and Nahariya, all of which have faced Hizbullah attacks before and are well protected.

Only as Israel extended and intensified its attacks on Lebanon, and in particular began targeting Beirut's main airport, roads, bridges and power stations, did Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah order his guns turned on Haifa. In what looked more like a warning than an escalation, Hizbullah launched a small volley of rockets at Haifa late on July 13 that caused no injuries. When Israel continued its onslaught, Nasrallah waited three days before upping the ante by aiming his fire at the city again, with one rocket killing eight workers in a railway depot.

No one should have been surprised. Nasrallah was doing exactly what he had threatened to do if Israel refused to negotiate and chose the path of war instead. Although the international media quoted his ominous televised warning that "Haifa is just the beginning", Nasrallah in fact made his threat conditional on Israel's continuing strikes against Lebanon.

It is worth citing another line from the same speech: "As long as the enemy pursues its aggression without limits and red lines, we will pursue the confrontation without limits and red lines." Nasrallah will doubtless see Israel's limited ground invasions as the crossing of a further red line. What red lines Hizbullah will cross in response are not yet clear.

William Blum on the eternal Israel-Palestine conflict

The following is an excerpt from William Blum’s latest Anti-Empire Report

Some things you need to know before the world ends
July 22, 2006
by William Blum

The End Is Near, but first, this commercial.

There are times when I think that this tired old world has gone on a few years too long. What's happening in the Middle East is so depressing. Most discussions of the eternal Israel-Palestine conflict are variations on the child's eternal defense for misbehavior -- "He started it!" Within a few minutes of discussing/arguing the latest manifestation of the conflict the participants are back to 1967, then 1948, then biblical times. I don't wish to get entangled in who started the current mess. I would like instead to first express what I see as two essential underlying facts of life which remain from one conflict to the next:

1.
Israel's existence is not at stake and hasn't been so for decades, if it ever was, regardless of the many de rigueur militant statements by Arab leaders over the years. If Israel would learn to deal with its neighbors in a non-expansionist, non-military, humane, and respectful manner, engage in full prisoner exchanges, and sincerely strive for a viable two-state solution, even those who are opposed to the idea of a state based on a particular religion could accept the state of Israel, and the question of its right to exist would scarcely arise in people's minds. But as it is, Israel still uses the issue as a justification for its behavior, as Jews all over the world use the Holocaust and conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism.

2. In a conflict between a thousand-pound gorilla and a mouse, it's the gorilla which has to make concessions in order for the two sides to progress to the next level. What can the Palestinians offer in the way of concession? Israel would reply to that question: "No violent attacks of any kind." But that would still leave the status quo ante bellum -- a life of unmitigated misery for the Palestinian people forced upon them by Israel. Peace without justice.

Israel's declarations about the absolute unacceptability of one of their soldiers being held captive by the Palestinians, or two soldiers being held by Hezbollah in Lebanon, cannot be taken too seriously when Israel is holding literally thousands of captured Palestinians, many for years, typically without any due process, many tortured; as well as holding a number of prominent Hezbollah members. A few years ago, if not still now, Israel wrote numbers on some of the Palestinian prisoners' arms and foreheads, using blue markers, a practice that is of course reminiscent of the Nazis' treatment of Jews in World War II. [1]

Israel's real aim, and that of Washington, is the overthrow of the Hamas government in Palestine, the government that came to power in January through a clearly democratic process, the democracy that the Western "democracies" never tire of celebrating, except when the result doesn't please them. Is there a stronger word than "hypocrisy"? There is now "no Hamas government," declared a senior US official a week ago, "eight cabinet ministers or 30 percent of the government is in jail [kidnapped by Israel], another 30 percent is in hiding, and the other 30 percent is doing very little."[2] To make the government-disappearance act even more Orwellian, we have Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking in late June about Iraq: "This is the only legitimately elected government in the Middle East with a possible exception of Lebanon."[3] What's next, gathering in front of the Big Telescreeen for the Two Minutes Hate?

In addition to doing away with the Hamas government, the current military blitzkrieg by Israel, with full US support, may well be designed to create "incidents" to justify attacks on Iran and Syria, the next steps of Washington's work in process, a controlling stranglehold on the Middle East and its oil.

It is a wanton act of collective punishment that is depriving the Palestinians of food, electricity, water, money, access to the outside world ... and sleep. Israel has been sending jets flying over Gaza at night triggering sonic booms, traumatizing children. "I want nobody to sleep at night in Gaza," declared Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert[4]; words suitable for Israel's tombstone.

These crimes against humanity -- and I haven't mentioned the terrible special weapons reportedly used by Israel -- are what the people of Palestine get for voting for the wrong party. It is ironic, given the Israeli attacks against civilians in both Gaza and Lebanon, that Hamas and Hezbollah are routinely dismissed in the West as terrorist organizations. The generally accepted definition of terrorism, used by the FBI and the United Nations amongst others, is: The use of violence against a civilian population in order to intimidate or coerce a government in furtherance of a political objective.

Since 9-11 it has been a calculated US-Israeli tactic to label the fight against Israel's foes as an integral part of the war on terror. On July 19, a rally was held in Washington, featuring the governor of Maryland, several members of Israeli-occupied Congress, the Israeli ambassador, and evangelical leading-light John Hagee. The Washington Post reported that "Speaker after prominent speaker characteriz[ed] current Israeli fighting as a small branch of the larger U.S.-led global war against Islamic terrorism" and "Israel's attacks against the Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah were blows against those who have killed civilians from Bali to Bombay to Moscow." Said the Israeli ambassador: "This is not just about [Israel]. It's about where our world is going to be and the fate and security of our world. Israel is on the forefront. We will amputate these little arms of Iran," referring to Hezbollah.[5]

And if the war on terror isn't enough to put Israel on the side of the angels, John Hagee has argued that "the United States must join Israel in a pre-emptive military strike against Iran to fulfill God's plan for both Israel and the West". He speaks of "a biblically prophesied end-time confrontation with Iran, which will lead to the Rapture, Tribulation, and Second Coming of Christ."[6]

The beatification of Israel approaches being a movement. Here is David Horowitz, the eminent semi-hysterical ex-Marxist: "Israel is part of a global war, the war of radical Islam against civilization. Right now Israel is doing the work of the rest of the civilized world by taking on the terrorists. It is not only for Israel's sake that we must get the facts out -- it is for ourselves, America, for every free country in the world, and for civilization itself."[7]

As for the two Israeli soldiers captured and held in Lebanon for prisoner exchange, we must keep a little history in mind. In the late 1990s, before Israel was evicted from southern Lebanon by Hezbollah, it was a common practice for Israel to abduct entirely innocent Lebanese. As a 1998 Amnesty International paper declared: "By Israel's own admission, Lebanese detainees are being held as 'bargaining chips'; they are not detained for their own actions but in exchange for Israeli soldiers missing in action or killed in Lebanon. Most have now spent 10 years in secret and isolated detention."[8]

Israel has created its worst enemies -- they helped create Hamas as a counterweight to Fatah in Palestine, and their occupation of Lebanon created Hezbollah. The current terrible bombings can be expected to keep the process going. Since its very beginning, Israel has been almost continually occupied in fighting wars and taking other people's lands. Did not any better way ever occur to the idealistic Zionist pioneers?

But while you and I get depressed by the horror and suffering, the neo-conservatives revel in it. They devour the flesh and drink the blood of the people of Afghanistan, of Iraq, of Palestine, of Lebanon, yet remain ravenous, and now call for Iran and Syria to be placed upon the feasting table. More than one of them has used the expression oderint dum metuant, a favorite phrase of Roman emperor Caligula, also used by Cicero -- "let them hate so long as they fear". Here is William Kristol, editor of the bible of neo-cons, "Weekly Standard", on Fox News Sunday, July 16:

"Look, our coddling of Iran ... over the last six to nine months has emboldened them. I mean, is Iran behaving like a timid regime that's very worried about the U.S.? Or is Iran behaving recklessly and in a foolhardy way? ... Israel is fighting four of our five enemies in the Middle East, in a sense. Iran, Syria, sponsors of terror; Hezbollah and Hamas. ... This is an opportunity to begin to reverse the unfortunate direction of the last six to nine months and get the terrorists and the jihadists back on the defensive."

Host Juan Williams replied:

"Well, it just seems to me that you want ... you just want war, war, war, and you want us in more war. You wanted us in Iraq. Now you want us in Iran. Now you want us to get into the Middle East ... you're saying, why doesn't the United States take this hard, unforgiving line? Well, the hard and unforgiving line has been [tried], we don't talk to anybody. We don't talk to Hamas. We don't talk to Hezbollah. We're not going to talk to Iran. Where has it gotten us, Bill?"

Kristol, looking somewhat taken aback, simply threw up his hands.

The Fox News audience does (very) occasionally get a hint of another way of looking at the world.

NOTES
[1] Washington Post, March 13, 2002, p.1

[2] Washington Post, July 16, 2006. p.15

[3] Washington Post, July 3, 2006, p.19

[4] Associated Press, July 3, 2006

[5] Washington Post, July 20, 2006, p.B3

[6] Sarah Posner, The American Prospect, June 2006

[7] FrontPageMag.com, Horowitz's site

[8] Amnesty International news release, 26 June 1998, AI INDEX: MDE 15/54/98

William Blum is the author of:
Killing Hope: US Military and CIA Interventions Since World War 2
Rogue State: A Guide to the World's Only Superpower
West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Memoir
Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire
www.killinghope.org

Family just 'waited for death'

Family just 'waited for death'
D.D. McNicoll
24jul06

DESPERATELY attempting to flee the bombing in southern Lebanon, Maged Ibrahim and his family knew death could come from the sky at any moment.

"We were waiting for death," the unshaven and bleary-eyed schoolteacher said yesterday as the dual Lebanese-Australian citizen was reunited with three of his children in Sydney. "We were trying to find shelter -- but there was nowhere to go."

Exhausted but still unable to sleep, Mr Ibrahim, who has lived in Lebanon for the past 14 years, said he was forced to drive to Beirut from the village of Aitaroun, which has been smashed by recent Israeli bombing.

But he praised the Australian government officials who helped him, his wife and three of his daughters escape from their destroyed home.

"Thank you to the Australian Government, thank you for everything," Mr Ibrahim said.

"We had only our passports and the clothes we were wearing -- no luggage, no money, nothing."

On the second day that Israeli jets bombed southern Lebanon, with his home razed, Mr Ibrahim loaded his wife Souad, 45, and daughters Rima, 22, Fatme, 14, and Jinan, 12, into a car and started driving towards Beirut.

"It was a nightmare journey," said Rima, who was studying English literature at university in Lebanon. "We were crossing a bridge when it was bombed. The car behind us, carrying a family of 14, was blown to bits. They were all killed.

"I don't know what day it was. All the days were the same, we haven't slept since the bombing started."

Excerpt from:

Family just 'waited for death':The Australian

Blasted by a missile on the road to safety

Blasted by a missile on the road to safety

Family ordered to flee were targeted because they were driving minivan

Suzanne Goldenberg in Kafra, Lebanon
Monday July 24, 2006

Guardian

Red Cross workers arrive at the scene of an Israeli air attack which killed three members of one family, including a grandmother, and injured 16 others. Photograph: Sean Smith/Guardian

The ambulanceman gave Ali the job of keeping his mother alive. The 12-year-old did what he could. "Mama, mama, don't go to sleep," he sobbed, gently patting her face beneath her chin. Behind her black veil, her eyelids were slowly sinking. "I'm going to die," she sighed. "Don't say that, mama," Ali begged, and then slid to the ground in tears.

On the pavement around mother and son were the other members of the Sha'ita family, their faces spattered with each other's blood. All were in varying shades of shock and injury. A tourniquet was tied on Ali's mother's arm. A few metres away, his aunt lay motionless, the white T-shirt beneath her abaya stained red. Two sisters hugged each other and wept, oblivious to the medics tending their wounds. "Let them take me, let them take me," one screamed.

Their mother was placed on a stretcher, and lifted into the ambulance. "God is with you, mama," Ali said. She reached up with her good arm to caress his face.

The Sha'itas had thought they were on the road to safety when they set out yesterday, leaving behind a village which because of an accident of geography - it is five miles from the Israeli border - had seemed to make their home a killing ground. They had been ordered to evacuate by the Israelis.

But they were a little too slow and became separated from the other vehicles fleeing the Israeli air offensive in south Lebanon. Minutes before the Guardian's car arrived, trailing a Red Cross ambulance on its way to other civilian wounded in another town, an Israeli missile pierced the roof of the Sha'itas' white van. Three passengers sitting in the third row were killed instantly, including Ali's grandmother. Sixteen other passengers were wounded. In recent days, families like the Sha'itas are bearing the brunt of Israel's air campaign and its efforts to rid the area of civilians before ground operations. A day after Israel's deadline for people to leave their homes and flee north of the Litani river, roads which in ordinary times wind lazily through tobacco fields and banana groves have been turned into highways of death.

Plumes of smoke rise in the distance, and the road in front of us offers up signs of closer peril: car wrecks, still smoking after Israeli strikes, and abandoned vehicles with shattered rear windows. Some were direct hits by Israeli aircraft. Others were drivers who had lost control. Overhead is the menacing roar of Israeli warplanes and the buzz of drones tracking every movement.

With bridges on the main coastal roads severed by Israeli air strikes, and secondary mountain routes scarred by craters, the means of escape for Lebanese trying to follow Israel's orders are limited. "All the smaller roads leading to the coastal roads are destroyed," said a spokesman for the UN in the border town of Naqoura. "In some areas you have people pushing cars by hand through obstacles made by a rocket or a bomb." By yesterday afternoon, for many villagers, there was truly no way out.

Death came crashing into the Sha'ita family soon after 10am, in the form of an Israeli anti-tank missile, seemingly fired from an Israeli helicopter high overhead, in Kafra, about nine miles from their home. Those passengers who were not killed or injured by shards of burning metal were hurt when the van plunged into the side of a hill.

In their village of et-Tiri, the Sha'itas were an extended clan of 54 people. Between them they had three cars. When the Israeli evacuation order came, in leaflets shot out of aircraft, the family planned at first to stay. "We were at home living our lives," said Musbah Sha'ita, Ali's uncle.

By 7pm on Saturday night, the deadline set by Israel for people in about a dozen villages in south Lebanon to leave, the Sha'itas were close to panic. "Whoever could run was running," said Mr Sha'ita. "I pushed them to go."

One of their fleeing neighbours said he would send transport for them, and the next morning all 54 of the Sha'itas set out in a convoy of three white minivans. That choice of transport proved a fatal mistake.

In their leaflet campaign, the Israelis have warned repeatedly they would consider minivans, trucks and motorcyles as targets. "The minivans are a target for Israel because they can take Katyusha rockets for Hizbullah, so they do not contemplate too long," the UN official said. "They just shoot it."

Dozens of others have met a similar fate as Israeli F-16 jet fighters and attack helicopters intensify a campaign meant to cut off the supply of Hizbullah rockets, and the movement of its fighters.

But Israel's offensive is being felt across a much wider swath of south Lebanon. The Lebanese Red Cross in Tyre said 10 cars carrying civilians and three or four motorcycles had been hit by Israeli missiles yesterday. Red Cross ambulances were no safer; a spokesman said an ambulance had narrowly escaped a missile near the village of el-Qlaile, south of the city. A number of the dead, including the three members of the Sha'ita family, remained trapped in their cars because it was too dangerous to retrieve their bodies.

In Tyre, south Lebanon's main town and a stopping point on the flight to the north, the hospital received a steady flow of injured. By late afternoon there were three dead and 41 injured, two critically."They are bombing them all in their cars," said Ahmed Mrowe, the director of Jabal al-Amal hospital.

Those who choose not to flee - the UN estimates that 35%-40% of villagers are too poor or too frail to make the journey - are being left stranded.

That was the predicament facing the Sha'itas when Musbah Sha'ita urged them to flee. In a car on the way to the hospital, his ear was welded to his phone, trying to find out where his wounded relatives were, and he could not stop blaming himself.

"We put a white flag. We were doing what Israel told us to do," he says. "What more do they want of us?"

Guardian Unlimited: Blasted by a missile on the road to safety

White flags fail to protect families obeying order to flee the south

From the SMH -

Stricken … the wreckage of the Zabad family's car.
Photo: Jeroen Kramer

At 11am yesterday the pilot of an Israeli helicopter or drone took aim at the Zabad family's white Nissan car, fleeing north towards Tyre, and fired two precision guided missiles.

At least one of the missiles struck on or near the back of the car, blowing the bumper off and starting a fire, but Zein Zabad managed to drive another 200 meters before crashing outside Najem Hospital on the outskirts of Tyre. A trail of debris stretched back along the road - children's shoes, the car's bumper, one of the white flags that the passengers had been waving in the hope of finding mercy in the sky.

Inside the stricken car were Zein Zabad, 45, his wife, Alia Tame, 39, daughter, Abiye, 13, and sons Hussein, 10, Khalid, 8, and Hassan, 7. There were also three injured members of the Srour family, whom Zabad had stopped to rescue after a helicopter attacked their car a few kilometres down the road.

Medical staff dragged all the victims from the wreck, injured but alive, before the fire reached the petrol tank. Just as the flames flared up a Red Cross ambulance came careering past the burning car, from the road to the south.

The ambulance contained six members of the Shaayto family from Tyre. There were two women, two girls, two little boys, survivors from a minivan crammed with 19 people that had just been attacked as it tried to escape Israel's killing zone.

Kathar Shaayto, a 10-year-old girl, had tears on her face but her voice was calm as she lay on a trolley and talked to the doctors studying the large piece of shrapnel embedded in her hand.

"My father is dead," she told them. "My mother has multiple injuries. I don't know about the others." Then she broke down.

Kathar Shaayto's cousins Ali, 14, and Abbas, 10, suffered little more than scratches, so the harried nurses left them in a room upstairs with no one to talk to but foreign reporters. "My grandmother was still alive when I last saw her, she was still breathing," Ali said. "She was trapped in the car and no one could get her out." Then he too broke down.

From the next room 13 year-old Zeinab Hayda watched curiously. She had come in five days before, wounded when Israeli missiles attacked a three-car convoy fleeing the border village of Aitaroun.

Reports continued to come in of Israeli targeted air strikes against civilians trying to comply with Israel's orders to flee their villages along the border.

White flags fail to protect families obeying order to flee the south

Orgy of destruction

Some commentary from South Africa, also noting the similarity between the Israeli hatred for all things Arab.

In May 1942, one of the Nazi regime's most notorious mass murderers, Deputy Reich Protector Reinhard Heydrich, was assassinated by Czech partisans. The Nazi response was to demolish the nearby village of Lidice house by house and either shoot its inhabitants or send them to death camps.

What, in principle, is the difference between the collective punishment visited on Lidice and the indiscriminate bombing of Lebanese roads, bridges, homes and apartment blocks, telecommunications and power infrastructure, airports, factories, food warehouses and medical facilities by Israeli armed forces? The same applies to the Gaza Strip, where 750 000 Palestinian civilians were forced to go without electricity after the kidnapping of a single Israeli soldier.

The official purpose of Israel's orgy of destruction in Gaza and Lebanon is to root out Hamas and Hizbullah fighters -- why, then, must the whole of southern Lebanon be bombed back to the Stone Age?

Leaving aside the tide of human misery in deaths, mutilations and displacements, a country recovering from decades of civil war has suffered up to $2-billion in infrastructure damage and a crippling blow to its resurgent tourism trade.

Gross lack of proportionality is one issue, but Israel's central crime is, with cynical deliberation, to punish hundreds of thousands of ordinary people who have kidnapped no one, and have no hand in firing missiles at Israeli cities.

The official aim to force the Lebanese government to disarm Hizbullah fighters is a canard or a fantasy. Hizbullah is Lebanon's best armed and most highly organised grouping, and enjoys unique credibility because of its role in ending the Israeli occupation of the south.

Premier Fouad Siniora has neither the military capacity nor the political power to act against it; it is a racing certainty that, when hostilities finally abate, the Hizbullah militia will still be there. Nor has the Israeli offensive any hope of goading Syria and Iran into withdrawing support for the Lebanese militants the response in both countries has been furious condemnation of Ehud Olmert's government.

The apparent underlying purpose, as argued by Gush Shalom's Uri Avnery in this edition of the Mail & Guardian, is to partition Lebanon and install a puppet government, and the signs are that the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers was a mere pretext for a military operation long in the planning. It is the generals, not Olmert and other elected politicians, who call the shots in Jerusalem.

But, as in South Africa, the inescapable reality is that neither force nor realpolitik can bring the lasting peace Israelis pant for. The response of ordinary Lebanese is not to blame Hizbullah for bringing this calamity on their heads, but intensified hatred of Israel and its rulers. Hizbullah and Hamas may be temporarily disorganised, but Israel's persistent stoking of such hatred guarantees their continued ability to recruit and draw assistance from the Arab world.

The militants will sooner or later have to accept that Israel, backed by the world's superpower, will not go away. But sooner or later, Israel will also have to accept that violence offers no permanent solution. Until it sits down with the Palestinians to negotiate the terms of a viable Palestinian state, its chronic insecurity will continue.

Mail & Guardian Online

Lebanese Question Worlds Silence

Lebanese question world's silence
by Christian Henderson in Beirut
Wednesday 19 July 2006 10:34 AM GMT

The Lebanese army is unable to rein in Hezbollah

Many Lebanese say the failure of the international community to resolve the crisis in their country is worsening the situation.

They fear the escalation has become a zero-sum game that will get worse unless pressure is put on both sides, but so far there is no sign that intervention will come.

Amal Saad-Ghoreyeb, author of Hizbu'llah: Politics and Religion told Aljazeera.net that "The international community is doing very little to end the conflict. If you look at the G8 and the UN Security Council none of the members have the inclination to call for a ceasefire.

"I don't think any of these parties have much clout to put pressure on Israel to end the onslaught apart from the US, and there is an absence of resolve on the behalf of the US to pursue any ceasefire," she said.

Many in Lebanon were puzzled by Monday's proposal by the UN secretary-general and the British prime minister to send an international force to the country as there has been a UN force on the border with Israel since 1978.

Timur Goksel, who was UN spokesman in southern Lebanon for 20 years and is now at the American University in Beirut, said: "To propose an international force is an inane thing to do there is already an international force here ... I would like to know which country is going to come here?"

Collective punishment

Many in Lebanon consider Israel's attack to be unjustly punishing a country that has little control over Hezbollah, a political party with a military wing that is stronger than the Lebanese army.

Boutrous Harb, a Lebanese member of parliament, told Aljazeera.net that "Lebanon cannot afford the escalation of this destruction. The Lebanese government is not in the position to control the behaviour of Hezbollah."

There is anger at Hezbollah among many Lebanese who believe that its operation to capture soldiers on Wednesday invited Israel's military response, and some believe that Hezbollah is not acting in the interests of Lebanon.

Said Goksel: "If this carries on like this Hezbollah will turn up as the villain in this. This is not going to be healthy for this country. Forget national dialogue. Hezbollah has made it clear that it is not interested in internal politics."

But besides being a militia, Hezbollah is a political party popular with Lebanon's Shia community, and while much of Hezbollah's infrastructure can be destroyed, support for Hezbollah is likely to remain among the Lebanese Shia - the country's largest group.

You can find the full article at HERE

Stop laughing, it's US policy that's the joke - Opinion - smh.com.au

The President of the United States,unplugged.

GWB: Hey Blair, howya doin'? Like your tie. You British do stripes real good.

TB: Thank you so much.

GWB: Not a problem. Now gimme your take on this Middle East shit.

TB: Well, you see, you've got Hezbollah …

GWB: Remind me, Blair. Them the Jewish guys or the Islamic guys?

TB: They're the bad guys.

GWB: Got it. Who's the chick over there with the hot boobies?

TB: Do you mean the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel?

GWB: Kraut, huh? Now here's what we do with the Middle East thing: the Israelis get two weeks to kick ass, let the UN screw up, then Condi fixes a ceasefire. Sound good to you, Blair?

TB: Just what I was thinking myself, actually.

GWB: Done deal. But, hey, gotta get back to Washington. Some serious stuff goin' down with Cheney and Rummy tonight.

TB: Iraq?

GWB: Nope. New York Yankees playin' the Boston Red Sox. Got $100 on the Sox with Dick.

TB: I hope that microphone is not turned on, George.

POOR bloody Lebanon. Three thousand years ago the great cities of Byblos, Sidon and Tyre were at the civilised centre of the known universe, their Phoenician traders commanding the Mediterranean to Spain and beyond, venturing as far north as the tin mines of Cornwall.

In the centuries since, what we know as modern Lebanon has been raped and pillaged by the predators of history: Persians, Greeks, Romans, Armenians, the Crusaders, the Ottomans, the French, the Syrians. Now, not long recovered from a hideous civil war, a fragile Lebanese democracy reels beneath the hammer blows of the Israelis.

George Bush, Condoleezza Rice and, for that matter, John Howard, can bleat forever about Israel's right to defend itself, but we are witnessing an obscenity. On all sides. The targeted Israeli air strike which murders children in a Beirut suburb is as much a crime against humanity as an indiscriminate Hezbollah rocket crashing into downtown Haifa. There are no gradations of immorality. It is total.

Bush's buffoonery in St Petersburg - manhandling Merkel, dropping the "shit" word - were funny or offensive, depending on your take on these things. But there is no humour in the fact that American policy in the Middle East now lies in ruins. The neo-conservative fantasy of a swift war in Iraq magically spreading peace and democracy throughout the region has brought nothing but catastrophe.

Sooner or later, when Hezbollah has killed enough Israeli civilians, and the Israelis have killed enough Lebanese, some sort of ceasefire will happen. But new hatreds will pile upon the old. The seeds are sown. Next, the whirlwind.

From the Sydney Morning Herald

Israel bombs milk and food factories - Refugees turn to Hezbollah for food and shelter

Snippets from The Age:

The battle between Israel and Hezbollah has caused a massive humanitarian crisis in Lebanon, driving as many as 500,000 Lebanese from their homes, according to United Nations estimates.

Frazzled refugees flooding Beirut are struggling to find food, water and medicine. They are sleeping in city parks, abandoned cellars and sweltering schools in the capital.

Traumatised and disoriented, many staggering in from the country's south, they are living without clean drinking water, showers or a change of clothes.

The Government has opened the schools of Beirut to the sudden wave of refugees, but most of the shelters are being run by the cadres of Hezbollah, along with a few other non-governmental organisations.

Isolated by its crippled airport, blockaded seaports and bombed roads, Lebanon's food and medical supplies have dwindled dangerously.

As the crisis deepened this week, Israeli planes unleashed missiles on food factories and a crucial aid convoy, Lebanese officials said.

The officials said Israel had bombed the nation's largest milk factories, a major food factory and an eagerly awaited aid convoy that was making its way towards Beirut from the United Arab Emirates.

"It's a very serious escalation," said Social Affairs Minister Naila Mouawad. "We were putting a lot of hope on the milk factories to get milk for children and elderly people."

A tour of Beirut's refugee shelters gives a revealing sketch of the power of Hezbollah. Known for its social and charity network as well as its powerhouse political party and its fighting force, the Islamist Shiite organisation has once again eclipsed Government efforts — many of the shelters are being run by Hezbollah.

The Hezbollah activists say they are collaborating with the Government, but representatives of the Government are generally not present in the shelters.

"Because this war is against Hezbollah, this is our legal obligation," said Jihad Akil, a Hezbollah activist who was overseeing a Beirut school house sheltering hundreds of people. "It's also our religious obligation."

The clueless mind of George W.

Interesting and amusing article covering the gaff George made talking with Tony Blair thinking that no one could hear him.

Robert Scheer is editor of TruthDig, where this essay originally was published.

Bombs were exploding and innocents dying, from Beirut to Haifa to Baghdad, and yet George Bush managed to pose for yet another photo op, smiling as he gave the thumbs up at the close of the G-8 summit. Thanks to an unsuspected open mike, however, we could also glimpse the mindset of a leader unaccountably pleased with his ignorance of the world.

What seemed to interest him most at that farewell get together of leaders bitterly divided over a disintegrating Mideast was not some last-minute proposal for peace but rather the fact that it would take China President Hu Jintao eight hours to fly home from St. Petersburg to Beijing.

Bush had started the exchange by noting, absurdly, that, "This is your neighborhood, doesn't take you long to get home." Uh, yeah, incurious George, sure thing. Never mind that St. Petersburg is in Europe, on Russia's northwestern corner, due north of Turkey, and Beijing is on the eastern edge of mainland Asia.

"You, eight hours? Me too. Russia's a big country and you're a big country," he said when corrected, sounding for all the world like an earnest kindergartner, processing new information. "Russia's big and so is China."

Unfortunately, Bush's private remarks to British Prime Minister Tony Blair several minutes later also revealed a cluelessness about more important matters: Israel's bloody assault on Lebanon, its causes and possible solutions.

"See, the irony is what they need to do is get Syria to get Hezbollah to stop doing this shit, and it's over," he said, apparently referring to the guerilla force's firing of rockets into Israel. "I felt like telling Kofi to get on the phone with [Syrian leader Bashir] Assad and make something happen."

While it is refreshing to note that our President employs language that would earn a radio shock jock a fine from his own rabid obscenity-sniffers at the FCC, his profound ignorance is appalling. Israel, Hamas and Hezbollah all have their own hardcore agendas--Syria is just one player in the tortured region. Furthermore, Bush's complete disinterest in the Mideast peace process--especially as an "honest broker" between Israel and the Palestinians--since the Supreme Court handed him the job in 2000 has paved the way for this moment.

...

Responding to Bush, Blair at least sounded somewhat constructive, offering to go directly to the Mideast and pave the way for a visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. In this, he seemed to be unwittingly aligned with former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, who expressed on Sunday frustration with her successor for not leaving the conference to engage in emergency shuttle diplomacy in the Mideast.

Where Albright was critical of the "disaster" in Iraq for distracting from the dormant Mideast peace process, Rice was shrilly defensive.

"For the last sixty years, American administrations of both stripes--Democrat, Republican--traded what they thought was security and stability and turned a blind eye to the absence of democratic forces, to the absence of pluralism in the region," she said Sunday. "That policy has changed."

While this is certainly a dramatic sound bite, the words have no logical meaning: The United States continues to embrace the dictatorships of Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, as has been the case for sixty years. In fact, Bush has added Libya to the "approved" list. Meanwhile, Israel is attacking elected governments in the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon with US support.

As for the democracy in Iraq that Bush wants Russia to emulate, things haven't worked out as neocons like invasion architect Richard Perle had hoped when he fantasized about Pentagon favorite Ahmed Chalabi leading Baghdad to recognize Israel. On Sunday, according to Reuters, the notoriously divided Iraqi parliament unanimously passed a motion condemning the Israeli offensive and urging the UN Security Council and Group of Eight leaders meeting to intervene "to stop the ... Israeli criminal aggression."

The full article can be found on the web at:
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060731/bush_open_mike

UN Human Rights head sees possible Mideast war crimes

From Reuters UK

The scale of killing and maiming of civilians in Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territory of Gaza could constitute war crimes, the United Nations human rights chief said on Wednesday.

U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said international humanitarian law was clear on the need to protect non-combatants in any conflict. "This obligation is also expressed in international criminal law, which defines war crimes and crimes against humanity," she said.

"The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control," she said, without directly accusing anyone.

In a statement, Arbour expressed "grave concern over the continued killing and maiming of civilians in Lebanon, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territory".

Arbour, a former Canadian Supreme Court judge and war crimes prosecutor, said the "indiscriminate shelling" of cities and the bombing of sites where civilians would suffer were unacceptable.

Israeli air strikes have accounted for most of the 293 deaths in Lebanon in the eight-day-old war which began after Hizbollah guerrillas kidnapped two Israeli soldiers.

Lebanon is made to pay

Lebanon is made to pay

Israel, the US and key Arab regimes are now determined to crush the widely popular Hizbullah

Charles Harb
Monday July 17, 2006
The Guardian

The story reported in much of the western media in the past few days has painted a straightforward picture: Hizbullah's militants suddenly decided to launch an attack against Israel, killed some of its soldiers, kidnapped two, and has bombed Israeli cities. Israel, acting on its right to self-defence, retaliated by bombing the "infrastructure of terror" in Lebanon. The crisis will end when Israel's terms are implemented: the kidnapped soldiers are returned, Hizbullah is disarmed, and the Lebanese army protects Israel's northern border. This narrative borders on the dangerously naive.

Since Israel's 1996 massacre of Lebanese refugees at Qana in Lebanon, and the end of the 22-year Israeli occupation of southern Lebanon in 2000, an agreement between the various parties - sponsored by France, the US, and the UN - has reflected the "balance of terror": Israel would refrain from bombing Lebanese civilian structures, and Hizbullah would not bomb civilian structures in northern Israel.

Although several military operations by the Israelis and by Hizbullah have occurred since 2000, neither side has violated this understanding. In 2004, Hizbullah secured the release of some prisoners held captive in Israeli jails in an exchange with Israel. And Hizbullah's military operation last week falls squarely within that framework.

Israel's immediate reaction broke the established rules of the game by bombing civilian structures across Lebanon, imposing a land, air and sea blockade, terrorising the population, and killing more than 100 civilians in a disproportionate display of power not seen since 1982. Hizbullah then retaliated by bombing northern Israel, in line with the "balance of terror" equations, and the escalation of the conflict has spiralled.

Israel's significant policy shift is linked to domestic politics, psychological factors and power plays. The wider geostrategic implications are more important then the operational details. For the first time in recent history, Saudi Arabian, Egyptian, Jordanian, Israeli and US interests now converge in an implicit alliance to quell Hizbullah. Reactions by these states in the past few days have been strongly indicative of such a stance, from the Saudi statement implicitly condemning Hizbullah, to the US president's explicit refusal to "rein in" Israel.

US rhetoric last year about spreading "democracy and freedom" in the Middle East was ended when the administration realised that the outcome might lead to governments more in tune with national interests than American ones. The complacent reaction by US (and, to some extent, European) officials to the widespread election fraud and repression in Egypt as well as the open war on the democratically elected Palestinian government reflect this change. The question is increasingly whether entire populations are being punished for making the "wrong" democratic choices.

The Islamic-led resistance movements are now the only credible forces resisting the US occupation forces in Iraq, the Israeli occupation forces in Palestine, and the dictatorial regimes in the Middle East. They have come of age, and are ready to fill the void left by Arab nationalists of the 1950s and 1960s. Attempts to divide the movement along sectarian and geographic lines have been given significant airtime in the media, but do not seem to fully reflect the reality on the ground. The Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas and Hizbullah are far from being the fanatics some in the west would like to believe they are. They have displayed an increasingly complex and pragmatic discourse, moderated over time and appealing to wider sections of Arab public opinion.

Hizbullah is at a crossroads. It faces a massive Israeli onslaught, hostile international media and Arab regimes, and a potentially hostile Lebanese government. On the other hand, it has broad support among the Arab population across the region. As one Lebanese analyst argued, Hizbullah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, will either come out of this a hero the like of which the Arab world hasn't seen since Nasser or he will have to step down.

What is happening in Lebanon is a tragedy for a people who have been made to suffer a great deal in the past three decades. A tiny country with a war-weary population and great pride is being made to pay once more for the incompetence of Arab rulers, the arrogance of a superpower and the self-righteousness of the Israeli state.

· Professor Charles Harb teaches social psychology at the American University of Beirut

charles.harb@aub.edu.lb

Israeli gunships kill 18 civilians

EIGHTEEN civilians, including nine children, were burnt alive in an Israeli helicopter gunship attack today on residents fleeing border villages in south Lebanon, UN peacekeepers and hospital sources said.

They were killed when a missile struck a car and a minibus near Shamaa, hospital sources said. Rescue workers said the minibus took a direct hit.

At the hospital in the southern port city of Tyre, an official said five more bodies were evacuated from the scene. Nine of the 18 civilians were children, he said.

A total of 30 civilians were killed and 45 others wounded in a series of Israeli raids across the country today.

An AFP correspondent saw the torched bodies of a father and his four children, the oldest aged seven, at the government hospital in the southern port city of Tyre.

'A logistics team has retrieved 13 bodies,' an officer with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) told AFP. A rescue worker who transported the first bodies to Tyre said five more were left in the minibus.

Ten other people were transported to hospital for treatment for burns and fractures, medics said. Four of them were hit in the minibus and the six others - a couple and their four children - in a small car.

Thousands of Lebanese have been fleeing the border area after Israeli shelling and warnings to residents to leave in order to prevent Hizbollah guerrillas from hiding among civilians.

Three people were also killed in another raid today when Israeli jets struck the road leading to the main crossing of Masnaa between Lebanon and Syria, blocking passage across the border, police said.

And another three civilians were killed when Israeli jets fired missiles near a bridge on the outskirts of the north-eastern town of Hermel on the border with Syria.

An Iraqi was killed and three other workers were wounded in an attack at a fuel station near the southern coastal city of Sidon, police said.

At least 92 civilians have been killed and some 252 wounded since Israel began its assault on Lebanon after the capture of two soldiers and the killing of eight others by the Syrian-backed militant group Hizbollah early on Wednesday.

Israel said today its air force was also "bombing roads and bridges on the border between Lebanon and Syria to prevent Hizbollah from taking our captured soldiers out of the country".

"

Israel's show of force will backfire

Israel's show of force will backfire - Opinion - theage.com.au:

Israel's show of force will backfire

By Amin Saikal

The late Palestinian scholar Edward Said described the Palestinians as "the victim of the victim". The Jewish people suffered hugely at the hands of Europeans in history, but since the foundation of the state of Israel in 1948, the Israelis have subjected the Palestinian people to actions that have in some ways been reminiscent of their own suffering.

In the current crisis, Israel has re-invaded the Gaza Strip and turned it into an encampment, collectively punishing 1.3 million Palestinians.

This has generated an environment in which the Syrian and Iranian-backed Lebanese Islamic Hezbollah attacked an Israeli military post on the border with Lebanon, with Israel retaliating in yet another disproportionate manner. Israel has not only gone after Hezbollah targets, but as usual has sought to punish the state of Lebanon as a whole.

It has targeted the country's international airport and other infrastructure. Astonishingly, the US has supported Israel in all this. No wonder there is so much resentment of Israel and the US in the Arab-Muslim world.

The Palestinian killing of two Israeli soldiers and abduction of a third more than two weeks ago, and Hezbollah's subsequent similar actions, have ostensibly generated the present crisis. But such actions are not something new in the area. Israel has been involved in this kind of action against the Palestinians, and to a lesser extent against Hezbollah, for years.

Israel has eliminated, through targeted assassination, hundreds of Palestinians and jailed thousands more, including women and children, and hit and jailed many Hezbollah activists. In the process, it has killed hundreds of innocent Palestinians and many Lebanese.

Israel has justified all this in terms of self-defence, and collateral damage in what it has called a fight against terrorism, as defined by itself.

It has never paid the least attention to the fact that Palestinian violent actions against Israel have had their roots in Israel's colonial occupation of the Palestinian land and brutal suppression of the Palestinians as a people, who, like Israelis, have the right to live in independence, peace and security.

Similarly, Israel has ignored the reality that its occupation of southern Lebanon for 20 years - until withdrawing unilaterally in 2000 because it could no longer sustain the cost of this operation - contributed substantially to making Hezbollah the fighting force that it is today.

While promoting itself as a bastion of democracy, Israel has scorned all Palestinian efforts at democratisation when the outcome has not been according to Israeli preferences. It has denounced the Palestinians' democratically elected government as one led by a terrorist organisation, the radical Islamist Hamas, although this is very much reminiscent of its rejection of the PLO as a terrorist organisation in the 1970s and '80s.

Now that the Palestinians have turned to Hamas for salvation because the PLO proved to be ineffectual, Israel is punishing all Palestinians for exercising their democratic rights. In a similar vein, it has rejected Hezbollah's democratic participation in Lebanese politics as a legitimate force, and has continued to prosecute it as a terrorist group and to encourage Washington to maximise pressure on Syria and Iran so that Israel can be assured of its position as the most powerful and determining actor in the region.

Unfortunately, the Bush Administration has given Israel virtually unqualified support. When caught between supporting Israel and upholding its rhetoric about liberty, democracy and justice, it has sided with Israel. It has defended the country's actions in all political forums and cast most of its vetoes at the UN Security Council to protect Israel from any criticism. It has constantly demanded that the Palestinians in particular, and Arabs and Iranians in general, democratise and refrain from violence. But it has never asked Israel not to use American-supplied lethal weapons in violating the rights of the Palestinians and others in the area whenever it has been deemed appropriate.

This, together with US failures in Iraq, has made many Arabs and Muslims turn their backs on the US as a hypocritical power, too immersed in its war on terrorism to retain any sight of realities on the ground.

Neither Israel nor the US can any longer afford to bury their heads in the sand and pretend that the political challenges facing them do not exist. Their actions have increasingly played into the hands of radicals - whether of Islamist or secularist nature - in the Arab-Muslim domain, and, for that matter, in the wider world.

Both Israel and the US need to realise that the application of brute force cannot resolve the deep-seated problems in the region. What is required is a sound political strategy to address the plight of the Palestinians, defuse tension between Israel and its neighbours, and improve America's image among the Arabs and Muslims. Otherwise the long-term damage to both Israel and the US, as well as the region, may become beyond repair, seriously undermining the efforts to contain international terrorism.

Amin Saikal is professor of political science and director of the Centre for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Australian National University.

Bush Defends Israeli Attacks in Lebanon

News from The Associated Press: "President Bush strongly defended Israel's attacks in Lebanon on Thursday but worried they could weaken or topple the fragile government in Beirut. The Mideast violence exposed divisions between the United States and allies and raised fears of a widening war.

'Israel has a right to defend herself,' Bush said at a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. 'Every nation must defend herself against terrorist attacks and the killing of innocent life.'"
.....

In Paris, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said the Israeli air campaign - its heaviest against Lebanon in 24 years - could "plunge Lebanon back into the worst years of the war with the flight of thousands of Lebanese who ... were in the process of rebuilding their country."

Bush, at the news conference, voiced fears about the survival of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora's government. "The concern is that any activities by Israel to protect herself will weaken that government ... or topple that government. And we've made it clear in our discussions.

"Having said all that," Bush continued, "people need to protect themselves. There are terrorists who will blow up innocent people in order to achieve tactical objectives."

Do you think he is referring to the Israelis?

Israeli Loonies the New Nazis?

Apologies for the title, but the last few weeks has made me wonder what the difference is now between the Israeli government and the Nazi government of WWII.

Are they insane? What is the world doing? Is everyone worried about being seen as anti-semetic if they criticise Israel? Well, unless people speak out against Israel, the Jewish people are in the long run going to be tarnished by the actions of these loonies.

Here's another article that is spot on target - hard to find in the media.

Has Israel's Absolute Power Corrupted Absolutely?
by Genevieve Cora Fraser

“Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”

The 19th century historian, Lord Acton and his famous quote came to mind this week as Israel’s response to Palestine reached unprecedented levels of aggression. Operation Summer Rains led off with the abduction of Hamas legislators and mayors in an attempt to destroy the elected government of Palestine. The bombing of the Gaza power plant has left many of the 1.4 million Gaza residents without electricity, running water and sewers as the heat of the summer soars. The bridge attacks within Gaza has made transportation impossible, except for armed battalions and giant bulldozers. The guided missile assault on the Palestinian Ministry of Interior, which has left it in charred ruins, was justified with the claim that the building was the “meeting place to plan terror activities.” And once again food and medicine is blockaded and hospitals left in chaos with rolling blackouts as Gaza residents await further onslaughts by Israeli Occupation Forces.

Since Olmert was elected in March, tens of thousands of shells have been fired on Gaza and over 85 men, women and children have died due to non-stop assaults throughout Palestine. Hundreds of others have been maimed for life. To put things in perspective, since the year 2000, the Quassam rockets, which can be compared to high school or college experiments, have been responsible for the deaths of eight (8) Israelis. Since the year 2000, Israeli guided missile assaults have killed several thousand Palestinians. Justifications for this wholesale slaughter – by land, sea and air - have often times focused on the Quassams.

Israel’s Operation Summer Rains are presented as a direct response to the killing of two Israeli soldiers and the abduction of the IDF tank gunner on Israeli soil. However, Haaretz reports that plans to abduct the Hamas government leaders were made weeks in advance. In contrast, the Palestinian militant actions were a response to the Gaza Beach massacre and other attacks that have left dozens dead, many of them children. Lost in all the noise and carnage is the Palestinian militants’ demand for the release of over 300 Palestinian children and hundreds of women and elderly that are staved, tortured and abused in Israeli jails. Most are held without charge, or charges are filed after the detainees have been tortured into signing confessions. In total, there are now close to 10,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

In April, Israeli forces were so bold as to sweep into the northern West Bank village of Tura al-Gharbiya and abduct five-year old Motaz Qabha from his father’s lap. The father, Samer was talking to a neighbor in front of his house when the soldiers arrived in hummers and jeeps and attempted to grab the terrified child. Samer held tight to his small son, until the soldiers beat him to the ground, tied his hands behind his back, blindfolded and threw him in the jeep. The Israelis then “arrested” the little boy and shoved him into the jeep next to his father. They were driven to the Shakeed military base where they were put in a cell, further abused, and the child was formally charged with throwing stones. Late in the evening, father and son were released and spent the next hour walking home in the pitch darkness.

The Samer and Motaz Qabha story had a relatively happy ending. A month or so ago, I attended the New York City showing of the Palestinian art exhibit, “Made in Palestine.” One of the artists memorialized, in a series of paintings, the Israeli Occupation Forces “sport” of shooting out the eyes of Palestinian children caught in the act of throwing stones, as the Israelis rampage their communities in deadly assault.

Lord Acton’s words also came to mind this week when a US Supreme Court ruling attempted to put the brakes on the “Israel First,” NeoCon-controlled, Bush-Cheney administration’s unquenchable thirst for power. The Court upheld the “due process” rights of detainees and reiterated the validity of the War Crimes Act, asserting that violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions are deemed to be war crimes.

Acording to Common Article 3, “Detained persons ‘shall in all circumstances be treated humanely,’ and that ‘to this end,’ certain specified acts ‘are and shall remain prohibited at any time and in any place whatsoever’--including ‘cruel treatment and torture,’ and ‘outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment.’

At stake was the continuation of the CIA's interrogation regime which included the use of torture of detainees being held at Guantanamo Bay, and elsewhere. The ruling also outlaws President Bush’s plans to set up a special War on Terror commission that would disregard basic rights normally afforded in civilian court and in a military court martial. If allowed to proceed, the special commission would have sweeping powers for any offense committed by any offender, anywhere, pertaining to the so-called War on Terror.

The Supreme Court decision comes in the nick of time for those of us who actually believe in democracy and human rights. It provides a handhold for us to “get our country back.” It should also serve as a warning to the “Israel First” Neo-Cons who have infiltrated the halls of American power and currently hold absolute sway over the current administration and much of Congress. Indeed, NeoCons in key Pentagon and State Department positions created the network of lies and misrepresentations that plunged the US and its allies into the chaos of the war on Iraq. Today, AIPAC and dozens of organizations that comprise the Israeli Lobby have a stranglehold on both the Democrat and Republican parties. They punish or politically destroy those who oppose them, and lavishly fund those who support them. In light of this reality, will the Supreme Court decision impact Israel’s despotic rule over the Palestinians?

Currently, the United States, and the European Union, has followed Israel’s lead in determining that the entire democratically elected Hamas government and Palestinian Authority are terrorists. This list includes not only legislators and mayors, but doctors, nurses and other health workers, municipal workers such as street sweepers and garbage collectors, secretaries, clerks, police and fire fighters. All 160,000 employees of the Palestinian Authority, as well as the entire charitable network created by Hamas that serves the humanitarian needs of the Palestinian people are officially designated as terrorists. It should be noted that the Hamas charity network is what has kept many Palestinians alive during the past months – proving food, medicine and other essentials for life. But according to the Western Powers, these people are terrorists and their charitable deeds are so-called acts of terrorism. If you are an American and caught making contact with any of these outcasts, you may be subject to prosecution. The rhetoric blinds the world to the fact that for 16 months the Hamas truce with Israel was upheld by Hamas, while Israel killed at will and continued to steal Palestine’s water resources and their most fertile farm lands.

Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu recently appeared before the 35th Zionist Congress in Jerusalem. “The IDF has the firepower to wipe out an entire population if we wanted. We could wipe out all of Gaza,” he bragged. Then he quickly added, “But we are not doing this.”

Shortly after the January 25th election that brought Hamas to power, the then Israeli Defense Minister, Shaul Mofaz defended the shelling and raids that had resulted in 31 Palestinian deaths and hundreds of injuries. He explained that it was Israel’s retaliatory strategy in response to the elections. Mofaz claimed that the Palestinian people had made their government part of the “Axis of Evil,” along with Syria and Iran. As a result, “punitive measures” would be taken by Israeli forces against all the Palestinian people. The newly appointed Israeli Defense Minister, Amir Peretz is walking in Mofaz's footsteps - the government of Israel continues to trample on the articles of the Geneva Conventions, as if international law was trash beneath their feet.

05.07.2006
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=commentary&alt=&hn=34526