Israeli-Arab War

[Sean Osborne]

Mind of Mugniyeh: The Iranian Architect of Hizballah's Terror

By Dan Darling

http://analysis.threatswatch.org/2006/07/mind-of-mugniyeh/

The name Imad Fayez Mugniyeh is probably not familiar to most Americans, but it is never been far from the minds of most international security experts. As the fighting between Hizballah and Israel continues, analysts and observers would do well to remember Mughniyeh, who may have been the architect of the Hizballah raid that killed eight Israeli soldiers, captured two others, and sparked the current crisis.

Details of Mughniyeh’s origins are fragmentary. He is believed to have served as a member of Force 17, Yasser Arafat’s personal bodyguard unit, before joining Hizballah. There he acted first as a bodyguard for the group’s spiritual leader, Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, and eventually rose to his current role as the group’s operations chief. His official role in Hizballah is unclear, with various sources describing him as the current head of Hizballah’s security section, a member of the group’s Jihad Council, the director of its intelligence apparatus, or its external operations chief.

He likely serves as all of the above, but whatever the case, one thing is clear: He has been at the heart of every major Hizballah terrorist attack for the better part of the last 25 years.

Mughniyeh’s long and bloody résumé includes: the April 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Lebanon; the October 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine and French paratrooper barracks in Beirut; the 1984 bombing of the U.S. Embassy annex in Lebanon; the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847; numerous kidnappings of Westerners in Beirut throughout the 1980s; the 1992 and 1994 bombings of the Israeli Embassy and a Jewish cultural center in Buenos Aires; the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing; and the 2000 kidnappings of 3 Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and of Israeli Colonel Elchanan Tenenbaum, who was lured to Kuwait under false pretenses and then taken to the Hizballah enclave in southern Lebanon.

Given the extent his role not only in Hizballah’s terrorist operations and kidnappings in particular, there is good reason to suspect that Mughniyeh was involved in the Hizballah attack that sparked the latest round of violence.



Mughniyeh’s ties to the worst elements of the Iranian regime should also serve to expose any lingering doubt concerning Iranian complicity in the recent violence. For instance, despite his status as a leading member of Hizballah, the majority of the reporting on Mughniyeh’s location in recent years have placed him not only in Lebanon but also at various locations inside Iran, where he is said to be under the protection of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps and Ministry of Intelligence and Security. According to the Associated Press, Mughniyeh met with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad during his January visit to Damascus. In his explanation of Hizballah decision-making, Dr. Magnus Ranstorp writes:

http://counterterrorismblog.org/2006...cisionmaki.php

Hizballah’s decision to kidnap the two IDF soldiers was taken by Sheikh Hassan Nasserallah and the other six members of the Shura Karar, its supreme decision-making body. Additionally there are two Iranian representatives (from the Iranian embassy in Beirut/Damascus) that provide a direct link on matters that require strategic guidance or Iranian assistance or arbitration. The file for handling special operations of this kind is usually left to Imad Mughniyeh, the elusive terrorist mastermind for Hizballah, who stands with one foot within Hizballah (reporting to Nasserallah directly) and with one foot in Iran inside the architectures of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and the al-Qods unit within the Iranian Pasdaran. Mughniyeh is strictly reserved for special occasions (like the Buenos Aires bombing in 1992 to avenge the Israeli assassination of the previous leader Sheikh Abbas al-Musawi) and his primary mission over the last decade has been to forge qualitative ‘military’ guidance to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives inside Gaza and the West Bank.

Denials of this partnership from Iranian officials, and particularly members of the country’s Foreign Ministry, should be understood as being part of a deliberate strategy. As ICT researcher Yael Shahar explained in a January 2003 paper:

http://www.ict.org.il/articles/artic...?articleid=460

The election of President Mohammed Khatami in May of 1997 was seen at the time as the harbinger of greater liberalization and democratization in Iran’s public life, as well as the beginning of a more acceptable foreign affairs policy.

… Khatami’s influence on Iran’s foreign policy has been expressed chiefly in trips abroad. These travels helped to strengthen the country’s diplomatic standing, but failed to lead to palpable change of Iranian policy regarding its involvement in international terrorism.

The only change that did occur in the Iranian terrorism scene in recent years has been essentially a tactical one. Iran has been careful to adjust its terror policy to international circumstances, in the realization that such activity does not play well to a Western audience. Iran does everything possible to ensure that its own actions are not perceived to be part of international terrorism. Iranian agents rarely take an active part in terror attacks; instead, missions are “out-sourced” to proxy organizations, such as the Hizballah, a regular contractor and central player in Iran’s terror strategy. Often terrorist groups active in the target country are trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and commissioned to carry out terrorist acts against common enemies.

While Khatami is no longer in office and the organized reformist movement inside of Iran has been suppressed and marginalized in favor of hardline extremist movements like Ahmadinejad’s E’telaf-e Abadgaran-e Iran-e Eslami (“The Alliance of the Cultivators of an Islamic Iran”), the strategy pursued by the Iranian security services remains much the same.>>


Unfortunately, Western governments have often played into this strategy by refusing to recognize Mughniyeh’s ties to Iran. For instance, take the explanation offered in a recent New York Times article on the Bush administration’s unwillingness to discuss the role played by members of Iran’s Qods Force in Hizballah’s recent use of missiles against Israel:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/19/wo...nt&oref=slogin


http://www.weeklystandard.com/Conten...6/156kncex.asp

The Bush administration has long sought to focus attention on Iranian missile proliferation, and regularly discusses with journalists intelligence evidence of those activities. But American officials in Washington made clear this week that they were reluctant to detail Iran’s arming of Hezbollah in the current conflict.

The reason, according to officials across the government, was a desire by the Bush administration to contain the conflict to Israeli and Hezbollah forces, and not to enlarge the diplomatic tasks by making Iranian missile supplies, or even those of Syria, a central question for now.

Such an approach may make diplomatic sense if the goal is to end the current fighting in Lebanon, but it could also serve to embolden Iran by demonstrating that it can continue to employ its proxy warfare strategy against Israel using Hizballah. Given long-standing U.S. and Iraqi concerns of Iranian support for both the Iraqi insurgency and Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army, the United States might want to think twice about sending this message.


July 25, 2006 12:01 AM |

[Jag]

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/...535615,00.html

Secret Cargo Lands In UK

Could not get this to copy......any ideas on what is on those planes????

Jag

[Sean Osborne]

... any ideas on what is on those planes????

War materiel. Bombs. missiles, ammunition, ordnance, etc., etc., etc.

[Sean Osborne]

DEBKAfile reports: Israel deploys Arrow anti-missile batteries in central Israel and Patriots at points along key national aretery Highway 6

July 29, 2006, 10:44 PM (GMT+02:00)

Saturday afternoon, Hizballah’s Hassan Nasrallah threatened to send more rockets into central Israeli cities after Afula was hit Friday night. Playing it safe, Israel also adjusted the orbits of its military satellites to allow them to track any Hizballah missiles at the moment they are launched from Lebanon. Military experts believe that the Israeli air force, supported by these hi tech systems, will be able to intercept an Iran-made Zilzal-2 long-range missile, whose 250-km range puts Tel Aviv within reach, before it enters Israeli air space.

DEBKAfile’s military experts add: If one of those missiles is intercepted only after it shoots across Israeli skies, Hizballah will count it a success, because of the potential damage falling debris from the intruding missile and its interceptor can cause on the ground below.

This lesson was learned in the 1991 Gulf War, when Patriot anti-missile interceptions caught up too late with Saddam Hussein’s Scud missile as they homed into Israel towns.

Our sources add that from Saturday, July 29, the tempo of the American munitions airlift to Israel, begun last Wednesday, as DEBKAfile revealed exclusively, has speeded up. During Saturday, giant US Air Force C-141 cargo transports en route for Israel touched down in Scotland for refueling every few hours.

(I can verify this airborne US-to-Israel replenishment activity. I have seen hundreds of departures from McGuire AFB in NJ and overall air activity at very high levels. No one living in the area could possibly miss this massive airlift and mid-air refueling effort.)


DEBKAfile’s military sources report: Israeli warplanes bombed the Lebanese-Syrian border post of Masnaa Saturday night, July 29

July 29, 2006, 9:39 PM (GMT+02:00)

The Lebanese terminal on the Beirut-Damascus highway was destroyed and arms-laden trucks from Syria were struck.

Earlier, DEBKAfile reported climbing military tension with Syria, marked by the downing of an Israeli drone Friday from Lebanese airspace a Syrian air defense battery. DEBKAfile’s military sources report the Syrians ambushed the Israeli spy drone to clear the skies for a large consignment of rocket launchers and truckloads of rockets to cross into Lebanon surreptitiously and safe from Israeli air attack.

[American Patriot]

iI hope it's a couple nukes for Tehran

[Sean Osborne]

I hope it's a couple nukes for Tehran

Roger, it will happen eventually as far as Tehran is concerned. Damascus is first to go.

Reference the Religion Forum and my "Current Events and Biblical Prophecy II" thread. Specifically Isaiah 17. You will notice in the very first post of this Part II version of the thread (December 17, 2005) I referenced the Bible prophecy of Isaiah 17 and the nuking of Damascus. I have been warning about this literally for years.

Now we are seeing the events which precipitate such an event unfolding before our very eyes. IN REAL TIME.

This is the last post I have for this thread.. As I stated before, it is absolutely impossible for me to separate this issue into secular and Biblical topics. They are in FACT one and the same thing. That thread is where I will be making ALL future commentary or posts on this topic.

[Aplomb]

http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_4113522

	Israeli paratroopers sing as they return from Lebanon at dawn Saturday, carrying an injured comrade, after days of fierce fighting in Bint Jbail. (Getty / Christopher Furlong)

[samizdat]

Israeli Air Force Staff chief Brig-Gen Amir Eshel said Sunday he could not account for the time gap between the air strike over Qana village at 0100 Saturday night and the building’s collapse six or seven hours later

July 30, 2006, 9:36 PM (GMT+02:00) (debka)

He said the air force had not been aware of civilians in the building and regretted the loss of 57 innocent lives, 37 of them children. Qana village was targeted as a busy Hizballa command and logistical center, said Brig. Eshel, from which 150 rockets had been fired into Israel on a daily basis. Civilians had been repeatedly advised to leave and many had. The defense minister has ordered a probe into the tragedy.

Sounds like a TIME magazine type bomb to me.
Could hizbollah have slaughtered these innocents themselves? That's unrestricted warfare- courtesy of "killing infidels to gain eternal life".

Here one can view Hizb civilian tactics.
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0%2...07220%2C00.html

A survivor interviewed said- we wanted to leave, but we did'nt have money. We were forced to stay. Probably both.

[samizdat]

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

Eshel refrained from specifying what had caused the structure to collapse seven hours after it was hit, but senior IAF officers said Sunday night that the explosion could have been caused by an unexploded missile or by a Hizbullah-planted explosive device. "It could be that there was something in the building that caused the explosion," Eshel said.

[American Patriot]

Netanyahu: Don't stop war
www.ynetnews.com ^ | 13:04 , 07.31.06 | Ilan Marciano

Netanyahu: Don't stop war

Opposition leader calls on government to continue war against Hizbullah, says Lebanon operations enjoy wide popular support Ilan Marciano

Israel is facing a strategic threat and therefore must end the war in Lebanon with a strategic victory, Opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday at the Knesset, responding to international pressures to end the fighting.

Turning his attention to the air raid on the village of Qana in southern Lebanon that left dozens of civilians dead, Netanyahu said: "Here in Israel, there's genuine regret over the killing of children."

Bibi warned that a missile war can commence at any moment and characterized the prospect as a strategic threat.

"A third of the country is paralyzed because of this. Who knows whether this will include other citizens as well," he said. "This is a strategic threat…that requires a strategic victory. Those were the objectives set out by the government, justly, wisely, and boldly. They were presented to the security cabinet on the 13th of this month."

Netanyahu also stressed that Israelis will continue to back the government as long as it continues to fight Hizbullah.

"I know there's immense unification in order to achieve the objectives," he said. "It comes from all parts of the country because people know we're facing a different threat. This isn't merely a militia. In order to remove this threat, we recieved support from our greatest friend, the US, which rightfully said: We must do something, because if we don't, what have we done?"

'No objective is more justified'

Bibi aroused the anger of Arab Knesset Members after arguing "this is a war with a justified objective. No objective is more justified. None."

"The difference between us and the terrorists is that we hit (civilians) by mistake, and they do it with malice. This is the difference between a legitimate war and war crimes," he said. "This is the difference between us and them."

"We genuinely attempt to minimize the harm to civilians," he said.

"The journey of war is like any other journey. It starts easily but midway there's a difficult junction where we must decide whether we continue to climb the mountain or stop, and I call on the government: Don't stop midway. Complete the job."

Turning to Arab MKs who earlier referred to the Qana air raid, Netanyahu said: "When missiles were falling, when an (Israeli) grandmother and her granddaughter were murdered, I didn't hear you…"

[American Patriot]

Israeli strikes resume after brief lull
AP ^ | July 31, 2006 | HAMZA HENDAWI

Hezbollah Response to Israeli Air Respite: More Attacks By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer 0855 EDT

QANA, Lebanon - Israeli planes hit targets in southern Lebanon on Monday after Hezbollah guerrillas blasted an Israeli tank and injured three Israeli soldiers, breaking a brief respite in 20 days of fighting.

Before the fighting resumed, pickup trucks and cars loaded with people streamed north as thousands of civilians trapped in south Lebanon's war zone for three weeks took advantage of the brief lull to escape.

Israel had said, in announcing the halt to air strikes earlier Monday, that it would suspend that pledge to end air strikes for 48 hours depending on "operational developments" in Lebanon.

After Hezbollah guerrillas hit an Israeli tank near Taibeh with an anti-tank missile, Israel said it carried out the air strikes to protect its ground troops.

AP Television footage showed two Israeli tanks side by side in southern Lebanon, with flames suddenly covering one of them. Soldiers soon emerged from one tank and did not appear to be badly hurt.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...

[American Patriot]

Hezbollah launches rocket attacks
Herald Sun ^ | 7-31-06

HEZBOLLAH rockets hit the northern Israeli border town of Kiryat Shmona today, the Israeli army said.

It was unclear if there were casualties.

Israel suspended air strikes on southern Lebanon for 48 hours, after an air strike on Qana killed at least 54 civilians yesterday.

But Israeli Justice Minister Haim Ramon said the 48-hour ceasefire did not mean the Jewish state was ending its war against Hezbollah, after Israeli warplanes launched raids on eastern Lebanon, hours after the ceasefire was declared.

"The suspension of our aerial activities does not signify in any way the end to the war. On the contrary, this decision will allow us to win this war and lessen international pressure," Mr Ramon told army radio.

The temporary halt was announced after an Israeli air strike on the southern village of Qana killed 52 people, more than half of them children, triggering outrage across the globe.

"To stop the war at this stage would mean a victory for Hezbollah and for international terrorism, manipulated by Iran and Syria," said Mr Ramon, who is considered close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and is a member of the nation's security cabinet.

Mr Boim said the halt in air attacks would not apply "if we see attempts by the Hezbollah to restock itself with arms and rockets from Syria".

The ceasefire was announced by an aide to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, whose latest Middle East mission was thrown into turmoil by the deadly strike.

The UN Security Council released a statement today saying it "strongly deplores" the deaths from the attack and called for an end to the violence.

But the US forced an emergency meeting of the council to water down the statement, so that Israel was not openly criticised, according to diplomats.

The final statement was agreed after the US announced the ceasefire.

"Israel has agreed to a 48-hour suspension of aerial activity in south Lebanon" pending an investigation into the Qana attack, spokesman Adam Ereli said this morning.

The announcement followed talks between Dr Rice and top Israeli officials.

The halt was effective immediately, Mr Ereli said.

He said Israel would also co-ordinate with the United Nations on a 24-hour period of "safe passage" for civilians wanting to leave the area.

Police said 52 villagers, including 30 children, were killed in the pre-dawn air raid yesterday, which left homes in ruins and villagers trapped under the rubble.

Bahia Hariri, an MP for southern Lebanon, said 15 of the children were disabled.

It was the bloodiest attack since Israel launched its war on the Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah following the capture of two soldiers on July 12.

Israel expressed "regret" over the civilian deaths and ordered an inquiry, but said it had warned residents to leave and pinned the blame on Hezbollah for launching rockets from the village.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also said he was in "no rush" for a truce and told Dr Rice that Israel needed 10 to 14 days more to continue its offensive against Hezbollah, an Israeli government official said.

Separately, the Israeli army said it aimed to establish a "security zone" along the southern Lebanese border by Wednesday.

"By Wednesday we are going to establish a 2km-wide 'security zone' in which there will be no infrastructure or sign of Hezbollah's presence," said army operations chief General Gadi Eisenkaut.

With the death toll rising, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has asked an emergency meeting of the Security Council to call for an immediate ceasefire.

"I'm deeply dismayed that my earlier calls for immediate cessation of hostilities were not heard, with the result that innocent lives continue to be taken," he said, adding that both sides in the conflict were guilty of "grave breaches of international humanitarian law".

The White House, Israel's staunchest backer, urged the Jewish state to use restraint in its military offensive in Lebanon, calling the Qana killings a "horrible event".

"Today's actions in the Middle East remind us that the United States and friends and allies must work for sustainable peace, particularly for the sake of children," US President George W. Bush said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora denounced the Qana carnage as a "war crime", demanding an immediate ceasefire in a conflict that Health Minister Mohammed Khalifeh said had killed 750 people.

Mr Siniora said it would be "normal" for Hezbollah to retaliate over Israel's Qana raid, and thanked the Shiite guerrilla group.

"I thank (Hezbollah leader) Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah for his efforts and I thank all those who are sacrificing their lives for Lebanon's independence," he said, referring to Hezbollah fighters.

An AFP count has put the death toll at more than 500, while the United Nations has said around one-third of the casualties were children.

The village, said to be where Jesus turned water into wine, was also the site of an Israeli bombing of a UN base in April 1996 that killed 105 people during Israel's "Grapes of Wrath" offensive - also aimed at wiping out Hezbollah.

[American Patriot]

Hezbollah is our enemy, too
Jewish World Review ^ | 7-31-06 | Jeff Jacoby

9/11, it was said time and time again, "changed everything." No longer would Americans walk around with eyes wide shut, oblivious to the threat from the Islamofascists. Not our war? Listen again to the Hezbollah hordes: "Death to America! Death to America!"

They're serious about it — deadly serious. Why aren't we?

According to a pair of Gallup polls released last week, 83 percent of Americans say Israel is justified in taking military action against Hezbollah, while 76 percent disapprove of Hezbollah's attacks on Israel. Yet when asked which side in the conflict the United States should take, 65 percent answer: neither side. Indeed, 3 in 4 Americans say they are concerned that the US military will be drawn into the fighting, or that it will increase the likelihood of terrorism against the United States.

Gallup's numbers suggest two things. First, that most Americans, sizing up the warfare in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, recognize that Hezbollah is the aggressor and that Israel is fighting in self-defense. And second, that most Americans believe this fight has nothing to do with the United States.

Welcome to Sept. 10.

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

[samizdat]

Suspicious building collapse-child massacre. Short video of HB hiding hot rocket launchers in residential buildings.

Eshel and the head of the IDF's Operational Branch, Major General Gadi Eisnkot said the structure was not being attacked when it collapsed, at around 8:00 in the morning.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0%2C7340%...83816%2C00.html

The IDF believes that Hizbullah explosives in the building were behind the explosion that caused the collapse.



Another possibility is that the rickety building remained standing for a few hours, but eventually collapsed. "It could be that inside the building, things that could eventually cause an explosion were being housed, things that we could not blow up in the attack, and maybe remained there, Brigadier General Eshel said.

[American Patriot]

The Qana tragedy
National Post (Toronto) ^ | 2006-07-31 | (editorial page)

On Sunday, the Israeli Air Force launched missiles at the Lebanese town of Qana, killing at least 54 civilians, most of them children. It was a horrible tragedy, one that unleashed understandable fury among the people of Lebanon, and sincere expressions of regret among Israeli political and military officials.

Some are calling this a war crime, and they're right. But the culpable party is Hezbollah, not Israel.

While it was Israeli planes that launched the missiles, these attacks did not materialize out of thin air. Since this conflict began on July 12, about 150 rockets have been fired from the vicinity of Qana, with the launchers hidden among civilian targets in the town itself. Speaking to reporters on Sunday evening, Israeli Air Force Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Amir Eshel produced video footage showing the launchers being driven into Qana following fusillades.

For Hezbollah, this is a clever tactic. If Israel doesn't attack Hezbollah's human shields, the group keeps its weapons. If Israel does attack, Hezbollah scores a propaganda victory. From a terrorist's point of view, it's win-win: Hezbollah's leaders don't care about the lives of innocent Lebanese civilians any more than they care about the lives of Jews.

The global community shouldn't let Hezbollah get away with this cynical, deadly game. In its primer on the current conflict, Human Rights Watch (hardly a pro-Israeli outfit) makes it clear which side is guilty of war crimes in Qana: "Hezbollah must take all necessary precautions to protect civilians against the dangers resulting from armed hostilities, and must never use the presence of civilians to shield themselves from attack. That requires positioning its military assets, troops and commanders as much as possible outside of populated areas. The use of human shields is a war crime."

It also bears mention that Israel has done its best to separate Hezbollah from those human shields. On Thursday, three days before the deadly Qana attack, Israeli military radio broadcast repeated warnings into southern Lebanon telling residents their villages would be "totally destroyed" if missiles were fired from them. On Saturday, a day before the attack, Israeli planes dropped leaflets containing the same message.

In many cases, civilians had difficulty acting on these warnings, because Israeli air-strikes on roads made the journey north too difficult and risky. But most people have gotten out. And no reasonable observer can accuse the Israelis of deliberately targeting civilians (as Hezbollah has been doing for three weeks now). If Israel really were seeking to exterminate Lebanese civilians, the body count would be well into five figures.

Nothing that we or anyone else write will ease the agony wrought in Qana and the many other places -- on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border -- where innocents have perished. But mercifully, we in Canada are not in that situation. Our removal from the conflict gives us the ability to look beyond the immediate carnage, and examine the deeper intentions of the parties to this war. And according to both civilized morality and international law, it is not Israel that has the blood of innocents on its hands, but Hezbollah.

[American Patriot]

Hezbolla Using UN Post as Sheild
Ottawa Citizen ^ | July 27,2006 | Joel Kom

The words of a Canadian United Nations observer written just days before he was killed in an Israeli bombing of a UN post in Lebanon are evidence Hezbollah was using the post as a "shield" to fire rockets into Israel, says a former UN commander in Bosnia.

Those words, written in an e-mail dated just nine days ago, offer a possible explanation as to why the post -- which according to UN officials was clearly marked and known to Israeli forces -- was hit by Israel on Tuesday night, said retired Maj.-Gen. Lewis MacKenzie yesterday.

The strike hit the UN observation post in the southern Lebanese village of El Khiam, killing Canadian Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener and three others serving as unarmed UN military observers in the area.

Just last week, Maj. Hess-von Kruedener wrote an e-mail about his experiences after nine months in the area, words Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie said are an obvious allusion to Hezbollah tactics.

"What I can tell you is this," he wrote in an e-mail to CTV dated July 18. "We have on a daily basis had numerous occasions where our position has come under direct or indirect fire from both (Israeli) artillery and aerial bombing.

"The closest artillery has landed within 2 meters (sic) of our position and the closest 1000 lb aerial bomb has landed 100 meters (sic) from our patrol base. This has not been deliberate targeting, but rather due to tactical necessity."

Those words, particularly the last sentence, are not-so-veiled language indicating Israeli strikes were aimed at Hezbollah targets near the post, said Maj.-Gen. MacKenzie.

"What that means is, in plain English, 'We've got Hezbollah fighters running around in our positions, taking our positions here and then using us for shields and then engaging the (Israeli Defence Forces)," he said

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

[American Patriot]

Israeli Officers Slam Air Halt
Jerusalem Post ^ | July 31, 2006 | YAAKOV KATZ

Israel agreed to a 48-hour suspension of aerial activity over southern Lebanon a day after nearly 60 civilians were killed in the southern Lebanese village of Qana.

The cessation went into effect at 2 a.m. on Monday morning.

Senior officers in the northern command crizitezed the decision claiming it hurts the momentum that ground forces had achieved against Hizbullah in soutern Lebanon.

The officers said the decision had taken them by "complete surprise." Some noted that they first heard of the suspension by journalists.

http://peace-and-freedom.blogspot.com/

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

[American Patriot]

ISRAEL'S OLMERT: NO CEASE-FIRE IN LEBANON
YAHOOOO via AP ^ | 7/31/06

QANA, Lebanon - Israeli warplanes carried out strikes in southern Lebanon on Monday, hours after agreeing to temporarily halt air raids while investigating a bombing that killed at least 56 Lebanese civilians, mostly women and children seeking shelter. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said there will be no cease-fire, adding that "Israel is continuing to fight."

[American Patriot]

IDF hacks Nasrallah's TV channel
YNet ^ | July 31, 2006 | Smadar Peri

IDF intelligence unit manages to hack al-Manar broadcast, plant caricature of Hizbullah's leader with caption: 'Your days are numbered'

After repeated Israeli efforts to destroy Hizbullah's al-Manar television station have failed, an IDF intelligence unit succeeded this week in hacking the station's live broadcasts, planting Israeli PR messages in the transmissions..

The al-Manar channel regularly airs juicy propaganda against Israel, including reports of "heroic" and "successful" operations by Hizbullah fighters against IDF special forces.

However, this weekend the IDF prepared a surprise for the Lebanese and Arab viewers of the channel: The broadcast was interrupted and caricatures of Nasrallah appeared on the screen, accompanied by captions reading: "Your days are numbered" and "Nasrallah, your time is up. Soon you won't be with us anymore."

Additionally, Hizbullah and al-Manar internet sites also received "special treatment" by Israeli technical specialists, and several were erased from the internet.

[American Patriot]

Morale Remains High as Hizbullah Begins to Crumble
Arutz Sheva - IsraelNationalNews ^ | 7/31/6 | Yechiel Spira

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert remains firm in his position, to continue Operation Change of Direction, intended to minimize the Hizbullah threat to Israel.


While agreeing to a 48-hour halt of aerial strikes, Olmert continues to exhibit an external calm, aware he enjoys broad cabinet support as well as overwhelming national support for the ongoing military effort.

Hizbullah continues to pound Israeli civilian population centers with rockets, but according to intelligence community reports and senior military commanders, the terror organization is beginning to show signs of weakening, signs that the constant IAF aerial bombardment of Hizbullah positions is taking its toll on the Syrian-Iranian backed insurgent army.

According to veteran northern correspondent Menachem Horowitz, who was a major voice of information during Israel’s presence in the Security Zone, dozens of Kiryat Shmona families began heading home yesterday, Sunday, realizing they have exhausted all alternative living possibilities, now bracing to endure the remainder of the war at home, on the frontline.

Sunday was one of the heaviest days since the war began some three weeks ago. While a number of people sustained moderate and light injuries, and dozens requiring treatment for hysteria, the miracles are continuing. Property damage is significant, estimated at NIS 50 million in Haifa alone, but the loss of life has been relatively low, primarily due to residents adhering to IDF Homefront Command instructions as well as the reality that many residents have opted to travel south, to leave rocket-struck areas.


Opponents to the counter-terror military operation are small in number. While daily demonstrations against the operation are held, mostly amounting to no more than several tens of participants, most of the country remains firmly behind the cabinet decision and the counter-terrorism effort. To date, only one soldier has refused to enlist, a reserve duty captain. Military officials report that many reservists who may not necessarily report to annual reserve duty are doing so now. Volunteers continue to report to their respective reserve duty stations, requesting to join the effort to eliminate the terror threat along Israel’s northern border, a threat that retired IDF Northern District Commander Major-General Yossi Peled blames on the governments which turned a blind eye to the ongoing Hizbullah preparedness during the past six years, since Israel unilateral withdrew from the former southern Lebanon security zone, under the administration of then Prime Minister Ehud Barak.

Peled during a recent television interview stated there are politicians who must “be held accountable,” to answer the “difficult questions,” primarily, where were they while Hizbullah was arming itself and preparing for the next war while Jerusalem looked on?

While much of the international community was in an uproar following the IDF aerial assault on Kafr Qana Sunday, resulting in the deaths of tens of civilians, the United States is remaining firmly behind Israel and the ongoing anti-Hizbullah offensive, realizing the link between the current operation and the war against global Jihad and growing global Islamic fundamentalism. US Secretary of State Dr. Condoleezza Rice issued a cautious warning to Israel following the Qana incident, but even while holding talks towards implementing a ceasefire, the White House is not demanding an immediate halt of the IDF offensive at this time.

A number of senior military commanders have explained that this battle is nothing less than a fight for Israel’s survival, a sentiment apparently shared by most of the citizens. The “homefront” according to General Staff officers has been “exemplary,” commending the approximately 2 million Israelis whose homes, schools, businesses and lives have been under constant Katyusha threat for some three weeks, but citizens remain optimistic and supportive in calls for the continuation of the operation to eliminate the Hizbullah threat.


Military and political analysts predict Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has only a limited window of opportunity left during which the IDF must accomplish its goal, signaling that in the next week-to-two, America will pressure Jerusalem to halt the offensive.

Olmert on the other hand continues to demand the unconditional and immediate release of three IDF soldiers being held by Hizbullah and Hamas as a prerequisite to any ceasefire, as well as Lebanese implementation of United Nations Resolution 1559, demanding the deployment of Lebanese army forces along Israel’s northern border as well as disarming Hizbullah gunmen.

Some analysts also point out that former Prime Minister Ehud Barak has been conspicuously quiet during this time period, while prior to the start of the offensive, he did not miss an opportunity to boast his unilateral action which extricated IDF soldiers from southern Lebanon in May 2000.

Critics warned that his unilateral action would lead to the very situation that exists today, similar to warnings heard last summer when then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon destroyed the Jewish communities in Gush Katif and northern Samaria. The so-called “doomsday prophets” were shunned aside by supporters of the Disengagement Plan, including prominent politicians such as Vice Premier Shimon Peres, who today is a vocal proponent of Olmert’s military action, not addressing his remarks of last summer in which he was unwilling to heed warnings that the unilateral retreat from Gaza will result in rocket attacks in Sderot, Ashkelon and other areas, as is the case today.