LCCC ENGLISH
NEWS BULLETIN
August 4/2006
Latest New
from The Daily Star for August 4/2006
Ahmadinejad's solution: 'elimination' of Israel
France floats new cease-fire resolution at Security Council
Siniora sees little chance of early peace
Palestinian refugees look forward to engaging invaders
Hizbullah offers to spare civilians if Israeli military does the same
Israeli inquiry into Qana admits mistake
Reporters risk their lives to get the story and tell the world
An open letter to former Prime Minister Salim Hoss
Berri: Prepare now for post-war reconstruction
French health minister announces additional aid
Fuel crisis threatens to shut hospitals
Baalbek: not exactly the image of 'terror central'
Ominous signs of the war's potential regional
consequences
Any multinational force in Lebanon will wade into a
regional viper's nest.By Marco Vicenzino
For Iran, a most welcome proxy war -By
Sanam Vakil
Latest New
from miscellaneous sources for August 4/2006
The Siniora Syndrome-Yahoo! News - USA
UK's Blair sees UN Lebanon
resolution within days-SABC
News
Israel readies
new push into Lebanon-AP
Israeli army carves out Lebanon "security zone": TV-Reuters - USA
Blair expects Lebanon resolution to be agreed within days-Unison.ie -
Bray,Ireland
Rocket barrage in Israel kills at least
seven-AP
France circulates revised
Mideast resolution-AP
Rocket barrage in Israel kills six
people-AP
Ahmadinejad: Destroy Israel,
end crisis-AP
Lebanese parliamentary leader to come to Moscow for talks-Interfax
Conflict in Lebanon-San Francisco Chronicle
Israel to create buffer zone in Lebanon-Daily News & Analysis
FACTBOX-Prisoner swap may be key to any Lebanon ceasefire-Reuters
Why
Syria's Tough Talk Won't Turn Into Action-TIME
Syria ready to help end Israel-Lebanon war-Moratinos-Reuters
Rocket Barrage in Israel Kills 6 People-ABC News
ANALYSIS-Israel, Hizbollah seek victory from
stalemate-Reuters
Blair signals no objection to Israel arms
flights-Washington Post
Lebanon crisis: Both sides count the cost-Mail &
Guardian Online
Hezbollah: No
cease-fire without pullout-AP
Israel resumes Beirut bombing-Times Online - UK
Israel and Hizbollah continue attacks as the Israeli PM predictsTelegraph.co.uk
Israeli troops move deeper into Lebanon-Dispatch
Online - South Africa
Israelis Renew Air Strikes in Lebanon-ABC News - USA
U.N.
Lebanon resolution may come next week-AP
Israel admits mistakes in deadly raid-AP
IDF operating in 20 south Lebanon villages-Ynetnews
- Israel
Israelis renew air strikes in Lebanon-Houston
Chronicle
Rice covers for Lebanese government-Jerusalem
Newswire -
Blair sees UN Lebanon resolution within days-Reuters.uk
Muslims press UN for truce in Lebanon-Seattle
Post Intelligencer
France says winning argument over Lebanon peace-Reuters
Israelis line up behind Lebanon campaign-Reuters
Hezbollah leader threatens Tel
Aviv
By SAM F. GHATTAS, Associated Press Writer
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah's leader offered Thursday to stop rocket attacks on
northern Israel in return for an end to airstrikes throughout Lebanon.
However, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah also vowed to fire rockets into Tel Aviv if
Israel strikes Beirut proper. Israeli warplanes have repeatedly bombarded
Hezbollah strongholds in southern suburbs of Beirut.
"If you bomb our capital Beirut, we will bomb the capital of your usurping
entity... We will bomb Tel Aviv," he said in a taped televised speech.
In issuing the threat, Nasrallah offered his first opening toward diminishing
the three-week-old conflict, which has taken more than 500 Lebanese lives and
killed more than 50 Israelis.
"Anytime you decide to stop your campaign against our cities, villages,
civilians and infrastructure, we will not fire rockets on any Israeli settlement
or city," he said.
In his statement, Nasrallah also said his fighters have inflicted "maximum
casualties" on Israeli ground troops and that his guerrillas are "fighting until
the last breath and last bullet."
Israel launches new airstrikes on Beirut
By HAMZA HENDAWI, Associated Press Writer
BOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon - Israel renewed airstrikes on Beirut's southern
suburbs Thursday and an Israeli missile killed three people in a border village,
a day after Hezbollah launched its biggest rocket barrage yet on the Jewish
state.
The Shiite guerrillas retaliated by firing at least 132 rockets at northern
Israel — 100 within several minutes — killing at least eight people in Acre and
Maalot. The death toll matched Israel's bloodiest day of the conflict, when
eight people were killed July 16 near a train maintenance depot.
Three weeks into the conflict, six Israeli brigades — roughly 10,000 troops —
were locked in fighting with hundreds of Hezbollah guerrillas in southern
Lebanon, and the battle looked likely to be long and bitter.
Defense Minister Amir Peretz told top army officers Thursday to begin preparing
to push Israeli control 18 miles inside Lebanon to the Litani River, senior
military officials said. The army says it already has taken up positions as far
as five miles; moving farther would require approval by Israel's Security
Cabinet.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said more than 900 people had been killed
and 3,000 wounded, but he did not say whether the new figure — up from 520
confirmed dead — included people missing.
More than 1 million people, a quarter of Lebanon's population, have been
displaced, he said, adding that the fighting "is taking an enormous toll on
human life and infrastructure, and has totally ravaged our country and shattered
our economy."
At the United Nations, France circulated a revised resolution calling for an
immediate cessation of Israeli-Hezbollah hostilities.
It also spells out conditions for a lasting solution to the crisis, including:
deploying peacekeepers; creating a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of
Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops; the release of two Israeli soldiers
abducted by Hezbollah; and the "settlement of the issue of the Lebanese
prisoners detained in Israel."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said he hoped to see an agreement on a
resolution in the next few days.
So far, Washington has resisted calls for a cease-fire without simultaneous
steps to deploy peacekeepers and tackle Hezbollah's disarmament. France insists
the fighting be halted first to pave the way for a wider peace.
Elsewhere, an emergency meeting of the Islamic world's biggest bloc demanded
that the United Nations implement an immediate cease-fire and investigate what
it called Israel's flagrant human rights violations. Iran's hardline president
said the obliteration of Israel would cure the Middle East's woes.
Amid the diplomatic wrangling, Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah offered
to stop the missile attacks on Israeli cities if Israel stops attacks on
Lebanese towns.Speaking in a taped television address, he also threatened to
fire rockets into Tel Aviv if Israel attacks downtown Beirut.
Earlier, Hezbollah's chief spokesman said his group will not agree to a
cease-fire until all Israeli troops leave Lebanon.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told The Associated Press on Wednesday that
his country would stop its offensive only after international peacekeepers were
in place in southern Lebanon. The Israeli army said its soldiers had taken up
positions in or near 11 towns and villages across south Lebanon as they try to
carve out a five-mile-wide Hezbollah-free zone ahead of deployment of a
multinational force there.
In fighting Thursday:
_Three Israeli soldiers were killed when a rocket hit their tank in the Lebanese
border village of Rajmil, the army said.
_In the border village of Taibeh, an Israeli missile crashed into a two-story
house, killing a couple and their daughter, Lebanese security officials said.
Guerrillas clashed with Israeli troops, destroying a tank and two bulldozers and
wounding its crew members, Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV said. The Israeli army said
only a tank was lightly hit.
_In the first air raids on Beirut in almost a week, witnesses said at least four
missiles hit the southern suburb of Dahieh, a Shiite Muslim area repeatedly
shelled by Israel. Lebanese television said the attacks targeted a Hezbollah
compound damaged by earlier raids.
_Later Thursday, Israeli jets dropped leaflets over southern Beirut warning
residents to evacuate three Shiite neighborhoods, a possible prelude to more
attacks.
_Warplanes carried out at least five air raids near villages around the southern
market town of Nabatiyeh, Lebanese security officials said. The officials said
there were heavy clashes between guerrillas and troops near the border towns of
Kfar Kila and Adaisse, where they said two Israeli tanks were destroyed.
_Israeli warplanes fired more than a dozen missiles at roads and suspected
guerrilla hideouts in the southeastern town of Rashaya, the security officials
said. They said the attacks were part of Israel's strategy to destroy Lebanon's
infrastructure. _Other strikes hit targets near the northern border with Syria
overnight, Lebanese radio said. It was the second attack in the area in 24
hours, after a bridge linking the zone to the northern port of Tripoli was
destroyed Wednesday. On Wednesday, two Israeli soldiers were killed and four
wounded in heavy ground battles around the southern village of Ayt a-Shab, the
Israeli military said Thursday. It said four Hezbollah fighters were killed and
two wounded; there was no confirmation from Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, an Israeli military inquiry into the bombing Sunday of a building in
the southern village of Qana, which killed mostly women and children, admitted a
mistake but charged that Hezbollah guerrillas used civilians as shields. "Had
the information indicated that civilians were present ... the attack would not
have been carried out," a statement from the inquiry said.
While Lebanese officials said 56 died in Qana, Human Rights Watch said Wednesday
there were 28 known dead and 13 missing. The AP on Thursday interviewed
officials in the Lebanese Red Cross and Civil Defense Corps and reached the same
numbers. George Kitane, head of Lebanese Red Cross paramedics, said 19 children
were among the dead. Using those revised totals from Qana, at least 520 Lebanese
have been killed since the fighting began three weeks ago, including 445
civilians confirmed dead by the Health Ministry, 25 Lebanese soldiers and at
least 46 Hezbollah guerrillas.
In all, 67 Israelis have been confirmed dead — 40 soldiers in fighting, 27
civilians killed in Hezbollah rocket attacks.
The prospect of a longer war already has raised tensions across the Mideast,
where anti-Israeli and anti-American hostility is high.
In Malaysia, leaders of key countries in the 56-nation Organization of the
Islamic Conference issued a declaration calling for a U.N.-implemented
cease-fire and warning that the Israeli-Hezbollah fighting would fan Muslim
radicalism worldwide. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad — who has in the past
called for Israel to be wiped off the map — said "the main solution (to the
Mideast conflict) is for the elimination of the Zionist regime."
Jordan's King Abdullah II, a key U.S. ally, warned that the prolonged battle in
Lebanon has weakened moderates all across the Mideast.
Human Rights Watch <hrw-news@topica.email-publisher.com>
Sent : August 3, 2006 3:42:49 AM
Subject : Israel/Lebanon: Qana Death Toll at 28
International Inquiry Needed into Israeli Air Strike
(Beirut, August 2, 2006) – A preliminary Human Rights Watch investigation into
the July 30 Israeli air strike in Qana found that 28 people are confirmed dead
thus far, among them 16 children, Human Rights Watch said today. "The deaths in
Qana were the predictable result of Israel's indiscriminate bombing campaign in
Lebanon," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa
division at Human Rights Watch. "Only an impartial international investigation
can find out what really took place." The initial estimate of 54 persons killed
was based on a register of 63 persons who had sought shelter in the basement of
the building that was struck, and rescue teams having located nine survivors. It
now appears that at least 22 people escaped the basement, and 28 are confirmed
dead, according to records from the Lebanese Red Cross and the government
hospital in Tyre. Thirteen people remain missing, and some Qana residents fear
they are buried in the rubble, although recovery efforts have stopped. Human
Rights Watch conducted detailed interviews with two witnesses to the Qana
attack, including one person who was in the building during the strike, and a
second person who lived in the neighborhood and assisted in the recovery effort.
According to Muhammad Mahmud Shalhub, a 61-year-old farmer who was in the
basement during the attack, 63 members of the extended Shalhub and Hashim
families sought shelter in three ground-floor rooms of a solid three-story
building when the first bombs hit the village. Israeli planes began attacking
the area in the early evening of July 29, he said, striking more than 50 times.
He explained how, around 1 a.m. on July 30, an Israeli munition hit the ground
floor of the home:
It felt like someone lifted the house. The ground floor of the house is 2.5
meters high. When the first strike hit, it hit below us and the whole house
lifted, the rocket hit under the house. I was sitting by the door – it got very
dusty and smoky – and we were all in shock. I was not injured and found myself
[thrown] outside. There was a lot of screaming inside. When I tried to go back
in, I couldn't see because of the smoke. I started pushing people out; whomever
I could find.
Five minutes later, another air strike came and hit the other side of the
building, behind us. After the second strike, we could barely breathe and we
couldn't see anything. There were three rooms in the house where people were
hiding [on the ground floor]. After the first strike, a lot of earth was pushed
up into the rooms. We only managed to find some people in the first room.
Shalhub vigorously denied that any Hezbollah fighters were present in or around
the home when the attack took place. All four roads to Qana village had been cut
by Israeli bombs, he said, which would have made it difficult, if not
impossible, for Hezbollah to move rocket launchers into the village. "If they
[the IDF] really saw the rocket launcher, where did it go?" Shalhub said. "We
showed Israel our dead; why don't the Israelis show us the rocket launchers?"
Ghazi `Udaybi, another Qana villager who rushed to the house when it was hit at
1 a.m., gave an account consistent with Shalhub's. He and others removed a
number of people from the building after the first strike, he said, but they
could remove no one else after the second strike hit five minutes later. "If
Hezbollah was firing near the house, would a family of over 50 people just sit
there?" he said to Human Rights Watch.
The Israeli government initially claimed that the military targeted the house
because Hezbollah fighters had fired rockets from the area. Human Rights Watch
researchers who visited Qana on July 31, the day after the attack, did not find
any destroyed military equipment in or near the home. Similarly, none of the
dozens of international journalists, rescue workers and international observers
who visited Qana on July 30 and 31 reported seeing any evidence of Hezbollah
military presence in or around the home. Rescue workers recovered no bodies of
apparent Hezbollah fighters from inside or near the building.
The IDF subsequently changed its story, with one of Israel's top military
correspondents reporting on August 1 that, "It now appears that the military had
no information on rockets launched from the site of the building, or the
presence of Hezbollah men at the time."
"Again and again, Israeli forces have fired at dubious military targets with a
high civilian cost," Whitson said. "Their brazen behavior has costs hundreds of
lives."
The names of those confirmed killed from Lebanese Red Cross and Tyre hospital
records are:
1. Ahmad Mahmud Shalhub, 55
2. Ibrahim Hashim, 65
3. Husna Hashim, 75
4. `Ali Ahmad Hashim, 3
5. `Abbas Ahmad Hashim, 9 months
6. Hura' Muhammad Qassim Shalhub, 12
7. Mahdi Mahmud Hashim, 68
8. Zahra Muhammad Qassim Shalhub, 2
9. Ibrahim Ahmad Hashim, 7
10. Ja`far Mahmud Hashim, 10
11. Lina Muhammad Mahmud Shalhub, 30
12. Nabila `Ali Amin Shalhub, 40
13. `Ula Ahmad Mahmud Shalhub, 25
14. Khadija `Ali Yusif, 31
15. Taysir `Ali Shalhub, 39
16. Zaynab Muhammad `Ali Amin Shalhub, 6
17. Fatima Muhammad Hashim, 4
18. `Ali Ahmad Mahmud Shalhub, 17
19. Maryam Hassan Muhsin, 30
20. `Afaf al-Zabad, 45
21. Yahya Muhammad Qassim Shalhub, 9
22. `Ali Muhammad Kassim Shalhub, 10
23. Yusif Ahmad Mahmud Shalhub, 6
24. Qassim Samih Shalhub, 9
25. Hussain Ahmad Hashim, 12
26. Qassim Muhammad Shalhub, 7
27. Raqita Mahmud Shalhub, 7
28. Rukaya Muhammad Hashim, unknown
For more of Human Rights Watch's work on the Israel/Lebanon conflict,
please visit: http://hrw.org/campaigns/israel_lebanon/
Israel resumes Beirut bombing
By Times Online, Stephen Farrell in Jerusalem and Richard Beeston
Israeli warplanes resumed strikes against Beirut’s battered southern suburbs
this morning after a six-day lull, as ground troops attempted to seize border
hills from Hezbollah militants. The renewed strikes come as Fouad Siniora, the
Lebanese Prime Minister, said that Israel’s offensive has killed more than 900
people and left 3,000 wounded. A third of the casualties in the conflict that
has raged over the past three weeks were children under 12, he added.
In a video message to a summit of leaders of the Muslim world, Mr Siniora also
said a quarter of the population – one million people, had been displaced.
Fifty-six Israelis, including 37 soldiers, have been killed in the conflict.
Muslim leaders, meeting in Malaysia today demanded that the UN implement
immediate ceasefire in Lebanon. In New York, American, British and French
diplomats said that they were close to agreement on the wording of a UN
resolution that would call for an immediate halt to fighting and open the way
for a second resolution authorising multinational force.
But differences between France and the United States forced the United Nations
to again postpone a planned meeting today of potential contributors to an
international force. Ehud Olmert has set out his conditions to bring an end to
the fighting in Lebanon calling for a robust force of 15,000 foreign combat
troops, including British soldiers, to be deployed in the south of the country.
In an interview with The Times in Jerusalem, the Israeli Prime Minister, said
that the conflict could be over as soon as the United Nations Security Council
authorised an international force and the troops were in place.
Nevertheless, Mr Olmert seemed confident that the fighting could be stopped
within days. "I do not think that it will take weeks," he said. "I think that a
resolution will be made some time next week by the UN Security Council and then
it depends on the rapidity of deployment of the international forces into the
south of Lebanon." Mr Olmert insisted that the Jewish state would not stop
fighting until a force arrived equipped and mandated to implement UN Security
Council Resolution 1559 — code for disarming Hezbollah — and he made clear that
there would be an "overlap period" between Israeli pullout and multinational
arrival.
"I think it has to have about 15,000 soldiers. I think that’s more or less what
the international community understands," he said.
He also said that Israel would not welcome a unit similar to the existing UN
Interim Force In Lebanon (Unifil), which he said had proved ineffective in
halting Hezbollah’s seizure of southern Lebanon. "It has to be made up of
armies, not of retirees, of real soldiers, not of pensioners who have come to
spend leisurely months in south Lebanon but, rather, an army with combat units
that is prepared to implement the UN resolution."
He added: "We will not pull out and we will not stop shooting until there is an
international force that will effectively control the area." Amid intense
behind-the-scenes efforts to narrow the differences, UN ambassadors and
governments expressed optimism that a UN accord was now within reach. The French
ambassador, Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, said: "We are working very well. We are
getting closer, much closer."In Washington, the State Department spokesman, Sean
McCormack, said: "I would say that our point of view and the French point of
view are really converging, to the point now where we are working off a single
text of a draft resolution." A draft of that resolution could be circulated in
New York today.
On the ground in southern Lebanon, an lsraeli missile killed a family of three
this morning when it slammed into a house in Taibeh, a village close to the
border. Clashes with Israeli troops were also reported in another border
village, Aita al-Shaab where two Israeli tanks and two bulldozers were
destroyed, killing and wounding their crews. Security officials said six
missiles struck roads in the southern villages of Mlita and Ein Bouswar in the
Iqlim al Tuffah province.
Israeli troops also raided southern Gaza early today, killing at least seven
Palestinians, including four militants and an 8-year-old boy. Twenty-six
Palestinians were wounded in the air strikes, at least 10 of them militants,
security and hospital officials said. An Israeli inquiry into Sunday’s bombing
of Qana, where it was initially reported that 52 Lebanese civilians, most of
them children, were killed, said the military had made a mistake.The army
inquiry found that the military would not have attacked if they knew there were
civilians in the building.
"Israel did not know there were civilians in the building," the Israeli military
said in a statement. "Had the information indicated that civilians were
present…the attack would not have been carried out."Lebanese hospital officials
this morning also revised down the number of people killed in the Israeli air
raids to 28 dead. The initial estimate had been based on a register of more than
50 people who had sought shelter in the basement of a building that was struck.
"Twenty-eight people are confirmed dead, including 16 children, and nine were
wounded, " officials at the Tyre government hospital said. Hezbollah fired a
record number of 213 rockets into Israel yesterday, with some penetrating the
West Bank, the farthest that they have reached.
Israel and Hizbollah continue attacks as the Israeli PM
predicts UN vote next week
(Filed: 03/08/2006)
Israeli war planes have renewed strikes against Beirut's southern suburbs this
morning after the biggest and farthest-reaching rocket attacks yet from
Hizbollah.
Ehud Olmert said Israel was close to its goal As the Israel-Lebanon conflict
entered its fourth week, 8,000 Israeli troops were in south Lebanon, engaged in
fighting from village to village. Ehud Olmert, Israel's Prime Minister, repeated
his conviction that Israel is "very close" to its goal against Hizbollah in a
newspaper interview published in Italy's Corriere della Sera today. Mr Olmert
said that, contrary to what she was quoted as saying earlier this week,
Condoleezza Rice, the American secretary of state, did not expect a truce to end
fighting in Lebanon in the next few days. "It's more likely that there will be a
vote in the United Nations next week," Mr Olmert said. He said that, in order to
accept a peace agreement, Israel would have feel that the threat from Hizbollah
was over.
Olmert reiterated that Israel will keep fighting Hizbollah until a strong
international force is in place in south Lebanon. Any such force should be
deployed immediately after the start of a ceasefire, he said. Today Lebanese
hospital officials in Tyre released revised figures on the Israeli air raids on
the southern Lebanese village of Qana. Initially reports had listed 52 dead, but
now officials say 28 were killed, including 16 children, and 11 people,
including six children, remain missing.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch has confirmed the latest Qana figures.
Peter MacKay's brutal honesty
National Post
Published: Thursday, August 03, 2006
Good for Peter MacKay. It is not every politician who would go so far as to call
the terrorist group Hezbollah "a cancer on Lebanon," as our Foreign Affairs
Minister did Tuesday before a House of Commons committee. And Mr. MacKay was
right, too, to pledge that Canada will support no Middle East ceasefire that
does not include the disarmament of Hezbollah, on the basis that a cessation in
fighting "cannot be a temporary solution to allow for the rearmament of a
terrorist body." His remarks were the latest examples of the Conservative
government's principled stance in current hostilities -- a far cry from the
Liberals' feckless feigned neutrality.
As several eminent military historians told the National Post this week, it is a
myth that Canada has always taken a "neutral" stance during conflicts in the
region. Until the Liberals were elected in 1993, Canada had usually taken "a
moderately pro-Israel stance," according to David Bercuson, a military historian
at the University of Calgary. We have not, mind you, always sided with the
Jewish state: During the 1956 Suez Crisis, for instance, Canada opposed the
occupation of the Anglo-Egyptian canal favoured by Israel. But throughout the
1960s, 1970s and 1980s, as Israel battled for its existence against neighbours
and a plethora of terror groups, Ottawa offered mild to enthusiastic support. As
Prof. Bercuson put it: "It's basically the last [Liberal] government that
shifted Canada's position ... to a sort of 'We don't want to take sides'
stance."
Under the Liberals, Canada failed to oppose annual UN resolutions that condemned
Israel as racist and war-mongering, while being silent on the atrocities
perpetrated by Arab dictators and terrorists. We permitted the Canadian
International Development Agency (CIDA) to fund hate-mongering textbooks and
school lessons in the West Bank and Gaza. We knowingly looked the other way when
Palestinian leaders took our development money and either secreted it to their
personal Swiss bank accounts or used it to buy rockets and guns to kill Israeli
civilians rather than building roads and schools or feeding their own people.
While the Liberals might want to fool themselves into believing that this
amounted to neutrality, it was in effect wilful blindness. And far from earning
us the "honest broker" position the Liberals claim, it cost us our credibility
and thus our ability to influence events in the region.
The Liberals are still at it, too. While complaining for nearly a month about
the pro-Israel stance taken by Stephen Harper's government, they voted Tuesday
with the other opposition parties not to hear witnesses from the region after
Mr. MacKay finished his 90 minutes of testimony before the Commons foreign
affairs committee. Many of the witnesses were expected to be critical of
Hezbollah and complimentary of Conservative efforts to extract Canadian citizens
from the war zone. But rather than risk having their "neutral" stance revealed
as a naive or biased one, the Liberals worked with the NDP and Bloc to silence
witnesses who had seen what is truly going on in this war.
Even front-running Liberal leadership candidate Michael Ignatieff, once a strong
advocate of a vigorous war against terrorism, has seemingly abandoned his
principles in favour of holding on to his supporters within the party. In a
drippy op-ed in Tuesday's Globe and Mail, Mr. Ignatieff bemoaned the damage the
current war is doing to Canada's multicultural ideals and ethnic communities,
proposed an immediate ceasefire and chastised the Conservatives (whose position
is similar to the one he himself held until seeking the top Liberal job) for
failing "to stake out the positive role that Canada could play in defusing the
crisis."
The "positive" roles sought by the Liberals are hardly worth emulating. If
Canada is to have any influence over peace in the Middle East, the honest
approach taken by the Conservatives is the only option.
Time for Canada to take a stand
National Post
Published: Thursday, August 03, 2006
Re: Canadian Neutrality A Myth, Aug. 2.
I read this article with interest. I was glad to see the National Post address
the issue because I was beginning to think my memory was failing.
My recollection of what Canada has generally done, and should do, is that we
base our position on facts and principle and then clearly and unambiguously
state our position to the world (with some deference to effective diplomacy) and
take the actions we deem appropriate in accord with our position. To state it
another way, we look at the known facts, make the necessary analysis and
judgments with the goal of applying the unbiased wisdom of an ideal judge,
formulate a position and announce it. This means making judgments anew based on
changing circumstances and news in the context of the whole situation over time.
The above is neutral in the sense that we do not start with a bias in favour of
one party or the other based on race, ethnicity or religion, etc., or our
self-interest (except an interest in peace and right and wrong). It is not
neutral in the sense that our conclusions result in a stated position and
concomitant actions that express favour or disapproval of the actions of one
party or the other. As the article points out, with the exception of the
Chretien/Martin era, Canada has openly, clearly and unambiguously laid out its
position on Mideast matters. Historically this sometimes could be seen as
favourable to Arabs or Muslims or both and, somewhat more often, was seen as
favourable to Israel (notably establishing a strong reputation opposing Britain
and Israel in the Suez, with the objective of maximizing the opportunity for
peace).
If a state does not speak and act the way Canada has traditionally done, then it
will never be able to "punch above its weight" in terms of influencing the
world. Canada's relative silence under Chretien/Martin is why many Canadians now
lament that we no longer punch above our weight. In trying to please everyone,
our positions (to the extent they existed) became irrelevant. We simply traded
on our past reputation. Many Canadian fail to realize how we got the reputation
and how trading on it, rather than acting in accord with it, greatly damaged
what we are justly proud of having contributed.
Paul Hornsby, Toronto.
Human Rights Watch <hrw-news@topica.email-publisher.com>
Reply-To : <webadmin@hrw.org>
Sent : August 3, 2006 3:31:17 PM
Subject : Israel/Lebanon: End Indiscriminate Strikes on
Civilians
Israel/Lebanon: End Indiscriminate Strikes on Civilians Some Israeli Attacks
Amount to War Crimes
(Beirut, August 3, 2006) – Israeli forces have systematically failed to
distinguish between combatants and civilians in their military campaign
against Hezbollah in Lebanon, Human Rights Watch said in report released today.
The pattern of attacks in more than 20 cases investigated
by Human Rights Watch researchers in Lebanon indicates that the failures cannot
be dismissed as mere accidents and cannot be blamed on wrongful
Hezbollah practices. In some cases, these attacks constitute war crimes. The
50-page report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against
Civilians in Lebanon," analyzes almost two dozen cases of Israeli air and
artillery attacks on civilian homes and vehicles. Of the 153 dead civilians
named in the report, 63 are children. More than 500 people have been killed in
Lebanon by Israeli fire since fighting began on July 12, most of them civilians.
"The pattern of attacks shows the Israeli military's disturbing disregard for
the lives of Lebanese civilians," said Kenneth Roth, executive director of
Human Rights Watch. "Our research shows that Israel's claim that Hezbollah
fighters are hiding among civilians does not explain, let alone
justify, Israel's indiscriminate warfare."
The report is based on extensive interviews with victims and witnesses of
attacks, visits to some blast sites, and information obtained from hospitals,
humanitarian groups, security forces and government agencies. Human Rights Watch
also conducted research in Israel, assessing the weapons
used by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Human Rights Watch researchers found
numerous cases in which the IDF launched artillery and air attacks with limited
or dubious military objectives but excessive civilian cost. In many cases,
Israeli forces struck an area with no apparent military target. In some
instances, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians.
In one case, an Israeli air strike on July 13 destroyed the home of a cleric
known to have sympathy for Hezbollah but who was not known to have
taken any active part in the hostilities. Even if the IDF considered him a
legitimate target (and Human Rights Watch has no evidence that he was),
the strike killed him, his wife, their 10 children and the family's Sri Lankan
maid.
On July 16, an Israeli aircraft fired on a civilian home in the village of
Aitaroun, killing 11 members of the al-Akhrass family, among them seven
Canadian-Lebanese dual nationals who were vacationing in the village when the
war began. Human Rights Watch independently interviewed
three villagers who vigorously denied that the family had any connection to
Hezbollah. Among the victims were children aged one, three, five and
seven. The Israeli government has blamed Hezbollah for the high civilian
casualty toll in Lebanon, insisting that Hezbollah fighters have hidden
themselves and their weapons among the civilian population. However, in none of
the cases of civilian deaths documented in the report is there
evidence to suggest that Hezbollah was operating in or around the area during or
prior to the attack.
"Hezbollah fighters must not hide behind civilians – that's an absolute – but
the image that Israel has promoted of such shielding as the cause of so
high a civilian death toll is wrong," Roth said. "In the many cases of civilian
deaths examined by Human Rights Watch, the location of Hezbollah troops and arms
had nothing to do with the deaths because there was no Hezbollah around."
Statements from Israeli government officials and military leaders suggest
that, at the very least, the IDF has blurred the distinction between civilians
and combatants, arguing that only people associated with Hezbollah
remain in southern Lebanon, so all are legitimate targets of attack. Under
international law, however, only civilians directly participating in hostilities
lose their immunity from attack. Many civilians have been unable to flee because
they are sick, wounded, do not have the means to
leave or are providing essential civil services.
Many civilians are afraid to leave the south because the roads are under Israeli
attack. Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese have fled their homes, but Israeli
forces have fired with warplanes and artillery on dozens of civilian vehicles,
many flying white flags. Israel has justified its attacks on roads by citing the
need to target Hezbollah fighters moving arms and block their transport routes.
However, none of the evidence gathered by Human Rights Watch or reported to date
by independent media sources indicate that any of the attacks on vehicles
documented in the report resulted in Hezbollah casualties or the destruction of
weapons. Rather, the attacks have killed and wounded civilians who were fleeing
their homes after the IDF issued instructions to evacuate.
"Israeli warnings of imminent attacks do not turn civilians into military
targets," said Roth. "Otherwise, Palestinian militant groups might ‘warn'
Israeli settlers to leave their settlements and then feel justified in attacking
those who remained."
Human Rights Watch urges Israel to immediately end indiscriminate attacks and
distinguish at all times between civilians and combatants. Human Rights Watch
also calls on the United States to immediately suspend transfers of arms,
ammunition, and other materiel credibly alleged to have been used in violation
of international humanitarian law in Lebanon, until these violations cease.
Human Rights Watch further asks the Secretary-General of the United Nations to
establish an International Commission of Inquiry to investigate reports of such
violations, including possible war crimes, and to formulate recommendations with
a view to holding accountable those who violated the law. That commission should
examine both Israeli attacks in Lebanon and Hezbollah attacks in Israel.
In previous reporting, Human Rights Watch has addressed the conduct of Hezbollah
forces, condemning its attacks on civilian areas as serious
violations of international humanitarian law amounting to war crimes. Human
Rights Watch has called on the governments of Syria and Iran to
use their influence on Hezbollah to promote respect for the laws of war. In this
report, it urges Hezbollah to take all feasible steps to avoid locating
military objectives within or near densely populated areas and to remove
civilian persons and objects under its control from the vicinity of military
objectives.
To read the report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against
Civilians in Lebanon," please visit: http://hrw.org/reports/2006/lebanon0806/
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The Cedars Revolution
Representing the hopes and aspirations of the great majority of the many
millions of Lebanese throughout the Diaspora
www.cedarsrevolution.org
cedarsrevolution@aol.com
Media Release
Sydney Australia
Thursday 3rd August 2006
Syria continues to meddle in Lebanese affairs……………
In the most hectic time of recent history, becoming a spectator from the
sidelines is hardly the preferred position of a Syrian regime reputed to be the
world’s biggest exporter of terrorism, especially when the regional complexion
is changing by each hour of every day.
Whether by design or otherwise, Syria cannot help itself, as it is up to its
neck in the struggle for supremacy in reshaping the face, the culture and the
image of life in the middle east, certainly for the present and undoubtedly for
the foreseeable future.
Seething still, at the forceful and humiliating exit of its military personnel
from Lebanon, Syria is anything but neighborly or conciliatory. After such a
humbling and deflating experience at the hands of the people of Lebanon during
the rise and march of the one and half million loyal Lebanese onto Liberty
Square in their Capitol, Beirut, to reclaim their dignity and independence from
their ruthless occupiers. Syria cannot rest until it shows its anger to the
world.
As identified by the United Nations Investigation Team, in a deliberate and
carefully planned campaign, like a volcano reaching boiling point, the Syrian
regime exploded, with a rush of blood to the head, orchestrated through its
Lebanese puppets and executed its anger on the 14th of February 2005,
assassinating Former Prime Minister Hariri, Finance Minister Fleihan and 20
other people with them on the streets of Beirut.
Syria’s insatiable appetite for destruction and killing could not be satisfied
as it continued to hunt and assassinate the likes of freedom fighting
journalist, Liberation hero and spokesman annahar newspaper general manager
Gibran Tueini MP, his fellow journalist Samir Kassir and Political heavyweight
George Hawi, followed quickly by the attempted assassination of media Icon May
Chidiac.
Syria’s embarrassment at leaving Lebanon has created an even greater hatred for
its foes in Lebanon and given it more impetus in planning to retaliate with its
partner in crime, Iran, through their mutual love child Hezbollah.
Failing to adhere to UNSCR1559, Syria has breached its commitment to the
international community by entering Lebanon on a daily basis through no less
than 36 locations on the Lebanese/Syrian border. Syria authorizes its military
and militias to enter Lebanon, build sand dunes for training and returns back to
Syrian territory by daybreak the next morning. Syria has completely taken
control of five to fifteen kilometers inside Lebanese territory along its
borders to the degree that Lebanese farmers are unable to reach their farmland
for their daily work.
The World Council for the Cedars Revolution (WCCR) has met UN Ambassador Terj
Rod Larson and has written to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, requesting
urgently an international military force in conjunction with the Lebanese armed
forces to be deployed along the Lebanese / Syrian border in order to protect
Lebanon’s territorial integrity.
The WCCR expresses in the strongest possible terms its disapproval of the
conflict in Southern Lebanon and deplores the loss of life on both sides of the
conflict. Once again we call for the international military force to deploy
along the Lebanese/Israeli border for the protection of the sovereignty of both
nations.
The WCCR has already submitted a draft resolution to the UNSC calling for the
forceful implementation of UNSCR1559.
For and on behalf of the World Council for the Cedars Revolution
Joseph P Baini, President - Australia Dr Walid Phares, Political
Analyst and Advisor – USA
Tom Harb Committee for UNSCR1559 – USA
Dr Rachid Rahme Secretary General WCCR – Lebanon
Dr Anis Karam World President WLCU – USA
John Hajjar International Relations WCCR – USA
Claudia Chater Legal Advisor WCCR - Brazil
Roni Doumit Coordinator WCCR - Europe
Eblan Farris Communications Coordinator WCCR – USA
Joseph Saouk Board Member – Sweden
Toni Nissi Coordinator Committee for UNSC1559 –
Lebanon
Fadi Bark Secretary General WLCU – USA
Kamal El Batal Human Rights Officer WCCR – Lebanon
Joseph Sokhen Committee for UNSCR1559 – Lebanon
George Chaya Media Coordinator Spanish America -
Argentina