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This is an outrage!

by Open-Publishing - Wednesday 19 July 2006
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Wars and conflicts International USA

United States to Israel: you have one more week to blast Hizbullah

Bush ’gave green light’ for limited attack, say Israeli and UK sources

Ewen MacAskill, Simon Tisdall and Patrick Wintour
Wednesday July 19, 2006
The Guardian
 

The US is giving Israel a window of a week to inflict maximum damage on Hizbullah before weighing in behind international calls for a ceasefire in Lebanon, according to British, European and Israeli sources.

The Bush administration, backed by Britain, has blocked efforts for an immediate halt to the fighting initiated at the UN security council, the G8 summit in St Petersburg and the European foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels.

"It’s clear the Americans have given the Israelis the green light. They [the Israeli attacks] will be allowed to go on longer, perhaps for another week," a senior European official said yesterday. Diplomatic sources said there was a clear time limit, partly dictated by fears that a prolonged conflict could spin out of control.

US strategy in allowing Israel this freedom for a limited period has several objectives, one of which is delivering a slap to Iran and Syria, who Washington claims are directing Hizbullah and Hamas militants from behind the scenes.

George Bush last night said that he suspected Syria was trying to reassert its influence in Lebanon. Speaking in Washington, he said: "It’s in our interest for Syria to stay out of Lebanon and for this government in Lebanon to succeed and survive. The root cause of the problem is Hizbullah and that problem needs to be addressed."

Tony Blair yesterday swung behind the US position that Israel need not end the bombing until Hizbullah hands over captured prisoners and ends its rocket attacks. During a Commons statement, he resisted backbench demands that he call for a ceasefire.

Echoing the US position, he told MPs: "Of course we all want violence to stop and stop immediately, but we recognise the only realistic way to achieve such a ceasefire is to address the underlying reasons why this violence has broken out."

He also indicated it might take many months to agree the terms of a UN stabilisation force on the Lebanese border.

After Mr Blair spoke, British officials privately acknowledged the US had given Israel a green light to continue bombing Lebanon until it believes Hizbullah’s infrastructure has been destroyed.

Washington’s hands-off approach was underlined yesterday when it was confirmed that Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, is delaying a visit to the region until she has met a special UN team. She is expected in the region on Friday, according to Dan Gillerman, Israel’s ambassador to the UN.

The US is publicly denying any role in setting a timeframe for Israeli strikes. When asked whether the US was holding back diplomatically, Tony Snow, the White House’s press spokesman, said yesterday: "No, no; the insinuation there is that there is active military planning, collaboration or collusion, between the United States and Israel - and there isn’t ... the US has been in the lead of the diplomatic efforts, issuing repeated calls for restrain,t but at the same time putting together an international consensus. You’ve got to remember who was responsible for this: Hizbullah ... It would be misleading to say the United States hasn’t been engaged. We’ve been deeply engaged."

Steven Cook, a specialist in US-Middle East policy at the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, said: "It’s abundantly clear [that US policy is] to give the Israelis the opportunity to strike a blow at Hizbullah ...

"They have global reach, and prior to 9/11 they killed more Americans than any other group. But the Israelis are overplaying their hand."

Israel is already laying the ground for negotiations. "We are beginning a diplomatic process alongside the military operation that will continue," said Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister, yesterday. "The diplomatic process is not meant to shorten the window of time of the army’s operation, but rather is meant to be an extension of it and to prevent a need for future military operations," she added.

Moshe Kaplinsky, Israel’s deputy army chief, said the offensive could end within a few weeks, adding that Israel needed time to complete "clear goals". Israeli officials said fighting could begin to wind down after the weekend, if Hizbullah stops firing rockets.

A peace formula is also beginning to emerge: it includes an understanding on a future prisoner exchange, a deployment of the Lebanese army up to the Israeli border, a Hizbullah pullback, and the beefing up of an international monitoring force. For the first time, Ms Livni suggested Israel might accept such a force on a temporary basis.

There were signs of differences of emphasis between the Foreign Office and Downing Street over the conflict.

Kim Howells, a Foreign Office minister, explicitly called for the US to rein in Israel. "I very much hope the Americans will be putting pressure on the Israelis to stop as quickly as possible." he told the BBC. "We understand the pressure the Israeli government is under, but we call on them to look very carefully at the pressure ordinary people are under in southern Lebanon and other parts of Lebanon too ... We want to stop this as quickly as possible".

Israeli airstrikes killed 31 yesterday, including a family of nine in Aitaroun. More than 230 civilians in Lebanon have been killed in the past week.

An Israeli man was killed by a Hizbullah rocket in Nahariya in northern Israel, bringing the total of Israeli civilian deaths to 13. The army said 50 missiles were fired yesterday at northern Israel, injuring at least 14 people.

Flashpoints

· 31 Lebanese killed in Israeli air raids. Nine members of one family were killed and four wounded in a strike on their house in the village of Aitaroun. Five were killed in other strikes in the south and two in the Bekaa Valley. An attack on a Lebanese army barracks east of Beirut killed 11 soldiers and wounded 30. A truck carrying medical supplies was hit and its driver killed on the Beirut-Damascus highway. Hizbullah says one of its fighters was killed.

· One man killed as he was walking to a bomb shelter in Nahariya, northern Israel. The army said Hizbullah fired 50 missiles, hitting the port and railway depot at Haifa, as well as the towns of Safed, Acre and Kiryat Shmona.

· Hundreds evacuated from Beirut in helicopters and boats. HMS Gloucester arrives to start evacuation of Britons. The Orient Queen, a cruise ship capable of carrying 750, sets out from Cyprus, escorted by a US destroyer.

Forum posts

  • The chosen people will do whatever they want. The US has already vetoed UN condemnation of the chosen people’s actions. They can kill all they want. Try to stop them

  • "More than 230 civilians in Lebanon have been killed in the past week.
    An Israeli man was killed by a Hizbullah rocket in Nahariya in northern Israel, bringing the total of Israeli civilian deaths to 13."

    My, my, my. . . 230 to 13. Thats some score. . .and all on Lebonese property, too. Does Lebanon have a right to defend itself? Do the Palestinians in Gaza? It seems to me you defend yourself in your own territory. Israel defends itself like America defends itself in Iraq. That’s not defense and it is in direct violation of global treaties of the last 60 years.

    Three captured soldiers has been the reason for Israel to begin war on two fronts. And lest we forget they straifed the beach at Gaza killing a dozen or so folks just spending family time in early July. I guess those 3 soldiers are way more important than those 3 Palestinian kids and their parents and relations,blown away for NO reason except to incite war.

    • The Israeli army is afraid to go into southern Lebanon because it knows what awaits it - thousands of well-trained, well-equipped and highly motivated Hesbollah fighters. Just today, the IDF sent an "elite" force into southern Lebanon that was ambushed, leaving several dead and wounded Israelis. If the IAF attacks Hezbollah positions from the air, it will be met by SA-7 and Stinger missiles. All the brave IDF can do is kill and wound innocent Lebanese civilians and destroy the country’s infrastructure. The Zionists have learned well from their former Nazi oppressors and they will ultimately suffer the same fate. Let us all hope that day will come soon!

  • Folks, it’s been an open secret amongst our betters for a long time. It’s time for the rest of us schmucks to wake up pissed off.

    "I’ve never seen a President — I don’t care who he is — stand up to them [the Israelis]. It just boggles the mind. They always get what they want. The Israelis know what is going on all the time. I got to the point where I wasn’t writing anything down. If the American people understood what a grip those people have got on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our citizens certainly don’t have any idea what goes on." - Admiral Thomas Moorer, former Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, spoke with blunt exasperation about the Zionist hold on Washington.

    Listen to what former Zionist insider Benjamin Freedman had to say:

    www.iamthewitness.com/DarylBradfordSmith_Freedman.html

    Another Jew who has done much to spread the truth is David Cole who has an extremely revealing interview with the head of the Auschwitz museum. Go to

    www.iamthewitness.com/DarylBradfordSmith_Cole.html

    Interestingly, this two are not mentioned on the Self Hating, Israel Threatening list (www.masada2000.org/shit-list.html) although their work does more to expose the scope of the Zionist lies than just about anyone. Their omission from the SHIT list is no accident. Listen and get your friends to do the same.

  • As an American, I DEPLORE what Israel and Bush are doing! While it is not right that two soldiers were supposedly(key word here supposedly) kidnapped, that DOES NOT JUSTIFY WAR CRIMES AGAINST THE LEBANON PEOPLE! Why does Israel all of a sudden NOT want to negotate a prisoner swap, when before they have? BECAUSE, they are trying to help Bush secure the American election in Nov. for one thing, plus "sucker" Iran and Syria into war too! In my opinion, NEITHER LEADERSHIP GIVES TRULY SHIT EITHER ABOUT AMERICA OR ISRAEL OR ANY HUMAN LIFE, except their own hides, if you ask me! Israel is guilty of human rights violations in Gaza and Lebanon! I totally believe Bush, BLair and also Israel are TRYING TO SUCKER SYRIA AND IRAN into an all out war in MiddleEast! And also, I think the Goddamn PURE EVIL PNAC GROUP AND ZIONIST NEO-CONS WHO are running BOTH American and Israeli govt’s are working in tandum to help Bush keep control of House of Reps. in Nov.! Hence, Republicans here at home can boast they are "tough" on so called terrorism, when in fact they are actually making it worse! Not only for Israel but U.S. also! I think leaders in U.S. and Britian and Israel are trying to "sucker" Iran and Syria into war, and also the INSANE WAR MONGERING BASTARDS, JUST MIGHT WANT WWIII TO HAPPEN FOR TOTAL CONTROL IN THEIR RESPECTIVE COUNTRIES AND LESS FREEDOMS AND WORLDWIDE REPRESSION FOR NEW WORLD ORDER! NEO-CONS SUCK BIG TIME, NO MATTER WHAT COUNTRY THEY ARE IN! My heart goes out to the Peace activists in Israel! I wished there were MORE of them!
    And NOT ONLY that but I just found out that back in 1967, Israel bombed and tried to sink the U.S.S. Liberty ON PURPOSE! Israel was guilty of war crimes then too! Israel even napalmed a U.S. ship, yet NOONE in U.S. in power will do anything so far about it, which is BULLSHIT! Then Bush gives them green light to commit more war crimes? Bush ONLY cares about power and New World Order! And so doesn’t others in Congress! Plus, I totally believe Israel was involved in 9-11 too! 5 Israeli’s were high fiving each other, filming towers going down and a lady spotted them, and told cops on them, FBI supposedly questioned them! Then there is the case of Zim shipping company in WTC breaking their lease one week before 9-11 and paying $50,000 to do so, which proves they had foreknowledge of 9-11 at very least! Plus, two of 3 airport security firms that planes from 9-11 flew out of were handled by an Israel security firm! There is MORE evidence Israel or at least maybe some Mossad agents were involved in 9-11! As the old saying goes, WHO BENEFITED FROM 9-11? I totally believe 1. Pure evil Bush,Cheney, Rummie and whole evil PNAC group, many of whom are Zionist Neo-Cons, same as with in Israel! 2. Some Saudi’s. That is all I believe! NO Iranians, NO Syrians, NO Iraqi’s, Etc.! P.S. May God forgive America, most of us, who don’t have our heads up our asses, are trying like hell to get the lying,mass murdering S.O.B.’s out of office before they start WWIII over their fucking sick demented PNAC plans! Bush to the Hague and others! We need to ALL urge our respective gov’t to DEMAND A CEASE FIRE AND NOW BEFORE IT GETS OUT OF HAND AND NOW! NO WWIII! NO MORE WAR CRIMES BY ANYONE! AND I DO MEAN ANYONE, INCLUDING THE U.S. AND ISRAEL!

  • Israel will bring about her own demise. Then perhaps there can be peace.