"Jews Gone Wild" in Lebanon

The latest death toll figures from Hurricane Katrina can be seen on this website here.

There is so much to write about the mess in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank these days that I hardly know where to start.

The latest news: 3 more Israeli soldiers were killed in southern Lebanon in the past 24 hours. 1 missing Israeli soldier was found dead in southern Lebanon.

Bombs are continuing to rain down on Lebanon, in what is in part an obvious effort to destroy Lebanese civilian infrastructure that has no obvious strategic purpose. See here where a dairy plant, a paper mill, a packaging plant and a pharmaceutical plant were all deliberately deliberately destroyed by Israeli bombs.

Israel seems to be attacking cars and trucks on the roadways at will, especially in Southern Lebanon.

Hospital officials in Tyre, in southern Lebanon, are too afraid to go about and look for the bodies of the scores who are missing in the latest round of air raids. Turns out that Israel is targeting just about any vehicle on the road down there. In particular, ambulances are being hit, in what is a long-time Israeli deliberate strategy.

The Lebanese are getting angrier and angrier about Israel's devastation of their land, and many, despite their anger at Hezbollah for "getting us into this mess", are rallying around the Lebanese resistance and venting most of their rage against the out of control Israeli super-bully monster.

Check out The Daily Star, Lebanon's top paper, a heterodox publication that is often critical of the Palestinian and Iraqi guerrilla movements and sometimes even supports US and even Israeli policy in the region. The pro-US slant in some columns is usually due to the influence of prominent Maronite Christian columnists such as Michael Young.

But a look at the news stories in the paper today shows that it could be renamed The Hezbollah Star. The paper is cover to cover rage and fury at Israel and support for the Lebanese resistance. In particular, Walid Jumblatt's Druze community seems to be throwing in with the Lebanese resistance against Israel.

The change of tenor from just a few days ago is dramatic. Then, prominent Maronite leaders Samir Geagea and Amine Gemayal , associated with the fascist Phalangist Lebanese Forces, issued statements of strong support for Israel's destruction of Lebanon. A close look at their webpage, linked above, shows they have not changed their minds yet, but they seem to be toning down their pro-Israel line.

Interviews with Maronites in the US also showed strong support for Israel's blitzkrieg of their land. Journeys through Maronite communities showed strong Maronite condemnation of Hezbollah for "starting the conflict".

All of that seems to be fading out.

In interviews today and yesterday, Siniora, the Lebanese Prime Minister, and Emile Lahoud, the Lebanese President, both said that the Lebanese military, such as it is, would join the fight if Israel invaded Lebanon. Israel is already invading Lebanon. At the moment, thousands of Israeli soldiers are up to 1/2 to 3 miles inside Lebanon, with thousands more massed on the border waiting to go in.

If Israel goes into Lebanon with a major invasion force, it is not likely to be a pretty picture. Hezbollah has already killed 39 Israelis, 19 soldiers and 20 civilians. Over 600 Israeli civilians and at least 32 Israeli soldiers have been wounded.

Hezbollah casualties are unknown. Israel is claiming 100 Hezbollah fighters have been killed. Around 300-330 civilians inside Lebanon have been killed, including numerous foreign nationals. At least a dozen Lebanese troops have been killed in a number of deliberate Israeli attacks on their forces.

Hezbollah rocket fire has caused serious property damage in various Israeli cities and towns.

Some towns and cities hit:

Haifa, Safad, Carmiel, Tiberias, Kiryat Shemona, Beit Jan, Sasa, Birinit, Ben Ami, Sa'ar, Gesher HaZiv, Birya, Pki'in, Maalot, Rosh Pinna, Avivim, Metulla, Kfar Rosh Haniqra, Accra, Nahariya, mad Al Kurum, Meron, Hazor Ha Gelitit, the Hula Valley, Hulata, Ha Yarden, Kfar Ha Nasi, Nazareth, Nazaret Illit, Afula, Mishmar Ha'Emeq, Gevat, Yizre'el, Qiryat Yam, Bet Lehem Ha Gelitit and Bet Shean.

The furthest locales the missiles have hit so far are the Caesarea Dunes on the coast, 20 miles south of Haifa and 42 miles from Lebanon, and Ma'oz Hayyim, 20 miles south of Tiberias on the border with Jordan and only 8 miles north of the West Bank. Caesarea and Ma'oz Hayyim are both about 42 miles from the Lebanese border.

At the moment, that should be considered the longest range of Hezbollah's rockets. The rockets that hit those two locales are now thought to be what is called in military parlance "range-finders". Hezbollah's Katyusha rockets, based on modified Soviet technology from World War 2, only have a range of about 12 miles.

To hit 42 miles inside Israel, Hezbollah must be using Iranian Fajr-3 and Fajr-5 rockets, which are about 17 feet long. Each has a 200 pound warhead that has been modified by the Syrians and packed with ball bearings and other nasty bits. I believe that there are up to 100 Iranian Revolutionary Guards inside Lebanon helping Hezbollah to launch these missiles.

Hezbollah is deeply dug into tunnels in the South of Lebanon, which took Israelis by surprise when they ventured into the area. As in Iwo Jima and South Vietnam, fighters move from tunnel to tunnel and front tunnels are reinforced from the rear. Some of the tunnels are reinforced down to 120 feet deep. Bunker-buster munitions may have limited utility against such fortifications.

Israel has not been able to penetrate very far into Lebanon so far. They have met ferocious Hezbollah resistance. Hezbollah is not Hamas or Islamic Jihad- it is one of the most powerful guerrilla movements in the world.

At the start of this latest conflict between Hezbollah and Israel, Hezbollah managed to hack into the Israeli military's computer system, no mean feat. So far, Hezbollah has also managed to repeatedly hit the top-secret Israeli AWACS base, the air traffic intelligence base that monitors air traffic all over the Middle East.

Much of this base is underground, but the above-ground buildings have been hit repeatedly. The Israeli government has not admitted to either the hacking of the computer system or the attacks on the top-secret base, and the attacks have not been reported in the US media either.

In a shocking move, Hezbollah fired a Chinese C-802 Silkworm missile (or possibly a C-801, as a C-802 would probably have totally destroyed the ship) at an Israeli Sa'ar-5 class missile boat, the Hanit. The missile badly damaged the ship and killed 4 Israeli sailors. The Silkworm is a top of the line anti-ship missile, on a par with the US Harpoon as the best of its kind in the world.

Iran bought a number of these missiles and gave them to Hezbollah. The world was stunned by this attack, because no one knew that Hezbollah had such an arsenal.

Hezbollah has already destroyed or damaged at least three Israeli Merkava tanks. One tank was destroyed with a 450 pound anti-tank mine. Two others were apparently damaged by anti-tank missiles. The Merkava is said to be virtually indestructible, so taking out three of these tanks was quite a feat. It is not known what anti-tank rockets Hezbollah is using to destroy Merkava tanks, but it would be very interesting to find out.

Possibilities include such anti-tank missiles as the AT-14 Kornet and the AT-3 Sagger. The Iranians have modified a version of the AT-3 called the Raad. Syria has Kornets. Both of these missiles are similar to the British Javelin and the French ERYX and MILAN missiles. All of these are wire-guided missiles.

Israel is dropping leaflets telling all Lebanese civilians south of the Litani River to flee. However, many are refusing to leave, because they assume that after Israel invades and occupies the area, Israel will not let them return, and will annex this part of Southern Lebanon again as a "security corridor" as it did from 1982-2000.

Drawing the line at the Litani River is notable. It is interesting that many Zionists have always claimed that all of Southern Lebanon up to the Litani River is part of the nation of Israel that Israel has a right to conquer and annex.

At the moment, this situation is looking very, very ominous. Some are describing it as World War 3. That is probably overdrawn, but this conflict has the potential to get pretty nasty and metastasize beyond its present limited borders. The Bush Administration, to their profound discredit, has refused to try to stop the conflict and has even egged Israel on. Prior US administrations may have tried to rein in the Israeli gorilla.

Juan Cole notes that, in refusing to try to stop Israel and even encouraging, promoting and supporting its out of control attack, Bush's performance is "contemptible". That is indeed the proper term.

There is still a lot to write about this conflict in terms of antidotes to the lies of the US Zionist media and the statements of the US Zionist Republican Party and the US Zionist Democratic Party, background information on the conflict and some links to proper progressive analyses of this war and recommendations on moves towards ameliorating this extremely dangerous situation in the Middle East.

I hope to make more posts on these matters in coming days.

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