Saturday, August 12, 2006
Middle East War Report for Friday, August 11
Updated November 30, 2008:
2 Israeli soldiers were killed and 12 more were wounded in fighting in Lebanon.
40 Israeli civilians were wounded by rocket attacks on Israel. Over 120 rockets slammed into Israel, 70% of them hitting Kiryat Shemona. There was extensive property damage to roads, homes and vehicles.
11 Lebanese were killed and 11 more were wounded in IDF bombing raids in Lebanon.
The IDF said they killed 2 Hezbollah fighters in Rajmin, on the border with Israel.
Fighting in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon wounded 4 IDF soldiers.
6:15 PM: 45 Israeli civilians were wounded in the Hezbollah rocket barrage today.
5:28 PM: Hezbollah fired a rocket that hit a multistory building in Kiryat Shemona, wounding 1 person.
3:42 PM: Hezbollah fired a Khaibar 302mm missile that hit Haifa, but there were no casualties. This was apparently a new type of missile that had not yet been fired before.
2 PM: Hezbollah fired 16 rockets at Haifa and Krayot, causing extensive property damage to many homes and wounding over 40 people.
3:41 PM: Hezbollah fired a rocket that hit a chicken coop on a dairy farm near Kiryat Shemona, causing major damage.
2:30: Hezbollah rockets scored direct hits on homes in Kiryat Shemona and Safad. There were a number of injuries in these attacks.
2 PM: Hezbollah fired 16 rockets at Haifa and Krayot, causing extensive property damage to many homes and wounding over 40 people.
1:05 PM: There is heavy fighting in the Eastern sector of southern Lebanon.
12:50 PM: There was heavy fighting in the western sector of southern Lebanon and 5 IDF troops were wounded. 1 was injured by an anti-tank rocket.
12 PM: 1 IDF soldier was killed and 1 more was wounded in fighting in Rashef, 3 1/2 miles north of Shetula on the border. Rashef is 1 mile north of Dibel.
AM: Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile at IDF troops, killing 1 IDF soldier.
11:22 AM: Hezbollah fired Katyusha rockets into Nahariyah, Haifa, Accra and neighboring cities. There were a number of civilians who were wounded Western Galilee and there was property damage.
10:50: Hezbollah fired a number of Katyusha rockets into Kiryat Shemoma, wounding 4-5 Israeli civilians.
10:44 AM: Hezbollah fired a rocket at Haifa, and 2 Israeli civilians were wounded.
10:25 AM: The IDF fired a missile at the home of a Popular Resistance Committee leader in Gaza, but he fled his home before the attack and was not hurt.
9:33 AM: The IDF hit 100 targets in Lebanon, including 9 buildings supposedly used by the organization. Lebanese authorities report 11 killed and 11 more wounded in these attacks.
9:11 AM: Hezbollah detonated a bomb on IDF troops in Qantara, wounding 5 soldiers .
8:50 AM: The IDF attacked weapons storage facilities of the Popular Resistance Committees in the Shajeyah and Jabalya districts of Gaza Strip.
8:39 AM: 2 IDF soldiers were wounded in fighting against Hezbollah guerrillas in the Western part of Southern Lebanon. Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile at a convoy.
7:27 AM: Hezbollah fired rockets at Accra. There were no injuries in these attacks.
7 AM: Hezbollah fired a number of Katyusha rockets into areas in parts of the Western Galilee. There were no injuries in these attacks.
5:15 AM: Palestinian guerrillas fired a Qassam missile at Sderot. There were no injuries and there was no damage.
Friday, August 11, 2006
Middle East War Report for Thursday, August 10
4 Israelis were killed and 33 more were wounded. 7 Hezbollah guerrillas were said to have been killed.
2 Israeli civilians were killed and 11 more were wounded in Katyusha attacks.
2 Israeli soldiers were killed and 22 more were wounded. 122 Israelis have been killed so far - 83 IDF soldiers, 38 Israeli civilians and 1 Israeli civilian in the Diaspora.
Israel said that they killed at least 7 Hezbollah fighters.
An Italian tourist was stabbed to death by a Palestinian in the Old City. He was apparently mistaken for an Israeli Jew.
There was fighting in Labouna, Kfar Kila, the El Marj Valley, Marjayoun, Khiyam, Qulayah, Markava, Ainata, Labouna, Taybe and Ayta Al-Chaab. At least 2 tanks were destroyed in the El Marj Valley by antitank missiles. 18 soldiers were wounded in Markava, Ainata, Labouna and Marjayoun.
Sorry for the poor pic, but this photo was very hard to find. It shows 2 Merkava tanks in flames between Marjayoun and Khiyam, probably in an area called the Khiyam Plains. You won't find this pic in the New York Times! Photo from the Assafir website in Lebanon, whatever that is.
****
My good friend Simon Jones, he of the Canadian expat in temporary residence in Uzbekistan, has a long-awaited new article up on his blog, The Tail Really Does Wag the Dog. Simon is smarter, more educated and a better writer than I will ever be, so it is always a humbling experience to head on over there.
In this piece, he seems to be pointing out how the US is trying to assert control over Israel's foreign policy, as opposed to the status quo, which is vice-versa. What he is referring to here, though not explicitly spelled out, is that the hardline neoconservatives in the Bush Administration (especially those in Cheney and Rumsfeld's offices), are actually more extreme and rightwing than the Israeli government itself.
They are actually aligned with the rightwing of the rightwing Likud party, while the Olmert/Peretz Administration is what passes for Centrism in Israel.
On the other hand, left out by Simon, is that there is a split in the neoconservative movement, with the "moderates" refusing to criticize Israel's War (this is a longstanding trend in US Jewish thought - "We have no right to criticize Israel on any issues" - see Elie Wiesel) and the bomb-throwers aligned with Cheney and Rumsfeld egging Israel on to an even more all-out war in Lebanon and also on to Iran and Syria.
*****
*****
A very provocative article in the Norwegian paper Aftenposten by Joostein Garnder, a Norwegian philosopher, God's Chosen People, is raising a firestorm around the world, with Jewish organizations and PC whackjobs like Angry Arab alike falling all over themselves to call it anti-Semitism.
As'ad is just a typical Leftist. These PC Leftists spew the anti-Semite accusation around like sunflower seed shells. In the lunatic PC netherworld that As'ad inhabits, if I repeat the Jewish jokes my Jewish gf tells me all the time, I am another Hitler. Is that nuts or what?
Worst of all, (for a case in point, see Joseph Massad on Israel Shahak here), these types cannot handle any critique of the Jewish religion, which itself is a violation of Left principles. We Leftists critique everything - all religions, all cultures - nothing is sacred. Radical critique of Islam, Christianity and of course Judaism are all acceptable.
So is radical critique of all cultures - Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, Jewish or otherwise. As'ad and the PC Zombies rising from the tombs of the Identity Politics Movement of the 1960's are turning the history of the Left on its head in invalidating all cultural and religious critique, and hence end up in bed with the conservatives.
Thorstein's article is very provocative and not carefully written, but most of it is not really anti-Semitic. It is more a radical Christian Replacement Theology critique against fundamentalist Judaism (not Reform Judaism or Judaism itself).
The message, like Marx's The Jewish Question, which is linked on the right side of this blog (Hey As'ad, is that anti-Semitic too?) is that the liberation of the Jews and their religion lies through the assimilation of the Jews to the rest of the society. That means leaving the ghettos that Massad and As'ad are perfectly content to leave them in.
*****
*****
There is new information about how Hezbollah survives. They use a huge tunnel network. The IDF will go into a village, clear it out, leave, and then Hezbollah will come back later, popping up out of tunnels. The tunnels are very deep and some are even air-conditioned. Many tunnels are very well camouflaged. Fighters pop up out of tunnels, shoot and disappear.
Hezbollah's techniques are classic guerrilla warfare. IDF forces say that they rarely see Hezbollah fighters and usually just hear them. Hezbollah is also using some sort of long cylindrical antitank mines to kill Merkava tanks. In addition, some reports say that they have US TOW missiles, though this needs to be confirmed.
The IDF will go into a village that seems deserted and walk right into an ambush. Hezbollah attackers will pop up out of windows, fire and disappear. Interviews with UNIFL observers indicate that Israel is not winning at all and that "it is difficult to imagine an end to the fighting."
*****
*****
Jonathon Cook points out, first, that Katyushas are not so inaccurate as one may think, and second, that there is evidence that not only are IDF forces also "hiding behind civilians" but that many of Hezbollah's Katyushas seem to be aimed more at strategic targets as opposed to just recklessly trying to kill civilians.
For instance, in Haifa, most of the rockets are hitting the port area, which has mostly been abandoned. The port area contains the naval docks, oil refinery and other strategic installations. In Kiryat Shemona, a recent TV tape showed a reporter in the center of town being drowned out by the sounds of an IDF tank firing into Lebanon from very close by. I think at least this is called "hiding behind civilians", eh?
He also points out that Hezbollah's rockets are not "indiscriminate" at all, or at least in many cases they are not. Rather, lacking good guidance systems, they are inaccurate.
It strikes me as an imperialist conceit that armies with the luxury of modern guidance systems (state armies) are free from war crimes allegations if they fire at legitimate targets, but that poor, guerrilla, non-state armies are guilty of war crimes simply for being poor compared to a state and unable to invest in state-of-the-art guidance systems.
Because they are poor, they are not allowed to use the only weapons they can afford, and if they do use the only weapons they can afford, they are war criminals because those are imprecise.
I would like to take this opportunity to condemn Human Rights Watch (the head is Kenneth Roth, clearly a highly-conflicted US Jew whose organization relies for its survival on donations from large Zionist, often Jewish, donors) for utilizing this imperialist conceit and condemning guerrilla groups for not being rich enough to afford top-of-the-line guidance systems.
Not that Roth can mention his ethnic dilemma or anything. Why, that would be racist!
Cook's on-the-ground reports on this war are superb and essential. He is reporting from out of Nazareth, where he has lived for the past 5 years.
*****
*****
If you want to know why Hezbollah is so hard to defeat, look no further than here. Hezbollah is secretive to the point of paranoia and has a strict split between the military and political wings. Most political wing members cannot tell you who the fighters are. They have eliminated all of the leadership between Nasrallah and the regional commanders. The structure is flat, not triangular.
They, in general, do not do media interviews, and when they do, they are strictly staged, more like "Hezbollah guided tours". Local cells are free to take actions on their own, fight in the same towns they live in, and are hard to differentiate from local civilians. Hezbollah has a very healthy respect for Mossad (Israeli intelligence), and has gone to extreme lengths to guard themselves from infiltration.
The Palestinians, on the other hand, are constantly being infiltrated by Shin Bet.
****
*****
The Israeli Merkava tank is one of the best on Earth.
The Merkava-4 is the latest iteration, from 2002. It is the best of the Merkavas. Only about 50 M-4 tanks a year are produced in Israel, and about 200 M-4's have been produced by mid-2006. The Palestinians have only very rarely been able to destroy a Merkava, typically with an anti-tank mine weighing about 400-600 pounds. This is not an easy weapon to acquire or deploy.
The Merkava utilizes reactive armor (the armor explodes anything hitting it on contact, preventing penetration into the tank). It is apparently also protected by something called the Trophy Active Prevention Strategy, an anti-antitank technology that enables tanks to actually explode missiles before they even get to the tank.
This system is state-of-the-art and cutting edge, and only came online at the first of the year. Yet another excellent system from Rafael Armorment Development Authority, one of the best arms manufacturers in the world, TAPS is advertised as the "most advanced tank protection system in the world".
Well, that may be so, but it is to Hezbollah's credit that they are able to blast past the world's finest defenses. No matter what you think of Hezbollah as an army, I think it is proper to respect their fighting abilities, which are far beyond what anyone felt they were capable of.
Hezbollah is not only one of the best guerrilla armies on Earth; they may well be the best guerrilla force around. For that, any student of warfare ought to give them a tip of a hat.
Apparently, even TAPS is not working well, as 20% or so of the anti-tank missiles and RPG-29's are making hits, destroying and damaging Merkavas, and killing and wounding IDF forces in the process. About 1/2 of the IDF soldiers who have been killed in this war have been in Merkavas!
Shall we discuss here how to kill a Merkava-4 tank? Why not, as we are not hindered by Israeli censorship rules that hamper reporters in Israel.
If you look at the photo below, you will see an air intake for the 1500 horsepower diesel engine on the forward upper right flank of the tank. There is obviously limited armor in this area and the fuel tank is nearby. Just aim the RPG or antitank missile for that air intake.
See that air intake on this Merkava-4 beauty here? Aim that AT-3, AT-4, AT-13, AT-14, MILAN, TOW or RPG-29 right inside that air intake, ok? Ready, aim, fire. Ok, fedayeen, today's lesson is over. Head on over to the shooting range and test your new skills.
Perusing comment threads on Israeli news sites, Jewish supremacists seem to think that Israel, being in direct connection with God and all that, should be able to quickly fix their tanks so they are once again the Chosen Tanks, indestructible by any mere animal-like non-Jewish humans.
These Jews (let us forgive their ultra-arrogance for a moment) do not understand. The commenters typically shout for more armor on the Merkavas. That is a fantasy. The thing is already as armored as a tank can get, plus add-on armor.
They don't understand that Hezbollah's missiles can penetrate a full 3 feet of the world's best armor. And they fail to realize that there is a Law of Diminishing Returns when it comes to armoring tanks. That is, at some point, you have slabbed so much armor on thing that it can barely even move.
****
*****
I have been spending some time at the Free Micheal Kilo Now blog, run by a Syrian named Fares. His English is not the best, but it is intelligible and he is smart. The comments section has some great stuff, with a lot of play between Jewish Zionists out for blood and secular Arab supporters of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. To see how real decent Syrian Arabs think, head on over.
I must say, as a caveat though, that he and his commenters are non-Zionist Arabs of the Arafatist ilk, seeking ways to make peace with "peaceful Israelis", supporting the unworkable 2-state solution, and condemning mysterious "Arab radicals" and "Arab fascists" for refusing to accommodate with Zionism in any way.
They need to point out these ghostly forces to me, as they cannot include Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, Hamas, the PFLP or the DFLP. All of these movements and both states have made tactical agreements to accept a 2-state solution for the time being as the only workable solution, while still opting not to accept the Jewish super-racist colonialist robber state's existence.
We have seen since June 12 what the Israeli "peace movement" is all about - an impotent movement in a society controlled by the military - the officer corps and retired officer corps, as the always excellent Israeli author Uri Avnery notes. As Angry Arab says, "Don't ever say 'The Israeli Peace Movement' in my presence". Cheers, As'ad.
*****
*****
Another cool blog I just found is called Zionists Out of the Peace Movement. Now, there is a place for these folks and their principled line. But at this time, we need to make alliances with all Jewish and Zionist voices who are opposing the current disasters and looming disasters in the region.
The blog points out how many Jews in the Jewish Peace Movement are supporting this current asinine war. Now that is a valid subject for sure. But nitpicking the 2-staters to death because they are not ideologically pure one-staters, at the moment, is counterproductive. For Chrissake, even the 2-staters' 22% solution would be a great leap forward from the nightmare of our current 1938 deja vu moment.
*****
*****
Hey, check out the nervous Jewish Democrats on this Daily Kos thread. Here we have a Jewish liberal Zionist Democrat squirming and warning Daily Kos folks that Daily Kos is "starting to make Jews nervous". The implicit threat here really needs to be noted, for I have seen it before.
This is what the game is, ok? They are threatening to leave the Democratic Party if we do not ease up on our criticism of Israel! It is heartwarming to note that the left wing of the US Democratic Party is finally tiring of that s-tty little state, for, after all, it only capsizes most every liberal principle on Earth by its very "Jewish South African" existence.
I smile when I see these liberal Jewish Zionists fret that The Progressive and The Nation are "Jewish-hostile" publications. Of course they are no such thing, but the fact that Zionists think they are shows these magazines are finally moving in the right direction.
The wicked (pretty much unstated) threat here, and I mean wicked, is something like this: You Democrats waver in your support of Israel and we liberal Jews will take off and...what? Join the Republican Party, I guess. And take all our Jewish money (wink wink) with us.
Except that most Jews need a permanent barf bag affixed to their face to vote Republican, not to mention the abasing act of registering Republican in the first place. So most ain't goin' nowhere.
On the chance that some may go Republican, I say, Good riddance! Go! And take all of your dirty money with you! I am sick and tired of dirty US Jewish money, tainted with Zionism, used as a political threat against the Democratic Party. Go! Get out! You will not be missed!
****
7 Israeli soldiers were wounded when Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at an Israeli supply convoy in Marjayoun.
4 IDF soldiers were wounded when Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile at 2 Merkava tanks in Ainata. At first, one tank was hit and 3 soldiers were wounded. A second tank arrived and it too was hit by an anti-tank missile and 1 more soldier was wounded. Both tanks were damaged or destroyed in the attacks.
Heavy fighting raged for hours in Markava (the Lebanese border town, not the tank) and 10 IDF troops were wounded.
PM: The IDF reported that 18 soldiers were wounded in fighting in Lebanon.
PM: 1 Israeli soldier was killed and 1 more was wounded in fighting in Labouna, on the border in the western sector. Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile in the attack, hitting a Merkava Siman-2 tank and destroying it. Hezbollah also fired on other armored vehicles in this battle.
8:53 PM: Heavy fighting at Al Qulayah, 3 1/2 miles north of Metulla on the border, killed 1 IDF soldier and wounded 2 more. The casualties occurred when Hezbollah fighters fired antitank rockets at Israeli tanks.
8:14 PM: A lone Arab terrorist attacked a tourist in Jerusalem. The tourist, a 24 year old man from Italy, later died. Later, 2 Arabs were arrested on suspicion of committing the crime. The man later apologized and said he thought the tourist was a Jew. Yuck!
6:22 PM: Hezbollah fired 3 rockets at Acre. They landed without causing any damage or injuries.
6:09 PM: There was an attempted hijacking of a Qatari Airlines plane going to Jordan. The hijack attempt was thwarted. This later turned out to be a false alarm. The fuss was all about a conflict between a passenger and the pilot. On the other hand, Angry Arab suggests that the hijack attempt actually occurred, but was covered up by the authoritarian Jordanian state.
****
5:52 PM: The IDF was engaged in raging battles with Hezbollah guerrillas around the Christian village of Marjayoun. The IDF is moving towards the Shia village of Khiyam in an area known as the Khiyam Plains.
Hezbollah is fighting with mortars and anti-tank weapons and the IDF is providing bombardment from artillery and the air to cover the ground advance. Marjayoun is 5 miles north of Metulla on the border and Khiyam is 4 miles northeast of Metulla.
Israeli bombardment of the town of Khiyam. Zionists, mostly Jews, are agitating on Israeli news forums for Israel to "take the gloves off", "quit holding back" and "flatten every village". Based on this photo, would you say that they are fighting with gloves on, holding back, or not flattening villages? Also, has there been any comparable destruction of Israeli towns and cities? If it is ok for Israel to do this to Lebanese towns, why is it not ok for Israel's enemies to treat Israeli towns like the photo above?
****
5:22 PM: IDF aircraft attacked West Beirut for the first time, knocking out a government radio transmitter. This was the first time that the IDF had attacked West Beirut. Sounds like an "act of war" to me, eh? Oh where are you, Lebanese Army? You will not even defend your land from invaders?
5:04 PM: Hezbollah fired 10 rockets at Maalot. Hezbollah has fired 140 rockets at Israel so far today.
4:49 PM: Hezbollah fired a Katyusha rocket at a suburb of Haifa and the rocket hit a building, wounding 1 Israeli.
4:34 PM: The IDF killed 3 Hezbollah fighters in Ayta Al-Shaab and 4 more in western villages.
4:20 PM: Guerrillas fired on IDF troops in Ramallah. There were no casualties.
4:14 PM: Katyusha rockets hit Maalot and Rosh Hanrika. Fires were burning as a result of the attack.
3:05 PM: A Katyusha rocket hit a home in Maalot but there were no casualties.
2:29 PM: Fires burning out of control from Katyusha attacks in both the Galilee and the Golan Heights caused serious property damage.
2:08 PM: A Katyusha attack hit Kiryat Shemona, landing on a chicken coop and killing a number of chickens.
1 PM: 4 Katyusha rockets landed in Krayat, near Haifa. 4 people were wounded in this attack.
12:03 PM: A woman who was seriously wounded in the Katyusha attack earlier on Dir al-Assad, an Arab village near Carmiel, died. 2 Israeli civilians were killed and 2 more were wounded in this rocket attack.
11:51 AM: A Katyusha attack on Safad wounded 4 Israelis and caused serious property damage.
11:49 AM: A child was killed by a Hezbollah rocket fired at the Arab village of Dir Al-Assad. In addition, a rocket slammed into a home in Carmiel.
9:54 AM: Very heavy fighting was reported in the western part of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah guerrillas were firing large numbers of antitank rockets at IDF forces. No word on any casualties yet.
9:56 AM: The IDF reported that Iranian Revolutionary Guards were among the dead in recent battles in southern Lebanon. They were apparently identified by their papers. This report has later been found to be unsupported by evidence.
8:13 AM: The IDF surrounded a building in Ramallah, apparently because guerrillas were holed up inside.
6:56 AM: The IDF arrested 7 Palestinian guerrillas in the West Bank overnight. The arrests occurred in Hebron, Nablus, Qalqilya and Jenin and involved guerrillas from the PFLP, Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
6:30 AM: The IDF attacked a home in the Beit Hanoun area of Gaza that housed an Islamic Jihad fighter. The IDF telephoned his home and told the family to leave, before destroying the home with an air raid . There were no casualties in the attack.
5:55 AM: Palestinian guerrillas fired a number of Qassam rockets towards Sderot outside Gaza. All of them landed in open areas and there were no injuries or damage.
2:22 AM: The IDF arrested a female guerrilla south of Nablus who was supposedly planning to carry out some sort of terrorist attack inside the Green Line.
2 Israeli civilians were killed and 11 more were wounded in Katyusha attacks.
2 Israeli soldiers were killed and 22 more were wounded. 122 Israelis have been killed so far - 83 IDF soldiers, 38 Israeli civilians and 1 Israeli civilian in the Diaspora.
Israel said that they killed at least 7 Hezbollah fighters.
An Italian tourist was stabbed to death by a Palestinian in the Old City. He was apparently mistaken for an Israeli Jew.
There was fighting in Labouna, Kfar Kila, the El Marj Valley, Marjayoun, Khiyam, Qulayah, Markava, Ainata, Labouna, Taybe and Ayta Al-Chaab. At least 2 tanks were destroyed in the El Marj Valley by antitank missiles. 18 soldiers were wounded in Markava, Ainata, Labouna and Marjayoun.
Sorry for the poor pic, but this photo was very hard to find. It shows 2 Merkava tanks in flames between Marjayoun and Khiyam, probably in an area called the Khiyam Plains. You won't find this pic in the New York Times! Photo from the Assafir website in Lebanon, whatever that is.****
My good friend Simon Jones, he of the Canadian expat in temporary residence in Uzbekistan, has a long-awaited new article up on his blog, The Tail Really Does Wag the Dog. Simon is smarter, more educated and a better writer than I will ever be, so it is always a humbling experience to head on over there.
In this piece, he seems to be pointing out how the US is trying to assert control over Israel's foreign policy, as opposed to the status quo, which is vice-versa. What he is referring to here, though not explicitly spelled out, is that the hardline neoconservatives in the Bush Administration (especially those in Cheney and Rumsfeld's offices), are actually more extreme and rightwing than the Israeli government itself.
They are actually aligned with the rightwing of the rightwing Likud party, while the Olmert/Peretz Administration is what passes for Centrism in Israel.
On the other hand, left out by Simon, is that there is a split in the neoconservative movement, with the "moderates" refusing to criticize Israel's War (this is a longstanding trend in US Jewish thought - "We have no right to criticize Israel on any issues" - see Elie Wiesel) and the bomb-throwers aligned with Cheney and Rumsfeld egging Israel on to an even more all-out war in Lebanon and also on to Iran and Syria.
*****
*****
A very provocative article in the Norwegian paper Aftenposten by Joostein Garnder, a Norwegian philosopher, God's Chosen People, is raising a firestorm around the world, with Jewish organizations and PC whackjobs like Angry Arab alike falling all over themselves to call it anti-Semitism.
As'ad is just a typical Leftist. These PC Leftists spew the anti-Semite accusation around like sunflower seed shells. In the lunatic PC netherworld that As'ad inhabits, if I repeat the Jewish jokes my Jewish gf tells me all the time, I am another Hitler. Is that nuts or what?
Worst of all, (for a case in point, see Joseph Massad on Israel Shahak here), these types cannot handle any critique of the Jewish religion, which itself is a violation of Left principles. We Leftists critique everything - all religions, all cultures - nothing is sacred. Radical critique of Islam, Christianity and of course Judaism are all acceptable.
So is radical critique of all cultures - Arab, Muslim, Palestinian, Jewish or otherwise. As'ad and the PC Zombies rising from the tombs of the Identity Politics Movement of the 1960's are turning the history of the Left on its head in invalidating all cultural and religious critique, and hence end up in bed with the conservatives.
Thorstein's article is very provocative and not carefully written, but most of it is not really anti-Semitic. It is more a radical Christian Replacement Theology critique against fundamentalist Judaism (not Reform Judaism or Judaism itself).
The message, like Marx's The Jewish Question, which is linked on the right side of this blog (Hey As'ad, is that anti-Semitic too?) is that the liberation of the Jews and their religion lies through the assimilation of the Jews to the rest of the society. That means leaving the ghettos that Massad and As'ad are perfectly content to leave them in.
*****
*****
There is new information about how Hezbollah survives. They use a huge tunnel network. The IDF will go into a village, clear it out, leave, and then Hezbollah will come back later, popping up out of tunnels. The tunnels are very deep and some are even air-conditioned. Many tunnels are very well camouflaged. Fighters pop up out of tunnels, shoot and disappear.
Hezbollah's techniques are classic guerrilla warfare. IDF forces say that they rarely see Hezbollah fighters and usually just hear them. Hezbollah is also using some sort of long cylindrical antitank mines to kill Merkava tanks. In addition, some reports say that they have US TOW missiles, though this needs to be confirmed.
The IDF will go into a village that seems deserted and walk right into an ambush. Hezbollah attackers will pop up out of windows, fire and disappear. Interviews with UNIFL observers indicate that Israel is not winning at all and that "it is difficult to imagine an end to the fighting."
*****
*****
Jonathon Cook points out, first, that Katyushas are not so inaccurate as one may think, and second, that there is evidence that not only are IDF forces also "hiding behind civilians" but that many of Hezbollah's Katyushas seem to be aimed more at strategic targets as opposed to just recklessly trying to kill civilians.
For instance, in Haifa, most of the rockets are hitting the port area, which has mostly been abandoned. The port area contains the naval docks, oil refinery and other strategic installations. In Kiryat Shemona, a recent TV tape showed a reporter in the center of town being drowned out by the sounds of an IDF tank firing into Lebanon from very close by. I think at least this is called "hiding behind civilians", eh?
He also points out that Hezbollah's rockets are not "indiscriminate" at all, or at least in many cases they are not. Rather, lacking good guidance systems, they are inaccurate.
It strikes me as an imperialist conceit that armies with the luxury of modern guidance systems (state armies) are free from war crimes allegations if they fire at legitimate targets, but that poor, guerrilla, non-state armies are guilty of war crimes simply for being poor compared to a state and unable to invest in state-of-the-art guidance systems.
Because they are poor, they are not allowed to use the only weapons they can afford, and if they do use the only weapons they can afford, they are war criminals because those are imprecise.
I would like to take this opportunity to condemn Human Rights Watch (the head is Kenneth Roth, clearly a highly-conflicted US Jew whose organization relies for its survival on donations from large Zionist, often Jewish, donors) for utilizing this imperialist conceit and condemning guerrilla groups for not being rich enough to afford top-of-the-line guidance systems.
Not that Roth can mention his ethnic dilemma or anything. Why, that would be racist!
Cook's on-the-ground reports on this war are superb and essential. He is reporting from out of Nazareth, where he has lived for the past 5 years.
*****
*****
If you want to know why Hezbollah is so hard to defeat, look no further than here. Hezbollah is secretive to the point of paranoia and has a strict split between the military and political wings. Most political wing members cannot tell you who the fighters are. They have eliminated all of the leadership between Nasrallah and the regional commanders. The structure is flat, not triangular.
They, in general, do not do media interviews, and when they do, they are strictly staged, more like "Hezbollah guided tours". Local cells are free to take actions on their own, fight in the same towns they live in, and are hard to differentiate from local civilians. Hezbollah has a very healthy respect for Mossad (Israeli intelligence), and has gone to extreme lengths to guard themselves from infiltration.
The Palestinians, on the other hand, are constantly being infiltrated by Shin Bet.
****
*****
The Israeli Merkava tank is one of the best on Earth.
The Merkava-4 is the latest iteration, from 2002. It is the best of the Merkavas. Only about 50 M-4 tanks a year are produced in Israel, and about 200 M-4's have been produced by mid-2006. The Palestinians have only very rarely been able to destroy a Merkava, typically with an anti-tank mine weighing about 400-600 pounds. This is not an easy weapon to acquire or deploy.
The Merkava utilizes reactive armor (the armor explodes anything hitting it on contact, preventing penetration into the tank). It is apparently also protected by something called the Trophy Active Prevention Strategy, an anti-antitank technology that enables tanks to actually explode missiles before they even get to the tank.
This system is state-of-the-art and cutting edge, and only came online at the first of the year. Yet another excellent system from Rafael Armorment Development Authority, one of the best arms manufacturers in the world, TAPS is advertised as the "most advanced tank protection system in the world".
Well, that may be so, but it is to Hezbollah's credit that they are able to blast past the world's finest defenses. No matter what you think of Hezbollah as an army, I think it is proper to respect their fighting abilities, which are far beyond what anyone felt they were capable of.
Hezbollah is not only one of the best guerrilla armies on Earth; they may well be the best guerrilla force around. For that, any student of warfare ought to give them a tip of a hat.
Apparently, even TAPS is not working well, as 20% or so of the anti-tank missiles and RPG-29's are making hits, destroying and damaging Merkavas, and killing and wounding IDF forces in the process. About 1/2 of the IDF soldiers who have been killed in this war have been in Merkavas!
Shall we discuss here how to kill a Merkava-4 tank? Why not, as we are not hindered by Israeli censorship rules that hamper reporters in Israel.
If you look at the photo below, you will see an air intake for the 1500 horsepower diesel engine on the forward upper right flank of the tank. There is obviously limited armor in this area and the fuel tank is nearby. Just aim the RPG or antitank missile for that air intake.
See that air intake on this Merkava-4 beauty here? Aim that AT-3, AT-4, AT-13, AT-14, MILAN, TOW or RPG-29 right inside that air intake, ok? Ready, aim, fire. Ok, fedayeen, today's lesson is over. Head on over to the shooting range and test your new skills.These Jews (let us forgive their ultra-arrogance for a moment) do not understand. The commenters typically shout for more armor on the Merkavas. That is a fantasy. The thing is already as armored as a tank can get, plus add-on armor.
They don't understand that Hezbollah's missiles can penetrate a full 3 feet of the world's best armor. And they fail to realize that there is a Law of Diminishing Returns when it comes to armoring tanks. That is, at some point, you have slabbed so much armor on thing that it can barely even move.
****
*****
I have been spending some time at the Free Micheal Kilo Now blog, run by a Syrian named Fares. His English is not the best, but it is intelligible and he is smart. The comments section has some great stuff, with a lot of play between Jewish Zionists out for blood and secular Arab supporters of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran. To see how real decent Syrian Arabs think, head on over.
I must say, as a caveat though, that he and his commenters are non-Zionist Arabs of the Arafatist ilk, seeking ways to make peace with "peaceful Israelis", supporting the unworkable 2-state solution, and condemning mysterious "Arab radicals" and "Arab fascists" for refusing to accommodate with Zionism in any way.
They need to point out these ghostly forces to me, as they cannot include Hezbollah, Iran, Syria, Hamas, the PFLP or the DFLP. All of these movements and both states have made tactical agreements to accept a 2-state solution for the time being as the only workable solution, while still opting not to accept the Jewish super-racist colonialist robber state's existence.
We have seen since June 12 what the Israeli "peace movement" is all about - an impotent movement in a society controlled by the military - the officer corps and retired officer corps, as the always excellent Israeli author Uri Avnery notes. As Angry Arab says, "Don't ever say 'The Israeli Peace Movement' in my presence". Cheers, As'ad.
*****
*****
Another cool blog I just found is called Zionists Out of the Peace Movement. Now, there is a place for these folks and their principled line. But at this time, we need to make alliances with all Jewish and Zionist voices who are opposing the current disasters and looming disasters in the region.
The blog points out how many Jews in the Jewish Peace Movement are supporting this current asinine war. Now that is a valid subject for sure. But nitpicking the 2-staters to death because they are not ideologically pure one-staters, at the moment, is counterproductive. For Chrissake, even the 2-staters' 22% solution would be a great leap forward from the nightmare of our current 1938 deja vu moment.
*****
*****
Hey, check out the nervous Jewish Democrats on this Daily Kos thread. Here we have a Jewish liberal Zionist Democrat squirming and warning Daily Kos folks that Daily Kos is "starting to make Jews nervous". The implicit threat here really needs to be noted, for I have seen it before.
This is what the game is, ok? They are threatening to leave the Democratic Party if we do not ease up on our criticism of Israel! It is heartwarming to note that the left wing of the US Democratic Party is finally tiring of that s-tty little state, for, after all, it only capsizes most every liberal principle on Earth by its very "Jewish South African" existence.
I smile when I see these liberal Jewish Zionists fret that The Progressive and The Nation are "Jewish-hostile" publications. Of course they are no such thing, but the fact that Zionists think they are shows these magazines are finally moving in the right direction.
The wicked (pretty much unstated) threat here, and I mean wicked, is something like this: You Democrats waver in your support of Israel and we liberal Jews will take off and...what? Join the Republican Party, I guess. And take all our Jewish money (wink wink) with us.
Except that most Jews need a permanent barf bag affixed to their face to vote Republican, not to mention the abasing act of registering Republican in the first place. So most ain't goin' nowhere.
On the chance that some may go Republican, I say, Good riddance! Go! And take all of your dirty money with you! I am sick and tired of dirty US Jewish money, tainted with Zionism, used as a political threat against the Democratic Party. Go! Get out! You will not be missed!
****
7 Israeli soldiers were wounded when Hezbollah fired anti-tank missiles at an Israeli supply convoy in Marjayoun.
4 IDF soldiers were wounded when Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile at 2 Merkava tanks in Ainata. At first, one tank was hit and 3 soldiers were wounded. A second tank arrived and it too was hit by an anti-tank missile and 1 more soldier was wounded. Both tanks were damaged or destroyed in the attacks.
Heavy fighting raged for hours in Markava (the Lebanese border town, not the tank) and 10 IDF troops were wounded.
PM: The IDF reported that 18 soldiers were wounded in fighting in Lebanon.
PM: 1 Israeli soldier was killed and 1 more was wounded in fighting in Labouna, on the border in the western sector. Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile in the attack, hitting a Merkava Siman-2 tank and destroying it. Hezbollah also fired on other armored vehicles in this battle.
8:53 PM: Heavy fighting at Al Qulayah, 3 1/2 miles north of Metulla on the border, killed 1 IDF soldier and wounded 2 more. The casualties occurred when Hezbollah fighters fired antitank rockets at Israeli tanks.
8:14 PM: A lone Arab terrorist attacked a tourist in Jerusalem. The tourist, a 24 year old man from Italy, later died. Later, 2 Arabs were arrested on suspicion of committing the crime. The man later apologized and said he thought the tourist was a Jew. Yuck!
6:22 PM: Hezbollah fired 3 rockets at Acre. They landed without causing any damage or injuries.
6:09 PM: There was an attempted hijacking of a Qatari Airlines plane going to Jordan. The hijack attempt was thwarted. This later turned out to be a false alarm. The fuss was all about a conflict between a passenger and the pilot. On the other hand, Angry Arab suggests that the hijack attempt actually occurred, but was covered up by the authoritarian Jordanian state.
****
5:52 PM: The IDF was engaged in raging battles with Hezbollah guerrillas around the Christian village of Marjayoun. The IDF is moving towards the Shia village of Khiyam in an area known as the Khiyam Plains.
Hezbollah is fighting with mortars and anti-tank weapons and the IDF is providing bombardment from artillery and the air to cover the ground advance. Marjayoun is 5 miles north of Metulla on the border and Khiyam is 4 miles northeast of Metulla.
Israeli bombardment of the town of Khiyam. Zionists, mostly Jews, are agitating on Israeli news forums for Israel to "take the gloves off", "quit holding back" and "flatten every village". Based on this photo, would you say that they are fighting with gloves on, holding back, or not flattening villages? Also, has there been any comparable destruction of Israeli towns and cities? If it is ok for Israel to do this to Lebanese towns, why is it not ok for Israel's enemies to treat Israeli towns like the photo above?5:22 PM: IDF aircraft attacked West Beirut for the first time, knocking out a government radio transmitter. This was the first time that the IDF had attacked West Beirut. Sounds like an "act of war" to me, eh? Oh where are you, Lebanese Army? You will not even defend your land from invaders?
5:04 PM: Hezbollah fired 10 rockets at Maalot. Hezbollah has fired 140 rockets at Israel so far today.
4:49 PM: Hezbollah fired a Katyusha rocket at a suburb of Haifa and the rocket hit a building, wounding 1 Israeli.
4:34 PM: The IDF killed 3 Hezbollah fighters in Ayta Al-Shaab and 4 more in western villages.
4:20 PM: Guerrillas fired on IDF troops in Ramallah. There were no casualties.
4:14 PM: Katyusha rockets hit Maalot and Rosh Hanrika. Fires were burning as a result of the attack.
3:05 PM: A Katyusha rocket hit a home in Maalot but there were no casualties.
2:29 PM: Fires burning out of control from Katyusha attacks in both the Galilee and the Golan Heights caused serious property damage.
2:08 PM: A Katyusha attack hit Kiryat Shemona, landing on a chicken coop and killing a number of chickens.
1 PM: 4 Katyusha rockets landed in Krayat, near Haifa. 4 people were wounded in this attack.
12:03 PM: A woman who was seriously wounded in the Katyusha attack earlier on Dir al-Assad, an Arab village near Carmiel, died. 2 Israeli civilians were killed and 2 more were wounded in this rocket attack.
11:51 AM: A Katyusha attack on Safad wounded 4 Israelis and caused serious property damage.
11:49 AM: A child was killed by a Hezbollah rocket fired at the Arab village of Dir Al-Assad. In addition, a rocket slammed into a home in Carmiel.
9:54 AM: Very heavy fighting was reported in the western part of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah guerrillas were firing large numbers of antitank rockets at IDF forces. No word on any casualties yet.
9:56 AM: The IDF reported that Iranian Revolutionary Guards were among the dead in recent battles in southern Lebanon. They were apparently identified by their papers. This report has later been found to be unsupported by evidence.
8:13 AM: The IDF surrounded a building in Ramallah, apparently because guerrillas were holed up inside.
6:56 AM: The IDF arrested 7 Palestinian guerrillas in the West Bank overnight. The arrests occurred in Hebron, Nablus, Qalqilya and Jenin and involved guerrillas from the PFLP, Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.
6:30 AM: The IDF attacked a home in the Beit Hanoun area of Gaza that housed an Islamic Jihad fighter. The IDF telephoned his home and told the family to leave, before destroying the home with an air raid . There were no casualties in the attack.
5:55 AM: Palestinian guerrillas fired a number of Qassam rockets towards Sderot outside Gaza. All of them landed in open areas and there were no injuries or damage.
2:22 AM: The IDF arrested a female guerrilla south of Nablus who was supposedly planning to carry out some sort of terrorist attack inside the Green Line.
Thursday, August 10, 2006
"Hinduland" - A Thought Experiment
Let us deal for a moment with a particular piece of Israeli propaganda - that Zionist colonization and dispossession of the natives was valid because it was ratified by international law - the League of Nations Mandate in 1922 and the UN Partition Resolution in 1947.
This is a particularly difficult bit of Zionist propaganda to deal with because it requires us to oppose the UN and the League of Nations. Furthermore, it wraps the Zionist conquest of Palestine in the patina of legality.
First, I do not consider either the LON Mandate or the UN partition (which violated the UN's own charter) to be valid, and they are definitely not moral. Basically, the UN and the LON decided it would give away land that was not theirs (Arab land) to people who in general had no right to it.
I may acknowledge that Jews had a right to live on the 6% of Palestine that they had bought, often from corrupt absentee landowners, in 1948, much as I disagree with their goals. But the UN did not give the Jews 6% of Palestine - it gave them 55% of Palestine!
Look. Let us attempt a thought exercise. For this exercise, we need to suspend belief.
First, the Palestinians will be transformed into Americans. Palestine and Israel will be transformed into the USA. And the Zionist Jews will be transformed into something called "Hindus", a category that is purely theoretical and has no basis in reality.
Canada will become Syria, Mexico will become Egypt, Guatemala will become Lebanon, Brazil will become Iraq and Argentina will become Iran. Islam will become Christianity. Like I said, suspend belief.
Suppose many "Hindus" immigrated en masse to the US over about a 30-yr period, to the point where the "Hindu" population was now 30% of the US population. They had gotten permission of some world power to do so and the US was somehow unable to stop them.
These "Hindus" came here with the explicit intention, stated early on, to dispossess, supplant, disperse and replace all of the Americans living here now. Why? "Hindus" need a state. They had been repeatedly pogromized and millions had been killed. There was an extermination attempt.
Besides, "Hindus" used to live here 2000 years ago - in fact, between 2000-3000 years ago, most of the US had been a "Hindu" state. But most of the "Hindus" had long since departed, though a small minority stayed on. And the "Hindu" religion always said the US was their homeland, though most Americans scoffed at this notion and were hostile to it.
As "Hindus" immigrated here, they belligerently tried to acquire as much land as possible. As soon as they bought up a town, a business, a farm or an apartment block, they would fire all of the Americans or throw them out. They turned their "Hindu" settlements into armed camps.
Some patriotic Americans started using violence to resist this nonsense and started attacking and killing some of these settler-colonist "Hindus", who frankly, the adults anyway, deserved to be killed. This was soon referred to as terrorism. The "Hindus" formed their own militias and fighting became generalized.
Within 30 years, by 1947, the population of the US (48 million) was 30% Hindu (14.5 million) but they only owned 6% of the land, because hardly any Americans had sold land to them once we caught on.
But for at least 16 years now, armed "Hindu" gangs had been invading American towns at gunpoint and throwing the Americans out, or sitting on hilltops sniping at us until most of us fled. Then they would move into our homes, businesses and farms and steal them for themselves.
At some point, the UN stepped in and decided to give 55% of the US to these "Hindu" invaders, who had no right to be here in the first place. The UN drew the line around the Mississippi and gave the "Hindus" the Western US for their "Hindu" state.
Now, over 90% of Americans violently opposed the UN giving away 1/2 of America to a bunch of invaders, but the "Hindus" used this UN decision as a legal fig leaf for their plans.
A war ensued and the "Hindus" won.
The war went something like this: The "Hindus" conquered their whole 55% of the Western US that the UN gave them plus most of the rest. All the rest of the Americans were crammed into 30% of the territory, all on the East Coast. Most of the Americans living in the West (80% of them) were thrown off the land. They moved to the East. Some fled to Canada and Mexico where the UN set up refugee camps for them.
After 30% of the Americans living in the West had been thrown off their land and much of the Western US was already conquered, the "Hindu" state unilaterally declared its existence.
A bunch of weak countries allied with the US thought this was outrageous and attacked in support of the Americans. They were routed and another 50% of the Americans in the West, and many Americans in the western part of the East as well, were tossed off the land. The Americans who were thrown out fled to the East, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, even all the way to Brazil.
80% of American towns were eradicated by the "Hindus", who simply bulldozed the smaller towns.
The "Hindus" rebuilt the towns and cities and renamed everything with names in "Hindi". They made "Hindi" an official language of "Hinduland" and declared that "Hinduland" was the state of all "Hindus" on Earth, and any "Hindu" could immigrate here and come here to live. It was not the state of its citizens.
"Hinduland" refused to define its borders and aggressively laid claim to all the rest of the US for "Hinduland". Not only that, but it also claimed part or all all of Canada, all of Mexico, and even a lot of Central America and South America. Most of the nations of the Americas became alarmed and soon "Hinduland" was on hostile terms with all its neighbors.
After the war, 93% of all land in "Hinduland" was confiscated by the state for the use of "Hindus" only. Americans could not buy, sell, rent or own this land.
Vast numbers of Americans continued to live on this 93% of the land. All of their towns were declared illegal and were denied all government services. Periodically, the state would invade these illegal towns and just steal them outright for the "Hindus", throwing out all the Americans.
Americans were forbidden from expanding their towns, cities or even homes. All such expansions were declared illegal. If the state found out you were building on your property, they would demolish your home with a bulldozer.
Some smaller US "illegal towns" were just bulldozed. "Hindus" would come in and give the Americans 10 minutes to leave, and then just bulldoze the whole town with all of our homes and possessions burying in the rubble.
Many US farms were also declared illegal since they were on "Hindu" land. "Hindu" planes often flew over these farms, spraying them with poison. All citizens were required to carry ID cards saying either American or "Hindu". A card saying "Hindu" granted you much more rights than the other. Only "Hindus" could serve in the military, and many of society's benefits were reserved for those who had military service.
Over time, many Americans in the East, their army smashed, had joined armed organizations, many of which degenerated into carrying out terrorist attacks. At the same time, the military of the "Hindu" state was one of the most menacing on Earth.
The "Hindu" state carried out repeated policies of "Hinduization" in which American communities were forbidden from expanding and surrounded with Hindu communities in a blatant racist effort to drown them out or surround them.
Many towns were "Hindu"-only towns and most schools were "Hindu"-only schools. The Americans had their own schools and towns, but they were given only a fraction of the state funds that "Hindu" towns and schools got. Despite being one of the most racist states on Earth, "Hinduland" claimed it was the World Headquarters of Anti-Racism.
A lot of violent resistance started up against "Hinduland" and even its "Hindu" residents, who were seen by many Americans as usurpers. There were frequent attacks on so-called innocent "Hindu" civilians.
There were more wars. In one war, "Hinduland" conquered about 15% of Mexico and built settlements there. Mexico went on a permanent war footing against "Hinduland" as a result. For this behavior in defense of their stolen homeland, Mexicans were compared to Adolf Hitler.
After another huge war in which Canada and Mexico were routed, 20 years after the UN resolution, 100% of the US was under "Hindu" control. The Hindu state now covered 78% of America. The rest of the Americans were hanging on on the East Coast, but now that was all under "Hindu" military occupation.
There was another war, and "Hinduland" conquered a good slice of Canada (10%) and promptly annexed it and settled it. Canada went on a permanent war footing against "Hinduland" and aggressively funded US armed and terrorist groups to attack "Hinduland". For this action in defense of their lands being annexed by an invader, Canada was compared to Hitler's Germany.
In the 3rd war, "Hinduland" also conquered part of Guatemala but refused to give it back because it said it was really Mexico, not Guatemala. Guatemala was transformed into a permanently hostile state and "Hinduland" waged repeated wars against it, including a long occupation that it finally abandoned after suffering casualties.
After a while, "Hindus" started to build colonies in the Occupied Eastern Territories, stealing most of the water, making "Hindu"-only roads and military bases all over, continuously destroying more and more US homes, businesses and ag fields, all for the continuing expansion of the "Hindu" colonies in the East. By this time, many Americans were living in refugee camps.
A lot of Americans were really angry at these "Hindus" for good reason. They were accused of racism and compared to Hitler and Nazis and the worst racists on Earth, all because of their justifiable anger at these "Hindus".
The "Hindus" waged wild propaganda campaigns the world over against something called anti-"Hinduism" which was coincidentally exploding around the world in tandem with "Hindu" colonization of the US. This was said to be the worst form of vile racism and was compared to KKK and all forms of wicked and murderous racism down through time.
Americans who resented the colonization of their land were accused of being genocidal and wanting to kill all 150 million "Hindus" in the US. After they got done exterminating the 150 million "Hindus", the Americans, often armed only with rocks and pieces of concrete which they haplessly hurled at top of the line armored vehicles, would supposedly proceed to wipe out every single last "Hindus" on Earth.
It was never really explained why Americans would conduct such a dastardly campaign, and few, if any, Americans even talked about it, despite what the "Hindus" had done to them. Yet still, the Americans were constantly accused of harboring genocidal wishes every time they picked up a gun to defend their lands against the invaders.
The general assumption was that Americans were just bizarre, genocidal, clinically insane criminals who were out to exterminate "Hindus" out of blind, vicious hatred.
In reality, the Americans were just resisting the colonization of their land. Furthermore, in fighting the colonizers of their land, most Americans were said to be religious bigots who hated the "Hindu" religion, though before colonization, most never cared anything about "Hinduism".
After a while, a peace treaty was signed with Mexico and a few Caribbean states. In return, "Hinduland" gave back the part of Mexico it had annexed. A bizarre historiography was created in which America and Americans never existed. Americans, due to their terrorism, were said to represent primitivism and barbarism, while "Hinduland" represented the force of Worldwide Modern Civilization.
Over time, "Hinduland" gained the support of the largest world powers, including one whose military was larger than that of the rest of the world combined.
"Hinduland" and its huge ally decided to wage a worldwide war against "terrorism", which was really mostly just a war against Americans fighting colonization and dispossession. It was also a war against Guatemala and Canada, whose lands were still occupied, annexed and colonized by "Hinduland".
Other large powers, Brazil and Argentina, became involved in the conflict and starting funding US terrorist organizations due to the fact that they were also Christians, like the Americans. The war had degenerated into "Hindus" versus Christians. Since Christians were engaging in terrorism, the entire Christian religion was said to be a gutter religion out to dominate the world by force.
Soon, it was said that Christians wanted to exterminate or forcibly convert all non-Christians on Earth. This made-up lie was inferred due to their resistance against non-Christians in "Hinduland". The war on terrorism was soon transformed into a war of Hindus against Christians in general. Many Christian states were targeted by "Hinduland" and its allies in one war or another.
"Hinduland"'s imperial partner invaded Brazil but the whole invasion and occupation turned into a massive debacle and soon Brazil was wracked with Civil War, with Catholics and Protestants killing each other. The imperial power wanted out of Brazil.
In June 2006 a fake pretext was made for "Hinduland"'s invasion of Guatemala. "Hinduland" soon set about destroying most of the country. Canada and Argentina started supplying Guatemala with weaponry and Guatemala fired missiles at "Hinduland". This missiles caused some deaths, but "Hinduland" killed 20 times more civilians with their invasion of Guatemala.
"Hinduland" waged this war of aggression and choice because tiny Guatemala was said to be intent on destroying "Hinduland" and slaughtering all 150 million "Hindu" residents, even though this was not possible with its puny arsenal.
The real reason for the war was to try to drag Argentina and Canada into the conflict. Argentina was said to be developing nuclear weapons and the world would not allow this, even though the world stood by while "Hinduland" acquired 300 nuclear weapons. The future looked bleak. A huge "Hinduland" force was in Guatemala but was making little headway amidst heavy casualties.
There were continuing efforts to drag Argentina and Canada into the war so that they could be destroyed by "Hinduland" and its imperial partner.
It was August 2006 and but it may as well have been 1939 or 1914.
A terrifying yet exhilarating edge was in the air. The older folks were saying, "I remember the last time the world felt this way". The world seemed on the edge of, if not world war, a major world conflict.
This is a particularly difficult bit of Zionist propaganda to deal with because it requires us to oppose the UN and the League of Nations. Furthermore, it wraps the Zionist conquest of Palestine in the patina of legality.
First, I do not consider either the LON Mandate or the UN partition (which violated the UN's own charter) to be valid, and they are definitely not moral. Basically, the UN and the LON decided it would give away land that was not theirs (Arab land) to people who in general had no right to it.
I may acknowledge that Jews had a right to live on the 6% of Palestine that they had bought, often from corrupt absentee landowners, in 1948, much as I disagree with their goals. But the UN did not give the Jews 6% of Palestine - it gave them 55% of Palestine!
Look. Let us attempt a thought exercise. For this exercise, we need to suspend belief.
First, the Palestinians will be transformed into Americans. Palestine and Israel will be transformed into the USA. And the Zionist Jews will be transformed into something called "Hindus", a category that is purely theoretical and has no basis in reality.
Canada will become Syria, Mexico will become Egypt, Guatemala will become Lebanon, Brazil will become Iraq and Argentina will become Iran. Islam will become Christianity. Like I said, suspend belief.
Suppose many "Hindus" immigrated en masse to the US over about a 30-yr period, to the point where the "Hindu" population was now 30% of the US population. They had gotten permission of some world power to do so and the US was somehow unable to stop them.
These "Hindus" came here with the explicit intention, stated early on, to dispossess, supplant, disperse and replace all of the Americans living here now. Why? "Hindus" need a state. They had been repeatedly pogromized and millions had been killed. There was an extermination attempt.
Besides, "Hindus" used to live here 2000 years ago - in fact, between 2000-3000 years ago, most of the US had been a "Hindu" state. But most of the "Hindus" had long since departed, though a small minority stayed on. And the "Hindu" religion always said the US was their homeland, though most Americans scoffed at this notion and were hostile to it.
As "Hindus" immigrated here, they belligerently tried to acquire as much land as possible. As soon as they bought up a town, a business, a farm or an apartment block, they would fire all of the Americans or throw them out. They turned their "Hindu" settlements into armed camps.
Some patriotic Americans started using violence to resist this nonsense and started attacking and killing some of these settler-colonist "Hindus", who frankly, the adults anyway, deserved to be killed. This was soon referred to as terrorism. The "Hindus" formed their own militias and fighting became generalized.
Within 30 years, by 1947, the population of the US (48 million) was 30% Hindu (14.5 million) but they only owned 6% of the land, because hardly any Americans had sold land to them once we caught on.
But for at least 16 years now, armed "Hindu" gangs had been invading American towns at gunpoint and throwing the Americans out, or sitting on hilltops sniping at us until most of us fled. Then they would move into our homes, businesses and farms and steal them for themselves.
At some point, the UN stepped in and decided to give 55% of the US to these "Hindu" invaders, who had no right to be here in the first place. The UN drew the line around the Mississippi and gave the "Hindus" the Western US for their "Hindu" state.
Now, over 90% of Americans violently opposed the UN giving away 1/2 of America to a bunch of invaders, but the "Hindus" used this UN decision as a legal fig leaf for their plans.
A war ensued and the "Hindus" won.
The war went something like this: The "Hindus" conquered their whole 55% of the Western US that the UN gave them plus most of the rest. All the rest of the Americans were crammed into 30% of the territory, all on the East Coast. Most of the Americans living in the West (80% of them) were thrown off the land. They moved to the East. Some fled to Canada and Mexico where the UN set up refugee camps for them.
After 30% of the Americans living in the West had been thrown off their land and much of the Western US was already conquered, the "Hindu" state unilaterally declared its existence.
A bunch of weak countries allied with the US thought this was outrageous and attacked in support of the Americans. They were routed and another 50% of the Americans in the West, and many Americans in the western part of the East as well, were tossed off the land. The Americans who were thrown out fled to the East, Canada, Mexico, Guatemala, even all the way to Brazil.
80% of American towns were eradicated by the "Hindus", who simply bulldozed the smaller towns.
The "Hindus" rebuilt the towns and cities and renamed everything with names in "Hindi". They made "Hindi" an official language of "Hinduland" and declared that "Hinduland" was the state of all "Hindus" on Earth, and any "Hindu" could immigrate here and come here to live. It was not the state of its citizens.
"Hinduland" refused to define its borders and aggressively laid claim to all the rest of the US for "Hinduland". Not only that, but it also claimed part or all all of Canada, all of Mexico, and even a lot of Central America and South America. Most of the nations of the Americas became alarmed and soon "Hinduland" was on hostile terms with all its neighbors.
After the war, 93% of all land in "Hinduland" was confiscated by the state for the use of "Hindus" only. Americans could not buy, sell, rent or own this land.
Vast numbers of Americans continued to live on this 93% of the land. All of their towns were declared illegal and were denied all government services. Periodically, the state would invade these illegal towns and just steal them outright for the "Hindus", throwing out all the Americans.
Americans were forbidden from expanding their towns, cities or even homes. All such expansions were declared illegal. If the state found out you were building on your property, they would demolish your home with a bulldozer.
Some smaller US "illegal towns" were just bulldozed. "Hindus" would come in and give the Americans 10 minutes to leave, and then just bulldoze the whole town with all of our homes and possessions burying in the rubble.
Many US farms were also declared illegal since they were on "Hindu" land. "Hindu" planes often flew over these farms, spraying them with poison. All citizens were required to carry ID cards saying either American or "Hindu". A card saying "Hindu" granted you much more rights than the other. Only "Hindus" could serve in the military, and many of society's benefits were reserved for those who had military service.
Over time, many Americans in the East, their army smashed, had joined armed organizations, many of which degenerated into carrying out terrorist attacks. At the same time, the military of the "Hindu" state was one of the most menacing on Earth.
The "Hindu" state carried out repeated policies of "Hinduization" in which American communities were forbidden from expanding and surrounded with Hindu communities in a blatant racist effort to drown them out or surround them.
Many towns were "Hindu"-only towns and most schools were "Hindu"-only schools. The Americans had their own schools and towns, but they were given only a fraction of the state funds that "Hindu" towns and schools got. Despite being one of the most racist states on Earth, "Hinduland" claimed it was the World Headquarters of Anti-Racism.
A lot of violent resistance started up against "Hinduland" and even its "Hindu" residents, who were seen by many Americans as usurpers. There were frequent attacks on so-called innocent "Hindu" civilians.
There were more wars. In one war, "Hinduland" conquered about 15% of Mexico and built settlements there. Mexico went on a permanent war footing against "Hinduland" as a result. For this behavior in defense of their stolen homeland, Mexicans were compared to Adolf Hitler.
After another huge war in which Canada and Mexico were routed, 20 years after the UN resolution, 100% of the US was under "Hindu" control. The Hindu state now covered 78% of America. The rest of the Americans were hanging on on the East Coast, but now that was all under "Hindu" military occupation.
There was another war, and "Hinduland" conquered a good slice of Canada (10%) and promptly annexed it and settled it. Canada went on a permanent war footing against "Hinduland" and aggressively funded US armed and terrorist groups to attack "Hinduland". For this action in defense of their lands being annexed by an invader, Canada was compared to Hitler's Germany.
In the 3rd war, "Hinduland" also conquered part of Guatemala but refused to give it back because it said it was really Mexico, not Guatemala. Guatemala was transformed into a permanently hostile state and "Hinduland" waged repeated wars against it, including a long occupation that it finally abandoned after suffering casualties.
After a while, "Hindus" started to build colonies in the Occupied Eastern Territories, stealing most of the water, making "Hindu"-only roads and military bases all over, continuously destroying more and more US homes, businesses and ag fields, all for the continuing expansion of the "Hindu" colonies in the East. By this time, many Americans were living in refugee camps.
A lot of Americans were really angry at these "Hindus" for good reason. They were accused of racism and compared to Hitler and Nazis and the worst racists on Earth, all because of their justifiable anger at these "Hindus".
The "Hindus" waged wild propaganda campaigns the world over against something called anti-"Hinduism" which was coincidentally exploding around the world in tandem with "Hindu" colonization of the US. This was said to be the worst form of vile racism and was compared to KKK and all forms of wicked and murderous racism down through time.
Americans who resented the colonization of their land were accused of being genocidal and wanting to kill all 150 million "Hindus" in the US. After they got done exterminating the 150 million "Hindus", the Americans, often armed only with rocks and pieces of concrete which they haplessly hurled at top of the line armored vehicles, would supposedly proceed to wipe out every single last "Hindus" on Earth.
It was never really explained why Americans would conduct such a dastardly campaign, and few, if any, Americans even talked about it, despite what the "Hindus" had done to them. Yet still, the Americans were constantly accused of harboring genocidal wishes every time they picked up a gun to defend their lands against the invaders.
The general assumption was that Americans were just bizarre, genocidal, clinically insane criminals who were out to exterminate "Hindus" out of blind, vicious hatred.
In reality, the Americans were just resisting the colonization of their land. Furthermore, in fighting the colonizers of their land, most Americans were said to be religious bigots who hated the "Hindu" religion, though before colonization, most never cared anything about "Hinduism".
After a while, a peace treaty was signed with Mexico and a few Caribbean states. In return, "Hinduland" gave back the part of Mexico it had annexed. A bizarre historiography was created in which America and Americans never existed. Americans, due to their terrorism, were said to represent primitivism and barbarism, while "Hinduland" represented the force of Worldwide Modern Civilization.
Over time, "Hinduland" gained the support of the largest world powers, including one whose military was larger than that of the rest of the world combined.
"Hinduland" and its huge ally decided to wage a worldwide war against "terrorism", which was really mostly just a war against Americans fighting colonization and dispossession. It was also a war against Guatemala and Canada, whose lands were still occupied, annexed and colonized by "Hinduland".
Other large powers, Brazil and Argentina, became involved in the conflict and starting funding US terrorist organizations due to the fact that they were also Christians, like the Americans. The war had degenerated into "Hindus" versus Christians. Since Christians were engaging in terrorism, the entire Christian religion was said to be a gutter religion out to dominate the world by force.
Soon, it was said that Christians wanted to exterminate or forcibly convert all non-Christians on Earth. This made-up lie was inferred due to their resistance against non-Christians in "Hinduland". The war on terrorism was soon transformed into a war of Hindus against Christians in general. Many Christian states were targeted by "Hinduland" and its allies in one war or another.
"Hinduland"'s imperial partner invaded Brazil but the whole invasion and occupation turned into a massive debacle and soon Brazil was wracked with Civil War, with Catholics and Protestants killing each other. The imperial power wanted out of Brazil.
In June 2006 a fake pretext was made for "Hinduland"'s invasion of Guatemala. "Hinduland" soon set about destroying most of the country. Canada and Argentina started supplying Guatemala with weaponry and Guatemala fired missiles at "Hinduland". This missiles caused some deaths, but "Hinduland" killed 20 times more civilians with their invasion of Guatemala.
"Hinduland" waged this war of aggression and choice because tiny Guatemala was said to be intent on destroying "Hinduland" and slaughtering all 150 million "Hindu" residents, even though this was not possible with its puny arsenal.
The real reason for the war was to try to drag Argentina and Canada into the conflict. Argentina was said to be developing nuclear weapons and the world would not allow this, even though the world stood by while "Hinduland" acquired 300 nuclear weapons. The future looked bleak. A huge "Hinduland" force was in Guatemala but was making little headway amidst heavy casualties.
There were continuing efforts to drag Argentina and Canada into the war so that they could be destroyed by "Hinduland" and its imperial partner.
It was August 2006 and but it may as well have been 1939 or 1914.
A terrifying yet exhilarating edge was in the air. The older folks were saying, "I remember the last time the world felt this way". The world seemed on the edge of, if not world war, a major world conflict.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Middle East War Report for Wednesday, August 9
Updated January 29, 2008:
*****
Over 160 rockets pounded into Israel today. Rockets hit Haifa, Afula, Kiryat Shemona, Shlomi, the Hula Valley, Nahariyah, Maalot, Carmiel, Safad, Beit Shean, Accra and the Jezreel Valley. 11 Israeli civilians were wounded.
Kiryat Shemona was hit with 80 rockets during the day, making it impossible to carry out the proposed evacuation. Every time the evacuees got on buses, another barrage would come in and they would have to run for the shelters.
*****
****
15 IDF troops were killed and 37 more were wounded today. This is the worst days so far for IDF casualties.
9 were killed in Dibel when an anti-tank rocket on a building housing IDF troops caused an arms cache to blow up and collapsed the building. 4 were killed when their tank was destroyed in Ayta Al-Shaab. 1 was killed by friendly fire in Taybeh. Another was killed in a mortar attack in Qulayah, near Marjayoun. Qulayah is 3 miles due north of Metulla in Israel and 2 miles southwest of Marjayoun.
At least 17 soldiers were wounded in Dibel and at least another 8 were wounded in Ayta Al-Shaab. Another 12 soldiers were wounded, 2 in Klia, 7 in Taybeh and the rest in unknown locales.
*****
The IDF says they killed at 50 Hezbollah fighters today.
117 Israelis have been killed so far in this war, 80 soldiers, 36 civilians in Israel and 1 civilian in the Diaspora.
The Lebanese death toll still stands at around 1000
****
I would like to take this time to point out, if I have not done so already, a very good blog, No Quarter, written by former CIA analyst Larry C. Johnson.
I know that sounds bad, but he is part of the reality-based community, he has superb knowledge of the Middle East, and he and his co-author(s) have nothing but contempt for the neoconservative madness that reigns in Washington and Tel Aviv.
Johnson runs a counterterrorism consulting firm, but before you get twisted out of shape about that, note that it continues to be focused on Sunni Salafists and Takfiris associated with Al Qaeda.
This is a menace, despite the disgusting lies from Muslim (fundamentalist) apologies that only Muslims can understand Muslims, that there is no such thing as Salafism, or Wahhabism, or Salafi-jihadism, and that all of these are the fervid lies of Western "Orientalists".
This lie that is echoed by Arab ethnocentrists like Angry Arab, who ignorantly and arrogantly insists that any attempt to understand Arabs or the Arab World in any way by anyone who does not have 100% pure Arab blood is a case of "Orientalism".
Despite this ethnocentric BS, outsiders are indeed capable of observing, analyzing and yes (gasp) even understanding Arab and Muslim cultures without converting to Islam or getting Arabic blood transfusions.
For instance, it is not "Orientalism" to note, astutely, that there is a variety of radical Sunni Islam, loosely allied with the ideology of Al Qaeda, that must be fought to the death and destroyed everywhere it menaces its enemies on this planet, no matter how matter Takfiri maniacs are slaughtered in the process. I am serious. If a million dangerous Takfiris need to die, let's get on with it. Hama, Part 2, let's rock and roll.
Edward Said, for all his fine work, did the world a disservice with his ethnocentric lead balloon "Orientalism", and poisoned the minds of a generation of Arab intellectuals.
Larry Johnson understands who the Salafi and Takfiri enemy is and who are the Muslims and Arabs who need to be left in peace.
****
*****
Let us start out with a very important article by journalist Robert Parry, who did some important research on Iran-Contra. A voice of calm reason, we need to listen carefully to him. The topics of this piece have also appeared in a variety of other pieces lately, but this article sums things up pretty well.
First of all, whether or not Hezbollah attacked the Israeli forces inside Israel or inside Lebanon is not really important because this war was planned for months by the US and Israel. On May 23, Bush met with Olmert and Israeli sources say the go-ahead was given to fight the Lebanon War.
All they needed was a pretext. Three days later, a bomb went off in Lebanon, killing 2 Islamic Jihad activists. Hezbollah was furious and responded to the attack with a rocket barrage on Israel. Israel responded with bombardments of Hezbollah positions. This sort of thing has been going on from time to time ever since 2000.
The objective here was to increase the tensions along the border, to provoke the enemy into attacking, and then to use the attack to launch the Destroy Hezbollah War. This is the sort of thing that Israel has done over and over all throughout its history. As this comment here notes:
The objective here was to provoke a situation of tit for tat violence that would escalate the pressure on Hezbollah, the Palestinian guerrillas, Syria and Iran.
At the May 23 summit, Olmert and Bush agreed to make 2006 the year to deal with the Iranian nuclear issue (even though an Iranian bomb is at least 3-10 years away). The way to get to Iran is through Syria and Hezbollah.
Although I do not like to make predictions, a US or Israeli or US-Israeli attack on Iran before the Bush Presidency is up is possible and may even be likely. Both the Americans and the Israelis seem to be determined to pull off this attack. Now whether their plans will actually come through or not is uncertain, but that an attack on Iran is clearly their objective.
The idea here, the piece notes, is to create a wider conflict. The brilliant but erratic Xymphora sketches out the neoconservative plan to transform the Middle East here into 10 steps. Some of them are quite unlikely, but others are already done.
We have seen repeated neoconservative blueprints for these plots in the past decade.
Just take a look at various documents out of Daniel Pipes' Middle East Forum, especially this eye-opening document called, Ending Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: The US Role, by Pipes and Ziad Abelnour (former Lebanese Phalangist and head of the neoconservative US Committee for a Free Lebanon - web site here).
Listing all of the players in these schemes goes beyond the scope of this post, but the Right Web links above contain lists of many of the relevant plotters and the organizations they are involved with.
The single paper that sums up the whole neoconservative game plan well is A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, prepared for former Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu in June 1996.
It is essential that anyone who wants to understand the Middle East madness that has ensued since George Bush came into office read this paper.
In this paper, the invasion of Iraq is plotted. In the same paper, the destruction of Hezbollah is urged. It's not too often that conspirators lay out exactly what they intend to do before hand, and when they do, is important that all concerned citizens read up on these mad plots, understand them, and formulate strategies to resist them.
In fact, reading through any of the papers on the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies page should give a careful reader tremendous insight into the thinking of the current US and Israeli governments.
Reading Securing the Realm shows you the mad vision of "The New Middle East" that these ultra-Zionist psychos contemplate. With that knowledge in mind, we can understand Condoleeza Rice's slip of the tongue when she called the orgy of mad death and destruction in Lebanon as "the birth pangs of the New Middle East".
As I have noted previously, since this pre-planned Lebanon War began (just looking for an excuse to trigger it off), the Bushies have been urging Israel to attack Syria. If you read Securing the Realm, you will note that Syria is targeted for regime change after Iraq. The Israelis have balked, reportedly because they lack an immediate excuse.
However, perusing the rightwing blogs, websites and Israeli comments section in the past few weeks, I have been inundated with calls to attack Syria and also to attack Iran. Turn on Fox News, and one breathless, psychopathic Zionist talking-head nutcase after another urges an attack on Syria, Iran, or both.
Clearly, the "Destroy Hezbollah War" is meant to be a way to get at Iran and/or Syria, either by provoking them into the conflict, or just attacking them for their logical behavior in resupplying their Hezbollah ally. Indeed, Israeli sources note that Bush is praying that Iran and Syria will get overtly involved in the Hezbollah War, in order to give a green light to attacks on them.
It is useful to note that Bush tried a similar "pretext war" against Iraq before he attacked it. Endlessly, with no-fly zones and continuous bombings of Iraqi targets, the US and Britain (British imperialism to be precise, apparently trying to long-lost colonial glory) tried to goad Saddam into a war.
Wisely, Saddam refused to react to the countless smacks to his face by defending himself. Not that it mattered, as he got attacked anyway. Which suggests a similar end for these similar provocations, if it comes down to that endgame. It is clear that the US is determined to attack not only Iran, but also Syria.
At this point, judging by the Iraqi experience, it is not clear what these 2 countries can do to stop these planned attacks, short of complete surrender to US and Zionist hegemony.
Although the Iraq War seems to have set the neocons back a bit, with the ascension to power of rightwing hack Olmert in Israel, Bush apparently saw a kindred spirit who believed that Zionist and imperialist ultraviolence could solve the problems of the region.
It is useful to note here Paul Krugman's brilliant formation of the neoconservatives and Bushies as revolutionaries, based on his analysis of Henry Kissinger's astute dissertation about revolutionary powers. We must also bear in mind Hillary Clinton's comments at a private fundraiser in Los Angeles when she described the Bushies as "relentless and ruthless".
They are! You cannot understand these people until you get that through your head. Have you noticed that when the Bushies have a goal, they just keep pushing it and pushing it, even after failure upon failure, no matter how little support it has, until they finally bash the door down and get what they want? They don't stop, they don't take no for an answer, and they never quit.
You will never understand the Bushies until you figure this out.
Anyway, back to the US-Israeli ratchet game. The day after this fateful May 23 meeting, Olmert stood up and said "a moment of truth" had come for addressing Iran's purported nuclear bomb program.
The very next day, Olmert went to the US Congress and gave a surreal speech in which he described the nonexistent Iranian nuclear bomb as an "existential threat" to the Zionist racist settler-colonial rogue state that is itself armed with 300-400 nuclear weapons.
In this bizarre speech, Olmert was interrupted scores of times by standing ovations by a Congress in deadly thrall to the Zionist outlaw killer state. This does not usually happen when a foreign leader addresses Congress. It is like a surrealist play by Alfred Jarry.
On June 23, the IDF kidnapped 2 sons of a Hamas legislator, who are apparently completely innocent, and despite the cacophonous Zionist screeching that they are "terrorists", they seem to be guilty of nothing more than having a father who is a Hamas leader. A day later, Hamas tunneled out of the Gaza open air prison, attacked a Zionist base, killed 2 IDF soldiers and took 1 more POW.
This was apparently the pretext needed to destroy Gaza and wipe the democratically elected Hamas government out completely. At the time, Palestinian President Abbas had apparently coaxed Hamas into accepting a 2-state solution, formally anyway (they have repeatedly said they would accept such a solution).
The Israeli response, as we have seen over and over whenever any kind of peaceful settlement comes up that seems to curtain the ongoing Zionist colonization project, was massive violence. In the midst of the madness, Israel kidnapped 1/3 of the elected Hamas Parliament, who have nothing to do with military operations at all. These are apparently some kind of sick bargaining chips for the IDF POW.
The tension mounted, and on June 12, Hezbollah attacked, apparently partly in solidarity with the Palestinians, for which they ought to be commended. Israel responded to the attacks, deaths, injuries and POW's with a wild bombardment of Lebanon from one end to the other. Hezbollah responded by launching a Katyusha barrage.
Israel responded with a 10,000-man ground invasion and plans to occupy land all the way up to the Litani River, along with creepy warnings telling all civilians to flee the area.
These warnings are creepy because many times in past, Zionists have told the civilian population to flee, then attacked cities and villages, conquered them and annexed them to the Zionist colonial state, while permanently preventing the natives from returning to their homes and lands.
While we do not have any clear evidence that Israel intends to annex southern Lebanon to the Litani River, or steal the water from the Litani, at this point, we need to consider this out of control madman state as capable of these things, whether or not they actually do it or not.
Parry's article notes that the US-French-Israeli UN plan is apparently designed to fail from the start, thereby creating a pretext called,"Hezbollah (and Iran and Syria) are violating UN resolutions". Recall from the Iraq War what nefarious purposes Machiavellian US imperialists and Zionists use failure to comply with UN resolutions (it's a green light to attack the parties not in compliance).
Specifically, the resolution calls for Hezbollah to completely disarm, hand back the POW's and cease all hostilities. In return, they get zero.
They don't get their 15 Lebanese POW's back, Israel does not have to hand over the Lebanese land they are occupying, colonizing and stealing water from (the Shebaa Farms), and most insane of all, Israel does not even have to leave Lebanon!
Not only does the racist, colonialist, militarist, belligerent Israeli state get to camp out on occupied land again, but they have a right to engage in "defensive" attacks" (Hezbollah has no such right). Any student of Israeli history knows what mad offensive operations Israel has endlessly engaged in the name of self-defensive.
So, while the US is purporting to try to stop a war that the US in fact started, and relieving a humanitarian crisis that the US caused in the first place, the devious machinations here appear to be to force some sort of a showdown (apparently an armed one) with the axis of Hezbollah-Syria-Iran-Hamas in some kind of wild roll the dice endgame.
The reason those four parties are targeted is simple. Those are the last holdouts in the Arab World that not only oppose Zionist racist colonialism, expansionism and apartheid, but are well-armed and willing to stand up to this evil with gun in hand.
Strangely, the US and Israel actually feel that they have the support of so-called "moderate" regimes - regimes that have abjectly surrendered to Zionist colonization and occupation of Arab lands - in taking on the recalcitrant parties above.
As hard as that is to believe, looking at the cringing, terrified, supplicant, pro-US regimes that litter the sands of the Arab World, it is actually possible the Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia may be urging the US and Israel to attack the principled radicals above.
******
11:23 PM: The IDF destroyed 500 homes in Bint Jbeil (in other words, they flattened the entire town). But all of those homes were really Hezbollah headquarters and bases. So, just about every home in the town was a Hezbollah headquarters or base, right?
10:51 PM: 25 IDF troops were wounded in extremely heavy fighting in Dibel and Ayta Al-Shaab.
10:39 PM: A large number of IDF tanks started moving into Lebanon, as the start of the mad "expansion of the war" by the crazed rightwing Israeli regime.
10:30 PM: 2 Katyusha rockets landed in Maalot. There were no casualties.
10:01 PM: The IDF attacked a guerrilla training camp in Gaza in the Shajeyah District. 2 Palestinians were killed and others were wounded.
9 PM: Fox News, on the border with Lebanon, has footage of a burned out Merkava tank where reportedly 4 IDF troops were killed. The reporter, Shephard Smith, said they had been watching IDF casualties, killed and wounded, go by all day long. The sound of heavy fighting could be heard in the background. Smith said that today looked to be the worst day so far for IDF casualties.
8 PM: 1 IDF soldier was killed and 2 others were wounded in a mortar attack in Kalia, near Marjaroun.
6:04 PM: The IDF bombarded the studios of Al Manar TV in Beirut. Several other buildings were also hit. Al Manar broadcasts "incitement and war propaganda", so therefore it got hit. In that case, Hezbollah has a right to attack the Jerusalem Post, Ha'aretz , Ynet, Maariv and Arutz Sheva offices with missiles, correct? Not to mention all Israeli TV stations. Fair is fair.
3:29 PM: The IDF said they killed 20 Hezbollah fighters in very heavy fighting in Bint Jbeil.
*****
3:01 PM: Several IDF troops are wounded in fighting in southern Lebanon. Fighting is ongoing in Bint Jbeil, Aita Al Shaab, Qantara, Tayba, Aytarun, Debel and Rajmin.
The IDF said they killed 2 Hezbollah fighters in Rajmin. Qantara is 5 1/2 miles west of the border near Metulla and 3 miles west of Taybeh. Rajmin is actually known as Ramyah on most maps. It is located 1 mile north of the Zarit on the border.
*****
2:50 PM: Heavy fighting was reported in Debil, west of Bint Jbeil.
2:46 PM: Fires continue to burn out of control from Katyusha attacks at Kiryat Shemona and Maalot. A building in Nahariyah sustained a direct hit by a missile but there were no casualties. Several Israelis in the Galilee were wounded.
2:42 PM: 2 rockets slammed into a populated area of Carmiel. There were no casualties.
*****
2:21 PM: The Khaiber-1 330mm Syrian-made rockets fired on Afula landed mostly in the West Bank near Jenin, in general along the Green Line.
One rocket landed in the Palestinian village of Faqua, which could not be located on a map. Another such rocket hit that town a week ago. There are apparently no casualties from these strikes, although they rained shrapnel all around. They carry a 200-pound warhead, whereas, the Katyushas only carry 40-pound warheads.
****
2:17 PM: A Katyusha rocket barrage hit Safad but landed in open areas. Nevertheless, 5 Israelis were wounded.
2 PM: Over 6 Katyushas rained down on Maalot and Kiryat Shemona. There are no casualties but fires are burning in the area.
1:12 PM: A number of IDF soldiers have been wounded in the intense fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas in Aita Al Shaab and Taybeh. There are no details on the number of casualties or their nature. In fighting elsewhere, the IDF said they killed 4 Hezbollah fighters.
12:25 PM: Hezbollah fired over half a dozen missiles at Haifa and Nahariyah, but they all landed in open areas. A Khaiber-1 rocket blew up over Haifa before it hit ground.
12:06 PM: Hezbollah fired missiles at a number of targets across southern Lebanon. Missiles hit Haifa, Nahariyah,and Kiryat Shemona. For the second time, Hezbollah fired Khaiber-1 rockets on Israel. This time, the rockets hit in the Gilboa Hills, 1/2 way between Afula and Beit Shean, just north of the West Bank.
12 PM: Hezbollah guerrillas fired anti-tank missiles into a building where Israeli soldiers were hiding in Dibel, killing 9 IDF troops. The missile caused an arms cache to blow up inside the building. A short while later, the building collapsed. 17 troops were wounded. IDF forces had a hard time digging them out for some reason. It is not known if some of the wounded are still trapped there.
AM: The IDF killed 2 Hezbollah guerrillas in Aita Al Shaab, another village the IDF has been in for weeks. Let me know when the mighty IDF takes this measly village?
11:30 AM: The IDF says it killed a top Hezbollah official and 6 members of his family in an air strike on his home in the town of Masjara (I am not sure where that is). If this is ok, then why is it not ok for, say, "terrorists" to rocket homes where Israeli soldiers reside. If their family gets killed too, then so what?
11 AM: Hezbollah fired a Kornet anti-tank missile at IDF forces in Ayta Al-Shaab, killing all 4 crew members. The tank burst into flames and other soldiers were not able to approach it.
10:38 AM: IDF gunships shelled targets in southern Lebanon.
10:02 AM: Palestinian guerrillas opened fire on IDF troops in Jenin. There were no casualties.
9:55 AM: An IDF helicopter fired a missile at 2 Islamic Jihad in a home in Jenin. Both of them were killed in the air strike. Both were wanted for suicide bombings.
9:40 AM: 1 IDF soldier was wounded in fighting in Bint Jbeil. Excuse me, but the IDF is still in Bint Jbeil? They have been there for how long now? A month? Come on, now.
8:22 AM: The IDF arrested 3 Palestinian guerrillas in Nablus and Ramallah. The guerrillas were in Tanzim and the PFLP. This blog strongly supports the PFLP and DFLP in Palestine and urges all progressives to consider doing the same.
8 AM: 1 IDF soldier was killed and 7 more were wounded in a "friendly fire incident in Taybeh.
7:31 AM: The IDF hit what they said was Hezbollah's headquarters in in home in Bint Jbeil. There were reportedly 10 Hezbollah fighters in the home at that time.
7:23 AM: Palestinian fighters threw firebombs at IDF troops in Nablus in two separate attacks. There were no casualties.
Early AM: A number of Katyusha rockets rained down on Kiryat Shemona. There was damage but no injuries. Kiryat Shemona is devastated. 50% of its population has fled and there are plans to evacuate another 10,000 residents.
4:28 AM: There is heavy fighting ongoing in Ayta Al Shaab, which should have been conquered long ago. Hezbollah fighters are using antitank weapons.
****
3:59 AM: The IDF bombarded the Ein Al Hilwe refugee camp in southern Lebanon. One shell hit the camp and another hit an amusement park next door. 1 Palestinian was killed and 3 more were wounded. The IDF attacked the offices of the Fatah in the camp.
Can someone please tell me why that office is a legitimate target in this war? The IDF seems to be out to settle scores across the board, as they do in most of their ramped up offensives. Israel claims they hit a Hezbollah fighter in the camp.
****
1:15 AM: Palestinian fighters threw rocks at IDF troops near Nablus. The troops responded by firing at the feet of the protesters. 3 Palestinians were wounded.
*****
Over 160 rockets pounded into Israel today. Rockets hit Haifa, Afula, Kiryat Shemona, Shlomi, the Hula Valley, Nahariyah, Maalot, Carmiel, Safad, Beit Shean, Accra and the Jezreel Valley. 11 Israeli civilians were wounded.
Kiryat Shemona was hit with 80 rockets during the day, making it impossible to carry out the proposed evacuation. Every time the evacuees got on buses, another barrage would come in and they would have to run for the shelters.
*****
****
15 IDF troops were killed and 37 more were wounded today. This is the worst days so far for IDF casualties.
9 were killed in Dibel when an anti-tank rocket on a building housing IDF troops caused an arms cache to blow up and collapsed the building. 4 were killed when their tank was destroyed in Ayta Al-Shaab. 1 was killed by friendly fire in Taybeh. Another was killed in a mortar attack in Qulayah, near Marjayoun. Qulayah is 3 miles due north of Metulla in Israel and 2 miles southwest of Marjayoun.
At least 17 soldiers were wounded in Dibel and at least another 8 were wounded in Ayta Al-Shaab. Another 12 soldiers were wounded, 2 in Klia, 7 in Taybeh and the rest in unknown locales.
*****
The IDF says they killed at 50 Hezbollah fighters today.
117 Israelis have been killed so far in this war, 80 soldiers, 36 civilians in Israel and 1 civilian in the Diaspora.
The Lebanese death toll still stands at around 1000
****
I would like to take this time to point out, if I have not done so already, a very good blog, No Quarter, written by former CIA analyst Larry C. Johnson.
I know that sounds bad, but he is part of the reality-based community, he has superb knowledge of the Middle East, and he and his co-author(s) have nothing but contempt for the neoconservative madness that reigns in Washington and Tel Aviv.
Johnson runs a counterterrorism consulting firm, but before you get twisted out of shape about that, note that it continues to be focused on Sunni Salafists and Takfiris associated with Al Qaeda.
This is a menace, despite the disgusting lies from Muslim (fundamentalist) apologies that only Muslims can understand Muslims, that there is no such thing as Salafism, or Wahhabism, or Salafi-jihadism, and that all of these are the fervid lies of Western "Orientalists".
This lie that is echoed by Arab ethnocentrists like Angry Arab, who ignorantly and arrogantly insists that any attempt to understand Arabs or the Arab World in any way by anyone who does not have 100% pure Arab blood is a case of "Orientalism".
Despite this ethnocentric BS, outsiders are indeed capable of observing, analyzing and yes (gasp) even understanding Arab and Muslim cultures without converting to Islam or getting Arabic blood transfusions.
For instance, it is not "Orientalism" to note, astutely, that there is a variety of radical Sunni Islam, loosely allied with the ideology of Al Qaeda, that must be fought to the death and destroyed everywhere it menaces its enemies on this planet, no matter how matter Takfiri maniacs are slaughtered in the process. I am serious. If a million dangerous Takfiris need to die, let's get on with it. Hama, Part 2, let's rock and roll.
Edward Said, for all his fine work, did the world a disservice with his ethnocentric lead balloon "Orientalism", and poisoned the minds of a generation of Arab intellectuals.
Larry Johnson understands who the Salafi and Takfiri enemy is and who are the Muslims and Arabs who need to be left in peace.
****
*****
Let us start out with a very important article by journalist Robert Parry, who did some important research on Iran-Contra. A voice of calm reason, we need to listen carefully to him. The topics of this piece have also appeared in a variety of other pieces lately, but this article sums things up pretty well.
First of all, whether or not Hezbollah attacked the Israeli forces inside Israel or inside Lebanon is not really important because this war was planned for months by the US and Israel. On May 23, Bush met with Olmert and Israeli sources say the go-ahead was given to fight the Lebanon War.
All they needed was a pretext. Three days later, a bomb went off in Lebanon, killing 2 Islamic Jihad activists. Hezbollah was furious and responded to the attack with a rocket barrage on Israel. Israel responded with bombardments of Hezbollah positions. This sort of thing has been going on from time to time ever since 2000.
The objective here was to increase the tensions along the border, to provoke the enemy into attacking, and then to use the attack to launch the Destroy Hezbollah War. This is the sort of thing that Israel has done over and over all throughout its history. As this comment here notes:
Israel is a freak nation founded on ethnic cleansing and war - that cannot exist without war.I realize that that comment sounds insane, but my years of research have concluded that there is a lot of truth to that. Anyway, on June 10, Lebanese authorities rolled up a Mossad cell in Lebanon that had conducted the assassination of the Islamic Jihad officials.
The objective here was to provoke a situation of tit for tat violence that would escalate the pressure on Hezbollah, the Palestinian guerrillas, Syria and Iran.
At the May 23 summit, Olmert and Bush agreed to make 2006 the year to deal with the Iranian nuclear issue (even though an Iranian bomb is at least 3-10 years away). The way to get to Iran is through Syria and Hezbollah.
Although I do not like to make predictions, a US or Israeli or US-Israeli attack on Iran before the Bush Presidency is up is possible and may even be likely. Both the Americans and the Israelis seem to be determined to pull off this attack. Now whether their plans will actually come through or not is uncertain, but that an attack on Iran is clearly their objective.
The idea here, the piece notes, is to create a wider conflict. The brilliant but erratic Xymphora sketches out the neoconservative plan to transform the Middle East here into 10 steps. Some of them are quite unlikely, but others are already done.
We have seen repeated neoconservative blueprints for these plots in the past decade.
Just take a look at various documents out of Daniel Pipes' Middle East Forum, especially this eye-opening document called, Ending Syria's Occupation of Lebanon: The US Role, by Pipes and Ziad Abelnour (former Lebanese Phalangist and head of the neoconservative US Committee for a Free Lebanon - web site here).
Listing all of the players in these schemes goes beyond the scope of this post, but the Right Web links above contain lists of many of the relevant plotters and the organizations they are involved with.
The single paper that sums up the whole neoconservative game plan well is A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, prepared for former Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu in June 1996.
It is essential that anyone who wants to understand the Middle East madness that has ensued since George Bush came into office read this paper.
In this paper, the invasion of Iraq is plotted. In the same paper, the destruction of Hezbollah is urged. It's not too often that conspirators lay out exactly what they intend to do before hand, and when they do, is important that all concerned citizens read up on these mad plots, understand them, and formulate strategies to resist them.
In fact, reading through any of the papers on the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies page should give a careful reader tremendous insight into the thinking of the current US and Israeli governments.
Reading Securing the Realm shows you the mad vision of "The New Middle East" that these ultra-Zionist psychos contemplate. With that knowledge in mind, we can understand Condoleeza Rice's slip of the tongue when she called the orgy of mad death and destruction in Lebanon as "the birth pangs of the New Middle East".
As I have noted previously, since this pre-planned Lebanon War began (just looking for an excuse to trigger it off), the Bushies have been urging Israel to attack Syria. If you read Securing the Realm, you will note that Syria is targeted for regime change after Iraq. The Israelis have balked, reportedly because they lack an immediate excuse.
However, perusing the rightwing blogs, websites and Israeli comments section in the past few weeks, I have been inundated with calls to attack Syria and also to attack Iran. Turn on Fox News, and one breathless, psychopathic Zionist talking-head nutcase after another urges an attack on Syria, Iran, or both.
Clearly, the "Destroy Hezbollah War" is meant to be a way to get at Iran and/or Syria, either by provoking them into the conflict, or just attacking them for their logical behavior in resupplying their Hezbollah ally. Indeed, Israeli sources note that Bush is praying that Iran and Syria will get overtly involved in the Hezbollah War, in order to give a green light to attacks on them.
It is useful to note that Bush tried a similar "pretext war" against Iraq before he attacked it. Endlessly, with no-fly zones and continuous bombings of Iraqi targets, the US and Britain (British imperialism to be precise, apparently trying to long-lost colonial glory) tried to goad Saddam into a war.
Wisely, Saddam refused to react to the countless smacks to his face by defending himself. Not that it mattered, as he got attacked anyway. Which suggests a similar end for these similar provocations, if it comes down to that endgame. It is clear that the US is determined to attack not only Iran, but also Syria.
At this point, judging by the Iraqi experience, it is not clear what these 2 countries can do to stop these planned attacks, short of complete surrender to US and Zionist hegemony.
Although the Iraq War seems to have set the neocons back a bit, with the ascension to power of rightwing hack Olmert in Israel, Bush apparently saw a kindred spirit who believed that Zionist and imperialist ultraviolence could solve the problems of the region.
It is useful to note here Paul Krugman's brilliant formation of the neoconservatives and Bushies as revolutionaries, based on his analysis of Henry Kissinger's astute dissertation about revolutionary powers. We must also bear in mind Hillary Clinton's comments at a private fundraiser in Los Angeles when she described the Bushies as "relentless and ruthless".
They are! You cannot understand these people until you get that through your head. Have you noticed that when the Bushies have a goal, they just keep pushing it and pushing it, even after failure upon failure, no matter how little support it has, until they finally bash the door down and get what they want? They don't stop, they don't take no for an answer, and they never quit.
You will never understand the Bushies until you figure this out.
Anyway, back to the US-Israeli ratchet game. The day after this fateful May 23 meeting, Olmert stood up and said "a moment of truth" had come for addressing Iran's purported nuclear bomb program.
The very next day, Olmert went to the US Congress and gave a surreal speech in which he described the nonexistent Iranian nuclear bomb as an "existential threat" to the Zionist racist settler-colonial rogue state that is itself armed with 300-400 nuclear weapons.
In this bizarre speech, Olmert was interrupted scores of times by standing ovations by a Congress in deadly thrall to the Zionist outlaw killer state. This does not usually happen when a foreign leader addresses Congress. It is like a surrealist play by Alfred Jarry.
On June 23, the IDF kidnapped 2 sons of a Hamas legislator, who are apparently completely innocent, and despite the cacophonous Zionist screeching that they are "terrorists", they seem to be guilty of nothing more than having a father who is a Hamas leader. A day later, Hamas tunneled out of the Gaza open air prison, attacked a Zionist base, killed 2 IDF soldiers and took 1 more POW.
This was apparently the pretext needed to destroy Gaza and wipe the democratically elected Hamas government out completely. At the time, Palestinian President Abbas had apparently coaxed Hamas into accepting a 2-state solution, formally anyway (they have repeatedly said they would accept such a solution).
The Israeli response, as we have seen over and over whenever any kind of peaceful settlement comes up that seems to curtain the ongoing Zionist colonization project, was massive violence. In the midst of the madness, Israel kidnapped 1/3 of the elected Hamas Parliament, who have nothing to do with military operations at all. These are apparently some kind of sick bargaining chips for the IDF POW.
The tension mounted, and on June 12, Hezbollah attacked, apparently partly in solidarity with the Palestinians, for which they ought to be commended. Israel responded to the attacks, deaths, injuries and POW's with a wild bombardment of Lebanon from one end to the other. Hezbollah responded by launching a Katyusha barrage.
Israel responded with a 10,000-man ground invasion and plans to occupy land all the way up to the Litani River, along with creepy warnings telling all civilians to flee the area.
These warnings are creepy because many times in past, Zionists have told the civilian population to flee, then attacked cities and villages, conquered them and annexed them to the Zionist colonial state, while permanently preventing the natives from returning to their homes and lands.
While we do not have any clear evidence that Israel intends to annex southern Lebanon to the Litani River, or steal the water from the Litani, at this point, we need to consider this out of control madman state as capable of these things, whether or not they actually do it or not.
Parry's article notes that the US-French-Israeli UN plan is apparently designed to fail from the start, thereby creating a pretext called,"Hezbollah (and Iran and Syria) are violating UN resolutions". Recall from the Iraq War what nefarious purposes Machiavellian US imperialists and Zionists use failure to comply with UN resolutions (it's a green light to attack the parties not in compliance).
Specifically, the resolution calls for Hezbollah to completely disarm, hand back the POW's and cease all hostilities. In return, they get zero.
They don't get their 15 Lebanese POW's back, Israel does not have to hand over the Lebanese land they are occupying, colonizing and stealing water from (the Shebaa Farms), and most insane of all, Israel does not even have to leave Lebanon!
Not only does the racist, colonialist, militarist, belligerent Israeli state get to camp out on occupied land again, but they have a right to engage in "defensive" attacks" (Hezbollah has no such right). Any student of Israeli history knows what mad offensive operations Israel has endlessly engaged in the name of self-defensive.
So, while the US is purporting to try to stop a war that the US in fact started, and relieving a humanitarian crisis that the US caused in the first place, the devious machinations here appear to be to force some sort of a showdown (apparently an armed one) with the axis of Hezbollah-Syria-Iran-Hamas in some kind of wild roll the dice endgame.
The reason those four parties are targeted is simple. Those are the last holdouts in the Arab World that not only oppose Zionist racist colonialism, expansionism and apartheid, but are well-armed and willing to stand up to this evil with gun in hand.
Strangely, the US and Israel actually feel that they have the support of so-called "moderate" regimes - regimes that have abjectly surrendered to Zionist colonization and occupation of Arab lands - in taking on the recalcitrant parties above.
As hard as that is to believe, looking at the cringing, terrified, supplicant, pro-US regimes that litter the sands of the Arab World, it is actually possible the Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia may be urging the US and Israel to attack the principled radicals above.
******
11:23 PM: The IDF destroyed 500 homes in Bint Jbeil (in other words, they flattened the entire town). But all of those homes were really Hezbollah headquarters and bases. So, just about every home in the town was a Hezbollah headquarters or base, right?
10:51 PM: 25 IDF troops were wounded in extremely heavy fighting in Dibel and Ayta Al-Shaab.
10:39 PM: A large number of IDF tanks started moving into Lebanon, as the start of the mad "expansion of the war" by the crazed rightwing Israeli regime.
10:30 PM: 2 Katyusha rockets landed in Maalot. There were no casualties.
10:01 PM: The IDF attacked a guerrilla training camp in Gaza in the Shajeyah District. 2 Palestinians were killed and others were wounded.
9 PM: Fox News, on the border with Lebanon, has footage of a burned out Merkava tank where reportedly 4 IDF troops were killed. The reporter, Shephard Smith, said they had been watching IDF casualties, killed and wounded, go by all day long. The sound of heavy fighting could be heard in the background. Smith said that today looked to be the worst day so far for IDF casualties.
8 PM: 1 IDF soldier was killed and 2 others were wounded in a mortar attack in Kalia, near Marjaroun.
6:04 PM: The IDF bombarded the studios of Al Manar TV in Beirut. Several other buildings were also hit. Al Manar broadcasts "incitement and war propaganda", so therefore it got hit. In that case, Hezbollah has a right to attack the Jerusalem Post, Ha'aretz , Ynet, Maariv and Arutz Sheva offices with missiles, correct? Not to mention all Israeli TV stations. Fair is fair.
3:29 PM: The IDF said they killed 20 Hezbollah fighters in very heavy fighting in Bint Jbeil.
*****
3:01 PM: Several IDF troops are wounded in fighting in southern Lebanon. Fighting is ongoing in Bint Jbeil, Aita Al Shaab, Qantara, Tayba, Aytarun, Debel and Rajmin.
The IDF said they killed 2 Hezbollah fighters in Rajmin. Qantara is 5 1/2 miles west of the border near Metulla and 3 miles west of Taybeh. Rajmin is actually known as Ramyah on most maps. It is located 1 mile north of the Zarit on the border.
*****
2:50 PM: Heavy fighting was reported in Debil, west of Bint Jbeil.
2:46 PM: Fires continue to burn out of control from Katyusha attacks at Kiryat Shemona and Maalot. A building in Nahariyah sustained a direct hit by a missile but there were no casualties. Several Israelis in the Galilee were wounded.
2:42 PM: 2 rockets slammed into a populated area of Carmiel. There were no casualties.
*****
2:21 PM: The Khaiber-1 330mm Syrian-made rockets fired on Afula landed mostly in the West Bank near Jenin, in general along the Green Line.
One rocket landed in the Palestinian village of Faqua, which could not be located on a map. Another such rocket hit that town a week ago. There are apparently no casualties from these strikes, although they rained shrapnel all around. They carry a 200-pound warhead, whereas, the Katyushas only carry 40-pound warheads.
****
2:17 PM: A Katyusha rocket barrage hit Safad but landed in open areas. Nevertheless, 5 Israelis were wounded.
2 PM: Over 6 Katyushas rained down on Maalot and Kiryat Shemona. There are no casualties but fires are burning in the area.
1:12 PM: A number of IDF soldiers have been wounded in the intense fighting with Hezbollah guerrillas in Aita Al Shaab and Taybeh. There are no details on the number of casualties or their nature. In fighting elsewhere, the IDF said they killed 4 Hezbollah fighters.
12:25 PM: Hezbollah fired over half a dozen missiles at Haifa and Nahariyah, but they all landed in open areas. A Khaiber-1 rocket blew up over Haifa before it hit ground.
12:06 PM: Hezbollah fired missiles at a number of targets across southern Lebanon. Missiles hit Haifa, Nahariyah,and Kiryat Shemona. For the second time, Hezbollah fired Khaiber-1 rockets on Israel. This time, the rockets hit in the Gilboa Hills, 1/2 way between Afula and Beit Shean, just north of the West Bank.
12 PM: Hezbollah guerrillas fired anti-tank missiles into a building where Israeli soldiers were hiding in Dibel, killing 9 IDF troops. The missile caused an arms cache to blow up inside the building. A short while later, the building collapsed. 17 troops were wounded. IDF forces had a hard time digging them out for some reason. It is not known if some of the wounded are still trapped there.
AM: The IDF killed 2 Hezbollah guerrillas in Aita Al Shaab, another village the IDF has been in for weeks. Let me know when the mighty IDF takes this measly village?
11:30 AM: The IDF says it killed a top Hezbollah official and 6 members of his family in an air strike on his home in the town of Masjara (I am not sure where that is). If this is ok, then why is it not ok for, say, "terrorists" to rocket homes where Israeli soldiers reside. If their family gets killed too, then so what?
11 AM: Hezbollah fired a Kornet anti-tank missile at IDF forces in Ayta Al-Shaab, killing all 4 crew members. The tank burst into flames and other soldiers were not able to approach it.
10:38 AM: IDF gunships shelled targets in southern Lebanon.
10:02 AM: Palestinian guerrillas opened fire on IDF troops in Jenin. There were no casualties.
9:55 AM: An IDF helicopter fired a missile at 2 Islamic Jihad in a home in Jenin. Both of them were killed in the air strike. Both were wanted for suicide bombings.
9:40 AM: 1 IDF soldier was wounded in fighting in Bint Jbeil. Excuse me, but the IDF is still in Bint Jbeil? They have been there for how long now? A month? Come on, now.
8:22 AM: The IDF arrested 3 Palestinian guerrillas in Nablus and Ramallah. The guerrillas were in Tanzim and the PFLP. This blog strongly supports the PFLP and DFLP in Palestine and urges all progressives to consider doing the same.
8 AM: 1 IDF soldier was killed and 7 more were wounded in a "friendly fire incident in Taybeh.
7:31 AM: The IDF hit what they said was Hezbollah's headquarters in in home in Bint Jbeil. There were reportedly 10 Hezbollah fighters in the home at that time.
7:23 AM: Palestinian fighters threw firebombs at IDF troops in Nablus in two separate attacks. There were no casualties.
Early AM: A number of Katyusha rockets rained down on Kiryat Shemona. There was damage but no injuries. Kiryat Shemona is devastated. 50% of its population has fled and there are plans to evacuate another 10,000 residents.
4:28 AM: There is heavy fighting ongoing in Ayta Al Shaab, which should have been conquered long ago. Hezbollah fighters are using antitank weapons.
****
3:59 AM: The IDF bombarded the Ein Al Hilwe refugee camp in southern Lebanon. One shell hit the camp and another hit an amusement park next door. 1 Palestinian was killed and 3 more were wounded. The IDF attacked the offices of the Fatah in the camp.
Can someone please tell me why that office is a legitimate target in this war? The IDF seems to be out to settle scores across the board, as they do in most of their ramped up offensives. Israel claims they hit a Hezbollah fighter in the camp.
****
1:15 AM: Palestinian fighters threw rocks at IDF troops near Nablus. The troops responded by firing at the feet of the protesters. 3 Palestinians were wounded.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
Middle East War Report for Tuesday, August 8
Updated November 30, 2008:
The IDF said they killed 30 Hezbollah fighters today.
14 Lebanese civilians were killed by IDF air raids and bombardments, all in an attack on Ghazaleyeh. A funeral procession was going at the same time, but it was not hit.
4 IDF soldiers were killed and 22 more were wounded in fighting against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
At least 20 Israeli civilians were wounded by Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah.
102 Israelis have been killed in the war so far, 65 soldiers, 36 civilians in Israel and 1 Israeli in Diaspora.
Over 1,000 Lebanese have been killed so far. About 770 civilians, 200 Hezbollah fighters and 29 Lebanese soldiers have been killed.
****
170 Katyusha rockets hit northern Israel, focusing on Safad, Tiberias, Maalot, Nahariyah, Accra, Ramot Navtali, Dan, Dovev, Gesher Haziv, Shamerat, Carmiel, Gonen, Kfar Geladi, HaGosherim, Yuval, Even Menahem, Metulla and Kiryat Shemona.
Fires are burning in Kiryat Shemona, Accra, Nahariyah and Maalot, and buildings were damaged. Homes were damaged in Safad and Metulla. The IDF military base at Eilabun was also hit.
*****
****
Heavy fighting was reported across the border region in Lebanon. 5 Hezbollah fighters were taken POW after they fell asleep. The IDF claims they killed 12 other Hezbollah fighters.
In the village of Ain Ebel, west of Bint Jbeil, 1 IDF soldier was killed and 7 more were wounded in heavy fighting. The soldiers were hit by anti-tank fire that hit their tank and destroyed it. Heavy fighting is continuing in Bint Jbeil. In addition to the locales listed below, heavy fighting was reported in Taybeh and Aitarun.
****
11:30 PM: Hezbollah fired yet another rocket barrage at Nahariyah and Kiryat Shemona. There were no casualties.
10 PM: Hezbollah fired a rocket at Fasouta, a town in the Western Galilee. The rocket made a direct hit on a home, wounding 2 Israelis.
8:45 PM: Hezbollah fired 4 rockets at Kiryat Shemona.
8:15 PM: The IDF arrested a Hamas guerrilla in Beit Jala, a mostly Christian village north of Bethlehem.
7:45 PM: Hezbollah fired a 7-rocket barrage at Nahariyah, but all of the rockets landed in open areas.
4:09 PM: 85% of factories in northern Israel are continuing to operate, up from 67% in the first week of the war. 20 factories have been slammed by Katyusha rockets and sustained damage. Fool Warren Buffet just spent $4 billion to buy the Iscar Corporation, an Israeli business with a large plant in the north.
4:03 PM: Hezbollah fired another rocket barrage at Safad and Maalot, with most of the rockets hitting Safad. 17 Israelis were wounded in the blitz.
*****
4 PM: 1 seriously wounded IDF soldier from the fighting early in the morning in Bint Jbeil had been treated at the scene and left inside a building for 10 hours because it was too dangerous to try to get him out. An IDF force returned to evacuate him and during the evacuation, ran into heavy Hezbollah fire and one of the evacuating soldiers was also seriously wounded.
The originally wounded soldier was injured again. Both wounded soldiers were evacuated to a tank, and from there to a helicopter. Both wounded soldiers died en route to the hospital. 1 more soldier was wounded in the fighting.
*****
3:24 PM: Hezbollah fired a wave of Katyusha rockets at Safad and the Golan Heights. One rocket landed next to a home in Safad but most hit open areas. Several fires were burning.
2:21 PM: Hezbollah fired a Katyusha rocket that landed next to the Sieff Hospital in Safad while Israeli Home Front officials were visiting. The building was damaged but there were no casualties. The commander of the Internal Front was visiting the hospital at the time of the attack.
****
1:13 PM: The Indonesian Islamofascist Islamic Defenders Front, associated with Jemaa Islamiyaa and Al Qaeda, said that they sent 20 fighters to Lebanon, where they are reportedly undergoing training supervised by Hezbollah.
It is odd that Sunni Salafists or Salafist-Takfiris would even admit to fighting next to Hezbollah at all. On the other hand, I suppose Hezbollah is willing to take all the armed allies it can at this point.
See Jeffrey Cozzens' interesting piece for more on that. Cozzens, a Zionist and supporter of US imperialism who is no friend of Arabs or Islam, makes the logical point that any Al Qaeda-Hezbollah collaboration flies in the face of logic, and allegations of such must be taken with a huge grain of salt.
I concur completely. It sickens me to see this endless Zionist-imperialist propaganda in the past 3 weeks equating Al Qaeda and its spinoffs with the Shia Hezbollah.
****
11:53 AM: Hezbollah fired a 10-Katyusha rocket barrage at Kiryat Shemona. There were no casualties but there are fires burning around the city and damage has been reported to a number of buildings.
11:49 AM: Hezbollah fired 2 Katyusha rockets at Tiberias, but they landed in open areas. There were no casualties and there was no damage.
11:07 AM: Hezbollah fired 4 Katyusha rockets at Nahariyah, but they landed in open areas. There were no casualties and there was no damage.
8:35 AM: There is heavy fighting between IDF forces and Hezbollah in a number of villages near the border.
8:19 AM: Palestinian guerrillas fired on IDF forces near Kabatiya, an Arab village which is near Qalqilya. There were no casualties. There has been a lot of guerrilla activity near Kabatiya lately.
8:08 AM: The IDF fired artillery at the Palestinian guerrillas who fired a Qassam rocket at Miflasim in Israel earlier.
7:47 AM: Palestinian guerrillas fired a mortar round at IDF forces in southern Gaza in the Dahaniyeh area. There were no casualties.
7:46 AM: Hezbollah fired 3 rockets at Safad. There were no casualties and there was no damage.
7:44 AM: Palestinian guerrillas launched 2 Qassam missiles at Kibbutz Nahal Oz near Gaza. There were no casualties and there was no damage.
6:04 AM: Palestinian guerrillas launched a Qassam missile at Kibbutz Miflasim near Gaza. There were no casualties and there was no damage.
6 AM: The IDF killed 4 Hezbollah fighters in a battle in Bint Jbeil. Fighting is ongoing in Bint Jbeil.
5 AM: 2 IDF soldiers were killed and 2 more were wounded in heavy fighting for the village of Labouna. Labouna is right on the border in the far western sector, 2 miles east of the ocean, and right across from the Israeli town of Bassa.
The IDF said they killed 30 Hezbollah fighters today.
14 Lebanese civilians were killed by IDF air raids and bombardments, all in an attack on Ghazaleyeh. A funeral procession was going at the same time, but it was not hit.
4 IDF soldiers were killed and 22 more were wounded in fighting against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
At least 20 Israeli civilians were wounded by Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah.
102 Israelis have been killed in the war so far, 65 soldiers, 36 civilians in Israel and 1 Israeli in Diaspora.
Over 1,000 Lebanese have been killed so far. About 770 civilians, 200 Hezbollah fighters and 29 Lebanese soldiers have been killed.
****
170 Katyusha rockets hit northern Israel, focusing on Safad, Tiberias, Maalot, Nahariyah, Accra, Ramot Navtali, Dan, Dovev, Gesher Haziv, Shamerat, Carmiel, Gonen, Kfar Geladi, HaGosherim, Yuval, Even Menahem, Metulla and Kiryat Shemona.
Fires are burning in Kiryat Shemona, Accra, Nahariyah and Maalot, and buildings were damaged. Homes were damaged in Safad and Metulla. The IDF military base at Eilabun was also hit.
*****
****
Heavy fighting was reported across the border region in Lebanon. 5 Hezbollah fighters were taken POW after they fell asleep. The IDF claims they killed 12 other Hezbollah fighters.
In the village of Ain Ebel, west of Bint Jbeil, 1 IDF soldier was killed and 7 more were wounded in heavy fighting. The soldiers were hit by anti-tank fire that hit their tank and destroyed it. Heavy fighting is continuing in Bint Jbeil. In addition to the locales listed below, heavy fighting was reported in Taybeh and Aitarun.
****
11:30 PM: Hezbollah fired yet another rocket barrage at Nahariyah and Kiryat Shemona. There were no casualties.
10 PM: Hezbollah fired a rocket at Fasouta, a town in the Western Galilee. The rocket made a direct hit on a home, wounding 2 Israelis.
8:45 PM: Hezbollah fired 4 rockets at Kiryat Shemona.
8:15 PM: The IDF arrested a Hamas guerrilla in Beit Jala, a mostly Christian village north of Bethlehem.
7:45 PM: Hezbollah fired a 7-rocket barrage at Nahariyah, but all of the rockets landed in open areas.
4:09 PM: 85% of factories in northern Israel are continuing to operate, up from 67% in the first week of the war. 20 factories have been slammed by Katyusha rockets and sustained damage. Fool Warren Buffet just spent $4 billion to buy the Iscar Corporation, an Israeli business with a large plant in the north.
4:03 PM: Hezbollah fired another rocket barrage at Safad and Maalot, with most of the rockets hitting Safad. 17 Israelis were wounded in the blitz.
*****
4 PM: 1 seriously wounded IDF soldier from the fighting early in the morning in Bint Jbeil had been treated at the scene and left inside a building for 10 hours because it was too dangerous to try to get him out. An IDF force returned to evacuate him and during the evacuation, ran into heavy Hezbollah fire and one of the evacuating soldiers was also seriously wounded.
The originally wounded soldier was injured again. Both wounded soldiers were evacuated to a tank, and from there to a helicopter. Both wounded soldiers died en route to the hospital. 1 more soldier was wounded in the fighting.
*****
3:24 PM: Hezbollah fired a wave of Katyusha rockets at Safad and the Golan Heights. One rocket landed next to a home in Safad but most hit open areas. Several fires were burning.
2:21 PM: Hezbollah fired a Katyusha rocket that landed next to the Sieff Hospital in Safad while Israeli Home Front officials were visiting. The building was damaged but there were no casualties. The commander of the Internal Front was visiting the hospital at the time of the attack.
****
1:13 PM: The Indonesian Islamofascist Islamic Defenders Front, associated with Jemaa Islamiyaa and Al Qaeda, said that they sent 20 fighters to Lebanon, where they are reportedly undergoing training supervised by Hezbollah.
It is odd that Sunni Salafists or Salafist-Takfiris would even admit to fighting next to Hezbollah at all. On the other hand, I suppose Hezbollah is willing to take all the armed allies it can at this point.
See Jeffrey Cozzens' interesting piece for more on that. Cozzens, a Zionist and supporter of US imperialism who is no friend of Arabs or Islam, makes the logical point that any Al Qaeda-Hezbollah collaboration flies in the face of logic, and allegations of such must be taken with a huge grain of salt.
I concur completely. It sickens me to see this endless Zionist-imperialist propaganda in the past 3 weeks equating Al Qaeda and its spinoffs with the Shia Hezbollah.
****
11:53 AM: Hezbollah fired a 10-Katyusha rocket barrage at Kiryat Shemona. There were no casualties but there are fires burning around the city and damage has been reported to a number of buildings.
11:49 AM: Hezbollah fired 2 Katyusha rockets at Tiberias, but they landed in open areas. There were no casualties and there was no damage.
11:07 AM: Hezbollah fired 4 Katyusha rockets at Nahariyah, but they landed in open areas. There were no casualties and there was no damage.
8:35 AM: There is heavy fighting between IDF forces and Hezbollah in a number of villages near the border.
8:19 AM: Palestinian guerrillas fired on IDF forces near Kabatiya, an Arab village which is near Qalqilya. There were no casualties. There has been a lot of guerrilla activity near Kabatiya lately.
8:08 AM: The IDF fired artillery at the Palestinian guerrillas who fired a Qassam rocket at Miflasim in Israel earlier.
7:47 AM: Palestinian guerrillas fired a mortar round at IDF forces in southern Gaza in the Dahaniyeh area. There were no casualties.
7:46 AM: Hezbollah fired 3 rockets at Safad. There were no casualties and there was no damage.
7:44 AM: Palestinian guerrillas launched 2 Qassam missiles at Kibbutz Nahal Oz near Gaza. There were no casualties and there was no damage.
6:04 AM: Palestinian guerrillas launched a Qassam missile at Kibbutz Miflasim near Gaza. There were no casualties and there was no damage.
6 AM: The IDF killed 4 Hezbollah fighters in a battle in Bint Jbeil. Fighting is ongoing in Bint Jbeil.
5 AM: 2 IDF soldiers were killed and 2 more were wounded in heavy fighting for the village of Labouna. Labouna is right on the border in the far western sector, 2 miles east of the ocean, and right across from the Israeli town of Bassa.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
