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:

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.

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.

Middle East War Report for Monday, August 7

Updated November 30, 2008:

****
Excellent reading for the day - from Norman Birnbaum of the Nation Magazine. The Nation has been pummeled lately by the Angry Arab blog (some of the best coverage on this Lebanon War can be found there) for not being radical enough on the pro-Arab and anti-Israel scale, but let us note that many of the editors and writers are Jewish, and most are at least Soft Zionists.

It is not a perfect world. Nevertheless, this piece, Is Israel Good For the Jews? is superb and highly critical of Israel while lacking in anti-Semitism. He alludes to what has been obvious to me for some time now. As Xymphora has pointed out, Israel and the US now form the leading edge of one of the most dangerous rightwing movements in our world today.

An out-of-control Israeli state in the grips of a mad neoconservative "double-down" philosophy, allied with unreconstructed reactionary US imperialists and fanatical end-times Christians, is not a state than any liberal, not to be mention any liberal Jew, should feel comfortable supporting. He makes the very daring suggestion that US Jews ought to slowly "disengage" from the Israeli settler-colonial madman rogue state.

More articles like this!
****

****
Zionist History Lesson of the Day:

The New Historians of Israel, who have done us a favor by pointing out how Israel was born in sin, are nevertheless advancing a dangerous argument.

Benny Morris, drifting to the Right as Zionism mandates (Face it, there is a certain deep disconnect with the notion of a "Zionist Left"), says in his fairly dishonest attack on the Walt-Mearshimer paper on the Israeli Lobby in The New Republic, And Now For Some Facts, says that the only reason the Zionists took up arms in the 1930's and 1940's was because of Arab intransigence.

In saying so, Morris elides the settler-colonial nature of the Zionist movement, present from the very start. This is the line that the original Zionist settlers just wanted to "immigrate" to Israel to live in peace with the Arabs in Palestine.

Ralph Shoenmann's great The Hidden History of Zionism makes it clear that from the very start, the intent was to disperse, dispossess and replace the Arabs of Palestine. The Arabs figured this out early on. Here is a quote from the King-Crane Commission of the US in 1919, when the Arabs were already up in arms about the Zionist project:

Indeed, the King-Crane commission from the US, led by King and Crane, two US congressman, reported that over 90% of the residents of Syria and Palestine were indeed violently against the Zionist program, but this was noted yet set aside nonetheless.

You see? Even at that early date, the Arabs were furious about the Zionist project. The British should have stopped it right there. Instead, looking at the oncoming headlights careening towards them on the wrong side of the road, the Commission said to go ahead and drive right into the oncoming vehicle. The next year, there were violent Arab riots in Palestine and a number of settlers were killed.

A few years after that, the first Jewish guerrilla groups took up arms. The die was set and the war was on. It has continued without much letup, year and year out, ever since. 86 years. I figure that this recent mad neoconservative gamble we are witnessing is to seize the moment and end the Israeli-Arab War once and for all, or at least set the Arabs back a bit. It will fail, mark my words.

Abraham Foxman, head of the disgusting Anti-Defamation League (ADL), an Israel-firster who combines domestic liberalism with far-right neoconservatism, is a prototype of the curious, dissonant state of US Jewry. The ADL was formed after a an accused Jewish rapist and murderer, Leo Frank, was lynched out of a Georgia jail in 1915.

In this telling picture, Foxman's hand looks like a claw. I do not think that Mr. Foxman is a good or decent person, despite his supposed anti-racist bonafides.

*****


*****
100 Israelis have been killed so far in this Lebanon War, 61 soldiers, 38 civilians in Israel and 1 civilian in the Diaspora. Another 6 Israelis have been killed during the same period in Gaza, Sderot (a town in Israel near Gaza) and the West Bank.

It is interesting that the "terrorists" are killing 1.5 soldiers for every civilian killed, while the Israeli "non-terrorists" have killed about 5 civilians for every armed fighter. It is also interesting that the Hezbollah "terrorists" have killed 36 civilians, while the Israeli "non-terrorists" have killed around 880 civilians.

Faced with bizarre figures like that, we may as well just toss out categories like "terrorists" altogether for the time being in this war. The pro-Israeli crowd argues that Hezbollah is trying to kill Israeli civilians. Well, they are doing a comparatively inept job of it.

Whereas, the IDF is supposedly not deliberately targeting civilians (but see my post here for more on that). Well, in life and in war, "trying" doesn't really count. Results count. And by imperialism's definition of terrorism, it is Israel who is the terrorist in this conflict and Hezbollah who is fighting a relatively cleaner war.
*****

4 IDF soldiers were killed and 20 more were wounded.

10 Israeli civilians were wounded.

****
Another 57-69 Lebanese civilians were reportedly killed today (the figures vary). A reported massacre with 40 dead in Houla has been reduced to 1 killed. 925 Lebanese have been killed so far, and another 75 are missing.

Of those, I believe that around 200 are Hezbollah fighters, messengers and truck drivers, and 29 more are Lebanese military. That leaves about 770 dead civilians.

The IDF said they killed 44 Hezbollah fighters today.

****
Hezbollah fired an infernal 160-rocket barrage on Israel today, with 70 of them landing in Kiryat Shemona (referred to by locals cynically as "Kiryat Katyusha"). 10 Israelis were wounded in the barrage.

The casualty figures for these barrages are dropping dramatically because 70-80% of the Jewish population of many northern towns have fled and many of those remaining are heading to bomb shelters when they hear the sirens.
*****

*****
The IDF bombed the town of Qasmiyeh, killing 7 civilians. This town could to be located on a map. Another 6 or 7 civilians were killed in bombardments of 6 other villages. Air raids across the Bekaa Valley killed 1 civilian. Another air raid hit Masnaa, a town on the Lebanese-Syrian border.

*****
Israeli air strikes have now succeeded in isolating the city of Tyre. Israel is apparently getting ready for the outrageous move of attacking, conquering and occupying Tyre. Tyre is a large coastal city that is still full of civilians. Local medical crews are preparing for what they view as the inevitable Israeli invasion.

Occupying Tyre would be quite a handful. In addition to the usual Hezbollah forces, there are many Palestinians in local refugee camps who have vowed to fight any Israeli attempt to take the city. I also feel that the Lebanese military will not stand idly by if Israel attempts to conquer Tyre. It will be interesting to see how such an audacious Israeli operation plays out.
*****

*****
For the first time, the IDF attacked Al-Shiyah, a district of Beirut on the edge of where Beirut meets its southern suburbs. Many Christians live here and many Shia refugees have fled here into what they thought was safety in the open arms of the Christians who reside there. 15 civilians were killed in that attack and many more were wounded.

These attacks on Christian districts, as well as attacks on Sunni districts, in my opinion, are apparently a result of Israel's efforts to install a civil war in Lebanon. Now that 87% of Lebanese are supporting Hezbollah, imperialism and Zionism need to instill some rifts to break up that kind of patriotic solidarity.

Although I find it difficult to believe that human beings could actually conspire to start vicious civil wars in other countries (perhaps because I retain shreds of decency), apparently elites do this sort of thing all the time.

Hence, it is time to seriously consider the notion that Israel (and the US) are trying to start a civil war in Lebanon, as Jonathan Cook argues here, in The Deadly US-Israeli Shell Game at the UN. Cook, reporting out of Nazareth during this conflict, is an essential source about this war and I recommend any of his articles.

The Cook piece above also expertly takes apart the latest UN proposal to supposedly end the conflict. An analysis of that UN proposal goes beyond the scope of this post, and I direct you to the article. It ought to be enough, though, to note that Israel had a hand in writing this "US-French" UN resolution from the start. The resolution may as well have a sticker on it called "Made in Israel".

Some may be shocked at the French role in alliance with US imperialism and Zionism in Lebanon. Those folks need to look at history. History shows us that Lebanon was a French colony and that France still considers it more or less as such. For all their blather about opposing US imperialism's war in Iraq, it is sadly an accurate analysis that France remains a belligerent, violent imperialist state.

Recent French actions in Haiti (conspiring to overthrow President Aristide and instill a murderous regime that has killed 3,000 innocent Haitians) and in Lebanon (being one of the main parties behind the UN Resolution 1559 that set the stage for this war) along with recent French shenanigans in former colonies in Africa, suggest that France is still an imperialist country, mostly regarding its former colonies.

Apparently, psychologically, France has not given up its colonies or its colonial mindset, despite the 25,000 dead Frenchmen in Algeria in the Algerian Civil War. Lesson? Imperialism and colonialism die hard! The only cure for colonialism, of either the lingering, nostalgic variety or the active, in-your-face kind, remains the same as always, lots of dead and wounded colonists and colonial troops.

Those upset by such violent reactions are advised to kick the colonial addiction.
*****

Fighting was also reported at Shama, east of Al Bayada and behind enemy lines and at Taybeh, just inside the border.

Israel is still stuck in many of the same border villages after 3 weeks of fighting. This is the worst performance for the Israeli military in any of its major wars so far. It is wrong to call it a defeat, but surely they have not achieved any of their stated objectives. Furthermore, Hezbollah has fought more successfully against Israel (in some ways) than any Arab army.

8:58 PM: Hezbollah launched a Misrad-1 Iranian unmanned drone over Israel but it was shot down over the ocean off the coast of Haifa. There are conflicting reports about whether or not it was carrying any explosives on it when it was shot down. This marks a significant escalation.

Night: There was heavy fighting in the village of Dibel. Hezbollah fired an anti-tank missile at an IDF armored vehicle, destroying it, while killing 1 IDF soldier and wounding 5 more.

6:55 PM: A Qassam missile was fired from Gaza into the Negev, but landed in an open area and did not cause any damage or casualties. Qassams are much inferior to the Katyushas that Hezbollah is using.

6:18 PM: A rocket scored a direct hit on a school in Kiryat Shemona. The school was in flames. There were no casualties.

5:51 PM: 4 Katyushas landed in Accra. There are no casualties or damage.

5:15 PM: A Katyusha slammed into a home in the Kiryat Shemona area , wounding a number of Israelis.

4:58 PM: A Katyusha landed in an open area near Kiryat Shemona. No casualties or damage.

4:06 PM: IDF forces apprehended a Palestinian guerrilla in the village of Azzoun, east of Qalqilya. He was wanted in a number of attacks.

3:30 PM: 30 Israeli commandos landed via helicopter on a hilltop in Ras al-Biyada, south of Tyre, behind enemy lines. When last heard from, they were engaged in ferocious fighting with Hezbollah forces with no word on casualties.

3 PM: Fires are burning out of control near Tiberias.

*****
3 PM: Regarding the 57-69 Lebanese civilians killed so far today: There were originally said are said to be 40 Lebanese civilians - shepherds and their families hiding in a home - who were killed during the ferocious bombing and shelling of Houla earlier in the morning.

Most were said to be buried under rubble. The "non-terrorist" IDF is said to be attacking everything that moves in the area. The previous day they attacked a donkey that strolled into town. Later reports indicated that only one person was killed.
*****

2:40 PM: Heavy fighting is continuing in Bint Jbeil, where the IDF took casualties in the morning. 2 IDF soldiers were killed and 2 more were wounded when a Hezbollah ATGM hit a Merkava tank and destroyed it. Another IDF soldier was wounded in the fighting, which lasted for several hours throughout the afternoon.

An amazing photo that shows a Merkava-2 tank, (Merkavas come in Merkava-2, Merkava-3 and Merkava-4 iterations) in flames, possibly after being destroyed by a Hezbollah attack. The photo was found on the Internet with no date or explanation. We don't know if Hezbollah killed this tank - it may have been killed by Palestinians.

2:30 PM: Lebanese sources report that the latest mad Israeli raids, in response to the killing of 3 whole Israeli citizens, killed many civilians (the final figure is between 57-69 killed). Once again, we see the Israeli Super Bully mindset in action, in this case the supposedly Judaic 20-1 theory (you kill one of ours, we kill 20 of yours). Why do they hate us, anyone?

2 PM: Israeli ultra-racist, fascist legislator Effie Eitam, a former IDF general, threatened to "dismantle Lebanon" unless Lebanon dismantled Hezbollah. Such charming people, these Judeo-fascists. Regarding dismantling Lebanon, what have they been doing so far?

1:30 PM: IDF and Shin Bet forces killed a senior Islamic Jihad guerrilla in Silat Al-Hartia, near Jenin.

1 PM: Another rocket barrage landed in Kiryat Shemona. A building was hit and 3 Israelis were wounded.

1 PM: Israel apparently tried to kill Palestinian Prime Minister Haniyeh with some sort of a poison in an envelope. 7 Palestinians were hospitalized, with 1 in serious condition, after they opened an envelope addressed to Haniyeh.

12:30 PM: Turkey canceled a major arms deal with Israel and is now refusing to allow US planes to land in Turkey on the way to delivering weapons to Israel. Both of these moves are to protest Israel's wars in Lebanon and Palestine. Looks like Israel's only Muslim friend is not such a close friend after all.

12:15 PM: 5 more Katyushas hit Tiberias. There were no casualties.

12 noon: 7 more rockets rained down on northern Israel, hitting Kiryat Shemona, Tiberias, and the Golan Heights. 1 Israeli was wounded in Kiryat Shemona.

11:30 AM: 1 IDF soldier was killed and 7 more were wounded as fierce fighting continued in Bint Jbeil. The IDF said they killed 14 Hezbollah fighters in the fighting here. The wounded were evacuated under withering fire. I thought this town was "pacified"?

11:30 AM: 2 rockets hit Nahariyah. One hit a building and 1 Israeli was wounded.

11 AM: An Israeli Arab from the village of Musmus, near Wadi Ara, attacked a security guard in Afula with a knife. He was apprehended and the security guard was not injured. Looks like some of the Arab Israelis are starting to join their Palestinian and Lebanese brethren in this war against Israel.

11 AM: 16 rockets rained down on the Galilee, 12 on Kiryat Shemona and 4 more on Safad. A Katyusha rocket scored a direct hit on a building in Safad, wounding 1 Israeli.

8:40 AM: The IDF conducted 4 air raids on the Bekaa Valley, 5 more on the southern Lebanon town of Nabiteyeh, and 8 attacks on Beirut's southern suburbs.

8:15 AM: Palestinian guerrillas opened fire on an IDF patrol near Nablus but there were no casualties.

8 AM: IDF forces said that they killed 30 Hezbollah fighters in battles in southern Lebanon.

Early AM: Hezbollah attacked IDF forces attempting to move into the border towns of Aita Al Shaab, Debel and Rub Thalatheen in the early AM. Fierce fighting is ongoing at the border village of Aita Al Shaab. Debel is about 1 1/2 miles northeast of Aita Al Shaab and 3 miles northeast of the border at Shetula. Rub Thalatheen cannot be located.

Early: Israeli settler-colonist Jews fired on Arab natives in a drive by shooting near Habla, close to Qalqilya, killing 1 Arab and wounding 1 more.

7 AM: IDF forces arrested another Hamas MP in Ramallah for no legitimate reason at all. Hamas MP's do not have anything to do with the Hamas military wing in any way. Israel is now holding 1/3 of the Hamas government as some sort of sick bargaining chips for the POW's that Hamas is holding.

*****
5:35 AM: Hezbollah said that they attacked a house where IDF troops were hiding on the outskirts of Houla, a town on border 1 1/2 miles west of the Israeli town of Manara, killing 4 IDF troops, including an officer. Israeli media is reporting an ambush of an IDF unit in this town and heavy fighting resulting from that attack. They are reporting 5 wounded in this fighting.

The usual way that Hezbollah is attacking these homes the IDF is holed up in is to fire an anti-tank missile at the home (see my review of Hezbollah's antitank missile arsenal here). The missile has a dual warhead. It is so potent that it blasts right through the walls of the home. After the missile is inside the structure, a second warhead detonates. The effect is much like artillery.

Due to this tactic, IDF troops are not spending much time in any one home and end up moving around a lot.
****

****
Israel is threatening to hit "Lebanese infrastructure and government symbols" in response to a Hezbollah rocket barrage that killed a whopping 3 Israelis. This is yet another example of the Israelis' much vaunted 10-1 or 100-1 mindset (as reiterated proudly by Revisionist Zionist Ruven Koret of Israelinsider).

This mindset goes along the lines of "you kill 1 of ours and we kill 10 or 100 of yours". At the same time, extreme victimology and vulnerability are typically voiced ("They are trying to exterminate us!"). I suppose what is going on here is the classic victim and vulnerable-paranoid mindset of the bully we have all met in life, from the 8th grade playground to the corporate office.
*****

Middle East War Report for Sunday, August 6

Updated November 30, 2008:

16 Israelis were killed and at least 233 more were wounded today.

12 IDF soldiers were killed and at least 26 more were wounded, 2 critically. All of the KIAs and 13 of the wounded fell in a Katyusha rocket attack that hit an IDF reserve unit just inside the border.

4 Israeli civilians were killed and over 200 others were wounded by Katyusha rockets.

16 Lebanese fighters were reportedly killed and 5 more were wounded. Israel took 4 Hezbollah POW's.

90 Israelis have killed so far, 57 IDF troops and 33 civilians.

*****
First of all, let us start out with an excellent article by Anders Strindberg that accurately sums up the position of this blog on many questions surrounding this conflict - the role of Hamas and Hezbollah, the right of the Israeli apartheid state to exist in its present nature, what really started this conflict (not Hezbollah), etc. As Strindberg notes, Hezbollah has several demands:

1. Release of Lebanese prisoners, or if not forthcoming, a prisoner swap. The desire for a prisoner swap was probably the primary reason for the attack that set off this latest mad war. These Israeli soldiers are probably the only soldiers in the history of warfare who were "kidnapped" instead of taken POW.

As a state of de facto war existed between the 2 parties and Israel violated the border on a near-daily basis for years, Hezbollah was completely within its rights, morally as well as by the rules of war, to cross the border (an internationally recognized border not being relevant during wartime) and take Israeli soldiers POW.


2. Israel continues to occupy the Shebaa Farms region of Lebanon. They retreated from everywhere but this strip of land, retaining it on a very dubious basis. As Israel continues to occupy Lebanese land, it is permissible, morally as well as within the rules of war, for Hezbollah to attack Israel on the basis that Israel is occupying their land, even to cross such "internationally recognized borders" to do so.


3. Israel continues to refuse to hand over land mine maps of all of the land that they seeded with mines during their 18-year occupation. These mines continue to kill and wound Lebanese to this day. In my opinion, Israel's refusal to hand over such maps is a legitimate reason to attack Israel right there.


4. There is some sort of a conflict regarding water between Israel and Lebanon. Lebanon says Israel is stealing Lebanon's water. Israel says it is not (And why should we believe anything Israel says at this point?). It is interesting that Israel proudly seized the Wazzani Springs, a very important water source on the border, very early in the conflict.

Also, the continuous Israeli refrains of telling all Lebanese civilians to evacuate to the north of Litani River (though even that will not save their asses as Israeli air attacks are occurring across the land) are highly suspicious.

Any student of Zionist history knows that all of Israel's early historical figures, including luminaries of both the Right and Left (including Moshe Dayan and David Ben Gurion) insisted that Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel) extended at least up to the border of the Litani River. The Litani is also a very important water source.

And let us note that the ethnic cleansing of Arab lands that gave birth to the Israeli state was preceded with similar calls for the Arab population to flee so as not to be killed.

Given Israel's past history and the suspicions surrounding the continuous talk of the Litani River, what Lebanese could believe that, if they fled, they would be allowed to return to the region under Israeli control?

That is a pretty good minimal set of demands for Hezbollah. Strindberg notes that neither Hamas nor Hezbollah is dedicated to exterminating the Jews in Israel or finishing Hitler's aborted Holocaust or engaging in Holocaust Part 2. Yet this is the incessant refrain on the part of the Zionist sophists or neurotics.

According to this odd thinking, Israel has a right to be as deadly and aggressive as possible and if anyone dares to raise a finger against their continuing aggression, (the aggression being the raison de etre of the state itself) that person is thrown into the lot with Hitler and accused of trying to exterminate the Jewish people.

Well, let's see. It is possible to wage war on a state without trying to exterminate its people. When the US attacked Iraq in 2003, Panama in 1989, Grenada in 1983, Vietnam in 1965, Korea in 1950 or Germany, Japan and Italy in 1941, was the US actually trying to exterminate every last Iraqi, Panamanian, Grenadian, Vietnamese, Korean, German, Japanese or Italian?

Well, then, surely it is possible to wage war, even brutal war, against a state without trying to exterminate every citizen there. In fact, this is the norm in modern warfare. Then why is it that every Arab who takes up arms against Israel, often in legitimate self-defense, is said to be an exterminationist? Is that rational? It's time that this incessant Zionist exterminationist refrain be aggressively challenged.
*****

*****
On Saturday, Israel carried out many air strikes on Lebanese targets. IDF aircraft hit the following targets:

• Al-Housh and Bour Al-Shemani east of Tyre (Bour Al-Shemani is 1/2 mile east of Tyre)
• Shireen and Marjaheen in the Hermel Region
• PFLP-GC positions in al-Naimeh south of Beirut, and all PFLP-GC positions in Central and Western Bekaa Valley
• Al-Malikiyeh, Al-Sha’atiyeh, Shokein and Tul (locations unknown)
• Yomor (1 mile north of Taybeh), Kfar Kila, Taybeh (2 miles west of the border at Metulla) and Khiam (4 miles north of Golan Heights), Al-Qlayleh (2 1/2 miles north of Metulla), Al-Bayada (on the coast 5 1/2 miles north of the border), Al-Mansouri (5 miles north of the border on the coast) Qana, Arnoun (2 1/2 miles north of the border near Metulla) and Sidiqueen (6 1/2 miles north of the border near Shetula) in Southern Lebanon. Al-Aisheyah and Kfar Kila are on the border of Lebanon and Israel.
• Jibsheet (27 miles north of the border at Avivim and north of the Litani River)
• The Dahiya District of Southern Beirut
  

*****

Israeli warships fired on Tyre.

An IDF airstrike on a PFLP-GC position in Al-Qusayaa Heights resulted in the death of 1 PFLP-GC cadre. Gee, I wonder if the Lebanese army will let the PFLP-GC fight now?

IDF airstrikes hit Ansar in southern Lebanon east of Sidon, hitting a Lebanese army truck in one strike and wounding a medic in another. Other airstrikes killed 6 civilians.

Israeli artillery bombarded Hula, 1 mile west of the border near Kiryat Shemona, and reports indicated that there are civilians buried under the rubble.

Hezbollah rockets attacked Safad, the Golan Heights, Maalot, Safat, Carmiel, Nahariya, Kiryat Ata, Accra, Haifa, Kiryat Motzkin, Tiberias and Kiryat Shemona. Over 250 rockets slammed into northern Israel in a mad, wild blitz.

*****
A Hizbollah rocket attack on Kibbutz Kfar Giladi near Kiryat Shemona killed 12 IDF Reserve soldiers in an and wounded 13 more, 2 seriously. A Reserve General was amongst the wounded. The rocket landed right in the midst of an IDF Artillery reserve force position near the border.

It hit the group as they rested near a cemetery, of all places. The group was resting at the entrance to the kibbutz, waiting to go into Lebanon. Palestinians held a spontaneous celebration in Nablus afterwards.
*****

3 Israeli civilians were killed and over 200 more wounded in rocket attacks on Haifa in the evening. 1 rocket hit an apartment building and caused it to collapse, killing the 3 civilians and wounding over 200 more.

The rockets were Syrian-made Raad-2 220mm rockets. This is also referred to as a Fajr-5 missile. It has a 200 pound warhead and is accurate with 1/2 mile in any direction. Hezbollah said it fired the barrage of 20 rockets in response to an IDF bombing of the Dahiya District in Beirut earlier.

This was part of a 30-rocket barrage on the Kiryat Shemona region that left dozens of vehicles destroyed, many of them in flames and left fires burning out of control around the town. Later in the afternoon, a rocket scored a direct hit on an empty home.

A rocket hit a factory in Tiberias and 6 people were wounded. A fire was burning in Kiryat Ata near Haifa. Rockets hit the Krayot Industrial Park near Haifa, damaging buildings but causing no casualties. A home was hit in Kiryat Motzkin and was in flames.
*****

Israeli troops are trying to advance into Al-Bayada, but 2 separate attempts at advances were beaten back by Hezbollah. 3 IDF soldiers were wounded in the fighting.

IDF troops entered a building in Blida in the eastern part of southern Lebanon and an explosion was heard afterwards. 8 troops were wounded in the attack, 1 seriously. The IDF reportedly killed 16 Hezbollah fighters in this village.

IDF forces suffered 5 wounded in a battle with Hezbollah in Mahbib, north of Metulla, 3 miles inside Lebanon.

Hezbollah reported that they beat back an attempted IDF advance at Ouadi Hounin, destroying tanks and causing casualties.

The IDF reportedly pulled a large armored force out of Taybeh, leaving behind 3 destroyed tanks.

IDF forces said they killed 4 Hezbollah fighters in Hula and wounded several more in a pre-dawn battle.

The IDF said they killed 8 Hezbollah fighters in Bint Jbeil, which was supposedly cleansed of fighters last weekend.

Fighting was reported in Aita Al-Shaab.

The IDF said it killed a Hezbollah fighter in Beit Leif.

Fighting was reported in Rajmin.

IDF commandos are reportedly operating deep behind enemy lines in Sidon.

IDF forces arrested one of the Hezbollah guerrillas who took the 2 IDF soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldav Regev, POW in the event that started all of this madness.

IDF forces killed an Islamic Jihad leader in Jenin. The IDF claimed he was killed in an exchange of fire, but actually, IDF forces went into his home, arrested him and executed him. This war sure is getting vicious. The IDF tends to execute Palestinian POW's when fighting gets really nasty in the region and the IDF starts suffering heavy casualties.

Palestinian guerrillas threw a bomb at IDF forces in Jenin, but there were no casualties.

A Palestinian guerrilla threw a Molotov cocktail at an Israeli settler vehicle near Kfar Salem, east of Nablus. There were no casualties.

There was a bomb scare at the Israeli Prime Minister's Office in the Knesset as an x-ray machine revealed a high likelihood of a bomb in a bag. This later turned out to be a false alert.

Palestinian guerrillas opened fire on IDF forces in Kabatiyeh in the West Bank. There were no casualties.

Middle East War Report for Saturday, August 5

Updated November 30, 2008:

7 Israelis were killed and 57 more were wounded.

2 IDF soldiers were killed and 31 others were wounded in Lebanon.

4 Israeli civilians were killed and 26 others were wounded in Katyusha attacks in Israel.

1 Israeli civilian was killed in the Diaspora as a result of the war.

The IDF is claiming 30 Hezbollah fighters were killed in Southern Lebanon so far today. 1 Lebanese soldier and 1 Lebanese civilian were also killed.

The IDF carried out many airstrikes in various parts of Lebanon during the early part of Saturday.

76 Israelis, 46 servicemen and 30 Israeli civilians, have been killed so far. In addition, 2 Diaspora Jews have been killed, apparently as a result of the heated passions unleashed by the war.

925 people have been killed and 3,823 have been wounded so far in Lebanon. Hezbollah has suffered ~80 KIA, other militias have lost ~ a dozen or so men, and the Lebanese military has lost 26 men. All told, 839 Lebanese civilians have been killed.

****
An IDF commando force attempted to land north of the city of Tyre at 1 AM Saturday, but was hit with withering fire by local Hezbollah defenders. They were dropped in by helicopters, similar to the operation the other day at the hospital in the Bekaa Valley. 10 sailors were wounded, 2 seriously, and the force was forced to make a retreat. IDF helicopters circled overhead, firing down on the local defending force.

The Lebanese army, to their great credit, opened fire on the helicopters with anti-aircraft guns and the IDF helicopters fired back, hitting a Lebanese armored vehicle and destroying it.

It's about time the Lebanese army starting defending their country. The IDF claimed that 7 Hezbollah fighters were killed in the operation. 1 Lebanese soldier and 1 civilian were also killed in the fighting.

The attack targeted the Hezbollah missile crew that fired at Hadera Friday night. First reports said that the IDF retreated without completing the mission. Later reports said that the mission took out the missile crew that fired on Hadera.
*****

****
Hezbollah has two new antitank missiles and a new RPG launcher to add to its arsenal.

In addition to the Russian AT-3 Saggers, AT-4 Spigots and AT-14 Kornets, Hezbollah is also using Russian AT-13 Metis-M Saxhorn antitank missiles (an excellent weapon - one of the best of the Russian AT series) and has somehow managed to obtain French-German MILAN antitank missiles (a top-of-the-line weapon). Two Merkava tanks were damaged and 7 IDF soldiers were killed by antitank weapons in the past two days.

The MILAN uses a tandem (dual) warhead - a small warhead at the front of the missile and a larger warhead at the rear of the missile, in order to defeat reactive armor. It uses High Explosive Antitank (HEAT) rounds, which utilize a shaped charge to defeat most armor, including reactive armor. The MILAN can punch through an amazing 7 1/2 feet of solid concrete and has a 95% hit rate.

The AT-13 also has a HEAT tandem warhead that is capable of defeating reactive armor. It also comes with a thermobarbic warhead that sets off a fuel-air explosion. Thermobarbic weapons produce more explosion for their size than any other modern weapon system.

In addition to the antitank guided missiles (ATGM's) above, Hezbollah has also managed to obtain Russian RPG-29 RPG launchers , the latest top-of-the-line of the Russian RPG series. The RPG-29 is actually capable of defeating most, if not all, of the latest model tanks. The RPG-29 also has both HEAT and a thermobarbic warheads. In trials, the RPG-29 has actually surpassed the excellent Kornet missiles against tanks.

Hezbollah is getting both the RPG-29 and the METIS-M antitank missiles from Syria, along with 220mm and 302mm missiles packed with antipersonnel warheads. The METIS wire-guided missile can fire up to 4 rounds per minute. Hezbollah is also thought to have obtained Kornets from Syria, though there is no evidence that they have yet used them in this war.

The Kornets are not wire-guided like many other Russian anti-tank missiles, but are laser-guided, and have a range of up to 3 miles. This eliminates many problems with wire-guided missiles, including that any obstacle along the way can trip up the wire. Note that the wire-guided missiles actually pull a very thin wire along behind them as they fly towards the target.

The thinking is that Hezbollah may be waiting until the IDF penetrates deeper into Lebanon to use the Kornets.

Approximately 20% of the ATGM's fired at Merkavas have penetrated the armor and either damaged or destroyed the tank and/or caused casualties.

At Marwahin, a border town directly across from the Israeli town of Zarit, there are signs that a Merkava and an IDF armored bulldozer were wrecked. At Ramiye, a burnt-out Merkava is stuck up in the trees (!). Between Ramiye and Debel a couple of miles from the border, there are signs of more destroyed armor.
*****

*****
Early on Saturday, Hezbollah Katyusha rockets slammed into Kiryat Yam, Kiryat Motzkin and Kiryat Haim in Israel, killing 1 civilian and wounding 16 more. A direct hit by a missile set a house on fire. A vehicle and a field were in flames.

Later, a Katyusha rocket hit the Bedouin Arab village of Arab al-Aramshe, next to Shlomi on the Israel-Lebanon border, killing 3 women who were sitting on their back porch. That village is a mixed Christian, Muslim and Druze Arab village. Speaking of Arab villages in Israel, take a look here at a map of all the Arab villages in Israel that are currently receiving no state services at all.

The reason is because after the 1948 War, 93% of the land was declared to be for Jews only, and was administered by the Jewish National Fund for that purpose. Since Jews only owned 7% of the land before independence, many Arab villages were included in that 93%. These villages "squatting on Jewish land" were declared illegal.

Part of the consequence of that illegality is that they receive no state services. In the Negev, Bedouin "illegal villages" are frequently destroyed by Israeli bulldozers, sometimes on 10 minutes notice. For years, Israel has been spraying the agricultural fields of these Bedouins with poison via airplanes.

It is an outrage and a symptom of Zionist control of the US media that the American public are never told of such outrages. It goes without saying that all of the above are blatant symptoms of the apartheid nature of the Israeli state. Much more on the tragedy of the Israeli Bedouins can be found in my prior post here.

The Druze are an interesting people. Apparently a split from Ismaili Shia Islam (itself a highly diverse sect) dating back to the 900's, they have diverged so far from mainstream Islam that many do not consider them to be Muslims anymore. However, the Druze officially refer to themselves as Muslims, but individual Druze often say they are not Muslims.

They survived centuries of Orthodox Sunni brutality by ensconcing themselves in the mountains of Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, the only places where the sect is found. They do not accept converts, like the Alawi sect, to which they share a number of similarities, and outmarriage to other groups is forbidden, though some Druze are starting to marry out nowadays.

Interestingly, Druze women are held in fairly high esteem for a Middle Eastern "Muslim" culture. In particular, women often serve as priests.

They believe in the transmigration of souls (reincarnation), and over 50% of Druze youth recall a past life. During the Lebanese Civil War, they played a major role and their fighters were feared and often vicious. Many seemed unafraid to die and fought almost suicidally due to their reincarnation beliefs. Radio announcer Casey Kasem is a Lebanese Druze.

Like the Alawi and the Yezidis, the Druze have two religious groupings, an inner group of initiates making up maybe 10% of the group who are granted access to some or all of the tenets of the religion, and an outer group of believers, who practice the rituals of the religion but who are denied access to most of the core tenets of the religion.

Since the core tenets of the Druze religion are kept secret in this way, it has been hard for outsiders to determine the exact nature of the Druze religion. A similar situation exists for the Yezidi and the Alawi. See my prior post on the Yezidis here. A good overview of the Druze religion and people can be found here.
*****

An additional 10 Israelis were wounded in Katyusha attacks throughout the day. 170 Katyushas have rained down on Israel so far on Saturday, 120 in a 1 1/2-hour period in the afternoon. Tiberias, Safad, Shlomi, Kiryat Shemona, Safad, Nahariyah, Maalot, Accra, Kiryat Yam, Kiryat Motzkim, Kiryat Bialik and Kiryat Haim were all hit.

1 IDF soldier was killed in fighting in early morning fighting in Nabi Al-Awadi in the eastern section of southern Lebanon. The town could not be located on a map. Hezbollah guerrillas fired a mortar at an IDF APC in the town, killing 1 soldier and wounding 1 more.

Saturday afternoon, Hezbollah attacked a group of Israeli troops who were holed up in a house in Aita Al-Shaab with an anti-tank missile. 1 IDF soldier was killed and 19 more were wounded in the missile attack and the ensuing large gunbattle that erupted afterwards between the troops in the house and Hezbollah guerrillas around them.

Hezbollah fired a mortar at IDF troop concentrations on the Israeli side of the border, seriously wounding 1 IDF soldier.

In Blida, in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon, guerrillas fired an antitank missile at IDF forces. IDF forces fired back.

The IDF fired on Hezbollah forces in the village of Rajmin in the western sector of southern Lebanon.

*****
Hezbollah disgustingly refers to the missile that hit Hadera Friday night as the Khaibar-1. The Khaibar were one of the Arabian Jewish tribes that were defeated in battles by the first Muslims.

They were dispossessed of their lands, many of the males were executed, and many of the females were turned into slaves. The battle of Khaibar was the battle against the Arabian Jews that was led by Ali, patron saint of the Shia, hence its significance in Shia theology and frankly, Shia religiously-based anti-Semitism.

This Khaibar-1 is apparently a 302-mm rocket made in munitions factories in Syria. These factories are joint Iranian-Syrian funded.
****

The IDF carried out many airstrikes with jets and helicopters across parts of Lebanon on Saturday, especially in southern Beirut and Southern Lebanon. In some cases, the Lebanese Army heroically fired on attacking IDF helicopters with anti-aircraft weapons. The IDF has now supposedly cut off all access to Lebanon via roads. Relief agencies are complaining that there is no way to bring in relief supplies to the country.

Early Saturday, Molotov cocktails were thrown at a synagogue in southeastern Brazil in another case of passions being unleashed by the war effecting Diaspora Jews. The synagogue was in Campinas, 60 miles north of Sao Paolo.

*****
On Saturday night, an Israeli citizen was murdered by a gang of what were apparently Arabs in Sydney, Australia. He had previously been identified as an Israeli by residents of the neighborhood.

I assume that those who killed him were Lebanese Muslims, as there are many of them living in that area. The man was stabbed to death by a gang in a vehicle who confronted him late at night. The gang jumped out of the car, chased the man down and killed him. This would be the second Jew in the Diaspora who has been killed by Muslims as a result of this war.

Previously, a Pakistani man busted into the offices of the Jewish Welfare Federation in Seattle, Washington and opened fire, killing 1 Jew and wounding 5 more, 3 critically. It appears that the "safe haven for the Jews" is not only not safe itself, but actually endangers Jews in the Diaspora!

About a week ago, the Jewish Community Center in Bondi, Sydney was attacked in an attempt to set it on fire. The day before, a dozen or so Middle Eastern men (probably Lebanese) attacked the Paramatta Synagogue in Sydney with a cement block. In addition, windows in some cars at the center were smashed.
*****

Let us close with a couple of more choice Zionist quotes:

Moshe Dayan himself told Zionist youth at a meeting in the Golan Heights in July 1968. "Our fathers had reached the frontiers recognized in the partition plan; the Six-Day War generation has managed to reach Suez, Jordan, and the Golan Heights. This is not the end. After the present cease-fire lines, there will be new ones. They will extend beyond Jordan...to Lebanon and...to central Syria as well." Israel Shahak, The Zionist Plan for the Middle East (1982)

It should be clear, under any future political situation or military constellation, that the solution of the problem of the indigenous Arabs will come only when they recognize the existence of Israel in secure borders up to the Jordan River and beyond it [emphasis added], as our existential need in this difficult epoch, the nuclear epoch which we shall soon enter. Odet Yinon, A Strategy for Israel in the 1980's, Kivunim (1982).

Gee, I thought that Zionist sophist Daniel Pipes said all that Greater Israel stuff was a wicked Arab anti-Semitic lie?