The Latest On The Israeli Front

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While the terrorist organizations Hamas and Hizbollah continue to wage war against Israel, there appears to be some added tension to their relationships with the countries they are based in. Take a look at the Iranian backed Hizbollah for instance:

Lebanese critics as well as allies of Hezbollah insist that the Israeli response was disproportionate. But at the same time, in meetings Thursday, Lebanese officials began to lay the groundwork for an extension of government control to southern Lebanon. Hezbollah largely controls southern Lebanon, where it has built up a network of schools, hospitals and charities.

"To declare war and to make military action must be a decision made by the state and not by a party," said Nabil de Freige, a parliament member. He belongs to the bloc headed by Saad Hariri, whose father, Rafiq, a former prime minister and wealthy businessman, was assassinated in 2005, setting off a sequence of events that forced the Syrian withdrawal. "It's a very simple equation: You have to be a state."

After a cabinet meeting Thursday, the government said it had a right and duty to extend its control over all Lebanese territory. Interior Minister Ahmed Fatfat said the statement marked a step toward the government reasserting itself.

Some in the Lebanese parliment are talking about taking over the border areas, as the UN has demanded, and it's about damn time. For Lebanon to be taking orders from Iran and Syria to wage war against Israel is suicide. They know it. Iran does not.

Check out this article about the ties between Hizbollah, Iran, Hamas, and all Islamic fanatics in the world:

A source within the Palestinian Authority revealed Friday that Fatah and Hamas factions are allied with Hizbullah terrorists. The connection is not new, said the source, who asked to remain unnamed.

IDF sources added that Iran manufactured and supplied Hizbullah with the long-range rockets that have been hitting Haifa and other areas since Thursday.

"The Lebanese resistance movement, Hizbullah, and now its General Secretary Hassan Nasrallah, have affirmed commitment to aiding the Palestinians against Israeli attacks," the Palestine News Network (PNN) reported Thursday.

A spokesman for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military wing of the Fatah faction headed by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, announced that the Hizbullah attacks were a "message and a mortal blow to Israel."

In a statement released by the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the spokesman thanked Hizbullah and noted that Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists are also working together.

Iran is promising to pay for repairs in Lebanon while at the same time threatened Israel is Syria is attacked:

Iran has promised to pay for repairs resulting from Israel's bombing key targets in Lebanon as they work quickly to prevent Hizbullah terrorists from transferring the kidnapped IDF soldiers to Iran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also promised Syrian President Bashar Assad that an Israeli strike on Syria would be considered an attack on the Muslim world and would bring a "fierce response."

Israel and the United States have openly blamed Iran and Syria for the Hizbullah war on northern Israel.

"The historical ties between Iran and Hizbullah are well known, and Syria also has very close ties to Hizbullah," said U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. "Again, there's a long history there and it's well known," he reiterated to reporters at a news conference this week. He added that Syria "has a very particular responsibility" for peace in the Middle East — as well as for bringing about the release of two IDF soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah terrorists Wednesday morning.

McCormack said there was a clear connection between last month's kidnapping of IDF soldier Cpl. Gilad Shalit by Hamas terrorists, and the Hizbullah attack on northern Israel and the abductions of two Israeli soldiers.

"If you look at these actions, these are deliberate attempts to try to escalate tensions in the region," he said. "Look at the timing…very clearly these are individuals here that are seeking to provoke a negative reaction in the region."

Meanwhile the latest in the Israeli offensive in Lebanon is that Israel has blockaded Lebanon by sea and air while they continue to attack important Hizbollah targets and are planning even more significant targets:

The Israel Defense Forces is planning to bomb Hezbollah headquarters in a densely populated area of south Beirut on Friday, a senior General Staff official told Haaretz.

The IDF said it has dropped leaflets warning civilians of the impending attack and that many of them have left the Shi'ite Dahiya quarter of south Beirut, where thousands of people live in multi-story residential buildings.

"We will attack more significant targets than we have attacked until now," the officer said. "If we had chosen to bomb earlier, it would have ended with hundreds of civilians killed, and we took ethical considerations into account. On the other hand, we will not adopt a naive approach, and the model of terrorists hiding behind civilians will not be accepted."

[…]Israel Air Force planes bombed Beirut's international airport Friday, a few hours after striking a Hezbollah stronghold, a bridge in the southern suburb of Beirut, and the fuel stores of the Jiyyeh power plant south of the city, witnesses and security sources said.

The Lebanese Army responded with anti-aircraft fire.

Three people were reported killed and 55 wounded in the Israeli strike early Friday. The death toll brought to 51 the number of Lebanese killed since Wednesday, when Israel began retaliating for the abduction. One of the fatalities was a Hezbollah militant and the remaining 50 killed were civilians.

IDF spokeswoman Miri Regev said Friday that the IDF has hit "dozens of rocket storehouses and stockpiles" belonging to Hezbollah. She also said the Hezbollah stronghold is "the place where the Hezbollah leaders, including Hassan Nasrallah, are located on a regular basis."

Friday's raids took place after Katyusha rockets slammed into the northern port city of Haifa on Thursday. Earlier that day, two Israelis were killed and 120 were wounded when scores of Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah guerillas rained down across northern Israel.

"We cannot tolerate a situation where a terrorist organization is operating from a sovereign country on our northern border and threatening well over half a million Israeli civilians," said army spokesman Capt. Jacob Dallal.

Also Friday, IAF jets bombed a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine base in eastern Lebanon, several kilometers west of the Syrian border, and struck the main highway linking Beirut to Damascus early Friday, security sources said.

The jets struck at least five separate times along different points of the international route, one of the sources said. Witnesses said the road was clear of traffic after earlier congestion as tourists fled Lebanon to neighboring Syria.

And finally, Israel has told the UN that they will not end this assault until Hizbollah is disarmed per the UN resolution 1559:

Israel will not end its military operation in Lebanon until the implementation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559, which calls for disarming Hezbollah and deploying the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan on Friday.

Annan informed Olmert that he was sending a UN team to the region. Olmert said he would cooperate with the team only if its objective would be to return the Israel Defense Forces soldiers abducted by Hezbollah and the full implementation of Resolution 1559.

As usual, the only way any of the corrupt countries in the world follow the orders of the UN is by force.

UPDATE

Check out this DU comment (via Ace of Spades)

Imagine a world without Israel by qrswave

Or is that not allowed?

Muslims, Jews, and Christians could live in peace without fear of mutual destruction.

There would be no more need for US AID or justification for Dimona.

We could bring down the Wall, send prisoners home, and families could be reunited.

We could dismantle checkpoints, open crossings, and pull down barbed wire fences.

There would be no more settlements or armed settlers because the people would be united.

We could replant trees and olive groves and rebuild battered cities.

No more suicide bombers or sniper fire, and no more dead civilians.

No more targeted killings and hell-fire missiles, or systematic demolitions.

Palestinians and Jews could live together and the world could address other issues.

What a simpler place this world would be

if there was no need for a Jewish majority – where there would otherwise be none.

Is it so hard to imagine?

Now who else has made such comments in the past 100 years? Anyone?

UPDATE II

Atlas Shrugs has found this article that states the kidnapped soldiers have been separated:

Kidnapped Israeli soldiers separated?

The fate of kidnapped Israeli soldiers, as well as Iran and Syria's role in the rapidly expanding violence in the Mideast, were discussed in an extensive conversation today between Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit and Lebanese Prime Minister Faud Sinora.

* Sinora said Lebanese security officials had information that the two soldiers kidnapped yesterday by Hezbollah – Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev – were separated and were taken somewhere in the region between Syria and Lebanon, and not in Hezbollah strongholds outside Beirut.

Israel has been focusing a good deal of its rescue and retaliation efforts in the areas surrounding Beirut. The Galil Report reveals an elite Israeli rescue team last night was dropped into the Beirut area in an effort to cut off the kidnappers.

* Gheit was told a high-level military committee was sent from Iran to serve as advisers to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus regarding any possible actions from Israel against Syria.

Sinora expressed his concerns Syria might attempt to draw Israel into a conflict along the Israeli-Syrian border by committing an act against Israel at the prompting of Iran, such as the firing of missiles into the Golan Heights, but Sinora admitted such an action was unlikely.

* Sinora told Gheit Iran continues to facilitate weapons smuggling from Syria into Lebanon to be provided to Hezbollah. He said a lot of the weapons are being flown directly to Beirut International Airport. He asked Egypt to play a role in attempting to pressure Iran to end the weapons smuggling.

UPDATE III

Hugh Hewitt has plenty of updates as usual:

It seems certain that the fighting will escalate today and through the weekend. More than a few people are wondering as well if this isn't the time that Israel decides to set back Iran's nuclear ambitions.

UPDATE IV 1340hrs PST

Hizbollah is stating they will strike deep into Israel after their headquarters was destroyed by the IDF:

Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah vowed Friday to strike Israeli targets south of Haifa, after an Israel Air Force attack left the group's headquarters in Beirut in ruins.

[…]In a speech aired live shortly after the attack, Nasrallah said the group would strike deeper inside Israel, which it charged with launching the operation in Lebanon to avenge its failure in preventing the abduction and killing of its soldiers by Hezbollah earlier in the week.

Hezbollah would also strike "beyond Haifa and what is beyond, beyond Haifa," Nasrallah said. He made reference to a new strike on an Israeli naval boat in Lebanese waters. The warship was lightly damaged in the strike, and there were no injuries, the IDF said.

"You wanted an open war and we are ready for an open war," the Hezbollah leader said. "You have chosen an all-out war with a nation which… has the capability, the experience and the courage."

Nasrallah said that Lebanon could either surrender or "have faith in Allah and victory," and said he was sure that most of Lebanese would want to stand side by side with Hezbollah.

The Beirut attack came hours after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and security chiefs approved new targets against Hezbollah. Security officials said the army would begin hitting the targets, which were not publicly identified, overnight.

"Israel is poised to take whatever steps it deems necessary to protect its citizens in the face of the ongoing barrage of rockets that have been coming over the border," said David Baker, an official in the Prime Minister's Office.

Earlier Friday, Israel Air Force jets renewed attacks on a southern suburb of Beirut, targeting a radio station belonging to Hezbollah, the group said.

Lebanese youths gather on a hilltop overlooking the city of Beirut in Lebanon at sunset Friday, July 14, 2006 to watch smoke continuing to billow from a fuel dump at Beirut International airport which was hit by an Israeli airstrike Thursday.

Smoke continues to billow from a fuel dump at Beirut International airport in Lebanon at sunset Friday, July 14, 2006 after being hit by an Israeli airstrike Thursday night.

A palestinian man looks up for Israeli helicopters as he and his family leaves in a taxi after crossing from Egypt next to the wall that separates the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah and the border area with Egypt Friday, July 14, 2006.

Hamas militants hold their weapons as they drive trough the crowd along the wall that separates the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah and the border area with Egypt Friday, July 14, 2006.

A Lebanese soldier stands next to a crater following Israeli airstrikes at the main Mar Mikhail crossroads in southern Beirut, Lebanon, Friday, July 14, 2006.

Smoke rises and debris fly from a bridge as it is targeted by an Israeli air raid, in the Zahrani region, on the Mediterranean coast, southern Lebanon, Friday, July 14, 2006.

A Palestinian militant from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Fatah fires his weapon, during a protest against the Israeli offensive on Gaza and Lebanon, in the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus July 14, 2006.

Take a close look at that last picture. See all the smiling faces and the kid in the back with a peace sign….

So far Israel is doing a good job of disabling Lebanon, which means they have significantly diminished the power of Hizbollah. The Lebanese government can't get rid of Hizbollah, so Israel must do the job for it.

In response to a new barrage of rockets today, said Isaac Herzog, a member of the Israeli security cabinet, "We've decided to put an end to this saga and to change the rules of the game whereby a terrorist organization that is part of the Lebanese government can push the region to the abyss."

Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, a member of the general staff, said: "We want to put Hezbollah out of business. We want to force the Lebanese government to take responsibility and deploy along the border and dismantle Hezbollah, which if it is allowed, will prevent any stabilization and peace process in the Middle East."

[…]Hezbollah rockets continued to fall on Israel, with more than 90 hitting northern Israel, wounding at least 60 people, the Israelis said, especially in Nahariya and Safed. Two more Israelis, a grandmother and her 5-year-old grandson, were killed and 10 were wounded, including three other children, when a rocket fell on their house in Meron. Two Israelis died on Thursday. In total, more than 300 rockets have hit Israel, killing four people and wounding more than 150.

Hezbollah has between 10,000 and 12,000 rockets of varying ranges and types, General Nehushtan said, most of them provided by Syria and Iran.

[…]Israel has called the attack by Hezbollah on its soldiers in Israeli territory an act of war, and said that it is holding the government of Lebanon, which includes Hezbollah ministers, to be responsible.

UPDATE 07/14/06 1945hrs PST

An Israeli ship was attacked by a UAV drone and damaged extensively. Four Israeli soldiers died:

Four Israel Navy sailors were reported missing after an explosives-laden drone, apparently launched by Hezbollah, hit a naval vessel off the coast of Beirut Friday night.

The blast caused a fire on board the ship, which had been stationed 16 kilometers off of the coast of Lebanon. After the fire was extinguished, it became clear that four soldiers were missing. Their families were notified soon thereafter.

Israel Defense Forces teams, with the help of planes, helicopters and additional vessels, were searching for the missing troops at the site of the blast. The ship was towed back to Israel.

The incident occurred at around 8:30 P.M., causing a fire close to the helicopter landing pad onboard. The ship's steering mechanism also sustained some damage.

Several hours after the vessel was hit, an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman said the damage was worse than originally thought. There were some 80 soldiers on board the ship when it was hit.

Security Watchtower believes the Drone was a Mirsad-1, which is Iranian built:

[…]The UAV was likely a Mirsad-1, built by the Iranian state owned Qods Aviation Industry. On previous occasions, Nasrallah has boasted that "you can load the Mirsad plane with a quantity of explosive ranging from 40 to 50 kilos and send it to its target."

In 2005, U.S. and Israeli intelligence noted that Iranian soldiers were stationed in southern Lebanon where they operated the Mirsad-1, eight of which are believed to have been given by Iran to Hezbollah. Reports indicate that an estimated 30 Hezbollah operatives have completed training in Isfahan, Iran. Asked about the threat of the UAV's, Joseph Cirincione, a weapons expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said "the danger is that Hezbollah will now have the capability to inflict greater damage on Israel by more precise targeting."

Meanwhile the Syrians are talking tough:

"The Syrian people are ready to extend full support to the Lebanese people and their heroic resistance to remain steadfast and confront the barbaric Israeli aggression and its crimes," said a communique from the party's national command issued after a meeting.

It said Israel and the United States "are trying to wipe out Arab resistance in every land under occupation" and that President Bashar al-Assad was aware of the seriousness of the situation in the region.

While Hizbollah attempted to strike another Israeli ship but hit a Egyptian ship instead:

A missile fired at an Israeli naval vessel off Lebanon early on Saturday missed the target and hit an Egyptian boat instead, the Israeli army said.

"There has been another attempt to attack an Israeli naval vessel. It missed our ship and instead hit a different ship, an Egyptian vessel," an Israeli army spokeswoman said.

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