Will Millions Palestinians Invade Israel on May 15th?

The Turkish Islamist press claims that 'millions' of 'Palestinians' are going to walk toward Israel on May 15.

The radical Islamist Turkish daily Yeni Akit (formerly Vakit) had the headline “It’s Israel’s Turn to Panic” in yesterday’s issue. It wrote that millions of Palestinians were about to march into Israel from Lebanon.

Columnist Ibrahim Karagul of the Islamist Yeni Safak, known to be the semi-official mouthpiece of AKP, also wrote about the pending march under the title “Hizbollah Marches to Israel!”

Karagul wrote that a big plan was in the works in Lebanon, that would impact the entire region. He wrote that on May 15, the anniversary of Naqba, Hizbollah and its affiliated organizations would take the Palestinians along and walk towards the Palestinian lands occupied by Israel.

“It is easy to predict how Israel will react to a huge crowd of people approaching under the umbrella of the (Palestinian) 'Return Movement'. This march from Lebanon to the occupied territories may spark a new war in the region” Karagul wrote. He attributed the plan to Iran and Hizbollah’s struggle to hold and keep the ‘Palestinian card’ in their hands, in face of new developments in the region - especially in Syria - that may lead to their losing of Hamas to the influence of the Sunni camp.

Yes, indeed, it might spark a new war. But if it does, you can bet that it will be the 'Palestinians' that start it and Israel that finishes it.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Hezbullah, Iran, Lebanon, naqba, Palestinian

posted by Carl in Jerusalem

US Embassy Convoy Attacked in southern Lebanon

US embassy officials visiting south Lebanon Thursday were attacked, but unhurt, by residents accusing them of being "Israeli conspirators," in the second such incident in a week, an AFP correspondent said.

Around 60 supporters of leftist groups gathered outside a government office in the port city of Sidon and pelted an embassy convoy with stones as it drove by, with some shouting "Americans, Israeli conspirators, in our government offices."

On Saturday, Lebanese youths threw stones and bottles at a US embassy group that was visiting Sidon.

Lebanese security forces accompanying the Americans intervened, but stones continued to be thrown, breaking car windows. The army then arrived and arrested three of the attackers. Again, there were no injuries.

South Lebanon is the heartland of the country's Shiite Hezbollah militia, and saw heavy fighting in the short but sharp summer war of 2006 between the group and Israeli forces.

On Monday, the United States warned its citizens against traveling to Lebanon "due to current safety and security concerns."

1000 Lebanese Missile Bunkers WaPo Covered

Yesterday, the Jerusalem Post reported:

The IDF has released an aerial map of Lebanon revealing the location of some 1,000 different military sites and facilities. The map was published on Wednesday in the Washington Post.

According to the map, which the newspaper said it obtained from the Israeli military, Hezbollah has around 550 underground bunkers throughout Lebanon, around 300 surveillance sites and another 100 or so additional installations.

But the actual report in the Washington Post only mentioned this important story peripherally, buried in a story about how Israel supposedly might prefer Assad stay on as leader of Syria.

Today, after other news outlets picked up on the story, the Washington Post ironically has the story as a headline - but based on an AP report, that was based on the JPost report, that was based on the WaPo report that was buried!

So why is this important? As the AP report states:

Many of the sites on the map are located south of the Litani River in Lebanon, the zone where Hezbollah is banned from keeping weapons under the U.N.-sponsored truce that ended Israel’s summer 2006 war with the guerrilla group.

Critics of Syria Disappear - in Lebanon

From Babylon and Beyond:

Human-rights groups are becoming increasingly concerned about the fate and whereabouts of three Syrian brothers who disappeared in the Lebanese capital about two weeks ago after they distributed fliers calling for demonstrations for democratic change in Syria.

On Thursday, U.S.-based Human Rights Watch called on Lebanon in a statement to immediately launch an independent probe into the matter.

The circumstances of the brothers' disappearance are murky. According to Human Rights Watch research, agents from Lebanon's Military Intelligence took at least six members of the Jasem family into custody on Feb. 23 and 24 after they handed out pamphlets calling for more democracy in Syria, a country ruled by the Assad family for decades.

One of them, construction worker Jasem Mer`i Jasem, then disappeared in the early hours of Feb. 25 along with his two brothers, who had gone to pick him up from a police station in Beirut's Baabda district, according to the rights group.

Family members worry that the brothers might have been sent back to Syria, where, rights groups say, authorities regularly arrest political and human-rights activists, block websites and detain bloggers.

I haven't checked lately, but I'm sure that college campuses worldwide have lots of programs calling on Syria to embrace freedom and liberal ideals, and to stop interfering with its neighbors.

Obama's Crushing ME Defeat in Lebanon

It seems another era when freedom was on the march in Lebanon. Who can forget the Cedar revolution, a thrilling historical moment for freedom lovers in the Middle East and across the world.

Here was the very visible result of the power of the force for good in the world. Obama is extinguishing our hegemony with frightening speed. The left hated Bush and his quest to spread political freedom. What exactly is it that they love?

It was a lifetime ago (not five short years) when Bush had Syria on the ropes and there were landmark demonstrations for freedom in Lebanon, Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. Then UN Ambassador John Bolton was pressing forward with the UN's investigation of Syria's involvement in the "potential linkages" of the murder of former Lebanese premier Rafiq Hariri and 14 other assassinations of anti-Syrian Lebanese figures. The 14 cases included the murder of anti-Syrian newspaper boss and MP Gibran Tueni, which Lebanese lawmakers blamed on Damascus. The removal of Syria's stranglehold on Lebanon led to the Cedar revolution -- Lebanon had a shot at emerging from under the boot of Iranian/Syrian proxy of Hezb'allah's jihad.

Looking back on all those 2005 Atlas posts, they are all infused with the things the Obama adminstration is completely devoid of -- conviction, resolve and hope. Oh, the irony.
Pamela Geller

Nasrallah Promises to Kill Anybody Who Gets in His Way

Hezbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave one of his lengthy, televised speeches on Thursday night, and promised that there would be no civil war in Lebanon.

The Hezbollah leader said he was sure there would be no civil conflict between Shiites and Sunnis in Lebanon.

But why would there be no civil conflict?

Nasrallah blamed Hariri for the current political crisis.

Hariri met with U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington on Wednesday and held talks in France and Turkey on Thursday.

Nasrallah called on Hariri to stay abroad and not return to Lebanon.

JPost adds:

Hizbullah told Suleiman that it will not allow Hariri to continue as prime minister, according to a Thursday report by Lebanese paper Al-Akhbar.

"He is not fit to have this responsibility, as experience has proven," a Hizbullah source told Al-Akhbar.

Another Hizbullah source told Lebanese daily A-Safir that Hariri will not be prime minister anymore "because he is part of the problem, not the solution."

The message is that there won't be a civil war in Lebanon so long as Saad Hariri is not the Prime Minister.

What could go wrong?

Labels: Hassan Nasrallah, Lebanon, Saad Hariri, Special Tribunal for Lebanon

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:55 PM

You might like:

* Hariri tribunal: Nasrallah's a liar (this site)
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* Disgusting: 'Israeli Arabs' celebrating massive fire in Haifa (this site)

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Name: Carl in Jerusalem
Location: Jerusalem, Israel

Lebanon Aims to Steal Israel's Maritime Gas Fields

Daniel F opined, "Now that the Jews have done the heavy lifting and discovered enormous natural gas reserves in Israel’s territorial waters, there is a sudden demand by their enemies to finally create “borders” in those areas at Israel's expense. This is the perfect metaphor for the Arabs’ abrupt yearning for “Palestine” in 1967 after 2000 years of Jewish exile and 1700 years of Arab/Muslim neglect. Indeed, all history from ancient Rome to the present shows the same “coincidence.” The Nations’ claims against the Land of Israel become more or less intense in direct relation to the presence, activities and prosperity of Jews there."

Next Flashpoint in Mideast Could Be Gas Fields Off Mediterranean Coast Benny Avni, NY Sun

UNITED NATIONS – The next flashpoint in the Middle East could be the gas fields off Israel's Mediterranean coast, where the discovery of large cashes of natural gas is raising homes that Israel could soon become energy-self-sufficient but where a dispute with Lebanon could be ignited.

The Iran-influenced Beirut government is threatening to defend its maritime “rights” and is complaining about Israel’s explorations. Lebanon’s appeals for international intervention begun last summer, immediately after Israel’s off shore gas explorations showed signs of positive results. Now that years of exploration have yielded what some energy experts estimate to be the world’s largest deepwater gas discovery in a decade, Beirut is raising the tone of its demands.

Lebanon’s foreign minister, Ali Shami, in a letter to Secretary General Ban, demanded the United Nations assure that “Israel does not exploit Lebanon’s marine and oil wealth, which lies within its exclusive economic zone.” Last June a Shiite politician with ties to Hezbollah, Nabih Berri, speaker of the parliament at Beirut, asserted that Israel’s newly-discovered gas was actually found in Lebanon’s territorial waters.

The United Nations is to date unwilling to intervene, but today it added to the confusion by saying Israel “unilaterally” delineated its maritime border with Lebanon. U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky also said that Mr. Shami’s letter has not yet arrived here. But, as is often the case, the contents of letters addressed to U.N. entities are released to the press before they actually get to Turtle Bay.

Iran Supports Foreign Freedoms Not Domestic

As proud as I am of the independent political path our country has taken and the role it plays as an enabler of resistance to Israel, I am deeply aware of the great costs we have been forced to bear as a people by our government. The national resistance to colonialism and oppression abroad has gone hand in hand with our repression domestically. The state-sponsored violence and mass arrests that have shaken our country for the last 16 months are not what the resistance looks like.

Our solidarity with the Lebanese resistance and with the Palestinians should not be pendant on our willingness to silence ourselves domestically, and the acceptance of this silencing by many Lebanese and many Palestinians deeply pains those of us who marched last year yelling "People why are you seated, Iran has become Palestine" and "Whether Iran or Gaza, stop killing people." We are not traitors, nor pro-American, nor Zionist "agents" -- we merely want the same freedom to live, to exist and to resist as we demand for the Palestinians and for the Lebanese.
Electronic Intifada

Nasrallah Predicts More Good News

The Al-Akhbar daily, which is close to Hizbullah, reports that in a series of recent meetings with senior Hizbullah officials, Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah updated them regarding plans for dealing with all scenarios, both internal and with regard to the international tribunal for the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq A-Hariri.

Nasrallah promised that the next stage would bring very good news for Hizbullah and its allies.

Source: Al-Akhbar, Lebanon, October 11, 2010

Lebanon: Ahmadinejad Says Israel Doomed

Ahmadinejad tells Israelis their country is doomed The Daily Star, Lebanon

BEIRUT: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday Israel was doomed to perish as he addressed thousands of supporters of Hizbullah at a rally in Bint Jbeil, just four kilometers from the Israeli border.

Ahmadinejad’s tour in south Lebanon drew sharp criticism from the US and Israel as tensions ran high on the Lebanese-Israeli border. Israeli officials have said the tour represented an attempt to set up an advanced front line for a proxy war between Iran and Israel.

“Bint Jbeil is alive and today stands proud and cherished against all enemies whereas the Zionists are mortal after the sons of Bint Jbeil made the enemy taste defeat,” Ahmadinejad said while supporters chanted “death to Israel.”

Ahmadinejad at the Lebanon Israel border

Aligned by a hate of America, they wield self righteousness and victimhood like a club to advance Islamic imperialism across the world, while oppressing and subjugating their own people under the sharia.

This is not static, and the failure of imagination of our elected leaders to see what is going to happen mimics the same failure of imagination prior to World War II. The unthinkable was made possible because of those who refused to think it.

And now again. Ahmadinejad means what he says. What are we, in the West, going to do to stop the mahdi's madmen?

A world without America's forceful presence is a world of chaos and havoc. Plato said that the natural order of the world was chaos, it was war—peace was a parenthesis, it had to be achieved and worked at. Obama is ............. anti-platonic, and the world is spiraling out of control.

The Islamic world hates democracy, hates the West. Freedom is the enemy. Non-Musims are the enemy. The goal of Iran, Hamas, Hezb'allah, Al Qaeda, MILF, the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Muhajiroun, The Armed Islamic Group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, MILF, CAIR, ISNA, Fatah, the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria...is all the same. They all read the same playbook.
Atlas Shrugs

Iran and Syria to Back Hezbollah Coup in Lebanon

At a brief Saturday meeting in Damascus on his way from Tehran to New York, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad agreed with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad that the two would support a Hezbullah coup against the Lebanese government, according to a report by DEBKA which has been picked up Lebanon's Naharnet. This is from the DEBKA link.

Hizballah called a general mobilization that same day and by Sunday had 5,000 armed men deployed in Beirut, ready to make good on its threat to seize power rather than let its leaders be indicted by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) for the Hariri murder.

Hizballah went into action after learning that the indictments were on the way. Ahmadinejad and Assad were of one mind that they must not be delivered - even it meant helping their Lebanese Shiite surrogate to overthrow the Lebanese government. They discussed possible Israeli intervention to save Beirut from Hizballah domination and decided that the Jewish state Israel would not take this risk, any more than the Lebanese army would fight to defend the government.

Our Lebanese sources disclose that France's UN ambassador Gerard Araud passed word to his Lebanese contacts that Daniel Bellemare, the STL's chief prosecutor's decision to file charges against Hizballah was final.

The rest of the article discusses the Sayyed incident at Beirut Airport on Sunday, which I discussed here. Sayyed was one of four Lebanese generals who was arrested and held for four years on suspicion of being involved in the murder of then-Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri, the father of current Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri.

I think that they're right about Israel not interfering to save Hariri's government. No one is going to risk IDF soldiers' lives for that. And I doubt that the Lebanese army can or will do anything either. UNIFIL? Don't make me laugh.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem

Good News: Hezbollah Preparing for War

Hezbullah has sent a group that looks a bit more fearsome than these guys (from the 2006 Second Lebanon War) to train on Fateh 110 rockets in Iran.

Hizbullah has conducted missile maneuvers on Fateh 110 rockets in Iran, reported the Kuwaiti al-Rai newspaper on Saturday.

Sources concerned told the paper that the units participating in the maneuvers have returned to Lebanon after demonstrating great prowess in using this long-range missile.

The newspaper also highlighted the fact that the party's maneuvers coincided with Israeli military maneuvers, which it interpreted as a growing readiness by both sides to wage a new war that is expected to be "the last of the wars" due to its expected highly destructive nature.

More on the Fateh 110 here. You may recall that in the last war, Israel wiped out Hezbullah's long-range missile capability on the ground. Heh.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:12 AM

Hezbollah has Drones and Missiles with 300 km Range

In addition to the laundry list at left, IDF intelligence has confirmed that Hezbullah has drones and that it has missiles with a 300 km. range.

Thousands of missiles. Head of the Counter-Terrorism Bureau in Israel, Brigadier-General Nitzan Nuriel, said Hizbullah owns drones and long-range missiles.

"Hizbullah has weapons that are not found in Europe," Nuriel said during a lecture at the annual conference of counter-terrorism in Herzliya, a city located on the central coast of Israel.

"Hizbullah has unmanned drones and missiles with a range of more than 300 km and so is the case of Hamas in Gaza," Nuriel added.

Well, let's hear it for the moron with the lousy English who brought us UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which allowed Hezbullah to re-arm under the watchful eye of UNIFIL.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem

Why Did US Say IDF could Destroy LAF in 4 Hrs?

Why did the Lebanese Armed Forces murder an IDF Lieutenant Colonel in cold blood last week? Joshua Muravchik explains.

Why the sudden daring?

Because Hezbollah now largely controls Lebanon, and Iran owns Hezbollah, and both are feeling their oats. Initiating the skirmish with Israel was of a piece with the boast by Ahmadinejad’s chief of staff just three days earlier that Iran could build a nuclear bomb. According to a semiofficial Iranian news agency, the chief of staff elaborated: “Today . . . we are presented with an opportunity to alter world management.” In this usage, “world management” means the same thing that the Soviets used to call the “correlation of forces.” In the face of such an opportunity, he continued, “confining ourselves to small steps, while less costly, is not right.” And as Patrick Clawson of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, the estimable Iran expert who brought these comments to light, explains, the chief of staff’s “reported remarks were full of comments about how this moment is a turning point in world history — one in which international arrogance can be replaced by a new global management, if only Iran makes the necessary effort.”

Some reports say Iran wants to avoid a new war between Hezbollah and Israel for now, preferring to keep the vast arsenal it has placed on Israel’s borders at the ready for retaliation against any strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. This makes sense, and if it is true, it makes this week’s events all the more ominous.

Reportedly, the commander of the unit that attacked the Israelis is a Shiite — sympathetic to Hezbollah. Conceivably, the Lebanese deliberately staged the incident to heat up the border in order to deflect the UN investigation of the murder of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which reportedly is leading directly to the doorsteps of the Syrian government and Hezbollah. Or possibly, it was an act of pure bravado.

But either way, this aggression and the Iranian aide’s speech both indicate that the region’s radical, anti-American forces are growing bolder. This is an inevitable result of America’s projection of weakness and uncertainty, the essence of Obama’s foreign policy, expecially toward our Middle Eastern enemies.

What could go wrong?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem

Iran Starts to Feel the Heat

Iran Starts To Feel Heat
by Charles Krauthammer
Human Events
07/30/2010


"They (the United States and Israel) have decided to attack at least two countries in the region in the next three months."
-- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, July 26

WASHINGTON -- President Ahmadinejad has a penchant for the somewhat loony, as when last weekend he denounced Paul the Octopus, omniscient predictor of eight consecutive World Cup matches, as a symbol of decadence and purveyor of "Western propaganda and superstition."

But for all his clownishness, Ahmadinejad is nonetheless calculating and dangerous. What "two countries" was he talking about? They seem logically to be Lebanon and Syria. Hezbollah in Lebanon has armed itself with 50,000 rockets and made clear that it is in a position to start a war at any time. Fighting on this scale would immediately bring in Syria, which would in turn invite Iranian intervention in defense of its major Arab clients -- and of the first Persian beachhead on the Mediterranean in 1,400 years.

The idea that Israel, let alone the U.S., has the slightest interest in starting a war on Israel's north is crazy. But claims about imminent attacks are serious business in that region. In May 1967, the Soviet Union falsely told its client, Egypt, that Israel was preparing to attack Syria. These rumors set off a train of events -- the mobilization of Arab armies, the southern blockade of Israel, the hasty signing of an inter-Arab military pact -- that led to the Six-Day War.

Ahmadinejad's claim is not supported by a shred of evidence. So what is he up to?

It is a sign that he is under serious pressure. Passage of weak U.N. sanctions was followed by unilateral sanctions by the United States, Canada, Australia and the European Union. Already, reports Reuters, Iran is experiencing a sharp drop in gasoline imports as Lloyd's of London refuses to insure the ships delivering them.

Second, the Arab states are no longer just whispering their desire for the U.S. to militarily take out Iranian nuclear facilities. The United Arab Emirates' ambassador to Washington said so openly at a conference three weeks ago.

Shortly before the 1991 Gulf War, Pat Buchanan charged that "the only two groups" that wanted the U.S. to forcibly liberate Kuwait were "the Israeli Defense Ministry and its amen corner in the United States." That was a stupid charge, contradicted by the fact that George H.W. Bush went to war leading more than 30 nations, including the largest U.S.-led coalition of Arab states ever assembled.

Twenty years later, the libel returns in the form of the scurrilous suggestion that the only ones who want the U.S. to attack Iran's nuclear facilities are Israel and its American supporters. The UAE ambassador is, as far as ascertainable, neither Israeli, American nor Jewish. His publicly expressed desire for an attack on Iran's nuclear facilities speaks for the intense Arab fear approaching panic, of Iran's nuclear program and the urgent hope that the U.S. will take it out.

Third, and perhaps even more troubling from Tehran's point of view, are developments in the U.S. Former NSA and CIA Director Michael Hayden suggested last Sunday that over time, in his view, a military strike is looking increasingly favorable compared to the alternatives. Hayden is no Obama insider, but Time reports ("An Attack on Iran: Back on the Table," July 15) that high administration officials are once again considering the military option. This may reflect a new sense of urgency or merely be a bluff to make Tehran more pliable. But in either case, it suggests that after 18 months of failed engagement, the administration is hardening its line.

The hardening is already having its effect. The Iranian regime is beginning to realize that even President Obama's patience is limited -- and that Iran may actually face a reckoning for its nuclear defiance.

All this pressure would be enough to rattle a regime already unsteady and shorn of domestic legitimacy. Hence Ahmadinejad's otherwise inscrutable warning about an Israeli attack on two countries. (Said Defense Minister Ehud Barak to Fox News: "Who is the second one"?) It is a pointed reminder to the world of Iran's capacity to trigger, through Hezbollah and Syria, a regional conflagration.

This is the kind of brinksmanship you get when leaders of a rogue regime are under growing pressure. The only hope to get them to reverse course is to relentlessly increase their feeling that, if they don't, the Arab states, Israel, the Europeans and America will, one way or another, ensure that ruin is visited upon them.

Mr. Krauthammer is a nationally syndicated columnist.

Act of War: Lebanese used Delay to Prepare Ambush

Act of War: Hezb'Allah Fires Upon, Kills Israeli Defense Force Soldiers -- Calls Media for Cover

It's horrible enough that Jewish soldiers are slaughtered by the Hezb'Allah (party of Allah), but it is debased and depraved that the Muslim terrorist army planned the act of war in advance, and dispatched journalists to the area to ensure that cameras were present at the site to record any measure of self defense by the tiny Jewish state -- knowing that the anti-semitic media and an Obama-led world would demonize the Jews.

Think about that.

Lebanese Army Sniper Kills Israeli Commander in Border "Ambush"
An Israeli army spokeswoman told BBC that two Israeli officers had been attacked by "snipers from the Lebanese armed forces" in a "well-planned ambush" during maintenance operations on Israel's side of the border. The head of Israel's Northern Command, Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, said the officers had been standing between 300 and 400 meters from the border, observing Israeli soldiers removing bushes near the border fence, when "sniper fire was directed at their position." Lt.-Col. Dov Harari, 45, was killed and an Israeli captain was "critically wounded." Israel responded with artillery and helicopter fire. The Lebanese army said three of its soldiers had been killed and four wounded. (BBC News)
See also IDF: Presence of Cameramen, Journalist s Proves It Was a Planned Ambush
Journalists and photographers were briefed in advance of the intention to ambush IDF troops and even broadcast trucks were present at the scene of Tuesday's deadly clash, IDF officials charge. A correspondent for the Hizbullah-affiliated Beirut daily al-Akhbar was killed and another from Hizbullah's al-Manar television was wounded in the Israeli response. "If this incident was not planned in advance, why did field commanders in the Lebanese army bother to dispatch journalists to the area and ensure that cameras were present at the site?" one IDF official said. (Ynet News)
See also Report: Lebanese Used Delay to Prepare Ambush
The Lebanese Army took advantage of the fact that the IDF delayed by several hours maintenance work near the Lebanese border on Tuesday in order to plan and prepare an ambush on IDF forces, a sen ior official in Jerusalem told Israel Radio on Wednesday. The IDF told UNIFIL at 6 a.m. on Tuesday that they planned to do maintenance work at 9 a.m. UNIFIL requested that the IDF delay the work until 11 a.m. UNIFIL relayed the IDF's plans to the Lebanese Army and the Lebanese used the extra time to prepare an ambush and to invite journalists and photographers to the site. (Jerusalem Post)
See also Lebanese Army Confirms It Fired First - Hanan Greenberg (Ynet News)
See also UNIFIL Confirms IDF Claims - Yaakov Katz
A UNIFIL official in southern Lebanon confirmed Wednesday that the IDF informed the organization of its intention to conduct routine maintenance work Tuesday in the area between Israel's border fence and the international border. "I can confirm that we received n otification from the IDF about the work and we passed the information on to the Lebanese Army," said the Hungarian diplomat who is part of the UNIFIL force. (Jerusalem Post)
See also UN: Tree in Lebanon-Israel Clash Was in Israel - Bassem Mroue
Lt. Naresh Bhatt, a spokesman for the UN peacekeeping force in south Lebanon, UNIFIL, said Wednesday they have determined that a tree being cut down by Israeli forces which was at the center of deadly clashes along the Lebanon-Israel border was in Israeli territory. (AP-Washington Post)
See also Aerial Photograph Shows IDF Operating in Israeli Territory
The IDF was operating within Israeli territory, as seen in this aerial photograph. Neverthel ess, Reuters and, initially, the Associated Press wrongly stated the location of the incident. (Honest Reporting)

"I like the Germans because they hate the Jews & burned them"

Wiam Wahhab: "Does the UN really believe that it can be used by the U.S. and Israel, and that it can use the international tribunal in order to destroy Lebanon, and that we won't lift a finger?! Do they really believe this? Do they really think that things can remain the same from the Litani River to the south, while here, the country will be destroyed, and people will fight a civil war?!"

Interviewer: "Hold on, if the indictment of the international tribunal leads to civil strife, as you expect – will UNIFIL find itself in danger?"

Wiam Wahhab: "I think so. It is not that I am about to carry out attacks against UNIFIL. But in my view, UNIFIL will be in danger." [...]

Interviewer: "Who do you support [in the World Cup]?"

Wiam Wahhab: "My children and I supported Brazil."

Interviewer: "Me too."

Wiam Wahhab: "Brazil lost. My wife supports Germany. We drive the kids mad. Now I am supporting Argentina."

Interviewer: "You have become subordinate to your wife when it comes to soccer?"

Wiam Wahhab: "No. I support Germany in politics and Brazil in soccer. I like the way Brazil plays. But I like the Germans because they hate the Jews and they burned them." [...]

Lebanon President Risks Well,-Being

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman has declared that Israel could launch a new war against Lebanon, vowing tough response to those Lebanese convicted of spying for Israel.

"The occurrence of an Israeli war is possible, but I don't want to generate an atmosphere of fear," Lebanon's Naharnet quoted Suleiman as saying on Wednesday.

"Israeli threats against Lebanon are persistent and aim at dividing the Lebanese between those who back fighting Israel and those who don't," he noted.

Suleiman also vowed to sign "any death sentence issued against individuals convicted of spying for Israel," a Press TV correspondent in Beirut reported.
PressTV, Iran

Officials who represent prosperous nations should be careful with threats. They have somethying to lose to bombing.

Palestinians Denied Basic Human Rights in Lebanon

Today's Golden Oldie is a Dry Bones cartoon I did 20 years ago this month. Back in June 1990 we were trying to figure out how to absorb a flood of Jews from Russia pouring into the Jewish State. "Jews returning to the Land of Israel" is called "Aliya". It is Hebrew for "Going up". * * * Arab refugees are not welcomed in Arab states the way that Jewish refugees are welcomed by the Jewish state. The Arab world is divided into a set of bickering kingdoms, dictatorships, and theocracies. They are united only through the device of an agreed-upon common enemy; the Jews and the Jewish State. Their lip-service to Arab unity does not extend to welcoming Arab refugees as their brothers and sisters.

Consider the following, from an AFP report out of Lebanon just two days ago:

Palestinian refugees seek basic rights in Lebanon
June 27, 2010

BEIRUT — "Thousands of Palestinian refugees gathered on Sunday outside UN headquarters in Beirut to demand basic civil rights in Lebanon, such as a choice of jobs and ownership of property.

The protest organised by Palestinian and Lebanese non-government organisations was initially due to be held outside the parliament building in downtown Beirut.

"The police outside parliament usually ban any protest there," said Maher Shehadeh, one of the Palestinian organisers. So the protesters gathered instead several hundred metres (yards) away outside the UN headquarters.

Maher said 6,000 people were taking parting in the peaceful protest.

The Palestinians travelled in buses from Lebanon's 12 refugee camps for the Beirut gathering organised by Palestinian and Lebanese non-governmental organisations.

"Working is a right," "We want to live in dignity," read placards carried by the protesters.

"I have the right to own property," said another, summing up the frustration of the tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees who live in dire conditions in Lebanon."

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) lists almost 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, a country of four million inhabitants.

But Lebanese and Palestinian officials say the actual number may be as low as 250,000 as UNRWA does not strike off its list those who move to other countries.

The majority of UNRWA-registered refugees live in dire conditions in the camps across and are denied basic civil rights."

Dry Bones

EIRUT — Thousands of Palestinian refugees gathered on Sunday outside UN headquarters in Beirut to demand basic civil rights in Lebanon, such as a choice of jobs and ownership of property.

The protest organised by Palestinian and Lebanese non-government organisations was initially due to be held outside the parliament building in downtown Beirut.

"The police outside parliament usually ban any protest there," said Maher Shehadeh, one of the Palestinian organisers. So the protesters gathered instead several hundred metres (yards) away outside the UN headquarters.

Maher said 6,000 people were taking parting in the peaceful protest.

The Palestinians travelled in buses from Lebanon's 12 refugee camps for the Beirut gathering organised by Palestinian and Lebanese non-governmental organisations.

"Working is a right," "We want to live in dignity," read placards carried by the protesters.

"I have the right to own property," said another, summing up the frustration of the tens of thousands of Palestinian refugees who live in dire conditions in Lebanon.

The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) lists almost 400,000 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, a country of four million inhabitants.

But Lebanese and Palestinian officials say the actual number may be as low as 250,000 as UNRWA does not strike off its list those who move to other countries.

The majority of UNRWA-registered refugees live in dire conditions in the camps across and are denied basic civil rights.

Under Lebanese law, Palestinian refugees can not own property or hold most white collar jobs (doctors, engineers, lawyers, architects) and are stuck in low-paid employment.

They are also denied social security and medical aid in state hospitals.

"There are 10 to 15 of us who live crammed in our room. Our children have no future and those who are sick end up dying at the doors of hospitals," said Mahmud Rashid, a farmer from Rashidiyeh camp in south Lebanon.

Oum Rabih Ghneim who accompanied her husband to the protest from northern Lebanon said their home in the Nahr al-Bared camp was destroyed during deadly fighting between Islamists and the Lebanese army in 2007.

"We are not even allowed to buy a one-room apartment," in the northern port city of Tripoli, she said.

Sunday's protest came days after heated debate in parliament among MPs who support granting broader rights to the refugees, including the right to obtain social security, and others, including Christians, who expressed reservations.

Many politicians fear the permanent resettlement of refugees in Lebanon arguing that it would tip the fragile demographic balance in the country, where 64 percent are Muslim and 35 percent Christian.

Copyright © 2010 AFP