The only way the government can survive is to keep the terrorists in it – but the terrorists want more influence or they are going to walk.

Cabinet ministers from Hezbollah and an allied party resigned Saturday, a decision that could cost the Western-backed government crucial support from Lebanon's Shiite Muslims.

Prime Minister Fouad Siniora said he would not accept the resignations. He has the authority to order the five cabinet ministers to stay on, but it was unclear if his weak government could enforce the demand.

The resignations are not enough to bring down Siniora's government -- eight cabinet ministers must resign for the government to collapse -- but they could cost him support among Shiites, the majority sect in Lebanon, and make it difficult for him to govern.

The ministers of Hezbollah and the allied Amal party resigned because talks on forming a national unity government collapsed hours earlier, Hezbollah said in a statement broadcast by its al-Manar television station. Hezbollah accused the government of insisting on "imposing terms and premature results for negotiations," the TV station said.

Hezbollah, a Shiite militia that is by far the strongest political and military force in Lebanon, has been demanding at least one-third of the seats in the 24-member cabinet for itself and its allies. That would give them veto power over key decisions and the power to bring down the government if they disagreed with a decision.

Lebanon exists because of borders drawn by outsiders in the early 20tth century. As has happened elsewhere in the Middle East and Africa, the resulting borders have placed together groups that are traditional rivals with seriously different interests. The result has been states which are not truly viable entities. Thus Lebanon is a conglomeration of groups that have been unable to live together peacefully for decades. And when militias and terrorist groups hold more sway than the government authorities, then there is little hope for an end to civil strife – or conflict with Israel brought on by terrorist attacks by Hezbollah.

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The murderous tyrant will die like a common criminal!

BAGHDAD, Nov. 5 -- Former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein was found guilty by a special tribunal Sunday of crimes against humanity for the torture and execution of more than 100 people from a small town north of Baghdad 24 years ago. He was sentenced to death by hanging.

Hussein, 69, was led into the courtroom by seven guards and immediately sat in his chair, refusing to rise for his verdict until Chief Judge Raouf Rasheed Abdel-Rahman ordered guards to force him to his feet.

"Long live the people!" Hussein shouted as the verdict was being announced. "Down with the stooges! Down with the invaders! God is great!"

Just before his appearance in court, one of Hussein's co-defendants, Awad Hamed al-Bander, the former head of Iraq's Revolutionary Court, repeatedly bellowed: "God is great!" as he, too, was sentenced to death. "On the tyrants, God is great!" he shouted. "On the colonizers, God is great! On the agents, God is great!"

The verdict and sentence will automatically be sent to a nine-judge appellate panel for appeal. That panel has wide latitude to review the case and call for additional testimony, and it has an unlimited time to rule. But once it does, any sentence must be carried out within 30 days.

Celebratory gunfire rang out over Baghdad as jubilant Iraqis expressed their happiness with the outcome by racing to rooftops, front yards and windows to fire into the air. National television showed smiling Iraqis dancing in the streets of cities around the country, including in the Sadr City neighborhood of Baghdad, which technically was under an all-day curfew.

I'm curious -- are the Democrats in mourning yet? I know one is pretty upset.

H/T Michelle
Malkin

UPDATE: The New York Times isn't happy with the verdict or sentence. Why am I not surprised? Maybe they will deck the paper our in mourning black when the dictator is dead.

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Turkish secularists are protesting in opposition to Islamist influence in Turkey.

About 12,000 Turkish secularists marched in the capital on Saturday to protest against what they see as a rising Islamist influence under Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's government, Anatolian news agency said.

The demonstrators, who represented 112 non-governmental organisations, shouted "Turkey is secular, will remain secular" and "Independent Turkey" and protested against Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has roots in political Islam.

Overwhelmingly Muslim, Turkey is governed by secular laws that separate religion and state.

Since winning 2002 elections, Erdogan's government has alarmed secularists by promoting an increase of religious schools, seeking to lift a ban on wearing Islamic headscarves in universities and government offices and filling senior government posts with Islamists.

I support this movement against further erosion of the constitutional secularism of Turkey. The difficulties that would be created by a NATO member falling under the sway of the same ideology that motivates our enemies in the War on Terrorism cannot be overestimated.

H/T Malkin

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So says Bill Gertz of the Washington Times, quoting US officials.

U.S. intelligence agencies say, based on preliminary indications, that North Korea did not produce its first nuclear blast yesterday.

U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that seismic readings show that the conventional high explosives used to create a chain reaction in a plutonium-based device went off, but that the blast's readings were shy of a typical nuclear detonation.

"We're still evaluating the data, and as more data comes in, we hope to develop a clearer picture," said one official familiar with intelligence reports.

"There was a seismic event that registered about 4 on the Richter scale, but it still isn't clear if it was a nuclear test. You can get that kind of seismic reading from high explosives."

The underground explosion, which Pyongyang dubbed a historic nuclear test, is thought to have been the equivalent of several hundred tons of TNT, far short of the several thousand tons of TNT, or kilotons, that are signs of a nuclear blast, the official said.

The official said that so far, "it appears there was more fizz than pop."

A successful nuclear detonation requires a properly timed and triggered conventional blast that splits atoms, setting off the nuclear chain reaction that produces the massive explosions associated with atomic bombs.

Which means, of course, that the NorKs attempted to set off a nulear explosion, but that they failed to pull it off and instead got a blast far short of what they had anticipated.

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Well, the North Korean dictator has taken the dangerous and destablizing step of conducting a test of a nuclear weapon.

"The field of scientific research in the DPRK successfully conducted an underground nuclear test under secure conditions on October 9, 2006, at a stirring time when all the people of the country are making a great leap forward in the building of a great, prosperous, powerful socialist nation.

"It has been confirmed that there was no such danger as radioactive emission in the course of the nuclear test as it was carried out under scientific consideration and careful calculation.

"The nuclear test was conducted with indigenous wisdom and technology 100 percent. It marks a historic event as it greatly encouraged and pleased the KPA and people that have wished to have powerful self-reliant defense capability.

"It will contribute to defending the peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula and in the area around it."

The test resulted in a 3.56 earth tremor that was measured in Seoul.

North Koreas neighbors and the world community had expressed concern in advance of the test.

The move came as Japan's new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe began a visit to South Korea focused on pressuring North Korea to drop its planned nuclear test, and on improving bilateral relations soured by historical issues.

Abe arrived from Beijing, where he and President Hu Jintao had expressed "deep concern" about the test plan and vowed to push for the resumption of stalled disarmament talks.

North Korea's October 3 announcement that it plans to test a nuclear bomb in response to what it called US military threats and sanctions, had sparked worldwide alarm and condemnation from the UN Security Council.

What will be the reaction of South Korea and Japan? Of Red China? Of the US?

UPDATE -- Some world reaction here.

Although North Korea has long claimed it had the capability to produce a bomb, the test was the first manifest proof of its membership in a small club of nuclear-armed nations. A nuclear armed North Korea would dramatically alter the strategic balance of power in the Pacific region and would tend to undermine already fraying global anti-proliferation efforts.

"If the test (is) true, it will severely endanger not only Northeast Asia but also the world stability," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso warned.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, facing his first major foreign policy test since his recent election, called for a "calm yet stern response."

South Korea said it had put its military on high alert, but said it noticed no unusual activity among North Korea's troops.

China, the North's closest ally and the impoverished nation's main source of food, expressed its "resolute opposition" to the reported test and urged the North to return to six-party nuclear disarmament talks. It said the North "defied the universal opposition of international society and flagrantly conducted the nuclear test."

Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair said the test was a "completely irresponsible act," and its Foreign Ministry warned of international repercussions.

The White House said a test defied world opinion.

"A North Korean nuclear test would constitute a provocative act in defiance of the will of the international community and of our call to refrain from actions that would aggravate tensions in Northeast Asia," Snow said.

Russia, which borders North Korea, had urged Pyongyang not to conduct a nuclear test. Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov last week voiced concern about the environmental consequences for Russia. The Foreign Ministry warned that a test would add to regional tensions and undermine the international nuclear nonproliferation regime.

And the Washington Post offers this analysis which comes down to "It's all Bush's fault!" Ditto MSNBC/Newsweek, which blames sanctions against North Korea for forcing the pathetic dictator in Pyongyang to act. NY Times, shockingly, blames the Red Chinese.

Reaction from the blogosphere at Captain's Quarters, Stop the ACLU (twice), Blogs for Bush, Belmont Club

UPDATE II: Russia claims NorK nuke significantly larger than estimated by others.

Russia's defense minister said Monday that North Korea's nuclear test was equivalent to 5,000 tons to 15,000 tons of TNT.

That would be far greater than the force given by South Korea's geological institute, which estimated it at just 550 tons of TNT.

By comparison the bomb the United States dropped on Hiroshima during World War II was equivalent to 15,000 tons of TNT.

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Looks like the Dictator of Havana will be taking up residence in hell before too long. It seems that they Cuban strongman may be so ill with cancer that he will be unable to ever resume power.

Fidel Castro has terminal cancer and will not return to power as Cuba's leader, anonymous U.S. officials tell TIME magazine.

However, the officials said the intelligence reports on the ailing, 80-year-old Cuban president are not definitive.

Last month, Castro said in a statement that he has lost more than 41 pounds since he had intestinal surgery but added that the "most critical moment" was behind him.

The statement was accompanied by 10 photographs of Castro during his convalescence, in all of them sitting up and wearing either short-sleeved navy blue or light-blue pajamas. In several he is reading or writing.

Start chilling the champagne -- the parties in Miami and other places where freedom is still loved will begin immediately upon the announcement of the good news.

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After the undiplomatic bile spewed from the putrid mouth of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, why should we be surprised by this garbage emanating from one of his toadies?

Venezuela's foreign minister said he was illegally detained for 90 minutes by officials at a New York airport and accused them of treating him abusively by trying to frisk and handcuff him.

U.S. officials called Saturday's incident regrettable and said they had apologized to Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. Maduro called that insufficient and said Venezuela would seek a legal challenge through the U.N. to what he called a "flagrant violation of international law" and his diplomatic immunity.

"We were detained for an hour and a half, threatened by police with being beaten," Maduro told reporters at Venezuela's mission to the U.N. "We hold the U.S. government responsible."

A U.N. diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said Maduro's trip was delayed because he had showed up late without a ticket, prompting extra screening.

Maduro and Chavez want the UN to investigate and punish the US for this event.

The solution is simple – place Chavez, Maduro, and all other Venezuelan government officials on the “persona non grata” list and prohibit their return to the US. If the corrupt officials of the UN object, suggest that they relocate to another country – and inform the morally-backrupt organization that the US will cut its dues payments in half once the organization ceases to pollute our shores.

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I was challenged yesterday when I asserted that the coup in Thailand was a threat to liberty, not just democracy.

Well, the authoritarian nature of the military has asserted itself already.

Thailand's new ruling junta on Thursday announced a ban on meetings of political parties and barred the establishment of new parties.

The announcement, made on all Thai television stations, said the action was taken to maintain peace and order.

The bans are the latest moves by the junta to maintain control, even though no open opposition have surfaced to its Tuesday night takeover. Other moves include limitations on public meetings and restrictions on the media.

Freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, the right to petition the government, the right to associate for political purposes -- all gone by government decree. I stand by my assertion.

And i wish the Bush Administration would do and say more on behalf of the democratic institutions of Thailand.

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Military coups are a good thing only under the most rare of circumstances. The events of the last 24 hours in Thailand don't meet that standard by even the most generous assessment.

Thai army leaders deposed Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a longtime ally of President Bush, using tanks and soldiers to seize the capital Tuesday night without firing a shot. The coup was the first in 15 years in a country where many people believed that military seizures of power were a thing of the past.

Thaksin was in New York, attending the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, when soldiers surrounded Government House, his office, at about 10:30 p.m. He declared a state of emergency by telephone, but his announcement, carried on television, was cut off midway and had no discernible effect as army units seized key facilities in a light rain.

Thaksin cancelled a scheduled address to the UN, a move which I am sorry to see. It would have been instructive for him to speak to the body in order to call upon the nations of the world to reject this assault on democratic institution and to refuse recognition to the illegitimate regime which now holds power in Bangkok.

Why the coup?

Thaksin, a former senior police official who built a fortune in the telecommunications industry, has faced street protests for much of the year over allegations of corruption, abuse of power and a bungling response to a Muslim insurgency. Many military officers contended that he was trying to interfere with promotions and postings in the armed forces.

When it comes right down to it, I believe the last reason was probably the most pressing. Someone's son-in-law or protege probably didn't get the promotion or posting that they were expecting, and that may well have touched matters off. After all, civilian control of the military is a must in a free society, but it seems like the Thai army prefers military control of the civilians.

It also appears taht Thailand's king may be backing the coup -- a sign that the Thai monarchy may need to be abolished or restricted. If he was involved, it would be appropriate for King Bhumibol Adulyadej to face the same punishment -- whether prison or execution -- as the leaders of the coup.

Does any of this mean that I think Thaksin was or is a great leader? hardly, for liberty in Thailand has not been strongly supported. However, elections were coming before this coup -- now there will be none, with a military dictatorship taking the place of an admittedly flawed democratic system. The Houston Chonicle put it well today (in an editorial shocking in its timeliness).

Prime Minister Thaksin makes a poor example of elected government. He has endured charges of corruption and abuse of power. He does not recognize freedom of speech or of the press and refuses to resign.

However, the people elected Thaksin and soon will have a chance to replace him, if the army allows. Thailand would be better off with a deeply flawed leader ultimately accountable to the electorate than what it has now: a military dictator who has revoked the constitution.

Indeed, liberty is even more deeply endangered by this coup than by the short-comings of the Thaksin government.

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Iran defiantly ignores a UN deadline. Russia indicates sanctions of any sort are off the table. Following the Lebanon debacle, it seems clear that the UN is fully impotent.

Russia on Friday cast new doubt on the prospects for the Bush administrationÂ’s efforts to punish Iran for refusing to suspend its nuclear program, even as European leaders expressed wariness at moving quickly to impose sanctions.

In Moscow, officials expressed regret that an Aug. 31 deadline had passed without an agreement by Iran to halt its efforts to enrich uranium that could be used for building nuclear weapons, as American and European officials believe Iran intends to do.

At the same time, Russian officials made it clear that they do not support retaliatory sanctions or other steps to isolate IranÂ’s leadership. That was a view that seemed to be widely shared across Europe, despite public consternation over IranÂ’s defiance of a United Nations Security Council resolution.

Despite weeks of diplomacy and compromise among the Security Council’s permanent members — the United States, Britain, France, China and Russia — the resolute deadline set by the Security Council for Iran to halt its nuclear work seemed fairly irresolute once it passed.

Russia’s defense minister, Sergei B. Ivanov, said that the issue of sanctions was “not acute,” and added that diplomats from the five permanent members and Germany would meet to discuss further steps. France’s Foreign Ministry said the meeting was scheduled for next Thursday in Berlin.

RussiaÂ’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, said that Russia favored continued negotiations and not punitive measures, calling into question their effectiveness.

Even though Russia previously joined the other permanent members of the Security Council in setting the deadline for Iran to comply — with the implicit threat of sanctions — Mr. Lavrov left in doubt whether Russia would ever agree to any penalties. His view echoed one heard increasingly here: that sanctions could be a first step toward a new American-led military conflict in the Middle East.

In light of this, I have to ask why the US and other countries believe that the UN has any role at all in settling world problems. This sort of crap is what we see in the worst parents and worst teachers -- threats made but an unwillingness to carry out. As a result, the wrong-doers are able to continue to act at will, knowing there are no consequences to a failure to comply.

But then again, maybe we should look at history. In 1939, the Russians cut a deal with Hitler. Want to bet that they have a deal with Ahmadinejad?

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But just because that component of a nuclear weapons has been found in that Islamo-Fascist state does not mean the world community will act.

The global nuclear monitoring agency deepened suspicions on Thursday about IranÂ’s nuclear program, reporting that inspectors had discovered new traces of highly enriched uranium at an Iranian facility.

Inspectors have found such uranium, which at extreme enrichment levels can fuel bombs, twice in the past. The International Atomic Energy Agency concluded that at least some of those samples came from contaminated equipment that Iran had obtained from Pakistan.

But in this case, the nuclear fingerprint of the particles did not match the other samples, an official familiar with the inspections said, raising questions about their origin.

In a six-page report to the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, the agency withheld judgment about where the material came from and whether it could be linked to a secret nuclear program.

Is it time yet for a little bit of Persian Carpet-bombing?

Iran lied about its peaceful intentions?
How can that be -- Islam is a religion of peace!

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After all, if the UN headquarters is such a death trap, it should be condemned and destroyed as a matter of public safety.

And that would allow the organization to relocate to some other, more socialist country – and maybe it could bay one-fifth of the organization’s operating costs.

The long-delayed plans to renovate the United Nations buildings, old and riddled with safety violations, pose deadly risks to emergency responders and thousands who live and work around the area, Sen. Charles Schumer said yesterday.

Citing the testimony of UN officials, Schumer said a fire could travel quickly up the walls of the main building, which lacks sprinklers. Also, the heat pipes leak and could contaminate the Manhattan neighborhood with asbestos if they were to explode, he said.

"If this building were owned by a private company, there would be so many violations that the Buildings Department would be tempted to close it down," Schumer, a Democrat, said. Since the UN is considered international territory, it is not subject to local codes, a department official said.

The UN – who would really miss them?

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After all, if the UN headquarters is such a death trap, it should be condemned and destroyed as a matter of public safety.

And that would allow the organization to relocate to some other, more socialist country – and maybe it could bay one-fifth of the organization’s operating costs.

The long-delayed plans to renovate the United Nations buildings, old and riddled with safety violations, pose deadly risks to emergency responders and thousands who live and work around the area, Sen. Charles Schumer said yesterday.

Citing the testimony of UN officials, Schumer said a fire could travel quickly up the walls of the main building, which lacks sprinklers. Also, the heat pipes leak and could contaminate the Manhattan neighborhood with asbestos if they were to explode, he said.

"If this building were owned by a private company, there would be so many violations that the Buildings Department would be tempted to close it down," Schumer, a Democrat, said. Since the UN is considered international territory, it is not subject to local codes, a department official said.

The UN – who would really miss them?

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Looks like the UN will receive one final test of whether it is worth a pitcher of warm spit. Its handling of this latest move by the Madman of Tehran will determine whether or not the organization deserves to survive. If it fails here, the US and other sane nations should simply walk away.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated on Saturday a new phase in the Arak heavy-water reactor project, part of IranÂ’s atomic program which the West fears is aimed at producing bombs.

A Reuters witness said the president inaugurated the project and toured the site at Khondab, which is near Arak 120 miles southwest of the capital Tehran. The plantÂ’s plutonium by-product could be used to make atomic warheads.

The move came days before a U.N. deadline for Iran to halt uranium enrichment, the part of the program which is the biggest worry to the West. But the latest development is likely to raise further fears in Western capitals.

This move will likely split the major powers working to slow or stop Iran's nuclear program.

Six world powers have offered Iran incentives to halt enrichment. But Iran has so far only hinted it might be ready to consider halting the work as a result of talks, not as a precondition.

The reply seemed tailored to divide the four Western powers and Russia and China who agreed to the deadline on August 31.

The United States has said the six powers will move quickly to adopt sanctions if Iran disregards the deadline. Britain, Germany and France have been less conclusive in public.

Russia and China, both trade partners of Iran, have been unwilling and could veto sanctions in the Security Council.

But the Mullahocracy in Iran has said that it will not comply with UN demands.

Iran responded Tuesday to package of incentives, presented by the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany, for it to halt uranium enrichment and return to negotiations on increasing international oversight of its nuclear program. Tehran said it would be open to negotiations but did not agree to the West's key demand to halt enrichment as a precondition to talks.

The International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, will report on the state of Iran's program by mid-September. If its report finds that enrichment is continuing, the council could move toward sanctions.

Tehran has called the Security Council resolution that set the Thursday deadline "illegal" and has insisted it won't give up its nuclear program.

"They may impose some restrictions on us under pressure. But will they be able to prevent the thoughts of a nation?" Ahmadinejad said Saturday. "Will they be able to prevent the progress and technology to a nation? They have to accept the reality of a powerful, peace-loving and developed Iran. This is in the interest of all governments and all nations whether they like it or not."

The major problem is that while nuclear power in the hands of a peace-loving and developed Iran would be a good thing, we are stuck with a barbaric sharia-law dictatorship ruled by a madman who has expressed a desire to wipe one nation off the face of the earth -- and this call for completing the Hitlerian project of genocide against the Jews is advanced by the continuation of this project.

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Listen to this load of crap from the terrorist shill who ostensibly runs Lebanon.

Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, meanwhile, toured the devastated Hezbollah stronghold in south Beirut and decried the destruction by Israeli bombs as a "crime against humanity." Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, a Shiite and Hezbollah backer, stood at the Sunni premier's side and said they spoke with one voice.

Of cours the Hezbollah-supporting Parliament Speaker stood beside Prime Minister Saniora -- someone had to operate the puppet strings. My only question is if Berri's lips moved as he put words in the mouth of the ventriloquist dummy who nominally heads the Lebanese government.

And I'll notie that we have yet to hear a single world leader condemn the intentional attacks carried out against Israel's civilian population as "crimes against humanity" -- but every single civilian casualty caused by israel qualifies as one. That is perhaps the clearest indictment of the UN and its leadership that I can think of -- that the victim of the attack is defined as a the aggressor for daring to act in self-defense against an organization that was supposed to have been disarmed years ago under the terms of UN Resolution 1559.

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Since the terms of the cease-fire agreement have not been fulfilled by Hezbollah, Lebanon, the UN, or any of the other parties involved, why should Israel not take steps to protect its own security?

Helicopter-borne Israeli commandos raided a Hezbollah stronghold in the Bekaa Valley early Saturday, setting off a fierce gun battle. Lebanon called the attack a "flagrant violation" of a fragile six-day-old cease-fire and threatened to halt troop deployments in protest.

Hezbollah, which battled the Israeli military for 33 days until the truce took hold Monday, said its fighters encountered the Israeli commandos in a field near the town of Boudai, about 20 miles from the Syrian border.

The Israeli military, confirming the raid, said its commandos carried out the operation to interdict shipments of weapons and munitions to Hezbollah from Syria and Iran. The military said one Israeli officer was killed and two soldiers were wounded, one seriously.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora told reporters in Beirut that the attack was a "flagrant violation" of the U.N. cease-fire and that he planned to lodge a complaint with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Later Saturday, Annan said that he agreed the raid violated the cease-fire agreement and that he was "deeply concerned."

Hezbollah issued no immediate reaction. But many Lebanese worried that the militant Shiite Muslim movement would retaliate, risking a chain of cease-fire violations that could rekindle the devastating war that drove nearly a fourth of Lebanon's inhabitants from their homes and inflicted an estimated $3.6 billion in damage to bridges, roads and other infrastructure.

In accepting the cease-fire, the Hezbollah leader, Hasan Nasrallah, warned that his militia reserved the right to attack Israelis as long as they remain on Lebanese soil. At the same time, the Israeli military declared that it reserved the right to respond to attacks and prevent weapons shipments to Hezbollah guerrillas in the southern border hills until an international force was in place.

Hezbollah has not been disarmed -- and was being resupplied. The Lebanese government has continued to allow Hezbollah to operate in violation of multiple UN resolutions to the contrary. The UN has acted like the UN -- justifying Arab terror agains thte Israelis. France has shown its usual cowardice.

In short, screw the cease-fire -- Israel should declare its provisions to be a joke and resume its planned destruction of Hezbollah. Let the attacks continue

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He was one of the many iron-fisted dictators -- both of the lright and left -- who ruled in Latin America in the latter part of the 20th century. Here's hoping there is a particularly wam corner of hell with his name on it.

Alfredo Stroessner, the canny anti-communist general who ruled Paraguay for decades with a blend of force, guile and patronage before his ouster in 1989, died in exile on Wednesday. He was 93.

Stroessner contracted pneumonia after a hernia operation in Brazil's capital, where he had lived in near total isolation since he was forced from power.

He died of a stroke with his family gathered around him in the Hospital Santa Luzia, his grandson Alfredo Dominguez Stroessner said in a radio interview. Dominguez Stroessner said his grandfather left no instructions on his funeral but the family was considering burial in Encarnacion, the Paraguayan city where the former dictator was born.

Stroessner seized power in a 1954 coup and through fraud and repression, held it for 35 years to become one of Latin America's longest-ruling strongmen.

Finally ousted by his own generals, Stroessner remains hated by many in Paraguay, where he was accused of repression and human rights violations, even though some stalwarts credit him for big public works projects that modernized the country.

A staunch U.S. ally, Stroessner made Paraguay a refuge for some Nazi war criminals among 200,000 Germans he sheltered after World War II. He twice denied extradition requests for Dr. Josef Mengele, the infamous "Angel of Death" at Auschwitz. Mengele later fled Nazi hunters to Brazil, where he died under an assumed name.

Stroessner also sheltered fellow right-wing dictators, including Anastasio Somoza of Nicaragua.

"Stroessner didn't have any problem giving refuge to people with blood on their hands," said Aaron Breitbart, a senior researcher with the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "His death is no loss to democratic values in Paraguay."

Hopefully he'll be joined soon by Castro.

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Hezbollah will not disarm and withdraw from southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah refused to disarm and withdraw its fighters from the battle-scarred hills along the border with Israel on Tuesday, threatening to delay deployment of the Lebanese army and endangering a fragile cease-fire.

The makings of a compromise emerged from all-day meetings in Beirut, according to senior officials involved in the negotiations, and Prime Minister Fouad Siniora scheduled a cabinet session Wednesday for what he hoped would be formal approval of the deal. Hezbollah indicated it would be willing to pull back its fighters and weapons in exchange for a promise from the army not to probe too carefully for underground bunkers and weapons caches, the officials said.

In other words, this is just another repeat of the situation that occurred after the adoption of UN 1559 the last time Israel had to clear out the jihadi rat's nest in southern lebanon.

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The winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are We Could Be Heroes by Done With Mirrors, and Israel Has No Right to Exist by One Cosmos. 

Here are the full results of the vote.

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In other words, Hezbollah gets to keep on attacking. Here's hoping that an Israeli analog of Winston Churchill appears on the scene soon.

The draft ceasefire plan agreed to by the United States and France may result in an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, but it will not disarm Hizbullah.

It appears that United Nations efforts are concentrating on halting Israeli military operations throughout Lebanon, but no effort is being made to eliminate the Hizbullah threat. The draft agreement only calls for pushing Hizbullah north of the Litani, not far enough from IsraelÂ’s northern border to place Hizbullah rockets out of range from northern Israeli civilian population centers.

While the draft agreement supports UN Resolution 1559, demanding Hizbullah be disarmed by the Lebanese government, it does not make this a precondition to the implementation of the ceasefire.

The plan calls or the deployment of the current UNIFIL force in southern Lebanon, to be supported by some 10,000 French forces and 15,000 Lebanese army troops. Other countries may also send troops to take part in the force, which will be responsible to prevent Hizbullah attacks into Israel.

Fortunately, it looks like the energence of a leader with serious interests in protecting Israel from the jihadis may happen sooner rather than later.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert faced a backlash on Friday over a U.N. proposal to end the war in Lebanon, with army officers saying they were held back and right-wing rivals calling for new elections.

"Olmert must go," read a front page headline in Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper.

Opinion polls, conducted before details of the proposed Security Council resolution emerged, showed public support eroding for Olmert, a career politician who lacks the combat credentials of many of his predecessors.

* * *

Leading members of the right-wing opposition Likud party called the resolution a victory for Hizbollah.

"We will work to bring down the government," said Likud's Silvan Shalom. Yuval Steinitz, also of Likud, said the Israeli government should resign and call new elections.

Kadima party officials say they believe that Hezbollah can be disarmed through diplomacy. Unfortunately, we have seen how well such diplomacy has worked over the years. Don't these folks recognize that the diplomatic option only when there are Arab leaders serious about peace -- and that the leadership of Hezbollah does not fall into that category?

H/T Tel-Chai Nation

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Thanks for the correction on the title, zalame!

Well, their Islamo-Nazi leader has talked about wiping out the Jews. Why should we be surprised that he has deployed troops to help.

Members of Iran's Revolutionary Guard have been found among Hizbollah guerrillas slain by Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, Israel's Channel 10 television reported on Wednesday citing diplomatic sources.

It said the Iranians were identified by documents found on their bodies, but gave no further details on how many were discovered or when. Neither the Israeli military nor Hizbollah representatives in Beirut had immediate comment on the report.

Iran, like fellow Hizbollah patron Syria, insists its support for the Shi'ite guerrilla group is purely moral.

Israel says many of the rockets being fired against its civilian and military targets are Iranian made, and that Hizbollah fighters taking on its forces trained in Iran. Washington also accuses Tehran of actively funding Hizbollah.

Iran's Revolutionary Guards are traditionally very close to fellow Shi'ite Muslims in Hizbollah and were deployed in south Lebanon in the 1980s.

But Israel is still the bad guy, according to the international community.

(H/T Captain's Quarters)

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1 Greg, when you're updating the blacklist, do not, under any
circumstances, blacklist an URL containing square brackets, these
things: []



If you do that, you will break comments for the whole of mu.nu.  Which is a bad thing.

Until we can get everyone onto the new comment system (which doesn't suffer from this problem), please be very careful with this.  The spammers are deliberately putting poisoned URLs in the spam to cause this sort of problem.

P.S. Hey, nice comments!

Posted by: Pixy Misa at Wed Aug 9 15:46:39 2006 (FRalS)

2 you probably mean: killed in Lebanon, right?
And yes, I wonder why the Israelis are not showing pictures of their documents, that could have been a huge PR win.

Posted by: zalame at Wed Aug 9 16:24:46 2006 (59Iel)

3 Thanks for th correction.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Wed Aug 9 16:25:30 2006 (59Iel)

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Aside from a few pacifists, terror supporters, and other folks who have never met a suicide-jihadi they didn't like, Israelis are strongly behind the war in Lebanon which was forced upon them by Hezbollah.

As IsraelÂ’s war with Hezbollah finishes a fourth difficult week, domestic criticism of its prosecution is growing. Yet there is a paradoxical effect as well: the harder the war has been, the more the public wants it to proceed.

The criticism is not that the war is going on, but that it is going poorly. The public wants the army to hit Hezbollah harder, so it will not threaten Israel again.

And while Israelis are upset with how Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has run the war, they seem to agree with what he told aides this week — that given the weaponry and competence of Hezbollah and the damage already done to Israel, “I thank God the confrontation came now, because with every year their arsenal would have grown.”

Abroad, Israel is criticized for having overreacted and for causing disproportionate damage to Lebanon and its civilian population and even for indiscriminate bombing. But within Israel, the sense is nearly universal that unlike its invasion of Lebanon in 1982, this war is a matter of survival, not choice, and its legitimacy is unquestioned.

Even the bulk of the Israeli left feels that way. There is no real peace camp in Israel right now, says Yariv Oppenheimer, the secretary general of Peace Now, which has pressed hard for a deal with the Palestinians and on June 22, before this Lebanon war, called for a halt to air raids over the Gaza Strip. “We’re a left-wing Zionist movement, and we believe that Israel has the legitimate right to defend itself,” Mr. Oppenheimer said. “We’re not pacifists. Unlike in Gaza or the West Bank, Israel isn’t occupying Lebanese territory or trying to control the lives of Lebanese. The only occupier there is Hezbollah, and Israel is trying to defend itself.”

In the daily newspaper Haaretz, a cartoon satirized the group, showing a Peace Now advocate, balding with a ponytail, in a coffee shop saying, “It won’t end until we wipe Beirut off the map.”

When even the peace groups are supporting the war, it becomes clear how deep the support runs -- and that even those who object to war in virtually every situation recognize that this si a fight for Israel's survival against jihadis who will be satisfied with nothing less than genocide.

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After all, the same Lebanese troops that would fill the void in southern Lebanon are the ones who have been unable to control Hezbollah in the past, unable to bring about the dsarming of that terrorist force in compliance with UN Resolution 1559, and which the Lebanese president has previously threatened to send against Israel if it fails to stop attacking the Hezbollah terrorists.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Tuesday that Israel would "examine" the Lebanese government's proposal to deploy 15,000 soldiers to south Lebanon to replace Hezbollah militias, while an Arab delegation pressed the U.N. security council for an immediate cease-fire and withdrawal of Israeli troops from the country's south.

Olmert, who spoke as fighting continued on both sides of the Israel-Lebanese border, called the Lebanese government's proposal "an interesting step that we need to examine and investigate and see if it's all that it means."

Of course, the Arab supporters of terror want the UN to once again intervene in a manner detrimental to Israeli security.

In New York, Arab officials warned the U.N. Security Council Tuesday that Lebanon would erupt into a civil war unless there was an immediate cease-fire and the withdrawal of Israeli troops, Reuters reported.

Qatar's foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani, representing a three-member Arab League delegation, told the council that adopting a nonenforceable resolution would have "grave ramifications" for Lebanon.

"If we adopt the resolution without fully considering the reality of Lebanon, we will face a civil war," the minister said. "Instead of helping Lebanon, we will destroy Lebanon."

Wellm perhaps these nations should begin by turning to Hezbollah and demanding that the terrorists lay down their arms and accept evacuation to Qatar or some other Arab state where they would no longer be a threat to Israel. Israel could then withdraw to its borders and have security. Unfortunately, that is not in the plans of the Arab League. All the concessions must be on Israel's part, under their proposal.

Prime Minister Olmert needs to just say "No!"

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And it is trying to get it from Africa.

IRAN is seeking to import large consignments of bomb-making uranium from the African mining area that produced the Hiroshima bomb, an investigation has revealed.

A United Nations report, dated July 18, said there was “no doubt” that a huge shipment of smuggled uranium 238, uncovered by customs officials in Tanzania, was transported from the Lubumbashi mines in the Congo.

Tanzanian customs officials told The Sunday Times it was destined for the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas, and was stopped on October 22 last year during a routine check.

The disclosure will heighten western fears about the extent of IranÂ’s presumed nuclear weapons programme and the strategic implications of IranÂ’s continuing support for Hezbollah during the war with Israel.

When even the UN admits that Iran is seeking this material, there ought to be an outcry from the international communty and the American Left. But they really don't care -- after all, there are Jews to be bashed for defending themselves. Who cares about the actions of a rogue state ruled by a genocidal maniac?

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And do the same to Hamas, too.

That is the proposal of libertarian columnist Vin Suprynowicz, who acknowledges that war is a terrible thing and should be avoided in most instances.

But there are two major exceptions.

Rather than live as slaves, rather than watch our loved ones picked off one at a time while we stand by and do nothing, it is better to risk our lives -- and to kill as many of the enemy as humanly possible, by whatever means -- until such danger is decisively eliminated. It is better to respond to aggression by going to war. Not "going to social work." War, as in, "If everything around you is exploding, that's probably us."

Indeed, demanding cease-fires and temporary truces allows one side to initiate war with impunity, knowing that it will never be permitted to lose. Instead, those who cry "Peace!" will serve as the guarantors that there is no cost to unpovoked aggression by a weak party seeking to improve its position vis-a-vis a stronger and more restrained neighbor.

War in the Middle East has been a constant for some 58 years, since the founding of the modern state of Israel. That state has survived endless assaults upon its people and territory, but has never been allowed to follow through on its right to guarantee its own security by crushing its enemies. Instead, international pressure has been the basis for providing succor to the enemies of the Jewish state. The result has been more war and a constant threat to Israel's survival.

If war is evil, how much more evil is it to impose on anyone an endless stop-and-start war, which the righteous and aggrieved victim is never allowed to pursue to a victorious end -- the aggressor always allowed to rest and refit and then to come again at a time of his choosing, pecking relentlessly at the victim's liver?

Some will say Israel has committed aggression simply by existing. But to say that is to violate the U.N. charter, which guarantees the right of all member states to exist.

"But the Palestinians have no state!" the war-lovers cry.

Sure they do. It's called Jordan. In fact, the Palestinian Arabs got by far the larger part of the old British protectorate of Palestine -- and no one attacked them for daring to set up an essentially one-religion nation where Jews find scant welcome. The masses now huddled around the borders of Israel were kicked out by King Hussein in 1972 after they tried to overthrow him. How is that Israel's fault?

The defeatists cry that "Nothing can be accomplished by violence; war only breeds more terrorists who will fight forever."

Really? Sixty years later, is America still under attack by the aggrieved suicide-belted grandchildren of the Germans and Japanese whose cities we flattened and burned to rubble in '44 and '45?

No. Because wars usually do resolve these issues -- if one side is allowed to fight to a decisive victory. It's just that the pink petticoat gang shriek hysterically and threaten to faint dead away when confronted with the reality of how real wars really end.

Someone raises a white flag, and promises to fight no more if only you'll give the survivors some food and water and stop burning them out of their holes. Many of the conquered women marry the conqueror's soldiers and move home with them, giving up their native dress and learning to drive Buicks.

Israel can and has made peace with its neighbors. Nearly three decades ago, the actions of Begin and Sadat proved that. So, too, did the decision of King Hussein to follow the path that resulted in his grandfathers murder -- for Jordan and Israel are at peace as well. But when one side is unambiguously opposed to peace, no good can come of giving in to peaceful impulses -- for the end is ever the same.

But things could be different.

Today, Hezbollah and Hamas have a problem. All their planning was based on the fact that the world and the United States have never allowed Israel to really win a war -- they always call a cease-fire after a maximum of 20 days.

Can anyone see the terrorists looking around now, wondering when they get their next three years off for rest, refit and resupply? "Hey, it's been the full three weeks. Guys? Anyone? Hello?"

We started out saying war is horrible and is to be avoided whenever possible. But there is a corollary doctrine. If you want a generation of peace, those who launch wars have to be shown this, good and hard.

And that means forcing Hezbollah to its knees in southern Lebanon and Hamas in the territory it controls. That means a stark refusal to make nice when the world community demands it -- for the destruction of these two forces will not only pacify them in the long run, but may also have a salutary effect on those who seek to harm Israel while counting on being shielded by the international pacifist movement.

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On May 26, 1968, the following column by American social commentator Eric Hoffer was published in the Los Angeles Times. Hoffer (who was not a Jew) noted certain realities regarding Israel's situation in the world.

Interestingly, nearly four decades later, the words still ring true and can be applied to the current situation in the Middle East.

ISRAEL'S PECULIAR POSITION

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews.

Other nations drive out thousands, even millions of people and there is no refugee problem. Russia did it, Poland and Czechoslovakia did it, Turkey threw out a million Greeks, and Algeria a million Frenchman. Indonesia threw out heaven knows how many Chinese -- and no one says a word about refugees.

But in the case of Israel the displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees. Everyone insists that Israel must take back every single Arab. Arnold Toynbee calls the displacement of the Arabs an atrocity greater than any committed by the Nazis.

Other nations when victorious on the battlefield dictate peace terms. But when Israel is victorious it must sue for peace. Everyone expects the Jews to be the only real Christians in this world. Other nations when they are defeated survive and recover but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed.

Had Nasser triumphed last June he would have wiped Israel off the map, and no one would have lifted a finger to save the Jews.

No commitment to the Jews by any government, including our own, is worth the paper it is written on. There is a cry of outrage all over the world when people die in Vietnam or when two Negroes are executed in Rhodesia. But when Hitler slaughtered Jews no one remonstrated with him. The Swedes, who are ready to break of diplomatic relations with America because of what we do in Vietnam, did not let out a peep when Hitler was slaughtering Jews. They sent Hitler choice iron ore and ball bearings, and serviced his troop trains to Norway.

The Jews are alone in the world. If Israel survives, it will be solely because of Jewish efforts. And Jewish resources. Yet at this moment Israel is our only reliable and unconditional ally. We can rely more on Israel than Israel can rely on us. And one has only to imagine what would have happened last summer had the Arabs and their Russian backers won the war to realize how vital the survival of Israel is to America and the West in general.

I have a premonition that will not leave me; as it goes with Israel so will it go with all of us. Should Israel perish, the next Holocaust will be upon us.

UPDATE: This analysis by a Clinton Administration official shows how true these words are today.

The track record of many of Israel's most powerful accusers--including China, Russia and the European Union--is not nearly as good at balancing civilian risk against military goals.

China killed hundreds of peaceful Tiananmen Square protestors in 1989. It has for five decades occupied Tibet, slaughtering tens of thousands; and it vows to invade Taiwan if it declares independence. Neither the Tiananmen protesters nor Tibet nor Taiwan has ever threatened to "wipe China off the map."

Russia has fought since 1994 to suppress Chechnya's independence movement. Out of a Chechen population of one million, as many as 200,000 have been killed as Russia has leveled the capital city of Grozny. Chechen rebels pose no threat to "wipe Russia off the map." All of the leading EU countries actively participated in NATO's 78-day bombing campaign against Yugoslavia in 1999. The military goal was to stop Yugoslavia from oppressing its Kosovar minority. NATO bombs and missiles hit Yugoslav bridges, power plants and a television station, killing hundreds of civilians. Yugoslavia posed no threat to the existence of any of the EU countries that bombed it.

Compared with how China, Russia, and the EU have dealt with non-existential threats--and despite the law-flouting behavior of Hezbollah, Iran and Syria--Israel's responses to the threats to its existence have been remarkably restrained rather than disproportionately violent.

Indeed, the response has been restrained -- but Israel is not allowed to defend itself at all. In the eyes of much of the international community, the only appropriate response of a Jew under attack is to cooperate by dying quickly and without a struggle.

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Jonathan Medved offers a view from Israel on why this war is almost universally supported in that country.

And herein lies a great secret of why we fight, why we have gone to war after the kidnappings of Gilad Shalit in Gaza , and Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev on the Lebanese border. Why the Israeli public completely backs this war with approval ratings of over 90%. Because our army is our kids, and Jewish kids will not be kidnapped and slaughtered ever again without having hell to pay. Because we will not sit idly by while our enemies openly call for our destruction and amass the means to carry out their threats.

Everyday’s paper brings new pictures of fallen soldiers—their smiles, their backgrounds, their unbelievable stories. Major Benji Hillman, 27, an English immigrant, who died leading his troops into Ras A Maroun, only three weeks after his wedding. Major Roi Klein, 31, died by jumping on a hand grenade, thereby shielding his soldiers from certain death—he leaves a wife and two young sons. Seargeant Michael Levine, 22, a new immigrant from Pennsylvania, rushed back to his unit after visiting his family in the states, to find death fighting Hizbollah in Ayta A-Shab. These heroes will not be forgotten nor will their deaths be turned into mere casualty statistics of a war viewed by cynics as “disproportionate”.

Tonight, starts the fast of the 9th of Av, when we read the book of Lamentations as we mourn the destruction of our Temples and other calamities that have befallen the Jewish people on this day. Sitting in the moonlight on a hill across from the Temple Mount, hundreds of our neighbors and friends read together the scary verses about the tragedy that has followed our people for generations. Yet there is a quiet determination which is palpable among the mourners---a feeling that this war, our war, will ultimately be won, that redemption is finally on the way, and that our families will prevail.

May God continue to bless the Children of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob as they defend themselves against those who would kill them for believing in and living out the promises God made to their forefathers.

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As Israel conducts its War of Justice against the Hezbollah swine, many of us feel it is important that we lend our personal support to Israel in any manner possible. The Washington Post has an article about a new campaign by American Jews to help their brothers and sisters under attack by jihadis..

An umbrella organization of North American Jewish charities said yesterday that it will seek to raise a minimum of $300 million in emergency humanitarian funds for Israel this year, one of the largest short-term goals in its history.

The fund drive drew immediate criticism from at least one prominent rabbi who called on American Jews to raise money for the reconstruction of Lebanon, not just Israel. But experts on Jewish philanthropy predicted that the campaign would receive broad support, following a well-established pattern of giving by U.S. Jews in times of crisis for the Jewish state.

* * *

[Howard Rieger, president and chief executive of United Jewish Communities,] said that since Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid, triggering three weeks of fighting between Israel and Lebanese militants, UJC has spent $12.5 million a week to evacuate children and elderly residents of northern Israel beyond the range of Hezbollah rockets.

He said the additional funds would be used to set up summer camps for up to 15,000 displaced children in southern Israel, provide trauma counseling, create a $20 million fund for victims of the rocket attacks and their families, rebuild social services and refurbish bomb shelters that lack air conditioning and are in disrepair.

Doron Krakow, senior vice president of the UJC's Israel division, said the campaign is "fundamentally committed to helping Israeli communities under siege, and that means helping Israeli Arabs and Druze, as well as Jews."

There are, of course, some Jews opposing aid for israel and instead looking for support for the jihadis and their lebanese allies. I guess that is just proof positive that today, six decades after the Holocause, there still are would-be Kapos and judische Polizei in 2006, ready to cooperate with the enemies of the Jewish people rather than aid their brothers and sisters.

To learn more about the campaign, click here.

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After all, if leading figures in the organization are so loathe to classify Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, why do we even stay a member?

[U.N. Deputy Secretary-General Mark] Malloch Brown was quoted in a British newspaper Wednesday suggesting that he does not think that Hezbollah, the Syrian- and Iranian-backed group currently fighting Israeli Defense Forces, is a terrorist organization.

"It's not helpful to couch this war in the language of international terrorism. Hezbollah employs terrorist tactics; it is an organization, however, whose roots historically are completely separate and different from Al Qaeda," he said, according to a transcript of an interview.

So Hezbollah may look like terrorists and act like terrorists, but they are not terrorists because they are not al-Qaeda. This ignores the minor detail that one can be a terrorist without being a part of al-Qaeda, just as one could be a pirate without being Blackbeard.

Can't we just admit that the UN is a failed experiment in utopian diplomacy and dismiss the organization from both our budget and our shores?

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I love it when a public figure goes against the Left-wing conventional wisdom to speak an inconvenient (for the Left) truth.

Charging Fidel Castro with the deaths of his relatives, Cuban-American Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell declared last night: “I hope he does die.”

“Castro killed members of my family,” Lowell told the Herald before last night’s game against the Cleveland Indians at Fenway.

Some news reports have suggested the Cuban dictator, nearly 80, is gravely ill after undergoing surgery for intestinal bleeding, even as Cuban news media say he is recovering. He has handed power to his brother, Raul Castro.

Lowell, 32, recounted the trauma the Castro regime has caused his family.

“My dad had to pack up his suitcase at 10 years old with his three brothers, who had nothing. And my mother was 11 years old and my grandfather, who’d been a dentist for 15 or 20 years, had to go back to school to be (politically) re-educated,” Lowell said.

“My cousins were political prisoners. My father-in-law was a political prisoner for 15 years because, at 19, they asked him if he agreed with communism and he said, ‘No,’ so they sentenced him to death. That’s not the way to live. I know it’s terrible to say, but I think of all of that and I hope he (Castro) passes away.

“I don’t care if he dies,” Lowell said. “There are so many people who have died because of him and there’s been so much wrongdoing and so many human rights violations that I hope he does die. That sounds bad, but it’s the truth.”

It's time for more Cuban-American celebrities to speak out and slap down the Leftist propaganda that paint's Castro as a good guy.

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The dictator in Havana has given power to his brother because he is having abdominal surgery that could have a long convalesence.

Cuban President Fidel Castro was undergoing intestinal surgery and provisionally handed over power in the Communist island nation to his younger brother Raul, according to a statement read on Cuban television Monday night.

Fidel Castro, 79, has led Cuba since a 1959 revolution. Raul Castro, 75, is the first vice president of the country, and as such, the designated successor to his brother.

Castro's secretary, Carlos Balenciago, read a letter he said was from the president in which he said stress had forced him into surgery and that he would be in bed for several weeks after the operation was complete. Castro turns 80 on August 13.

Raul Castro also assumes control over the armed forces and the leadership of the Communist Party, according to the statement.

The State Department reacted with caution.

White House spokesman Peter Watkins said: ''We are monitoring the situation. We can't speculate on Castro's health, but we continue to work for the day of Cuba's freedom.'' The State Department declined to comment Monday night.

In Florida, the Cuban community has greeted this news as any lover of freedom must.

The announcement drew cheering in the streets in Miami. People waved Cuban flags on Little Havana's Calle Ocho, shouting "Cuba, Cuba, Cuba," hoping that the end is near for the man most of them consider to be a ruthless dictator. There were hugs, cheers and dancing as drivers honked their horns. Many of them fled the communist island or have parents and grandparents who did.

Don't get well soon, Fidel. In fact, don't get well at all -- do the Cuban people a favor and die on the table so that they can hang your putrid corpse from a lamp post by its heels, like the Italians did to Mussolini.

Babalu Blog has a running post on this most recend deathwatch, noting that we have seen this before.

¡Cuba Libre!

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I was disturbed that Israel would give Hezbollah a chance to recover, reposition, and rearm when I heard about the agreement to stop the bombing for 48 hours.

Israel agreed to suspend air attacks in southern Lebanon for 48 hours after one of its raids on the southern town of Qana left dozens of civilians, many of them children, dead on Sunday, the bloodiest day of the conflict so far.

* * *

J. Adam Ereli, the deputy spokesman for the State Department, which announced the 48-hour pause in strikes, said Israel would use the suspension in bombing to coordinate with the United Nations safe passage for 24 hours for residents who wish to leave southern Lebanon.

Israeli officials said nothing publicly about the suspension early Monday, and Mr. Ereli noted that Israel reserved the right to strike at militants preparing attacks against it.

An Israeli official in the prime minister’s office, who did not want to be identified, simply confirmed the State Department statement, saying, “Israel will be suspending aerial activity over southern Lebanon for 48 hours until the end of the Israeli investigation into Qana.”

At midnight Sunday, Israeli aircraft hit targets in eastern Lebanon, a spokesman for the Israeli Army said Monday morning. The suspension of airstrikes went into effect two hours later, he added.

It is pretty clear what did not happen -- Israel did not target that building and did not intentionally kill civilians. It is also pretty clear what did happen -- in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention, Hezbollah operated from in the midst of what the convention calls "protected persons" in order to use them as human shields.. Somehow, though, those who demand that the US abide by the strictedst possible interpretation of those documents (and even exceed those standards) have failed to condemn Hezbollah for failing to live up to those same standards of civilized behavior.

Fortunately, Israel has not abandoned all military common sense.

Israeli warplanes did conduct air strikes this morning, but army officials said they were in support of ground forces and so not covered by the 48-hour halt.

And IsraelÂ’s defense minister, Amir Peretz, made it clear in a speech to the Knesset today that Israel intends to continue its ground operations against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon.

“We must not agree to a ceasefire that would be implemented immediately,’’ Mr. Peretz said. “If an immediate cease-fire is declared, the extremists will rear their heads anew.’’

So let's make the situation clear -- while there is a pause in bombing generally, bombing in support of ground forces will continue in order to continue to purge the jihadi swine from southern Lebanon. Israel rightly recognizes that a cease-fire at this time is not in its strategic interest, and so will not accept any proposal that stops the fighting without ensuring Israeli security.

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Though it doesn't particularly matter to Israel-haters/jihad supporters, video is out showing Hezbollah launching rockets from civilian areas of Qana. That made the area a legitimate military target. Take a look at the video at Expose the Left and Flopping Aces (scroll down).

In addition, there are now questions about the timing of the building collapse. The Israelis attacked the area around midnight local time -- but the building did not collapse until the next morning.

Senior IDF officers told reporters a short time ago that there is a contradiction in the timing of the bombing of the village of Kana and reports of the explosion that killed more than 50 civilians and set off world-wide condemnation of Israel. Air Force Commander Amir Eshel left open the possibility that Hizbullah terrorists blew up the building or that an unknown cause set off explosives which were stored in the structure.

He explained that recorded information shows that Israeli Air Force planes bombed the building between midnight and 1 a.m. and that the next attack at 7:30 a.m. was up to 500 yards away. He said reports of the killing of civilians came around 8 a.m. "It is not clear what happened" between 1 a.m. and 8 a.m., he said.

Brigadier General Ido Nehushtan pointed out that Hizbullah terrorists have fired more than 150 rockets from the village of Kana since the beginning of the war.

Could the collapse have been triggered by explosives stored there by Hezbollah (there are reports of a secondary explosion)? Could Hezbollah jihadis have "manufactured" the civilian casualties by blowing the building up themselves? Or might they have prevented civilians from leaving a damaged building for the same purposes? Given th six-to-eight hour gap between the attack and the collapse that exists, these are reasonable questions.

UPDATE: The official Israeli statement on Qana, including video of Hezbollah firing from behind residential buildings.

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With the dawn come reports of the deaths of dozens of Lebanese, many of them children, as a result of an Israeli airstrike on the Lebanese village of Qana.

At least 60 civilians were killed on Sunday after the IAF fired missiles at buildings in the southern Lebanse twon of Qana.

Some 35 bodies have been recovered from a building that collapsed, but more were still stuck under the rubble, Lebanon's official news agency reported.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said that the area was a focal point for the firing of Katyusha rockets on Kiryat Shmona and Afula. He said that from the outset of the conflict "hundreds of rockets have been fired from the Qana area."

Olmert stressed that there was no IDF policy of targeting innocent civilians, as opposed to Hizbullah that has launched rockets "with the aim of murdering innocent civilians in northern Israel."

On one level, I feel shock and outrage. I am truly saddened by the deaths of civilians. But my anger is directed not at the Israelis, but at the Hezbollah cowards who have been hiding in and attacking from civilian areas in an attempt to protect themselves and gain a propaganda victory from the deaths of the civilians they put in harms way. It has not been that long since I posted photos that clearly demonstrate that Hezbollah tactic, and the condemnation of the jihadi group by a UN official for doing so.

Yet on another level, I am not at all troubled by these casualties. Lebanon allows Hezbollah to operate freely within its borders. It has a role in the government. It is among the largest employers in Lebanon. Indeed, the Lebanese president has even hinted that he might have the Lebanese Army join forces with the jihadis of the Party of (the false god) Allah against the Israelis who have responded to repeated attacks upon civilian targets from within Lebanon. The Lebanese government has allowed this terrorist menace to flourish, and now all of Lebanon must pay the price -- even if that price involves civilian casualties.

I need go no further back in history than WWII, "the good war". In that conflict, which was certainly an example of what one would call "total war", the casualties of the Axis aggressors were high -- and included many civilians who found themselves in harm's way due to the misdeeds of their government. While American and British casualties were under 1% of their respective populations, the Japanese suffered over 3% casualties, including the deaths of many civilians in the conventional bombing of Tokyo and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Germany suffered the loss of over 10% of its population, including many to the relentless bombing campaigns of the Allies in places like Dresden. And yet no one with an ounce of moral decency would argue that those deaths were unjustified, unnecesary, or disproportionate. Indeed, they were tragic, but they were also a necessary part of bringing about a speedy victory with far fewer casualties on both sides than would otherwise have been needed.

If Israel were to adopt the model used by the Allies in WWII, much of Lebanon would be flattened by now. Even if the much more restrained model used by America in Vietnam were employed, the civilian casualties would be much higher due to the carpet-bombing of entire sectors where the enemy is operating. Israel has not done that at all, and has sought to limit civilian casualties even when it puts Israeli troops at risk.

The events at Qana raise the specter of history repeating itself.

Ten years ago, Israel was forced to suspend Operation Grapes of Wrath against Hizbullah after artillery shells accidentally killed over 100 Lebanese refugees in the same village.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora demanded an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and insisted on an investigation into the Qana attack.

The withdrawal a decade ago in the face of world outrage allowed Hezbollah to regroup, rearm, and recruit a new generation of jihadis -- those who fight today. The earlier withdrawal following a tragedy in Qana can in fact be seen as the beginning of a chain of events which gave rise to the current war. Will the same mistake be made today?

War, as General Sherman told us long ago, is Hell. One part of that Hell is that unintended civilian deaths occur -- especially when one side hides among the non-combattants. And yet that cannot be the basis for putting an end to a just fight or accepting a cease-fire that allows the aggressor to regroup and continue its attacks at a later date. Terrorism must not be allowed to succeed; terrorists must not be allowed a strategic victory. Israel must continue its battle against the jihadis of Hezbollah -- not just for its own security, but also for that of Lebanon, the Middle East, and the world as a whole.

OPEN TRACKBACKING AT Stop the ACLU, Conservative Cat, Adam's Blog, Stuck on Stupid, Freedom Watch, Blue Star Chronicles, Third World County, Madman Returns, Random Yak

Posted by: Greg at 12:56 AM | Comments (24) | Add Comment
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1 Good insights. I firmly believe Israel needs to finish this. Hezbollah is responsible for the civilian deaths. Of course, the Israelis need to fire at the positions from which rockets are being lobbed at their own people. I can't figure out why anyone would be confused about the necessity of Israel's counterattacks.

Posted by: Anna Venger at Sun Jul 30 04:56:00 2006 (ZXStJ)

2 I agree with you completely!

Posted by: Beth Barnat at Sun Jul 30 07:58:18 2006 (Oaz5W)

3 I agree with you completely! The thing I was thinking was this, though -- in warning the civilians that they are going to bomb, perhaps they are giving Hezbollah an opportunity to herd civilians into those very sites and lock them in - run away and let Israel bomb. Perhaps they should just bomb targets by surprise and see what happens.

Posted by: Beth Barnat at Sun Jul 30 07:59:43 2006 (Oaz5W)

4 Bizarre reasoning on this site by what appear to be mostly folks totally disconnected from reality. Hezbollah may be a diabolical organization but rest assured the world is not blaming them for this incident. They are blaming Israel, while Hezbollah and Nasrallah have become heroes throughout the muslim world. This attack was not only morally wrong, has anyone sat and looked at the dust covered corpses of those children, just as are Hezbollah's rocket attacks, but they are a terrorist organization while Israel is supposed to be responsible state. But above all it was completely stupid. As becomes more apparent every day, the chances of Israel eliminating Hezbollah are becoming increasingly remote. Even if the US damages its own interests by trying to hold the world back for a year while they bomb Lebanon into the stone age and kill 200,000 in the process, they will still not manage it. I think that penny is starting to drop in Tel Aviv, hence some uncertainty in their conduct of this operation. They are also taking on board that these do not appear to be the Arabs they are used to fighting. I have been a supporter of Israel all my life, but for the first time am starting to believe that they will never impose their settlement on the middle east. They have been trying it for forty years and it hasn't worked any more than our more recent attempt to impose a settlement in Iraq. One of the by products of that has been to make Hezbollah's patron Iran the pre-eminent power in the region, who are basically immune from any action we can take against them. I'm sure many of the posters on this site want to start dropping bombs on Tehran, without giving much thought to the economic impact on a country which consumes 25% of the worlds oil and whose industrial and financial system is heavily dependant on a stable world. These no doubt are the same people who claimed invading Iraq was going to stabilize the middle east. Wake up this is a disaster for Israel.

Posted by: John at Sun Jul 30 08:47:26 2006 (xLm0S)

5 Let me remind all the people who want to stop Israel from eliminate the Hezbollah. I wondered if thousands of missles falls into Beijing, Moscow, London, Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Geneva,.... you know the idea then how many of the citizen of those countries will demand immediately ceased fire w/o skined alive the responsible killers regardless what kind of collateral damage in the process. It is easy to be yell peace unless when a 2000lbs missle is shooting at you everyday. Israel has the right to eliminate all the people that want to kill her. If they have to level Lebanon or the whole Arab world to survive then so be it. I have no doubt that China, India, Russia, US, France, Germany, or any country.... would terminate the whole world if that is the only mean of survival on outbreak of war.

Posted by: Michael at Sun Jul 30 10:44:59 2006 (uloLc)

6 I hear that America has been shipping Depleted Uranium weapons through an airport in Scotland to Israel.

Israel has been using those weapons in Lebanon. That certainly explains why they wiped out the UN Obsevers on the border .. after all it would not do to have witnesses to that dirty game .. would it?

The Americans are complicit in this latest Israeli atrocity along side with the British .. The whole world can see who the real axis of evil is.

By their fruits ye shall know them .. and the fruits are hard bitter and poisonous .. Mussolini is reported to have said that Fascism should be rightly called Corporatism because it a union of state and business .. By the fruits .. I dub thee Facists .. God rest your rotten black souls

Posted by: Pax at Mon Jul 31 04:34:38 2006 (mCO+0)

7 You hear, but have you any proof?

No doubt you've also heard that Jews use the blood of Christian and Muslim childrent to make matzo bread as well.

But if you believe that support for Israel makes one a fascist -- then I wear the label gladly and with pride. After all, since the Jews are God's Chosen People,that means God is a fascist as well. And i mean the One True God, not the false god Allah.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jul 31 05:50:20 2006 (93/tm)

8 Well the proof is to be found in the British Newspapers and the questions raised in the British Parliment about the DU weapons being shipped through Prestwick on the way to Israel.

Ask the UN about proof of the deliberate shelling of the UN observation post .. the UN stated 4 peace keepers were killed.

and as for the blood and matzos .. such over the top remarks can only be Zionist Propaganda to garner sympathy .. Israel is an out of control illegal Nuclear power. That needs to be dragged before the International Court at the Hague for crimes against humanity.

As for the Jews being Gods Chosen People then we only have the Jews claim for that .. show me the contract .. and dont give me garbage about its written in the Bible .. The words of Jesus are quite straight forward .. try the Sermon on the Mount.. Oh and let us not forget the 10 Commandments in the Old Testament.

Have a nice day.

Posted by: Pax at Mon Jul 31 06:36:23 2006 (mCO+0)

9 Pax,

Depleted Uranium? Please. Unless you inhale the stuff as dust it's harmless.


John: "Hezbollah may be a diabolical organization but rest assured the world is not blaming them for this incident. They are blaming Israel, while Hezbollah and Nasrallah have become heroes throughout the muslim world."

Comment: So what else is new?

Posted by: Jose Chung at Mon Jul 31 06:38:14 2006 (ApvpI)

10 Ghenghis khan killed half of the population fo Khoresm when it killed his 30 men. Why do not Israel adopt that strategy? Just kill all Lebanons as retaliation for its 2 soldiers. That is my suggestion for Israel. The man race except Arabs and Jews has grown more humane since WW2 even Vietnam war.

Posted by: Enkh at Mon Jul 31 06:40:28 2006 (4KSOT)

11 Pax wrote: "...and as for the blood and matzos .. such over the top remarks can only be Zionist Propaganda to garner sympathy."


You have no idea what goes on in the Arab world, my friend, and in its media and textbooks. Look at the school books used in the Palestinian Authority that compare Jews to donkeys and pigs, or that claim hating the Jews is a commandment of Allah. In the maps section of these textbooks there is no nation called Israel. It just doesn't exist.

I could go on, but why bother?

Pax, little buddy, in your favor I will stipulate that you are not as brainwashed as these poor ignorant Palestinian youths, but brainwashed you are, whether you know it or not. The ignorant and gullible liberal media in the west and its high priests (the professors) have fallen for much of this nonsense propanda put out by terrorist elites
and their scribes.

Posted by: Jose Chung at Mon Jul 31 08:10:09 2006 (ApvpI)

12 Interesting, Pax, that you cite not one source -- and your vague comments refer to "questions raised" not evidence produced.

And the UN -- if you look at my site, you will see actual evidence that Hezbollah ahd been operating in the area, just as at Qana.

By the way -- if you want to reject the Biblical teachings about the Jews as God's Chosen people, you need to give up on the 10 Comandments and the Sermon on the mount as well -- for they are all three from the Bible.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jul 31 08:48:04 2006 (mUNeU)

13 Pax,
Arab television stations show tv programs depicting Jews kidnapping a boy and slitting his throat to make matza for Passover.

They also show cartoons to children of Israeli leaders drinking the blood of Muslims.

Their own programs condemn them for the Jew haters that they are.

Posted by: Anna Venger at Mon Jul 31 08:57:50 2006 (ZXStJ)

14 I accept the words of Jesus .. they are quite clear. Problem seems to be is that the money changers have reoccupied the Temple.

I am old enough to remember the King David Hotel massacre quite clearly .. I suppose they were Jewish freedom fighters? .. Zionists would like to have it both ways .. intellectually dishonest .. living walking lies .. read the words of Jesus and open up your shrivelled black hearts and let some milk and honey flow.

I spent 9 years in the British Army and served all over the middle and far east .. I know exactly what goes down .. and when I look at some of the rabid comments here .. and the source then I understand quite clearly who are the ones that have been brainwashed.

You really must understand that the majority of the civilised world is revulsed by the Zionist/Israeli response .. and its never been any different with Israel .. they have broken nearly every UN resolution on Palestine.

The whole world can also see that monsterous wall and how Israel has Gulagized Gaza and the West Bank .. and they also see the deliberate genocide practiced by the Israeli Government .. I know that much of it is not the people themselves .. its the Government egged on by rabid attack dogs.

And Anna .. what is it that the Zionists have been saying about the Palestinians? .. can you not understand why people are turning against Israel .. and your comments about Jew Haters just does not cut it .. heard that nonsense so many times that I understand it for the propaganda it is .. well it does not work any more .. by and large people are sick of it.

I understand what the Geneva Convention says and especially about Civilians .. Do you?

Posted by: Pax at Mon Jul 31 12:45:23 2006 (mCO+0)

15 You must understand that accepting the existance of israel is an essential element of qualifying for membership in the civilized world -- the rest fit in well with the Nazis, the Communists, the Islamists, and other malign, genocidal ideologies.

I'll leave you with the words of a great American, generally held to be something of an expert in the area of human rights.

“When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You are talking anti-semitism.” Rev. Martin Luther King

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jul 31 12:51:31 2006 (vrARD)

16 Oh, and let me give you another quote -- this one from someone whose experience with the actual institution of apartheid regime.

“I cannot conceive of Israel withdrawing if Arab states do not recognize Israel within secure borders.” Nelson Mandela

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jul 31 12:54:41 2006 (vrARD)

17 Oh, and you may want to consider Article 28 of the Fourth Geneva Protocol. It addresses the Qana situation perfectly.

Art. 28. The presence of a protected person may not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations.

So -- when Hezbollah sets up shop in civilian areas, it is acceptable under international law to attack those areas. The responsibility for civilian casualties that result from such attacks fall squarely on the shoulders of Hezbollah.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jul 31 13:15:08 2006 (vrARD)

18 John,

"This attack was not only morally wrong, has anyone sat and looked at the dust covered corpses of those children, just as are Hezbollah's rocket attacks, but they are a terrorist organization while Israel is supposed to be responsible state."

Have you seen those photos in a different context?

EU Referendum

Posted by: loboinok at Mon Jul 31 17:18:26 2006 (6VFW4)

19 I appreciate your placing that link here. I saw that particular post just before I went to bed, and was going to post them in the morning.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Mon Jul 31 17:25:13 2006 (+zyg2)

20 You are welcome.

Here is another you may find interesting;

The Corner

Posted by: loboinok at Mon Jul 31 22:37:38 2006 (6VFW4)

21 If there is a shooting, against Isreali soldiers coming from the house, call air support and have the destroy the house.

All Hezzbollah will be finished quickly.

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We've all heard of groups sending care packages to American soldiers, both those deployed and the wounded soldiers who have returned to this country. Many of us have participated in fundraising activities for such projects, and have personally sent care packages to troops. From time to time I've placed lnks to such groups on my site.

But I've wondered over the last few weeks if anyone was sending support packages to Israeli soldiers during this time of war. Literally by accident, I stumbled across this company, Israel-Catalog.com that is doing so, and so I offer it up to you if you are interested.

They also have made available Support Israeli Children Packages containing toys and candy for Israeli children who have had to spend many hours in bomb shelters due to Hezbollah rocket attacks on the civilian population of Israel.

I encourage you, if you are so moved, to consider an act of charity and love directed towards the Israeli people as they defend themselves from the direct attacks of the Hezbollah jihadi terrorists.

Posted by: Greg at 10:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The unfortunate deaths of four UN observers in Lebanon were used as an opportunity for the UN's chief Israel-hater, Secretary general Kofi Annan, to launch a verbal assault on the Isralie, claiming the attack was intentional. And at least one press account has tried to make it appear that the UN monitors were targetted.

PEACEKEEPERS spent six hours begging Israeli commanders to halt multiple air bombings near a United Nations observation post before a missile killed four unarmed observers there, it emerged last night.

UN officials said that the monitors made ten phone calls to the Israeli army between 1.20pm on Tuesday — when an Israeli aircraft dropped a bomb 300 metres from the patrol base — and about 7.20pm, when the building was destroyed.

The details came to light as Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, condemned what he called an “apparently deliberate targeting” of the well- documented UN position that had stood in Khiam, southern Lebanon, for 50 years.

I won't get into the fact that if the peacekeeprs have been there for half a century, they have done a very poor job, given the continued attacks on Israel from south Lebanon. Rather, I will point to specific issues that raise doubt about the targetting the UN ooutpost. Rather, the Israelis were after legitimate Hezbollah targets in the same area.

Not that it is easy to distinguish UN and Hezbollah positions, as this photo clearly demonstrates.

As one of the dead observers -- a Canadia -- noted in an email the day before his death, Hezbollah was operating in the area of the post which was hit.

An apparent discrepancy in the portrayal of events surrounding the deaths of four unarmed U.N. observers in Lebanon threatens to unravel Secretary-General Annan's initial accusation that Israel "deliberately" targeted the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon.

A Canadian U.N. observer, one of four killed at a UNIFIL position near the southern Lebanese town of Khiyam on Tuesday, sent an e-mail to his former commander, a Canadian retired major-general, Lewis MacKenzie, in which he wrote that Hezbollah fighters were "all over" the U.N. position, Mr. MacKenzie said. Hezbollah troops, not the United Nations, were Israel's target, the deceased observer wrote.

Now UN spokespeople have tried to argue that there was no firing of from the vicinity of the destroyed post on the day of its destruction, but that is a rather disingenuous position to take. Are the Israelis only to attack active Hezbollah positions? Or are any Hezbollah positions legitimate targets? The answer is obvious -- any Hezbollah position is fair game in this war that the terrorists started. And if the UN is allowing Hezbollah to opperate in and around UN outposts, then it is an unfortunate reality that there will be attacks in the area. Place the blame where it belongs -- on Hezbollah and the UN, not the Israelis, who are engaged in a legitimate operation to ensure their own security.

UNIFIL press releases even confirm Hezbollah's strategy of using UN personnel as shields for their attacks on Israel.

Read the UNIFIL press releases for yourself to learn that Hezbollah has not just shot at and seriously wounded UNIFIL observers - without any protest from Kofi Annan or The Age. YouÂ’ll also learn that UNIFIL has repeatedly reported Israeli shelling and bombing near UNIFIL outposts because Hezbollah fighters were shooting from right beside them .

Says the UNIFIL press release of 20 July:

Hezbollah firing was also reported from the immediate vicinity of the UN positions in Naquora and Maroun Al Ras areas at the time of the incidents (of Israeli return fire).

Tell me -- where were Kofi Annan's calls for Hezbollah to cease using UN positions as a shield for their attacks on Israel? There were none -- because the anti-Semitic, anti-Zionist Annan considers any tactic used to attack Israel and kill Jews to be a legitimate one. And this is not a new tactic -- for years, hezbollah and hamas have used refugee camps and other civilian populations as shields. Remember the uproar when the Israelis hit a refugee camp some years back? What was generally uncommented upon was that Hamas was firing from just beyond the boundaries of that camp -- realizing that any Israeli response would likely cause civilian casualties, bringing instant condemnation upon Israel.

But then again, why would anyone expect Hezbollah to have any sense of decency, given its long history of Jew-killing jihad? After all, this is the same group responsible for this little attrocity.

The Shiite terrorist group has erected a billboard facing Israel on which it placed enlarged photos showing mutilated Israeli soldiers killed in Lebanon.

Yes, hezbollah even desecrates teh dead and proclaims its disgusting actions to the world.

And some of these dead are israeli soldiers kidnapped from across the border.

Just like the kidnappings that touched off this latest war.

Now whose fault is this conflict, and these deaths?

MORE AT Michelle Malkin, LGF, Small Dead Animals, Harry's Place, Blog-o-Fascists, Iowa Voice, Morning Coffee

Posted by: Greg at 04:35 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I wonder what the supporters of terrorism are going to make of this column by Zeev Avrahami, a well-known Israeli peace activist? Actually, no I don't -- for most of them he's just one more Israeli Jew to them, and so his opinion only matters if it opposes Israel and its existance.

But to those who have qualms about the current war but still retain a sense of moral decency, I urge you to consider this.

Today, I am convinced that Israel is fighting a justified war. Far from being an "optional war," this conflict was forced upon us. There is a feeling that every positive step taken in recent years has been answered by punishment. Now we are prepared to do whatever it takes to turn Israel into a safe place, even if this means invading Lebanon once again. We also want to sip coffee and play backgammon. We've had enough of rockets from the north and south and suicide bombers from everywhere. We also want to lead a normal life, just like the people in New York, Berlin or Rome who don't have to look up every time a stranger enters their favorite cafe.

We pulled out of Gaza and we have no desire to be pulled back in. We want to go to work, study, raise a family, enjoy the beach, and eat hummus as we watch with delight how the Palestinians use the money they get from around the world to build their own infrastructure, to create jobs allowing them to go to the beach, raise families, and eat hummus. We prayed for hummus and instead we got Hamas.

As the threats come from all fronts and with the backing of Syria and Iran, we are once again faced with our unique reality: We have no place to go. Ask my mother. She was expelled from Iran in 1957 for being Jewish. Now, the Iranians want to force her to migrate again.

I am bothered by the high Lebanese death toll as are most Israelis, but we must also remember that Hezbollah set the tone for this conflict when it asked for hundreds of people in exchange for one Israeli soldier. This war was declared against us and against the Western world. With oil prices rising daily, it's an economic war. With anger still lingering after the Muhammad cartoons, it is a cultural war. Most of all, though, it is a war against a progressive world, and Israel has turned back the clock 24 years to fight it.

I too am turning back the clock. Eighteen years after finishing my military service -- almost two decades after swearing that I would never again wear a uniform -- I called the Israeli consulate in New York and gave them my phone number. If the army needed me, I told them, I would be the first on a plane back to Israel. And Sharon, of course, has still not woken from his coma. But I miss him.

Welcome back to sanity, Zeev -- I congratulate you on recognizing the true face of your nation's enemies.

(H/T Captain's Quarters)

Posted by: Greg at 07:25 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The new cry of the anti-Israel supporters of terrorism is that Israel's response to the warfare conducted against it by Hamas and Hezbollah is that the self-defense actions of Israel are not "proportional".

Now I can reach only two conclusions about those calling for proportionality. Either they are disingenuous, or they are stupid. After all, life teaches us that when we face a threat to our lives or our safety, proportional response is not the answer. The response must be overwhelming, absolute, and utterly disproportinate to the threat. The goal cannot be a draw -- it must be the utter subjugation or annihilation of the enemy.

My brother is a sergeant on a police force on the West Coast. We've watched more than one television show or movie in which some scriptwriter has had a police officer shoot a perp in the knee, arm, or hand in order to stop or disarm him. When that happens, my brother laughs, and notes "In real life, that is probably a dead cop." Real cops, you see, recognize that when they pull the trigger they must shoot to kill. If they don't, there is a very real chance that the perp will not be disabled or disarmed, and that he will shoot back or use a blade when the officer approaches. Therefore, they shoot for the chest, in the hope of causing such massive injury (or, of course, death) that there is no chance of that the perp can take any action in response. Any other response is stupid -- and anyone who advocates the use of less than deadly force in that situation either does not understand policework or is more concerned about the life of the perp than the life of the police officer. Cops don't use deadly force often or as a primary course of action -- but they don't hesitate to use it when appropriate.

But with Israel, which is using the IDF to disarm and incapacitate terrorist enemies, the call is for settling for something less than safety and security by using no greater force than the enemy is using.

Take this, for example.

Destroying the Beirut airport, blasting communications towers into oblivion and cleansing southern Lebanon of its civilian population are not measures the world will see as an attack on Hezbollah terrorists. The Israeli campaign is so intense and widespread that it is creating more terrorists than it kills. Proportionate military action might have enhanced Israel's security, but video footage of grandmothers weeping amid the rubble of their homes and bloodied children lying in hospital beds won't make Israel more secure. Hezbollah's stature in the Arab world is growing, and its patrons in Damascus and Tehran must be smugly satisfied.

Ultimately, it doesn't matter how "the world" views Israel. What matters is that the people of Israel are safe. If that makes Israel unpopular, so be it. Experience has shown the Jews that "the world" does little on their behalf, no matter how passive they are. A litany of pogroms and concentration camps demonstrates that. And somehow I doubt that Iran and Syria would make nice if only Israel would refrain from going to extremes in its own defense.

Even Richard Cohen, who calls Israel a mistake, recognizes that calls for proportionality are insane.

If by chance you have the search engine LexisNexis and you punch in the words "Israel'' and "disproportionate,'' you run the risk of blowing up your computer or darkening your entire neighborhood. Just limiting the search to newspapers and magazines of the last week will turn up "more than 1,000 documents.'' Israel may be the land of milk and honey but it certainly seems to be the land of disproportionate military response -- and a good thing, too.

The list of those who have accused Israel of not being in harmony with its enemies is long and, alas, distinguished. It includes, of course, the United Nations and its secretary general, Kofi Annan. It also includes a whole bunch of European newspapers whose editorial pages call for Israel to respond, it seems, with only one missile for every one tossed its way. Such neat proportion is a recipe for doom.

The dire consequences of proportionality are so clear that it makes you wonder if it is a fig leaf for anti-Israel sentiment in general. Anyone who knows anything about the Middle East knows that proportionality is madness. For Israel, a small country within reach, as we are finding out, of a missile launched from any enemy's back yard, proportionality is not only inapplicable, it is suicide. The last thing it needs is a war of attrition. It is not good enough to take out this or that missile battery. It is necessary to re-establish deterrence: You slap me, I will punch out your lights.

Damn straight. Anything less is an invitation for further attack and ultimate destruction.

Now there are those -- including my now banned troll -- who plead the case of the poor civilians of Lebanon. Sadly, they are victims in this -- victims of Hezbollah and their own government. Captain Ed sagely makes the point about where the responsibility belongs for the disproportinal response by Israel -- a response that has led to these unintended but unavoidable civilian casualties belongs.

If Hezbollah finds itself holding a knife in a gunfight, then the blame falls on Hezbollah and the Lebanese government that granted then de facto sovereignty in the south. Wars do not get fought through "proportionality," and they certainly do not end that way. They end when one side overwhelms the other with superior force and dictates terms to the loser, or when one side decides they've had enough and sues for peace. Demands for proportionality lead us to where we are today -- long, bloody wars of attrition that solve nothing and embolden asymmetrical warfare.

How about this for proportionality: Israel comprises about 6.3 million people, while Hezbollah's sponsors, Syria and Iran, comprise a combined 87 million people. Does that mean that the global community will allow Israel to impose a 13:1 death ratio in this war, and to keep killing people indiscriminately until they reach the correct numbers? When the UN and its international dupes start endorsing that proposal, then we can take their demands for proportionality seriously.

Frankly, I think I could accept precisely such a ratio, though I would prefer that it be higher. So keep up the good work, IDF -- leave not one rocket-launcer standing, and not one terrorist alive.

UPDATE: Would you like to know the effect of a "proportionate" response to Hezbollah? It can be inferred from this statement of Mahmoud Komati, a Hezbollah leader.

His comments were the first time that a leader from the Shiite militant group has publicly suggested it miscalculated the consequences of the July 12 cross-border raid in which two Israeli soldiers were captured and three were killed.

"The truth is _ let me say this clearly _ we didn't even expect (this) response ... that (Israel) would exploit this operation for this big war against us," said Komati.

He said Hezbollah had expected "the usual, limited response" from Israel.

In the past, he said, Israeli responses to Hezbollah actions included sending commandos into Lebanon, seizing Hezbollah officials and briefly targeting specific Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon.

Komati said his group had anticipated negotiations to swap the Israeli soldiers for three Lebanese held in Israeli jails, with Germany acting as a mediator as it has in past prisoner exchanges.

Yeah, that's right -- Hezbollah was expecting another proportionate response from the Israelis, and is upset that the Israelis aren't playing by Hezbollah's rules. what's more, he goes on to complain that Israel had this campaign planned and had just been waiting for the opportunity to strike. I guess he feels that it is somehow immoral for Israel to decide to effectively defend itself from an external threat.

So let's clarify the matter here -- proportionate response leads to continued attacks -- because Hezbollah gets what it wants in such situations. Disproportionate response might just succeed in getting Israel some security.

Posted by: Greg at 01:39 PM | Comments (43) | Add Comment
Post contains 1357 words, total size 9 kb.

1 The problem with your argument here is that you're not actually analyzing what many people who talk about "proportionality" give as the reason that Israel's response is problematic, which is that their current course of action is unlikely to lead to security. Arguing with straw men is easy, I guess.

Posted by: John at Tue Jul 25 14:03:05 2006 (3xDOR)

2 I disagree -- those calling for "proportinality" are, in effect, calling for Israel to engage in an ineffective defense.

After all, we've seen Israel make unprecedented concessions in recent years -- and get nothing in return except more casualties. Why would further concessions get them anything more.

John, if you were ever attacked by a gay-basher, I hope you would leave him broken and bleeding in the gutter. Not just because the mutt deserves it -- but because it would discourage teh next SOB who decided it was OK to assault someone because of their sexual orientation. I daresay it would not lead to you being less safe or less secure. I would therefore argue that such a disproportinate response would not only be appropriate, but would be teh morally superior course.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Tue Jul 25 14:10:02 2006 (gsQr0)

3 Israel has attacked Christian areas of Lebanon, which Hezbollah has no history of recent activity in, which is one of the reasons Greg's erstwhile Christian (Maronite) brothers have
overwhelmingly attacked the bloody brutality.

The fact that Greg can still stand with Israel herein, shows the extremity of a blind love affair verging on dual loyalty. His recoil at one who brazenly tells him what he is in this regard----the furtherest thing from an America-Firster--is understandable.

The best bet for a motivation comes from a read of the past several weeks of his site and is that his religious heresy of belief in an ongoing
Abrahamic Covenant of God's "permanent" gift of Palestine to the Jews shapes his political position into one debilitating for American
interests.

Posted by: Ken Hoop at Wed Jul 26 08:07:07 2006 (j1Lns)

4 Israel has attacked areas where hezbollah has positions. If that means Christian areas, so be it -- though the notion that a Christian would willingly live alongside those jihadi pigs is something I cannot comprehend. The result is, unfortunately, Christian casualties -- but casualties that must belaid at the feet of Hezbollah and its supporters, not the Israelis.

And Ken, I love that you have trotted out one of the favorite cards of the anti-Semite -- the dual-loyalty card. But it isn't just for Hebrews anymore! Now you and your ilk use it for Christians who side with God's Chosen People. Coming from suh as you, i consider the accusation to be a badge of honor.

And Ken, I want Chapter and Verse from the Holy Bible where God revoked His Covenant with the descendands of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Wed Jul 26 12:01:46 2006 (lm97O)

5 Oh, and by the way, Ken, I'd love to know what the good fathers at Xavier University think of you using their computer facilities to propagate your anti-Semitic and anti-Catholic garbage, including sending me links to a webpage that depicts Pope Benedict XVI as the "False Prophet" of the Book of Revelation? And yet you tell me that there is nothing anti-Catholic on that site.

It comes up as follows on my tracking software:
Host Name net153-026.xu.edu
IP Address 205.133.153.26

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Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has visited war-torn Beirut as a part of her effort to bring real peace and security to the troubled region. She also brought an initial commitment of $30 million in humanitarian aid to teh region.

Perhaps the most important aspect of the visit to the region has been this statement of the US position onthe current conflict between Israel and Hezbollah terrorists who control much of Lebanon.

According to a Lebanese political source quoted by Reuters news agency, Rice told Berri, the speaker of the Lebanese parliament and a strong ally of Syria, that the situation on the Israeli-Lebanese border "cannot return to what it was before July 12." She referred to the date on which fighters of the radical Shiite Hezbollah organization, which is supported by Syria and Iran, crossed into Israel, killed three Israeli soldiers and abducted two others, triggering the current crisis.

The Lebanese source, describing the meeting's tone as "very negative," said Rice told Berri there would be no cease-fire before Hezbollah freed the soldiers unconditionally and pulled its forces back at least 12 miles from the border, Reuters reported.

In other words, tehre can be no peace in the region so long as the terrorists continue to be in a position to attack Israel at will, hiding beyon international borders for safety. Any plan for peace must therefore eliminate the threat to the security of Israel, which has repeatedly taken steps in recent years to appease the Palestinians with little received in return except more attacks and casualties. An additional goal is enabling Lebanon, which until last year was dominated by Syria, to gain effective control of its own territory from the hezbollah terrorists.

The visit, which Rice said was requested personally by President Bush, was designed in part to show support for Lebanon's government, the first in years to be led largely by anti-Syrian figures. The visit was also aimed at determining what Lebanon needs to support itself and possibly get control over its southern region, now used by Hezbollah to fire rockets into Israel.

"If they could control the country, we would not be in this situation. The status quo has never been stable," said a senior official accompanying Rice.

Ultimately, the issue is Hezbollah, Hamas, and other terrorist groups. Israel has shown that it can negotiate peace with its neighbors and that it is prepared to accept a Palestinian state. On the other hand, the terrorist groups which control the Palestinian authority and southern Lebanon -- not to mention the Syrians, who are among the sponsors of those groups -- are unwilling to settle for anything less than the destruction of Israel. Thus the problem can only be solved by eliminating (or at least neutralizing) those groups.

Posted by: Greg at 08:02 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 476 words, total size 3 kb.

Thomas Sowell makes a brilliant point -- peace movements and their fellow-travellers lead to more war more frequently, not more peace.

There was a time when it would have been suicidal to threaten, much less attack, a nation with much stronger military power because one of the dangers to the attacker would be the prospect of being annihilated.

"World opinion," the U.N. and "peace movements" have eliminated that deterrent. An aggressor today knows that if his aggression fails, he will still be protected from the full retaliatory power and fury of those he attacked because there will be hand-wringers demanding a cease fire, negotiations and concessions.

That has been a formula for never-ending attacks on Israel in the Middle East.

It is as I pointed out in a comment last night on another thread.

A more realistic end scenario is that it ends with Israel again caving into the international community's call to play nice -- and with the real aggressors (the so-called Palestinians) again being painted as the victims of injustice. That means security for another few years -- until the next time Israel caves into the latest demands of the international community to make concessions. That will set off a new round of the IDF engaging in vermin control -- and Israel being condemned for it.

It is unfortunate that Israel wil not be allowed to crush her foes compleely, for then we might see peace born out of the ashes of the defeat of Hamas and Hezbollah. Instead, these two groups will be permitted to lick their wounds and build up for the next round. Taht is teh pattern we have seen in the past, and which we will see in the future.

Such "peace movements" lead to a moral people giving up the will to "fight for King and Country" (to use the term from the infamous Oxford Union debate). The result is that those who have fewer scruples about engaging in a true war of aggression are encouraged and strengthened.

The most catastrophic result of "peace" movements was World War II. While Hitler was arming Germany to the teeth, "peace" movements in Britain were advocating that their own country disarm "as an example to others."

British Labor Party Members of Parliament voted consistently against military spending and British college students publicly pledged never to fight for their country. If "peace" movements brought peace, there would never have been World War II.

Not only did that war lead to tens of millions of deaths, it came dangerously close to a crushing victory for the Nazis in Europe and the Japanese empire in Asia. And we now know that the United States was on Hitler's timetable after that.

For the first two years of that war, the Western democracies lost virtually every battle, all over the world, because pre-war "peace" movements had left them with inadequate military equipment and much of it obsolete. The Nazis and the Japanese knew that. That is why they launched the war.

"Peace" movements don't bring peace but war.

While usually springing from the most noble of sentiments, such pacifism is generally the basis of false peace and real war.

Posted by: Greg at 05:37 AM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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