At first, Bushra Khayyat tried to ignore the incessant ringing of the phone at her house in Lebanon’s southern port city of Sidon. It was 4 am, but she finally got out of bed.Well, at least they weren’t trying to sell them a new roof or insurance - those are the kind of calls I get.
“I said hello and got a recorded message from Israel,” she told Reuters. In clear Arabic, the strong voice on the phone said: “Oh Lebanese people, we tell you not to follow Hizbullah. We will continue to strike and no one will bring your prisoners back from Israel except the Lebanese government.” Other residents of the south have received similar calls.
“My grandmother got two calls at 5 and 6 in the morning saying the Israeli state would not stop the attacks and asking everyone to leave the area south of the Litani,” said one woman who is stranded in Sidon. “She slammed the phone down.”
Israel has dropped flyers on Lebanon during its 10-day-old conflict with Hizbullah terrorists, warning people to stay away from the group’s strongholds, warning them to evacuate their villages in the south or caricaturing the chief of Hizbollah.
The Jerusalem Pride parade scheduled for August 10th has been cancelled due to the war with Lebanon.
Washington has complied with an Israeli request to expediate delivery of so-called smart and laser guided bombs. Israel and the United States had already entered into an arms agreement last year that covered the purchase of those armaments.
One of the things I hear over and over from the so-called progressives and Syd Ryan is how influential the Israeli daily Ha’artez is. Caroline Glick of the Jerusalem Post offers some insight into the kind of analysis Ha’aretz provides to its readers:
The week before Hizbullah launched the war in the north, Ha'aretz chief diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn wrote an ode to the Islamist movement. Entitled, "We need a Nasrallah," Benn romanticized the terror master, writing, "Nasrallah hates Israel and Zionism no less than do the Hamas leaders, [kidnapped IDF Cpl. Gilad] Shalit's kidnappers and the Kassam [rocket] squads. But as opposed to them - he has authority and responsibility, and therefore his behavior is rational and reasonably predictable." Benn continued, "The moment Hizbullah took control over... south [Lebanon] and armed itself with thousands of Katyushas and other rockets, a stable balance of deterrence was created on both sides of the border."
An international group of jurists on accused both Israel and Hizbullah of committing war crimes reports Ynet News.
The International Commission of Jurists (ICJ), which links 60 senior judges and lawyers worldwide, said Israel's “disproportionate and indiscriminate" use of force through air raids against Lebanese civilian targets amounted to "collective punishment", which is outlawed. "Collective punishments constitute a war crime under international law," ICJ Deputy Secretary-General Federico Andreu-Guzman said in a statement.
Hizbullah rockets fired at northern Israeli towns could also be considered a violation of international humanitarian law because armed groups are also covered by the Geneva Conventions protecting civilians in times of conflict, the ICJ added.
How one fights a war without violating the Geneva Convention is really beyond my ability to fathom. In my studies of wars of the past, I have yet to see a war that did not routinely violate the articles of the Geneva Convention, and flagrantly, at some point. I am starting to believe the entire convention is a sham and a put up job meant to massage liberal guilt for victory or instill a sense of warped fairness so that the victor can face defeat the next time. Of course, neither Hezbollah, Hamas nor Fatah has ever been a signatory to the Geneva Convention.
Canadian officials failed to meet the boat arriving from Lebanon carrying the most recent Canadian evacuees in Cyprus because they overslept. No doubt they are liberal supporters. Conservatives are by nature too uptight not to meet the boat and say what you like about the dippers but they can always be counted on to show up and would never miss an opportunity to listen to people whine.
“Thousands” protested against the war in Tel Aviv reports Ynet News. I really did think it surprising at how well the hammer and sickle crew was represented. Who would have thought that the former USSR has so many fans?
The Toronto Star is reporting that a unilaterial ceasefire has been agreed to by both Fatah and Hamas in the Gaza Strip and they will stop firing Kassam at midnight tonight.
Guerrilla groups in the Gaza Strip have agreed to stop firing missiles at Israel at midnight tonight, senior Palestinian officials said.
The unilateral ceasefire is aimed at ending an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that began June 28.
(..)
The agreement was reached in Gaza City following meetings sponsored by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh aimed at finding a way out of the crisis in Gaza, the officials said.
Several Palestinian militant groups attended, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which have been blamed for many of the rocket attacks on southern Israel, the officials said.
The Israeli Defence Forces said it had no immediate comment on the Palestinian ceasefire.
I am struck by how novel the concept of a unilateral ceasefire sounds and wouldn't it be easier just to give back the kidnapped Israeli soldier? Who knows, maybe the Palies have run out of Kassams or this action by the IDF is threatening to become far too successful for words, guns, or rockets.
Oddly enough, I can find no mention in the English Israeli papers about this so I wouldn’t put too much stock in this report. It could be that someone at the Toronto Star is having a hippie flashback moment.
Update: I finally found an article in an Israeli newspaper talking about a possible mutual ceasefire with Israel that Egypt is trying to broker with both Hamas and Fatah. It’s still a long way from a unilateral ceasefire that the Toronto Star is reporting.
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