That’s Hezbollywood

I found this article at the Israel Insider and the cheek of it had me spilling my tea all over my keyboard.

Despite extensive coverage in the blogosphere, one key fact has been missing: the identity of the person prominently posing many of the corpses for the international press. Against the powerful images of dead children, facts and reason don't stand a chance.

Later in the AP report we learn about the circumstances by which Jradi said he was summoned to the scene. "Jradi said he got the call to rush to Qana from Tyre. But he couldn't go immediately, with Israeli warplanes still overhead. 'It was too dangerous,' he said."

Abu Shadi, it turns out, has a very distinctive form of transportation.

He was also photographed in Qana holding a dead child while in full rescue worker gear in one picture. But in another he is holding the same child dressed just in a black t-shirt, without his flak jacket, flourescent vest, radio and helmet. In the widely distributed blog entry Milking It, EUReferendum exhaustively examines the photographic evidence and time-stamps of the "rescue" operation.

But here's something new, which may explain a great deal:

Mark MacKinnon of The Globe and Mail reported from nearby Tyre, Lebanon on July 26, describing the many difficulties caused by the rising death toll in that city. "Abu Shadi, the mortician at the government hospital in the city, agrees. He's processed 100 bodies -- many of them grotesquely mangled and burned -- and on his pickup runs has been forced to leave behind many more that he can't recover from cars and destroyed buildings.

"It's much more [than the official count]," he says. "There are many trapped under the rubble. The death toll will reach 1,000."

"Mr. Shadi was standing in front of a refrigeration truck that was packed with 20 bodies, days after he helped bury 74 bodies in a mass grave. When he opened the door to show the black body bags haphazardly piled on top of each other, a staggering stench came out, despite the refrigeration. Next to the truck stood 40 empty wooden caskets, waiting for new arrivals."

Based on these descriptions, it seems highly likely that Abu Shadi the mortician and Abu Shadi the green-helmeted "civil defense worker" are one and the same. And, in the double role, Abu Shadi was among the first to arrive, before the media did, with his refrigerated truck that in recent days had been carrying around corpses.

"The refrigerated truck that bodies are stored in had just emptied the day before with a mass burial. It is already filling up again, with the bodies of children. "

We have pictures of Abu Shadi Jradi standing by the refrigerator truck, corpse in hand, and then, in different dress, posing with the same corpse in a different location.

Complicating the naming issue is a video which shows him at Qana, addressed in Arabic by a journalist by the named of "Abdel Qader" although -- as in the case of Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), Yasser Arafat (Abu Amar) and many others -- the "Abu" may be a nom de guerre.

The tantalizing question, which may never be answered, is this: was Abu Shadi's refrigerated truck empty when he arrived at Qana that morning? One might also ask: why was a "mortician" was among the first to be called to a presumed rescue situation, the very same "mortician" who ten years ago was posing headless child corpses?

Mr. Shadi had claimed much numbers twice as high, repeated -- even to this day. "Green Helmet" says in the video that fifteen bodies have been pulled from the wreckage, and he estimates that there were 210 (!) total victims.

The Red Cross and Human Rights Watch now confirm that the quantity of deaths has been greatly exaggerated, nearly double what was claimed by Lebanese officials. There were not "dozens" of children killed, as early reports have claimed.

And there really is no way to know by how much the deaths have been "padded" with refrigerated and transplanted corpses from Tyre or other locations.

And there remains the horrific possibility, as reported in a Lebanese publication but not confirmed, that Hezbollah placed rocket launchers on the roof and brought disabled children and the aged to be sacrificial victims, precisely as they became, possibly after a detonation of explosively charges long after the Israeli attack.

Mr. Green Helmet is a traveling mortician. Oy vey. Read the whole article here.

ain't no misunderstanding

One thing to be said about Iranian President Ahmadinejad is that he is not only consist, but he never leaves one guessing as to what is on his mind. This report taken from Ynet News:

VIDEO - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday the solution to the Middle East crisis was to destroy Israel, state-media reported. In a speech during an emergency meeting of Muslim leaders in Malaysia, Ahmadinejad also called for an immediate ceasefire to end the fighting between Israel and the Iranian-back group Hizbullah.

"Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate ceasefire must be implemented," Ahmadinejad said, according to state-run television in a report posted on its Web site.

I wonder how long it will take before a Mel Gibson Movie Festival is arranged to be screened in movie houses in Tehran?

Shades of Jenin Redux

The IDF final report has been released from the weekend Qana bombings and concludes that an intelligence failure lead to death of civilians at Qana. IDF General Chief of Staff Halutz has also implemented new protocol for evaluating any suspicious targets effective immediately. The Jerusalem Post carries this report:

The IDF inquiry into the Kana incident in which civilians were killed as a building collapsed released its final conclusions Thursday morning.

Two missiles, the only one of which exploded, hit the building on July 30. The army said that they had operated according to information that "the building was not inhabited by civilians and was being used as a hiding place for terrorists." Had they known that civilians were in the building, the attack would not have been carried out.

The IDF spokesperson noted that the building had been targeted only after residents had been warned to evacuate through various media, and that the building was adjacent to areas from which rockets had been launched towards Israel. Other buildings in the area had been targeted with no civilian casualties.

The Israelis are in the midst of a war, and yet, when it came to light that the IAF had targeted a building that contained primarily civilians an apology immediately came not only from the IDF General Chief of Staff but the Prime Minister of Israel as well as the Israeli Minister of Defense. While in the midst of a war the IDF conducted an investigation which in no way exonerated the IDF of responsibility for those deaths, and furthermore, a protocol was established in the hopes that this kind of intelligence failure can be avoided in the future.

Meanwhile Hezbollah in a 24 hour period has launched 210 rockets into Israelis civilian population centres with the expressed purpose of killing Israeli non-combatants. No apology has been issued from Nashrallah or Hezbollah for the deliberately targeting of Israeli civilians, nor has Hezbollah issued any directives to its terrorists operatives to spare the lives of Israeli civilians.

Ironicaly enough, there are still shades of the Jenin Massarce fiasco at work in Qana. Contrary to initial media reports the body count is substantially lower than was originally widely reported. Not only has the International Red Cross failed to find 60 bodies at Qana, even the rabidly anti-Israel NGO, Human Rights Watch also concludes only 28 civilians died at Qana and not 57+ as was reported initially in the main stream media and Arab media.

Think of the virgins! Think of the photo-ops!

Hezbollah fires a rocket that lands near the West Bank city of Jenin and a Palestinian citizens have this to say according to Ynet News:

Palestinian witnesses in the Jenin area, who noticed the rocket parts which fell between Beit Shean and Afula, said the rocket appeared to have fallen in the Gilboa area. A Fatah activist from Jenin added that the rocket hit was heard clearly around the city, and a spark and a flame were also clearly seen.

The Fatah member related that local residents cheered when they heard the rocket fall and saw the resulting flames. “Even if it were to fall on our heads, it wouldn’t have spoiled our joy. All of us here are praying for Hizbullah’s success and victory," he said.

He noted that in Jenin, Palestinians were convinced that the Israeli army was being squarely defeated in Lebanon, with proof implicit in Wednesday’s massive rocket barrages and the extension of Hizbullah attacks to the valley area, plus the IDF’s difficulty in entering deeper into Lebanese territory.

If Hezbollah keeps firing like this it may bring about a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, though admittedly, not the one Hamas was looking for whereby the Jews get pushed into the sea. Instead the Palestinians get pounded into kingdom come but even still - think of the Hezbollah photo-ops!

France: Honest Broker!

This Jerusalem Post carries this report with certainly some serious sinister undertones:

Iran's foreign minister on Tuesday blasted the UN Security Council for failing to stop the Israel-Hizbullah conflict, and called the US and Israel "partners in these brutal crimes" against Lebanese civilians. "The UN Security Council has proven its uselessness and ineffectiveness during this (Israeli) aggression," Manouchehr Mottaki told reporters after meeting with Lebanese President Emile Lahoud, a strong Hizbullah ally.

He also accused the United States, without naming it, of complicity in bringing about the destruction caused by Israel's 20-day-old offensive in Lebanon. "We think that the protectors of the Zionist entity and those who support it are partners in these brutal crimes being committed against the innocent women and children" of Lebanon, Mottaki said.

He arrived in Lebanon on Monday, in the first visit by an Iranian official to war-torn Lebanon since fighting broke out between Israel and Hizbullah guerrillas three weeks ago. He traveled over land from neighboring Syria, since the country's only international airport was bombed in the first days of the war.

On Monday night, Mottaki met with Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh and with French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, who was in Beirut for the third time since Hizbullah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others on July 12, triggering the Israeli offensive. Both meetings took place at the Iranian Embassy late Monday, but participants made no comments to the press.

Mottaki's visit coincided with a call on Muslim states by a top Iranian hard-line cleric, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, to provide weapons to Hizbullah to use in its fight against Israel, according to the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency. "Now, it is expected that Muslim states not spare any assistance to Hizbullah and the Lebanese people, especially providing weapons, medicine and food," Jannati told ISNA.

It was not immediately clear if Jannati's comments represented the Iranian government. Jannati is the head of the powerful Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog arbitrating between the parliament and the Iranian government.

Its interesting that the French, Iranians and Lebanese are holding separate talks on a potential ceasefire for Lebanon. Yesterday, the west was treated to sounds of the French Foreign Minister praising Iran’s stabilizing influence. Something is up and odor is noxious. Debkafile has its take on the discussions currently underway.

Some things are just flatout wrong

This am story at Ynet News grabbed my attention just because it is so warped.

In the framework of negotiations over the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit, "we are looking into the possibility of handing him over to Egypt until Israel fulfills the Palestinians and the abductors' demand to free Palestinian prisoners," a senior Palestinian official told Ynet Tuesday.

The negotiations over Shalit's release continue, mainly via Egyptian mediation. One of the central clauses of the talks stipulates that there will be no direct contacts between the Israeli government and Hamas.

According to the agreement that is being formulated by both sides, whose basic principles were agreed upon by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Shin Bet head Yuval Diskin, Shalit is to be transferred either to Egypt or to Abbas' hands. In exchange, Israel will cease military operations, primarily in the Strip, suspend all targeted killings and work to release Palestinian prisoners. Once the prisoners are freed, Shalit will be returned to Israel. The new clause in this deal refers to the possibility that Shalit be handed over to the Egyptians.
(…)
Egyptian sources confirmed the report, but said it has not been decided yet whether Shalit will be transferred to Egypt or to Abbas. Officials in Cairo said that no breakthrough has been registered in the negotiations until now, but stated that "this is the outline aimed at resolving the Shalit affair."

Really this is getting stranger and stranger. Why would Egypt even consider hosting captive Israeli Corporal Shalit for ransom for Hamas on Egyptian soil? Do the words English words “aiding and abetting” not have an Arab or Hebrew equivalent? I would have presumed that holding an Israeli hostage for ransom would be in direct violation with the peace agreement Egypt signed with Israel. What an incredibly poor precedent it would set if Israeli Shin Bet head plays ball.

Death Porn takes a Dive

Ynet New carries this report: Blogs: Hizbullah “milked Qana attack”

A number of web logs in the United States and Britain have claimed that a man who appeared in much of the international press's coverage of the Qana bombing lifting children's bodies may have been a Hizbullah agent who staged photo-ops for the international media.

Under the headline "milking it?" the EU Referendum blog , a British website dedicated to taking the UK out of the European Union, states: "Certainly, the photographs are distressing, and indeed they are meant to be."

The blog focuses in on a man dressed as a rescue worker who appears in many photographs in the international press: "Note the 'rescue worker' in the foreground, complete with olive green military-style helmet and fluorescent jacket, with what appears to be a flack jacket underneath."

It then shows a number of pictures, taken from different angles, by Reuters and the Associated Press, of the man holding the same child's body – but notes that there is a 4 hour time discrepancy between the time logs of the photographs.
(…)
An American weblog, Confederate Yankee, whose logo is that "liberalism is a vegetative state," says that "in a picture that hits the wires just one hour (9:06 AM) after the building collapse, a Lebanese Red cross member sits with bodies already displaying significant rigor mortis. About.com puts the timing of maximum stiffness at about 12-24 hours after death. These people were supposed to have died within one hour of these photos being taken."

Are the guys dressed in pyjamas in front of their computer screens waylaying the best laid plans of the Hezbollah death porn industry?

What beat of the drum is Syria marching too?

Three interesting items of note found today. Ynet News is reporting that a land mine mysteriously explodes on the Syrian side of the Israeli-Syrian border:

Channel 2 TV reported that a landmine exploded on the Syrian side of the Israel-Syria border on Sunday. Military officials said the incident, which took place near the Kunetra crossing, may have been an attempt by Hizbullah to drag Syria to the conflict with Israel.

The circumstances of the incident remain unclear at this point; it is possible that an explosive device was attached to the mine and set it off. Security forces are also looking into the possibility that the mine exploded by accident. No injuries were reported among IDF soldiers.

IDF officials have been saying since the onset of the fighting in Lebanon that Hizbullah would try to get Syria involved in the conflict; such an attempt was made when the organization fired rockets toward the Golan Heights in the hope that Syria would be blamed for the attack. A senior IDF officer said recently that Hizbullah may even go as far as intentionally firing at Syria to escalate regional tensions.

The second one concerns the public posturing of Syria’s President Assad as reported by Ynet:

Syrian President Bashar Assad put the Syrian army on high alert in anticipation of any developments. In a statement issued to mark the army's 61st anniversary Assad said Syria will not be deterred from helping Lebanon. "The occupying enemy hasn't forgotten the humiliating defeat and its submissive exit from south Lebanon under the strikes bold resistance," the statement read.

"Syria, which stood by its brother (Lebanon) and sacrificed martyrs to defend Lebanon's freedom as we did for Syria's sovereignty, remains as always adamant in standing by our Arab people who's fighting in Lebanon and Palestine, and by the bold national resistance who struck the enemy. All threats voiced by powers in the world who support t he enemy won't deter us from continuing to support our brothers," he said.

Assad called on the army to be prepared for all scenarios "because we believe that falling for the sake of heaven (martyrdom) is the only way to freedom and victory. We have to make all effort in training to save every drop of blood when the hour comes. The fighting continues so long our land is occupied and our rights are denied. Victory will be achieved God willing."

Assad said that this year's anniversary comes at time when "the Israeli enemy continues its extermination war against our proud peoples in Lebanon and Palestine. Our brothers in Lebanon are being subjected to aggression by the Israeli war machine from the air, the sea and the ground," Assad said.

Now Assad may strictly be posturing and wanting to cash in on some of the good will and popular support that Hezbollah’s is reaping from the so-called “Arab Street” for fighting Israel. He needs to posture in order to position himself ready to reap any “just rewards’ that kind of bluster can buy on the street.

The third one is found at the Jerusalem Post which is reporting that Syria opposes any new international peacekeeping force in Lebanon:

Syria has told Egypt's foreign minister it opposed the creation of any new international force in Lebanon, but would not be averse to the expansion of the current UN force there, widely regarded as ineffectual, officials said Monday.

"The Syrians are talking about expanding the UNIFIL," Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters in Cairo, referring to the widely criticized UN force created in 1978 to restore stability in the area. He acknowledged to reporters that Syria did oppose the sending of any new international force, as the United States and others are pushing, to police the border region.

If Syria still has territorial designs on Lebanon any multi-national force deployed with teeth are in a position to set back Assad’s program so it makes sense that Syria wouldn’t be thrilled. Or would it be in Syria’s interest to posture displeasure? A multinational force lead by France, who leads the European condemnation of Israel, and supplemented by Turkish and Indonesian forces whose governments have shown themselves more than a little sympatric to the Islamist sway in their own countries could hardly be counted on to neutralize Hezbollah, though, it probably could be counted on to effectively neuter Israel’s right to act in self-defense against Hezbollah aggression. Potentially, it could be raining Katyushas on Haifa indefinitely while Israel can do no more than file complaints with the UN.

But here’s another thought - the IDF deterrence factor has never been so low as it is now. The Israeli military censors are operating in a state of high efficiency. Not even a single sign of clear cut victory for Israel has emerged from the fog of war which can only give aid and comfort to those nations who are belligerent to Israel. Furthermore, one can take a town in a hard won battle and bury 1000 enemy dead, but if the flow of rockets continues to fall unabated in Haifa and almost a million people lives in the northern Israel are still held for ransom by the barrage - it’s a hollow triumph that rings false notes. Israel is definitely the loser in the international PR forum with more hands turned against Israel than extended in support.

Israeli political leadership has never shown itself as ineffectual as it is now. Olmert may talk a good speech but his actions belie his words. Resolute he is not. Neither Olmert nor the Defense Minister has ever held a senior rank in the IDF and have little experience at the type of mission planning needed in a time of war. Don’t kid yourself. These guys would have lost the Six Days War. Never before has the General Chief of Staff been held by an IAF general which is no doubt where the over reliance on air power comes from and has shown itself to be a somewhat unreliable tool to an early victory. I would go so far as to say that it has morphed full blown PR nightmare of epic proportions.

Furthermore, reports of mysterious stomach aliments that have been plaguing General Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz, just don’t project the Lion in Battle motif one often associates with the IDF General.

In fact, Israel has never shown itself to be weaker or more vulnerable than it is right now.

Vichy-fied

I really fail to see how the Israelis realistically could put their trust and security in a French lead UN force along the Lebanon-Israeli border when the French Foreign Minister Phillpe Douste-Blazy can issue this kind of a whopper without blinking and with a straight face. Taken from Ynet News.

Iran is a significant, respected player in the Middle East which is playing a stabilizing role, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said on Monday. "It was clear that we could never accept a destabilization of Lebanon, which could lead to a destabilization of the region," Douste-Blazy said in Beirut.

"In the region there is of course a country such as Iran – a great country, a great people and a great civilization which is respected and which plays a stabilizing role in the region," he told a news conference.

Wow.

Palestinians Go Wild

On the UNSCO building in the Gaza Strip.

Initially, the Palestinians were protesting civilians deaths at Qana in Lebanon at the UNSCO building in the Gaza Strip. How do Palestinians show solidarity to the Lebanese and protest the violence? By rioting and using more violence on themselves reports Reuters:

GAZA, July 30 (Reuters) - Palestinian protesters stormed the U.N. compound in Gaza City on Sunday during a protest against Israel's bombing of a building in southern Lebanon that killed around 60 people, witnesses and U.N. staff said.

Hundreds of members of Islamic Jihad militant group, some throwing stones and others firing rounds from assault rifles, attacked the compound at the end of a rally, witnesses said. At least two people were wounded.

U.N. staff were inside the compound at the time, but managed to escape, a U.N. official said. He said the site, which includes scores of buildings, was heavily ransacked by the demonstrators.
Witnesses said U.N. guards appeared to set off tear gas grenades to allow staff time to get away.
"The situation is very tense," the U.N. official said.

Members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's special guard arrived shortly afterwards and managed to disperse some of the crowd by firing into the air. Gunfire could be heard from within the compound but it was not clear who was firing at whom, witnesses said.

I was watching the Fox News report on the telly and I was utterly amazed at the number of boys under 10 who were taking an active part in attacking the UNSCO building. This, of course, begs the question; where are their parents? But then again, I am asking it of a group of people who collectively came to the decision that a UN building is an appropriate substitute target to vent their spleen on. I can’t wait to see how Kofi Annan spins this. I am betting he blames the Joos.

Qana, again

Once again, the civilian causalities in Lebanon makes headlines around the world. The Toronto Star carries the report as well as the usual rounds of condemnations of Israel.

The only comment the Toronto Star carries from the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert is this one:

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel would not rush into a ceasefire until it achieved its goal of decimating Hezbollah, whose July 12 capture of two Israel soldiers provoked the fighting.

And yet, this statement from the Israeli Prime Minister never made it into the Toronto Star report.

"I express deep regret, along with all of Israel and the IDF, for the civilian deaths in Qana," said Olmert. "Nothing could be further from our intentions and our interests than harming civilians - everyone understands that. When we do harm civilians, the whole world recognizes that it is an exceptional case that does not characterize us."

Or this one from the Israeli Defense Minister, Amir Peterz:

Defense Minister Amir Peretz was also profoundly repentant for the fatal strike, saying, "this is a tragic incident that is a result of war. Hizbullah operates in the heart of populated centers with the full knowledge of endangering the lives of innocent civilians." The defense minister ordered the IDF to conduct a full investigation into the incident

Or this one from IDF Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz:

IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz also expressed sorrow over the loss of innocent life. "We were operating in a place from where Katyushas are being fired and we distributed notices to residents. Nevertheless, the chief of staff said that the IDF would continue to fight in order to defend northern residents and to bring calm to the region adding, "the terrorist organizations are taking cover among populated areas. We will continue to operate, causing the minimum harm to civilians." Unfortunately, people who assembled in the area, whom we were unaware of, were harmed," said Halutz. Nevertheless, the chief of staff said that the IDF would continue to fight in order to defend northern residents and to bring calm to the region adding, "the terrorist organizations are taking cover among populated areas. We will continue to operate, causing the minimum harm to civilians."

Meanwhile Israeli civilians are deliberately targeted by Hezbollah. In the last 24 hour period more than 100 rockets have been lobbied by Hezbollah to kill Israeli civilians. Yet the silence from the Lebanese Prime Minister or Hezbollah leader over the wounds, maiming and deaths of Israeli non-combatants is simply deafening.

But found in the Toronto Star report is this gem from the Israeli Foreign Ministry official:

“One must understand the Hezbollah is using their own civilian population as human shields,” said Israeli Foreign Ministry official Gideon Meir. “The Israeli defence forces dropped leaflets and warned the civilian population to leave the place because the Hezbollah turned it into a war zone.”

Even the Jerusalem Post article maintains that Qana was papered warning Lebanese civilians to get out of Dodge. So why didn’t they? Maybe it’s the gypsy in me coming out, but if I had an enemy force drop leaflets saying they will be commencing a bombing campaign where I am living; I would be hightailing it to the mountains – post haste. So why didn’t these people fee? That’s the question an enterprising journalist should be seeking an answer to.

Update: Two hours after this report from the Toronto Star was filed online the Toronto Star posted the Israeli Prime Minister's statement of regrets.

Misery loves Company

Keith at Minority of One left a comment with a link to Infidel Bloggers Alliance that is linking to the documentary Obsession: What the War on Terror is Really About.

It bummed him out so he felt the need to share the misery. After watching this film, I am not sure that we can win the war against radical Islamist fascism for we have so totally disarmed ourselves intellectually concerning the nature of the threat we face.

Keith seemed to be able to bounce back from his earlier malaise after viewing this film. I can only hope to do the same. To that I end, I will go recite the Perek Shirah now, in the hopes that I can recover my former equilibrium.

Swedish Lutheran does Jihad at Seattle Jewish Federation

I heard the report last night on the news. I had to search for it at the Toronto Star online. I eventually found it. All 177 words and 18 lines. Here’s the lead paragraph:

SEATTLE—A man claiming to be an "American Muslim" who was "angry with Israel" was arrested after six people were shot yesterday at the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle, authorities said.

Here’s the report linked to at the Drudge report.

The man arrested is named Naveed Afzal Haq, 30 of Everette, Washington. Too bad the Toronto Star couldn’t avail themselves of the Associated Press report so they could have fleshed out the piece to at least an even 180 words and 20 lines.

Damn those Swedish Lutherans for bringing Jihad to America.

UN to move UNTSO from border

The Jerusalem Post reports the UN has decided to act – kind of:

The United Nations has decided to remove 50 unarmed observers from their posts along the Israeli-Lebanese border, moving them in with the peacekeeping force in the area, a spokesman said Friday. The decision came after one of the posts of the observer force, known as UNTSO, was destroyed by an Israeli air strike earlier this week, killing four.

"These are unarmed people and this is for their protection," said Milos Struger, a spokesman for UNIFIL, the peacekeeping force whose 2,000 members have light weapons for self-defense. UNTSO has about 50 observers in four posts along the border, two of which have already been abandoned - the one that was destroyed at Khiam and a second near the village of Maroun al-Ras, which was abandoned after one of the observers was seriously wounded by Hizbullah gunfire on July 23, said Milos Struger, spokesman for the UNIFIL peacekeepers. Staff were being removed from the remaining two posts to be placed at UNIFIL posts along the border, Struger said. He would not say whether the move had been completed.

I suppose this is a start. Now what about the 2,000 UNIFIL "peacekeepers"?

Kofi's Clueless Blues in South Lebanon

Anshel Pfeffer, a reporter for the Jerusalem Post visits a UNIFIL outpost in South Lebanon and files this report:

The small group of Ghanaian soldiers manning UNIFIL Position 6-52, to the west of the village of Maroun a-Ras, less than a kilometer from the border, hasn't left its base in the last two weeks. "Those are the orders of our superior officers," explains one of them who presents himself as commander of the post, but refuses to give his name. "We have been visited by our officers three times since the fighting began and a supply truck arrives here every three or four days."

On the wall nearest to the gate of the white-washed building is an "Alert State" board with the arrow pointed to black. But none of their information on the current situation has come from their own sources. "We know what's going on from the television," says the commander. Even the deaths of four UNTSO members on Tuesday night in an IAF bombardment, at a base not so far away, wasn't communicated to them from headquarters. That, too, they learned from TV.

The current contingent from Ghana has been in Lebanon for three months. The soldiers at the post are charged with patrolling and monitoring, with their single jeep, the area where the heaviest fighting has been going on for the last 10 days. The fact that Hizbullah has been well entrenched in the area ever since Israel's withdrawal six years ago - with hundreds of fighters, well stocked ammunition depots and extensive fortifications - seemed to have escape the Ghanaians notice. "I have never seen one of them," says the soldier. "You cannot easily identify them in the population."
(…)
At the beginning of the fighting, a number of bombs exploded around the UNIFIL post, including one 150 meters from the gate. Two weeks later, the area around the post is quiet, except for the distant thud of artillery fire. Hizbullah has been banished from this small part of Lebanon. IDF Merkava tanks roar through a nearby opening in the border fence. There isn't even a guard at the border and Israeli and foreign journalists pass in and out unhindered. The Ghanaian soldiers weren't even aware of the breach in the fence they are supposed to monitor, by mandate of the United Nations.

I couldn’t help wishing that I could read the “action” reports these guys filed. The children are with my mother so I haven't had a good laugh in days. Read the whole article here.

Standing with Israel

Winston at the Spirit of Man has pictures from the Stand with Israel Rally held in Toronto last night as well as a short video clip. I went to the gym before I went to the rally and arrived late. I didn’t stay long as I think that I managed to pinch a nerve in my back. Never let anyone fool you – correct posture is everything in life.

Never doubt it - Stephen Harper's the MAN

And he asks the $64,000 question (taken from the Toronto Star):

HOPEWELL CAPE, N.B. — Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Israel’s deadly attack on a UN observation post in Lebanon, which claimed the life of a Canadian soldier, was a “terrible tragedy” and he doubts whether the bombing was deliberate.

Harper, speaking to reporters after a funding announcement in eastern New Brunswick, said the Canadian military would consult with the UN and the Israeli government to find out what happened.

The prime minister also said he wants to know why the post was still manned even though it was in the middle of an obvious war zone.

Me too. So why didn't the Secretary-General of the United Nations order the evacuation of all UNIFIL forces? And even more importantly, why has the Secretary-General of the UN still not given that order? What's he waiting for - orders from Hezbollah?

Canadian-Israeli spy for Hezbollah caught?

Ynet News is reporting that a Canadian- Israeli Professor has been detained by the Shin Bet (Israeli internal security agency) for spying for Hezbollah:

Cleared for publication: An Israeli citizen, a Bedouin residing abroad, was arrested two and a half weeks ago on suspicion of spying for Hizbullah. The Akko Magistrates Court extended his remand by four days, but has yet to decided whether to indict him. The suspect, Razi Salah, 48, was arrested by police officers in the Galilee after he was caught photographing vital military facilities west of the northern border. Salah, who has both an Israeli and Canadian citizenship, was taken into interrogation by the Shin Bet.

The head of the preliminary inquiry unit, Chief Inspector Yoram Azoulay, said the suspect denied his charges and said he was a Canadian tourist who just wanted to photograph the scenery. His interrogation revealed that he originated from Nazereth, where his family resides.

Security forces are now investigating whether he sent the information and the photos he acquired to Hizbullah. Last year, two Western Galilee residents were charged on suspicion of crossing the border to Lebanon, being arrested by Hizbullah and giving the organization information on facilities and communities in the north. One of them was sentenced for a two-year prison term, while the second man's trial is still going on. About a month and a half ago, a special military court sentenced Lieutenant Colonel Omar al-Hayeb, convicted of severe espionage and contact with a Hizbullah agent, to 15 years in prison.

Canadian passports & citizenship – now beloved by all international esponiage agencies equally.

Update: Ha’aretz has a more detailed report.

knowing the face of evil

According to this Breitbart report a senior Hezbollah operative admits that Israel did not expect the ferocity of the Israeli response to invading Israel killing 8 soldiers and kidnapping two others.

A senior Hezbollah official said Tuesday the guerrilla group did not expect Israel to react so strongly to its capture of two Israeli soldiers. Mahmoud Komati, deputy chief of Hezbollah's political arm, also told The Associated Press in an interview that his group will not lay down arms.

"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 to the July 12 cross-border raid, in which three Israelis were killed.
(…)
He said the Shiite group had anticipated there would be negotiations on exchanging the Israeli soldiers for three Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails, with Germany acting as a mediator as it did before.

The three Lebanese prisoners in question are Samir Kuntar, Nasim Nesser and Yehya Sekaf. Israel has denied holding Sekaf but Hezbollah maintains that Sekaf is being held in a “secret” Israeli prison that is so secret not even Israeli officials know it exists.

Samir Kuntar has been tried by court of law in Israel and sentenced to 542 and ½ years in jail. His crime was a particular gruesome slaughter which is a tale best read and understood by the words of a victim of Kuntar’s particular brand of evil. Smadar Haran Kaiser survived the massacre but at a truly horrendous price: (article takes from the Washington Post)

The World Should Know What He Did to My Family
By Smadar Haran Kaiser
Sunday, May 18, 2003; Page B02
NAHARIYA, Israel

Abu Abbas, the former head of a Palestinian terrorist group who was captured in Iraq on April 15, is infamous for masterminding the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. But there are probably few who remember why Abbas's terrorists held the ship and its 400-plus passengers hostage for two days. It was to gain the release of a Lebanese terrorist named Samir Kuntar, who is locked up in an Israeli prison for life.

Kuntar's name is all but unknown to the world. But I know it well. Because almost a quarter of a century ago, Kuntar murdered my family. It was a murder of unimaginable cruelty, crueler even than the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, the American tourist who was shot on the Achille Lauro and dumped overboard in his wheelchair. Kuntar's mission against my family, which never made world headlines, was also masterminded by Abu Abbas. And my wish now is that this terrorist leader should be prosecuted in the United States, so that the world may know of all his terrorist acts, not the least of which is what he did to my family on April 22, 1979.

It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband, Danny, and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Nahariya, a city on the northern coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists, sent by Abu Abbas from Lebanon, landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away.

Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst into our building. They had already killed a police officer. As they charged up to the floor above ours, I opened the door to our apartment. In the moment before the hall light went off, they turned and saw me. As they moved on, our neighbor from the upper floor came running down the stairs. I grabbed her and pushed her inside our apartment and slammed the door.

Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat. They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. "This is just like what happened to my mother," I thought.

As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl's skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.
By the time we were rescued from the crawl space, hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives, I had smothered her.

The next day, Abu Abbas announced from Beirut that the terrorist attack in Nahariya had been carried out "to protest the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty" at Camp David the previous year. Abbas seems to have a gift for charming journalists, but imagine the character of a man who protests an act of peace by committing an act of slaughter.

Two of Abbas's terrorists had been killed by police on the beach. The other two were captured, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Despite my protests, one was released in a prisoner exchange for Israeli POWs several months before the Achille Lauro hijacking. Abu Abbas was determined to find a way to free Kuntar as well. So he engineered the hijacking of the Achille Lauro off the coast of Egypt and demanded the release of 50 Arab terrorists from Israeli jails. The only one of those prisoners actually named was Samir Kuntar. The plight of hundreds held hostage on a cruise ship for two days at sea lent itself to massive international media coverage.

The attack on Nahariya, by contrast, had taken less than an hour in the middle of the night. So what happened then was hardly noticed outside of Israel. One hears the terrorists and their excusers say that they are driven to kill out of desperation. But there is always a choice. Even when you have suffered, you can choose whether to kill and ruin another's life, or whether to go on and rebuild. Even after my family was murdered, I never dreamed of taking revenge on any Arab. But I am determined that Samir Kuntar should never be released from prison.

In 1984, I had to fight my own government not to release him as part of an exchange for several Israeli soldiers who were POWs in Lebanon. I understood, of course, that the families of those POWs would gladly have agreed to the release of an Arab terrorist to get their sons back. But I told Yitzhak Rabin, then defense minister, that the blood of my family was as red as that of the POWs. Israel had always taken a position of refusing to negotiate with terrorists. If they were going to make an exception, let it be for a terrorist who was not as cruel as Kuntar. "Your job is not to be emotional," I told Rabin, "but to act rationally." And he did.

So Kuntar remains in prison. I have been shocked to learn that he has married an Israeli Arab woman who is an activist on behalf of terrorist prisoners. As the wife of a prisoner, she gets a monthly stipend from the government. I'm not too happy about that.

The man who would protest an act of peace by executing a man, at point blank range, in front of his 4 year old daughter, and then, bash that little girl's skull-in against a rock belongs to outer most edges of the human gene pool. He got off easy with only 542 and 1/2 years, but outrageously enough - this is the monster that Hezbollah want to repatriate back to Lebanon and let loose in Lebanese society? The Lebanese owe the Israelis for keeping him off their streets and away from their children.

No doubt, Kuntar has those who would speak for him, and I would even suggest that those who are capable of committing such truly horrendous acts of violence and wanton cruelty, may indeed, have been capable of loving their cat, they parents, or caring for their brothers, but no act of good can negate the evil perpetrated by their own hand. What is done is done and cannot be undone.

Doctor under fire

Ynet News carries this report of a woman under fire on the field of battle:

One of the doctors who evacuated wounded IDF soldiers from Bint Jbeil on Monday is also the first female soldier to serve in Lebanon: Lt. Dr. Marina of the 52nd armored battalion. "I entered Lebanon in a 'tankbulance' (a converted tank functioning as an ambulance) after we received word that there were injured soldiers," said Dr. Marina Monday. "We had no idea how many casualties there would be. I took care of injured infantry soldiers from the Golani division. The whole time, mortars, katyushas and Sager missiles were falling all around us. It was scary."

A short while after the tank with the injured soldiers rolled back to Israeli territory, it was discovered that another tank had been hit – that of the 52nd armored battlion's commander. After briefing MDA rescue workers in Israel on the injuries and conditions of the wounded soldiers, Dr. Marina returned to Lebanon. "There were five injured soldiers in the battalion commander's tank, under massive fire, a real war," she told. "We had to do everything quickly because explosive fire was going off all around us."

Dr. Marina (32) immigrated to Israel six years and eight months ago and serves as the doctor for the 52nd armored battalion. "In Russia, I was a doctor in the Red Army," she tells. "When I arrived in Israel, I participated in a combat officers' course. Monday's fighting wasn't easy, especially when I had to take care of soldiers that I knew, as well as the commander, Lt. Col Guy.

Lt. Dr. Marina has proven herself more than capable under fire but still she prefers not to tell her mother that she has been sent to Lebanon. Speaking as a mother of many - I'd say Dr. Marina made a wise choice.