Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reports in this week's issue of the New Yorker that Israeli officials visited the White House earlier this summer to get a "green light" for an attack on Lebanon. The Bush administration approved, Hersh says, in part to remove Hezbollah as a deterrent to a potential US bombing of Iran. [includes rush transcript]http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/08/14/1358255
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Israel and Lebanon saw continued violence on the last day before a UN ceasefire. South Lebanon continued to come under intense Israeli bombardment Sunday. In the most lethal attack, fifteen Lebanese were reported killed after Israel bombed the village of Rachat. Meanwhile, Hezbollah launched more than 250 rockets into Northern Israel. It was the highest number of rockets Hezbollah has fired into Israel since fighting began. At least one Israeli was killed.
The past month's violence broke out after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others. Israel rejected Hezbollah's demand for a prisoner exchange, and launched a full-on attack targeting Lebanon's vital infrastructure, including a power station, the main airport and scores of roads and bridges. An estimated 1,000 Lebanese have been killed and more than one million displaced. At least forty Israeli civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands displaced under a daily barrage of Hezbollah rockets.
The Bush administration has openly backed Israel's campaign. The administration resisted international efforts for a ceasefire and rushed arms to the Israeli military.
A major new article says U.S. support for the invasion of Lebanon has gone even further than we already know. That in fact, White House support for the massive bombing of Lebanon even predates the day those two Israeli soldiers were seized.
In this week's issue of the New Yorker, investigative journalist Seymour Hersh reports Israeli officials visited the White House earlier this summer to get a "green light" for an attack on Lebanon. The Bush administration approved, Hersh says, in part to remove Hezbollah as a deterrent to a potential US bombing of Iran. A government consultant said the Bush administration also saw the attack on Lebanon as a "demo" for what it could expect to face in Iran.
Seymour Hersh, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist for The New Yorker. His latest article is "Watching Lebanon - Washington's Interests in Israel's War", in this week's issue of the New Yorker.
Put ourselves in Israel's shoes... okay let me put on their other shoe as well. IF Singapore did not treat our Malay-muslim minority equally, provide them with equal opportunities of education, housing rights etc etc, instead side-lining them, forcing them to build "illegal" houses, and we go bulldozing them. And IF that happens, and the muslim majority countries around us are not happy, or extremist groups decided to launch attacks on us, DON'T YOU THINK WE DESERVE IT IN THE FIRST PLACE?Originally posted by pwnz0r:Sigh, you people... Talk is cheap. Put yourself in Israel's position. If Singapore was attacked by similar means or had intelligence about impending attacks, do you think we would take pre-emptive action?
If we have intelligence about missile launch sites located in civilian areas that are used to attack Singapore, will you go 'oh in civ area, nvm, we dun attack, just tahan'. Of course we immediately bomb that area civilian or not. We minimise our pains not the other way round.
It is easy for the international community to criticise but it is such a gray area. Given the same situation, every country will respond in kind.
When it comes to armed conflicts, there will always be unintentional collateral damage. Even friendly fire. On the ground, it is hard to maintain fire control and choose targets appropriately.
I don't blame Israel. Don'y cry foul when you start a war with another sovereign. They will only respond in kind.
Who Really Started the War Against Lebanon?http://www.indymedia.org/de/2006/08/844746.shtml
by Trish Schuh
A team of Israeli lawyers are suing the Lebanese government for starting the war. The projected multi-million dollar case, to be filed in US civil court, will sue for compensation and war damages incurred by Israeli residents and businesses. Attorneys Yehudah Talmon, Yoram Dantziger and Nitzah Libai claim the Lebanese government violated international law because it didn't stop Hezbollah's casus belli cross-border raid into Israel.
The contested justification for Israel's 'self-defense' invasion, and the location of its original provocation will take on new legal significance in coming months. Who infiltrated who, and on what territory did the initial capture of the IDF soldiers occur? Differing press accounts that the capture occurred in Lebanon- not Israel- are now widely known: AFP, Hindustan Times, Deutsch Press Agency, Asia Times, Bahrain News Agency and Voltairenet are a few. Others reflect changes of direction in the recording of basic facts.
Newsweek's Michael Hirsh of MSNBC.com on July 12 said: "As a result, things are blowing up so quickly it's difficult to know where to focus any longer. After the kidnapping of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah in Lebanon on Wednesday, which the hard-line group linked to a similar kidnapping by Hamas the week before, the mideast seemed to be closer to all-out war."
By July 13, the story out of MSNBC.com's Jerusalem bureau was different. In a piece titled "Crisis allows Israel to pursue strategic goals- Kidnappings give Israel excuse to neutralize Hamas, Hezbollah", Jerusalem bureau chief Steven Gutkin wrote: "Kidnappings changed everything: All that changed Wednesday, when Hezbollah guerillas crossed into Israel, seizing Goldwasser and Regev and killing eight other soldiers in the ensuing fighting."
AP also ran changed versions. On July 12, at 5:41AM Joseph Panossian wrote: "The militant group Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes Wednesday across the border in southern Lebanon, prompting a swift reaction from Israel, which sent ground forces into its neighbor to look for them."
At 7:09 AM, Associated Press Writer Joseph Panossian had altered his report: "The Hezbollah militant group captured two Israeli soldiers during clashes along the Lebanese border on Wednesday."
By late afternoon, at 4:13 PM, AP's Panossian had completely shifted location: "Hezbollah militants crossed into Israel on Wednesday and captured two Israeli soldiers. Israel responded in southern Lebanon with warplanes, tanks and gunboats, and said eight of its soldiers had been killed in the violence."
Israeli sources went almost unnoticed. Cybercast News Service (CNSNews.com) of July 12 said: "The abduction of two Israeli soldiers by Hizbullah militants in southern Lebanon was not a terrorist attack but an act of war, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Wednesday."
Australia's ABC News (Reuters) on July 13 quoted the IDF: "The sources say the Israeli soldiers had been seized at around 9am local time across the border from Aita al Shaab, some 15 kilometers from the Mediterranean coast. The Israeli army confirmed that two Israeli soldiers had been captured on the Lebanese frontier. Israeli ground forces crossed into Lebanon to hunt for the missing soldiers, Israeli Army Radio said."
Voice of America, Jerusalem, on July 12 said: "Speaking to reporters outside the Israeli Foreign Ministry, spokesman Mark Regev says Hezbollah is responsible for the violence. "It appears we have an escalation in the North," he said. "It is very clear that the escalation started on the Lebanese side of the border, and Israel will respond appropriately."
In his article "Casus Belli", IDF Brigadier General Moshe Yaalon wrote: "The present crisis was initiated- in Gaza by Hamas and in southern Lebanon by Hezbollah- from lands that are not under Israeli occupation." New Republic, July 31
A quote by Hamas political bureau member Mohammad Nazzal in the July 13 edition of Haaretz said: "This is a heroic operation carried out against military targets and so it is a legitimate operation, especially as it took place in occupied Lebanese territory."
A Lebanese government official told this writer that the first information about the soldiers' capture in southern Lebanon came from the Lebanese Army Police, a source also quoted in many media accounts. "At the beginning the Lebanese Army said it was on the Lebanese side," the official told me. The verbatim Army communique' to the Lebanese government follows: " 'At 9:03 or 9:05am in the vicinity or in front of Ayt Al Shaab village the members of the resistance have abducted two soldiers. At 9:15am the resistance shelled the position of the enemy in the occupied territories. At 10:10am the Resistance and Israeli forces clashed with each other in the area of Naqoura,' on Lebanon's side of the border."
Lebanon's Ambassador to the US, Farid Abboud discussed the events publicly on July 12, 2006. Because of his stance to CNN Abboud was reprimanded, and recalled to Lebanon.
MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN International: You say that you don't want any
escalations, but...
FARID ABBOUD: No, we don't.
MICHAEL HOLMES: ... but crossing over the border into Israel, killing and
seizing soldiers, what did you think would happen?
FARID ABBOUD: I'm not sure where the location of the attack took place. I
understand that there was another battle, also, where during which the
Israelis crossed Lebanese soil and that the casualties that fell then were
inside Lebanon territory... We do not want any escalation, and I don't think we have ever attacked Israel. I mean, Israel has always occupied our territory, and we have always defended ourselves. Our position has always been very reactive, defensive.
This writer then spoke to the chief of the Lebanese Defense Cabinet General Edmond Fadel in Beirut for clarification. He said he was not authorized to speak on Hezbollah's position.
Hezbollah's position had been earlier cited in the Jerusalem Post of July 12 : "Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah said the timing of the capture of two Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon on Wednesday would boost the position of Palestinians in Gaza."
It was a view Hezbollah spokesman Ibrahim Mousawi had reiterated to me on July 16 by phone. He insisted that the crisis occurred on the Lebanese side of the border "in front of the village of Ayt Al Shaab" adjacent to a military post.
On August 2, I discussed the kidnapping issue again with Hezbollah's Mousawi in Beirut.
Q: We spoke earlier on July 16, 2006 about this issue and I would like to make it official. The Lebanese Army has claimed that the Israeli soldiers captured on July 12, 2006 were captured in Lebanon, not Israel as we hear in the US. Were they caught inside Israel or Lebanon?
A: How can you possibly say Israel? This is an occupied land, occupied Palestine.
Q: Alright. Was it in occupied Palestine or Lebanon?
A: It was in Lebanon, on the border.
Q: On the border- What town? Where was it near?
A: There is no town. It was a military post.
Q: Did Hezbollah cross over into Israel?
A: This has never been claimed by Hezbollah- only on the border. And don't say Israel- its occupied Palestine.
Q: The IDF soldiers in the tank who hit the mine and were killed?
A: It was all in the Lebanese lands when they wanted to penetrate- to go after the resistance.... No one believes anymore that this is about the two soldiers, not with the destruction of the infrastructure. Besides, Hezbollah got information that this Israeli aggression was scheduled to take place this September or October...
According to Attorney Yehudah Talmon, Israelis will also sue to collect money from Lebanese assets and property in the United States. "No group associated in any way, shape or form to Hizbullah is immune to these claims." Never mind if the claims are based on shifting boundaries.