h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4789083.stm

What a surprise. The Lebanese government are dithering about how to disarm Hezbollah. And the ceasefire is yet to start. What ceasefire I wonder?

This is something I keep banging on about. How exactly are Hezbollah to be genuinely disarmed? And who's going to do it?

Whereas the Israeli army will be disarmed by ?

HA will give up their arms themselves, at least that it what they have said consistently for many many years, when their is no Israeli on Lebanese soil anymore (including Shebaa). I do hope this ceasefire holds...

their and inserts 'there' instead.

W

*offers Wilma some good, sturdy hotel-room *

Thanks, Nick


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Overall the language from both sides suggests nervous times ahead, with both sides on tenterhooks, ready to pounce on anything they see as a ceasefire violation, says the BBC's Rob Norris in Jerusalem.

Mark Malloch Brown, the UN's Deputy Secretary General, told the BBC it might take a month before a joint UN-Lebanese force was fully in place.

But EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana suggested that the first international troops could be in place within the next week.

He told Reuters that European nations, notably France and Italy, were ready to send troops to the region.

Other countries, including Malaysia and Indonesia, which do not have diplomatic relations with Israel, were also willing to contribute troops to an international force, Mr Solana said.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4789569.stm?ls

I half heard on the Today programme this morning that America had sanctioned Israel to bomb Hizbollah as a precursor to bombing Iran.

Seems it is from Seymour Hersh of the New Yorker magazine. Scary stuff but would appear credible with the current American administration.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2006/s1714570.htm

Judging by the news I saw yesterday, Olmert has his own problems.

In the period since the latest hostilities began, his approval rating has dropped from 75% to about 45%, and less than 25% of the Israeli population believes the IDf are 'winning' (whatever that means in thses strange and troubled times) the 'war'.

The present crisis has been disasterous for the Israelis. Their much vaunted military machine (once considered to be the one 'super-power' of the middle east) has effectively been bogged down by a relatively small and badly equipped force.

Worse yet, it may have precipitated the first serious rethink in US foreign policy regarding Israel for the first time in many, many years. It's not yet come to anything, but I sense a growing unease in the State Department, who i suspect have no political will to see US involvement in the middle east beyond its present state). Israel hardly strengthened their position by undermining the PLO, presumably with the intent of getting a mora amenable Palistinian leadership and then acting suprised when Hammas was elected in free and democratic elections.

Thanks for the link, WA... and here we all though Nasrallah was talking out of his robes last week He said something very similar - essentially that Israel was planning a campaign regardless - HA had information about this but they thought it was planned for Sept/Oct and did not expect this rection in July...

"SEYMOUR HERSH: Well, you know, normally, you'd think that there is a learning curve, but not in this White House. My own belief is that some of the people talking to me are also very nervous about the fact that they believe this White House is incapable of learning what it doesn't want to learn.

Right now intelligence is being cooked just the way it was cooked before the war in Iraq. There's intelligence about Iran and its ties to Hezbollah, which are certainly deep, but not as deep as the White House would believe from the intelligence it's getting. A case is being dealt in the intelligence community against Iran that may not be accurate. "

Doesn't imspire confidence, does it? Who is this Hersh person? I get very nervous when I hear the western press saying something so controversial... (other than Fisk of course, coz he's gone native, of course.. )

Well he doesn't seem to be a friend to Bush and the Neocons but he does seem to be a heavy hitter:

http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2004/10/11_hersh.shtml

Well, someone seems to have "won" anyway.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-1230763,00.html

You obviously did not hear Ehud Olmert and Binyamin Netanyahu speak today, SWL

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/31DA80B0-A492-4CEB-8AF3-A252F7ADD2A2.htm

Everybody's "won" then.

I wonder if they'll mention that to the victims as they bury them

Doubt it...

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/05F5A699-21F6-4E1F-8F5E-58C43FDC8377.htm

here's my favorite line from the leader of Hizbullah:

"He said the "massive devastation and destruction" inflicted upon Lebanon reflected Israel's "failure and impotency""

Huh?

Well what does it represent then, a massive victory or wanton destruction of civilain infrastructure and, as I've argued before, if the Israeli claims to be pin point accurate with American laser guided bombs is correct, the murder of over a thousand innocent people including many children.

Look at the evidence or the facts on the ground. Runways bonbed, why? Power stations bombed, why? Oil storage bombed causing massive ecological damage, why? Apartment blocks bombed, why?

What has the IDF and the Israeli Airforce achieved apart from the abhorrence of the rest of the World except of course from America and its client states. And even they, via the Arab League, have come out in favour of Lebanon.

Hizbollah is now feted throughout Islam and has been handed the finest recruiting sergeant it could ever have wished for. Yes a great result.

Novo

I also note that Olmert has said he will do "everything possible" to get back the two Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbollah. I assume that "everything" doesn't include simply exchanging them for the prisoners illegally held by the Israelis.

Noggin

Olmert (in his Knesset speech) also said that they will pursue HA to the end with no intention of 'asking permission'.

Wandering, it represents typical modern warfare. As has been stated by numerous people (not me), the Lebanese population supports Hizbulloh. Ergo, the generally unstated fact is that Israel is at war with Lebanon as a whole, not just Hizbulloh. In war, you target everything (especially civilian infrastructure) to defeat the other side. That's well established.

Runways bombed? To put pressure on Lebanon. Power stations bombed? To put pressure on Lebanon. Oil storage bombed? To put pressure on Lebanon. Apartment blocks bombed? To put pressure on Lebanon.