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

There will be problems all around. The landmines are obviously still there but on top of that, the UN Mine Clearance teams are in place and warning that 10 percent of Israeli ordnance will be unexploded (thats 4 to 6000 bombs a day for 30 odd days ) We have already had cases of people being killed by exploding munitions on the ground today. The Lebanese Army is walking ahead of the cars, trying to set off the bombs lying around before the cars get there...

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/C4632242-5158-49EF-B156-90F217C5E651.htm
SPECIAL REPORT:
IN PURSUIT OF ARAB REFORM

The pitfalls of machismo

By Dan Rabinowitz

The second Lebanon War began with an impulsive spasm by the Israel Defense Forces - an overreaction that killed civilians and severely damaged civilian infrastructure. This move exacted, and will continue to exact, a heavy strategic price: It severely impaired the chances of freeing the Middle East of the threat of an Iranian revolution.

Since 1973, Israel has not succeeded in providing military solutions to geopolitical questions. The 1978 Litani Operation and 1982 invasion of Lebanon did not lead to security for the north. The Palestinians in the territories, despite the thousands of dead, the destruction and subjugation that two intifadas have brought upon them, have refused to reconcile themselves to the occupation, and are instead strengthening Hamas. The IDF is incapable of beating them.

However, this reality has not yet sunk into the consciousness of our generals, men of the old school who were educated in the spirit of the slogan that what cannot be done with force can be done with more force. The arrogant idee fixe of 1973, which held that the Arabs' defeat in 1967 had destroyed their desire to fight, did not disappear with the Agranat Report. It is still here, wrapped in modern phrases such as "searing their consciousness" and "restoring deterrence." Its prophets stubbornly ignore the fact that if anything has been seared into the Arabs' consciousness in any of these cases, it is only hatred for Israel and its addiction to force.




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The parade of generals who recently trotted out their battered theories of consciousness-searing and deterrence looks like a pathetic, nostalgic outburst by elderly men longing for their youth, when they, and Israel, were young and just. In practice, only Egypt and Jordan, which received something in return for peace agreements, are not currently threatening Israel.

The zenith of Israel's intoxication with force - the late 1960s - corresponds with the period when IDF Chief of Staff Dan Halutz's generation was growing up. This is a generation that lives in constant fear that its achievements will not match those of the previous generation of generals. Instead of internalizing the limits of force, they have a tendency to give in to the macho impulse to compete with their parents' generation, thereby warping their judgment.

Granted, the fact that soldiers were killed and abducted pained the IDF. But perhaps a limited military response along the border would have been better? Hezbollah would apparently have responded by launching rockets, and then it would have been possible to attack the organization - but only it - in other areas of Lebanon. At the same time, a sensitive eye should have been kept on the decisive question over dealing with any popular movement: the level of public support it enjoys in its own country, its region and worldwide.

A sophisticated mixture of a lot of diplomacy with a little fighting could have led to Hezbollah's isolation. Instead, the IDF brass, followed by the government, chose to assume the role of the neighborhood madman and embark on a campaign of thuggish craziness whose damages are increasingly becoming clear.

As always in the Arab world, the party at which Israel directed the most force was the one that ultimately emerged the most strengthened. The enormous quantity of bombs that Israel dropped on Hezbollah turned its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, and his deceptive ideology into icons of Arab unity and righteous resistance, and gave Iran important achievements in its struggle to undermine the legitimacy of moderate Arab regimes.

The IDF's overreaction in the first few days of the war will eventually be investigated, but whoever does this must not hesitate to analyze personal factors as well. Of all of Israel's generals, Dan Halutz appears the most skilled in one of the basis talents that Israeli men nurture from childhood: camouflaging the emotional and psychological elements of their actions. This humorless man, utterly lacking in nuance, who feels nothing when a bomb is released from the belly of his plane - and who even found time on the first day of the war to sell his stocks - recently said of himself that he is unaware of Israel's Lebanon trauma. The statements he made at the beginning of the war to cover his rear - that "the war's aims are defined by the political echelon" - succeeded in silencing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz for two critical weeks. The result was sweeping approval for a strategy of one-ton bombs that ignored the broader geopolitical picture that the general refused to see.

The campaign that Israel is waging against Hezbollah, as a forward outpost of Iran, is too important to leave to the generals. It has a chance only if Israel can succeed in building coalitions, both in the Middle East and beyond. And this will require a deep human understanding, free of ego and the intoxication of force.


http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/750977.html

It looks as though it is getting better, I hope it looks that way from inside Lebanon as well.

I am very hopeful.

W

Just read this about the oil slick affecting Byblos, the oil is 2cm thick. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5259102.stm

Yep, a disaster for tourism - at least for the next couple of years. The slick has gone north from Jiyyeh south of Beirut all the way up into Syria already. What I want to know is: how'd it know not to go south to Israel?

Even oil slicks have good sense.

Titanic struggle to clean Beirut's beaches of oil

By Agence France Presse (AFP)

Thursday, August 17, 2006
by Seth Meixner

BEIRUT, Aug 17, 2006 (AFP) - Armed only with shovels and plastic buckets, a few dozen volunteers struggled Thursday to scrape oil-stained sand off a Beirut beach as environmental groups began the monumental task of cleaning up tons of oil spilt across Lebanon's coast.

"We're trying to move as much sand as possible today and tomorrow so we'll know how many days it will take" to clean Ramlet el-Bayda beach, said Nina Jamal of the Lebanese environmental group Green Line.

Nearly 15,000 tons of leaked oil from the Jiyyeh electric plant, bombed by Israel last month, has polluted some 140 kilometers (90 miles) of the Lebanese coast and spread north into Syrian waters, according to the UN Environment Programme.

"This is the biggest environmental disaster in the Mediterranean basin, we can say that very easily," said Green Line's Wael Hmaidan before rushing off to a meeting with government officials.

Young men and women working on the beach gathered oil-soaked debris into small piles while others tried to dig up sand that had been transformed into a thick, noxious gum by the spill. Others deployed oil booms in a bid to keep the pollution from washing back into the sea.

The one-kilometer (half mile) beach has been fouled by a vast black smear that has stained the sand dozens of meters inland and blackened stone breakwaters on either end of Ramlet el-Bayda.

More shocking, volunteers said, was Thursday's discovery that the pollution has reached nearly a half-meter into the beach. A hole dug near the waterline revealed at least five bands of thick fuel oil sandwiched between the sand like a toxic layer cake.

"It makes it much harder to clean -- every time a wave comes in it pushes the pollution deeper into the sand," Jamal said.

"We've seen dead fish, dead crabs. The oil is more than one meter deep in some places and we've seen rocks so covered that they look like they've been painted black," she said.

"It will be no less than six years before it gets back to normal." Cooperation with the government and private sector is key to the cleanup, Jamal said, adding that at least one private company has agreed to store the polluted sand until it can be properly disposed of.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb

But bureaucracy is still hamstringing Green Line, which already has lost a month of work due to the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah fighters, she said.

A bulldozer brought in earlier in the morning to help shift tons of sand was stopped by the authorities from working, forcing the volunteers to go back to their shovels, she said, adding that the spill has endangered breeding sea turtles.

"You can't have bureaucratic complications when you have an environmental disaster. This is the worst time ecologically," she said.

On a wider scale, a continuing Israeli blockade is preventing heavy equipment from reaching other worse-hit stretches of coast, said Greenpeace's communications officer Basma Badran.

"There are local groups making symbolic, temporary cleanup operations, but this requires larger-scale equipment and expertise which is not coming because of the blockade," she said.

"This is definitely one of the most catastrophic environmental problems that the Lebanon coast has seen -- there's been no proper assessment yet and its extent is unknown," she said.

Officials from the United Nations, European Union and a maritime organization are set to meet in Greece Thursday to map out a strategy for containing the massive oil spill.

More oil has already spilled from the Jiyyeh plant than leaked from the Erika oil tanker into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of France in 1999.

Officials warn that if all the oil from the damaged facility, 50 kilometers south of Beirut, were to seep into the sea, the environmental fallout could rival the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill that devastated Alaska's Prince William Sound.-AFP
http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=1&article_id=74803

Lebanese Sheep Threaten Ceasefire after Israeli Cow 'Invasion' During War!
Shepherds straying into disputed areas in southern Lebanon threaten to upset a truce between Israel and Hizbullah fighters, United Nations peacekeepers warned Friday.
Two Lebanese shepherds and 100 sheep on Thursday crossed the Blue Line into Israel -- the border drawn by the U.N. between the Jewish state and Lebanon after the Israeli army withdrew from the south of the country in May 2000, the U.N. said in a statement.

"Such incidents can endanger (a) very fragile and tense situation," it said.

The ceasefire began Monday following Israel's devastating month-long offensive against Hizbullah in the south.

Last week the Israeli Yediot Aharonot daily reported that dozens of hungry cows whose pasture land in northern Israel were reduced to ashes by Hizbullah rockets found a hole in the border fence and moved to Lebanon for healthier grazing.

The cows used a breach made in the border by Israeli units that battled Hizbullah for a month.

After Monday's ceasefire, there were no reports that cows were still crossing Israeli territory into southern Lebanon.(AFP-Naharnet)


http://www.naharnet.com/domino/tn/NewsDesk.nsf/getstory?openform&DC364AA0F92DC7A5C22571CE005596C9

blollox

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/19/mideast.main/index.html

Oooh! The mouse has teeth...

http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/A57E29C6-0130-435D-BE11-1DD8EBC02825.htm

Hezbollah warned against truce violation


Sunday 20 August 2006, 13:42 Makka Time, 10:42 GMT


Hezbollah fighters have been asked to hold their fire



Related:
UN: Israeli raid violates ceasefire
Hezbollah 'foils Israeli raid'
Israeli jets fly over Lebanon
Hezbollah downs Israeli helicopter
Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon



The Lebanese government, in an unprecedented move, has warned the Hezbollah against violating the UN-brokered truce.



In an implicit warning to the militia, Elias Murr, Lebanon's defence minister, said on Sunday that anyone who violated a cease-fire deal by firing rockets into Israel from Lebanon would be arrested and tried by a military court.



"Any violation... any rocket that would give Israel a justification (to hit Lebanon) will be treated harshly," Murr told a press conference.



"It will be considered as direct collaboration with the enemy," Murr said, adding that those responsible "will be tried and referred to a military tribunal".

Wilma are you convinced that no more new weapons are getting through to Hezbollah from Syria and/or Iran?

Fanny, I honestly don't know.

What I do know is that HA has said it will disarm once Israel has fulfilled its side of the bargain - and they are not known for rescinding their word...

Elias Murr, our internal security minister today said that If Israel breaks the truce, he will pull back the army (and release HA from its obligations under the resolution, presumably ) He also said that if HA members break the truce, they will be court martialled big words, believe me! We know the Murrs well. They are the representatives of my husband's region. The father, Michel Murr, is pro-Syrian . The son (this one) is not... If he is cocky enough to make this statement, he must be very very very certain of HA and its potential actions.

Honestly Wilma, if I thought Hezbollah TRULY had the nation of Lebanon in their best interests, I'd be much more supportive of them, even if they are a terrorist group. Like I always sympathised with Nelson Mandella because he genuinely was fighting for something really good for the people of his nation. I don't think that about Hezbollah. Though I'm sure some of its members only care about Lebanon. But it's still maintained and fortified, and therefore havily influenced by other countries with a very dsifferent agenda.

If only it could be harnessed for the good of Lebanon?......If it eventually becomes a mopre pluralistic organisation and assists the Lebanese army to be tougher and stronger in tje defence of Lebanon that would be brilliamt. Buit can this actually happen? And I think Israel could live in relative peace with Lebanon then.

This whole mess won't even started to be properly sorted until after the next US election.

It may well take many years.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/753123.html
Last update - 17:47 21/08/2006


Report: Israel returns five men taken in commando raid on Baalbek

By The Associated Press

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Israel on Monday handed over to UN peacekeepers five Lebanese men who were captured during an Israel Defense Forces commando raid late on August 1 on the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek, according to a peacekeeping official.

At least 16 Lebanese were killed in the commando operation against what authorities in the Bekaa Valley city said was an Iranian-built hospital.

Israel said the building was a Hezbollah base and claimed it captured five Hezbollah fighters and killed 10 guerrillas.

The UN peacekeeping official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information, said the prisoners were returned to the UNIFIL headquarters in Naqoura, just north of the Israeli border.

Israel holds Nasrallah, the grocer


Tuesday 22 August 2006, 17:09 Makka Time, 14:09 GMT


Israel wanted information on Hezbollah leader Nasrallah


Hassan Nasrallah was briefly in Israel's hands, along with three members of his family and a neighbour.


Unfortunately for the embarrassed Israelis, he was the local green grocer - not the head of Lebanon's Hezbollah group.

Leah Tzemel, the Israeli lawyer who obtained their release on Monday, said Israel had snatched the four Nasrallahs and their neighbour on August 1 in a commando raid in the Hezbollah stronghold of Baalbek in northeastern Lebanon.

The army apparently believed he was related to Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah and could be used to pressure the leader.

Tzemel said: "He [the grocer] was brought here and interrogated and very quickly they understood that they were taken for no reason.

"Then they [the Israeli authorities] just put them in jail and held them."

The Israeli military had no immediate comment.

'Bargaining chip'

The Nasrallahs told Tzemel that 24 hours of questioning exclusively focused on any relation they might have to the Hezbollah leader.


The Nasrallahs were detained
during a raid on Baalbek

But Tzemel said it became clear to the Israeli security services that the five have no political or religious ties and are not related to the leader, who hails from southern Lebanon.

In an appeal early on Monday to Israel's supreme court, Tzemel said she argued that the Nasrallahs were being held "hostage to be used as a bargaining chip for negotiations".

By Monday afternoon, the Nasrallahs and their neighbour were driven to the Israel-Lebanon border and returned home, she said.

In all, 15 people were killed in fighting in the Baalbek area on the night of the raid.


AP
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/06921F67-5447-484D-8A94-F4C802A46B80.htm

Profile, August 21, 2006
Lebanonwire



German train bomb suspect 'lost brother in Lebanon offensive'
by Deborah Cole

BERLIN - Lebanese student suspected of planting bombs on two German trains lost a brother in the recent Israeli offensive and was angry about Western reticence in the face of the bloodshed, media reports said.

The 21-year-old suspect, identified only as Youssef Mohammed E.H., lived in Kiel, northern Germany, until his capture early Saturday at the port city's main rail station, three weeks after the failed plot.

Prosecutors confirmed his identity by matching his fingerprints and DNA with traces found on one of two trolley suitcases in which homemade bombs were planted on trains traveling through the western city of Cologne on July 31.

The devices were set to detonate 10 minutes before the trains' arrival at their destinations. but a technical fault prevented a bloodbath.

An unidentified accomplice is still at large.

Authorities were able to track Youssef through a grainy security video from the Cologne railway station, in which he is seen wearing a Germany football jersey bearing team captain Michael Ballack's number 13 and pulling a bulky suitcase.

Federal prosecutors said they had received the key tip about his whereabouts Friday from (my emphasis) *** Lebanese military intelligence***, which reportedly picked up a phone conversation in which the panicked suspect asked his family for advice.

Investigators had said Friday they saw a possible link between the plot and the fighting in the Middle East but made no mention of a motive after Youssef was arrested.

"He had relatives in Lebanon. His brother was killed there in an Israeli air raid a month ago. Youssef couldn't bear it. Maybe he wanted to take his revenge" on the West, an unnamed acquaintance told Monday's Bild newspaper.

Prosecutors declined to comment on the account.

Neighbors described Youssef as a likeable man and a deeply religious Sunni Muslim who prayed five times a day in a basement room of the dormitory where he lived.

Others remember seeing the man with a cropped beard and chin-length dark hair distributing flyers about the Prophet Mohammed and attending a mosque in the Kiel district of Gaarden. He often played host to Arab and African fellow students, they said.

A student in Kiel, Sebastian Walter, told N24 rolling news channel that the man was "very polite and friendly". Another mentioned that he "very often spoke about religion".

The case awoke bitter memories of the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which three of the suicide hijackers including ringleader Mohammed Atta lived as students in the northern German port city of Hamburg for years without coming to the attention of the authorities.

Media reports said that Youssef had lived in a (my emphasis)***
Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon*** before moving to Germany in September 2004.

Federal prosecutors said he at first stayed in a home for asylum seekers in the western state of North Rhine-Westphalia -- where the bombs were later planted -- and then moved to Kiel in February 2005 and became a legal resident.

Authorities suspect he was trying to flee when he was seized outside Sultan's Grill and Restaurant at the Kiel train station where he was reportedly a frequent guest.

Prosecutors said over the weekend that the suspect studied "mechatronics," a combination of mechanical, electronic and software engineering at the university of applied sciences in Kiel.

But state officials told AFP he was still in a preparatory program for foreign students and had not yet formally matriculated.

Juergen Mueller, until recently head of the preparatory course, told the Berliner Zeitung that the suspect spoke poor German and "scraped by" in his studies.

Mueller, who also taught Youssef in physics, expressed relief that the student was not more attentive in class.

"If he had been paying more attention, the bombs would have gone off," he said.

Still here, still reading, thanks for keeping us up-to-date.

Amnesty International has now officially accused Isreal of war crimes. I reackon that will be like water off a ducks back. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5276626.stm