Another Fine Mess…
I was listening to the BBC World Service at about 5:10AM in London and Israel’s UN ambassador, Dan Gillerman was being interviewed about Qana. One of his many complaints was that Israel had apologized for killing dozens of civilians in Qana, but Hezbollah has never apologized for killing Israelis.
I guess Mr. Gillerman missed the CNN article: Hezbollah leader apologizes for attack’s child victims. It was about Hassan Nasrallah apologizing on Al-Jazeera for the death of two Israeli Arab children in Nazareth.
Perhaps Mr. Gillerman doesn’t accept the Arabs living in his country as “real” Israelis.
Bob Scher at LiberalOasis caught Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on a Sunday talk show repeating his formula for a permanent solution to the Israeli-Lebanese conflict: an immediate ceasefire followed by Israel withdrawing from Shebaa Farms and giving up Lebanese prisoners in exchange for the captured Israelis and the disarmament of Hezbollah.
I would throw in a US abstention on the next UN Security Council resolution on Israel and one year of Israel’s US foreign aid budget diverted to Lebanon to rebuild the country.
If she had any pride Condi would resign over this: Israel: No cease-fire in coming days. This article is just filled with a total repudiation of everything she thought she had accomplished in Israel.
President Bush said Monday there could be no cease-fire until Hezbollah was reined in and international borders respected, reiterating the U.S. stance on the conflict.
[snip]
Despite an agreement to stop airstrikes for 48 hours, Israel dropped bombs in southern Lebanon on Monday.
[snip]
Also Monday, Israeli troops entered the southern Lebanese village of Aita Al-Shaab, according to the IDF.
“There is an operation going on over there — this is the first time troops have been in this area,” an Israeli army spokesman told Reuters.
For Israeli army spokesmen, and others who haven’t been paying attention: Aita Al-Shaab is the location of the July 12th incident that started this latest round of insanity. It’s marked with a burned out Israeli tank.
Because things aren’t depressing enough, Juan Cole reports on Ayatollah Ali Sistani issuing threats over the Israeli-Lebanese conflict. If he says go, British and American troops in Iraq are in real trouble.
Professor Cole has a nice explainer on Hizbullah [his spelling].
Today NPR reported that Hosni Mubarak of Egypt has given a speech in favor of Hezbollah, the Kings Abdullah [Jordan and Saudi Arabia} have caved to popular pressure, and now Sistani who has fundamental differences has been forced to get on the bandwagon. This is a true disaster. Hezbollah are not nice people, but they are being elevated to the position of Islamic heroes. This is a disaster and “staying the course” is not going to improve the situation.
