Liveblogging the War: Tuesday July 25th
The IAF struck 36 Hizbullah targets overnight, including rocket launchers and Hizbullah structures. And Hizbullah resumed firing Katushas this morning, with no injuries and one Israeli man suffering shock.11:38PM: The IDF have surrounded the Mukata compound of the PA in Ramallah in an effort to arrest terrorists holed up there.
Deja vu anyone?
11:23PM: Here’s a great piece by Mark Steyn in The Australian:
Mark Steyn: If only they had refused to indulge ArafatA few years back, when folks talked airily about “the Middle East peace process” and “a two-state solution”, I used to say that the trouble was the Palestinians saw a two-state solution as an interim stage en route to a one-state solution. I underestimated Islamist depravity. As we now see in Gaza and southern Lebanon, any two-state solution would be an interim stage en route to a no-state solution.
In one of the most admirably straightforward of Islamist declarations, Hussein Massawi, the Hezbollah leader behind the slaughter of US and French forces 20 years ago, put it this way: “We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.”
Swell. But suppose he got his way, what then? Suppose every last Jew in Israel were dead or fled, what would rise in place of the Zionist entity? It would be something like the Hamas-Hezbollah terror squats in Gaza and Lebanon writ large. Hamas won a landslide in the Palestinian elections, and Hezbollah similarly won formal control of key Lebanese cabinet ministries. But they’re not Mussolini: they have no interest in making the trains run on time. And, to be honest, who can blame them?
If you’re a big-time terrorist mastermind, it’s frankly a bit of a bore to find yourself deputy under-secretary at the ministry of pensions, particularly when you’re no good at it, and no matter how lavishly the European Union throws money at you, there never seems to be any in the kitty when it comes to making the payroll. So, like a business that has over-diversified, Hamas and Hezbollah retreated to their core activity: Jew-killing.
In Causeries du Lundi, Charles-Augustin Sainte-Beuve recalls a Parisian dramatist watching the revolutionary mob rampaging through the street below and beaming: “See my pageant passing!” That’s how opportunist Arabs and indulgent Europeans looked on the intifada and the terrorists and the schoolgirl suicide bombers: as a kind of uber-authentic piece of performance art with which to torment the Jews and the Americans. They never paused to ask themselves: Hey, what if it doesn’t stop there?
Well, about 30 years too late, they’re asking it now. For the first quarter-century of Israel’s existence, the Arab states fought more or less conventional wars against the Zionists and kept losing. So then they figured it was easier to anoint a terrorist movement and in 1974 declared Yasser Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organisation to be the “sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people”, which is quite a claim for an organisation then barely a decade old. Amazingly, the Arab League persuaded the UN, the EU, Bill Clinton and everyone else to go along with it and to treat the old monster as a head of state who lacked only a state to head.
It’s true that many nationalist movements have found it convenient to adopt the guise of terrorists.
But, as the Palestinian movement descended from airline hijackings to the intifada to self-detonating in pizza parlours, it never occurred to its glamorous patrons to wonder if maybe this was, in fact, a terrorist movement conveniently adopting the guise of nationalism.
In 1971, in the lobby of the Cairo Sheraton, Palestinian terrorists shot Wasfi al-Tal, the prime minister of Jordan, at point-blank range. As he fell to the floor dying, one of his killers began drinking the blood gushing from his wounds. Doesn’t that strike you as a little, um, overwrought? Three decades later, when bombs went off in Bali, killing hundreds of tourists plus local waiters and barmen, Bruce Haigh, a former Aussie diplomat in Indonesia, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, had no doubt where to put the blame. As he told Australia’s Nine Network: “The root cause of this issue has been America’s backing of Israel on Palestine.”
Suppose this were true: that terrorists blew up Australian honeymooners and Scandinavian stoners in Balinese nightclubs because of “the Palestinian question”. Doesn’t this suggest that these people are, at a certain level, nuts? After all, there are plenty of Irish Republican Army sympathisers across the world (try making the Ulster Unionist case in a Boston bar), yet they never thought to protest against British rule in Northern Ireland by blowing up, say, German tourists in Thailand.
Yet the more the thin skein of Palestinian grievance was stretched to justify atrocities halfway around the world, the more the Arab League big-shot emirs and EU foreign ministers looked down from their windows and cooed, “See my parade passing!”
They’ve now belatedly realised they’re at that stage in the creature feature where the monster has mutated into something bigger and crazier. Until the remarkably kinda-robust statement by the Group of Eight and the unprecedented denunciation of Hezbollah by the Arab League, the rule in any conflict in which Israel is involved – Israel v PLO, Israel v Lebanon, Israel v (Your Team Here) – is that the Jews are to blame. But Saudi-Egyptian-Jordanian opportunism on Palestine has caught up with them: it has finally dawned on them that a strategy of consciously avoiding resolution of the Palestinian question has helped deliver Gaza and Lebanon and Syria into the hands of a regime that’s a far bigger threat to the Arab world than the Zionist entity.
Cairo and co grew so accustomed to whining about the Palestinian pseudo-crisis decade in, decade out, that it never occurred to them that they might face a real crisis one day: a Middle East dominated by an apocalyptic Iran and its local enforcers, in which Arab self-rule turns out to have been a mere interlude between the Ottoman sultans and the eternal eclipse of a Persian nuclear umbrella.
The Zionists got out of Gaza and it’s now Talibanistan redux. The Zionists got out of Lebanon and the most powerful force in the country (with an ever-growing demographic advantage) are Iran’s Shia enforcers. There haven’t been any Zionists anywhere near Damascus in 60 years and Syria is in effect Iran’s first Sunni Arab prison bitch. For the other regimes in the region, Gaza, Lebanon and Syria are dead states that have risen as vampires.
Meanwhile, Kofi Annan in a remarkable display of urgency (at least when compared with Sudan, Rwanda, Congo and others) is proposing apropos Israel and Hezbollah that UN peacekeepers go in to keep the peace not between two sovereign states but between a sovereign state and a usurper terrorist gang. Contemptible as he is, the secretary-general shows a shrewd understanding of the way the world is heading: already, non-state actors have more sophisticated rocketry than many EU nations; and if Iran has its way, its proxies will be implied nuclear powers. Maybe we should put them on the UN Security Council.
So, what is in reality Israel’s first non-Arab war is a glimpse of the world the day after tomorrow: the EU and the Arab League won’t quite spell it out but, to modify that Le Monde headline, they are all Jews now.
And what did they expect us to do after they captured our soldiers and fired missiles into our cities?
“We have achieved full control over Bint Jbeil and, as such, many residents of northern Israel will now be protected from low-trajectory fire, and soon, from high-trajectory fire as well. We are working toward this end. Terrorists who fight us will be hurt.”
9:13PM: Yet another Nazi comparison:
Tory MP: IDF`s Lebanon raid reminiscent of Nazi atrocity on Warsaw ghetto (Agencies)
8:55PM: Katushas have rained down on the Maalot area in northern Israel, with 4 people being injured so far.
8:43PM: IDF troops, who took control of Bint Jbeil earlier today (see 3:15PM update), discovered “war rooms with eavesdropping and surveillance equipment made by Iran, being used by Hizbullah against Israel,” as well as “a large cache of weapons and communications devices. ”
8:26PM: The IDF have killed a senior Hizbullah commander near the villages of Maroun al-Ras and Bint Jbeil.
According to the IAF, this warehouse was also attacked Monday and earlier today.
Iranian media outlets published sections of interviews given by Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon Mohammad-Reza Sheybani, who said that Hizbullah’s military capability has greatly increased in the last decade, and threatened that if Israel harmed Syria, the Iranians would respond with force.Sheybani stressed that Iran would support Syria if it is attacked by Israel. “There should be no doubt on this issue: If Syria is harmed, even in the slightest way, we will respond with force. This, on the basis of the joint defense agreement in effect between the two countries and already signed by the two ministers of defense,” he said.Sheybani added that he thought “Israel did not have the ability to deal with Iran’s capabilities.”
Hizbullah representative in Iran, Hussein Sif al-Din, threatened that his organization planned to increase its attacks in Israel, until “no place in Israel will be safe.”At a conference in Tehran, attended also by Hamas and Palestinian Authority representatives, al-Din threatened that “this war will be remembered as the beginning of the end of Israel.”
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: General
Do you think an international force in southern lebanon will actually stop hezbolla, by force if neccesary?
Would Syrian troops be acceptable do you think? Just asking.
Why on earth would any country want to put its people between these two? Cheese eating surrender monkeys as peace keepers. Ich don’t think so.
Shfaram’s Muslims celebrate.
Shy Guy
Sure, he also called Israel’s offensive “disproportionate” and “a violation of international humanitarian law,” but that is to be expected.
More anti-Jew lies from the UN.
As a matter of FACT, Israel is scrupulously adhering to the LAWS OF WAR.
It is the muslimo-nazis (Hellsbollah) and by proxy, the government of Lebanon, who‘s prime military objective is to actually break the Laws of War.
For instance, Israel is within the laws of war in attacking targets hidden amongst the civilian population so long as warning is given so that they may evacuate.
In fact, Israel would be within its rights to attack hospitals being used to mount military operations.
However, Hellsbollah (death be upon them), contrary top all Laws of war, is deliberately firing rockers and missiles indiscriminately with the sole intention of inflicting harm on civilians.
A clear WAR CRIME.
How do you respond to these statements?
“This war you try to bend its reasons was not started by Israel. Hez started it and Israel is doing what it can to retaliate and remove the danger.”
What about the Mosad car bomb on 26 May in Sidon??????
What about the Israeli cross border artillery bombardment of lebanon in May????
What about the Israeli air strikes on Lebanon in May????
What about Olmerts threat to attack Lebanon, Likuds support for air attacks on Beiruit, and the large scale IDF practise for this attack, all a month before the kidnapping??????
What about Haifa’s Mayor in a TV interview saying that they started removing toxic chemicals from Haifa Port area in June in preparation for war??????
All the above info has been reported on mainstream media sites, including this one.
It’s amazing how many media organizations (including this one) now choose to keep quite about Israeli strikes they previously reported.
Just in case you were unsure of Hizbollah’s intentions, this picture should help clarify things.
wow are you ignorant. nearly everything israel has done in this conflict is against international law. The bombing of civilian transportation infrastructure, power plants and airports come readily to mind.
Yes, I know Hezbollah’s rockets are violating these same laws, but Israel is the nation attempting to claim a moral high ground. When in reality they are stooping to the level of the terrorists, exept the IDF uses million dollar aircraft rather than home-built rockets.
I realize those home built rockets have indeed claimed lives, but any comparison between damage to israeli cities and the destruction in lebanon would be laughable. Lebanon will be rebuilding for 10 years because of Israel’s airstrikes and wanton shelling, while the damage from katushyas will be gone within a year or less. Not to mention the 10 to 1 ratio of Lebanese to Israeli casualties (not even considering a majority of Lebanese deaths were civilian while roughly the Israeli deaths were active duty soldiers).
If you want to support Israel just for the sake of supporting Israel than so be it, but at least come out and say it. Trying to say they are acting in a responsible manner is simply absurd.
since nobody here seems to understand my support for Israel’s fight against terrorism but my disdain for their current military actions, i found an israeli who shares my perspective.
And Wow, are you blind.
I suppose you would have considered allied bombing of german cities ( that the Nazis were using to hide in, fight from, and produce armaments ) to be some kind of “war crime”.
and here is an example of the kind of things hezbollah is doing … where have we seen kids saluting this way in the past?
http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/pictures/20060724TyreLebanonTIME01.jpg
Thank you …..
Checked memri.org to see if Ahmadinejad’s letter to Chirac was posted yet, and no, but did find an interesting interview with Hizbu’llah’s Nasrallah where he points out (1) Hizbu’llah must succeed or else the Palestinians following an improved “Lebanese model” might despair, (2) he was surprised by Arab response and asks them to at least stay neutral, and (3) he admits that before the war broke out he had said that abducting Israeli soldiers was the only way to solve the prisoner issue…
Loved the Podcast with Sandmonkey, as well as the “Full of Crap” report which followed.
Where did you get this incorrect information?
It is perfectly legitimate to target infrastructure which the enemy military is using to fight against you. This includes any infrastructure which they use to transport weapons and fighters, regardless of whether it is also used by civilians or not.
Who says “Israel is the nation attempting to claim a moral high ground”? I think Israel is the nation trying to survive an attack designed to destroy them. They should respond in such as way as to ensure their survival.
Lebanon will be rebuilding for ten years? Cry me a river. They should have thought of that before they committed multiple acts of war. If you play with fire, you’re likely to get burned.
The 10:1 ratio of casualties is a direct result of the ACTUAL war crimes where the Hizb’allah terrorists hide amongst civilians and use them as human shields.
I bet if YOU were the one being attacked, you would be singing to a different tune.
Except that the rockets Aren’t homebuilt, despite the media propaganda. The Kassams and Katyushas are sophisticated truck mounted and launched artillery rockets designed by Soviet Union and copied by every anti-American, Anti-Western country with two nickels to rub together. Factories in Iran and Syria and pumping out rockets and launchers almost as fast as Hizbollah can fire them. But the Anti-Israeli media declares them to be crude, homebuilt rockets, and sheep like you beleive the lie.
Look, you can argue semantics with me all day, but you and I both know hezbollah wasn’t using the international airport and power plant in beirut to launch missiles. As far as the bombing of every major road and bridge, yes i am sure there were missiles travelling across those roads, but blowing them up won’t stop the transport of them, it just makes life hell for every innocent woman and child trying to flee the bombs.
Israel ADMITTEDLY targeted civilian infrastructure to quote “turn the clock back in lebanon by 20 years.” Not even the IDF is trying to say all of the things it destroyed were terrorist related. Israel is punishing the entire nation of lebanon for the acts of a group.
As far as the attack “designed to destroy Israel” that is a farce. Hezbollah poses a threat to Israeli lives, but nobody thinks they pose a serious threat to the existence of a nation. The rocket attacks need to be stopped, but they are hardly threatening Israel as a whole.
And your non-chalant response to the destruction of everything in sight in Beirut further illustrates your ignorance. LEBANON did not commit acts of war, a group within the country did.
Also, the fact that terrorists are hiding among a civilian population IS NOT A FUCKING JUSTIFICATION FOR MURDERING THEM. Jesus I am sick of hearing that. If they were launching missiles from the middle of an israeli neighborhood i can guaranFUCKINGtee you that you would not be carpet bombing it. But because they are lebanese and not jews it doesn’t seem to matter i guess.
If a gunman takes 50 people hostage, killing the gunman AND the hostages obviously isn’t the right fucking solution. Also, has anyone pointed out that despite all the civilians killed and bombs dropped, the rockets are STILL falling. Obviously this plan ISNT WORKING. Say whatever you want about Israel’s right to kill innocent people, and bomb whatever they want, but you CANT DENY that so far it has been ineffective. Hezbollah was birthed by the resistance to Israel’s last incursions into Lebanon, what the HELL do you think is going to happen this time. If you were a 15 year old kid in Lebanon whose innocent non-terrorist father was killed by an Israeli shell/bomb wouldn’t hezbollah’s recruiting pitch seem pretty lucrative to you? If you are hezbollah it might be kind of hard to recruit members when all you are doing is firing rockets to try and kill civilians. But now that there are Israeli planes dropping bombs in lebanon and driving tanks through villages, its going to be REAL fucking EASY. This whole operation is nothing but a huge goddamn terrorist recruitment poster. Airstrikes like these do nothing but breed 50 terrorists for every 1 that you actually kill.
MidEast War: XLII
Smoke rises from Khiam village after being hit by Israeli air strikes, in southern Lebanon. July 25, 2006 12:00 PDT Frequent updates. Scroll. Previous coverage @ right. Links to Lebanese and Israeli bloggers covering the conflict are @ Truth…
They were threatening to remove the hostages they took to Iran. One way to do that would have been via the airport. Therefore, the airport was disabled. Simple enough for you? No semantics argument there.
As for the power plant, it takes power to run an army, or a terrorist organization. A lack of power will mean they will have trouble communicating, trouble planning, etc.
They are both military targets.
Blowing up the roads won’t stop the transport of the missiles? How do you know, are you a military expert? It’d say it will severely restrict the deliveries of missiles. Most of them would have come in on trucks, I would guess. No roads means they have to go off-road or bring them in on foot.
I’m not a General, I don’t pretend to know exactly why they target each facility they do, I can guess but it’s only a guess. Ultimately they know better than I do what to target in order to degrate the enemy capabilities. As long as they continue warning civilians and attacking targets they believe have military value, I believe they are acting within any relevant conventions.
If Hizb’allah is not designed to destroy Israel, why do they constantly say that’s what they’re trying to do? Maybe they lack the capability, but not the will. Do you know the history of the region? Do you know how many times Israel’s existence and people WERE seriously threatened with annihalation? If you do then you would expect the Israelis not to take such threats lightly. Iran and Syria and Hizb’allah continue to threaten to destroy Israel. They take the threats seriously. I would too.
I can’t be bothered replying to the rest of your post, since you seem to be going off the rails.
You also seem to be mistaken about this history of the region. Israel did not “create” Hizb’allah. They were there all along, before Israel invaded Lebanon, just under different names such as Fatah and PLO. Israel invaded Lebanon after Lebanese-based forces attacked them without provocation. Sound familiar?
The problem here is the warmongering factions constantly attacking Israel. As for the rocket attacks, they are becoming less and less successful. It takes time to degrade the capability. Soon the numbers will begin to tail off as well, then they will stop, as long as the pressure can be kept up and the rockets can be destroyed. The other commenter is correct, they are not home-made, they are mass-manufactured in Iran and Syria and transported into Lebanon.
Dave, I just want to say thank you for all of the effort you are putting into this liveblogging. It is greatly appreciated here.
Zoe in Northern California USA
I echo that. This is a fantastic blog filled with very useful information to pass on to the next blogger. I don’t know how you do it, but I hope you keep up the good work!
Washington DC
Can someone answer the list of questions at the top of today’s blog, please?
Quick Israel News Roundup
Iran is sending suicide bombers — to Lebanon. Watch for large explosions, to be blamed on the IDF, with civilian casualties. Thank you, IAF, for stopping some counterfeiters. Could you pass some Lessons Learned onto the Secret Service? History repeats…
Hizbullah’s intentions have been no secret since the 80′s, man…
WOW – WHAT AN IGNORAMUS
From today’s Washington Post from actual experts in actual International Law. I suggest you shut your yap and read a few things before you make a fool of yourself in public.
Israel Is Within Its Rights
By David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey
Wednesday, July 26, 2006; Page A17
Israel’s operations against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza have been widely condemned in Europe, the Arab world and at the United Nations as violations of international law. Some of the critics seem to deny that Israel has any legitimate right to use force. Others, while acknowledging its right to self-defense, nevertheless regard its exercise in these cases as illegal. Israel’s alleged offenses include treating mere “terrorist” attacks as an excuse to attack Lebanon, using disproportionate force, causing excessive civilian casualties and refusing to contemplate an immediate cease-fire.
In fact, Israel’s conduct has been fully compliant with the applicable norms of international law.
The primary claim by Israel’s critics is that it used force disproportionately in response to Hezbollah’s initial attack against Israeli soldiers, eight of whom were killed and two captured. The underlying assumption appears to be that Israel should have treated these provocations as terrorist acts and limited its response accordingly, rather than as justifications for a full-scale attack on Lebanese territory.
But in determining the existence of a legitimate casus belli , a state is entitled to consider the entire context of the threat it faces. Hezbollah is not simply a terrorist gang, like Germany’s Baader-Meinhof or Italy’s Red Brigades. It is a substantial political and military organization that has more than 12,000 short- and medium-range rockets and that has operated freely on Lebanese territory for many years, periodically launching attacks against Israel. Its stated goal is Israel’s destruction, and it is the client of a major regional power — Iran — whose government appears dedicated to the same goal.
Moreover, although international law requires a state to have a lawful reason to use force — such as self-defense — it does not mandate that a state limit its military response to “tit for tat” actions. Once a country has suffered an armed attack, it is entitled to identify the source of that attack and to eliminate its adversary’s ability to attack again. Its actions must be consistent with otherwise applicable international norms, but it is not required to accept a limited conflict that fails to meet and resolve the danger it faces.
That Lebanon has suffered from Israel’s actions does not change the legal rules involved. No state has the right to permit a foreign military force to use its territory to launch attacks against another country. Indeed, every country has an obligation to control its own territory. Lebanon’s failure (or refusal) to expel Hezbollah would in and of itself have been a legitimate cause for Israeli military action. It was the Taliban’s sheltering of al-Qaeda that was the basis of the U.S. attack on Afghanistan in 2001. And, although the current Lebanese government is certainly more democratic than the feudalistic Taliban, democratic credentials cannot insulate a state from responsibility for controlling its territory.
The specific aspects of Israel’s military operations in Lebanon and Gaza have also been condemned as being disproportionate and as thereby violating the laws of war. Although there is some grim humor in the spectacle of Russian President Vladimir Putin, whose troops have ravaged Chechnya, criticizing Israel for a “disproportionate” use of force, the claims — including dark warnings from Louise Arbour, U.N. high commissioner for human rights, about “war crimes” liability for Israel’s leaders — are without merit.
An army must always eschew deliberate attacks on civilians and consider whether the military advantage to be gained from an operation is sufficiently important to justify potential collateral damage to civilians. But this does not mean that installations and infrastructure, such as airports, bridges and the power grid, cannot be legally attacked. These are all dual-use targets — having a civilian character but also clear military value. Indeed, in NATO’s 1999 war against Serbia, exactly the same set of targets was attacked — with the agreement and approval of the European governments involved. In the current conflict, Israel’s primary military purpose in attacking these targets appears to be to cut Hezbollah’s supply lines, not to punish Lebanon.
Similarly, the occurrence of civilian casualties, or the fact that more Lebanese civilians have died than Israelis, does not prove that Israel has used disproportionate force. The law forbids an operation only if the hoped-for military benefit would be clearly disproportionate to the likely injury to the civilian population. Proportionality, however, must be calculated in the context of the entire conflict, and any civilian lives lost must be balanced against civilian lives saved.
Unfortunately, heavy civilian casualties are the inherent and inevitable result of the type of asymmetric warfare deliberately waged by Hezbollah and similar groups. They intentionally operate from civilian areas, both to protect their military capabilities from attack and to increase civilian deaths, which can then be trumpeted for propaganda purposes. But the presence of a large civilian population does not immunize Hezbollah or Hamas forces from attack. Responsibility for any additional civilian casualties must be attributed to those groups, not to Israel. The adoption of any other rule would reward and encourage the illegal behavior of such “unlawful” combatants, which would simply result in more danger to innocent civilians in the future.
Israel may legally seek victory in Lebanon, even if it requires a combination of ground and air operations, takes weeks to accomplish and results in civilian casualties. It is under no obligation to agree to an early cease-fire unless the terms of that agreement would vindicate its legitimate war aims: the security of its population from attack.
The legal rights Israel is exercising to defend itself today are the very same legal rights on which the United States must rely in the war on terrorism. Attempts to revise the traditional laws of war — moving toward a law-enforcement paradigm — so that law-abiding states cannot effectively protect their own populations from attack or even defend their territory from armed incursion are not humanitarian advances. They simply make the world safer for those who reject any notion of law in war.
I couldn’t understand some parts of this article Liveblogging the War: Tuesday July 25th, but I guess I just need to check some more resources regarding this, because it sounds interesting.