The first person to refuse to do army service during the current fighting was sentenced Sunday to 28 days in a military prison. According to the refusal organization Yesh Gvul, which issued a public statement Sunday urging others to follow in Amir Fester's footsteps, more than 10 other people have contacted the organization about the possibility of refusing to serve.

While some of them have answered reserve duty call-ups and are participating in military training, they have said that they will not take part in the fighting, according to organization spokesman Yishai Menuchin.

In a separate incident, which is not of a political nature, a disagreement erupted between an officer in the armored corps and his commanders.

The officer, who is currently in compulsory duty, received instructions to help repair a stranded tank near the south Lebanese village of Maroun Ras.

In view of the fact that the crew of the tank was not inside, the officer was convinced that sending soldiers to fix the tank in daylight would unnecessarily place his men at risk.

Eventually, the officer's commanders yielded and the repair was carried out during night hours, without the difference of opinion reaching the level of refusing a military order.

One petition, which collected more than 200 signatures within a few hours Sunday, was organized by Haifa resident Orit Ben Artzi. It calls for a cease-fire and the opening of negotiations.

Sunday's bombing in Qana sparked an immediate surge in opposition to the fighting in Lebanon. Spontaneous demonstrations and petitions were organized within hours, and drew more people than the organized demonstrations of the previous two weeks.

One of the demonstrations, organized by senior officials from Meretz, took place in front of the Defense Ministry compound in the Kirya in Tel Aviv.

Dozens of members and top officials of the party protested despite Meretz's official position, which for the moment is one supporting the Lebanon offensive.

Demonstrators held signs which read, "Cease-fire now," calling for immediate negotiations with Lebanon and Syria. Another sign was emblazoned with, "We are a strong but thinking homefront."

"We wanted to protest the foolishness of this war," attorney Yifat Solel, who also serves on the Meretz board of directors, told Haaretz. "It's obvious that a military operation would cause the harming of innocents, and that the most significant achievement would be reached only through diplomatic negotiations."

More than 600 people, including Israeli professors and senior Meretz party officials, have signed an international petition calling for an immediate, unconditional cease-fire in Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank. Among the signatories to this petition are former Meretz MKs Naomi Chazan and Mussi Raz - though the latter has meanwhile obeyed an emergency call-up order for army reserve duty.

Thousands protest in Umm al-Fahm against war

Thousands of Israeli Arabs took to the streets of Umm al-Fahm Sunday evening to protest the war in Lebanon following the bombing of the village of Qana.

Demonstrators shouted "Israel is a terrorist state," and, "the people of Gaza and Lebanon won't surrender."

In Tel Aviv, dozens of left-wing activists demonstrated in front of the Defense Ministry building.

In the Galilee, dozens of Ta'al activists demonstrated against the war and waved signs that read: "Peretz, Olmert and Rice are responsible for war crimes."

Left-wing factions of Knesset on Sunday denounced the Israel Air Force strike on the Lebanese village of Qana that left 54 people dead.

MK Mohhamed Barakeh (Hadash) said the only result of the offensive being waged by Olmert and Peretz in Lebanon is a series of war crimes. "The government has decided to carry out massacres in Gaza and Lebanon under the protection of the U.S."

Meretz chairman Yossi Beilin said the large number of civilian casualties at Qana proves that prolonging the campaign in Lebanon won't help obtain the operation's objectives.

Beilin added that no Israel Defense Forces statement could justify the pictures of innocent casualties, nor the reality that another strike like this could happen again.

MK Avshalom Vilan (Meretz) called for negotiations, adding "what happened there is a humanitarian disaster that no one intended, but the outcome is a black flag."

MK Ahmed Tibi (Ra'am-Ta'al) said that Rice's 'smart bombs' and Halutz's praised pilots' have caused a horrendous and foreseeable war crime. "Bush, Peretz, and Olmert bear the responsibility for this brutal parade of corpses," he added.

MK Jamal Zahalka (Balad) said Israel has declared war on the citizens of Lebanon, adding "those resopnsible for the massacre are guilty of a war crime and should stand trial before the international Criminal Tribunal in the Hague."

Balad is to hold an anti-war demonstration outside the Knesset on Monday.

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/744379.html

Israel Indymedia

https://israel.indymedia.org/mod/comments/index.php

We need more thinking people there to turn the situation around.

Isn't true that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East? Maybe if more countries as democratic as Israel, peace might happen in no time (Propaganda)



There is no denying of the fact that the Middle East is mostly ruled by autocratic, oppressive, and undemocratic regimes. On the other hand, the majority of these repressive regimes were mostly founded and funded based on Israeli and American wishes. It should be noted that the most popular revolts in the Middle East have been ruthlessly crushed by American puppet regimes (whom the West often refer to by "Moderate regimes") in the area. The regimes in Iraq, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the Hashemite Kingdom, Lebanon (before the civil war), Arab Gulf States, Morocco, Iran (prior to the Islamic revolution), Turkey, ... etc., were all funded and directed by the United States of America; the land of the free and the home of the brave. Sadly, many of the so called "moderate regimes" are ten times more accountable to Uncle Sam than to their own public. Ironically, if democracy truly shall serve Israel's national interests in the region, then maybe it should direct its powerful lobby in Washington, AIPAC, to start lobbying on behalf of the oppressed in the Middle East; after all promoting "democracy is the key" to a lasting peace in the Middle East?

It's worth noting that soon after the 1948 war, the undemocratic Arab regimes were the central factor in protecting the newly emerging "Jewish state". And any forms of organized local resistance against Israel, similar to Hizbullah's in southern Lebanon, was ruthlessly dealt with in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon. Actually, many of Israel's "moderate" Arab neighbors transplanted most Palestinian refugee camps inland away from the Israeli borders, to curb the so called Palestinian "infiltration" [ or return] back to their homes in Israel. The so called "Infiltration Problem", which faced Israel between 1949-1955, had become the most pressing and expensive challenge to face the newly emerging "Jewish state". In other words, it's not the presence, but the absence of democracy that greatly serves the Israeli interests in the region, and based on that the United States has systematically shored up these unpopular regimes against the wishes of the people (i.e. the Hashemite Kings in Jordan, the Saudi Kings in Arabia, Mubarak of Egypt, Saddam Hussein in Iraq prior to the Gulf War, and the Emirates in the Gulf States), and undermined the popularly elected governments (i.e. toppling Musadiq in Iran in the early 1950s, invading Lebanon in the late 1950s, shoring up the Hashemites in Jordan in the late 1950s, and undermining Nasser in Egypt).

It's rarely questioned, by many Israelis and Zionists, how the Jewish minority in Palestine became a majority within few months in 1948. Since the inception of Zionism, its leaders have been keen on creating a "Jewish state" based on a "Jewish majority" by mass immigration of Jews to Palestine, primarily European Jews fleeing from anti-Semitic Tsarist Russia and Nazi Germany. When a "Jewish majority" was impossible to achieve, based on Jewish immigration and natural growth, Zionist leaders (such as Ben Gurion, Moshe Sharett, Ze'ev Jabotinsky, and Chaim Weizmann) concluded that "population transfer" was the only solution to what they referred to as the "Arab Problem." Year after year, the plan to ethnically cleanse Palestine of its indigenous people became known as the "transfer solution". David Ben-Gurion, the first Israeli Prime Minister, eloquently articulated the "transfer solution" as the following:

* In a joint meeting between the Jewish Agency Executive and Zionist Action Committee on June 12th, 1938:

"With compulsory transfer we [would] have a vast area [for settlement] .... I support compulsory transfer. I don't see anything immoral in it." (Righteous Victims p. 144).

* In a speech addressing the Central Committee of the Histadrut on December 30, 1947:

"In the area allocated to the Jewish State there are not more than 520,000 Jews and about 350,000 non-Jews, mostly Arabs. Together with the Jews of Jerusalem, the total population of the Jewish State at the time of its establishment, will be about one million, including almost 40% non-Jews. such a [population] composition does not provide a stable basis for a Jewish State. This [demographic] fact must be viewed in all its clarity and acuteness. With such a [population] composition, there cannot even be absolute certainty that control will remain in the hands of the Jewish majority .... There can be no stable and strong Jewish state so long as it has a Jewish majority of only 60%." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 176 & Benny Morris p. 28)

* And on February 8th, 1948 Ben-Gurion also stated to the Mapai Council:

"From your entry into Jerusalem, through Lifta, Romema [East Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhood]. . . there are no [Palestinian] Arabs. One hundred percent Jews. Since Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, it has not been Jewish as it is now. In many [Palestinian] Arab neighborhoods in the west one sees not a single [Palestinian] Arab. I do not assume that this will change. . . . What had happened in Jerusalem. . . . is likely to happen in many parts of the country. . . in the six, eight, or ten months of the campaign there will certainly be great changes in the composition of the population in the country." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 180-181)

* In a speech addressing the Zionist Action Committee on April 6th, 1948:

"We will not be able to win the war if we do not, during the war, populate upper and lower, eastern and western Galilee, the Negev and Jerusalem area ..... I believe that war will also bring in its wake a great change in the distribution of Arab population." (Expulsion Of The Palestinians, p. 181)

* Click here for more "Transfer" (Ethnic Cleansing) quotes from Zionist leaders.

It's not only that the Zionists deemed it necessary to practice ETHNIC CLEANSING to build their vision of "Jewish Democracy", they have also opted to keep many Israelis in the dark by directly censoring what they read, hear, and see in the Israeli media. Martin Van Creveld (the renowned Israeli military strategist, and historian) eloquently described Israeli controlled censorship as follows:

* "The [Israeli military] censor exercises draconian power over the content in the media, licenses newspapers, and fines and suspends newspapers if, in his view, they have violated secrecy. He does not have to explain the reasons for his decision; indeed one paragraph in the law obliges newspapers to publish free ads by military censor denying or correcting information that papers themselves published. . . . Thus one of the [Israeli military] censor's main functions is to keep Israelis ignorant of what everybody else knows." (The Sword And The Olive, p. 110)

* "By this time [referring to the period prior to the October war in 1973] Israel's system of media self-censorship had begun to backfire. .... the media, voluntarily refraining from publishing the news, helped the IDF in its own assessment [that Arabs are incapable of going to war] and put the public to sleep." (The Sword And The Olive, p. 223)

* Click here to view a Real Movie depicting Israeli censorship on newspapers, radio, and TV networks.

For the moment, let's assume that the above facts, arguments, and quotes are nonsense to the average Israeli and Zionist, and let's ask the following questions:

* Are you aware that 95% of Israel's lands are open for development for "Jewish people" only?

* Are you aware that the Israeli-Palestinian minority (who are close to a quarter of Israel's citizens) are restricted to 3% of land?

The implementation of these apartheid policies resulted in disenfranchising a quarter of the Israeli population, who mostly continue to live in segregate, gated, and over crowded ghettos that are plagued with high unemployment rate and suffers from lack of basic services. In fact, there are over forty plus unrecognized Palestinian-Israeli villages (within the "Green Line") that receives no public services whatsoever , such as roads, sanitation, electricity, schools, ...etc.

Finally, it's worth emphasizing that "Israeli democracy" is an incarnation of Apartheid South Africa's democracy. It also could be argued that Apartheid South Africa was for a very long time the only democracy in Africa, however, it was a democracy for the White race only. Similarly, Zionist democracy in Israel was and still is designed to empower Jews only based on their religion. At one point, Israel has to choose between being a "Democratic Jewish State" or a "Democratic State" to all of its citizens, Jews and non-Jews alike. Eventually, such a facade to democracy will self-destruct, and until it changes, the talk about "Israeli democracy" is nothing but a propaganda that makes good sound bytes in the Western and Israeli medias.

Be real. There are groups that resist their govt. policies in all countries, that doesn't make any of them 'vibrant democracies'. Jesus, you sound like someone who is trying to sell Israel. It is fucking sickening.

From mass targeting of mobile phones with voice and text messages to old-fashioned radio broadcasts warning of imminent attacks, Israel is deploying a range of old and new technologies in Lebanon as part of the psychological operations ("psyops") campaign supplementing its military attacks.



According to US and UK media outlets, Israel has reactivated a radio station to broadcast messages urging residents of southern Lebanon to evacuate the region.

Some reports have named the station as the Voice of the South.

The South Lebanon Army, a Christian militia backed by Israel, operated a radio station called Voice of the South from Kfar Killa in southern Lebanon in the 1980s and 1990s.

The station closed down in May 2000 when Israeli forces withdrew from southern Lebanon.

Cash for tip-offs

The Israeli newspaper Maariv on Sunday reported the appearance of a website called All 4 Lebanon which offered payment for tip-offs from Lebanese citizens "that could help Israel in the fight against Hezbollah".

More

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/5217484.stm

Abu Shadi Jradi pulled bodies out of wreckage for hours - two toddler girls wearing tiny gold earrings, a small boy whose pale blue pacifier still hung from his neck. Somewhere in the middle, he slumped beneath a tree and wept.

"There are so many children, so many children," the veteran civil defence worker said Sunday, barely able to get out the words.

The dead still had signs of their last moments, when dozens of members of the Shalhoub and Hashem families had gathered together for shelter and company during another night of Israeli bombardment. Kids wore the shorts and t-shirts they slept in. One body was wrapped in a child's bed sheet covered with Raggedy Ann and Andy figures.

More

http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/07/30/1710610-ap.html

Israel's prime minister stated that the villagers were ordered to leave. These people, who are so poor, who have nowhere to flee to, who have no means of fleeing and are simple in their beliefs that God will protect them, crossed their fingers and waited in the basement of a residential building, praying they would be spared.

These people, who were too terrified to leave because of the shelling around them interspersed with Israel's threatening leaflets to leave, had to pay the price of a very legitimate fear.

But it seems that Qana is cursed. Forever cursed to shake the world into action - just like 10 years ago. It is cursed into being the sorriest victim - the one where the world screams (or maybe whispers) "enough!"

The women and children of Qana are forever cursed to be the collateral damage that even the strongest stomach can't handle.

More

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/article.asp?edition_id=1&categ_id=2&article_id=74370

A few short video clips showing various illegal acts by Arabs, such as

using ambulances to carry bombs, carrying armed fighters, etc.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Avm-9IglHTg&N

But it's not very convincing.

Show of hands, please.

Israeli air force jets bombed southern Lebanon this morning, despite a 48-hour suspension of air strikes negotiated by US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice yesterday after an attack that left more than 60 dead.

The strikes, near the village of Taibe, were carried out in support of ground forces operating in the area and did not target anything specific, the Israeli army said.

But they called into question the 48-hour suspension that was the most significant outcome of Ms Rice's aborted visit to the Middle East at the weekend.

The cessation was negotiated after Lebanese leaders cancelled their meetings with Ms Rice following yesterday's attack on the southern Lebanese town of Qana, which rights group Human Rights Watch today labelled a "war crime".

The 48-hour window was intended to allow civilians trapped in southern Lebanon to escape to the north of the country, away from the threat of bombardment.

However, Israeli military officials today said it would not apply to strikes launched in retaliation for Hizbullah rocket attacks, or to stop the importation of weapons from Syria.

"If we identify a rocket launch there will be an air strike, or if we identify a truck loaded with weapons there will be one too," an army spokesman told Israel Radio.

The Taibe strike happened as Israeli troops pushed towards the village. Hizbullah rockets were fired from the border area close to Taibe this morning, landing near the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona.

Earlier today, defence minister Amir Peretz told the Israeli parliament the army would "expand and strengthen" its attack on Hizbullah guerrillas and promised the cabinet would discuss an expansion of the ground operation.

His speech was interrupted by Israeli Arab MPs' calls for an immediate ceasefire in the conflict, which has killed at least 545 Lebanese and 51 Israelis since it began three weeks ago.

More

http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,,1834225,00.html