Israel intensified its attacks against Lebanon on Thursday, blasting Beirut's international airport and the southern part of the country in its heaviest air campaign against its neighbor in 24 years. According to Al-Jazeera TV station, 52 Lebanese civilians were killed in the attacks.

The strikes on the airport, which damaged three runways, came hours before Israel said it was imposing an air and naval blockade on Lebanon.

The strikes come in response to the Lebanese resistance movement Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers Wednesday morning in a cross border attack. Eight Israeli occupation soldiers were killed and 21 wounded in the 'Truthful Promise' operation which Hizbullah wants to swap the two soldiers for Arabs held in Israeli prisons. Two Hizbullah militants were killed in the attack.

Israel holds approximately 10,000 Palestinian and Arab prisoners including 2,000 Lebanese.

It is refusing to exchange prisoners and responded by launching an aggressive military attack on Lebanon targeting civilians and infrastructure.

Israel's chief of staff on Thursday warned Hizbuallah that the Lebanese capital Beirut is "not immune" from attacks. Hizbullah responded by warning that it could fire Katyusha rockets as far as the port of Haifa in north Israel.

Beirut airport, located in the Hizbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut, was closed after the attacks and flights were diverted to nearby Cyprus. It was the first time since Israel's 1982 invasion of Lebanon and occupation of Beirut that the airport was hit by Israel.

Israel also fired a missile at the building housing the studios Hizbollah's Al-Manar TV in the southern suburbs of Beirut on Thursday morning. One person was hurt, but the station continued to broadcast.

Overnight Israeli attacks in southern Lebanon, meanwhile, killed 52 civilians and wounded dozens more. A family of 10 and another family of seven were killed in their homes in the village of Dweir near Nabatiyeh, the officials said.

More

http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/803/fr3.htm

All I see is each side committing crimes and blaming the other. So much hate.

What is wrong with this article? You seem so angry?

The Devil (George Warmonger Bush): "Sorry to Oil the Arming of Irgun Zvai Leumi / Likud Extremist / IDF in IsraOil and the Invasions of the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and the War Crimes that followed but Oil comes First. Fill her Up ??????"

The Devil (George Warmonger Bush): "Sorry to Oil the Arming of Iz-a Din al-Qassam/ Hamas Extremist /PA in GazaOil and the Arab aggression from the Gaza Strip and Lebanon and the War Crimes that followed but Oil comes First. Fill her Up ??????"

"It is refusing to exchange prisoners and responded by launching an aggressive military attack on Lebanon targeting civilians and infrastructure."



Of course they are. Why would they release any of these isllamic murderers? Israel's, admittedly, tepid approach is completely warranted and LONG overdue. We should be doubling or tripling our aid to them as we spaek and arming them to the teeth.

IDF shells inhabited area in Beit Lahiya, hits house, wounding four persons, 4 April 2006

Yusef Abu Shmas, member of the Palestinian National Security Force

Yesterday [Tuesday, 4 March] at around 3:15 P.M., I was sitting with my friend 'Abdallah Isma'il a-D'alseh in a tent about twenty meters from my house. I met 'Abdallah a month and a half ago or so, and let him live in my tent. He ate and drank with us every day.

I left the tent and went to the house to bring lunch. The moment I left the tent, indiscriminate shelling broke out. I saw a shell fall less than fifty meters from me. I lay on the ground and hid behind a high mound of dirt. I stayed there for about half an hour, during which about thirty shells were fired. Shell fragments flew by me all the time. I heard the screams of women coming from the direction of my parents' house and my brother Mustafa's house. I couldn't go and help because I would have been hit and killed if I got up. 'Abdallah left the tent and began to run away because he was frightened, and a shell that fell near him killed him on the spot. I couldn't save him even though I saw what happened. He was less than thirty meters from me.

Around 3:55, the shelling stopped. I ran home and went into the house. I saw blood on the bedroom floor and on the door. I saw a large hole in the ceiling and marks that indicated the shell had landed inside the room. The bed was all in pieces. I didn't find anybody at home. I went to my parents' house, and I didn't find anybody there either. I immediately went to Kamal ' Adwan Hospital , in Beit Lahiya. There, I found my wife Samah. I saw that she had been lightly wounded in the face, and that my son, who is six months old, had been hit a few times in the body. I also found my brother, Mustafa, whose face was full of blood. He told me that his fingers had been severed and that my other brother, Khaled, had been wounded in the head and taken to a-Shifa Hospital, in Gaza City, because he was in very serious condition. I found my friend 'Abdallah in the hospital's morgue.

Yusef Ahmad Salameh Abu Shmas, 26, married and father to a six month baby is a resident of Beit Lahiya, in the northern Gaza Strip, and a member of the Palestinian National Security Force. His testimony was given to Zaki Kahil at Kamal 'Adwan Hospital on 5 April 2006.

The Twins The Devil (George Warmonger Bush) and Olmert: "Sorry to Oil the Massacures in Lebanon, the Crimes Against Humanity in Lebanon, and the Gas Price Gouging but Oil comes First. Fill her Up ??????"

The Twins The Devil (George Warmonger Bush) and Nasrallah: "Sorry to Oil the Massacures from Lebanon, the Crimes Against Humanity from Lebanon, and the Gas Price Gouging but Oil comes First. Fill her Up ??????"

Israel must allow civilians safe passage out of Lebanon's embattled south, Human Rights Watch said today. Warnings by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to civilians that they must evacuate southern Lebanon within 24 hours do not absolve Israel of the duty to avoid attacks likely to cause indiscriminate or disproportionate loss of civilian life.

Yesterday, the IDF advised all civilians south of the Litani River in southern Lebanon to evacuate the region within 24 hours for their own safety. Through leaflets dropped by aircraft, radio broadcasts and a recorded message to mobile phones, residents were advised not to travel on motorcycles or in vans or trucks lest they be "suspected of transporting weapons and rockets," and become "a potential target."

"Israel should warn people of attacks, but those warnings can't be used to justify harming civilians who remain," said Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division at Human Rights Watch. "Civilians who can't evacuate are still fully protected by international law."

The Israeli military's extensive destruction over the last several days of bridges, roads and vehicles, as well as shortages of food and fuel, have made evacuation in 24 hours impossible for many. An estimated 300,000 people live south of the Litani River, which lies about 20 miles north of the Lebanon-Israel border. Some 60,000 civilians have fled the area over the past week, the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz reported.

International humanitarian law requires armed forces to give "effective advance warning" of attacks when circumstances permit. However, even after warnings have been given, these forces must still take all feasible precautions to avoid loss of civilian life. This includes canceling an attack when it becomes apparent that the target is civilian or that the civilian loss would be disproportionate to the expected military gain.

Human Rights Watch expressed particular concern over continued air strikes that have killed and injured civilians trying to flee. On Wednesday, an air strike on a car reportedly killed four civilians: Ghassan Faqih, 31; Laila Aqil Abu Zayd Nami, 71; As'ad Habas, 42; and an unidentified fourth woman, who were driving from their village of Aitaroun to the city of Tyre.

Israeli air strikes the same day killed more than 50 people across the country, the highest daily death toll since the conflict began on July 12. Air strikes have hit civilian trucks, including those carrying sugar, flour and rice. Other attacks have destroyed public infrastructure, notably bridges and roads needed by the civilian population to flee.

"The Israeli military is telling civilians to leave, but the casualties caused by its attacks on the roads have made many people too frightened to travel," Whitson said.

Israel's military campaign has already displaced 500,000 Lebanese residents, or one-eighth of the country's population, the United Nations said. The humanitarian situation is especially grim in Tyre, a few miles south of the Litani River, where an estimated 60,000 residents as well as displaced people from nearby villages are trapped with dwindling supplies of medicine and food.

The IDF announced on July 19 that it is "operating with great caution in order to prevent any harm to uninvolved civilians." At the same time, the military said, "Southern Lebanon is a combat zone in which Hezbollah terrorists operate against Israeli civilians from within the civilian Lebanese population, using them as human shields."

Deploying military forces within populated areas is a violation of international humanitarian law, but that does not release Israel from its obligations to take all feasible precautions to minimize harm to civilians and civilian property during military operations.

On July 19, Hezbollah fired more than 100 rockets into Israel, killing two Israeli Arab boys in Nazareth. Human Rights Watch has condemned Hezbollah for launching attacks that at best indiscriminately, and at worst deliberately, target civilians.

More than 300 people have been killed in Lebanon since the fighting began on July 12, most of them civilians. Twenty-nine Israelis have been killed, including 15 civilians.

This is what Zionist war crimes look like:

http://fromisraeltolebanon.info/

It's important that we see the Israeli atrocities, we sure won't see them in the mainstream media.

No one in their right mind would ever deny there is a bias in the US

media favoring Israel. The media makes it seem Israel’s interests and

the interests of the West are identical when in fact, other than the

racist violence directed towards people of color, they are not always

the same. Meanwhile this same media demonizes and vilifies Arabs and

Muslims the same way the US media dehumanized and denigrated Native

Americans and Africans in years past. As far as the US media is

concerned, Israel can do no wrong, no matter what they do, no matter how

repugnant and ruthless their policies and actions are.

*From The Ramparts*

Junious Ricardo Stanton

*Pro-Israeli Media Bias Is Real And Deliberate*

“Media bias does not occur in random fashion; rather it moves in the

same overall direction again and again, favoring management over labor,

corporations over corporate critics, affluent whites over inner-city

poor, officialdom over protesters, the two-party monopoly over leftist

third parties, privatization and free market ‘reforms’ over public

sector development, U.S. dominance of the Third World over revolutionary

or populist social change, nation-security policy over critics of that

policy, and conservative commentators and columnists like Rush Limbaugh

and George Will over progressive or populist ones like Jim Hightower and

Ralph Nader (not to mention more radical ones). The built-in biases of

the corporate mainstream media faithfully reflect the dominant ideology,

seldom straying into territory that might cause discomfort to those who

hold political and economic power, including those who own the media or

advertise in it.” Methods of Media Manipulation by Michael Parenti from

the book *20 years of Censored News* by Carl Jensen and Project Censored

http://thirdworldtraveler.com/Media/MediaManip_Parenti.

I went to Virginia for a family reunion last week. While relaxing in the

hotel I was channel surfing and came across one of the corporate

propaganda cable stations I think it was Fox News and they were actively

rationalizing Israel’s bombardment of Lebanese civilian neighborhoods.

Next I turned on CNN and there was Lou Dobbs (supposedly one of the good

guys) speaking with a Lebanese ambassador attempting to get the man to

denounce Hezbollah and make the Lebanese people who are the victims the

criminals. To the ambassador’s credit he was having none of it and

remained steadfast pointing to Israel’s fifty-eight year history as a

ruthless aggressor engaged in ethnic cleansing and genocide. Shortly

thereafter I turned the television off. The latest crisis in the “Middle

East” is more of the same ol’ okey-doke where the corporate mind control

apparatus goes into over-drive to demonize Arabs and Muslims while

depicting the Ashkenazim invader/settlers as the rightful heirs to the

land who are merely defending their right to survive. Implicit in the

propaganda is the preposterous notion the Ashkenazim are God’s chosen

people and their “Promised Land”, stretches from the Nile to the

Euphrates Rivers.

No one in their right mind would ever deny there is a bias in the US

media favoring Israel. The media makes it seem Israel’s interests and

the interests of the West are identical when in fact, other than the

racist violence directed towards people of color, they are not always

the same. Meanwhile this same media demonizes and vilifies Arabs and

Muslims the same way the US media dehumanized and denigrated Native

Americans and Africans in years past. As far as the US media is

concerned, Israel can do no wrong, no matter what they do, no matter how

repugnant and ruthless their policies and actions are. The US mind

control apparatus is spinning Israel’s latest aggression which by the

way; was planned long before Hezbollah engaged, killed and captured (

they did not kidnap) Israeli soldiers and tank crews that knowingly (and

probably deliberately) come into Lebanon territory as purely defensive!?

Meanwhile the rest of the world that has not been subjected to the

Zionist media blackouts, suppression and propaganda like we have here,

sees the massive carnage Israel is inflicting on innocent civilians in

Lebanon and their critical civilian infrastructure and the US uncritical

support of the carnage as the same ol same ol’. Of course the US media

sycophants justify Israel’s overkill, their use of high tech jets, tanks

and heavy ordnance missiles because Hezbollah has fired “rockets” (which

are nowhere near as lethal as the advanced weaponry and heavy ordnance

Israel is using) into Israeli territory.

If it weren’t for the Internet or satellite television AmeriKKKans would

not know or see the slaughter and havoc Israel has unleashed on Beirut

and Gaza. Certainly one will neither see nor hear any reports that

depict the level of violence from a Lebanese or Palestinian perspective

in the US media . The news is almost always totally lopsided in favor of

Israel. However this bias will not alter reality, just as the corporate

media cheerleaders for the NeoCon debacle in Iraq has not altered the

reality there or in Afghanistan or Haiti, three failed examples of Bu$h

and Co.’s imperialistic regime change policies. “Not unlike Fox News and

CNN, Mr. Uygur puts forward the distortion, in fact a lie, that Hamas

and Hezbollah ‘started the hostilities,’ thus legitimizing Israel’s

criminal and murderous behavior. As usual, the corporate media, and this

includes the Young Turks and Sirius Satellite Radio, ignore the fact

both Hamas and Hezbollah are resistance movements, completely legitimate

under international law... Of course, lobbing rockets at Israeli

citizens is a violation of this principle, but ‘kidnaping’ Israeli

soldiers—who were, regardless of the lies spun by the corporate media,

on the Lebanese side of the border when they were captured—is legal, as

all sides in a conflict routinely take prisoners of war. As well, the

puny rockets of Hezbollah, based on seventy year old technology, pale in

comparison to Israel’s high-tech munitions, provided by the American tax

payer, a chump as usual. http://kurtnimmo.com

If you want to really know what’s going on in the world, turn off the

mainstream media, put down the New York Times, the Washington Post or

their clones and search the news stands and the Internet for reliable

sources of information. You can also listen to short wave radio,

Internet radio or glean your news from media not as biased or distorted

as the lap dogs for the NeoCon war/ethnic cleansing agenda. Make no

mistake the bias is real and deliberate. The good news is we don’t have

to go for the okey-doke.

UN humanitarian chief Jan Egeland accused Hizballah on Monday of causing the deaths of hundreds of Lebanese civilians during the past two weeks of cross-border violence with Israel. "Hizballah must stop this cowardly blending... among women and children," he said. "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."

So the UN i9s OK to the right wing Israeli terror supporters, except when its not:

Quick! Call the Irony Police!

Quick. Someone call the irony police.

The Israelis are demanding that Lebanon and every other player with a stake in the Middle East comply with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1559. That's the one that calls for the disarming of all militias in Lebanon, including, of course, Hezbollah.

On July 22, former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu published an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, in which he cited U.N. 1559. The leader of the right-wing Likud party declared that Lebanon's failure to disarm Hezbollah was a "direct violation" of the U.N. resolution. And he added that Israel was only using a "fraction of its firepower and is in fact, acting with great care to minimize harm to civilians."

Given Netanyahu's eagerness to cite U.N. resolutions, and given that the civilian death toll in Lebanon has passed 300 (many of the innocents are women and children) and given that the destruction of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure is nearly complete, it's time to revisit the idea of U.N. resolutions. While doing so, let's look at Israel's compliance with those measures.

Let's start with U.N. Resolution 242. Adopted unanimously by the U.N. Security Council on November 22, 1967, shortly after the end of the Six-Day War, the opening section of the resolution emphasizes the "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war." But the critical part of the resolution says that a "just and lasting peace" can only be achieved through certain measures. The first item on that list: "Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflicts."

Let's continue with U.N. Resolution 338, also passed unanimously. It was approved on October 22, 1973, in an effort to end the Yom Kippur War. Much shorter than 242, the newer resolution calls on the Israelis and their neighbors to immediately stop fighting, and "to start immediately after the cease-fire the implementation" of Resolution 242.

More

http://counterpunch.com/bryce07252006.html

Here's a list of UN resolutions ignored by Israel:

A list of UN Resolutions against "Israel"

* 1955-1992:

* * Resolution 106: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for Gaza raid".

* * Resolution 111: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for raid on Syria that killed fifty-six people".

* * Resolution 127: " . . . 'recommends' Israel suspends it's 'no-man's zone' in Jerusalem".

* * Resolution 162: " . . . 'urges' Israel to comply with UN decisions".

* * Resolution 171: " . . . determines flagrant violations' by Israel in its attack on Syria".

* * Resolution 228: " . . . 'censures' Israel for its attack on Samu in the West Bank, then under Jordanian control".

* * Resolution 237: " . . . 'urges' Israel to allow return of new 1967 Palestinian refugees".

* * Resolution 248: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for its massive attack on Karameh in Jordan".

* * Resolution 250: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to refrain from holding military parade in Jerusalem".

* * Resolution 251: " . . . 'deeply deplores' Israeli military parade in Jerusalem in defiance of Resolution 250".

* * Resolution 252: " . . . 'declares invalid' Israel's acts to unify Jerusalem as Jewish capital".

* * Resolution 256: " . . . 'condemns' Israeli raids on Jordan as 'flagrant violation".

* * Resolution 259: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's refusal to accept UN mission to probe occupation".

* * Resolution 262: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for attack on Beirut airport".

* * Resolution 265: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for air attacks for Salt in Jordan".

* * Resolution 267: " . . . 'censures' Israel for administrative acts to change the status of Jerusalem".

* *Resolution 270: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for air attacks on villages in southern Lebanon".

* * Resolution 271: " . . . 'condemns' Israel's failure to obey UN resolutions on Jerusalem".

* * Resolution 279: " . . . 'demands' withdrawal of Israeli forces from Lebanon".

* * Resolution 280: " . . . 'condemns' Israeli's attacks against Lebanon".

* * Resolution 285: " . . . 'demands' immediate Israeli withdrawal form Lebanon".

* * Resolution 298: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's changing of the status of Jerusalem".

* * Resolution 313: " . . . 'demands' that Israel stop attacks against Lebanon".

* * Resolution 316: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for repeated attacks on Lebanon".

* * Resolution 317: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's refusal to release Arabs abducted in Lebanon".

* * Resolution 332: " . . . 'condemns' Israel's repeated attacks against Lebanon".

* * Resolution 337: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for violating Lebanon's sovereignty".

* * Resolution 347: " . . . 'condemns' Israeli attacks on Lebanon".

* * Resolution 425: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to withdraw its forces from Lebanon".

* * Resolution 427: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon.

* * Resolution 444: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's lack of cooperation with UN peacekeeping forces".

* * Resolution 446: " . . . 'determines' that Israeli settlements are a 'serious

* obstruction' to peace and calls on Israel to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention".

* * Resolution 450: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to stop attacking Lebanon".

* * Resolution 452: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to cease building settlements in occupied territories".

* * Resolution 465: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's settlements and asks all member

* states not to assist Israel's settlements program".

* * Resolution 467: " . . . 'strongly deplores' Israel's military intervention in Lebanon".

* * Resolution 468: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to rescind illegal expulsions of

* two Palestinian mayors and a judge and to facilitate their return".

* * Resolution 469: " . . . 'strongly deplores' Israel's failure to observe the

* council's order not to deport Palestinians".

* * Resolution 471: " . . . 'expresses deep concern' at Israel's failure to abide

* by the Fourth Geneva Convention".

* * Resolution 476: " . . . 'reiterates' that Israel's claim to Jerusalem are 'null and void'".

* * Resolution 478: " . . . 'censures (Israel) in the strongest terms' for its

* claim to Jerusalem in its 'Basic Law'".

* * Resolution 484: " . . . 'declares it imperative' that Israel re-admit two deported

* Palestinian mayors".

* * Resolution 487: " . . . 'strongly condemns' Israel for its attack on Iraq's

* nuclear facility".

* * Resolution 497: " . . . 'decides' that Israel's annexation of Syria's Golan

* Heights is 'null and void' and demands that Israel rescinds its decision forthwith".

* * Resolution 498: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to withdraw from Lebanon".

* * Resolution 501: " . . . 'calls' on Israel to stop attacks against Lebanon and withdraw its troops".

* * Resolution 509: " . . . 'demands' that Israel withdraw its forces forthwith and unconditionally from Lebanon".

* * Resolution 515: " . . . 'demands' that Israel lift its siege of Beirut and

* allow food supplies to be brought in".

* * Resolution 517: " . . . 'censures' Israel for failing to obey UN resolutions

* and demands that Israel withdraw its forces from Lebanon".

* * Resolution 518: " . . . 'demands' that Israel cooperate fully with UN forces in Lebanon".

* * Resolution 520: " . . . 'condemns' Israel's attack into West Beirut".

* * Resolution 573: " . . . 'condemns' Israel 'vigorously' for bombing Tunisia

* in attack on PLO headquarters.

* * Resolution 587: " . . . 'takes note' of previous calls on Israel to withdraw

* its forces from Lebanon and urges all parties to withdraw".

* * Resolution 592: " . . . 'strongly deplores' the killing of Palestinian students

* at Bir Zeit University by Israeli troops".

* * Resolution 605: " . . . 'strongly deplores' Israel's policies and practices

* denying the human rights of Palestinians.

* * Resolution 607: " . . . 'calls' on Israel not to deport Palestinians and strongly

* requests it to abide by the Fourth Geneva Convention.

* * Resolution 608: " . . . 'deeply regrets' that Israel has defied the United Nations and deported Palestinian civilians".

* * Resolution 636: " . . . 'deeply regrets' Israeli deportation of Palestinian civilians.

* * Resolution 641: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's continuing deportation of Palestinians.

* * Resolution 672: " . . . 'condemns' Israel for violence against Palestinians

* at the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount.

* * Resolution 673: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's refusal to cooperate with the United

* Nations.

* * Resolution 681: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's resumption of the deportation of

* Palestinians.

* * Resolution 694: " . . . 'deplores' Israel's deportation of Palestinians and

* calls on it to ensure their safe and immediate return.

* * Resolution 726: " . . . 'strongly condemns' Israel's deportation of Palestinians.

* * Resolution 799: ". . . 'strongly condemns' Israel's deportation of 413 Palestinians

* and calls for their immediate return.

Why is it that the pro-israel camp will use the UN and/or international law when it suits their argument, but any other time they will dismiss these bodies and bash them?

Typical right wing zionist hypocrisy.

Why is that?

Love to hear the answer.