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July 13, 2006
So what would qualify as declaring war?
An air, land, and sea blockade, bombing roads and bridges that lead to the capital, taking out the runways at the airport. Preparing 6,000 troops for rapid reaction strikes into Lebanon. Is it me or did Isreal just declare war on Lebanon but no one will admit it yet?
Four big powers met today to try to head off “all-out war” as Israeli jets bombed the Beirut international airport and Israel announced a total blockade of Lebanon, which it blames for the Hezbollah cross-border raid in which two soldiers were kidnapped and eight killed.Lebanese police said 28 civilians had been killed in airstrikes.
An Israeli woman was killed when Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets across the volatile border, sending terrified residents of communities in northern Israel into bomb shelters.
As the international community issued urgent appeals for restraint, the so-called Middle East Quartet was holding consultations in a bid to prevent the conflict from escalating into “all-out war”.
France and Russia condemned Israel’s action as “disproportionate,” but the US backed its main Middle East ally over the crisis.
A day after Israel sent troops back into Lebanon for the first time in six years, its warplanes conducted at least 50 raids today, firing missiles into runways at Beirut airport, Hezbollah’s TV station and other targets in the capital and the south of the country.
Israeli jets also bombed the Palestinian Foreign Ministry in the Gaza Strip overnight in the latest offensive over the seizure of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militants three weeks ago.
The raids on Lebanon forced the closure of Beirut’s brand-new airport and the diversion of flights to the neighbouring Mediterranean island of Cyprus.
Israel announced an air, sea and land blockade against its northern neighbour, with warships patrolling Lebanese coastal waters, in what the military said was an effort to halt arms smuggling.
Lebanese police said 28 civilians, including 10 children, had been killed in waves of air strikes launched after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert branded the abduction of soldiers an “act of war”.
A Hezbollah militant was also killed, in an attack on a relay station for the organisation’s An-Manar TV channel, while three employees were injured in a raid on its offices in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Altogether 75 Palestinians have been killed in the military onslaught on Gaza, which the UN has warned is causing a humanitarian crisis in one of the most densely populated areas on earth.
Russia condemned Israel’s “disproportionate use of force” against Lebanon and Palestinian territory, saying civilians were being made to suffer.
But the US held Syria and Iran, which bankroll Hezbollah, responsible for the fighting on the Lebanese-Israeli border, the worst since Israel ended its 22-year occupation of south Lebanon in May 2000.
Hezbollah, or the Party of God, whose militia was instrumental in forcing the Israeli troops out, said it was demanding the release of Arab prisoners in return for the soldiers.
But Olmert, facing the most serious test of his leadership since being sworn in as prime minister in May, insisted there would be no negotiations.
Yesterday, Israeli fighter jets, gunboats and artillery pounded Hezbollah targets and about 10 bridges in Lebanon, cutting off the highway linking Beirut to the south.
The Israeli cabinet, meeting in emergency session late yesterday, gave the green light to “harsh and aggressive” action against Lebanon. Israel has called up a rapid-reaction force of 6 000 troops.
“The Lebanese government, which allowed Hezbollah to commit an act of war against Israel, will pay a heavy price. The rules of the game have changed,” Justice Minister Haim Ramon said.
The Lebanese government – which includes a Hezbollah minister – denied involvement in the Hezbollah action and demanded an urgent UN Security Council meeting.
Prime Minister Fuad Siniora, whose cabinet was due to meet again today, contacted world leaders “to ask them to help Lebanon in the face of the aggression and in order to contain the situation”.
The governing Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, whose military wing is one of three groups holding a soldier captive in Gaza, said the latest abductions showed the “weakness of the Israeli army”.
Israel has been on high alert for possible retaliation after its threats to kill Hamas leaders in Damascus and since it sent warplanes over a Syrian presidential palace in a show of force last month.
Posted by Mike at July 13, 2006 10:12 AM
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Comments
I've read several blog posts about Israel's response to Hezbollah's terrorist attacks. The best, cut to the chase, column I've seen so far is Michael Ledeen's at NRO here:
http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=NDE4MDA3NDUyYjA0ZGY1MzQ4NjM5NjM1MWY4NDVkZGM=
Ledeen notes something I hadn't read or heard elsewhere:
"The Lebanese Tourism Ministry’s Research Center announced an amazing statistic in early July: in the first six months of the year, 60,888 Iranian tourists visited Lebanon. No other Asian country came close (the Philippines ranked second, with a bit over 12,000). I don’t think that there’s enough disposable income in mullahland to cover the expenses of more than ten thousand people a month headed for the Beirut beaches. Do you think, as I do, that a goodly number of those “tourists” were up to no good? Maybe some of them were working for the Revolutionary Guards Corps? Or were Hezbollah operations people? I’ll bet you your favorite farm that one of them was the world’s most wanted man, Imad Mughniyah, the operations chieftain of Hizbollah, the world’s most lethal terrorist organization."
Time to finally defeat the terror masters in Tehran and their puppet in Demascus.
Posted by: vadkins ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.topdog08.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at July 13, 2006 11:18 AM
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