I urge everyone to watch Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's speech from March 19th, he speaks a lot about Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Lebanon and Palestine. Nasrallah manages in an hour to discuss current events across the Arab world, succinctly, accurately and honestly. While he usually uses tempered language to discuss Arab regimes, especially those that have consistently aligned themselves against Hezbollah and Shia in the Middle East he used this opportunity to let loose on Qadhafi and express his support and solidarity with the brave Libyan people that are fighting against this madman.
I felt it was important to point out what he said and did not say about Libya in light of the conversation taking place on this website, I am paraphrasing: These revolutions are not being instigated by Americans or Al Qaidah, they are popular uprisings that come from the people. Any American talk about protecting the people in the region has no credibility because of American policy towards Palestinians which has always been one that protects Israelis by arming them and using their veto power to protect their settlements at the UNSC, therefore any such talk of American humanitarianism is a lie. Americans may be attempting to rehabilitate their image, make sure that oil does not get into the hands of loyal and nationalistic Libyans or they may be interfering so that they can control who the future leadership of Libya will be. Hezbollah will reconsider their position on Americans when Americans reconsider their unjust position on Palestine. He said that everyone in the entire world that can provide assistance to the Libyan people must do so. But that Libyans should also be aware of the motivations behind some of the people helping. He reminds Libyans that the West gave enough time to the regime so that they could crush the uprising and had Qadhafi succeeded in crushing it that the whole world would have kept buying oil from Qadhafi. Perseverance of the Libyan people is what changed the equation. Nasrallah did not deny the Libyans the right to accept help from whoever offers it, he merely warned them to be vigilant about the intentions of those that have stepped up to help them. Nasrallah, like Azmi Bishara before him also told Egyptians that many Arabs are pinning their hopes on them and they should not let us down.
And more news from the Arab uprisings:
Developments
Libya declares new immediate ceasefire
TRIPOLI, March 20 (Reuters) - Libya declared a fresh ceasefire on Sunday after a day of bombardment from Western forces seeking to protect civilians from government troops. "The Libyan armed forces ... have issued a command to all military units to safeguard an immediate ceasefire from 9 p.m. (1900 GMT) this evening," a Libyan army spokesman said, according to an official interpreter.
link to www.trust.org
Western forces launch cruise missile at Gadhafi residence
An administration building was knocked down; Gadhafi's whereabouts at the time of the blast remain unknown; about 300 Gadhafi supporters were in the compound when the missile hit, injuries have yet to be reported.
link to www.haaretz.com
Images: Damage in Bab Al-Aziziyah, Gaddafi’s heavily fortified Tripoli compound
Libyan army soldiers stand on a building, destroyed in what the government said was a western missile attack, inside Bab Al-Aziziyah, Gaddafi’s heavily fortified Tripoli compound March 21, 2011. Western forces pounded Libya’s air defences and patrolled its skies on Sunday, but their day-old intervention hit a serious diplomatic setback as the Arab League chief condemned the “bombardment of civilians” -Reuters
link to feb17.info
BREAKING: Almanara Media confirms from trusted sources that Khamis Al Gaddafi is dead
Almanara Media is confirming from trusted sources that Khamis Al Gaddafi has passed away on Sunday due to severe burn injuries he sustained a few days ago. The burns were caused when a fighter jet pilot performed a martyr mission and crashed his fighter jet into Gaddafi’s compound Baab Al Aziziyah. IMPORTANT: We are only citing Almanara Media for this news. We have not confirmed it via any other source.
link to www.libyafeb17.com
Libya rebels: Gadhafi using human shields against West's strikes
Rebel spokesman says seven people killed in Misrata fighting on Monday; Gadhafi calls for march through Benghazi after allies target his residential compound in Tripoli.
link to www.haaretz.com
Remains of loyalist forces smolder near Benghazi
BENGHAZI-AJDABIYA ROAD, Libya: Moammar Gadhafi's wrecked tanks and other army vehicles smoldered on a strategic road in eastern Libya Sunday after Western powers launched airstrikes that galvanized embattled rebels.
link to www.dailystar.com.lb
Fresh explosions rock Libyan capital
US says operation "effective" in degrading Gaddafi air defences as international forces launch second night of attacks.
link to english.aljazeera.net
Libyans offer new graves as proof of civilian dead
At an event for escorted foreign reporters, pro-government Libyans raged against western warplanes and missiles they said had spewed death over the Libyan capital at the weekend. The mourners themselves spoke in quieter tones and the conflicting accounts they gave for the circumstances surrounding the deaths of their loved ones made it difficult to assess the veracity of the official version. As a cleric fired up people who said they were mourners at the cemetery and plainclothes security men defiantly fired assault rifles into the air, the uncle of a three-month-old girl stood over her freshly dug grave, covered with a few roses. The uncle, Muhammad Salim, who seemed calm, said the airstrike that hit the girl's house also wounded her mother. Her father offered a different account, saying no one was injured.
link to www.trust.org
Truth about Tripoli: Eyewitness report
I have just managed to get my family out of Tripoli alive. We were in fear all the time. This is what the so called “King of Kings” has done to the free people of Libya in Tripoli.
link to feb17.info
Stalemate warning as Gaddafi defiant
Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi have been hit in airstrikes. But the Libyan leader remains defiant, calling the attacks a "cold war" on Islam. And the top military officer in the US has warned of a "stalemate" situation, with Gaddafi remaining in power, despite the creation of a no-fly zone. Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher reports.
link to www.youtube.com
Witness phones from Misurata
As Gaddafi's tanks roll into the rebel-held city of Misurata on Sunday, there are reports of many injuries amid fierce street fighting. Mohamed, a member of the city's civil community, speaks to Al Jazeera by phone, and describes what has happened in his city over the past day.
link to www.youtube.com
Gaddafi's tanks reach centre of Misrata:residents
ALGIERS, March 20 (Reuters) - Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi have entered the centre of the rebel-held city of Misrata with tanks, and several people have been killed by gunfire, residents said on Sunday. "Two people were killed so far today by snipers. They (snipers) are still on the rooftops. They are backed with four tanks, which have been patrolling the town. It's getting very difficult for people to come out," one resident, called Sami, told Reuters by telephone.
link to www.trust.org
Benghazi under attack
The Libyan opposition stronghold of Benghazi has been on edge for days. Rebels say the city has come under constant attack by pro-Gaddafi forces over the last 24 hours. Libya's government announced an immediate ceasefire on Friday, but government forces were said to have entered the western edge of the city on Saturday. Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher reports.
link to www.youtube.com
Gaddafi forces approach Benghazi
Forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader, have hit the opposition stronghold of Benghazi with mortar and artillery shells, though fighters in the city say they have pushed the assault back. A warplane flown by what is believed to be an opposition pilot was shot down during the fighting, and opposition fighters say they have captured several tanks from Gaddafi loyalists. Al Jazeera's Alan Fisher reports.
link to www.youtube.com
Libya to give weapons to 1 mln people:state media
ALGIERS, March 20 (Reuters) - Libya's government has begun distributing arms to more than one million people and will complete the operation within hours, the state news agency reported on Sunday. Jana news agency quoted sources in Libya's defence ministry as saying they "expected the operation to end in the next hours to arm more than a million men and women."
link to www.trust.org
Gaddafi denounces foreign intervention
Libyan leader says air raids amount to terrorism and vows to "equip people against aggressors".
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/africa/2011/03/201132094116102192.html
Tripoli eyewitness
Bodies, disappearances and the 'men' of Benghazi
link to www.bbc.co.uk
Ali Treki In Tunisia
link to www.youtube.com
Libya Fight Photos 3
link to cryptome.org
Rejoicing in Libya's Benghazi
Pro-democracy fighters have been celebrating in the second Libyan city of Benghazi after French jets demolished Muammar Gaddafi's heavy armour that was heading their way. Al Jazeera's James Bays visited the site of the attack to file this report.
link to www.youtube.com
Western Intervention
Pentagon: ‘We are not going after Gaddafi’
CNN's Nic Robertson, reporting from Gaddafi's compound in Tripoli, has a piece of a missile that appears to have hit the four-story building. The labeling on the debris is in English, and it could be a piece of a cruise missile of the type U.S. and British forces have been launching since Saturday afternoon.
link to www.rawstory.com
America gives the orders as French jets enforce no-fly zone
The Americans were spearheading military operations against the Gaddafi regime in Libya yesterday despite days of insisting they were playing a support role.
link to www.independent.co.uk
International forces bombard targets in Libya
Coalition forces launch Libya assault, which Gaddafi calls "colonial, Crusader" aggression.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/africa/2011/03/201132002236603156.html
West pounds Libya, Gaddafi vows long war
TRIPOLI – US, British and French forces have hammered Libya from the air and sea, prompting leader Moamer Kadhafi to warn on Sunday of a long war in the Mediterranean "battlefield". The US military said the first stage of coalition raids under a UN Security Council remit to enforce a no-fly zone over Libya had been "successful" and Kadhafi's offensive on the rebel stronghold of Benghazi stopped in its tracks. In Benghazi itself, medics and AFP correspondents said at least 94 people had died in an assault launched on Friday on the Mediterranean city by forces loyal to Kadhafi before the coalition onslaught.
link to www.rawstory.com
U.S. says no-fly zone in place, Gaddafi forces halted
WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. and allied forces have effectively established a no-fly zone over Libya and halted an offensive by Muammar Gaddafi against rebels in Benghazi, the top U.S. military officer said on Sunday. Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, told NBC's "Meet the Press" program that the U.S.-led air strikes that began Saturday "took out" Gaddafi's air defenses, struck air fields and attacked Libyan ground forces near the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.
link to www.trust.org
US military says planes struck Gaddafi ground forces
WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. fighter planes backed by electronic warfare aircraft carried out air strikes early on Sunday on Muammar Gaddafi's ground troops and air defenses in Libya, the Pentagon said in a statement. "U.S. Navy Growlers provided electronic warfare support over Libya while AV-8B Harriers from the 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit conducted strikes against (Gaddafi's) ground forces and air defenses," the military said in a statement.
link to www.trust.org
Three US submarines ready for Libya action - official
WASHINGTON, March 19 (Reuters) - The U.S. Navy has three submarines outfitted with Tomahawk missiles in the Mediterranean prepared to participate in operations against Libya, a U.S. defense official said on Saturday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said three submarines, including attack submarines Newport News and the Providence, were joined by two Navy ships. The submarines were equipped with Tomahawk missiles that can cripple aircraft or anti-aircraft defenses in a no-fly operation, the official said.
link to www.trust.org
U.S. army chief: Gadhafi needs to 'make decisions' on his future
Speaking with NBC's 'Meet the Press,' Admiral Mike Mullen claims goal of international missile strike of Libyan army was not to oust the Libyan leader.
link to www.haaretz.com
Bombing campaign in Libya targets Kadafi's air, ground forces
The U.S. and its allies expand their strikes to include ground forces that threaten civilians or are able to target planes that are enforcing the no-fly zone. New rounds of anti-aircraft fire erupt over Tripoli. U.S., French and British forces blasted Libyan air defenses and ground forces, drawing intense volleys of tracer and anti-aircraft fire over Tripoli on Sunday at the start of a campaign that will severely test Moammar Kadafi's powers of survival.
link to feeds.latimes.com
Mike Mullen: Gaddafi Could Cling To Power In Libya
(AP) WASHINGTON — The U.S.-led international military assault on Libya could achieve its stated goals without forcing Moammar Gaddafi from power, the top U.S. military officer said Sunday as the bombing campaign continued. After a barrage of attacks by sea-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles Saturday, an array of U.S. warplanes – including several Air force B-2 stealth bombers – followed in the pre-dawn hours Sunday with a coordinated assault using precision-guided bombs, according to a U.S. military official. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive military missions, said the planes included Air Force F-15s and F-16s, Navy EA-18G electronic warfare planes and Marine attack jets.
link to www.huffingtonpost.com
US briefs journalists on Libya operation
US Vice Admiral William Gortney, the director of the Pentagon's Joint Staff, briefed journalists on the first phase of the UN-backed international military operations against forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan leader.
link to www.youtube.com
France sends carrier to Libya, conducts more flights
PARIS, March 20 (Reuters) - France sent an aircraft carrier towards Libya on Sunday and its warplanes carried out further operations over the north African country, armed forces and defence officials said. The Charles de Gaulle carrier, the flagship of the French fleet, left the southern port of Toulon at around 1200 GMT, carrying around 1,800 crew members and some 20 aircraft.
link to www.trust.org
How French jets saved Libya's rebels at the last minute
International airstrikes led first by France devastated an armored column loyal to Muammar Qaddafi overnight – saving the rebellion with little time to spare.
link to rss.csmonitor.com
Italy says ready to take part in Libya operations
ROME, March 20 (Reuters) - Italian aircraft are ready to join operations against Libya from Sunday, Defence Minister Ignazio La Russa said. Speaking on state broadcaster RAI, La Russa said eight Italian jets had been assigned to the coalition command and would be ready to take part in operations immediately. "We want to participate as equals in the operation," he said. He also said Italy was ready to take action over an Italian tugboat detained in Libya.
link to www.trust.org
UK Government refuses publicly to rule out ground troops in Libya
The UK government's Chancellor has pointedly refused publicly to rule out British ground troops being sent in - despite the clear position of UN Security Resolution 1973 to the contrary.
link to www.ekklesia.co.uk
Minister denies Germany isolated over Libya
BERLIN, March 20 (Reuter) - German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle dismissed allegations on Sunday that Berlin was internationally isolated after refusing to join its NATO allies in staging military strikes on Libya. Germany abstained on Thursday in the U.N. Security Council vote authorising the use of force, breaking ranks with the United States, France and Britain, and joining China and Russia.
link to www.trust.org
Arab & Turkish Intervention/Reactions
Two Arab states officially join Libya action as U.K. downplays Arab League criticism
Qatar, United Arab Emirates join international military action to enforce no-fly zone over Libya; Qatar due to send four jets; Britain's Hague says Arab League still supports allies' intervention in Libya.
link to www.haaretz.com
Arab warplanes taking part in Libya mission
Four Qatari warplanes were deployed in Libyan skies on Sunday, the French defense ministry said, as other Arab warplanes were moving to positions near Libya to participate in the Western military operation that has effectively established a no-fly zone. Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the U.S.
link to www.alarabiya.net
Qatar planes taking positions near Libya - Mullen
WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - The top U.S. military officer on Sunday said aircraft from Qatar were moving into position near Libya to participate in the Western military operation that has effectively established a no-fly zone. "There are forces, airplanes in particular from Qatar, that are moving into position as we speak, into theater. There are other countries who have committed, although I'd rather have them publicly announce that commitment," he said in an interview with CBS' "Face the Nation" program.
link to www.trust.org
Qatari planes to Libya
Aljazeera is reporting with a measure of pride that Qatari military planes are heading toward Libya. Of course, no plane can leave Qatari air base without prior permission from US commanders.
link to angryarab.blogspot.com
Egypt stays out of Libya war for security reasons
CAIRO, March 20 (Reuters) - Egypt decided against taking part in military action against neighbouring Libya for reasons linked to internal security and the fact that so many Egyptians live there, the foreign minister said on Sunday. Nabil Elaraby said Egypt, whose uprising against Hosni Mubarak helped ignite the Libya revolt, had for humanitarian reasons supported an Arab League resolution calling on the U.N. Security Council to impose a no-fly zone over Libya.
link to www.trust.org
Arab League chief: We respect UN resolution on Libya military action
Amr Moussa reiterates support for international enforcement of no-fly zone over Libya despite earlier comments suggesting concern by actions taken by Western powers.
link to www.haaretz.com
Arab League now worried about Qaddafi retaliation after supporting Libya no-fly zone
Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa is now questioning whether US and European military action against Libya has gone too far.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2011/0320/Arab-League-now-worried-about-
Arab League head says wanted no-fly zone, not bombs
CAIRO, March 20 (Reuters) - The Arab League chief said on Sunday that Arabs did not want military strikes by Western powers that hit civilians when the League called for a no-fly zone over Libya. In comments carried by Egypt's official state news agency, Secretary-General Amr Moussa also said he was calling for an emergency Arab League meeting to discuss the situation in the Arab world and particularly Libya.
link to www.trust.org
Arab League criticizes Western strikes on Libya
CAIRO - The Arab League on Sunday criticized Western military strikes on Libya, a week after urging the United Nations to slap a no-fly zone on the oil-rich North African state. "What has happened in Libya differs from the goal of imposing a no-fly zone and what we want is the protection of civilians and not bombing other civilians," Arab League secretary general Amr Mussa told reporters.
link to www.rawstory.com
Coalition under strain as Arab League attacks 'bombing of civilians'
The first potential crack in the broad coalition behind the Western-led military onslaught on Muammar Gaddafi's air defences opened up yesterday when Amr Moussa, Secretary-General of the Arab League, condemned what he called "the bombardment of civilians".
link to www.independent.co.uk
Obama spoke with Jordan's Abdullah about Libya
RIO DE JANEIRO, March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama spoke with Jordan's King Abdullah on Sunday and the two agreed on the need for a broad coalition taking action against Libya, a top Obama aide said. White House National Security Adviser Tom Donilon told reporters about the telephone call during a briefing in Brazil, where Obama was traveling.
link to www.trust.org
Turkey: We will take 'appropriate' role in imposing Libya no-fly zone
Official statement comes despite recent calls by Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan for an immediate ceasefire in Libya.
link to www.haaretz.com
Turkish PM urges Gaddafi to step down, end bloodshed
JEDDAH, March 20 (Reuters) - Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan on Sunday urged Muammar Gaddafi to give up power and called for an immediate end to the violence. Gaddafi has no official government position but is known as the "Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution".
link to www.trust.org
Anti-Intervention
Noam Chomsky warns against intervention in Libya
The linguist and philosopher Professor Noam Chomsky talks to Jeremy Paxman about the likely consequences of the uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa and the prospects for any western intervention. He also gives his interpretation of the Obama administration's foreign policy.
link to www.youtube.com
Venezuela's Chavez denounces military action in Libya
CARACAS, March 19 (Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said on Saturday that military action in Libya by the West's "men of war" is aimed at seizing the North African country's oil reserves.
link to www.trust.org
China intensifies condemnation of Libya air strikes
BEIJING, March 21 (Reuters) - China's top newspaper on Monday stepped up Beijing's opposition to Western air attacks on Libya, accusing countries backing the strikes of violating international rules and risking fresh turmoil in the Middle East. China's strongest condemnation yet of Western air assaults on the forces of Libya's leader Muammar Gaddafi appeared in the People's Daily, the mouthpiece of the ruling Communist Party, and it showed how the military conflict could become a fresh front of contention between Beijing and Washington.
link to www.trust.org
Russia calls for halt to Libya attack
"The reports say that during air raids on Libya strikes were also delivered on non-military facilities. ... As a result, 48 civilians are reported dead and over 150 wounded," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the RIA Novosti news agency.
link to www.upi.com
Qaeda Maghreb leader slams Libya intervention
Leader of al-Qaeda Organization in the Islamic Maghreb, Abdelmalek Droukdel, delivered on Saturday an online speech calling upon Libyans to fight foreign intervention in their country and to crush the “new crusades.” “Beware the suspicious actions of the United States and its allies.
link to www.alarabiya.net
Press TV, "Iran on Libya War: Libyans Must Prevent Foreign Powers from Controlling Their Country"
Iran has called on the Libyan nation to prevent foreign countries from taking control of their country. Foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said a review of what some domineering foreign countries have done in the past reveals the true intentions for attacking Libya. He said those countries seemingly advocate human rights but are in fact looking to secure their own interests and gain control of other nations. Mehmanparast accused some Western powers of seeking a modern form of colonization through expanding their military bases on foreign territory.
link to mrzine.monthlyreview.org
Communist Party of India (Marxist), "Libya: Stop the Aggression"
The Polit Bureau of the CPI(M) strongly condemns the aerial bombardment by aircrafts and ship-based missiles on Libya by the Nato forces. The military strikes by the Nato forces comprising France, Britain and the United States are a dangerous act of aggression. The Nato is now repeating what it did in Iraq, which led to deaths of millions of people and large scale destruction. Already forty eight people are reported dead in the attacks on the first day. . . . The Security Council resolution on Libya has been utilized by the Nato for this attack. The five members of the Security Council, which includes India, who abstained on the resolution should immediately demand a review of the resolution. Till then there has to be a halt to the military action by Nato. The CPI(M) calls upon all the democratic and progressive forces in India to strongly protest yet another military aggression by America and its allies on an Arab-African country.
link to mrzine.monthlyreview.org
Media & Repression/Suppression
NY Times journalists at Turkish embassy in Libya
ANKARA, March 21 (Reuters) - Four New York Times journalists captured by Libyan forces while covering the conflict there are at the Turkish embassy in Tripoli and will be sent home within hours, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday.
link to www.trust.org
Three journalists missing in Libya - AFP
NEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters) - Three journalists, including two working for Agence France-Presse, have gone missing while covering the fighting in Libya, the news agency said on Sunday. In a statement AFP said Dave Clark, a reporter based at its Paris headquarters, and Roberto Schmidt, a photographer in its Nairobi bureau, had not been heard from since they sent an email to senior editors on Friday evening.
link to www.trust.org
Al Jazeera team held in Libya
Muammar Gaddafi's security forces have arrested four Al Jazeera Arabic journalists and are holding them in Tripoli.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/03/201132082949535527.html
Libyan Journalist Mohammed al-Nabbous Killed; Al-Jazeera Crew Arrested
BENGHAZI, Libya -- A Libyan journalist who ran a webcast program showing the aftermath of government attacks and commentary on the uprising against Moammar Gadhafi was killed in Saturday's government assault on the rebel capital in the country's east. Mohammed al-Nabbous, who founded a livestream channel called Libya Al-Hurra, or Free Libya, was hit by sniper fire as Gadhafi sent warplanes, tanks and troops into Benghazi, the first city to fall to the rebellion that began Feb. 15, friends said.
link to www.huffingtonpost.com
Mo, Issandr El Amrani
Although I watched some of his dispatches, I did not have the close relationship with Mohammed Nabbous that someone like Andy Carvin, the NPR strategist who has been tweeting the heck out of the Libyan uprising, had. The audio segment below shows his wife telling his followers that he's died. It's heartbreaking, but illustrative of the amazing role individuals like Mo are playing in trying to create a better future for their country. This generation of young Arabs, from Morocco to Bahrain, is a transformative force on the regional scene. This is only the beginning, but I'm hopeful that millions of Mo will each play their small part in transforming this region into a better place.
link to www.arabist.net
Introducing Nafissa Assed
Our correspondent in Tripoli, who’s been sending us such stirring and terriying reports, is now safe in Morocco. She is finally able to renounce her anonymity. She wants me to tell you her name in capital letters, NAFISSA ASSED, daughter of a martyr, proud Libyan citizen. Read her self-description after the break.
link to pulsemedia.org
Other News
Palestinians in Libya leave for Gaza
NABLUS (Ma’an) -- Thirty-four Palestinians waiting at the Libya border for permission to travel to Cairo and return to the Gaza Strip were granted travel visas Sunday, an official said. Though directives were given to issue the visas one week earlier, Palestinians in Libya remained stranded at the border for days.
link to www.maannews.net
Analysis/Op-ed
Outrage, hints of dissent inside Gaddafi's stronghold
TRIPOLI, March 20 (Reuters) - Allied air strikes may have galvanised Muammar Gaddafi's campaign against Western "terrorists" and "colonialists", but deep within his Tripoli stronghold muted murmurs of dissent persist. Tripoli is the heart of Gaddafi's military empire, and the ubiquitous chant of his supporters -- "Allah, Muammar, Libya" -- has echoed around the city with renewed vigour since Western forces went into action over Libya this weekend.
link to www.trust.org
'We needed foreign help – but now Libyans must end all this in Tripoli'
The bodies lay strewn, dismembered and burnt. Some of the faces expressed the horrors of the last moments, others lay peaceful, in repose. Around them were the remains of the tanks and artillery of Muammar Gaddafi's army, destroyed in an hour of pulverising and relentless air strikes.
link to www.independent.co.uk
Military assets in battle for Libya
As the attack on Libya begins, Al Jazeera takes a look at the type of weapons being used in what is being called 'Operation Odyssey Dawn'. France has deployed 20 warplanes, including Mirage and Rafale jet fighters and air carriers. The United States has three submarines and two guided missile destroyers and two amphibious warships. More than 110 Tomahawk cruise missiles have already been fired by a joint British-US operation. Denmark has deployed six F16 fighter jets. And Canada a further six F-18 hornet jets. Britain has stationed Tornado jets and Typhoons close to Libya. Al Jazeera's Gerald Tan shows where the weaponry has been strategically located.
link to www.youtube.com
Moammar Kadafi's thinning human shield
'We never get scared,' says one of the supporters in Tripoli speaking of allegiance to Libya's leader in the face of international threats. And then the rumors start. It was to be a human shield, a massive gathering of Moammar Kadafi's supporters at his Bab Azizia compound, and the Libyan leader was to give a late-night speech of defiance against the international forces arrayed against him.
link to feeds.latimes.com
Libya intervention comes too late for some
Opposition forces in Benghazi say 30 people were killed and many more wounded when troops loyal to longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi attacked the western outskirts of the rebel stronghold in the hours after the UN Security Council approved military action against him. Residents of the city expressed anger with the international community, saying it had acted too slowly to prevent one final assault from Gaddafi. But opposition fighters more than held their own, driving back the loyalist troops - some of whom may have remained in Benghazi all along as "sleeper cells" - and capturing at least two tanks. Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley reports from Benghazi.
link to www.youtube.com
How the No Fly Zone Can Succeed, Juan Cole
The United Nations no-fly zone over Libya is risky but it can have a good outcome under certain conditions. Above all, it should look more like Kosovo than like Iraq.
link to www.juancole.com
Infantile Leftism, Robin Yassin-Kassab
It certainly feels uncomfortable to watch American, British and French planes enforcing a no-fly zone over Libya, bombing Libya’s anti-aircraft defences and destroying Libyan tanks. Certainly the hypocrisy of the West and the Arab dictators is as galling as ever.
link to pulsemedia.org
Tripolitanian Abnormality, Robin Yassin-Kassab
Our Tripolitanian witness is alive and well in an Arab country beyond Libya’s borders. Free to use the internet again, she has sent some old reports. The first is from early March. Today I went out in my area, Ben Ashour, and all the shops were still closed in the main street.
link to pulsemedia.org
A Tribe Called Libya, Robin Yassin-Kassab
Our Tripolitanian witness is alive and well in an Arab country beyond Libya’s borders. Free to use the internet again, she has sent some old reports. This one is from March 7th. Today is the 7th March 2011, one of the most horrible days that Libya has witnessed since the ‘Greatest Libyan Revolution’ began.
link to pulsemedia.org
Gaddafi is the regime
Charles Glass has an excellent post on the London Review Blog, worth reproducing in full: The Libyan dictator is resisting the popular forces ranged against him in ways that his counterparts in Tunisia and Egypt did not. In Tunis and Cairo, Zine Abedine Ben-Ali and Hosni Mubarak were the faces of military regimes.
link to pulsemedia.org
Gaddafi's Secret Killing Fields
Ajdabiya, the eastern town and opposition stronghold, gets bombed during the night. Well, a shell lands in the town. Not much damage, but lots of fear. Everybody knows there is worse to come. And that's just how Gaddafi likes it: raw terror. Here's a man who has no respect for his people, a man who bombs them from the air with former Soviet Union supplied fighter jets. With his ego larger than the African continent, one is dealing with a modern-day Pharaoh. Forget about Islam, the Third Universal Theory or the Green Book. Gaddafi is all about himself. He is his own wrathful god. Gaddafi is god. Traitors are those misguided ones who do not worship at his feet.
link to palestinechronicle.com
War on Gaddafi is personal – and he is unlikely to retreat, Simon Tisdall
Capturing or killing the Libyan leader has now become an end in itself for the western allies. It's unlikely Muammar Gaddafi has watched the 1971 British film Get Carter, in which Michael Caine plays vengeful London gangster Jack Carter, who embarks on a violent rampage before being killed. But as the west's military might bears down on Libya, the Libyan leader might find the story line instructive.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
Robert Fisk: Remember the civilian victims of past 'Allied' bombing campaigns
How life past catches up with life present. The Americans killed Raafat al-Ghosain, puctured above, just after 2am on 15 April 1986. In the days that followed her death, United States officials claimed that Libyan anti-aircraft fire might have hit her home – watch out for similar American claims in the coming hours – not far from the French embassy in suburban Tripoli.
link to www.independent.co.uk
Yemen
Yemen Live Blog - March 21
As the uprising in Yemen continues, we update you with the latest developments from our correspondents, news agencies and citizens across the globe.
link to english.aljazeera.net
Yemeni general backs opposition
A powerful general close to President Ali Abdullah Saleh says he is joining anti-government protests as 20 people are reported killed in violence in the north.
link to www.bbc.co.uk
3 high military commanders join Yemen's opposition
One is a major general with family ties to President Ali Abdullah Saleh. He blames the government for dozens of civilian deaths. Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh's ruling coalition continued to crumble Monday as three top military commanders joined the opposition.
link to feeds.latimes.com
Tanks deploy in Yemen as top army general defects
Three army commanders, including a top general, defected today to the opposition calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to step down as army tanks and armoured vehicles deployed in the streets of the Yemeni capital.
link to www.independent.co.uk
Yemen ambassador to Saudi Arabia sides with protesters
SANAA, March 21 (Reuters) - Mohammed al-Ahwal, Yemen's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, has sided with protesters demanding the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh, according to a report on Al Arabiya television on Monday. It was not immediately clear whether he was leaving his post or resigning. Earlier on Monday, the Yemeni ambassador to Syria resigned from his post as well as from Saleh's ruling party as tens of thousands took to the streets to protest against this three decades-long rule.
link to www.trust.org
Yemen president fires cabinet
State media says embattled leader sacks his cabinet after weeks of pro-democracy protests demanding his resignation.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/03/2011320180579476.html
Yemen's UN envoy resigns over killings
Diplomat quits in protest against the killing of 52 demonstrators, while president Saleh's tribe urges him to step down.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/03/2011320123433298971.html
Major Yemen tribe urges Saleh to step down
Leader of Hashed asks president to concede to people's demands as funerals are held for dead protesters.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/03/201132093857646830.html
TIMELINE-Saleh's 32-year rule in Yemen
link to www.trust.org
Bahrain
Bahraini protester found dead after govt crackdown
MANAMA, March 21 (Reuters) - A Bahraini protester has been found dead after he went missing for days following a crackdown by security forces on mainly Shi'ite Muslim demonstrators last week, a member of an opposition group said on Monday.
link to www.trust.org
Bahraini dies in police detention - opposition
MANAMA, March 20 (Reuters) - A man detained by police two days ago has died, a statement from Bahrain's leading Shi'ite Muslim opposition party said on Sunday. "We were recently informed of the death of Abdulrusul Hassan Ali Hajair from Buri village after he was abducted by security forces and the army from Wafiq market on March 18," the Wefaq statement said. "His family was just told to pick up his body from the Salmaniya hospital."
link to www.trust.org
Bahrain: Armed Thugs Intimidate Protesters, Journalists (Time.com)
Time.com - The opposition accuses the government of hiring civilian thugs to intimidate protesters and foreign journalists. The government dismisses the charges
link to us.rd.yahoo.com
Bahrain: New Arrests Target Doctors, Rights Activists
(Manama) - Bahrain should end its campaign of arrests of doctors and human rights activists, Human Rights Watch said today. On March 19-20, 2011, state security forces, often masked and in civilian dress, arrested four medical doctors, and two human rights activists, and sought the arrest of a third. Human Rights Watch also remains concerned about the whereabouts of those doctors and rights advocates still in detention. The arrests, some of which occurred during pre-dawn hours, appear part of a broader government crackdown involving nighttime raids on the homes of those viewed as supporting pro-democracy protesters, Human Rights Watch said.
link to www.hrw.org
Bahrain medics claim army cover-up
Bahraini authorities have been accused of heavy-handedness in handling pro-democracy protesters. According to medics at Salmania hospital in the capital Manama, the security forces surrounded the hospital and disallowed people, including health workers and ambulance staff, to enter or leave the facility. The hospital staff have told Al Jazeera that doctors and nurses were beaten up and that many doctors were still under arrest. Many patients were allegedly also attacked by the military. Our special correspondent has this report from Manama.
link to www.youtube.com
Bahrain doctors, casualties caught up in crackdown
MANAMA, March 21 (Reuters) - Some doctors at Bahrain's busiest hospital say they are too scared to return to work for fear of being arrested or harassed after treating wounded protesters during weeks of unrest in the Sunni-ruled kingdom. Bahraini security forces raided Salmaniya hospital on Wednesday, the day they launched a crackdown that drove mainly Shi'ite Muslim protesters off the streets, and removed a handful of tents that opposition activists had set up in the car park.
link to www.trust.org
Bahrain hospital on frontline in protest crackdown
It was just after midnight when armed men in military uniforms came to the hospital bed of Ali Mansour Abdel-Karim Nasser, who was injured by pellets fired during a clash with riot police. He said what came next was worse: he was bound, beaten and mocked in the hallway of Bahrain's main state-run hospital.
link to www.independent.co.uk
Bahraini medics recount hospital horror
The Bahraini authorities have been accused of heavy-handed approach in handling with Shia Muslim protesters. According to medics at Salmania hospital in Manama, the security forces surrounded the hospital and did not allow ambulances to enter. The hospital staff have told Al Jazeera doctors and nurses were beaten up and many doctors are still under arrest. Our special correspondent has this report.
link to www.youtube.com
Bahrain opposition seeks UN, US help in crackdown (AP)
AP - Bahrain's opposition asked for U.N. and American intervention in the government crackdown on the Shiite protests trying to loosen the monarchy's grip, in a brief protest Sunday in the capital that disbanded before police could arrive to break it up.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110320/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_bahrain_protests
Bahrain 'regrets' opposition rebuff of talks (AFP)
AFP - Bahrain's government on Sunday regretted the "negative" response by opposition groups to an offer of dialogue aimed at ending a pro-democracy protest which police quelled this week.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110320/wl_mideast_afp/bahrainpoliticsunrest
Kuwaiti MPs to quiz premier over Bahrain troops (AFP)
AFP - Kuwaiti Islamist MPs have decided to file to question the prime minister in parliament for not sending troops to Bahrain.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110320/wl_mideast_afp/kuwaitpoliticsbahrainiran
Bahrain condemns Nasrallah's remarks
BEIRUT: The Bahraini Foreign Ministry condemned Sunday Hezbollah's criticism of its government, describing it as an intervention in the Gulf country's internal affairs which threatened Lebanese-Bahraini bilateral ties.
A statement released by the ministry said Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's verbal "assault against Bahrain and its people" was aimed.
link to www.dailystar.com.lb
Iran expels Bahrain diplomat in tit-for-tat move (AFP)
AFP - Iran on Sunday asked a Bahraini diplomat to leave the country in reprisal for the expulsion of one of the Islamic republic's diplomats from Manama, the official IRNA news agency reported.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110320/wl_mideast_afp/iranbahrainpoliticsexpel
Jordan's parliament rejects interference in Bahrain
AMMAN, March 20 (Xinhua) -- Jordan's Lower House said on Sunday it was following up developments in Bahrain with deep concern and anxiety, rejecting any illegal interference in the Gulf country's affairs. The house of deputies, in a statement stressed that any interference will worsen the situation and affect stability and peace in the country, saying Bahrain is capable of running its own internal affairs. The lower house, in the statement expressed hope the situation will be back to normal and stability be restored in Bahrain. "We call on our brotherly Bahrainis to place the national interests on top of priorities and resort to dialogue," the statement said. It urged all segments in the Bahraini community to work to bring the country out of the current situation.
link to news.xinhuanet.com
Disgusting Sectarianism: Foreign plot against Bahrain 'foiled'
"There is a foreign plot that has been in the making for at least 20 to 30 years so that the ground is ready for its execution. If it is successful in one of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, it might spread
link to gulfnews.com
Disgusting Sectarianism: Bahrain's king thanks Saudi troops for thwarting 'external plot'
The remarks by Bahrain's king reflect an effort to pin his country's recent Shiite-led protests on interference by the Gulf states' regional adversary, Iran.
link to rss.csmonitor.com
Saudi told US of Bahrain intervention: US official
"The United States government was informed about Saudi Arabia's military intervention in Bahrain before it happened, a senior US administration official said. "We received word that they were planning to head into Bahrain, but not with a significant amount of lead time," the US official said, asking to remain anonymous. Earlier, the Pentagon had said that it had received no warning that Saudi troops and others were being deployed to keep a lid on violent protests in the Gulf kingdom."
link to www.google.com
Sen. John Kerry on Saudi military intervention in Bahrain
“They are not looking for violence in the streets,” the senator said of the Saudi troops moving into Bahrain. “They would like to encourage the king and others to engage in reforms and a dialogue.” Time quickly proved him wrong. The violence started the next day, and it was not only Iran that blamed Washington. “Where are the Americans, where are the Americans, why are they allowing this, they are killing us with heavy guns, where are the Americans?” shrieked Hussein Muhammad, 37, a bookstore owner and political activist, in a breathless phone call Wednesday from Manama."
link to angryarab.blogspot.com
Protest outside Bahrain embassy in London (AFP)
AFP - Hundreds of demonstrators rallied outside the Bahraini embassy in London on Saturday in protest at a crackdown on the Gulf kingdom's pro-democracy movement.
http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/mideast/*http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110319/wl_uk_afp/bahrainpoliticsunrestbritaindemo
Bahrainis cannot be subdued for ever
An official from the UAE put it even more bluntly: "We and the Saudis will not accept a Shi'ite government in Bahrain." In other words, as far as the GCC countries are concerned, democracy or majority rule can never be allowed there.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
For Bahrain protest movement, democratic hopes give way to sectarian concerns
Many of the nation's majority Shiites fear their demands for greater influence in the country will not be met anytime soon.
link to www.washingtonpost.com
Saudi Arabian intervention in Bahrain driven by visceral Sunni fear of Shias
Despite an official stance that the Saudis were there to restore order, the real aim was to crush the rebels. Saudi Arabia and the UAE between them sit on tens of billions of dollars worth of state-of-the-art military equipment. They have both backed calls for UN-sponsored "no-fly zones" over Libya. Even if they are now willing to risk their expensive toys against the relatively meagre threat from Colonel Gaddafi's air defences, they will play a junior role to western forces.
link to www.guardian.co.uk
The Saudi intervention in Bahrain will fuel sectarianism, not stifle it | Madeleine Bunting
In Bahrain as elsewhere the uprising began in a spirit of hopeful nationalism. But now religious divides are being exploited. A man in jeans and a jumper is standing in the road, waving his arms in brave defiance as bullets crackle around him. A few seconds later, he crumples and is loaded, bleeding, into a car to be taken to hospital. It's a few minutes of footage from the streets of Manama in Bahrain and the kind of incident that has become familiar in the last few months of Arab uprisings. But pause a moment, because this image of extraordinary, reckless bravery can become iconic in different ways to its many web audiences. Do we understand all of them?
link to www.guardian.co.uk
When Petro-Dictators Unite: The Bahraini Opposition’s Struggle for Survival
For at least several decades, geopolitical, economic, territorial and ideological considerations have led to serious tensions, if not outright feuds, between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states. In recent weeks, however, the regimes of GCC states have shown their citizens that when their authoritarian rule is at stake, they will put aside their differences and put up a united front. Exceptional times, it seems, do call for exceptional measures. As such, the GCC endorsed NSC Resolution 1973–authorizing “all measures necessary” in Libya, including a no-fly zone. Indeed, while some GCC states have agreed to send troops to help overthrow one brutal dictator in Libya, others have already sent their US-trained and armed troops to uphold the rule of another entrenched and equally brutal dictator in Bahrain. But what exactly happens when some of the world’s most oppressive dictators unite, not to fight a well-known regional adversary further up North, but to put down a peaceful and democratic popular uprising?
link to www.jadaliyya.com
Al-Jazeera covers Bahrain
You may have noticed that Aljazeera, which shows phone video footage from Syria, has not shown video footage or even pictures from Bahrain. But yesterday, they did cover Bahrain in video. They showed a very low quality video allegedly showing protesters beating a police man, although I was only able to recognize a human being and a tree.
link to angryarab.blogspot.com
No Surprise James Zogby Supports Saudi Military Assault On Bahraini Protesters: Careerism And Hypocrisy With Remarkable Consistency
James Zogby has always been enamored with the hydrocarbon Sheiks (“Shakes” as he calls them) of the Arab Gulf states. His one-man outfit receives financial support from the arrogant and ignorant princes, he maintains friendly relations with the American approved dynasties, and has racked up more frequent flyer miles traveling to the region (often as a propagandist for US Foreign Policy on trips organized by US embassies) than he can redeem in a lifetime. He has an especially close relationship with the ruling families of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) which includes warm relations with their embassy in Washington and a weekly talk show on the Abu-Dhabi (“Obew-Dobby” as he says) satellite channel which has fewer viewers than the number of Arab countries where it’s available.
link to ikhras.com
Saudi Arabia
Saudi Shi'ite protests simmer as Bahrain conflict rages (Reuters)
Reuters - Hundreds of young Shi'ite men marched down a commercial street in the Saudi city of Qatif, near the heart of the kingdom's oil industry, pounding their fists in anger over their country's military intervention in Bahrain.
link to us.rd.yahoo.com
Saudis gather to demand release of prisoners
Saudi Arabia has warned those seeking reform that protests will not be tolerated, as they violate Koran's teachings.
link to www.trust.org
Saudi protest ends with arrests
Authorities detain about a dozen demonstrators demanding information about loved ones jailed for years without trial.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/03/2011320112126999266.html
Syria
Anti-government protests spread in Syrian south
DAMASCUS, March 21 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people demonstrated against the Syrian government in the town of Jassem on Monday, activists said, as unrest spread in southern Syria. "They are staging a sit-in the centre of the town," one of the activists said.
link to www.trust.org
The First Martyr In Daraa Mahmoud Al-Jawabreh
link to www.youtube.com
Syrian police fire at protesters, killing 1: activists
DARAA, Syria: Police fired live ammunition and tear gas Sunday at thousands of Syrians protesting in a tense southern city for a third consecutive day, killing one person and signaling that unrest in yet another Arab country is taking root, activists said.
link to www.dailystar.com.lb
Wave of unrest shakes Syria as crowds torch party HQ
Crowds set fire to a headquarters of the ruling Baath Party in the Syrian city of Deraa yesterday, residents said, as the wave of unrest in the Arab world shook even one of its most authoritarian states.
link to www.independent.co.uk
Syria protesters torch buildings
One person killed as demonstrations in the southern city of Daraa continue for a third straight day.
http://english.aljazeera.net//news/middleeast/2011/03/2011320113138901721.html
Syria’s Opposition Divided. Demonstrations Have Different Goals
Steven Starr, a freelance reporter in Damascus and founder of the Near East Quarterly, makes a good point about the lack of any known leadership among the opposition and the diverse regional motivations for the demonstrations. The differing motivations and goals driving each of the protests suggest a lack of coordination. The government can restore control, this would suggest, if it doesn’t defeat itself by responding with too much force and if it listens to the people. This report suggests ongoing trouble: One Reported Shot Dead On Third Day Of Syrian Protest just as a delegation from Damascus arrived in the city to offer condolences for the four deaths the day before. Protesters demanding freedoms and an end to corruption set fire to the headquarters of the ruling Baath Party in the Syrian southern city of Deraa on Sunday.
link to www.joshualandis.com
Joshua Landis, "Syria: Demonstrations Grow"
Momentum is building for the opposition. The demonstrations are getting bigger with each day. They started out gathering between 100 to 300. Today's demonstration was well over 1,000 in Deraa. . . . The killing of four in Deraa is new. Many Syrians claim that this is the first time President Assad has drawn blood with the shooting of demonstrators. The Kurdish intifada of 2004 in the Jazeera ended with the death of many but that occurred following the successful constitutional referendum in Iraq and was blamed on external factors. To many Syrians, this time seems different. It is unclear where this can lead as the opposition has no leadership and Syria has no organized parties. . . The top brass of the armed forces are unlikely to abandon the leadership as they did in Tunisia or Egypt; all the same, loyalties would be divided for many. The next few days will be telling.
link to bit.ly
Other Mideast Protests
Thousands of Moroccans demand change, end to corruption
Despite pledges of comprehensive constitutional reforms by King Mohammad VI, thousands of Moroccans took to the streets in cities nationwide on Sunday raising their demands to more political reforms, including the immediate departure of the government and the end of corruption.
link to www.alarabiya.net
Thousands in Beirut rally against sectarianism
BEIRUT: Thousands of protesters congregated in Beirut Sunday calling for the end of "the sectarian regime."
The march was the third of its kind in less than a month and attracted more than double the numbers seen at the last event on March 6, when some 10,000 were estimated to have hit the streets, organizers said. Beginning at Sassine Square at noon.
link to www.dailystar.com.lb
Analysis/Op-ed
Bahrain and Yemen declare war on their protesters, Patrick Cockburn
With 42 killed in Sanaa, regimes show they will keep power at any cost
Abrutal counter-revolution is sweeping through the Arabian Peninsula as Bahrain and Yemen both declare war on reform movements and ferociously try to suppress them with armed force. In Yemen police and snipers on rooftops opened fire on Friday on a mass demonstration outside the main university, killing at least 42 people. The government has since declared martial law and set up checkpoints throughout the capital, Sanaa.
link to www.independent.co.uk
Nasrallah may well be quite right, but I fear that Zionists and neocons can use his remarks to deligitimatize the Libyan revolutionaries.
The good news is that Yemen seems to be going the way of Egypt’s revolution, and the Saudis are keeping their noses out.
Potsherd, that the Saudis are keeping their noses out of anything would be an understatement. They are extremely generous in helping other countries but everyone has to dance to heir tune. They are very involved in many areas of the world, especially where there are Shia Muslims (that they consider apostates at best and heretics at worst) that need to be reminded of their non-place in the world. They have been busy for a couple of years, along with US help of course, in south Yemen helping put down a Shia insurgency trying to secede from Yemen since 2004:
link to news.bbc.co.uk:
Do people know that while Shia constitute 70% of the population in Bahrain that they are not allowed to serve in the military? The Saudis and Bahrainis are bringing mercenaries from Pakistan link to dawn.com to subdue the majority there all the while condemning Iran for interfering and questioning the patriotism of the Shia majority in the country. But, Shias around the world should keep their mouths shut so that neocons don’t freak out? Those days are over in the Middle East. Thank God.
Walid, I like the way you think. I’m not Muslim either but have family that is (though they aren’t Shia either), and it’s always refreshing to run into another non-Shia that is appalled by the treatment of Shia, gives me hope. We should start a club or something :)
Hi Seham, I’m a Sunni (because I was born like that) and I went to all March 14 rallies in 2005 to demonstrate against Syria’s presence. I disliked Hizbullah and didn’t know much about it until I saw how their 3000 fighters and a few part timers handled themselves heroically against the 30,000 invaders in 2006. I’m still pro-US and admire Hizbullah from a distance but I’m sympathetic to it now and glad it’s there to keep the bad guys out of Lebanon and to get the overdue justice and respect for the Shia Muslims everywhere and for the social programs it is providing to almost 2 million Shia in Lebanon.
Sorry Walid, I confused you for someone else who said they were Christian. I hate to be so sectarian but I like you even more now that I know you are Sunni because your sect (even if you are not currently claiming it) and your politics are what will make all the difference to the future of the Mideast.
POTSHERD2- “Nasrallah may well be quite right, but I fear that Zionists and neocons can use his remarks to deligitimatize the Libyan revolutionaries.”
“Revolutionaries”? What revolutionaries? “This is not a non-violent protest movement as in Egypt and Tunisia. Conditions in Libya are fundamentally different. The armed insurgency in Eastern Libya is directly supported by foreign powers.” (Michel Chossudovsky, 3/7/11) If the rebels were really good-guys, intent upon people power control of their oil resources and independence from the Washington concensus, US/NATO would be supporting Gaddafi and bombing them. There has been a lot of wishful thinking and unrealistic romanticizing going on regarding events in the Middle East of late.
Potsherd, Arabs aren’t worried about Israel says anymore neither should you :)
Seham, what worries me is what American neocons say.
Seham, what worries me is what American neocons say.
I don’t think it helped the Shi’ites in Bahrain when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spoke up for them and set off Saudi paranoia.
None of these reactionaries care that what people like Nasrallah and Ahmadinejad say may be entirely right. It’s all whose side you’re on.
Potsherd,
Though I do understand what you are getting at and I rarely take issue with your comments I don’t think that what Ahmadinejad said regarding Bahrain was detrimental. The Saudi sectarian doctrine has been in play for a very long time in the region, it existed before Ahmadinejad was elected in Iran and it will exist post Ahmadinejad. It’s not about one man that Arabs see as dangerous it’s about the backwardness of Arab regimes that have for too long treated the Shia like dogs in their own countries. In Lebanon you have Christian and Sunnis who have treated the South like a garbage dump because of their hatred of Shia, that hatred of Shias in Lebanon existed before Nasrallah and it will exist afterwards. I cannot blame Nasrallah or Ahmadinejad or any other Shia for speaking the truth about what is happening to Bahrainis and for rightfully condemning the treatment of the Shia there. I would also urge for the Shia in the region (mainly Nasrallah and Ahmadinejad) to offer whatever support they can to the people there before the backwards, hateful and sectarian Saudi regime kills anymore Bahrainis there. Apparently, not as many Arabs care when Shia die as they do when other Arabs die but we shouldn’t be surprised when Shia care about other Shia. Arabs shouldn’t be expected to sit around and die quietly while more “palatable” figures to the West speak out for human rights.
nasrallah made a point of saying in the video these weren’t sectarian issues and there would be no sectarian division in lebanon as a result of what was happening re march 14th..
thanks for the video. i like the engagement of the audience the way they stand up and cheer. everyone should at least watch the end starting around 50 minutes.
At near the end of his talk, Nasrallah reiterated what most Lebanese had suspected but were too embarrassed to ask about since 2006 and that was confirmed a couple of days back in recently released wikileaks messages, that at the height of the July 2006 war, the pro-US ministers in the Beirut government had been providing strategic information to Israel on Hizbullah’s comings and goings by way of the US embassy in Beirut. Le clou de la soirée that everyone was waiting for in the speech came when Nasrallah announced that the families of the 1400 killed by Israel during the 2006 war would be demanding court action against members of the government that had worked with the enemy. This sort of explains the dozens of spies for Israel (most of which have been caught) in key and security posts in Lebanese government and telecom companies.
Lebanese politics are a real snakepit, aren’t they?
More like a cesspool, like politics anywhere and everywhere.
People should be worried about what Nasrallah’s associates do.
Everyone knows you mean ‘israelis’ should “be worried”. And they so are, to put it mildly and politely.
no. I mean Lebanese people and others.
What, seriously, more than the butchers of the IDF?
“Nasrallah’s associates” = Most of Southern Lebanon.
“People should be worried about what Nasrallah’s associates do.”
Why? As far as I can tell, Nasrallah’s associates
(a) defend Lebanon from Israel
and
(b) provide valuable social services to the people of southern Lebanon.
What’s worrying about that?
the subverting Lebanese sovereignty part is kinda worrisome.
fusty, if it weren’t for Israel and its American puppets, Lebanese sovereignty would be safely in the hands of Nasrallah. But he knows too well that this would be taken as an excuse for another Israeli assault.
The thing that Lebanon has to worry about is its bad neighbor to the south.
How is he subverting it? His party defends Lebanon against foreigners.
You’ve got to be kidding me. It’s one thing to be a non-Zionist, quite another to praise a guy like Nasrallah, heading a genocidal organization like Hezbollah.
The left has long had an uncritical stance to murderous dictators, going back to Stalin, through Mao and then to Castro. Nasrallah isn’t as murderous as the others, but that’s because he isn’t simply as powerful.
If Mondoweiss wants to influence debate, it’s fine for me to be critical, even hostile to Zionism. Posting deluded articles by fangirls of the Nasrallahs of the world will only gain the acceptance of genuine self-hating Jews(who are far less numerous than the rightists try to proclaim).
Denouncing Nasrallah (and his fellow-travellers) does not equate support for Israel’s current policies. And similarily: opposition to aggressive Zionism does not equate support for aggressive Islamism, which is what Nasrallah represents.
This is a shameful article and it will delegimitize Mondoweiss. Forget the neocons and the hard-right crazies. Drooling admiration for Hezbollah will especially ailenate the ranks of moderate liberals, the key demographic this site purports to influence. Failing to self-police fangirls of Nasrallah, and Hezbollah by default, like Seham, and face the consequences of (rightly) being branded as indifferent – at best – to Israels fate.
Criticism to Israel is at it’s best out of a genuine concern for it’s democratic deficit and barbarous policies towards palestinians. Support for anything that’s against Israel, even if a genocidal organization like Hezbollah, is not only wrong. It’s morally evil and will give you zero influence.
Progressives supporting Hezbollah are no progressives at all. Giving space to an Hezbollah-admirer like Seham does wonders to brand you as lunatics and you’d deserve it if no actions are taken against this genocidal islamist-sympathizer.
Nasrallah, heading a genocidal organization like Hezbollah.
lol, another live one folks!
Your accusations against Hizbollah being genocidal are clear enough an indicator. So, don’t worry.
In the eyes of concern trolls — that means people like you — Mondoweiss never had any legitimacy. Nonetheless, you get a sparkly star sticker for effort.
Krauss, I don’t think your hyperbole is worth a response. Have a nice day.
The left has long had an uncritical stance to murderous dictators, going back to Stalin, through Mao and then to Castro. Nasrallah isn’t as murderous as the others, but that’s because he isn’t simply as powerful.
nasrallah has not yet killed the tens of millions attributed to Stalin and Mao? but it’s just a matter of time and increasing doses of lefty love. brilliant historical analysis. probably another pre-emptive counterattack in nasrallah’s future. looks that way in my crystal ball, anyway. the only way to stop another genocide, you must agree. i hope to see more of you here in the future, krauts. this site needs clear minded individuals like yourself. like the way you think.
link to youtube.com
Classic Rodney Dangerfield. Love it.
Krause evidently hasn’t gotten over the fact the his beloved IDF (who killed 10 times as many people in 2006 as Hezbollah) were defeated TWICE by Hezbollah.
I do find it perplexing how extremists like Krauss throw around terms like “genocidal”, in reference to Hezbollah, in spire of the fact they’ve killed very few people and repeatedly demonstrated remarkable restraint.
What drives people like Krauss loopy is the fact that Nasrallah has outsmarted , outmaneuvered and outwitted Israel at every turn. Every time the Israeli/Washington nexus thought they had Hezbollah cornered , Hezbollah have turned the situation completely to their advantage. In 2006, Israel were convinced they were going to crush Hezbollah, and were sent home humiliated. Last year, the US and Israel thought they had Hezbollah on the ropes with the STL, and out of nowhere, Hezbollah not only completely removed that threat but legally pulled a master stroke and have gained control of the government.
“I do find it perplexing how extremists like Krauss throw around terms like “genocidal”, in reference to Hezbollah, in spire of the fact they’ve killed very few people and repeatedly demonstrated remarkable restraint.”
Indeed they have, did you know that unlike other Muslim and Christian Lebanese militias, Hizbullah never engaged in sectarian bloodletting?
Those neocons have done their work well!
The natives are restless. Considering the worst economy since the Great Depression and the trend in the USA of more and more Americans feeling like their vote means nothing under successive democratically elected regimes due to the de facto 2-party system & pure bribery form of political campaign financing, within which legal fictions like corporations have an obvious super-advantage, is it possible that in places like Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan Americans will be treated to blood in the streets too? Just how strong are America’s civil rights post Patriot Act (recently reenabled without fanfare), and under the elasticity of the label “terrorist associate/enabler,”
the emerging anti-Muslim fever, the dilution by illegal immigration, the
elevation of diversity, the collapse of the Melting Pot, the tossed salad approach, and the more focused wealthy rule of international corporations and banking, and Ike’s old fav, the military-industrial-thinktank-academic-MSM coalition?
Please do not forget the solidarity activists in the Midwest who are being hounded by the Obama justice dept. with threats of prison under a grand jury subpoena! link to stopfbi.net
We are in deep trouble here in the US as you note.
Are you referring to those backers of FARC who attended conferences with them. Sorry Linda, if those fools cannot distinguish between a revolutionary movement from a drug-dealing criminal enterprise, they do not have my support.
Do not even mention them in a thread about Hezbollah. As much as I oppose religious fundamentalism I do respect and recognize the following:
1. They have never attacked the US nor targeted US citizens (unless they may have been in IDF uniform at the time).
2. A small group of 3000 fighters defeated the fourth most powerful military in the world — an admirable feat of courage and military leadership.
3. Politically they are a social welfare organization that at least until today are incorruptible.
Tovio, I left this comment for you on Saturday, not sure whether you saw it.
Submitted on 2011/03/20 at 12:57 am | In reply to ToivoS.
Tovio, I see very courageous people that were encouraged by what they saw their neighbors do and decided to try to do the same. I suspect that they had no idea that Qadhafi would respond the way that he did because they watched two other dictators go with comparatively less bloodshed. I also suspect that the military defections occurred as Qadhafi started getting more and more violent in his reactions. That’s how the people on the ground in Libya are spinning it and I choose to believe them. I also completely understand what the concerns of leftists are about American intervention, I share the same concerns but I am optimistic (you may think I am naive, but I feel very optimistic about Arabs right now) that just like the Libyan people rebelled against Qadhafi that they will also turn against this coalition should it attempt to continue on for more than a day after Qadhafi’s death. I am also very pissed off about the hypocrisy of the West when it comes to determining which Arabs get to live and die and I do realize that the West makes these determinations based on their oil considerations or their Zionist criminal friends in the region. I really wish there would have been a NFZ to protect the lives of Palestinians during Gaza. But all these things are not the fault of the Libyans that were begging for help from anyone, unfortunately anyone turned out to be the West. I so wanted Egypt to be the ones that went into Libya to help for so many reasons–not just because I wanted them to help their Arab neighbors that wanted the same exact thing that their countrymen have just struggled so beautifully for–but because I would have liked to see Egypt continue to elevate itself rapidly in the Arab world. But they didn’t do anything. So I do understand all of the things that some leftists are troubled by but I would have a pretty hard time making any of those arguments to the people that are living in terror of Qadhafi right now or to the crowd in Benghazi that cheered the decisions with Tahrir like delight. Oh and they had a Palestinian flag in Benghazi during the announcement and they chanted anti Zionist slogans. So, I trust the Arabs that are risking their lives for what they believe in. Arabs don’t have to sit there and get killed just so the rest of us can have a great time watching the revolutions on Al Jazeera. Oh and I think Iran and Hezbollah should help Bahrainis, Yemenis and Palestinians. Arabs everywhere have the right to live and they don’t need to be ultra selective about who helps them while they are being massacred.
Yes Seham, I saw your comment but did not respond since I agree with so much of what you are trying to say. Our difference is that I am much more skeptical of Western intentions or their ability to manipulate events. I just wanted to mention that skeptical perspective.
what world do you live on? Hezbollah capture and killed several Americans in Lebanon ToivoS
link to query.nytimes.com
facts that interfere with the nonsense view about Hezbollah not being murderers don’t have to be counted. kidnapping, torturing and killing Americans always never happened if Hezbollah did it.
Your report says one and the guy was military guy who had no business in Lebanon.
As your link says, Higgins was captured AFTER Israel abducted a Muslim cleric, Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid, a leader of the Party of God, in southern Lebanon on Friday.
Yet another example fo American lives being put at risk for Israel.
Colonel Buckley, Shingo, and you don’t get to decide who has business in Lebanon or get to excuse murder on that specious basis.
It’s not whether Hezbollah kidnap, torture and killing Americans fuster, it’s whether kidnapping, torturing and killing is problem only when Hesbollah do it.
The US nad legalized kidnapping, torturing and killing and Israel brags about doign it, so the discusion is kinda pointless.
Where’s your creepo link to support your creepo allegation fuster?
For instance the names of Americans you claim Hizbollah killed.
No I don’t fuster, Hezbollah, who are are Lebanese rognazation do get to decide and they decided the guy was there for nefarious reasons.
Can we CC Nasrallah’s comments re the Libyan rebels to wolfowitz and company?
Yes, it’s good in the big picture that Nasrallah is helping create a balance of power in the Middle East. But on the other hand he’s a bully, a politician that simply likes to preserve his power. He “suggested” to Said Hariri that he not return from his trip abroad a few months ago. His charisma would be meaningless without the massive weaponry he gets from Syria and Iran. He is promoting Arab pride, but has absolutely no desire to promote a healthy, real democracy in Lebanon. He’s nothing without an “enemy” to rail against – in this way, he’s really a lot like his friend across the border, Netanyahu…..
Harvey,
I don’t think that Nasrallah is a bully and he gets a lot of flack from some Arabs for never speaking out enough or condemning enough the crimes of other Arabs (even within Lebanon). It was not until this last speech that we have seen him use such aggressive language against Arab dictators and the traitors inside of Lebanon that aided the Israeli massacres there during the last war. I don’t really care where he gets his weapons from just as long as he is able to continue to protect Lebanese sovereignty from Israeli invasions and occupations. He is working within the political system in Lebanon that was put in place way before there was even a Hezbollah to begin with, he controls the government with a coalition that involves Shia, Sunnis and Christians and the reason why people are drawn to him is because the opposition is made up of self-serving morons.
Nasrallah has the sympathy of close to 80% of the Lebanese and a quarter of those numbers are Christians. More important than that, he has the respect of 100% of Israelis that know they should not mess with him. The basic reason the US wants to eliminate Hizbullah has nothing to do with Israel or its bogus security paranoia but with the inspiration Hizbullah has been providing to the ordinary folks in US client dictatorships like Algeria, Tunisia, the West Bank, Saudia, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Yemen, Iraq and so on that are all on thin ice or on borrowed time.
Nasrallah was the only Arab leader that spoke out during Cast Lead and in fact, he asked the Egyptians as well as their army to revolt against their government for its collaboration with Israel in enforcing the blockade of Gaza. That’s when one of of Hizbullah’s operatives was arrested in Egypt for trying to bring help to the Gazans.
In his speech, Nasrallah said he had a few surprises for Israel if it decided to muck around Lebanon’s offshore gas reserves and everbody knows (especially in Israel) that Nasrallah does not make empty promises. Israel had the gall to claim the totality of offshore gas fields all the way from Egypt’s border at Gaza and up the coast past Lebanon and Syria to Cyprus’ borders.
Seham, Nasrallah isn’t protecting Lebanese sovereignty from a damn thing.
He’s subverting it.
Bullshit. By all accounts Nasrallah and Hezbollah are the only things standing between Beirut and an Israeli occupation.
Or scorched earth campaign.
Dear Fusty, can you tell me, did you say this with a straight face?
fuster your assessment of the hizb is completely amateur, fueled by fear and sour grapes.
LIBYA—-
Anthony Shadid among four Times journalists released….
link to nytimes.com
I love it how your hate sense overloads and explodes. “But Nasrallah… Hezbollah — Arabs! — oh wait… Libya! Libya! ARABS!”
Try to stay on target, gramps. This is embarrassing.
Seham is clearly in mad love with Sayeed Nasrallah.
I know you had first dibs on the Nass but hey Seham is prettier and smarter and faster.
C’mon don’t take it so hard, you and Nass had nothing in common: you’re from europe, he’s from northern Galilee.
“the Nass” love it.
Nasrallah is a cruel , sadistic, terrorist, leading a clerical-fascist movement. By launching the war in 2006 he caused immense damage to Lebanon. It really is mind-boggling that sane, progressive, people could express admiration for the guy.
Nasrallah is a cruel , sadistic, terrorist, leading a clerical-fascist movement. By launching the war in 2006
always illuminating hearing from our resident lefty zionists.
Correction Annie, Jon called himself a post zionist.
whoops!
In other words jon s: you and your ex-idf hazbeenz simultaneously crap in your camouflage pants every time he gives a speech.
You gotta love the mind of the post Zionist.
Israel masacrd 1,300 Lebanese and duimped 1 million cluster bopmbs on Southern Lebanon, but it’s Nasrallah that is cruel and sadistic.
How is it that a sadistic momvement provides social services and aid to all of Southern Lebanon and who’s rebui8lding efforts after 2006 left Americans wondering why the US government could not match it’s efforts after Katrina?
How is it that a fascist movement has stated very clerly that it has no religious agenda whatsoever. it dos not want to impose Sahriah Law on Lebanon.
How is it that a fascist movement has never sought to use force to take control of Lebanon even thoguh it is far and away the most miliatrily powerful group?
Stop being such an ignoramus Jon and read the Winograd Commisson Report. It stated quite dlearly that Israel initiated the 2006 war.
It’s no surprise that Zionists suffer apoplexy every time this guy gives as speech. Isael have tried to out fight him and lost. They tried to set him up with the help of Washington, and he tyurned the tables on them.
His chrime is that he and his militia were ablwe to stand up to Israel and defeat them TWICE, and drive them out fo Israel TWICE; which is clearly an unforgivable sin.
jon s, what proof is there that Nasrallah’s sadistic?
don’t stretch the facts that way.
I was referring to his sadistic toying with the families of the missing soldiers- the Avitan, Avraham and Sawaed families, and later the Goldwasser and Regev families.
The score with Nasrallah hasn’t been settled yet.
Jon your government has THOUSANDS of Palestinians in prison. And many of them are children.
You personally, for funding, aiding and abetting that, are an order of magnitude a greater sadist than Nasrallah. How many of the children you teach in school are going to grow up to be prison guards who, couple decades from now, will be literally pissing on children their age now, among other tortures and humiliations?
Better yet, how many of the children you’ve already taught have grown up to be torturers? Or how many of them are now waging pogroms on the West Bank?
How many children have you warped into monsters so far?
“… The score with Nasrallah hasn’t been settled yet.”
This is exactly what Nasrallah keeps reminding us about what’s left to be settled in Israel if it tries any of its attacks or blockades on Lebanon. Israeli terrorists have so far killed over 30,000 Lebanese civilians and nobody has forgotten them either. Expect a return courtesy visit the next time.
In other words, Jon considers the normal behavior perpetrated by Israel to be sadistic when it’s done to his tribe.
Are there Palestinian families who don’t know whether their loved ones are dead or alive?
I have no conflict at all with the Lebanese people, but Nasrallah wants to destroy my country.
I don’t think your nasty question deserves an answer, but I’ll reply anyway:
Hopefully my students absorb values such as democracy, equal rights and social justice. What do they teach in Hizbullah schools?
Yes. Hundreds. For example, 2 brothers were kidnapped from Gaza city the day before Shalit was captured. They have never been heard if since.
The only difference between Nasrallah and Iarael’s leaders is that they’ve destroyed Southern Lebanon TWICE. You’re self obsession and tone deafness is a sight to behold.
Hezbollah have never eracked, invaded or occupied Israel Jon. You know thus, so why are you trying so hard to appear like an ass?
Yes. Hundreds of them. Thousands, probably. Let’s start with the civilian engineer your government kidnapped from Ukraine. Is he still alive? Or is he dying under “strenuous testimony” as we debate this?
Nasrallah wants to end a threat to the Lebanese people that threatens to kill thousands, and leave thousands more destitute, occupied non-citizens while you extract enough water to make your pretty lawn green, jon. The fact of the matter is, you as an IDF veteran have GALLONS of blood on your hands, whereas Nasrallah has only dipped his hand in blood a little bit.
Both of you have blood on your hands. The difference between you and Nasrallah, jon, is the difference between armed assault and mass murder.
Is this before or after they got off the Sderot hilltop and stop cheering as another hosptial explodes under a shower of Israeli F-16 air strikes?
“Hopefully my students absorb values such as democracy, equal rights and social justice. ”
Too bad “your country” doesn’t practice what you teach.
“Hopefully my students absorb values such as democracy, equal rights and social justice. What do they teach in Hizbullah schools?”
Hezbollah schools teach values such as commitment to human rights and social justice, just as you do. In a slightly different context, that’s all.
What you really don’t like is that the country you seem to worship, Israel, views universal human rights as their enemy. It is sad that israel has become a state with the least commitment to Jewish values in the world. Which is why I find the statement “Jewish and democratic’ hilarious – for a state that is obviously committed to neither.
Jon s , maybe you should take the trouble and read Nasrallah’s speech. You might learn something about shared values. perhaps even a heck of a lot more than you might learn from, say, 70% of Israel’s residents and the rag tag assortment of their right wing proto-fascist politicians?
Yes, hopefully, because none if those values exist in Israel.
I’ll guess we’ll find out, if Israel ever becomes a society based on those values. So far, the evidence says otherwise.
Whatever it is, it seems to be working. They’ve obviously learned how to outsmart, outmaneuver abs out fight the IDF.
I’m not sure if courage and bravery are things you learn at school, but they seem to have plenty of that.
jon s.
clenchner can’t be happy about your associating with him as a “moderate”, “liberal” Zionist trying to get into the small tent.
Perhaps I should pull a Dimi Reider and demand clenchner condemn your statements.
By launching the war in 2006 he caused immense damage to Lebanon.
You seem to have difficulty ascribing any responsibility or blame to Israel for its actions. The immense damage to Lebanon was caused by Israel, under a centrist government at the time. Maybe you should ask yourself why you have such a blind spot when it comes to Israel and its responsibility for its own decision and actions.
I’m pretty sure it was you and your ilk who dropped all of those cluster bombs and leveled whole neighborhoods in Beirut, jon. Your crocodile tear “Look how many children Nasrallah made me kill!” act is just sickening.
Israel. Land of moral bankruptcy.
I always find thsi position mind boggling to consider. It amounts to a frank admission that Israelis are a collection of psycopaths who have an involuntary response to kill civlians, and that we should simply accept that as the status quo and place all responsibilty on those who dare to provoke them.
EGYPT——
Referendum Overwhelmingly Approved
link to nytimes.com
“It is very, very disappointing,” said Hani Shukrallah, who is active in a new liberal political party and is the editor of Ahram Online, a news Web site.
BOYCOTT all this creepo troll’s links.
Obviously he has self-appointed himself the site’s town crier – ‘crier’ in more ways than one – notice how excited he always gets to deliver negative news about Arabs.
He’s idiotic enough to think that we would get a ‘real truthful ‘ education on Egypt from reading the dirty-deceiving NYT – and like ANYONE cares about what the editor of Al-Ahram says: Al Ahram fusty you bafoon is Mubarak’s mouthpiece, always was!
Really, it must be good news if both Al Ahram and the NYT disapprove.
Fuster you’re a pathetic failed agent provacateur – you have no intelligence gathered: that’s just one of your problems.
you read it wrong, and you’re overheating again.
——active in a new liberal political party and is the editor of Ahram Online, a news Web site. ——
AHRAM ONLINE is NOT Al-Ahram.
link to english.ahram.org.eg
you need some coolant.
That doesn’t change the fact that you’re being disingenuous, toad. I agree that Taxi was a little hot-headed, but frankly, time and time again you show yourself to be a cruel, insincere self-interested prevaricator.
Like, for instance, how you tried to justify Israel waging black ops against Palestinians in Ukraine, and presumably anywhere else in the world.
I didn’t try at all to justify it, kid.
I don’t understand what happened enough to even contemplate whether it’s justifiable.
I’m hoping for more info about it. It’s got my interest.
No coolant till the occupation of Palestine/Lebanon/Syria is OVER!
It’s NEVER nice to see you kermit – not cuz you’re a horrid little zionist, but cuz you only ever slam two things on the Mondo table: stupidity or acrimony – often both.
Like you really CARE about Egypt and it’s people. NOT!!!!!!!!!!
Your dishonesty is what disgusts me the most about you.
we surely don’t have to like each other, and I’m pretty sure that you like me more than than I care for you, but let’s just keep it together enough to read the same things at least close to the same way.
happy trails.
Taxi was not wrong and she doesn’t need any coolant, she’s the coolest of the cool but the ziofrog here needs a strong laxative because he’s full of it. From the “about us” on its website:
About ahramonline
Ahram Online is the English-language news web site published by Al-Ahram Establishment, Egypt’s largest news organization, and the publisher of the Middle East’s oldest newspaper, the daily Al-Ahram, in publication since 1875.
Ahram Online was launched 26 November 2010.
gosh you mean Fuster, The Resident Liar actually told a deliberate lie ??
Well I never . . . .
link to english.ahram.org.eg
Chief Editor: Hani Shukrallah.
————————
link to weekly.ahram.org.eg
Editor-in-Chief …………Assem El-Kersh
different sites.
did you read your own link? walid already copied it i will do it one more time:
just look at the urls fussy! here is their wiki page
more at the link!
same company you dolt.
different sites, different editors, different content, annie.
you might find that the Egyptian Ministry of Info controls ALL THE PRESS!!!!!!!!!!!!
different sites.
hey, that inspires me. maybe i could move to cairo and open up my own news org right down the street with the very same name as the egyptian governments news org!
they wouldn’t mind and egypt is so last last century, they probably have never even heard of trademarks there, unlike us in the civilized world.
He’s not just a “dolt” (you’re so kind to use that word annie-cutie), actually methinks he’s being paid to make daily dolty appearances here for sabotage and muck-raking purposes. That’s why I treat him like a horrid employee of someone not so very nice, a hasbara jihadist, a lemming disguised as a frog.
I especially object to his regular use of violent metaphor/cliche/image when his intellectual honesty is questioned and challenged. All he ever does is cut and paste from hasbara-friendly sites then close his post with an unnecessary and uncalled-for poison dart at someone’s eyeball.
The sooner this ‘plant’ that’s pretending to be amphibious is exposed for what he is, the better for this site’s reputation.
The fust really belongs to the creepy huffington post that’s positively seething and crawling with 101 hasbara croakers.
Ugh I can almost hear them all incessantly croaking at the zio full moon.
Someone is always disappointed in the results of elections.
Just days before Hezbollah captured two IDF soldiers Israel committed an assassination in south Lebanon. The war that followed was really strange, although bloody it had some appearance of “proof of concept”, as both sides were positioning for the “real thing”. My impression that Hezbollah, and Iran, had narrow goals and achieved them, while Israel, and USA, had unrealistic goals and failed. And the Israeli tactics were totally wrongheaded, bordering with insane.
Basically, Hezbollah was proving a measure of deterrence by mantaining the ability of sending missiles to Israel. Israel doctrine was of overwhelming retaliation to cow to submission, and that did not work. What was bordering with insane is that it seemed that by bombing targets all over Lebanon, IDF neglected the actual positions of Hezbollah. Concentrating on military targets, rather then terrorizing population is not only more moral, but actually makes more military sense.
With all that, Iran refrained from all-out escalation by not providing Hezbollah with more modern missiles. But one modern anti-ship missile crippled an IDF vessel. To me, it was a proof of concept of ultimate doomsday weapon in the hands of Iran: stopping traffic in Strait of Hormuz if attacked. Then we could bomb their positions, as IDF did with Hezbollah, with similarly meager effect, and we could send Marines, ditto.
Now both USA and Israel are on the receiving end of the concept of strategic ambiguity. We do not know how destructive and effective Hezbollah and Iran would be if attacked, but the upside of the risk is way too high to do it just to have a splendid little war. And they do not want to be attacked either.
I am not a “fan” of Hezbollah, but overall, they show more common sense and adherence to law than USA and Israel. Calling them suicidal terrorists as just counter-factual. What happens is that the strong can use war to express their fantasies, the weak (but not super-weak) have to plan and without making sense, they would not survive.
And now Israel coexists with much better armed Hezbollah, and with both sides having some measure of strategic deterrence, it seems to work. And exactly this status quo is presented as a doomsday scenario that would happen if Palestinians would actually be provided with military grade weapons. But it could work as well as with Hezbollah, because, in actuallity, almost everyone is more rational than we are (well, there is also El-Khadhaafi).
Unlike the alternative concept, that USA being the only remaining superpower, and Israel being our powerful sidekick, we can mold reality as we wish, ELIMINATING what we do not want. And if it does not work as much as we wish, we can empty our storage of obsolete cluster bombs and send a farewell rain of death. And if it looks like impotent rage, well, who cares.
Powerful analysis, piotr, and very accurate in my opinion.
It’s interestign you shoudl mention that. UNWRA reported that Israel have violated he ceasefrie about 2,500 times since the end of the 2006 war, and Hebollah none.
Hezbollah having weapons is a violation of 1701 Shingo. More disinformation!
Wrong as usual DGB.
1701 prohibits all armed militias from operating anywhere in all of Lebanon. Hezbollah are not a militia. They were never considered a militia by any Lebanon government and now their central role in Lebanon’s government is undeniable.
Sorry to burst your hasbara bubbler, thogu it is hiallriosu to watch a Hasbarat waving a UN Resolution around, and pretendign it is somehow sacrosanct.
The number of cluster bombs dropped AFTER the cease-fire was announced and while Bolton was stalling with its UNSC final wording for a full week in a desperate hope that Israel could still pull it off, was 2 million instead of 1 million. We now know that the governments of 2 countries were pressuring Olmert to keep going with the war that he wanted to stop after the first 6 days.
When Israel carpet-bombed the Shia villages in the south and caused a million to flee, Israel also bombed some areas in the Christian north that already had a distaste for Hizbullah and the Shia in general to have them turn on the fleeing Shia but this backfired as the Christians, thanks in part to a recently concluded political alliance between Hizbullah and General Aoun but mosty in solidarity with fellow Lebanese, opened their homes to the refugees and for the first time in Lebanon’s history, the Christians and Muslims were united by their common hate for Israel. It was due to the vicious Israel war of 2006 that Hizbullah’s popularity among the Lebanese reached 80% and is still up there today.
Hizbullah’s capture of the soldiers was to get prisoners for an eventual swap for Kuntar and a few remaining Lebanese prisoners still held by Israel because Israel had reneged on a previous swapping agreement to release them in exchange for information on Arad. Nothing more and nothing less. The day of the capture of the Israeli soldiers, Nasrallah announced on TV what had happened and that he was ready to start negotiations with Israel for the exchange of prisoners as had happened on 3 or 4 different occasions in the past since Israel had a proven track record of never releasing prisoners unless during swaps. There was never an intent to start an all out war with Israel and Nasrallah later admitted that had he known it would provoke a war, he wouldn’t have done it.
A good part of the waking up we are seeing in the Arab world today has been inspired by Hizbullah’s successes against the Zionists.
Don’t forget, as so many seem to, that those IDF soldiers held prisoner by Hezbollah, were in Lebanese territory when taken prisoner – they had absolutely no right to be in that place at that time.
Hezbollah had, as Lebanese citizens, every right, under the laws of any nation that claims to be sovereign, and under international law, to apprehend these Israeli interlopers, since they were trespassing (illegal) on Lebanese territory.
Israel then, again illegally under International Law, launched an attack on Lebanon after their soldiers were captured in Lebanese territory,.
Then and only then did Hezbollah retaliate by launching rockets into Israel
Then and only then did Hezbollah retaliate by launching rockets into Israel
Yes, but you will hear over and over again from Israelis and their philes that the war was self-defence against “thousands of rockets launched by Hezbollah into Israel.” It’s one of the great triumphs of the Big Lie.
We’ll probably never know the truth about where the soldiers were captured but it is important to move away from the Israeli propaganda word “abducted” that is also still used for the Shalit story to make the Israeli soldiers appear innocent. Soldiers are captured, not abducted.
My unprofessional opinion on this is that the soldiers were captured on their side of the fence but the 4 soldiers in pursuit that died when their tank hit a land mine were on the Lebanese side. The preceding capture of 3 soldiers by Hizbullah a few years earlier had occurred on the occupied Chebaa Farms, an area 100% Lebanese.
As to the rockets, Hizbullah at the time of the capture lobbed a few towards Israel simply as a diversionary tactic. Hizbullah’s operation was codenamed “Promises Kept” or something along those lines to describe that the operation was conducted to keep a promise made by Nasrallah to Kuntar’s mother that he’d have her son home by year’s end. It had nothing to do with starting a war and this was made evident by Hizbullah not having fired anything at Israel during the 24 hours that followed the capture and nothing either for the 2 or 3 days after Israel started its bombing of Lebanon. It did not capture soldiers to start a war but did it simply to have prisoners to swap for Kuntar to have him home as promised. A good part of Lebanon was destroyed by this war but in the end, Kuntar was brought home in a swap. The thousands of rockets into Israel happened several days after the start of the war.
About real abductions, Israel is back at it; today it has abducted 2 shepherds near the border area of Rmeish, half a kilometre from the Blue Line. They will of course be returned via UNIFIL in a couple of days; business as usual for the Zionists as they do this every few months to show they have big ones but its regrettable that they do it to harmless shepherds every time.
No, The soldiers soldiers were abducted from inside Israel, there is no doubt on that point. A Hizbullah camera crew videotaped the entire operation, including the cutting of the fence, the ambush on the IDF patrol, and the abduction. They also opened up with a simultaneous rocket barrage aimed at Israeli civilians. As has been noted, Nasrallah himself admitted that he had miscalculated the Israeli response to the Hizbullah attack. Oops.
Be that as it may, my point was in regard to the treatment of prisoners. If you’re any kind of honorable soldier you’re supposed to treat prisoners and enemy casualties decently, not apply emotional torture to their families. I’ve been around long enough to recognize evil when I see it, and Nasrallah fits the bill. We have long memories, we won’t forget.
And by the way, jon, what was your excuse for murdering Lebanese civilians through the 80′s? They looked at you funny?
“The soldiers soldiers were abducted from inside Israel, there is no doubt on that point.”
Even if true, so what? A state of war exists between those two states.
“They also opened up with a simultaneous rocket barrage aimed at Israeli civilians.”
Again, if Israel does not hesitate to attack civilians and civilian infrastructure, then they have no grounds to complain when they’re repaid in the same coin.
“If you’re any kind of honorable soldier you’re supposed to treat prisoners and enemy casualties decently, not apply emotional torture to their families.”
You can’t even get Israel and its triggermen to treat civilians in occupied Palestine with human decency. Why do you expect that anyone would ever treat these Israeli militants and the people who support them any better??
“I’ve been around long enough to recognize evil when I see it, and Nasrallah fits the bill. ”
I have, too. And if Nasrallah does, then the Israelis do, four fold.
“We have long memories, we won’t forget.”
Guess what, the Lebanese Shia(Hizbullah) will never forget what your democracy did to them in 1982.
Yes Jon,
We’ve all notices how your humanity and compassion us so exclusively reserved for your own tribe.
Evil because he dared stand up to Israel, and lives to tell about it. If evil is the mistreating and torturing prisoners, then tour sick society has no moral high ground.
So does Lebanon Jon, though I suspect, theirs is not as selective as yours.
There is evidence that the soldiers may have been killed in the IDF pursuit.
just the way that the Israeli soldiers were kidnapped, Chaos, with deliberate, precise and overwhelming force. they weren’t POWs, they were crime victims.
Oh! They were active duty soldiers so OF COURSE they aren’t prisoners of war! And of course, the right and proper thing to do to punish a crime is a violent blitzkrieg military strike that levels whole neighborhoods in Beirut. Because summary execution of any civilians who happen to be living in the same country as the suspects is always the best way to deal with criminal acts!
Yeah, makes perfect sense, fuster. I’m so goddamn sick of your apologetics for butchery.
the armed forces of which state with whom those IDF soldiers were engaged in warfare captured them during what bout of hostilities?
False. Hebollah did not start firing rockets until after Israel began bombing Lebanon.
That’s becasue Israel’s response had nothing to do with the capgture fo IDF soliders. The plands for the attack were already in place. Israle had infomed washington and London of their plans to atatck Lebanon and were awaiting a caussus bell.
Please don’t tell me you’re going to complain about disproportionate force fuster.
Why do you care more about a couple of soldiers than you do about thousands of orphaned, crippled, traumatized children, fuster? Is it because the soldiers are Jewish, and the children aren’t?
Shingo, quit trying to re-write history. Katyhushas were used as a diversion, then the troops were kidnapped/executed.
Israel’s war against Hezbollah/Lebanon was an exact result of these actions. Quit trying to spin it, if Hezbollah didn’t cross into Israel and kill their troops, there wouldn’t have been a Lebanon 2006 war.
Jon, were you in the IDF in the 80s?
“just the way that the Israeli soldiers were kidnapped, Chaos, with deliberate, precise and overwhelming force. they weren’t POWs, they were crime victims.”
This might be the dumbest comment I have ever read, congratulations Fuster.
Jon, read what Noam Chomsky had to say about the conduct of Israeli soldiers in Lebanon and you’ll probably understand why the Lebanese will never forget; you’ll inderstand why Israelis are often compared to Nazis:
link to books.google.com
“…the armed forces of which state with whom those IDF soldiers were engaged in warfare captured them during what bout of hostilities?”
Your MFA handbook is the pits. The Lebanese national resistance a.k.a. Hizbullah is sanctioned by the Lebanese government and the hostilities are ever present due to the state of war that exist between Lebanon and Israel. Israel is still squatting on Lebanon’s Chebaa Farms, the Kfarshouba Heights, and the Lebanese half of Ghajjar Village. Since the war of 2006, Israel has violated Lebanese land, air and sea territories over 2500 times.
an exact result of these actions
they must be very psychic then. the news came out during the war they had been planning it for months, just like cast lead. sheesh, where have you been?
jon s “If you’re any kind of honorable soldier you’re supposed to treat prisoners and enemy casualties decently, not apply emotional torture to their families.”
so you inadvertently admit that the Israeli Military is completely dishonorable.
Arguing with Ziotards is fun – they invariably say something stupid which completely indicts their beloved Zionist Military and equally invariably, are seemingly utterly unawre of it when they do it.
Well done.
Took you long enough though-
The dishonorable (YOUR own definition, jon s) Israeli Military has been proven to have been torturing both Palestinian Prisoners themselves (physically and Mentally) as well as their families, for decades now - on a scale thousands of times greater than those 3 or 4 Israeli soldiers you weep crocodile-tears for, jon s.
Yet for you it is apparently The Nass that is the sadist?
You’re a weird and twisted fellow, jon s, . . . . . . but then you ARE a Ziotard after all
Who were the Katyhushasfired at?
And no, the IDF troops were captured and died during the raid. They were not executed.
How can Israel’s actions have had anythnig to do with these acrions when Israel began bombing civlian tagrets in Lebanon and not going after Hezbollah?
False. Cross border skirmishes like this happened frequently between 2000 and 2006. No war resulted.
Simply put, there was a war because Israel deided it wanted a war.
annie, armies plan for war. Especially when they are under a constant barrage of missiles.
“This might be the dumbest comment I have ever read, congratulations Fuster.”
I guarantee he’ll post something even dumber within the next 48hrs
Walid,
sanctioned you say? how? had the Lebanese government issued them some sort of commission?
if Lebanon authorized the raid across the border, did the Lebanese government say it had?
I know that Israel agreed with you that the responsibility for the action rested with Lebanon.
“… Why do you expect that anyone would ever treat these Israeli militants and the people who support them any better?? ”
Woody, in the 2004 prisoner swap that involved the Israeli spy, Col. Elhanan Tanenbaum for the 435 Arab prisoners, on his arrival in Tel Aviv when asked by journalists how his 2 year stay in Lebanese captivity with Hizbullah had been, he replied that it had been extremely comfortable and friendly and several other things that were very embarrassing to the Israeli government that immediately threw him in prison. Regrettably, 2 of the Lebanese that were released in the swap (Dirani and Obeid) could not find the same kind words to describe how their 10-year stay in Israeli dungeons had been. Both civilians had been abducted by Israeli commandos from their homes in the Bekaa to be used as bargaining chips for information on Arad and held for 10 years. One of them was sodomized by the current director of Arab affairs for the Jerusalem police department (Richard Silverstein did a long piece on the Israeli policeman) and the second one had been taken directly by helicopter to the Israeli secret torture camp, Facility 1391 where he was given the royal suite that measured 1 meter square along with the torture that the camp was famous for.
It was during that 2004 swap that Sharon had agreed to a future release of Kuntar in exchange for information on Arad. In the following months, Hizbullah provided Israel with information that it was impossible to locate Arad or where he was burried and the Israelis agreed that Hizbullah had honestly tried to find details on Arad but that ithey had changed their mind about releasing Kuntar. It was because Israel had reneged on the agreement that Hizbullah decided to capture soldiers in 2006 to force a swap for Kuntar.
All this to say that even in its jails, Lebanon is more hospitable.
jon s “No, The ….. soldiers were abducted from inside Israel, there is no doubt on that point.”
wrong, jon s, despite what the lying zionaut media have said, the Israeli soldiers were captured on the Lebanese side of the border, near the village of Ayta ash-Shab.
They had no right to be there
And as for DBG’s lies about it being the cause, and Hezbollah bearing the blame: “Quit trying to spin it, if Hezbollah didn’t cross into Israel and kill their troops, there wouldn’t have been a Lebanon 2006 war.
Please Stop lying DBG – Olmert himself says you’re a liar:
Olmert: Lebanon Attack planned months in advance
By Aluf Benn
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Winograd Commission that his decision to respond to the abduction of soldiers with a broad military operation was made as early as March 2006, four months before last summer’s Lebanon war broke out.
I think it was Sumud that was reading up on Israeli torture camps and the methods they used and I hadn’t provided the link to the Noam Chomsky comprehensive report on this subject; I’ll repeat it here for his benefit:
link to books.google.com
There it is again! The nonexistent “constant barrage of missiles”!
fusty, Lebanon and Israel have remained in a state of war since 1967. That makes the prisoners POWs, since they were actively serving in the hostile armed forces.
Annie, I think that Hersh wrote that it had been scheduled to happen in October after Israel’s tourist season ends. Some tallking heads guessed that Nasrallah did it in July to throw a monkey wrench into the planned G8 meeting that was to start a in a few days in St. Petersburg that had at the top of its agenda, the imposing of drastic restrictive economic measures against Iran.
If you’re any kind of honorable soldier you’re supposed to treat prisoners and enemy casualties decently
Then the IDF contains no honorable soldiers, as they never treat their prisoners decently, or according to the rules of the Geneva conventions.
Thre’s a difference between pannign for war and planning a war.
link to newstatesman.com
The Winograd Commission concluded that Israel initiated the war, meaning that Israel chose to suse the cross border incident to start a war. War was by no means innevitable.
And BTW, There was no barrage of missiles until Israel started biombing Lebanon.
One of those kidnapped civilians was only a teenager at the time.
Thanks Hu Bris,
Even the haaretz article gets caught in Israeli talking points. How can Olmert have “decided to respond” in March 2006, to an event that hadn’t even taken place for anotehr 4 months?
as i recall israel wanted cheney to take out iran but the threat from retaliation from hezbollah made that impractical. so , israel was going to wipe out the threat first but couldn’t go it, hence cheney didn’t do iran.
but i think, as you mentioned, israel and lebanon used to swap prisoners so it’s entirely reasonable to assume they captures the idf guys for exchanges. i also remember israel was bombing gaza and had kidnapped 2 brothers (one a medical student home of leave) the week before. not sure how that ties in but i recall it.
Pots, if they were taken by Lebanese soldiers they would be POWs.
Those were key events.
The bombing of Gaza was Israel’s punishment of Palestinians for voting for Hamas.
The 2 brothers that were kidnappned, were captured from Gaza City the day before Shalit was captured. What’s mroe, neither have been seen or heard fo since.
Obviously, that’s not something that is ever mentioned by the likes of Jon S and company when they lament the fete of Shalit.
No fuster, if they were taken by Lebanese they would be POW’s. Israel and Lebanon are at war remember? Israel killed more ciovilians that Hebollah in 2006, so clearly, they make no distinction.
Little Miss Fussy, The Resident Liar said : “Pots, if they were taken by Lebanese soldiers they would be POWs.”
See, Seham? I told ya he would . . ……
You’re a real idiot fuster. In times of war, even civilians perform citizen’s arrest on the enemy.
We can all see you’ve turned green-green with jealousy cuz Hizbollah totally decimated the illusion of israel’s invincible war machine several times over by now so the whole world knows it wasn’t just a fluke or a hollow victory. Turns out that israel’s only good at fighting unarmed civilains, not armed ones eh.
I predict a next war between Lebanon and israel and I predict the utter humiliation (yet again) of the IDF (Idiot’s Dumb Force).
I also predict a huge exodus of the euro convert jews back to europe.
I also further predict the return of every inch of Historic Palestine to it’s rightful ARAB OWNERS: jewish, moslem and christian alike.
And the cherry on top is my prediction that vast sums of reparations will be paid to the Palestinians by world jewish agencies for generations to come.
Turns out that israel’s only good at fighting unarmed civilains, not armed ones.
don’t forget the kids with rocks, they’re armed.
I don’t think fuster is too concerned with Hizbollah. His obsession is with Iran.
Nope, fusty, the Genevas conventions allow for irregular combatants according to the same rules as regular armies.
Shingo, there was mortar fire prior to the kidnapping as a diversion.
Fuster.
Israle and Lebanon exchanged mortars and rocket fire numberous times between 2000 and 2006, none of which resulted in war.
Shingo,
It’s a joke how zios are always to trying to tell us that hizbollah are really Iranians not Lebanese. Well I’ve visited the south of Lebanon a few times (once I was 25 Kilometers from the first Qana massacre in 1986 and experienced the israeli blitzing Grapes of Wrath) – anyhooz, I was saying that in all my visits to the south of Lebanon, I never once heard a single person speaking Iranian. Tis true you saw here and there street portraits of Iranian holy Shia dudes, but you also saw way more street portraits of local ‘shahids’ (martyrs) and they didn’t look religious or were wearing religious garb – also many of them were of a very light olive skin and hazel-green eyes: a typical Lebanese look.
Shingo, and therefore what? Does that imply that Israel hasn’t right to respond to the kidnapping and the ambush that killed the soldiers that attempted to rescue the kidnapped soldiers?
There’s a difference between responding to a captuer and using the events to launch a pre planned war. Bombing Southern Lebanon striked me as an odd way to attempted to rescue the kidnapped soldiers.
Taxi, don’t give up your day job. Your predictions aren’t worth much.
If there’s another war between Hezbollah and Israel (and I surely hope there is not) it’ll be a great deal bloodier than the last one. Israel will suffer greater numbers of civilian deaths from Hez rockets, but the damage and death in Lebanon will be vastly greater than the last war.
At the end of it, though, there will be some glorious broadcast from a secret underground location and some Hez spokesman will announce a great defeat for Israel at the same time that the ordinary Lebanese people are digging out from the rubble.
I’d still like fuster to explain why, if he believes what Hezbollah did was a merely CRIMINAL act, why was MILITARY action (against children…) appropriate?
You can’t have it both ways. You can’t say that what Hezbollah did was outside the purview of military action and then use that to justify a military response.
That’s like sending shock troops to kill passengers on civilian ship repurposed as a relief ship! Oh wait — ISRAELIS DID THAT TOO.
Stop justifying murder, you fucking hypocrites. For every Israeli soldier that has died at the hands of the Lebanese, you monsters have murdered HUNDREDS of civilians. HUNDREDS.
Yes fuster, but it also threatens to be a game changer. Israel got off with relatively few losses last time, but serious missile strikes into Israel’s heart would change the game completely. Israelis dont have the stomach for loss of life. Once tehy decide Israel is not safe and cannot be protected, there will be an exodus and the end of Israel.
Some of us Shingo have for years been ringing loudly the bell of caution and shouting out to israelis that they’re on the precipice and all they did about it was willfully stuff atheir ears with arrogance.
Well now the tables have turned and the precipice is upon them.
There is no escaping a massive blow-up in the mideast now: already there are old fires growing, and increasingly, new fires of unrest and revolt erupting around the whole region.
This is the cold sober reality that especially native citizens should be prepared for.
The war tsunami to the mideast is coming.
Phil, stop censoring me for calling these Zionists idiots. Plenty of other commentators do it.
For example, the frog is an idiot and a liar.
The US Army War College has stated that Hezbollah fought Israel better than any other Arab army before it, and that it fought like a conventional army.
Israel uses the meme of ‘human shields’ to justify killing civilians, but the US Army War College report stated that there was no evidence of use of human shields. The civilians had left by the time the ground war began.
Israel punished the civilians of Southern Lebanon. How many Israeli civilians did Hezbollah kill during that war, that the frog has to forecast “Israel will suffer greater numbers of civilian deaths”? As if it will even be noteworthy.
Israel killed 1000+ people.
All you ever do is lie, frog. You and every single other Zionist. Lies upon lies. Disgusting.
DBG, Yeah, as a reservist. Sorry I didn’t answer sooner.
Arrogance, cobined with denial and delusion. They’ve been telling themselves that with enough firepower that one day, decurity and safety would be guaranteed, but what use is a nuke when your enemy is less than a mile away?
I just read a very interesting piece. It reads:
When millions of Palestinians begin to march, braving the Israeli bullets, it will decidedly turn the tide of public opinion in favour of Palestinian independence. This is a nightmare scenario that the Israelis do not have an answer to.
It explains why Israle has been trying to incite he Palestiniasn into a war. They need a war because they have no way to fight a peace offensive.
Dispatches reporter Sandra Jordan and producer Rodrigo Vasquez risk their lives to reveal the shocking level of daily violence and murderous hate in the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian civilians live under the threat of Israeli Defence Force attacks that do not discriminate between militants and children. Israeli setlers live in fear of suicide attacks.
But it is not only Palestinians and Israelis who are dying. Since the Gulf war, three Westerners have come under Israeli army attack.
An American peace activist was crushed to death by an IDF bulldozer; a British peace protester was shot in the head by an IDF sniper and remains in a coma; and last weekend, a British cameraman was shot dead by the IDF.
Within hours of arriving Sandra and Rodrigo are shot at and tear-gassed by Israeli troops breaking up a memorial service for Rachel Corrie, an American peace activist crushed by an Israeli Army bulldozer two days before.
That sets the tone for a five-week stay in which they document the shooting by Israeli troops of the British peace campaigner Tom Hurndall, the death of James Miller, the award-winning cameraman who worked extensively for Channel 4, killed as he filmed Israeli troops bulldozing Palestinian homes, and the deaths and mutilation of many innocent Palestinians and Israelis.
The Dispatches team reveals what life is like in what has become a fully blown war zone. Their film captures the aftermath of an Israeli missile attack that assassinates a leader of the deadly Hamas group. Children who happen to be playing in the street nearby are killed or have limbs blown off.
They film the aftermath of an attack in which Israeli troops fire modified tank shells that explode in mid air above densely populated civilian areas and spray thousands of razor sharp darts, or flechettes, in an arc some 300 metres long and 90 metres wide. The team encounters sniper fire from Israeli watchtowers, and endures tank shelling alongside a class of terrified school children.
In one of the most shocking moments in the film, Dispatches captures heartbreaking scenes in a Palestinian hospital minutes after Tom Hurndall was shot through the head, rescuing a seven-year-old child sheltering from gunfire.
While Hurndall lies in a corner, kept alive by a life support machine, his colleagues and Palestinian doctors negotiate frantically with the IDF to transfer him to an Israeli hospital, and to obtain safe passage for the Palestinian ambulance that will carry him. Hours later, with the help of the British Embassy they finally succeed, and embark on a hazardous journey to the Egyptian border. Hurndall remains in a coma.
Jordan and Vasquez also investigate the death of James Miller, the award-winning cameraman. They find that eyewitnesses tell a story sharply at variance with the official Israeli account.
Since September 2000, some 2,000 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli Defence Forces, who routinely use F16 fighter jets, helicopter gunships and tanks to bomb and shell densely populated Palestinian residential areas. The victims include some 350 children.
In the same period Palestinian armed groups have killed more than 700 Israelis, including some 90 children. The victims were all killed in deliberate attacks, including suicide bombings.