A 48 hour pause in aerial bombardment...it's that easy, isn't it...just to stop...one wonders why we can't do it more often...

Hope eveyone gave as much as they could, just for an opportunity like this where the supplies can actually get to those suffering...

The buttons on the right need pressing..

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=====>>>

Some headlines make it a victory for Condi, maybe so that everyone that has been highlighting her talent for being a criminally incompetent excuse for a diplomat, might also put a pause on the critiques...though I wouldn't let that stop me, she got a pause and lost the ceasefire...as planned.

======================

As usual, it isn't Israel's fault that they target civilian communities with 'smart bombs'...because Hezbollah either fires from there or if that tale doesn't pass the test of truth, then it's because it's a hotbed of Hezbollah supporters (we all know how much children are known for that)...the same laws of illogic don't apply to Hezbollah strikes though...everytime their rockets land in Israel officials can't hurry fast enough to say the Hizb are targetting civilians on purpose, despite the fact that Hezbullah bombs are not as 'smart' as Israeli bombs, and have been murdering less civilians than the Israelis have...and despite the fact that Hezbullah could use the equally idiotic excuse that the civilian areas were a hotbed of support for the Israeli military invasion and bloodbaths in Lebanon and Gaza (with over 90% support by the civilian population that would be a hotbed indeed) But we are capable of seeing the vicious cynicism of that argumant only if one side uses it.

==========================

A magazine that is always interesting is Salon, and it gives you Watching Beirut die as well as :

"The "hiding among civilians" myth Israel claims it's justified in bombing civilians because Hezbollah mingles with them. In fact, the militant group doesn't trust its civilians and stays as far away from them as possible" By Mitch Prothero

=========================

"It was supposed to be a routine trip across the Lebanese killing fields for the brave men and women of the International Red Cross. Sylvie Thoral was the "team leader" of our two vehicles, a 38-year-old Frenchwoman with dark brown hair and eyes like steel. The Israelis had been informed and had given what the ICRC likes to call its "green light" to the route. And, of course, we almost died. " Fisk

---------------------

Conservative pundits made wildly wrong claims about how Iraq would turn out -- what are they saying now about the Middle East?

There should be a safety warning when reading this...your sanity might not survive the onslaught of criminal and fanatic conservative fantasies..

-----------------------

Here is an article you will need a strong drink and some time to get through...

Mindless in Iraq By Peter W. Galbraith

It's a NYRB article that reviews 4 books about Iraq, and like any NYRB article it's a feast of information.

--------------------------

And in tales of other wars that continue to claim victims long after they are 'over'...

Vanity Fair has a photo essay and an article about the victims of America's use of Agent Orange in Vietnam...

"In the 1960s, the United States blanketed the Mekong River delta with Agent Orange, a chemical defoliant more devastating than napalm. Thirty years after the end of the Vietnam War, the poisoned legacy lives on in the children whose deformities it is said to have caused"
By CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS

------------------------------

And more from news of how this world is a better place since freedom and liberty became fightin' words:

Sergeant Tells of Plot to Kill Iraqi Detainees

Somali government close to collapse as Islamists take palace

Six Are Shot at Seattle Jewish Center

Take a look at this and this, please...

---------------------------------------

"Israel has never agreed to a joint investigation, and I don't think that if anything happened in this country, or in Britain or in Italy or in France, the government of that country would agree to a joint investigation," Gillerman said. By NICK WADHAMS

-----

Of course, Israel is blocking an investigation into events that took place on Lebanese soil and if Lebanon doesn't mind that the UN investigate the deaths of the UN's own people, then....

Amazing what the arrogance of power can do..

-----------

"The US has blocked the UN Security Council from issuing a statement condemning Israel's bombing of a UN post on the Lebanon border, in which four military observers were killed" The Australian

----------------

"The UN is useless, the UN is useless" cry the only two countries making it useless, the one who keeps ignoring all it's resolutions and the one who keeps vetoing them...

------------

"The United States makes the U.N. work when it wants to work." Revoltin' Bolton

--------------------

China expressed anger that the United States "watered down" a United Nations Security Council statement on the deadly Israeli strike on a UN observer mission.- Can West News

--------------

The watered down statement goes a little like this:" shocked and distressed"...

--------------

All the UN can do within the chains the US has clamped on it is say " shiver me timbers"...

What's that you hear running through your head now?:

"This is the way the world ends

This is the way the world ends

Not with a bang but a whimper."

Hollow Men indeed...

-------------------

So Israel gets what it wants:

The last witnesses to it's actions in South Lebanon are withdrawing...

Now that Aid agencies can't make it in:

"In effect there is no real humanitarian access in the south, the international community is deluding itself with talk of humanitarian corridors," said Christopher Stokes of Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF, Doctors Without Borders). Daily Star

And reporters can't make it in:

"Israeli bombardments, Flynn continues, have restricted photographers movements, and within the safe areas, "there's a limited amount to shoot." pdnonline

The south will soon become invisible.

------------------

"The United States, for its part, is egging on the bombing, apparently on the same theory that led to the mess in Iraq--that somehow a civilian population under bombardment will not blame the bombers, but understand the political necessity of displacing them, wrecking their homes, and killing their loved ones. It's an amazingly myopic view." Ruth Conniff

-------------

We all know that it was savagery like this that gave birth to Hezbollah, and all the other bogey-men...but the lies and barbarism of politicians and military commanders can only last for so long, before the tables are turned...and when they turn, it is just as ugly...after all, the world knows only ugliness now...

-----------

...and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout 'Save us!' And I'll look down and whisper 'No.'

Rorschach , Watchmen

Rolling Stone has an exclusive worth reading...It starts like something out of a spy film and ends like Revelations...

You might need something strong to sip on while you read it.

If you want to round off the story: Mother Jones' "Three Days in Rome" is an article to look at.

----------------------

The T-shirt seller of Beirut

-----------------------

Is it possible to be this stupid? For Rummy to uncork some stale insipid philosophical tripe when faced with a question as grave as whether a bloody civil war is raging as a result of his decisions and under his drenched-in-blood watch, is unbelieveble.

--------------------------

Regarding the UN observers that were killed by the Israeli forces when they fired on their base 21 times, let me say that again, 21 Times:

Khiyam: Accidentally on Purpose - by Ian Williams

You'll hit us, warned UN staff -Martin Chulov, Beirut

UN observers' plea ignored -By Anna Claridge

-

One of the UN peacekeepers was Canadian...the other from Finland..another from China and the fourth from Austria...What do those countries think of this?

"BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) -- The U.N. observers killed when an Israeli bomb hit their bunker in Lebanon Tuesday called an Israeli military liaison about 10 times in the six hours before they died to warn that aerial attacks were getting close to their position, a U.N. officer said."

------------------------

Take a look at Martin Rowson's cartoon in the Guardian

'Highway Bloggers' or 'Freeway Bloggers' are in the news again, this time in the Boston Globe
-
Israelis, Lebanese Blog To Each Other
MTV
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That Dennis Kucinich is at it again, asking to put peace on the agenda...Little dreamer...
-
Sanayeh Relief Center has developed a map of Israeli strikes on Lebanon...Have a look, it is staggering..
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Please give to UNICEF Lebanon
And to Sanayeh
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"both Democrats and Republicans are now on record that, in the name of “fighting terrorism,” U.S. allies – and, by extension, the United States as well – can essentially ignore international law and inflict unlimited damage on the civilian infrastructure of a small and largely defenseless country, even a pro-Western democracy like Lebanon." continue reading about resolutions in the House and Senate that approve of Israel's behaviour..
and in related news:
"tacit support for Israeli military strikes on Lebanon may have increased the danger of militant retaliation against the United States"Wash. post
-
According to Human Rights Watch:
“the targeting and capture of enemy soldiers is allowed under international humanitarian law.”
-
And we all know what isn't allowed, but let's just go over it:
Targeting civilian infrastrusture, like airports, roads, homes, villages, towns, bridges and ports...targeting civilians of course goes without saying, and no amount of calling it retaliation or self-defence will wipe the blood off anyone's hands...targeting ambulances ..not to mention the unethical use cluster munitions in populated areas, as well as the suspected use of chemical weapons...and to top it off, why not add killing UN observers...
But yeah, keep saying Hezbollah started it..it will help you sleep better at night.
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From the Israeli Human Rights group, B'Tselem
Israeli Soldiers Used Palestinians as Human Shields in Gaza
Killing of 9 family members in Gaza bombing: Grave suspicion of a war crime
New B’Tselem Report: Take No Prisoners - Grave suspicion of assassinations under the guise of arrests
One Big Prison: New Report Warns Against Continued Strangulation of Gaza Strip after Disengagement
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Statistics from B'Tselem:
Fatalities-Demolition of Houses as Punishment-Water Crisis
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From The ICJ (Int. Court of Justice)
143. The Court having concluded that, by the construction of the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including in and around East Jerusalem, and by adopting its associated régime, Israel has violated various international obligations incumbent upon it
and lets not forget:
Suicide bombing: Wrong and illegal
...but we've heard that enough times to know it for sure..
And the use of captured combatants as hostages...War crime.
---
Jon Stewart, again...

For commentary out of Beirut that comes with a satisfying blend of lucid prose and biting humour pay a visit to Anecdotes from a Banana Republic
-
مركز الإغاثة – الصنائع
SAMIDOUN Relief Center – Sanayeh
CLIENT NAME: GREENLINE ASSOCIATION
ACCOUNT NMBR: 6189003
BANK: BANK OF KUWAIT AND THE ARAB WORLD
SWIFT: BKAWLBBE
For more information, please contact: +961 3 647 605, +961 3 670 783, sanayeh.center@gmail.com
They are helping refugees, many of whome are children and babies...look at their site to learn more.
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63% of the British public agree that Blair has been poodle too long..
The same poll showed that "only 22% of voters believe Israel has reacted proportionately"..
It seems that democracy means that the rulers side with the minority views in their country..
-
Here is Jon Stewart on whether or not Israel's actions were disproportionate..
-
"The ambulance headlamps were on, the blue light overhead was flashing, and another light illuminated the Red Cross flag when the first Israeli missile hit, shearing off the right leg of the man on the stretcher inside. As he lay screaming beneath fire and smoke, patients and ambulance workers scrambled for safety, crawling over glass in the dark. Then another missile hit the second ambulance." Suzanne Goldenberg in Tyre
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Scale of the human crisis emerges
Brian Whitaker in Beirut
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UNICEF's Aid appeal for children in Lebanon
Click and give..it's the least any of us can do..
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Guardian Photos
-
And more news of how the world is a better place since the Empire Struck Back in the name of freedom and democracy:
Pakistan launches huge nuclear arms drive
Violence In Afghanistan Spreads
Women back under wraps with Taliban vice squad
Civilian Death Toll Mounts in Iraq
Iraq's civilian toll: Over 100 a day
and
North Korea calls the US "the worst gangsters in the world" and calls Condoleeza Rice "a political imbecile."

"Lebanon carpenters are running out of wood for coffins. Bodies are stacked 3 or 4 feet high at the hospital morgue. The stench is spreading in the rubble.…
On Thursday, the wild dogs gnawed at the charred remains of a family bombed as they were trying to escape the village."
Hassan Fattah, New York Times
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Lebanon's Refugees
Guardian Photos
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While all this is happening
Blair's government is competeing with his best buddy Bush's administration for title of 'most scandal-ridden administration' ...
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Since neither of these two governments and their third musketeer Israel can stop saying "Iran, Iran, Iran, Syria", like they have some incurable tic...are we all going to be surprised when they finally bait a response from either Syria or Iran with the savage attacks on Lebanon?..Or are they the ones being baited? Either way, the Israel/US alliance, that knows nothing but military options, has been planning an attack on Iran and Syria for too long for any of us to bat an eye if, and when, it finally happens...and Iran is really enjoying the role of local mafia Don with it's Syrian sidekick...while it lasts..

But what a price? A wildfire of hatred racing across the world, Lebanese , Palestinian, Israeli civilians shredded to pieces... Lebanon burning, Haifa burning, Gaza burning (as always)... Israelis no safer now and not going to be any safer when the dust has settled, despite their current fantasy that slaughtering people in front of the whole world is somehow a logical solution.

And what is buried beneath the rubble and arrogance of these ugly and savage muscles being flexed all across the region is the fact that all victims are united by their suffering, united by their desire to end the suffering and always forced to forget what unites them in the name of some illusionary greater cause...the Palestinians, who have been existing in a state of continuous loss and terror for the past 60 years (pawns in the Arab game of distracting their populations and pawns beneath the Israeli military boot, that distracts its own population) are being told that they are the heroic front line, while they are born and die as refugees, as strangers in everyone else's land including their own...the Israeli civilians have to live in the terrorizing knowledge that the grudges of the dispossessed will always haunt their cafes and streets and homes as long as the criminal leaders of each side refuse to reach out with an honorable peace..and, the Lebanese are constantly been dragged back to death and destruction by the power games of those around them...
Each side is told they are fighting the good fight..Whether it's paradise or the promised land, it means the same thing...suffer now for the reward you'll never get...Children on each side born into a world of hatred and fear and distrust...Each side convinced that the other is the one planning, conspiring, hating without cause, driving into the sea, or planning to take over the whole world...while the people on each side are just trying to survive.
And the military machine, being fed on both ends by the big guys who are far enough away to still be laughing...Iran and Syria arm the Hizb and they are guilty of punishable crimes in everyone's eyes, but the US and its little shop of horrors feeding frenzy of weapons to Israel is not? Even though it violates US law to supply weapons to a country that uses it to attack civilians and to subjugate another occupied people..but wait, all we have to do is call it self defense, no matter how savage and no matter how cynical, and suddenly it's ok.
Every time someone says the word Lebanon now, I can actually feel something in my chest begin to tear..but I also have to feel it for Gaza, and for Haifa, and for all the people caught in the jaws of the reckless war machine.
Death is supposed to be the great equalizer, but we know that saying wasn't meant for the Middle East...Or for any war...because it seems that my enemy's life is always cheap..and mine is always sacred...A dead Israeli civilian will probably not be mourned in Lebanon...A Palestinian child's life is worth a fine of 12 to 25 Pounds Sterling for the Israeli soldier who aimed, shot and killed him...A Lebanese woman cowering in her shelled village while missiles play Russian roulette with her house is not quite as tragic as the Israelis in bomb shelters...and an Israeli saying he is afraid to go out for fear of being killed in the street is ridiculed by Palestinians who say thay are living in constant fear for their own lives...what savage irony, that we have constructed minefields and barbed wire even around the words we use to describe similar events...
One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter goes one idiotic saying..and one man's dead child is another man's collateral damage..etc...etc...But what does this mangling of meaning really provide us with besides new ways to keep from giving a damn about each other?
I have forgotten how to laugh, these past two weeks, and have been feeling guilty that I didn't forget earlier...when Gaza was blasted and when Iraqi bodies piled up by the hundreds every day..and when Darfur wept and wailed and when people on a train in Mumbai ceased to exist and when we killed our oceans and our sky and our earth and when...and when...and when...
How many things do we have to screw up before we decide to do the right thing?
'Enough' is the word being splashed all across the Lebanese television channels..aren't they right? Isn't it time? Or was Yehuda Amichai right when he said:
אני, שהבאתי גוויות מן הגבעות,
יודע לספר שהעולם ריק מרחמים
"I, who have brought the corpses down from the hills,
Know to tell you that the world is empty of mercy."
-
This is the song in my head today.

One of LBC's stations has been hit..the one that transmits the local channels, and they are now transmitting via LBC Europe...LBC is a major Lebanese local and satellite channel...They have also hit Mobile phone networks, which means people are without even phone contact...according to Al-Arabiya.
-
LBC is now reporting that at around 2:30 Lebanese time Israeli tanks invaded the south.
10 Tanks
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Is this part of the preparation for a ground offensive..start taking out the local stations, leave everyone in the dark..without news and without mobile phone service?
-
LBC is showing footage of the artillery fire in the southern village of Maroun il-Ras.
It is 2pm GMT now.
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"It was, our journalists told us, to be the greatest evacuation since Dunkirk. There it was again, the Second World War. And it was another cruel lie which the Lebanese spotted at once. For these mighty craft had not arrived to save Lebanon, to protect a nation now being destroyed by America's ally, Israel, Lebanon whose newly flourishing democracy was hailed by our leaders last year as a rose amid the dictatorships of the Arab world. No, they were creeping through the dawn after asking Israel's permission to help their citizens to flee. These great warships had been sent here by Western leaders (Jacques Chirac excepted) too craven, too gutless, too immoral, to utter a single word of compassion for Lebanon's suffering."
Fisk
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Israel told the Lebanese in the South to leave, and is planning to invade the south , and reports coming in say that they have already captured locations in South Lebanon...
They will probably blast it to even tinier smithereens.
..
BBC Photo
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Thanks for the 'humanitarian' warning, it's great when you tell people to run for their lives before you bomb their homes, their schools, their workplaces and their towns and their memories and everything they own... Also, it's pretty great to do that after you have already bombed all the roads, bridges and exits out of the area.
--
The Lebanese are increasingly terrified that once the foreigners have left the country there will be nothing to restrain Israel from going all out and turning Lebanon to dust and ashes..
A British woman being evacuated yesterday said that everyone she knows thinks that there will be a bloodbath once the American and European citizens have left.
--
Israel calls up 3,000 reservists to prepare for ground invasion
Israeli troops mass on Lebanon border
U.S. Speeds Up Bomb Delivery for the Israelis
--

"How soon must we use the words "war crime"? How many children must be scattered in the rubble of Israeli air attacks before we reject the obscene phrase "collateral damage" and start talking about prosecution for crimes against humanity?" Robert Fisk
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Srifa was a bustling hillside village. Then yesterday the Israeli jets came
Clancy Chassay outside Srifa
Thursday July 20, 2006
-
..
Photo of Abbas Khalil, a Srifa victim from Al-Nahar July 21st Front page
--

“International humanitarian law is clear on the supreme obligations to protect civilians during hostilities,’’ she said. That same obligation exists, she added, in international criminal law, which defines war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“Indiscriminate shelling of cities constitutes a foreseeable and unacceptable targeting of civilians,” Loiuse Arbour the high commissioner for human rights.
To see what is happening to the Lebanese see here-

Britain and US defy demand for immediate ceasefire
"Two countries, the US and Britain, defiantly refused to back the international clamour for an immediate ceasfire between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas. Their ambivalence about civilian deaths in Lebanon has given Israel a powerful signal that it can continue its attacks with impunity" Independent

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"it's not even a war. What you have are hostilities, at this point, between Israel and Hezbollah. I would not characterize it as a war. "
Tony Snow, the White House spokesperson.
-
...
Thanhniennews Photo
Y'know what, you're right Snowy, why call this a war?
+
Or this..

Ya Libnan Photo
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Watch Jon Stewart's take on the media not calling what is happening a war.
-----------------
"does anybody still believe this is about saving three Israeli soldiers - a piece of Hollywood schmaltz called "Saving Corporal Shalit" and its two sequels? Are Beirut, Haifa and Gaza City burning for them?
Only a dwindling band of people now believe this, the official pretext for the twin-set of wars Israel is fighting on its northern and southern fronts. If it had been true, there was an obvious solution - swapping prisoners. Israel is currently holding 8,200 Palestinian fighters, as well as at least three Lebanese fighters who were seized in Lebanon itself during the long 18 years when Israel was occupying its entire southern region. Both Hamas and Hizbollah have said the Israeli soldiers will head home as soon as there is a fair swap" Continue Johann Hari's Article
------------------
Thousands flock to hills, parks and schools, but no place safe from bombs
Jonathan Steele
"In small pockets of misery and distress tucked away across Beirut, thousands of Lebanese refugees are sheltering from Israel's relentless bombing."
..
BBC Photo
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Misery rules in tomb of living dead
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"What kind of life is being offered to us now?"
"I will tell you what kind: a life of destruction, despair, displacement, dispossession, and death."
"We the Lebanese want life, we have chosen life. We refuse to die. ...I sincerely hope that you will not let us down"
The Lebanese PM addressing the deaf, blind and mute international community...
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Save the Children's Emergency appeal
for Lebanon, Palestine and other Middle Eastern tragedies.
----
And thank you Mr. Annan for mentioning Gaza, the land of 1.4 million humans invisible to the rest of the world.
----
A woman being evacuated from her home in South Lebanon wept on Sky News saying "we are humans"...
Because she knows she actually has to remind the world of that fact...

I read a letter sent from the Lebanese artist Zena el-Khalil to a mutual friend and discovered that she had a blog...she is blogging from Beirut..Her words are beautiful and heart-breaking. Stop by her blog and give her your love and support.

Beirut Update

"Members of a religious sect in central Kenya are bracing themselves for a nuclear war predicted to take place no later than 12 September 2006."

BBC

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And Lebanon...

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Ya Libnan Photo

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For those who feel powerless, just watching this unfold:

Help out with donations:

-

FPM's BANK ACCOUNT FOR REFUGEES:>

BANK: SGBL, Sin El Fil, Lebanon> Account: 001-004-361-236446-01-3> Swift: SGLILBBX

+

CARITAS LEBANON

: BNPI, Achrafieh, Lebanon > Account: 136 932.001.24> Account Name: Caritas Lebanon > Swift: BNPI LBBX> Other accounts are provided here.

+

UNICEF

LEBANESE RED CROSS

+

SAMIR KASSIR FOUNDATION

(To support Refugees) > Bank: Byblos Bank - Tabaris> Account (USD): 380.3652902.001> Account (LBP): 380.3652902.002> SWIFT: BYBALBBX

From the blog http://lettersapart.blogspot.com/

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To help in Gaza :

UNRWA's Emergency appeal

Aid agencies express concern about humanitarian crisis facing Gaza

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From YouTube :

July 16, Night Bombing audio/video

Operation Just Reward on Lebanon (The first three days)

Israeli and Arab TV News Show Different Sides of War

-

And Today's cartoon in Al-Nahar

"Don't Speed, Death is faster"

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Jewish Americans Protest Israel's targetting of civilians

"Bush: You see, the ... thing is what they need to do is to get Syria, to get Hizbollah to stop doing this shit and it's over. " Independent
Bush tells Blair in the middle of stuffing his face with food at the G8, when they had no idea the microphone was on...
You can watch the whole thing here
'
Bush and Blair's Less Than Excellent Conversation
Arianna Huffington
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"For the second time in 48 hours western governments declined to intervene as Israeli forces, on the sixth day of aerial attacks, killed 47 people and wounded at least 53. Hizbullah, the Iranian-backed militia, also stepped up its attacks, launching 50 rockets against Israel, the highest number in a single day. The death toll since Israel began its attack has risen to 210 in Lebanon and 29 in Israel."Guardian
-
....
Getty Photo Ya Libnan Photo
Lebanese victims
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"US Ambassador John Bolton said there was no moral equivalence between the civilian casualties from the Israeli raids in Lebanon and those killed in
Israel from "malicious terrorist acts". Yahoo News
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From Tikkun:
Michael Lerner, Gila Svirsky, Uri Avnery and Gideon Levy discuss the political and moral significance of this summer's violence.
End the Suffering in the Middle East
By Rabbi Michael Lerner
+
Understanding Israel in Gaza and Lebanon
We present a view on how to end these crises, along with analyses by Tanya Reinhart, Yitzhak Frankenthal, Michael Rubin, David Horowitz, Arik Diamont (of Courage to Refuse,) Robert Fisk, and others.
-
Cartoon from Al-Nahar, a lebanese daily paper:

"Arabism's Hero"
The cheering ineffective cowards
-
Gaza
Covering up Gaza
The state of Israel, fearful of the truth, continues to control media coverage of its brutal occupation
Jonathan Cook
+
"Israel launched a furious assault on the entire population of Gaza, destroying its only energy plant, which left 700,000 people without power, and seizing more than two dozen Hamas elected officials. Israel's leading liberal daily, Ha'aretz, warned that "the government is losing its reason...arresting people to use as bargaining chips is the act of a gang, not of a state." Amnesty International condemned the attacks against civilian infrastructure as a war crime, and the UN's Relief and Works Agency warned that Gaza is "on the brink of a public health disaster." The Nation
-
The rest of the world:
More than 300 died in Java Tsunami
-
More than 50 killed in Iraq shrine attack

Gunmen kill 56 in sectarian attack on Iraqi market town
-More than a million people demand election recount in Mexico City
Mexico: A Yellow revolution brewing?

"It will be called the massacre of Marwaheen. All the civilians killed by the Israelis had been ordered to abandon their homes in the border village by the Israelis themselves a few hours earlier. Leave, they were told by loudspeaker; and leave they did, 20 of them in a convoy of civilian cars. That's when the Israeli jets arrived to bomb them, killing 20 Lebanese, at least nine of them children. The local fire brigade could not put out the fires as they all burned alive in the inferno. " Independent

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"In Lebanon as in Gaza, it is not Israel's right to protect its civilian population from terrorist aggression that is at issue. It is the way Israel goes about exercising that right...military leaders remain addicted to the notion that, whatever they have a right to do, they have a right to overdo" Observer

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"Yes, Hamas had no right to take an Israeli soldier captive, nor was Hezbollah justified in seizing two Israeli soldiers and killing eight others. But Israel has now killed more than 50 Lebanese civilians, and it is destroying the civilian infrastructure of that country, along with Gaza’s. These aren’t defensive acts. These are acts of aggression."Matthew Rothschild

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Israel hits Gaza house, Saturday, 15 July

AP Photo

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"So to suggest that Israel is looking for a solution here, to suggest that it’s playing for peace, is to be as cynical as those imbeciles who claim Israel is being “humanitarian” by raining leaflets of evacuation warnings before dropping its tonnage of barbarism in civilian zones. When rogue goes against rogue, and a rogue-in-chief stands by from his Roman-themed colonnades a Potomac away, a just solution is not only not being sought; it’s a virtual impossibility." Pierre Tristam

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Some of the thousands fleeing areas in Lebanon

BBC

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"Olmert lacks what the people of Israel like, which is someone who knows how to kill Arabs," Baltiansky said. "It sounds harsh, but Sharon knew when and how to kill Arabs, and when to talk to them" IHT

-

Strikes on Haifa, and other Israeli cities, civilians killed...

Olmert says:

"There will be far-reaching consequences in our relations on the northern border and in the area in general." Newsday

-

The Israeli warship is attacked, Iran is blamed... the soldiers are kidnapped by Hizbullah, Israel says they might be transferred to Iran ...Tiberias hit, Iran blamed...Haifa hit, Iran blamed, Israel says there are even Iranian revolutionary guards in Lebanon...and Iran probably has Hoffa... a close second held by blame on Syria..

Blair accuses Iran, Syria of causing Middle East crisis

Forbes

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Remember the New Yorker, Jan 2005?

"Next, we’re going to have the Iranian campaign.... This is the last hurrah"

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Wildly disproportionate attack on Lebanon seems like pretext to confront Iran

Toronto Star

-

Israel cutting Lebanon into pieces

Kuwait Times, Kuwait

-

BBC photos of the effects of this war

Where are the mudhaharat now?

Israel's army chief Dan Halutz declared that no targets in Lebanon were immune from attack. "Nothing is safe. It is as simple as that,"

-

"The US vetoed a UN resolution last night that demanded Israel halt its military offensive in Gaza ­ the first UN Security Council veto in almost two years.Ten of the 15 countries voted in favour; while Britain, Denmark, Slovakia and Peru abstained" Independent

-

ICRC gravely concerned about humanitarian situation in Gaza

-

"Israel said it feared the two captured soldiers - Ehud Goldwasser, 31, and Eldad Regev, 26 - could be taken to Iran, " Guardian

(How convenient for Israel)

-

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday an Israeli strike on Syria would be considered an attack on the whole Islamic world that would bring a "fierce response", state television reported "Haaretz

-

"an Israeli plane dropped a bomb on to the home of a Shia Muslim cleric. He was killed. So was his wife. So were eight of his children. One was decapitated. All they could find of a baby was its head and torso which a young villager brandished in fury in front of the cameras" Independent

-

-

Check on the Lebanese Bloggers

Thanks to the Don for the link

-

Israel Blasts Beirut's Airport, Highways

55 civilians dead, and counting

Kuwaiti family killed in lebanon

4 Brazilians killed

Beirut burns after Israeli attacks

-

"A house with 10 children, the youngest was 6 months old — were they the resistance?" he asked. "Is a 6-month-old a resistance fighter?" The L.A. Times

-

On a roof in the Old City

Laundry hanging in the late afternoon sunlight:

The white sheet of a woman who is my enemy,

The towel of a man who is my enemy,

To wipe off the sweat of his brow.

In the sky of the Old City

A kite.

At the other end of the string,

A child

I can't seeBecause of the wall.

We have put up many flags,

They have put up many flags.

To make us think that they're happy.

To make them think that we're happy.

Yehuda Amichai's Poem Translated by Irena Gordon

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انتظرنا عربياً واحداً
يسحبُ الخنجرَ من رقبتنا..
انتظرنا هاشمياً واحداً..
انتظرنا قُرشياًَ واحداً..
دونكشوتاًَ واحداً..
قبضاياً واحداً لم يقطعوا شاربهُ..
انتظرنا خالداً أو طارقاً أو عنتره..
فأكلنا ثرثره... وشربنا ثرثره

..

نحنُ شعبٌ من عجين
كلّما تزدادُ إسرائيلُ إرهاباً وقتلاً
نحنُ نزدادُ ارتخاءً.. وبرودا

نزار قباني

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The arrogance of power...

"Israel threatened to bomb Lebanon "back 20 years"
Guardian
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When soldiers, who are a military target, are kidnapped...the response is attacks on civilian targets? In this upside down world, yes.
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Halt the slide to war
"Ehud Olmert lost no time in describing the capture of two Israeli soldiers by Lebanese guerrillas as an "act of war". ....
(Earlier):
"Palestinian fighters kidnapped an Israeli soldier from a position just across the border from Gaza. For weeks before that dozens of home-made rockets were fired into Israel. Mr Olmert's response was to emulate what his mentor, Ariel Sharon, would have done: he bombed a power station, depriving hundreds of thousands of civilians of electricity and water in the summer heat. Israeli aircraft have been breaking the sound barrier in a campaign of psychological warfare against 1.4m people. That has all been rightly condemned as collective punishment, which is banned by the Geneva conventions.
Since the abduction more than 70 Palestinians, many of them civilians, have been killed by Israeli forces."
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And South in Gaza:
"Rescue workers pulled a four-year-old child out of the rubble. He had on a red T-shirt but his body was cut in two. Palestinian doctors said the owner of the house, Nabil Abu Salmiyeh, a lecturer at the Islamic University and a Hamas activist, had been killed along with his wife and seven of his nine children.
Rami Samour, 25, who lives near by, said the blast blew the mutilated body of a woman into a neighbouring house. A neighbour, Safwan Amamour, 39, said he and his wife were hit by flying rubble. He said: "No words can describe this destruction, this hellish damage, which I will remember of the rest of my life."
The Independent
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"There is an axis of terror and hate, created by Iran, Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas that wants to end any hope for peace"
These are the words of the Israeli foreign minister...it's the map for what they plan too do.
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And their eternal echo:
"The White House said it held Iran and Syria responsible for the abduction" Guardian
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Here is an interactive guide to the escalations
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Only sanctions will stop this brutal campaign
The world is watching, and we are all made complicit by the failure of our governments to end Palestinian anguish
Ahdaf Soueif
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I officially apologise to my little niece for the world that she will have to live in.

The happiest guy in town...

Droopy

The Majlis...Day one

After hearing everyone repeat the pledge so many times you would think that the duties of being an MP would have sunk in, especially for those that have had to do this before...but I guess it's in one ear and out everywhere else...
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Money talks..and walks and sits down with you to eat and and whispers promises that make you break the ones you made..and that's been the story of our little dot on the planet...
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Words like, when you're older, must appease him
And promises of someday make his dreams
And the seasons they go round and round...

...There'll be new dreams maybe better dreams and plenty
Before the last revolving year is through
Joni

The letter pinned overnight to the wall of the mosque in Kandahar was succinct. "Girls going to school need to be careful for their safety. If we put acid on their faces or they are murdered then the blame will be on their parents."

...

100,000 students have been terrorised out of schools in the past year. The number is certainly far higher and many teachers have been murdered, some beheaded.

From The Independent

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This is this year...

2006

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Human Rights Watch has a report on the situation

Bloggers beware...

Save the internet....or else bloggers and others will be forced to use a slow lane on the internet unless they shell out large sums of money...you have AT&T and its friends to thank for the greed..

"Costs will skyrocket to post and share video and audio clips, silencing bloggers and amplifying the big media companies. Political organising could be slowed by a handful of dominant internet providers who ask groups or candidates to pay a fee to join the "fast lane".'"

The Guardian

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Why Worry?

1-" Bloggers—Costs will skyrocket to post and share video and audio clips—silencing citizen journalists and putting more power in the hands of a few corporate-owned media outlets"

2- "Ipod listeners—A company like Comcast could slow access to iTunes, steering you to a higher-priced music service that it owned."

3- "Online purchasers—Companies could pay Internet providers to guarantee their online sales process faster than competitors with lower prices—distorting your choice as a consumer."

More reasons here

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"Network Neutrality — or "Net Neutrality" for short — is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet.
Net Neutrality ensures that all users can access the content or run the applications and devices of their choice. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data — not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service. Net Neutrality prevents the companies that control the wires from discriminating against content based on its source or ownership."

from Save the Internet

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Read Net Neutrality Fact v. Fiction

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Moby Speaks Out for Internet Freedom, Against Corporate Web Takeover

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Don't Let Them Do to the Net What They Did to Radio and TV!

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News, films, Books...

ولكن من يقرأ ويتعظ في دولة قرر شعبها، من خلال انتخابات نيابية، وقرر سياسيوها من خلال مجلس مختار، تسليم امورنا لمجموعة من المتزمتين الدينيين الكارهين للاصلاح، حتى ولو انتموا له اسما؟

أحمد الصراف

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"My peace is gone, my heart is heavy"
...
"The Evil One has left, the evil ones remain".
Faust
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Violent Islamic radicals know they are heretical
The Guardian
"During the 20th century, a militant piety erupted in almost every major world faith: in Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism and Confucianism, as well as in Judaism, Christianity and Islam It is often called "fundamentalism". Its aim is to bring God and/or religion from the sidelines back to centre stage... fundamentalists are rebels who have separated themselves irrevocably and on principle from the main body of the faithful."
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I'm guided by a signal in the heavens
I'm guided by this birthmark on my skin
I'm guided by the beauty of our weapons
First we take Manhattan, then we take Berlin
Leonard Cohen
->
Next We Take Tehran
"President Bush may or may not order a massive aerial bombardment of Iran later this year. Or he may wait until 2007. Or he may simply escalate a risky confrontation with Iran through covert action and economic sanctions. But whatever the next act in the crisis, don’t be fooled by the assertion that the problem is Iran’s pursuit of nuclear arms."
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And in Poland:
Identical twins are now the President and the prime minister...and they intend to fire up a 'moral revolution'
...
"Pretensions to moral superiority are devastatingly destructive."
Mary Douglas
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Wordplay
The Film
(Jon Stewart fans, heads up)
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Forking Paths
Labyrinths: Borges haunts the pages of new books from three Latin American maestros
(Martínez, Bolaño and Galeano)
The Village Voice
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And for people who like history that is written with ease, who are interested in the history of religion and philosophy and who like to trace the origins of things..
Doubt
A History
It's an easy read, and it plays a game of "six degrees of separation" between religions, philosophers and historical moments that we all know, but don't often link (even though we should)

"Ukraine was beginning to look like a banana republic yesterday after a pro-Western "orange" coalition government that has been three months in the making disintegrated before it could even do one day's work. "

continnue reading at The Independent

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Dozens of people are fasting to bring the troops home to the US. Some are fasting on liquids, some for a few days and others completely and indefinitely until the troops are back. The fast is in front of the White House, and thousands of others are fasting across the US.

Here is a list of people fasting.

Hollywood stars team up for hunger strike

Food Blogs Join Fast

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Mexico 2006: Florida all over again?
Members of Mexico's losing leftist party are invoking America's recent electoral scandals to convince the world that last Sunday's presidential election was fixed.

Salon

Here are some headlines to warm up my re-entry into the world beyond kwti elections..

Missing Votes Add to Turmoil in Mexico
About 2.5 million ballots left out of the initial count
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Mexican Election in Limbo
"But if history is any lesson, Lopez Obrador is no Al Gore. He won't walk away from a stolen election without a protest. His political rise has been characterized by having to respond to dirty tricks"
...
"In 1988, Lopez Obrador was a leading organizer in the presidential campaign of leftist candidate Cuauhtemoc Cardenas. Early on election night, Mexico's own electoral system showed Cardenas with a substantial lead over PRI candidate Carlos Salinas. Then there was a mysterious computer crash, and the country woke up the next morning to an announcement that Salinas was the victor"
+
And:
Conservative scrapes victory in Mexico amid claims of fraud
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Speaking of stolen elections up North:
Was the 2004 Election Stolen?
Republicans prevented more than 350,000 voters in Ohio from casting ballots or having their votes counted -- enough to have put John Kerry in the White House.
BY ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR.
Rolling Stone
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That was just to make us feel more at home, among the other countries with shady elections.
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And in the also creepy section of the news:
Documents reveal hidden fears over Britain's nuclear plants
Unexplained cracks in reactor cores increase likelihood of accident
...
Big "never a right move" Energy, the people who bought you pollution, smog, car exhaust, smoke stacks and now nukuler disaters waiting to happen.
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Palestine weeps again..
Collective punishment is banned by the Geneva Conventions..but everyone knows that...it's just that you aren't supposed to mention it. When will either side learn how to end this with justice?
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Want to see what Florida will look like after global warming has made it's point? How 'bout the world? You check the boxes and then refresh the map.

I have been in a funk...the elections, even though they got some people that fall under the label of 'reformists' into the parliament left others, who's walk actually matches their talk, un-elected. More than that, I have been disillusioned all over again by ever-present realities of politics. The anti-corruption preachers didn't refrain from shuffling people into their districts... the money that exchanged hands was not just between the obvious shameful bunch..the regular crooks were blatant, some seeming innocents were just a bit more subtle..And I hope that the Faustian deal progressives might have made with some chameleon regressive elements in politics does not bite them in the rear.
All this said...The clouds parted for me today, and the sun made its way to the sky like it always does..with its Shurouq, right out of Jabriya and all over the country. The future doesn't look as bad anymore, all lit up like that.