Rojak and Cocktail: Now, even the Israeli cows invaded Lebanon

Israeli terrorism ravages Lebanon, Israeli Cows also 'Invade' South Lebanon

Beirut- As they say the grass is greener on the other side. Well the Cows of northern Israel found the grass is greener in Hezbollah-controlled south Lebanon territory.

Dozens of hungry cows whose pasture land in northern Israel has been reduced to ashes by the daily rain of rockets found a hole in the border fence and moved to Lebanon for healthier grazing, the Yediot Aharonot reported Thursday.

According to the daily, the more than 3,000 rockets that have been fired by Hezbollah have set fire to 100 sq km of pasture where cows used to graze.

The cows got help from Israeli military and used the breach made in the border by Israeli units who have been battling Hezbollah since the start of a massive offensive in Lebanon on July 12. Unfortunately for the cows, they may be disappointed as Israel continues to bombard southern Lebanon.

(Sources: yalibnan.com)

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Israeli terrorism ravages Lebanon

The Israeli government is using the might of it's military to impose an obviously unfavorable U.N. resolution upon Lebanon, by forcing the Lebanese government into a ceasefire agreement interlaced with clauses to allow Israel to ravage Lebanon with bombs again....(more)

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DEBKAfile Reports: Israel asks US to bring forward delivery of short-range antipersonnel “shoot and scoot” M-26 artillery rockets for Hizballah missile sites in Lebanon

August 11, 2006, 2:16 PM (GMT+02:00)

Israel has asked for the M-26 artillery rockets scheduled for early 2007 to be airlifted now, according to the New York Times. They are designed for rapid consignment to the US army by C-141 Galaxy transports. Fired in 12-rocket barrages, they carry hundreds of grenade-like bomblets that scatter and explode over a broad area (compared with Hizballah’s Katyusha rockets, each of which contains 40,000 tiny steel balls).

DEBKAfile’s military sources add: the M-26 is the last word in this type of rocket. It can be loaded 80 percent faster than the weapons used by the IDF – no more than 5 minutes. This enables a rocket crew to load, shoot and run to safety before the attack, lending the weapon its “shoot and scoot” capability.

Israel is asking for the rockets now because it has been unable to suppress Hezbollah’s Katyusha rocket attacks which are killing Israeli civilians every day.

The cluster rocket can penetrate Hizballah fortifications.

A senior US official said the M-26 is likely to be released shortly, along with other arms. But some State Department officials have sought to delay the approval because of concerns that the rockets, while very effective against hidden missile launchers, could cause civilian casualties. Israel will be asked to accept stipulations regarding its use in civilian areas.

The IDF has brought its order forward to fill the gap in its armory of a weapon or a tactic capable of stopping Hizballah’s rocket blitz against northern Israel, one that can also smash the bunker bases out of which they fire a deadly anti-tank cannonade at Israel tanks.

While the civilians of northern know more than they want to know about the effectiveness of the Hizballah rockets blighting their lives, DEBKAfile’s military sources disclose that little is heard of damage to the military installations in that part of the country, which are targeted equally by Hizballah. The IDF does not report hits to army bases. Nasrallah’s men use their Katyusha rockets to take the place of artillery weapons which they do not have.

The US-made M-26 is equipped with GPS for finding targets. Its sensors keep the launcher stable in all weathers, including winds blowing within a radius of 100 meters, thereby enhancing its accuracy of fire.

Our military sources comment: The fact that the US rocket was requested only in the third week of the Lebanon war and was not in hand at its outbreak is more evidence of how little Israel’s top brass and northern command knew about the enemy and how-ill-prepared they and the government were to confront him in battle.
(Source:DEBKAfile)

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Many Reasons the US Should Engage Syria

Many Reasons the US Should Engage Syria
by Joshua Landis
"Syria Comment," August 9, 2006

The debate over whether to find a diplomatic solution to the Lebanon conflict or to press for a total military victory is becoming ever more heated. More and more analysts are pressing President Bush to talk to Damascus. I will sum up the arguments for and against.

Arguments why Syria is key to any solution:

Syria is the key to controlling Hizbullah. Hizbullah's arms are all delivered through Syria, regardless of their point of origin. This gives Damascus an iron grip of Hizbullah’s weapon supplies; only when Damascus signs onto an agreement can Hizb be brought under control. Damascus has been the main patron of Hizbullah in the past, using it to hurt Israel in order to get it to cough up occupied Golan...(more)
(Source:Syria Comment.com)

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Experts on massacre of civilians consulted. "Israel has called on the services of the Christian militia it once sponsored in Lebanon to help its current fight against Hizbollah, the militia's former leader has disclosed. Gen Anton Lahad assumed control of the South Lebanon Army (SLA) in 1984 - two years after it was implicated in the massacre of up to several thousand Palestinians in the refugee camps of Sabra and Shatila. Now he says that Israel is tapping into his expertise in secret meetings."

(Source:The Angry Arab News Service)

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The Lebanon-Iraq Nexus
Thursday, August 03, 2006
By Jules Crittenden

Just as the Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and others closer to home will tell you, the futures of Lebanon and Iraq, and the desires of Israel and the United States for meaningful peace there are entwined.

Their claim, yet again, is the United States' support for Israel runs counter to its goals elsewhere in the region, notably Iraq.

Unlike Ahmadinejad, who can't help but bray about things he can't quite pull off, like his plan to destroy Israel, al-Sistani, Iraq's leading Shiite cleric, usually avoids headlines on political matters. But on Sunday al-Sistani spoke up for a cease-fire in Lebanon, warning that "Islamic nations will not forgive the entities that hinder a cease-fire."

He warned that "if an immediate cease-fire in this Israeli aggression is not imposed, dire consequences will befall the region."

Al-Sistani, who has played a role in preventing the escalation of violence in Iraq in the past, is a voice to listen to. However, he and others who call for a cease-fire in Lebanon and decry the U.S. role in supporting Israel ignore some demonstrated realities. Let us set aside his misplaced declaration of responsibility when he says "Israel's aggression" and move on to "dire consequences.".....(more)
(Source:Fox News)

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Lebanon the steadfast

Israeli commandos were also reported to have killed four senior Hezballah missile operators in a raid on an apartment block in Tyre.
Rear Admiral Noam Feig told a news conference the commandos shot dead five other Hezballah fighters as they fought their way back to their base after the two-hour raid. He said the missile operators were responsible for the rockets that fell on the Israeli town of Hadera, 70 km, south of the border with Lebanon and 40 km. from Tel Aviv, the farthest south any Hezballah rockets had yet fallen. There were not casualties, he said.
On Saturday too Israeli warplanes carried out pre-dawn attacks for the third consecutive night on Beirut’s southern suburbs, a bastion of Hezballah militia, police said, while helicopters bombarded the southern port of Tyre, where thousands of civilians had sought refuge from Israeli bombing of villages in the interior
Hezballah’s Al-Manar television said guerrillas had foiled an operation to bring in Israeli troops to Tyre by helicopter.
The exchanges of fire caused panic among residents of the town. A private clinic to the north of Tyre assembled its patients on the ground floor, fearing a worsening of the situation, a doctor on the staff. “It’s a real battle”, he said.
The operation was preceded by heavy bombardments of the Tyre region, police said. Dozens of localities to the south and east of Tyre, largely abandoned, were hit from the air and the sea.
Dozens of overnight raids shook several villages in the southern region of Nabatiyé, relatively far from the border, where there were violent clashes between Israeli troops and Hezballah fighters, Lebanese police said.....(more)
(Source:Monday Morning . com)

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The Washington Times wrote :

By Joshua Mitnick
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
August 11, 2006

TEL AVIV -- After four weeks of relying on relatively small numbers of ground forces in southern Lebanon, Israel needs to bring the full brunt of its military superiority to bear on Hezbollah if it decides to push deeper into Lebanon to stop its rocket fire, military observers said yesterday.
Although a U.N. vote on a cease-fire resolution could bring the fighting to the end in a matter of days, if the diplomatic solution is not found, Israel is liable to act on a Security Cabinet decision Wednesday to widen the fighting.
That means deploying more infantry and armored units that would alter the fighting from limited skirmishes that favor Hezbollah to a full-scale ground war in which Israel could use some of its size advantages.
"You have to reach your goals fast and with strength. And we aren't using that strength," said Rafi Noy, a former brigadier general who served in Israel's northern command. "We are a month after the beginning of the operation, and the army hasn't gone out to war."
High Israeli casualties -- probably very high -- are anticipated in the drive to the Litani River. Some 3,000 to 4,000 well-equipped Hezbollah guerrillas are thought to be awaiting the Israeli drive south of the river, sheltering from bombs and artillery in bunkers and tunnels. Several thousand more Hezbollah fighters are deployed north of the river.
Seven thousand Israeli troops have been engaged in the fighting in the security zone close to the border. Some 40,000 troops would be involved in a push to the Litani. Israeli officers estimated that it would take four to seven days to reach the river but that another four to six weeks would be needed to clear the 130 villages between the river and the Israeli border of Hezbollah fighters and of thousands of short-range Katyusha rockets stored there.
"You'll see a lot more bloodshed before this is over," said Shibley Telhami, a Middle East scholar at the University of Maryland. "We're no way close to the top of the ladder in escalation."
Mr. Noy said Israel's tolerance of Katyusha rocket fire over the past four weeks marks a departure from the army's long-standing battle doctrine that favors pushing the fight into enemy territory.
"Instead of engaging Hezbollah at Bint Jbeil, let them sit there and starve," said Mr. Noy, referring to the southern Lebanese city where Hezbollah fighters have extracted heavy losses from Israel. "You just need to surround them."
Israeli tanks should be deployed in large units rather than on individual patrol cleanup jobs, which raise the probability of getting hit by anti-tank missiles, he said.
And yet, Israel has already achieved a degree of success by reducing the number of Katyusha rockets fired from the strip of territory just north of the border, said Yaakov Amidror, a reserve major general who once headed the army's planning division.
After establishing control over Hezbollah's front line of bunkers, it should be easier for the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to advance to the Litani, he said.
He said it would be a mistake to stop the offensive before dealing a painful blow to Hezbollah.
"It will be a disaster because the Hezbollah can claim that they stopped the IDF," he said. "All around the Muslim world, it will look like a victory for extremist Islam over the only democracy in the Middle East."

(Source:Washington Times)