LAT: Bush, Peers Worlds Apart on Approach to Middle East Crisis

[DeepModem Mom]

Bush, Peers Worlds Apart on Approach to the Crisis
By James Gerstenzang and Paul Richter, Times Staff Writers
July 15, 2006

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia — President Bush split sharply from other world leaders Friday over the deepening crisis in the Middle East, declining a request from Lebanon's prime minister to pressure Israel to halt its attacks.

While Israeli warplanes struck deeper into Lebanon, Bush talked by telephone with Middle Eastern leaders, including Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister.

European leaders sharply criticized Israel's bombardment of its northern neighbor. French President Jacques Chirac condemned the offensive as "totally disproportionate" and said it appeared that Israel "wished to destroy Lebanon."

Other criticism came from Spain, Norway, Russia and China. The Vatican said it "deplores the attack on Lebanon."

The differing approaches threatened to divide the summit here of the Group of 8 leading industrialized nations. The Bush administration has been hoping the gathering will show world leaders forming a united front against Iran's nuclear program....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-usmideast15jul15,0,6403336.story?coll=la-home-world

[rodeodance]

1. update Reuters: Israel kills 32 in air strikes (15 children)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060715/ts_nm/mideast_dc


Israel kills 32 in air strikes

By Laila Bassam 4 minutes ago

BEIRUT (Reuters) -
Israel killed at least 32 civilians on Saturday, including 15 children, in air strikes meant to punish Lebanon for letting Hizbollah guerrillas menace the Jewish state's northern border.


Israel's bombing of Lebanese roads, bridges, ports and airports, as well as Hizbollah targets, is its most destructive onslaught since its 1982 invasion to expel Palestinian forces.

An Israeli missile incinerated a van in south Lebanon, killing 20 people, among them 15 children, in the deadliest single attack of the four-day-old campaign launched by Israel after Hizbollah captured two of its soldiers and killed eight.

Police said the van was carrying two families fleeing the village of Marwaheen after Israeli loudspeaker warnings to leave their homes.

Raids on roads and petrol stations in north, east and south Lebanon killed 12 people and wounded 32, security sources said, bringing the death toll in four days of Israeli attacks to 99. All but three of the dead have been civilians.
................

[rodeodance]

4. another update: Israeli aircraft attack central Beirut

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060715/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel;_ylt=ApIJkkJ.0nr3A7tXyhpnQQGs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

Israeli aircraft attack central Beirut

32 minutes ago

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Witnesses said Israeli aircraft attacked central Beirut Saturday for the first time in a four-day offensive, striking a lighthouse and the capital's seaport.
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In Lebanon's northernmost city, Tripoli, witnesses said Israeli helicopters carried out the deepest strike yet into Lebanon, firing four missiles into the city's port area and hitting grain silos.

The Tripoli port is the country's second-largest, after Beirut's.

Israel has imposed a sea, air and land blockade of Lebanon, targeting bridges, roads, the international airport and now ports in response to a raid by Hezbollah militants into Israel that captured two soldiers and killed eight.

[leftchick]

2. I thought he had shed his cowboy diplomacy

Newsweek had better rewrite the cover story.

[rodeodance]

5. oops--fooled again!!

[Tellurian]

3. Bush doesn't KNOW what to do. No one is there to tell him what's next..

The Israeli's took the playbook into their own hands
while Bush is standing around stupified.

[smirkymonkey]

6. Someone answer me this....

Why the hell does ANYBODY give a damn about what Bush "thinks" - I can't even believe anybody weighs his input at all, let alone seriously.