Security cabinet to convene to discuss expanding Lebanon operation

[IndianaGreen]

Last update - 09:20 27/07/2006

Security cabinet to convene to discuss expanding Lebanon operation

By Amos Harel and Aluf Benn

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet with the security cabinet Thursday morning to discuss the possibility of expanding the Israel Defense Forces operation in southern Lebanon.

At Thursday's cabinet meeting, a number of ministers are expected to express bitter criticism of the handling of the war in the north, including its aims and the nature of the ground operations ¬ particularly following the heavy casualties in Wednesday's operations.

Olmert convened a late-night meeting Wednesday with the group of seven ministers who are part of the security cabinet to discuss options and exchange views about the continuation of the operation in view of the rising casualties in battles against Hezbollah and the continued Katyusha rocket attacks against northern Israel.

It appears that the army is gradually moving away from its previous tactic of raids targeting specific positions along the border, in favor of one of capturing and temporarily holding a security zone whose aim would be to push the rocket launchers further north.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743489.html

Last update - 06:24 27/07/2006

ANALYSIS: The U.S. may have to resume talks with Syria

By Shmuel Rosner

WASHINGTON - Everyone knows that Israel's Lebanon wishlist will not be met in its entirety. A number of the concessions that Israel will presumably have to agree to in the days and weeks to come have already been leaked from the various and sundry diplomatic talks being held in Beirut, Jerusalem and Rome.

Hezbollah will not be disarmed, at least not in the short term. Any international force to be deployed in Lebanon will serve as little more than a buffer force along the border. The likelihood of its remaining there depends largely on the goodwill of Hezbollah, and perhaps that of Syria and Iran, too.

It is similarly unlikely that Israel's kidnapped soldiers will be returned without at least a token release of prisoners.

But it is the Shaba Farms that will pose one of the greatest problems for Israel. Israel recognizes that it is not its territory and ostensibly should not find it hard to hand over the keys, but conceding the area to the Lebanese government, or to a committee that will decide whether to give it to Lebanon or to Syria, will be presented as another Hezbollah victory. The Americans, too, know this.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/743481.html

The turnabout will come quickly

By Meron Benvenisti

No one can predict when the reversal will come, when all the experts will begin competing for first place in revealing the failures of the war: mistaken strategy, political dilettantism and shooting from the hip; the weakness disguised as courageous determination; the illusions, arrogance and boasting; the addiction to an impulse of revenge; the cruelty and the lack of moral inhibitions.

<snip>

Only reliance on patriotic emotions, which cloud any rational thinking, makes it possible to state without shame - after many days of multi-casualty pounding and the inexplicable destruction of an airport, highway interchanges, power stations and entire neighborhoods - that actually this activity was in vain, since it was known in advance that the bombs could not achieve their objectives and that a massive ground invasion was unavoidable.

Only people who unabashedly exploit primitive urges allow themselves to personalize the war and focus it on the annihilation of their enemy, Hassan Nasrallah. Only those who are convinced the war will bring down a smoke screen over any cynical or hypocritical act can brag that they are assisting in an international humanitarian activity after they themselves brought about the catastrophe.

No one is able to predict the minute when the opposition to the war and the bloodshed turns from an act of betrayal into a legitimate and even correct stance; when a moral condemnation of the war's evil effects becomes acceptable from a patriotic point of view and when slogans like "uprooting terror," "a war for our homes," "an existential struggle" and their like, turn from resonant war-cries into empty rhetoric.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/742762.html

[Ghost Dog]

1. Commentary: Is Beirut burning? - Uri Avnery

http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20060724-074058-6410r
July 24, 2006

-- "It seems that Nasrallah survived," Israeli newspapers announced, after 23 tons of bombs were dropped on a site in Beirut, where the Hizbullah leader was supposedly hiding in a bunker. An interesting formulation: A few hours after the bombing, Nasrallah had given an interview to Al Jazeera television. Not only did he look alive, but even composed and confident. He spoke about the bombardment - proof that the interview was recorded on the same day. So what does "it seems that" mean? Very simple: Nasrallah pretends to be alive, but you can't believe an Arab. Everyone knows that Arabs always lie. That's in their very nature, as Ehud Barak once pronounced.

<snip>

A person returning here after a long absence and seeing our TV screens might get the impression that a military junta is governing Israel, in the (former) South American manner. On all TV channels, every evening, one sees a parade of military brass in uniform. They explain not only the day's military actions, but also comment on political matters and lay down the political and propaganda line. ... True, we are a democracy. The army is completely subject to the civilian establishment. According to the law, the cabinet is the "supreme commander" of the army (which in Israel includes the navy and air force). But in practice, today it is the top brass who decide all political and military matters.

<snip>

Talleyrand was not wrong when he said that "war is much too serious a thing to be left to military men." The mentality of the generals, resulting from their education and profession, is by nature force-oriented, simplistic, one-dimensional, not to say primitive. It is based on the belief that all problems can be solved by force, and if that does not work - then by more force. That is well illustrated by the planning and execution of the current war. This was based on the assumption that if we cause terrible suffering to the population, they will rise up and demand the removal of Hizbullah. A minimal understanding of mass psychology would suggest the opposite. The killing of hundreds of Lebanese civilians, belonging to all the ethno-religious communities, the turning of the lives of the others into hell, and the destruction of the life-supporting infrastructure of Lebanese society will arouse a groundswell of fury and hatred - against Israel, and not against the heroes, as they see them, who sacrifice their lives in their defense.

<snip>

Faced with the horrors that are shown on all television and many computer screens, world opinion is also changing. What was seen at the beginning as a justified response to the capture of the two soldiers now looks like the barbaric actions of a brutal war-machine. The elephant in a china shop. Thousands of e-mail distribution lists have circulated a horrible series of photos of mutilated babies and children. At the end, there is a macabre photo: jolly Israeli children writing "greetings" on the artillery shells that are about to be fired. Then there appears a message: "Thanks to the children of Israel for this nice gift. Thanks to the world that does nothing. Signed: the children of Lebanon and Palestine." The woman who heads the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has already defined these acts as war crimes - something that may in future mean trouble for Israeli army officers. In general, when army officers are determining the policy of a nation, serious moral problems arise.

/...

[donkeyotay]

2. This is the part that worries me about the US and the WOT

Here, Meron Benvenisti is speaking about Israelis but it applies to the neocons and the US as well. From the link:

They cannot allow themselves to think that all should know their assessments were incorrect, and therefore they will seek a "victory" that will justify all the loss of life and destruction, and the very need for such a victory will merely prolong the suffering and bereavement. The public that supports them will have difficulty demanding soul-searching of them since the tribal solidarity will protect the political and military leaders.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/742762.html

They will drag us into WWIII before they admit that the WOT is failed in its very concept, that they failed to identify root causes let alone a workable remedy.

[bemildred]

3. I agree.

I am fearful there will be a serious escalation in an attempt to recoup the situation, first bombing, and then a ground assault towards Tyre, all disclaimers to the contrary. They have declared S. Lebanon a free bombing zone.

[mom cat]

4. Keep the pressure on Congress. Let them know that we oppost

this brutal massacre!