Nur al-Cubicle

A blog on the current crises in the Middle East and news accounts unpublished by the US press. Daily timeline of events in Iraq as collected from stories and dispatches in the French and Italian media: Le Monde (Paris), Il Corriere della Sera (Milan), La Repubblica (Rome), L'Orient-Le Jour (Beirut) and occasionally from El Mundo (Madrid).

Saturday, August 05, 2006

The Government of Lebanon deplores

the watered-down ceasefire offered by the US and France.

-Cessation of hostilities isn't quite the same thing as a ceasefire. Combat may continue
-Text does not call for an Israeli pullout
-France requested a provision including resolution of the question of Lebanese imprisoned in Israel and the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers. Instead, this key requirement is mentioned en passant in the Preamble.

On the positive side, France has agreed to lead in imposition force between Israel and Lebanon. But Isnogood gets at least another 72 hours of blood and destruction.

9 Comments:

Blogger markfromireland said...

Ahem: Pardon me but

"the two kidnapped Israeli soldiers"

Since when did capturing two enemy soldiers start to be kidnapping? There's a lot of doubt as to which side of the border they were captured on for a start. And Olmert trumpeted their capture as the casus belli he specifically called it a "cause for war."

You can't have it both ways. So please can we end this constant connivance at the Israeli insistence on inviting everyone to a pity party whenever one of their soldiers is attacked, captured, injured, or killed, while engaged in military operations? It really gets up my nose as somebody who spent a lot of his military career as a UNIFIL peacekeeper to read self-pitying propaganda masquerading as reporting such as this:

report from Haaretz

"A reservist soldier was killed and four other troops were injured when an anti-tank missile hit a home in which they took up position in the southern Lebanese village of Ayta a-Shab. Corporal Kyril Kashdan, 26, of Haifa, is the first reservist killed in the IDF ground operation in Lebanon. He will be buried at the Haifa cemetery at 5.00 P.M. on Sunday.

[snip]

Four soldiers had already been killed in that village, also from an anti-tank missile attack on a home. The village is about one kilometer north of the border with Israel, and is immediately across from the area where two IDF soldiers were abducted on July 12. "

Right so the deceased soldiers were in somebody else's home in somebody else's country as armed invaders and were killed by a counter attack aimed at chucking them out of the country and the home. Yes it's a God awful tragedy but kindly spare us the pity party. They shouldn't have been there, not their home somebody else's home which they were using as a military location.

Legitimate targets get shot at. Sometimes they get killed. If you don't want to make your reservists legitimate targets the solution is not to invade other country's in a replay of your last grabby and illegal invasion.

3:07 AM  
Blogger furtherleft said...

There are many motivations, perhaps as many as villains, and they vary widely. Here's one receiving little press attention. It's about annexation, stupid!. Israel's invasion of southern Lebanon is supposed to be an act of self-defense. But the gullible Western media miss its real purpose, namely a de facto annexation of the country up to the Litani River, thus assuring Israel of water and fulfilling the dreams of Israel's founders. It is discussed fully in an Asian Times lead article.

5:35 AM  
Blogger markfromireland said...

This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

6:15 AM  
Blogger markfromireland said...

Deleted comment was mine sheesh my typing, preview is my friend, try again:

Yeah Pocho no surprises there they've grabbed water resources every other one of their wars so no surprises that they've done it this time and want to get as far as the Litanis - there's a very narrow ridge that separates its watershed from territory they control and pump from. Here's part of a Debka file report:

Perhaps the most important gain from the crisis is Israel’s recovery of control over its main sources of water, the Wazani springs in the divided Ghajar village. This was achieved in the early hours of the IDF push in the east. Israel will not cede this asset in a hurry. Worth citing in this regard is defense minister Amir Peretz’s statement Tuesday, 25, after US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice left the Middle East, that Israel would retain control of a security belt in southern Lebanon until a multinational force takes over.

From the Debka file here I don't know if you know the Debka site it's "semi-official" it's used by the Israeli governemtn especially it's military/security establishment to leak.

6:25 AM  
Blogger Nur-al-Cubicle said...

I've also read some geostrategists who discuss the Litani's water as a prize.

9:22 AM  
Blogger Nur-al-Cubicle said...

You are right, Mark. Nasrallah himself refers to the pair as "prisoners" as in "prisoners of war". So Isnogood gets 40 dead and wounded for the sake of this pair, who are in no danger of death.

9:26 AM  
Blogger Nudnik said...

markymark, there is absolutely no doubt what side of the border the Israeli soldiers were abducted from. The soldiers were clearly on the Israeli side of the border, and even Hizbullah describes it as such. Israel's border with Lebanon is clearly marked and is internationally recognized, as the UN verified in 2000.

So an armed militia - that happens to be part of the government - launches a cross-border attack against a neighboring state. That is an act of war, and under all international law Israel has the right to destroy that militia and has the right to enter the country from which the attack emanated.

And if the "international community" and UNIFIL jackasses ever got their thumbs out of their asses and enforced the relevant agreements (Taif accords) and resolutions (1559) that demanded that Hizbullah must be disarmed, instead of ignoring and sometimes cooperating with Hizbullah's arms buildup, this war would not have happened.

7:56 PM  
Blogger furtherleft said...

How come nudnick's profile page link produces a not authorized to view notice?

3:33 AM  
Blogger markfromireland said...

Beause if you had a blog like this you'd be ashamed of it too Pocho ;-)

8:21 AM  

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