Free Republic

Defusing the present dangerous confrontation between Islam and the West demands rational, impartial and cool heads to untangle facts from myth. We must seek to understand the Muslims’ mindset in comparison with that of the West, acknowledging vast individual and cultural differences within each group, while seeking outlines of meaningful distinctions. The Muslims’ perennial complaint is that the imperialist West—all colonial powers of the past, as well as the United States of America today—have victimized them for decades and even centuries and continue to do so in every conceivable way. The litany of the alleged wrongdoings by the West is...

Washington has let Jerusalem know that for now Israel should not expect any financial aid to help defray the cost of the war in Lebanon, The Jerusalem Post has learned. According to sources in Jerusalem, the government was considering requesting US aid - one report estimated a request of $2 billion - to help pay the cost of the war. There was talk in Washington of a large-scale financial package to help rebuild southern Lebanon, and in the process keep the Iranians out of the process. Israel was apparently hoping to fold its aid request into this package. However, according...

Israeli reservists, fresh from fighting in southern Lebanon, demanded yesterday that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resign over what they describe as the debacle of the monthlong war with Hezbollah. The calls of the reservists will make it more difficult for Mr. Olmert's Cabinet to avoid appointing a formal "state commission of inquiry," panels that helped bring down two prominent Israeli leaders in the past 33 years. Reservists told of insufficient provisions, of having no water in the summer heat and being forced to drink from canteens of dead Hezbollah guerrillas, shortages of combat equipment and indecisive orders. One group...

A Hizbullah Cabinet minister on Tuesday said the government may attempt to break the Israeli naval and air blockade of Lebanon by calling on ships and aircraft to travel to Lebanese ports without prior Israeli approval. The government has condemned the blockade, saying it violates the UN cease-fire resolution, and the foreign minister Tuesday called on the international community to force Israel to end the blockade. The Cabinet met late Monday but did not publicly challenge to the blockade, although it called the siege one of Israel's "terrorist practices." "Entry to Lebanon by sea and from air is a matter...

ANKARA, Turkey - Aug. 21, 2006 (UPI) -- Five Iranian and one Syrian aircraft were barred from flying into Lebanon by Turkey, which claimed they were ferrying arms for Hezbollah militants. The Turkish Hurriyet newspaper reported Monday the last flight diversion was Thursday when an Iranian airlines Parsair flight was forced to land at Diyarbakir military airport in eastern Turkey. The newspaper said U.S. intelligence reports indicated the plane carried three missile launchers and containers with Chinese C-802 land-to-sea missiles, and it was ordered to turn around. From Jerusalem, the Ha'aretz newspaper said Turkish authorities would not elaborate on whether...

Iran and Syria are working to replenish weaponry and funding for Hezbollah militants in Lebanon, a London Arabic newspaper reported Monday. The daily al-Sharq al-Awast quoted a senior officer of the Revolutionary Guard in Tehran saying huge quantities of weapons reached Damascus during the last three weeks and are waiting to be transferred to Lebanon. A spokesman for the Iranian foreign ministry, Hamid Rada Asafi, confirmed Sunday "the government is learning the need for aid and ways to transfer it to Lebanon." Ynetnews also quoted sources from the office of spiritual leader Ali Khamenei, who reportedly ordered the Iranian government...

Israel's Lost Moment Israel's leaders do not seem to understand how ruinous its disappointing performance in Lebanon has been to its relationship with America. At critical moments in the past, Israel has indeed shown its value. In 1970 Israel saved King Hussein and the monarchy of Jordan. In 1982 they shot down 86 MiGs in one week without a single loss, revealing Soviet technological backwardnesss. Hezbollah's unprovoked attack on July 12 gave them our green light to defend themselves; an act of clear self-interest, because America needed a decisive Hezbollah defeat. Hezbollah is a wholly owned Iranian subsidiary, making Islam...

The Arab world's silence has left the last word to those we call extremists While Israel receives unanimous western support, this crisis is dragging the region ever faster into the abyss Alain Gresh Tuesday August 22, 2006 The Guardian (UK) Killers slaughter dozens of civilians in Iraq every day just because they are Sunni Muslims. Suicide attacks are increasingly common in Afghanistan, where they used to be unknown. On the Gaza Strip, 1.5 million Palestinians are caught in a trap, hemmed in by the Israeli offensive and the decision by the US and the EU to freeze all direct aid....

WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2006 – The United States will provide funding and other assistance to support a U.N. plan to end warfare between Lebanon-based Hezbollah guerrillas and Israel, President Bush said here today. Recently passed U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 has authorized a 15,000-strong international force to deploy as a buffer between Israel and Hezbollah. A brokered cease-fire has reduced fighting between the two antagonists after they fought a month-long trans-border battle using rockets, mortars and ground troops. “America will do our part. We will assist the new international force with logistical support, command and control, communications and intelligence,” Bush...

Israeli reserve soldiers accuse government of 'cold feet' over conflict · Brigade signs letter calling for Lebanon inquiry· Newspaper demands general's resignation Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem Tuesday August 22, 2006 The Guardian (UK) A brigade of reserve soldiers angrily accused the Israeli government yesterday of fighting a war with "indecision" and "cold feet" as criticism mounted over the handling of the conflict in Lebanon. In the most outspoken acknowledgment of Israel's failings in the war, one retiring senior army officer also admitted that the military felt "a certain sense of failure" after 34 days of combat. Brigadier Yossi Heiman, head...

Like Olmert, Hamas and Hizbullah realize that without solid Jewish majority on stable borders – Israel will not survive. They are not fighting the occupation, but rather the option of ending it All Israelis had good reasons to support the recent war in Lebanon, as well as in Gaza. All had good reason to regret it didn't end in victory. This is the obvious part. It is the self evident interest of all those who wish to see a peaceful Middle East to prevent Iran, Syria and fundamentalist Islam in general from achieving hegemony in the region. But the left...

In the immediate aftermath of the 1973 October War, there was much joy in the Arab world because the myth of Israeli invincibility had been shattered by the surprise Egyptian crossing of the Suez Canal, and the Syrian offensive that swept across the Golan Heights. Even unbiased commentators noted the failure of the Israeli air force to repeat its feats of 1967 while losing fully one-quarter of its combat aircraft to ground fire, just as hundreds of Israeli tanks were damaged or destroyed by brave Egyptian infantrymen with their hand-carried missiles and rockets. In Israel, there was harsh criticism of...

This past week a considerable number of stories, complete with photos, have appeared in the MSM relating to Hezbollah indemnifying the Lebanese for the damage done to their property by the war with Israel started by Hezbollah. Wads of fresh $100 bills passed from Hezbollah to those poor Lebanese who suffered damage or injury during the war. But with the stories, and the pictures, questions have now arisen about the "charitable" motives, and methods, of the Hezbollah terrorists. One of the most prominent and influential members of the Hizballah terrorist organization, along with two of his companies, was designated by...

JERUSALEM - Israeli troops on Monday in southern Lebanon shot two Hezbollah guerrillas during a clash in southern Lebanon, the army said. The army said the soldiers opened fire after guerrillas approached the force in a "threatening manner." It identified hitting two of the three militants in the group. The clash underscored the fragility of a week-old truce that ended 34 days of fighting. Israel is keeping troops in southern Lebanon until Lebanese troops and U.N. peacekeepers take up positions.

BENT JBAIL, Lebanon - It would aid the cause of peace if Canada dropped Hezbollah from a list of banned terrorist organizations, according to two Canadian MPs now on a fact-finding mission to Lebanon. When asked if he was in favour of Hezbollah being taken off the terror list, Etobicoke Liberal Borys Wrzesnewskyj said: ''Yes, I would be.'' He likened the situation in the Middle East to Northern Ireland, where ''if there wasn't the possibility for London to negotiate with the IRA, you'd still have bombings.... ''Hezbollah has a political wing. They have members of parliament. They have two cabinet...

The fighting in Lebanon is already triggering debate in Israel about the division of missions between its air force and army. The combat also revealed classified technology that Tel Aviv kept under wraps prior to the simultaneous conflicts with Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. Analysis of the conflict is being rushed because many believe the United Nations cease-fire will not last long. Both U.S. and Israeli military officials doubt that U.N. or Lebanese troops can disarm Hezbollah; this means a continuation of the fighting is inevitable. "The cease-fire is not in Israel's interest," a Pentagon official says. "Hezbollah...

The widespread destruction of a defenseless Lebanon-its civilians, its life-sustaining public services, its environment - is a grim and indelible testament to your consummate cruelty and ignorance. Nearly two weeks ago when your tardy Secretary of State met with the Israeli Prime Minister, the message she carried was summarized in a large headline across page one of an Israeli newspaper, "TAKE YOUR TIME." Yes, take your time, says George W. Bush, pulverizing fleeing refugees in cars full of families, bombing apartment buildings, hospitals and the poor huddled in large South Beirut slums. Take your time, says George W. Bush, in...

The UN must make good on its promises, & media should rethink skewed coverage War, it is said, is a series of catastrophes that, sooner or later, result in victory. But the war between Israel and Hezbollah has resulted not in victory but in a disturbingly unquiet peace. First, there's the question about whether the United Nations will put some muscle where its mouth is and insist on disarming Hezbollah. President Bush has declared victory, but that is way premature. It doesn't fit with Secretary of State Rice's statement that the disarmament of Hezbollah should be achieved "voluntarily." Dream on!...

President George W Bush has announced that the US is to boost its aid package to Lebanon to $230m. The money would be used to help rebuild Lebanese homes and infrastructure, he told reporters at the White House. He also called for the quick deployment of a peacekeeping force for Lebanon. "The need is urgent," he said. The international community must designate the leadership of the force and give it a "robust mandate" as soon as possible, he said. A UN resolution calls for 15,000 troops to uphold the week-old ceasefire. Mr Bush said he hoped France would send more...

Inside Lebanon—There is no government here. Nobody with which to make peace. The people that run this region are Hezbollah. The Lebanon Army is a joke. They themselves know they are interlopers here. They refuse to disarm Hezbollah. So the arms have disappeared. You are supposed to believe that peace can be achieved here. You’d be wrong. That is where Condi Rice, the President of the United States, John Bolton and one John Carey disagree. I am going to tell the Prime Minister of Israel to also disagree with the President of the United States. The “peace plan” the U.S....