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Israeli reservists are returning from the war in Lebanon with unprecedented criticism toward their commanders: They say the army was poorly prepared, abandoned injured comrades and suffered from a dire lack of supplies. Developing...

WASHINGTON - Lebanon's government took control of the nation's south for the first time in a quarter of a century yesterday as a senior UN official pressed the international community for quick commitments of troops to a Middle East peacekeeping force, warning a delay could lead to renewed bloodshed between Israel and Hezbollah. At a meeting in New York, UN Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown pressed ambassadors from dozens of countries to tell the world body "in the next few days at most" how many soldiers they would contribute and when, after France sent plans into disarray by offering only...

Senior sources in the Israel Defense Forces General Staff and field officers who took part in the war in Lebanon said on Tuesday that Chief of Staff Dan Halutz, who went to his bank branch and sold an NIS 120,000 investment portfolio only three hours after two soldiers were abducted by Hezbollah on the northern border, cannot escape resignation. The sources say there is a clear ethical flaw in the chief of staff's behavior during the hours when soldiers were killed in Lebanon and others were attempting to rescue wounded. Halutz should resign the moment the military completes its pullout...

Britain and Germany today watered down a strong European Union call for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Lebanon conflict as foreign ministers clashed in Brussels. Instead of calling for an immediate ceasefire a convoluted statement issued by the 25 member states called for "an immediate end to hostilities to be followed by a sustainable ceasefire". The move by Britain and Germany backs the stance of the United States which believes a ceasefire call should only be made if it was "sustainable". It will be also interpreted as a snub to Jacques Chirac, the French president, who has been demanding an...

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has told the Syrian military to raise its readiness, pledging not to abandon support for Lebanese resistance against Israel. In an annual address on the anniversary of the foundation of the Syria Arab Army, Assad called on the military to "work on more preparedness and raise readiness of all units". "We are facing international circumstances and regional challenges that require caution, alertness, readiness and preparedness," Assad said in the written address. Diplomats in Damascus say the Syrian army has been on alert since the Israeli onslaught on Lebanon began on July 12 after Hizbollah fighters captured...

Lebanese army and security officials said Tuesday night that a major IDF operation was underway against suspected Hizbullah positions near Baalbeek in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, with one officer saying the IAF presence in the air above the ancient city was "unprecedented." The operation began with at least five rapid air strikes. "The extreme, unprecedented number of aircraft indicates the possibility that the Israelis are planning to land troops, but we cannot yet confirm that," said one security official. Flares held aloft by parachutes lighted the night sky to a daytime brilliance, the official said. Hizbullah's al-Manar television said IAF...

I was one of a number of Jewish conservatives who spoke out in defense of Mel Gibson’s film The Passion of The Christ. (See "More Power To Mel," published in FrontPageMag.com on February 10, 2004.) For that, I have no regrets. I believed then – and continue to believe – that The Passion is not anti-Semitic. However, based on what followed Gibson’s drunk-driving arrest on Friday, I’m convinced that the actor/director himself is an anti-Semite. According to various news reports, when he was arrested by a sheriff’s deputy in Malibu for DUI, Gibson was enraged. At one point, he reportedly...

French President Jacques Chirac said Wednesday that NATO should not lead a proposed international force in Lebanon, saying the alliance is seen in the region as "the armed wing of the West." "As far as France is concerned, it is not NATO's mission to put together such a force," Chirac told the daily newspaper Le Monde. "Whether we like it or not, NATO is perceived as the armed wing of the West in these regions, and as a result, in terms of image, NATO is not intended for this." Israel has suggested it would prefer a NATO-led coalition in Lebanon,...

Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Sunday that Israel would accept a temporary international force, preferably headed by NATO, deployed along the Lebanese border to keep Hizbullah guerrillas away from Israel, according to officials in Peretz's office. "Israel's goal is to see the Lebanese army deployed along the border with Israel, but we understand that we are taking about a weak army and that in the midterm period Israel will have to accept a multinational force," he said according to his office. Peretz made the comments during a closed meeting with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. US President George W....

“Urgent” need for a ceasefire in Lebanon, says RiceBut conditions have to be right to be sustainable. US Secretary of State is to meet Olmert and Abbas today. She might stop in Beirut where Patriarch Sfeir urges the Lebanese to “close ranks” in the face of the crisis and calls on God to help Siniora and his government. Beirut (AsiaNews/Agencies) – For Condoleezza Rice, there is an “urgent” need for a ceasefire in southern Lebanon but conditions have to be right. In saying so the US Secretary of State joins the many voices that have called for an end to...

In focusing on Israel, New Delhi is missing the point that Hezbollah is a force of extremism and misadventure, backed only by Syria and Iran While much of India’s attention is devoted “excessive and disproportionate military retaliation by Israel which has targeted civilian infrastructure” as portrayed by the official statement, the ongoing violence in West Asia is far more complicated than normally recognised. The crisis underscores the perennial Lebanon struggle for independence and sovereignty not only vis-a-vis its power neighbours but also vis-a-vis militant groups inside. Hezbollah, the Party of God, precipitated the crisis by ambushing and kidnapping soldiers from...

Jul. 20, 2006 17:23 Lebanese Army may join forces with Hizbullah By JPOST.COM STAFF The Lebanese Minister of Defense warned Israel Thursday that if IDF ground forces are sent into southern Lebanon, Lebanese troops will fight along with the Hizbullah against Israel.

Although Hizbullah has suffered a harsh blow from Israeli air force strikes which took out a good percentage of their available weapons, Syria was continuing to smuggle arms into Lebanon to rearm the group, IDF Operations Branch Head Major General Gadi Eisenkot said during a press briefing Tuesday. Thus far, the IAF managed to intercept a number of trucks transporting rockets from Syria to Hizbullah, including trucks laden with the 20mm-diameter rockets with warheads like the one that hit the Haifa train depot Monday, claiming eight lives. Maj.-Gen. Eisenkot said he would be very surprised if official elements in Syria...

The Israel Air Force attacked four trucks carrying weapons from Syria to Lebanon as it was travelling through the valley close to the border between the two countries.

Hizbullah on Monday rejected a ceasefire on terms dictated by Israel. “We accept no conditions for a ceasefire, whatever the pressure," Abdullah Kasir, a member of Hizbullah's central committee, told AFP. Sources in Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office said during the weekend that the possibility of a ceasefire will not be considered before three conditions are met: The release of the kidnapped IDF soldier’s by Hizbullah, the cessation of rocket attacks on Israel from Lebanon and the disarming of Hizbullah in accordance with UN Resolution 1559. Kasir said Israel's demand to see the Lebanese army deploy along the border with...

It will be called the massacre of Marwaheen. All the civilians killed by the Israelis had been ordered to abandon their homes in the border village by the Israelis themselves a few hours earlier. Leave, they were told by loudspeaker; and leave they did, 20 of them in a convoy of civilian cars. That's when the Israeli jets arrived to bomb them, killing 20 Lebanese, at least nine of them children. The local fire brigade could not put out the fires as they all burned alive in the inferno. Another "terrorist" target had been eliminated. Yesterday, the Israelis even produced...

Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Dan Halutz said on Sunday afternoon that the more advanced Fajar missiles that were fired with a barrage of other rockets at Haifa on Sunday morning, killing eight people, were made in Syria. Meanwhile, the names of two of the eight victims of the Haifa attack were released for publication. Shlomi Mansora, 35, from Nahariya and Rafi Hazan, 30, from Haifa, died when a rocket hit a maintenance depot at the train station. Just two hours after the fatal attack, a second barrage of rockets landed in Haifa's port area and Nahariya. A third barrage...