Two big stories to take note of. First, the Israel-“Lebanon” war—which is more a war against the emerging Hezbollah-Hamas axis being run by Iran and Syria (even as Syria is now publicly calling for Hezbollah to stop attacks; which is not surprising: use Hezbollah to inflict as much damage as possible before Israel commits to a full-scale response, then try to gin up support from the International community to stop Israeli “aggression” by acting as though you are on the side of the angels.). And second, India is now blaming Pakistan for Monday’s attacks. You can follow the stories as they unfold at Pajamas Media: “Israel-Hezbollah War Part Two” and “India Intelligence Blames Pakistan”. See also, Hot Air, who points to a story suggesting that IDF computers may have been hacked by Hezbollah.
Meanwhile, in what has become a depressingly familiar response, the Vatican “deplores Israeli attack on Lebanon”. From Catholic World News:
The Holy See has protested Israel’s air raids on Lebanon, condemning both terrorist acts and reprisals that violate national sovereignty and strike at innocent civilians.
With Pope Benedict XVI on vacation in the Italian Alps, the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, read a public statement on Vatican Radio. That statement was released promptly by the Vatican press office on July 14.
Cardinal Sodano said that the Holy Father was carefully following news of the latest developments in the Middle East, “which risk degenerating into a conflict with international repercussions.”
“As in the past, the Holy See also condemns both the terrorist attacks on the one side and the military reprisals on the other,” he continued.” He argued that Israel’s right to self-defense “does not exempt it from respecting the norms of international law, especially as regards the protection of civilian populations.”
Well, the Pope is certainly entitled to his opinion. And the whole “cycle of violence” bit has been a convenient moral sell for years now, even though from my perspective it is decidedly problematic—and has actually exascerbated the problems in the middle east by refusing to identify the source of the aggression and unrest (though, in the Vatican’s defense, at least they aren’t blaming George Bush—whose failure to place more troops in Iraq, the argument goes, allowed Iran to take over large chunks of the country and emboldened the mullahs to attack Israel with Hezbollah. Which is Andrew Sullivan’s thesis; Sullivan doesn’t seem to allow for the idea that an emboldened Hezbollah can now be utterly destroyed, Iran is blocked off from a meaningful defense of Syria, and there’s very little the “international community” can do about it…)
But getting back to the Vatican. On matters of International Law, the Holy See’s pronouncements should carry about as much weight (if not less) as the statements of, say, Canadian PM Stephen Harper, who while in London “called Israel’s response to the kidnapping of three soldiers ‘measured’ and ‘simply self-defence’.”
Meanwhile, to complete the construction of our Brave New World, the EU capital and the UN are both denouncing Israel, while Saudi Arabia blames Hezbollah and Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, while decrying the bombing of Lebanon, fingers Syria and Iran as the instigators.
Wouldn’t be a hoot if the EU and Hezbollah meet in a neutral zone and each try to surrender to the other?
Meanwhile, here’s military historian and Sharon Center (Jerusalem) senior fellow Michael Oren in the WaPo:
Today a united Hezbollah-Hamas axis has emerged, financed and trained by Syria and Iran, with the goal of destabilizing Israel and frustrating its efforts to disengage from the conflict. In spite of the perils that this front poses to Israel, and the ethical dilemmas that fighting it raises, Israel can transform the situation into one that promotes both domestic and regional stability.
I don’t know how this will go—but early indications suggest that Israel may not be satisfied with simply kicking the can down the road this time.
Are we seeing a brief regional flare up? Or are we seeing the first stages of an attempt by the US and Israel to decimate Hezbollah and Hamas, and bring about uprisings against the Mullahs and Assad?
When Diplomats Clash: UN Style
</blockquote>”You are so in love with occupation that you, you cling to it even when we leave every single inch,” [Israeli UN Ambassador] Gillerman said.<blockquote>
I hope Bolton picks up this guy’s lunch check.
tw: fact
Um . . . you have your prime ministers confused.
Jim
It seems in my humble opinion that there’s a two-fold international operation going on here. Firstly, is the attempt to yank the cover off the countries who are supporting Hamas, Hezbullah, and AQ/AQ-affiliated groups in the mid-East and Pakistan. Secondly is the isolation of these groups. The US is in Afghanistan and Iraq, effectively surrounding Iran and Pakistan with India to the south. As Israel begins pounding on Hezbullah from the east, and the Lebanese people start a backlash against Hezbollah, they’ll beat them back towards Syria and eventually the coalition forces in Iraq.
A nice little ancilliary benefit has been the Saudi’s assertion that Hezbollah is being ‘irresponsible’ in the region. I doubt they’d join an offensive, but it seems they aren’t willing to cooperate with them.
Basically, the nations supporting Islamofascist terrorism are being dragged, kicking and screaming, in to the sunlight; while at the same time geographically isolated. The old divide and conquer?
Wishful thinking perhaps. Do you mean the Shalem Center?
der, that should be ‘Hexbollah from the WEST’. heh.
The question of the day should be. Why is Assad still alive?
That is all…..
It’s understandable that Jeff would confuse Stephen Harper for being Australian rather than Canadian, since typically Canadian PMs would never take such a strong stance for what is right.
Where’s Abbas in all of this? Did they send him out for falafle? Or is he the new ‘Bagdad Bob’ of the PLO?
I haven’t seen any of the usual flag-burning and chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” in Muslim streets since all this happened. Have I missed it, or are Muslim people finally getting sick of being played by terrorist organiziations? The Saudi government is calling out Hezbollah, that’s something.
I hope I’m not speaking too soon. Perhaps I’m being naive, but I hope that Middle Eastern governments and their people are turning a corner.
Look, if we’re going to take down Hezbollah, we’d better do it right now. We may never have this golden opportunity again. Once we pull out troops out, it will be much harder to overcome inertia and regain political momentum.
Right now, we’re there in force and Israel is in the mood. There most definitely will be a final battle for Israel in this century and we may never have a stronger hand.
Aside from Pinocchio and that horrifying devil doll thing that menaced Karen Black in Trilogy of Terror, can puppets truly be said to be alive?
“The Pope? How many divisions does he have?”
— Napoleon Buonaparte
Depends on who is pulling the strings Steve….
Jeff—Did you mean to say Canadian PM Stephen Harper? Or Australian PM John Howard?
I still say that when the smoke clears we will find that the IDF is solely animated by a desire to keep H from moving it’s hostages out of the country. That explains everything they are doing.
I am sure the IDF will get to everything on Oren’s laundry list when they feel like it.
Divide & conquer indeed. Baathist Syria won’t survive this. The mullahs are forced to shit or get off the pot, and lose either way. Saudi Arabia will choose to purge their own ranks at some point. Pakistan will really have to pick up a lot of slack to support a lot of insurgencies, while being surrounded. None of this possible with Saddam Hussein in power.
Wouldn’t it be ironic if this war leads to a middle east peace settlement? Not completely far-fetched in my opinion since the Palestinians could end up with literally nothing. (Ah, but the Israelis wouldn’t dare humiliate them further would they? I hope so).
What would the “war is not the answer” dufuss leftoids say then?
I wish I had something witty to say about this, but I don’t.
Though I am surprised that the Pope gets vacations. That thought blows my mind.
Fox news reporter Scott Heidler(?) on KFI AM 640, Los Angeles, says that his Israeli sources tell him that this time the IDF won’t stop until Hezbullah is destroyed.
Heidler says he’s been told that this campaign will last for months. This jibes with what some Lebanese bloggers are saying, that Israel is just shaping the battlefield by destroying all means for Hezbullah to leave or bring in more weaponry, and by hitting hundreds of arms caches.
Once the battlefield has been shaped to Israel’s advantage, my guess is that a ground invasion will come.
And the TW, funnily enough, is power.
We can say that the war is against Hizbullah, but the bridges and the airports and the roads and the power plants that are now being detonated belong to Lebanon. This is a war against Lebanon.
Sorry…misspelled doofus(s?).
And no, Foster, I do not agree with your characterization. Fresh from Kos are you…attempting to “frame” the issue?
Why stop there? It’s not just a war on Lebanon, but upon the entire earth and all of humankind… or it’s just Hezbollah and the parcel of earth that it currently inhabits and hurls terror from.
I vote for the latter.
Well, the rockets that hit Israel were fired from Lebanon; therefore, Israel attacks Lebanon.
It isn’t rocket science, just rocket warfare.
Foster, how did you get in here? I thought I told you to wait outside with kids. Here’s a comic book.
That’s like saying the Normandy Invasion was a war against France (not a bad idea, actually . . .)
TW: who, as in, it ain’t where you’re fighting, it’s WHO you’re fighting.
Unsurprisingly, Sullivan has no link for that “Iran controlling a large chunk of Iraq” thesis. The MSM is sufficiently anti-war that you would think such a story would be widely reported.
Of course, if the US had put more troops in and it turned out like the French experience in Algeria, he’d still be whinging…
BECAUSE OF THE TORTURE!!!
tw: Sometimes, the best defense is a good offense.
Karl: Lying works, too.
Actuallt, that’s what Israel is calling it, while noting that the Lebanese government has failed to abide by UN resoulutions demanding that it excercise control over it’s sovereign area.
In other words, by not running Hezbollah out, Lebanon is responsible for them. Which is what the UN has said, keeping in mind that Hezbollah holds a significant number of seats in the Lebanese government.
Foster, those are resupply lines. Dual use, life’s a bitch. So sad, so sorry, gotta cut the bad guys off. They’re clean targets.
Foster, it’s not so easy to separate Hizbullah from Lebanon. Hizbullah has members in Lebanese parliament and in the Lebanese cabinet. Hizbullah is a force in Lebanon’s political realm.
Cycles of violence are Bad. All the violence should go in one direction only.
Is this the spin cycle of violence?
Those rinse cycles make waterboarding look like a day at the park.
This is NOT to be taken as an “excuse” for the Holy See. If you got all your news from your neighboring European media, with an occasional dip into the NYT or CNN International, I think you’d be pretty clueless too.
As prejudiced and one-sided as our media is, they don’t hold a candle to our “betters” in Europe. But it does illustrate once more, how dangerous an ideological, agenda driven media is.
Don’t they get their news from a Higher source?
Great, now actus is plagerizing from Hebrew National hot dog commercials.
Could someone take a cluebat to the good Fathers? We know that there is no cycle of violence.
How do we know that? Well, gather around kids.
It’s because wars STOP. Ponder that, padre. And someone refill actus’ litter cage. Poor fellow has wet himself yet again.
My guess is the IDF will leave open a possible line of retreat for the Hizb gunnies, that’s common sense. It will probably lead to Syria, and THAT’S where the real killing will be done.
Never back a dangerous animal into a corner. Leave an exit you control.
SB: blood
for Gilead
Jeff,
The Vatican’s ruling affirmed that a Westphalian committee of accountable Nation-states is the Lord’s favored model for global comity. (It’s an ecclesiastic plaudit for a cellular construct!)
Segue to the Isreali incursions into the Bakaa Valley, and Bolton’s hungry Moustache, and you’ll see the link: the successful conduct of this war requires that the pro-Western bloc aggressively affirm the traditional international model.
It’s non-state proxies that we’re all angry at right now, and the Vatican is just helpin’ us out in their own, funny, little, itchy way.
-Steve
“Don’t they get their news from a Higher source?”
Well yes, they (NYT, CNN, etc) do get their news from a Higher source. In this case, flying, barking moonbats!
I vote for the second choice, except I’d change “decimate” to “annihilate”. “Decimating” them still leaves 90 percent of the sonsofbitches.
Get a grip, you idiot. First of all, Hezbullah is a major party in Labanon’s government; the Lebanese Government can’t just say “no, no, it wasn’t us” — unless, of course, they expell Hezbullah from the government. Which would be just fine.
And secondly, Israel is only striking at Hezbullah-dominated areas, and is, with very precise strikes, eliminating their logistics and communications. Classic war-fighting. Sadly, roads, bridges, airports, and TV stations are military assets, whether the military involved built them or not.
Jesus, guys, whats up?
What a backlash!
I’m a Republican, and I’m not a small child, and I would really appreciate it if you stop characterizing me as a KosKid because i happen to disagree with you on one, small, technical matter? That’s something that Frisch would do.
And for chrissakes, I support what Israel is doing, but it’s dishonest to suggest that the invasion isn’t hurting Lebanon as much as it’s hurting Hizbollah. I very much doubt that the power station that was hit EXCLUSIVELY powers Hizbollah buildings. Or that Beirut International is owned by Nasrallah.
Foster, the deal is, it was a dumb statement. Even Republicans make them. (Viz Tom Tancredo.)
Consider the analogy: “We can say that the war is against the Nazis, but the bridges and the airports and the roads and the power plants that are now being detonated belong to Germany. This is a war against Germany.”
And there weren’t any bloggers or german freedom babes with cedar revolutions.
Well, I wasn’t there, but I lived in Germany in the 80’s and if there weren’t any German freedom babes in ther 40’s, there must have been quite an infusion of good genes immediately following.
Foster – Just as an aside I visited several Lebonese blogger sites yesterday, and the proponderance of posts said things like “70% of the Lebonese people wish Israel would drive the Hezzi’s out permenently”. Out of hundreds of posts from the Lebbi’s, and from all over the globe, I saw a single negative comment. The people themselves, are tired of being used as pawns in a movement they don’t care about or believe in.
Amen, brother.
Oh Christ, don’t start that. Nothing you’ve seen on this thread is anything like what Dr. Demento enverberated herself with.
Just stop with that.
Wow, guys…I’m pretty confused. I’ve been reading Jeff for three years. I didn’t really expect that I would get ragged on.
Like I said, I support what Israel is doing? If you’re looking for someone to fight, it shouldn’t be me…
But it WAS a war against Germany.
Pablo, I was comparing this to Moonbat tendencies to ostracize people over minor disagreements.
I never said that the Lebanese people don’t like Hibullah, folks. I just said that making it seem as if this offensive was ONLY against Hizbullah and not against Lebanon too was whitewashing the situation.
Yes, most Lebanese blogs, especially those run by expats, welcome the substantial chance that Hizbullah’s chokehold on Southern Lebanon might be coming to an end. But that feeling is a backdrop for the main sentiment coming out of those blogs right now, which is sadness that much of their country has been destroyed and will be destroyed in the coming days, or weeks. Remember, Beirut had just begin to stabilize in the past year.
These are excerpts from Lebanese blogs:
Before you call me a KosKid for posting these (?), I should tell you that I don’t necessarily agree with the above statements or think they should factor in to our decion-making, but I do think many of you are being rather flippant about an operation that will be a great deal more intensive then many of you realize.
And I don’t know which one of you it is, but you need to stop sending me profane emails. It doesn’t hurt me, and it doesn’t make you look smarter.
Foster is a good guy. If the nasty emails are coming from a regular here, I’m embarrassed by it. Cut it out.
Apologies, Foster.
Foster, I consider this operation to be analgous to chemotherapy. Hell on the patient, and the patient might not even survive, but sometimes it is the only option left.
Hizbollah (and Syria) has long been a cancer in Lebanon. Let’s hope it can finally be excised, and the patient be saved.
Foster, you might want to find another analogy. That’s pretty low on the Ungood Doctor’s list of notable problems and “minor disagreement” does nothing to describe what she’s created.
The Kos kids toss dissenters overboard every day, as do the DU’ers. Those would be much better examples.
And as I mentioned above Israel is indeed at war with Lebanon, so you’re right. Their responsibility is to prevent and deter attacks on Israel and Israelis. While I feel for those Lebanese who are affected but don’t support Hezbollah, it’s Hezbollah’s fault they’re being attacked, not Israel’s. Life sucks when you live next to Hizzys. This is a fine time to take a vacation.
Really.
That also.
Let’s hope Israel gets this mopped up sooner rather than later. It needs doing.
Unless you mean to kill it outright.