Re: War in The Middle East
Lebanon Oil Spill May Rival Exxon Valdez of 1989 (Update1)
Aug. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Lebanon's oil spill, caused by Israeli bombardment of oil storage units at a power plant, may rival the leakage from the Exxon Valdez in Alaska in 1989 if left untreated, the United Nations Environment Program said.
``In the worst case scenario, and if all the oil contained in the bombed power plant at Jiyyeh leaked into the Mediterranean Sea, the Lebanese oil spill could well rival the Exxon Valdez disaster of 1989,'' the UN said in an e-mailed statement today.
The spill has yet to be cleaned up or assessed more than three weeks after the bombing of the coastal Jiyyeh power plant south of Beirut because of the continuation of hostilities, Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Program, said in the statement.
The spill, which has polluted around two-thirds of the Lebanese coast and spread into neighboring Syria, may threaten East Mediterranean countries such as Cyprus and Turkey, Lebanon's Environment Minister Yacoub Sarraf has said.
About 10,000 tonnes (about 3.1 million gallons) of oil has escaped from the Jiyyeh power plant and 35,000 tonnes (10.8 million gallons) in total may be spilt, the UN's shipping agency, the International Maritime Organization has said.
The Exxon Valdez, which struck the Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound in Alaska, spilled more than 11 million gallons of crude oil, making it the largest spill in U.S. history.
``The quantity of oil spilled in Lebanon is already comparable to the disaster caused in 1999 off the coast of France when the Erika tanker spilled an estimated 13,000 metric tonnes (about 4 million gallons) of oil into the Atlantic Ocean,'' the UN Environment Program said.
Marine Life Affected
Marine life, such as sea turtles and Bluefin tuna, has been affected by the Lebanese spill because the Eastern Mediterranean is a spawning ground for the tuna, the program said.
The Israeli navy has maintained a sea blockade for more than three weeks, preventing ships from entering or leaving Lebanese ports without its prior approval.
Israel has bombed airports, ports, bridges, roads and other facilities in Lebanon, inflicting losses estimated at more than $4 billion, according to the Lebanese government.
Israeli jets, which attacked the power plant twice, deterred firemen from putting out the fire at the storage units, which continued for 10 days, Sarraf said in an interview on Aug. 3.
The Israel navy also prohibited Lebanese and foreign officials from surveying the damage of the spill from Lebanon's territorial waters, the minister said. The spill has grown into a 3,000-square kilometer area because it absorbed water, Sarraf said.
The Lebanese government is relying on the international community to provide as much as $200 million to clean up Lebanon's territorial waters, the minister said.
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Re: War in The Middle East
Israel to attack all moving vehicles
08/08/2006 08:46 PM | Agencies
Beirut: Israeli planes dropped leaflets in southern Lebanon warning residents that forces will destroy moving vehicles in an area near the Litani river.
The leaflets dropped in the city of Tyre said operations against what they described as terrorist elements would be increased with extreme force.
According to reports on the BBC, any vehicle of any kind moving on the road south of the Litani will be attacked on suspicion or carrying rockets, material or terrorists.
Reporters in the area say there is hardly any traffic in the area, which will mean it will be increasingly difficult for anybody to leave or for relief agencies to deliver supplies.
Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regav told the BBC that Israel was trying to coordinate aid efforts with the international community, but could not assume every lorry was carrying aid and not weapons.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the United Nations Human Rights Council said the body will hold a special session this week to examine alleged rights violations in the month-old war in Lebanon.
Marie Heuze told a news briefing, "A special session of the U.N. Human Rights Council is planned this week. We received an official request." It is expected to be held on Thursday or Friday in Geneva.
The meeting was wanted by a group of mainly Muslim countries, and is likely to hear fierce criticism of Israel over the conflict which has left nearly 1,000 Lebanese and nearly 100 Israelis dead.
What are they going to target next, donkeys?Leave a comment:
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Re: War in The Middle East
Hezbollah's modern military tactics 'are amazing the world'
08/08/2006 10:01 PM | By Duraid Al Baik, Foreign Editor
Dubai: On the 12th day of the Israeli war on Lebanon, Alex Fishman, a veteran Israeli writer on one of Israel's main Hebrew newspapers, Yediot Ahronot, asked what if Hezbollah stays standing after the ground campaign achieves its goals? Fishman's worries were not answered in his July 23 article.
Instead, he concluded his comment with five other questions mirroring the dilemma of the state of Israel in its war against Lebanon.
But, the problems facing Israel in this war are not local in their impact. A number of global leading strategists and military experts believe the results will change the military strategies of Western armies.
Fishman rightly said it was possible that attaining all the ground goals in south Lebanon would not bring a halt to Hezbollah's attacks.
"The Katyushas will continue to fly from north of the Litani and the party will come out of the campaign standing."
So, what was a worst case scenario from an Israeli point of view has become true four weeks into the war. Hezbollah, which has fired 3,000 missiles on targets inside Israel in the past 28 days, is still in control of a minimum 9,000 missiles.
So far, Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) casualties have surpassed those of Hezbollah by nearly 20 per cent.
Technological privileges enjoyed by the Israeli soldiers have failed to secure IDF supremacy. The question that looms in the mind of every Israeli is: What can Israel do?
A ceasefire? Big No. A ceasefire would not solve the problems of Israel because no one can guarantee no more missiles would be fired even if the US managed to deploy a 20,000-strong UN stabilisation force.
To go ahead with the ground operation? This is even worse because of poor intelligence about Hezbollah's capabilities. Continuing the ground mission is akin to conducting a suicidal mission for many young Israeli soldiers.
Many Israeli commentators, like Fishman, believe this operation is leading Israel nowhere. In its current war against Israel, Hezbollah has established new concepts in modern military tactics, wrote Riad Kahwaji, a Lebanese military researcher.
"The ability to communicate amongst the military structure of the party has astonished the IDF and the world," he said.
Air supremacy and technological advantages cannot win the war alone. Although these were successful in the US war against the Saddam Hussain regime, they are failing now.
The key factors are the Hezbollah fighters who are defending their land with a strong belief in winning the war, while keeping all their resources to hand, in addition to maintaining clear communication with their leadership. Very simple, but very important.
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Re: War in The Middle East
Israel's Military Invincibility Dented by Hezbollah
2006-08-09 04:28
By Thalif Deen - Inter Press Service
United Nations, 09 August, (IPS): - Israel's phenomenal victories against collective Arab armies in 1967 and later against Egypt in 1973 firmly established the xxxish state's legendary military superiority in the Middle East.
The 1967 war -- called the Six Day War -- was so swift it ended in less than a week, with Egypt losing 264 aircraft and 700 battle tanks; Jordan 22 aircraft and 125 tanks, and Syria 58 aircraft and 105 tanks.
The only equipment losses suffered by Israel in the 1967 war were 40 aircraft and 100 battle tanks, according to Dilip Hiro, a Middle East analyst based in London.
The war ended with Israel capturing East Jerusalem, the Gaza Strip, Bethlehem, Hebron, Jenin, Nablus, the Golan Heights and Sharm al-Shaikh -- some of which are still under occupation despite U.N. Security Council resolutions seeking Israeli withdrawal.
But as the relentless military attacks against Hezbollah and Lebanon continue into the second month, the duration of the current conflict and the resistance by the Islamic militia have dented Israel's reputation of military invincibility in the Middle East.
"Hezbollah has succeeded in preventing Israel from achieving any of its strategic objectives, and most of its tactical objectives as well," says Mouin Rabbani, contributing editor to the Washington-based Middle East Report.
"Arguably, Israel is fighting the war Hezbollah prepared for, rather than the war Israel intended to conduct," Rabbani told IPS.
He believes that Israel's strategy was to deliver a rapid and devastating military blow against Hezbollah.
"And it wanted to reinforce this by generating official and popular Lebanese pressure against the movement by devastating Lebanon's infrastructure, creating a mass exodus from southern Lebanon, and making the civilian population pay, in life and limb, for Hezbollah's actions and its support for the movement."
One month later, Rabbani said, "the shock and awe in this campaign appears to have mainly been inflicted upon, rather than by, Israel."
It is often said that in confrontations between conventional military forces and guerilla movements, "the latter win by not losing and the former lose by not winning", Rabbani noted. This certainly appears to be the case here.
Nadia Hijab, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Institute for Palestine Studies, says in one sense, Hezbollah has already won, if anyone can be considered a winner when there has been such enormous death and destruction.
"They have stood their ground against Israel longer than any combination of Arab armies in 1967 or 1973, and inflicted heavy casualties," Hijab told IPS.
Their fighters are very well trained, disciplined, battle-hardened through fighting against Israel during its 18-year occupation of southern Lebanon, and well-armed.
A crop of newspaper headlines in the U.S. mainstream media spell out of the dramatic new development in the Middle East: "Israel Facing a Well-Trained and Supplied Army"; "A Disciplined Hezbollah Surprises Israel with its Training, Tactics and Weapons"; "Hezbollah Unleashes Fiery Barrage"; "Among Militia's Patient Loyalists, Confidence and Belief in Victory."
A piece in Saturday's New York Times not only singled out Hezbollah's military prowess but also its charitable and social services which have helped the movement to win strong support from the average Lebanese.
"Hezbollah fighters move like shadows across the mountains of southern Lebanon; its workers in towns and villages, equally as ghostly, have settled deeply into people's lives. They cover medical bills, offer health insurance, pay school fees and make seed money available for small businesses," said the Times.
Still, even though Hezbollah is a recognised political party with two of its members in the Lebanese cabinet, the United States continues to treat it as "a terrorist organisation."
Last week, the 25-member European Union (EU) rejected a request by Washington, and refused to include Hezbollah on its list of terrorist organisations. "Given the sensitive situation where we are, I don't think this is something we will be acting on now," said Finnish Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja, whose country is the current president of the EU.
Robert A. Pape, a professor of political science at the University of Chicago, says that Israel has finally conceded that air power alone will not defeat Hezbollah.
"Over the coming weeks, it will learn that ground power won't work either. The problem is not that the Israelis have insufficient military might, but that they misunderstand the nature of the enemy," he said in an op-ed piece last week.
Contrary to conventional wisdom, Hezbollah is principally neither a political party nor an Islamist militia. It is a broad movement that evolved in reaction to Israel's invasion of Lebanon in June 1982, said Pape, author of "Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism".
Hijab of the Institute for Palestine Studies said that Israel and the United States have made much of the fact that Hezbollah is supplied by Iran -- but it is in fact Israel that had to receive rushed deliveries of additional bombs and fuel to supplement the three billion dollars plus it already gets each year from the United States, the bulk of it in outright military grants financed by U.S. taxpayers.
Most importantly, Hezbollah believes its cause is just, and a majority of people in Lebanon and throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds agree, she said.
Hezbollah's immediate objectives were the release of Lebanese and other Arab prisoners held in Israeli jails, return of the occupied Shebaa Farms, and the release by Israel, as previously agreed, of maps showing the location of some 300,000 landmines (now doubtless many more) Israel had left behind in Lebanon, Hijab said.
"But the extent of Hezbollah's preparedness underscores the extent to which they see Israel as an implacable enemy that is determined to extinguish the last flames of Arab nationalist resistance," she said.
Though they may not have expected Israel's massive response on this occasion, Hezbollah knew the fight would come one day, and they were ready, she added.
Rabbani of the Middle East Report pointed out that the Israeli government has in fact continually adjusted its objectives downwards -- from the eradication of Hezbollah, to its disarmament, to the elimination of its missile capabilities, to the removal of its long-range missile capabilities, to pushing the movement north of the Litani river, to creating a free-fire zone south of the Litani pending the arrival of foreign forces.
If things continue as they are it is quite likely the latter will need to be revised as well, Rabbani predicted.
He also said that Hezbollah appears to have had good intelligence about Israel while Israel had weak intelligence about Hezbollah. For example, Hezbollah understood that the core of Israel's military doctrine is to ensure that any military confrontation be transferred as rapidly as possible to enemy territory. "It therefore undertook measures to undermine this fundamental principle, both by heavily defending territory immediately inside Lebanon, and conducting persistent rocket attacks on Israeli territory."
"It is often said that one of the Israeli military's strongest features is its capacity to learn from its mistakes and to do so quickly enough to make a difference. This quality has not been much in evidence in the current war," he added.
"the shock and awe in this campaign appears to have mainly been inflicted upon, rather than by, Israel."
"the shock and awe in this campaign appears to have mainly been inflicted upon, rather than by, Israel."
"the shock and awe in this campaign appears to have mainly been inflicted upon, rather than by, Israel."
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Re: War in The Middle East
Today, mom made a call to one of my aunts in Lebanon, who lives in a Christian suburb of Beirut. My aunt said that she received a mechanized call from Israel (or IDF), asking questions like "Who is the cause of this war?", "Who is destroying your country?", etc. And then it said that she lives in a Christian area, so she's safe...
Many were scared and closed the phone before the message was completed.
Talk about propaganda!
Israel has targeted Christian areas (such as the event in Jounieh last week) and might target it in the future.
I just found an article about this:
Last edited by Davo88; 08-09-2006, 04:32 AM.Leave a comment:
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Re: War in The Middle East
Anti-Israeli Rally Dispersed in Baku
08.08.2006
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Azeri Police has hampered a group of 100 Muslims to hold a rally against the Israeli Embassy in Baku. Action participants, who numbered 100, cried out anti-Israeli slogans, urging that country to cease hostilities against Lebanon. The picketers tried to approach the Embassy through several Police cordons, however they did not succeed. Some 20 participants were arrested by the Police. As it is known, since the beginning of the armed conflict between Israel and Lebanon demonstrations to support the latter were held in many Islamic countries, reports Interfax.
Stands on Khojalu at Holocaust Museums Political Action
08.08.2006
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ «Being a direct participant of the operation to lift the block of the NKR, its only airport and save Stepanakert's starving population, I can reaffirm that the murder of Khojalu peaceful population took place in an Aghdam suburbs was committed by illegal armed detachments of the People's Front of Azerbaijan (PFA),» political scientist Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter. He regretted that mentions of those guilty of that tragedy have acquired political nature in Azerbaijan and are aimed to form an enemy image of Armenians. «Expressions used by Veliyev and other Azeri functionaries to address the Armenian people can only exacerbate the gap between the peoples and make the Karabakh settlement more difficult,» the political scientist underscored.
He also noted that establishment of stands on Khojalu at Holocaust Museums is a purely political action, which has nothing in common with humanitarian problems. «Israel demonstrates aggression against Lebanon today and does not conceal that Syria will be the next and maybe Iran. It is interesting that these countries were never friends of Turkey and Azerbaijan. It should not be forgotten that Israeli tanks and warplanes are charged with Azeri fuel. Thus, Baku had better speed up establishing stands: after the hostilities in the Middle East are over Khojalu will stop being topical for Israel,» Levon Melik-Shahnazaryan said.
Last edited by Janavar; 08-08-2006, 11:23 PM.Leave a comment:
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Re: War in The Middle East
An Azeri's take on the matter.
Arif Yunusov (Azeri): Arab World Practically Backs Armenians
PanARMENIAN.Net 01.08.2006 15:51 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Arab world practically backs Armenians, stated Head
of the Department of Conflictology of the Institute for Peace and
Democracy, political scientist Arif Yunusov. "Let us be frank. In
Lebanon the Armenian Diaspora actively supports Hezbollah and it is
not a big secret. Or does Iran help us in the Karabakh issue? No,
it does not: only owing to Iranian assistance Armenia could endure
economic problems. And not only economic ones," the Azeri political
scientist stated.
Yunusov underscored that Israel helped and continues helping Azerbaijan
to strengthen army and economy. "Did we forget about the role of the xxxish lobby?
Thus, criticism aimed against Israel should be rational and
constructive," he said.Leave a comment:
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Re: War in The Middle East
Six IDF soldiers were wounded, one seriously and another moderately, when their unit came under anti-tank fire during clashes in Bint Jbail Tuesday evening. Another tank that arrived on the scene was hit by explosives, but there was no word of injuries in that incident.Two IDF paratroopers were killed Tuesday evening in battles in the south Lebanon village of Bint Jbail, the Israel Defense Forces announced early Wednesday. Earlier Tuesday, three soldiers were killed and at least 14 wounded in southern Lebanon, where heavy battles between IDF troops and Hezbollah militants have been raging since late Monday.ANALYSIS: There appears to be a command problem in the north. It's a mistake to think that the decision to appoint Israel Defense Forces Deputy Chief of Staff Moshe Kaplinsky over the head of Major General Udi Adam was hastily made. First it was introduced to Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and was also presented to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Adam was not taken by surprise.U.S. - French Alliance at the U.N. Reportedly Crumbling. UNITED NATIONS — The French-American alliance at the United Nations over a Mideast cease-fire agreement is crumbling, sources tell FOX News. The French U.N. delegation has joined with Arab nations and is now calling for a complete and immediate Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon as a condition of any cease-fire, the sources said. In addition, the French have reportedly agreed with Arab demands that the Lebanese force be accompanied only by UNIFIL, with no international force to be deployed.Note: Bint Jbail was the first lebanese town hit by the ground forces of the IDF some three weeks ago. For over three weeks the IDF has claimed that it controled the border town, for over three week the Hizbollah keeps chasing them out of the town and keeps inflicting casualties on them.As Israeli death rises over 100, PM wavers over ground ops. Tuesday's heaviest fighting took place around Bint Jbail, to where Hezbollah fighters had returned when the IDF withdrew from the town after capturing it more than a week ago.
Must say:
Yet another good day for Allah
Last edited by Armenian; 08-08-2006, 07:42 PM.Leave a comment:
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Re: War in The Middle East
Why the Lebanese resistance are clobbering the IDF
Lenin's Tomb
August 8, 2006
Eventually, they would have to start asking this sort of question: why are the local European supremacists not beating the brown people? Isn't this what we pay them for? How come they're not doing their job? According to The Guardian this morning, 57 Israeli soldiers have died. The latest estimate for Hezbollah deaths, meanwhile, is 53. The latest estimate for civilian deaths in Lebanon, meanwhile, is 933. Yes, the Israelis have never found any especial difficulty in slaughtering civilians, but why can't they beat what they confidently assured the world was a 'rag-tag' army? The New York Times tries to provide some answers. The casual reliance on Israeli military intelligence is to be expected. Essentially, the NYT boils it down to Syria and Iran. They gave um weapons n everything. It's not fair. Oh, there's some interesting information in there: Hezbollah's use of tunnels, their targeting of the houses that IDF soldiers hide out in, the use of 'part-timers' who supply logistics and weapons. Of course, it's hard to realistically assess this, since the Israelis speciously use the latter claim to legitimise their targeting of civilian areas. Indeed, the NYT repeatedly suggests that Hezbollah are hiding out in civilian targets, something well-known to its reporters to be false.
The theme is similar elsewhere. The Washington Post reports that its all weapons, weapons, weapons. And Hezbollah, mark you, is in possession of night-vision goggles. I xxxx you not. In that article, Israeli officials admit that they've only killed a small fraction of Hezbollah's fighters: evidently the claim that they have killed hundreds and hundreds of them is wearing a little thin, and now they are obliged to account for their lack of success by making Hezbollah out to be a Levantine Godzilla. And they're playful too, the Party of God:
"Most of the time we only see them when they want to draw attention to themselves, then they kick us from behind," said Tyler, who was resting with his battalion at a lakefront hotel near Tiberias after a week in southern Lebanon. "It's horrible, yes. You feel -- not weak, but how do you say it, threatened? There is always, always uncertainty."
It's almost like a Marx Brothers skit: "Oh, yoohoo!" "Whassa..?" Blam! "I'll teach you to kick me!" "You don't need to teach me, I already know how!" Boof! Another toe up the arse. What's the difference between Hezbollah and Clint Eastwood? Clint Eastwood will make your day, but Hezbollah will make your hole weak.
The IDF has its own account, reported by Haaretz: "Our missions are unclear, our combat equipment is antiquated". I don't understand this. Israel is spending billions of dollars each year on its military equipment, and its mission in Lebanon is surely perfectly clear: to drive out the civilian population, occupy it and annexe it while siphoning off water from the Litani if they can manage it. The soldiers complain that Hezbollah has been training for six years: well, armies will tend to train. What has the IDF been doing when not tearing up Palestine and making regular incursions into the blue zone?
The answers that might be given as to why the IDF are not winning are: 1) motivational, inasmuch as the IDF's "mission" is unclear to its soldiers, whereas for Hezbollah the goals are obvious and compelling; 2) technological, because Hezbollah has some gear that the IDF did not expect to confront; 3) tactical, because Hezbollah has managed to outwit the IDF all along, hiding in underground tunnels and steering well clear of areas likely to be bombed by Israel (civilian areas); 4) strategic, because the resistance forces are not divided by sectarian animosity and work toward a common goal; 5) training, because the IDF have evidently had it too easy while ravaging civilian areas in Palestine. I'm not sure how much weight to attach to each of these factors, but those are the commonly cited ones.
:: Article nr. 25560 sent on 08-aug-2006 11:28 ECT
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Re: War in The Middle East
Olmert finds the Lebanese proposal of sending 15,000 troops to South-Lebanon "interesting".Leave a comment:
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