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---- 2006 Lebanon War ----

 

In Lebanon, Hizbullah Arms Stockpile Bigger, Deadlier - Sebastian Rotella
Hizbullah now has about 27,000 rockets and missiles, more than double its supply before the 2006 war, Israeli officials say, including Iranian missiles capable of hitting Tel Aviv. "We know without a doubt that the international embargo on the transfer of weapons to Hizbullah has been deliberately violated by the governments of Iran and Syria," said Mark Regev, an Israeli government spokesman. Israeli officials say Hizbullah's most potent weapons include about 500 Iranian Zilzal guided missiles, with ranges of 77, 136 and 186 miles. In addition, Hizbullah has 4,000 to 6,000 Iranian Fajr 3 and Fajr 5 rockets with ranges of 27 and 46 miles, respectively. And Syria has provided an estimated 20,000 rockets.
    "The Syria-Iran-Hizbullah axis is closer than it has been since 2006," an Israeli security official said. "In operational planning, the Syrians know that Hizbullah is part of their defense architecture. Hizbullah is stronger than before the war. They have improved their antitank capabilities, the number and quality of their rockets." Western security officials say they discovered last year that Iran was procuring telescopic sights for antitank guns and rocket-propelled grenades from an Eastern European country. Communications among Iranian diplomats revealed that the sights were earmarked for Hizbullah, say the officials. Iran also furnished night-vision equipment and binoculars, the officials say.
    Patrick Haenni, a senior analyst in Lebanon for the International Crisis Group, said, "All the signs on the ground show that Hizbullah is in a concerted phase of preparation, and concentrated on its military reactivation." (Los Angeles Times)

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, May 6, 2008]

 

 

Hizbullah Militants Training in Iran for Next War with Israel - Nicholas Blanford
In southern Lebanon, Hizbullah has devised new battle plans that include cross-border raids into Israel and has mounted a sweeping recruitment and training drive, even marshaling non-Shiites and former Israeli-allied militiamen into new reservist units.  Hizbullah continues to recruit and train new combatants at a furious pace. Many recruits are sent to Iran for 45-day advanced training sessions, according to Hizbullah fighters.
    New tactics are being taught, including how to "seize and hold" positions. "Next time, we will be on the offensive and it will be a totally different kind of war," said one local commander.  "There are armed and uniformed Hizbullah men crawling all over the hills. We often hear gunfire and explosions from their training," says one local resident. (Christian Science Monitor)
 [Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, April 15, 2008]

 

 

Israel: Hizbullah Increases Rocket Range - Matti Friedman (AP)
    Senior Israeli defense officials said Thursday that Hizbullah has dramatically increased its arsenal of rockets and their range.
    The officials said Hizbullah has acquired new Iranian rockets with a range of 186 miles that can hit anywhere in Israel's heavily populated center.
 [Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, March 27, 2008]

 

 

IDF: Hizbullah Missiles Deployed in South Lebanon - Amos Harel (Ha'aretz)
    Hizbullah has deployed large numbers of Katyusha rockets and antitank missiles in Shi'ite villages in southern Lebanon south of the Litani River, undetected by UN observers, senior Israel Defense Forces officials say.
    New missiles sent by Iran are capable of striking targets south of the Tel Aviv area, army officials say.
    In addition, Hizbullah has sent groups of agents disguised as media teams to film IDF activity along the Israeli border.

[Courtesy -- Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, Daily Alert, February 11, 2008]

 

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Oct 2007: Thousands of Iranian Soldiers in Lebanon

Hizballah says it's preparing for another major battle with Israel by regrouping and amassing some 33,000 missiles.  Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah, February 2007: "We are completing our preparedness for a greater and more dangerous stage."

 

 

Lebanon Army / international force to disarm Hizballah? Lebanon, France say, "Forget it." (More than one third of the Lebanon's army is Shi'ite, a community in which Hizballah is overwhelmingly popular.)  Even the U.S. goes soft.

UN resolution 1701.  Hypocrisy of China, Russia, EU.   Meanwhile, Hizballah executes "collaborators" as Syrian weapons convoys flow & they count down to the destruction of Israel.  Nov 2007- only 3 months since cease fire - Hizballah back in S. Lebanon stronger than ever - armed with more rockets than they had before the conflict.  Moderate Arabs: If Israel can be beaten, the whole equation changes.

 

UNIFIL commander Maj.-Gen. Alain Pellegrini: UN force will not engage Hizballah even if it is in the midst of an attack against Israel.

 

Israel Takes Stock -- As should we all.  Halevi: Israel's Broken Heart

 

The Stakes Are Enormous for Israel - The U.S. - The Region

 

The Conflict Reveals Extreme Anti-Semitism of "Progressive" Blogs:  Daily Kos, Huffington Post  -- Their detrimental effect on the Democratic Party

 

NYC Pro-Hizballah demonstration. Thousands rally FOR TERROR around the world (video)

 

Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates, July 18, 2007: "It is important to remember that until the morning of September 11, 2001, Hizballah had been responsible for the deaths of more Americans, our countrymen, than any other terrorist group in the world."

 

The leader they support, Hassan Nasrallah (2002): "If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide."  Washington D.C. Aug 12.

July 26 -- Dearborn, Michigan: Publisher of the Arab American News, "If morally supporting Hizballah...is a crime, 'there is not going to be enough buses to haul the people out and take them to jail.'"

 

 

Tom Gross: Large sections of the international media not only misreported the conflict in Lebanon, they actively fanned the flames.  Media War:  How pictures were selected and manipulated.  Amnesty Int'l [more]- War Crimes?  Disproportionate civilian casualties?

Fauxtography Scandal - in depth; Shame on Time Magazine.

 

The Red Cross Ambulance Incident: How the Media Legitimized an Anti-Israel Hoax

 

CNN's Nic Robertson in Beirut: "There's no doubt that the bombs are hitting Hizballah facilities.... When you hear their claims they have to come with more than a grain of salt."

 

Marvin Kalb: "The Israeli-Hizbullah War of 2006: The Media as a Weapon in Asymmetrical Conflict"

The Media's coverage of Lebanon's mini-civil war against Fatah al-Islam reveals its double standard when it comes to Israel

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July 2007 - Iran-Syria proxies Hamas-Hizballah ATTACK ISRAEL from the two territories from which it unilaterally withdrew.

Morning hours of July 12 - WORST ATTACK SINCE THE IDF LEFT LEBANON IN MAY 2000 -- Hizballah crosses Israeli-Lebanese international border, attacks routine Israel patrol, abducts 2 Israeli soldiers, kills  8 under cover of massive diversionary rocket barrages against IDF forces and Israeli civilians.  When Israel retaliates, Hizballah rains missiles down across northern Israel prompting Israel's campaign to destroy Hizballah's offensive capabilities.

July 19 -- the 8th day of fighting and 12th anniversary of bombing of Jewish Center in Buenos Aires by Hizballah

 

Hizballah strikes Haifa to the Galilee: 2,000,000 Israelis under missile threat.   Rockets loaded with shrapnel to maximize civilian casualties. Missiles readied capable of striking Tel Aviv.  Linked to up to 75% of terror attacks against Israel between late 2003 and late 2004, Hizballah planned this battle for many years, having built underground bunkers two and three stories deep and having assembled an immense arsenal --- stockpiled for strategic reasons among civilians (like Qana -- what really happened -- a press feeding frenzy) --- as UN monitors looked the other way.  (Hizballah's tactic of attacking from UN positions, reminiscent of Palestinian terrorist use of UN ambulances,  may have lead to Israel's unintentional strike)

Proof of Hizballah's deliberate use of civilians as shields

 

July 16: At least 1/2 of Haifa's 250,000 residents have left the city.  Haifa is Israel's 3rd largest city.  August 5: More than half of the population in the north has left their homes and gone south.  August 8: A million residents living in shelters.

 

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Israel responds in a controlled manner targeting Hizballah strongholds proportional to the threat posed by an enemy seeking to end Israel's existence and launched from hospitable Lebanese territory

Most of the damage in Beirut limited to a single square mile of the southern suburbs

UK Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells told the UK Parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee that Hizballah's tactics in hiding weapons in civilian areas had gone to "new depths." The minister alleged that Hizballah had hidden caches of arms in schools and mosques, and rockets in apartment blocks in southern Lebanon. "Every time the Israelis responded...and smashed a building down, every picture of a burnt child and every picture of a building that had housed people [where] there was now pancake on the ground was propaganda for Hizballah. And if an organization like Hizballah is ruthless enough to exploit those tactics, then one wonder how it can ever be possible in the future to, if you like, win the justice on your side against such an enemy." (BBC News)

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Dershowitz: The Hizballah rocket attacks against Israel are the first battle of what is likely to become a world war of terrorists versus democracies. It must become a war crime to fire rockets from civilian population centers and then hide among civilians. The terrorists, not their victims, must be deemed the war criminals.  Lt.-Gen. (res.) Moshe Yaalon: The world is sending the opposite message.

 

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Abraham H. Foxman:  By making it well-nigh impossible for Israel to hit its military infrastructure and arms without harming civilians, Hizballah calculatedly created an impossible dilemma: to avoid imposing civilian casualties in Lebanon by leaving Hizballah missiles intact and leaving Israeli citizens vulnerable, or taking out Hizballah missiles with civilian casualties. Israel observes the first responsibility of a state - to protect its people from outside attack. And, in the process, it tries its best to minimize the damage to the Lebanese. It is Hizballah that is ultimately responsible for what has happened, and it was an illusion to talk about a normal, independent Lebanon as long as a terrorist group, armed to the teeth by two of the most dangerous states on the planet, held sway in the south of the country.

 

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National Post-Canada, The Qana Tragedy, Editorial
If Israel doesn't attack Hizballah's human shields, the group keeps its weapons. If Israel does attack, Hizballah scores a propaganda victory. From a terrorist's point of view, it's win-win: Hizballah's leaders don't care about the lives of innocent Lebanese civilians any more than they care about the lives of Jews. According to both civilized morality and international law, it is not Israel that has the blood of innocents on its hands, but Hizballah.

 

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  Prominent Islamist preacher Sheikh Yusef al-Qaradawi:
    "Muslims must carry out jihad to liberate all the land of Islam. Palestine does not belong only to the Palestinians but to all Muslims."
    The Islamic world "needs men like those of Hizballah: in Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and everywhere."  More

 

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63% of Palestinians: emulate Hizballah -- fire rockets at Israeli cities

Palestinians Learning Lessons from Lebanon, See Missiles as Answer to Israel's Security Fence - Avi Issacharoff, (Ha'aretz)
The heavy battles between Hizballah and the Israel Defense Forces have taught West Bank gunmen new lessons - in future battles between Israel and the Palestinians, like in Lebanon, the missile will be victorious. Long- and short-range rockets have aroused great interest among the gunmen, and advanced missiles are promising to be the next hit with the Palestinian terror organizations. Public opinion sees them as the means to change the face of the conflict. The eastern Jerusalem newspaper Al-Quds published a caricature a few days ago of a missile passing through Israel's separation fence.
    One of the founders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, Khaled Shawish, says the Palestinian organizations are trying to buy sophisticated weapons. "I am talking particularly about RPG missiles that can be widely used in Gaza. The border with Egypt is open enough to bring in missiles, and 'the resistance' produces anti-tank missiles in Gaza," he said. A Palestinian journalist from Gaza noted, "The price of ammunition has dropped because of the large supply. A Kalashnikov bullet cost NIS 40-50 before the Israeli withdrawal, and now it's only NIS 5."
    An Al-Aqsa activist, Muein from Bethlehem, says, "The brothers in the Dehaishe refugee camp now want anti-tank missiles....We won't fire bullets at Gilo but missiles." He adds that the separation fence will also lose its effectiveness. "What will be the problem for a fighter to sit on the Abu Dis side of the fence and send a missile to the King David Hotel? It is less effort than a suicide attack and...has the same results."

Rawda Atallah, head of the Arab Cultural Association in Haifa: "Hizballah's popularity has increased immensely among the Arabs in Israel"

 

 

 

 

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