Profoundly regretful, filled with remorse, etc, etc, etc, at this tragedy, this natural outcome of the atrocity of war.

Most of all, very sorry you have to see pictures of maimed bodies, especially the (choke, choke, snivel) children.  That's why we are working flat out in our armaments factories to make precision instruments that will vaporise our enemies. In the meantime, you can be assured we will try to turn them into ashes and bits of burnt bone. The eyes are no problem, try to overlook the teeth in the dust.

Please be patient, and support our endeavours with your taxes. The Australian government is a good friend, almost as faithful as Israel. From How missiles miss the target:

A NEW, high-precision targeting system selected by the Department of Defence for Australia's F/A-18 Hornets is in peril after the US Navy withdrew the flight certification that was a pre-requisite for the contract. Following revelations that the Hornets' missile-dodging system cannot be installed, there are serious concerns about the ability of the jets to evade enemy fire and to destroy targets. ...

All patriotic taxpayers should plead with our leaders, to spend more on these terrific killing machines, so they are accurate. Think of the children of Indonesia! They will benefit from our nuclear-tipped missiles, and your breakfast will go down more easily.

Condi missed her cue last week, with her Brahms sonata for ASEAN. She should have rounded up those pathetic clowns to perform the Brahms Requiem. A requiem for another, predictable act of ethnic cleansing.

Selig Sind Die Toten.

From Al Jazeera
Israel to expand Lebanon [http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/820EE303-ADAB-44E7-AA4D-DFE985238B6C.htm|offensive]

Monday 31 July 2006, 12:39 Makka Time, 9:39 GMT
Israel is to expand its offensive against Hezbollah fighters in Lebanon, Amir Peretz, the Israeli defence minister, has said, less than a day after its attack on Qana provoked outrage.

Peretz said in a speech to the Israeli parliament that Israel must not agree to an immediate cease-fire in the almost three-week long conflict, despite a decision on Sunday to observe a 48-hour halt in airstrikes in southern Lebanon.
His comments came as Lebanon observed a national day of mourning following the deaths of more than 50 people, including 30 children, in the Israeli bombing of a building in the southern village of Qana.
Banks and public offices were closed, while flags flew at half mast in memory of those killed in Sunday's attack, the biggest single loss of life since Israel's bombardment of Lebanon began almost three weeks ago.

Lebanese newspapers printed large pictures of dead children being retrieved from under the rubble in Qana, some framed in black in a sign of mourning.
In Qana, rescue workers reportedly called off a search for survivors after spending hours digging by hand to find the corpses of those killed.
Arab and Islamic leaders condemned the attack in Qana.
read more at Al Jazeera

 

Despite Israel's statement that they would halt airstrikes for 48 hours, CNN reports:

 'Israel agreed Sunday to halt airstrikes on southern Lebanon for 48 hours to investigate the raid that killed more than 60 civilians in Qana, Lebanon, an Israeli official said. But Israel reserved the right to take action against targets preparing attacks against it during the 48-hour period, the official said.

A highly placed Lebanese army source said an Israeli airstrike hit a Lebanese army general's vehicle in Tyre on Monday, killing his aide and wounding three other soldiers. The Israel Defense Forces said it was checking the report.'

 

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation. ~~ Marian Wright Edelman

 
July 31, 2006 - 3:51 PM


JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel plans to step up its offensive against Hizbollah guerrillas until an international force deploys in south Lebanon despite calls for an immediate truce, officials said on Monday.

"We cannot agree to an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon because then we will find ourselves in a few months in a similar situation," Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said.

"The army will expand and deepen its actions against Hizbollah," he said during a heated parliamentary session in which four Israeli Arab lawmakers were escorted out for heckling. One parliament member called Peretz a murderer.

Senior Israeli officials said the government wants to pursue its military offensive until an international force arrives because any pause could be exploited by Hizbollah to strengthen its positions in southern Lebanon.

Israeli forces launched a fresh incursion into southern Lebanon late on Monday and Hizbollah said its guerrillas were engaging them in fierce fighting.

If approved by the U.N. Security Council later this week, the first contingent of a stabilisation force could be dispatched to south Lebanon within days, possibly as soon as next week, Israeli officials and Western diplomats estimated.

Israeli officials acknowledged that the United States was under mounting pressure and that it was unclear whether it would let the offensive continue until peacekeepers arrive.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said earlier on Monday she believed a cease-fire could be forged this week, but she did not spell out when it would take effect.

Israel's Justice Minister Haim Ramon said Israel must stand firm. "If it ends today it means a victory for Hizbollah ... and for world terror, with far-reaching consequences. Therefore this war is not about to end, not today and not tomorrow," he told Army Radio.

Rice won a 48-hour partial suspension of Israeli air strikes after an attack killed at least 54 civilians in the south Lebanese village of Qana, sparking anger worldwide.

But an Israeli army spokesman said: "We reserve the right to strike at any immediate threat to Israeli civilians or to soldiers, including rocket launchers, armed gunmen and also senior members of Hizbollah who are guiding terror activity against Israel."

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert plans to meet his security cabinet on Monday night to discuss Israel's military and diplomatic options, security sources said.

Under pressure to show progress in the war against Hizbollah, Israel estimated that two-thirds of the group's long-range missile capacity had been destroyed, according to a senior government official.

"We know the offensive is going to end. The timetable is the biggest question now," a Western diplomat in Jerusalem said.

FRENCH CAPABILITY

France has emerged as the most likely leader of the peacekeeping force, and experts said Paris has the capability to quickly deploy several thousand well-armed troops.

"France has the means to send 5,000 troops straight away. And 5,000 troops that are well equipped," said French defence consultant Jean-Louis Dufour. "The problem isn't a human one. The problem is political."

France wants a cease-fire and a political agreement before it sends any forces in, whereas Israel sees its offensive ending only once the stabilisation force begins arriving.

Hizbollah has not commented on the force but has said it would not accept any solution which it found humiliating.

German Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler said Rice had achieved more than he expected. "We now get the impression that America is exerting a lot of pressure," he told Germany's ZDF television.

Israel sees stepped up fighting before force deploys

 

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation. ~~ Marian Wright Edelman

May I suggest here that the argument presented by the Israeli army that "Hizbollah rocket-launchers are amongst to population" and they can't hit them without hitting the population does not hold water for long...

I would say that Hizbollah would have small mobile rocket-launchers that they keep moving around like Saddam's phantom trucks of WMDs, real movers this time... and they might fire here and there from close proximity to "populated" area but would not be there for long. The UN compound was also a "populated" area by UN observers.

It does not make sense for anyone fighting anything these days, no to know that Israel (or which ever your attacker is) has constant overview of the battlefield as provided by both spy planes, army planes and satellite imaging from the US.

Thus mobility has to be the key. Rockets Could be on the back of motorbikes, vans, small trucks depending on the size of the rockets, and even camels if any are left in that region of Lebanon... But not all moving objects or locations are suspect but Israeli army is treating all as potential target... to be hit...

Hizbollah's capability might be defeated by the might of the US via the Israeli army and also by the delay of a ceasefire blessed by a senseless US president... But it appears that the idea of Hizbollah has grown ten times what it was, because despite what we think Hizbollah is true to what it is but "our" side, the US, is hundred per cent hypocritical, via the concept of peace by bombs, rather than proper negotiations...

WE are reminded every five minutes that Hizbollah will not accept humiliating terms. What can be a victory for peace has to be a victory to Hizbollah and a victory for Israel alike... In this conflict, there should not be any defeated people. This would destroy the foundation of a lasting future peace. Thus a cease fire has to happen NOW.

From the Guardian
[http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/gerald_kaufman/index.html|Reaping the whirlwind]

Israel's current adventure is a disaster not only for the Lebanese, being slaughtered in increasing numbers, but also for Israel and the United States.

Gerald Kaufman

July 31, 2006 09:03 AM
Israel's current adventure has turned out to be a disaster not only for the Lebanese, being slaughtered in increasing numbers by Israeli attacks, but for Israel itself and its sponsor, the United States. Three weeks after their invasion, the Israelis have accomplished none of their objectives. The two soldiers whose kidnapping was the casus belli remain in Hezbollah hands - just as Corporal Galid Shalit is still a prisoner of Palestinian insurgents in the Gaza strip.

None of the Israelis' military objectives has been achieved, or shows any sign whatever of being achieved. The Hizbullah infrastructure remains intact and has inflicted heavy casualties on Israeli forces. Hizbullah rockets continue to pour down on Israel, with the entire northern half of the country unprecedentedly a vulnerable target.

The Israelis are calling up thousands of reservists and saying their forces will be in Lebanon for weeks more. It is impossible to see how these additional men or this additional time will improve this situation for the Israelis, or for the Americans - the only two countries who have seemed to believe that the running sore of Hizbullah can be cauterised by a short, sharp shock.

Moreover, they appear to have believed that, under cover of anticipated military success in Lebanon, Israel could put a stop to what it regards as the Palestinian threat in Gaza. True, the Israelis have killed many Palestinians in Gaza; but there is no sign whatever that this problem has been solved, either.

Taking into account that previous Israeli incursions into Lebanon were total failures, with no objectives attained and many Israeli servicemen killed, and taking into account, too, that the Americans suffered 241 servicemen killed in Beirut at the hands of Hizbullah, it is difficult to understand how even ultimate buffoons like Ehud Olmert and George Bush could have expected anything else.

Furthermore, in the whole history of the state of Israel, this is the first time that that country, in all its wars, has been subject to almost unanimous condemnation, worldwide. Not only has Olmert failed abjectly to protect his country. He has turned it into an international pariah.

Now it is reported that Condoleezza Rice, Bush's obedient but ineffectual catspaw, has called off her latest, planned trip to Beirut on the basis that there is no sign of what she regards as the necessary condition for a cease-fire - the protection of Israel. The rest of us, watching heart-rending scenes of death and devastation in Lebanon, want an urgent cease-fire to protect Lebanese civilians. The United States secretary of state sees Israel as the vulnerable party, which is ironic taking into account that the Israelis and the Americans insanely saw this operation as one which would end Israeli vulnerability once and for all.

read more at the Guardian

From the New York Times

Bush Calls Attack on Qana ‘Awful,’ but Refrains From Calling for Immediate Cease-Fire
By JOHN M. BRODER

Published: August 1, 2006
WASHINGTON, July 31 — President Bush used the word “[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/world/middleeast/01prexy.html|awful]” to describe the lethal Israeli air attack on an apartment building in Qana, Lebanon, that killed dozens of civilians over the weekend, but he continued to resist calling on Israel to accept an immediate cease-fire.

-------------------

Gus: Sure let's have a bit more slaughtering before one calls a truce... and nothing will have been achieved but a reduction or a decimation of Hizbollah's firepower and a major increase in hate, revenge and enormous bad will that will translate in a few years time as a much bigger headache than this one...