Bradylama |
Jul 13, 2006 07:46 PM |
The Middle East spirals out of control!
Big news as of late. As a result of several Israeli soldiers being killed, and two taken prisoner by Hizbullah militants in Israel, the IDF has launched attacks against Lebanon, which constitutes Hizbullah's base of operations, as well as attacks on the Gaza and Palestine's Hamas-led government, which Israel claims is partially responsible for the kidnappings.
Quote:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Sto...820163,00.html
Israel laid siege to Lebanon yesterday bombing Beirut airport, blockading sea ports and declaring its northern neighbour's airspace closed to everything but Israeli jets launching waves of attacks.
Hizbullah, the Lebanese militia group, responded by bombarding Israel with scores of rockets, some of which for the first time hit a major city - the port of Haifa about 20 miles from the border.
Israeli air force planes ranged freely across Lebanon, bombing villages, army bases, bridges and a television station as Israel intensified its campaign to win the release of two soldiers captured by Hizbullah on the border on Wednesday.
The air raids also severed the main road between Beirut and Syria's capital, Damascus. Israeli gunboats turned ships away from Lebanese ports and last night flames were billowing from fuel tanks after a second attack on the capital's crippled airport. At least 50 Lebanese people were killed in the assault, including 17 members of two families.
Hizbullah's rocket attacks on Israeli towns and kibbutz killed a woman and sent families fleeing from their homes for bomb shelters or areas away from the border. No one was injured by two rockets that fell on Haifa but they had an important psychological impact because Hizbullah has not been able to hit targets so deep into Israel before nor such a large city.
As the violence escalated it appeared to polarise reaction, with the US and EU taking markedly different stances. The US president, George Bush, said Israel had the right to defend itself but cautioned against bringing down the Lebanese administration. "The concern here is that any activities by Israel to protect herself will weaken that government ... topple that government, and we have made that clear in our discussions," Mr Bush said during a visit to Germany. "Having said all that, people need to protect themselves."
He also said that Syria needed to be held to account for supporting Hizbullah and Hamas.
But the EU said the sea and air blockade was unjustified and it deplored the "disproportionate" use of force and the loss of civilian life. The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, said he would despatch a three-person team to the region to try to defuse the crisis. The Israel-Lebanon crisis, coupled with anxiety over the mounting confrontation over Iran's nuclear ambitions, drove the price of crude oil to a record $76 yesterday.
Hizbullah is demanding the release of Arab security prisoners in Israeli jails in return for the two captured soldiers and a third soldier held in the Gaza Strip after he was snatched by Palestinian militias last month.
Israel dropped leaflets warning residents of a Beirut suburb where the Hizbullah's leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, lives to evacuate their homes. Israel's justice minister, Haim Ramon, suggested that the Hizbullah chief could be a target.
"All those who plan the attacks, all those who allow such terror activities, are also a target," he told Israel radio. The Israeli military told a meeting of the government's security cabinet that it favoured also attacking crucial infrastructure such as power plants. On Wednesday, the army said it would bomb Lebanon "back 20 years" if the soldiers were not released. Israeli tanks were gathering on the border for what may be a wider ground operation.
An Israeli army spokesman, Erik Snider, said the blockade of Lebanon could go on for some time.
"We're trying to isolate Lebanon to prevent attacks from Lebanon against Israeli soldiers and civilians. The airport has traditionally been a hub for smuggling weapons to Hizbullah as well as ports along the sea. We're operating from the air as well as the sea in addition to artillery fire," he said.
Israeli said it feared the two captured soldiers - Ehud Goldwasser, 31, and Eldad Regev, 26 - could be taken to Iran, and that the blockade and attacks would make that more difficult. The Lebanese government yesterday appealed for an immediate ceasefire, saying it did not endorse the Hizbullah attacks.
But Israel appeared determined to press ahead with the assault, saying it is responding to an "act of war" by the Lebanese government because it contains members of Hizbullah. Israel also kept up its campaign against Hamas in Gaza by blowing up the offices of the Palestinian foreign minister, Mahmoud al-Zahar. Israel launched an assault on the Gaza Strip nearly three weeks ago, sending tanks and troops in on the ground and destroying the main power plant and government offices in the territory, after a soldier, Gilad Shalit, was captured by Palestinian militias.
More than 80 Palestinians, including women and children, have been killed in the subsequent assault on Gaza.
Residents of the northern Israeli town of Nahariya fled their homes yesterday after a rocket killed a 40 year-old woman and wounded 29 other people.
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Exciting stuff, wouldn't you say? There's some speculation that since Israel and Hizbullah act as proxies for the United States and Iran, respectively, that they could precipitate a conflict between the two powers in the region. Especially if Israel launches attacks on Syria.
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