people still getting killed every day by cluster bombs

UN slams Israel's cluster bomb use in Lebanon, by Alistair Lyon

"The outrageous fact is that nearly all of these munitions were fired in the last three to four days of the war," David Shearer, the United Nations humanitarian coordinator in Lebanon, told a news conference in Beirut. "Outrageous because by that stage the conflict had been largely resolved in the form of (UN Security Council) Resolution 1701," he said...

Chris Clark, manager of the UN Mine Action Coordination Centre of South Lebanon, said the cluster bomb threat in the south was "extensive and, in my opinion, unprecedented"...

Shearer said cluster bombs had killed or wounded an average of three people a day since the war ended, with 15 killed, including a child, and 83 wounded, of whom 23 are children...

Zionist founder & family were quite a hopeless bunch

(with hardcore feng shui problems.)

Herzl children flown to Israel as dispute ends over remains
By Charles Bremner, of The Times, in Paris

The remains of two children of Theodore Herzl, the founder of modern Zionism, are to be removed from a Jewish cemetery in Bordeaux today and flown to Israel for reburial in keeping with their father’s will.

The transfer ends decades of delays and wrangling over the remains of Pauline Herzl, who died in Bordeaux of an apparent drug overdose in 1930, and Hans Herzl who shot himself dead there the day after in an act of grief.

Herzl, who died in Vienna in 1904 at the age of 44, wanted his descendants to be buried in the Jewish state that he hoped would one day be created. The three Herzl children, who were brought up to be future “royalty” of a Zionist nation, were long an embarrassment to Israel’s founders...

Herzl’s other daughter, Trude, who was also mentally disturbed, died in 1943 in the Nazi concentration camp of Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia...Trude Herzl’s son Stephan Theodor Neuman, the only grandchild of the Zionist founder, served as a captain in the British army in the Second World War. He committed suicide by jumping from a bridge in Washington where he was serving as an adviser to the British Embassy...

UNESCO: Urgent action is needed to protect Byblos!

Byblos is an ancient port city that is in urgent need of a clean-up.
Unesco has launched an urgent appeal for funds to restore world heritage sites following the recent conflict between Israel and Hezbollah.

Appeal to save Lebanese heritage
By Crispin Thorold, BBC News, Byblos

Byblos, which has been continuously inhabited for more than 7,000 years, is still suffering from the oilslick. This is causing dismay among local people and archaeologists around the world...The remains of the Roman quarries on the shore's edge glisten in the sunlight. They have been blackened by the oil, as has the base of the tower the Crusaders built here.

"It will be very long because we have to take many volunteers to clean up all the stones," explains Philippe Messenc, who has been working with the French navy team. "You have many porous stones, so you just have to brush the stones to clean up all the shoreline."

Much of the Lebanese coast has oil on its beaches. The economic and environmental damage is extensive. But in Byblos, the local people say they will not give up until their heritage is restored.

Please visit UNESCO's website for more information about the damage inflicted on Lebanon's heritage sites.

Blaming Islam, misunderstanding Islam, and (unacknowledged) intolerance in the West

We cannot afford to maintain these ancient prejudices against Islam - The Pope's remarks were dangerous, and will convince many more Muslims that the west is incurably Islamophobic

Karen Armstrong, The Guardian

...Even when Christians were trying to be fair, their entrenched loathing of Islam made it impossible for them to approach it objectively... This medieval cast of mind is still alive and well...Hatred of Islam is so ubiquitous and so deeply rooted in western culture that it brings together people who are usually at daggers drawn...

Our Islamophobia dates back to the time of the Crusades, and is entwined with our chronic anti-semitism. Some of the first Crusaders began their journey to the Holy Land by massacring the Jewish communities along the Rhine valley; the Crusaders ended their campaign in 1099 by slaughtering some 30,000 Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem...

Jesus had told his followers to love their enemies, not to exterminate them. It was when the Christians of Europe were fighting brutal holy wars against Muslims in the Middle East that Islam first became known in the west as the religion of the sword. At this time, when the popes were trying to impose celibacy on the reluctant clergy, Muhammad was portrayed by the scholar monks of Europe as a lecher, and Islam condemned - with ill-concealed envy - as a faith that encouraged Muslims to indulge their basest sexual instincts. At a time when European social order was deeply hierarchical, despite the egalitarian message of the gospel, Islam was condemned for giving too much respect to women and other menials.

In a state of unhealthy denial, Christians were projecting subterranean disquiet about their activities on to the victims of the Crusades, creating fantastic enemies in their own image and likeness. This habit has persisted. The Muslims who have objected so vociferously to the Pope's denigration of Islam have accused him of "hypocrisy", pointing out that the Catholic church is ill-placed to condemn violent jihad when it has itself been guilty of unholy violence in crusades, persecutions and inquisitions and, under Pope Pius XII, tacitly condoned the Nazi Holocaust...

With disturbing regularity, this medieval conviction surfaces every time there is trouble in the Middle East. Yet until the 20th century, Islam was a far more tolerant and peaceful faith than Christianity. The Qur'an strictly forbids any coercion in religion and regards all rightly guided religion as coming from God; and despite the western belief to the contrary, Muslims did not impose their faith by the sword.

The early conquests in Persia and Byzantium after the Prophet's death were inspired by political rather than religious aspirations. Until the middle of the eighth century, Jews and Christians in the Muslim empire were actively discouraged from conversion to Islam, as, according to Qur'anic teaching, they had received authentic revelations of their own. The extremism and intolerance that have surfaced in the Muslim world in our own day are a response to intractable political problems - oil, Palestine, the occupation of Muslim lands, the prevelance of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, and the west's perceived "double standards" - and not to an ingrained religious imperative.

But the old myth of Islam as a chronically violent faith persists, and surfaces at the most inappropriate moments. As one of the received ideas of the west, it seems well-nigh impossible to eradicate. Indeed, we may even be strengthening it by falling back into our old habits of projection. As we see the violence - in Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon - for which we bear a measure of responsibility, there is a temptation, perhaps, to blame it all on "Islam". But if we are feeding our prejudice in this way, we do so at our peril.

UNBEARABLY PATHETIC EXCUSES.

Senior Israeli security official says that army was unprepared for Lebanon war, The Associated Press

There was not enough coordination between ground and air forces in large part because the branches had different intelligence information, the official said. The maps used by the ground forces were from 2000, while the air force had maps from this year, he said.

Ok, so Israeli "intelligence" needs revisiting, but what - the IAF couldn't have run their "maps from this year" through a photocopier to share with the IDF? This one just isn't gonna fly.

Byblos, Tyre, & Baalbeck - people don't know what they're missing.

Lebanon World Heritage Sites Need Repair
By Associated Press

PARIS -- Three UNESCO World Heritage sites in Lebanon, which include some of the Mideast's most significant ancient ruins, are in urgent need of repair after a month of fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, the U.N. agency said Monday.

A team of U.N. experts reported that the cities of Tyre and Baalbek were damaged by the shaking from nearby bombings, although they were not directly hit. The cities include some of the finest examples of imperial Roman architecture.

The ancient port city of Byblos, north of Beirut, grappled with a massive oil spill caused by the bombing of a power plant in mid-July. It has been described as Lebanon's worst environmental disaster...

Damascus official: Syria losing patience with Israel

Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal said that his country is losing patience in the matter of the Golan Heights, and that the Syrians would not wait much longer before they act...

"The Syrian people have waited 40 years for the implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolutions, but to no avail, and they are losing their patience," he stated.

"Syria chose peace as a strategic option, especially after former president Hafez Assad received a letter from President George Bush that included the principle of peace in exchange for territories, a letter that has become known as 'the Madrid principle.'," he explained. "It's been 16 years and still we have reached no results," he added...

Weighing Israel's way of war

By RAMESH THAKUR, Special to The Japan Times

To say that both sides must share blame in any conflict does not imply that both are equally to blame...

Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of the New York-based Human Rights Watch, investigated a number of Israeli strikes on civilian targets. He concluded that "time after time" Israel "hit civilian homes and cars in the southern border zone, killing dozens of people with no evidence of any military objective." Consequently, he says, "Israel's claims about pinpoint strikes and proportionate responses are pure fantasy. Israel is prefabricating excuses to justify killing civilians."

Human Rights Watch concluded that, at best, Israel had blurred the distinction between civilian and combatant. At worst, "The pattern of attacks during the Israeli offensive in Lebanon suggests that the failures cannot be explained or dismissed as mere accidents; the extent of the pattern and the seriousness of the consequences indicate the commission of war crimes."

U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, too, placed the attack on Qana in the context of "a pattern of violations of international law, including international humanitarian law and international human rights law, committed during the current hostilities." Isolated and occasional operational errors and accidental mistakes are one thing; a systematic pattern suggests possible war crimes...

BBC: Israel charges Hezbollah fighters

Correspondents say the charges reflect Israel's refusal to view Hezbollah as a legitimate fighting force, to be treated under established laws of war...

Merkel is pushing it

Lebanon Slams Germany For Saying UNIFIL Is To Protect Israel

(IsraelNN.com) Lebanese Cabinet ministers have criticized German Chancellor Angela Markel for stating that German troops in the UNIFIL force will help protect Israel. Energy and Water Minister Mohamed Fneish said her statement violates the United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolution. Information Minister Ghazi Aridi stated that UNIFIL does not have a mandate to protect Israel.

AP: Nonaligned nations slam Israel, US; support Iran

118 Nonaligned Movement nations slam Israel for attacking Lebanon, support diplomacy in US-Iran nuclear dispute

I had to repost this one

"WE CONTINUE TO DELIVER TO THE LEBANESE BORDER AND AROUND GAZA. Many regular and reserve soldiers are still mobilized on these fronts"

"We've learned from previous wars that the government will steal and we won't see anything"

The Fight to Rebuild Lebanon
Sunni governments vie with Shiite-ruled Iran and Hezbollah to prove who is doing more, by Megan K. Stack, LA Times Staff Writer

BEIRUT — The rush to rebuild this war-crushed country has gotten tangled up with a high-stakes sectarian competition, as Sunni Arab governments in the region race against Shiite-ruled Iran and its ally Hezbollah to prove political clout and capture grass-roots loyalty, analysts say...

For decades, Lebanon has been an oft-abused host to its neighbors — a sun-warmed playground for the wealthy, but also a proxy battlefield for tensions that wash over the Middle East. In the current struggle, the region's power players jockey not with guns but with charity dollars, boxed food and showy displays of compassion.

Second earthquake in Israel

Light earthquake rattles central Israel for second time in a week by Haaretz Service and agencies

Tzipi Livni

Lebanon Must Disarm Hezbollah, Israeli Foreign Minister Warns
By Glenn Kessler, Washington Post Staff Writer

Livni said Israel's efforts to keep the military campaign limited made it more difficult to achieve its objectives.

"The result is it was more difficult to find these terrorists among civilians, compared to attacking a weak Lebanon," Livni said. "We could have done Lebanon in a few days, I think, if we had decided to attack Lebanon as a state."

If Israel is attacked again, "we are not looking again to find these terrorists among the civilian population," Livni added. "We are going to face a state which does not implement its responsibility or maybe does not exercise its sovereignty. And so in French, they say tant pis" -- which translates as "too bad."

"What's the matter with you Arabs?"

Hezbollah war reveals inequality of Arabs
BY URI DROMI

In Israel, where half of the north is populated by Arabs, they became -- like their Jewish neighbors -- victims of Katyusha rockets launched by Arabs from over the Lebanese border. Yet they don't enjoy the same shelter system as the Jewish residents, and once the rockets hit them, further lack of past adequate investments in infrastructure were exposed. In short, the war has reminded us once again of the issue of inequality of Arabs in Israel...

The Beirut we know will always exist

"The Beirut you know no longer exists"
By Ariana Markowitz

One week before I left for Beirut, my family had dinner with my uncle who was visiting from Beersheva, Israel. Halfway through the evening, he turned to look at me. He put down his fork.

“So. You’re leaving in a week.” I nodded. He asked if I was excited. I told him, excitedly, that I was. He exploded.

“You’re insane and naive and you’re going to get killed! The Syrian secret police are going to follow you. Hezbullah is going to kill you. I’m not e-mailing you there because your internet usage will surely be tapped. My God, Ariana, why are you doing this?”

Just blame it on the map and call it 'unfortunate'

Inaccurate Map Led to Fatal Strike on U.N. Post, Israel Says
The Associated Press

“...the target we perceived that we were hitting was a Hezbollah military position,” Mr. Regev said. “That was a mistake because what was targeted was the U.N. post.”

Mr. Regev said that fresh Israeli forces had just been deployed then in the area... The change in personnel prompted a need to duplicate maps and charts.

“In that process, unfortunately, the U.N. post was not accurately mapped,” he said. “When our aircraft launched its ordnance it believed it was targeting Hezbollah. This was a mistake; it shouldn’t have happened.”

...United Nations officials said the observation position was well marked. A picture it released a day after the attack showed the three-story building was painted white and had the letters “U.N.” emblazoned in large black letters on all sides.

Israel "a sort of Sodom"

Corruption scandals wrack an Israel already reeling after Lebanon war, The Associated Press

"It's too much," former lawmaker Yossi Sarid said, adding that he feared Israel was "becoming a sort of Sodom."

'Egyptian Activists Turn Against Israel'

By HAMZA HENDAWI, The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt -- Egypt's best-known democracy movement has switched causes and is now focused on demanding an end to the country's peace treaty with Israel...

Edward S. Walker, a former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and Israel, believes Kifaya's new campaign showcases Washington's dilemma as it strives to sell the values of democracy and freedom in a region galvanized for decades by the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Hezbollah dismisses Amnesty report

IRIN: Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah was quoted by the BBC as saying the London-based rights group should analyse the number of civilians killed on each side, before accusing Hezbollah of war crimes.

Hezbollah rejects war crimes claims

"We do not deny that we have bombarded Israeli cities, settlements and infrastructure. But this was always a reaction," he told Aljazeera. "It was a natural reaction. When a state is invaded, it must defend itself."

...Fadlallah said that AI had probably come under US and Israeli pressure to criticise Hezbollah's actions during the after issuing a similar report against Israel last month...

"The act was begun by Israel," Fadlallah said. "How could we confront the Israeli aggression? With roses? The resistance [Hezbollah] said that the bombardment of Haifa was in response to the bombardment of Dahiya [Beirut's southern suburbs]."

Syria blames U.S. for embassy attack - Claims Washington orchestrated it to get concessions from Damascus

By Aaron Klein, WorldNetDaily.com

"Only the Americans can succeed in carrying out an attack just 200 meters from President Assad's residence in the most heavily guarded section of Syria," the official said...

REUTERS: U.S. moves to reduce diplomatic presence in Syria

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 (Reuters) - The United States moved on Thursday to reduce its diplomatic presence in Syria following this week's attack on its embassy in Damascus by offering free flights out of the country to non-essential diplomats and family members on a voluntary basis.

UN to protest Israeli flights over Lebanon

UN officials said Thursday they would issue a complaint to Israel's army after four overflights by its jets in Lebanese airspace, in violation of the cease-fire between Israel and Hizbullah.

Former IDF chief: Soldiers were sacrificed for spin

By Jonathan Lis, Eli Ashkenazi and Ari Shavit, Haaretz Correspondents

"He entered the war without defining it as a war, and maybe without understanding that it was a war. He did not understand the implications of the measures he himself adopted. He did not mobilize the reserves in time, and did not open the emergency depots in time, and did not activate the high-command base.

"He managed the war from his office... He managed the campaign arrogantly and shallowly."

"Sexiest" resistance movement in Middle East?

Navigating Beirut during a period of war
BY HUNTER BANDY

In early June I came to Lebanon with the intention of researching the sexiest resistance movement in the Middle East. Hizbullah, Hezbollah, or simply the Party of God, to most Americans is a “radical Iranian-controlled terrorist organization” that kidnapped “noble” CIA officers and other western journalists in the 1980s. Agitating for social change from the bottom of the social hierarchy, engaging in violent resistance against occupation, and being misperceived in the west by almost everyone who has ever heard the name of their organization, Hizbullah captured my interests and my academic attention for the near future.

Nasrallah: No one can prevent us from remaining on our lands

Nasrallah: No demilitarized area, Israel lying
Roee Nahmias

"I am not in a bunker, but since 1992 (the year when Hizbullah's former Secretary-General Abbas Musawi was assassinated by Israel – R.N.) I have been unable to tour along the border. I cannot tour there not because of the war, but because the Israeli enemy assassinated Musawi in the middle of the day and in front of the entire world. Therefore I had to act responsibly and not walk around like Olmert does," he said.

NYT: Amnesty International Says Hezbollah Committed War Crimes

By ALAN COWELL, The New York Times

In the Amnesty report, Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, was quoted as arguing that its attacks were in reprisal for Israeli attacks.

Amnesty: Hezbollah accused of committing war crimes against Israel

Hezbollah accused of committing war crimes against Israel: Amnesty, The Associated Press

Hezbollah launched nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel in July and August, killing at least 150 Israelis, including 39 civilians...

"Targeting civilians is a war crime. There's no gray area," said Larry Cox, Amnesty's executive director in the United States...

AP: Lebanon to sue Israel over oil spill caused by war bombing

By The Associated Press

The minister said Lebanon would pursue the legal action against Israel on two levels, one at the International Court of Justice at The Hague and the second at the United Nations.

Nasrallah: Israeli media more fair than Lebanese

By Jerusalem Post Staff

Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah said in an interview with Al Jazeera that, despite being an enemy, many Israeli media reports about the organization during the war were more favorable than those broadcast by Lebanese media.