In this issue: 1) GOP Lawmakers Edge Away From Optimism on Iraq 2) Where are the Christians? 3) Things Come 'Round in Mideast 4) IDF kidnapped two Palestinian civilians before their soldier was captured in Gaza 5) Iraqi Prime Minister Denounces Israel's Actions 6) Toll Rises in Middle East; Bunker Is Hit 7) To Disarm Shadowy Guerrilla Army, Israeli Air Power May Not Be Enough 8) Russia Backs UN Deadline on Iran: Lavrov 9) Iran Sticks by Nuclear Plans Despite U.N. Pressure 10) Iran Says Determined to Make Atomic Fuel at Home 11) Iran Says It Will Deliver Response Aug. 22 12) Lebanese PM: Hezbollah Must Be Disarmed 13) Turkey Moves Forward on Push Into Iraq 14) Lebanon Battles Raise Hezbollah Questions 15) U.S. Stance Against Venezuela Has Dangers 16) US Has No Idea of 'War on Terror' Cost: Watchdog 17) Humanitarian Catastrophe Looms 18) Deadliest Day Yet in Assault on Lebanon 19) U.S. at Odds With Allies on Mideast Conflict 20) Editorial: Diplomatic Traps 21) Mum on the Mideast? 22) Presidential Dispute Splits Mexico City
Summary: The United Nations high commissioner for human rights, Louise Arbour, said what is happening in Lebanon might amount to war crimes. "The scale of the killings in the region, and their predictability, could engage the personal criminal responsibility of those involved, particularly those in a position of command and control," she said. Arbour is a former war crimes prosecutor.
Homes in southern Lebanon received taped phone calls in Arabic warning that they needed to evacuate because strikes would hit house by house. The recording ended by saying it came from the Israeli Army. The Israelis also used a radio station near the border to broadcast warnings into southern Lebanon for residents to leave.
Congressional Republicans are shifting their message on the Iraq war from speaking optimistically of progress to acknowledging the difficulty of the mission and pointing up mistakes in planning and execution, the Washington Post reports. Shays vents criticism of the White House's war strategy and new estimates of the monetary cost of the war. Gutknecht, once a strong supporter of the war, returned from Iraq this week declaring that conditions in Baghdad were far worse "than we'd been led to believe" and urging that troop withdrawals begin immediately. Republican lawmakers acknowledge that it is no longer tenable to say the news media are ignoring the good news in Iraq and painting an unfair picture of the war. The evolving Republican message on the war contrasts with the strong rhetoric used by House and Senate Republicans recently in opposing a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq. During a debate last month, Gutknecht intoned, "Members, now is not the time to go wobbly." This week, he conceded "I guess I didn't understand the situation."
At the United Nations the United States opposed a French proposal for a Security Council resolution calling for a lasting cease-fire in Lebanon. Rice will travel to the United Nations to discuss with Secretary General Annan Israeli demands for a 12-mile buffer zone in southern Lebanon. There is talk of putting international troops in that zone and along the Syrian border to prevent the import of more rockets from Syria and Iran.
Iran on Thursday again rejected international calls for it to scrap nuclear fuel production and accused the United States of trying to obstruct a diplomatic solution to its atomic dispute with the West. Iran's chief nuclear negotiator made the statement as the U.N. Security Council wrangles over a resolution to make legally binding demands that Tehran halt uranium enrichment.
Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Iran's top security decision-making body, said Thursday it would formally respond on Aug. 22 to a Western package of incentives aimed at resolving the standoff over its nuclear program. A senior Iranian lawmaker said Tuesday the country's parliament was preparing to debate withdrawal from the nonproliferation treaty if the U.N. Security Council adopts a resolution that would force Tehran to suspend uranium enrichment. Withdrawal from the treaty could end all international oversight of Iran's nuclear program.
Russia is prepared to back a United Nations resolution giving Iran a deadline to respond to a package of incentives on its nuclear program, its Foreign Minister said Thursday. But he did not say if Russia would support imposing sanctions on Iran if it failed to comply. The draft under consideration in the U.N. would make it mandatory for Iran to suspend enrichment and includes threats of sanctions if it does not comply. Lavrov did not say if Russia would back that draft. The will set a date, possibly by the end of August, for Iran to comply.
Fighting raged between Israelis and Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with 13 Palestinians killed in a series of Israeli raids. "We have a forgotten war in Gaza and the West Bank," said Saab Erekat, a Palestinian legislator and frequent spokesman. "We urge the international community to offer direct intervention to stop this Israeli military escalation."
American military analysts caution that Israel may be unable to disarm a shadowy guerrilla army by missiles, bombs and long-range artillery alone, the New York Times reports. Small numbers of Israeli commandos already have entered Lebanon, senior Israeli officials acknowledged Wednesday, and more ground forces may be sent in. But the Israeli military campaign is intertwined with another goal aimed at the Lebanese government and civilian population. "They want to turn the Lebanese people…against Hezbollah," said Theodore Kattouf, former American ambassador to Syria. "I think they are quite misguided...These attacks are, if anything, making people feel somewhat less hostile to Hezbollah and more convinced in their dislike of Israel."
Iraq's Prime Minister on Wednesday forcefully denounced the Israeli attacks on Lebanon. "Israeli attacks and airstrikes are completely destroying Lebanon's infrastructure," Maliki said. "I condemn these aggressions and call on the Arab League foreign ministers' meeting in Cairo to take quick action to stop these aggressions. We call on the world to take quick stands to stop the Israeli aggression."
Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims fleeing southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs have taken refuge in the city's Christian and Sunni quarters in recent days. The sudden influx of so many displaced Shiites, many of whom support the militant group Hezbollah, threatens to upset Lebanon's sectarian balance. For the first time in decades of conflict, Shiite refugees have had to take shelter in neighbourhoods where many residents oppose Hezbollah. Israeli offensives in southern Lebanon have displaced Shiites many times over the last 30 years, but they've always taken refuge in the largely Shiite suburbs of south Beirut. But now, both the South and the southern suburbs are under Israeli fire and the Shiites must flee into the city itself. Nobody knows is exactly how many people have been displaced, but it is clear that a humanitarian crisis looms ahead.
The International Committee of the Red Cross and other international aid agencies cited growing concern over the number of Lebanese civilians being displaced by the Israeli air campaign, particularly in the hard-hit villages and towns of southern Lebanon. The number forced to leave their homes was estimated at 500,000 in a country with a population of 4 million.
Hezbollah missiles on Wednesday landed in the Israeli Arab town of Nazareth. Two brothers were killed around 5 p.m. when two rockets landed in the Safrefeh neighborhood in Israel's largest Arab city. Nazareth, a city of 75,000 people, has no public bomb shelters or early-warning sirens commonplace in other Israeli cities across the north.
The United States faces growing tensions with allies over its support of Israel's military campaign in Lebanon, amid calls for a cease-fire to help with the mounting humanitarian crisism the Washington Post reports. European allies are particularly alarmed about the high civilian death toll in Lebanon, and concerned that the U.S. position will increase tensions between the Islamic world and the West. "What there needs to be now is a cessation of hostilities," U.N. Deputy Secretary General Malloch Brown said yesterday. "The Middle East is littered with the results of people believing there are military solutions to political problems in the region." He said civilians are "very unfairly bearing the greatest brunt of the conflict." "The one thing that is guaranteed to send the Arab world and the Persian world over the edge is for the U.S. to be seen ultimately to be doing what they always believed -- to be fully in cahoots with Israel," said a European official. "The danger of allowing it to continue is that the United States is more and more despised. It's not like the U.S. had a good reputation within the region to start with."
The Washington Post editorial board again takes up its cudgel against diplomacy to end the fighting in Lebanon. The Post restates its view that a ceasefire would serve the interests of extremists. Instead, the Bush administration should insist on the passage by the U.N. Security Council of a resolution ordering Iran to stop the enrichment of uranium.
Howard Kurtz, writing in the Washington Post, reflects on criticism that the liberal blogosphere has been relatively quiet about the Israeli bombing of Lebanon. He notes that Slate Editor Jacob Weisberg recently returned from a trip to the Israeli-Lebanese border, funded by AIPAC, and proceeded to endorse the US-Israeli position. Wouldn't it have been better, Kurtz asks, if Slate, and not a pro-Israel lobby, had paid for his trip?
Hezbollah has created a ''state within a state'' in Lebanon and must be disarmed, Lebanese Prime Minister Saniora said in an interview published Thursday in an Italian daily, AP reports. Saniora's office said the prime minister had been misquoted. According to the report, Saniora had said that the Shiite militia has been doing the bidding of Syria and Iran, and that it can only be disarmed with the help of the international community and once a cease-fire has been achieved. He also said that international help was needed to persuade Israel to withdraw from the Shebaa Farms, a disputed territory that Lebanon claims and Hezbollah uses as a pretext to keep attacking Israeli forces.
The Turkish military is moving forward with plans to send forces into northern Iraq to clear out Turkish Kurdish guerrilla bases, the prime minister said Wednesday. But Erdogan also said officials were holding talks with the United States and Iraq in an attempt to defuse tensions.
Writing in TruthDig, JFP Board Member Tom Hayden offers his own experience as a legislator influenced by the "Israel lobby" to reflect on the Lebanon crisis. He notes that as a candidate in California, he felt he had to be certified as "kosher" by Israel's counsel general in Los Angeles. The de facto Israeli endorsement was communicated indirectly, in compliance with laws that prohibit foreign interference in an American election. Hayden expresses deep regret for his endorsement of the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, suggesting that he was deceived about the war's aims, and offers his experience as a caution to Americans today. He notes that it is not being a "friend of Israel" to turn a blind eye to its actions.
In his syndicated column, Pat Buchanan argues that "what Israel is doing is imposing deliberate suffering on civilians, collective punishment on innocent people, to force them to do something they are powerless to do: disarm the gunmen among them. Such a policy violates international law...It is un-American and un-Christian." Buchanan asks why there hasn't been more criticism from Christian leaders. "Why is Pope Benedict virtually alone among Christian leaders to have spoken out against what is being done to Lebanese Christians and Muslims?"
Foreign policy critic Noam Chomsky in recent interviews has emphasized the context of Hamas' capture of the Israeli soldier which has been underreported in the U.S. press: the kidnapping of two Palestinian civilians by the IDF from their home in Gaza the day before, citing among other sources Gideon Levy in the Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz.
The US government has lost track of the cost of the "war on terror" unleashed after the September 11 attacks and which is now taking up tens of billions of dollars a year in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Government Accountability Office says. The GAO says that neither the Defence Department nor Congress had any accurate idea how much the war has cost since the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.
The United States is lobbying hard to block Venezuela's bid for a seat on the U.N. Security Council, claiming that Venezuela will disrupt the body as it confronts hot issues such as Iran. But interviews with some 15 diplomats of member states reveal substantial wariness about the U.S. effort, with the critics warning it could boomerang against the U.S. choice, Guatemala, when the General Assembly votes in October.A European diplomat said U.S. lobbying against Venezuela would only gain it votes.
Scuffles, vandalism and angry accusations by supporters of Mexico's two presidential rivals forced politicians to appeal for calm to prevent the country's election dispute from erupting into violence. Local media reported late Wednesday that electoral officials had conducted a recount at about 2 percent of polling places that showed relatively untrained polling officials made mathematical errors that inflated totals for all candidates. The recounts -- which were conducted at polling places where Lopez Obrador claimed fraud had bolstered Calderon's vote total -- yielded new totals that favored Calderon.
Articles: 1) GOP Lawmakers Edge Away From Optimism on Iraq Jonathan Weisman and Anushka Asthana Washington Post Thursday, July 20, 2006; A01 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/19/AR2006071901787.html
Faced with almost daily reports of sectarian carnage in Iraq, congressional Republicans are shifting their message on the war from speaking optimistically of progress to acknowledging the difficulty of the mission and pointing up mistakes in planning and execution.
2) Where are the Christians? Patrick J. Buchanan Pittsburgh Tribune Review July 19, 2006 http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14044.htm
When Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert unleashed his navy and air force on Lebanon, accusing that tiny nation of an "act of war," the last pillar of Bush's Middle East policy collapsed.
3) Things Come 'Round in Mideast Tom Hayden TruthDig July 18, 2006 http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20060718_tom_hayden_things_come_round/
Twenty-five years ago I stared into the eyes of Michael Berman, chief operative for his congressman-brother, Howard Berman. I was a neophyte running for the California Assembly in a district that the Bermans claimed belonged to them. "I represent the Israeli defense forces," Michael said. I thought he was joking. He wasn't. Michael seemed to imagine himself the gatekeeper protecting Los Angeles' Westside for Israel's political interests, and those of the famous Berman-Waxman machine. Since Jews represented one-third of the Democratic district's primary voters, Berman held a balance of power.
4) IDF kidnapped two Palestinian civilians before their soldier was captured in Gaza Interview of Noam Chomsky by Tom Murphy http://representativepress.blogspot.com/2006/07/lebanon-israel-facts-media-isnt.html
Chomsky cites Gideon Levy's piece in Haaretz, "A black flag," July 3: "The legitimate basis for the IDF's operation was stripped away the moment it began. It's no accident that nobody mentions the day before the attack on the Kerem Shalom fort, when the IDF kidnapped two civilians, a doctor and his brother, from their home in Gaza. The difference between us and them? We kidnapped civilians and they captured a soldier, we are a state and they are a terror organization." http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=733427 Also refered to in Chomsky's Democracy Now interview: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/14/146258
5) Iraqi Prime Minister Denounces Israel's Actions Edward Wong And Michael Slackman New York Times July 20, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/20/world/middleeast/20shiites.html
BAGHDAD, Iraq, July 19 — Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki of Iraq on Wednesday forcefully denounced the Israeli attacks on Lebanon, marking a sharp break with President Bush's position and highlighting the growing power of a Shiite Muslim identity across the Middle East. "The Israeli attacks and airstrikes are completely destroying Lebanon's infrastructure," Mr. Maliki said at an afternoon news conference inside the fortified Green Zone, which houses the American Embassy and the seat of the Iraqi government. "I condemn these aggressions and call on the Arab League foreign ministers' meeting in Cairo to take quick action to stop these aggressions. We call on the world to take quick stands to stop the Israeli aggression."
6) Toll Rises in Middle East; Bunker Is Hit Jad Mouawad And Steven Erlanger New York Times July 20, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/20/world/middleeast/20mideast.html
BEIRUT, Lebanon, July 19 — The deadliest day yet in the deepening two-front Middle East crisis claimed more than 70 lives on Wednesday in Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and northern Israel, with no immediate cease-fire in sight. "The country has been torn to shreds," a desperate Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, said at a meeting he had called of foreign diplomats, including the American ambassador. "Is this the price we pay for aspiring to build our democratic institutions?" he asked in a bitter and emotional speech. "Can the international community stand by while such callous retribution by the state of Israel is inflicted on us?"
7) To Disarm Shadowy Guerrilla Army, Israeli Air Power May Not Be Enough Thom Shanker New York Times July 20, 2006 http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/20/world/middleeast/20military.html
WASHINGTON, July 19 — With its bombardment of Lebanon, Israel aims to accomplish the military goals of eliminating Hezbollah's ability to fire missiles over the border, cutting its lines of resupply from Syria or Iran and demonstrating — under pain of chaos — the cost to the Lebanese government of allowing the militant group to operate freely from its territory.
8) Russia Backs UN Deadline on Iran: Lavrov Reuters July 20, 2006 Filed at 2:52 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-nuclear-iran-russia.html
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia is prepared to back a United Nations resolution giving Iran a deadline to respond to a package of incentives on its nuclear program, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying on Thursday. But he did not say if Russia would support imposing sanctions on Iran if it failed to comply -- an issue that has split the U.N. Security Council.
9) Iran Sticks by Nuclear Plans Despite U.N. Pressure Reuters July 20, 2006 Filed at 7:31 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-nuclear-iran.html
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran on Thursday once again rejected international calls for it to scrap nuclear fuel production and accused the United States of trying to obstruct a diplomatic solution to its atomic dispute with the West.
10) Iran Says Determined to Make Atomic Fuel at Home Reuters July 20, 2006 Filed at 6:04 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-nuclear-iran-larijani.html
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Thursday it was determined to produce nuclear fuel on its territory in defiance of international calls to halt the work and accused the United States of trying to prevent a negotiated solution to its dispute with the West.
11) Iran Says It Will Deliver Response Aug. 22 Associated Press July 20, 2006 Filed at 8:58 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran said Thursday it would formally respond on Aug. 22 to a Western package of incentives aimed at resolving the standoff over its suspect nuclear program -- the first time the Islamic republic has set a specific date for its reply.
12) Lebanese PM: Hezbollah Must Be Disarmed Associated Press July 20, 2006 Filed at 8:18 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mideast-Fighting-Hezbollah.html
ROME (AP) -- Hezbollah has created a ''state within a state'' in Lebanon and must be disarmed, Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora said in an interview published Thursday in an Italian daily. Saniora's office said the prime minister had been misquoted and that his words had been translated from English into Italian.
13) Turkey Moves Forward on Push Into Iraq Associated Press July 19, 2006 Filed at 8:30 p.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Turkey-Kurds.html
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) -- The Turkish military is moving forward with plans to send forces into northern Iraq to clear out Turkish Kurdish guerrilla bases, the prime minister said Wednesday. But Recep Tayyip Erdogan also said officials were holding talks with the United States and Iraq in an attempt to defuse tensions.
14) Lebanon Battles Raise Hezbollah Questions Associated Press July 19, 2006 Filed at 6:22 p.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mideast-Hezbollah.html
BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- Israel said Wednesday it had wiped out half of Hezbollah's arsenal in a week of fighting, but the Shiite guerrilla group and some experts say that claim is wishful thinking. With supply lines disrupted and no early cease-fire in sight, the big question is how long Hezbollah can hold out.
15) U.S. Stance Against Venezuela Has Dangers Associated Press July 19, 2006 Filed at 3:01 p.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Blocking-Venezuela.html
UNITED NATIONS (AP) -- The United States is lobbying hard to block Venezuela's bid for a seat on the U.N. Security Council, fearful that Hugo Chavez, its fiercely anti-American president, will disrupt the body as it confronts hot issues such as Iran and Sudan. But interviews with some 15 diplomats of member states reveal substantial wariness about the U.S. effort, with the critics warning it could boomerang against the U.S. choice, Guatemala, when the General Assembly votes in October.
16) US Has No Idea of 'War on Terror' Cost: Watchdog Agence France Presse July 19, 2006 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0719-02.htm
The US government has lost track of the cost of the "war on terror" unleashed after the September 11 attacks and which is now taking up tens of billions of dollars a year in Iraq and Afghanistan, a Congress watchdog warned. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) said that neither the Defence Department nor Congress had any accurate idea how much the war has cost since the attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.
17) Humanitarian Catastrophe Looms Displaced Shiites flood Christian areas Influx threatens city's delicate balance Andrew Mills Toronto Star July 18, 2006 http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0718-01.htm
BEIRUT — Tens of thousands of Shiite Muslims fleeing danger and death in southern Lebanon and Beirut's southern suburbs have taken refuge in the city's Christian and Sunni quarters in the last six days. The sudden influx of so many displaced Shiites, many of whom support the militant group Hezbollah, threatens to upset Lebanon's delicate sectarian balance.
18) Deadliest Day Yet in Assault on Lebanon Hezbollah Rockets Fired Into Israel Kill Two Arab Boys Edward Cody, John Ward Anderson and Debbi Wilgoren Washington Post Thursday, July 20, 2006; 9:18 AM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/20/AR2006072000584.html
BEIRUT, July 20 -- Israel on Thursday warned Lebanese residents to leave the southern sector of the country below the Litani River, a day after punishing airstrikes killed more than 50 people across Lebanon in the deadliest day since hostilities erupted July 19.
19) U.S. at Odds With Allies on Mideast Conflict Citing Civilian Casualties, European Nations and U.N. Eager for Cease-Fire Robin Wright and Colum Lynch Washington Post Thursday, July 20, 2006; A17 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/19/AR2006071901932.html
The United States faces growing tensions with allies over its support of Israel's military campaign to cripple Hezbollah, amid calls for a cease-fire to help with the mounting humanitarian crisis.
20) Editorial: Diplomatic Traps The usual means of stopping the fighting in the Middle East would only reward the aggressors. Washington Post Thursday, July 20, 2006; A22 http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/19/AR2006071901717.html
AS FIGHTING in the Middle East continues, the Bush administration is coming under pressure to launch some sort of diplomatic initiative. These calls sound reasonable; the loss of innocent life in Lebanon and Israel is tragic, the dangers of further escalation are real and U.S. shuttle diplomacy has been instrumental in halting previous conflicts. The problem is this: The usual options in the State Department's playbook would hand to the extremists who launched this war exactly the results they have hoped for.
21) Mum on the Mideast? Howard Kurtz Washington Post Thursday, July 20, 2006; 7:34 AM http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/07/20/BL2006072000365.html
Does an opinion writer have to have an opinion on everything? More to the point, does such a writer have to weigh in on the Middle East?
22) Presidential Dispute Splits Mexico City Associated Press July 20, 2006 Filed at 3:30 a.m. ET http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mexico-Elections.html
MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Scuffles, vandalism and angry accusations by supporters of Mexico's two presidential rivals forced politicians to appeal for calm to prevent the country's election dispute from erupting into violence. Leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has called on his backers to mount a civil resistance campaign against what they claim is vote fraud that helped his conservative Felipe Calderon win the July 2 vote.
-------- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org