Israel - Difficult to tell which lies to believe

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "Israel will continue to combat Hezbollah and will continue to strike targets of the group until captured Israeli soldiers are released and Israeli citizens are safe from attacks." ... to UN delegation.(Forever picking his nose)

Foreign Minister and Vice Prime Minister Tzipi Livni "A cease-fire would be impossible unless the captured soldiers are returned unharmed and Lebanese troops are deployed along the countries' border, with a guarantee that the Hezbollah militia would be disarmed." to UN delegation.

Nevertheless, Livni said, "We are beginning a diplomatic process alongside the military operation that will continue.The diplomatic process is not meant to shorten the window of time of the army's operation, but rather is meant to be an extension of it and to prevent a need for future military operations," she told reporters at a Ministerial Press conference.

General Dan Halutz Israel's army chief of staff, said his military would target infrastructure and "turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years" if the soldiers were not freed.

Maj. Gen. Udi Adam, Head of IDF northern command, said , "The offensive against Hezbollah, which has mostly been limited to Israel's air force and navy, would continue.I think that we should assume that it will take a few more weeks,"

Maj. Gen. Moshe Kaplinski IDF deputy chief of staff, "Israel has not ruled out deploying massive ground forces into Lebanon."

Avi Dichter Public Security Minister , "Israel may consider a prisoner swap with Lebanon to win the release of two soldiers captured by Hezbollah, but only after its military operation is complete. If one of the ways to bring home the soldiers will be negotiations on the possibility of releasing Lebanese prisoners, I think the day will come when we will also have to consider this," Dichter told Army Radio.

Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot Israel says there is strong support for the military operation against Hezbollah, according a to poll they undertook. It said 86 % of Israelis believe the operation is justified, 81 % want it to continue and 58 % it should last until Hezbollah is destroyed. ( All + - 4.3%)

Meanwhile the UN delegation waffled ;

Kofi Annan in Belgium said any international stabilization force must be "considerably" larger and better armed than the U.N.'s current force in Lebanon, which numbers some 2,000 troops and long has been viewed by all sides in the Middle East as ineffectual and lacking a strong mandate.

Terje Roed-Larsen, U.N. negotiator Terje Roed-Larsen said in Jerusalem after meeting Livni that "concrete ideas" had been presented to the Israeli government to solve the crisis, and that Israel would deliberate on them in the coming days.He did not say what they were.

I'll go with Dan Halutz .The Israeli's will bomb Lebanon back 20 years or even into the stone age until the conscience of the world is sufficiently sickened that the leaders (?) are forced to make Israeli stop. One wonders why no-fly zones could be instituted in Iraq but not the Lebanon - we have had the spectacle of Western nations ( US / Canada / EU )seeking agreement from the Israeli's for the embarking of refugees from a soveriegn territory of a UN member.

By so doing they are complicit in the policy of wholesale bombing of civilians, in collective punishment, and various Geneva and Hague conventions. These actions are of a bus queue of people, watching a ghastly gang rape take place on the other side of the road and collectively saying how dreadful it is, ..... but they have a bus to catch.

By so doing they are accepting the start of World War III - which is what they effectively set their hand to, when they illegally invaded Iraq.

It was said in the Canadian Spectator March 19th 2003 "Bush's Gang of Mad beekeepers"

Counting the cost... eventually

The course is charted, arrogant use of the military is all the US ruling class has to maintain its dominance. After Iraq, asymmetric warfare, "terrorism," will be directed at Americans, American institutions, American targets, and American allies. When the rest of the world recognizes how thinly spread the US military is, thinly spread physically, and economically, because it is not a sustainable institution in its current incarnation, rebellions will occur. Indeed they have already started. The response of the weakening US will be to lash out, often with unforeseeable consequences, just as the consequences of this impending invasion are unforeseeable, and unknown.

Sturm and Drang

Military might is a sign of strength, but the US military is not invincible worldwide. America's use of force as both first and last resort is a sign of profound systemic weakness. Its employment today will destabilize the world, and cause us to stumble into a Third World War: The War of Unintended Consequences.

And in "An Open Letter to Tony Blair" Counterpunch February 26th 2003

Be careful however that, if in the "fog of war" the Israelis decide to resolve the Palestinian problem, a lá Sabra and Shattila camps.

Which is exactly what Gaza abandonment was. Predicted and predictable. That Twat Blair fell for it and this "colossus that would bestride the world" accepts (what he thought was a private conversation with his buddy Dubya) that his intervention and role is that of a warm up comedian - to be followed by AIPAC's main (they have many) representative in US Government, Jack Straws's ex, Condileezza Rice. "Oh my Boy! What a girl!" says Blair.

Her and Livni hit it off like a pair on WWWF.