IAF violates Beirut airspace + IDF kills One

Ein Fall der keinerlei Erklärung bedarf. Am Wochenende hatte sich die libanesische Armee bereit für einen Waffengang mit den Israelis geäußert und sich die Hezbollah weit aus dem Fenster gelehnt; Two years after the Second Lebanon War, the Iranian-backed Hezbollah organization has bolstered its recruitment efforts at an unprecedented rate in preparation for a fresh war with Israel, The Guardian reported Sunday; schon möchte Israel auch etwas zu dem friedlichen mireinander beitragen: The Lebanese army reported that Israeli Air Force jets flew over Beirut on Monday. The army said in a statement that 12 "enemy" Israeli warplanes violated Lebanese airspace before noon Monday by flying missions over Beirut and elsewhere in the country. The IDF said it will not discuss its operational activities. [Senior Israeli government officials accused the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) of concealing information about Hizbullah's activities south of the Litani River to avoid conflict with the group, Israeli daily Haaretz reported on Monday. Senior officials in the Israeli military and Foreign Ministry are angry about UNIFIL's actions in recent months and believe that the force's commander, Major General Claudio Graziano, is "leniently interpreting his mission as assigned by UN Security Council Resolution 1701," the daily added. Auch die Deutschen waren schon Ziel der Israelis, so daß man davon ausgehen muß das sie selbst nicht wissen was genau vor Ort geschieht.] + Saad Hariri returned to Beirut on Saturday after an almost two-month stay in Saudi Arabia.

The latest slaughter in the Gaza Strip is generating the predictable claims and counter-claims about responsibility for the loss of innocent lives. The Palestinians say a mother, her four children and another youth were killed by Israeli tank fire, while the Israelis insist that explosives belonging to militants were accidentally set off. As is generally the case, though, whatever the immediate cause on this specific occasion, these and the thousands of civilian deaths that have preceded them are the result of the impunity with which the Israeli government is habitually allowed to run roughshod over Arabs. Im Ernst, es soll sogar schon ein Offizier abgestellt worden sein der der Weltöffentlichkeit die Belege liefern soll: The Israel Defense Forces said Monday that a blast that killed six Palestinian civilians in northern Gaza earlier in the day was not caused by an IDF tank shell, as the Palestinians had earlier reported, but was rather a result of militants' explosives. The IDF investigated the incident, which left a Beit Hanoun mother and her four children dead along with a 17-year-old passerby, and concluded that the deadly explosion occurred when the Israel Air Force, targeting two Palestinian gunmen, fired a missile and hit the gunmen's bags, which were full of ammunition. The missile caused the ammunition cache to explode with force, setting off a chain reaction of additional explosions. [Ein ziemlich schlechter Witz. Gerade die israelischen Kampfflugzeuge zeichnen solche Attacken auf. Wie in früheren Fällen geschehen muß man schlicht den Film zeigen und solange man dieses nicht tut gibt es nur die Toten als Beweis und diese sind ausschlißlich Zivilisten.] The colonel is expected to present his conclusions within 48 hours. [47, 46, 45...] Bei weiteren Gefechten in Beit Hanoun wird ein noch nicht identifizierter Mann durch IDF-Feuer getötet. Am Nachmittag wird ein zweiter israelischer Soldat verletzt. Nach Augenzeugenberichten geht der Beschuß ziviler Gebäude mit MG-Feuer und Granaten weiter.

Update: Israel on Monday agreed to remove a strategic roadblock near the West Bank city of Nablus, after Middle East envoy Tony Blair presented a list of travel and trade restrictions he wants removed to bolster peace talks with the Palestinians. [...] The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said Sunday that he supported Turkish mediation of Israeli-Syrian peace and would back any agreement reached between the two longtime enemies. [...] Even though U.S. officials say they have gathered the most detailed evidence so far of Iranian involvement in training and arming fighters in Iraq, significant uncertainties remain about the extent of that involvement and the threat it may pose to U.S. and Iraqi forces. Some intelligence and administration officials said Iran seemed to have carefully calibrated its involvement in Iraq over the past year, in contrast to what President George W. Bush and other U.S. officials have publicly portrayed as an intensified Iranian role. [...] Presidents, prime ministers and other dignitaries who attend Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations next month will be shunned by Palestinian leaders if they visit the West Bank. Palestinian officials said the decision by Palestinian resident Mahmoud Abbas and his government in the West Bank to temporarily boycott world leaders who visit the West Bank during Israeli festivities amounted to a symbolic protest.

Juan Coles blog: What little information provided in the CIA videotape concerning the destruction of the purported Syrian reactor only provokes more questions.