Blogger's Night Off. Everything is upsetting but also very routine at the same time. But, remember...

...Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires

29 Tammuz 5766

It just ain't Aaron

IDF preparing for ground operation in Tyre area

In spite of blows suffered by army in north, it does not plan to stop in Bint Jbeil; plans already prepared for Tyre area, where 'medium rocket unit' operates against Haifa Hanan Greenberg

Some 20 to 25 terrorists were killed Monday in battles in the Bint Jbeil area, reports received from the field by the Northern Command reveal.
An officer and a soldier were killed after two tanks were severely hit in the area, but the Israel Defense Forces does not plan to stop and is already preparing plans for a ground operation in the Tyre area as well.

"It may require a different deployment of forces, but we are definitely prepared for that," a senior IDF officer told Ynet.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3280905,00.html

SLA: War price for leaving Lebanon

Former Southern Lebanese Army fighters living in Israel, who have experienced combat against Hizbullah first-hand, say it is clear what caused current crisis and when it should end: 'War is price of IDF’s six-year absence from Lebanon. Combat can only end when Nasrallah is no longer relevant' Hagai Einav

Former members of the Southern Lebanese Army residing in Israel are not surprised. From their perspective, the unfolding of events could have been foretold.

A former SLA officer, who fought alongside Israel, told Ynet: “The fighting in Lebanon will be long, but it is part of the price of a six-year absence of the Israeli army from Lebanon.”
The man, who refused to reveal his identity, partook in many battles against Hizbullah. “The combat can only end when Hassan Nasrallah is no longer relevant. Hizbullah must be disarmed and driven towards the Litani River.

To the former officer, who now lives in Nahariya and whose home is in the line of Katyusha fire, it is entirely clear what Israel must do.

“The IDF was in Lebanon for many years and knows how Hizbullah operates. We cannot repeat the mistake of the United States in Iraq in the 90s, when it surrendered to international pressure and called off the fighting before Saddam Hussein was captured or assassinated, which led to another escalation before he was toppled 14 years later,” he said.

Some 350 families from south Lebanon took refuge in Israel when the IDF withdrew from Lebanon in May 2000 and are currently scattered throughout Nahariya, Maalot, Kiryat Shmona and Tiberias in the north.

Most of the adults opened private businesses, and their children were absorbed into the public school system. They too, like the rest of Israel’s citizens, are experiencing the war in the north.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3280894,00.html

Diaspora solidarity missions say 'Israel is safe'By HILARY LEILA KRIEGER

American Jews seem to be more united in their backing for Israel than at any time since the Six Day War, according to Jewish leader Malcolm Hoenlein.
Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, was speaking at a press conference in Jerusalem Sunday at the start of a three-day solidarity tour. But even as he and other Jewish groups come on solidarity missions, donate funds and rally in support of Israel, North American Jews are cancelling plans to visit Israel.
"You always have people who postpone trips because of a [violent] situation. It's not just true in Israel. It's true anywhere where a conflict situation arises. It's understandable, but it's containable and I hope that we can reverse the current trend," he said. "The goal of solidarity missions [is to] get others to follow and understand that it's safe to come to Israel."
He has brought 50 people, including conference chairman Harold Tanner, along with him on one of several missions of international Jewish leadership coming to bolster Israel while it's under attack from Hizbullah.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291981045&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

US Conservative rabbis visit IsraelBy MATTHEW WAGNER

A group of lay leaders and rabbis from the Conservative movement in the US arrived Monday on a solidarity mission, made poignant by the movement's connection with three IDF victims of the violence in Gaza and Lebanon.
Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the soldier kidnapped by Hamas near Gaza on June 25, and two soldiers killed in action on July 12, Sgt.-Maj. Eyal Benin from Omer and St.-Sgt. Yaniv Bar-On of Modi'in, all had ties with the Masorti (Conservative) Movement in Israel.
The high representation of soldiers with ties to the Conservative Movement "shows the extent to which the movement has made serious inroads in Israeli society. It's unfortunate that this is the way we discover how much impact we are having," said Rabbi Neil Zuckerman of Temple Israel Center in White Plains, New York, who is leading the group.
The delegation - from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Connecticut, Illinois and Michigan - will visit the Bar-On family in Modi'in on Wednesday. Asher and Carlene Bar-On, Yaniv's parents, are among the founders of the Masorti Shalhevet-Hamaccabim congregation, said David Ginsberg, a fellow congregant and friend.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291988091&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

THIS movement continues there will not be enough room in Israel for all it's children.

Iran: Israel doomed to 'destruction'By ASSOCIATED PRESSTEHERAN

Talkbacks for this article: 200
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, declared Sunday that Israel had "pushed the button of its own destruction" by launching its military campaign against the Iranian-backed Hizbullah in Lebanon.
Ahmadinejad didn't elaborate, but suggested Islamic nations and others could somehow isolate Israel and its main backers led by the United States. On Saturday, the chairman of Iran's armed forced joint chiefs, Maj.-Gen. Sayyed Hassan Firuzabadi, said Iran would never join the current Middle East fighting.
THE IRANIAN THREAT
JPost.com special: news, opinion, blogs and more
Ahmadinejad's latest salvo against Israel came as the 12-day-old hostilities in Lebanon continued. The hard-line president drew international condemnation last year after publicly calling for Israel to be wiped out and calling the Holocaust a "myth."
Iran helped create the anti-Israel Hizbullah movement in the early 1980s and is among its main supplier of arms and funds. But Teheran has denied Israeli claims it is sent Hizbullah long-range missiles that have reached Haifa and other points in northern Israel since the battles broke out nearly two weeks ago following a cross-border Hizbullah raid that captured two Israeli soldiers.
"Britain and the United States are accomplices of the Zionist regime in its crimes in Lebanon and Palestine," said Ahmadinejad.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1153291976348&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull

Iranian Cowardess - "Bind the time until ... "

Iran backs cease-fire, prisoner swapBy ASSOCIATED PRESS

Iran said Monday that a cease-fire and a prisoner exchange would be possible in Hizbullah's conflict with Israel, while the United Nations signaled readiness to send peacekeeping troops to the region.
Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said a cease-fire and an exchange of prisoners would be possible.
"We believe that we should think of an acceptable and fair [deal] to resolve this," he said after talks with Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Sharaa in Damascus. "In fact, there can be a cease-fire followed by a prisoner swap."
Iran and Syria are the principal sponsors of Hizbullah, and the two countries have applauded Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers, which triggered the Israeli offensive in Lebanon that has killed nearly 200 Lebanese and wounded more than 400.
The Israelis continued to publicly insist their goal was to dismantle Hizbullah.

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1150886029314&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Blame the terrorists, not Israel
By Alan M. Dershowitz July 24, 2006
THE HEZBOLLAH and Hamas provocations against Israel once again demonstrate how terrorists can exploit human rights and the media in their attacks on democracies. By hiding behind their own civilians, the Islamic radicals issue a challenge to democracies: Either violate your own morality by coming after us and inevitably killing some innocent civilians, or maintain your morality and leave us with a free hand to target your innocent civilians. This challenge presents democracies such as Israel with a lose-lose option and terrorists with a win-win option.
There is one variable that could change this dynamic and present democracies with a viable option that could make terrorism less attractive as a tactic: The international community, the anti-Israel segment of the media, and human rights organizations should stop falling for this gambit and acknowledge that they are being used to promote the terrorist agenda. Whenever a democracy is presented with the lose-lose option and chooses to defend its citizens by going after the terrorists who are hiding among civilians, this trio of predictable condemners can be counted on by the terrorists to accuse the democracy of ``overreaction," ``disproportionality," and ``violations of human rights." In doing so, they play into the hands of the terrorists and cause more terrorism and more civilian casualties on both sides.
If instead this trio could, for once, be counted on to blame the terrorists for the civilian deaths on both sides, this tactic would no longer be a win-win situation for the terrorists.
It should be obvious by now that Hezbollah and Hamas actually want the Israeli military to kill as many Lebanese and Palestinian civilians as possible. That is why they store their rockets underneath the beds of civilians. That is why they launch their missiles from crowded civilian neighborhoods and hide among civilians. They are seeking to induce Israel to defend its civilians by going after them among their civilian ``shields." They know that every civilian they induce Israel to kill hurts Israel in the media and the international and human rights communities. They regard these human shields as ``Shahids," or martyrs, even if they did not volunteer for the lethal jobs. Under the law, criminals who use human shields are responsible for the deaths of their shields, even if the bullets that kill them come from policemen's guns.
Israel has every self-interest in minimizing civilian casualties, whereas the terrorists have every self-interest in maximizing them -- on both sides. Israel should not be condemned for doing what every democracy would and should do: taking every reasonable military step to stop the killing of their own civilians. Now that some of those who are launching rockets at Israeli cities have announced that they have new surprises in store for Israel that may include chemical and biological weapons, the stakes are even higher. What would Israeli critics regard as ``proportioned" to a chemical or biological attack? What would they say if Israel tried to preempt such an attack and, in the process, killed some civilians? Must a democracy absorb a first strike from a weapon of mass destruction before it fights back?

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/07/24/blame_the_terrorists_not_israel/

enough