LEBANON LEBANON

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1 million?

IDF commander: We fired more than a million cluster bombs in Lebanon

09/12/06 "Haaretz" -- -- "What we did was insane and monstrous, we covered entire towns in cluster bombs," the head of an IDF rocket unit in Lebanon said regarding the use of cluster bombs and phosphorous shells during the war.
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We were wrong about Lebanon

Blair hit by Lebanon backlash as minister admits ceasefire 'mistake'
The war lasted 34 days. It left 1,393 people dead. Another 5,350 injured. And more than 1,150,000 displaced, of whom 215,413 are still homeless. The damage amounts to more than £2.6bn. Exactly one month after it ended, a Foreign Office minister admits that Tony Blair should have called for a ceasefire

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lebanon 911

Georgie......

WHY NOT ???

By Gabriele Zamparini
Jul 25, 2006, 05:27

By Gabriele Zamparini

"I, Tsilli Goldenberg, Israeli citizen

'Accuse you - Ehud Olmert, Prime Minister of
Israel, Amir Peretz, Minister of Defense, Dan Halutz Head of Staff
Chief Commander of the Israeli Army, of committing this bestial
barbaric slaughter in Lebanon.

I accuse you of committing Crimes against
Humanity towards the Palestinian People. I accuse you of deserting
our soldiers, when their lives could be saved by negotiations, and
I accuse you of starting an unjustified war in my name." - Tsilli
Goldenberg, Masarik 11, Jerusalem 93106 Israel


Did you know that "the daughter of Israel's
newly elected prime minister added her voice to those of the
anti-Israel [sic] forces around the world when she actively
participated in a demonstration outside the home of IDF Chief of
Staff Dan Halutz, calling him a 'murderer'"?

Why not?

Did you know that "45% of those killed in
Lebanon are children and of the 500,000 people who have fled to
safety, some 200,000 are children"?

Why not?

Did you know that Israel bombed "the nation's
biggest private network, the Lebanese Broadcasting Corporation"?

Why not?

Did you know that a "big milk factory in the
Bekaa region called 'Liban Lait' was completely burned and
destroyed by direct attacks from the Israeli Air Force."? And that
a "food storehouse called 'TransMed' in Choueifate, in Beirut's
southern suburbs, was totally destroyed"?

Why not?

Did you know that "Lebanon's president accused
Israel on Monday of using phosphorous bombs in its 13-day offensive
and urged the United Nations to demand an immediate ceasefire"?

Why not?

Did you know that "the bodies of 13 Lebanese
fighters were taken from Maroun al-Ras and buried in Israel to use
in future negotiations over the release of Israeli prisoners"?

Why not?

Did you know that "Israeli military has said it
will destroy 10 buildings in predominantly Shia south Beirut for
every rocket fired at the Israeli port of Haifa, army radio said
Monday"?

Why not?

Did you know that "The delivery of at least 100
GBU 28 bunker busters bombs containing depleted uranium warheads by
the United States to Israel for use against targets in Lebanon will
result in additional radioactive and chemical toxic contamination
with consequent adverse health and environmental effects throughout
the middle east."?

Why not?

Did you know that what's going on is "subject to
review by Israel's chief military censor, who has - in her own
words - 'extraordinary power'. She can silence a broadcaster, block
information and put journalists in jail"?

Why not?

Did you know that "[a]ccording to the Lebanese
police force, the two [Israeli] soldiers were captured in Lebanese
territory"?

Why not?

Did you know how the "cross-border" myth
originated?

Why not?

From the beginning of this new chapter of the
old madness, many people have been following on the internet this
shame. We are a peaceful army of world citizens, working for free
and moved by solidarity, compassion and an inner drive for justice.
Not anger!
But even among the elites of the anti-war
movement and the so-called "left", too many have never been
listening to us. Let alone important journalists working for the
"pro-Israeli" mainstream media who still believe that the "internet
is a new thing, and it's also unreliable."

More than sixty years ago George Orwell wrote in
The Freedom of the Press, a Preface to his
political novel, Animal Farm:

"But at least let us have no more nonsense about
defending liberty against Fascism. If liberty means anything at all
it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.
The common people still vaguely subscribe to that doctrine and act
on it. it is the liberals who fear liberty and the intellectuals
who want to do dirt on the intellect."

This Preface was censored when the book came out
in 1945 and it was only published in The Times Literary Supplement
on 15 September 1972. Twenty seven years after Animal Farm was
first published.

http://www.thecatsdream.com/blog/2006/07/did-you-know.htm

DARFOUR....GAZA....the WorLD

akh...the injustices and wars in this world

just creeps me... yuk... it is making me sick...

now they veto against sending troops from UN to enter darfour
Africa's region is badly badly threatened

The chinese need to press their influence on sudan (since china is a big fuel buyer fro sudan) and sudan need s them badly now to push for peace and help...
*****************************

Sudan war 'threatens region'
08/09/2006 18:57 - (SA)

Geneva - Worsening violence in Sudan's conflict-ravaged region of Darfur is threatening the entire region, said the United Nations' refugee chief on Friday, warning that Sudanese troops could be preparing for a major military offensive that would lead to many more people being uprooted from their homes.

ARTICLE

The Danes again...

hmmm , let us see what the reaction would be this time...would the jews sue the danish paper? or make them pay money, or make them say sorry in public..or...

***********************************************
Paper reprints Holocaust cartoons

The original cartoons are on display in Tehran

A Danish newspaper has printed cartoons about the Holocaust commissioned by Iran after cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad triggered violent protests.

The newspaper - Information - published six of the cartoons, which are on display in the Iranian capital, Tehran.

Several of the cartoons contrast the plight of the Palestinians with that of the victims of the Holocaust.

Editor-in-chief Palle Weis said he had thought carefully about publishing the cartoons and said it was not a stunt.

He told the BBC the cartoons accompanied a news story about the exhibition. He said they were "tasteless but predictable".

READ ARTICLE>>>

A whole society is being destroyed.

usually my blog is only dedicated for my lebanon , but still i cannot ignore and won't ignore the breach of human simple basic rights for survival ...
Today the Independent newspaper has dedicated their issue to the palestinian plight...

***********************************
By Patrick Cockburn in Gaza

Published: 08 September 2006

Gaza is dying. The Israeli siege of the Palestinian enclave is so tight that its people are on the edge of starvation. Here on the shores of the Mediterranean a great tragedy is taking place that is being ignored because the world's attention has been diverted by wars in Lebanon and Iraq.

Gaza is dying. The Israeli siege of the Palestinian enclave is so tight that its people are on the edge of starvation. Here on the shores of the Mediterranean a great tragedy is taking place that is being ignored because the world's attention has been diverted by wars in Lebanon and Iraq.

A whole society is being destroyed. There are 1.5 million Palestinians imprisoned in the most heavily populated area in the world. Israel has stopped all trade. It has even forbidden fishermen to go far from the shore so they wade into the surf to try vainly to catch fish with hand-thrown nets.

Many people are being killed by Israeli incursions that occur every day by land and air. A total of 262 people have been killed and 1,200 wounded, of whom 60 had arms or legs amputated, since 25 June, says Dr Juma al-Saqa, the director of the al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City which is fast running out of medicine. Of these, 64 were children and 26 women. This bloody conflict in Gaza has so far received only a fraction of the attention given by the international media to the war in Lebanon.

It was on 25 June that the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit was taken captive and two other soldiers were killed by Palestinian militants who used a tunnel to get out of the Gaza Strip. In the aftermath of this, writes Gideon Levy in the daily Haaretz, the Israeli army "has been rampaging through Gaza - there's no other word to describe it - killing and demolishing, bombing and shelling, indiscriminately". Gaza has essentially been reoccupied since Israeli troops and tanks come and go at will. In the northern district of Shajhayeh they took over several houses last week and stayed five days. By the time they withdrew, 22 Palestinians had been killed, three houses were destroyed and groves of olive, citrus and almond trees had been bulldozed.

Fuad al-Tuba, the 61-year-old farmer who owned a farm here, said: "They even destroyed 22 of my bee-hives and killed four sheep." He pointed sadly to a field, its brown sandy earth churned up by tracks of bulldozers, where the stumps of trees and broken branches with wilting leaves lay in heaps. Near by a yellow car was standing on its nose in the middle of a heap of concrete blocks that had once been a small house.

His son Baher al-Tuba described how for five days Israeli soldiers confined him and his relatives to one room in his house where they survived by drinking water from a fish pond. "Snipers took up positions in the windows and shot at anybody who came near," he said. "They killed one of my neighbours called Fathi Abu Gumbuz who was 56 years old and just went out to get water."

Sometimes the Israeli army gives a warning before a house is destroyed. The sound that Palestinians most dread is an unknown voice on their cell phone saying they have half an hour to leave their home before it is hit by bombs or missiles. There is no appeal.

But it is not the Israeli incursions alone that are destroying Gaza and its people. In the understated prose of a World Bank report published last month, the West Bank and Gaza face "a year of unprecedented economic recession. Real incomes may contract by at least a third in 2006 and poverty to affect close to two thirds of the population." Poverty in this case means a per capita income of under $2 (£1.06) a day.

There are signs of desperation everywhere. Crime is increasing. People do anything to feed their families. Israeli troops entered the Gaza industrial zone to search for tunnels and kicked out the Palestinian police. When the Israelis withdrew they were replaced not by the police but by looters. On one day this week there were three donkey carts removing twisted scrap metal from the remains of factories that once employed thousands.

"It is the worst year for us since 1948 [when Palestinian refugees first poured into Gaza]," says Dr Maged Abu-Ramadan, a former ophthalmologist who is mayor of Gaza City. "Gaza is a jail. Neither people nor goods are allowed to leave it. People are already starving. They try to live on bread and falafel and a few tomatoes and cucumbers they grow themselves."

The few ways that Gazans had of making money have disappeared. Dr Abu-Ramadan says the Israelis "have destroyed 70 per cent of our orange groves in order to create security zones." Carnations and strawberries, two of Gaza's main exports, were thrown away or left to rot. An Israeli air strike destroyed the electric power station so 55 per cent of power was lost. Electricity supply is now becoming almost as intermittent as in Baghdad.

The Israeli assault over the past two months struck a society already hit by the withdrawal of EU subsidies after the election of Hamas as the Palestinian government in March. Israel is withholding taxes owed on goods entering Gaza. Under US pressure, Arab banks abroad will not transfer funds to the government.

Two thirds of people are unemployed and the remaining third who mostly work for the state are not being paid. Gaza is now by far the poorest region on the Mediterranean. Per capita annual income is $700, compared with $20,000 in Israel. Conditions are much worse than in Lebanon where Hizbollah liberally compensates war victims for loss of their houses. If Gaza did not have enough troubles this week there were protest strikes and marches by unpaid soldiers, police and security men. These were organised by Fatah, the movement of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, which lost the election to Hamas in January. His supporters marched through the streets waving their Kalashnikovs in the air. "Abu Mazen you are brave," they shouted. "Save us from this disaster." Sour-looking Hamas gunmen kept a low profile during the demonstration but the two sides are not far from fighting it out in the streets.

The Israeli siege and the European boycott are a collective punishment of everybody in Gaza. The gunmen are unlikely to be deterred. In a bed in Shifa Hospital was a sturdy young man called Ala Hejairi with wounds to his neck, legs, chest and stomach. "I was laying an anti-tank mine last week in Shajhayeh when I was hit by fire from an Israeli drone," he said. "I will return to the resistance when I am better. Why should I worry? If I die I will die a martyr and go to paradise."

His father, Adel, said he was proud of what his son had done adding that three of his nephews were already martyrs. He supported the Hamas government: "Arab and Western countries want to destroy this government because it is the government of the resistance."

As the economy collapses there will be many more young men in Gaza willing to take Ala Hejairi's place. Untrained and ill-armed most will be killed. But the destruction of Gaza, now under way, will ensure that no peace is possible in the Middle East for generations to come.

The deadly toll

* After the kidnap of Cpl Gilad Shalit by Palestinians on 25 June, Israel launched a massive offensive and blockade of Gaza under the operation name Summer Rains.

* The Gaza Strip's 1.3 million inhabitants, 33 per cent of whom live in refugee camps, have been under attack for 74 days.

* More than 260 Palestinians, including 64 children and 26 women, have been killed since 25 June. One in five is a child. One Israeli soldier has been killed and 26 have been wounded.

* 1,200 Palestinians have been injured, including up to 60 amputations. A third of victims brought to hospital are children.

* Israeli warplanes have launched more than 250 raids on Gaza, hitting the two power stations and the foreign and Information ministries.

* At least 120 Palestinian structures including houses, workshops and greenhouses have been destroyed and 160 damaged by the Israelis.

* The UN has criticised Israel's bombing, which has caused an estimated $1.8bn in damage to the electricity grid and leaving more than a million people without regular access to drinking water.

* The Israeli human rights group B'Tselem says 76 Palestinians, including 19 children, were killed by Israeli forces in August alone. Evidence shows at least 53 per cent were not participating in hostilities.

* In the latest outbreak of violence, three Palestinians were killed yesterday when Israeli troops raided a West Bank town in search of a wanted militant. Two of those killed were unarmed, according to witnesses.

MEA - Lebanon

A Middle East Airlines plane circled ceremonially three times
over central Beirut before landing at the airport yesterday,
officially ending the air blockade.
But Israel said that the naval embargo would continue
until an international naval force is in place.

bosta has arrived

malicious!

Wire services report Israel’s air blockade of Lebanon is over, but the naval blockade will continue until an international peacekeeping force is in place.

BLUES FOR LEBANON

Due to the success of Middle East Express on the 5th August 2006
and after we collected 6000 English pounds and after a lot of demands for another highly successful charity concert
we have a new event for you again in London on the 17th September
Please do bare in mind that Lebanon has been losing 30 million dollars a day after the cessation of violence because of the blockade that is supposed to be lifted today
This conccert will be trying to help more lebanese people adapting to their new lives and
get them the very basics to keep them going
please do help by coming and enjoying BLUES FoR LEBANON especially that Otis Grand will be performing in this gig + SLIM JIM PHANTOM ex- STRAY CATS member to make an appearance on the night and play with Otis' band

PLEASE FORWARD AND SEE YOU THERE !

a3ja'et (it is crowded)

well as if it is different from all other countries in the world... every minute i hear another flight resuming to lebanon i am happy... am i weird? inno , this is the least of our rights... walaw....
what is that ??? it is very weird that we have been fighting for the blockade to be lift off and no one rushed again to do it ...
inno one month after their lovely great CEssation now yes maybe we can resume our flights?

unacceptable ..

now gulf air is back ...yalla all of you run and pack your flights again
i think we will be soon flying back then hihihi:)

coooollllll

UK LANDS IN BEIRUT

British Airways franchise partner resumes flights to Beirut
The Associated Press

Published: September 6, 2006
LONDON British Mediterranean Airways resumed commercial passenger flights to Beirut on Wednesday, becoming the first Western carrier to do so since the country's only international airport was attacked by Israeli warplanes in July.

BMED, as the British Airways PLC franchise partner is known, said the first flight left London's Heathrow Airport in the early afternoon.

"Beirut is a very special destination for BMED. It is the route that launched our company in 1994 and since that time we have seen this route go from strength to strength," said Jonathan Grisdale, BMED's commercial director. "I am confident that despite the recent devastation, Lebanon will make a speedy return to conducting business as usual."

BMED was forced to suspend its eight flights a week between Heathrow and Rafic Hariri International Airport, following air attacks that closed the airport on July 13.


LONDON British Mediterranean Airways resumed commercial passenger flights to Beirut on Wednesday, becoming the first Western carrier to do so since the country's only international airport was attacked by Israeli warplanes in July.

BMED, as the British Airways PLC franchise partner is known, said the first flight left London's Heathrow Airport in the early afternoon.

"Beirut is a very special destination for BMED. It is the route that launched our company in 1994 and since that time we have seen this route go from strength to strength," said Jonathan Grisdale, BMED's commercial director. "I am confident that despite the recent devastation, Lebanon will make a speedy return to conducting business as usual."

BMED was forced to suspend its eight flights a week between Heathrow and Rafic Hariri International Airport, following air attacks that closed the airport on July 13.

my favourite sKyLinKd

sKyLind Gallery



the aftermath of war 9 by ~sKyLinKd on deviantART

..

cartoon by Amjad Rasmy

Glamcult Rocks :)

Israel to lift Lebanon blockade on Thursday

yea ok thanks ...

Sep 6, 2006 2:26pm ET

By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Israel said on Wednesday it would lift an eight-week-old air and sea blockade against Lebanon on Thursday, handing over control to international forces.

Shortly after the announcement, Lebanon formally asked U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan -- who brokered the end of the blockade -- to authorize the deployment of German naval ships to monitor the Lebanese coast.

Shadi's Lebanon

Podcasts: Shadi in Beirut

Posted by: Farah on Tuesday, August 01, 2006 - 05:41 PM

Shadi a fixer/journalist/filmmaker who regularly freelances with Hizbullah's Al-Manar TV, has been stranded in Beirut since the start of the war. His hometown in South Lebanon, Tyre, has also come under heavy attack. Subscribe to our video podcast 'War Diaries'to follow Shadi's story... Just copy and paste this URL into a feed reader such as iTunes: http://www.outtherenews.com/podcast/WarDiaries.xml