12:15AM
Israel to suspend aerial operations for 48 hours, US says
Hossam el-Hamalawy
I'm watching Al-Jazeera now. The channel has just announced that the US State Department said Israel agreed to suspend aerial operations for 48 hours, and will investigate what happened in Qana.
UPDATE: Now Al-Jazeera is saying that "Israel's temporary suspension of aerial bombardments does not cover missile launch batteries."
UPDATE: Now Al-Jazeera is saying that "Israel's temporary suspension of aerial bombardments does not cover missile launch batteries."
Reader Comments (7)
It is 4:00a. m. and I cannot keep the images from entering my head of the dead children I saw removed from bombed out buildings. I have been watching the massacre in Lebanon through my friend and neighbours satallite since this all began. Why are these images not seen on CNN or ANYOTHER channel on regular news programmes. I am not Lebanese BUT I am a HUMAN BEING. This must stop and I will march in any protest and speak up against this horror. I saw children from Israel writing messages on bombs being sent to the children of Lebanon. How can I EVER forget that image. It is burned into my mind forever. I am also a Mother and a Grandmother and I am outraged and so angry that I don't know what to do anymore.
I did see CNN show images of dead children being carried out of the bomb site -- though maybe those images didn't appear on domestic CNN.
Oh and about the suspension of Israeli air strikes:
Israel carries out strike in Lebanon after pledge to pause
JERUSALEM, July 31, 2006 (AFP) - Israel said it had carried out an air strike Monday in support of a ground operation near the southeastern Lebanese border village of Taibe, despite a promised break in the raids.
"Our aircraft are operating in the area to support ground troops," an army spokesman told AFP.
The action came despite an Israeli pledge announced overnight to halt air raids for 48 hours.
The spokesman said the air strikes hit "only uninhabited zones in order to prevent attacks against ground troops."
He denied the air strike violated the agreement to halt such raids for 48 hours.
"The Taibe air raid does not contradict that announcement as we never said we would suspend all strikes completely. We said that we could continue to protect our civilians and our soldiers," he said.
Lots of contradictions and qualifiers in the Israeli "48 hour ceasefire" make it sound like esentially "we will stop bombing except when we decide we want to start up again." And the Israeli leadership seems willing to consider a ceasefire only after satisfying itself that it has achieved all of its own military objectives and destroyed Hezbollah - so much for a negotiated settlement. It's a very cynical approach to international institutions and negotiation, and the whole 48 hour "humanitarian pause" sounds like a PR stunt.
A bigger massacre was commited at Bint Jbeil. 80% of the town has been flattened. There are hundreds dead under the ruins.
40 journalists went there this morning, (Monday), and faced with what they saw, they put their cameras away and started to remove elderly who were still alive out of the ruins. The stench of death is everywhere....
Chris
www.yioni.com/politics.html
www.yioni.com/counter-spin.html
Israel's Justice Minister Haim Ramon justified the Qana attack thus:
"During the present fighting in the north, Ramon enthusiastically called for an expansion of the Israel Defense Forces' aerial activity and spoke against expanding ground operations. When asked yesterday about the aerial bombing of the building in Qana, in which dozens of civilians were killed, including more than 30 children, he said: "Everyone's heart aches when children are killed, but it was not Israel that shed the blood of those Lebanese children, but Hezbollah. This is a wicked and cruel organization that fires at Israeli kindergartens from Lebanese kindergartens. We must beat this insane terror, and we will do so in such a way that it will be seen as well as done."
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/744449.html
Hizbollah, like many other militants, attack, then hide among civilians, (violates the laws of war) then play the PR game looking for sympathy.
If Arab and Persian militants can't fairly win, they resort to terror.
Scream about the militants to instigate so much violence; scream regarding the Arab governments and religious leaders who instigate violence.
Quit making excuses for your violent Islamic brethren. Quit pointing fingers and blaming others for your problems.
Think about it. Many Hindus were exiled from what is now known as Pakistan, and India thrives, while Pakistan is backward. Israel thrives, while the rest of the Middle-East is operating within a 7th century mind-set.
Grow-up
It would appear that not much is included in the 48 hour cessation of operations as the IDF is moving into new twons in South Lebanon.
People talk about the masscre here or the massacre there. Let's face it there is one big massacre that Israel has commited...
The Lebanon massacre.