the ADMINISTRATOR
Posts: 1157
(7/13/06 12:52) Reply
US vetoes UN resolution urging end to Israeli attacks in Gaz
US vetoes UN resolution urging end to Israeli attacks in Gaza...
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UNITED NATIONS (AP)--The U.N. Security Council planned to vote Thursday on an Arab-backed draft resolution condemning Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, risking a U.S. veto, diplomats said.
The draft, in the works for more than a week, was amended to overcome concerns from the U.S. and France that it was biased against Israel. It now seeks the release of an abducted Israeli soldier and urges the Palestinians to stop firing rockets at Israel.
France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, president of the council for July, said the draft would be put to a vote Thursday afternoon. He said France would support it.
The U.S. refused to say if the changes to the draft were enough to get U.S. support. However, U.S. Ambassador John Bolton has repeatedly said he does not believe such a resolution is necessary.
The U.S. has cast eight of the last nine vetoes in the Security Council, dating to 2001. Of those, seven had to do with the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The last Security Council veto, in October 2004, was cast by the U.S. The resolution it blocked also would have condemned an Israeli military operation in Gaza.
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Bush defends Israel actions, Russia condemns attacks
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President Bush defended Israel's attack on Beirut
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French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy called Israel's bombardment of Beirut airport "a disproportionate act of war", saying there was a real risk of a regional war
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the ADMINISTRATOR
Posts: 1158
(7/13/06 13:00) Reply
Re: US vetoes UN resolution urging end to Israeli attacks in
President George W. Bush blamed "terrorists who want to stop the advance of peace", while fellow UN Security Council members Russia and France condemned Israel's "disproportionate" use of force.
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President George W. Bush is the World's most dangerous terrorist.
Case in point:
In the Gaza Strip [today], Israeli jets bombed the Palestinian foreign ministry, wounding 10 children.
Murdering seven.
At least 39 civilians have been killed since Israel began pounding Lebanon from the land, sea and air.
Israelis? One [1].
Russia, France, Britain and Italy criticised Israel for its "disproportionate" use of force.
"One cannot justify the continued destruction by Israel of the civilian infrastructure in Lebanon and in Palestinian territory, involving the disproportionate use of force in which the civilian population suffers," the Russian foreign ministry said.
That is the defintion of Terrorism.
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy described the Israeli army strikes on Lebanon as a "disproportionate act of war", warning one consequence could be to plunge Lebanon "back into the worst years of war".
Also Thursday, Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Rome had "the impression that this is a disproportionate and dangerous reaction in view of the consequences it could have," ANSA reported.
Greece called on Israel to avoid the use of "inordinate" and "pointless" violence in Lebanon, and on the Lebanese movement Hezbollah to release two Israeli soldiers.
the ADMINISTRATOR
Posts: 1161
(7/14/06 11:52) Reply
Vatican condemns Israel for attacks on Lebanon
Friday July 14, 7:36 PM
Vatican condemns Israel for attacks on Lebanon
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican on Friday strongly deplored Israel's strikes on Lebanon, saying they were "an attack" on a sovereign and free nation.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Angelo Sodano said Pope Benedict and his aides were very worried that the developments in the Middle East risked degenerating into "a conflict with international repercussions."
"In particular, the Holy See deplores right now the attack on Lebanon, a free and sovereign nation, and assures its closeness to these people who already have suffered so much to defend their independence," he told Vatican Radio.
Israel struck Beirut airport again on Friday and bombed Lebanese roads, power supplies and communication networks in a widening campaign after Hizbollah guerrillas seized two Israeli soldiers and killed eight.
Sodano said the Vatican condemned both "terroristic attacks" and military reprisals.
Hizbollah, which wants to trade its captives for prisoners held in Israel, has showered rockets across the frontier in its fiercest bombardment since 1996 when Israel launched a 17-day blitz against southern Lebanon and Hizbollah.
But Sodano reserved his harshest words for Israel.
"The right of defence on the part of a state does not exempt it from its responsibility to respect international law, particularly regarding the safeguarding of civilian populations," he said.
the ADMINISTRATOR
Posts: 1189
(7/30/06 12:11) Reply
Rice Blocks Peace Plan
Eric MargolisSun, July 30, 2006
The Final Say
Israeli soldiers are again being sent into the quagmire of Lebanon, being used as battering rams by the U.S. against Syria and Iran
By Eric Margolis
The spreading war in Lebanon has bared the bizarre contradictions and self-destructive nature of U.S. Mideast policy.
With one hand, the U.S. sends $30 million of food and blankets to Lebanon for the 20% of its population made refugees by Israel's bombing.
With the other, it rushes planeloads of precision bombs to Israel, one of which may have destroyed a UN border observer post, killing four, including a Canadian major.
In Rome, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last week blocked international efforts by Europe and Washington's Arab allies to halt the war.
Not since Colin Powell's grotesque lies to the UN about Iraq has American diplomacy so debased itself.
Small wonder hatred for America is surging across the Muslim world.
Rice also proclaimed the U.S. was going to midwife the birth of a "new Middle East" by means of the Lebanon war. This latest absurdity comes from the same fools and right-wing ideologues that fathered the Iraq debacle.
However, Canadian PM "Steve" Harper has no doubts.
He suggested the deceased Canadian major and his UN-mandated post may have been at fault for being in the way of Israeli bombs, and that Israel's destruction of the southern third of Lebanon was a "measured response."
Many Canadians must suspect they elected a prime minister who actually may be George Bush's intellectual equal.
In Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney and his neocon Praetorian Guard's true agenda is becoming clear.
Israel's attempted destruction of Hezbollah is the first step in a long-planned bid to strip away Iran's allies and effectively turn Lebanon into a joint U.S.-Israeli protectorate. The second step will no doubt be an assault on Syria. Step three: Isolating and crippling Iran by a massive bombing campaign accompanied by renewed efforts to overthrow its government.
Attacking Hezbollah also serves as the long-predicted (by this column) "November surprise" to boost sagging Republican fortunes in U.S. mid-term elections.
Americans, steeped in deep ignorance and prejudice about the Mideast, are now being misled by the administration and its media allies that Lebanon is a new front in the so-called war on terrorism.
As I recently learned doing radio shows across the U.S., a great many Americans cannot distinguish between Hezbollah, al-Qaida, Taliban, the PLO, Hamas, etc. All are terrorists. Listeners even called in to ask if the fighting in Lebanon was the prelude to Armageddon.
Bush has failed to stop al-Qaida and is stuck in lost wars in Iraq and Afghanistan costing $300 billion. His answer: Start a new crusade in Lebanon against the latest bogeyman, Hezbollah, and its Syrian and Iranian allies. War fever wins elections.
Having covered Israel's disastrous invasion of Lebanon in the 1980s, I am appalled it is again getting sucked into another bloody, dirty, pointless war there. Hezbollah, which represents as much as a third of Lebanon's population, won't be defeated by bombing or limited ground assaults: It fought Israel for 18 years and won.
Hezbollah's 3,000 tough fighters just battled Israel's mighty armed forces to a standstill for two weeks. Only the ethnic cleansing of southern Lebanon's Shias will push it back.
Israel's new government under Ehud Olmert is allowing itself to be used by Washington as a battering ram against Syria and Iran. It could likely have avoided this war and Hezbollah's rocket barrages by a low-key response, some ritual artillery fire, and the usual prisoner swap.
But Olmert allowed the chief of defence staff, an air force general, to take charge and go destroy much of Lebanon, guided by emotions, not sense. Now Israeli soldiers are being once again sent into the Lebanese quagmire.
The bitter lessons of Israel's 1980s disaster in Lebanon are forgotten, just as the U.S. military in Iraq forgot the lessons of Vietnam. A triumphant Hezbollah may even emerge as the victor of this battle. The big winner? Osama bin Laden.
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the ADMINISTRATOR
Posts: 1237
(9/29/06 17:27) Reply
Israel blocked peacekeeper bombing inquiry: UN
Israel blocked peacekeeper bombing inquiry: UN
Updated Fri. Sep. 29 2006 6:39 PM ET
Canadian Press
UNITED NATIONS -- Israel refused to let UN investigators contact Israeli commanders responsible for the bombing that killed four unarmed peacekeepers in Lebanon during the Israel-Hezbollah fighting there in July, a UN official said Friday.
Without such access, the UN said it could not verify Israel's explanation that an "operational error'' resulted in the air strike that killed the four peacekeepers -- from Canada, Austria, China and Finland.
The United Nations is standing by Secretary General Kofi Annan's original assertion that the bombing was "deliberate,'' the senior UN official told reporters.
"We do not have a satisfactory answer as to the question of why repeated attempts at all levels to intervene and halt the firings on, or close to, Patrol Base Khiam failed,'' said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The UN observation post and patrol base near the southern Lebanese town of Khiam came under Israeli fire July 25, including four artillery shells that made direct hits.
The United Nations repeatedly asked the Israeli Defence Forces to halt the bombardment, without success.
After the headquarters of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, or UNIFIL, lost contact with the base, two armoured personnel carriers were sent to the site. They found the base destroyed and the four peacekeepers dead.
They were Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener of Kingston, Ont., Maj. Hans Peter Lang of Austria, Maj. Zhaoyu Du of China, and Lt. Jarno Tapio Makinen of Finland.
"The Israelis have fully acknowledged their responsibility for this attack that they attribute to operational error,'' the UN official said.
According to the UN report, the observation post was hit by a 500-kilogram precision-guided bomb that destroyed the structure.
"It was precisely guided, technically, through technical means, to this location on the ground,'' the official emphasized. "It was meant to hit this location.''
The United Nations says it could not verify or refute Israel's claims because UN investigators were refused access to field commanders or the pilot who dropped the bomb.
"Our dialogues were restricted to senior Israel Foreign Affairs and IDF persons and government officials. So we do not have an ability to verify how the operational error occurred,'' the UN official said.
As for the claim that there was Hezbollah activity nearby, the UN official said: "On that day what the board did find was that there was no evidence of Hezbollah firing in or near Patrol Base Khiam within that period of time under examination.''
The UN says it has provided the Israelis with precise co-ordinates of all UNIFIL positions, including the Khiam base, on several occasions.
The UN report was presented to the four governments whose soldiers were killed but not released to the public. Reporters were briefed on its contents by the UN official.
Col. Michael Hanrahan of the Department of National Defence said Canada is pleased that the full report has been turned over and "it will be very helpful'' toward Canada's own investigation.
Lt. Carolle Brown, a spokesperson for DND, said Canada would not comment on the UN's report until its own investigation was concluded.
Two weeks ago, Israel briefed the governments of Canada, China, Austria and Finland on the findings of the Israeli inquiry but did not release the full contents of its report to them.
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