LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
March 25/09

Bible Reading of the day.”
Mark 6/47-55: "When evening had come, the boat was in the midst of the sea, and he was alone on the land. Seeing them distressed in rowing, for the wind was contrary to them, about the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea,* and he would have passed by them, 6:49 but they, when they saw him walking on the sea, supposed that it was a ghost, and cried out; for they all saw him, and were troubled. But he immediately spoke with them, and said to them, “Cheer up! It is I! Don’t be afraid.” He got into the boat with them; and the wind ceased, and they were very amazed among themselves, and marveled; 6:52 for they hadn’t understood about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened. When they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret, and moored to the shore.  When they had come out of the boat, immediately the people recognized him,  and ran around that whole region, and began to bring those who were sick, on their mats, to where they heard he was.  Wherever he entered, into villages, or into cities, or into the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged him that they might touch just the fringe of his garment; and as many as touched him were made well.

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
INTERVIEW-Lebanon's Hariri praises Obama's engagement in region-Reuters 24/03/09
What is Hezbollah offering?Future News 24/03/09
Iranian Defector Admits Tehran Funded Syrian Nuclear Program.theTrumpet.com 24/03/09
Obama's effort to engage with Iran has already hit a brick wall-The Daily Star 24/03/09
Israel paid high price for little achievements in Gaza.By Moshe Arens/Haaretz 24/03/09
With Obama to Iran.By Haaretz Editorial 24/03/09

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for March 24/09
Syria Appoints First Ever Ambassador to Lebanon-Naharnet
STL Appoints President, U.N. Chief Names Head of Defense office-Naharnet
Hariri Meets Lidington in London-Naharnet
Assad: International Tribunal is Lebanese Concern…Aoun is Our Friend-Naharnet
Medhat's Assassination … Warning to Lebanese Leaders-Naharnet
Sidon Headed toward Showdown…Differences between Aoun, Berri over Jezzine-Naharnet
Lebanese Expat Reported Kidnapped in Lagos-Naharnet
Central Bank Appointments Take a Step Forward-Naharnet
Opposition to Raise Complaints about March 14 Forces before the Interior Minister.Naharnet
Aoun: FPM Taking Wait-and-See Approach before Announcing Nominations-Naharnet
U.N. Warns Against Endangering Climate of Calm in Lebanon-Naharnet
Report: U.S., Iranian Diplomats Meet in Beirut-Naharnet
Barak, Netanyahu reach understandings for coalition deal/Haaretz
The security incident did not weaken the electoral heat/Future News
Abbas condemns Medhat’s assassination/Future News
Suleiman Stresses Need for Arab Unity in the Face of Terrorism-Naharnet
Jumblat: Abolishing Political Sectarianism is Only Path to State-Building-Naharnet
Arab Conference Vows to Fight Crime-Naharnet
Hezbollah spends millions to rebuild stronghold-AFP
Aoun 'not in a hurry' to nail down electoral alliances-Daily Star
Senior PLO official killed in south Lebanon bombing-Daily Star
Arab interior ministers pledge joint efforts to fight crime-Daily Star
US delivers military vehicles to Lebanese Army-Daily Star
Lower voting age unlikely to have major impact on elections - analysts-Daily Star
Green Party declares 'state of emergency'-Daily Star
AUB picks Philip Khoury to head Board of Trustees-Daily Star
Riyadh pledges $20.5 million in relief funds to Palestinians-Daily Star
Hizbullah spends millions to rebuild southern suburbs-(AFP)
Italian architect to design Beirut's Arts and Culture House-Daily Star

Syria appoints first ambassador to Lebanon
(Reuters) - Syria has appointed its first ambassador to Lebanon and Lebanese President Michel Suleiman on Tuesday accepted his diplomatic accreditation, according to a presidential statement. The Lebanese presidency named the diplomat as Ali Abdul Karim Ali. Lebanon's last week opened its first embassy in Damascus. Syria had opened its Beirut embassy last year. Syria has faced international pressure to establish formal diplomatic ties with Lebanon, where Damascus has exercised great influence since the countries were carved out of the remnants of the Ottoman Empire by imperial powers in the 20th century.

"Britain's Doublespeak on Hezbollah Terror
by Walid Phares
03/23/2009
The British government’s announcement to open a dialogue with “the political wing of Hizballah” is most troubling. In a statement to a parliamentary committee, Bill Rammell, the British foreign office’s minister for Middle East affairs, rationalized the decision on the grounds of what his office perceives to be “more positive developments within Lebanon.”
This British declaration underscores a pervasive failure to properly understand the structure of the Iranian-backed terrorist organization. At worst, the call to distinguish between the group's political and military wings (in terms of decision-making) may be driven by a desire to construct imaginary facts for diplomatic and political purposes. Are officials selling a false image of what Hizballah is so that they join the foray of the “sitting, talking and listening” with Iran and Syria's regimes now underway?
Very possible. But it would have been much better to inform the public that the government intends to talk to a terrorist organization for purpose of national interest, rather than claiming the talks are only with the political wing. Eight years after 9/11 and the subsequent attacks worldwide, citizens are much better informed about jihadi organizations than they were in the 1990s. Officials in the UK and the US must realize that claiming there are two Hizballah(s) will not fly with most of the public.
Hizballah was founded by the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards, Pasdaran, in 1981. Its military organization responsible for terror operations is part of the Consultative Council (al majliss al Istisharee), which is Hizballah’s supreme command, along with, the organization's legislators, Fatwa clerics, financial executives and political operatives. This "politbureau" of Hizballah oversees the military, security, doctrinal and political actions of the entire apparatus -- there is no structural delineation.
Furthermore, the Jihad Council, Hizballah's War Department, which issues the orders for acts of terror, is headed by the Secretary General of the organization, Hassan Nasrallah and includes many of the organization’s “political leaders”: Hashem Safi al Din, Hussein al Khalil, Abbas Ruhani, Ibrahim Aqil, Fuad Shukr, Nabil Kauq and others.
Hizballah is not the IRA, which had a clearer delineation between its militia and its military wing, the Sin Fein. Moreover, Lebanon is not Northern Ireland. Yes, British citizens can be easily led to make the comparison by government using the clichés by which most Britons remember the IRA, but the attempt to fool the public will be short lived. The lack of separation between Hizballah’s political and military operations is well documented in public sources. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply ridiculous.
If the British government wishes to make that distinction, they will find themselves incapable of answering the most basic questions. Mr. Nasrallah, Hizballah’s secretary general and purported partner in any dialogue, is a la fois the chief political executive of the organization and Hizballah's supreme military commander. How then will meeting Nasrallah be political, when he is the commander in chief of the militia and its security apparatuses? Will diplomats meet with him between 9 and 11 AM when he is a secretary general and avoid him at other hours when he wears his military hat? It simply doesn't make sense.
If the British government wishes to engage in talks with a terrorist organization, it must make that case and not obfuscate its true intentions of working with the Hizballah’s political wing. At the end of the day, Hizballah will remain who it is, who it says it is and who it will continue to be: a terrorist organization devoted to Jihad against the West. It is more honest to try to convince the public that time to talk with Hizballah, Iran and Syria, and even perhaps Hamas, has come. It will be more productive to acknowledge that some liberal democracies aren't able to carry the load of a confrontation with the jihadists than to attempt to rewrite history and reality.
Even if the British government chooses to engage with Hizballah -- which is certainly a questionable strategy -- they should not do so on the false pretense that there are “two Hizballah’s” just as there were two IRA’s. There are not, and the British people are well aware of that fact.
Moreover, any negotiations which are premised on such a mis-characterization of the interlocutor cannot possibly succeed for the British. Hizballah, on the other hand, can and likely will.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dr Walid Phares, author of The Confrontation, is also the Director of the Future Terrorism Project at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Aoun: FPM Taking Wait-and-See Approach before Announcing Nominations
Naharnet/The Free Patriotic Movement will hold off on announcing candidates for the upcoming legislative elections until the rest of the nominations have emerged, MP Gen. Michel Aoun said Monday. "At the moment, the minority will not be announcing what it has agreed on," Aoun told a press conference after his parliamentary bloc's weekly meeting. "We (the FPM) will wait until nominations have crystallized for the rest of the parties before announcing our candidates," for the June 7 legislative elections, he added. "We are not in a hurry," Aoun said.
He conceded that the minority was "not in complete agreement over all issues" related to the elections, but dismissed reports of a major rift.
"We (March 8) do not have a unified electoral platform… but we will soon resolve the remaining loose ends," Aoun said, describing any disagreements as mere "technical problems." Aoun also denied reports of a row with Speaker Nabih Berri saying: "Berri and I did not shoot each other. Did any of you hear Berri speak of encountering problems with us?"Aoun said the FPM "was not planning to announce an electoral platform for March 8. The Change and Reform Bloc has its own program." Asked whether contacting MP Michel Murr was a possibility, Aoun said he "has not given the issue much thought." However, he pointed out to ongoing deliberations between Murr and the Tashnag, which is an FPM ally. The Tashnag will "soon give its answer on the possibility of forming dual alliances," Aoun said. He also hinted to the possibility of forming a coalition with the Syrian Social Nationalist Party in the Metn. Aoun asked whether the funds being used to fly in voters will be "deducted from the overall expenses of the elections." "How are they (the expenses) being monitored?" he questioned, adding that an FPM delegation will seek clarification from Interior Minister Ziad Baroud on reportedly "unavailable passports."Turning away from the elections, Aoun expressed his regret over Monday's assassination of Kamal Medhat, deputy representative of the Palestinian Authority in Lebanon. He called on the Palestinian leadership in Lebanon to "listen to the voice of reason" and to recall Medhat's policy in times of crises. "He used to always appease tense situations," he said. Beirut, 23 Mar 09, 20:09

Opposition to Raise Complaints about March 14 Forces before the Interior Minister
Naharnet/The Lebanese Opposition, which has met under Gen. Michel Aoun, has decided to raise a list of complaints about the conduct of the ruling March 14 coalition before Interior Minister Ziad Baroud. The daily As Safir on Tuesday said the meeting was attended, in addition to lawmakers from Aoun's Change and Reform bloc, by MPs from the two major opposition parliamentary blocs -- Speaker Nabih Berri's Liberation and Development and Hizbullah's Loyalty to the Resistance. It said the MPs, who met at Aoun's residence in Rabiyeh on Monday, discussed issues related to the June 7 elections.
As Safir said the conferees raised a number of issues, including the travel abroad of mayors with the purpose of taking the fingerprints of Lebanese expatriates who support March 14 forces and reserving the air fleet for the ruling majority, meaning that Lebanon's national carrier – Middle East Airlines – is bias.
The daily said an agreement was reached at the end of the meeting to set up a joint committee that would visit Baroud to discuss with him the complaints.
As Safir quoted sources in Berris' bloc as saying that the meeting also discussed the general rules that must prevail over the election process.
A source in the Hizbullah bloc, however, denied that the meeting was held for election or political purposes, adding that similar sessions would take place between the three opposition blocs to follow-up on issues related to implementation of election laws. (more details soon...) Beirut, 24 Mar 09, 08:48

U.N. Warns Against Endangering Climate of Calm in Lebanon
Naharnet/U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday slammed the "terrorist" roadside bombing that killed a senior Palestinian official outside a refugee camp in southern Lebanon. "The secretary-general condemns the terrorist attack today that killed Mr. Kamal Medhat, the deputy head of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Lebanon, and several of his bodyguards," his press office said in a statement. Ban voiced hope that "the perpetrators of this crime will be brought to justice promptly."
"Such actions must not be allowed to endanger the climate of calm that currently prevails in Lebanon," he added. Medhat and three others were traveling in a convoy when the bomb exploded at the entrance of the Miyeh Miyeh camp near the coastal city of Sidon. Medhat, who was a close aide to the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, is the highest ranking Palestinian official killed in Lebanon since the PLO was forced to pull out of the country in 1982 after the Israeli invasion.(AFP)
Beirut, 24 Mar 09, 07:46

Report: U.S., Iranian Diplomats Meet in Beirut
Naharnet/U.S. and Iranian diplomats have held several meetings in Lebanon, informed sources told al-Liwaa newspaper.
The daily quoted the sources as saying that the first meeting was held at the U.S. embassy in suburban Awkar while the diplomats met for the second time at the Iranian embassy in Beirut's Bir Hassan neighborhood. The sources refused to name names or even reveal information about the topics of discussion. Beirut, 24 Mar 09, 09:01

Suleiman Stresses Need for Arab Unity in the Face of Terrorism
Naharnet/President Michel Suleiman on Monday stressed the need for Arab unity in the face of terrorism.
He said the upcoming Arab summit to be held in Doha at the end of March is an opportunity to move forward toward taking "bold" decisions regarding inter-Arab reconciliation. Suleiman told Arab interior ministers who visited him at Baabda Palace, that such solidarity "is a source of strength," particularly if it is based on a "comprehensive and united Arab strategy that would compel Israel to implement the Arab peace initiative." The president said he believed "Israel is the one that created a suitable atmosphere for terrorism in order to stigmatize Arabs and Muslims." Beirut, 23 Mar 09, 22:35

PLO Representative's Deputy Killed in Bomb Blast Near Sidon
Naharnet/The deputy of Palestine Liberation Organization representative in Lebanon Abbas Zaki was killed on Monday in a bomb explosion outside the southern refugee camp of Miyeh Miyeh. "Kamal Medhat was killed along with three of his bodyguards when a roadside bomb exploded as his convoy drove by, near the entrance to the camp," said Munir Maqdah, in charge of security at Lebanon's 12 refugee camps.
Madhat's car was completely gutted in the explosion that left a 5-meter wide crater. The vehicle was thrown off the road into a valley. Madhat, 55, was visiting the Miyeh Miyeh camp to offer condolences to families of two Fatah members who were killed Saturday in a gunfight in a personal dispute in the camp. Media reports said Palestinian factions inside Ain el-Hilweh and Miyeh Miyeh camps went on alert while the Lebanese army took strong security measures in the vicinity of the shantytowns. The teaming refugee camps near the southern port city of Sidon are controlled by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' mainstream Fatah group. Sultan Abul Einein, a senior Fatah commander in Lebanon, described Madhat's killing as a "tragedy." He warned in a television interview that Monday's bombing could be the beginning of a "cycle" to target other Fatah officials in Lebanon. Osama Hamdan, Lebanon's representative of the rival militant Hamas group, condemned Madhat's killing as "a despicable crime." He said Madhat had played "a major role" in efforts to unify rival Palestinian factions, especially between Fatah and Hamas.It was not immediately known if Zaki could have been the target, since he had left the camp only a few hours earlier. Beirut, 23 Mar 09, 14:49

Jumblat: Abolishing Political Sectarianism is Only Path to State-Building
Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblat said Tuesday that successful state-building can only be achieved by "abolishing political sectarianism."
"This requires a brave and national political decision," Jumblat wrote in the weekly Al Anbaa. On the international court, Jumblat believed "there is no room for comparison" between the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and the International Criminal Tribunal for Sudan and Darfur. He warned against attempts to divide Sudan, saying this would not only have a negative impact on Sudan, but on the whole region, particularly posing a threat to Egypt's water security. Beirut, 23 Mar 09, 20:31

Arab Conference Vows to Fight Crime
Naharnet/The Arab Interior Ministers' Council Conference concluded its meetings on Monday with a pledge to fight crime.
A statement issued at the closing session said the conferees adopted a three-point security plan aimed at promoting anti-crime strategies, raising awareness on security issues and enhancing tourist safety. The 26th annual conference of the Arab Interior Ministers Council was held under the patronage of President Michel Suleiman at the Phoenicia Hotel in downtown Beirut. It was attended by 18 interior ministers from Arab countries. Interior Minister Ziad Baroud represented Suleiman at the conference. The statement said the duration of each plan was three years, adding that it would be implemented by the Council's secretariat general and the Prince Nayef Arab Academy for Security Sciences. Beirut, 24 Mar 09, 07:13

What is Hezbollah offering?
Date: March 24th, 2009 Source: Future News
Listening to Hezbollah talking about the civil peace in Lebanon will drive you to believe that the war is imminent, as this organism categorizes people and the political forces in Lebanon according to their stance from the “resistance”.
The latest of this categorization was pronounced by MP Mohammad Raad who said that “adopting the principle of majority and minority would turn us back to the civil war that the Taëf agreement’s mission was to end it”.
In principle, Raad sounds positive as is it is one of the rare times his party acknowledges of any of the achievements of the Taëf agreement, except during the times it was used against General Michel Aoun during the Syrian Tutelage influence, and before God reunites the two opposites through the “understanding agreement”.
But going into the details, we should debate with Raad and his party as for the understandings they are trying to impose on our political system. No one ever called in Lebanon for peace with Israel or even mentioned it. No one ever stood against the resistance when its presence was a must for liberating the country from the Israeli occupation, but on the contrary, all the Lebanese tolerated and supported financially and economically the great sacrifices paid on that path.
But the situation is different today as the controversy is between two projects: the first calling to keep Lebanon as an arena for foreign negotiations that concern us in nothing, and the other calling for building the modern state that will change Lebanon status from being an exporting station for its citizen, and working to achieve the slogan of “Lebanon first” for the sake of the safety and stability of its people.
The difference between those two projects doesn’t fall into the call for peace with Israel, but for being under the umbrella of the “Arab Peace Initiative” unanimously approved by all the Arabs. If what is demanded is to deprive Lebanon from its affiliation and presence in the Arab world, and assign him a new identity, Persian in particular, this would justify then to anyone his demand for the “neutrality of Lebanon”, an act the country cannot support.
Furthermore, war requires two parties to fight which is not applicable in the current Lebanese situation. The March 14 forces did not leave any opportunity to protect the civil peace that it did not exercise, and the painful May 7th incidents are a clear witness of those efforts. The one jeopardizing the civil peace is who accuses the Lebanese and describes them as “agents”. The one looking for the war is who closes the political and constitutional institutions; who relays the various points of view to the streets; who refuses the application of the law in his areas and prevents the state from asserting its authority (should we remember the attacks on the LAF and ISF, and the transformation of some areas into no man’s land).
As for the political system, the basics of democracy consist of plurality and different views which create minorities and majorities that would exchange the rule of the country and not manipulate its destiny. What Hezbollah is offering to the Lebanese are “wars” and not politics, which is something that no one reasonable has fallen in to it in the past, and no wise man would accept now or in the future.

Iranian Defector Admits Tehran Funded Syrian Nuclear Program
March 24, 2009
theTrumpet.com
http://www.thetrumpet.com/index.php?q=6050.4445.0.0
What better way to hide a nuclear weapons program than build it in a country where no one is looking?
A former member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard told U.S. intelligence officials that Iran had financed North Korean moves to develop a nuclear weapons program on Syrian soil, the Associated Press reported March 20.
Gen. Ali Reza Asghari, a former Iranian deputy defense minister who defected to the United States in February 2007, provided a detailed account of Iran’s efforts to create a nuclear weapons program in Syria.
This account is described by Hans Ruehle, a former chief of the planning staff for the German Defense Ministry, in a report published in the Swiss daily Neue Zuercher Zeitung. According to the report, Iran’s sponsorship of Syria’s nuclear weapons program came as a surprise to both Israel and the U.S.
“The biggest surprise … was the assertion that Iran was financing a secret nuclear project of Syria and North Korea,” wrote Ruehle. “No one in the American intelligence scene had heard anything of it. And the Israelis who were immediately informed also were completely unaware.”
In September 2007, Israeli F-15I jets destroyed a top-secret nuclear reactor in Syria that was capable of producing weapons-grade plutonium. It has been widely thought that the North Koreans were operating on their own initiative to help the Syrians develop a nuclear weapons program. This confession and other intelligence reports, however, reveal that both the North Koreans and the Syrians were actually helping Iran develop a nuclear weapons program on Syrian soil.
An article in Germany’s Spiegel on June 23, 2008, stated (emphasis ours):
According to intelligence reports seen by Spiegel, the Syrian facility at Al Kibar that Israeli jets bombed last September was the site of a secret military project. The report states that North Korean, Syrian and Iranian scientists were working side by side to build a reactor to produce weapons-grade plutonium. Sources say that the Iranians were using the facility as a “reserve site” and had intended sending the material back to Tehran. While the Iranians had made great progress in the development of uranium, it is alleged that they required the help of the North Korean experts when it came to plutonium technology.
Intelligence documents seen by Spiegel affirm that Iran was actively working toward the production of weapons-grade plutonium in Syria just 18 months ago. While Israel’s bold surgical strike against this facility no doubt delayed Iran’s nuclear ambitions, you can be sure those ambitions still exist.
Con Coughlin, writing for the Telegraph.co.uk last December, had this to say about Iran’s involvement in Syria’s plutonium enrichment efforts:
[S]yria’s experimentation with nuclear proliferation has more to do with its strategic alliance with Tehran than any pretensions the Assad regime might entertain about becoming a nuclear superpower. In response to the West’s increasing pressure on Iran over its uranium enrichment program, Tehran has stepped up its military cooperation with Damascus, and has signed a mutual defense pact. That has resulted in the Iranians promising to provide the Syrians with their Shahab-3 ballistic missile system. …
Now, it appears that the Syrians are quietly helping the Iranians with their nuclear weapons program. …
Western security experts believe that many North Korean scientists who were filmed working on the Syrian project were also frequent visitors to Iran’s top-secret atomic facilities.
Iran is the king of the Middle East and is committed to the destruction of Israel and the West. Nations like Syria are serving as surrogates of Iran—assets the Iranian regime can use to protect its nuclear weapons program and threaten non-Islamic nations.
**For more information on Iran’s nuclear goals, read “Ahmadinejad’s Apocalyptic Ambitions” and “Close to Armageddon.” •

Israel paid high price for little achievements in Gaza
By Moshe Arens
Israel news /Haaretz
Last update - 06:42 24/03/2009
The allegations that some of the Israel Defense Forces units that participated in Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip deviated from the IDF's standard of ethics need, of course, to be investigated. But it is also high time to ask ourselves what was actually achieved during that operation, and whether there is any reasonable relationship between the costs incurred by Israel and those achievements.
At first sight, the Israeli public was relieved to see the IDF operating in Gaza, well trained and well equipped, unlike the way it appeared during the Second Lebanon War. Israelis were encouraged when the dire predictions that a ground operation in the Gaza Strip would lead to hundreds of casualties among our troops turned out to be groundless. A sign that the IDF had been well prepared for this operation.
But what was the result? The operation did not put an end to the rocketing of Israeli towns and villages in the south, nor did it bring about the release of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit. However, the cost for Israel was not inconsiderable. Israel has paid and continues to pay a high price in the ledger of world opinion for the massive destruction left behind in the Strip and the resulting distress of the civilian population there. That is going to haunt Israel for some time and will, no doubt, lead to considerable hesitation when Israel will be required to respond to the Hamas terrorists' next provocations in the Gaza Strip.
In comparison, the achievements seem close to zero. The operation was halted while rockets were continuing to land in the south with the lame excuse that there was nothing further to be done, and the IDF was withdrawn after having accomplished next to nothing.
The fiasco of the Second Lebanon War is frequently blamed on Amir Peretz, who entered the Defense Ministry with little prior experience in military matters, and inherited a chief of staff, Dan Halutz, who was convinced that air power was the answer to everything. That theory was demolished during five weeks, while Israelis in the north were getting hit by Hezbollah rockets launched by the hundreds against Israel.
An almost audible sigh of relief could be heard from the Israeli public when Ehud Barak, a former IDF chief of staff with a previous tenure as defense minister under his belt, took over from Peretz. He inherited a chief of staff, Gabi Ashkenazi, an experienced foot soldier of sterling reputation. Now matters of defense seemed to be in the best of hands. But we were to be disappointed.
Barak's handling of the Hamas rocket problem had a most inauspicious beginning. For months, while rockets were raining down on Israeli towns and villages, we were told that the correct thing would be done at the right time, and that every passing day was bringing a ground operation closer. The next step was the conclusion of a "cease-fire" with the Hamas terrorists that, according to Barak, was going to lead to intensive negotiations for Shalit's release. As should have been expected, Hamas utilized the "cease-fire" to introduce additional weapons, and especially longer-range rockets, into the Gaza Strip, while Gilad Shalit continued to languish in Hamas captivity.
When Hamas continued to launch rockets against Israel despite the "cease-fire," Operation Cast Lead was finally launched, based initially on heavy aerial bombardments with the attendant collateral damage to civilians and civilian property, and only then were ground troops hesitantly introduced. They were withdrawn before the objectives that should have defined their mission had been accomplished, amid a renewed call by the defense minister for a "cease-fire" with the Hamas terrorists.
Strangely enough, there were great similarities between the Second Lebanon War directed by Peretz and the Gaza operation directed by Barak. Common to both is the erroneous idee fixe that the IDF operation had in both cases succeeded in restoring Israel's deterrence posture. The fact of the matter is that Hezbollah is today much stronger than before the Second Lebanon War, occasional rockets continue to fall on northern Israel, and the threat in the north has not dissipated by any means. Hamas continues to rearm and threaten, while occasional rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip into Israel. The lesson that terrorists cannot be deterred but need to be disarmed has to be learned again and again.
Two successive military failures for Israel are more than enough. We need some new strategic thinking to deal with the serious dangers facing us.

With Obama to Iran
By Haaretz Editorial
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1073488.html
Israel news
24/03/2009
While Israel is preoccupied with cobbling together a coalition and with the ongoing incarceration of Gilad Shalit, significant changes are taking place in our strategic sphere. The most significant of these was the public message U.S. President Barack Obama sent to the people and government of the Islamic Republic of Iran, a videotaped message on the occasion of Nauruz, the Persian New Year.
Obama offered to bring about a new era of American-Iranian relations, after three decades of disconnect and enmity. He offered a relationship based on diplomacy, rather than threats, on open dialogue and mutual respect - a relationship that would see the Islamic Republic reassume its place among the family of nations. He made no mention of Iran's nuclear program, calling only on Tehran to exchange "the capacity to destroy" for "the ability to build and create."
Just a few hours after Obama's message was broadcast, President Shimon Peres sent a similar message from Israel to the people of Iran, in which he harshly attacked President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for denying the Holocaust, called on the people of Iran to topple their leaders and promised that Israel would survive.
The contrast between the two messages - one from Washington and one from Jerusalem - says much about the different approaches taken by Israel and the United States regarding Iran: While the Americans are actively seeking a way to start a dialogue, Israel is preaching confrontation and the toppling of the government in Tehran. This confrontation is likely to escalate once Benjamin Netanyahu is sworn in as prime minister; he has been advocating a more aggressive approach toward Iran for years in order to halt its nuclear program, which he sees as a threat to Israel's very existence.
It is clearly in Israel's interest to halt Iran's nuclear program, but it is no less in our interests to have close ties and a coordinated policy with the United States. The new government should give Obama's diplomatic initiative a chance; it must not come out against it or portray it as tacit acceptance of a nuclear-armed Iran or as American abandonment of Israel's security.
The initial reaction in Iran to Obama's message was far from enthusiastic, but this is just the beginning of the dialogue. If Obama manages to reduce the rising tide of tension in the region and to introduce a new framework of dialogue and cooperation between nations, he will have made an important contribution to Israel's security and to its international standing. This is the approach that should guide Netanyahu when he holds his first meeting with President Obama at the White House.