LCCC ENGLISH DAILY NEWS BULLETIN
July 19/08

Bible Reading of the day.
Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Matthew 12,1-8. At that time Jesus was going through a field of grain on the sabbath. His disciples were hungry and began to pick the heads of grain and eat them. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him, "See, your disciples are doing what is unlawful to do on the sabbath." He said to them, "Have you not read what David did when he and his companions were hungry, how he went into the house of God and ate the bread of offering, which neither he nor his companions but only the priests could lawfully eat? Or have you not read in the law that on the sabbath the priests serving in the temple violate the sabbath and are innocent? I say to you, something greater than the temple is here. If you knew what this meant, 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned these innocent men. For the Son of Man is Lord of the sabbath."

Free Opinions, Releases, letters & Special Reports
You won’t see me crying. By: Einat Fishbein 19/07/08
A moment of moral clarity. The Gazette 18.07.08
The new Lebanon. Jerusalem Post 18/07/08
In Israel, a nation mourns with the families of slain soldiers.By Ilene R. Prusher 18.07.08
An end to hegemony? By Michalis Firillas 18.07.08
Baby Killer recives Hero's welcome by Hezbollah.Thomas Smith Jr. 18/07/08
Just how long will the current honeymoon in Lebanon last? The Daily Star 18.07.08

Latest News Reports From Miscellaneous Sources for July 18/08
Israel: Hezbollah buying bases in Lebanon-United Press International
Hezbollah's formidable weapons arsenal under fresh scrutiny-Christian Science Monitor
North Lebanon clashes killed one, wounded six-Xinhua
Security and Defense: What's Hizbullah plotting now?-Jerusalem Post
Britain's Brown set to address Knesset on Monday-Jerusalem Post
Kuntar says envies 'enemy's treatment of hostages'-Ynetnews
In Israel, a nation mourns with the families of slain soldiers-Christian Science Monitor
Israelis Debate Hezbollah Exchange Deal as They Bury Soldiers-Bloomberg
Iran: We're not concerned in principle about Israel-Syria negotiations-Jerusalem Post
Hizbullah moves into 'every town-Jerusalem Post
Iran, France, Syria welcome prisoner exchange-Daily Star
European Commission announces $66 million grant to North Lebanon-Daily Star
Italian-financed recycling center opens doors in South Lebanon-Daily Star
EU to provide 42 mln euros in aid for Lebanon-Xinhua
Lebanese receive threatening mobile messages from 'state of Israel'-Daily Star
Sfeir For Disarming the Lebanese and Halting Foreign Intervention-Naharnet
Carlos Edde Sounds the Alarm: Bolstering March 14 Ranks or … Failure-Naharnet
Hizbullah Courts Jumblat-Naharnet
Lebanese press has a field day-Ynetnews
Hizbullah Keen on Defined Relation with the 'state'-Naharnet
Triumph Arch Collapses in Sidon-Naharnet
FM: Syria, Iran to continue exchanging views on nuclear issue-Xinhua
Freed Lebanese say they will keep fighting Israel-The Associated Press
Qantar Loyal to Syria and to Post Shebaa Resistance-Naharnet
Jumblat: No Weapons Can Protect Weapons, Only National Unity Can-Naharnet
Hizbullah Courts Jumblat-Naharnet
Nasrallah Shows Up in Public at Prisoners' Return Festival, Tells Qantar: July 2006 War for Your Sake-Naharnet
Possibility that Israel Will Assassinate Qantar, Report-Naharnet
Hariri in Baghdad for Talks on Bilateral Relations-Naharnet
North Lebanon clashes killed one, wounded six-Xinhua
Security and Defense: What's Hizbullah plotting now?-Jerusalem Post
Britain's Brown set to address Knesset on Monday-Jerusalem Post
Kuntar says envies 'enemy's treatment of hostages'-Ynetnews
In Israel, a nation mourns with the families of slain soldiers-Christian Science Monitor
Israelis Debate Hezbollah Exchange Deal as They Bury Soldiers-Bloomberg
Iran: We're not concerned in principle about Israel-Syria negotiations-Jerusalem Post

A moment of moral clarity
As Lebanese leaders cheer return of a child-murderer, Israel mourns its two soldiers
GIL TROY, Getty Images
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008
http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/editorial/story.html?id=d58f760a-55aa-45bf-aa5c-85bcda0cd072&p=2
How do you welcome a child murderer as a hero?
Depending on the tone, this question becomes an attempt to clarify, or an expression of outrage. Stated calmly, "How do you welcome a child murderer as a hero?" can be a factual question - such as the one that faced Lebanese leaders this week as they proceeded to celebrate the freeing of Samir Kuntar from an Israeli prison, where he had been held since 1979 for murdering 4-year-old Einat Haran, her father Danny Haran, and a policeman.
Stated angrily, "How do you welcome a child murderer as a hero?" is the question Israelis are asking - and the rest of the civilized world should be asking, too.
On the night of April 22, 1979, Kuntar, working with three other terrorists, took Danny and Einat hostage, marching them to the Mediterranean beach after seizing them in their home in the coastal city of Nahariya. After shooting Danny in front of his daughter, then drowning him to make sure he was dead, Kuntar turned on Einat. Swinging his rifle butt, he smashed the 4-year-old's head against the rocks, until she too died.
Adding to the horror, Einat's mother, Smadar, hiding in a crawl space, accidentally smothered 2-year-old Yael Haran while trying to stifle her whimpering.
Any civilized court of law would hold the attackers responsible for the toddler's death, too. Judging by the euphoria in Lebanon and in the Palestinian territories this week, by the terrorists' barbaric, topsy-turvy immoral logic, the additional carnage enhances Kuntar's heroic status.
Of course, this kind of language is terribly impolite. We Westerners are not supposed to call ourselves "civilized" and deem others "barbaric." For decades now we have been told that such terms are too judgmental, too culturally-determined, too imperialistic, too arrogant.
We have been so sensitized and issues have become so relativized many of us have lost our moral bearings. We have to call Kuntar a "militant," a "fighter" but not a "terrorist." We are supposed to explore Kuntar's motivations.
And besides, whatever his motives, we are expected to excuse his crimes by pointing to equally heinous Western sins, or the religious-cultural-nationalist foundations for his actions.
And yet, occasionally, illuminating moments of moral clarity shine through the haze of amoral theorizing that emanates from our finest campuses, that is disseminated by our most technologically sophisticated media. We all witnessed such a moment this week with Israel's heart-breaking prisoner exchange.
As the two coffins bearing the bodies of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser arrived in Israel from Lebanon, the nation of Israel plunged into mourning. These two young men became the entire country's collective children. Strangers who had never met either of them wept bitterly, sharing the pain of the family and the friends, remembering other losses, fearing more tragedies in the future.
By contrast, the massive celebrations in Lebanon for Kuntar and four other terrorists revealed not only the thuggery of Hezbollah but the descent of Lebanon itself. Rolling out the red carpet for a murderer, dispatching the country's top leaders to greet someone who crushed a 4-year-old's skull, declaring a national day of celebration, revealed just how thoroughly the Lebanese leadership had succumbed to the brutal sensibilities of Hassan Nasrallah and his Hezbollah terrorists.
At first glance, it is easy to conclude that the country that is mourning lost this week and the country celebrating won. In fact, Israel won a great moral victory. Israel showed why Westerners should and will support the Jewish state, empathize with the Jewish state, identify with the Jewish state.
We want to side with the country that moves heaven and Earth to bring its boys home, to protect its citizens; not with the country of bloodthirsty mobs deifying cowards who smashed the skull of a 4-year-old girl with a rifle butt on a lovely Mediterranean beach. We learn about a people by observing whom they love and whom they hate. Joy is fleeting and often triggered by base instincts. Sometimes collective anguish is a sign of moral strength, not national weakness.
"I'm proud to belong to those who love and not to those who hate," Ofer Regev said while eulogizing his brother Eldad. Israelis should be proud of this moment of moral clarity - and wary of enemies with such distorted value systems. Israel's - and the West's - enemies are wrong.
****A nation that risks so much even just to bring two corpses home, a country that celebrates life not death, is not only a worthy ally - but a dangerous adversary when provoked.
Gil Troy teaches history at McGill University.
© The Gazette (Montreal) 2008

The new Lebanon
Jerusalem Post
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1215331010940&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull
Putting decades of vicious sectarian, political and personality differences aside, Lebanon's body politic came together Wednesday night in a heartfelt display of national unity: Samir Kuntar had been brought home.
After a nearly 30-year absence, there he stood before the frantic multitude, this progeny of Lebanon - whose road to manhood took him from out-of-control juvenile delinquent to adolescent child-killer to unremorseful mature terrorist - in army fatigues, waving the Lebanese and Hizbullah flags, arm outstretched in the Hizbullah salute, a manic glint in his eyes. A true son of his country.
In a flash, the face of the new Lebanon was unmasked. As celebratory music helped work the crowd into a frenzy, and with Kuntar and several other released terrorists on stage as props, the real "hero" and personification of that new Lebanon, Hassan Nasrallah, emerged for a few moments - his first appearance since January. The Druse-born Kuntar impulsively kissed his beaming hero. Nasrallah did not reciprocate.
"The age of defeats is gone, and the age of victories has come. This people, this nation gave a great and clear image today to its friends and enemies that it cannot be defeated," Nasrallah told the jubilant crowd.
He was then whisked away by bodyguards to a hiding place from which he delivered the rest of his address, broadcast over a gigantic screen set up in the south Beirut square where the welcoming ceremonies were held.
"One of the greatest fortunes is that the unity government welcomed the freed prisoners," Nasrallah declared.
A while earlier the red carpet had been rolled out at Beirut International Airport, as warlords and politicians from rival factions welcomed Kuntar and the other released gunmen as national heroes.
Druse leader Walid Jumblatt proudly recalled that his father, Kamal (assassinated by Syria), had been in the vanguard of Lebanon's Palestinian cause. Christian Maronite president Michael Aoun cited Lebanese unity in the struggle against the Jewish state and commitment to "the return of the Palestinians to their land." Nabih Berri, speaker of the Lebanese parliament and boss of the Shi'ite Amal movement, was there, as was "pro-American" Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, a Sunni Muslim.
Rounding out the delegation were the Sunni majority leader of parliament, Saad Hariri (whose father was also assassinated by Syria) and Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun. They put aside their own differences and their disputes with Nasrallah to give each of the returning "militants" a hug and a kiss.
A VITAL lesson Israeli strategists must draw from this nauseating display of perverted unity: Lebanon and Hizbullah are one. If, heaven forbid, there is another war, the IDF must wage it with ferocity - not on Hizbullah's terms, but across the Lebanese battlefield.
Ever since the June 1982 Lebanon War, the Israeli military has allowed itself to be hamstrung in targeting Lebanon. International media coverage of that war, often manipulative and tendentious, along with Western - particularly US - opposition to striking at the country's infrastructure, made vanquishing our enemies impossible.
Even among Israelis there was the lingering sense that Lebanon was essentially a peace-loving society taken hostage by violent, unrepresentative factions.
Ultimately, that assessment reigned supreme, inhibiting the IDF from finishing Yasser Arafat off. Instead the PLO was merely ousted from its Beirut and southern Lebanon strongholds and exiled to Tunisia.
But that war's unintended consequences led to an even worse outcome: Iranian-backed Shi'ite Islamism and the rise of Hizbullah.
NOW THAT Lebanon and Hizbullah have apparently melded, the self-defeating legacy of IDF inhibition must end. At the start of the Second Lebanon War, former IDF chief of staff Dan Halutz warned bombastically that Israel would "turn back the clock in Lebanon by 20 years" if Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev were not returned.
No one took him seriously - Israel would never punish "good Lebanon" for the crimes of "bad Hizbullah." The IAF limited itself to mostly targeting Islamist strongholds. But if Lebanon and Hizbullah are now one, Israel needs a radically revised strategy for winning a war on Lebanese soil.
Artificial distinctions between "Lebanese" and "Hizbullah" targets were swept away by Wednesday's display of barbaric unity. Lebanon was revealed in its hostile unanimity. If new conflict comes, Israel must internalize that unanimity of hate-filled purpose
 

BABY-KILLER RECEIVES “HERO’S WELCOME” BY HEZBOLLAH W. Thomas Smith Jr.
17 Jul 2008
By W. Thomas Smith Jr.
Our friends with Lebanon’s pro-democracy Cedars Revolution today issued a statement — the spirit of which is felt by all freedom, democracy, and justice loving people worldwide — regarding the shameful release of and “hero’s welcome” for terrorist Samir Kantar.
According to the World Council for the Cedars Revolution:
“Pretty sad day for Lebanon and the Lebanese world wide. A national holiday for terrorists? What a shameful day, what a shameful government that took part in a national holiday celebrating a baby killer. Lebanon is lacking Justice, that is the bottom line.”
Lacking justice indeed. But this injustice extends beyond Lebanon (and Israel from where he was released). The entire world suffers with the unjust freeing of Kantar and his cronies.
Kantar murdered three Israeli civilians in 1979, including a four-year-old girl whose head he bashed with a rifle butt.
Following his release from an Israeli prison on Wednesday — along with four other Hezbollah terrorists (in exchange for the bodies of two Israeli soldiers captured-and-killed by Hezbollah two years ago) – Kantar, dressed in a Hezbollah military uniform and expressing his feeling of “enormous joy” because he has returned to the ranks of Hezbollah, told AFP:
“I haven’t for even one day regretted what I did.”
Again, let’s not forget, Kantar bashed-in a baby’s brains.
As part of his welcome home ceremony, Kantar paid his respects at the tomb of Hezbollah’s mad-bomber Imad Mughniyeh (more about Mughniyeh here). At Mughniyeh’s tomb, Kantar proclaimed:
“We swear by God … to continue on your [Mughniyeh’s] same path and not to retreat until we achieve the same stature that God bestowed on you.”
Kantar fancies himself a soldier. Trust me, a soldier – in the sense of the word as I understand it to be (and I was a Marine infantryman) – is a virtuous man. He defends his country or his causes by putting those things above his own life. A soldier also shows mercy to his enemies, and he NEVER fails to defend the weak and the innocent. Men like Kantar are not soldiers by anyone’s definition if the definition and the interpretation of that definition are honest. Any man or woman who would deliberately and summarily execute a child (no matter the reason) is a murderer and an animal. Nothing more.
Referring to Kantar as an animal may not seem objective. But like his personal hero, Mughniyeh, Kantar is what he is.
Amazingly, the mainstream media — which I myself have been a part of for years — is referring to Kantar in headlines as simply a “freed Lebanese prisoner.”
Make no mistake, this man does not represent Lebanon any more than Charlie Manson or Tim McVeigh represent America. And we cannot win this “war of ideas” – as terrorism expert Dr. Walid Phares aptly and often describes as the heart of the war on terror — until we end the soft-soaping of animals like Kantar, and come to grips with who and what these people are.
— Visit W. Thomas Smith Jr. online at uswriter.com.

Solidarity with the dead
Michael Oren, National Post
Published: Thursday, July 17, 2008
IDF via Getty ImagesIn this handout photo provided by the IDF spokesman, the coffins of Israeli soldiers Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev are carried to command cars July 16, 2008 at an army base at Rosh Hanikra in northern ...
Two neighbouring countries, two radically different images. Entering Lebanon from Israel, 10 Red Cross trucks convey the remains of 199 members of Hezbollah and various Palestinian organizations, killed in combat by Israel, followed by a bus transporting four terrorists released from Israeli jails. Crossing into Israel from Lebanon, a single Red Cross ambulance bears the coffins of two Israeli soldiers, Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser. Among the freed prisoners is Samir Kuntar, who, in an attack against a northern Israeli town 30 years ago, killed four civilians, including a four-year-old girl whose head he smashed against a rock. Regev and Goldwasser, though soldiers, were kidnapped in Israel in an unprovoked Hezbollah ambush. Their repatriation is an occasion for national mourning. The Lebanese, by contrast, are celebrating the exchange and hailing Kuntar as a hero.
What, if anything, is wrong with these images? Has Israel once again demonstrated its humanity, its commitment to its soldiers and its compassion for their families? Or, has Israel enhanced the chances for further kidnappings while reducing the terrorists' interest in keeping their hostages alive?
The answers are scarcely clear-cut. In return for their service in a citizen army, Israel guarantees that it will do everything to bring its soldiers home, should they fall into enemy hands. Regev and Goldwasser, reservists performing their annual duty, put on their uniforms confident of that pledge. So, too, were their relatives and friends. "We need to pay whatever price it takes in exchange for any captive soldier," said a fellow reservist. "This is what we were raised on, this is the government's duty, and this is part of serving in the Israel Defense Forces." A Jewish state, moreover, Israel often resembles an extended family, in which it is impossible to ignore the pain of any branch. Finally, by valuing each individual, alive or deceased, Israel is demonstrating its strength as a free and democratic society.
Yet, by trading convicted terrorists for illegally abducted Israelis, Israel guarantees that similar kidnappings will occur in the future. Indeed, even the Palestinian Authority, now engaged in peace talks with Israel, has acknowledged that taking Israeli hostages is apparently the only way to extricate Palestinians from Israeli jails. More deleteriously, the terrorists, confident of receiving live prisoners for dead Israelis, will be more likely to kill their hostages. In fact, recently released footage from 2000 shows that two of the three Israeli soldiers kidnapped in a Hezbollah border attack, and later exchanged
for more than 400 security prisoners, were taken alive but returned in caskets. Similar fates might be met by Ron Arad, the Israeli navigator shot down by Shiite forces in Lebanon in 1986, whose whereabouts Hezbollah still refuses to disclose, and Gilad Shalit, kidnapped by Hamas two years ago and held for ransom ever since.
Indeed, the deal not only endangers Israelis but threatens the entire Middle East and, eventually, will threaten the West as well. Hezbollah, a jihadist organization that has already precipitated one Middle Eastern war and whose leader, Hassan Nasrallah, tortured the Regev and Goldwasser families by hinting that their loved ones were living, has triumphed.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora publicly cried during the 2006 war, but today celebrated alongside Nasrallah and flew him in his official helicopter. The release of Kuntar, a Druze, has also exalted Nasrallah in the eyes of Lebanon's influential Druze community. Coming in the wake of the bloody showdown in which the Lebanese government capitulated to all of Hezbollah's demands for military autonomy and increased political leverage, the exchange cements Hezbollah's hegemony. And behind Hezbollah stands Iran, the real power in Lebanon today and the ultimate beneficiary of the trade.
There is currently much debate about the possibilities for dialogue with Iran and for persuading it to desist from enriching uranium. But having succeeded in extending its influence into American-occupied Iraq, dominating Syria and intimidating the Gulf counties, Iran will not be easily contained. The prisoner exchange with Israel will further embolden Iranian leaders and encourage their belligerency. The result is an Iran less likely to respond to Western blandishments or incentives and more convinced of its ability to "wipe Israel off the map."
Israel will not, however, wait impassively. Iran and its proxies should not mistake Israel's empathy toward its fallen soldiers and their families for weakness or an erosion of its willingness to fight. Just as resolutely as it strove to bring Goldwasser and Regev home for burial Israel will forgo no option in assuring against similar funerals in the future. Lebanon may be ecstatic today while Israel mourns, but these contrasting images should not obscure an unchanged and explosive reality.
-Michael Oren, the author of many books, is a senior fellow at the Shalem Center, writing on Israeli history and politics. He formerly served as advisor to the Israeli delegation to the United Nations, and now serves as contributing editor to Azure, the Shalem Center's refereed journal.

Following is the text of an ICEJ condolence letter delivered to the Goldwasser and Regev families today.
Wednesday, 16 July 2008
To the Families of Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev
On behalf of the worldwide constituency of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, I wish to convey our deepest sympathies to you on the loss of your dear and brave sons. We are receiving messages this day from Christians all over the world who sense your anguish and would wish to help you bear the pain of this very difficult moment. We remember well when Shlomo and Zvi appeared on our stage during our annual Sukkot gathering in Jerusalem last fall and appealed for our assistance in resolving the fate of Ehud and Eldad. We honour the members of your respective families for the courageous struggle you have all waged to secure their return. For in these cries, you reminded everyone of the true value of their lives.
The trauma inflicted upon you is both personal and national. But we believe there is a special place in the heart of G-d for those who "mourn in Zion"; for those who pay dearly for the sake of Israel and her promised restoration. May Hashem comfort you in His fullest measure.
Lovingly yours,
Malcolm Hedding
Executive Director
International Christian Embassy Jerusalem



In Israel, a nation mourns with the families of slain soldiers
By Ilene R. Prusher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
from the July 18, 2008 edition
An Agence France-Presse report on a rally for five Lebanese prisoners released from an Israeli prison Wednesday. Some analysts in the region say Hezbollah has been emboldened by the prisoner swap, causing concern in Israel.Nahariya, Israel - For Israelis, their Second Lebanon War, fought in summer 2006, came to a close only on Thursday, when the two soldiers whose capture became the cause for launching the conflict were laid to rest before their families and the eyes of a solemn nation.
But even in their return – which transpired a day earlier as part of a swap with Hezbollah, who traded the men's bodies for the remains of some 200 Lebanese plus five Lebanese prisoners – there is still unease about the lopsided trade-off and questions about balancing the interests of affected families against those of the state.
Under a sweltering July sky at the Nahariya military cemetery, which overlooks the same Mediterranean that hugs the Beirut coastline where Hezbollah continued victory celebrations Thursday, many family members and friends who eulogized "Udi" – Ehud Goldwasser – seemed to want to shift the sentiment that Israel had somehow lost to Hezbollah.
"I stand at attention before you with my eyes lifted toward my people with the request: Stand tall, lift your heads in national pride," mother Miki Goldwasser said at her son's graveside.
"They say because of you, a war broke out. I hope we can see this war as a victory. Through this, we have discovered that we are a strong people. We have discovered bereaved families with an undefeatable, powerful spirit. We have discovered kindness."
The most powerful words to the gathering of a few thousand came from widow Karnit Goldwasser, who has been the spokeswoman of an international campaign to release her husband and Eldad Regev, then believed to be alive.
"They say time heals all wounds," she said. "But is this really so? Two years have passed since that debilitating moment that cut through our life's thread, the moment in which the worst scenario became a threatening reality that forced us to dive into a dark and convoluted world. I believed and hoped that the moment would come where I would wake up and say it was all just a bad dream."
But Israelis have been waking up to find that many of their goals have gone unrealized. The prisoner exchange has Israel feeling like it was "played." Some wondered why Israel agreed to the swap, if Hezbollah wasn't straight with Israel about whether the two were alive and whether they had information about Ron Arad, who was captured in Lebanon in 1986 and is considered missing in action.
Groundswell of public pressure
Part of the answer, analysts say, is that the families succeeded in creating a groundswell of public pressure to bring their sons home, dead or alive, even at the cost of releasing Lebanon's Samir Kuntar, convicted of killing four Israelis in a 1979 raid here.
"What we witnessed in the last two years and more is that the families of those soldiers and the involvement of the Israeli media and public opinion is very strong in affecting the decisionmakers," says Yitzhak Reiter, a professor of political science and Middle Eastern Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
"It affects the ability to negotiate on a fair bargain," he says. "This is something that Israel should handle differently. Perhaps the government in the near future will make an official decision that dead bodies will be exchanged only for dead bodies, and live soldiers for live soldiers.
"If the other side doesn't give you complete information about your soldiers, such as whether they are dead or alive, then you just don't do it. The government could put this criteria in place, and then if a situation occurs in the future, the enemy knows our principles and won't expect otherwise," Mr. Reiter says.
Israel's principle is that it is immoral to leave any soldier or citizen on foreign soil. It has, as a result, sometimes traded hundreds of prisoners for the release of one man. This ethos has come under some criticism in recent days. But Defense Minister Ehud Barak, speaking at Goldwasser's funeral, defended it vehemently.
"We were prepared to pay a high price, even higher than what seemed logical, in order to see our sons sent home," Mr. Barak said. "If any of you, God forbid, should be captured, or should anything worse happen in the fight against the terror, Israel, its government, and the IDF [Israel Defense Forces] will do everything just and possible to bring you home."
But Aviva Cavaille, a young woman who came to the funeral, said most Israelis could not understand how their government had agreed to a swap that didn't include Cpl. Gilad Shalit, who was abducted by Hamas more than two years ago while on duty close to the Gaza Strip.
"From the ethical point of view, it's not acceptable that we got the bodies of two men, and for that we released a murderer who is alive and celebrating in Lebanon," says Ms. Cavaille. "It creates a greater danger for kidnappings in the future. It shows the weakness of our leadership."
Family persistence
At the same time, many others give Karnit Goldwasser credit for keeping the case of the abducted soldiers on the agenda, traveling globally and trying to force leaders to push for progress on an issue that could have easily have disappeared from the headlines. Among the partners in this were leaders in the American Jewish community, who had made dog tags with the names of the soldiers on them and asked people to wear them in solidarity.
"Karnit singlehandedly raised this level of awareness through her own public presence, and I think that's what got us to this point," says Lori Klinghoffer, the chairwoman of National Women's Philanthropy in the United Jewish Communities, a US umbrella group. "There have been other missing soldiers, and they usually stay in the news for a week or two."
Some Israelis bristled at the public's questioning over the way the swap tallied up.
Columnis Yair Lapid wrote in the Yediot Ahronoth newspaper that even in Israel's "hyperactive democracy" people should occasionally assume that the right decision was made.
"The deal that ended yesterday wasn't good or bad, only necessary. Anyone who thinks there were other options, deludes himself," Mr. Lapid wrote. "While it's true that Hezbollah is more calculated in its attitude toward the fate of its people, who would want to be Hezbollah today? The clamorous debate over the question of 'Did we get a good price or not,' should be kept for buying cars."

An end to hegemony?
By Michalis Firillas
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1003234.html
With great pomp and symbolism, the Union for the Mediterranean (UPM) was launched in Paris Sunday. It was an event most of the 43 leaders in attendance could have done without, but only the chronically eccentric Muammar Gadhafi intentionally opted to miss it. However much skepticism this new-old venture may stir among those who have seen it all by now, what French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner described as a "magnificent event" underlined two parallel developments that clearly reflect the era we are living in.
The first is the changing concept of hegemony. Notwithstanding Gadhafi's criticism of the union as a "neocolonial" venture, its history - since its unveiling during the French presidential campaign last year - suggests otherwise. If Nicolas Sarkozy originally thought of the "Mediterranean Union" (as it was initially dubbed) as a launchpad for restoring France's colonial influence circa 1900, since taking over the Elysee Palace he has come to recognize that in the 21st century, power does not come easy. Indeed, the first to check his Mediterranean ambition was France's fraternal twin, Germany, which sharply opposed any notion that this venture would not include European Union involvement, and that it would be dominated - much less led - by Paris. Other EU Mediterranean countries, notably Spain, joined the fracas.
The Arab world, too, demanded equal treatment, which forced Sarkozy to share center stage with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, who became his co-host. And then there were the Turks, fuming at what they perceived as Sarkozy's ploy to keep them out of Europe by offering them a place in this "second-best," parallel club; they had to be convinced that this was not the intention.
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Sarkozy had also been trying to muscle in on the diplomatic void left by a Bush administration on the wane (or perhaps it is U.S. hegemony itself that is in a downward spiral). France's role as peacemaker in the Middle East, however, was dulled by a Syrian president who was adamant about not making any gestures - polite or otherwise - that would hint that he acknowledged the presence of Israel's prime minister at the gathering. But Sarkozy could argue it was an improvement over Annapolis in 2007, to which Syria sent only a mid-level official (although the exchanges between Ehud Olmert and President Bashar Assad were handled by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, who shuttled between them).
Similarly, France's weight in Lebanon is apparently not quite what it used to be, and although Sarkozy did manage to get Lebanese President Michel Suleiman and Assad to agree on restoration of official diplomatic ties, on two levels his success was less significant than was claimed. Suleiman had been backed by pro-Syrian factions in Lebanon anyway, and the real hard work - defusing Lebanon's political crisis - was carried out by an emerging diplomatic mini-power: Qatar.
Indeed, the concept of hegemony, French or anyone else's for that matter, is almost comical in the era of globalization. The sheer number of real or imaginary powers vying for the limelight has made international political maneuvering so complex that real power is hard-pressed to manifest itself in historically familiar ways. Suddenly, "statesmen" are a dime a dozen, and what really matters is whether you are invited to a conference, not what you can actually achieve there.
This, of course, makes the next conference - and its organizers - important. For example, once France's tenure at the EU helm ends in another six months, the Czechs take over, and this has prompted Czech Deputy Prime Minister Alexandr Vondra to vow that if "this is the year of the Mediterranean, next year it will be a year for Eastern Europe."
But it is the second development, quieter, subtler, that deserves more serious attention - perhaps as a successor to the concept of hegemony. Since the Barcelona Process was initiated, in 1995, an army of academics, artists and activists - bolstered by official acquiescence, if not always outright support, and by financial backing, mostly from the EU - has steadily promoted shared causes and projects across the Euro-Mediterranean region, under the generic umbrella of civil society. True, much of this activity has not contributed sufficiently to bringing democracy, or basic freedoms, to the Middle East and North Africa, and the hue of post-modernist relativism that emerges from many of the shared efforts often undermines fundamental human rights. Nonetheless, they have been making inroads. A prime example of this broad effort is the work of the Anna Lindh Foundation, which promotes intercultural dialogue across the Euro-Mediterranean region and cooperative projects, often with official sponsorship.
So, if the UPM cannot be a political union, with a real power agenda, then let us hope that the projects it funds will advance, in a more concrete fashion, the socio-cultural efforts and economic investments that began in Barcelona.
**Michalis Firillas is an editor at Haaretz English edition, and blogs on Worldview (http://firillas.blogspot.com).

It's our 'secret'
By Doron Rosenblum
Haaretz
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1003239.html
If the expression "a bad feeling" were a quarry, and if all the words related to "hope," "embrace" or "feel" could somehow be turned into capital, Israel could have this week become the richest and strongest country in the world. Aside from all kinds of essential words that described the location of journalists and the connection of interview subjects to the prisoner exchange with Hezbollah, sentences such as "accompanied by a bad feeling" and "we all embrace the families" once again filled our existence. Above all, that absurd expression, which has turned into a kind of national motto, is hovering over us once again: "I want to hope." It's an expression adopted by military and political leaders, of all people - those from whom we expect some kind of concrete and rational plan.
"We wanted to hope" that the captives would somehow come back alive, despite the intelligence information; the chief of staff "wanted to hope" that the Israel Defense Forces would smash Hezbollah in three days - if not at the beginning of the war, then at least by its conclusion; "we wanted to hope" that Syrian President Bashar Assad would agree to shake Ehud Olmert's hand and would forget about the Golan; "we wanted to hope" that Samir Kuntar and his friends would be raised on the values of Zionism and the good deeds they experienced during their decades of imprisonment, that Hezbollah would stop arming itself, or that Iran would be impressed by our threats and destroy its nuclear installations on its own. That's how it is when one "wants to hope." The sky's the limit.
In that sense, the "tough week" of the prisoner exchange deal was nothing new. We only emphasized to ourselves, and to an astonished world, the path that Israel as a country has chosen to follow for so many years, the path of magical thinking.
A path that, with a kind of joy-in-despair, has abandoned rational thought and primarily the consideration of long-term national interests and instead devotes itself, and does so with great pride, to "feelings" and desires: anger, revenge, pity, hopes, even if they that are cloaked, after the fact, in lofty words such as "values" and "sensitivities" and "respect for human life."
Although the prisoner exchange this week was more rational and reasonable than many of its predecessors, it still recalled a certain context. Almost every major step taken by Israel in the past decade - from a naive belief in Yasser Arafat to the unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon, to the overreaction to the intifadas, and up to the disengagement from Gaza and the Second Lebanon War - demonstrated not only an absence of logical thinking, but even a defiance of cold, rational considerations.
This could have been dubbed "the victory of hope" had there at least been some kind of victory here; but, in its absence, we have remained only with "wanting to hope": a kind of mystical faith that desire alone, plus "positive energies," would change reality by taking shortcuts through it and bypassing its laws.
In that sense, Israel may be ahead of its time: It long ago revealed "the secret," like the name of one of the New Age best sellers, which says that if we close our eyes tight and "want to hope," the thing will happen. If we only "embrace the families," make a decisive speech or "get our picture taken with Assad," the reality will change by itself, without a need to do anything about it (such as preparing the army for war, or waging a wise diplomatic offensive or making rational concessions in genuine negotiations). But unfortunately, Israel is living in a region that is entirely "Old Age": It is confronting the negative energies of enemies whose basic positions have not changed a millimeter for decades, and who adhere to the most basic utilitarian rationale, as far as they are concerned.
And, thus, when a leader like Hassan Nasrallah succeeds in jerking us around and toying with us and our "feelings" as though we were puppets on a string, we have to ask ourselves: Are we really facing an unbelievably demonic genius, or has the guy simply invaded the playing field that we have abandoned - the arena of practical and clever thinking, which once was unique to us in this region?
With the help of the media, which pursue emotions and weeping and embraces, in which the crocodile tears of promos for the Israeli versions of "Survivor" and "The Biggest Loser" mingle with the sorrow of those deceived by Hezbollah, the media have forgotten the meaning of "the real story," just as the army has long since forgotten the meaning of victory.
Because while we are wallowing in wishes, prayers, collective weeping and pseudo-familial embraces, the bad news is that our neighbors have simply discovered our "secret." While we are still focusing on emotions, they have adopted thinking.

'Most issues' discussed at talks on new Cabinet statement
Siniora heads meeting of ministerial committee
By Hussein Abdallah and Nafez Qawas
Daily Star staff-Friday, July 18, 2008
BEIRUT: Prime Minister Fouad Siniora on Thursday chaired the first meeting of the ministerial committee that was formed on Wednesday with the mission of drafting the new Cabinet's ministerial statement. The committee included Information Minister Tarek Mitri, Agriculture Minister Elias Skaff, Finance Minister Mohammad Shattah, Telecommunications Minister Jebran Bassil, Labor Minister Mohammad Fneish, Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh, and ministers of state Youssef Taqla, Nassib Lahoud, and Wael Abu Faour.
"We have started to discuss a number of issues that will be included in the ministerial statement," Mitri told reporters after the meeting.
"We discussed most issues and left out others, but we will continue discussions in the meetings to follow," the minister added, stressing that all issues were discussed both warmly and seriously. Justice Minister Ibrahim Najjar told Voice of Lebanon radio on Thursday that there were no serious obstacles to drafting the ministerial statement. "The committee has been formed and the draft statement will be presented before the council of ministers as soon as possible," Najjar said.
Meanwhile, President Michel Sleiman is likely to receive Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem in Beirut next week as media reports on Thursday quoted Syrian official sources as saying that Moallem will deliver on Monday an invitation from Syrian President Bashar Assad for Sleiman to visit Damascus.
Sleiman, who met with Assad last weekend in Paris, said earlier this week that his first foreign visit will be to Syria. Sleiman and Assad reportedly agreed in Paris on establishing diplomatic ties between Lebanon and Syria.  Also on Thursday, Sleiman received an invitation to visit the Islamic Republic.
The invitation was delivered to him by an Iranian delegation who visited Sleiman at the Presidential Palace.
The delegation included Iranian MP Hosni Sheikh al-Islam, representing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iranian Ambassador Mohammad Reza Shibani as well as other officials. Sleiman also received Lahoud as a number of Cabinet posts underwent handing over ceremonies on Thursday.
Among such ministries were the Interior Ministry, the Energy Ministry, the Agriculture Ministry, the Education Ministry and the Economy Ministry.
Meanwhile, Lebanese Forces leader Samir Geagea said that the ministerial statement should not include any obscure items.
"We proposed the holding of national dialogue ahead of drafting the ministerial statement so that all parties can work out their differences once and for all, but the president and the prime minister preferred to go ahead with drafting the ministerial statement," Geagea said. "We are not against such decisions as long as the ministerial statement does not include any obscure items that would create problems in the future," he added. Geagea urged the ministers comprising the committee in charge of drafting the ministerial statement to discuss all issues without any reservations

Nation unites for heroes' homecomings
By Hussein Abdallah and Maher Zeineddine
Daily Star staff-Friday, July 18, 2008
BEIRUT: Progressive Socialist Party (PSP) leader Walid Jumblatt said on Thursday that only Lebanese national unity can protect the resistance, in reference to Hizbullah."Arms cannot protect arms ... only national unity can protect the resistance," he said, indirectly responding to Hizbullah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, who justified Hizbullah's use of arms against other Lebanese factions in early May as "using arms to defend the arms of the resistance."
Speaking at a ceremony in liberated prisoner Samir Kontar's hometown of Aabey, southeast of Beirut, Jumblatt said that there was no contradiction between the resistance and the Taif Agreement, which ended Lebanon's 15-year Civil War (1975-1990) and introduced major amendments to the Lebanese Constitution of 1926. "There is no contradiction between the resistance and the Taif Agreement ... there is no contradiction between the resistance and the international tribunal," he said, referring to the UN-sponsored court to try suspects in the murder of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.
"There is no contradiction between Lebanon and the resistance after gradually agreeing on a defense strategy," he said, adding that protecting the resistance did not conflict with having sound relations and mutual respect between Lebanon and Syria.
Meanwhile, Hizbullah official and Labor Minister Mohammad Fneish, who participated in the ceremony, said that Hizbullah had never forgotten its historical relations with Jumblatt, adding that Hizbullah was ready to extend its hand to Jumblatt in the future.
Fneish said Lebanon would not have been able to free all Lebanese prisoners in Israeli jails had it not of the resistance.
"We should continue with the resistance to liberate the Shebaa Farms and the Kafar Shuba Hills," he added, referring to a border territory that Israel still occupied despite its withdrawal from most of Lebanon in May 2000.
Fneish said the agenda of the Lebanese state did not conflict with that of the resistance.
"We have wasted enough time ... we should cooperate to overcome the past, especially after the formation of the national unity Cabinet," he said.
"We will stretch our hand to our national partners with open hearts and minds regardless of unpleasant past experiences," he added.
Meanwhile, Youth and Sports Minister Talal Arslan also spoke at the ceremony and said that the new Cabinet's ministerial statement should not avoid "recognizing the legitimacy of the resistance." Arslan paid tribute to Nasrallah and stressed "the mountains will always back the resistance."
Kontar, who was released on Wednesday after spending almost 30 years in Israeli jails, called on all Lebanese "to rally around the resistance."
"Let us all remember Kamal Jumblatt ... Had he been with us, he would have called on his comrades to cut any hand that dares to touch the arms of the resistance," Kontar said. The late Kamal Jumblatt is the founder of the PSP and the father of Walid Jumblatt.
Kontar said the resistance shall continue even after the liberation of the Shebaa Farms. "Whoever believes that liberating Shebaa Farms would put an end to the resistance is wrong ... even if we left the Israelis alone, they will not leave us," he said. "Look at the way they treated the people who signed treaties with them ... Look at what they did to former Palestinian President Yasser Arafat," he added, indirectly blaming Israel for the Palestinian leader's death in November 2004.
As he arrived at his family house earlier on Thursday, Kontar said he had no regrets over what he did three decades ago. Kontar was arrested in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya in 1978 and was convicted of killing three Israelis. "I haven't for even one day regretted what I did," he said. "On the contrary, I remain committed to my political convictions."Kontar received a hero's welcome at his hometown as many people from the village and neighboring areas attended the rally to meet him. "We are very happy on this beautiful day, this is a victory for Lebanon and the national resistance," said Yusra Khaddaj, 39, as she stood with her three young daughters on the road leading to Aabey. "Samir Kontar is the son of all the Lebanese," she added. One banner along the road leading to Aabey read: "From Palestine to Iraq to Lebanon, the resistance is victorious."
Earlier on Thursday, Kontar visited Hizbullah's senior security official Imad Mughniyeh's tomb in Hizbullah's stronghold in the southern suburbs of Beirut before heading to his village in a triumphant convoy. Mughniyeh was killed in a bombing in Syria last February. His death was blamed on Israel, which denied any responsibility.  Meanwhile, Israeli security officials warned on Thursday that Kontar should now fear for his own life.
"Every terrorist who committed an act of terror against Israel, especially someone like Kontar, who killed a little child and two other people, is a target," one of the officials told AFP. "If there is a chance for Israel to close the file on Kontar, Israel won't hesitate," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Israel's intelligence agencies Mossad and Shin Beth opposed Kontar's release but were over-ruled by political considerations, in order to end the mystery over the fate of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbullah two years ago in a cross-border raid. Israel responded to that raid by launching a devastating 34-day war on Lebanon. The bodies of the two soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, were returned to Israel on Wednesday as part of the swap. - with AFP

Lebanese, Palestinians celebrate as bodies of slain Arab fighters are carried to Beirut
Mohammed Zaatari and Dalila Mahdawi
Daily Star staff
SIDON: A convoy of eight trucks carrying the coffins of 200 yet to be identified Arab fighters killed in decades of fighting with Israel made their way to Beirut from Southern Lebanon Thursday. In a rare spectacle of national unity, Lebanese and Palestinians from all political and religious affiliations lined the roads to greet the procession, forcing the trucks to make repeated stops as onlookers spilled out onto the road to throw rose petals and rice.
Coffins draped in Lebanese and Hizbullah flags were transported on Mercedes trucks that better resembled celebration floats, decorated with ornate flower wreaths, pictures of slain Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh and victory banners. One such banner read "The martyrs of victory from the 2006 summer war."
Spectators carried flags or photographs of martyred relatives returning as part of the German-mediated deal between Israel and Hizbullah.
"It's like he's coming back to me alive," said Hajj Hassan Wazwazz, whose son Ali had been killed in 2006 after 13 days of fighting.
Mosque and church bells blared, chiming in chaotically with the chorus of patriotic and Hizbullah songs. Representatives from Hizbullah were out en masse. One official told a female reporter: "We are laughing so you cannot say Hizbullah are 'constipated' and serious. We have feelings; I read and write poetry."
Ahmad Khalaf, a Palestinian who was expecting a relative's body to be returned, told The Daily Star: "I wish the Palestinian revolution would regain its lost fire," clearly impressed with Hizbullah's success.
Five Lebanese prisoners released by Israel Wednesday prayed at the Mughniyeh's gravesite in southern Beirut on Thursday, vowing to continue the fight against Israel. Later, Lebanon's longest-held prisoner in Israel Samir Kontar arrived in his hometown of Aabey, south of Beirut. "This time yesterday I was in the hands of the enemy. But at this moment, I am yearning more than before to confront them," he said. In a speech in the Southern town of Yater, the hometown of freed prisoner Hassan Kourani, Hizbullah MP Hassan Fadlallah called the swap a "historic victory" for the resistance. "Israel knows that the opposition is stronger than it once was."Kourani meanwhile expressed his gratitude toward the Shiite group and pledged his loyalty to continue the struggle of the Islamic resistance.
While the Lebanese celebrated the day with a national holiday, the mood in Israel was somber. Former aide to Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert Miri Eisin told Al-Jazeera news channel Israel considered the swap deal, and in particular the release of Kontar, "incredibly difficult."
"Today in Israel we are mainly reflecting on the price we pay in our country to defend our borders," she added.

Returned soldiers given military funerals in northern Israel
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Friday, July 18, 2008
Two Israeli soldiers whose bodies were returned home two years after being killed by Hizbullah in an ambush received military burials on Thursday. Ehud Goldwasser was the first to be buried, in his northern hometown of Nahariya. Thousands of people - including his widow Karnit, his parents, friends and senior politicians - gathered at the cemetery. Goldwasser's coffin, draped in the blue and white Israeli flag, was carried to the graveside by his comrades from the elite Golani infantry brigade, as Karnit followed and a military rabbi read from the psalms. Among the mourners was defense minister and former army chief Ehud Barak.
"We wanted to welcome you again with your comrade Eldad [Regev]," he said. "We wanted to embrace you and see you smile. But it is our tears that accompany you today, and our heart is heavy." He renewed a commitment that Israel would do "everything humanly possible" to bring home any soldier who falls into the hands of the enemy. Among those present were relatives of Gilad Shalit, a soldier captured two years ago in a Palestinian militant raid on a border post from the Gaza Strip. Israel has so far failed to secure his release.
Karnit delivered an emotional good-bye to her husband, who would have turned 33 on Friday. "My heart weeps and hurts," she said. "I had hoped that I would awake one day and say that this had been just a dream, a bad dream." Israel responded to the seizure of Goldwasser and Regev in a July 12, 2006 cross-border by launching a brutal 34-day war on Lebanon in which the Jewish state failed in one of its key objectives, which was to recover them.
From that day until Wednesday, when their coffins were brought to the border for exchange, the Lebanese resistance group never revealed whether they were alive or dead. But press reports said the army believes they were both killed in the ambush in which they were taken from their burning Humvee, or that one may have died shortly afterward.
The Jerusalem Post quoted officials as saying they both died in the ambush. Goldwasser suffered a lethal wound to the chest from a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). His comrade, Eldad Regev, appeared to have been shot in the head, perhaps as he attempted to escape the burning vehicle.
Haaretz said the two were killed during the ambush, or died shortly afterward. It said that Goldwasser took most of the impact from the RPG, and Regev was probably also hit, before being shot at close range when the attackers approached the vehicle.
Yediot Aharonot said forensic pathologists had difficulty reaching their conclusions because the soldiers' bodies had not been refrigerated.
Regev, 27, was buried in an afternoon service at Haifa cemetery with his parents and family looking on among several hundred mourners, who included the defense secretary and the Shalit family. Regev's father, Tsvi, and his brothers joined together to recite the kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. There followed tributes from his brothers, comrades and Barak. Brother Ofer Regev spoke of his pride in a country that fought to bring him home, to count himself among those who love rather than hate, pride in his army and "in you Eldad, my little brother, a true patriot.
"Rest in peace, Eldad. You are home." The bodies of the two reserve soldiers were handed over to Israel on Wednesday as part of a swap deal in which the Jewish state freed four Hizbullah fighters captured during the 2006 war, a convicted fighter and the remains of some 200 Lebanese and Palestinian fighters killed over the years. - AFP

Iran, France, Syria welcome prisoner exchange
By Agence France Presse (AFP)
Compiled by Daily Star staff
Friday, July 18, 2008
Iran said on Thursday that Israel's release of Lebanese prisoners in a swap with Hizbullah was an achievement both for the movement and the Lebanese people, the state news agency IRNA reported. "The glad news of the release of Lebanese prisoners by the Zionist regime is part of the achievement by the Islamic Hizbullah and the dear Lebanese people's resistance. We congratulate them for this great victory," Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki was quoted as saying.
Five Lebanese prisoners were freed by Israel on Wednesday, hours after Hizbullah handed over the bodies of two Israeli soldiers seized by its fighters two years ago. Mottaki also said: "The Zionist regime should give up its stubbornness and free all Palestinians and the Islamic republic's diplomats and surrender itself to the truth." He was referring to four Iranians, seized in 1982 by a Christian militia in Lebanon, who Tehran insists are still alive and being held in Israel.
Israeli forces controled Beirut when three diplomats - Mohsen Mousavi, Ahmad Motevaselian and Taghi Rastegar Moghadam - disappeared, along with Kazem Akhaven, a photographer with the IRNA news agency.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner welcomed the prisoner swap between Israel and Hizbullah in the name of the EU presidency, held by France. He also expressed regret over the deaths of the two Israeli soldiers captured by Hizbullah on July 12, 2006, and whose bodies were returned to their hope country as part of the swap. Kouchner said he hoped the swap will help defuse tensions between regional parties and help the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which put an end to the summer 2006 war with Israel. Kouchner added he hoped Resolution 1701 can help opposing sides reach a permanent peace. Syrian Information Minister Bilal Mohsen congratulated the Lebanese and Hizbullah for the liberation of Samir Kontar, whom he described as the "Nelson Mandela of Lebanon," as well as the four other detainees.
He also underlined the "enormous sacrifices" made by Hizbullah to liberate South Lebanon from Israeli occupation in 2000, as well as Hizbullah's victory during the 2006 war. "Syria's doors are open to all Lebanese, and we will cooperate with Lebanon to strengthen relations between the two countries and discuss all matters in a way that serves our mutual interests," Mohsen told a delegation of Lebanese-Syrian tourists.
When asked about his expectations for the future of Syrian-Lebanese relations, Mohsen said that July's Paris meeting between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Lebanese President Michel Sleiman will be followed by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem's visit to Beirut next week to invite Sleiman to visit Damascus.
"The agenda of the expected meeting includes relations between the two countries and the work of the Lebanese-Syrian Higher Council ... All matters are open for discussions, including exchanging ties and opening embassies," Mohsen said. - AFP, with The Daily Star

You won’t see me crying
Miki Goldwasser only Israeli able to stand up to Nasrallah’s propaganda so far
Einat Fishbein Published: 07.18.08, 12:01 / Israel Opinion
Two women. Both of them mourning. A black shirt, a pain-filled face. The man, the father, is out of the frame. He sits to the side with a torn shirt and says nothing. War is a matter for men; mourning is feminine.
You won’t see me crying here, said Miki Goldwasser when she started to talk, refusing to cooperate with the customary grief norms. She is not the mother who will fall down on the coffin and cry out. Not even a tear. Her hair is cropped, her face thin and tough. Dark sunglasses are covering her eyes. She is there because she has something to say, not because she wants to satisfy the viewers’ needs for liberating tears.
Days of Mourning
Peres: A people of values, not prices / Ynet
Emotional day winds down as Goldwasser, Regev families return home to mourn in private after bidding tearful farewells at funerals attended by thousands who came to pay respects. President visits with Karnit, offers words of comfort
Karnit Goldwasser is sitting next to her. She is crying, but every time she sees an acquaintance or friend, or when a thought goes through her mind, a small smile emerges on her face, lively and natural like the tears. Her face is soft, her hair flowing, and she gave her sunglasses to someone. It is difficult to take our eyes off of her. Karnit is sitting there, completely exposed. She came to bid her husband farewell, but she cannot forget that he hasn’t been hers only for a while now.
With her angry tone, Miki Goldwasser is the first and only Israeli so far able to stand up to Nasrallah’s propaganda. My fellow countrymen, hold your heads high, she says in a way no other leader would dare do. Without hesitation she talks about victory in the Second Lebanon War. She has no questions or doubts, and if there were failures, we’ll take care of them. This is our own business, and let no one take pleasure in our weakness.
Reclaiming our national dignity
Softly, with a chocked up voice, Karnit Goldwasser speaks to her dead husband. I will bid you my personal farewell elsewhere, she says. If that is the case, then just like her mother-in-law, here she is talking to the nation. She pledges her allegiance to Ehud for the second time, backs his doubt-free march to the battlefield, and promises all of us that she is moving on. Four times in her eulogy she asked what the chances are of time healing the wounds, yet not even once she said there was no cure.
They are sitting side by side, and at a certain moment both hug the man who seems to be the most broken there, the father, Shlomo. Yet on this day, they came to care for an entire nation overcome by grief. Miki Goldwasser came to reclaim our national dignity, while Karnit came to reclaim our national soul.
And they are completely dedicated to their roles. They are the ultimate Hebrew mother and wife, willing to sacrifice, serve as the silver platter, and allow their personal pain to offer strength to the nation.
There is something in the wisdom of these two women, in their clear vision and personally, that is beyond what we have become accustomed to. After all, we and our leaders learned that pain weakens us, and that we are allowed and should react out of fear and without thinking too much. They, on the other hand, do not give in to the pain, they are fearless, and they thought hard and long about every word they uttered.
Karnit and Miki Goldwasser are not the type of women who fought to get the IDF out of Lebanon, yet maybe in their own way, they will clear the horrors of Lebanon from our soul.