LCCC ENGLISH NEWS BULLETIN
September 4/06

Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ according to Saint Mark 7,1-8.14-15.21-23.
Now when the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they observed that some of his disciples ate their meals with unclean, that is, unwashed, hands. (For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews, do not eat without carefully washing their hands, keeping the tradition of the elders.
And on coming from the marketplace they do not eat without purifying themselves. And there are many other things that they have traditionally observed, the purification of cups and jugs and kettles (and beds).) So the Pharisees and scribes questioned him, "Why do your disciples not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?"He responded, "Well did Isaiah prophesy about you hypocrites, as it is written: 'This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me; In vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines human precepts.' You disregard God's commandment but cling to human tradition." He summoned the crowd again and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand. Nothing that enters one from outside can defile that person; but the things that come out from within are what defile." From within people, from their hearts, come evil thoughts, unchastity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and they defile."

Latest New from the Daily Star for September 4/2006
Olmert claims Siniora rejected peace overtures
Annan says Ahmadinejad is aboard with 'support' for 1701
Former Iranian president warns US policies are fueling terrorism
American convert joins Zawahiri on latest tape
Baghdad triumphant over arrest of Al-Qaeda deputy
MPs settle in for second night of protest against Israeli siege
Sfeir decries 'humiliating' Israeli blockade
Local prosecutor charges 6 in German bomb plot
Aid groups deny allegations of corruption, favoritism
Syria offers to rebuild 3 towns in South
Italian troops add girth to expanding UNIFIL II
Saudi Arabia urges world to help Lebanon reconstruct
Now that Annan has done his job, will Lebanon's leaders do the same?
Can Hizbullah's Lebanon lead to consensus? By Joseph Bahout

Latest New from Miscellaneous sources for September 4/2006
Syrian president offers to rebuild 3 south Lebanon villages-International Herald Tribune
Hezbollah Sets Up Islamist Paradise At Venezuelan/Columbian Border-RedState
Hezbollah wants to swap soldiers for child killer-The Sunday Times
Annan: Iran wants talks on nuke program-AP
Iraq says captures local al Qaeda deputy-Swissinfo
LEBANON: Power shortages could last months in south-Reuters
Teheran in double pledge-The Standard
Lebanon: Olmert’s comments – propaganda-Ynetnews
Olmert: I told Siniora 'let's talk peace'Ynetnews - Israel
Israel foresees pullout as Lebanon peace force grows-CNN
Lebanon war destroyed hope in future-Jumblatt-Reuters
Six commissions to investigate war in LebanonJerusalem Post
Lebanon veterans to address Knesset committee on war's failures-Ha'aretz
Israel plans for war with Iran and Syria-The Sunday Times
Israel said eyeing Iran, Syria war-Jewish Telegraphic Agency, NY
IDF prepares to leave Lebanon in 10-14 days-Ha'aretz
The "Azzam" Threat: A prelude to Future Jihad in America. By: Dr. Walid Phares -Counterterrorism Blog
Qaeda urges Bush, non-Muslims to embrace Islam: video- Reuters.uk
Lebanon charges six suspects in German train bombing attempt-Gulf News
Germany may send 3,000 troops to Lebanon-Peninsula On-line
Israel to lift blockade on Lebanon within weekPeople's Daily Online
Lebanon says won't join talks over kidnapped IDF troops-Ynetnews
Iran offers to support Lebanon cease-fire-CNN International
Islamic revival led by women tests Syria's secular identity-Houston Chronicle
Turkey Will Pull out of Lebanon if Forced to Disarm Hezbollah-Zaman Online

No. 2 al-Qaida leader in Iraq arrested
By ELENA BECATOROS, Associated Press Writer
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi and coalition forces have arrested the second most senior figure in al-Qaida in Iraq, Iraq's national security adviser announced on Sunday, saying the group now suffered from a "serious leadership crisis." Hamed Jumaa Farid al-Saeedi, known as Abu Humam or Abu Rana, was captured north of Baghdad a few days ago "along with another group of his aides and followers," Mouwafak al-Rubaie said. He was the second most important al-Qaida in Iraq leader after Abu Ayyub al-Masri, who took over the group after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed by a U.S. air strike north of Baghdad on June 7, al-Rubaie said. "We believe that al-Qaida in Iraq suffers from a serious leadership crisis. Our troops have dealt fatal and painful blows to this organization," the security adviser said. Al-Saeedi was "directly responsible" for Haitham Sabah Shaker Mohammed al-Badri, the alleged mastermind of the February bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, al-Rubaie added without elaborating.
The bombing inflamed tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims and triggered reprisal attacks that have killed hundreds of Iraqis and continue to this day. Al-Badri remains at large. "Al-Saeedi carried out al-Qaida's policies in Iraq and the orders of the slain al-Zarqawi to incite sectarian violence in the country, through attempting to start a civil war between Shiites and Sunnis — but their wishes did not materialize," al-Rubaie added. A senior coalition official told The Associated Press that coalition forces were involved in al-Saeedi's arrest, although the official would not characterize what role they played.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because announcements were being made by Iraqi authorities, said al-Saeedi had been arrested along with three other individuals southwest of Baqouba. Al-Saeedi "claims to be responsible for more attacks than he can remember" and has been involved in the insurgency almost from its beginning three years ago, the official said.
The U.S.-led coalition has announced numerous arrests of terrorists following the death of al-Zarqawi that officials claim have thrown al-Qaida in Iraq into disarray. But rampant sectarian violence and other attacks have continued. At least 16 Iraqis and two U.S. soldiers were killed Sunday in bomb attacks and shootings nationwide. Al-Rubaie said al-Saeedi was arrested "along with another group of his aides and followers," and that after his arrest, he gave information that led to the capture or death of 11 other top al-Qaida in Iraq figures and nine lower-level members.
The security adviser said those arrested included non-Iraqi Arabs, but he would not give any further information for security reasons.
Al-Rubaie said that according to Iraqi authorities' information, al-Qaida in Iraq was being financed from both within the country and from abroad, "but the major finance is coming from outside Iraq."Al-Saeedi was arrested as he was hiding in a residential building, the security adviser said, accusing the terror suspect of trying to use "children and women as human shields," al-Rubaie said, adding that no casualties occurred during the arrest.
After his arrest, al-Saeedi said al-Qaida in Iraq was cooperating with supporters of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein "in the fields of exchanging information and logistic support," the security adviser said. After al-Zarqawi was killed, authorities obtained information indicating that al-Saeedi had been operating in northern Salahuddin province, then moved on to operate outside Baqouba, the same area where al-Zarqawi was killed, al-Rubaie said.
Al-Saeedi "supervised terrorist groups that kidnapped people for ransom, and killed policemen after they received their salaries in order to finance terrorist operations," the security adviser said. "He used to order terrorist operations using mortars and roadside bombs, which led to the killing of several troops and innocent civilians." He said al-Saeedi also supervised the creation of death squads and ordered assassinations, bombings, kidnappings and attacks on Iraqi police and army checkpoints.
Al-Saeedi's capture "will affect al-Qaida in Iraq and its operations against our people, especially those aimed at inciting sectarian strife," al-Rubaie said.
Tensions, meanwhile, brewed in the north, after Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani on Friday ordered the Iraqi national flag to be replaced with the Kurdish one in his northern autonomous region. The move has troubled Sunni Arabs, who fear Kurds are pushing for secession under the nation's new federal system.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's office issued said Sunday that the national flag "is the only one which must be hoisted on each bit of Iraq's land."
A spokesman for the Kurdistan government defended his government's decision. "We consider that this flag represents the ideology of the Baath Party" of Saddam Hussein, Khalid Saleh said. "And this regime has collapsed." In other developments, reported by police on Sunday:
• An overnight mortar attack east of the capital killed six people, including two children, and wounded 15.
• A roadside bomb targeting a police patrol in eastern Baghdad killed two policemen and a civilian and wounded three policemen.
• Gunmen killed two policemen in a civilian car and wounded a third in Baqouba.
• A car bomb also killed three people in Baqouba.
• A civilian was gunned down and killed in a drive-by shooting in Amarah, 200 miles southeast of Baghdad.
• A suicide car bomb struck a police patrol in the northern city of Mosul, killing two policemen and wounding five people.
Associated Press writers Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Rebecca Santana and Rawya Rageh in Baghdad contributed to this report.

Lebanon charges six suspects in German train bombing attempt
AP-3/8/06: Beirut: A Lebanese prosecutor yesterday charged six suspects held in Lebanon and Germany of attempting to kill a large number of people in a failed plot to bomb two trains in Germany, court officials said. The accused include four Lebanese men who were detained in Lebanon recently and two, a Lebanese and a Syrian, who are held in Germany and charged here in absentia, the officals said.The move appeared to mean Beirut would refuse to extradite to Germany the four men held in Lebanon. Prosecutor Pierre Francis referred the four to a magistrate for further questioning on charges of attempting to commit "mass killings and starting fires with inflammable materials in German passenger trains" in July, the officials said. The charges came as a security team headed by German intelligence chief Ernst Uhrlau, was in Beirut meeting with Lebanese army intelligence and security chiefs.
Yousuf Mohammad Al Hajdib, 21, was arrested August 19 in the northern German city of Kiel, and Jihad Hamad, 20, was picked up a few days later in Lebanon. The four in Lebanese custody were identified by officials as Hamad, Khalid Khair Al Deen Al Hajdib, Ayman Hawa and Khalil Al Boubou.

Lebanon veterans to address Knesset committee on war's failures
By Gideon Alon and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents
In an unprecedented initiative by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, soldiers and officers who participated in the war in Lebanon will be able to speak directly to the committee in closed-door sessions about the failures of the war. Committee chair MK Tzachi Hanegbi (Kadima), who introduced the motion, told Haaretz that within the next few days, announcements would be placed in newspapers, inviting soldiers and commanders to testify before the committee and present their perspective on the war and the conclusions that should be drawn. The Knesset counsel has sanctioned holding hearings in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Be'er Sheva as well as in the Knesset Building in Jerusalem, to make it easier for people to submit testimony. Hanegbi said the hearing process was very important, as it would allow committee members to hear about the events in Lebanon first-hand. After the hearings are completed, the committee's six subcommittees will begin making recommendations based on the information submitted to the committee.
In a meeting last week, subcommittee heads MKs Hanegbi, Danny Yatom, Ami Ayalon, Matan Vilnai (Labor), Amira Dotan (Kadima) and Yuval Steinitz (Likud) decided that each subcommittee would independently investigate the failings in its own area of responsibility. For example, the Intelligence and Secret Services subcommittee will examine why the intelligence services did not know about the advanced rockets in Hezbollah's possession, the Human Resources subcommittee will examine why there were food shortages and why soldiers received old and damaged equipment.
Hanegbi said he expected the subcommittees' work to take a few months, after which the committee will publish a comprehensive report with recommendations and conclusions. Halutz to meet IDF leaders over failures Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz is expected to continue to meet with senior IDF officials in various forums this week to discuss failures in the army's pursuit of the war in Lebanon and to present his own position on the decisions made by the General Staff. Halutz will meet separately with General Staff senior officers and with the commanders of the four divisions that took part in the fighting. Two meetings are likely to be particularly highly charged: with the commanders of the battalions of the regular army that participated in the war, and with senior reserve officers. The latter is scheduled for Tuesday. Several reserve officers have been highly critical of the performance of the IDF and of Halutz in the war. A few reserve officers have complained in the past few days that they were not invited to meet with Halutz. Last week Halutz met with reserve duty battalion commanders and with division commanders. Military sources said that many of the participants were clearly very serious about carrying out a thorough investigation and using it to make improvements for the future. The sources said the question was whether there was an interest in doing so. Some of the commanders fear that the General Staff seeks to "frame" them for the mishandling of the war. The IDF's internal investigation of the war began last week with the appointment of about 50 committees that will deal with specific issues. Deputy Chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky will coordinate the work of the committees.

Iran offers to support Lebanon cease-fire
POSTED: 0123 GMT (0923 HKT), September 2, 2006
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TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran has offered to help support the cease-fire in Lebanon in talks Saturday with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan and insisted that diplomacy was the only way to resolve its nuclear dispute with the West. Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki pledged full cooperation in implementing U.N. Resolution 1701, which generally stopped the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia, U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Saturday. Annan, who met privately Saturday with Iranian leaders, said the resolution, passed by the Security Council on August 14, was the main topic of discussions."I am here today to discuss the implementation of U.N. Resolution 1701 regarding Lebanon, and to discuss and exchange views on that with the Iranian authorities," Annan told reporters after landing in Tehran. Annan also met with Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani, and called the meeting "a very good and constructive discussion." Larijani said Annan's view "for the resolution of the nuclear problem of Iran is positive."
"We will support the efforts he will make in this connection," Larijani said. "Both sides agree and accept that the best solution to this problem can be found through negotiation." The U.N. head was to meet with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, two days after the president flouted a U.N. deadline for suspending its enrichment of uranium, and reiterated Iran's determination to forge ahead with its nuclear program.
Annan had a phone conversation with the Iranian president before his visit to Iran, the U.N. spokesman said.
On the issue of Iran's nuclear program, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana will hold talks early next week with Larijani. After an EU foreign ministers meeting in Finland, the bloc said there was no deadline for the talks to produce results but warned it would not give Iran much time to resolve the standoff, the Associated Press reports. "We need some sessions -- one or two, not more -- to clarify some of the issues," Solana said at a news conference.
In Tehran, Larijani said "Annan's stance for solving the nuclear problems is positive." He did not elaborate, and there was no immediate comment from Annan or other U.N. officials on what was discussed. A commentary by state radio said that Iran hoped Iran could persuade the U.N. Security Council to adopt "new approaches toward Iran's nuclear case."
But in a reminder of Iran's hard-line stance, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned that Tehran could block access to IAEA inspectors if sanctions are imposed. "Iran will revise in its cooperation with the IAEA if punitive measures by the U.N. Security Council is applied against Iran," he said in a phone interview with state-run television.
Syria promises border patrol boost
In his interview with France's Le Monde daily, Annan said, "I do not believe that sanctions are the solution to all problems," when asked about the United States' desire to impose sanctions on Iran. "There are moments when a bit of patience produces lots of effects. I think that is a quality we must exercise more often," he said in the interview, published Saturday. Annan's visit to Iran comes as part of a series of diplomatic trips across the Middle East in efforts to maintain the peace between Israel and Lebanon. A day earlier, Annan was in Syria, Hezbollah's other top ally. He said he secured a promise from Syrian President Bashar Assad to increase border patrols and work with Lebanese troops to thwart the arms flow to Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon. (Full story)
But the promise was met with immediate skepticism from Israel and some in Lebanon. U.N. resolution 1701 calls on countries not to supply weapons to any parties other than the Lebanese government. Italian soldiers moved into Lebanon on Saturday, part of the first large contingent of international troops dispatched to boost the U.N. force keeping the peace between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas to a 15,000-strong force. (Watch what one U.N. official says about disarming Hezbollah -- 2:25)

Israel plans for war with Iran and Syria
Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv, and Sarah Baxter, New York
The Sunday Times September 03, 2006
THREATENED by a potentially nuclear-armed Tehran, Israel is preparing for a possible war with both Iran and Syria, according to Israeli political and military sources. The conflict with Hezbollah has led to a strategic rethink in Israel. A key conclusion is that too much attention has been paid to Palestinian militants in Gaza and the West Bank instead of the two biggest state sponsors of terrorism in the region, who pose a far greater danger to Israel’s existence, defence insiders say. “The challenge from Iran and Syria is now top of the Israeli defence agenda, higher than the Palestinian one,” said an Israeli defence source. Shortly before the war in Lebanon Major-General Eliezer Shkedi, the commander of the air force, was placed in charge of the “Iranian front”, a new position in the Israeli Defence Forces. His job will be to command any future strikes on Iran and Syria. The Israeli defence establishment believes that Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear programme means war is likely to become unavoidable. “In the past we prepared for a possible military strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities,” said one insider, “but Iran’s growing confidence after the war in Lebanon means we have to prepare for a full-scale war, in which Syria will be an important player.”
A new infantry brigade has been formed named Kfir (lion cub), which will be the largest in the Israeli army. “It is a partial solution for the challenge of the Syrian commando brigades, which are considered better than Hezbollah’s,” a military source said.
There has been grave concern in Israel over a military pact signed in Tehran on June 15 between Iran and Syria, which the Iranian defence minister described as a “mutual front against Israeli threats”. Israel has not had to fight against more than one army since 1973.
During the war in Lebanon, Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, the Iranian founder of Hezbollah, warned: “If the Americans attack Iran, Iran will attack Tel Aviv with missiles.”
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, both Iran and Syria have ballistic missiles that can cover most of Israel, including Tel Aviv. An emergency budget has now been assigned to building modern shelters.
“The ineptness of the Israeli Defence Forces against Hezbollah has raised the Iranians’ confidence,” said a leading defence analyst.
In Washington, the military hawks believe that an airstrike against Iranian nuclear bunkers remains a more straightforward, if risky, operation than chasing Hezbollah fighters and their mobile rocket launchers in Lebanon.
“Fixed targets are hopelessly vulnerable to precision bombing, and with stealth bombers even a robust air defence system doesn’t make much difference,” said Richard Perle, a leading neoconservative.
The option of an eventual attack remains on the table after President George Bush warned on Friday that Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
While the American State Department favours engaging with President Bashar Assad of Syria in the hope of detaching him from the Iranian alliance, hawks believe Israel missed a golden opportunity to strike at Syria during the Hezbollah conflict.
“If they had acted against Syria during this last kerfuffle, the war might have ended more quickly and better,” Perle added. “Syrian military installations are sitting ducks and the Syrian air force could have been destroyed on the ground in a couple of days.” Assad set off alarm bells in Israel when he said during the war in Lebanon: “If we do not obtain the occupied Golan Heights by peaceful means, the resistance option is there.”
During the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, the Syrian army briefly captured the Israeli strategic post on top of Mount Hermon on the Golan Heights.
Some Israeli analysts believe Syria will try again to take this post, which overlooks the Syrian capital, Damascus.
As a result of the change in the defence priorities, the budget for the Israeli forces in the West Bank and Gaza is to be reduced.
The Israelis are integrating three elite brigades that performed well during the Lebanon war under one headquarters, so they can work together on deep cross-border operations in Iran and Syria.
Advocates of political engagement believe a war with Syria could unleash Islamic fundamentalist terror in what has hitherto been a stable dictatorship. Some voices in the Pentagon are not impressed by that argument.
“If Syria spirals into chaos, at least they’ll be taking on each other rather than heading for Jerusalem,” said one insider.

The "Azzam" Threat: A prelude to Future Jihad in America
By Walid Phares
PS: This is a short version posting. The longer version will be posted later.
The video tape issued by al Qaeda’s “as-sahhab” production, in which Ayman Zawahiri introduces Jihadist Adam Gahdan to the world as a senior speaker to the American people on behalf of the movement, should be taken seriously. Not necessarily at the level of detecting the next Terror attack but at the level of understanding this prelude to Future Jihad both in America and within the West. I wasn’t surprised at all by the 45 minutes elaboration by convert Gahdan regarding all of the issues he raised. For “Azzam al Amrikee” is the clearest specimen of Jihadism’s second generation within the US, in as much as the 7/7 videos revealed the type of future Jihadists for Great Britain’s second generation. However, when one would listen carefully to the taped video, you’d find a treasure of knowledge and indicators for the current state of thinking of al Qaeda and its ideologues. In short it is a sample of what is on the mind of Salafi Jihadists for the United States and the West. Following are few of the issues I noted:
1) The hand behind the message
In short, Azzam’s videotaped message is indeed “American.” Experts have heard it in US and Canadian cities and internet is flowing with it. Whether Gadahn was reading from a prompter or not –and I believe he was with great skills- I tend to believe that such a speech –rather than being dismissed as mere propaganda- is a message coming to us from what’s already inserted inside America, which leads me to the second point
2) Who is it destined to?
It is basically addressed to those who will carry a “Jihad in America,” possibly asserting Adam Gahdan as their leader. Also, this is a very intelligent move to pierce the linguistic shield of America’s media and reach US citizens directly, as a way to spread confusion at least among those who have a hazy understanding of the Jihadists.
3) The ideological platform
In short, the “Azzam” video reconfirms clearly, in an English language that academic translators won’t be able to distort, that al Qaeda’s movement worldwide and in the United States is seeking total annihilation or conversion of the enemy: American and other democracies.
4) Argumentation tactics:
The “speech writer,” emulating many commentators on al Jazeera or al Manar, hopes to rally many among those who “hate Bush and Blair” but stops short of stating that Jihadism will hate all future US Presidents and British Prime Ministers “if they do not convert.” He reminds us of the Crusades, Inquisition, Hiroshima, and killings in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obviously, the “writer” skips the Genocides of Sudan, and the massacres of Algeria, the Kurds, Shiites perpetrated by Salafists or Baathists.
5) The enemies of Jihad in America
Sensationally but not unexpectedly, he “name” a number of intellectual-enemies in this country: Daniel Pipes, Steven Emerson, Robert Spencer and Michael Spencer. Rarely Jihadi Terrorists at this high level media exposure named symbols of their enemy’s intelligentsia. And in addition to “experts” named in the tape, Gadahn goes on a ferocious attack against American “Tele-Evangelists” and their media, showing the other type of foes al Qaeda is very upset with.
6) The “friends” of al Qaeda?
“Azzam” names “sympathetic” personalities for whom he has messages for action; He asks journalist Seymour Hirsh to “reveal more” than what was published in a New Yorker article on the War: Obviously an open call by al Qaeda to M Hirsch to resume the attack against the US War on Terror. Then “Azzam” turn to two British journalists and thank them for their “admiration and respect for Islam” encourage them to do the final step: Convert. He names British MP George Galloway and journalist Robert Fisk. But more troubling in Gadahn’s tape was his direct call to Jihadists within the US Armed forces to work patiently till the time comes and they should continue to aggregate while escaping the surveillance of their military authorities. This theme, which I covered briefly in Future Jihad, is of great concern to US national security. The “Azzam” speech brings further concerns as to the credibility of this threat.
7) The Al Qaeda offer: Conversion or fire
“Azzam”’s mission in this tape was to deliver a message. His bottom line is this: We –the Jihadists- have you cornered everywhere and you are not going to win this war. His central message is typically Jihadic: “Surrender, convert or the fire:” Meaning war on Earth, all of it, and Hell fire after death.
This fascinating and revealing taped-speech bring the American public even closer to what lays ahead for this generation and the next one as long as the Jihadist ideology is spreading inside America and worldwide.
**Dr Walid Phares is a Senior Fellow with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and a visiting Fellow with the European Foundation for Democracy. He is the author of Future Jihad: Terrorist Strategies against America.
September 2, 2006 07:28 PM Print

Olmert: I told Siniora 'let's talk peace'
Haaretz 3/09/06: Prime minister reveals his appeal to Lebanese prime minister while talking to high school students in northern Israel. 'How simple and natural would it be for Lebanese prime minister to answer my appeals to sit together, shake hands and stop hatred,' he says
First day of school: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert revealed Sunday morning to high school students at the ORT school in Maalot that he had appealed to Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora several times, asking him to meet in order to discuss peace agreements.
"How simple and natural would it be for the Lebanese prime minister to answer my appeals to sit together, shake hands and stop this hatred which part of his nation has directed at us. I hope this day is not far," Olmert said during a school opening ceremony at the Maalot Tarshiha high school in northern Israel .
"There is no nation seeking peace more than us. We forgive easily and make amends easily. What we ask for is so simple, natural, normal and obvious: To enjoy life, to enjoy what other nations views as obvious – waking up in the morning with no need to worry," he said.
"For 60 years we have been fighting to achieve these simple things. But till them, we will do all that it takes in order to be ready for any surprise which may come, and invest huge efforts and resources so that the Galilee flourishes and is full of life," he added.
Addressing the fact that the school year opened on time, Olmert said that this was proof of the Israeli public's great power of vitality.
"Sometimes our abilities are doubted, particularly when we hear the sounds of wailing. But when the clouds above our life are dissolved, we encounter this power – the bursting power of creation – and then one says 'no one can stop us.'"
Maalot-Tarshiha Mayor Shlomo Buhbut, who also serves as chairman of the forum of confrontation line communities, told the students that the forum opposes the establishment of a state commission of inquiry into the war in Lebanon , due to the understanding that such a move would disrupt the Galilee's rehabilitation.
"We now need the government fighting for us and rehabilitating the north. We don’t need the leadership busy running with lawyers from one committee to another," he explained.
Earlier , Olmert met with elementary school students at Moshav Meona in the Galilee, where kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit studied.
"I look at the eyes of the children and see that you know how to cope," he told the students who had spent long weeks in bomb shelters. "I am not degrading what happened, but I admire your will, firmness, optimism, and love for this enchanting area where you live."
Olmert promised the children that "together we will make a real and serious joint effort so that our Galilee will become a place of joy, a place of pride and a place in which the life and future of the State of Israel flourish. Have a successful school year, good luck to everyone, and a happy new year to everyone."
According to Olmert, "education is the State's most important resource. It's the security and economy, it's all we can be."
Olmert told the children about his first day in school: "I wasn’t so nice and I wasn’t so smart. I didn’t know many things like you know before you even started studying. I asked the first-graders I visited home many of them were already working on a computer, and everyone raised their hands."
Olmert was met both in Moshav Meona and in Maalot by dozens of demonstrators from the Movement of Quality Government in Israel, who called on him to establish a state commission of inquiry. The protestors activated sirens and chanted slogans against the commissions of inquiry Olmert declared, calling them "cover up committees."

Israel foresees pullout as Lebanon peace force grows
September 3, 2006
NAQOURA, Lebanon (CNN) -- Israel may withdraw all its troops from Lebanon within two weeks if the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon continues to deploy at the current pace, the Israel Defense Forces said Sunday.
More Italian troops arrived in Lebanon Sunday as part of the largest contingent of U.N. multinational forces to date. Their mission is to bolster the fragile cease-fire between Israel and the Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
Sunday's deployment came a day after approximately 100 Italian marines donning blue berets arrived on small motor boats and U.N. helicopters at the Lebanese port city of Tyre. (Lebanese welcome arrival of Italian peackeepers -- 3:09)
The Italian troops deployed over the weekend were part of an Italian commitment that will eventually place 3,000 troops in Lebanon in support of UNIFIL.
The troops will not be in the region to fight, but under their mandate will be responsible for defending themselves and any nearby civilians that are in danger, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said last week. Annan was scheduled to meet Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday, a day after a U.N. official said Iran had vowed to help implement the cease-fire in Lebanon.
U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Saturday that Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki pledged Iran's full cooperation in implementing U.N. Resolution 1701, which halted the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. The resolution called for UNIFIL to expand to 15,000 troops.
Annan, who met privately Saturday with Iranian leaders, said the resolution, passed by the Security Council on August 11, was the main topic of discussions.
"I am here today to discuss the implementation of U.N. Resolution 1701 regarding Lebanon, and to discuss and exchange views on that with the Iranian authorities," Annan told reporters after landing in Tehran.
The U.N. head was to meet with Ahmadinejad two days after the president flouted a U.N. deadline for suspending its enrichment of uranium, and reiterated Iran's determination to forge ahead with its nuclear program.
Annan had a phone conversation with the Iranian president before his visit to Iran, the U.N. spokesman said.
Annan also met with Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani and called the meeting "a very good and constructive discussion."
Larijani said Annan's view "for the resolution of the nuclear problem of Iran is positive."
Annan's visit to Iran comes as part of a series of diplomatic trips across the Middle East in efforts to maintain the peace between Israel and Lebanon.
Meanwhile, two men suspected of heading a terror cell that received funds and guidance from Hezbollah were arrested Saturday by Israeli military and supporting security forces in the West Bank, an IDF statement said.
The men, identified as Hassan Ufi and Ta'er Amara, were arrested for heading a terror cell that received Hezbollah funding to produce low-grade rockets. In addition, Israeli military said the men have attempted to carry out a number of failed rocket attacks.
"In the past months the Hezbollah terror organization has been focusing efforts to develop the terror infrastructure in the West Bank," the IDF statement said. "The IDF will continue to use any means at its disposal against terror organizations in order maintain the safety of the citizens of Israel."

Lebanon war destroyed hope in future -Jumblatt
Sun 3 Sep 2006 6:19 AM ET
By Alistair Lyon, Special Correspondent
MUKHTARA, Lebanon, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Hizbollah's war with Israel has plunged Lebanon into uncertainty, its fate once again tied to Middle Eastern conflicts most of its people would rather avoid, Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt said.
Jumblatt, speaking to reporters at his ancestral home in the Shouf mountains, linked Lebanon's long-term stability to the nuclear dispute with Iran and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
"If the Americans go ahead and press the Iranians with sanctions and if ... they try to strike Iran, it will lead to troubles in Lebanon," he said on Saturday.
Unless the Israelis learned that brute force could achieve nothing and instead struck a deal on a viable Palestinian state, he said, Lebanon would remain in a vicious cycle. "Every two or three years we'll have a new round of fighting."
Jumblatt, 57, who led a formidable Druze militia in the 1975-90 civil war, now sits with some of his former Christian foes in an anti-Syrian coalition controlling a government in which Hizbollah and its allies hold a powerful minority share.
He berated Washington's "stupid approach" in backing Israel's blockade of Lebanon, saying plenty of arms were already in the country and the diverted trade benefited only Syria.
He attacked Syria, Iran and their Hizbollah ally for wrecking any chance that after last year's Syrian troop pullout, Lebanon could disengage from regional turmoil and build a state.
"This dream was stolen, kidnapped," he said, blaming Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah for picking a fight with Israel by snatching two of its soldiers, provoking what Nasrallah has since admitted was a response he had not expected.
"What's the use?" Jumblatt said of Nasrallah's regrets. "The war is over for the time being, but the toll of destruction is terrible." Just as bad, he said, was the loss of confidence.
"What's the future of my country?" he asked. "I'm stuck here, my destiny's here, but look at the generations ahead."
Jumblatt questioned how long Hizbollah would keep its pledge to observe a U.N. truce that halted the fighting on Aug. 14.
"Okay, they want to keep the situation quiet now, and then what?" he asked, suggesting that Hizbollah might renege on its promise "if they get orders" from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
He also said Assad had deceived U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan when he told him on Friday that he would tighten border security to stop the Shi'ite Muslim guerrillas from rearming.
Jumblatt said two weapons convoys had crossed the Syrian border recently. Lebanese security officials have denied this.
FAMILAR GAME
"So Assad is playing again the same old trick ... telling Annan and the Americans 'I'm here, I'm the ruler of the game' -- at the expense of Lebanon of course," Jumblatt said.
He said the Lebanese army, which has sent 8,600 troops to the Syrian frontier and is deploying 15,000 in the south, did not have enough forces or equipment to control the border fully.
Asked if Hizbollah might lay down its guns and become a Lebanese party independent of Syria and Iran, he said: "The one who gives money and weapons is the one who (gives) orders."
He insisted the state must have a monopoly of weapons and establish its authority everywhere, including in the Palestinian camps and the south, but acknowledged it could not impose its will on Hizbollah, which fought the Israeli army for 34 days.
"If you have a dual authority -- on one side the camps, on the other the Lebanese army; above ground the Lebanese army, under ground Hizbollah; somewhere UNIFIL (peacekeeping troops) -- this is very fragile," he said.
Jumblatt, who accuses Syria of assassinating his father in 1977 and former Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri in 2005, said Syria would try to "torpedo" the government as it prepares to authorise an international tribunal to try Hariri's killers.
"We have to expect trouble, maybe riots and maybe assassinations. We got used to his (Assad's) methods," he said.
U.N. investigator Serge Brammertz reports this month on his inquiry into Hariri's killing. Syria has denied previous U.N. assertions that its security officials were involved.
Jumblatt said Lebanon's role as a diverse, multiconfessional land acting as a link between east and west was under threat.
"It seems the Syrians, the Iranians, want to drag us out of this position to be part of the east, this dark east," he said.
Dialogue, not violence, was the only way for war-weary Lebanese to deal with the challenges Hizbollah posed, he said.
"But the young people, the people who had hope in Lebanon, the liberal-minded people, I think they won't stay here.

Egypt says it warned Israel against "foolish" war
Fri 1 Sep 2006 4:23 PM ET
CAIRO, Sept 1 (Reuters) - Egypt warned Israel that its "foolish" war in Lebanon against Hizbollah threatened Egypt-Israeli ties, Egypt's foreign minister said in a television interview broadcast on Friday. In a rebuttal of accusations from ordinary Arabs that Egypt could have done more to defend Lebanon and back Hizbollah, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Egypt had made its anger clear to Israel. "Letters (to Israel) expressed anger and resentment and requests to stop and warnings that the Egypt-Israeli relationship may be affected in future," Aboul Gheit said. "We were aware of the magnitude of the casualties, of the deaths, the magnitude of the damage and also the size of Israeli foolishness and that of Hizbollah's mistake," he added.Egypt is one of only two Arab states that have peace treaties with Israel. Its pleas for Israel to halt its attacks on Lebanon in its war against Hizbollah were ignored.
The Shi'ite Islamist group's capture of two Israeli soldiers in July preceded Israeli air and ground attacks.
Arab public opinion had strongly criticised Egypt's failure to hold Israel back and also President Hosni Mubarak's indirect criticism of Hizbollah at the beginning of the conflict. In the interview, broadcast on satellite channel Al-Mehwar, Aboul Gheit defended Egypt's initial response to the war.
He referred to recent statements made by Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah in which he said his group would not have kidnapped the Israeli soldiers had he known that Israel's reaction would produce a 34-day war. "Nasrallah's speech ... has major significance that should not be missed and proves the wisdom of Egypt's handling of its interests and that of the region," Aboul Gheit said.

UN names human rights experts to investigate Israel
Fri 1 Sep 2006 11:19 AM ET
GENEVA, Sept 1 (Reuters) - The United Nations' top human rights body on Friday announced a three-person team to investigate allegations of violations by Israel during its month-long war in Lebanon. The Human Rights Council, composed of 47 states, last month called for launching a high-level Commission of Inquiry to investigate what it called "systematic targeting and killing" of Lebanese civilians by Israel. The resolution, brought by countries of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the Arab League, also called for the probe to examine the types of weapons used by Israel, their conformity with international law as well as their impact on property, infrastructure and the environment. Mexico's Ambassador Luis Alfonso de Alba, who serves as chairman of the U.N. Human Rights Council, announced the appointment on Friday after holding consultations.
He named Clemente Baena Soares, Mohamed Chande Othman and Stelios Perrakis as the commission's three members.
Soares is a former secretary-general of the Organisation of American States, while Othman is a judge on Tanzania's Supreme Court and Perrakis a professor at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences in Athens, Greece.
The team plans to meet soon in Geneva to discuss how it will proceed, but there was no word yet on when it might travel to the region, U.N. human rights spokesman Jose Luis Diaz said.



Lebanon veterans to address Knesset committee on war's failures
By Gideon Alon and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents
In an unprecedented initiative by the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, soldiers and officers who participated in the war in Lebanon will be able to speak directly to the committee in closed-door sessions about the failures of the war.
Committee chair MK Tzachi Hanegbi (Kadima), who introduced the motion, told Haaretz that within the next few days, announcements would be placed in newspapers, inviting soldiers and commanders to testify before the committee and present their perspective on the war and the conclusions that should be drawn. The Knesset counsel has sanctioned holding hearings in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Be'er Sheva as well as in the Knesset Building in Jerusalem, to make it easier for people to submit testimony. Hanegbi said the hearing process was very important, as it would allow committee members to hear about the events in Lebanon first-hand.
After the hearings are completed, the committee's six subcommittees will begin making recommendations based on the information submitted to the committee.
In a meeting lastweek, subcommittee heads MKs Hanegbi, Danny Yatom, Ami Ayalon, Matan Vilnai (Labor), Amira Dotan (Kadima) and Yuval Steinitz (Likud) decided that each subcommittee would independently investigate the failings in its own area of responsibility. For example, the Intelligence and Secret Services subcommittee will examine why the intelligence services did not know about the advanced rockets in Hezbollah's possession, the Human Resources subcommittee will examine why there were food shortages and why soldiers received old and damaged equipment.
Hanegbi said he expected the subcommittees' work to take a few months, after which the committee will publish a comprehensive report with recommendations and conclusions.

Halutz to meet IDF leaders over failures
Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Dan Halutz is expected to continue to meet with senior IDF officials in various forums this week to discuss failures in the army's pursuit of the war in Lebanon and to present his own position on the decisions made by the General Staff.
Halutz will meet separately with General Staff senior officers and with the commanders of the four divisions that took part in the fighting.
Two meetings are likely to be particularly highly charged: with the commanders of the battalions of the regular army that participated in the war, and with senior reserve officers. The latter is scheduled for Tuesday. Several reserve officers have been highly critical of the performance of the IDF and of Halutz in the war.
A few reserve officers have complained in the past few days that they were not invited to meet with Halutz. Last week Halutz met with reserve duty battalion commanders and with division commanders. Military sources said that many of the participants were clearly very serious about carrying out a thorough investigation and using it to make improvements for the future. The sources said the question was whether there was an interest in doing so. Some of the commanders fear that the General Staff seeks to "frame" them for the mishandling of the war. The IDF's internal investigation of the war began last week with the appointment of about 50 committees that will deal with specific issues. Deputy Chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. Moshe Kaplinsky will coordinate the work of the committees.

IDF prepares to leave Lebanon in 10-14 days
By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent and News Agencies
The Israel Defense Forces could withdraw all troops from Lebanon in a period of 10 days to two weeks if the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon continues to deploy at the present rate, security forces told Haaretz over the weekend.
Meanwhile, the bolstered peacekeeping force in Lebanon began taking shape on Saturday as 1,000 soldiers started moving in - the first large contingent of international troops dispatched to help safeguard a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah.
The Italian advanced forces, which landed in Tyre in helicopters and rubber boats, are meant to protect the Italian navy ships docking on Sunday.
With Israel apparently racing to destroy Hezbollah arms caches in the territory it occupies ahead of an impending withdrawal, the UN force commander said the truce was still "fragile" and warned any incident could quickly escalate.
The IDF is expected first to withdraw to the ridge one to two kilometers north of the Israeli-Lebanese border, followed by redeployment along the border itself, although the two stages may be combined and the timetable sped up.
"We want to complete the withdrawal as quickly as possible. No one wants to stay in Lebanon more than necessary," a source said.
The completion of the withdrawal from Lebanon will allow the reserve battalions currently serving in the West Bank on emergency orders to be demobilized and replaced by regular troops. The army is gradually thinning out its troops, having already withdrawn those posted deep inside Lebanese territory. At present a force equal to two brigades is now in Lebanon. A large number of the troops are there to make sweeps and are not manning permanent positions.
Troops sweeping the village of Aita al-Shaab in the western sector Friday uncovered and demolished a Hezbollah bunker containing numerous weapons and ordinance. Military sources said they were satisfied with the rate of deployment of the international force and the serious attitude of its commanders.
There have been weeks of delay in deploying peacekeepers since the cease-fire began August 14, in part because it took time to hammer out details over the troops' mandate and convince countries hesitant to offer troops for what was seen as a potentially risky mission: getting between the bitter enemies, Israel and Hezbollah. The full 15,000-member force has not been assembled yet, but with several major European countries now on board, more pledges from other countries are coming in.
Mainly Muslim Indonesia announced it would send up to 1,000 soldiers by month's end after Israel dropped objections to its participation in the force. The U.S., Europe and Israel have been eager to have Muslim troops among the peacekeepers to show it is not a solely Christian force. However Israel opposed Indonesia's taking part because it does not have relations with that country.
Turkey's prime minister, meanwhile, was trying to ensure that parliament approves his government's promise to send troops amid strong public opposition. Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured Turks the soldiers would not be disarming Hezbollah militants.
"When such a thing is requested from our soldiers, then we will withdraw our soldiers," Erdogan told reporters on Saturday.
The UN cease-fire resolution calls for Hezbollah to eventually be disarmed, but doesn't mandate the peacekeepers to do it.
Instead, the force, along with the 15,000 Lebanese troops now moving into the south, is to ensure a buffer zone along the Israeli-Lebanese border free of open Hezbollah fighters and arms, up to the Litani river about 30 kilometers to the North. At the same time, Lebanese troops on the border with Syria are supposed to prevent new weapons shipments to Hezbollah. UN chief Kofi Annan said Friday that Syria, Hezbollah's ally, promised to patrol its side of the frontier to prevent arms deliveries, though Israel was skeptical it would really do so.
Annan on Saturday was in Iran, another top patron of Hezbollah and believed by many to be its top arms supplier, to press its leadership to ensure no weapons go to Hezbollah, as the UN cease-fire resolution requires all nations to do.
Despite the lack of a mandate to disarm Hezbollah, UNIFIL commander, the French General Alain Pellegrini said the expanded international force marked a break from a past in which peacekeepers stood helplessly by as conflicts repeatedly flared.
"We have to forget the previous UNIFIL. The previous UNIFIL is dead and the new one is very different," Pellegrini told reporters. "It is strengthened with stronger rules of engagement. We will have more people, more equipment. We have the possibility to use force to implement our mission."
After talks with Annan, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki gave a vague promise to uphold the resolution, saying, "Iran has supported the Lebanese consensus on the resolution." He did not specifically address the weapons issue.
400 Italian peacekeepers arrive in Lebanon
More than 400 Italian soldiers arrived Saturday in south Lebanon, as an advance party of the first large contingent of international troops dispatched to boost the United Nations peacekeeping force.One hundred fifty Italian marines wearing blue berets arrived by helicopter in the Mediterranean port city of Tyre to secure two beaches where the remainder of an 880-strong battalion of Italian soldiers were to land through the day. But only part of the force was able to make it to shore due to high waves Saturday. Some vehicles and equipment were diverted further south to Naqoura.
By sundown, a total of 400 Italian soldiers had landed in Lebanon and the operation would resume Sunday morning, said a UN officer who spoke on
condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
Another 200 Italian troops are expected Sunday in Beirut. Italy will be the biggest troop contributor to the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon, with 3,000.An Italian navy spokesman said some 800 had arrived in Lebanese waters out of a total of about 3,000 that Italy has pledged. The rest of the force will land Saturday and Sunday depending on sea conditions, he added.
Most of the first 1,000 that began arriving Saturday will move to positions 20 kilometers inland from the coastal city of Tyre, the Italian Defense Ministry said.
Besides the Italian contingent, 250 extra French soldiers have made it to Lebanon, though France has said it will send a total of 2,000 troops.
Italy's foreign minister teased France on Saturday over its World Cup soccer final defeat to Italy, joking that the French would also come second in sending peacekeepers to Lebanon.
"Yes we are the first like in the football World Cup, but the French are coming second, very soon I think," Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told reporters after EU foreign ministers discussed the Middle East at a meeting in Finland.  Israel drops objections to Indonesian contribution
Also Saturday, Indonesia said it will send up to 1,000 troops to southern Lebanon by the month's end, after Israel dropped objections to its participation in the United Nations peacekeeping force. "We are ready to send troops by the end of the month at the latest," Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda told reporters while attending a conference on the resort island of Bali.
After talks that included UN peacekeeping officials, Israeli leaders reversed their stance that Indonesia should be barred because it does not reconize Israel, a UN official said. The official spoke anonymously because the negotiations were private.
A spokeswoman for Israel's mission to the UN said she had not been told Israel had shifted its position and promised to check again.
UN officials and European diplomats have urged Muslim nations to make substantial offers for the force despite Israel's refusal. Malaysia and Bangladesh have also offered troops. The European Union has pledged 6,900 additional forces for the UN peacekeeping mission, but that is well short of the 15,000 that the Security Council envisioned in an August 11 resolution that led to a cease-fire to the war between Israel and Hezbollah militants.
Turkish government submits resolution to parliament to send troops
Turkey's government on Friday submitted a resolution to parliament to send peacekeepers to Lebanon despite public opposition to the deployment.
The parliament is expected on Tuesday to vote on the resolution authorizing a one-year deployment of an unspecified number of troops.
The Turkish contribution to the expanded UN peacekeeping mission would include a naval task force to patrol the eastern Mediterranean and prevent arms smuggling. Many in Turkey fear that their soldiers could end up facing hostile fire or could clash with fellow Muslims. But Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered assurances that Turkish soldiers would not be disarming Hezbollah militants.
According to the resolution, Turkish forces would also help train Lebanese army troops and provide sea and air transport in support of other national contingents in the UN force. Europe, the United States and Israel are all eager to see peacekeepers from Turkey in Lebanon, in the hopes that strong Muslim participation would avoid any impression in Lebanon that the UN peacekeepers are primarily a Christian, European force.

Lebanon says won’t join talks over kidnapped IDF troops
Culture Minister Mitri says his government disavowed Hizbullah kidnapping operation but chooses not to position itself as broker in negotiations; calls Israel’s retaliation ‘excessive, disproportionate and unjustified’
Associated Press Latest Update: 09.03.06, 00:05
The Lebanese culture minister said Saturday that his government won’t involve itself directly in negotiations to release the two Israeli soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah in July. Tarek Mitri, who represented Lebanon at the United Nations in New York during the conflict, told reporters that his government disavowed the Hizbullah operation, but has chosen not to position itself as a broker in the negotiations.
Negotiations
Egypt: Israel-Hizbullah prisoners exchange deal in works / Roee Nahmias
Senior government officials tell Al-Ahram newspaper deal for release of kidnapped IDF troops, Lebanese prisoners through German mediation may be struck within two-three weeks; officials say deal with Palestinians for release of Gilad Shalit also attainable  Speaking at a World Council of Churches meeting in Geneva, Mitri said there had been a “Tradition” of prisoner exchanges between Hizbullah and Israel over the past 20 years, and the government initially expected the two sides to strike a deal in which the soldiers would be swapped for Lebanese detainees held in Israel. Because of this, the “Excessive, disproportionate, unjustified retaliation” by Israel was unexpected, he said. Even so, the scope for Beirut to put pressure on Hizbullah was limited, said Mitri, because “Hizbullah is not fully under the control of Lebanese legal authorities.” Asked whether the government would seek to disarm Hizbullah, as Israel has demanded, he said there would “Not be a coercive disarmament” of the group. Instead, the government would seek to engage Hizbullah in a “Political process.”
'Not an easy battle'
The government realized it needed to integrate Hizbullah forces into the Lebanese army in order to be a sovereign state with a monopoly of arms, said Mitri. But he warned only political means would achieve that end, and the alternative - coercion - would lead the country back into civil war.
During 15 years of inter-ethnic and inter-faith fighting that ended in 1990, an estimated 100,000 Lebanese were killed and almost 1 million displaced. The government also plans to demand compensation from Israel for its bombing of the Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure, which Mitri said had torn the country “To shreds.” Asking for compensation “is not an easy battle,” he said, “But it is a battle we are going to fight.” “I think asking for compensation is important in itself,” he said. Mitri said that international organizations had indicated Israel did not comply with international conventions on the conduct of war, and Lebanon would look into taking its case to the International Criminal Court.

Germany may send 3,000 troops to Lebanon
Web posted at: 9/3/2006 2:31:31
Source ::: Agencies
BERLIN • Germany will decide next week to commit up to 3,000 troops to the UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon, tomorrow’s edition of the German magazine Focus reports. The magazine says the upper limit of 3,000 is designed to allow maximum flexibility to the proposed German contingent, which will be restricted to sea and air troops. The German government is due to meet tomorrow morning for an extraordinary session to discuss the country’s contribution to the expanded UN Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), Focus says, without naming its sources. The final decision will be taken during the week.
Chancellor Angela Merkel has for weeks been saying Germany will not send ground troops to eliminate the risk of clashes with Israeli soldiers, which remains a fraught issue because of the country’s Nazi past. However, Germany could take command of the maritime mission charged with intercepting the delivery of arms destined for the Shiite militia Hezbollah. Sources close to the government said it has already decided to send a 1,200-strong naval force as well as between 200 and 300 military medics. Yesterday’s edition of the daily newspaper Tagesspiel reports that the figure will be closer to 2,000 troops with 800 soldiers from the Luftwaffe, Germany’s air force, expected to be used for reconnaissance missions.
The paper also reports that the government could contribute two warships, up to four torpedo launchers and six Tornado combat planes.
Earlier, Germany has already offered warships backed by surveillance aircraft to prevent weapons being smuggled to Hezbollah guerrillas after their war with Israel. But officials have previously refused to say how many personnel Germany would send, insisting the precise mission must first be worked out.
Gernot Erler, a deputy foreign minister, said on Thursday on Inforadio that officials at the UN in New York were discussing a naval contingent of 1,400 service personnel. Germany has offered to take the lead, but Erler noted that other nations were also offering ships. It is not offering ground troops, given its Nazi-era past. German officials have expressed concern about deploying German troops in any situation that might bring them into confrontation with Israeli soldiers. A UN ceasefire resolution has authorized up to 15,000 UN peacekeepers to help an equal number of Lebanese troops extend their authority into south Lebanon, which has been controlled by Hezbollah, as Israel withdraws its soldiers.

Islamic revival led by women tests Syria's secular identity
Nation is alone in the Arab world in the resurrection of female scholars
By KATHERINE ZOEPF-New York Times
DAMASCUS, SYRIA Sept. 2, 2006, 8:17PM— An Islamic revival for women in Syria could add up to a potent challenge to this once-determinedly secular state. Though government officials vociferously deny it, Syria is becoming increasingly religious and its national secular identity is weakening.
Early in President Bashar Assad's tenure, he changed the law to allow the wearing of Islamic head scarves in public schools, a practice forbidden under his father. Assad, who took office in 2000, also reduced the hours that students must spend each week in classes where the ruling Baath Party's ideology is taught and began allowing soldiers to pray in mosques.The government has been eager to demonstrate in recent years, through changes like these and through increasing references to Syria's Islamic heritage in official speeches, that it does not fear Islam as such.
"But these days," he said, "if you ask most people in Syria about their history, they will tell you, 'My history is Islamic history.' The younger generation are all reading the Quran."Women are in the vanguard. Though men across the Islamic world usually interpret scripture and lead prayers, Syria, virtually alone in the Arab world, is seeing the resurrection of a centuries-old tradition of sheikhas, or women who are religious scholars. The growth of girls' madrasas, or Muslim schools, has outpaced those for boys, religious teachers here say. According to a survey of Islamic education in Syria published by the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat, there are about 80 such madrasas in Damascus alone, serving more than 75,000 women and girls, and about half are affiliated with the Qubaisiate, ostensibly a women's prayer group. (It is pronounced koo-BAY-see-AHT.)
Women have taken advantage of their relatively greater freedom to form Islamic groups to spread stricter and more conservative Islamic practices in their families and communities. Since intelligence agents still monitor private gatherings that involve discussion of Islam, groups such as the Qubaisiate often meet clandestinely, sometimes with women guarding the door to deter interlopers. Hadeel, a Syrian woman in her early 20s who asked to be identified only by her first name, she had at first been astonished by the way the Qubaisiate seemed to single out the daughters of wealthy and influential families and girls who were seen as potential leaders. "They care about getting girls with big names, the powerful families," Hadeel said. In addition to committing the Quran to memory, Qubaisiate members are taught the principles of Quranic reasoning. It is this art of Quranic reasoning that most sets them apart from previous generations of Syrian Muslim women. Fatima Ghayeh, 16, an aspiring graphic designer, said she believed that "the older generation," by which she meant women now in their late 20s and their 30s, too often allowed their fathers and husbands to dictate their faith to them. The girls at the madrasa say that by plunging more deeply into their faith, they learn to understand their rights within Islam. When the occasion arises, they say, they are able to reason from the Quran on an equal footing with men.

Hezbollah's new battle at home
September 3, 2006
IF LOVE means never having to say you're sorry, that principle should apply with redoubled force when the emotion in question is hate. So when Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah publicly apologised for igniting the recent Lebanese conflict, his boasts of victory over Israel began to ring a tad hollow.
During an August 27 interview with Beirut's New TV, Nasrallah expressed regret about ordering the cross-border raid during which two Israeli soldiers were taken prisoner. "We did not think that there was a 1 per cent chance that the capture would lead to a war of this scale and magnitude," he conceded.
This on-air confession was a far cry from the belligerent declarations of readiness "for open war" with the Zionists that Nasrallah previously broadcast. And the rent-a-crowd outbursts of "spontaneous" support that Hezbollah orchestrates count for little in the real calculus of Lebanese politics.
As the dust from the fighting settles, Nasrallah must confront a rising tide of popular resentment over his miscalculations that led to this unnecessary war. And the season of Arab discontent is not restricted to Beirut. As far afield as Saudi Arabia, the English-language Arab News accused Hezbollah of irresponsibility and adventurism.
Nasrallah is now attempting to retake the political high ground through the ostentatious allocation of money to victims of the war. But this sudden largesse — which everyone knows comes directly from the coffers of Hezbollah's patrons in Teheran — can only marginally defuse public anger at his recklessness. There are hundreds of thousands of Lebanese who will never see a penny in Iranian restitution. And even on a purely military level, the conflict was not the decisive Hezbollah triumph that some armchair strategists might think. True, the Shiite militia fought bravely from the fortified tunnel systems that it had built well in advance. And it had a few weapons system surprises up its sleeve, particularly state-of-the-art Russian anti-tank missiles whose tandem warheads could penetrate even Israel's top-of-the-line Merkava tank.
But whenever Hezbollah fighters engaged in close-quarters combat with Israeli troops, they lost — badly. So by the end of the conflict the militiamen were reduced to sniping from a distance at Israeli infantry with sophisticated anti-tank missiles. And while this tactic allowed Hezbollah to inflict some casualties on their enemy, it was an inefficient use of a very expensive weapon that was unsustainable over time.
None of this can excuse the glitches that plagued the Israel defence force's prosecution of the war. For the first time in Israel's history, its chief of staff came from the ranks of the air force rather than the army. And like the fighter pilot he is, Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz succumbed to the classic air force vanity myth that all enemies can be vanquished by bombing rather than boots on the ground.
Halutz was able to sell his faulty strategy of victory-through-airpower to a neophyte Israeli government. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defence Minister Amir Peretz were new to their offices. And neither could boast any real national security expertise. By contrast with former leaders such as Ariel Sharon and Yitzhak Rabin, who had solid records of military achievement, Olmert and Peretz had backgrounds in municipal government.
A combination of arrogance and inexperience meant that Israeli infantry and armoured units were committed piecemeal to the offensive. The defence force only deployed, en masse, just a few hours before the ceasefire came into effect. It was a classic case of too little, too late.
And there were other shortcomings as well. Cuts in Jerusalem's defence budget meant that many reservists did not undergo refresher combat training for several years before the conflict. And some reserve units went into battle equipped with older-style kit after their normal gear was taken for operational use in Gaza and the West Bank.
But the Israeli army is both flexible and smart. The tactical lessons are already being assimilated through the chain of command. Olmert has promised an enhanced appropriations bill that will allow the defence force to bring its reserve units up to scratch.
But it remains to be seen whether that will be enough to save the Israeli government from the domestic reverberations of the war. A spontaneous protest movement of demobilised reservists has sprung up to demand the resignation of the chief of staff and the government.
For its part, Hezbollah endured a serious battering during 34 days of combat. Its south Lebanon tunnel complexes are being systematically discovered and destroyed. The Israelis also killed an estimated 600 militiamen, roughly 20 per cent of the Shiite movement's 3000-strong cadre of hard-core Iranian-trained fighters. And when the usual calculus of combat casualties — two to three wounded for every dead fighter — is applied to Hezbollah, the picture for the militia looks even worse.
Of course, the Shiite militia has already begun to recruit and replenish its arsenal. But even with the best intentions of its Syrian and Iranian patrons, the task of restoring Hezbollah's full operational capacity will take many months, if not years.
And the question is whether the Lebanese people will again allow their country to be used by Iran as a surrogate battlefield.
For all Hassan Nasrallah's bluff and bluster, Hezbollah could be skating on very thin domestic political ice.
Ted Lapkin is a former Israeli army officer who fought in Lebanon during the 1980s. He is now director of policy analysis for the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council.

Cradle to Grave: Hezbollah Children
By:  Russell Berman ·
Saturday · September 2, 2006
In the debates during and after the recent war in Lebanon, supporters of Hezbollah have tried to represent it as a deliverer of social welfare and not as a terrorist organization. Let us leave aside the question as to why a social welfare organization would be armed to the teeth and dwell for a moment in order to consider the claim itself and its theoretical/political implications. The utopia of the social welfare state has been phrased for a more than a century in terms of providing benefits to its client-citizens "from cradle to grave." In other words, the whole life course would become an object of state administrative practices. This bureaucratic apparatus logically necessitates some level of intrusion by the state into the private sphere of family life: care-taking, starting with the cradle, means a politicization of the nursery, and so forth. Hence Hayek's anxieties that even a modest social state would not stay modest for long and set out on a "road to serfdom."
To talk about Hezbollah as only a welfare state is an apologistic misrepresentation, akin to discussing Hitler in terms of managing unemployment and building the Autobahn (the way the press praises Hezbollah for its Iran-bankrolled big-spending in the Lebanese reconstruction). Hezbollah is however like a "welfare state" in the Hayekian sense: leveraging its resources and political clout to extend a tyrannical control over the private sphere. This is nowhere more evident than in the fate of the Hezbollah children.
The intrusion of Nazi ideology into nascent pan-Arabism in the 1930s in fact included the establishment of youth movements modeled on the Hitlerjugend, and the lynchpin in this connection was none other than Baldur von Schirach, the leader of the Nazi youth program. This sort of fascist politicization of youth therefore has a long history, but Hezbollah has taken it to new heights. Its message to the Lebanese is evidently this: the price for the social welfare benefits is sacrificing your children. The content of Hezbollah's welfare state practice is to accelerate the itinerary from cradle to grave: straight from the cradle, into the grave. The Egyptian weekly Roz al-Yusuf published an article on August 18 by Mirfat al-Hakim on "Hezbollah's Children Militia." Some excerpts:
Hizbullah Recruits Children Barely 10 Years Old  "Hizbullah has recruited over 2,000 innocent children aged 10-15 to form armed militias. Before the recent war with Israel, these children appeared only in the annual Jerusalem Day celebrations, and were referred to as the 'December 14 Units,' but today they are called istishhadiyun ['martyrs'] . . . "  "Hizbullah has customarily recruited youths and children and trained them to fight from a very early age. These are children barely 10 years old, who wear camouflage uniforms, cover their faces with black [camouflage] paint, swear to wage jihad, and join the Mahdi Scouts [youth organization] . . . "The children are selected by Hizbullah recruitment [officers] based on one criterion only: They must be willing to become martyrs."
The Children Train to Become Martyrs
"The children are educated from an early age to become martyrs in their youth, like their fathers, and their training is carried out by the Mahdi Scouts youth organization. . . . [This organization], which is affiliated with Hizbullah, teaches the children the basic principles of Shi'ite ideology and of Hizbullah's ideology. . . . The first lesson that the children are taught by Hizbullah is 'The Disappearance of Israel,' and it is always an important part of the [training] program. . . .
"The Mahdi Scouts organization was founded in Lebanon on May 5, 1985. . . . According to the organization's website, the number of [scouts] who had undergone training by the end of 2004 was 1,491, and the number of scout groups which had joined [the organization] was 449, with a membership of 41,960. According to the organization's most recent statistics, since 2004, 120 of its members have been ready to become martyrs.
"The organization's goal is to train an exemplary generation of Muslims based on the [principle of] 'the rule of the jurisprudent' [a founding principle of the Islamic Revolution in Iran], and to prepare for the coming of the Imam Mahdi [the Shi'ite messiah]. Its members, including the children, undertake to obey their commanders, to bring honor to the [Muslim] nation, and to prepare themselves for helping the Mahdi [when he comes]."
(Source: The Middle East Media Research Institute, Special Dispatch Series - No. 1276, Sept. 1, 2006. Link.)
"A Nation With Child-Martyrs Will Be Victorious"
According to the article, Na'im Qasim, deputy to Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, said in an interview on Radio Canada: "A nation with child-martyrs will be victorious, no matter what difficulties lie in its path. Israel cannot conquer us or violate our territories, because we have martyr sons who will purge the land of the Zionist filth... This will be done through the blood of the martyrs, until we eventually achieve our goals."
Questioning the Hezbollah-Nazi axis
Louis Greenspan, professor emeritus of religious studies at McMaster University, wrote in the September 1, 2006 edition of the Globe and Mail:
Hezbollah and other radical movements in the Islamic world have an eerie resemblance to the fascist parties of prewar Europe. On the other hand, I believe we should seek to place radical Islam in its Middle Eastern context where, I believe, we will find greater strengths and greater weaknesses than the paradigm of a war on fascism allows. We need to find an alternative to those on the left who are energized by the thought of a new great revolution and those on the right who have conjured up an ill-defined permanent crusade.
Islamic radicalism has produced a cornucopia of déjà vus. Many on today’s left envision a repeat of history. In their writings, they have decoded radical Islamic thinkers as humanists and Western anti-imperialists. They have celebrated contemporary leaders as reincarnations of Che Guevara and even the Minutemen of the American Revolution. Yet, those secular leftists who embraced the Islamic revolution in its finest hour, the 1979 uprising of the Iranian masses against the Shah, have either been executed or thrown into exile.
The warnings of Mr. Bush, Mr. Rumsfeld and Mr. Kenney seem prescient by comparison. The literature and actions of Hezbollah recall fascist political outlooks so closely that one suspects the original fascist manifestos were models and inspiration. Hezbollah’s call for the removal of Israel from the Middle East and its vigorous opposition to all negotiations to end the conflict is buttressed by ugly discourses on Judaism and the Jewish people and ratified by actions such as the destruction of the Jewish centre in Argentina in the early 1980s.
Hezbollah has played a villainous role in the Palestinian campaign of suicide bombings. Hezbollah itself used suicide bombings against Israeli military targets, but scholars believe it instructed others, primarily Hamas and Islamic Jihad (the latter, like Hezbollah, an Iranian protégé), in the innovation of suicide attacks against civilian targets. Moreover, its theologians and philosophers have provided the justification for such attacks, teaching that, since Israel’s army consists of draftees, all Israeli civilians are eligible for destruction. This is Hezbollah’s most memorable contribution to moral theology. Its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, has declared that the ingathering of Jews in Israel will make it easier to destroy them.
Much of this gives credence to the imagery of a new "war on fascism," but, as this war has unfolded, we have blundered from one disaster to another, in Iraq, in Lebanon and elsewhere. I would argue that it arises from too singular a view of the struggle with fascism. War on fascism conjures up the image of total victories followed by military occupations by millions of soldiers to re-educate deluded masses.
Bleak as this picture seems, I don’t want to support any view of this war that freezes the actors in situ. To call Hezbollah a Hitlerite phenomenon is to preclude its evolution into a political party devoted to its country. Its future in this respect is a crucial moment in the evolution of Islamic radicalism.

Hezbollah announces commander's death from wounds sustained in fighting with Israel
The Associated Press
Published: September 2, 2006
BEIRUT, Lebanon Hezbollah announced Saturday the death of a military commander from wounds he sustained in monthlong fighting with Israel, making him the highest-ranking guerrilla the group acknowledges to have died in the war. In a statement carried on Hezbollah's al-Manar TV, Hezbollah said "the commander Hajj Ali Mohammed Saleh Bilal was martyred from wounds he sustained in the confrontations." It did not give his rank other than commander, meaning he was from the military wing.Lebanese security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Bilal was a sector military commander, but had no further details. Before the announcement, Hezbollah has acknowledge losing 68 fighters out of more than 800 Lebanese killed in the fighting. Most of the rest are civilians. Israel had said it killed hundreds of guerrillas. Hezbollah officials have said none of the top leadership was hurt. Naim Kassem, the deputy Hezbollah leader, has said in interviews that his son was badly wounded. Israel's devastating 34-day offensive on Lebanon was triggered when Hezbollah guerrillas snatched two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid July 12.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
B'nai Brith calls for increased vigilance in wake of firebombing of Jewish Montreal school
MONTREAL, September 2, 2006 - B'nai Brith Canada has reacted with great concern to news that the Skver-Toldos Orthodox Jewish Boys school in Outremont was hit with a Molotov cocktail in the early hours of Saturday morning.
"This dangerous and despicable act of violence against a Jewish institution occurs at a time when antisemitic incidents are on the rise," said Frank Dimant, B'nai Brith Canada's Executive Vice President. "A mere few months ago, at the outset of the most recent Middle East crisis, B'nai Brith had issued a security alert to Jewish community institutions, synagogues, schools and individuals urging for greater vigilance. In a short period of time we have experienced bomb threats against synagogues, the stoning of visibly Orthodox Jews leaving their evening prayer services, a physical assault of a rabbi, swastikas on Jewish institutions and many other hate-filled acts. Today's attack on a Jewish school should not be underestimated, and underscores once again the need for increased vigilance and close coordination between law enforcement and community stakeholders.
"With the coming of the new school year and the Jewish High Holiday season, we call on every community member to be alert for any danger and to report it immediately to the police and to call B'nai Brith Canada's 24/7 community Anti-Hate Hotline at 1-800-892-2624. We also call on police to increase patrols of Jewish community sites and to do everything in their power to apprehend the perpetrators. The Montreal Jewish Security Coordinating Committee under the chairmanship of Allen Adel, National Chairman of B'nai Brith's League for Human Rights, will continue to work with the police on this issue."

Can Hizbullah's Lebanon lead to consensus?
By Joseph Bahout -Daily Star
Monday, September 04, 2006
It might well be true, as many frightened politicians in Lebanon are saying today, that Hizbullah has just conducted a coup d'etat. But such an assertion would not be completely accurate unless it embraced the entire sequence of events: the July 12 abduction of two Israeli soldiers along the border, and the cessation of hostilities under UN Security Council Resolution 1701. If Hizbullah really put into practice the classical mechanism of "war making-state building," Israel should be entitled to claim the primary credit in its success.

Regardless of whose fault it was to inflame the South Lebanese front that had been more or less quiet since May 2000, and regardless of the widely recognized disproportionate nature of Israel's response to the kidnapping operation, 34 days of all-out war on Lebanon's infrastructure resulted in the amplification, at least inside Lebanon, of the perception of a weak, even moribund state, countered by a resilient and tactically efficient Hizbullah. The relative diplomatic success the Siniora government can claim to have achieved will not seriously change this perception. The foreseeable gradual erosion of the 1701 mechanism merely confirms that much of Lebanon's immediate future from now on lies in the hands of Hizbullah and its strategy of resistance.

Does this mean that Hizbullah has completely taken over Lebanon's essential political decision-making capacity and the entire country's fate? Has Hizbullah become a state within a state, or a state alongside of and superior to the official one? This is too hasty an assertion; it also completely ignores the track history of the entire 15 years of post-war Lebanon. During these years, two projects competed with and confronted one another on Lebanon's soil and in Lebanese institutions, and both articulated deeply rooted internal dynamics and regional vested interests.

The first revolved around the figure of entrepreneurial Prime Minister Rafik Hariri with his strong Saudi and Western backing, and openly gambled on a potential peaceful dynamic in the Middle East to revive a wounded merchant and cosmopolitan Lebanon. The second had Hizbullah as its backbone, was backed by Iran and its ambitious Islamist project, and considered Lebanon an advanced combat front against Israel and, when necessary, the West. Both projects were permitted, animated and arbitrated by Syrian tutelage, then accepted by the West, which kept them in balance. With the crafting of UN Security Council Resolution 1559 and the paradigm shift provoked on the Lebanese political scene by the removal of the Syrian factor, the Hizbullah project was put on the defensive. But Hizbullah had dynamics of its own that were rooted in Israeli occupation, Shiite mobilization and ambition regarding the post-war Lebanese political system, as well as the catalyzing effect of the Iranian build-up and the overall Islamic rise in the region. By sometimes willingly ignoring these factors and considering Hizbullah as simply the remnant of a previous era of Syrian domination, the dominant Lebanese political discourse probably helped put the party on the defensive and persuaded it that what was at stake was its very survival and that the time had come for it to fight an existential war.

In such a broad context, there exists today a Lebanese discourse that argues that Hizbullah's "provoked" war with Israel was nothing more than an armed attempt at cutting the momentum and depriving the country of its independence project, and that the "Cedar Revolution" that flooded the streets of Beirut a little over a year ago was the victim of Shiite vigilante adventurism. It is striking, in this respect, to contrast the two diametrically different narratives of the recent war that are dividing the Lebanese polity and society: contradictory analyses of the real causes of the war, and contradictory assessments of who really won it and lost it.
http://www.dailystar.com.lb

But Lebanese have a very costly and painful experience with opposing narratives, with stories of one party's triumph turning out to be another's debacle. They also know that words can sometimes be as lethal as weapons. When an entire sector of the community is depicted as having a deeply different sense of belonging, identity and collective goals, and when that sector is moreover accused of being a hostile "foreigner's" proxy, then the "enemy within" has arrived and strife is not far away.

Thus it is not surprising that a probing question that has periodically haunted the Lebanese is now with us again: Are we on the brink of a new civil war? The question is not new; it was raised many times before the recent round of violence, and it became an obsession after Hariri's assassination, in which many saw the trigger of unavoidable tension between Sunnis and Shiites in Lebanon - reflecting the tension that flared up in Iraq after the fall of Baghdad. In the incredibly tense atmosphere the last war has generated, it will take a lot of domestic political generosity on all sides and an improbably benevolent international concern to keep Lebanon from sliding down such scary slopes.

Let's hope that scenarios of the "Hizbullization" of Lebanon or the civil-war nightmare are still too extreme and far-fetched. Realistically, one cannot yet rule out another classic accommodation a la Libanaise in which Hizbullah agrees to trade off its military "victory" for mutually accepted political benefits. This time, however, if a "Lebanese bazaar" is to be opened again, one should also realistically expect that the structural changes and transformations that have been at work since the end of the last civil war would prove too complex to be integrated and digested by traditional mechanisms such as the one provided by Taif.

If Hizbullah is not to become a state within a state or even the state itself, it will still have the ambition - some would say the right - to implant its own definition of Lebanese statehood and a new "Lebanonism." In such a venture, in which many Lebanese will have to learn to accommodate those they consider newcomers, the Lebanese social and political fabric will again probe the limits of its complexity and subtlety. And once again, while experiencing the fragility of Lebanon's equilibrium, this country's friends and foes alike will be reminded that compromise and consensus often come at the expense of decision-making and state-building.


**Joseph Bahout is currently professor and research associate at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. This commentary first appeared at bitterlemons-international.org, an online newsletter.