Friday, July 28, 2006

No End In Sight For Israel

Israel enjoyed a respite from international condemnation in the days after Hezbollah's attack. That state of affairs appears to be ending. British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has roundly condemned Israel for its "disproportionate" offensive. From Scotsman.com:

Mr Straw, who is privately unhappy at the UK-US support for the Israeli action, issued a statement after meeting community leaders in his constituency of Blackburn.

He echoed the words of Middle East minister Kim Howells that the current tough Israeli action was "disproportionate".

No doubt this will please the denizens of Londonistan (picture from Islamic Evil) . It has certainly pleased Iran.

The Scotsman story offers additional reason to doubt Britain's continued support:
But sources said the Prime Minister was now ready to urge the US President to back a ceasefire "as a matter of urgency".

Mr Blair is said to be concerned that pro-western Arab governments are "getting squeezed", giving a boost to militants. Reports claimed the Prime Minister's private view was that Mr Bush is "prevaricating" and allowing the conflict to run on too long.

The Arab press is attacking the U.S. for steadfastly supporting Israel's attempts to defend itself. They ignore a very simple legal point: Hezbollah has no right to exist as a military force, and its refusal to disarm means that it's right to exist as an organized political force, the effective government of south Lebanon, is also forfeit. Referring to the attacks on Lebanon without referencing the attempt to selectively target Hezbollah is fundamentally dishonest. Referring to the attacks without referencing the fact that Israel is doing the job that resolution 1559 commanded Lebanon to do is similarly dishonest.

At Soccer Dad, a handy comparison of the above, dishonest point of view, and one which recognizes the true character of Israel's campaign and Hezbollah's attacks. The former is from Eugene Robinson, the latter from Charles Krauthammer. (Scroll to the "Assignment Desk" at the end of the post.)

Hezbollah rockets continue to strike northern Israel, but now Hassan Nasrallah's illegal, private army is using a rocket with a much larger warhead. The IDF fortunately destroyed one of the launchers for the larger missiles. They also claim to have killed a senior Hezbollah official. One down, how many left to go?

Encouraging thoughts at Abajo Fidel.

UPDATE 11:21 am CDT: Another Bint Jbeil satellite photo (click image for larger view):

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