Category Archives: Israel

Is there anything Bush isn’t blamed for? Now it’s the Israel-Hez fiasco, although the source, Debka, often is said to be inaccurate. Probably best to wait and see if this is seconded by others.

"Olmert talked Rice into asking President George W. Bush to back the air offensive. The US president acceded – only laying down…basic conditions: Israel must confine itself to an air campaign; before embarking on a ground offensive, a further American go-ahead would be required. [This] when relayed by the secretary of state [was] accepted by the prime minister [and] explains why Israel’s ground forces were held ready in bases for three long weeks rather than being sent into battle – up until the last stage. By then, the air force offensive had proved a long way short of fast and cheap; worse, it had been ineffectual."

But as Snoopy the Goon puts it: " Reading Debkafile is a mixed pleasure. You never know where the reality starts and the pure fantasy begins with these people, and that is on top of the team being clearly partisan and peppering what is supposed to be reporting with own political agenda."

Debka already sees the cease-fire being broken by Hez.

"The IDF’s northern command watching the thousands of displaced Lebanese flocking to their homes feared they would be used as cover for Hizballah to exploit the ceasefire for reinforcing its depleted South Lebanese forces.

"By afternoon, their fears were realized: cars loaded with Hizballah fighters, boxes of guns and military equipment were clearly visible heading south. Israeli troops were not authorized to stop them. DEBKAfile quotes a senior military source as saying that Hizballah is making a mockery of the ceasefire which Israel honored. ‘The situation is dangerous,’ he said, Most of Hizballah’s fortifications, including its bunker network in the south, were not destroyed as reported. Fresh Hizballah strength is now heading back to man those war stations anew."

Impressive reporting by Michael Totten, on the Israeli-Lebanon border, with many good photos of what this mobile artillery base is like and why some IDF spokesmen are upbeat, almost sanguine.

“Has anything been permanently accomplished up there?” I said.

“Some things, yes,” he said. “We destroyed a lot of their infrastructure. They had more weapons and more underground bunkers and tunnels than we had any idea. People coming out of there say it’s vast.”

But not much looks hopeful in Lisa Goldman’s report from "the shooting gallery." 

The Israeli bunker blogger is back with a long piece with a lot of common sense and so its conclusion is particularly saddening. Here’s part of it:

"A cease fire now means nothing but a breather. It’s a chance for aid to reach civilians in Lebanon, it’s strange how nobody is talking about aid for Israeli civilians. The northern towns are mostly poor, this past month the north of the country was basically shut down, people can’t work and so can’t afford to buy food, some can’t go out of the bunker for the food, it’s not dissimilar, perhaps it’s on a smaller scale, but nobody even mentioned it."

Many Israeli bloggers are upset about the ceasefire, which apparently will not begin until Monday, while the IDF is swarming southern Lebanon all the way to the Litani River, including in their biggest helicopter airlift in thirty years. But some like this Israeli doctor just reel from the confusion of it all:

"Talking to friends. Again news on TV confusion. I cannot study, read, love. Life as (I) know it stopped a month ago."

While Meryl Yourish finds some good in the UN resolution, even if she only gives it a D+.

"Israel managed to get the UN to do to the Arabs what the Arabs have been doing to Israel for decades. How does it feel, buddy? I think it’s great….The morning was ‘quiet‘—Ynet’s phrase that means ‘no rockets were fired on Israeli civilians’—and the afternoon heated things up. But not by a lot. Gee. The ground forces are stopping the rocket fire. Who’da thunk?"

She also has a link to a Jerusalem Post copy of the full UN resolution.