Wednesday, August 4, 2010
A collection of information for your edification:
A good run-down from Richard Landes at PJM: Israeli Officers Ambushed on Northern Border. Read it all if you're just tuning in.
Richard follows up with a little analysis of the broader diplomatic situation: Is Obama's Pressure for Direct Israeli-Palestinian Talks Pushing Region Towards War?
There's a very good article from someone I'd never heard of before named Yossef Bodansky: Clash on Israel-Lebanon Border Holds Potential for Strategic Escalation. This has some good tid-bits like:
...the main event in the aftermath of the clash is an anticipated major speech by Hassan Nasrallah. The speech was scheduled for 20:30 on August 3, 2010 (Lebanon time), but its exact time was being constantly changed. Senior HizbAllah officials predict that Nasrallah's speech "will mark a turning point" for Lebanon and the entire Middle East. They explained that Nasrallah would "focus on the national and Islamic dimension of the July [2006] war" and its implications for the current situation in the entire region. Nasrallah's speech, the Senior HizbAllah officials stress, "will mainly be devoted to talk about the meaning of victory against Israel" in both past wars and in the historic confrontation still to come.
Given the above, the August 2, 2010, rocket firing from southern Sinai of Aqaba, Eilat, and a base of the US-led Multinational Force & Observers Organization in Sinai might also be part of this kind of made-to-order "proof" of Israeli aggression. Significantly, the six 122mm GRAD rockets fired from Sinai were made in Iran or North Korea, strongly suggesting that the perpetrators were Iran-sponsored main group rather than a Palestinian fringe entity.
Even the New York Times has to report: U.N. Supports Israeli Account of Border Clash
The IDF Spokesperson's office has an Audio + Transcript of Israel Army Radio's Interview with UNIFIL Spokesman, Milos Struger
...Struger: "I can confirm that we received notification from the IDF early in the morning about this work, and we conveyed this to Lebanese army. Our investigation has been launched today..."...
Melanie Phillips says Here we go again... Her posts brings together a number of important threads.
CiF Watch uses pictures to provide some analysis: A carefully staged ambush on the Lebanese border
And Yaacov Lozowick notes how the media is completely unequipped (or unwilling) to deal with the issues in any more than a he-said, she-said manner: PC vs Truth: Journalism Loses
Same theme from Honest Reporting: Special Alert: Media Collusion in Lebanon Ambush
Here is a video message from Benjamin Netanyahu:
A page of info from the Israeli MFA: Firing on IDF patrol from Lebanon
Update: Good post from Omri: Did Lebanon Use American Weapons To Attack Israel?
I believe that the incident and the subsequent admission on the part of the UN that the Israeli troops were within Israel, will be used to force UNIFIL out of Lebanon. I believe that it is possible that the UN may be complicit in setting the stage for this. Tensions will rise, Nasrallah will stir the pot and Lebanon will ask the UN to leave. With so many things coming together with Arab states realigning; with Turkey and leadership continuity questions in Egypt. Something just seems to be brewing.
This reminds me of the news conference I saw on TV with Olmert and Livni right before Israel went on the warpath over the continual rockets coming from gaza.
Let us all remember that "russia" got very hissy over rockets the US installed in the Czech Republic and Poland, yet Israel is expected to tolerate hizbullah, hamass, islamofascist regime of iran rockets.
Happy NAKBA hizbullah, hamass, islamofascist regime and "paleswine"!