The major television networks and cable channels, through which much of the population receives its information about world events, have played an especially foul role in concealing the real political and social questions. To watch the television news channels and network news programs for a single afternoon and evening is largely to bathe in ignorance and reaction.

This begins with the manner in which the Middle East conflict is portrayed. The language and phrases used are carefully calibrated to conform to the arguments of the Israeli government and its sponsors in the US.

The television news programs inevitably present the current conflict as a struggle between Israel and "terrorists." Right-winger and xenophobe Lou Dobbs of CNN, for example, on Wednesday evening, in the course of a one-hour program, repeats this thought no less than eight times: "Israel tonight is stepping up its offensive against terrorists in Gaza," "Israeli troops tonight are fighting Hezbollah terrorists in one of the biggest ground battles of this conflict," "Hezbollah terrorists tonight are firing a barrage of rockets at cities and towns in northern Israel," and so forth (from CNN transcripts).

Without fail, as well, any reference to the fighting must place the blame for its eruption on Hamas and Hezbollah, not long-term Israeli ambitions. Bob Schieffer, on the CBS Evening News Wednesday, for example, almost in passing, refers to Hezbollah as the group that "started the trouble in Lebanon." Tucker Carlson of MSNBC explains that Hezbollah "sparked the conflict." On CNN, Miles O'Brien comments, "At the same time, Israeli troops have moved into central Gaza. Six Palestinians killed in that offensive. That operation began last month after Palestinian militants kidnapped an Israeli soldier."

No hint emerges from any of the television news programs that underlying the massive Israeli operation might be geopolitical aims, that what we see unfolding is an operation that has been long in the planning and only waiting for a pretext. Such a possibility is not even suggested.

The news on American television is nothing but propaganda. It has, in fact, a totalitarian character. No effort is made to educate the public. The news is delivered for the most part by ignorant individuals, unaware of history and social reality, simply repeating lines fed to them.

When there is any question about the nature and scope of the current operation in Lebanon and Gaza, the television news programs simply turn to the State Department or the Israeli government itself for clarification.

For example, when is an invasion not an invasion? When the Tel Aviv regime says so. O'Brien of CNN, on the Israeli incursion into Lebanon, July 19: "Israeli troops are on that side. They say it's not an invasion, they say it's part of an effort to root-out Hezbollah bunkers, strongholds and those rockets which continue to besiege the northern part of Israel."

And when is the destruction of a country's infrastructure no such thing? Also when the Israelis say so. Israel is not responsible for the destruction of bridges, roads, tunnels, apartment complexes, port facilities, factories. The "terrorists" are responsible. Israeli hands could not be cleaner. A parade of Zionist government officials appears on American television: on Wednesday alone, Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres (to borrow a phrase from Philip Roth, speaking with "all the cold authority of that voice dipped in sludge"), former prime ministers Benjamin Netanyahu and Ehud Barak, Israeli ambassador to the US, Dan Gillerman.

All the veteran Israeli leaders have blood on their hands. They bandy about the word "terrorist," but the state of Israel was formed through explicitly terrorist means and the various political figures have personally participated in or presided over deadly military operations against the Palestinian, Lebanese and Jordanian populations.

They are all well-trained practitioners of the Big Lie-that tiny Israel is under siege from its barbarous Arab neighbors. They know the "hot buttons" to push. They interact with their US interviewers like members of the same club. Israel, they seem to suggest, is "America in the Middle East," practically the 51st state.

Peres appears at least twice on US television Wednesday, on "Hardball with Chris Matthews" on MSNBC and "Larry King Live" on CNN. Both interviewers are deferential to the veteran war criminal. Peres claims to King, "Israel didn't start the war. Israel didn't attack anybody. We gave back to Lebanon all the land, all the water.... We were living for six years in total peace. We didn't hurt anybody."

Peres, of course, is lying. Israeli history in relation to Lebanon is one of provocation, violence and criminality. Before Israel's establishment, Zionist leaders envisioned a greater Israel that would include the southern portion of Lebanon as far as the Litani River (perhaps Israel's military goal today in any invasion). In the 1950s, the Israeli government considered the fracturing of Lebanon, the establishment of a Christian state and the annexation of the southern part of the country.

Between 1968 and 1974, the Lebanese army recorded more than 3,000 violations of Lebanese territory by Israeli armed forces; 880 Palestinians and Lebanese were killed in the attacks. Some 150 Palestinian camps and villages in southern Lebanon were razed and olive groves and crops destroyed.

In March 1978, Israel invaded Lebanon, killing more than 2,000 people and making some 250,000 homeless. In one of the most gruesome crimes of modern times, the Israelis allowed their allies in the fascist Southern Lebanon Army to enter the Palestinian refugee camps of Sabra and Shatilla in September 1982, where the latter carried out the slaughter of an estimated 2,000 men, women and children. An Israeli inquiry later found that Defense Minister Ariel Sharon bore "personal responsibility" for the massacre. The Israeli military proceeded to occupy southern Lebanon for another 18 years, during which time countless Lebanese and Palestinians suffered at their hands.

For the American television networks, however, history began when Hamas guerrillas seized a single Israeli soldier on June 25.

Defense of civilian deaths

On Wednesday, Netanyahu, the extreme right-winger beloved of the neo-fascists in the Republican Party, defends the killing of civilians to MSNBC's Tucker Carlson. In keeping with the Zionist regime's line (and the line of every imperialist bully), civilian deaths are the fault of the "terrorists," who insist on mingling with the general population. "If you have to take out a rocket emplacement in a crowded neighborhood, you have to do it," explains Netanyahu, to which Carlson audibly adds, "That's right." Carlson is an empty-headed yuppie, formerly of CNN where he was most famous for his bow tie, who suggested in 2001 that torture "may be the lesser of two evils."

When Lebanese casualties are mentioned by the television news, they are inevitably balanced by reports of Israeli deaths and wounded, as though the figures were equivalent. On Wednesday afternoon, the Fox News Channel's John Gibson, a fanatical right-winger, intones, "Hezbollah attacked the holy city of Nazareth," where a rocket killed two Israeli Arabs. The various news commentators are astounded to learn that local residents blame Israel, first, for not providing bomb shelters for the predominantly Arab population, and, second, for launching its attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.

"Hundreds dead, more than a thousand wounded, half a million displaced" proclaim the various anchormen and women, not bothering to explain that the overwhelming majority of those suffering are Lebanese civilians. With a vast military preponderance, the Israelis are targeting a virtually defenseless population. Wednesday witnesses the highest daily toll of civilian casualties yet, with some 70 killed, and this fact is barely mentioned.

If the American television networks had the slightest honesty, they would have begun their news programs Wednesday with the fact that Louise Arbour of the UN High Commission on Human Rights suggested that Israel might be guilty of war crimes. She declared that the obligation to protect civilians during hostilities is entrenched in international law, "which defines war crimes and crimes against humanity." Moreover, she argued that individual political leaders could find themselves charged with war crimes, adding, "I think one must issue a sobering signal to those who are behind these initiatives to examine very closely their personal exposure," she told the BBC.

The International Red Cross, the enforcer of the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war, also declared Wednesday that Israel had violated the principle of proportionality provided for in the Conventions and their protocols.

US television reports none of this on Wednesday.

The fighting is invariably described as "fierce exchanges between Hezbollah guerillas and the Israelis," again, as though there were some sort of equivalence between the Islamic movement's Katyusha rockets and mortars, and the Zionist military's F-16 bombers, Apache helicopter gunships, artillery, tanks and armored personnel carriers.

Almost unavoidably, glimpses of the truth appear on American television news programs. Certain reporters on the spot in Lebanon, obviously affected by the mass suffering, provide some picture of what life is like under the Israeli siege.

Nic Robertson of CNN reports on the bombing of a food distribution warehouse in Beirut, which burns for hours. He warns of a "humanitarian crisis in the making," with half a million people out of a population of 4 million displaced, "airports bombed, ports blockaded." Cooking gas is difficult to find, he reports, and food will run out. CBS News carries a report from southern Lebanon-a father has lost two children to an Israeli bomb. Over the bomb crater, the father demands to know, "Do you see Hezbollah fighters here?" David Wright of ABC News notes, "Civilians have borne the weight of this war."

One of the most moving encounters appears on ABC, with an Ethiopian woman, who works as a maid in Beirut. The young woman is crying, obviously terrified, cowering in a doorway. The reporter notes, with sympathy, "No ship is coming for her."

The hostility of the Lebanese population to the Israeli war and the backing of the resistance cannot be entirely evaded. CBS News notes that Hezbollah is "drawing support from the war meant to destroy it." Even a Fox News report from a park in Beirut, where the homeless are camped out, has to admit that there are "no hard feelings toward Hezbollah." An aid worker tells the Fox reporter, "the refugees here adore Hezbollah."

A British ITN report on the devastation of Lebanon, shown on MSNBC, however, is the most forthright piece of reporting to appear on the US television networks Wednesday.

Genuine bloodthirstiness also raises its head. Carlson of MSNBC casually asks the former prime minister Netanyahu if the latter doesn't think it would be a good idea if Israel were to bomb Syria. Carlson likes the question so much, he asks it twice on his program.

Billionaire reactionary Steve Forbes, who sought the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, appears on Fox News to advocate "letting 'em fight" in the Middle East. Crushing Hezbollah will be good for stocks, we learn.

Brit Hume of Fox News somewhat mournfully asks his usual panel of Fred Barnes, Mort Kondracke and Mara Liasson "how long can the US hold out" against the pictures of refugees and devastation in Lebanon before it is forced to pressure Israel into considering a ceasefire. Not long, they regretfully reply.

The Israeli embassy, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and the entire Zionist lobbying enterprise expend vast amount of time and money to intervene in and manipulate the US media. The lobbying in and of itself would not be successful if its aims did not coincide with American imperialist policy. Apart from that, the pro-Israel operation would simply be considered a criminal conspiracy.

How else to explain certain stories that suddenly appear on each television network and cable channel simultaneously? On Wednesday, for example, the various American news programs, as though on cue, run stories on the supposed threat posed by Hezbollah terrorist attacks in the US.

Each of the networks or channels treats the story with its own particular touch. Rupert Murdoch's Fox News pulls no punches. "Your World with Neil Cavuto," an afternoon program, asks Wednesday, "Are Hezbollah cells a bigger threat than Al-Qaeda?" Brian Levin, "terror analyst," and Wayne Simmons, a former CIA operative, unsurprisingly, answer in the affirmative. Simmons suggests, without providing a shred of evidence, that Hezbollah is "much more of a threat than Al-Qaeda." Fox subsequently runs a headline, "FBI hunts for Hezbollah sleeper cells inside US."

Not to be outdone, CNN asks its viewers, to most of whom the question has no doubt never occurred before: "How concerned are you about Hezbollah attacks in the US?" The cable channel's Wolf Blitzer, formerly the Jerusalem Post correspondent in Washington, warns of "fears that Hezbollah is going to hit the US."

The CBS Evening News with Bob Schieffer also introduces the allegation with a sensational headline, "Hezbollah in the US," only later to half-debunk the story by pointing out that Hezbollah supporters in the US have never been charged or suspected of any terrorist attacks.

Another carefully coordinated story appears on CNN and other channels Wednesday: about a group of American Jews emigrating to Israel. CNN reports, "For Jehuda Saar, a father of three, the fighting only strengthened his resolve to pick up his family and leave New Jersey." Saar comments, "Without shooting one bullet, without holding a gun, we're Israel's best weapon against any detractor, anyone that wants to destroy Israel." However, 22-year-old Steven Rubin is more than eager to "shoot bullets" and "hold a gun"; he plans to join the Israeli army.

Rubin tells CNN that the current fighting "only makes me want to go there more. And it validates everything I've been thinking for the existence of the state of Israel to see how important everything is at this point." More than a few of Israel's most fanatical settlers come from Brooklyn, Queens, New Jersey and Long Island.

Conveniently, Arye Mekel, Israeli Consul General is on hand for the departure of the group of émigrés at Kennedy Airport in New York. He tells CNN: "For us, for Israel, it's a huge boost to our morale, feeling that fellow Jews around the world are not deterred."

One afternoon, one evening of US television news...

Senate Democrats in a letter to Maliki said his failure to condemn Hizbollah's "aggression and recognize Israel's right to defend itself raise serious questions about whether Iraq under your leadership can play a constructive role in resolving the current crisis and bringing stability to the Middle East."

With more than 2,500 U.S. service members killed in the Iraq conflict, more than 18,000 wounded and more than $300 billion in U.S. tax dollars spent, the Senate Democrats said, "Americans deserve to know whether Iraq in an ally in these fights."

World Tribune quoted one unnamed analyst as saying, "There's no shock and awe here. Hezbollah has been hurt but has managed to continue."

They noted that Israel appeared to be imitating the strategy used by US-led NATO forces against Serbia and the regime of Slobodan Milosovic in 1999, but warned that formula would not work against Hezbollah.

"I can't see this as a successful strategy. In Yugoslavia, NATO had all the time in the world. Israel can't count on more than two weeks," said another analyst.

Hezbollah is expected to declare victory if it survives this fight, regardless of the damage done to its infrastructure.

As the talks began, Mr Olmert declared there would be no let up in the campaign against Hezbollah.

Mr Olmert said he was "very conscious" of the humanitarian needs of Lebanon's civilians, but insisted Israel was defending itself against terrorism.

Israeli troops are battling Hezbollah militants in Bint Jbeil inside Lebanon.

Israeli army radio says its troops are preparing to complete their takeover of the border town, a stronghold of Hezbollah militants, which has been the scene of a fierce battle since the Israelis took the nearby village of Maroun al-Ras on Saturday.

The BBC's Martin Asser in Tyre, on the Lebanese coast, says there is heavy bombardment of the hills south of the city both from Israel and from the sea.

Overnight a Lebanese family of seven in Nabatiyeh was killed when an Israeli missile struck their house, Lebanese officials said.

Mr Olmert said Israel was not at war with the Lebanese people, but with Hezbollah, which he described as a terrorist organisation, insisting that Israel would take the "most severe measures" against it.

'Durable solution'

Israel has recently signalled that it would be prepared to see a strengthened international peacekeeping force sent into southern Lebanon.

But the BBC's Jonathan Beale in Jerusalem says there is still plenty of scepticism about whether such a force would have the mandate and the political backing to take on Hezbollah.

Ms Rice has also been highlighting the need for Israel to consider the humanitarian needs of both Lebanon and the Palestinian people.

"The people of this region, Israeli, Lebanese, indeed Palestinian have lived too long in fear and in terror and in violence," she said.

"A durable solution will be one that strengthens the forces of peace and democracy in this region. It is time for a new Middle East, it is time to say to those who do not want a different kind of Middle East that we will prevail; they will not."

'No outright criticism'

Following her surprise visit to Beirut on Monday, in which she held talks with Lebanon's Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, she has been stressing the importance that innocent civilians should not be harmed.

However, our correspondent says there is no suggestion that she will tell Mr Olmert that Israel must halt its military operations, or that she will make any public criticism of Israel's actions.

The BBC's World Affairs Editor John Simpson in Jerusalem says it is understood that Ms Rice is telling Israel that the US will allow it more time to continue its military operations against Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon.

Some 380 Lebanese and up to 40 Israelis have died in 14 days of conflict, which began after Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers in a cross-border raid on 12 July.

'Hezbollah cowardice'

The UN's aid chief Jan Egeland has accused Israel of using excessive force, but on Monday he accused of Hezbollah of contributing to the problem by what he called "cowardly blending in among women and children".

"I heard there was a statement they were proud they had lost very few fighters, and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think you want to be proud of having many more children and women than armed men [killed]," Mr Egeland said, speaking in Beirut.

The UN has launched a $150m (£81m) aid appeal for Lebanon and the US has announced its own $30m package to ease the suffering of civilians.

Mr Egeland said the money was needed to help feed and shelter about 800,000 civilians caught up in the conflict.

About $24m was on behalf on Unicef for children who have been displaced inside Lebanon or who have fled to Syria.

Mr Egeland said he was asking the Israelis for safe passage for aid ships to enter the ports of Tripoli and Tyre.

A White House spokesperson said the US was also working with Israeli and Lebanese officials to open up humanitarian corridors in Lebanon, after President George W Bush promised ships and helicopters to provide aid to Lebanon.

The EU has already pledged $12.6m in aid while on Monday the UK increased its pledge to £5m.

Kofi Annan said he will attend the international conference in Italy Wednesday where he hopes a peace plan will be established that includes a ceasefire, the release of two Israeli soldiers captured by Hezbollah and the deployment of an international force in southern Lebanon.

"There are many ideas being put forward. I have my own ideas. The Americans have ideas. The Egyptians have put forward proposals and I'm sure by the time we get to Rome, others will come forward with ideas," Annan said.

Annan said it's important that "we don't walk away empty-handed and once again dash the hopes of those caught in this conflict."

Rice will also attend the summit in Rome, along with foreign ministers from Israel, Lebanon, the European Union, the United Nations and a number of Arab states.

Rice, who is on a diplomatic mission to the Mideast, was in Beirut to meet Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, who greeted her with a kiss on both cheeks.

Siniora said he was pleased Rice decided to visit Lebanon and his government would like to "put an end to the war that is being inflicted on Lebanon."

But he also told Rice that Israel's bombardment was taking his country "backwards 50 years" and called for a "swift ceasefire," his office said.

The area around Beirut and southern Lebanon has been pounded since July 12, when Israel began conducting air strikes, set up a naval blockade and sent troops and tanks across the border. The offensive began after Hezbollah militants - who are based in southern Lebanon and have long been launching periodic rocket attacks across the border into Israel - conducted a cross-border raid and attacked an Israeli army post, killing eight soldiers and capturing two others.

Yet even though the fighting had, as of Monday, killed 381 people in Lebanon and driven an estimated 600,000 people from their homes, the Lebanese government has ordered its military not to respond to Israeli military actions.

U.S. administration officials told the Associated Press that Rice's visit was designed to show U.S. support for the Lebanese government and its people.

President George W. Bush and his administration have repeatedly asserted that any ceasefire agreement must include an end to Hezbollah's rocket attacks against Israel, the disarmament of the militants and an assurance that they no longer pose a threat to Israel.

Washington has also made clear that it agrees with Israel's insistence that no ceasefire was possible until its military campaign against Hezbollah was complete.

Washington will work with Syria: Rice

While in Beirut, Rice said Washington was open to the idea of working with Syria to end the crisis - but also said it was up to Damascus to take action.

The Bush administration - and the leaders of a number of other Western countries - have long pointed the finger at Syria and Iran for encouraging Hezbollah's attacks on northern Israeli cities and towns.

The two Mideast countries have long been Hezbollah's key supporters, supplying money, weapons and shelter.

Some critics have accused Washington of exacerbating the crisis by refusing to talk with Damascus, but Rice dismissed the accusation as false.

"The problem isn't that people haven't talked to the Syrians: it's that the Syrians haven't acted," she said.

"I think this is simply just a kind of false hobby horse that somehow it's because we don't talk to the Syrians. It's not as if we don't have diplomatic relations," she told the Associated Press. "We do."

Rice pointed out that the United States has maintained a diplomatic mission in Syria, which gives Washington a direct "channel" to the country.

According to diplomats in Cairo, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have begun to put pressure on Syria to stop supporting Hezbollah, even though its other supporter, Iran, is believed to give it much of its money and weapons.

Syria, for its part, indicated on the weekend that it would be willing to enter talks with the United States to help forge a ceasefire. But it has said it would only participate in talks to end the violence if the conditions include the return of the Golan Heights.

Hope of ceasefire, says Blair

Meanwhile, British Prime Minister Tony Blair said a plan will emerge over the next few days that he hopes will lead to the end of hostilities in Lebanon.

"There have been, as you might expect over the past few days, enormous diplomatic efforts to get us to the point where I hope at some point within the next few days we can say very clearly what our plan is to bring about an immediate cessation of hostilities," Blair said during a news conference with Iraq's visiting Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

Blair said the plan stems from his proposal during the meeting of G8 leaders in Russia last week that calls for the end of hostilities, the return of the captured Israeli soldiers and an international peacekeeping force in south Lebanon to buffer both sides.

Blair also rejected calls by some for him to condemn Israel's military response in Lebanon. Some critics have complained Israel's response has been disproportionate.

"All of that means absolutely nothing but words unless there's a plan of action in place that can stop the hostilities and then address the long-term underlying causes of instability in that region."

While referring to the situation as a "catastrophe" and the loss of all civilian life as a "tragedy" he blamed Hezbollah for its "deliberate attempt" to destabilize the Israeli/ Lebanon border.

Blair said the only solution to the problems gripping the Mideast is to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian issue.

Michel's remarks are in contrast to more reserved statements by European Union member states, who have called for all parties to protect civilians and adhere to international law without specifically accusing Israel of abuses.

Michel said the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah was also abusing international humanitarian law and urged both parties to protect safe corridors to deliver humanitarian aid.

Israel has launched daily air strikes on southern Lebanon, Beirut and other parts of the country. Hizbollah has fired rockets into northern Israel. A total of 411 people in Lebanon and 42 Israelis have been killed in the conflict.

Aid efforts have been hit by Israel's bombing of civilian infrastructure including roads and bridges and its targeting of commercial trucks, the United Nations said on Monday.

Israel announced on Tuesday that it will allow aid airlifts to land in Beirut airport, but Michel said it must go further.

"It is a first small positive point but it will not be enough," he said, adding that land routes must be opened to get the aid through.

The European Union is due to give a second 10 million euro ($12.7 million) tranche of aid in coming days to help people in Lebanon caught in the conflict, Michel said.

That aid comes on top of a first tranche of 10 million euros announced last week. Another 30 million euros might be added next month, Michel said.

The new EU cash comes after the United Nations appealed on Monday for $150 million in humanitarian aid for the Lebanese.

And indeed there is no easy fix for Lebanon's current agony, caught between Hezbollah's unprovoked terror attacks on Israel and harrowing Israeli counterstrikes. But the shock and the complexity of the crisis must not paralyze the international community. It must step in to broker a humanitarian truce, provide aid for refugees and work to restore order.



That is what United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is hoping to accomplish in the next few days, armed with a UN Charter mandate to save innocents from the scourge of war. Talks open tomorrow in Rome.

At the same time, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice paid a surprise visit yesterday to Beirut, before flying to Jerusalem, in a diplomatic mission to create conditions for a ceasefire, which she says is urgently needed. Also yesterday, U.S. President George Bush ordered American helicopters and ships to Lebanon to start supplying humanitarian aid.



To help Annan in his efforts, Prime Minister Stephen Harper should give the UN secretary general every encouragement. Such support by Harper would reassure Canadians that Ottawa is alert not only to the fate of 50,000 Lebanese Canadians, but also to the well-being of everyone in the region who is threatened by this conflict.

With our military tied up in Afghanistan, Canada can afford to make only a modest material contribution to any peacemaking or peacekeeping effort in southern Lebanon, where the weak Beirut government has been not enforced a Security Council demand to disarm Hezbollah.

Moreover, Harper has shaken confidence in Canada as an impartial arbiter with his failure to balance his comments on Israel's right to defend itself with a caution for Israel to be as restrained as possible. And Ottawa has formally - and rightly - labelled Hezbollah a terror group. These factors limit our credibility as an effective arbiter in the current conflict.



Even so, Harper can do some good for Lebanon's shell-shocked civilians and help restore Canada's once enviable name in the region. He can achieve that by placing Canadian diplomacy firmly behind Annan's scramble to broker a humanitarian truce. Annan then hopes to work on a durable ceasefire with the Lebanese and Israelis, plus Hezbollah's Syrian and Iranian sponsors. That would allow the deployment of a credible and effective force of UN "blue helmet" peacekeepers with a mandate and the firepower to help the Lebanese government disarm Hezbollah and defuse violence south of the Litani River on the Israel-Lebanon frontier.



In a clear policy shift over the weekend, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is starting to warm to the idea of a peacekeeping force, although one preferably led by European countries rather than the United Nations.



While many Lebanese and Israelis who are cowering in their basements would no doubt welcome an international military presence of any sort, a broad UN-led force would have greater credibility with the Arab world than a narrower one led by Americans, Canadians and Europeans under the North Atlantic Treaty Organization banner.



Ideally, the Security Council should now broker a humanitarian truce, with an eye to putting UN blue helmets into place as quickly as possible, with support from NATO but also with troops from Russia and other guarantors of the frayed Mideast peace process.

That done, the United States and other power brokers in the region should press for a resolution of the wider Syria-Israel conflict, and for a just peace between Israel and the Palestinians.



As Annan tries to salvage hope from cinders, he must have the Harper government's strong and public support. And if Canada cannot send many troops to Lebanon, we must heed the United Nation's appeal yesterday for $150 million in urgent humanitarian aid to those whose lives have been shattered by this spasm of violence.

After meeting with the Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, and parliamentary speaker, Nabih Berri, in Beirut yesterday, Ms Rice will hold talks with the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, in Ramallah later today.

She is understood to have proposed that the Lebanese army deploy along the southern border with Israel, backed up by an international force.

Israel has demanded that Hizbullah pull back from the Israel-Lebanon border and that the Lebanese army be deployed in its place, but it has indicated it would accept an international peacekeeping force in the area. The Lebanese government insists that there must be a truce before a longer-term deal is worked out.

"Israel is determined to continue on in the fight against Hizbullah. We will ... stop them," Mr Olmert said. "We will not hesitate to take severe measures against those who are aiming thousands of rockets and missiles against innocent civilians for the one purpose of killing them."

Mr Olmert acknowledged that the Israeli offensive had caused humanitarian problems and said he would work with the US to try to alleviate them. Up to a fifth of the Lebanese population is thought to have been displaced by the past two weeks' fighting.

"We are aware of the state of humanitarian affairs of the population of Lebanon as a result of the brutality of Hizbullah," he said. "I think I can say in complete sincerity that Lebanon and Israel are both victims of this brutal, terrorist, murderous organisation."

In southern Lebanon, Israeli troops tightened their grip on Bint Jbail, preparing to complete the takeover of the town after a day and a night of fierce fighting with Hizbullah guerrillas, military officials said.

Israeli troops began fighting before dawn yesterday in an attempt to take control of the area, considered by the army to be of symbolic significance to Hizbullah. By this morning, military officials said the forces had surrounded the village and seized some houses on the outskirts, but fighting was continuing.

"There is fighting from every direction, including from the air. We are hitting terrorists; we have also taken several prisoners in this fighting. The enemy has more than a few casualties and overall we are now stabilising the situation to completely take over the village," Lieutenant-Colonel Itzik Ronen, a deputy commander of a unit operating in the area, said in comments broadcast on Israel's Army Radio.

At least two Israeli soldiers have been killed in fighting in and around the village, which sits just over a mile from the Israeli border. An Israeli airstrike killed a family of seven, Lebanese security sources said. Hizbullah said five guerrillas have died in the past two days.

Elsewhere, Palestinians in Gaza fired homemade rockets at a southern Israeli town, wounding one person, police and rescue services said. The rockets landed in Ami-Oz, near the border with Gaza.

In Britain, an international security expert, Lord Garden, was sceptical about the chances of success of any international force in Lebanon.

"Who are they going to get to do the policing? The great trouble will be when Ms Rice goes to Rome [to meet US, European, Israeli and Arab officials]," he told Sky News.

"It looks as though the US has the vision of the Lebanese army acting as protectors of Israel and keeping Hizbullah under control. But if the Israelis cannot do this, the idea that the Lebanese can is optimistic."

Lord Garden also questioned which countries would be prepared to provide soldiers for an international force, with the US already ruling itself out and the British being stretched in Afghanistan and Iraq.

"France might be prepared and Turkey has indicated it might be. But it [an international force] will be difficult to put together in a way that does not make the situation worse."

Among proposals for an international force are an EU or Nato deployment with a clear UN mandate.

At least 390 people in Lebanon and 41 Israelis have been killed in the conflict, triggered by Hizbullah's capture of two Israeli soldiers on July 12.

The prime minister said that he noticed "humanitarian difficulties" caused by Israel's two-week military offensive in Lebanon, pledging to work with the U.S. to help solve it.

Rice again expressed the need to create conditions for a sustainable cease-fire.

She will also meet with Defense Minister Amir Peretz before going to Ramallah for a meeting with Palestinian National Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

On Monday night, Rice met with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni upon arriving in Jerusalem from Beirut, underlining the importance to prevent a humanitarian crisis in Lebanon.

"We are concerned about the humanitarian situation," she said. "And nobody wants to see when innocent civilians are harmed." "Any peace is going to have to be based on enduring principles and not on temporary solutions," said Rice.

Describing Rice's visit as "very important", Livni reiterated that Israel had the right to protect its citizens. Livni said that Israel would only agree to a cease-fire that included the release of two soldiers that Hezbollah kidnapped on July 12, the dismantling of Hezbollah and the deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon.

Rice arrived in Jerusalem on Monday night after she paid a surprise visit to Beirut for talks with Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora.

Subject: Military Operations in the North -- Censorship Guidelines Regarding Ground Operations.

1. Following are the main censorship guidelines regarding the continuation of military operations in the north, with emphasis on ground warfare on the northern border.

2. The guidelines in this document are comprehensive and refer to the option of large-scale military activity. The relevant guidelines should also be applied to the current ground operations.

3. Please brief editors, producers, broadcasters, correspondents with emphasis on field correspondents and other network employees on these guidelines in order to avoid any misunderstanding.

4. Due to the frequent broadcasts and the many live updates considerable attention should be given to what is said by the correspondents in the field. Please make sure that any correspondent/analyst in the field knows the censorship guidelines. The potential error during a live update is very high and you are held responsible for everything broadcast during a live update.

5. This document has been sent to local news agencies as well.

6. This document is the follow-up to the former document "The Fighting In The Northern Arena".

Sincerely,

Col. Sima Vaknin-Gil
Chief Censor
The Censorship Guidelines Regarding Ground Operations In The North For Reports And Live Updates.
General

1. This document will detail the main guidelines regarding operations on the northern border by the Censor.

2. This document contains three main topics: general guidelines for news coverage, coverage of activity leading to the ground operation and the coverage of the combat itself.

3. Any news item that is not within these boundaries must be submitted to the Censorship before it is published.
General guidelines

4. Coverage of any kind, that states intent, specific/general abilities and/or any operational activity (in a live broadcast) is not authorized by the Censorship. In principle, analysis based on matters that were approved for publication is allowed.

5. In a case where a news item is not within the boundaries given by the Chief Censor, the issue should be dealt with by the two censorship bases either in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem.

6. There is a special emphasis on matters regarding the activity of special forces and the use of unique kinds of ammunition and weaponry.

7. In principle, news items on the intelligence abilities / lack of abilities during the operation will not be authorized.
Coverage of activity leading to ground operation

The censorship does not approve any verbal information or visual photography that attest to:

8. The military order-of-battle.

9. The type of force, the forces' special abilities and warfare equipment.

10. Movement routes.

11. Assembly areas and deployments.

12. Information on forces transferring from one area to another (thinning of forces).

13. Locations of command posts.

14. It is strictly forbidden to mention the time and location in which the army forces might enter the enemy's territory.

15. The codename of the operation will be approved for publication only from the moment it begins.

16. Pictures of the army forces will be approved as long as the location in which they were taken is not disclosed.
The live coverage of the combat itself

17. It is strictly forbidden to show a picture of the full battle coverage, with an emphasis of identifying the location (long shot pictures).

18. It is strictly forbidden to mention military targets while these targets are being pursued.

19. It is strictly forbidden, until the information is cleared by the censorship, to publish information concerning missing personnel and captives (from both sides).

20. Coverage of aerial accidents in Israeli territory can only be approved by the censor. In hostile territory, this information will not be approved until the evacuation of the staff and equipment from that area is completed.

21. It is strictly forbidden to conduct real time coverage on visits of officials. Interviews and photography will be approved later, after the end of the visit.

22. During an incident ­ authorization for coverage of the reasons for the incident will be given as long as there is no breach of Israeli security concerns (thus personal opinions and analyses for the reasons of the incident are allowed).

23. Coverage of an incident with casualties ­ as always, must be submitted to the censorship.

In addition, Olmert said that Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah had "made a mistake."

"If he (Nasrallah) would have thought and would have known that this would be our reaction, he would have responded and acted differently," he said, referring to an ongoing Israeli onslaught in Lebanon.

"The international response and the changes in the Arab world will allow us to, within a reasonable timeframe, build a model solution that will significantly weaken and isolate Hezbollah," he added.

Syria, which supports the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, has condemned the Israeli attacks on Lebanon and called for a ceasefire as soon as possible.

Israel has been battling along its northern border with Hezbollah over the past 13 days in an effort to bring back its two soldiers taken hostage by Hezbollah guerillas and remove Hezbollah from the border area.

Olmert is scheduled to meet with visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Jerusalem on Tuesday over the Lebanon crisis.

Rice has said that the United States would push for a "sustainable" ceasefire.