However, the UN Security Council is expected to reach an agreement on Lebanon crisis "in a matter of days," Snow said.

The Bush administration has supported Israel's military action in Lebanon by claiming that Israel is defending itself against Lebanese Hezbollah, a group termed by the United States as terrorist.

However, Israeli military strikes in Lebanon have caused a humanitarian crisis in the country.

Yesterday morning's FOX & Friends was just another in a long series of pro-Israel, pro-war spin-fests delivered with twisted lips and sour expressions, snide innuendo, overdone patriotic chest-thumping and some really sad attempts at humor. The toxic trio of Doocy, Hill and Kilmeade outdid themselves trying to convince the FOX viewers that Israel was and is justified in its total annihilation of the economy, culture, politics and people of Lebanon.

At 6:10 AM EDT, Greg Palkot reported in stark terms about the utter devastation of the town of Bint Jbail, comparing it to Dresden.

PALKOT: "...This town is an absolutely incredible place to see, absolutely flattened by more than two weeks of Israeli bombardment from the air, also from artillery. We've been walking around this town. ... I mean we haven't seen really much of a sign of remains of the Hezbollah militia which were using this place as a node of activity, which is why Israel used this as a place to pound and pound and pound again but we are using this 48-hour break in the Israeli bombardment to get a feel for what is here."

Three women and a child walked into the scene, picking their way through the smashed ruins of buildings.

PALKOT: "Incredibly, ... there are people still trapped in the rubble, people still living underneath the rubble of this town. We have seen at least a half a dozen bodies being (tape freeze) ... seen people who have walked three, four hours from this town to the nearest area of civilization. They say that it was an incredible bombardment, night after night and day after day of Israeli activity here and, again, if there was any Hezbollah here, if there is any Hezbollah here, they are safely tucked away underneath some basement, in some shelters, in some bunkers in the activities but the center of this town, absolutely (sic) devastation. We're watching a family come down here. Looks like a mother, and a child and a grandmother, another woman who is coming here. ... They got the word to evacuate this place over the past week or ten days by the Israeli Defense Force but some have been sheltered, have been protected against this place. But, again, as we drove down from our location in Tyre, Lebanon, the destruction got more and more and more and more. What we hear now overhead - some bombardment by artillery ... and we've been hearing the consistent sound of surveillance drones looking, looking at the scene here.

"We also drove by the town of Qana, which I know you've been talking about, where we were yesterday, where the 50 plus women and children were killed that really, perhaps, to a large degree triggered this cease fire."

Two Lebanese women walked through the frame.

PALKOT: "We're watching these two women here, presumably (tape freeze) ... entire time, and I tell ya' if they were here for this whole time and are alive, it's a testimony to the will of these people to survive because this place is absolutely Dresden."

Back at FOX News Central in NYC, once Palkot had finished his report, the F&F crew launched into Monday's "talking points" straight from the world of the right wing blogs, talking points that consisted of blaming the victims for being too poor to get out of town and absolving Israel of any complicity in the deaths at Qana.

E. D. "EDITH ANN" HILL: It also makes you question why people continue to stay there despite the leaflets.

BRIAN KILMEADE: Well, you know the explanation. That they say that they had no money and no where to go. I mean, and that - and that - and that ...

STEVE DOOCY: A taxi ride would be four, five, six, seven hundred dollars to get out and it's interesting, though, with the momentary suspension of the air strikes, though ....

HILL: Right. Not a cease-fire

DOOCY: Right. It's not a cease-fire. But with the suspension for forty-eight hours, the Israelis have also said "Anybody who wants to get out, get out now because somethin' else could be comin'."

HILL: Also, one thing that he didn't get the chance to talk about and that was - he mentioned coming past Qana. The Israelis are reporting, and it hasn't been disputed yet (my emphasis), that the - that that house that was struck by Israel was struck eight hours before it collapsed.

DOOCY: Midnight.

HILL: Which which - and it collapsed around 8 AM. And so it raises the question of why, after the building was struck, there would be women and children using that for shelter. Perhaps it was just slightly damaged but it also brings up why did it come down then. And some have speculated that it is because of secondary explosions, because we know, from what we have seen on video and from what our reporters have experienced, that frequently Hezbollah has been using houses and the basements to store their own munitions.

DOOCY: Human shields.

Comment

Doocy, Kilmeade and Hill got their "facts" from a bunch of right wing bloggers who - in their desperate search for anything to explain away the images of babies on stretchers - latched onto an early report made on the website ynet.com in which IDF Brigadier General Amir Eshel, Head of Air Force Headquarters, played clever word games in a campaign of disinformation aimed at putting the blame on Hezbollah for the civilian deaths in Qana.

The ynet.com "report" was a masterpiece of ambiguity in which General Eshel is quoted as saying "The attack on the structure in the Qana village took place between midnight and one in the morning. The gap between the timing of the collapse of the building and the time of the strike on it is unclear."

In other words, the General basically said he didn't know when the building collapsed.

The ynet.com article went on to say

The IDF believes that Hizbullah explosives in the building were behind the explosion that caused the collapse.

Another possibility is that the rickety building remained standing for a few hours, but eventually collapsed. "It could be that inside the building, things that could eventually cause an explosion were being housed, things that we could not blow up in the attack, and maybe remained there, Brigadier General Eshel said.

"I'm saying this very carefully, because at this time I don't have a clue as to what the explanation could be for this gap," he added.

In that last sentence the General literally admits he hasn't the foggiest idea whether any of his suppositions are true.

Despite this, on FOX News - and all across the conservative blogosphere - this report was picked up and spun as "fact" much the same way the unsubstantiated and undocumented claims made by Canada's Major General (ret) Lewis Mackenzie were taken as "fact" last weekend.

Mackenzie claimed to have received e-mails from one of the UNIFIL soldiers in which the soldier was supposed to have claimed that Hezbollah was using the UN compound as a shield. Despite the fact that the UN consistently denied this and knowing the Mackenzie has never produced a shred of real proof that he received such an e-mail, the right wingers on FOX have consistently used it as a proven "fact".

The blogs that "covered" the "important" but "deliberately overlooked" story about Qana were Michelle Malkin and Free Republic, two of the high-profile RW noise machines. Naturally, all the "little fishies" picked it up as gospel. In an interesting twist, PowerLine, which is run by attorneys, did NOT pick up the ynet.com story. Apparently, they smelled the same rat that I did.

Without exception, both Malkin and Free Republic linked back to the ynet.com article I quoted above. Each one of them accepted supposition and speculation as "fact".

And good old FOX News jumped right in with both feet!

With regard to the attack on Qana, it would seem that IDF Brigadier General Eshel's "speculations" were not provable.

Today, Tuesday, August 1st, Haaretz, a prominent Israeli newspaper, described the attack and their report contained no claims that hidden caches of Hezbollah weapons exploded eight hours after the building was hit.

(August 1, 2006) It remains unclear at this stage why that specific house, which was located at the northern edge of Qana, was targeted in the IAF strike on Sunday.

The Israel Defense Forces' inquiry has yet to establish a connection between residents of the building and Hezbollah operatives who were launching rockets at Israel from the area of the village. The IDF believed the building to be empty, and therefore bombed it.

IDF sources said Monday, however, that the investigation into the incident was still ongoing. The sources added that a large number of Katyusha rockets had been fired at Israel from the area of Qana.

According to survivors of the strike, two extended families had taken shelter in the building. The survivors said that the Shalhoub and Hashem families remained in the building because they were unable to afford the

cost of traveling north. The families also assumed that the Israeli drones that were patrolling the skies above the village had seen that the building was occupied by numerous children.

The survivors spoke of two bombings - one at 1 A.M., and the second some 10 minutes later. However, what appeared to the survivors as a second bombing may have been the sound of the building coming down. None of the survivors said that the building only collapsed several hours later (my emphasis).

Ibrahim Shalhoub described how he and his cousin had left to find help following the strike on the building. "It was dark and there was lots of smoke," he said. "No one could do anything until morning. I could not stop crying; I couldn't help them."

The fact that the Red Cross in Tyre was informed of the incident only in the morning is another reason why assistance was late in arriving. The director of the Red Cross office in the city, Sami Yazbek, said that he received word of the incident only at 7 A.M. The ambulances dispatched to the area were further delayed by the damaged roads, Yazbek said. (Haaretz, 8-1-06)

In a piece of terrible irony, the name Shalhoub is well-known to many in America.

The incredibly talented, Lebanese-American actor, Tony Shalhoub, whom I most fondly remember as Fred Kwan in Galaxy Quest but whom most of our readers will recall as the obsessive-compulsive detective Adrian Monk in the hit TV series Monk. Shalhoub is a winner of a SAG ward, an Emmy and the Golden Globe.

Additionally, Omar Sharif's birth name is Michael Shalhoub, something I only just found out.

Lebanese Americans have risen to the highest levels in American life. They include Spencer Abraham, Danny Thomas, Marlo Thomas, Paul Anka, Jamie Farr, Sammy Haggar, Salma Hayek, Casey Kasem, Kathy Najimy, Harold Ramis, Shakira, Helen Thomas, Amy Yasbeck and Frank Zappa, among others.

And, oh, yes, here's a name familiar to all of us: General John Abizaid, the man who told Donald Rumsfeld he'd need a lot more troops to win in Iraq than the Secretary of Defense planned on. Abizaid was told "Don't let the door hit you on your way out!" Rumsfeld should have listened.

You can view an impressive list of other prominent Lebanese Americans at downtownbeirut.com.

One wonders how they feel about FOX News' less-than-fair-and-balanced coverage of the destruction of their ancestral homeland?

What normal people cannot accept is the sheer lack of concern and/or conscience shown by such international criminals as Mr Bush, Mr Olmert, Mr Blair and Dr Rice. Mr Blair's latest Foreign Secretary, Mrs Margaret Beckett (she who was described as "not so much a safe pair of hands, more of a glove-puppet"), refused fully to answer questions put to her on BBC Radio this morning regarding the carefree lack of haste in the policies of the USA and the United Kingdom. I have to admit that I fully understand that she cannot give any justification for the deliberately long drawn-out discussions resulting in continuing delays which increase the loss of innocent lives.

Obviously, if the Bushist régime said "stop", the aggressors would obey, because they rely on the Bushists for their most effective arms as well as for unfailing protection within the United Nations. The ephemeral and artificial "state of Israel" has yet to obey a whole range of United Nations Security Council Resolutions, especially those requiring it to act in accordance with international law in general and that to withdraw behind the frontiers of the lands occupied prior to 1967.

The argument that this rogue state (if this entity can be considered to be a state) has "the right to defend itself" is a total red-herring, since the existence of the "state of Israel" is based upon the crudest form of ethnic cleansing in complete contradiction with the United Nations Charter. This started before the ending of the British (League of Nations and subsequently United Nations) Mandate, and involved murder and threats against ordinary inhabitants, as well as against members of the British administration. It is also still continuing, particularly in the Naqab and in Galilee.

Although Dr Rice has shed a few crocodile tears over the victims at Qana, she has so far done nothing to stop the carnage in the Lebanon, and her Fuehrer has been shown on newsreel footage smilingly babbling about finding a "final solution" (an expression which reminds those of my generation of the late unlamented Adolf Hitler and his followers).

The only valid final solution possible is the ending of Zionist apartheid, and the reversion of the whole of Palestine to being a country where all inhabitants have equal rights of citizenship, regardless of their religious affiliation or lack of it. It also requires the return of land and other property to the rightful owners, or perhaps proper compensation in difficult cases.

As a lawyer, I have to repeat once again that there can be no peace without justice, and that those who refuse justice risk building up further resentment and hatred, thus fueling further terrorism.

© Copyright 2006 by AxisofLogic.com

He told me he used to be gung-ho. That he'd always worked to be the first on the scene, take the big risks. But yesterday he shook his head often while we talked.

"This makes you feel so pessimistic," he continued, "You reach a place where you look at life like it's nothing. I've cried and cried and cried, all because of the babies. This is the worst."

Israeli jets roared overhead in the afternoon heat, the thumps of their distant bombs audible during the lulls of the crystal blue waves that crashed upon the nearby beach.

"We entered the place, and we could only use our fingertips," he said, holding up his hands to underscore his point. "Your fingers. You had to use all your senses. When I found a tip of a finger poking up through the rubble, I would start to shake like I was shocked by electricity, because I knew it was another child. I'm still shocked."

He told me of his three year-old girl. "I can't sleep, I keep checking her in her bed to make sure she's still alive. I go in and just hold her. I pick her up and hug her. Just to touch her and hold her and feel her breathing. And now while I must keep working, every 20 minutes I'm calling her. This has shattered me. I was never scared before, but now I am."

He saw me looking inside the headquarters at several of the other volunteers as they stood around. All of them seemed to move in slow motion, tired, lost.

"If you look in the eyes of all the rescue workers here, you see the sadness, the badness of war," he said, then held my eyes for a very long time. We just stared at each other.

I gave him a firm handshake and put my left hand on his shoulder. I wanted to give him a hug, but didn't want to embarrass him. Instead I told him, "Thank you for what you do. Please take care of yourself Mohammad."

I traveled to Qana and Tyre with my friend Urban, a Swedish-Iraqi journalist. He and I were unable to work today. We had plans to interview refugees in Beirut who've been arriving by the thousands from the south, and just agreed after lunch to wait until tomorrow. We're both shattered.

My photographer friend from Holland, Raoul, also went to Tyre yesterday. He sits downstairs at his computer. "I'm so tired, I feel like I can't continue here so I'll leave tomorrow," he told me. "How do you say it, in English, when there is no more room for any more feelings?"

Yesterday's trip was difficult, driving through so many empty villages atop the rolling, rocky hills of southern Lebanon. Like small ghost towns, inhabited by unattended dogs, cats, and the odd wandering herd of goats. One blasted building, shop, house after another. We followed small paths swept through the rubble of the streets, around the larger chunks of concrete, to make our way through and out, then on to the next village to repeat the process.

In Qana I spoke with two men, residents there who'd dug through the rubble of the shelter to look for their loved ones, only to find them dead. One of the men lost his parents. His mother was 64, his father 70. The second man, Masen, lost his 75-year-old uncle, and his aunt, who was 70.

"They bombed it twice," he said, "After the first bomb we heard the screams of the women and children. And moaning. Then a minute later they bombed it again. After that we heard no more screams. Only more bombs around the area."

Down at the Red Cross afterwards, I also interviewed Kassem Shaulan. He was in an ambulance hit by an air strike. He pointed out the hole from the rocket--an inverted flower of blooming metal, straight down the cross-section of the cross painted in red atop the white ambulance. He still couldn't hear well, his vision was blurred, and he had several scars and stitches.

"We had an old man in the back on a stretcher whose leg was blown off," he told me, "And a young child who is now in a coma."

The ambulance near them was hit by an air strike as well--severely injuring everyone in it. Kassam told me that it took them three times to reach Qana after the shelter was bombed. "We got the call at 5 a.m. and had to turn back because three bombs barely missed our ambulance," he said, "Then, the second time, we were bombed and they missed again. So that is why we weren't able to reach there until 9 a.m. So most likely people died because the Israelis kept us away."

Driving home we had one of our few moments of levity of the day. A frazzled looking young British man, covered in dust and sweat and wearing shorts and ruffled shirt, drove up to our car on a motor scooter.

We were heading back towards Sidon from Tyre through plantations of banana trees. "Hi," he said. After we replied, "hello" he smiled and continued, "Oh great--you speak English. Can you tell me, which way is it to Tyre?"

We pointed behind us and drove on as he revved his little engine and continued south. Urban and I looked at each other, he smiled, and I said, "What in the hell was that?" We both laughed.

"Maybe he's a tourist who rented his scooter in Beirut," I suggested. Urban replied, "He may as well ask, 'Hey guys, can you tell me which way the war is?'"

Most of the drive we were quiet. Just driving, and watching the magnificent changing of colors just before sunset. The nearby hills to the east bathed in orange. The green palm fronts seemed to glow, thanking the sun for the light. The turquoise waters of the Mediterranean shimmered as the afternoon breeze began to pick up.

Just driving.

And trying to take deep breaths.

For starters, the UN (and Israel's proxy, the U.S., through John Bolton) has demonstrated that the UN cannot and will not be a force for peace in the region, rather, it will be a cynical partisan force masquerading as "peacekeepers"--sent into the region only to take the heat off the Israelis and disarm Hezbollah. It will merely embroil the participants--who will in no way be able to fight the Israelis--in the Mid East conflict. (No more than the current lightly-armed UN border guards!)

After the deliberate targeting of a UN observer outpost, in which four (4) unarmed UN observers were essentially murdered, the UN could not even generate a Security Council resolution critical of Israel. As with Qana, the UN will allow Israel to "investigate itself" on this matter. Ignoring Qana, at the same time, the UN Security Council had no problem generating a resolution demanding Iran abandon its nuclear program under threat of sanctions. (And, watching the current Israeli and U.S. actions, would YOU abandon your nuclear program under these conditions?)

Why a "peacekeeping" force? Stationing a "peacekeeping" force in Lebanon would be an effective buffer against an Iranian/Syrian counterattack in the probable event of an Israeli air/missile/nuclear strike on Iran. An infantry counterattack by Iran would be blocked by the "peacekeepers" who, in the meantime, would "mop up" Hezbollah-another threat to Israel in the event it attacks Iran. Remember that this idea was first floated after the VERY suspicious assassination of Lebanese PM Rafik Hariri, and the expulsion of the Syrians (who were real peacekeepers) from Lebanon by the contrived "Cedar Revolution". As I pointed out in my article at the time, "La Brea in Lebanon" (Media Monitors, March 11, 2005) such forces would be for the participants the equivalent of the tar pits of La Brea for prehistoric animals.

From the "get go" a UN force would not be backed up should it interfere in Israel in any meaningful way. And if it got into trouble, John Bolton would block any resolution by the UN Security Council. (Predicted more than a year ago by me in "A Time for Bolton?" Media Monitors, June 7th, 2005). If, through some miracle, any resolution was forced on the U.S., President Bush could simply cut off payment of U.S. dues to the UN, effectively shutting down that world body.

Thus, a NATO, UN or any other force would ONLY be there to disarm Hezbollah and buffer against a potential Iranian/Syrian land attack. They would be perceived as occupiers, NOT "peacekeepers", for this very reason, just as U.S. Marines were in Lebanon in 1983. Initially, the Marines were well received and protected Lebanese from Israeli soldiers on numerous occasions (reportedly earning them taunts from IDF soldiers). On orders from Washington, however, U.S. Naval gunfire was directed on Hezbollah positions to assist the Israeli-backed paramilitary forces in a skirmish. Once the Marines were no longer seen as neutral, their aura of protection seemed to vanish and the inevitable happened. They were blown to "kingdom come".

It has been said that exactly repeating the same action but expecting a different result is the classic definition of insanity. Following the insane Bush-Blair-Olmert course of "peacekeeping" can only lead to attacks on "peacekeepers"-both from Lebanese partisans and Mossad agent provocateurs-that will draw the participants and the world community deeper into the Mid East morass, reluctantly, but on the side of the Israelis.

The Israeli attack on Lebanon has served to unify the people of that country. Given a chance to rebuild, incorporate Hezbollah military units as part of the regular Lebanese army, and get on with their lives, I think the Lebanese will do so.

Lebanon is planning to file a lawsuit against Israel in the International Criminal Court. Tuesday, Lebanese Minister of Justice Charles Rizk made a written petition to the Lebanese Prime Minister, Fouad Siniora, asking him to bring up the issue in the next meeting of the Lebanese cabinet, so that the prime minister will be able to collect witnesses in preparation before filing of the complaint.

The minister wrote to the prime minister: "The repeated Israeli attacks on Lebanon, on its infrastructure, its citizens, women and children, since July 12 are a grave breech of international law and international agreements. As such, they clearly constitute war crimes and crimes against humanity."

"In preparation for the pursuit of the Israeli enemy in the relevant international courts, and in a bid to punish these crimes and to bring them to justice, the Lebanese government must prepare a comprehensive case that will include and detail all the attacks and crimes committed. This is with the intent that Israel pay restitution on all the physical and moral damages that she caused Lebanon and her citizens," he wrote.

"Accordingly, I request of you to present the issue in the cabinet meeting so that the decision can be made to assign the mission of performing a comprehensive survey of damage caused and of gathering proof of crimes committed to the Defense Ministry or the Ministry of the Interior. This will be done with legal oversight so that it may be passed on at the right moment in order to go after the perpetrators of these crimes," he added.

In addition, Minister Rizk expressed his regret that the "Qana massacre did not horrify the conscience and did not bring about a UN decision for a ceasefire.

Lebanese army and security officials said troops landed by helicopter and launched strikes in Baalbek in northeastern Lebanon. The town, located about 80 kilometres north of Israel between two mountain ranges in the Bekaa Valley, is a Hezbollah stronghold.

It was reported that a raid took place at a nearby hospital. The Israeli military would only confirm that it had captured several guerrilas in the Baalbek operation.

It was Israel's deepest ground attack in Lebanon since fighting began after a July 12 cross-border raid in which two soldiers were captured by Hezbollah fighters.

The Israeli army had promised earlier in the day to push further into the country to clear out Hezbollah fighters and hold the territory until a multinational force is deployed there.

Meanwhile, Israeli planes hit Shia villages in south Lebanon and attacked Hezbollah positions elsewhere in the country. There were also reports of gun battles in several south Lebanon villages.

Israel also announced that it would resume full air strikes Wednesday, following its self-imposed 48-hour suspension.

Israel had said early Monday that it would suspend air attacks over southern Lebanon for 48 hours.

Less than 12 hours later, limited air strikes resumed when Israel said it was supporting its operations on the ground and responding to new attacks by Hezbollah.

The heaviest fighting Tuesday centred on the Lebanese border village of Aita al-Shaab, the town from which Hezbollah guerrillas crossed the border on July 12 and captured two Israeli soldiers, sparking the crisis.

Three Israeli soldiers were killed in clashes with Hezbollah near Aita al-Shaab, Al Arabiya television said.

Olmert resists calls for ceasefire

Despite international pressure, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resisted calls for an immediate ceasefire, saying every day of fighting weakens Hezbollah.

"Every additional day is a day that drains the strength of this cruel enemy. Every extra day is a day in which the [army] reduces their capability, contains their firing ability and their ability to hit in the future," he said.

Olmert has said the fighting will end only when the threat of rocket attacks from Hezbollah militants is removed and the two captured soldiers are returned.

"We are at the start of a diplomatic process that I believe will lead in the end to a ceasefire under totally different conditions from those which existed previously on our northern border... which will provide a real buffer between us and those who would take our lives, with international support such as there has never been before," he said.

In other developments:

* The United Nations postponed discussion on mobilizing an international force for Lebanon until at least Thursday.
* European Union foreign ministers held an emergency meeting in Brussels, and called on Israel and Hezbollah to agree to an "immediate cessation of hostilities."
* The Organization of the Islamic Conference said it will press for an unconditional ceasefire at an emergency meeting in Malaysia on Thursday.

Olmert on Monday apologized for the civilian casualties Sunday at Qana. The Israeli air strike on the four-storey building that killed at least 56 people has provoked worldwide anger and intensified calls for an immediate end to the fighting.

Israeli army started the airborne operation on Tuesday night following a series of airstrikes in the region, they added. Meanwhile, Hezbollah's television channel al-Manar confirmed that the Israeli paratroops occurred above Baalbek, but said that they were frustrated amid heavy Hezbollah fire.

Israeli paratroopers with air force and tank brigade backup have been operating in southern Lebanon since pre-dawn Tuesday after Israeli security cabinet decided to widen ground offensives in Lebanon, according to Israeli army.

Three Israeli paratroopers were confirmed dead in their ground action in southern Lebanese village of Aita al-Shaab on Tuesday. Israeli army forces were also deployed in a number of areas within Lebanon on Tuesday, deep in the central and western fronts.