Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas called the arrest "another crime of piracy by the (Israeli) occupation against the elected representatives of our people" and called for international parliamentary action to win release for him and the other arrested officials.

The roundup was part of Israel's campaign against Hamas since a June 25 cross-border raid in which Hamas-linked militants killed two Israeli soldiers and captured another. The militant Islamic group said Saturday it would not allow Red Cross officials to visit the captured soldier.

Israel has demanded the release of the soldier and an end to the firing of homemade rockets at Israel by Gaza militants.

Early Sunday, a teenager was killed and three adults seriously wounded in an Israeli airstrike at the eastern edge of the town of Rafah on the Gaza-Egypt border, hospital officials said.

Seventeen Palestinians have been killed since Israeli troops and tanks moved back into southern Gaza three days ago.

On Saturday airstrikes killed six Palestinians and tanks rolled to the edge of Rafah, officials said.

At least two militants were among the dead, but one airstrike killed a 16-year-old girl, Kifah Natour, and her brother, Amar, 15, according to Dr. Ali Musa, the director of the local hospital. Their mother, Huda, 50, later died of her wounds. Four other people, including the siblings' 13-year-old brother, were seriously wounded when the missile hit.

Musa said the family was trying to flee their home as Israeli tanks advanced. The army said it had targeted groups of militants.

The Red Cross requested last week to visit Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier being held by Hamas-linked militants. A Red Cross official said the request was made in a meeting with Palestinian factions in Gaza, but was denied without explanation.

On Saturday, Hamas said such a visit was "not appropriate at a time when more than 10,000 Palestinian families are denied to visit their prisoners."

Israeli Cabinet minister Ophir Pines said there could be no comparison between Hamas holding a soldier in a secret hideout without access to humanitarian organizations and Israel's custody of Palestinians accused of terrorist activity.

"We allow people to see Palestinian prisoners," he told The Associated Press. "We allow in many cases their families to visit, we hold them in prisons, people know where they are and we allow access by international organizations."

Hamas has said it would release the soldier if Israel released some Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, particularly women and children. Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau in Syria told the AP Saturday, "The exchange of prisoners is not coming soon."

In fact, if not for the army, we wouldn't be what we are. It cannot be that it is waging war for no reason and bombing villages in which people and babies are hiding in basements, and destroying the economy of the north and perhaps the whole economy, just because its honor has been tarnished. After all, it is our very self, flesh of our flesh. And we would not endanger our lives for the sake of extraneous interests.

When this image goes awry, we move on, as if there is no difference, to the "ordinary soldier." He too is part of the "ego ideal." Injured, sweating, rescuing his comrade from the battlefield, the eternal David fighting the Shiite Goliath. Thus the army takes upon itself - with the assistance of the media (the behavior of most of whom raises the suspicion that they could also serve a totalitarian regime) - the roles of both hero and victim. Anyone listening closely to the broadcasts can discern the grammar immediately: only "we, "us" and "ours." The enemy has no faces or names, except of course for Nasrallah.

Thus, we are the victims and we are the heroes. That is the meaning of unilateralism, Israel's battlefield password for many years. Never mind what's happening around us, we have the power: we will fence; we will close; we will block; we will bomb. Otherwise we have no chance. During wartime this national egotism, beyond its moral implications, becomes part of the process of the spectacular suicide of the State of Israel.

That is the great trap of military thinking, the Israelis' only way of thought regarding the conflict: not only belief in the need to be superior, right or wrong, able or not able, but especially the inability to think in terms of the other side, not as an object translated and interpreted by the Intelligence Corps, but as human beings. In the army the other side is understood in terms of "war games" (in the day-to-day racist jargon, it sounds like this: "This is the Middle East, here they understand only force").

But what, in the end, does the military logic say? We are an army, they are the enemy. They want to kill us; meaning, we must kill them. An army cannot think otherwise. It exists to think of the enemy as to be killed. Therefore, given the chance, it will fulfill its own prophecy. Casualties on the home front or the battlefield only "affirm the expectations," the intelligence predictions. The rain of Katyushas on the north following the bombing of Lebanon, after the kidnapping? We told you so, the military thinking says. They are dangerous. Good thing we went to this war; better late than never.

From this perspective, military thinking is Israel's real trap. Everything moves within it in a circle. There is no way out, except in a fantasy of total destruction and killing all around. "After all, they want to annihilate us."

The tragedy of Israeli society is that it has no other organized way of thinking. The impotence comes to the fore in the lack of ability to answer the question posed to opponents of the war: "So what do you propose?" That question implies another: "What do you propose now that the war has started?" There is of course only one answer: Stop immediately. Any other answer allows the army to continue using its blank check. Any other answer means "right now there is an enemy and a response must be dictated to him from a position of superiority. Later on, we'll see." Later on never comes, because when everything is all right, everything is, after all, all right.

While our lives - and not only the lives of the Lebanese - are being destroyed, we must not speak because there are funerals, or bombings, and worst of all, heaven forbid, Nasrallah will have a propaganda achievement. And that would really be suicide. And as for power of deterrence: What kind of deterrent power will Israel have left after this war, even if it wipes Lebanon out?

As long as the army is not suspected of being an interested party, one of many in the region and the country, as long as it is not suspected of preferring the military option because that is its purpose, as long as the peace movement is ad hoc and not an opposition to the Israeli way of life and thinking, we have no chance of extricating ourselves from the vicious cycle of bloodshed into which we bring forth our children.

At the western end of the border road just inland from the headquarters of the UN peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (Unifil) at Naqura, Hizbullah fighters were launching Katysuha rockets from positions within three miles of Israel.

Scarred

Driving east through Aalma ech Chaab and Dhaira, reporters could see clusters of antennae and army huts on the Israeli side of the border but no sign of any incursion.

At Marwahin, where the road offers a clear view of the greenhouses and neat red-tiled roofs of the Israeli community of Zarit only 200 yards away, the ground was scarred with tank tracks. A broken metal towing cable lay on the ground, an apparent sign of mishap. Nearby were bits of caterpillar track. A mile further at the junction of the side-road to Debel a burnt-out Merkava tank was stuck in the trees, its cannon pointing limply downwards.

Here the border runs along the top of a hill where a heavily fortified Israeli base sits cheek by jowl alongside UN monitoring position 5-42, a collection of white trailers and a watchtower inside blast walls. The road to Debel was littered with more broken tracks and towing cables. Hizbullah's resistance had clearly made its mark.

Beyond the Debel turnoff, reporters could hear a fierce battle for the village of Aita ech Chaab. Israeli shells and tank rounds were pounding it and setting fire to bushes on the hillsides to deny Hizbullah fighters cover. It is the only place on the north-south border where Israel seemed to be trying to advance.

Israel has not sought to penetrate the next village of Rmeish, which has a Christian population of several hundred. The last portion of the border before it turns north towards Metulla -the current centre of the fighting - contains the towns of Bint Jbeil and Aitaroun, which Israeli forces tried to take in the first days of the war and then withdrew after losing nine men.

The trip along the border road became possible when Israel allowed a UN convoy to bring food aid to the isolated Christian village of Debel. This was the first access to border villages for 10 days.

With one white armoured personnel carrier in front and another at the back, three UN food lorries set off from Naqura. The thump of outgoing tank and artillery rounds provided a constant accompaniment from the Israeli side.

In a press car behind the convoy sat the Archbishop of Tyre, clad in a white cassock. The Israeli onslaught has hit Shia Muslim villages hardest because of suspected links with Hizbullah's guerrilla fighters, but many Christans have stayed, their houses intact but their supplies dwindling fast.

Control

"They have the dignity of mountain people. They don't want to live as refugees in a school in Beirut", said Archbishop Chucrallah Hajje, while French and Ghanaian troops unloaded food parcels outside the small church.

Before the convoy set off from UN headquarters, monitors said Israeli forces came in by day but pulled back at night, remaining a few hundred yards inside the border. As a claim to control territory this seemed less than convincing. Israeli troops were still being shot at from villages, the observers said.

The deepest Israeli presence inside Lebanon that the convoy encountered was at Jibbain, a Sunni village two miles from the border. The archbishop wanted to give aid here too, in part to show his concern was not only for bringing aid to Christians.

On Sunday Israeli commandos landed near Mansouri on the coast north of Naqoura, killing a Lebanese army intelligence official and wounding seven soldiers. The purpose may have been to squeeze the Hizbullah launch teams between Jibbain and Mansouri.

If so, it would confirm that, rather than an occupation of south Lebanon, the Israelis are going for limited gains.

Today's Israeli strikes hit Hizbullah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut and southern and eastern regions of Lebanon.

Reuters reported that Israeli aircraft had attacked the last remaining crossing on the Litani river between Sidon and Tyre, cutting the main artery for aid supplies to civilians in the south.

Seven Lebanese died when an Israeli missile hit a house in Qassmieh on the coast north of the port city of Tyre during bombardment of the area, civil defence official Youssef Khairallah said.

There were also attacks on Naqoura, on the border, and Ras al-Biyada, around half way between Naqoura and Tyre.

Security officials said a woman and her daughter were killed in an attack near a Lebanese army checkpoint between the villages of Harouf and Dweir. Four people died in a raid on that destroyed a house in Kfar Tebnit. There was renewed heavy fighting in southern Lebanon as Hizbullah guerrillas tried to stop thousands of Israeli troops from advancing deeper into the country.

The Israeli army said one Israeli solider had been killed in fighting in Bint Jbail today, and four suffered slight injuries. Israeli forces claimed to have killed five Hizbullah gunmen.

At least four explosions were heard around the Bekaa Valley city of Baalbek, 63 miles north of Israel's border, witnesses said.

The Israeli military confirmed it had hit several targets in the area, where Israeli forces last week raided a hospital and claimed to have captured five Hizbullah fighters. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Hizbullah rockets yesterday killed 15 people in northern Israel, including 12 reserve soldiers - the deadliest day of rocket attacks since the violence began on July 12.

At least 19 Lebanese civilians died in Israeli air attacks yesterday, and the Lebanese government today said 925 people had so far been killed in the conflict.

Another 75 are missing, presumed dead. More than 80 Israelis, most of them soldiers, have been killed.

Fouad Siniora, the Lebanese prime minister, has expressed concerns that his government may collapse.

The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has met defence officials to discuss the possibility of expanding the offensive, though no decision was made, the Associated Press reported Israeli officials as saying.

The Tel Aviv-based Ha'aretz newspaper today quoted an unnamed Israeli general as saying that Israel could launch further attacks on Lebanese infrastructure and symbols of government in response to the rocket attacks.

Meanwhile, it was reported that Arab leaders were considering holding an emergency summit on Lebanon in Saudi Arabia later this week.

The Saudi foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal, was expected to call for the summit during an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Beirut today, Saudi sources said.

The Lebanese As-Safir newspaper reported that attempts were under way among Arab states to hold a summit in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, later this week.

I have known him since he was 20-something. At that time, I was a member of the Knesset, and Olmert was the book-carrier (literally) of another member. Since then I have followed his career. He has never been anything but a party functionary, a small-time politician specializing in manipulations, a run-of-the-mill demagogue. On the way changed parties several times and served as a mayor with a grade of D minus, until he climbed on the bandwagon of Ariel Sharon. More or less by accident he was given the empty title of "Deputy Prime Minister", and when Sharon suffered his stroke, something happened that took Olmert too by surprise: he became Prime Minister.

Throughout his career he has remained a complete cynic, basically a right-winger but willing to pretend to be a liberal when faced with leftists.

So, I told myself, this is just another cynical speech. But suddenly a ghastly thought struck me: No, the man believes what he is saying!

Hard as it is to imagine, it seems that Olmert really believes that this is a successful war. That he is winning. That he has radically changed Israel's situation. That he is building a New Middle East. That he is a historic leader, far superior to Ariel Sharon (who, after all, was beaten in Lebanon and who allowed Hizbullah to build up its arsenal of rockets). That the longer he is allowed to go on with the war, the more his stature in history will grow.

Ehud Olmert has obviously cut himself off from reality. He lives in a bubble all by himself. His speeches show that he has a very real problem.

Of all the dangers facing Israel now, this is the most severe. Because this man is deciding, quite simply, the fate of millions: who will die, who will become a refugee, whose world will be shattered.


BUT OLMERT'S problem with megalomania is nothing compared to what has happened to Amir Peretz.

Exactly nine months ago, after his election as Labor Party chairman, Peretz made a speech in Tel-Aviv's Rabin Square in which he revealed his dream: that in the no-man's land between Israel and the Gaza Strip a football field will be built, and a match between the Israeli children of Sderot and the Palestinian children of nearby Bet-Hanoun will take place. An Israeli Martin Luther King.

Nine month's later, a monster has been born to us.

In the Knesset election campaign, Peretz appeared as a social revolutionary. He announced that he would change the face of Israeli society, set new national priorities, cut billions from the military budget and transfer them to education, welfare and measure to reduce the glaring gap between rich and poor. As a veteran peace-lover, he would, of course, achieve peace with the Palestinians and the entire Arab world.

This won him the votes of many citizens, including many who would normally never consider voting for the Labor Party.

What followed is history. He seduced himself, when Olmert offered him the Ministry of Defense. That was still Olmert the cynic. He knew, as we all did, that Peretz was walking into a trap, that as a rank civilian without serious military experience he would be easy prey for the generals. But Peretz did not shrink back. The supreme aim of his life is to become Prime Minister, and in order to become a credible candidate he believed that he must present himself as a security expert.

Since then, Peretz has become a rabid warmonger. Not only does he endorse all the demands of the generals, not only does he act as their spokesman - he has also helped to push Israel into war, and since then he has been demanding that it should continue, enlarge, widen, kill more, destroy more, occupy more. He himself declared, "Nasrallah will never forget the name Amir Peretz!" - like a spoilt child inscribing his name on a tourist attraction.

At the moment, he is trying to be more extreme even than Olmert. While the Prime Minister is afraid of continuing to advance, fearing that too many casualties from the rockets and the battle on the ground might cloud the brilliance of his victory, Peretz wants to reach the Litani River, whatever the cost. There's no other way - if one wants to become Prime Minister, one has to walk over dead bodies.

Thus a monster has been born to us. Rosemary's Baby.


TODAY, THE 25th day of the war, we can draw up an interim balance. What were the aims? What are the results?

0 "To destroy Hizbullah".

Who would have believed it, but on the 25th day Hizbullah is still standing and fighting. A few thousand fighters against the fifth strongest army in the world. Nobody speaks anymore about eliminating it. Not Olmert, not Peretz, not even Dan Halutz - the third corner of this unholy triangle.

0 "To weaken Hizbullah".

That is a watered down version of the first aim. It is more convenient, because it cannot be measured. After all, in any war both sides are weakened. People are killed and wounded, arms are destroyed, installations demolished. But while the Israeli army can mobilize another division and another one, and the Americans are rushing more bombs to us, can Hizbullah absorb such losses?

Nobody knows how many fighters the organization has lost. The Israeli army distributes estimates, without being able to prove them. The Lebanese speak about far smaller numbers, and do not have any proof either.

But that is not the main thing. An organization like Hizbullah has no problem in raising more and more volunteers for "holy war". Be their losses as they may, after the war the organization will train as many new fighters as necessary. Their arsenals will also be replenished with new weapons arriving from Iran and Syria. The border is long, it is impossible to seal it.

0 "To push Hizbullah away from the border".

That is the crumpled aim, after the two preceding ones were shown to be unattainable. It, too, has not been realized yet, and never will be, because it is also unattainable. Most Hizbullah fighters are local boys of the South Lebanese towns and villages. They will continue to be there, overtly or covertly. No international force can prevent that, and certainly not the Lebanese Army.

The rockets can be moved further away. How many kilometers? Ten? Twenty? That will not remove the threat from Nahariya, Haifa and Tel-Aviv - especially since the range of the missiles is bound to grow with time, when technologically more advanced types arrive.

0 "To kill Hassan Nasrallah".

For the time being, so it seems, the report of his death was an exaggeration, to quote Mark Twain. True, in a kind of parody of the Entebbe exploit, Nasrallah was pulled out of a hospital in Baalbek, but it was another Hassan Nasrallah. Oops.

In the meantime, the original Nasrallah is flourishing. Compared to the kitschy speeches of Olmert, with their endless clichés and the fist thumping on the table, the Hizbullah leader comes over as a sober speaker, measured and mostly quite credible.

0 "To return to the Israeli army the power of deterrence".

Nobody has any doubt that the Israeli army is a good, professional army, capable of defeating regular armies. But this war proves that it is not capable of achieving a military decision against an able guerilla organization with determined fighters. If Hizbullah is alive and kicking after 25 days, the deterrence power of the Israeli army has been weakened - whatever happens from now on.

>From this point of view, the war has harmed the security of Israel. It has proved that the Israeli rear is exposed, that the Hizbullah fighters are not inferior to the Israeli soldiers, that there is no de-luxe war, that the Air Force cannot win without land forces. Not even in ideal circumstances, when the other side has no anti-air defense to speak of.

Some comfort themselves with the thought that "the Arabs have seen that we are crazy". We react to a small local provocation with an orgy of killing and destruction, destroying whole countries, a sort of national amok. But running amok is not a policy. It does not solve any problem. It is an uncontrollable reflex. It does not allow for straight thinking. It even allows the other side to manipulate us with premeditated provocations.

0 "Deploying an International Force along the border".

That is a kind of emergency exit, after all the other aims have gone up in smoke.

At the beginning of the war, Olmert himself strenuously objected to such a force, because it would restrict the freedom of action of the Israeli army. Clearly, no international force will dare to come, unless there is a cease-fire in place and an agreement with Hizbullah has been reached. Nobody wants to be exposed to cross-fire. Therefore, this force will also have to serve Hisbullah's interests, for fear of a guerilla war starting against it. Have all the sacrifices been made for this?

0 "We shall create a new situation in the Middle East".

This aim has indeed been achieved - but not the way Olmert told himself (and us).

The long-range results of the war are not immediately obvious. They belong to the category defined by Bismarck as "imponderables" - things that cannot be measured.

Every day on their TV screens tens of millions of Arabs and hundred of millions of Muslims see the atrocious pictures of crushed babies, the sights of the horrible destruction. These are deeply imprinted in the consciousness of the masses and will leave behind them an accumulation of anger and hatred that is far more dangerous than an arsenal of missiles. In these 25 days, thousands of new suicide bombers have been created. And as the stature of Nasrallah as the hero of the Arab world increases, so the respect for the "moderate" Arab regimes hit new lows - the very regimes that the US and Israel rely on for creating the New Middle East.


AFTER THE 25th day, the 26th will arrive, and so on and on. President Bush, who pushed us into this war to start with, is now pushing us to fight on ("Until the last Israeli soldier," as the saying goes.) Like Olmert, he lives in an imaginary world.

Bush, Olmert and their like can incite and draw the masses behind them, until the call of "the Emperor is naked" finds receptive ears.

One of the most sickening sights of the war is the picture of the international diplomats doing everything they can to enable Olmert & Co. to go on with the war. The UN has long since become an agent of the White House. Hypocrisy and sanctimoniousness are having a field day, while lives are being destroyed and the dead buried on both sides of the border.

Olmert wants to "gain" as many days as possible for continued fighting. What sort of gain is this? We are conquering South Lebanon as flies conquer fly-paper. Generals present maps with impressive arrows to show how Hizbullah is being pushed north. That might be convincing - if we were talking about a front-line in a war with a regular army, as taught in Staff College. But this is a different war altogether. In the conquered area, Hizbullah people remain, and our soldiers are exposed to attacks of the kind in which Hizbullah has excelled from its first day.

So we shall get to the Litani River. Beyond it, there is another river, and another one. Lebanon has an abundance of rivers we can get to.

Perhaps it would be worthwhile for these two junkies, Olmert and Peretz, to come down from their "high" and study the map.

The Indian government's ban on Arab television stations is in complete contrast to the friendship that Arab countries imagine exists with their neighbor across the Arabian Sea. It seems the ban is a move to ensure that Indians do not get to see the atrocities that are presently being committed by Israel in Lebanon and the occupied territories.

Nabila Al-Bassam, a Saudi businesswoman on a trip to Bombay, told Arab News how she became exasperated at not being able to watch Arab channels at Bombay's leading five-star Oberoi Hotel. When she took up the issue with the hotel manager, she was told that Arab television channels had been banned across India.

A perplexed Al-Bassam then sent an SMS to Arab News Editor in Chief Khaled Almaeena to verify whether this was indeed the case. "Oberoi Hotel tells me that the government of India has banned all Arab TV channels. Why? I hate watching CNN and BBC," she wrote to Almaeena.

Talking to Arab News, Oberoi Hotel Manager Mohit Nirula did allude to the fact that a ban was in place. "The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has laid down certain rules. It is our duty to abide by and follow the rules of the country," he told this correspondent.

Minister of Information and Broadcasting Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi was busy in Parliament and was unavailable for comment on the issue. However, a ministry official explained why the Indian government decided to enforce the ban. The official highlighted that India enjoys close and cordial relations with Israel and the US more than any of the Arab governments.

According to another source within the government, the ban is a clear sign to all governments in the Middle East that the Israeli, American and British governments carry far more influence in India than any of the Arab governments.

Several senior Indian journalists explained that the ban was an indication that India had succumbed to Israeli pressure rather than American.

"The whole exercise is to browbeat Arabs and show them as terrorists. The government is subscribing to the absurd argument that channels like Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya promote hatred and encourage terrorism," they said.

Political analysts in India described the move as a game of double standard that India is playing. On the one hand India establishes friendship with the Arab world while simultaneously it joins with Israel and the US in defaming them. It seems that the pro-Israeli lobby wishes to drive a wedge between India and its time-tested Arab allies. The Indian government's present stance is in stark contrast to the late Mrs. Indira Gandhi's staunch support of the Palestinian cause.

The banning of Arabic channels is a federal government decision, done under what senior Indian journalists claim to be intense pressure from the Israeli, American and British governments.

The Indian government has been vocal in its condemnation of Israeli barbarity and has offered millions of rupees in aid to refugees in Lebanon. Arabs sympathetic to India have therefore met the news with surprise.

Many Arabs draw inspiration from India's heroic struggle against British imperialism and the Indian independence struggle is seen by Palestinians as a brilliant example of throwing out the yoke of imperialism. It is sad that 50 years after independence the world's largest democracy unfairly suppresses alternative opinion and allows itself to be dictated to by foreign powers.

The analysts believe the Indian government may have used a clause within the Cable TV Networks (Regulation) Act, 1995, that certain channels or programs that can potentially cause damage to India's friendly relations with foreign countries can be banned, a clear violation of democratic ideals such as freedom of expression and freedom of speech.

The response to the ban by hotel administrations across Bombay has been dismal. Chad Alberico, JW Marriott's customer care official in Washington, said: "We have reviewed your recent inquiries regarding the television offerings at our JW Marriott Bombay. We have phoned our colleagues at the hotel to discuss the matter at hand, but as it is the weekend, we will need additional time to form a complete response."

"I'm on my way home, it's the weekend and I will respond on Monday," said Shehnaz Ankelsaria from the Taj President Hotel. Annan Udeshi from The Hilton was unavailable and asked for a message to be left on her recorder. Khushnooma Kapadia of Marriott Hotel said she would get back later. Rafat Kazi from the Grand Central Sheraton said that she would answer after consulting her general manager. Puja Guleria of Sheraton Maratta said she needed time to deal with the questions. Firuza Mistry of Grand Hyatt said that she was not aware of the facts and would check and respond, and Priya Mathias of Hyatt Regency said that she would also need to check with her senior officials to comment.

But Mr Dweik rejected such a deal yesterday.

The Hamas leader had known for some time that he was a marked man, and said two weeks ago that he was sleeping in a different place each night.

However, on Saturday, after at least two previous attempts to snatch him had failed, the Israeli army caught up with Mr Dweik, sending 20 army vehicles to surround his house.

Israel has stepped up its military response to the Palestinians since the armed wing of the Hamas government captured Cpl Shalit.

In addition to regular deadly raids on Gaza, where 1.4 million Palestinians are trapped by an economic blockade, the Israelis have arrested a third of the Hamas government and 36 members of the Palestinian parliament since 26 June.

The rest of the government, including the Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, and the Foreign Minister, Mahmoud Zahar, are in hiding. Israeli warplanes have smashed the foreign and interior ministries in Gaza as part of incursions which have continued despite Israel's unilateral pullout from the territory last summer.

The US-educated Mr Dweik had continued to visit his office, and even made telephone calls on his mobile. He had sent his wife and family to safety in another city. "We are working against all the odds in the history of mankind, as a parliament and as a government," Mr Dweik said.

Speaking of the capture of Cpl Shalit, he suggested that the Israeli soldier was unharmed, saying: "there are rules of war in Islam - we said do not harm a prisoner of war."

The Palestinians had hoped that Israel would agree to a prisoner swap that could lead to the release of Cpl Shalit in return for thousands of Palestinians held by Israel, at a later stage.

The fate of the 10,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel has become such a burning issue for the Palestinian people that President Mahmoud Abbas endorsed a plan for a prisoner swap worked out with Egypt last month.

But Mr Dweik said that he would reject any Israeli attempt to free him instead of Palestinian prisoners in exchange for Cpl Shalit.

"Neither I nor my brother MPs want to be, or would accept being alternatives to our brother prisoners. If I live the rest of my life in prison, I won't accept [being] a card in any compromise."

An Israeli army spokesman justified the arrest saying: "He is the head of Hamas's legislature and since Hamas is a terrorist organisation, he is a target for arrest."

Rice said U.S. negotiators at the United Nations have a "strong basis for a cessation of violence" and that "it's going to be very important that the first resolution lay a quick foundation for a passage of a second resolution" establishing an international force for Lebanon.

Opposition from Lebanon has caused the United States and France to delay a vote on a U.N. resolution that was agreed upon over the weekend.

Bush also strongly reiterated Washington's condemnation of Hizbollah for starting the three weeks of fighting with Israel and stressed the U.S. view that a halt to combat had to be underpinned by prospects for a durable cease-fire.

Asked about Beirut's objection to Israeli forces staying in south Lebanon after a cease-fire is declared, Bush said he was worried that a "vacuum" would exist if they were withdrawn before an international force is deployed.

"Sometimes the world likes to take the easy route in order to solve a problem. Our view is it's time to address the root causes of problems, and to create a vacuum ... is unacceptable."

Rice, calling the fighting a "devastating and tragic set of circumstances for Lebanon and for Israel," said international powers were ready to listen to concerns of the main parties.

"But I want to just note, we believe that the extant draft resolution is a firm foundation, is the right basis, but of course we're going to listen to the concerns of the parties and see how they might be addressed. And that's really what's going to be going on today, particularly after the Arab League meets and (Lebanese) Prime Minister (Fouad) Siniora emerges from that."

Bush was also asked about contacts with Syria and Iran, accused by Washington of backing Hizbollah.

He said that both those countries knew the U.S. position. "There's a way forward, the choice is theirs," Bush said.

Israel launched a massive onslaught on Lebanon after the militant Shiite movement Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12 to force an exchange of prisoners.

Hezbollah has responded by raining rockets onto northern Israel.

The violence has threatened to spiral out of control, and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem warned on his arrival in Beirut on Sunday that Damascus was ready for regional war.

Israel has said it has no plans to attack Syria but analysts have expressed fears of a wider conflict after Israel bombed Lebanese border posts close to Syria and also overflew President Bashar al-Assad's palace in northern Syria in June.

Muallem also condemned a draft UN resolution seeking to end the violence in Lebanon, which is sponsored by the United States and France, as merely a recipe for more conflict.

The draft called for a "full cessation" of fighting, but not for the immediate pullout of Israeli forces from Lebanon.

Lebanon on Sunday officially sought changes to the draft, calling for Israeli forces to immediately withdraw from Lebanese territory after any halt to fighting, its UN representative said.

Under the proposal, put to an expert-level meeting of the UN Security Council, the UN force in southern Lebanon would hand over control of a key frontier area to Lebanese armed forces within 72 hours of any truce.

After talks with Lebanese leaders in Beirut on Sunday, Amr Mussa called UN chief Kofi Annan to ask for an amendment of the draft which would take Lebanese reservations into consideration.

An Arab diplomatic source said Mussa asked that the text call for an immediate Israeli troop pullout from southern Lebanon following the end of hostilities, and for the disputed Shebaa Farms to be placed under UN jurisdiction.

The move came after Mussa accused the UN Security Council of failing to halt hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah.

"We were surprised that some great powers were obstructing the ceasefire," Mussa told reporters after meeting Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a key Hezbollah ally.

Mussa said the Arab ministerial meeting was particularly meant to back a seven-point peace plan put forward by Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

The plan calls for an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon, the expansion of the existing UN peacekeeping force in the area, the deployment of the Lebanese army to the border and the disarming of Hezbollah guerrillas.

I was watching newsfeeds from Qatar (our pals) and another neighboring country last night. How confused these broadcasters are: The gorgeous women anchors were dressed and made-up to the 9s, and with their luxurious hair they put the majority of their Western counterparts to shame; however, despite this definitely non-Islamic façade the semantic alliteration of the copywriters left no doubt precisely who's in charge of the governments.

Every citizen of Lebanon who happened to be standing a little too close to the point of arrival when one of King George's gifts of Bushocracy came bouncing into his or her neighborhood was referred to as a "martyr." Conversely, every dead Jew was an enemy dealt with by Allah; each Israeli tank disabled was a victory for Allah.

No other news services in the World report events in the same manner as those of the state-run Muslim nations, even our best Mid-East friends. At its worst the off-kilter Soviet news was never this bloodthirsty in arousing public furor through the beliefs that have been ground into people's psyches for umpteen generations.

Funny how their downed tank count was some three times higher than the Israeli, American and British news reports. Maybe three different interns monitored the different sources and the numbers were inadvertently added together.

On the other hand, the Christians and Jews may have low-balled the World citizenry in its reporting to make Israel appear tougher than Hezbollah. Ya think?

Well, we all know the first casualty of war is truth, even if CNN has some 95% of its recognizable faces in and around Israel and Lebanon, while those faux-journalists at FOXNEWSCHANNEL are doing the preponderance of what they bogusly refer to as "reporting" direct from the studio with celebrity experts such as Wayne (Trapper John) Rogers and Ben Stein. (Ben, you're a Jew, and extremely well educated - you should be ashamed of yourself! If I had won any of your money I would send every cent of it back!)

All of a sudden that old Aussie... oh, bugger! I won't call Rupert Murdoch a nasty name, because you can't get much lower than a self-righteous Conservative multi-billionaire who has been playing a major role, and wants to continue to be a major force, in manipulating the minds of the weak and depth-deprived (rural Americans, stock market players and shut-ins).

Rupert's NEWS CORPORATION media-based travesty, of which his ownership as a foreign-born individual was never allowed by either of the Federal Communications Acts until Saint Ronnie Reagan came along and "deregulated" the airwaves for his ultra-rich Right-wing fanatic buddies, has helped install the first king on the North American continent and keep him in power, fueled an insane nationwide call to arms for wars that never needed to have begun, acts as a propaganda voice for the illegal executive branch regime, while spreading lies and innuendo disguised as news and spewing instructions on whom to hate to its audience. The most unfortunate thing is FNC viewers are as loyal as if God Almighty spoke through Bill O'Reilly's and Shawn Hannity's mouths.

And, what's up with FOXNEWS becoming a propaganda arm of the Knesset? All of a sudden Rupert's turned FNC into the "Jews Are Us" station. Heed my warning, Bubbie, don't buy it!

So, last week Condi couldn't be bothered to make an appearance in the explosion-afflicted region to attempt a cessation of hostilities. She said it wasn't worth the effort to arrange for a ceasefire if it could not be sustainable.

This course of action was quite all right with King George XLIII. He's real familiar with the concept of "stay the course," and now's a good time to try it out on the Israelis, Palestinians, Lebanese and Hezbollah terrorists.

Besides, Hezbollah Grand Poobah (or whatever his self-appointed title is) Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has repeatedly stated in his broadcasts that his organization will not stop until they've spilled the blood of and wiped out all Jews and reclaimed Palestine. Then, they intend to take out all Americans, Europeans and any other infidels who have the bad judgment to try to co-exist on this planet.

But Nasrallah is ever mindful to let us know Hezbollah, which translates into "hand of God," is not a terrorist organization. So why all the weapons, ordnance, suicide bombers, sneak attacks, and hate rhetoric?

Just as our Fearless Leader does, Nasrallah talks a good game filled with bravado, but when it comes to putting his derriere on the line he's nowhere to be found. As it is, nobody seems to know where on the Planet the guy is right now.

All this macho ranting about how he's going to tear Israel a new one, then its European allies, and the USA - yet the schmuck is more afraid to come out into the open than Dark Lord the Dick Cheney.

Meanwhile, Herr Oberst Karl Rove wants to rid his Amerika of all non-Conservative Republicans who refuses to walk in lockstep to his marching cadence.

Dark Lord the Dick will 'pepper' anyone who would dare question him regarding those secret energy plots, his profit-sharing from Halliburton holdings, or who leaked the name of Valerie Plame to the press.

Donny Rumsfeld just sends young Americans off to Kamp Kabul and the Sandy Dunes of Suburban Baghdad for fun in the sun at taxpayers' expense, and hasn't got a clue as to when they'll be coming back, if at all. Some don't, you know.

But, Rummy isn't worried. To him it's kind of like Peter Pan and Neverland.

Then there's Condoleezza Rice.

Condi.

The preacher's daughter.

Kept safely hidden away inside the house, studying her school lessons and practicing those classical pieces on the piano, wearing lace-trimmed dresses and learning to be a proper lady and all - while everyone else of color in her town lived in total, constant fear as dished out by the ignorant white folks.

She knew children who were killed by the KKK, or at least wannabe Klansmen.

Condoleezza's parents built a protective barrier around her to keep the evils of the real world out. Now, she's risen to one of the most powerful positions on the World stage, but that protective barrier still encompasses her, making her grossly inadequate for and wholly unprepared to do the job.

Like her rich, white male cohorts, there is never a visible sign of compassion or concern on Condi's face, in her eyes or the timbre of her voice when the subject includes death and destruction. She comes across as every bit the thug each one of them is. It could be Condi's even more cold, calculating and cruel than they.

Would it have been acceptable under any other executive for the Security Adviser to ignore a document warning of an imminent attack on our Nation by terrorists using hijacked aircraft as weapons? Not if there was more to the "attack" than the "official story" has expected us to believe.

Who can forget the woman at the highest echelon of the presidential cabinet who went shopping in Manhattan for four-figure designer shoes, then headed off to be entertained on Broadway at a Monty Python comedy, while New Orleans was being washed away and hundreds of its citizens drowned.

During her tenure as Secretary of State, Ms. Rice has accomplished nothing, unless one regards incurring the wrath of the leaders of our Planetary neighbors as a positive accomplishment.

She lacks the necessary skills to be a diplomatic negotiator. Like her boss, King George XLIII, Condi goes into meetings with her mind already made up as to what the outcome will be - or else.

Worse than that inflexibility, she lacks the warmth and sincerity required to be a true statesperson. One never gets the impression that Condi really quite gets what the human condition is all about.

The more direct impact an issue will have on human beings, the more disingenuous Ms. Rice will be in her comments.

She's so adept at the con even she sometimes forgets where fact ends and fabrication begins. And fact is the smallest portion of anything the woman says.

At first, Condi told the media she wasn't going to go negotiate regarding the Israeli-Hezbollah conflict because she had no idea what to do to resolve the situation. Had she been even remotely near the ballpark where honesty plays its home games, the response would have been that she and the gang didn't wish to break up the fight.

A few days later Condi stated there was no way to stop the Israel-Hezbollah fighting with a long-term solution, so she saw no reason to bother.

After she and our king met with Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal, who gave Bush a letter from Saudi King Abdullah asking to assist in a ceasefire, Condi finally went on a trip to the Mid-East and Europe. Before leaving, she again ensured there would be no ceasefire.

It had been two weeks since this round of hostilities first erupted.

A ceasefire plan was presented by Syria on Sunday, but rejected by John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

So, after making the rounds of the various Middle Eastern nations, Condi attended a world summit in Rome, hastily arranged to find a path to a ceasefire agreement.

Virtually the entire body was agreed on a cessation of hostilities.

With the exception of two holdouts.

The American Secretary of State refused to accept any ceasefire that would not be long term.

She got the British representative to go along with her.

Thus, because King George XLIII has dreams of a New World Order, where every land is filled with the glory of Jesus, the freedom of Bushocracy, and all vistas as well as urban neighborhoods have been renovated by bombardments, the fighting shall continue.

After all, one of the barriers to his holy goal is the existence of Hezbollah, so George is perfectly okay with allowing Israel to continue pounding away at this organization that exists for the sole purpose of engaging in genocidal annihilation.

But what about all the innocent victims who are being caught in the crossfire: The women, children, men, and elderly Lebanese, Palestinians and Jews who are being sacrificed and maimed while King George and Condoleezza play their deadly game?

Who will replace all the houses, apartments, schools and businesses that are being destroyed?

How will the people who are being given yet another reason to hate be taught not to detest Americans along with their immediate enemies?

When a world leader has the option and power to eliminate bloodshed even for a week, to give peace at least the slimmest chance, to provide those in the line of fire an opportunity to escape the carnage and desolation, yet purposely and callously refuses to agree with the rest of the nations on a cessation of hostilities because it does not suit his or her endgame, we're living on the knife-edge of tyranny.

Whom does that make the evildoers now?

"You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot redefine it..." (Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman in a letter to the mayor and councilmen of Atlanta just prior to its burning, September 12, 1864)

Birth pangs would be a most welcome and pleasant improvement over the realities of war.

© 2006, The Lone Star Iconoclast



http://illinoiscentral.blogspot.com

(An erstwhile Philosopher and sometime Educator, Jerry Tenuto is a veteran of seven years service in the U.S. Army. He holds a BS and MA in Communications from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. For two decades Jerry filled the airwaves with rock, roll and banter as a disc jockey -- until greed, the rebirth of payola, and de-Reaganlation ruined that medium. Depending upon your taste in political stew, you can either blame or thank Jerry for his weekly "Out Of The Blue" feature in THE LONE STAR ICONOCLAST, Crawford, Texas, www.LoneStarIcon.com -- because somebody from that community has to do the world right. You are also invited to visit him at BLUE STATE VIEW, http://illinoiscentral.blogspot.com)