PRÁXIS  AND  THEORY  AND  EMANCIPATION
Cosmos  AND  Einai  AND  Nothing
SEE -- VER

In Times of Universal Deceit, Telling the Truth will be a Revolutionary Act.
(George Orwell)

No. 1216
July 23, 2006

BIENVENIDOS!!  WELCOME!!  WILLKOMMEN!!

*** Somalia inches towards war

Ethiopian troops take over towns in challenge to Islamic militia who have occupied the capital
By: Paul Harris
Sunday July 23, 2006
The Observer .

**** Gran Bretaña admite no haber pruebas de que Irán y Siria den apoyo fáctico al Hezbolá libanés

Next, war on Syria?
aljazeera.com

7/23/2006 1:50:00 PM GMT

As fighting in Lebanon continued over the past two weeks, world leaders discussed ways to end the Israeli offensive that has so far claimed over 350 civilian lives, with a call by UN Secretary General Kofi Annan for an immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah, and weak condemnation from Arab and European States of the unjustified Israeli aggression and disproportioned use of force against the Lebanese population.

But amidst all these calls, condemnations and diplomatic meetings, one major player was absent, it’s the American President George W. Bush, who publicly supported the Israeli killing machine in Lebanon, saying that Israel had the right to defend itself.

Bush was quick to accuse Syria of trying to get back into Lebanon, demanding Damascus to use its influence on the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah, to release the Israeli soldiers it captured earlier this month.

“The root cause of the problem is Hezbollah, and that problem must be addressed- It can be addressed internationally by making it clear to Syria that they've got to stop their support to Hezbollah," he said.

Damascus continues to face baseless allegations that it aids Palestinian resistance groups and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, even though it willingly bowed to international pressure last year and agreed to withdraw its forces from Lebanon following the assassination of PM Rafiq Al Hariri.

A recent editorial on Saudi Arabia's Arabic-language Al-Sharq Al-Awsat asks whether the United States would approve an Israeli proposal to invade Syria.

The article argues that Syria may have committed a fatal mistake by hinting that it has hampered a deal for the return of the Israeli soldier the Palestinian resistance fighters captured to pressure the Jewish State release Palestinian detainees it holds, and therefore, “an Israeli invasion with Washington's tacit approval may be imminent.”

For many reasons, most of the Middle East governments want to keep Syria out of the hostage crisis between Lebanon and Israel. But the foremost reason is that they’re not willing to open another battle front in the region.

Even Jordan, Egypt and Gulf countries, who disagree with Syria’s policies and alleged support to the Lebanese and Palestinian resistance movements, don't want this war to reach Damascus.

An Arab official was quoted by Al-Sharq Al-Awsat as suggesting that reaching a deal with the Palestinians over the captured soldier Gilad Shalit could have prevented the Lebanese resistance movement Hezbollah from capturing two Israeli soldiers a few days later, which some analysts , as well as the Israeli government, claim was the main reason behind Israel's decision to begin aggression on the Lebanese territories. 

However, "In spite of all this, there is an agreement that the fire should not reach Syria, since the Lebanese people would pay dearly for any destabilization that hits Syria," the official said.

Attacking Syria would spread turmoil across the Middle East, for, unlike Lebanon, a country without a strong and reliable central government, Damascus enjoys a well-settled political system.

Disrupting Syria’s stability would spread chaos across the region. It is this likelihood of chaos that so frightens the Middle East countries.

The Arabs don’t want to see another Iraq.

http://www.aljazeera.com/me.asp?service_ID=11611

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

Now, I am inspired and encouraged by your president and articles like yours
By: Ronald Olson

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Published: Sunday, July 23, 2006
Bylined to: Rich Coleman

Gran Bretaña admite no haber pruebas de que Irán y Siria den apoyo fáctico al Hezbolá libanés

WASHINGTON, July 21 — The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.

The decision to quickly ship the weapons to Israel was made with relatively little debate within the Bush administration, the officials said. Its disclosure threatens to anger Arab governments and others because of the appearance that the United States is actively aiding the Israeli bombing campaign in a way that could be compared to Iran’s efforts to arm and resupply Hezbollah.

The munitions that the United States is sending to Israel are part of a multimillion-dollar arms sale package approved last year that Israel is able to draw on as needed, the officials said. But Israel’s request for expedited delivery of the satellite and laser-guided bombs was described as unusual by some military officers, and as an indication that Israel still had a long list of targets in Lebanon to strike.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday that she would head to Israel on Sunday at the beginning of a round of Middle Eastern diplomacy. The original plan was to include a stop to Cairo in her travels, but she did not announce any stops in Arab capitals.

Instead, the meeting of Arab and European envoys planned for Cairo will take place in Italy, Western diplomats said. While Arab governments initially criticized Hezbollah for starting the fight with Israel in Lebanon, discontent is rising in Arab countries over the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon, and the governments have become wary of playing host to Ms. Rice until a cease-fire package is put together.

To hold the meetings in an Arab capital before a diplomatic solution is reached, said Martin S. Indyk, a former American ambassador to Israel, “would have identified the Arabs as the primary partner of the United States in this project at a time where Hezbollah is accusing the Arab leaders of providing cover for the continuation of Israel’s military operation.”

The decision to stay away from Arab countries for now is a markedly different strategy from the shuttle diplomacy that previous administrations used to mediate in the Middle East. “I have no interest in diplomacy for the sake of returning Lebanon and Israel to the status quo ante,” Ms. Rice said Friday. “I could have gotten on a plane and rushed over and started shuttling around, and it wouldn’t have been clear what I was shuttling to do.”

Before Ms. Rice heads to Israel on Sunday, she will join President Bush at the White House for discussions on the Middle East crisis with two Saudi envoys, Saud al-Faisal, the foreign minister, and Prince Bandar bin Sultan, the secretary general of the National Security Council.

The new American arms shipment to Israel has not been announced publicly, and the officials who described the administration’s decision to rush the munitions to Israel would discuss it only after being promised anonymity. The officials included employees of two government agencies, and one described the shipment as just one example of a broad array of armaments that the United States has long provided Israel.

One American official said the shipment should not be compared to the kind of an “emergency resupply” of dwindling Israeli stockpiles that was provided during the 1973 Arab-Israeli war, when an American military airlift helped Israel recover from early Arab victories.

David Siegel, a spokesman for the Israeli Embassy in Washington, said: “We have been using precision-guided munitions in order to neutralize the military capabilities of Hezbollah and to minimize harm to civilians. As a rule, however, we do not comment on Israel’s defense acquisitions.”

Israel’s need for precision munitions is driven in part by its strategy in Lebanon, which includes destroying hardened underground bunkers where Hezbollah leaders are said to have taken refuge, as well as missile sites and other targets that would be hard to hit without laser and satellite-guided bombs.

Pentagon and military officials declined to describe in detail the size and contents of the shipment to Israel, and they would not say whether the munitions were being shipped by cargo aircraft or some other means. But an arms-sale package approved last year provides authority for Israel to purchase from the United States as many as 100 GBU-28’s, which are 5,000-pound laser-guided bombs intended to destroy concrete bunkers. The package also provides for selling satellite-guided munitions.

An announcement in 2005 that Israel was eligible to buy the “bunker buster” weapons described the GBU-28 as “a special weapon that was developed for penetrating hardened command centers located deep underground.” The document added, “The Israeli Air Force will use these GBU-28’s on their F-15 aircraft.”

American officials said that once a weapons purchase is approved, it is up to the buyer nation to set up a timetable. But one American official said normal procedures usually do not include rushing deliveries within days of a request. That was done because Israel is a close ally in the midst of hostilities, the official said.

Although Israel had some precision guided bombs in its stockpile when the campaign in Lebanon began, the Israelis may not have taken delivery of all the weapons they were entitled to under the 2005 sale.

Israel said its air force had dropped 23 tons of explosives Wednesday night alone in Beirut, in an effort to penetrate what was believed to be a bunker used by senior Hezbollah officials.

A senior Israeli official said Friday that the attacks to date had degraded Hezbollah’s military strength by roughly half, but that the campaign could go on for two more weeks or longer. “We will stay heavily with the air campaign,” he said. “There’s no time limit. We will end when we achieve our goals.”

The Bush administration announced Thursday a military equipment sale to Saudi Arabia, worth more than $6 billion, a move that may in part have been aimed at deflecting inevitable Arab government anger at the decision to supply Israel with munitions in the event that effort became public.

On Friday, Bush administration officials laid out their plans for the diplomatic strategy that Ms. Rice will pursue. In Rome, the United States will try to hammer out a diplomatic package that will offer Lebanon incentives under the condition that a United Nations resolution, which calls for the disarming of Hezbollah, is implemented.

Diplomats will also try to figure out the details around an eventual international peacekeeping force, and which countries will contribute to it. Germany and Russia have both indicated that they would be willing to contribute forces; Ms. Rice said the United States was unlikely to.

Implicit in the eventual diplomatic package is a cease-fire. But a senior American official said it remained unclear whether, under such a plan, Hezbollah would be asked to retreat from southern Lebanon and commit to a cease-fire, or whether American diplomats might depend on Israel’s continued bombardment to make Hezbollah’s acquiescence irrelevant.

Daniel Ayalon, Israel’s ambassador to Washington, said that Israel would not rule out an international force to police the borders of Lebanon and Syria and to patrol southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah has had a stronghold. But he said that Israel was first determined to take out Hezbollah’s command and control centers and weapons stockpiles.

Thom Shanker contributed reporting for this article.