vrijdag 6 augustus 2010

Israel obsessie in beeld via Google Trends

 
Het is natuurlijk bekend, maar cynisch is het wel, dat een paar doden in Israel of de Palestijnse gebieden voorpagina nieuws zijn terwijl we van veel andere en veel dodelijker conflicten niet eens het bestaan kennen. Hier worden allemaal relatief bekende en populaire zaken genoemd. Er woeden echter tientallen bloedige conflicten in de wereld die volkomen onbekend zijn en die ons volkomen koud laten. Betekent dat dat je je niet om de Palestijnen mag bekommeren? Nee natuurlijk, maar het maakt wel onze selectiviteit duidelijk. Wanneer blijkt dat men niet alleen doden elders negeert, maar ook Palestijnse doden en Palestijns lijden zodra niet Israel de boosdoener is, wordt het natuurlijk wel erg verdacht.
 
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zaterdag 31 juli 2010

http://www.israned.com/2010/07/israelobsessie-in-beeld.html

Israelobsessie in beeld


De een beschrijft het als OCID: Obsessive Compulsive Israel Disorder, een ander met dit citaat plus oplossing:
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman schreef ooit: 'Israel bekritiseren is niet antisemitisch, en het is verwerpelijk om het tegendeel te beweren. Maar om voortdurend en alleen Israel op de korrel te nemen met laster en sancties - buiten elke proportie vergeleken met alle andere partijen in het Midden-Oosten - dat is antisemitisch, en het is oneerlijk om dat niet te zeggen.'  Misschien zou het een simpele oplossing zijn voor vrede in het Midden-Oosten als Israel zijn naam verandert in Noorwegen.
Maar nog makkellijker is de OCID van de wereld in beeld te brengen met Google Trends: in het plaatje hierboven is de populariteit van de zoekterm "israel" vergeleken met die van "darfur", "iran", "iraq" and "aids". Toelichting verder helemaal overbodig, toch?
 
    (via Israpundit)
 
 

Gaza: het probleem is niet Israël maar andere Arabieren

Gaza, 18 april 2010. De bouw van het Al-Mashtal Movenpic Hotel in Gaza schiet goed op (foto boven). Het luxueuze 5-sterrenhotel zal uiteindelijk (foto onder) 10 verdiepingen tellen en  250 kamers en uitkijken over de Middellandse Zee. Het wordt uitgevoerd door Aquaria. Kostprijs: ongeveer 30 miljoen dollar.
 
 
 
Vertalingen van een paar interessante artikelen uit de Arabische wereld over Gaza door Brabosh, die bepaalde zaken eerlijker benoemen dan onze correspondenten.
 
Al-Houl interviewde de politieke activist Mustafa Ibrahim, die opmerkte dat ongeveer 20 procent van de inwoners van Gaza over bijna alle rijkdom in het gebied beschikken. Zij zijn bijna allemaal zijn nauw gelieerd aan de regerende Hamas-beweging. De rijke inwoners van Gaza investeren veel in de vrijetijdsindustrie en geven rijkelijk geld uit, terwijl zij schandelijk veel vragen voor eenvoudige luxe zoals een bezoek aan de plaatselijke stranden.

Onder de rest van de bevolking is de werkloosheid ongeveer 45 procent, en dat zijn de inwoners van Gaza die steeds door de Westerse media worden beschreven als de producten van de zogenaamde "Israëlische onderdrukking." De wereld reageert op die berichten in de media door Gaza te overspoelen met nog meer humanitaire hulp, die via de handen van de rijken gaat en hen uiteindelijk alleen maar rijker maakt, terwijl de armen armer worden.

Hamas heeft blijkbaar de middelen om luxe winkelcentra en zwembaden te laten bouwen, maar daarover stellen Guus Valk en Sander van Hoorn vreemd genoeg nooit kritische vragen. Men komt liever met het bekende verhaal van arme Gazanen die tekort hebben aan alles vanwege de Israelische blokkade. Van alles blijkt veel ingewikkelder in elkaar te zitten: Gazanen krijgen de meeste hulp ter wereld per hoofd van de bevolking, maar dat geld komt blijkbaar niet (voldoende) bij de mensen die het nodig hebben terecht. En net als in andere gebieden die veel ontwikkelingshulp krijgen, blijkt de hulp ook negatieve effecten te hebben. De vraag is ook hier hoe je om een dictatoriaal en onderdrukkend regime heen werkt, dat bovendien veel geld steekt in wapens en de strijd tegen Israel. Het lijden van de Gazanen onder het Hamas regime krijgt echter nauwelijks aandacht, net als het feit dat Gazanen niet vrijuit kunnen spreken over deze zaken zonder gevaar voor eigen leven.
 
Het Al-Ahram artikel in het Engels (met meer foto's) plaatsen we eerder hier: Egyptische journalist in Al-Ahram: economie Gazastrook bloeit op (vooral voor welgestelden)
 
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Geplaatst door brabosh op 31 juli 2010
 

Egyptian Journalist: In Actual Terms, Gaza Is Not Under Siege

door Memri en Israël Today

Een journalist van het Egyptische dagblad Al-Ahram heeft bevestigd wat onlangs een handvol integere westerse verslaggevers onthulden: dat Gaza niet echt wordt belegerd, en dat alle onderdrukking die de Palestijnse inwoners ondervinden wordt veroorzaakt door andere Arabieren, en niet door Israël.

In tegenstelling tot verhalen in de reguliere Westerse media over wijdverspreide armoede en ellende in Gaza, meldt Ashraf Abu al-Houl dat "een gevoel van absolute welvaart overheerst, zoals blijkt uit de grote vakantieoorden langs de kust en in de buurt van Gaza."

Al-Houl schreef ook dat "het zien van de artikelen en de luxe waarmee de winkels in Gaza zijn gevuld mij verbaasde". Niet alleen dat, maar Al-Houl ontdekte al snel dat de meeste goederen in Gaza veel goedkoper worden aangeboden dan in Egypte, want in de Gazastrook "is het aanbod veel groter dan de vraag."

Deze feiten, die een select groepje westerse journalisten heeft durven melden, brachten Al-Houl tot het besef dat het beperkte embargo van Israël tegen de door Hamas bestuurde Gazastrook "formeel of politiek is, niet economisch." Met andere woorden, Israël veroorzaakt geen economische of humanitaire crisis in Gaza. Er is echter wijdverbreide armoede in de Gazastrook, maar dat is het gevolg van corruptie en een brede kloof tussen de "haves" en de "have-nots".

Al-Houl interviewde de politieke activist Mustafa Ibrahim, die opmerkte dat ongeveer 20 procent van de inwoners van Gaza over bijna alle rijkdom in het gebied beschikken. Zij zijn bijna allemaal zijn nauw gelieerd aan de regerende Hamas-beweging. De rijke inwoners van Gaza investeren veel in de vrijetijdsindustrie en geven rijkelijk geld uit, terwijl zij schandelijk veel vragen voor eenvoudige luxe zoals een bezoek aan de plaatselijke stranden.

Onder de rest van de bevolking is de werkloosheid ongeveer 45 procent, en dat zijn de inwoners van Gaza die steeds door de Westerse media worden beschreven als de producten van de zogenaamde "Israëlische onderdrukking." De wereld reageert op die berichten in de media door Gaza te overspoelen met nog meer humanitaire hulp, die via de handen van de rijken gaat en hen uiteindelijk alleen maar rijker maakt, terwijl de armen armer worden.

Israëlische functionarissen hebben in het verleden gezinspeeld op deze situatie, toen zij waarschuwden dat, hoewel er op dat moment geen humanitaire crisis in Gaza was, de internationale gemeenschap er feitelijk een kan scheppen door in te spelen op de corrupte eliteklasse van het gebied.

Vakantieverblijf in Al-Bustan en de toeristische stad Bisan

De dagkrant Al-Hayat Al-Jadida van de Palestijnse Autoriteit schrijft: "Het vakantieoord in Al-Bustan aan de kust, behoort tot een islamitische vereniging die gelinkt wordt aan Hamas. Het heeft cafetaria, een restaurant en visvijvers; het wordt dagelijks bezocht door 1.000 bezoekers en ongeveer 2.000 in het weekend, zegt manager Ahmad Qadoura.

Een inwoner van Gaza wiens huis werd verwoest in de oorlog in Gaza, Abu Kamal Al-Awajeh, uitte zijn verontwaardiging het hoge entreegeld van de vakantieplaats van 35 sjekels. Hij zegt dat "er prioriteit moet worden gegeven aan de heropbouw van Gaza en nieuwe huizenbouw voor diegenen wier huizen werden verwoest in de oorlog." In de buurt heeft de vereniging van gevangenen van Wa'ed, die aanleunt bij Hamas, het Al-Hurriya ["Vrijheid"] vakantieverblijf gebouwd.

In mei j.l. werd de opening ingehuldigd door Hamas minister van Binnenlandse Zaken Fathi Hammad van het vakantiedorp Bisan in Beit Lahiya, in het noorden van de Gazastrook. Voorheen was het een vuilnisbelt, ter grootte van 270 dunam dat behoorde aan de regering van Hamas, en dat voorziet in een vrijetijds-en vakantie [bestemming] voor Gaza bewoners. Het project kostte 1,5 miljoen dollar. Het vakantiedorp heeft een park van 86 dunam, een kleine dierentuin en twee zwembaden van Olympisch formaat voor kinderen en volwassenen. Volgens de administratie logeren er tijdens het weekend zo'n 6.000 bezoekers … De administratie verbied het roken van waterpijp en kaartspelen, en elke week worden in het complex drie religieuze conventies gehouden.


Bronnen: Israël Today: Arabische journalist: Gaza's probleem is niet Israël; Memri: Egyptian Journalist: In Actual Terms, Gaza Is Not Under Siege van 28 juli 2010

 

VS zet ook Abbas onder druk voor vredesbesprekingen


Lang heeft de VS met name druk uitgeoefend op Israel, althans publiekelijk, maar nu lijkt ook Abbas de druk te voelen. De VS uitte geen dreigement dat de relaties zouden verslechteren of de hulp verminderen, maar maakte wel duidelijk dat het erg graag wil dat er zo snel mogelijk directe onderhandelingen plaats vinden tussen beide partijen. Abbas blijft steeds nieuwe voorwaarden stellen, terwijl Israel al een serie consessies heeft gedaan, inderdaad vooral vanwege druk van de VS. Zo zijn honderden checkpoints en roadblocks opgeheven, is de bewegingsvrijheid voor zowel Palestijnen als Israelische Arabieren vergroot, heeft de PA meer bevoegdheden gekregen, heeft Netanjahoe expliciet met een tweestatenoplossing ingestemd en een bevriezing van de nederzettingen van tien maanden doorgevoerd, die onofficieel ook geldt voor Oost-Jeruzalem. Daar staat van Palestijnse kant wat tegenover?
 
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Published 21:35 02.08.10
Latest update 21:35 02.08.10

    U.S.: Failure to advance peace talks will have consequences

    State Dept. official reiterates Washington denial of reported threat to cut ties with the PA if Abbas failed to upgrade existing indirect peace negotiations.
     
    By Natasha Mozgovaya
     

    The United States did not threaten to cut its ties with the Palestinian Authority unless President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to enter direct peace negotiations with Israel, a U.S. State Department official said on Monday, adding, however, that there were consequences to the failure to advance the stalling peace talks.

    Over the weekend, Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council, claimed that Washington had ramped up pressure on Abbas to move from American-mediated talks to direct negotiations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    "There has been huge pressure on the Palestinian Authority to move to direct talks," Ashrawi said in an interview with al-Quds al-Arabi, an Arabic-language newspaper published in London.

    "They even threatened to isolate the Palestinians and cut off relations," she was quoted as saying.

    Abbas has so far resisted calls from Israel and the international community to sit down opposite Netanyahu. But on Thursday the Arab League appeared to undermine his position, voting in favor of direct talks.

    However, speaking with reporters on Monday, State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley refuted these reports, saying that the U.S. "didn't threaten to severe ties with the Palestinians, but there are consequences"

    "We have made a strong argument to them [Palestinians] that you gain leverage inside a direct negotiation, not by trying to set conditions prior to the start of that negotiation," Crowley said.

    When asked whether President Obama brought a question of quality of relations with the Palestinian Authority in his letter to Mahmoud Abbas, Crowley refused to answer.

    "I'm simply going to say that we believe and are strongly encouraging the Palestinians and the Israelis to move into direct negotiations," he said, adding that "absent a direct negotiation, there will be no end to the conflict, there will be no peace agreement, and there will be no Palestinian state. That's a fact."

    The U.S. official did indicate, however, that there would indeed be consequences to such a failure to move ahead with talks, saying that the United States had "a strong sense of urgency as to where we are."

    "There are consequences to failing to take advantage of this opportunity," Crowley said, adding that there were "consequences just in terms of the Middle East itself and how the Israeli citizens, how the Palestinians, how other countries evaluate this and will draw their own conclusions, if these leaders at this time fail to take advantage of this opportunity. We don't think that there's anything to be gained by waiting."

    Crowley added that Washington felt "the longer we wait, the more we give impetus to those who are opposed to peace in the Middle East and will try to use this period of time to try to prevent the process from moving forward," repeating that it was not a threat of any kind.

    "I wouldn't characterize it that way", said Crowley. "We have had intensive conversations with the parties in recent weeks. We strongly believe that this is the time where the parties need to move from proximity talks into direct negotiations," Crowley said.

    The State Department spokesman said that the U.S. saw "clear benefits to taking that step at this time," adding that Washington had been "encouraged by the fact that neighboring countries have given a green light to proceed with direct negotiations."

    "We're trying to move the parties in that direction," Crowley said, adding that he did not feel that that pressure should be construed as a threat, saying the U.S. administration would rather "characterize this as a significant opportunity for the Palestinians in terms of what they feel that they need to resolve the core issues."

    "I think there's an opportunity here that we think after weeks and months of working with the parties, gaining a better understanding of where they are and what they want to do, we think the time is right," Crowley said.

    Talks made a tentative restart in May after a 15-month breakdown following Israel's two-week invasion of Gaza in December 2009 and January 2010 but have so far showed little progress.

    The Palestinian government has so far insisted on seeing some "progress" from the Israeli side before moving to direct talks.

    The Israeli government, the U.S. and the European Union have all expressed their desire that direct talks get under way "immediately.

    Kibboetz beweging wil met uitzetting bedreigde kinderen gastarbeiders opnemen


    Het besluit om ca. 400 kinderen van migranten uit te zetten is ook in Israel zeer omstreden. Diverse ministers stemden tegen, en de kibboetsbeweging heeft nu aangeboden de kinderen op te nemen. Hopelijk kan dat de dreigende uitzetting voorkomen. Wat je ook mag denken van het argument dat Israel niet teveel migranten een vergunning kan geven omdat dat het Joodse karakter van de staat in gevaar brengt, vierhonderd kinderen op een bevolking van zeven miljoen maakt natuurlijk helemaal niets uit. Misschien moeten Israeli's zelf het zware en slechtbetaalde werk gaan doen in plaats van er buitenlanders voor in te huren. Als mensen eenmaal een aantal jaren ergens hebben gewerkt en hun kinderen er opgroeien, is het inhumaan ze vervolgens uit te zetten.
     
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    Published 14:50 02.08.10
    Latest update 14:50 02.08.10
     
    Movement's leader has begun asking member kibbutzim whether they would be willing to take in children not eligible for legal status.
    By Dana Weiler-Polak and Haaretz Service
     
     
     
    The Kibbutz Movement has said it would be willing to absorb 400 children of foreign workers who the government has decided to deport within a month, Israel Radio reported on Monday.
     
    Secretary-General Ze'ev Schor appealed to Defense Minister Ehud Barak to freeze the cabinet's decision, adding that the children in question were Israeli in every aspect beside their citizenship.
     
    Schor's offer was not official – as a decision on that matter has not been made within the movement – but he said he had already begun to turn to member kibbutzim to see which would be prepared to absorb the children.
     
    Ministers on Sunday approved a committee recommendation to grant legal status to some 800 children of migrant workers and deport another 400 others within 21 days.
     
    The vote won the approval of 13 ministers. Ten voted against the recommendations, and four abstained.
     
    Justice Minister Yaakov Neeman had recommended the move, suggesting deporting children except those of migrant workers who have been in Israel for more than five years, and are either entering first grade or a higher school grade. The children who are allowed to stay must also speak Hebrew, and if they were not born in Israel, they must have arrived in Israel before the age of 13.
     
    The agreement applies only to children whose parents entered Israel legally.
     
    Whoever does not meet the criteria will be asked to leave the county within a month.
     
    Over 1,200 children were up for deportation earlier this year, of which 800 children met the criteria and will be granted approval to remain here.
     
    Shas ministers objected, as expected, but Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer and Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar unexpectedly objected as well, calling for keeping all the children in Israel and granting legal status to preschool children as well.
     
    Social Affairs Minister Isaac Herzog unexpectedly abstained from the vote, despite his former declarations that he refused to vote with Interior Minister Eli Yishai (Shas ).
     
    "I didn't vote in favor [of the proposal] because despite the improvements, which I supported, I could not accept deporting a group of 5-year-old children," Herzog said.
     
    Ben-Eliezer voted against his party's position and persuaded Agriculture Minister Shalom Simhon to object as well.
     
    "This is not the Jewish state I know, if it deports children," he shouted at the cabinet session.
     
    Just before the vote Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Interior Minister Eli Yishai, who were against easing the conditions for staying in Israel, argued with Education Minister Gideon Sa'ar and Welfare Minister Herzog, who favored easier criteria.
     
    Netanyahu intervened and after private conversations with the ministers, they agreed that the children who did not meet the required criteria for staying in Israel, would be allowed to appeal to a committee on the basis of exceptional status.
     
    Families with children who meet the criteria will be asked to submit a request, attached to documentation, to the Interior Ministry within 21 days, according to an interministerial committee's recommendations.
     
    After aid groups claimed that 21 days is an unrealistically short period of time, the Interior Ministry added a clause giving those who meet the criteria an extra 21 days to produce documentation, if they are found to qualify for the status after their first request. At first, Netanyahu proposed appointing a special committee to deal with exceptional cases. But this proposal drew fire from all directions. Shas and Yisrael Beiteinu objected, as well as Ben-Eliezer, Sa'ar and Simhon.
     
    Finally, the cabinet decided that Yishai would examine the borderline cases and consult with the interministerial committee that drafted the recommendations. The committee would provide a sort of supervision, the cabinet decided.
     
    "This is a reasonable and balanced decision," Netanyahu said yesterday after deciding to deport hundreds of migrant workers' children. "It was influenced by two primary considerations - the humanitarian consideration and the Zionist consideration. We're looking for a way to absorb and adopt to our hearts children who were brought up and raised here as Israelis. On the other hand, we don't want to create an incentive that will lead to hundreds of thousands of illegal migrant workers flooding the country," he said.
     
    Children who will be going to compulsory kindergarten this year, due to a psychological diagnosis stipulating they are not ready for first grade, will also receive legal status, on the basis of a Justice Ministry amendment.
    Documents include the children's original birth certificates or legally notarized certificates, the passports with which the parents entered Israel, confirmations from schools they went to and others.
     
    UNICEF Israel, the organization in charge of enforcing the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, protested the cabinet's decision, calling it a "blatant violation" of the convention, which Israel signed with 200 other states worldwide.
     
    "Israel must formulate a humane immigration policy and stop the senseless revolving door policy, that wants to deport migrant workers and their children, on the one hand, and bring in new ones instead, on the other hand," UNICEF Israel said in a statement.
     

     

    IDF over grensgevechten Israel - Libanon


    Uit onderstaande briefing van het Israelische Leger komen een aantal nieuwe feiten naar voren, die op zijn minst onderzocht moeten worden. Zo beweert het leger dat er de laatste maanden vaker sprake is van bijzonder provocerend gedrag door de Libanese soldaten, en men brengt dit in verband met het feit dat de laatste tijd vooral shiitische eenheden langs de grens zijn gestationeerd, die mogelijk banden hebben met Hezbollah.
     
    ..increasing aggression towards Israeli forces stationed along the border.  IDF forces have been threatened verbally, as well as with physical gestures by Lebanese troops, aimed at escalating tension in this already sensitive border area. Certain LAF companies have in fact made threats and sought to provoke the IDF through threatening gestures with heavy weaponry, including machine guns and RPGs.
     
    Verder meldt men dat Israel tot twee keer toe met uitstel van de werkzaamheden heeft ingestemd, en alles tot in detail met UNIFIL had overlegd.
     
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    Briefing by the IDF on the Incidents of 3 August 2010
    Misgav Am, on the Lebanese Border, 4/8/2010


    Hezbollah's Influence on the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF)

    ·      Since mid-2007, there has been an increased in activity of Global Jihad in the area of Southern Lebanon.

    ·      Recently, we have seen more incidence of violence by Hezbollah directed against UNIFIL's peacekeeping force.

    ·      LAF brigades in the past were often majority Christian soldiers. ≈ this has changed. The LAF policy now dictates that different brigades will rotate responsibility for the area, and this includes brigades with varying ethno-religious composition.

    ·      There are now a number of brigades of Shiite commanders in charge of forces in the border area. It is likely, given where these soldiers are from – that many of them have relatives who are Hezbollah activists or supporters.

    ·      There has been increasing influence of Hezbollah upon LAF forces, and growth in this has been seen in recent years, as more violations of Res. 1701 have occurred by the Lebanese Armed Forces.

    Provocation, Intimidation & Tension in Recent Months:

    ·      Over the past three months, the Central and Eastern Brigades of the LAF have acted with increasing aggression towards Israeli forces stationed along the border.  IDF forces have been threatened verbally, as well as with physical gestures by Lebanese troops, aimed at escalating tension in this already sensitive border area. Certain LAF companies have in fact made threats and sought to provoke the IDF through threatening gestures with heavy weaponry, including machine guns and RPGs.

    ·      Israel has informed the UNIFIL Liaison of the LAF's demonstrations of aggression and attempts to enflame the situation, and has expressed the IDF's concerns that such behaviour could spark a deterioration into violent confrontation – something which the Israeli side wishes only to prevent.

    ·      Nevertheless, such provocative behaviour has taken place so often that it has in fact become a regular dangerous routine. This behaviour, over a number of months, laid the framework for the tragically violent incident that took place on Tuesday.


    Background to the Lebanese Forces' Provocation

    ·      The LAF is the sovereign army of Lebanon, and receives its orders through a standard military central command structure, in coordination with the Lebanese government in Beirut.

    ·      Tuesday's tragic events did not take place out of the blue. The increasingly risk-prone aggression and provocation by Lebanese forces over the past three months demonstrated clearly – both at the time and now with the benefit of hindsight – the intention for violence by the Lebanese forces. 

    The Incident:

    ·      Tuesday began with plans by the IDF, coordinated in extreme detail with the UNIFIL Liaison Officer, to carry out a routine pruning of shrubbery near the fence which lies at a distance of 200-300 metres behind the "Blue Line" internationally recognised border between Israel and Lebanon.

    ·      Such maintenance work is of absolute necessity for the safety and security of not just the Israeli military, but rather also the civilian residential areas and agricultural areas, which lie in, close proximity to the border area.  It should be noted that Hezbollah forces using similar shrub growth as cover after illegally infiltrating Israeli territory facilitated the kidnapping of two IDF soldiers during the 2006 Lebanon War.

    ·      Despite Israel's absolute right to maintain this border area, which lies in undisputed Israeli territory, the IDF coordinates all such activities with the UNIFIL Liaison Officer, and often makes changes to its own plans due to UNIFIL's concerns.

    ·      In order to prevent any misunderstanding, prior to Tuesday's planned maintenance work the Israeli officer in charge personally patrolled the relevant area together with the UNIFIL Liaison Officer to demonstrate, in an explicit and specific manner, which trees and shrubbery the IDF intended to work on. All such plans were approved by UNIFIL before any activities by the IDF took place.

    ·      On Tuesday morning, the planned commencement of the maintenance work at 08:30am was postponed by a number of hours as per a request by UNIFIL. When the later time already agreed upon had come, UNIFIL once again requested that the IDF delay such activities a number of additional minutes, and the IDF further complied.

    ·      Subsequently, the IDF sent crane equipment down to the site, in order to demonstrate exactly what activities it planned to carry out.

    ·      At this point, the Lebanese Armed Forces opened fire with snipers towards Israel. It must be noted, however, that such fire was not aimed at the soldiers located by the fence, but rather directly aimed at IDF officers who were standing in a separate area, on higher ground.  These officers were wearing helmets and flack jackets. The officer who was killed by this fire was shot in the head, despite the armour he was wearing. This demonstrates the premeditated, planned and deliberate nature of the Lebanese attack.

    ·      Following the Israeli forces' coming under unprovoked attack by the LAF, the IDF opened fire against the specific parts of LAF forces who had fired against Israel. The IDF made a clear distinction between such LAF forces, and any UNIFIL personnel or civilians that may have been in the area, thus compromising Israel's capabilities out of genuine concern to prevent any innocent casualties.

    ·      The Lebanese Army cynically manipulated Israel's goodwill in coordinating all activities with UNIFIL observers, as well as Israel's ongoing desire to avoid any deterioration into violent confrontation with our neighbours. 


    IDF Spokesperson's Office
     
     

    Wat deden 5 Reuters fotografen bij de Israelisch-Libanese grens afgelopen dinsdag?

     
    Bij de schietpartij afgelopen dinsdag tussen Israel en Libanon kwam zoals bekend een Libanese journalist om het leven en een andere raakte zwaargewond. Behalve deze journalisten van beide aan Hezbollah gelieerde media waren er echter ook een horde journalisten van Reuters aanwezig, met lokale 'stringers', dat zijn mensen die vertalen en de weg kennen ter plaatse en vaak ook kontakten helpen regelen voor de journalist (zij maken soms ook zelf foto's). Verschillende mensen, waaronder Elder of Ziyon, vragen zich af wat die journalisten daar allemaal deden. Israel zaagt wel vaker een boom langs de grens om, om goed zicht te houden op de grens. Daar stuur je dus geen 5 fotografen naar toe. Blijkbaar verwachtte men dat er meer zou gebeuren en wilde dan als eerste prachtige foto's hebben. Honest Reporting stelt er in haar blog een paar kritische vragen over, en heeft bovendien alle 25 foto's van Reuters onder de loep genomen. Klik hier voor de tekst met foto's.
     
    Reuters had 5 photographers plus stringers to cover a tree being cut
     
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    Thursday, August 5 2010

    Border Clash: A Case Study in Reuters Photography

    The sheer number of photos involved makes this post both daunting and necessary.

    Daunting, because 25 is a lot of images (and captions) to look over and post. Necessary, because this is the only way to demonstrate how far over the top Reuters photographers went in covering Tuesday's clash along the Israeli-Lebanese border. The images also raise some very troubling questions.

    The Issues

    1. Five photographers, (in addition to an unknown number of stringers) from one news service covering what was supposed to be routine IDF border maintenance work is astounding.

    The Reuters photographers identified with photo credits are Ali Hashisho, Hamad Almakt, Kamel Jaber, Baz Ratner, and Karamallah Daher (not to be confused with AP photographer Ronith Daher who also covered the border skirmish). Ratner and Almakt worked on the Israeli side of the border. The rest of the images are from the Lebanese side.

    2. Reuters' coverage and access to so many positions along the border makes us wonder if some or all of these photographers expected to "only" cover IDF gardening or the start of the next Lebanon war.

    Reuters' photos simply blew away the other news agencies. Had the skirmish escalated, the wire service would have been well-poised to produce lots of gory images of dead and injured Lebanese soldiers and civilians.

    3. It's reasonable to assume Reuters' picture desk staff and editors knew what was going on. There's no way the picture desk could have been flooded with these kinds of images without higher ups wondering how so many photographers were able to share the same scoop.

    4. Some images of Israeli soldiers taken from the Lebanese side of the border are so close, it's a miracle that more journalists weren't killed or injured by IDF fire. In the heat of battle, it's very easy to confuse large camera equipment, like a zoom lens, with a weapon.

    As it was, Assaf Abu Rahhal of the pro-Syrian paper, al-Akhbar was killed, while Ali Chouaib of Hezbollah's Al-Manar was injured.

    5. Seven of the 25 pictures (28 percent) have an unidentified "stringer" photo credit; this is very suspicious and leaves a lot of unanswered questions as to who the photographers are.

    Common practice is for stringers -- local free-lance photographers not employed by the news service -- to be credited by name, followed by the word "Stringer" or "STR" to indicate the photographer's status. None of the seven stringer photo credits identified anyone by name.

    6. One photographer deserving closer scrutiny is Ali Hashisho. Judging from his especially close access and captions, it's worth asking if Hashisho also serves in the Lebanese Army, UNIFIL, or some other position that might be a conflict of interest with his work for Reuters.

    7. We linked to the images on DayLife for further documentation.

    8. HonestReporting obtained six unpublished graphic photos which we are including in this post. Despite their graphic nature, we are including those images because they further demonstrate the unrestricted access the Reuters photographers enjoyed. All are branded with Reuters watermarks.

    9. It should be noted that Reuters wasn't the only agency with photographers on scene. AP, for example, had its own photographic issues which we blogged Tuesday night. However, for the reasons listed above, we're singling out Reuters for special attention.

    http://backspin.typepad.com/backspin/2010/08/over-the-top-with-reuters-photographers.html

    Israel: schuilen voor de volgende oorlog

     
    Een Nederlandse vertaling staat op Loor Schrijft: Ingraven voor de volgende oorlog
     
    Met alle aandacht voor Gaza en de vermeende humanitaire crisis, wordt vergeten dat er ook slachtoffers aan de andere kant zijn. Meer dan 50% van de inwoners van Sderot lijdt aan stress en traumatische stoornissen, en een normaal leven is ondanks de vermindering van het aantal raketten nog steeds niet mogelijk.
     
    RP
    -----------
     
    Sheltering for the Next War
    Giulio Meotti

    WEB ONLY

    Fertile, warm, and humid is the plain leading to the town of Sderot. The houses are yellow and white on the Negev, the desert dreamt by David Ben Gurion, the founder of modern Israel. Before the road leading into the town, there is a cafeteria full of Israeli soldiers in transit to military bases. It's the border with Gaza and the Hamas rockets.

    A few kilometers from here lies Havat Shikmim, the ranch of former prime minister Ariel Sharon. Once protected and fortified, the place is now neglected. The Hamas rockets have fallen near the grave of Sharon's wife, Lily, and the flowers placed by the general have been burned by Islamist hatred. Hamas claims the Sharon ranch, which is located near Huj, an Arab village destroyed in the war of 1948.

    Sderot was once famous for having one of the highest unemployment rates in Israel. Today this poor town of North African and Soviet immigrants boasts the sad record of having received the highest number of rocket attacks by Hamas. It is now the place most at risk in Israel. But severe risk also marks other southern cities, such as Ashdod, Beersheba, Netivot, and Ashkelon, the latter of which provides much of Gaza's electricity but nevertheless is still bombarded by Grad missiles. The fact that a large part of the country is living much as those in Sderot do—running for shelter and fearing for their lives—creates a whole new sad reality: a sense of solidarity.

    Bulldozers are hard at work in Sderot. Every street is dotted with concrete huts: the bus shelters have them, the souk (market) has them, and now the cranes and bulldozers are all over town making good on the government's promise to put a missile-proof security room in every Sderot home. A few days ago, another rocket fell into the city. The militants of the terrorist movement have been improving their missiles. The people in Sderot used to call them "toys made in the kitchen." Then the rockets began to kill and produce an array of disabled citizens. They are no longer considered "toys."

    Sderot is preparing for the next war against Hamas. "There are 5,000 additional shelters under construction in Sderot," says Noam Bedein, director of the Sderot Media Center. Five thousand new shelters are a huge number for a small town of just 20,000 inhabitants. That's why Sderot was dubbed "the world capital of bomb shelters." In the courtyard of the police station are stored the remains of the launched missiles. The red ones were launched by Hamas. The yellow rockets came from the Islamic Jihad. Since the war ended in January 2009, hundreds of new rockets have fallen into the Negev desert and its kibbutzim.

    In Sderot you have only 15 seconds to find a shelter once the alarm warns that Hamas has just launched a rocket. Gaza is less than a mile from here. In Sderot, many motorists do not wear seatbelts so that they can rush out of their cars when the alarm sounds. The school on the hill bears the marks of shrapnel bombs, and the army has nestled the building under huge slabs of steel. "People abroad do not realize what is happening here," says the mayor of Sderot, David Buskila, an Israeli of Moroccan descent, as are most of those who came to Sderot in the 1950s to found the city.

    Dr. Adriana Katz is an accidental hero of this endless war, because for years she has cared for the people here. "We just did a test for chemical warfare," says Katz, who directs the trauma center in Sderot, where all the victims in shock arrive after the missiles fall. Katz belonged to the Meretz Party of Shulamit Aloni and Peace Now. "I needed time to understand that something bothered me. When the discomfort became pain, I immediately knew I had opened myself too much to the Palestinians, [because] everything the Jews did seemed to me unjust, fascist, colonialist. Then I realized the mistakes. Israel is a hard place, but special. We won't run away." Every week, her trauma center receives around 150 to 170 people for medical treatment.

    When the situation is critical, the children of Sderot are sent by relatives to live elsewhere in Israel. The young mothers buying socks with their children still keep an eye out for the nearest bomb shelter. They still hurry home as quickly as possible. The 24,000 residents of Sderot have come out of their bomb shelters—but slowly, hesitantly. And the signs of a new tranquility, made possible by the Gaza operation against Hamas, are seen everywhere. At night, groups of men are talking in fast-food restaurants and cafes. This was unimaginable a year and a half ago. People are still driving with the windows down so that they can hear the alarm if it sounds. In such a case, the driver must get out and lie on the ground, even if it's raining. "A lady stopped the car without getting out and now must undergo rehabilitation because she was injured seriously by the rocket," says Katz. "I refuse to lie down on the ground. It's like an instinct that prevents me—it's too humiliating."

    Usually Hamas terrorists fire rockets on Sderot during the morning, when there is the maximum concentration of Jewish children going to school. Many Holocaust survivors in the city must take sedatives and tranquilizers. In Sderot there are large stocks of medicines for the shock treatment. It is estimated that more than half the population of Sderot suffer from stress or other psychiatric syndromes. After years of missile fire on the city, groups of children are in "regression"; they do not want to sleep alone, receive low grades at school, and fear leaving home.

    But this is Sderot, the involuntary capital of torn psyches: the tranquilizers Lorivan, Clonex, and Valium are in plentiful supply; the antidepressants Seroxat, Cipralex, and Cymbalta are for deeper treatment, and severe psychoses are treated with the neuroleptics Zyprexa, Geodon, and Clopixol.

    The new gas masks just distributed to the population have a benign name: Candy. The mask first appeared in 1991, when Saddam Hussein's Iraq rained rockets on Israel. In February, Israel announced a new anti-missile system known as Iron Dome. It's the great hope of Sderot, but some analysts have serious doubts that it can protect the city. The project has cost a billion dollars—to ward off the $25-a-piece rockets of Hamas. Iron Dome takes 30 seconds to intercept a rocket, which is most probably too long for the kibbutzim in the Negev and the towns in the north of Galilee. To make matters worse, Hezbollah and Hamas now have new Iranian missiles that can reach Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

    In Sderot there is a park named after a four-year-old boy, Aphik Zahavi-Ohayon, Hamas's first victim in the city. At Givat, "the hill," you can see Beit Hanoun. It's Hamas territory, just half a mile away. Yet houses with red roofs, tidy and comfortable, are under construction in this hill—the most frightening face of the new Sderot's "normality."

    The mayor of Sderot explains that "there is a real possibility that we will pass on to a new conflict against Hamas. In the future we expect a new missile wave. We have built 2,500 new shelters. New shelters will be finished for schools by the beginning of the school year. I hope to see better days, although I'm not sure."

    Yet the people of Sderot did not abandon their homes. The few families who left did so because they could afford to leave this trenched city. "People try to learn again to live, they drive with the windows closed because it is too hot," says Dr. Katz. "Many find it difficult to separate from the vault and they sleep in the shelters. In many houses the shelters are used for games by the children." In Katz's clinic, you will find a shelter that looks like an anonymous waiting room: a table and a small sofa with a blanket thrown over. "An alarm can bring you back to the fears, the insomnia, and my clinic is filled with people in anguish," says Katz. "There is a poor seller of melons that can no longer shout on a megaphone to sell his wares, because it is too similar to 'Tzeva adom,' the siren alarm, and someone passed out when they heard him."

    In this atmosphere of surreal "peace," people wait. "Here we are sitting on a barrel of explosives," says Katz. "The only question is when you blow up."

    Few can understand better the plight of Sderot than their counterparts in Kiryat Shmona, the town near the border with Lebanon. The higher you climb in Galilee, the more palpable become the security needs of Israel. The road to Kiryat Shmona, "the city of eight," built in memory of the Jewish pioneers who came up here to defend the kibbutzim, is scorched by bombs and fires. Even the water reservoir Eskhol, named for an Israeli prime minister, is a treasure protected by an electrified fence, cameras, and armed guards. The terrorists can poison even the water.

    There is silence in Kiryat Shmona. The local Israelis call it the "so called" silence because it is more the faint vibration of a war to come—the calm before the storm. As in Sderot, many houses in Kiryat Shmona are equipped today with new shelters. Row houses are interrupted by new buildings, where families can escape in case of rocket fire. The greatest fear of the 20,000 inhabitants is that the alarm will sound when their children are just down the street.

    In the summer of 2006, Hezbollah launched thousands of missiles on roofs and roads. Most of the 200 public shelters of Kiryat Shmona have been restored, ready for use again. Hezbollah has just staged a new show of force in southern Lebanon against a UNIFIL contingent of international forces, triggering many accidents, especially in the area under Italian command. The "Party of God" wants to show who controls the territory, because the struggle against Israel is never finished. Kiryat Shmona can become again the first target of Shia rockets. According to Jerusalem, Hezbollah controls 160 villages in southern Lebanon, ready to become strongholds in case of war, as they did in 2006.

    More than 4,000 Katyusha rockets, which have a longer range and carry a bigger explosive payload than do Kassams, fell on Kiryat Shmona between 1968 and May 2000, when the IDF withdrew from Lebanon in full compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 425. During that same period, some 20 people, according to municipality statistics, were killed as a result of rocket attacks, and another 16 as a result of terrorist activities and infiltrations. Over the same period, rockets damaged more than 6,500 homes, in addition to factories, public buildings, schools, and kindergartens, as well as cars and other vehicles. Hundreds of people were physically and psychologically wounded. Three hundred thousand Israelis were forced to move to the south, and a third of the Israeli population hid in shelters. In many cases, the city could not afford to wait for the slow government bureaucracy to build the needed shelters but turned to private charity instead. Some shelters in Kiryat Shmona, which people here have dubbed Kiryat Katyusha, were made possible thanks to donations from the American Jewish community, and Livnot U'Lehibanot is the organization that collected money to renovate defensive structures for the population in the Galilee.

    During the last war, local children drew pictures of beautiful domes that protected the city from the sky. That fantasy is almost a reality. Alan Schneider, director of the Bnai Brith World Center in Jerusalem, explains what his organization is doing to help the city: "We have funded an anti-missile system made by the Elbit Systems. It can provide precious information in case of attack." The leader of Bnai Brith is expecting another round of attacks from Hezbollah: "UNIFIL's mission has failed, and there is frequent passage of weapons from Syria to Hezbollah. So we fear the worst. Today the Lebanese terrorists have more weapons than they had before 2006."

    Not far from here stands Metulla, the city where in 1970, Arafat's killers murdered Jewish students and tourists. During the last war, one third of the Israeli population fled. Today there is an unreal calm. It is impressive to see that the mountains, which had become black from bombs, are now green and that the traffic is again intense. There is no trace of the effects from the explosions in Kiryat Shmona. Yet the oldest trees of Israel—oaks, pines, and carob—which had grown like children, one by one, are no more.

    Unlike before and during the war, you can now stand on a terrace overlooking the villages of Ataybeh, Markab, and Telkabe—all scenes of bloody battles. In these villages, Hezbollah is still hiding weapons and taking note of Israeli movements. Behind this green quietness there is the work of rearmament and reconstruction, even in the absence of yellow Hezbollah flags and posters that displayed the head of Israelis. "From those houses up there we never see a family, a child, nothing," the locals explain. The houses are called the "eyes of Hezbollah."

    The Golan Heights are not far. The city of Quneitra lies low and close below the hills. Here you can physically feel the strategic fragility of Israel. If Jerusalem cedes the heights to Damascus, the Syrians will be able to look inside Israel. What would happen if, instead of the Assad regime, another government took power, one with Islamist genocidal ambitions toward the nearby Jewish state?

    On the Golan there are no Palestinians, only Jews and Druze, who live together in harmony. Even the Golan "settlers" are different from those of the West Bank. They are nonreligious nationalists devoted to the defense of Israel. The Druze of the surrounding villages suffer the separation from relatives across the border, and often the families speak with megaphones, asking for news of their loved ones. The Golan is a place where signs of mourning remain intact. A local artist has made sculptures from pieces of missiles and tanks. There is the gaping mouth of a house gutted by bombs. A plaque commemorates the loss of a 20-year-old son. The memorial to the Egoz brigade, which patrolled the Israeli border with Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, is not far away from 30 bronze plaques engraved with the names of the fallen.

    In the settlement city of Katzrin, nobody is expecting Israel to withdraw from the Golan. The city is a pearl of modernity and Israeliness. Red-roofed houses are under construction. These abodes are cheap because their future was always uncertain. Trucks full of bottles of the famous wine of the Golan, boycotted by the anti-Israeli activists, are leaving all the time. The "settlers" are planting new vines. Before the 1967 war, the Jewish state had built a row of trees along roadsides to protect pedestrians from the Syrian snipers. Those trees are still there, silent witnesses to a truce always under discussion.

    Back in Tel Aviv, the Indian conductor Zubin Mehta has just finished performing in honor of Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier kidnapped by Hamas. Back in 1991, when Saddam Hussein launched his rockets on Tel Aviv, the orchestra was playing Bach when the sirens suddenly began to scream. Zubin Mehta and Isaac Stern put on gas masks. The missiles fell, but the music won. Twenty years later, Zubin Mehta is still in Tel Aviv, as Israel waits again for a new wave of rocket fire. From Sderot to Kiryat Shmona, the Jewish state faces a new terror assault. Its citizens are sheltering again. And the world that isolates and hates Israel deepens the awful wounds.

    =============

    About the Author

    Giulio Meotti is an Italian journalist and the author of a forthcoming book about Israel: "A New Shoah: The untold story of Israel's victims of terrorism" (Encounter Books).

     

    donderdag 5 augustus 2010

    NRC Handelsblad en NOS Journaal over grensincident Israel - Libanon

     

    Wat NRC en NOS verzwijgen over het schietincident tussen Israel en Libanon

    IMO Blog, 5 augustus 2010

    In de blogosfeer is woensdag veel geschreven over het schietincident van dinsdag tussen Israël en Libanon, en ook de 'reguliere media' besteedden er veel aandacht aan. Zoals vaak werden de Israëlische en Libanese claim tegenover elkaar gezet, waarbij op het NOS journaal bovendien een Libanese woordvoerder aan het woord kwam en Israëls reactie alleen kort werd samengevat. Veel belangrijke en interessante informatie ontbrak in de media. Ik zal hier aan aantal dingen noemen.

    * De Libanese sluipschutters beschoten niet de soldaten die de boom omkapten maar in de buurt staande officieren die het geheel overzagen en zich achter het Israëlische hek bevonden.

    * Een van de gedode Libanezen was Assaf Abu Rahal die werkte voor het aan Hezbollah gelieerde Al Akhbar, en een andere gewonde journalist is van Hezbollahs al-Manar (dat vorig jaar in Frankrijk werd verboden vanwege haar antisemitische uitzendingen). Volgens Israëlische bronnen waren er meer journalisten ter plekke. Wat deden die journalisten daar? Libanon heeft een video van het incident (zie hier, vrij onderaan), wat suggereert dat men blijkbaar was voorbereid op een dergelijk incident en wist wat er ging gebeuren.

    * Israël had UNIFIL gemeld dat het de boom zou gaan rooien, en UNIFIL heeft daar niet tegen geprotesteerd. Dit had al vóór de expliciete verklaring van UNIFIL dat de boom op Israëlisch grondgebied stond, twijfels moeten doen rijzen bij de media over de Libanese verklaring dat de boom in Libanon stond en zij uit zelfverdediging handelde. Het NOS journaal meldde echter de Israëlische melding bij UNIFIL niet eens, en volgens NRC Handelsblad had UNIFIL ontkend noch bevestigd dat Israël de werkzaamheden had gemeld. Dat is niet waar. Zowel het Israëlische leger als verschillende Israëlische kranten waaronder Haaretz hebben een expliciete verklaring van UNIFIL wat dit betreft gepubliceerd:

    The political adviser to the UNIFIL commander, Milos Strugar said , "I can confirm that the IDF had coordinated the pruning work along the border with the Lebanese Army through UNIFIL. The IDF informed UNIFIL that it would be pruning a tree on the northern side of the border fence, but south of the international border line."
    http://dover.idf.il/IDF/English/News/today/10/08/0401.htm

    Natuurlijk hadden ze dat bij de NRC ook kunnen vinden of achterhalen, maar zowel de NRC als andere media hangen liever een rookgordijn op met allerlei vage aanduidingen (een boom 'op de grens' (NRC), de grens is niet overal duidelijk afgebakend (NOS journaal) (wat beide in feite gelogen is: ten tijde van het NRC artikel was de UNIFIL verklaring bekend en men meldt die zelfs verderop, en de grens is niet onduidelijk of in ieder geval niet op die plek), in plaats van juist zo precies mogelijk te vertellen wat er aan de hand was.

    De NRC houdt vervolgens een wollig verhaal over hoezeer de spanning te snijden is tussen Israël en Libanon en hoezeer Israël zich bedreigd voelt en daarom dit incident zo escaleerde, terwijl beide partijen eigenlijk helemaal geen oorlog willen. Klinkt allemaal plausibel voor de leek, maar wijzer wordt je er niet van. Feit is dat Libanon op Israëlische officieren schoot die honderden meters binnen Israël (en binnen het hek) waren, en daarvoor was geen enkele rechtvaardiging. NRC meldt pas in het tweede deel van haar artikel, op pagina vier (het eerste deel staat op de voorpagina) dat UNIFIL bevestigt dat de boom in Israël stond, om het belang daarvan onmiddellijk te bagatelliseren. Ook wordt direct gesuggereerd dat Israël toch schuldig zou kunnen zijn, want UNIFIL onderzoekt nog 'of er misschien militaire bewegingen hebben plaatsgevonden'. Het idee dat Libanon de agressor was en Israël geen schuld draagt is blijkbaar te bizar om serieus in overweging te nemen, en dus wordt liever een beeld gecreëerd van een Israël dat vanwege 'een gespannen klimaat', veroorzaakt door de beschietingen afgelopen week op Eilat nu overspannen reageert op een boom-incident. Het is knap in elkaar gezet.

    * De vraag is wie precies het commando tot vuren gaf aan de Libanese soldaten. Volgens het Israëlische leger was dat een plaatselijke commandant, die zelf geen bevel van hogerhand had gekregen het vuur te openen. Ook heb ik gelezen dat veel van de Libanese troepen aan de grens uit sjiieten bestaan die loyaal zijn aan Hezbollah. Het is sowieso een interessante vraag in hoeverre Hezbollah is geïnfiltreerd in het Libanese Leger. Bij incidenten van Hezbollah met UNIFIL bleek in het verleden dat men niet kon opereren zonder Hezbollahs toestemming, en bepaalde gebieden off-limit waren voor UNIFIL. Dit alles in flagrante schending van VN resolutie 1701 (dat de aanwezigheid van Hezbollah ten zuiden van de rivier de Litani verbiedt), maar het NOS journaal of de NRC heeft dat bij mijn weten nooit gehaald.

    Alles wijst erop dat er van een voorbereide actie en zelfs hinderlaag sprake was. Het feit dat Israël dit soort zaken vaker doet en sprake is van routinewerkzaamheden, het gemeld was aan UNIFIL die het op hun beurt aan het Libanese leger meldde dat Hezbollah op de hoogte stelde, dat er journalisten aanwezig waren en dat niet de boom rooiende soldaten maar verderop staande officieren werden beschoten, dat alles wijst toch in een bepaalde richting.

    Op zowel het NOS journaal als in de NRC als elders werd de oorlog uit 2006 erbij gehaald, waarbij slechts werd vermeld hoeveel doden er vielen (de NRC spreekt van 1500 doden, meest Libanese burgers). Wat opvallend ontbrak is dat die oorlog begon door eenzelfde soort hinderlaag op Israëlisch grondgebied, waarbij acht militairen werden gedood en twee ontvoerd (en vervolgens ook gedood). Die hinderlaag vond vlakbij de plaats van het boomincident plaats, en het rooien van de boom had precies tot doel om iets dergelijks in de toekomst te voorkomen. Maar dat soort achtergrondinformatie is volgens de NRC of de NOS niet interessant voor de lezer c.q. kijker. Over de Tweede Libanon Oorlog wordt sowieso nooit gemeld dat die door een hinderlaag op Israëlisch grondgebied is veroorzaakt waarbij acht Israëlische soldaten werden gedood, en in het beste geval worden alleen de ontvoerde soldaten kort genoemd.

    Tot slot wordt in de blogosfeer de Libanese escalatie in verband gebracht met het speciale tribunaal dat binnenkort haar oordeel zal uitspreken over de dood van Rafik Hariri, waarbij Hezbollah verdacht is. Hezbollah heeft er alle belang bij de aandacht van deze zaak af te leiden en het Libanese volk achter zich te verenigen tegen 'de Israëlische agressie'. Hezbollah is de laatste jaren in Libanon steeds machtiger geworden, en veel van de vroegere oppositieleden tegen zowel Hezbollah als Syrië zijn overgelopen naar het pro-Hezbollah en Syrië front.

    Hieronder een artikel dat volgens mij het beste en meest gedetailleerd weergeeft wat er gebeurde.

    Ratna Pelle

    - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

    Clash on Israel-Lebanon Border Holds Potential for Strategic Escalation
    Written by Yossef Bodansky
    Tuesday, 03 August 2010 20:56

    The August 3, 2010, armed clash along the Israeli-Lebanese border was a significant strategic incident.

    On Thursday, July 29, 2010, Israel notified UNIFIL that a few Israeli soldiers would be crossing the security fence in order to cut a tree and remove a few shrubs in Israeli territory but near the Blue Line (the actual border between Israel and Lebanon). This foliage blocks the view of Israeli security cameras positioned deep inside Israel. Israel also notified UNIFIL that these soldiers would be escorted by a small patrol which would stay south of the security fence.

    The Israeli notification was in accordance with UNSC resolution 1701. UNIFIL then informed the nearby positions of the Lebanese Armed Forces about the planned Israeli activities in order to ensure that there was no misunderstanding. The Lebanese Army notified the local HizbAllah force.

    Significantly, the Lebanese Army unit deployed along the border with Israel is the 9th Division, whose commanders and troops are Shi'ites and recruited from the same manpower pool as the HizbAllah.

    Around 10:30am on August 3, 2010, about 10 Israeli soldiers with saws crossed the gate in the security fence on foot. This detachment was covered by an Israeli patrol which included a few tanks, armored vehicles, and a command vehicle. As UNIFIL had been informed, the patrol stayed 200-300 meters south of the fence.

    When the soldiers approached the tree, they were attacked by small arms automatic fire from both the Lebanese Army's position just across the border and "civilians" (HizbAllah fighters) in the nearby village of Adissyeh.

    Immediately, a few Israeli commanders ran from the command vehicle toward the fence to see what was happening. Snipers hiding in the bush adjacent to the Lebanese Army position fired on them, killing the Israeli battalion commander (a lieutenant-colonel) and critically wounding the company commander (a captain). The sniper fire came from a professional ambush that had been organized on the basis of the advance warning provided by UNIFIL.
    Meanwhile, the shooting at the Israeli soldiers north of the fence intensified. Israeli forces opened small-arms and mortar fire on the sources of fire in the Lebanese Army position and in a couple of unfinished houses in Adissyeh. Two Israeli tanks and an armored personnel carrier moved forward toward the fence in order to evacuate the stranded soldiers. At this point a UNIFIL patrol arrived on the scene and the UN officers urged both sides to ceasefire. The firing stopped a few minutes later.

    Escorted by the UN patrol, the two Israeli tanks and the armored personnel carrier continued to advance toward the gate in the fence in order to evacuate the soldiers. Suddenly an anti-tank missile was fired from either the Lebanese Army position or the bush immediately near it. The missile barely missed the UNIFIL vehicle and the tanks. The Israeli tanks opened fire on the missile launcher.

    Major activity followed. Intense fire — small arms, heavy machineguns, mortars, and RPGs — was opened from both several Lebanese Army positions as well as HizbAllah positions in Adissyeh. Israel rushed additional tanks and artillery to the area and started bombarding all Lebanese positions. One or two Katyusha rockets were launched toward Israel, impacted in open space and caused no damage.

    A pair of Israeli combat helicopters arrived on the scene. They attacked the main Lebanese Army position near Adissyeh, and subsequently the Lebanese Army battalion headquarters in the village of Al-Taybeh. The helicopters also attacked and destroyed several Lebanese Army armored vehicles which were parked near the headquarters. Three Lebanese soldiers and a journalist (from the pro-HizbAllah newspaper Al-Akhbar) who was with the troops in Al-Taybeh were killed. Another soldier was killed in the position near Adissyeh. A total of five to six soldiers were wounded. There is no reliable information about HizbAllah casualties.
    The fire subsided after little over two and a half hours.

    This was a very serious incident for two reasons:
    1. The incident started as a pre-planned pre-meditated provocation against the Israeli patrol on the basis of information provided via UNIFIL. The mere invitation by the Army of the Al-Akhbar correspondent to cover the clash suggests that this was a pre-planned incident. The incident was conducted jointly by Lebanese Army forces and HizbAllah forces, proving that the close cooperation which HizbAllah leader Hassan Nasrallah had boasted about repeatedly is indeed working (at least with the Army's Shi'ite units such as the 9th Division).

    2. Earlier, on Monday, August 2, 2010, HizbAllah and Iranian media warned that the Israeli cabinet had considered "the prospects of an upcoming war on the Lebanese, Syrian and Gaza fronts in anticipation of tensions on the Lebanese domestic scene" because of the impending indictment of senior HizbAllah officials by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). The HizbAllah, Syria, and Iran are calling on all Lebanese to ignore the STL and instead rally and close ranks behind the "Resistance" in order to confront the Israeli threat. Under these circumstances, the incident on the Israeli-Lebanese border should be considered a made-to-order "proof" of the HizbAllah and Iranian warnings.

    Indeed, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman denounced the fighting and urged the Army and all Lebanese to "stand up to Israel's violation of Resolution 1701, whatever the price". According to the Syrian Arab News Agency, Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad stated that the "Israeli attack proves once again that Israel is constantly working to destabilize security in Lebanon and the region. Syria stresses that it is standing by its sister Lebanon in the face of the criminal Israeli aggression and calls on the UN to condemn and stop this aggression."
    However, the main event in the aftermath of the clash is an anticipated major speech by Hassan Nasrallah. The speech was scheduled for 20:30 on August 3, 2010 (Lebanon time), but its exact time was being constantly changed. Senior HizbAllah officials predict that Nasrallah's speech "will mark a turning point" for Lebanon and the entire Middle East. They explained that Nasrallah would "focus on the national and Islamic dimension of the July [2006] war" and its implications for the current situation in the entire region. Nasrallah's speech, the Senior HizbAllah officials stress, "will mainly be devoted to talk about the meaning of victory against Israel" in both past wars and in the historic confrontation still to come.

    Given the above, the August 2, 2010, rocket firing from southern Sinai of Aqaba, Eilat, and a base of the US-led Multinational Force & Observers Organization in Sinai might also be part of this kind of made-to-order "proof" of Israeli aggression. Significantly, the six 122mm GRAD rockets fired from Sinai were made in Iran or North Korea, strongly suggesting that the perpetrators were Iran-sponsored main group rather than a Palestinian fringe entity.


    Palestijns mensenrechtencentrum vermoedt bommenmakers oorzaak van explosie in Gazastrook


    Terwijl Hamas Israel de schuld blijft geven van een explosie afgelopen maandag in het Dair al-Balah vluchtelingenkamp, zet het Palestijnse PCHR hier vraagtekens bij:
     
    "In light of information available to PCHR through field investigations, and according to testimonies of eyewitnesses that saw transportation of bombs from the house, there are reasons to suspect that the explosion was coming from inside the house and occurred for no apparent reason, similar to some incidents in the past. Internal explosion occurred in the past in houses amidst densely populated areas, because of mistakes in manufacturing, bad storage of bombs or other reasons, which caused many fatalities among civilians and destroyed houses."
     
    Zulke explosies zijn vaker voorgekomen, en vaak geeft Hamas achteraf - nadat de media haar versie en die van Israel op zijn best als gelijkwaardig tegenover elkaar hebben gezet - toe dat het een 'work accident' was, maar nu blijft zij volhouden dat Israel de boosdoener is. Volgens Elder of Ziyon is dat wellicht vanwege het grote aantal gewonden en de grote verwoestingen die de explosie heeft aangericht. De fout toegeven zou teveel schade aan haar toch al afnemende populariteit toebrengen.
     
    Opvallend is dat de media zoveel geloof blijven hechten aan Hamas' verklaringen.
    (hat tip: Elder of Ziyon)
     
    RP
    --------
     

    PCHR Calls for Investigations into Injury of 58 Palestinians, Including 13 Children, by Explosion in Deir al-Balah
    Tuesday, 03 August 2010 11:22
    Ref: 68/2010
    www.pchrgaza.org/portal/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6882:pchr-calls-for-investigations-into-injury-of-58-palestinians-including-13-children-by-explosion-in-deir-al-balah-&catid=36:pchrpressreleases&Itemid=194


    The Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR) calls upon the government in the Gaza Strip to investigate the circumstances of an explosion that occurred in Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, which left 58 injuries, including 13 children and 9 women, 7 houses uninhabitable and 30 others damaged. PCHR calls further for publishing the results of such investigations.

    According to investigations conducted by PCHR, and testimonies of eyewitnesses, at approximately 01:20 on Monday, 02 August 2010, a heavy explosion rocked Deir al-Balah refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip. The explosion occurred in a 100-square-meter, uninhabited house. As a result of the explosion, 58 Palestinians living in the surroundings, including 13 children and 9 women, were injured, and a pregnant woman miscarried.

    Additionally, 7 houses were destroyed and rendered uninhabitable, and another 30 ones were damaged. According to eyewitnesses, a red glow came from the house before an explosion rocked the area. After the explosion, activists of the Palestinian resistance arrived in the area and surrounded the affected house. The Palestinian police also arrived in the area and prevented people from reaching the house. Resistance activists collected from the house shrapnel of the explosive devices and transported them in a car.

    The 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades (the armed wing of Hamas) issued a press release on Tuesday morning, 03 August 2010, stating that: "We confirm that what happened. resulted from a Zionist security operation intended to assassinate field leaders in the 'Izziddin al-Qassam Brigades." It further stated that "such ground targeting is part of Zionist operations."

    In light of information available to PCHR through field investigations, and according to testimonies of eyewitnesses that saw transportation of bombs from the house, there are reasons to suspect that the explosion was coming from inside the house and occurred for no apparent reason, similar to some incidents in the past. Internal explosion occurred in the past in houses amidst densely populated areas, because of mistakes in manufacturing, bad storage of bombs or other reasons, which caused many fatalities among civilians and destroyed houses.

    Accordingly:

    1) PCHR calls for conducting a serious and comprehensive investigation into this incident and publishing the results.
    2) PCHR is concerned over continued storage of explosive devices by Palestinian resistance groups in civilian populated areas, which threatens the lives of Palestinian civilians, and constitutes a violation of international human rights law and humanitarian law. Such acts must be stopped, as they become more serious in light of threats declared by the Israeli military forces.
     

    woensdag 4 augustus 2010

    Raket op Aqaba kwam uit Sinai volgens Jordanië en Egypte


    Jordanië is tot de conclusie gekomen dat de raket die Aqaba maandag trof en een persoon doodde, vanuit de Sinai is afgeschoten:
     
    Rifai: Aqaba rocket fired from Sinai
    [04/08/2010 22:28]

    Amman, Aug.4 (Petra) -- Prime Minister Samir Rifai said the rocket which hit the city of Aqaba last Monday, killing a Jordanian citizen and injuring five others, was fired from Egypt''s Sinai.

    In an interview with Agence France Presse (AFP), Rifai said "our investigation shows, as Egyptian sources are saying, that it was from the Sinai," noting that Jordan is coordinating closely with Egypt in the ongoing investigation.

    "We are going to continue investigating who exactly attacked us, and those responsible will pay the price," Rifai said.

    "Jordanian blood was spilt.

    We will pursue anyone or any group who was involved because targeting Jordan intentionally or unintentionally is something that we will not stand for" he said.

    ------------
     
    Ook Egypte is tot die conclusie gekomen:
     
    [On] Wednesday, Egyptian security sources confirmed the rockets were fired from the Sinai Peninsula and claimed that armed Palestinians from Gaza were responsible.
     
    "Armed Palestinians from Gaza were responsible for the firing of rockets," an Egyptian security source claimed, adding that the rockets were launched from the Sinai Peninsula.
     
    Egypt's official news agency MENA agreed with this assessment: "The preliminary information that the security has received indicates that Palestinian factions from the Gaza Strip are behind that operation," the state news agency quoted an unnamed security source as saying.
     
     
    Ook volgens Israel werden de raketten, waarvan er ook een in Eilat en een in de Rode Zee terecht kwam, afgeschoten vanuit de Sinai. Door deze raketten is (wederom) duidelijk geworden dat de Palestijnse extremisten niet alleen een probleem zijn voor Israel.
     
    RP
     
     

    Overzicht gebeurtenissen grensconflict Israel en Libanon


    Een interessant zeer gedetailleerd verslag van het incident aan de Israelisch-Libanese grens dinsdag. Overigens heeft Libanon inmiddels toegegeven als eerste te hebben geschoten, en UNIFIL heeft bevestigd dat het incident op Israelisch grondgebied plaatsvond.
     
    RP
    ------------
     

    Clash on Israel-Lebanon Border Holds Potential for Strategic Escalation

    Written by Yossef Bodansky
    Tuesday, 03 August 2010 20:56

    http://www.kehalim.com/aff?u=http%3A%2F%2Foilprice.com%2FGeo-Politics%2FMiddle-East%2FClash-on-Israel-Lebanon-Border-Holds-Potential-for-Strategic-Escalation.html&r=465784&p=6385731

    2:15PM: Here's a detailed account of yesterday's clash which draws on some of the issues I have raised.

    The August 3, 2010, armed clash along the Israeli-Lebanese border was a significant strategic incident.

    On Thursday, July 29, 2010, Israel notified UNIFIL that a few Israeli soldiers would be crossing the security fence in order to cut a tree and remove a few shrubs in Israeli territory but near the Blue Line (the actual border between Israel and Lebanon). This foliage blocks the view of Israeli security cameras positioned deep inside Israel. Israel also notified UNIFIL that these soldiers would be escorted by a small patrol which would stay south of the security fence.

    The Israeli notification was in accordance with UNSC resolution 1701. UNIFIL then informed the nearby positions of the Lebanese Armed Forces about the planned Israeli activities in order to ensure that there was no misunderstanding. The Lebanese Army notified the local HizbAllah force.

    Significantly, the Lebanese Army unit deployed along the border with Israel is the 9th Division, whose commanders and troops are Shi'ites and recruited from the same manpower pool as the HizbAllah.

    Around 10:30am on August 3, 2010, about 10 Israeli soldiers with saws crossed the gate in the security fence on foot. This detachment was covered by an Israeli patrol which included a few tanks, armored vehicles, and a command vehicle. As UNIFIL had been informed, the patrol stayed 200-300 meters south of the fence.

    When the soldiers approached the tree, they were attacked by small arms automatic fire from both the Lebanese Army's position just across the border and "civilians" (HizbAllah fighters) in the nearby village of Adissyeh.

    Immediately, a few Israeli commanders ran from the command vehicle toward the fence to see what was happening. Snipers hiding in the bush adjacent to the Lebanese Army position fired on them, killing the Israeli battalion commander (a lieutenant-colonel) and critically wounding the company commander (a captain). The sniper fire came from a professional ambush that had been organized on the basis of the advance warning provided by UNIFIL.

    Meanwhile, the shooting at the Israeli soldiers north of the fence intensified. Israeli forces opened small-arms and mortar fire on the sources of fire in the Lebanese Army position and in a couple of unfinished houses in Adissyeh. Two Israeli tanks and an armored personnel carrier moved forward toward the fence in order to evacuate the stranded soldiers. At this point a UNIFIL patrol arrived on the scene and the UN officers urged both sides to ceasefire. The firing stopped a few minutes later.

    Escorted by the UN patrol, the two Israeli tanks and the armored personnel carrier continued to advance toward the gate in the fence in order to evacuate the soldiers. Suddenly an anti-tank missile was fired from either the Lebanese Army position or the bush immediately near it. The missile barely missed the UNIFIL vehicle and the tanks. The Israeli tanks opened fire on the missile launcher.

    Major activity followed. Intense fire — small arms, heavy machineguns, mortars, and RPGs — was opened from both several Lebanese Army positions as well as HizbAllah positions in Adissyeh. Israel rushed additional tanks and artillery to the area and started bombarding all Lebanese positions. One or two Katyusha rockets were launched toward Israel, impacted in open space and caused no damage.

    A pair of Israeli combat helicopters arrived on the scene. They attacked the main Lebanese Army position near Adissyeh, and subsequently the Lebanese Army battalion headquarters in the village of Al-Taybeh. The helicopters also attacked and destroyed several Lebanese Army armored vehicles which were parked near the headquarters. Three Lebanese soldiers and a journalist (from the pro-HizbAllah newspaper Al-Akhbar) who was with the troops in Al-Taybeh were killed. Another soldier was killed in the position near Adissyeh. A total of five to six soldiers were wounded. There is no reliable information about HizbAllah casualties.

    The fire subsided after little over two and a half hours.

    This was a very serious incident for two reasons:

    1. The incident started as a pre-planned pre-meditated provocation against the Israeli patrol on the basis of information provided via UNIFIL. The mere invitation by the Army of the Al-Akhbar correspondent to cover the clash suggests that this was a pre-planned incident. The incident was conducted jointly by Lebanese Army forces and HizbAllah forces, proving that the close cooperation which HizbAllah leader Hassan Nasrallah had boasted about repeatedly is indeed working (at least with the Army's Shi'ite units such as the 9th Division).

    2. Earlier, on Monday, August 2, 2010, HizbAllah and Iranian media warned that the Israeli cabinet had considered "the prospects of an upcoming war on the Lebanese, Syrian and Gaza fronts in anticipation of tensions on the Lebanese domestic scene" because of the impending indictment of senior HizbAllah officials by the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL). The HizbAllah, Syria, and Iran are calling on all Lebanese to ignore the STL and instead rally and close ranks behind the "Resistance" in order to confront the Israeli threat. Under these circumstances, the incident on the Israeli-Lebanese border should be considered a made-to-order "proof" of the HizbAllah and Iranian warnings.

    Indeed, Lebanese President Michel Suleiman denounced the fighting and urged the Army and all Lebanese to "stand up to Israel's violation of Resolution 1701, whatever the price". According to the Syrian Arab News Agency, Syrian Pres. Bashar al-Assad stated that the "Israeli attack proves once again that Israel is constantly working to destabilize security in Lebanon and the region. Syria stresses that it is standing by its sister Lebanon in the face of the criminal Israeli aggression and calls on the UN to condemn and stop this aggression."

    However, the main event in the aftermath of the clash is an anticipated major speech by Hassan Nasrallah. The speech was scheduled for 20:30 on August 3, 2010 (Lebanon time), but its exact time was being constantly changed. Senior HizbAllah officials predict that Nasrallah's speech "will mark a turning point" for Lebanon and the entire Middle East. They explained that Nasrallah would "focus on the national and Islamic dimension of the July [2006] war" and its implications for the current situation in the entire region. Nasrallah's speech, the Senior HizbAllah officials stress, "will mainly be devoted to talk about the meaning of victory against Israel" in both past wars and in the historic confrontation still to come.

    Given the above, the August 2, 2010, rocket firing from southern Sinai of Aqaba, Eilat, and a base of the US-led Multinational Force & Observers Organization in Sinai might also be part of this kind of made-to-order "proof" of Israeli aggression. Significantly, the six 122mm GRAD rockets fired from Sinai were made in Iran or North Korea, strongly suggesting that the perpetrators were Iran-sponsored main group rather than a Palestinian fringe entity.