UPDATED: The Lebanon Front: Blockade and Barrage/Operation Liberation of Lebanon
Israel claims the Beirut Airport is a prime logistics node for Hezbollah –ie, Iran ships weapons and ammunition to its terrorists client by air. The Israeli Air Force has closed the airport, (suppressed it is the term). Blasting the fuel tanks provides a fiery advertisement.
The ABC report linked above says this is the Israeli objective in Lebanon:
Israel said it was determined to beat Hezbollah back and deny the militant fighters positions they have held along the border since 2000.
That statement suggests more than destuction of Hezbollah facilities– it suggests Israel wants a buffer zone.
Yes, France condemned Israel yesterday. The UN also offered up its perfunctory condemnation of Israeli military action in Gaza– which the US vetoed. However, the international and even regional critique of Israeli action in Lebanon still seems a bit muted compared to the practiced outrage and PR lamentations of the past. Russia killed Basayev– the Russians know what the Islamo-fascists will do. Mumbai looms large. This blog post at the Times of India strikes me as symptomatic.
An excerpt from the Indian post:
The unanimity, determination and the promptness involved in their arriving at the decision to root out Hezbollah camps from Lebanon in the Israeli senate deserves accolades!! Sharpest of contrasts to the callousness of Indian polity!! My reverence for Olmert is profound!! They did not force war onto Lebanon until provoked….
Lebanon’s Walid Jumblatt (a Druze, now with the Lebanese Progressive Socialist Party) fingers Iran and Syria. The Lebanese know Iran and Syria still want to control Lebanon. Hezbollah, and hence Iran and Syria, are at war with Lebanon as well as Israel. The Beirut Spring threatens Tehran’s mad mullahs and the heinous Assad regime in Damascus. (Perhaps the Israelis should name their offensive Operation Liberation of Lebanon. Recall Hezbollah staged pro-Syrian rallies during the Beirut Spring.)
This Saudi statement is another indicator (from the London Times):
But Saudi Arabia broke ranks with the Muslim world, indirectly blaming the crisis on the “irresponsible actions” of Hezbollah.
The same London Times articles noted that Hezbollah continues to fire missiles at Israeli population centers:
Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city, was hit for the first time by rockets fired from Lebanon last night as the crisis erupted into open warfare.
Hezbollah has fired more than 130 missiles into northern Israel in the past 48 hours, hitting big population centres such as Nahariya and Haifa, a city of 250,000 people that is 30 kilometres (18 miles) inside Israel.
Unlike the Hellfire precision missiles the Israelis use to take out Hezbollah and Hamas offices and vehicles, the tactical rockets Hezbollah fires at Haifa are area weapons (Katyushas) — whatever they hit they hit.
In this London Times report we hear an echo of yesterday’s remarks that all targets are on the table (”no targets immune“):
Brigadier General Dan Halutz, the Israeli Chief of Staff, emphasised that the offensive, prompted by the cross-border raid in which Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers and killed eight others on Wednesday, was open-ended. “Nothing is safe (in Lebanon), as simple as that,” he said.
Daniel Ayalon, the Israeli Ambassador to the US, called the rocket attack on Haifa a “major, major escalation” and said that Israel was now at war. “The objective is to win this war,” he said. Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, likewise gave warning of a new regional war.
As I noted yesterday, Iran’s own nuclear trouble-making provides a degree of political cover for extended Israeli action.
The Pajamasmedia round-up has lots of useful links.
And this from The Belmont Club.
A tactical and operational analysis by David Horovitz in The Jerusalem Post.
Key excerpt:
Hizbullah is a wily and well-prepared enemy, all-too-demonstrably capable of wreaking a degree of havoc in northern Israel and beyond, and the goal of dismantling its offensive capacity will not be easily achieved. Thursday’s air onslaught certainly impacted Lebanon’s civilian infrastructure; it is less clear how deeply Hizbullah was harmed.
Still, in contrast to the asymmetrical struggles against terror cells and Kassam rocket crews, the IDF has now been unleashed in a context where it can expect to use more of its strengths. And woe betide a nation under attack inside its sovereign borders if it does not decisively prevail.
Stay tuned.
UPDATE: It’s also an oil war, but that’s not news.
UPDATE 2: And as always, there is StrategyPage, with a look at Hezbollah’s strategy. Go to the homepage as well.
The Israel-Hezbollah War Part Two… [IN ANOTHER IMPORTANT BREAKING NEWS, INDIA IS BLAMING PAKISTAN FOR MONDAY’S TERROR ATTACKS: see Pajamas Media coverage here] This is a developing post; scroll down for more stories July 14, 2006 News Breaks (blogs and opinion below) 05:50 PDT Israel…..
Trackback by Pajamas Media — 7/14/2006 @ 8:43 am
Middle East Situation… Without question, Iran and Syria are the center of terrorism in the world today. Their lackeys are at the heart of the terrorist activities in Iraq. It is time we (the USA) take decisive action to eliminate this threat once and for all. This would b…..
Trackback by The Max Factor — 7/14/2006 @ 8:51 am
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Pingback by Jack’s Newswatch — 7/14/2006 @ 8:52 am
Walid Jumblatt is a Druze and during the eighties, ran the Druze militias sometimes in concert with the Christian militias but usually against through some ethnic cleansing of Christian villages near Beirut. Amal is a Shiite organisation/militia that was run by Nabih Berri. Berri and Jumblatt worked together in the mid eighties to sign the Tripartite Agreement in Damascus which was supposed to end the Lebanese civil war and give strong influence to Damascus regarding Lebanese matters. ED NOTE: You’re right. I made the correction. Should have referenced my own book, A Quick and Dirty Guide to War, 1985 edition. It identifies the Jumblatts as Druze.
Comment by Brian Leon — 7/14/2006 @ 9:14 am
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Pingback by Flopping Aces » Blog Archive » The Latest On The Israeli Front — 7/14/2006 @ 9:51 am
Lebanon has no teeth. They weren’t a power player in the first place, then Israel took out what little infrastructure they had. Syria and Iran take Lebanon, Israel gives in Hezbollah demands for releasing prisoners (as they’ve done in the past), Russia and China and the EU protect Iran from a U.S. attack which we can’t really muster anyway since we’re preoccupied with Iraq. India and Pakistan go nuclear…, end of the world. Happy now?
Comment by Nomad — 7/14/2006 @ 10:15 am
As a Vet from the “Beirut War” 1982-1984 I know full well the destruction that Hezboolah has caused in the Middle East. The ONLY thing they understand is force, brutal and deadly. History repeats itself again and we are doomed to suffer the same past. But, we must change the outcome this time, the War of the Terriorists have come home to roost, and this time we must have the will to destroy Hezboolah and its supporters. Semper Fi !!!
Comment by beirutmarine1 — 7/14/2006 @ 10:36 am
It’s go time.
Comment by billypadre — 7/14/2006 @ 11:09 am
The Left Side of the Blogosphere as Mrs. Jellyby… The left side of the blogosphere is finally weighing in on the Israeli actions in Gaza and their conclusion, like their conclusion to every event, is that the Bush administration has screwed everything up….
Trackback by The Scratching Post — 7/14/2006 @ 11:17 am
Nomad, if you had bothered to think about it, 99.99% of Lebanese infrastructure is still intact and what has been taken out that was not directly and immediately connected to Hezballah was still clearly of military use to Hezballah. These uses have denied them in the most minimal way as deemed successful and possible. But nothing much you wrote is clearly thought out. Austin, you say, “Unlike the Hellfire precision missiles the Israelis use to take out Hezbollah and Hamas offices and vehicles, the tactical rockets Hezbollah fires at Haifa are area weapons (Katyushas) — whatever they hit they hit.” I am not clear on precisely what the word “indiscriminate” means in the legal sense and you don’t use it. Is it inapplicable here, an oversight in you not asserting it, or did you mean that without actually using it. I’d certainly understand your not delving into Geneva Convention issues vis-a-vis Hezballah, a long and fruitless effort to say the least, but you seem to be touching on it here. ED NOTE: The Hellfire is much more discriminate–it is a precision weapon and (with a high probability) hits the target or darn near the target its target deisgnator aims at. Fire a barrage rocket (an area weapon like the Katyusha) at a suburb and the suburb is the target. Depending on range you can expect a rocket barrage to “scatter” over a rather wide surface area. Indiscriminate? A good word but it can be a loaded word. A barrage rocket isn’t an illegal weapon, but in the case of northern Israel Hezbollah is using it to target predominantly civilian zones. If it hits a hospital in the civilian area it hits a hospital. Hezbollah’s attacks on Haifa are –compared to Israeli attacks in Gaza and Lebanon– quite indiscriminate. I’d like to hear Jacques Chirac mention that.
Comment by Dusty — 7/14/2006 @ 12:34 pm
Follow up to “The Left Side of the Blogoshphere as Mrs Jellyby. . .” Damn! I thought it was all Margret Thatcher’s fault. Now you telling me this has changed? Are there no constants in the modern world?
Comment by Bill Gross — 7/14/2006 @ 12:40 pm
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Pingback by NoisyRoom.net » Blog Archive » WORLD ON FIRE — 7/14/2006 @ 1:30 pm
Running With the Dogs of War… So what are the Lebanese thinking of all this violence going on in their country as a result of Hizbullah’s deathwish at the hands of Israel? WorldNet Daily reports that Lebanon’s Druze leader Walid Jumblatt is blaming Syria and Iran for ordering the…
Trackback by A Blog For All — 7/14/2006 @ 1:40 pm
I suspect most anti-Syria Lebanese will be glad to see Hezbollah neutralized, but are afraid they’ll merely spread their terror North — I hope the others are ready to stop this. If Hezbollah stays and fights, it will probably die to Israel. If they run, they lose face. If Syria helps, Syria becomes an open target — I’m pretty sure “no targets are immune” includes Syria. Merely providing safe haven for a terrorist might become reason enough for Israel to target an assassination attempt. I think Lebanon will be a safer, stronger democracy in a year or two — but a bad patch is coming now.
Comment by Tom Grey - Liberty Dad — 7/14/2006 @ 2:15 pm
I suspect most anti-Syria Lebanese will be glad to see Hezbollah neutralized, but are afraid they’ll merely spread their terror North — I hope the others are ready to stop this. If Hezbollah stays and fights, it will probably die to Israel. If they run, they lose face. If Syria helps, Syria becomes an open target — I’m pretty sure “no targets are immune” includes Syria. Merely providing safe haven for a terrorist might become reason enough for Israel to target an assassination attempt. I think Lebanon will be a safer, stronger democracy in a year or two — but a bad patch is coming now. (copy 2)
Comment by Tom Grey - Liberty Dad — 7/14/2006 @ 2:15 pm
Now that’s a nuance ladened response of the highest order. Regretably, not clarity, but obfuscation is Jacques intent so I will not hold my breathe waiting, either. Thanks for the response.
Comment by Dusty — 7/14/2006 @ 3:51 pm
re: Lebanon’s past (lack of action) Does the current situation resemble the welfare disease, where people become dependent rather than looking out after their own interests. Why didn’t the Lebanese fight (and die) starting some time ago to remove these predators? Did they think Israel or the U.S. would (continue) to do it for them? “But we want to be a neutral” only works if you can no s#!t defend yourself.
Comment by Ari Tai — 7/14/2006 @ 6:29 pm
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Pingback by Austin Bay Blog » Israel ties defeating Hezbollah to undermining Hamas/But Iran’s mullahs and Syria’s dictators are the problem — 7/15/2006 @ 7:14 am