Some of the thousands of extra reservists called up by the Israeli military are to be held ready in case of conflict on Israel's northern border with Lebanon, the scene of a long and costly battle two years ago.

Lebanese security officials say police forces have fired tear gas at scores of demonstrators who tried to reach the U.S. Embassy compound north of Beirut.

They say the demonstrators were protesting Israel's ground attack on the Gaza Strip.

Jawad Najem, a surgeon at the hospital, said patients admitted Sunday had burns from phosphorous incendiary weapons used by Israel. The Geneva Conventions ban using white phosphorus as an incendiary weapon against civilian populations and in air attacks against military forces in civilian areas.

We should not be reassured by such claims that Israel cannot fight on two fronts at the same time. It has fought on 3 and 4 fronts in the past. This must make the Lebanese government, army and people as well as the Lebanese resistance more attentive and cautious not to be tricked by such statements. For instance, one issue is of the missiles discovered eight days ago and just before the military attack on Gaza! I would like to ask: Who placed these missiles where they were before the war began?

Jim Kirwan

12-29-08

Bush told the world that he wanted to see Peace in the Middle-East before he left office; and now we see exactly what he meant by this bit of Newspeak that is his version of Orwell's “War is Peace.”

This one-sided bloodbath in Gaza that is spreading into the West Bank is only the latest chapter in the long history of Israeli military incompetence.

THOMAS RICKS, REPORTER, "THE WASHINGTON POST": I think it will be. But I think civilian casualties are also part of the battlefield play for both sides here. One of the things that is going on, according to some U.S. military analysts, is that Israel purposely has left pockets of Hezbollah rockets in Lebanon, because as long as they're being rocketed, they can continue to have a sort of moral equivalency in their operations in Lebanon.

IAF warplanes flew over Lebanon Sunday following a vow by Hizbullah terrorist chief Hassan Nasrallah to attack northern Israeli communities in retaliation for the IDF military operation against terrorists in Gaza.

“Waltz With Bashir” is a memoir, a history lesson, a combat picture, a piece of investigative journalism and an altogether amazing film.

Lebanese authorities discovered seven missiles aimed at Israel in southern Lebanon, an official Lebanese news agency reported Thursday. The missiles are currently under inspection to determine whether they were enabled for launch, and they will subsequently be dismantled, the news agency reported.

Iran and Lebanon have signed a security agreement, according to which Iran will supply the Lebanese army with weapons and equipment over the next five years, the London-based daily A-Sharq Al-Awsat reported.

The mainstream press will not show you the true horrors of the war, but the miracle of the Internet transmits reality as soon as it happens. WARNING: Graphic Images.

The U.S. media is indulging in war mongering "yellow journalism" by repeating baseless allegations that Syria is behind the "car bombing" of a popular Lebanese nationalist, while the evidence suggests that the assassination was carried out using a guided missile launched from a plane - a precision penetration bomb - a "targeted killing" technique perfected by Israel.

CIA Director Michael Hayden sparks controversy by holding covert meetings with top Lebanese officials in a secret visit to the country.

"The Zionist regime's raison d'etre depends on war. That is the reason why global hegemony supports this regime," President Ahmadinejad commented on Monday. He made the remarks in a meeting with the leader of Lebanon's Free Patriotic Movement, Michel Aoun in Tehran.

Is it really necessary that we let Bush and Cheney destroy another innocent country before they pretend to leave the stage after Nov. 4? Does this Nation, which fancies itself as a great defender of freedom and democracy, intend to allow them do to our ally Pakistan what they have done to Iraq and Afghanistan? If we do not feel extreme shame for what is being done in our names there then perhaps it is true that we are something less than human, merely thinking cattle.

Thousands of Syrian troops have amassed along the Lebanese border in what Damascus says is an effort to combat smuggling, Lebanese military sources said on Monday, stoking speculation and concern in Lebanon. A source in the Lebanese Army confirmed that Syrian forces had deployed in the northern region of Abbudiya, but he told The Daily Star, "There is no need to worry."

It is the largest Syrian force to invade Lebanon since Damascus was forced to end its occupation of the country in May 2005, three months after former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri was assassinated.

Israeli jets have repeatedly over-flown Lebanon in violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. The United Nations has called on Israel to stop violating Lebanese air space.

Olmert warned that now that Hizbullah is the "dominant" force in Lebanon, Israel will hit back "harder than before." Olmert added that the Jewish state did not use all means to respond in 2006, but "if Lebanon becomes a Hizbullah state, then we won't have any restrictions in this regard."

But what makes this particular piece of Chutzpah double-edged and even more interesting is the way that Israel accuses Hezbollah of refusing to disarm and that Hezbollah is ‘cultivating an image as Lebanon’s protector against what it describes as Israeli aggression’.

Hezbollah is planning to take "practical measures" to counter Israeli air force overflights of Lebanon, according to yesterday's edition of the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, which is considered sympathetic to the Shi'ite group.

There have been a number of reports in the Arab media recently on the planned deployment of anti-aircraft missile batteries in the Lebanese mountains, whose purpose would be to disrupt the flights of Israeli aircraft over the country.