Newsroom

July 31- August 4

Just Foreign Policy News
August 4, 2006

In this issue:
1) Malaysia: OIC demands UN impose cease-fire in Lebanon
2) Majority of Voting Congressional Progressive Caucus Members now support Immediate Cease-Fire in Lebanon
3) Israel Extends Strikes North of Beirut
4) The Overview: Israel Renews Attack on Southern Lebanon
5) 100,000 March Against U.S. and Israel in Baghdad
6) Freeing Prisoners Key Goal in Fight Against Israel
7) Hezbollah’s Prominence Has Many Sunnis Worried
8) Bridge Bombing Paralyses Lebanon Aid Pipeline
9) Op-Ed Contributor: Ground to a Halt
10) Israeli Soldier Incarcerated for Refusing to Fight
11) Au Revoir, Freedom Fries
12) The Sound of One Domino Falling
13) The Military: U.S. General Says Iraq Could Slide Into a Civil War
14) Intelligence: Senator Faults Bid to Classify Report on Iraq
15) Hezbollah Chief's Statement Clarifies Strategy
16) Protesters Attack Iran's British Embassy
17) Human Rights Watch Accuses Israel of War Crimes
18) U.S. to Supply Food with One Hand, Arms with Other
19) Officers Allegedly Pushed 'Kill Counts'
20) US Auditor Lists Failures in Rebuilding of Iraq

Contents:
1) Malaysia: OIC demands UN impose cease-fire in Lebanon
BBC Monitoring Asia Pacific - Political
August 4, 2006 Friday
Leaders of 18 Muslim nations yesterday demanded the UN Security Council call for an immediate stop to Israeli military aggression in Lebanon, failing which they want all Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) member states to push for the convening of the meeting of the General Assembly under "Uniting for Peace." The leaders also want the peacekeeping operations in the Middle East to be led by Muslim forces. In a declaration on Lebanon issued at the end of the meeting of the OIC Executive Committee they strongly condemned the Israeli attacks. "We demand that the UN Security Council fulfils its responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security without any further delay by deciding on and enforcing an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire", said the declaration issued at the end of the meeting initiated by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who is also OIC chairman. Besides Malaysia, other countries attending were Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Indonesia, Iran, Pakistan, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. They also supported the Lebanese government's seven-point plan for the immediate and comprehensive ceasefire, which included an undertaking to release the Lebanese and Israeli prisoners and detainees through the International Community of Red Crescent (ICRC), the withdrawal of the Israeli army behind the Blue Line, and the return of the displaced to their villages.

Just Foreign Policy did another 3 radio interviews on the Uniting for Peace call today; one of them, with Stephen Zunes on KGNU Boulder, is on the web:
http://kgnu.net/audio/Connections_2006-08-04.mp3.

Our petition in support of the call for a General Assembly meeting on Lebanon under "Uniting for Peace" is here: http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/justforeignpolicy.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=325.

2) Majority of Voting Congressional Progressive Caucus Members now support Immediate Cease-Fire in Lebanon
39 Members of Congress have publicly come out in support of an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon by cosponsoring resolutions introduced by Representative Kucinich and Representative Jackson-Lee. Of these 39, 30 are members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, a majority of the 59 voting members of the caucus. (Reps. Holmes-Norton of DC, Bordallo of Guam, and Christensen of the U.S. Virgin Islands have not yet cosponsored either resolution.) To ask your Representative to co-sponsor these resolutions, you can use this link:
http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/justforeignpolicy.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=4697

3) Israel Extends Strikes North of Beirut
John Kifner
New York Times
August 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/world/middleeast/04cnd-mideast.html
Israel unleashed airstrikes across Lebanon Friday, severing the last major road link to the outside world and killing more than 30 people. The bombs destroyed four bridges along the main north-south highway in what had been the largely untouched Christian heartland north of Beirut and far from Hezbollah territory. With the road from Beirut to Damascus already cut at several points, this was the only practical way to bring in relief and other supplies from Syria, tightening the sense of siege here. At the steep gorge here cut by the Fidar River, dozens of Maronite Catholic residents gathered to stare in stunned silence at a 200-yard stretch of four-lane highway blasted into rubble. "Where are the Katushas of the Hezbollah here?” asked Joseph Abihana.

4) The Overview: Israel Renews Attack on Southern Lebanon
Richard A. Oppel Jr. And Steven Erlanger
New York Times
August 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/world/middleeast/04mideast.html
The Lebanese militia Hezbollah killed 12 Israelis — 8 civilians and 4 soldiers — on Thursday, making it Israel’s deadliest day in more than three weeks of conflict. As Israeli troops tried to create a narrow buffer zone inside Lebanon and bombed southern Beirut, Hezbollah’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, warned that he would send his long-range missiles into Tel Aviv if the airstrikes continued. But he also offered to halt Hezbollah’s missile barrage into Israel if it stopped bombing Lebanon. The Israeli defense minister, Amir Peretz, told the army to begin preparing to push to the Litani River, some 15 miles north of the border, a move that could mean a further call-up of military reservists. That would expand the security zone Israel is trying to create. But it is not clear whether he will receive government approval to do so.

5) 100,000 March Against U.S. and Israel in Baghdad
Damien Cave And Kirk Semple
New York Times
August 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/world/middleeast/04cnd-iraq.html
More than 100,000 followers of the Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr marched today to show support for Hezbollah, denouncing Israel and the United States for the violence in Lebanon. The protesters filled 20 blocks of a wide boulevard and dozens of side streets in the Shiite-dominated Sadr City section of the capital. Waving Lebanese flags and posters of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, the protesters chanted, “No, no, no, Israel, no, no, no, America,’’ challenged Americans to fight them in their neighborhoods, and called on Hezbollah to strike at Tel Aviv. The fighting in Lebanon has caused a rift between the United States and the Shiite parties that lead Iraq’s new government, which feel a strong solidarity with Hezbollah.

6) Freeing Prisoners Key Goal in Fight Against Israel
Craig S. Smith
New York Times
August 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/world/middleeast/04prisoners.html

When Hezbollah guerrillas sneaked into Israel last month, killing and capturing Israeli soldiers and setting off the current crisis, their goal was to trade them for a Lebanese man held by Israel. The prisoner, Samir Kuntar, was part of a cell that in 1979 raided an apartment building in the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, killing several members of the Haran family. After Hezbollah made off with two Israeli soldiers in the raid last month, Israel vowed that it would not negotiate for their release. But the question of prisoners held by Israel — nearly all of them Palestinians — is the subtext of this crisis and is likely to figure in its resolution. It is an issue that animates Hezbollah and the Palestinians as much as anything else in their fight with Israel. The prisoners now number about 9,700, about 100 of them women. About 300 are younger than 18, including two girls and a boy of 14, being held in juvenile detention facilities for acts against Israel. The Israelis say many of them are terrorists, and some clearly are. But the Palestinians say that others are wrongfully accused and that many have never committed a violent act.

7) Hezbollah’s Prominence Has Many Sunnis Worried
Neil MacFarquhar
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/world/middleeast/04muslims.html
August 4, 2006
A Damascus University professor recoils at the destruction he across the border, but deeper down he worries that any Hezbollah triumph will come at the expense of his own Sunni branch of Islam. "Since the Americans invaded Iraq we have all become aware of the danger from the Shiites," said the professor. "Ordinary people only think of Hezbollah as fighting against Israeli aggression. But the educated classes think that if Hezbollah controls the region, then the Sunnis will be abused." Intensifying Sunni-Shiite violence in Iraq in the last couple of years has already raised sectarian awareness across the Middle East in ways not experienced since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. The fighting in Lebanon promises to further increase Sunnis’ unease.

8) Bridge Bombing Paralyses Lebanon Aid Pipeline
Michael Winfrey
Reuters
Friday, August 4, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0804-08.htm
Israel's bombing of key bridges in northern Lebanon and strikes at a Hizbollah stronghold in south Beirut paralysed United Nations aid convoys on Friday, but other aid continued to arrive by air and sea. Air strikes against four bridges on the main coastal highway linking Beirut to Syria stalled an eight-truck convoy carrying 150 tonnes of relief and cut what the UN called its "umbilical cord" for aid supplies. "The whole road is gone," said Astrid van Genderen Stort, senior information officer for the UNHCR refugee agency. "It's really a major setback because we used this highway to move staff and supplies into the country."

9) Op-Ed Contributor: Ground to a Halt
Robert Pape, professor of political science at the University of Chicago, author of "Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism."
New York Times
August 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/opinion/03pape.html
Israel has finally conceded that air power alone will not defeat Hezbollah. Over the coming weeks, it will learn that ground power won’t work either. The problem is not that the Israelis misunderstand the nature of the enemy. Hezbollah is principally neither a political party nor an Islamist militia, but a broad movement that evolved in reaction to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in 1982. As more and more Lebanese came to resent Israel’s occupation, Hezbollah expanded into an umbrella organization that tacitly coordinated the resistance operations of a loose collection of groups with a variety of religious and secular aims. In terms of structure and hierarchy, it is less comparable to a religious cult like the Taliban than to the multidimensional American civil-rights movement of the 1960’s.

10) Israeli Soldier Incarcerated for Refusing to Fight
Aaron Glantz
OneWorld.net
Friday, August 4, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0804-03.htm
Israeli authorities have sentenced an army officer to 28 days in a military prison for refusing to serve in the Israeli campaign in Lebanon. Reserve Captain Amir Paster is the first Israeli soldier to be punished for refusing to serve in the current conflict and has received harsh criticism from the Israeli military for setting what it termed a bad example for his troops. According to the soldier support group Yesh Gvul ("There Is a Limit"), Paster refused to serve on the grounds that Israeli operations were harming civilians, declaring at his trial "taking part in this war runs contrary to the values upon which he was brought up." Supporters say Paster's act was courageous given that the vast majority of Jewish Israelis support the war.

11) Au Revoir, Freedom Fries
Editorial, New York Times
August 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/opinion/04fri4.html
When Congress renamed the French fries sold in its cafeterias “freedom fries” before the Iraq war, Bob Ney, whose position as House Administration Committee chairman put him in charge of the cafeterias, said the change registered "the strong displeasure of many on Capitol Hill with the actions of our so-called ally, France." In the real world, it mainly allowed people to register their strong displeasure at how juvenile Congress was being.
In the last few weeks, Congress has quietly changed the name back. "Freedom fries," like the "mission accomplished" banner that President Bush stood in front of a few months later, is now a stale relic of a naïve time, when the war’s supporters were convinced that Iraqis would be free right after they finished greeting their liberators with rose petals.

12) The Sound of One Domino Falling
Editorial
New York Times
August 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/opinion/04fri1.html
It’s been obvious for years that Donald Rumsfeld is in denial of reality, but the defense secretary now also seems stuck in a time warp. You could practically hear the dominoes falling as he told the Senate Armed Services Committee yesterday that it was dangerous for Americans to even talk about how to end the war in Iraq. "If we left Iraq prematurely," he said, "the enemy would tell us to leave Afghanistan and then withdraw from the Middle East. And if we left the Middle East, they’d order us and all those who don’t share their militant ideology to leave what they call the occupied Muslim lands from Spain to the Philippines." And finally, he intoned, America will be forced "to make a stand nearer home." No one in charge of American foreign affairs has talked like that in decades. After Vietnam, of course, the communist empire did not swarm all over Asia as predicted; it tottered and collapsed. And the new “enemy” that Mr. Rumsfeld is worried about is not a worldwide conspiracy but a collection of disparate political and religious groups, now united mainly by American action in Iraq.

13) The Military: U.S. General Says Iraq Could Slide Into a Civil War
Thom Shanker
New York Times
August 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/world/middleeast/04rumsfeld.html
The commander of American forces in the Middle East bluntly warned a Senate committee on Thursday that sectarian violence in Iraq had grown so severe that the nation could slide toward civil war. The commander, Gen. John Abizaid, also acknowledged that since the security situation remained so unstable, significant reductions in American forces were unlikely before the end of this year. Asked by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan whether Iraq risked falling into civil war, General Abizaid replied, "I believe that the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I’ve seen it, in Baghdad in particular, and that if not stopped, it is possible that Iraq could move towards civil war."

14) Intelligence: Senator Faults Bid to Classify Report on Iraq
Mark Mazzetti
New York Times
August 4, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/04/world/middleeast/04intel.html
The Republican chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee lashed out at the White House on Thursday, criticizing attempts by the Bush administration to keep secret parts of a report on the role Iraqi exiles played in building the case for war against Iraq. Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas chastised the White House for efforts to classify most of the part that examines intelligence provided to the Bush administration by the Iraqi National Congress.

15) Hezbollah Threatens Tel Aviv
Chief's Statement Clarifies Strategy
Edward Cody
Washington Post
Friday, August 4, 2006; Page A13
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080301435.html
The leader of Hezbollah, Hasan Nasrallah, threatened Thursday night to fire rockets at Tel Aviv if Israel expands its bombing attacks against Beirut. Nasrallah declared that Hezbollah's missile attacks on Israel are calibrated in response to Israeli air attacks on Lebanon. While warning of attacks on Israel's most populous city, he also said that if Israeli airstrikes cease, so will the rocket launchings such as those that killed eight more Israeli civilians Thursday.

16) Protesters Attack Iran's British Embassy
Associated Press
August 4, 2006
Filed at 11:57 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mideast-Fighting-Iran.html
About 100 demonstrators threw stones and firebombs at the British Embassy in Tehran on Friday, damaging the building but not harming anyone as they accused Britain and the United States of being accomplices in Israel's fight against Hezbollah. Demonstrators also smashed some of the building's windows as they called for its closure and the expulsion of the British ambassador. A British Foreign Office spokesman said nobody was harmed. ''Protesters were throwing bricks and at least one petrol bomb but everyone's OK,'' he said. ''There was just some damage to perimeter of the embassy.''

17) Human Rights Watch Accuses Israel of War Crimes
Jim Lobe
Inter Press Service
Thursday, August 3, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0803-02.htm
In systematically failing to distinguish between Hezbollah fighters and civilian population in its military campaign in Lebanon, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) have committed war crimes, according to a report released by Human Rights Watch Wednesday. The 50-page report, "Fatal Strikes: Israel's Indiscriminate Attacks Against Civilians in Lebanon," detailed nearly two dozen cases of IDF attacks in which a total of 153 civilians, including 63 children, were killed in homes or motor vehicles. In none of the cases did HRW researchers find evidence that there was a significant enough military objective to justify the attack, given the risks to civilian lives, while, in many cases, there was no identifiable military target. In still other cases cited in the report, Israeli forces appear to have deliberately targeted civilians. "By consistently failing to distinguish between combatants and civilians, Israel has violated one of the most fundamental tenets of the laws of war: the duty to carry out attacks on only military targets," according to the report.

18) U.S. to Supply Food with One Hand, Arms with Other
Thalif Deen
Inter Press Service
Thursday, August 3, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0803-01.htm
As Israel's bombing of Lebanon continues, the US says it stands ready to provide food, medicine and humanitarian assistance to the thousands of internally displaced Lebanese caught in the crossfire. But Washington has also decided to accelerate the supply of lethal weapons to Israel -- ''perhaps intended to kill the very Lebanese the US is planning to feed and shelter,'' says one Arab diplomat at the United Nations. ''It is U.S. hypocrisy at its worst,'' he told IPS, speaking on condition of anonymity, because his country receives millions of dollars in U.S. economic aid. Irene Khan, secretary-general of Amnesty International, was equally critical. ''It is ridiculous to talk about providing humanitarian aid on the one hand, and to provide arms on the other,'' she says. ''It is imperative that all governments stop the supply of arms and weapons to both sides immediately.''

19) Officers Allegedly Pushed 'Kill Counts'
Investigators believe the leaders of a unit accused in Iraq detainee deaths fueled a climate of hate.
Borzou Daragahi and Julian E. Barnes
Los Angeles Times
Thursday, August 3, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0803-07.htm
Military prosecutors and investigators probing the killing of three Iraqi detainees by U.S. troops in May believe the unit's commanders created an atmosphere of excessive violence by encouraging "kill counts" and possibly issuing an illegal order to shoot Iraqi men. At a military hearing Wednesday on the killing of the detainees near Samarra, witnesses painted a picture of a brigade that operated under loose rules allowing wanton killing and tolerating violent, anti-Arab racism. Some military officials believe that the shooting of the three detainees and the killing of 24 civilians in November in Haditha reveal failures in the military chain of command, in one case to establish proper rules of engagement and in the other to vigorously investigate incidents after the fact. "The bigger thing here is the failure of the chain of command," said a Defense Department official familiar with the investigations.

20) US Auditor Lists Failures in Rebuilding of Iraq
Farah Stockman
Boston Globe
Thursday, August 3, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0803-06.htm
The top auditor of the US reconstruction effort in Iraq yesterday detailed a series of failures, including a $218.5 million emergency radio network that doesn't work, a hospital that is turning out to be twice as expensive as planned, an oil pipeline that is spewing lakes of crude oil onto the ground, and a prison that was meant to hold 4,400 inmates but can house only about 800. Stuart Bowen Jr. , the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, cited multiple causes for the failures at a Senate hearing yesterday, among them the growth of the Iraqi insurgency, poor planning by the US government, and corruption in the Iraqi government. But he also took aim at the "cost-plus" contracts given to American construction firms, which guaranteed profits on top of the cost of the project, even with huge overruns.

Just Foreign Policy News
August 3, 2006

In this issue:
1) Just Foreign Policy does more radio on "Uniting for Peace"
2) Iran, Other Islamic States May Call for UN Meeting
3) New Poll Shows Lieberman Losing Ground
4) Israel Restarts Beirut Strikes; Blair Says U.N. Near Deal
5) Civilians Lose as Fighters Slip Into Fog of War
6) News Analysis: Israel’s Long-Term Battle
7) Kafr Kila: To Many in a Town Under Attack, Militiamen Are Defenders
8) The Fighting: Israeli Jets, Helicopters and Ground Forces Attack Baalbek, Hezbollah Hub in Bekaa Valley
9) Israeli Warplanes Pound Beirut's Suburbs
10) Among the Militiamen, Patience and Talk of Victory
11) 7 Palestinians Killed in Gaza
12) World Opinion Roundup: The Qana Conspiracy Theory
13) Future of Orthodox Jewish Vote Has Implications for GOP
14) Detainees: G.I.’s Say Officers Ordered Killing of Young Iraqi Men
15) In Iraq, It’s Hard to Trust Anyone in Uniform
16) A Grim Prognosis for Iraq
17) Lebanon could overshadow Iran's study of nuclear deal
18) Iran warns of $200 oil if US pursues sanctions
19) Iran' s President Voices New Optimism
20) Mexico Leftist Threatens More Protests

Contents:
1) Just Foreign Policy does more radio on "Uniting for Peace"
Radio journalists continue to express interest in the idea that the UN General Assembly could act to bring about a cease-fire in Lebanon, given the failure of the Security Council to do so, under Resolution 377 (see also the next item on the Organization of Islamic Conference calling for UN General Assembly action.) Just Foreign Policy was interviewed by the BBC this morning, and will be on KGNU Boulder tomorrow 10:30-11:30 Eastern, 8:30-9:30 Mountain, webcast at www.kgnu.org. The Just Foreign Policy petition in support of UN General Assembly action is at http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/justforeignpolicy.org/petition.jsp?petition_KEY=325. The list of signatories is growing.

2) Iran, Other Islamic States May Call for UN Meeting
Angus Whitley
Bloomberg
Last Updated: August 3, 2006 07:51 EDT
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601085&sid=aUPZZwugopYo&refer=europe#
Iran, Turkey, Pakistan and 15 other states said they will call for a meeting of the UN General Assembly to achieve a cease-fire in the Middle East should the UN Security Council fail to end hostilities immediately. The UN Security Council should enforce an "unconditional'' cease-fire without delay, the Organization of Islamic Conference said today in a statement after meeting in Malaysia. The group said OIC countries should cooperate with UN members to support a General Assembly meeting in the absence of instant measures to end the fighting. "We strongly condemn the relentless Israeli aggression against Lebanon,'' the group said. "We express our concern at the inability of the UN Security Council to take the necessary actions for a cease-fire.'' The OIC meeting, convened by Malaysia, is the largest gathering of Muslim nations since war broke out in Lebanon last month.

3) New Poll Shows Lieberman Losing Ground
Associated Press
August 3, 2006
Filed at 8:45 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/us/AP-Connecticut-Senate.html
Businessman Ned Lamont opened a double-digit lead over veteran Sen. Joe Lieberman less than a week before Connecticut's Democratic primary, according to a poll released Thursday. Lamont had support from 54 percent of likely Democratic voters in the Quinnipiac University poll, while Lieberman, now in his third term, had support from 41 percent of voters. The sampling error margin was plus or minus 3 percentage points.
A similar survey July 20 showed Lamont with a slight advantage for the first time in the campaign. ''Senator Lieberman's campaign bus seems to be stuck in reverse,'' poll director Douglas Schwartz said. ''Despite visits from former President Bill Clinton and other big-name Democrats, Lieberman has not been able to stem the tide to Lamont.'' ''Although we realize the only vote that counts is Aug. 8, we hope this energizes our base,'' said Liz Dupont-Diehl, a spokeswoman for the Lamont campaign.

4) Israel Restarts Beirut Strikes; Blair Says U.N. Near Deal
John Kifner And John O’Neil
New York Times
August 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/world/middleeast/03cnd-mideast.html
British Prime Minister Blair said that the UN Security Council would likely agree within the next two days on a cease-fire plan that would be followed by negotiations for a longer-term settlement. The two-step approach marks a sharp change from the position held previously by Blair and President Bush, who have resisted halting the fighting until a plan for a "sustainable" peace could be adopted. Blair acknowledged that the new approach reflects the "very real danger" that continued civilian deaths and destruction in Lebanon could end up making Hezbollah and other extremist groups more popular. Blair said that the negotiations that would follow a cease-fire would be based on both Israel’s need for security from Hezbollah attacks and on the seven-point plan put forward by Lebanon's Prime Minister, which calls for a prisoner exchange and an Israeli withdrawal from disputed territory along the border.

The Israeli Defense Forces announced that an investigation into the bombing at Qana said the raid was based on mistaken information "that the building was not inhabited by civilians and was being used as a hiding place for terrorists." Dan Halutz, the chief of staff, said that policies on the choosing of targets would be reviewed. Much of southern Lebanon was a landscape of destruction on Wednesday, with smoke rising from shelled villages.

The Maronite Catholic patriarch convened a meeting this week of religious leaders of other communities, Shiite and Sunni Muslims and several varieties of Christians, resulting in a statement of solidarity and photographs in Wednesday’s newspapers. Their joint statement, condemning the Israeli "aggression," hailed "the resistance, mainly led by Hezbollah, which represents one of the sections of society." [Editor's note: A recent poll in Lebanon, cited by Jefferson Morley in item 12, suggests that four out of five Lebanese Christians support Hizbollah's "resistance against the Israeli aggression.": http://www.beirutcenter.info/default.asp?contentid=692&MenuID=46.]

5) Civilians Lose as Fighters Slip Into Fog of War
Sabrina Tavernise
New York Times
August 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/world/middleeast/03civilian.html
A convoy of Lebanese villagers was fleeing north shortly after the war began. They had heard Israeli soldiers telling them to evacuate. Suddenly, a rocket struck a pickup truck full of people. Twenty-one people were killed, more than half of them children. Israel said it believed the convoy was transporting rockets. The convoy had not notified Israel that it was going to make the trip. Those who survived said in interviews that they were simply following Israeli orders to flee the south as best they could. The case was one of those noted in a report released on Wednesday by Human Rights Watch. It said the killings formed a pattern so extensive that it seemed to indicate that the Israelis were deliberately shooting civilians. It went so far as to accuse Israel of war crimes. "In many of these strikes there is no military objective anywhere in the vicinity," said Peter Bouckaert, who conducted the study. "Day after day we are documenting these strikes where they clearly hit civilian targets."

6) News Analysis: Israel’s Long-Term Battle
Steven Erlanger
New York Times
August 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/world/middleeast/03israel.html
Israel is fighting now to win the battle of perceptions. Prime Minister Olmert wants to ensure that when a cease-fire is finally arranged, Israel is seen as having won a decisive victory over Hezbollah. It is important for him politically. Israel wants to recover from an image of an unimpressive military venture against a tough, small, but well-trained group of fighters. Israel also wants to send a message to the Palestinians, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran, that attacks on Israel will be met with overwhelming force. Giora Eiland, Israel’s national security adviser under Sharon, predicts a solution in the next week or so that is "far from Israel’s original intent." He sees a political package negotiated at the UN that includes an exchange of Lebanese prisoners, with Israel regaining its two soldiers; a security zone in southern Lebanon under the control of a multinational force; an Israeli promise not to violate Lebanon’s sovereignty; and "a general understanding or commitment by the Lebanese government to be responsible for Hezbollah’s behavior."

7) Kafr Kila: To Many in a Town Under Attack, Militiamen Are Defenders
Jad Mouawad
New York Times
August 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/world/middleeast/03village.html
For the past week, Israel’s army has thrown everything at Kafr Kila. It has bombed it, unleashed tank fire against it, lobbed phosphorus shells into it. Many residents have fled the destruction, but so far the defenders, local fighters with Hezbollah and allied factions, have held on. Villagers are overwhelmingly supportive of the group and of allied organizations like Amal. Kafr Kila has been without power or water since the Israeli attack began nearly three weeks ago. Food and medicine are running short for residents who have remained.

8) Israeli Jets, Helicopters and Ground Forces Attack Baalbek, Hezbollah Hub in Bekaa Valley
Hassan M. Fattah
New York Times
August 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/world/middleeast/03baalbek.html
In peacetime, Baalbek is best known for its Roman ruins and its summer festivals. But in war, it is a prime target, a strategic center for Hezbollah in the Bekaa Valley. Seven people, including two children, were killed when Israeli planes bombed a house in Jamaliye, a few miles outside Baalbek. In the house were about 50 members of an extended family who had fled the house when the jets were flying over. After the family returned, a rocket landed in the garden, one relative said.

9) Israeli Warplanes Pound Southern Beirut
Hezbollah Sprays Rockets, Killing 5 Israelis
Jonathan Finer, Edward Cody and Debbi Wilgoren
Washington Post
Thursday, August 3, 2006; 10:42 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080300305.html
Israeli warplanes pounded the southern suburbs of Beirut Thursday for the first time in eight days, and a barrage of Hezbollah rockets fired across the border killed at least five people in northern Israel. Hezbollah fighters and Israeli ground troops were engaged in fierce ground battles in Lebanese border towns and villages that left two Israeli soldiers dead and two others injured. Israeli jets also bombed roads and bridges in the northern part of Lebanon, in an apparent effort to cut off potential resupply routes from Syria.
Lebanese prime minister Fuad Siniora said the death toll in his country has risen above 900 in the three weeks since hostilities broke out after a Hezbollah raid into Israel. More than 3,000 have been wounded, Siniora said. He said a third of the total casualties have been children under 12.

10) Among Militia's Patient Loyalists, Confidence and Belief in Victory
Anthony Shadid
Washington Post
Thursday, August 3, 2006; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/02/AR2006080201584.html
Three weeks into its war with Israel, Hezbollah has retained its presence in southern Lebanon, often the sole authority in devastated towns along the Israeli border. The militia is elusive, with few logistics, little hierarchy and less visibility. Even residents often say they don't know how the militiamen operate or are organized. Communication is by walkie-talkie, always in code, and sometimes messages are delivered by motorcycle.

11) Seven Palestinians Killed in Israeli Raid in Rafah
Molly Moore
Washington Post
Thursday, August 3, 2006; 7:24 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080300293.html
Israeli military forces killed seven Palestinians, including a 13-year-old boy, during a midnight attack on the outskirts of Rafah. At least two of those killed were identified as members of the militant group Islamic Jihad, according to a report issued by the organization. Palestinian witnesses in the area reported that the Israeli military fired tank rounds and fired rockets from an unmanned drone patrolling overhead. They said Israeli forces enter the area nightly in search of Palestinian fighters.

12) World Opinion Roundup: The Qana Conspiracy Theory
Jefferson Morley
Washington Post
August 2, 2006; 10:30 AM ET
http://blogs.washingtonpost.com/worldopinionroundup/
An alternative view of the Qana attack is emerging in blogs -- that the incident was actually staged by Hezbollah. The Qana conspiracy theory not only underscores how the Internet can misinform, it also reveals a popular demand for online content that attempts to explain away news reports that Israel (and by proxy, its closest ally and arms supplier, the United States) was responsible for the deaths of dozens of women and children in a Hezbollah stronghold. At a time when American and Israeli public opinion of the war diverge radically from the world opinion elsewhere, the emergence of a right-wing equivalent of the Sept. 11 conspiracy theories is worth noting. EU Referendum claimed that a Lebanese rescue worker seen in many photos from Qana was a "Hezbollah official." I e-mailed co-author of the site, Richard North, to ask for his evidence. "All I have to go on is gut instinct," North replied. I appreciate his candor. It confirms that he has no evidence to support the central claim of his blog posts. North says he is just trying to "raise questions," which is certainly a legitimate goal. My question is: What is it about the photos from Qana that made Israel's supporters prefer fantasy to fact?

13) Future of Orthodox Jewish Vote Has Implications for GOP
Small but Growing Group Receptive to Republican Ideas
Jim VandeHei
Washington Post
Thursday, August 3, 2006; Page A06
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/02/AR2006080201692.html
Republicans are hoping a strong defense of Israel translates into greater support among Jewish voters this fall, but the biggest political benefits are likely to come long after the 2006 campaign concludes, according to political and demographic experts studying Jewish voting trends. The Jewish group proving most receptive to Republican overtures over the past decade is among the smallest: Orthodox Jews. Right now, they account for roughly 10 percent of the estimated 5.3 million Jews in the United States, hardly enough to tip most elections. This is likely to change significantly in the years ahead because Orthodox Jews are the fastest-growing segment of the Jewish population, raising the possibility that one of the most reliable Democratic voting blocs will be increasingly in play in future elections, according to surveys of Jewish voting and religious and social habits.

14) G.I.’s Say Officers Ordered Killing of Young Iraqi Men
Paul von Zielbauer
New York Times
August 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/world/middleeast/03abuse.html
Four American soldiers from an Army combat unit that killed three Iraqis in a raid in May testified Wednesday that they had received orders from superior officers to kill all the military-age men they encountered. The soldiers gave their accounts at a military hearing to determine if four colleagues should face courts-martial on charges that they carried out a plan to murder the three Iraqis. Their testimony gave credence to statements from two defendants that an officer had told their platoon to “kill all military-age males” in the assault. That officer, Col. Michael Steele, has declined to testify, an unusual decision for a commander. “We are now talking about the possibility of command responsibility, not just unlawful orders and simple murder,” said Gary D. Solis, a former military judge and prosecutor who teaches the law of war at Georgetown University. Colonel Steele, who led the 1993 mission in Somalia later made famous in the film “Black Hawk Down,” has a reputation for aggressive measures. In Iraq, as a commander involved in harrowing assaults against insurgents, he inspired the use of “kill boards” to track how many Iraqis each soldier had killed over time.

15) In Iraq, It’s Hard to Trust Anyone in Uniform
Damien Cave
New York Times
August 3, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/03/world/middleeast/03uniforms.html
The camouflaged Iraqi commandos who kidnapped 20 people from a pair of central Baghdad offices this week used Interior Ministry vehicles and left little trace of their true identities. Were they legitimate officers? Members of a Shiite or Sunni death squad? Or criminals in counterfeit uniforms bought at the market? Majid Hamid, a Sunni human rights worker whose brother was kidnapped and killed by men in uniform four months ago, said he doubted that the answer would ever be known. Now, he said, the authorities normally trusted to investigate may be responsible for the crime. “Whenever I see uniforms now, I figure they must be militias,” Mr. Hamid said in a recent interview. “I immediately try to avoid them. If I have my gun, I know I need to be ready to use it.”

16) 'Low Intensity Civil War' Likely in Iraq, Ambassador Says
Mary Jordan and Fred Barbash
Washington Post
Thursday, August 3, 2006; 7:10 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080300277.html
Britain's outgoing ambassador to Iraq has advised his government that the country is more likely headed to "low intensity civil war" and sectarian partition than to a stable democracy, the BBC reported Wednesday. The network said it obtained a diplomatic dispatch from William Patey to Prime Minister Blair and top members of Blair's cabinet.
Patey wrote that "the prospect of a low intensity civil war and a de facto division of Iraq is probably more likely at this stage than a successful and substantial transition to a stable democracy. Even the lowered expectation of President Bush for Iraq -- a government that can sustain itself, defend itself and govern itself and is an ally in the war on terror -- must remain in doubt." Meanwhile, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has reversed a decision to skip a public hearing on Capitol Hill and said he will testify Thursday at a session on the Iraq war. The move came after pressure from Senate Democrats who urged him to come before the Senate Armed Services Committee to answer questions about the administration's Iraq policies.

17) Lebanon could overshadow Iran's study of nuclear deal
Clarence Fernandez
Reuters
Thursday, August 3, 2006; 9:47 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080300576.html
Iran said on Thursday it was still weighing an international package of incentives to suspend its nuclear programme but conflict in Lebanon had diverted its attention. On Monday, the U.N. Security Council demanded that Iran suspend its nuclear activities by August 31 or face the threat of sanctions, although Iran responded by insisting on its right to produce nuclear fuel. "We have said we are open to negotiations, and in the shadow of negotiations it is possible to settle any dispute," President Ahmadinejad said."And even now some sort of dialogue is going on, but the crimes committed by the Zionist regime have overshadowed all our considerations," he said in a reference to Israel's campaign in Lebanon.

18) Iran warns of $200 oil if US pursues sanctions
Reuters
Thursday, August 3, 2006; 10:59 AM
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/08/03/AR2006080300577.html
Global oil prices could hit $200 per barrel if the United States pursues international sanctions against Iran, an Iranian official said on Thursday, although analysts passed the comment off as saber rattling. Markets appeared to shrug off the comment, with U.S. crude oil falling $1.01 to $74.80 on signs that Tropical Storm Chris would not become a hurricane. Tension over Iran's nuclear ambitions, which has rattled oil markets in recent weeks, has been overshadowed by the bloody conflict in Lebanon.

19) Iran's President Voices New Optimism
Associated Press
August 3, 2006
Filed at 10:21 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html
Iran's president expressed optimism Thursday that the dispute over his country's nuclear program can be resolved through talks, despite mounting impatience with his rejection of U.N. Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment. Underlining the international concern, one of Iran's leading trade partners, Russia, issued a statement Thursday telling the Tehran regime it must respect the council's Aug. 31 deadline to stop enrichment.

20) Mexico Leftist Threatens More Protests
Reuters
August 3, 2006
Filed at 0:41 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mexico-election.html
Lopez Obrador, heading protests to pressure Mexico's electoral court into ordering a full recount of votes in the July 2 presidential election, threatened on Wednesday to turn the screws even tighter despite anger over demonstrations that have crippled Mexico City.
Thousands of Lopez Obrador's supporters have seized the capital's vast Zocalo square and main Reforma boulevard, causing three days of traffic chaos and drawing fire from the government. "Mexico City belongs to everyone. All those who live here deserve to have their rights respected,'' said Ruben Aguilar, spokesman for President Vicente Fox.
The protests have been peaceful, but are angering residents and alienating some former Lopez Obrador supporters. Lopez Obrador has apologized for the disruption, but insisted it was a small price to pay. The former Mexico City mayor said he would decide whether to step up the campaign of civil disobedience after a court decision over a recount, which he expected within days. "It causes annoyance, anger, we know that, but there is no other choice ... we have to make democracy count in our country,'' he said.

Just Foreign Policy News
August 2, 2006

In this issue:
1) Just Foreign Policy does radio on "Uniting for Peace"
2) Jackson-Lee Introduces cease-fire resolution
3) Israeli Troops Sweep Southern Lebanon
4) Hezbollah Fires Over 200 Rockets Into Israel
5) U.S. Insists Truce Must Await Plan to Disarm Hezbollah
6) European Union Seeks Halt to Battles as First Step
7) Olmert Stands Firm as Fighting Continues
8) At Beacon of Learning, Looking to Pass a New Test in Beirut
9) US, France Working on Two - Phase UN Mideast Plan
10) Believing Bombing Over, Lebanese Paid High Price
11) Widening War Complicates US Policy Goals
12) US Rebukes UN No. 2 for Criticizing Mideast Policy
13) Saudi Arabia Criticizes US Policy Over Lebanon
14) U.N. Again Postpones Peacekeeper Meeting
15) EU Rejects Ceasefire Call and UN Fails to Act as Disunity Prevails
16) How Israel's Bombing Turned Hizbollah Leader into a Symbol of Muslim Pride
17) Iran VP: Country Still Considering Offer
18) Soldiers Smiled Before Killings in Iraq: Witness
19) Report Faults Iraq Reconstruction Plans
20) Mexico Leftist Under Fire as Vote Protests Drag On

Contents:
1) Just Foreign Policy does radio on "Uniting for Peace"
Just Foreign Policy did three radio interviews today in support of the petition for the UN General Assembly to take action for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon under the "Uniting for Peace" resolution, on Pacifica/WPFW, KCSB, and XM radio.

2) Jackson-Lee Introduces cease-fire resolution
On July 25, Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX) introduced H.Res.945, calling for secure humanitarian corridors to be opened in Lebanon, an immediate cease-fire, and a comprehensive and just resolution to the Israeli-Arab conflict. 16 Members have signed on to the Jackson-Lee resolution.

3) Israeli Troops Sweep Southern Lebanon
Associated Press
August 2, 2006
Filed at 3:16 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Lebanon-Israel.html
Israel pressed the first full day of a massive new ground attack, sending 8,000 troops into southern Lebanon on Wednesday and seizing five people it said were Hezbollah fighters in a dramatic airborne raid on a northeastern town. Hezbollah retaliated with its deepest strikes yet into Israel, firing a record number of more than 210 rockets. Diplomatic efforts faltered, with France saying it will not participate in a Thursday U.N. meeting that could send troops to help monitor a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah. France, which may join or even lead such a force, said it does not want to talk about sending peacekeepers until fighting halts and the U.N. Security Council agrees to a wider framework for lasting peace. Pope Benedict XVI issued a new appeal for peace in the Middle East.

4) Hezbollah Fires Over 200 Rockets Into Israel
John Kifner And Hassan M. Fattah
New York Times
August 2, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/02/world/middleeast/02cnd-mideast.html
Hezbollah guerrillas fired more than 200 rockets into Israel today, a record number, even as Israel poured thousands of troops backed by tanks and armored bulldozers into fierce fighting along the border. As the battles raged in a half-dozen pockets just over the border, Prime Minister Olmert vowed that Israel would fight on until an international force moved into southern Lebanon, an uncertain prospect that could take weeks or more.
Olmert declared that Hezbollah’s infrastructure had been “entirely destroyed” and asserted that some 770 command and control centers has been struck and taken out of action. But even as he spoke, shadowy Hezbollah fighters, flitting between shattered villages and underground bunkers, were showering Israel with the biggest barrage of rockets in the 22-day-old war.

5) U.S. Insists Truce Must Await Plan to Disarm Hezbollah
Jim Rutenberg And Thom Shanker
New York Times
August 2, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/02/washington/02diplo.html

The US firmly reiterated its position on Tuesday that there can be no cease-fire in the Middle East until there is a solid plan in place to disarm Hezbollah. Secretary of State Rice had seemed to be ready to hasten the diplomatic effort to end the crisis on Monday, saying a solution was possible this week. But after she had dinner with Mr. Bush on Monday night, and France effectively postponed a United Nations session to work out the details of a international peacekeeping force, the administration strongly reiterated its message: a cease-fire will not be hastened without a plan to make it a lasting one.
On Tuesday, European officials, joined by some United States counterparts, said the diplomacy could easily extend into next week.

6) European Union Seeks Halt to Battles as the First Step, With Cease-Fire to Follow
Elaine Sciolino And Dan Bilefsky
New York Times
August 2, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/02/world/europe/02europe.html
The 25 countries of the EU called Tuesday for an immediate end to the fighting between Israel and the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, hoping to create the momentum for a political solution and the deployment of an international military force to secure the peace. The meeting suggested a widening gap between the European and American positions. The Europeans essentially gave their support to a French proposal for a UN Security Council resolution that envisions an immediate stop to the fighting, followed by a permanent cease-fire and a political agreement, and only then the deployment of an international force. That sequence of events is opposed by the US, which says there can be a cease-fire and political arrangements only after the formation of a foreign force to enforce them. The Europeans called for the “immediate cessation of hostilities, to be followed by a sustainable cease-fire.”

7) Olmert Stands Firm as Fighting Continues
Associated Press
August 2, 2006
Filed at 1:11 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mideast-Fighting-Olmert.html
In an interview with AP, Olmert said Israel's offensive against Hezbollah will stop only once a robust international peacekeeping force is in place in southern Lebanon, his clearest indication to date that Israel would resist European pressure for an immediate cease-fire. Olmert said the release of two Israelis seized by Hezbollah on July 12 must be unconditional, signaling Israel does not favor a prisoner swap. ''Israel will stop fighting when the international force will be present in the south of Lebanon,'' he said. ''We can't stop before because if there will not be a presence of a very effective and robust military international force, Hezbollah will be there and we will have achieved nothing.''

8) At Beacon of Learning, Looking to Pass a New Test in Beirut
John Files
New York Times
August 2, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/02/education/02beirut.html
Through decades of violence and unrest in the Middle East, the American University of Beirut has preserved its reputation as one of the best institutions of higher learning in the region. As the university again finds itself in the midst of conflict and uncertainty, with the fighting in southern Lebanon between Israel and Hezbollah, the university’s president, on a visit here last week, said he was optimistic that the institution would persevere. So far, the university’s campus has been spared from the Israeli bombing campaign that has killed dozens and driven thousands from their homes. But summer programs have been suspended indefinitely. The university runs summer sessions for graduate students, as well as programs for Americans and other foreigners to study Arabic and Middle East history, culture and politics. It was unclear whether fall classes would begin the first week of October as scheduled.

9) US, France Working on Two - Phase UN Mideast Plan
Reuters
August 2, 2006
Filed at 1:17 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast-un.html
The US, France and Britain hope for a U.N. Security Council resolution within a week that would call for a truce and perhaps beef up U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon until a more robust force can be formed, diplomats said Wednesday. The US and France are rapidly working out differences on an initial resolution that would also call for the creation of a buffer zone and the need to disarm Hizbollah guerrillas. But Paris has made it clear it will not join an international force without a truce and an agreement in principle on the political framework of a long-term peace deal. Once fighting has ended, negotiations would begin at the UN on a second resolution setting out a permanent cease-fire that all combatants could accept. That resolution would also authorize an international force in southern Lebanon and set out terms for a sustainable cease-fire. Russia and China have not yet been involved in the negotiations. A key issue is whether all sides would accept a truce. The US had anticipated a Security Council meeting at the foreign minister level next week, but no date has been set. Meanwhile France, often mentioned as a leader of an international force, rejected a U.N. meeting of potential troop contributors set for Thursday because there was no political deal on ending the conflict.
Consequently, the United Nations called off the meeting, for the second time this week.

10) Believing Bombing Over, Lebanese Paid High Price
Reuters
August 2, 2006
Filed at 12:01 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast-lebanon-danger.html
Ali Bajouk set off to deliver supplies to elderly relatives in the village of Aita al-Shaab thinking Israel had suspended its aerial bombardment of southern Lebanon. He was wrong. Bajouk now lies in a hospital bed in Beirut, his body, head and face wrapped in bandages to cover the burns caused by an air strike which scorched half his skin.
"We went up to Aita on the grounds there was a ceasefire,'' he said, his mouth and eyes all that were visible beyond thick layers of bandages. "They are liars." Israel had said on Sunday it would suspend air strikes on southern Lebanon for 48 hours to investigate an air strike on the village of Qana. There were fewer air strikes on Monday and Tuesday, but warplanes still struck. The Israeli military said it had reserved the right to strike at Hizbollah guerrillas firing rockets into Israel from their strongholds in south Lebanon. Israel also warned civilians to leave the area but residents say they are hindered by bomb damage to roads.

11) Widening War Complicates US Policy Goals
Reuters
August 2, 2006
Filed at 10:02 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-mideast-usa-policy.html
President Bush has described the Israel-Hizbollah crisis as another opportunity to remake the Middle East in his democratic vision. But as civilian casualties from the conflict in Lebanon mount, the situation looks increasingly chaotic, and a damage-control operation will make it harder to advance U.S. foreign policy interests, analysts say. "I think the chances of this having a silver lining are diminishing,'' said Ellen Laipson, former vice chairman of the National Intelligence Council. "The phrase 'this is an opportunity' is such a best-case scenario. Haven't we learned from the Iraq experience? Be careful of setting out a strategic goal that is so unrealistic,'' Laipson said. Bush's agenda was already loaded when rocket attacks by Hizbollah guerrilla group three weeks ago provoked Israeli retaliation. [Note this innovation in the sequence of events - JFP.] Initially, the world focused on Hizbollah as the aggressor. But Israeli air attacks caused hundreds of civilian deaths and stoked a new backlash against Israel and America, its chief ally.

12) US Rebukes UN No. 2 for Criticizing Mideast Policy
Reuters
August 2, 2006
Filed at 2:46 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-mideast-un-usa.html
The US sharply rebuked the No. 2 U.N. official, Deputy Secretary-General Mark Malloch Brown, on Wednesday for his repeated criticism of Washington after he said America should allow others to share the lead in solving the Lebanon crisis. "We are seeing a troubling pattern of a high official of the U.N. who seems to be making it his business to criticize member states and, frankly, with misplaced and misguided criticisms,'' State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. McCormack's remarks were in response to an interview published in the Financial Times on Wednesday, in which the U.N. official also told Britain to adopt a lower profile to end fighting between Israel and Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

13) Saudi Arabia Criticizes US Policy Over Lebanon
Reuters
August 2, 2006
Filed at 11:18 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/washington/politics-mideast-saudi-usa.html
Saudi Arabia, a key U.S. ally, criticized Washington's stance on the Israeli military campaign in Lebanon and urged it on Wednesday to press for an immediate ceasefire.
"We disagree with the U.S. policy in this area ... the United States is the super power and it can seek an immediate ceasefire,'' Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said "(We) take issue with the United States that it did not take a position that prevents Israel from striking Lebanon.'' He said Washington was morally obliged to prevent Israel from using U.S.-made weapons in attacks against civilians.

14) U.N. Again Postpones Peacekeeper Meeting
Associated Press
August 2, 2006
Filed at 12:53 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mideast-Fighting-UN.html
The U.N. announced Wednesday that it was again postponing a meeting of nations that could send peacekeepers to south Lebanon, saying talks about sending troops were pointless before there was progress on peace between Israel and Hezbollah. Diplomats still claimed substantial progress toward agreement on a peace plan, saying there was general agreement on the elements required for a lasting solution. Those include halting the fighting, disarming Hezbollah, deploying peacekeepers and creating a buffer zone in south Lebanon free of Hezbollah militants and Israeli troops. ''I'm confident that by tomorrow we'll be in a position to have discussions in the Council on a text which actually takes us forward,'' Britain's U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry said. The diplomats are debating a French draft resolution that would impose that framework for peace and lay the conditions for a peacekeeping force. But France, considered a possible leader of a peacekeeping force, wants fighting to stop immediately, to create the political framework, and then to send the troops. France has refused to take part in a meeting of nations willing to contribute troops. That refusal has now led the U.N. to postpone the meeting twice.

15) EU Rejects Ceasefire Call and UN Fails to Act as Disunity Prevails
Nicholas Watt, Ewen MacAskill, Simon Tisdall and Oliver Burkeman
Guardian / UK
August 2, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0802-01.htm
Efforts to secure an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon collapsed again yesterday after a divided EU issued a watered-down statement and the UN postponed a full security council discussion promised by Blair and Rice. Despite escalating violence in southern Lebanon, EU foreign ministers rejected a draft statement that would have called for an immediate ceasefire and would have branded Israel's bombardment as "a severe breach of international humanitarian law". In a semantic bow to Washington and Tel Aviv, they called instead "for an immediate cessation of hostilities to be followed by a sustainable ceasefire". Germany and four other countries joined Britain in opposing the tougher language that had been urged by France. In EU parlance, a "cessation" now appears to mean a temporary pause, whereas a "ceasefire" implies a more permanent arrangement.
The foreign secretary, Margaret Beckett, denied the compromise amounted to a "green light" for Israel to continue its military offensive. "I would be saddened and dismayed if someone would read that into today's conclusions," she said. The German foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, said: "Cessation of hostilities is not the same as a ceasefire. A ceasefire can perhaps be achieved later ... We can now only ask the UN security council and put pressure on it not to waste any more time."

16) How Israel's Bombing Turned Hizbollah Leader into a Symbol of Muslim Pride
Patrick Cockburn
Independent / UK
August 2, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0802-04.htm
A year ago Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbollah, was an important figure in Lebanon but seemed destined to remain on the sidelines of Middle East politics. Nasrallah's great moment had apparently come and gone in May 2000 when Israel had unilaterally withdrawn its troops from southern Lebanon after years of harassment by Hizbollah guerrillas. He returned in triumph to reconquered Lebanese territory and, if the military victory over Israel was small in scale, it was still an accomplishment not enjoyed by many Arab leaders over the past half century. But the departure of the Israelis from Lebanon also robbed Hizbollah of its raison d'être and excuse for forming a state within a state. No doubt its leader, Nasrallah, would remain a power within Lebanon but it seemed increasingly unlikely that he would be anything more. It was Israel that decided otherwise. By launching a massive military campaign in retaliation for the kidnapping of two of its soldiers on 12 July it made Nasrallah into a symbol of resistance to Israel in the Muslim world.

17) Iran VP: Country Still Considering Offer
Associated Press
August 2, 2006
Filed at 1:33 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html
Iran is still considering a package of incentives offered by Western nations in June for Tehran to suspend its nuclear program, Iranian Vice President Isfandiar Rahim Mashaee said Wednesday. Mashaee also repeated Iranian criticism of a U.N. resolution calling for Iran to halt its uranium enrichment by Aug. 31 or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions. ''The U.N. Security Council resolution was adopted despite the fact Iran is seriously studying the incentives package ... Western countries are resorting to pressure, not dialogue, and wish to deny Iran its rights,'' Mashaee said. Mashaee's remarks came a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denounced the U.N. resolution adopted earlier this week, telling a crowd in northeastern Iran that Tehran would not give in to United Nations threats. Tehran has said it would reply to the package on Aug. 22, but the council decided to issue a resolution and not wait for Iran's response.

18) Soldiers Smiled Before Killings in Iraq: Witness
Reuters
August 2, 2006
Filed at 7:28 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/news/news-iraq-usa-hearing.html
U.S. soldiers charged with murdering three detainees in Iraq smiled before carrying out the shootings and threatened to kill another soldier if he informed on them, a military court heard on Wednesday. Prosecution witness Private First Class Bradley Mason, under cross examination, said the rules of engagement were "we get to kill all the male insurgents.''

19) Report Faults Iraq Reconstruction Plans
Pauline Jelinek
Associated Press
August 2, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0802-09.htm
The beleaguered Iraq reconstruction effort was beset by problems from the very start and is also hampered by a long pattern of corruption in the country, a new report finds. For several months before the war, government agencies didn't consult each other on what they were doing because their work was classified. The report is a chronological review of American contracting and purchasing efforts starting in the summer of 2002 for post-invasion relief and rebuilding. "It is a story of mistakes made, plans poorly conceived or overwhelmed by ongoing violence," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. "And of waste, greed and corruption that drained dollars that should have been used to build schools, improve the electrical grid, and repair the oil infrastructure." The report by the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction is being presented Wednesday before the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which Collins chairs.

20) Mexico Leftist Under Fire as Vote Protests Drag On
Reuters
August 2, 2006
Filed at 1:26 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mexico-election.html
Mexico's leftist opposition leader came under fire on Wednesday for crippling Mexico City with protests against alleged fraud in a tight presidential election, but his supporters vowed to fight on. Thousands of leftists seized the capital's Zocalo square, one of the biggest in the world, and the main boulevard running through the city, causing three straight days of chaos. Lopez Obrador is heading the protests to pressure Mexico's electoral court to order a full recount of votes in the July 2 presidential election. While the protests have been effective, some analysts say the tactic could backfire by angering residents and alienating some of Lopez Obrador's former supporters. The government of President Fox increased the pressure on Lopez Obrador and his supporters on Wednesday by saying the protests were hurting the city's economy, putting jobs at risk and violating residents' rights of free movement.

Just Foreign Policy News
August 1, 2006

In this issue:
1) Just Foreign Policy joins Brecher/Smith call for UN General Assembly Action on Immediate Cease-Fire
2) Doggett, Velazquez, Clay Join Kucinich Resolution for Immediate Cease-Fire
3) Cease-Fire Diplomacy in Lebanon - NYT editorial
4) Israel Expands Offensive to Drive Back Hezbollah
5) To Stay or to Go Isn’t an Easy Choice for Many in Villages
6) Lebanese Race to Save Lives, but Find Death
7) Lebanese Premier Faces Impossible Job
8) U.N. Aid Convoys to Lebanon Delayed
9) For Lebanese, Calm Moment to Flee Ruins
10) Stop the Band-Aid Treatment - Carter op-ed
11) 'There is no ceasefire. There will not be any ceasefire'
12) 'No Hezbollah Rockets Fired from Qana'
13) Republican Senator Criticizes US Policy on Middle East
14) Republican Realists Call for Major Course Change
15) Bush Baggage Could Cost Lieberman Primary
16) Mideast Conflict a Setback for Iran Reform Movement
17) Democratic Leaders Ask Bush to Redeploy Troops in Iraq
18) Iran’s Leader Rejects U.N. Resolution
19) U.N. Gives Iran Deadline to End Nuclear Work
20) Lopez Obrador Backers Slow Mexico City

Contents:
1) Just Foreign Policy joins Brecher/Smith call for UN General Assembly Action on Immediate Cease-Fire
With the UN Security Council failing to take action to bring about a ceasefire in Lebanon, Jeremy Brecher and Brendan Smith call on the UN General Assembly to take action under Resolution 377, "Uniting for Peace," to bring about an immediate unconditional cease-fire. (http://www.commondreams.org/views06/0727-27.htm) A similar call in the run-up to the Iraq war generated significant international pressure on the United States. Just Foreign Policy is circulating a petition in support of this demand: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/issues/lebanon.html.

2) Doggett, Velazquez, Clay Join Kucinich Resolution for Immediate Cease-Fire
Rep Lloyd Doggett [TX-25], Rep Velazquez, Nydia M. [NY-12], and Rep Wm. Lacy Clay [MO-1] have joined on as co-sponsors to the Kucinich resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire in Lebanon, bringing the number of co-sponsors to 33, of whom 27 are members of the Progressive Caucus. The current list of Progressive Caucus members who have not yet agreed to co-sponsor the Kucinich resolution is at http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/issues/prog_cauc_noceasefire.xls. A form for contacting Members of Congress is at http://www.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizationsORG/justforeignpolicy.org/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=4697.

3) Cease-Fire Diplomacy in Lebanon
Editorial
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/opinion/01tue1.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
It took the worldwide uproar over the Qana casualties to finally jolt the Bush administration into asking for something it should have sought many days earlier. Washington’s instant turnabout and Israel’s instant response has left the damaging impression that had America expressed similar concerns sooner, these and many other innocent Lebanese lives might have been saved. Israel is already rolling out plans for an expanded ground offensive, which Washington has done nothing to discourage. Before that happens, the temporary lull in Israeli attacks needs to be broadened into a full cease-fire and extended indefinitely while the United Nations Security Council works to create an international armed force to secure Lebanon’s border.

4) Israel Expands Offensive to Drive Back Hezbollah
Craig S. Smith And Steven Erlanger
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/world/middleeast/01cnd-mideast.html
Israel sharply stepped up its ground campaign in southern Lebanon after the Israeli cabinet decided to expand its operations, aiming to push Hezbollah back from the border before a cease-fire is declared and a multinational force is deployed there. Israeli troops may push northward to the Litani River, some 15 miles from the Israeli border. Several thousand soldiers have been engaged in the operation, fighting house-to-house battles with hundreds of Hezbollah fighters in Lebanese towns and villages close to the border. The country’s most influential columnist, Nahum Barnea, writing in Yediot Aharonot, raised questions about Israeli tactics and leadership. Mr. Barnea wrote about the government’s decision to allow the army to attack civilian houses if Hezbollah rockets and war matériel were stored inside and the population was warned in advance to leave. He said Israel had to respond to Hezbollah’s attack with military action, but added, “The question is how and at what cost.” He criticized Defense Minister Peretz for describing “proudly how he relieved the army of restrictions on harming civilian population that lives alongside Hezbollah operatives.”

5) To Stay or to Go Isn’t an Easy Choice for Many in Villages
Jad Mouawad
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/world/middleeast/01lebanon.html
Israeli artillery pounded this small border village on Monday, covering the hills with smoke, as the remaining residents tried to decide whether an Israeli promise to pause its air war would allow them to leave. Despite the promise, Israel’s air force fired one missile around midday on a ridge east of the town, sending a huge mushroom of smoke and dust high into the sky. Another two airstrikes were heard within the next hour.

6) Lebanese Race to Save Lives, but Find Death
Reuters
August 1, 2006
Filed at 9:54 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/world/international-mideast-lebanon-redcross.html
Rescue workers often can do nothing to help when they arrive at the aftermath of Israeli attacks, such as that on Qana, in southern Lebanon. The victims are either killed instantly or buried under rubble. The Lebanese government says dozens of bodies have yet to be recovered after such attacks, some of them in cars hit by Israeli missiles. The government has so far put the war's death toll at 750 including unrecovered bodies. "Often, they are dead. But there are wounded people,'' said Hussein Hudruj, a Lebanese Red Cross volunteer. "In one village, we found people alive under rubble after four days. They were wounded. We took them and now, thank God, they are okay,'' he said.

7) Lebanese Premier Faces Impossible Job
Associated Press
August 1, 2006
Filed at 5:03 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mideast-Lebanese-Premier.html
Faced with the worst Israeli military onslaught in more than two decades, Prime Minister Fuad Saniora has a nearly impossible job. The Western-backed leader is trying to keep good relations with Washington. He must keep Hezbollah politicians in his Cabinet to keep his fractured government from falling apart. After the conflict began three weeks ago, Saniora proposed ideas that included deploying an international force in the south. But his stance hardened after an Israeli strike in the southern town of Qana that killed at least 56 people, more than half of them children. He canceled a visit by Secretary of State Rice and praised Hezbollah leader Nasrallah for his ''sacrifices,'' even hinting that retaliation may be justified. Siding with Hezbollah while Lebanon is under siege ensures the survival of Saniora's government, at least in the short term, as he strives to end the conflict. The guerrillas are popular with many Lebanese for their role in pushing Israel to end its 18-year occupation from a self-declared security zone in southern Lebanon in 2000.

8) U.N. Aid Convoys to Lebanon Delayed
Associated Press
August 1, 2006
Filed at 7:26 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mideast-Fighting-Aid.html
Two U.N. aid convoys destined for southern Lebanon were halted Tuesday after failing to receive necessary security clearance from Israeli military forces and Hezbollah, according to a spokeswoman for the World Food Program. The U.N. requires that Hezbollah and the Israeli army be notified of the route and timeframe for each convoy, and that the two sides acknowledge the information. At least a dozen trucks with aid from WFP and other U.N. agencies were stuck in Beirut as a result.

9) For Lebanese, Calm Moment to Flee Ruins
Sabrina Tavernise
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/world/middleeast/01scene.html
Across southern Lebanon on Monday, people took advantage of the relative calm to move, seeking safety farther north. They piled onto tractors, packed into cars, crowded children into open trunks, and even walked, lugging belongings on their backs. They traveled despite Israeli shelling along the border that popped and boomed. Those who could were getting out of the town, though many who were elderly, infirm or lacking the means remained stuck. The Israelis said they agreed to stop airstrikes for 48 hours, except in cases of an imminent threat or to support ground troops, to let people in southern Lebanon evacuate. But in Bint Jbail, leaving the town required climbing mountains of rubble, something that was physically impossible for most of the people who had been stranded.

10) Stop the Band-Aid Treatment
We Need Policies for a Real, Lasting Middle East Peace
Jimmy Carter
Washington Post
Tuesday, August 1, 2006; A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/31/AR2006073100923.html
It is inarguable that Israel has a right to defend itself against attacks on its citizens, but it is inhumane and counterproductive to punish civilian populations in the illogical hope that somehow they will blame Hamas and Hezbollah for provoking the devastating response. The result instead has been that broad Arab and worldwide support has been rallied for these groups, while condemnation of both Israel and the United States has intensified. Israel belatedly announced, but did not carry out, a two-day cessation in bombing Lebanon. The urgent need in Lebanon is that Israeli attacks stop, the nation's regular military forces control the southern region, Hezbollah cease as a separate fighting force, and future attacks against Israel be prevented. Israel should withdraw from all Lebanese territory, including Shebaa Farms, and release the Lebanese prisoners. The general parameters of a long-term, two-state agreement are well known. There will be no substantive and permanent peace for any peoples in this troubled region as long as Israel is violating key U.N. resolutions, official American policy and the international "road map" for peace by occupying Arab lands and oppressing the Palestinians. Except for mutually agreeable negotiated modifications, Israel's official pre-1967 borders must be honored. A major impediment to progress is Washington's strange policy that dialogue on controversial issues will be extended only as a reward for subservient behavior and will be withheld from those who reject U.S. assertions.

11) 'There is no ceasefire. There will not be any ceasefire'
Israeli PM Olmert issues grim warning as US blocks moves for immediate cessation of hostilities
Ewen MacAskill, Simon Tisdall and Clancy Chassay
Guardian / UK
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0801-09.htm
An international drive for a ceasefire in Lebanon halted yesterday amid sharp differences at the UN security council, Israel's rejection of any truce in the near future and a Hizbullah warning that it would oppose the deployment of a non UN-force. Amid outrage after Qana and complaints the UN was doing nothing, the US secretary of state said she was convinced a sustainable ceasefire could be achieved at the security council this week. But Israel signalled dissent hours after she left Jerusalem. Its prime minister shrugged off international pressure: "The fighting continues. There is no ceasefire and there will not be any ceasefire in the coming days." Israel, backed by the US, is insisting that the multinational force be put in place before it halts its operations. France and other countries which could contribute to a proposed 20,000-strong force are determined that a ceasefire and the framework for a political agreement between Israel and Lebanon must precede deployment. A senior official from one of the countries that may make up the force said: "We are quite adamant. You have to have an immediate ceasefire and then you need a political agreement, and only then can this encompass an international force. The purpose of the force is to help the Lebanese government and the Lebanese people. It is not to fight Hizbullah."

12) 'No Hezbollah Rockets Fired from Qana'
Dahr Jamail
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
Inter Press Service
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0801-02.htm
Red Cross workers and residents of Qana, where Israeli bombing killed at least 60 civilians, told IPS that no Hezbollah rockets were launched from the city before the Israeli air strike. The Israeli military has said it bombed the building in which several people had taken shelter, more than half of them children, because the Army had faced rocket fire from Qana. The Israeli military has said that Hezbollah was therefore responsible for the deaths. Lebanese Red Cross workers in the nearby coastal city of Tyre told IPS that there was no basis for Israeli claims that Hezbollah had launched rockets from Qana. "We found no evidence of Hezbollah fighters in Qana," a 28-year-old medic for the Red Cross said. "When we rescue people or recover bodies from villages, we usually see rocket launchers or Hezbollah fighters if they are there, but in Qana I can say that the village was 100 percent clear of either of those." Another Red Cross worker told IPS that "we can tell when Hezbollah has been firing rockets from certain areas, because all of the people run away, on foot if they have to."

13) Republican Senator Criticizes US Policy on Middle East
Deborah Tate
Voice of America News
01 August 2006
http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-08-01-voa2.cfm
Senator Chuck Hagel, a key Senate Republican and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is calling on the Bush administration to work for an immediate cease-fire in the conflict between Israeli forces and the Lebanese-based Hezbollah militants. In a speech in the Senate Monday, Hagel urged the Bush administration to do something it has so far refused: engage Syria and Iran, the main sponsors of Hezbollah. Hagel said military action alone will not destroy Hezbollah, and that the pursuit of tactical military victories at the expense of the core strategic objective of Arab-Israeli peace is a hollow victory. He urged the United States to reengage Middle East and international partners to find a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Hagel also said, "America is bogged down in Iraq, and this is limiting our diplomatic and military options. The longer American remains in Iraq in its current capacity, the deeper the damage to our force structure."

14) Republican Realists Call for Major Course Change
Jim Lobe
Inter Press Service
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0801-01.htm
Some of the Republican Party's most venerable foreign policy strategists are calling urgently for a major course change in U.S. policy in the Middle East. In Sunday's Washington Post, Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to presidents Ford and Bush Senior, explicitly rejected the administration's contention that the "root cause" of the current crisis was Hezbollah and its attacks on Israel. In a Post column Monday, former secretary of state Henry Kissinger renewed his appeal for Washington to negotiate directly with Iran over its nuclear program. Richard Armitage, a senior Pentagon official under Bush's father and deputy secretary of state in Bush's first term, also decried Washington's refusal to directly engage another key Hezbollah backer, Syria, during the current crisis in an interview with NPR last week. Armitage also criticised Israel's campaign for relying too heavily on air power. Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, was scornful in a Washington Post interview of the administration's mantra that the current crisis offers an "opportunity" to reach a permanent solution to southern Lebanon. "An opportunity? Lord, spare me. I don't laugh a lot. That's the funniest thing I've heard in a long time. If this is an opportunity, what's Iraq? A once-in-a-lifetime chance?" he asked.

15) Bush Baggage Could Cost Lieberman Primary
Connecticut Democrats fume at his centrism and unbending support for the war. A poll shows the senator's rival surging. The vote is next week.
Ronald Brownstein
Los Angeles Times
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines06/0801-05.htm
Both camps say the result will likely turn on which side can best motivate its supporters to turn out for a contest in the dog days of summer. The contest is open only to Democrats, but independents have until Monday to register with the party to vote in the primary. Lieberman was one of only six Democratic senators to oppose a party-backed resolution in June urging Bush to begin withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq later this year. Lamont said he would have voted for that resolution as well as a separate measure, which only a dozen Democrats backed, that called on Bush to withdraw all the troops by next summer. Laura Spitz, a graphic designer who is backing Lamont, said Lieberman "enables Republicans to have this veneer of bipartisanship because he is their token Democrat." The New York Times raised similar arguments in endorsing Lamont in an editorial Sunday. Lamont is pounding the message that elected officials around the country will view next week's primary results as a referendum on whether Americans want to change direction in Iraq. That prospect is clearly weighing on many Connecticut Democrats. One voter wrote, "If our little primary is being viewed as a referendum on the war in Iraq, then I am voting for Ned Lamont."

16) Mideast Conflict a Setback for Iran Reform Movement
Michael Slackman
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/world/middleeast/01iran.html

The Israeli onslaught in Lebanon and Hezbollah’s daily victories in the regional public relations war over the conflict threaten to claim a victim in Iran: whatever hope remained of resurrecting the political reform movement. Even as Iran’s officials assess the military setbacks of Hezbollah, they have grown more emboldened by the gathering support in the Islamic world for the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia on the front line with Israel. They have grown more emboldened by what they see as a validation of their confrontational approach to foreign policy — and in their efforts to silence political opposition at home.
That is the view of some opposition figures, analysts and former officials who say they find themselves in the awkward position of opposing Israel and sympathizing with the Lebanese people, yet fear what might happen should Hezbollah prevail.

17) Democratic Leaders Ask Bush to Redeploy Troops in Iraq
Adam Nagourney
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/washington/01pullout.html
Leading Congressional Democrats called on President Bush to begin a phased redeployment of troops by the end of this year, a unified statement signaling they have concluded that the war could hurt Republicans in the midterm elections. The letter called on American forces in Iraq to make a transition to a “more limited mission” dealing with counterterrorism and training and logistical support of Iraq security forces. “In the interests of American national security, our troops, and our taxpayers, the open-ended commitment in Iraq that you have embraced cannot and should not be sustained,” said the letter released Monday, signed by a dozen Democratic leaders, including Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate minority leader, and Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader. The fact that most of the Democratic leadership unified around a position and presented it so forcefully strongly suggests that the politics surrounding the war are changing.

18) Iran’s Leader Rejects U.N. Resolution
Associated Press
August 1, 2006
Filed at 12:59 p.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html
President Ahmadinejad on Tuesday rejected a U.N. Security Council resolution that would give his nation until Aug. 31 to suspend uranium enrichment. Instead, Ahmadinejad insisted Tehran would pursue its nuclear program. "Throughout Iran, there is one slogan: 'The Iranian nation considers the peaceful use of nuclear fuel production technology its right,''' Ahmadinejad said. The Security Council passed a resolution Monday calling for Iran to suspend uranium enrichment by the end of August or face the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions. Ahmadinejad said Iran will not give in to threats from the United Nations. Because of Russian and Chinese demands, the resolution's text was watered down from earlier drafts that would have made the threat of political and economic sanctions immediate. The resolution now requires the council to hold more discussions before it considers sanctions. Iran has said it would formally respond Aug. 22 to the incentives package, but a top Iranian lawmaker said Tuesday the Security Council resolution has effectively made the offer ''null and void.''

19) U.N. Gives Iran Deadline to End Nuclear Work
Warren Hoge
New York Times
August 1, 2006
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/01/world/middleeast/01nuke.html
The Security Council passed a resolution on Monday demanding that Iran suspend its uranium enrichment and reprocessing work by the end of August or face the possibility of sanctions. The resolution is the first move by the Council on the Iranian nuclear program that is legally binding and carries the threat of sanctions. The vote was 14 to 1, with Qatar, the Arab representative on the Council, dissenting. Javad Zarif, the Iranian ambassador, said that the Security Council was acting illegally and that the vote had no international credibility. “Iran’s peaceful nuclear program poses no threat to international peace and security, and therefore dealing with this issue in the Security Council is unwarranted and void of any legal basis or practical utility,” he said after the vote. He mocked the ambassadors for not acting forcefully in the current war in Lebanon, saying: “You be the judge of how much credibility this leaves for the Security Council. Millions of people around the world have already passed their judgment.” The resolution calls for “full and sustained suspension” of nuclear activities, including research and development, by Aug. 31, to be verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear monitoring group. It also calls upon all countries to prevent the shipment to Iran of any materials that could be used in its enrichment-related activities or ballistic-missile programs. Nassir Al-Nassar, the Qatari ambassador, said he voted no out of concern for the stability of the region while war continued in Lebanon. “We do not agree with the resolution at a time when our region is in flames,” he said.

At the urging of Democrats, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has put off a vote until September on whether to keep John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations, committee aides said Monday. Democrats want to use that time to press the White House for documents they had sought last year during the dispute over Bolton’s nomination as the envoy.

20) Lopez Obrador Backers Slow Mexico City
Associated Press
August 1, 2006
Filed at 12:44 a.m. ET
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Mexico-Elections.html
Supporters of Mexico's leftist presidential candidate brought rush-hour traffic to a crawl Monday, causing the stock market to drop and forcing office workers dressed in business suits and high heels to hike for miles to work. At night, tens of thousands descended on the city's central plaza for a speech by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador. ''The public should understand that if there isn't democracy ... there won't be any justice, or political stability, or peacefulness,'' Lopez Obrador said. Mexican stocks closed 0.8 percent lower, in part because the protests made investors nervous. Sunday's protests were on a scale that has not been seen in recent Mexican history.

Just Foreign Policy News
July 31, 2006

In this issue:
Lebanon/Israel
1) Israel Says No Halt to Strikes in Support of Ground Forces
2) Rice Says Mideast Cease-Fire Is Within Reach
3) From Carnage in Lebanon, a Concession
4) A Night of Death and Terror for Lebanese Villagers
5) U.N. Deplores Civilian Deaths, but Cease-Fire Call Is Blocked
6) As News Spreads of Deaths in South, Anger Boils Over Into Demonstrations in Beirut
7) Child Victims Incite Anger in Lebanon and Beyond
8) Israeli Refugees Seek Friends and Families
9) Israel Is Powerful, Yes. But Not So Invincible.
10) You're all targets, Israel tells Lebanese in South
11) The "hiding among civilians" myth
12) Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah Talks With Former US Diplomats on Israel
13) Irish refused bombs sent to Prestwick airport
14) The Future of Israel is at Stake - Michael Warschawski
15) Days of darkness - Gideon Levy
16) In the Gunsight: Syria! or: A Nice Little War - Uri Avnery
17) Protest? Not now - Lily Galili
18) Cabinet in open revolt over Blair's Israel policy
19) Casualties of War: Lebanon’s Trees, Air and Sea
20) This Is the Time for a U.S.-Led Comprehensive Settlement - Scowcroft
Iran
21) UN Council set to demand Iran suspend nuclear work
22) Iran to Re - Evaluate Nuke Incentive Package
23) Iran's Jews Caught Again in No Man's Land
24) Iran Hangs in Suspense as War Offers New Strength, and Sudden Weakness
25) U.N. Moves Toward Vote on Iran’s Atom Program
26) Tehran faces UN nuclear deadline
Iraq
27) Audit Finds U.S. Hid Actual Cost of Iraq Projects
28) Iraqi Official Warns Against Coup Attempt
29) A Senate Race in Connecticut
30) Violence in Iraq Is Creating Chaos in Bank System
Mexico
31) Mexico Leftists Try to Shut Capital in Vote Battle

Summary:
29) A Senate Race in Connecticut
A New York Times editorial yesterday endorsed Ned Lamont in his challenge against Senator Joe Lieberman. Lieberman's embrace of the Bush Administration's assault on civil liberties was the main factor cited in the decision.

Lebanon/Israel
1) Israel Says No Halt to Strikes in Support of Ground Forces
Secretary of State Rice said today that she believes a cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah can be reached this week, after persuading Israel to suspend its air campaign for 48 hours in the face of an outcry over the air raid on Qana on Sunday that left dozens of Lebanese civilians dead. Israeli warplanes did conduct air strikes this morning, but army officials said they were in support of ground forces and so not covered by the 48-hour halt. Israel’s defense minister Peretz made it clear today that Israel intends to continue its ground operations against Hezbollah positions in southern Lebanon. "We must not agree to a ceasefire that would be implemented immediately," he said.

3) From Carnage in Lebanon, a Concession
Taken aback by the carnage from the Israeli bombing of Qana, Lebanon, Secretary of State Rice wrung the first significant concession from Israel late Sunday in its war against the Hezbollah militia: an immediate 48-hour suspension of aerial strikes. Notable about the suspension was that Rice’s deputy announced it, not the Israelis. The American decision to break the news on what was essentially an Israeli tactical change reflected the increased concern in the Bush administration about the rising civilian death toll in Lebanon and the havoc it is wreaking with America’s already shaky relations with the Arab world. The United States is still not calling for an immediate cease-fire. By refusing to call for an immediate cease-fire, even in the face of the Qana bombing, Rice was teetering on the edge of a public relations disaster. The Israeli prime minister released a statement saying he told Rice that Israel needed 10 to 14 more days to complete its war aims.

4) A Night of Death and Terror for Lebanese Villagers
The Israeli government apologized for the airstrike Sunday. It said that residents had been warned to leave and should have already been gone. But leaving southern Lebanon now is dangerous. The two extended families staying in the house that the Israeli missile struck had discussed leaving several times. But they were poor and the families were big and many of their members weak, with a 95-year-old, two relatives in wheelchairs and dozens of children. A taxi north, around $1,000, was unaffordable. And then there was the risk of the road itself. Dozens, including 21 refugees in the back of a pickup truck on July 15, have been killed by Israeli strikes while trying to evacuate. Missiles hit two Red Cross ambulances last weekend, wounding six people and punching a circle in the center of the cross on one’s roof. A rocket hit the ambulance convoy that responded in Qana on Sunday.

5) U.N. Deplores Civilian Deaths, but Cease-Fire Call Is Blocked
The Security Council issued a statement Sunday evening expressing “extreme shock and distress” at the killing of Lebanese civilians in the bombing of Qana after daylong negotiations in which the United States succeeded in blocking a call from Secretary General Kofi Annan for an immediate cessation of hostilities.

6) As News Spreads of Deaths in South, Anger Boils Over Into Demonstrations in Beirut
Beirut erupted into enraged demonstrations and rioting on Sunday at the news that Israeli bombs had cut short so many lives in Qana. As the televised images of children’s bodies were replayed on news stations, dozens of young men crashed into the sleek United Nations building early Sunday, lashing out at an accessible symbol of international inaction. The men broke windows and ransacked some floors of the building, burning an American flag and raising a Hezbollah flag in its place. The U.S. "wants to build a 'new Middle East' on the rubble of our homes and our children," said Ali Mustapha, who fled his home in the south with his family last week, bitterly echoing the words of Secretary of State Rice during her visit to Beirut.

7) Child Victims Incite Anger in Lebanon and Beyond
The images of the dead children in southern Lebanon played across the television screens on Sunday over and over again — small and caked in dirt and as lifeless as rag dolls as rescuers hauled them from the wreckage of several residential buildings pulverized hours earlier by the Israeli Air Force. The images were broadcast on all of the Arab-language satellite channels, but it was the most popular station, Al Jazeera, that made the starkest point. For several hours after rescuers reached Qana, Lebanon, the station took its anchors off the air and just continuously played images of the little bodies there. "This is the new Middle East," one report from the shattered town began, making a sarcastic reference to a phrase Secretary of State Rice uttered last week when visiting Beirut and rejecting calls for an immediate cease-fire. American weapons caused the deaths, the report said. Village men were seen weeping over the children as they were laid out under blankets in front of damaged buildings. Arab public opinion, already holding that Americans do not care about Arab lives, given the dozens killed daily in Iraq, will undoubtedly sour even more on the United States. "There is a feeling right now that this war is not really an Israeli war against Hezbollah, but an American war to get rid of Hezbollah," said Hussein Amin, chair of the journalism department at the American University in Cairo.

8) Israeli Refugees Seek Friends and Families
Israeli officials have estimated the number of displaced northern Israelis at 300,000 since the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah began. Rockets have been falling over Israel’s northern towns and cities, sometimes more than 100 a day, many hitting places that had never before been within Hezbollah’s range. It has created a new kind of war for this generation of Israelis, one in which their homes are on the front line.The Arazi family finally had enough when a Hezbollah rocket crashed within a few yards of their home last week. The family of five loaded the car with a cooler full of food, a duffel bag stuffed with clothes and sheets, a guitar and their 11-year-old Dalmatian, Dali, and headed south to find safety. "I’m not used to living like this,” said Merav Arazi. "We are used to a normal life. We work, we come home." Scattered across the center and southern reaches of Israel, some displaced northerners are camping out on the beaches of Elat after being turned away by overbooked hotels.

9) Israel Is Powerful, Yes. But Not So Invincible.
As the bloodbath in Lebanon spilled past its second week — with at least 400 Lebanese dead and many more presumed buried in rubble; some 800,000 refugees, nearly a quarter of the population, on the run; and the fragile nation’s infrastructure shattered — there was no easy way out for either Israel or Hezbollah, the combatants locked in what each saw as a deadly existential struggle. The very clear winner, for the moment at least, was Hezbollah and its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah. (Unless, of course, Israel succeeds in its efforts to assassinate him.) As the only Arab leader seen to have defeated the Israelis — on the basis of their withdrawal in 2000 from an 18-year occupation — he already enjoyed wide respect. Now, with Hezbollah standing firm and inflicting casualties, he has become a folk hero across the Muslim world, apparently uniting Sunnis and Shiites. The standoff stunned Israel. Central to the embattled nation’s sense of survivability is the idea of its invincibility. Its intelligence knows everything, the mythology goes, and no army dare stand against it. In truth, Israel has, in part, been lucky in its enemies, mostly Arab regimes with armies suitable mainly for keeping their own populace in check.

10) You're all targets, Israel tells Lebanese in South
Everyone remaining in southern Lebanon will be regarded as a terrorist, Israel's justice minister said Thursday as the military prepared to employ "huge firepower" from the air in its campaign to crush Hizbollah. Haim Ramon issued the warning as the Israeli government decided against expanding ground operations after the death of nine soldiers in fighting on Wednesday. "What we should do in southern Lebanon is employ huge firepower before a ground force goes in," Ramon said at a security cabinet meeting. "Everyone in southern Lebanon is a terrorist and is connected to Hizbollah. Our great advantage vis-a-vis Hizbollah is our firepower, not in face-to-face combat." Ramon's comments suggested that civilian casualties in Lebanon, which stand at about 600 after 16 days of bombardment, could rise yet higher. The country's biggest-selling paper, Yedioth Ahronoth, said the army had raised the threshold of response to Katyusha rockets. "In other words: a village from which rockets are fired at Israel will simply be destroyed by fire," it said. "This decision should have been made and executed after the first Katyusha. But better late than never."

11) The "hiding among civilians" myth
Israel claims it's justified in bombing civilians because Hezbollah mingles with them. In fact, the militant group doesn't trust its civilians and stays as far away from them as possible, Mitch Prothero wrote Friday in Salon. Israeli planes high above civilian areas send huge bombs capable of killing things for hundreds of meters around their targets, and then blame the inevitable civilian deaths on "terrorists" who callously use the civilian infrastructure for protection. But this claim is almost always false. Hezbollah fighters avoid civilians. They know that if they mingle with civilians, they will sooner or later be betrayed by collaborators -- as so many Palestinian militants have been. The analysts talking on cable news about Hezbollah "hiding within the civilian population" clearly have spent little time if any in the south Lebanon war zone and don't know what they're talking about. Hezbollah doesn't trust the civilian population and has worked very hard to evacuate as much of it as possible from the battlefield. And this is why they fight so well -- with no one to spy on them, they have lots of chances to take the IDF by surprise.

12) Hezbollah Leader Hassan Nasrallah Talks With Former US Diplomats on Israel
Several former former US diplomats sat down with the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in Lebanon earlier this year. On Friday Democracy Now played excerpts of the interview, and spoke to former US Ambassador Edward Peck, who took part in the meeting. During the meeting, Nasrallah discussed Hezbollah’s strategy to free Lebanese prisoners being held in Israel. Nasrallah said, "The only possible strategy is for you to have Israeli prisoners, soldiers…and then you negotiate with the Israelis in order to have your prisoners released…You have two options, either to have these prisoners or detainees remain in Israeli prisons or to capture Israeli soldiers."

13) Irish refused bombs sent to Prestwick airport
Bombs destined to be used by Israel are being flown via Scotland only because the Irish government refused to allow them to land on its soil, the New Scotsman reported Sunday. Ireland turned down a US request for planes carrying "bunker busters" to refuel at Shannon airport. As a result, cargo planes carrying the bombs, which the Israeli army is using in Lebanon, are being flown via Prestwick airport. The use of Prestwick triggered a furious diplomatic row last week after it emerged that the US had broken aviation rules by failing to notify Britain about the flights. Prestwick is negotiating to allow planeloads of US military personnel on their way to Iraq to stop there. A source said it was bidding to take flights away from Shannon, currently used as a stopover for the bulk of the 900 American soldiers who travel from the US to the Middle East every day. The American airlines which transport the troops through Shannon are understood to be reviewing their use of the airport, following protests in Ireland which have resulted in some of the planes being vandalised. One Irish official said that the bombs would never have been allowed on Irish soil. "There is absolutely no way that we would allow munitions or weapons to be shipped through Shannon to a location where there is an actual war going on…we allow the US to transport troops to Shannon, but sending bombs to Israel is another matter and completely out of the question for us." Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond said: "It is highly significant that Shannon put its foot down and drew back from allowing the transport of bunker busters, which could become the tinder to escalate dramatically the Middle East conflict…It is absolutely appalling that we should allow Prestwick to become a stopover to death and destruction." A demonstration was planned for Sunday at Prestwick by anti-war campaigners.

14) The Future of Israel is at Stake
Michael Warschawski (Alternative Information Center)
"We must reduce to dust the villages of the south ... I don’t understand why there is still electricity there." With these words, Israeli Minister of Justice Haim Ramon summarized his suggestions for the military offensive in Lebanon, notes Michael Warschawski of the Alternative Information Center in Jerusalem. As for the Israeli military high command, the plan is to occupy a portion of South Lebanon after destroying all the villages. While more and more voices among the Israeli public are challenging, if not the legitimacy, at least the scope of the present military operation, the US administration is demanding that Israel not surrender to the pressures of those who are working for a cease-fire: Secretary of State Rice "is the leading figure of the strategy aimed at changing the situation in Lebanon" and not Olmert or Peretz, wrote military analyst Ze'ev Schiff in Ha'aretz. By its unlimited brutality the State of Israel is demonstrating to the peoples of the region that it is a foreign and hostile body in the Middle East. The hatred generated by the bombardment of Beirut is immense throughout the Muslim world. It will be extremely difficult to eradicate this anger after the clouds of battle dissipate and the dead are buried. Olmert, Peretz and Halutz are the most dangerous and irresponsible leaders Israel has ever had.

15) Days of darkness
Israel is sinking into a strident, nationalistic atmosphere, writes Gideon Levy in Ha'aretz. The insensitivity and blindness is intensifying, with tones of jingoism, ruthlessness and vengeance. Those in Israel who want to know what Tyre looks like now have to turn to foreign channels. Haim Ramon "doesn't understand" why there is still electricity in Baalbek; Eli Yishai proposes turning south Lebanon into a "sandbox"; Yoav Limor, a Channel 1 military correspondent, proposes an exhibition of Hezbollah corpses and the next day to conduct a parade of prisoners in their underwear, "to strengthen the home front's morale." It's not difficult to guess what we would think about an Arab TV station whose commentators would say something like that, but another few casualties or failures by the IDF, and Limor's proposal will be implemented. Is there any better sign of how we have lost our senses and our humanity? Maariv, which has turned into the Fox News of Israel, fills its pages with chauvinist slogans reminiscent of particularly inferior propaganda machines, while a TV commentator calls for the bombing of a TV station. Lebanon, which has never fought Israel and has 40 daily newspapers, 42 colleges and universities and hundreds of different banks, is being destroyed by our planes and cannon and nobody is taking into account the amount of hatred we are sowing. In international public opinion, Israel has been turned into a monster, and that still hasn't been calculated into the debit column of this war. Israel is badly stained, a moral stain that can't be easily and quickly removed. And only we don't want to see it.

16) In the Gunsight: Syria! or: A Nice Little War
Uri Avnery, writing for Gush Shalom, says Israel has become like a compulsive gambler, who continues to play in order to win his losses back. He continues to lose and continues to gamble, until he has lost everything. The leaders that start a war and get stuck in the mud are compelled to fight their way ever deeper into the mud. That is what happened this week, following the battle of Bint-Jbeil, which the Arabs have already started to call proudly Nasrallahgrad. All over Israel the cry goes up: Get into it! Quicker! Further! Deeper! A day after the bloody battle, the cabinet decided on a massive mobilization of the reserves. What for? The ministers do not know. As has been said before: it is much easier to start a war than to finish one. Ehud Olmert and Amir Peretz did not think about that when they decided in haste, without serious debate, without examining other options, without calculating the risks, to attack Hizbullah. They did not even think about the lack of shelters in the Northern towns, the far-reaching economic and social implications. The aims change daily. These changing aims are not realistic. The Lebanese army cannot and will not fight Hizbullah. The new "security zone" will be exposed to guerilla attacks and the international force will not enter the area without the agreement of Hizbullah. And this guerilla force, Hizbullah, the Israeli army cannot vanquish. There is an alternative: declare victory and get out.

17) Protest? Not now
Most in Peace Now have decided for now not to become involved in any protests, with an emphasis, they say, on "for now" reports Lily Galila in Haaretz. However, cracks are already appearing under the surface. Moriah Shlomot, former secretary general of Peace Now, participated in a demonstration organized by Gush Shalom and the Arab parties. It was not an easy decision for her; her family still lives in the north. "The question I ask myself now is whether the decision to launch such a grandiose campaign really protects the people living in the north. And I have to say that it does not...Half a million Lebanese refugees and 400 dead so far won't make Lebanon more friendly to Israel. As a mental health professional, I am very concerned by the matter of proportionality. There is a clear difference between a parent who punishes and a parent who abuses. With the extreme response in Lebanon, we have become abusers perpetuating a cycle of injustice."

18) Cabinet in open revolt over Blair's Israel policy
British Prime Minister Tony Blair was facing a full-scale cabinet rebellion Saturday night over the Middle East crisis after his former Foreign Secretary warned that Israel's actions risked destabilising all of Lebanon, the Guardian reported Sunday.

19) Casualties of War: Lebanon’s Trees, Air and Sea
Environmentalists are warning of widespread and lasting damage in Lebanon, the New York Times reported Saturday. Spilled and burning oil, along with forest fires, toxic waste flows and growing garbage heaps have gone from nuisances to threats to people and wildlife. Many of Lebanon’s once pristine beaches and much of its coastline have been coated with a thick sludge that threatens marine life. A large oil spill and fire caused by Israeli bombing have sent an oil slick traveling up the coast of Lebanon to Syria, threatening to become the worst environ