Israeli cabinet approves cease-fire plan(Battle rages on)

[maddezmom]

JERUSALEM - Israel's Cabinet approved the U.N. cease-fire deal Sunday, clearing a key hurdle to ending the monthlong Mideast war.

The 24-0 vote, with one abstention, came a day after the Lebanese government approved the agreement, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah gave his grudging consent. The truce was to take effect on Monday morning, but the potential for new flareups remained high.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060813/ap_on_re_mi_ea/lebanon_israel;_

Battles rage on eve of UN truce


BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United Nations said Israeli and Lebanese leaders had agreed a truce would take effect at 0500 GMT (6 a.m. British time) on Monday to end the month-old war, but fighting raged on Sunday as Israeli forces met fierce resistance from Hizbollah guerrillas.

Israeli jets launched scores of strikes on more than 50 villages and towns across Lebanon on Sunday, killing eight people. Hizbollah fired about 10 rockets into northern Israel, killing one person, police said.

Israel, which has stepped up its offensive in south Lebanon ahead of the truce, suffered its worst single day death toll in the war on Saturday. It said 19 soldiers were killed in the fighting and that five declared missing after a helicopter was shot down were now feared dead.

The Israeli cabinet was expected to formally approve the U.N. Security Council resolution on Sunday, and the Haaretz newspaper reported that Israel was willing to discuss a possible release of Hizbollah prisoners in exchange for freeing two captured Israeli soldiers.

more:http://go.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=1403574§ion=news&src=rss/uk/worldNews

[papau]

1. Israel OKs (UN) Deal (but Hez may be killing it after agreeing to it)

"...Council resolution calls for the Lebanese government to be the only armed force in the country, meaning Hezbollah would have to be disarmed"... but it seems Hez has rethought the agreement and won't disarm ("disarm" for Hez now means put arms under the chair until needed), so no peacekeepers will deploy - Interesting how Syria and Iran can change Hez's mind, eh?

And Nasrallah, Hezbollah's leader, after saying he would abide by the cease-fire resolution, said it was "our natural right" to fight any Israeli troops remaining in Lebanon - presumably during the withdrawel Israel and deployment of the UN - to which "But if fire is renewed against our forces and against the Israeli civilian population, we will be able to and know how to and will not hesitate to operate," said Gantz, the commander of Israeli ground forces, all the while folks are reminded that Israel has made clear it will not immediately pull out, but will wait until other forces arrive to prevent the Hezbollah militia from again taking over the area on Israel's northern border.

Should be an interesting next 3 days.

http://customwire.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LEBANON_ISRAEL?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-08-13-17-18-06

Israel OKs Deal, but Fighting Rages On

By RAVI NESSMAN Associated Press Writer

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israel's Cabinet became the final party to sign on to the U.N. cease-fire deal Sunday, while Israeli planes blasted Beirut and ground troops battled Hezbollah in south Lebanon seeking to batter the militant Islamic group in the hours before fighting stopped.<snip>

But implementation of the hard-won agreement was already in question Sunday night when the Lebanese Cabinet indefinitely postponed a crucial meeting dealing with plans to send 15,000 soldiers to police Hezbollah's stronghold in southern Lebanon.

Lebanese media reported that the Cabinet, which approved the cease-fire plan unanimously Saturday, was sharply divided over demands that Hezbollah surrender its weapons in the south. That disagreement was believed to have led to the cancellation of Sunday's meeting.
<snip>

The Lebanese government approved the U.N. plan Saturday, and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah signaled acceptance. But Hezbollah has resisted previous calls to disarm and its refusal to follow through this time would threaten the deal.<snip>

Associated Press writer Joseph Panossian in Beirut, Lebanon, contributed to this report.


http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/08/13/mideast.main/index.html


Israel, Hezbollah step up attacks as cease-fire deadline nears
Israeli Cabinet OKs U.N. resolution

The two Hezbollah members of the Lebanese Cabinet said Saturday the militia wanted to keep its weapons south of the Litani River -- a zone the U.N. resolution calls for demilitarizing.

Yet the Cabinet unanimously approved the resolution. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah indicated that the two Hezbollah ministers voted for it in a spirit of national unity.

The Lebanese Cabinet planned to meet Sunday to discuss implementing the plan, but then postponed the meeting for up to two days.

A Lebanese government minister said the postponement came at the request of parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri, a key negotiator with Hezbollah, to give government officials more time to discuss the plan with Hezbollah.<snip>

The source also said Annan told Siniora that if Hezbollah maintains its position against disarmament south of the Litani, an international force can't go into Lebanon.<snip>

[Kagemusha]

2. Christ, why is what Nasrallah said so hard to understand?

Forget politics, this is language.

He said that Hezbollah has a right to fight Israeli troops while they're on Lebanese soil, not that they WOULD, because he'd said in the same breath that Hezbollah WOULD cease fighting in accordance with the resolution. And since the passage of the resolution Israel stepped up its invasion and has no intention of halting until Monday.

Why the hell are we shocked that Hezbollah's still fighting the IDF, given that? When the IDF stops offensive operations like the damned resolution says, THEN let's see if Hezbollah stops. But the reporting makes it sound like Hezbollah is promising to break the resolution while promising to accept it. Racist fantasies about Arabs aside, that's not what he said.

Edit: Not directed at the original poster. Directed at media organizations, such as the AP, and the world in general, which seems united in a determination to deliberately misread Nasrallah's statement.

[The Magistrate]

3. As A Matter Of Curiousity, Sir

Where do you see "racist fantasies about Arabs" to put aside?

[Kagemusha]

7. The bazaar merchant meme.

Talks out of both sides of the mouth, smiles and pats you on the back while picking your pocket. Promises to cease-fire while pledging to fight. Which makes people decide he didn't agree to the ceasefire to begin with, which he did.

[papau]

4. I hope you are correct - the wording was confusing to me at least - but

the disarm in the resolution does not mean put arms in a shed in the backyard - and Nasrallah knows that - so the initial agreement - his yes/OK to the disarm - may be the first real lie in his career.

It would end his reputation as truth teller. It will be interesting to watch if Syria and Iran can get him to go back on his word.

Seems those Hez ministers in the Lebanese cabinet seem to think going back on their word is the Hez plan.

I hope they are wrong.

[Igel]

5. You're right.

And I have no clue how conversational implicatures work in Arabic.

But compare "I have a right to cast my vote." One the one hand, if I say it to my wife tonight, it sounds strange. The only reason to say it is if somebody's trying to take it away.

Now, the removal of the right may be theoretical: It's not like I'm going to be voting for the next few months in any event, so saying today that I have a right to vote (granted by the Texas constitution, I assume) is a purely abstract statement.

However, if I'm standing outside the polling place and somebody is telling me I won't be able to vote, "I have a right to vote" carries with it the implication that I intend to vote. Being told you can't vote, responding, "I have a right to vote" and then simply walking away would be odd, and a native speaker of English would probably expect some sort of legal action to ensue at once.

Somebody's threatening to take away Nasrallah's right to bear arms in order to "resist". He may be stating that he and his organ have a right to engage in resistance, and leaving it at that; "I have the right, but this is not tantamount to saying I will be exercising that right." Possible; in context, it seems like the reasonable interpretation. It's what I'm assuming he meant. But again, I don't know the general rules of Arabic conversational implicature.

[BooScout]

6. Edit your title please....

To follow the rules of LBN.

[breakaleg]

8. It seems this agreement makes neither side happy. What we are

seeing is both sides interpreting the very large loop holes to their advantage.

Israel says it will "defend" itself and won't leave southern Lebanon until a UN force is in place. Hezbollah says it will defend Lebanese soil and continue to fight back against Israel while they are on Lebanese soil.

We just have to see how this thing plays out. Hopefully, the people who orchestrated this agreement, will put enough pressue on both sides to get them to follow the intent of the resolution.

[Kagemusha]

10. See, that's my point in reply #1 - Hezbollah said it had a right to fight

but following the resolution, which they agreed to do, means that they had better not exercise that right (which is a moral right as far as they're concerned, not a right the Security Council resolution provides them with).

But yes, Israel is grabbing territory so that it can hold a lot while waiting for a force to hand it over to. And in the meantime there is no ceasefire because even if Hezbollah stopped shooting Israel wouldn't, until the clock runs out as planned.

THEN we'll see how it plays out.

[FlavaKreemSnak]

9. Why don't Syria and Iran give them better weapons?

Everybody always says that Iran and Syria are backing Hezbollah, and I know that there isn't an airport now, which is the answer somebody said when I asked this before, but supposedly Iran has been backing them for a long time, and in all this time they have not given them anything but some old rockets? Maybe Syria doesn't have anything more powerful than that, I don't know, but Iran is a big country with a big army, and OK nobody has the kinds of weapons America has to give to Israel so I don't mean Iran could give Hezbollah stuff like that but doesn't it seem like Iran would have given them better stuff than they have, in all this time?

[papau]

11. The rockets are the finest Chinese tech can sell - they're not old -we

all thought that the old stuff was all they had but they show up with versions of the current US anti-tank TOW, accurate 50 mile rockets, shore to ship guided rockets, armed and unarmed drones that we just got in the last few years.

An impressive costly gift from Iran - estimated by most at over $100 million for the weapons - and $300 million for the social services/hospitals that have been so successful in winning the hearts and minds of the Lebanese Shia.

[FlavaKreemSnak]

12. but nobody gave them any planes? And the new rockets don't

seem to be doing much more than the old ones, unless you count destroying some tanks. But the tanks are already in Lebanon, I mean once there are tanks there that means invasion has already happened.

It seems weird to me that nobody has given them anything to fly in the air, when that is how Israel starts the invasions. Not even a helicopter gunship. The only thing I have heard about is some kind of drone that Israel says it shot down and some things you read say it had a bomb on it and others say it had a camera and some say it was more like a model plane than a real drone, but it was not a very good one anyway if it got shot down.

It just seems like if these countries wanted to really back Hezbollah that you would see a lot more damage done to things in Israel. Because if you look at satellite pictures of both countries from before this started and now, and then you hear about all these countries backing Hezbollah and you look back at those pictures, you are going to go huh? Then they are not backing them very hard it doesn't look like.