Prisoner exchange

I'm sorry. I rarely critique Jeb, but...

The deal will involve a return of Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser -- the two IDF soldiers whose capture by Hezbollah in the summer of 2006 sparked the 33-day Hezbollah-Israeli war -- in exchange for several Shiite militants and the bodies of several others.

Those two soldiers were not the reason Israel attacked Lebanon. They were an excuse for an attack Israel intended to do anyway.

Note: Headline links to source.

A Hell Breaking Loose in Beirut

File under: Places I'm extremely glad I'm not.

Please follow the link.

Note: Headline links to source.

"Mission Accomplished" at Nahr el-Bared?

File under horrendous reality. Like I've said before, Christopher is there.

Do you wanna live like this? Just asking.

NAHR EL-BARED, Lebanon — Wassim al-Hagehussein was worried. The Lebanese soldier was twitchy, suspicious as he stalked through the dark and powerless grocery store where Wassim worked. It was a day after Prime Minister Fuad Siniora had declared an end to the war over the Palestinian camp Nahr el-Bared, during which fanatical jihadists had fought off an Army onslaught for 106 days. And now, today, the fighting had started up again and the grocery store was in the crossfire. A company of soldiers was pinned down by an unknown number of Fatah al-Islam fugitive fighters.

“Are there any Palestinians in here?” the soldier asked the owner, Rabieh al-Masri, who was a boss and a friend to Wassim. The soldiers had just arrested another Palestinian in front of the store and taken him in for questioning.

Al-Masri deliberately didn’t look at Wassim. “No,” he said. “There are no Palestinians here.”

He was lying. Wassim was a Palestinian from Nahr el-Bared.

Via Christopher.

China opens embassy in Costa Rica

This is interesting, but not just because two countries have established diplomatic ties.

Although China is reaching out to many countries on all continents.

Chinese Assistant Foreign Minister He Yafei on Thursday inaugurated China's Embassy in Costa Rica, after diplomatic ties were established between the two nations on June 1.

Via Xinhua.

No, what's interesting is, at the same time, Xinua reported this.

Headline reads: Costa Rica, Lebanon re-establish diplomatic ties

Costa Rica and Lebanon re-established diplomatic ties on Friday after a 23-year freeze, said Costa Rica's Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Costa Rica seems to be somewhat popular at the moment. And I'm positive the image above has nothing to do with it.

Via Xinua.

Deadlock over Lebanon presidency strikes fear of war

Very well done account of Lebanon at the present time — al wada in Arabic — and its just scary. And I don't have to live there.

By Mitchell Prothero
Beirut - In one of Beirut's trendier bars, four European photographers relax over cold beers. Their presence is alarming Ghassan, the barman. 'Why are there so many journalists in Beirut right now?' he asks me. "Has there been some change in 'The Situation?"'

The Lebanese can be forgiven for seeing a new slew of foreign press as a harbinger of doom, for the year since last summer's war between Hizbollah and Israel has seen crisis after crisis pummel this tiny, fractious nation with the bad luck to exist in a very tough neighborhood.

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H/T Christopher

Must read IMHO

No, this is a MUST, must read.

Islamists battle Lebanon army at second camp

Can/will someone help me out here? Are the members of these Islamist militant groups also refugees or are the refugees just caught in the middle? I've scoured reports and can't find the info.

AIN AL-HILWEH, Lebanon, June 4 (Reuters) - Islamist militants killed two Lebanese soldiers at a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Monday in an apparent attempt to relieve pressure on al Qaeda-inspired fighters besieged by the army in the north.

Two fighters of the Sunni militant group Jund al-Sham were also killed in rifle, grenade and mortar exchanges that erupted at an entrance to the big Ain al-Hilweh camp near the southern port city of Sidon, security and military sources said. Witnesses said the fighting at Ain al-Hilweh, started by Jund al-Sham on Sunday night, subsided later on Monday. Three soldiers and two civilians were also wounded.

The clashes were the latest jolt to stability in Lebanon, already shaken by a protracted political crisis pitting the Western-backed government against Syria's Lebanese allies.

Hundreds of civilians fled Ain al-Hilweh, a sprawling shantytown perched on a hillside above Sidon, 42 km (26 miles) south of Beirut. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction dominates the camp, but small Islamist groups have a foothold there and in several other refugee camps in Lebanon.

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Must read IMHO

This is a regular read.

Must read IMHO

The Mid-East is just one big nightmare. From Lebanon.

Do you fear going to the mall? Just asking.

Sneh: Cluster bomb use was a mistake

It sure as hell was a mistake and was inexcusable.

Israel made a mistake when it used cluster bombs during the Second Lebanon War, deputy defense minister Ephraim Sneh told the BBC in a documentary on last summer's war in Lebanon set to be broadcast on the Radio 4 network in the United Kingdom on Tuesday and internationally on the BBC world service and Web site later this week.

Sneh became the first Israeli government representative to apologize for using cluster bombs, according to a transcript of the documentary obtained exclusively by The Jerusalem Post.

"It was a mistake, it was a mistake," Sneh told interviewers Edward Stourton and Mark Savage. When they asked whether he regretted the use of cluster bombs because of the damage to Israel's image or because they "kill a lot of people," Sneh responded: "No, people are still losing their lives from time to time and we don't like it. But it was... it was a mistake."

Those seem like some pretty clear quotations, don't ya think? And he is quoted as using the word "mistake" three times.

But, of course he didn't say that at all, right?

When asked about the transcript, Sneh said he "was misunderstood by the reporters." He said he could not comment further because the use of cluster bombs was still being investigated by the IDF. But his spokesman said Sneh did not think the use of cluster bombs during the war was a mistake.

"He thinks they were used in specific instances when it was necessary," the spokesman said.

Of course they did lie about using cluster bombs at all.

Israel initially denied using cluster bombs during the war, but later confirmed the findings of a US State Department investigation submitted to Congress on January 29 that alleged that they were used.

I'm gonna tie Bush to this. His actions since in office have made lying perfectly acceptable. I'm not just talking normal political spin here, but out and out lying right to the publics' faces.

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John Bolton: Death = good politics

Yeah, ya can't beat some good old killing as a political tool.

Mr Bolton now describes it as "perfectly legitimate... and good politics" for the Israelis to seek to defeat their enemy militarily, especially as Hezbollah had attacked Israel first and it was acting "in its own self-defence".

(via Digby)

Must Read IMHO

Just so you know what's going on now in Lebanon.

Bombs destroyed two commuter buses today in the small Christian community of Ain Alaq, in the mountains north of Beirut.

Reports of fatalities varied, but ranged from three (Red Cross, security forces) to 12 (LBC and other media sources.) Ten to 20 were wounded. The first bomb was apparently attached to the undercarriage of the first bus while the second was in a back seat on the second, according to my fixer, who is trying to find more info. I’ll update if this changes.

The wounded were civilians possibly traveling to work, marking a change in the two-year campaign of bombings and assassinations that has wracked Lebanon since the killing of Rafik Hariri on Feb. 14, 2005. Before, the attacks were either targeted assassinations of well-known anti-Syrian politicians and journalists or small bombs exploded in buildings late at night so as to minimize casualties. This seems aimed at Iraq- or Israel-style terror. Random, anywhere, pitiless.

Details are still emerging, but speculation is rampant. Was this Syria? Hezbollah? CIA? (A Hezbollah spokesman said it was the latter.) Was it a warning to the March 14 coalition not to attend the big rally planned for downtown tomorrow to mark the two-year anniversary of Hariri’s death?

To clarify, the story goes on to say speculation the CIA is behind the bombings is not unusual in the Mid-East and not necessarily correct.

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Must Read IMHO

Someone else who sees an attack on Iran as inevitable and thinks it might well destroy Israel. I'm not so sure Israel will be the only country destroyed. Its very likely the whole Mid-East will go up in flames and those flames could spread like a forest fire outside the Mid-East.

For this is the inevitable consequence of the planned air and missile attack on Iran. The pockmarked, littered landscape in Iraq, Lebanon, and Afghanistan and the endless applicant queues at al-Qaeda and other terrorist recruiting stations testify eloquently to the unintended consequences of myopic policymakers in Washington and Tel Aviv.

Mesmerized. Sadly, this is the best word to describe those of us awake to the inexorable march of folly to war with Iran and the growing danger to Israel’s security, especially over the medium and long term.

An American and/or Israeli attack on Iran will let slip the dogs of war. Those dogs never went to obedience school. They will not be denied their chance to bite, and Israel’s arsenal of nuclear weapons will be powerless to muzzle them.

In my view, not since 1948 has the very existence of Israel hung so much in the balance. Can Bush/Cheney and the Israeli leaders not see it?

Pity that no one seems to have read our first President’s warning on the noxious effects of entangling alliances. The supreme irony is that in their fervor to help, as well as use, Israel, Bush and Cheney seem blissfully unaware that they are leading it down a garden path and off a cliff.

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