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Hezbollah Rockets Hit Deep into Israel
Times of London
Hezbollah rained an unprecedented
number of rockets on northern Israeli towns yesterday in an apparent reply to the seizure of five of its fighters in the Baalbek
assault. At least 230 Katyusha and longer-range rockets fell in Israel, killing one 52-year-old
man as he cycled to a bomb shelter in Nahariya and injuring 123 others. One missile landed in fields near Jenin, the first
to hit the West Bank, and another - one of two long-range Khaibar-1 missiles that Hezbollah said it had fired - hit Beit Shean,
42 miles south of the Jordanian border and the deepest strike into Israel yet. Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, head of the
Israeli army, said that the daring attack on Baalbek conducted
by special forces showed that Israel
could operate at will throughout Lebanon.
Lebanese Website Blames Hezbollah for Qana
Ynet News
While
the Israeli army continues to investigate the circumstances leading to the building's collapse, some in Lebanon
do not hesitate to point the finger at the Shiite organization and claim it is to blame for the death of dozens. The Lebanese
website LibanoScopie, associated with Christian elements in the country and
which openly supports the anti-Syrian movement called the "March 14 Forces," reported that Hezbollah has masterminded a plan
that would result in the killing of innocents in the Qana village, in a bid to foil Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora's
"Seven Points Plan", which calls for deployment of the Lebanese army in southern Lebanon and the disarming of Hezbollah. "We
have it from a credible source that Hezbollah, alarmed by Siniora's plan, has concocted an incident that would help thwart
the negotiations. Knowing full well that Israel will not hesitate to bombard civilian targets,
Hezbollah gunmen placed a rocket launcher on the roof in Qana and brought disabled children inside, in a bid to provoke a
response by the Israeli Air Force. In this way, they were planning to take advantage of the death of innocents and curtail
the negotiation initiative," the site stated.
Muslim Official Quits in Face of Threats
Globe & Mail (Canada)
Tarek Fatah, the outspoken, controversial communications director of the Muslim Canadian Congress, has resigned,
citing concerns for his safety and that of his family. Mr. Fatah said he will also resign from the MCC's board, severing all
official ties with the organization he helped found... Mr. Fatah's socially liberal views have always been controversial within
the Muslim community, and in the past month he has been the subject of an [radical Islamist] e-mail campaign aimed at the
Canadian news media...Along with his resignation, Mr. Fatah has filed a report with Toronto Police detailing what he says
are a number of threats he has received since 2003. A police investigation is under way...Mr. Fatah has always carried a high
profile, both with the Muslim Canadian Congress -- known for its liberal interpretations of Islam...But in recent months,
he said, he has been coming under increasing fire. There was the e-mail campaign and he is more worried than ever about threats
after the arrests of 17 terrorism suspects in Toronto
in early June. Mr. Fatah's unpopularity among conservative segments of the Muslim community is not surprising. He is a strong
advocate of gay rights for Muslims and the inclusion of secular voices in the Muslim community. He publicly and vehemently
opposed the adoption of sharia law in Canada.
Questions Surround News Photos of Qana
Yahoo! News/Associated Press
Three news agencies on Tuesday rejected challenges to the veracity of photographs of bodies taken in the aftermath
of an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon, strongly
denying that the images were staged. Photographers from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse all covered
rescue operations Sunday in Qana, where 56 Lebanese were killed. Many of their photos depicted rescue workers carrying dead
children. A British Web site, the EU Referendum blog, built an argument that chicanery may have been involved by citing time
stamps that went with captions of the photographs. For example, the Web site draws attention to a photo by AP's Lefteris Pitarakis
time stamped 7:21 a.m., showing a dead girl in an ambulance. Another picture, stamped 10:25 a.m. and taken by AP's Mohammed
Zaatari, shows the same girl being loaded onto the ambulance. In a third, by AP photographer Nasser Nasser and stamped 10:44
a.m., a rescue worker carries the girl with no ambulance nearby. The site suggests these events were staged for effect, a
criticism echoed by talk show host Rush Limbaugh when he directed listeners to the blog on Monday. "These photographers are
obviously willing to participate in propaganda," Limbaugh said. "They know exactly what's being done, all these photos, bringing
the bodies out of the rubble, posing them for the cameras, it's all staged. Every bit of it is staged and the still photographers
know it."
Iran Prepares 'to Get Even'
News24.com
The head of
Iran's Revolutionary
Guards called on his troops on Sunday to "prepare themselves to get even" with Israel and the United
States, the semi-official Fars
news agency reported. "Iran's
powerful Revolutionary Guards and Basij should prepare themselves to get even with Zionists and Americans," General Yahya
Rahim Safavi was quoted as saying. "The supreme leader will announce the time for this," he said, referring to Iran's
top cleric and commander-in-chief Ayatollah Ali Khamenei..."We have to keep this sacred hatred of the enemies of Islam alive
in our hearts until the time of revenge comes," the general was quoted as saying. "I hope our nation can one day avenge the
blood of innocent people in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan," he said, adding: "I ask God to arouse the dignity of
Muslims and destroy America, Israel and their associates...It was not clear if the comments represented an order for the Revolutionary
Guards and its Basij militia, a volunteer force, to actually mobilize for conflict. |
