Israel Striking Deeply Inside Lebanon
Israeli forces have attacked a number of targets deep within Lebanon including a Palestinian base just South of Beirut. Israeli civilians in the North have been ordered into bomb shelters.
In a series of air strikes late Wednesday evening, IAF aircraft bombed Kfar Shuba and Sheba Farms in Lebanon. The communications infrastructure connecting Beirut to the south of the country was also damaged by IAF strikes.
The strikes followed an attack by IAF warplanes and navy gunboats on a Palestinian terrorist base south of Beirut late Wednesday in the closest raid to the Lebanese capital since fighting erupted in southern Lebanon after the kidnapping of two IDF soldiers.
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All residents along Israel's northern border from Nahariya in the west to Kiryat Shmona in the east were ordered into bomb shelters on Wednesday night.
"This is a new situation. The residents of Israel need to know that we are going into a period that would require resilience," Minister Issac Herzog said after the emergency cabinet meeting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert convened on Wednesday night in Tel Aviv in light of the events on the northern border.
According to Herzog, Israel is holding Lebanon responsible for the attack, which was carried out from its territory.
Omar at Iraq the Model has an analysis of what is going on right now that is fascinating:
I don't know for sure what made Hizbollah do what they did this morning but I can make some guesses starting from the fact that Iran, Syria, Hamas and Hizbollah collectively form one big axis of evil in the Middle East with connected interests and shared goals so the abduction of the two Israeli soldiers looks like an act planned to serve the interests of the members of the axis without the least regard to the harm it can bring upon Lebanon.
For example, the foreign ministers of the 5 UNSC countries and Germany were meeting today to discuss how to respond to Iran's position regarding the nuclear issue, so this could be an attempt to distract the international community and especially Israel and America from the Iranian nuclear threat. And if that's the case, then their plan has just failed. But this will also mean they (the axis) will try other measures and will cause more trouble to distract the international community from focusing on the Iranian nuclear threat.
Meanwhile, Hizbollah itself is under continuous pressure from other parties inside Lebanon regarding the disarmament of the party's militia; therefore maybe Nesrallah thought that putting Lebanon in such an embarrassing de facto situation would relieve some of that pressure and give him an upper hand in the negotiations.
Another possibility is that the operation was conducted in the hope that it could lower the Israeli pressure on Hizbollah's allies in Hamas and slow the ongoing military operation in Gaza.
Actually it could be all of the above reasons because they all serve the common interest of the axis members and are all three possibilities fall in the category of putting the international community, America and Israel in a position where they have to fight (militarily or politically) on more than one front.
I think Omar may have missed one other obvious connection. The sudden burst of sectarian violence in Baghdad is probably also related to the situation. It is almost certainly Iran pulling the strings on that as well.
UPDATE: Donald Sensing: Can Israel regain the initiative?
UPDATE: The Scratching Post has uncovered the real plot behind all this. Kourtesy of the Koz Kidz.
Other Links to this Post
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Blue Star Chronicles — July 12, 2006 @ 7:39 pm
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Flopping Aces » Blog Archive » The New Front For Israel — July 12, 2006 @ 7:41 pm
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The Scratching Post — July 12, 2006 @ 10:27 pm
By crosspatch, July 12, 2006 @ 4:03 pm
I believe Syria has been looking for justification for the re-occupation of Lebanon for a while now and this is it. Hezbollah kidnaps the Isreali soldiers, Israel then attacks and Syria comes to the “rescue”, entering Lebanon to “protect” it from Israel. I suspect they are going to be in for a significant surprise if they attempt it.
At least one source I don’t put much stock in because many of their past stories have turned out to be false (Debka) is saying that the Iranian defense minister is in Damascus. I mention that only as something to look for additional confirmation of.