PM meets with spokespeople to sharpen PR messagePrime Minister Ehud Olmert met yesterday with some 50 spokespeople from the Foreign Ministry, the Israel Defense Forces, the Prime Minister's Office and other government agencies to instruct them on the principal messages that they should be delivering in appearances before the foreign media.
"Our enemy is not Hezbollah, but Iran, which employs Hezbollah as its agent," he told them at the meeting, the first of its kind.
He also urged the spokespeople "not to be ash... (more)
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Military Officers Attempted a Coup in IraqTEL AVIV, Israel — The government of Iraq is secretly holding a Baathist cabal of military officers it claims attempted a coup against Prime Minister al-Maliki.
The plotters were rounded up July 5 with the help of American military authorities after the Iraqi government's security warning center sent word to Mr. Maliki, who was in Kuwait on his first official visit as head of state, two highly placed Iraqi sources said.
The prime minister quickly canceled a sc... (more)
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India Bans Arab TV Channels Under Pressure From IsraelBOMBAY, 6 August 2006 — In a country widely referred to as the world’s largest democracy, the Indian government has succumbed to mounting Israeli pressure and ordered a nationwide ban on the broadcast of Arab television channels.
The Indian government’s ban on Arab television stations is in complete contrast to the friendship that Arab countries imagine exists with their neighbor across the Arabian Sea. It seems the ban is a move to ensure that Indians do not get... (more)
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UK troops 'on brink of exhaustion'The head of the Army defended Britain's military strategy in Afghanistan after it was claimed soldiers were "on the brink of exhaustion".
General Sir Mike Jackson, Chief of the General Staff, told BBC News 24 that tackling the country's security situation was a vital part of nation building.
He said British forces were "getting stuck in" to the Taliban.
But a senior officer told the Sunday Telegraph troops were extremely tired after fighting 25 major ... (more)
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General: Israel Will 'Smash' Lebanon Says Hezbollah is "fully-owned by Iran,"
NewsMax contributing editor and Middle East expert Kenneth R. Timmerman is in Israel covering the conflict there. He reports from Tel Aviv.
TEL AVIV, Israel -- If Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah makes good on the threat he issued yesterday to launch missiles at Tel Aviv, Israel will respond with massive force against Lebanon, a top Israeli general told NewsMax today.
"At some point, the Lebanese have to dec... (more)
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Syria Wants to Talk, But Bush Won't Answer the PhoneLATE LAST MONTH, a number of congressmen called me and asked for an urgent, unscheduled meeting. There, at the Rayburn House Office Building, we spent a couple of hours discussing in-depth the crisis in the Middle East. The paramount concern of these legislators was not the typical Capitol Hill rhetoric (offering unconditional support for Israel, or delivering the routine condemnation and demonization of Syria). Instead, they simply wanted to know what they could do to stop the ongoing massacre ... (more)
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Israel plans to reoccupy part of LebanonTEL AVIV, Israel -- The Israeli military began preparing to reoccupy southern Lebanon on Thursday, and Israeli officials conceded that their three-week bombing campaign has had no significant impact on Hizballah's ability to fire short-range rockets into northern Israel.
The dispatch of thousands of Israeli soldiers to retake as much as one-fifth of Lebanon -- the operation must still be approved by the Israeli cabinet -- would mark a major expansion in Israel's Lebanon campaign a... (more)
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Hugo Chavez Compares U.S. to 'Dracula,' Israel to 'Hitler'Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday blasted Israel for its attacks against Lebanon and Palestinians, comparing its operations to those of Hitler.
In an interview with Qatar-based Al Jazeera television, Chavez also slammed U.S. backing for Israel, describing Washington as a "Dracula always searching for oil and blood".
"The Israeli offensive against the Palestinians and Lebanon is an aggression that we feel targets us also. It is an unjustified aggression that... (more)
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America will attack Iran, Syria in October: GulRAWALPINDI: The former chief of ISI, Maj. Gen (R) Hameed Gul has "predicted" that America would definitely attack Iran and Syria simultaneously in October.
He was talking after attending the Hamdard Majlis Shoora, Tuesday evening. He also condemned the lackluster and weak reaction of Pakistan and Islamic bloc about Israel’s attack of Lebanon.
Analyzing the current war scenario he observed that war has both political and strategic factors and despite "using" ... (more)
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US supplying Israel with NSA signals intelligenceA report by columnist Sidney Blumenthal in Salon claims that Israel is receiving intelligence from the US's National Security Agency.
Blumenthal claims to be in touch with "a national security official with direct knowledge of the operation" to supply Israel with signals intelligence from American assets to help it monitor armament transfers from Syria and Iran to Hezbollah. He states that President Bush has approved the intelligence sharing.
Bush is being influence... (more)
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Britain helps to block EU call for 'immediate' end to hostilitiesBritain and three other countries have blocked a European Union statement calling for an "immediate ceasefire" in the Middle East, deciding instead on a vaguer declaration calling for an "immediate end to hostilities, to be followed by a sustainable ceasefire".
Even this statement, agreed unanimously by EU foreign ministers, went further than Britain had originally wanted by including the sensitive word "immediate".
British officials insisted that the original draft... (more)
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Israeli Cabinet approves expanding ground operationsIDF gets green light: Following nearly four hours of discussions, security-political cabinet ministers overwhelmingly approved the expansion of IDF ground operations in south Lebanon, after Prime Minister Ehud Olmert clarified earlier Monday in a speech that there would be no ceasefire in the upcoming days.
The aim of the widened offensive is to attain real achievements on the ground in weakening Hizbullah before the window of opportunity closes this weekend when the UN Security ... (more)
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Salloukh wants special tribunal to try Israeli leaders for atrocitiesBEIRUT: Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh called Tuesday for an immediate cease-fire and the creation of an international tribunal to try the Israeli officials responsible for crimes committed in Lebanon. Salloukh spoke from Damascus before heading to Kuala Lumpur for a preparatory meeting of the Organization of the Islamic Conference ahead of a meeting there on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Speaker Nabih Berri said an extraordinary meeting of Parliament's secretariat and the parliamentary ... (more)
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Israeli generals angry at Olmert's restraintEhud Olmert awoke yesterday to criticism from his own generals for agreeing to a 48-hour suspension of air strikes in Lebanon without their knowledge.
The Israeli prime minister ordered the halt to the air campaign after Sunday's bombing of a house in the Lebanese town of Qana which killed more than 50 civilians including dozens of children.
His directive came after a meeting with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice, who was forced to cancel the Lebanese leg... (more)
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Israel drops troops near Syrian borderBOURJ AL-MULOUK, Lebanon - Helicopters landed Israeli soldiers on hills near the northeastern Lebanese town of Baalbek, a Hezbollah stronghold, on late Tuesday, Lebanese security sources said.
Israeli warplanes also attacked at least five suspected Hezbollah positions near Baalbek in eastern Lebanon's Bekaa Valley, three hours before the official end of a two-day pause in the air war.
The aim of the operation was not immediately clear, they said. An Israeli army s... (more)
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Yesha Rabbinical Council: During time of war, enemy has no innocentsThe Yesha Rabbinical Council announced in response to an IDF attack in Kfar Qanna that "according to Jewish law, during a time of battle and war, there is no such term as 'innocents' of the enemy."
All of the discussions on Christian morality are weakening the spirit of the army and the nation and are costing us in the blood of our soldiers and civilians," the statement said. (Efrat Weiss)
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IDF says it may not be responsible for Qana deathsThe Israel Defense Forces indicated yesterday that it might not have been responsible for the deaths of at least 54 Lebanese, including 37 children , when a building bombed in an Israeli air strike in the village of Qana collapsed yesterday - but was unable to offer an alternative explanation.
There is an unexplained gap of about seven hours between the one Israeli air strike that hit the Qana building housing the civilians, which took place around 1 A.M. Sunday, and the first rep... (more)
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Israel OKs wider ground offensive in LebanonBEIRUT, Lebanon - Israeli warplanes struck deep inside Lebanon early Tuesday, witnesses reported, hitting an area that is a stronghold of Hezbollah guerrillas. The strikes came hours after Israel’s Security Cabinet approved widening the ground offensive in Lebanon.
The jet fighters struck Hermel, 73 miles north of the Israeli border in the Bekaa Valley in eastern Lebanon.
Warplanes fired at least five air-to-surface missiles on the edge of the town, targeting ... (more)
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