Manal and Alaa's bit bucket

“Far from Israel being the American proxy in a war against Iran, we’ve become Israel’s proxy in its war against Hezbollah,” he said. “Israel’s miscalculations have been so serious that its only hope for victory is to have the United States and the international community do for Israel what it can’t do militarily, which is defeat Hezbollah, assemble an international force in Lebanon and bring some sort of endgame to all this.”

Anthony H Cordesman, Center for International and Strategic Studies in today´s NYT

At least 26 syrian farmers died in the village of Qaa situateted in the Bekaa Valley. This was the second highest death toll in a single air strike during the three weeks of war.The first being Qana II.

Seven died in Taibeh in southern Lebanon, and an additional four when bridges were bombed. Katyusharockets lands closer and closer to Tel Aviv, today 45 km from Tel Aviv in Hadera. Three dead from katyusha rockets today ,making the total of 11 deadly casualties from Katyushas in two days. Beirut is bombed back to 1986 routinely every other night and Lebanon get´s even more isolated, when you thought it impossible to be more isolated.

Egypt´s mufti backs Hizbullah actions, contrary to the Saudi religious establishment, which issued fatwas, condeming Hizbullah actions.

At the Arab summit, days after the conflict started, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan critizised Hizbullah´s actions as irresponsible, and the fatwas issued by the saudi religious establishment reflects that policy. The Egyptian Mufti Ali Gomáa´s statement reflects the flexiblity in Egyptian policy, not wanting to be seen, as going against the Egyptian street which is largely behind Hizbullah. Hassan Nasrallah has become a hero among people, of all walks of life in Egypt, which has seen protests in support of Lebanon during the last two weeks, the latest at al Azhar mosque, in Giza and Mansoura yesterday.

Egypt´s mufti backs Hizbullah actions, contrary to the Saudi religious establishment, which issued fatwas, condeming Hizbullah actions.

At the Arab summit, days after the conflict started, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan critizised Hizbullah´s actions as irresponsible, and the fatwas issued by the saudi religious establishment reflects that policy. The Egyptian Mufti Ali Gomáa´s statement reflects the flexiblity in Egyptian policy, not wanting to be seen, as going against the Egyptian street which is largely behind Hizbullah. Hassan Nasrallah has become a hero among people, of all walks of life in Egypt, which has seen protests in support of Lebanon during the last two weeks, the latest at al Azhar mosque, in Giza and Mansoura yesterday.

Scott Macloed has an interesting article, based on written questions to President Mubarak. It´s on the latest crisis in Lebanon and in Palestine.

He describes Egypt´s attempt to release the Israeli soldier in Palestine, and say´s that this is still an ongoing effort(today there were roumours about his imidiate release). He´s blaming Damascus and exile Hamas hardliner, Khaled Mashal for sabotaging. It´s facinatiting to think about the fact that the Egyptian government, via inteligence chief Omar Sulaiman has good relations, deals with, and tries to facilitate talks between Hamas and other palestinean political forces, while at the same time, somewhat trying to minimize the space of their brothers in Egypt, the latest being massarests and election engineering(altough, this particular manouver, might prove unconstitutional, judging from the constitutional court rulling in 1987 upholding the rights of independents to run for office).

President Mubarak stated en route to Cairo today, that Egypt had no intention of going to war with Israel over Lebanon..

"The Military of Egypt's purpose is solely to protect the country, and does not have any other objective,"

President Mubarak stated , en route to Cairo today, that Egypt had no intention of going to war with Israel over Lebanon..

"The Military of Egypt's purpose is solely to protect the country, and does not have any other objective,"

This piece is for all victims, Israeli, lebanese or palestinean. On a day when katushya strikes on Haifa, Israel´s pounding of shells at Tyre, their capturing of Ras Maroun and Bint Jubai´l. The rebombing of Beirut, and another day of empty talk from the american administration, effectively saying to the lebanese people, we care about your suffering, so much that we want you to suffer a bit

This piece is for all victims, Israeli, lebanese or palestinean.

On a day when katushya strikes on Haifa, Israel´s pounding of shells at Tyre, their capturing of Ras Maroun and Bint Jubai´l. The rebombing of Beirut, and another day of empty talk from the american administration, effectively saying to the lebanese people, we care about your suffering, so much that we want you to suffer a bit more, in order for the people we like more to be safe. Condi left out a piece of the equation , in her talk of a ¨new Middle East¨, and the either your with us or against us, the fact that part of the old Middle East is the strong man in the neighbourhood, the Israeli reasoning right now, is the same old pattern once again, like in 1982 they think that they inflict permanent damage to Hizbullah and Hamas, it´s a bit of an irony that these too political groups/terrorists are the ¨real new Middle East¨ movements, that are much more than the usual american/israeli tagged terrorists, they both represent large segments of society, which their electoral success has proved. Now it´s seems the US,actually might have something up their sleeve, according to sources , the Shaábah farms could be on the table, if so interesting! The most interesting piece of empty talk however was reserved for the president, W managed to say that we support democracy in Lebanon and in Palestine, if the situation wasn´t so precaurious, then i would be lying on the floor right now,

Read Rami Khouris op-ed in today´s Daily Star about Bush not knowing shit about Arabs.

¨I have carefully read and considered US President George W. Bush's words to British Prime Minister Tony Blair that were inadvertently caught on an open microphone during the G-8 Summit in Russia last weekend: "See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbullah to stop doing this shit and it's over" - and I respectfully conclude that Bush doesn't know shit about shit.¨

He then asks this question:
¨Why do the US, Europe and much of the Arab world allow Lebanon to be pulverized by Israeli bombs when most of those same people in the West last year held Lebanon up as a beacon of democratic change; a model for other Arabs?¨

Read Rami Khouris op-ed in today´s Daily Star about Bush not knowing shit about Arabs.

¨I have carefully read and considered US President George W. Bush's words to British Prime Minister Tony Blair that were inadvertently caught on an open microphone during the G-8 Summit in Russia last weekend: "See the irony is that what they need to do is get Syria to get Hizbullah to stop doing this shit and it's over" - and I respectfully conclude that Bush doesn't know shit about shit.¨

He then asks this question:
¨Why do the US, Europe and much of the Arab world allow Lebanon to be pulverized by Israeli bombs when most of those same people in the West last year held Lebanon up as a beacon of democratic change; a model for other Arabs?¨