[Marxism] After latest slaughter of children, Israel blinks

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

July 31, 2006
Tactics

Israel Halts Air Raids After Dozens Die 

By STEVEN
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/e/steven_erl
anger/index.html?inline=nyt-per> ERLANGER and HASSAN
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/f/hassan_m_f
attah/index.html?inline=nyt-per> M. FATTAH

JERUSALEM, Monday, July 31 - Israel
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritorie
s/israel/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>  agreed to suspend air attacks in
southern Lebanon
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritorie
s/lebanon/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>  for 48 hours after one of its
raids on the southern town of Qana left dozens of civilians, many of
them children, dead on Sunday, the bloodiest day of the conflict so far.

Israel said the Qana raid was aimed at Hezbollah
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/h/hez
bollah/index.html?inline=nyt-org>  fighters firing rockets into Israel
from the area, but the strike collapsed a residential apartment
building, crushing Lebanese civilians who were taking shelter for the
night in the basement.

There were different accounts of the death toll. Residents said as many
as 60 people had been inside. News agencies reported that 56 had been
killed, and that 34 of them were children. The Lebanese Red Cross, which
conducted the rescue, counted 27 bodies, as many of 17 of them children.
The youngest of the dead was 10 months old, and the oldest was 95. One
was in a wheelchair.

One Israeli military official raised the possibility that the building
collapsed hours after the strike and that munitions had been stored in
it. American and Israeli officials said Israel would use the pause in
air attacks to investigate.

Whatever the actual toll, the deaths set off a chain reaction, with
protesters in Beirut ridiculing the inaction of Arab governments,
ransacking the United
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/u/uni
ted_nations/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Nations offices and burning an
American flag. 

There were also fresh condemnations worldwide of the Israeli tactics
that have left hundreds of civilians dead as it fights Hezbollah, the
Shiite militia that set off the hostilities with a raid into Israel 19
days ago. Hezbollah vowed revenge for the deaths in Qana. 

After the strike, Secretary of State Condoleezza
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/condoleezz
a_rice/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Rice canceled a planned trip to Beirut
and decided to return to Washington on Monday to hammer out a resolution
to the conflict that could be brought before the United Nations this
week. 

"I will continue to work and work and work, that is what we can do,"
said a visibly shaken Ms. Rice. "If there is a way humanly to accelerate
our efforts, I would do it."

The Lebanese prime minister, Fouad Siniora, made it clear that in any
case Ms. Rice would not be welcome in Beirut on Sunday and demanded an
immediate cease-fire. "There is no place on this sad day for any
discussion other than an immediate and unconditional cease-fire, as well
as an international investigation into the Israeli massacres in Lebanon
now," Mr. Siniora said.

J. Adam Ereli, the deputy spokesman for the State Department, which
announced the 48-hour pause in strikes, said Israel would use the
suspension in bombing to coordinate with the United Nations safe passage
for 24 hours for residents who wish to leave southern Lebanon.

Israeli officials said nothing publicly about the suspension early
Monday, and Mr. Ereli noted that Israel reserved the right to strike at
militants preparing attacks against it. 

An Israeli official in the prime minister's office, who did not want to
be identified, simply confirmed the State Department statement, saying,
"Israel will be suspending aerial activity over southern Lebanon for 48
hours until the end of the Israeli investigation into Qana." 

Earlier, the Israeli prime minister, Ehud
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/o/ehud_olmer
t/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Olmert, expressed sorrow for the Qana
attack but told Ms. Rice that Israel needed another 10 to 14 days to
complete its war aims against Hezbollah, according to a senior Israeli
official. 

"We will not blink in front of Hezbollah and we will not stop the
offensive despite the difficult circumstances," Mr. Olmert told his
cabinet on Sunday. 

"Israel is in no rush to reach a cease-fire before we get to that point
where we could say that we reached the main objectives we had set
forth," he added. "This includes the ripening of the diplomatic process
and preparing the multinational force."

In Lebanon, Qana was already nearly synonymous with the killing of
civilians. Ten years ago, in an eerily similar attack, Israel,
responding to mortar fire, mistakenly shelled a United Nations post in
Qana where refugees were taking shelter, killing 100 people and wounding
another 100. The attack prompted the United States to embark on eight
days of shuttle diplomacy that brought about a cease-fire.

In a speech to the diplomatic corps, Mr. Siniora accused Israel of war
crimes and asked: "Why, we wonder, did they choose Qana yet again?" 

He asked the diplomats to work at the United Nations for a cease-fire,
saying: "We cannot be expected to negotiate or discuss anything else
while the ruthless, pitiless sword of the Israeli war machine continues
to drip with the blood of innocent women and children."

At the United Nations, Secretary General Kofi
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/a/kofi_annan
/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Annan urged the Security Council, meeting in
emergency session on Sunday, to call for an immediate cease-fire, but
instead it passed a resolution saying it "strongly deplores this loss of
innocent lives."

On Sunday, Hezbollah fired more than 150 rockets into northern Israel,
the Israeli Army said, the highest daily number so far in the fighting.
Eight people were lightly wounded, including a reporter for the Haaretz
newspaper. So far, nearly 1,900 rockets have fallen in Israel. Nineteen
civilians have been killed and over 400 wounded. Thirty-three soldiers
have been killed and 88 wounded.

Nearly 550 Lebanese have been killed in airstrikes, with as many as 200
missing, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry. Almost 2,000 have
been wounded, the ministry said. Israel estimated that 300 Hezbollah
fighters had been killed in ground fighting with Israeli troops.

Mr. Olmert said Israel would investigate what had happened in Qana. But
he and the Israeli Army blamed Hezbollah fighters for firing hundreds of
rockets from the area, which is a stronghold for the militia.

In a statement, the Israeli Army said it had warned residents of the
region and of Qana "several days in advance" to leave their homes. "The
responsibility for any civilian casualties rests with the Hezbollah who
have turned the suburbs of Lebanon into a war front by firing missiles
from within civilian areas," the statement said.

The Israeli Army said that it was puzzled that the strike occurred
between midnight and 1 a.m., and hit next to the building, but that the
building collapsed around 7 a.m. Brig. Gen. Amir Eshel said it was at
least possible that the explosion was caused by munitions stored inside
the building.

"It is possible that various things were stored inside the house, things
that ultimately caused an explosion," General Eshel said. "Perhaps
things we were unable to blow up in the strike, that could have been
left behind. I say this very carefully, but at the current time I
haven't got the slightest clue what could explain this time difference."

Ms. Rice said Sunday that she called Mr. Siniora to express her
condolences and to cancel her planned visit to Beirut. Ms. Rice told the
journalists traveling with her that "my work is here today," meaning
with Israeli officials, and she met Sunday evening with Mr. Olmert.

"We are also pushing for an urgent end" to the fighting, Ms. Rice said.
"But the views of the parties on how to achieve that are different." She
did not call for an immediate cease-fire, arguing that a long-term
resolution required a political package deal, which would include a
cessation of hostilities.

"I think what it is time to do is get to a cease-fire," she said. "We
actually have to put one in place. We want a cease-fire as soon as
possible. I would have wanted a cease-fire yesterday if possible, but
the parties have to agree to a cease-fire and there have to be certain
conditions in place."

Ms. Rice decided to cut her Middle East trip short and return to
Washington on Monday in order to work on a United
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/sec
urity_council/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Nations Security Council
resolution that would try to codify a political resolution to the
conflict. 

Beyond bringing an end to hostilities, the Security Council's aims
include the insertion of a new international peacekeeping force along
the border, a resolution of a disputed border area called Shabaa Farms
and a return of captured Israeli soldiers.

But there is ever-building pressure to end the fighting as soon as
possible, especially from American allies like France
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritorie
s/france/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>  and Germany. France has already
drawn up a draft Security Council resolution calling for an immediate
cease-fire to prepare for the deployment of an international force, in
which Paris is expected to play a leading role.

There is also pressure from allied Arab nations like Egypt, Jordan and
Saudi Arabia, who want to see Hezbollah diminished but who sense rising
anger among their populations about the civilian death toll. 

Demonstrators in Beirut on Sunday attacked a United Nations building,
breaking windows and ransacking some floors. They carried signs reading:
"Arabs, you chickens," and "American-made bombs, dropped by Israeli
planes, with Arab cover."

The crowd chanted slogans against the Egyptian president, Hosni
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/m/hosni_muba
rak/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Mubarak, saying: "Zionist, oh Zionist,
Hosni Mubarak is a Zionist." 

Mr. Mubarak, in a statement, criticized the Israel attack as
irresponsible and called again for an immediate cease-fire.

Other nations also condemned the deaths. The European
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/e/eur
opean_union/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Union foreign policy chief,
Javier
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/s/javier_sol
ana/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Solana, issued a statement saying that
"nothing can justify" the Qana airstrike. The Europeans are
"continuously working to reach an immediate cease-fire," he told Mr.
Siniora.

Prime Minister Tony
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/b/tony_blair
/index.html?inline=nyt-per> Blair of Britain, who was traveling in the
United States, was alone in echoing American concerns that the situation
on the border change. "This is an absolutely tragic situation," he told
reporters, "but we have got to make sure that the discussion we are
having and negotiations we are conducting do lead to a genuine cessation
of hostilities in a way that allows to put an end to them for good."

In Washington, the third-ranking official of the State Department, R.
Nicholas Burns, said, "We are close to a political agreement between
Israel and Lebanon to end this fighting."

But he added, "We want to avoid a situation where we essentially put a
Band-Aid on something." 

On Sunday, Israeli tanks and troops moved into another section of
southern Lebanon, near Metula, heading toward the Lebanese town of
Khiam. The army described it as the latest incursion aimed at flushing
out Hezbollah fighters and positions along the border.

Steven Erlanger reported from Jerusalem for this article, and Hassan M.
Fattah from Beirut, Lebanon. Helene Cooper contributed reporting from
Jerusalem, and Sabrina Tavernise from Qana, Lebanon.


 
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