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NYT: Lebanon: Hezbollah Munitions Cache Explodes

Two rockets hit northern Israel

JPost:

A small-scale Global Jihad terror group was likely behind the firing of at least two Katyusha rockets into northern Israel on Friday afternoon, military sources said.

The rockets landed in open fields near the city of Nahariya. No casualties or damage were reported, and the IDF responded by firing some 15 artillery shells towards the source of the fire near the Lebanese city of Tyre.

IDF sources said that the rockets were 122 millimeter Katyushas, a short-range rocket known to be in the hands of Hizbullah as well as other smaller Palestinian terror groups that operate in southern Lebanon.

Iran's growing shadow in Latin America

A disturbing report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on the increasing influence of Iran and its proxies in Central and South America:

In little more than two years, the number of Iranian diplomatic representatives in the region has increased from six to 11 and the number of diplomatic personnel has grown proportionately. This multiplication of Iran’s ties with Latin America has been the result of a strategic convergence.

Tehran sees its penetration in the region as essential to its efforts to weaken Washington international influence. The radical leftist governments of Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua view Iran as a partner with whom they share common ground: hostility towards the U.S. The result is an anti-American alliance in the heart of the Western Hemisphere.

Israel: UNIFIL needs greater search powers in Lebanon

After the Second Lebanon War, UNIFIL (The United Nations Interim Force In Lebanon) was charged with, among other tasks, ensuring that Hezbollah was not allowed to solidify its grip in the region. The results have been, to put it mildly, less than stellar. Now Israel is pushing UNIFIL to do its job:

Ahead of the renewal of UNIFIL's mandate this summer, the Defense Ministry is hoping that the United Nations will issue new rules of engagement for the peacekeeping force that will enable it to search Lebanese villages without prior coordination with the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF).

According to UNIFIL's current rules of engagement, the force is not allowed to enter southern Lebanese villages to search for Hizbullah arms caches unless it coordinates the operation with the LAF.

On Saturday, UNIFIL troops were prevented from reaching a home in the village Hirbet Selm, which stored dozens of Katyusha rockets and accidentally exploded last week. According to Lebanese media reports, 14 UNIFIL soldiers were injured in the ensuing scuffle.

Iron Dome to the rescue

For over eight years Israel has been attacked by terrorist rockets. Israel has fought two wars -- in 2006 against Hezbollah in Lebanon, and in 2008-2009 against Hamas in Gaza -- in an attempt to protect her people from this threat, and others.  Now, Israel has a new line of defense that could greatly lessen the threat posed by rocket attacks -- The Iron Dome:

The Iron Dome, under development by Rafael Defense Systems, is slated to become operational sometime in 2010 and to be capable of intercepting short-range Kassam and Katyusha rockets fired by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hizbullah in Southern Lebanon.

The Iron Dome uses an advanced radar that locates and tracks the rocket that is then intercepted by a kinetic missile interceptor.

A great interview

Michael J. Totten interviews Jeffrey Goldberg:

MJT: You have talked to Hamas people. Should the Israelis or Americans talk to them?

Goldberg: I don’t know what they’d get out of it.

MJT: What did you get out of it when you did it?

Goldberg: A first-hand understanding of how they think. People in the United States find it hard to understand how people in Hamas and Hezbollah think. It’s alien. It’s alien to us. The feverish racism and conspiracy mongering, the obscurantism, the apocalyptic thinking – we can’t relate to that. Every so often, there’s an eruption of that in a place like Waco, Texas, but we’re not talking about 90 people in a compound. We’re talking about whole societies that are captive to this kind of absurdity.

So it’s very important – and you know this better than almost anyone – to go over there yourself and tape it, get it down on paper, and say "this is what they actually say."

Read the whole interview here

 

UNIFIL finds rockets in Lebanon

Yaakov Katz at the Jerusalem Post recently reported:

In an effort to prevent a flare-up along the northern border, UNIFIL has increased its operations in southern Lebanon and has begun entering villages in search of Hizbullah weapons caches, according to information obtained recently by Israel.

In one recent successful operation in the eastern sector of southern Lebanon, UNIFIL peacekeepers uncovered close to 20 Katyusha rockets that were ready for launch.

UNIFIL operates under Security Council Resolution 1701, passed following the Second Lebanon War in 2006. Operations in villages have been a point of contention between UNIFIL and Israel, which said over the past three years that the peacekeeping force was failing to prevent Hizbullah's military buildup in southern Lebanon since it refrained from entering villages.

Read more... 

Israel isn't the problem

A good op-ed in the Sacramento Bee from Cal Thomas, telling the world what it should know already -- that terrorists need to be taken at their word:

If words mean anything, consider these from the Hamas Charter: "The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up....There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."

Hezbollah has its own charter. It says in part: "Our primary assumption in our fight against Israel states that the Zionist entity is aggressive from its inception, and built on lands wrested from their owners, at the expense of the rights of the Muslim people. Therefore our struggle will end only when this entity is obliterated. We recognize no treaty with it, no cease-fire, and no peace agreements, whether separate or consolidated."

Anyone see any wiggle room there?

Hezbollah chief vows to never recognize Israel

A statement from Hezbollah:

Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said Friday his movement would never recognise Israel, rejecting a US precondition for dialogue with the group it considers a terrorist organisation.

"To those who impose conditions on us, we say: We will never recognise Israel," he said in a speech during celebrations to recognise the birthday of the Prophet Mohammed.

One thing about that statement -- it's not, or shouldn't be, hard to understand. Statements like this should show the absurdity of trying to paint Hezbollah as some kind of relatively benign political organization, which Israel's critics frequently do.

Hezbollah tightens hold on Venezuela

A terrorism expert sounds the alarm:

Iranian-backed agents have managed to recruit collaborators among Venezuelan citizens living in the capital Caracas.

The collaborators are supposed to observe traffic at the Caracas airport and around it in order to collect information on Jewish travelers there.