Introduction

Hizbullah’s Deputy Secretary General Sheikh  Nahim Qassem said the only way “Israel” will obtain the release of its captured soldiers is through an exchange of prisoners.

Meanwhile, Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammad Sadr said Friday that his country fully support Hizbullah’s capture of four “Israeli” soldiers. Sadr met with Hizbullah’s Secretary General H.E. sayyed Hassan Nasrallah to discuss “the massacres the Palestinian people are facing at the hands of the Zionist occupation forces”.

Separately, a new kind of fierce war is raging on another battle front: the Internet. It began almost a month ago with an all-out cyber offensive by “Israelis” and their supporters around the world against sites of Hizbullah triggering a counter-attack by Arabs worldwide. Arab hackers are attempting to divert “Israeli” funds from buying weapons and ammunition to fight the Palestinians by forcing the Jewish state to invest in repairing and safeguarding internet service providers in Tel Aviv.

Qassem: Israeli captured soldiers in return for Lebanese hostages…(1)

Hizbollah's Deputy Secretary-General Sheikh Naim Qassem said the only way “Israel” will obtain the release of its captured soldiers is through an exchange of prisoners. Sheikh Qassem said the group is taking precautionary measures to thwart any “Israeli” attempts to rescue the soldiers or kidnap Hizbollah officials. He also downplayed speculation of reprisal attacks by “Israel”, saying the Jewish state is vulnerable because of Hizbollah's military might and the clashes in the Palestinian territories.

Hizbollah wants to swap the three soldiers plus an army colonel the resistance group said it captured in Beirut on a spying mission for Lebanese and Arab detainees held in the Jewish state.

“Israel” and its allies in congress lobby to add Lebanon to a list of states sponsoring terrorism: Report…(2)

“Israel” and its supporters in the US Congress are trying to push the US administration to add Lebanon to a list of countries sponsoring terrorism. The daily Safir newspaper quoted informed US officials as saying influential Jewish lobbies in Washington have been joining efforts with Congressmen and “Israeli” ambassadors to convince the Clinton administration and the next US President to add Beirut to the list when it is review next month. US officials were quoted as describing the effort as serious and warning it could be devastating for Lebanon. But they stressed Washington has been resisting the pressure to give the new government a chance to kick start Lebanon's economy and maintain stability. Top US officials have also been arguing Beirut lacks authority and sovereignty over the south of the country so it cannot be held responsible for military activities in the region. The daily Safir said the Clinton administration was satisfied with the government's prevention of Palestinian demonstrations along the border with “Israel”. Lebanon's Ambassador to Washington Farid Abboud has been meeting State Department officials to clarify Lebanon's stance on the captivity of the “Israeli” soldiers and “Israel’s” refusal to release Lebanese detainees. Late this afternoon Foreign Minister Mahmoud Hammoud said he will hold talks on regional developments with Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa in Damacus. Officials said the meeting will also tackle warnings by UN chief Annan that south Lebanon may be heading to war in the absence of government troops along the frontier with “Israel”. Hammoud has asked Lebanon's ambassador to the UN Salim Tadmuri to submit to Annan a letter listing all “Israeli” violations against Lebanon since May. 

Iranian official reiterates support…(3)

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed Sadr said Friday that his country fully supported the capture of four “Israeli” soldiers by Hizbullah last month.
Sadr met with Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday to discuss “the massacres the Palestinian people are facing at the hands of the Zionist occupation forces,” said a statement by Hizbullah.
According to the statement, Sadr, who arrived in Beirut on Thursday for a two-day visit, denied that his talks with Nasrallah touched on the issue of the four “Israeli” soldiers.
But he gave a message of support for Nasrallah.
“It’s quite natural that we support and agree with any decision made by Sayyed Nasrallah in this regard,” he said.
Sadr also met with President Emile Lahoud and gave the president a letter from Iranian President Mohammed Khatami addressing regional issues. The meeting was also attended by Iranian Ambassador Mohammed Ali Sobhani.
Lahoud praised Iran’s support for Lebanon and its aid in the wake of “Israeli” aggressions prior to the liberation of the South in May.
Lahoud said a planned trip by Khatami was welcomed, although no date has been set.
Sadr said: “President Khatami has a special relationship with Lebanon and, accordingly, the planned visit is on his agenda.”
He also met with Prime Minister Rafik Hariri and Speaker Nabih Berri.
Sadr said after calling on Hariri that discussions touched on bilateral ties, especially economic, in addition to backing the resistance movement in confronting “Israel”.
Sadr reiterated that Iran had not made a decision whether to participate in the Islamic summit, which will be held in Qatar later this month.
However, he praised Qatar’s decision to sever its ties with “Israel”.
“In view of the demands of the Arab countries, the Islamic Republic of Iran is in favor of closing the Qatari commercial office in “Israel”,” he said.
Sadr emphasized that demands for Qatar to severe ties with “Israel” was not only Iran’s but also came from the Islamic world. “Qatar will chair the Islamic Conference Organization summit, and it’s not proper for the chairman of the organization to have relations with “Israel”,” he said.
After meeting with Hariri, Sadr met with Berri and sent a congratulatory message.

Yazbeck urges help for deprived areas…(4)

Speaking during Friday prayers in Baalbek, Yazbeck ­ Hizbullah’s representative for Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khameini ­ expressed disappointment at “some people’s invitation” to deploy the army along the “Israeli” border, stating that the army’s role is to protect its people, not “Israeli” interests.
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the government this week to deploy troops along the border, a call supported by Metn MP Albert Mokheiber in Parliament on Thursday.
Discussing the Palestinian uprising, Yazbeck said that today it is stronger than ever, and that it is a turning point from the depressing current situation.
“The Palestinian people are aware that the strategy followed by the Islamic Resistance in Lebanon is the only option to halt the “Israel” that kills children and mothers,” he said. “It is time for everybody to understand that the solution is in the guns.”
Yazbeck praised Iran’s official support of the Lebanese and Syrian causes, as well as its call for Arab nations to support Palestine by ending relations with “Israel”.

Sayyed Fadlallah called on Palestinians to go on with their uprising…(5)

In his Friday speech, Ayatollah Sayyed Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah urged the Palestinians to continue their intifadah"because it is the only way to gain their rights of freedom and independence."

Sayyed Fadlallah maintained that negotiating with the “Israelis” will be of no benefit for the Palestinians, stressing that Oslo agreement had failed after the Zionist Entity refused to implement it.

Commenting on U.N. Security-General Kofi Annan's report, Ayatollah Fadlallah said the problem is not Lebanon or the Lebanese Resistance, which Annan admitted are disciplined and maintain order.

"It is the responsibility of the U.N. to implement its resolutions with exactitude without being influenced by American and Zionist pressures, as it is the case now, for the U.N. is not protesting the “Israeli” threats against Lebanon and Syria, and it is not applying pressure for the release of Lebanese and Arab detainees, while it is only concerned about the “Israeli” captured soldiers" said Ayatollah Fadlallah.

Hizbullah, “Israel” fight cyberwar…(6)

“ Now that daily bloodshed has seemingly ceased on the Lebanese-”Israeli” borders, a new kind of fierce war is raging on another battlefront: the Internet.

It began almost a month ago with an all-out cyber offensive by “Israelis” and their supporters around the world against sites of Hizbullah, triggering a counter-attack by Arabs worldwide.

A Web blitz of millions of hits crashed the two Internet sites of Hizbullah, which had spearheaded the guerrilla war against “Israel” until the Jewish state's May 24 “Israeli” pullout from southern Lebanon,

The cyberwar heated up also because of Hizbullah's fervent encouragement to the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, against “Israel” and the Palestinians' open admiration for Hizbullah guerrillas.

"We were used to such cyber attacks whenever Hizbullah staged successful or large guerrilla operations, but never has it been so harsh," Hizbullah webmaster Ali Ayoub told AFP.

"The hits came mainly from “Israel”, but they were also closely coordinated with attacks emanating from the United States and Europe," said the computer wizz, mixing his Arabic fluently with cyber-jargon in English.

Ayoub said "tens of thousands of hits came via the e-mail provider America Online. Any provider notices that tens of thousands of e-mail bombings are being launched through it, but for some reason AOL did not do anything."

He explained that the attacks were either "e-mail bombings" in which sites are flooded with large-size mails, some with viruses attached to them, or through a "virtual overwhelming traffic" of the servers.

Inconet, the Lebanese server that Hizbullah was using for its two sites, also published a statement to denounce the “Israeli” attacks which overloaded the server for several days.

Ayoub said Hizbullah then decided to keep its two sites, which the group had first launched in 1997, closed "temporarily" while opening seven other back-up sites.

"The “Israelis” want to prevent us from being on the Internet through under-the-belt dealings, but we did not retaliate as an organization," he said.

"It was our supporters, whether Arabs, Muslims or foreigners, who had the idea of a major counter-attack. They rallied from around the world to attack a number of “Israeli” sites," he said.

The Beirut media dubbed such hits as "cyber-Katyushas," in reference to the rockets that Hizbullah used to maintain a power balance by launching them against northern “Israel” every time “Israel” harmed Lebanese civilians.

The counter-attack crashed or crippled for a short period the sites of the “Israeli” Knesset (parliament), the foreign ministry, the government, the premiership, the Labour party, the central bank and the army, which was forced to employ a US firm that specialises in protection of web sites to upgrade its security.

“Israeli” foreign ministry spokesman Noam Katz confirmed the attacks to AFP on October 26, saying that parties involved in the attacks were "controlled by the Shiites in the United States."

The next day, a US government agency headed by the FBI, the National Infrastructure Protection Center, warned that the “Israeli”-Palestinian violence could spark a rising level of cyber attacks that might even hit US Web sites.

The Hizbullah webmaster explained that the group "considers that the Internet is a public domain and a means of expression for everyone."

"We also considered that our presence on the Internet was the most important thing for us, our sole objective is to remain up and running,"he said.

Ayoub said their other aim was to show that “Israel’s” mighty military power in the region did not scare the Lebanese, even less Hizbullah which had always maintained that "the enemy withdrew from Lebanon after a harsh defeat by the heroic resistance."

"There is a power balance in this field. All it takes is a computer and brains. Like the “Israelis”, we proved to everyone that we have the technology and the brains to do it and win this war," he said.

Hackers launch ‘phase three’ of online intifada…(7)

Arab hackers are attempting to divert “Israeli” funds from buying weapons and ammunition to fight the Palestinians by forcing the Jewish state to invest in repairing and safeguarding internet service providers in Tel Aviv.
In an e-mail sent to The Daily Star, the staff of UNITY website, created to encourage Arab supporters to target “Israeli” sites in an attempt to down them, announced that phase three of the cyberwar has begun.
“Remember, the more money they lose in fixing and strengthening their systems means less money to buy bullets and rockets for use against our children,” stated the e-mail, addressed to Arab internet users who have been active in attacking “Israeli” sites.
“Maybe you can’t hold a gun and fight, but you can contribute in the struggle by visiting and forwarding the counter attack links,” it said, listing the links: defend.unity-news.com and hizbollah.unity-news.com.
“Every dollar they lose means one less bullet for the Zionist soldiers’ ammunition, it means a life of a Palestinian child,” the e-mail said.
One of the UNITY staffers, who spoke to The Daily Star on condition of anonymity, said the attacks were simply an “act of self-defense.”
He also threatened that “Israeli” e-commerce sites would be attacked if “Israelis” and their supporters “attempt to touch any anti-Zionist site.”
Attacking e-commerce sites is listed as phase four in the cyberwar attack. UNITY said the aim would make the “Israelis” lose “millions of dollars in losses in transactions.”
The reason phase three of the cyberwar was initiated, the
staff member explained, was because “Israelis” and their supporters hacked into Hizbullah’s Al-Manar Television website last week, combined with “a Zionist action against UNITY.”
“All this forced us to start phase three of the cyberwar,” he said.
Alan Abbey, the managing editor of an “Israeli” website, “Israel”.internet.com, posted an article on the website describing how moving hosts out of “Israel” was “shaking up the high-tech business community.”
Due to what Abbey described as “the serious threat of cyber-terrorism,” a web company, Webstyle, is moving all of its “Israeli”-based hosting to the US, making them harder to attack.
However, Arab hackers have become so effective that even the FBI has warned that the cyber attacks on “Israeli” sites could “spill over” to the US.
A recent advisory from the FBI’s cybercrime unit said: “Due to the credible threat of terrorist acts in the Middle East region, and the conduct of these web attacks, (internet users) should exercise increased vigilance to the possibility that US government and private-sector websites may become potential targets.”
The FBI said the method of attacks against “Israeli” websites included automated e-mail floods and high volumes of coordinated requests for web services by pro-Palestinians.
The FBI has recommended certain security measures for government agencies and private businesses. Security officials should be prepared to take appropriate steps to prevent e-mail flood attacks, block source e-mail addresses in the event of a flooding, and ensure that appropriate patches are installed in operating systems to limit vulnerability to other denial-of-service attack methods.
In response, UNITY circulated an e-mail encouraging “every freedom fighter with networking and hacking skills to contact them at Irongaurds@unity-news.org.
UNITY is also encouraging Arab website owners to post hacking codes because UNITY sites are being constantly attacked by pro-”Israelis”.
Sites promoting cyberattacks on “Israeli” sites which are still running are:

http://www.unity-news.org
http://www.ummah.net/unity
http://www.sabra-shatila.org

Palestinians recall ‘the worst day in history’…(8)

Palestinians continued their protests throughout Lebanon on Friday, including another demonstration against the 1917 Balfour Declaration.
The declaration, made by then-British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour, is the document blamed for the creation of “Israel”. It was signed on Nov. 3, 1917, a day Sidon’s representative for the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Khaled Younes, called “the worst day in the history of Palestine and for humankind.
“It promised Jews they could build their nation on Palestinian land and at the expense of the Arab and Palestinian people,” he said.
The front marched against the declaration for a second day in the Ain al-Hilweh camp in Sidon.
They shouted slogans calling for the “death of “Israel” and the glory of Al-Quds” and urged the Palestinian intifada to continue. They said agreements with “Israel” to halt the uprising should be rejected.
Younes said the intifada should continue until Palestinians are allowed to return to their country in line with UN Security Council Resolution 194.
Meanwhile, Palestinian popular organizations and unions marched to the embassies of Arab countries that maintain relations with “Israel”.
The groups handed letters addressed to the ambassadors of Qatar and Mauritania, urging them to pressure their governments to halt relations with “Israel” as Oman, Tunis and Morocco have done recently.
In Beirut, another demonstration was organized facing the UN’s Economic and Social Council for Western Asia headquarters. Protesters demanded that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan provide international support for the Palestinian people.
Other demonstrations were also organized in the Yarmouk camp in Damascus. The protesters called for another Arab summit to discuss Palestine.

Palestinian deaths threaten hours-old ceasefire…(9)

The horrifyingly long list of Palestinians who have died – most shot by the “Israeli” army – in the five-week intifada increased by two more yesterday, threatening a fragile ceasefire in its first full day.

Demonstrators hurled rocks at “Israeli” soldiers at flashpoints in the occupied territories and the army said there were exchanges of gunfire in at least three places by mid-afternoon.

Significantly, the ceasefire has not been recognised by Palestinian opposition groups – the Islamic Jihad, Hamas, and several others. It was also breached on the ground by both “Israeli” troops and Palestinian gunmen.

One of yesterday's two casualties was a 21-year-old Gazan refugee, whom Palestinian officials said was shot dead by “Israeli” troops in Tulkarm in the West Bank. A second Palestinian, aged 19, appears to have been shot by the “Israeli” army during a confrontation in the village of Hizma yesterday morning.

Scores of Arabs were injured by rubber-coated bullets, tear gas and stun grenades at hotspots in Hebron, Ramallah and Bethlehem. Two “Israeli” soldiers sustained light wounds. The Palestinian human rights group LAW put the number of injured at 276 and said they included a man who was shot in the face.

also, “Israeli” police barred Muslims under the age of 45 from attending Friday prayers at the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem, which was still recovering from the shock of Thursday's car bomb, that killed two Jewish “Israelis”, including the daughter of a politician from the religious right. The Palestinian security forces also appeared to be taking steps to encourage calm in the conflict, in which more than 170 people have died. But the ceasefire remained highly vulnerable to collapse. Few expect it to last for long.

The Palestinian Authority's cabinet secretary, Ahmed Abdul Rahman, added his voice to a lengthening list of Palestinians who say they are determined the intifada will continue until the “Israeli” occupation ends. Some describe this as a "peaceful" intifada – although the head of the Tanzim militia has said this term can encompass throwing Molotov cocktails.

In the longer term, extracting the region from the crisis is far more complex than striking a truce and then continuing with the Oslo peace negotiations. Most Palestinians long ago gave up hope that the Oslo process would satisfy their national aspirations or fulfil what they see as their rights under international law. Mr Arafat faces too much internal opposition to be able merely to snap his fingers and end the fighting. The Intifada has seen emotions reach feverish levels and these will take months to cool.

Footnotes:

1- Future TV, 3-11-2000.

2- Same source.

3- The Daily Star, 4-11-2000.

4- Same source..

5- Manar TV, 3-11-2000.

6- AFP, 3-11-2000.

7- The Daily Star, 4-11-2000.

8- Same source.

9- Independent, 4-11-2000.