“Israeli” troops wound civilian near border…(1)

“Israeli” troops fired automatic weapons at a civilian on Wednesday, wounding him in the arm as he unloaded construction material from a truck.
Abbas Abu Ghid, 30, was shot as he worked near the village of Addaisseh, near the border with “Israel”. Abu Ghid was taken to hospital in Marjayoun.
The incident occurred at 3.30pm, shortly after the departure of a group of Lebanese who had been throwing stones over the border fence, security sources said.
Abu Ghid told police that he was unloading stones when an “Israeli” military vehicle drove up on the other side of the fence and one of its occupants opened fire.
The spot is opposite the “Israeli” hilltop settlement of Misgav Am and 3 kilometers south of the Fatima Gate border crossing.
Security sources said nervous “Israeli” soldiers mistook the material for stones to be thrown at them by protesters.

Hizbullah offers $3m in scholarships…(2)

Hizbullah announced on Wednesday that it has offered more than $3 million worth of scholarships and educational assistance for students in several parts of the country. The funds are to help them overcome the current social and economic crisis.
“As we do every year, Hizbullah’s education department has offered scholarships and stationery to students in need, in addition to large discounts on stationery to several needy families,” said Bilal Naim, head of the party’s education department.
He added that 6,670 students in Beirut, the South and the Bekaa benefited from aid totaling LL113 million.
“Hizbullah also gave LL294 million in grants to 5,531 poor students to help them register in public schools or to buy books and stationery,” he added.
Naim said Hizbullah provided for discounts of between 25 and 100 percent for 10,430 students. He said that this amounted to LL4 billion in tuition fees.

Death penalty suggested for 5 collaborators…(3)

An investigative magistrate requested on Wednesday that the death penalty be issued to five “Israeli”-allied militiamen. The men, all still at large, are accused of collaborating with “Israel”.
Magistrate Rashid Mezher asked that the five, who were not identified, receive the death penalty for joining an enemy army, killing Lebanese civilians and entering enemy territory.
Meanwhile, the Military Tribunal interrogated a new batch of 25 agents on Wednesday. They will stand trial soon.

"Palestinians follow the track of  Hizbullah " says “Israel”…(4)

“Israeli” Foreign Minister Schlomo ben Ami said that the men of the Palestinian Authority are  adopting the same course as Hizbullah in Lebanon. He said that " “Israel”" should prepare itself to confront an escalation of the situation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

" The central aim now is not resuming negotiation. But it should be clear to the Palestinians that the “Israeli” government will not yield to the violence," said ben Ami .

The “Israeli” Foreign Minister also mentioned that efforts are being made to mobilize the international community to apply pressure on the Palestinian Authority.

“Israeli” soldiers kill eight more Palestinians…(5)

Confrontations continued on the 12th anniversary of the Palestinian's symbolic declaration of  independence. On Wednesday “Israeli” machine gun hit residence buildings in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

Eight Palestinians were martyred in Wednesday's clashes . Two were killed by “Israeli” bullets in Gaza Strip,and six others in the West Bank. Fifteen Palestinians were also wounded in Gaza Strip.

This brings the number of Palestinian Intifadah martyrs in seven weeks of clashes to 231 at least.

Fearing Palestinian marches may approach jewish settlements, “Israeli” army strengthened its presence in the West Bank. 

“Israeli” settlers join in terrorist organization…(6)

A report written by head of the General “Israeli” Intelligence Agency  revealed that tens of “Israeli” settlers are seeking to join in an armed terrorist organization which liquidates Palestinians and stirs up the situation on the field. According to the report the settlers also plans to carry out daily assaults in Palestinian territories.

On Tuesday, a number of “Israeli” settlers demonstrated in front of “Israeli” PM Barak's office urging him to allow his soldiers to carry out " retaliatory " operations.

15 Fatah officials arrested by the Occupation…(7)

The “Israeli” Communication Minister Benyamin Ben Eliezer said that fifteen Fatah Movement  officials were  arrested. Eliezer revealed that the internal security agency (Shin Beit) and special units in the “Israeli” army joined efforts to carry out the arrests in a number of villages in the West Bank , especially close to Ramallah and Nablus.

Syria, Lebanon boycott EU-Mediterranean meeting…(8)

Lebanon and Syria are boycotting the two-day meeting of "Euro-med" foreign ministers Summit in Marseilles, in France, which started on Wednesday. The Lebanese ambassador to Paris Aleze Alam officially reported the Lebanese decision to the French Foreign Ministry.

Earlier Lebanon and Damascus had asked France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, to postpone the European Union meeting with Mediterranean states because of the situation in the Palestinian territories. However, the spokesman of the French Foreign Ministry Francois Revarseau said his country refuses to delay the holding of the 27-nation "Euromed" cooperation forum, and expressed regret for Lebanon and Syria's absence.

The Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Sharaa said that the "Euromed" association throughout the past five years did not realize the aspirations of the Arabs may it be at the economic or political level.

``We expected Europe to, at least, issue a condemnation of the “Israeli” brutal actions against the Palestinians,'' Syrian Foreign Minister Farouq al-Sharaa said in Damascus. ``Hundreds of people have been killed and thousands wounded but we did not hear a European word about that.''

At least 231 Palestinians have been killed in seven weeks of bloodshed between “Israelis” and Palestinians.

Instead France had hoped the conference would at least agree on improved arrangements for a regional aid program under the so-called Barcelona Process. Diplomats had said ministers could discuss the Middle East crisis over dinner.

``We asked for the cancellation of the official lunches and dinners because it would be difficult for us to eat with the “Israeli” ministers while its government continued to kill innocent Palestinian adults and children. But the request was rejected by the Europeans,'' Sharaa said.

He regretted the fact that Arab countries did not reach a common stand on boycotting the EU meeting when they met during the recent Organization of the Islamic Conference summit in Qatar.

But al-Sharaa said the absence of Syria and Lebanon from the EU-Mediterranean meeting will make it incomplete.

``This association was unable to achieve success with our participation. How is it going now to be able to achieve that without us?'' Sharaa asked.

Concerning the “Israeli” threats against Syria and Lebanon, al-Shraa said that it is not new. Al-Manar Channel asked him whether Syria's speaking of “Israel” resorting to force comes from an analysis or information. The Syria Foreign Minister answered that it is an amalgam of the two.

Lebanon comes to Gilo…(9)

The head of preventive security in Gaza, Mohammed Dahlan, and the secretary-general of the Tanzim, Marwan Barghouti, have learned the lessons of “Israel’s” glorious withdrawal from Lebanon.
Just a reminder: On the day after the hasty retreat and the irresponsible surrender of the “security zone,” Chief of Staff Shaul Mofaz and the commander of the escape, Brigadier General Benny Ganz, proclaimed in the face of whatever television camera they happened to come upon, “We have not lost a fraction of our deterrent power.”
After learning the lessons, Dahlan and Barghouti have explicitly declared that their goal is to emulate Hizbullah and to turn the lives of “Israeli” soldiers and civilians into pure hell. Barghouti added (speaking on “Israel” Army Radio, of course) that this campaign will continue until the mothers of “Israeli” soldiers drive them out of the Al-Quds suburb of Gilo just as they drove them out of Lebanon.
Mofaz was asked on Tuesday why the soldiers who were killed in a shooting incident north of the settlement of Ofra near Ramallah had not been traveling in a bullet-proof vehicle. “We do not have a large enough budget to bullet-proof all our vehicles,” the chief of staff replied. The “commander instinct” in him did not lead Mofaz to issue the kind of statement that all combat soldiers need to hear from their supreme commander: “Why should we bullet-proof our vehicles? Our role is to pursue and totally defeat the enemy. An army that takes the initiative and launches offensives forces the enemy to flee, to seek protection, to use bullet-proofing.”
Instead, the chief of staff’s apologetic response and the way the army has conducted itself and operated over the past seven weeks, are conveying a crystal-clear picture: The “Lebanese mentality” has taken root in our soldiers. From the top brass right down to the lowest ranks. And the dybbuk of bullet-proofing graphically indicates that an entire operative philosophy (or, to be more precise, an entire anti-operative philosophy) has slid down from the mountains of Lebanon and has ascended Mount Gilo.
“Israel’s” prolonged presence in Lebanon has generated a number of very negative results. It eroded the will of the nation and castrated its army. The “Israel” Defense Forces* hamstrung itself and deliberately suppressed the unique fighting spirit that characterized it in its formative years. Instead of attacking and letting the initiative slip through its fingers, the IDF has put most of its energies, especially over the past few years, in defensive actions: Protecting its troops and securing the transport routes leading to its fortified outposts.
This is how the IDF developed its “culture” of “bullet-proofing,” of learning how to absorb the enemy’s blows without losing personnel and of constantly going on the defensive. A few hundred Hizbullah warriors managed to inflict on the IDF the severest kind of damage possible: the transformation of its unique collective personality. Now, because that personality has been transformed, the IDF has reached the point where the few armed bands under Barghouti’s command – armed bands that cannot match Hizbullah’s “prowess” – are able to lead the IDF into a perpetual maze, instead of vice versa. Meanwhile, Barghouti’s armed bands, not IDF troops, are calling the shots.
Although the IDF has been in a perpetual state of war for the past 18 years, an entire generation of commanders and soldiers has grown up without any real combat experience of the nature of military initiatives, of large-scale offensives, or of decisive battles. All that these commanders and soldiers have been doing has been to drill these three areas of military specialization. Some of these commanders, especially those who have had the most media exposure, seem to never tire of giving the same old explanation – a number of them know how to give it in a highly polished, impressively rhetorical manner – on the advantages of being on the defensive. After all, they know where the glory lies buried and they know that they need this glory in order to go up the ranks.
Is it any wonder that “Israeli” soldiers – I have heard them express their fears personally – are afraid to knock out the sniper who has been firing directly at them? And why are they afraid? Because they have been warned that, by knocking out this sniper, they could end up “setting the entire Middle East on fire.” A fair number of top-ranking officers in the IDF deny that the Lebanese syndrome is still alive and kicking. Yet, facts are facts, and even the commission headed by Major General Yoram Ya’ir “acquitted” senior IDF commanders who had been blamed for the abandonment of a wounded soldier at Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus – Madhat Yusuf, a Border Patrol officer, who subsequently died of his wounds – and for the rescue episode on Mount Eval. However, the Ya’ir commission did find out who the real culprits were: The government (at Joseph’s Tomb), for not having evacuated the site two days earlier, and the organizer of the Mount Eval field trip, who deviated from the itinerary that the IDF had authorized. Very few of those who were present at the conference of senior combat officers that was held earlier this week – and that conference in itself is clear evidence of the blockheadedness and callousness that has taken hold of some of the top brass – had the courage to stand up and declare that the findings of the Ya’ir commission are irrelevant. When wounded persons are slowly dying – as was the case in Nablus and on Mount Eval – the commander in the field must assign top priority to getting them out of danger. Only after the rescue has taken place, should time be spent figuring out who was to blame, if blame exists, for the wounding of those persons. Here two questions must be asked: 1. What business is it of the officers serving on the commission to determine when the politicians should have ordered the evacuation of Joseph’s Tomb? 2. How can the IDF’s chief education officer, Brig. Gen. Elazar Stern, explain the differences between, on the one hand, the report on which his own signature appears as a member of the commission and which, in effect, justifies the abandonment of the dying soldier at Joseph’s Tomb and, on the other, the painful things he wrote in his open letter to IDF troops? And why was the letter placed so quickly in the archives?
During the Mount Eval incident, there were many senior officers in the field, including the divisional commander, and they had a large number of troops from various corps, including armor, plus helicopters, at their disposal. Yet instead of assigning blame to the commanders – this should have been the inevitable outcome of a professional analysis founded on the IDF’s value system – for the IDF’s badly flawed performance on Mount Eval and certainly for the intolerably protracted process in which the wounded were rescued, the members of the commission heaped the bulk of responsibility on the shoulders of the civilian who had organized the field trip and placed little responsibility on the shoulders of the brigade commander who had authorized the excursion.
Here is yet another failure that can be added to the fiascos at Joseph’s Tomb and on Mount Eval. “Give the IDF the opportunity to win” was the wording on the posters at the demonstration that was held after the murder of the two soldiers and two civilians early this week. Unfortunately, the truth is a little different. Although the politicians have hamstrung the army, the army is outdoing the politicians in hamstringing itself – even when there are soldiers and civilians to be rescued.

Footnotes:

1-                   The Daily Star, 16-11-2000.

2-                   Same source.

3-                   Same source.

4-                   Manar TV, 15-11-2000.

5-                   Same source.

6-                   Same source.

7-                   Same source.

8-                   Same source.

9-                   Haaretz, 16-11-2000.

This term is absolutely unacceptable. "Israel's" Army is that of war and aggression for it protects land gained by force, confiscation and war in contradiction with the simplest rights of human confessed by the international laws and conventions. (IDF)