For those who can't figure out the outcome of Israel's attack against Lebanon, please allow me...
If this cease fire is accepted Hezbollah comes out looking like heros across the entire Muslim world because they "defeated" the mighty U.S. financed and armed Israel military. Israel comes out looking like a bunch of murdering religious zealots because their main accomplishment in all this insanity has been to blow up Lebanese civilians and Lebanese civilian infrastructure, and the U.S. comes out looking like a neutered, ineffective paper tiger because our idiot in chief not only didn't have the ability to control or even affect the proceedings, he didn't even have the ability to TALK with all the parties involved.
Security Council passes cease-fire resolution
Associated Press
If this cease fire is accepted Hezbollah comes out looking like heros across the entire Muslim world because they "defeated" the mighty U.S. financed and armed Israel military. Israel comes out looking like a bunch of murdering religious zealots because their main accomplishment in all this insanity has been to blow up Lebanese civilians and Lebanese civilian infrastructure, and the U.S. comes out looking like a neutered, ineffective paper tiger because our idiot in chief not only didn't have the ability to control or even affect the proceedings, he didn't even have the ability to TALK with all the parties involved.
Security Council passes cease-fire resolution
Associated Press
The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution Friday that calls for an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and authorizes the deployment of 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to help Lebanese troops take control of south Lebanon as Israel withdraws.
The draft, adopted unanimously, appeared to offer the best chance yet for peace after more than four weeks of war in the Middle East. It was the first significant action by the Security Council, the most powerful U.N. body, to address the crisis.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said hundreds of millions of people around the world shared his frustration that the council had taken so long to act. That inaction has ?badly shaken the world's faith in its authority and integrity,? he said.
?I would be remiss if I did not tell you how profoundly disappointed I am that the council did not reach this point much, much earlier,? he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert endorsed the resolution late Friday, after a day of dramatic brinksmanship including a threat to expand the ground war in Lebanon. But Israeli officials said Israel would not halt fighting until Israel?s Cabinet has approved the cease-fire deal in its weekly meeting Sunday.
Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora also assured U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that his country backed the resolution.
Olmert will recommend that his government approve the deal in its upcoming meeting on Sunday, said Gideon Meir, a senior official in the Israeli Foreign Ministry.
Earlier, Israeli troops and tanks assembled along the Israel-Lebanon border, preparing for a possible massive incursion.
Israel had expressed dissatisfaction over an initial cease-fire plan, saying it failed to meet its basic requirements, such as stationing robust international combat troops in southern Lebanon once Israel withdraws.
But after France and the U.S. reached a deal on a revised draft resolution, Israel indicated it may accept the new arrangement and call off its offensive.
The Security Council resolution authorizes the deployment of the 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers in south Lebanon to support the Lebanese army's deployment to the region "as Israel withdraws."
The resolution, obtained by The Associated Press, asks the U.N. force to monitor a full cessation of hostilities and help Lebanese forces gain full control over an area that has previously been under de facto control of Hezbollah militias.
The text says the force's mandate will include several elements: monitoring the cessation of hostilities, accompanying Lebanese troops as they deploy and as Israel withdraws, and ensuring humanitarian access to the area.
About 2,000 U.N. troops and observers are now stationed in Lebanon, as they have been since 1978. The draft would authorize an increase to a total of 15,000 troops.
Concession to Lebanon and Hezbollah
Britain?s U.N. Ambassador Emyr Jones-Parry said the resolution gives a U.N. force in Lebanon an enhanced mandate to help coordinate the eventual withdrawal of Israeli troops. But it would ultimately be deployed under Chapter 6 of the U.N. Charter ? which Israel has previously opposed.
That decision was a key concession to Lebanon and Hezbollah. Israel wanted the force deployed under the Charter?s Chapter 7, which would give the troops more robust rules of engagement.
?You?ll find that the mandate for the force is very robust,? Jones-Parry said.
?Although the government of Lebanon will have gained a certain amount in the changes that we?ve made, it?s also the case that Israel has had concerns and no one has wanted to lose Israel from that equation,? he said.
The two sides sent the new text to the governments of Israel and Lebanon, but a French diplomat said the vote would go ahead whatever the response.
Israel denies wider offensive began
Earlier Friday, Olmert and Defense Minister Amir Peretz decided on the massive new ground campaign after meeting for several hours.
Olmert?s spokesman, Asaf Shariv, told The Associated Press that the expanded incursion had already begun. However, other officials said the army was preparing to move into Lebanon en masse but had not yet begun to do so.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice telephoned Olmert to ask him if there was any room left for diplomacy to solve the Mideast crisis, said an individual close to the government with direct knowledge of the conversation.
Olmert has indicated he?d be willing to call off the offensive if Israel?s basic demands were met, said the individual, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the private conversation.
Blasting bridges
Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded Hezbollah positions throughout the day in an attempt to gain unchallenged command of strategic high ground and disrupt guerrilla rocket attacks across the border.
Israeli aircraft fired at least five rockets at a convoy of hundreds of cars carrying people fleeing south Lebanon on Friday, killing at least two people and wounding eight, witnesses and rescue workers said.
In far northern Lebanon, Israeli jets blasted a key bridge to Syria, killing at least 12 people, as the conflict for the first time touched the entire length of Lebanon ? from skirmishes on the Israeli border in the south to the airstrike on the northern frontier about 105 miles away.
Hezbollah sent another barrage of more than 150 rockets toward northern Israel, it said. Israeli rescue workers said eight people in the port of Haifa were wounded by shrapnel, but they estimated the Hezbollah attack at about 80 missiles by midday.
The heaviest fighting continued around Marjayoun, an important hub just north of Israel?s Galilee panhandle that juts into Lebanon. An AP reporter briefly entered the embattled city and saw intense Israeli bombardment of dug-in Hezbollah fighters.
The mostly Christian city gives Israeli gunners a view of the Litani River valley and other areas used as launching grounds for Hezbollah rockets. Israeli tanks rolled into Marjayoun on Thursday after coming under withering Hezbollah ambushes along the way.
Mass exodus slowed by violence
Hundreds of civilian vehicles joined a convoy escorted by U.N. peacekeepers leaving Marjayoun. The exodus ? which was slowed by nearby Israeli shelling ? included about 350 Lebanese soldiers and police who were in the city when Israeli forces poured in.
Marjayoun Mayor Fuad Hamra told the AP by telephone from the convoy that he blames the Lebanese government for abandoning state institutions in the region. ?As of tonight and in the coming days, Marjayoun will be a field for destruction,? he said.
By taking Marjayoun, the Israeli army was closer to Beirut than at any time since the fighting began July 12 after a cross-border raid in which Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and killed three.
Powerful explosions resounded across Beirut. Local media reported Israeli warplanes hit Hezbollah strongholds in the southern Dahieh suburb.
Israel also struck an area close to the Lebanese border crossing at Masnaa in the Bekaa Valley, about 30 miles southeast of Beirut, but there were no reports of casualties. Masnaa is the main crossing into Syria, and the main escape route for hundreds of displaced Lebanese who fled the country over land.
Israeli planes dropped leaflets over parts of Beirut, saying Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah is ?cheating? the Lebanese and hiding the number of losses among the militiamen. The paper included the names of about 90 fighters Israel said were killed.
Israel has imposed a virtual lockdown on traffic across southern Lebanon and key northern routes, seeking to cut off weapons and aid shipments to Hezbollah. The attack on the Abboudiyeh border crossing apparently reflected Israeli fears that Hezbollah was still being supplied via Syria ? which is Hezbollah?s main sponsor along with Iran.
12 die in bridge attack
At least 12 people were killed in the attack on the bridge, spanning the northern border, security officials said. That left the northern coastal road as the only official border crossing to Syria open for those trying to flee Lebanon.
Two other Lebanese civilians were killed elsewhere, officials said.
At the same time, Israeli forces were still locked in relentless clashes with guerrillas along the southern border.
Hezbollah said it killed or wounded 15 Israeli soldiers near the border village of Aita al-Shaab. It also said Israeli forces suffered casualties near the southern village of Rachaf. Israel did not immediately release information on battlefield losses.
Hezbollah said four of its fighters had been killed, but did not say when or where.
The guerrilla group?s Al-Manar TV said Hezbollah fighters hit an Israeli gunboat off Tyre in southern Lebanon, but the Israeli military denied it.
More than 800 people in Lebanon and Israel have died since fighting erupted ? 732 on the Lebanese side and 122 on the Israeli side.