Top Items:
Fouad Ajami / Opinion Journal:
Hostage to Hezbollah — Lesson for Nasrallah: "The violence done to Lebanon shall overwhelm you." — Pity Lebanon: In a world of states, it has not had a state of its own. A garden without fences, was the way Beirut, its capital city, was once described.
Discussion:
Informed Comment, Winds of Change.NET, Mere Rhetoric, TigerHawk, Blue Crab Boulevard and Vital Perspective
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Thomas Sowell / Townhall.com:
Pacifists versus peace — One of the many failings of our educational system is that it sends out into the world people who cannot tell rhetoric from reality. They have learned no systematic way to analyze ideas, derive their implications and test those implications against hard facts.
Liz Sly / Chicago Tribune:
Humanitarian toll hits southern Lebanon as violence continues — BEIRUT — Fears mounted Thursday that a humanitarian catastrophe is unfolding in southern Lebanon as Israel sustained its intense bombardment of the area and U.S. Marines landed on the beaches near Beirut to help speed the evacuation of Americans from the war-zone.
Yaakov Katz / Jerusalem Post:
IDF forces gathering in North for possible ground incursion — The IDF was gearing up for a large-scale ground incursion into Lebanon on Friday. Thousands of reservists were being mobilized to the North throughout Friday to beef up forces stationed in the area in preparation for a possible operation.
Discussion:
Captain's Quarters, Counterterrorism Blog, The Belmont Club, Liberty and Justice and Decision '08
BBC:
Israel calls up army reservists — Israel has called up thousands of reserve troops and told civilians to quit southern Lebanon immediately, amid threats of a large-scale incursion. — Israeli troops are already fighting Hezbollah inside Lebanon and have been heavily shelling the border area.
Yaakov Katz / Associated Press:
5,000 called up in latest mobilization — The IDF sent out emergency calls for 5,000 reserve soldiers on Friday in addition to the reserves already called up. — OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Udi Adam stated that the move was done in order to relieve some of the forces currently operating in northern Israel.
Discussion:
Atlas Shrugs
Ben Stein / American Spectator:
Out of Disproportion — So, now I see that some commentators are saying that Israel's bombing of Lebanese Hezbollah strong points and neighborhoods is "disproportionate." The Israeli campaign, so this story goes, is bullying and terrorizing the Lebanese populace, and this is (so the argument goes) typical Israeli thug behavior.
Robin Wright / Washington Post:
Rice Plans Talks on Crisis With Mideast Leaders — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday announced plans for talks with Israeli, Palestinian and Lebanese leaders as part of a new U.S. diplomatic effort in the Middle East conflict, but warned that the United States would not support …
New York Post:
BARING FIENDS' BURIED SECRETS
BARING FIENDS' BURIED SECRETS
Discussion:
protein wisdom, Outside The Beltway, One Hand Clapping, Hyscience, Riehl World View and A Blog For All
New York Times:
More Than a Cease-Fire Needed — Lebanon needs more than U.S. marines …
More Than a Cease-Fire Needed — Lebanon needs more than U.S. marines …
Discussion:
The Beirut Spring
Oliver Poole / Telegraph:
Violence may bring partition of Baghdad — Iraq's politicians were reported yesterday to be drawing up provisional plans to divide Baghdad into Sunni and Shia halves after a week of bloodshed that has left the government's security plan to pacify the capital in tatters.
Discussion:
Jay Currie, StrategyPage, The Belmont Club, The Reaction, Pajamas Media and The Peking Duck
New York Times:
U.S. Speeds Up Bomb Delivery for the Israelis — WASHINGTON, July 21 — The Bush administration is rushing a delivery of precision-guided bombs to Israel, which requested the expedited shipment last week after beginning its air campaign against Hezbollah targets in Lebanon, American officials said Friday.
Discussion:
Truthdig
Ctblogger / ConnecticutBLOG:
Douglas Schwatrz breaks down latest Q-poll report — Douglas Schwartz, director of the Quinnipiac University Poll, gave a press conference where he talked about the latest Q-poll report released yesterday and what it means for the senate and governor's race.
wsbradio.com:
Cynthia McKinney Missing In Action — Rep. Cynthia McKinney was a no-show this week in the U.S. House, as WSB Washington Correspondent Jamie Dupree reports that the Georgia Democrat missed all four days of legislative business and every vote on the House floor as well.
Josh Gerstein / New York Sun:
Centrist Democrats Ponder How To Counter Netroots — At a time when centrism has become a dirty word in some Democratic Party circles, hundreds of the party's avowed moderates are convening in Denver this weekend to discuss their agenda for this fall's election and the presidential contest in 2008.
Fausta / faustasblog.com:
A sign of courage in Madrid — El Manifestómetro (in Spanish) has video of the lone Israel sympathizer at a peace demonstration in Madrid. — The young man was alone, holding a sign that said, — on one side, "Israel wants peace! Stop the killing!" — and on the other side, "Don't let them fool you!
Digby / Hullabaloo:
Another Moment of Clarity — The conflict in the mideast has always had a certain kabuki element. In the past when these situations would flare up, Israel would take an agrressive action to demonstrate that it wasn't a pushover and the US would step in like a Dutch uncle and reluctantly pull the pissed off Israelis back.
Reuters:
Massachusetts same-sex marriage pioneers split up —Text+BOSTON (Reuters) - The lesbian couple whose landmark lawsuit helped Massachusetts become the only state in America where same-sex couples can marry legally have split up, a spokeswoman said on Friday.
Discussion:
Shot In The Dark