You may remember the Israel/Lebanon/Hamas/Hezbolah month-long dustup from June/July 2006. We wrote about it here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Well now it seems we may be heading for round two. Consider these headlines:

Israel warns it will be back as Gaza incursion is finally ended.

The Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, made it clear last night after Israeli ground forces withdrew from Gaza that a 48-hour incursion which claimed more than 100 Palestinian lives was not a “one-time event” and operations against Hamas would continue.

As the Israeli forces withdrew, it began to emerge that there were fierce exchanges of fire between IDF troops and armed militants almost immediately after the former established positions in the Abed Rabbo district of this heavily populated town.

Although this is a largely Fatah area, some residents said that the “Murabitoun” – a name often given in Gaza to Hamas-dominated militant groups in border zones – regularly functioned in the area only a mile away from Israel and fought for around 90 minutes here before pulling back as the Israeli forces continued their armoured advance under air cover on Saturday.

Ayman Abu Shbak, 30, described how he braved crossfire to cross the alley between his own house and the one opposite where his niece Jaqueline, 16, and his nephew Eyad, 14, lay terminally bleeding after being shot by Israeli forces in the family’s second-floor living room.

The Abu Shbak family are cousins of Rashid Abu Shbak, the long-standing Fatah security chief in Gaza, and a close ally of Mohammed Dahlan – seen as one of the Fatah leaders most favoured in the West.

Now where have we heard that name before?? Oh yeah, it was in this post I just put up!!

Condiliesalot heads to Mid-East to save peace plan.

With U.S. credibility at stake, Rice faces an uphill battle to revive peace talks suspended over the weekend by pro-Western Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Washington wants those talks to result in a peace treaty by the end of the year but that hope seems increasingly unrealistic.

While Israeli troops pulled out of the Gaza Strip on Monday in response to international appeals, a senior Israeli official described it as just a “two-day interval” during Rice’s visit.

More than 100 Palestinians were killed in the Gaza offensive, which followed rocket attacks by the Islamist group Hamas on Israeli towns. The U.S. reputation as an honest peace broker is under the spotlight again because of Washington’s close ties to Israel.

The Bush administration made it clear it blamed Hamas for the latest upsurge in violence.

Credibility problem?? You think??

Saudis urged to leave Lebanon as US warships drops anchor off coast.

The Saudi Arabian embassy in Beirut has called on its nationals to leave Lebanon a day after a US warship was positioned off the country’s coast.

The embassy on Saturday sent SMS messages to Saudis living in Lebanon urging them to leave the country as soon as possible, Al Jazeera’s correspondent said.

Saudi Arabia issued an advisory last month urging its citizens not to travel to Lebanon because of deteriorating political and security conditions.

Kuwait and Bahrain followed with similar calls.

Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia is a major supporter of the Sunni-led government in Lebanon which has been locked in a 15-month-old political standoff with an opposition led by Iranian-and-Syrian backed Hezbollah.

Plus with Iranian President Ahmadinejad making Dubya Cheney look like the douche he is, you know a strike on Iran is probably coming. Last time, the Israelis pussed out on Iranian strikes when they had their asses handed to them. We already know the outcome of any strike on Iran.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 4th, 2008 at 12:05 am and is filed under Chimpy's completely insane War on IraN, The WAR Party. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.