Carl in Jerusalem is still the best place to get news on what’s happening in Israel. He’s liveblogging the unfolding stories on both fronts, with frequent updates. Just click the link and keep on scrolling.
A brief roundup: The IAF bombed the runways of the Beirut International Airport and put it out of service. The Israelis have blockaded the harbor, isolating Lebanon. The IAF is targeting infrastructure in Lebanon, and is reportedly concentrating on Hizbullah strongholds in south Beirut. Hizbullah has repeatedly fired rockets into northern Israeli towns, causing casualties, including several deaths.
Carl reports a theory about the person who masterminded the latest Hizbullah operation. You’ll have to go over to his site to see who it is.
As noted yesterday, the Hamas terrorist Muhammad Deif was badly injured in an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
According to Carl, he lost some of his limbs (I haven’t been able to find anything on this in the MSM). But Hamas has denied that he was injured.
This all brings to mind the famous scene in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, in which King Arthur strikes off the limbs of the Black Knight one by one:
Arthur: Look, you stupid bastard. You’ve got no arms left. Black Knight: Yes, I have. Arthur: Look! Black Knight: Just a flesh wound. [kick] Arthur: Look, stop that. Black Knight: Chicken! [kick] Chickennn! Arthur: Look, I’ll have your leg. [kick] Right! [whop] [Arthur chops the Black Knight’s right leg off] Black Knight: Right. I’ll do you for that! Arthur: You’ll what? Black Knight: Come here! Arthur: What are you going to do, bleed on me? Black Knight: I’m invincible! Arthur: You’re a looney. Black Knight: The Black Knight always triumphs! Have at you! Come on, then. [whop] [Arthur chops the Black Knight’s last leg off] Black Knight: Oh? All right, we’ll call it a draw. Arthur: Come, Patsy. Black Knight: Oh. Oh, I see. Running away, eh? You yellow bastards! Come back here and take what’s coming to you. I’ll bite your legs off!
’Tis but a scratch!
I find the missle strike on Haifa interesting. That’s out of usual Katyusha range (about 13 miles). Haifa is just over 25 from the Lebanon border.
I wonder if the missile is an Iranian Fajr ? The Katyushas are also mostly from Iranian stocks, but the Fajr would be a significant escalation. If the Hezbollah can hit the Israeli cities (and it’s in the Pasdaran’s pocket)…then the whole regional situation just got much more shaky.
I’ve blogged a bit on the situation myself today.
I wonder if all of this has more to do with the Iranian nuclear issue in the Security Council than Palestine ?
That Israel is blockading Lebanon
may indicate that they too fear
Hizbollah is getting longer range
missiles from Iran.
I am disappointed Israel did not do
what needs to be done here. Remove
the Syrian Baathist regime and
destroy the Syrian military. Had
they done so out of the box the
world would have not had time to
react before the deed was done.
Hizbollah could have then been
wiped out at leisure and Lebanon
freed from Hizbollahan and Syrian
influence. Iran would have lost its
Arab ally and while it might have
fumed and spewed it is a long way
away from Israel.
Alas Israel is doing the same thing
as it did in 1982 hitting Lebanon.
Lebanon ain’t the problem it is the
symptom.
I’m not too clear on the exact terrain, but it seems that a direct drive from Israel to Damascus might be hard to achieve for reasons of terrain, when a drive up through Lebanon and to the right might be easier.
But they aren’t doing that either way…
Yikes! UAV with warheads operated
by Hezbollah. Clearly this ain’t
the PLO of 1982 Israel is facing
in Lebanon today. They have the
best equipment Iran can provide
them with and Israel is going to
have to be very cautious as it
conducts its operations or another
nasty surprise may come their way.
BTW since there have got to be some
Iranian and Syrian military and
intelligence people ’embedded’ with
Hezbollah and since some kind of
prisoner exchange will probably
take place it might be a real good
idea for Israel to try and grab
some of these dudes for questioning
propaganda purposes and to get
their soldiers back. Just a thought.