Lebanon War

19 Stories

Lebanon-Israel Border Clash Kills 4 Soldiers

Exchange of fire at border may have been over tree removal

(Newser) - Three Lebanese soldiers, one Israeli soldier, and a Lebanese journalist were killed as Israeli and Lebanese troops fired on each other near the border today in their most serious confrontation since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war. The clash began when Israeli troops tried to remove a tree near or across the...

Israel Used Heavy Force, Expecting Bigger Fight

(Newser) - Israel used overwhelming force in its recent fight with Hamas because it feared a repeat of the heavy losses sustained in its 2006 war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Washington Post reports. Israeli military planners expected Palestinians in Gaza to put up a stronger fight, but it never materialized. The...

Bashir Is Deceitful Propaganda
 Bashir Is Deceitful Propaganda 
OPINION

Bashir Is Deceitful Propaganda

(Newser) - Waltz With Bashir is a beautifully made movie, and Gideon Levy will be rooting for writer/director Ari Folman to win the first Israeli Oscar tomorrow night, along with the rest of the country. “However, it must also be noted that the film is infuriating, disturbing outrageous, and deceptive,”...

Waltz With Bashir Has Echoes of Gaza
 Waltz With Bashir 
 Has Echoes of Gaza 
OPINION

Waltz With Bashir Has Echoes of Gaza

Award-winning film on 1982 Lebanon massacre looks plenty familiar

(Newser) - Israel’s Gaza assault is slipping from US front pages, yet ironically, Waltz With Bashir, an Israeli animated film about the 1982 Israel-Lebanon war, is taking America by storm, earning mountains of critical praise and a Golden Globe. The parallels between that atrocity and the current conflict are striking, Gary...

Israel's Only Option: Destroy Hamas Entirely
Israel's Only Option: Destroy Hamas Entirely
OPINION

Israel's Only Option: Destroy Hamas Entirely

Krauthammer: Olmert has a second chance to defeat extremism

(Newser) - There are only two possible outcomes of the war in Gaza, writes Charles Krauthammer: the complete destruction of Hamas or an internationally supervised truce à la Lebanon. Under immense diplomatic pressure, Israel is hinting it will accept the French-Egyptian ceasefire plan. That would be "a terrible mistake," writes...

Israel Attacks Serve as Reminder of Might
Israel Attacks Serve as Reminder of Might
analysis

Israel Attacks Serve as Reminder of Might

Leaders feared being seen as 'paper tiger'

(Newser) - Israel’s overwhelming strikes on Hamas are in part an effort to flex the country’s muscles and strike fear in the hearts of its enemies, Ethan Bronner writes in the New York Times. “There has been a nagging sense of uncertainty in the last couple years of whether...

Freed Terrorists Enjoy Hero's Welcome

Hezbollah brass band greets child killer released after nearly 30 years

(Newser) - Freed terrorist Samir Qantar, who bludgeoned a 4-year-old child to death with the butt of his rifle in a raid on an Israeli community, was given a red-carpet and rose-petals hero's welcome yesterday by Lebanese president Michel Suleiman and Hezbollah leaders, reports the Times of London. Qantar, who has been...

Israel Releases 5 Prisoners, 200 Bodies in Hezbollah Deal

Exchanges for remains of 2 missing soldiers

(Newser) - Israel released five Lebanese prisoners and nearly 200 bodies today, the New York Times reports, completing a deal with Hezbollah that netted the Jewish state the bodies of two of its captured soldiers. The most notable prisoner was Samir Kuntar, who had spent more than three decades in Israeli prison...

Hezbollah Returns Bodies of 2 Israeli Soldiers

Corpses of servicemen who sparked 2006 war back home

(Newser) - Hezbollah handed over the corpses of two slain Israeli soldiers in an exchange at the Lebanon-Israel border this morning, Reuters reports. The soldiers' capture sparked the 2006 war that killed 1,200 in Lebanon and 159 Israelis. Once the remains are identified, Israel will free five Lebanese prisoners, including one...

Israel to Trade Convicts for 2 Soldiers

Hezbollah hails swap as evidence of its growing power

(Newser) - Israeli officials today approved a prisoner swap with Hezbollah to release the bodies of two soldiers whose capture triggered a 2006 war, Reuters reports. In return, Hezbollah secured the freedom of five gunmen, including one of Israel’s “most notorious convicts,” the New York Times says. Israeli PM...

Lebanon Picks Prez, Ends 6-Month Crisis

But foreign policy, Hezbollah arsenal still divide nation

(Newser) - Lebanon elected its first leader in 6 months today by naming Gen. Michel Suleiman as president, the Washington Post reports. Fireworks filled the sky to a chorus of car honks after Suleiman secured the post with a near-unanimous 118 of 127 parliamentary votes. But the nation remains torn between US-Saudi...

Israeli Report Slams Lebanon War, Spares PM Olmert

'Grave' failures cited, but no calls to resign

(Newser) - An Israeli panel cited “grave shortcomings” in its final report on Ehud Olmert’s leadership during the 2006 Lebanon war, but said Israel's PM acted “on substantial grounds" and in what he felt was in the nation’s best interest, the Guardian reports. Olmert, who had expected the...

Impending War Report Could Topple Olmert

Israeli PM steels for harsh criticism of his 2006 conduct in Lebanon

(Newser) - Ehud Olmert is bracing for a vital challenge to his career as prime minister of Israel, when a report damning his conduct in the 2006 Lebanon war is released later today. The report could topple Olmert's precarious coalition government, the Times of London reports. An interim version of the report...

Lebanon Under Seige
Lebanon Under Seige

Lebanon Under Seige

(Newser) - Economist Middle East correspondent Max Rodenbeck takes us on a painful amble through the history of modern Lebanon.   He sees Lebanon as a Manichean society where the wealthy live next to the poor, the religious coexist (sort of) with the secular, the pro-Syrian are at odds with the pro-Israeli.

Israeli Labor Party Picks Barak to Lead

Former PM will join cabinet, sets sight on top job again

(Newser) - Ehud Barak won a runoff election yesterday making him head of Israel's Labor Party once again. Barak, who edged out former Shin Bet boss Ari Ayalon, will join PM Ehud Olmert's coalition cabinet, probably as defense minister. But the Guardian reports that the serial party chief is widely expected to...

Israel Votes Out Labor Leader
Israel Votes Out Labor Leader

Israel Votes Out Labor Leader

Peretz loses to Olmert critics; party threatens to quit government

(Newser) - Ehud Olmert was the biggest loser as the Israeli Labor party yesterday ousted its current leader, Defense Minister Amir Peretz, in favor of  two stauncher critics of Israel's uneasy coalition government. The vote yielded a runoff between former PM Ehud Barak and former Shin Bet chief Ami Ayalon, both of...

Israelis Rally for Olmert Ouster
Israelis Rally for Olmert Ouster

Israelis Rally for Olmert Ouster

(Newser) - A massive demonstration in Tel Aviv yesterday amplified the cry for Israel's PM Ehud Olmert to resign. Tens of thousands of Israelis packed into Rabin Square to denounce Olmert's handling of last year's Lebanon War, in the wake of the highly critical Winograd Commission report. Polls are showing three quarters...

Report on Lebanon War Slams Olmert
Report on Lebanon War Slams Olmert

Report on Lebanon War Slams Olmert

Israeli cabinet member resigns, urges embattled PM to follow

(Newser) - Israel’s investigation into last summer’s bungled war in Lebanon has produced a firestorm of  criticism directed at Ehud Olmert, who is now fighting for his political survival. The Winograd Commission’s initial report accused the prime minister of “supreme and comprehensive personal responsibility” for the war’s...

Olmert Braces For Possible Summer Ouster

Report critical of Lebanon war may doom Israeli PM

(Newser) - Ehud Olmert may be forced out of office to avoid dragging the Kadima party down with him, Haaretz reports. Quoting a senior party official, the newspaper says the Israeli Prime Minister may resign this summer as part of the fallout from a government report on the run-up to and conduct...

19 Stories