Israel Won't Rule Out Full-Scale Invasion

Russia and the rest of the known universe can condemn Israel all they want, at the end of the day, they are doing what needs to be done and what should have been since the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The sooner Western nations realize that militant Islam is at war with us and we should respond in kind, the sooner we can end this conflict. It continues to go on the way it does precisely for the reasons Russia, et. al. want the Israeli's to show "restraint" in dealing with these infantile Islamic fundamentalist guerillas. While we the Western world rest on laurels, show restraint, and give away territory, they attack as much as they can. I not only fully support what Israel is doing, I would hasten to ask, how long before they attack Syria and really do some damage?

Israeli troops met fierce resistance from Hezbollah guerrillas Thursday as they crossed into Lebanon to seek tunnels and weapons for a second consecutive day. Israel, meanwhile, refused to rule out a full-scale invasion.

Israeli warplanes also launched new airstrikes on Beirut's southern suburbs, a Hezbollah stronghold, shortly after daybreak Thursday, followed by strikes in the guerrilla's heartland in the south and eastern Bekaa Valley.

The strikes came a wave of bombings Wednesday killed as many as 70 people, according to Lebanese television, making it the deadliest day since the fighting began on July 12.

Russia sharply criticized Israel over its onslaught against Lebanon, now in its ninth day, sparked when Hezbollah guerrillas captured two Israeli soldiers. The Russian Foreign Ministry said Israel's actions have gone "far beyond the boundaries of an anti-terrorist operation" and repeating calls for an immediate cease-fire.

At least 306 people have been killed in Lebanon since the Israeli campaign began, according to the security forces control room that collates casualties. In Israel, 29 people have been killed, including 14 soldiers. The U.N. has said at least a half million people have been displaced in Lebanon.

In developments on the evacuation of Lebanon, U.S. Marines landed in Beirut Thursday to help Americans onto a Navy ship bound for Cyprus in the second mass U.S exodus from the battle-torn country.

About 40 U.S. Marines arrived at a beach just north of Beirut in a landing craft and picked up 300 Americans who they ferried to the amphibious assault ship USS Nashville just off the coast. The Nashville is supposed to sail for Cyprus with about 1,000 Americans.
Hundreds of people, some with shirts draped over their heads to protect themselves from the sun, gathered on the beach. A U.S. Embassy official, speaking through a megaphone, pleaded for patience, reassuring the crowd that all those who registered to be evacuated would be assisted.
"We are frustrated and disappointed, but we are O.K.," said Bob Elazon, an Illinois resident who complained that the U.S. evacuation was badly organized.

Elazon, who left his native Lebanon 34 years ago, was with his 20-year-old daughter, Anna, who was visiting the country for the first time. His wife departed just before the fighting erupted.

Meanwhile, the first plane carrying U.S. evacuees landed outside Baltimore early Thursday, and eager family members waited to greet the 145 Americans aboard the charter flight from Cyprus.

Some 900 Americans arrived in Cyprus early Thursday aboard a luxury cruise ship - the first mass U.S. evacuation from Lebanon since the Israeli airstrikes started more than a week ago.

It was among dozens of cruise ships evacuating thousands of foreigners from Lebanon. Some 8,000 of 25,000 U.S. citizens in Lebanon have asked to leave. So many people were leaving Lebanon that boats were forced to line up outside Beirut harbor and had to wait before docking in Cyprus.

Israel's series of small ground forays across the border have aimed to push back Hezbollah guerrillas who have continued to fire rockets into northern Israel despite more than a week of massive Israeli bombardment against them - raising the question of whether air power alone can suppress them. Guerrillas fired 25 rockets into Israel on on Thursday, which caused no casualties.

But the guerrillas have been fighting back hard on the ground, wounding three Israeli soldiers Thursday a day after killing two. On Thursday, an Israeli unit sent in to ambush Hezbollah guerrillas had a fierce gunbattle with a cell of militants.

In another clash, just across the border from the Israeli town of Avivim, guerrillas fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli tank, seriously wounding one soldier. Hezbollah said in a statement that its guerrillas destroyed two Israeli tanks as they tried to enter the Lebanese border village of Maroun al-Ras, across from Avivim.

Israel has mainly limited itself to attacks from the air and sea, reluctant to send in ground troops on terrain dominated by Hezbollah.

But an Israeli army spokesman refused to rule out the possibility of a full-scale invasion. Israel also broadcast warnings into south Lebanon on Wednesday telling civilians to leave the region, a possible prelude to a larger Israeli ground operation.

"There is a possibility - all our options are open. At the moment, it's a very limited, specific incursion but all options remain open," Capt. Jacob Dallal, an Israeli army spokesman, told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

The Lebanese government is under international pressure to deploy troops in the south to rein in Hezbollah guerrillas - but even before the fighting many considered it too weak to do so without deeply fracturing the country.

An Italian paper quoted Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora on Thursday as making his strongest statement yet against the Shiite militant group. But Saniora's office quickly said he was misquoted.

The Milan-based newspaper Corriere della Sera quoted him as saying in an interview that Hezbollah has created a "state within a state," adding: "The entire world must help us disarm Hezbollah. But first we need to reach a cease-fire," Saniora told

But Saniora issued a statement denying the statement. He said he told the paper that the international community must help press Israel from Chebaa Farms, a small border area that Lebanon claims and Hezbollah points to as proof of the continued need for armed resistance.

Saniora told the paper that "the continued presence of Israeli occupation of Lebanese lands in the Chebaa Farms region is what contributes to the presence of Hezbollah weapons. The international community must help us in (getting) an Israeli withdrawal from Chebaa Farms so we can solve the problem of Hezbollah's arms," the satement said. There was no immediate comment from the Italian paper.

A day earlier, Saniora issued an urgent appeal for a cease-fire, saying his country "has been torn to shreds." On Wednesday, warplanes pounded areas in the south where Hezbollah operates - but civilian residential neighborhoods bore the brunt, with dozens of houses destroyed.

Dallal said Israel had hit "1,000 targets in the last 8 days - 20 percent were missile launching sites and the rest were control and command centers, missiles and so forth."

Brig. Gen. Ido Nehushtan insisted the Israeli army never targets civilians but has no way of knowing whether civilians are in an area they are striking. "Civilians might be in the area because Hezbollah is operating from civilian territory," Nehushtan said.

He said that Hezbollah has fired more than 1,100 rockets at civilian areas in Israel since the fighting erupted and that 12 percent - or about 750,000 people - of Israel's population currently live in areas that can be targeted by the guerrilla group.
Israel said its airstrikes so far have destroyed "about 50 percent" of Hezbollah's arsenal - and it has been trying to take out its top leaders.

Wednesday evening, the Israeli military said that aircraft dropped 23 tons of explosives on on what the military believed was a bunker used by senior Hezbollah leaders in the Bourj al-Barajneh neighborhood of Beirut between 8 p.m. and 9 p.m.
Hezbollah said none of its members were hurt in the strike and denied a leadership bunker was in the area, saying a building under construction to be a mosque was hit.

Hezbollah has a headquarters compound in Bourj al-Barajneh that is off limits to the Lebanese police and army, so security officials could not confirm the strike.

Israel's U.N. Ambassador Dan Gillerman told CNN on Thursday said his country would not issue a statement about the attack until it is sure of all the facts. But he added, "I can assure you that we know exactly what we hit. ... This was no religious site. This was indeed the headquarters of the Hezbollah leadership."