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1. Lethal Border Clash Was Planned Ambush at Israeli Territory
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Conclusive evidence shows that the Lebanese army staged a planned ambush on the IDF in Israeli territory and invited media to film the lethal attack on the IDF Tuesday. “It was a planned ambush by a sniper unit," Maj. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot told reporters
Tuesday morning started off with a routine communication by the IDF to United Nations Interim Forces in Lebanon (UNIFIL) forces that the army planned to uproot several trees within Israeli territory in order to remove branches that were interfering with electronic detection devices.
The work was to begin at 9 a.m., but Israel accepted UNIFIL’s request to delay the action for two hours. In the meantime, UNIFIL informed the Lebanese army, which is standard operating procedure.
However, an officer in the army decided to exploit the situation, plan the ambush and even notify Lebanese media, which arrived near the scene to film the attack. Two or three shots were fired, one of them at the head of a senior IDF officer, who was killed, and the other in the chest of a junior officer, who is in serious but stable condition.
All parties—UNIFIL, the Lebanese army, local media and Hizbullah—knew of the ambush, except for Israel. The Lebanese Army claimed that the IDF drew fire by crossing the border, but UNIFIL has confirmed that the IDF was operating within Israeli territory. A UNIFIL officer also told Army Radio Wednesday, "I can confirm that we received notification from the IDF about the work and we passed the information on to the Lebanese Army.
Unlike previous battles with enemy forces and terrorists, such as clashes with Hamas terrorists and the May 31 flotilla battle, foreign media did not blame Israel. TIME magazine reported, “The death by gunshot of Lt. Col. Dov Harari appears to support the Israeli version of events that brought the most serious clash on the Lebanon border in four years.” Another IDF officer was seriously wounded
Government sources told TIME that soldiers heard sniper fire from a Lebanese house, and IDF ground forces and helicopters responded with artillery, rifle and tank fire, killing three Lebanese soldiers and a journalist.
Israel has said that Hizbullah was not involved in the ambush although it certainly knew of it because it has a dominant presence in southern Lebanon and works closely with the Lebanese army.
Tuesday's ambush follows several shooting incidents and Hizbullah rocket attacks on northern Israel since the conclusion of the Second Lebanon War four years ago.
Wednesday morning, IDF forces returned to the site to uproot the trees without interference
2. Ahmadinejad Escapes Assassination Attempt; Suspect Arrested
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Arab and Iranian sources confirmed Wednesday that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad escaped an assassination attempt in the city of Hamadan and that several people were wounded. The Iranian conservative Khabaronline.ir website said that the attacker was arrested.
Iran's semi-official media originally confirmed the report, but the office of Ahmadinejad later denied it, claiming that someone threw a firecracker at his motorcade to celebrate his arrival.
The Arabic-language Arabiya website, which is considered responsible and has published several articles against Ahmadinejad, reported that the “Iranian presidency confirms that President Ahmadinejad escaped an assassination attempt as his procession was targeted by a bomb.”
Arabiya said that Ahmadinejad’s procession was targeted by a bomb, but other sources said a grenade was thrown at the convoy and landed approximately 300 feet from Ahmadinejad's car. After the attack, Ahmadinejad continued with his schedule and addressed a crowd as planned.
Iran’s semi-official media reported in mid-July that Israel, in collaboration with Iranian terror groups, plotted to kill the Iranian leader. “The Zionist regime had met with the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization (MKO) to execute the plan,” according to the Fars News Agency.
3. Nasrallah Accuses Israel of Killing Ex-Prime Minister Hariri
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, under the microscope on charges of being behind the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri, pointed the finger at Israel Tuesday and claimed he has proof to back his charges.
"I accuse the Israeli enemy of the assassination of Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri and... I will prove this by unveiling sensitive information at a press conference on Monday," Nasrallah said in a speech on a video link. He rarely speaks in public because of fears of assassination.
He also accused Israel of trying frame Hizbullah for the assassination by highlighting the political difference between the Shi’ite Muslim terrorist organization and Hariri, who was a Sunni Muslim and openly anti-Syria.
A United Nations judicial panel has investigated the car bomb murder that killed Hariri and 22 others in Beirut and is expected to indict members of Hizbullah. In anticipation of an indictment, political tension has soared in Lebanon and prompted an unprecedented summit meeting last week between Lebanese leaders, Syrian President Bashar Assad and Saudi Arabian King Abdullah.
Some analysts have suggested the Hizbullah was linked with Tuesday’s ambush of Israeli soldiers at the northern border in order to take attention away from the Hariri probe. However, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday morning he does not believe Hizbullah was directly involved in the ambush.
Israeli Intelligence Minister Dan Meridor, quoted by the BBC said, "Nasrallah is under heavy pressure because of the coming allegations that he or his people did kill Rafiq al-Hariri...They may try to divert the attention to another incident."
Nasrallah is under heavy pressure because of the coming allegations that he or his people did kill Rafiq al-Hariri.
Nasrallah is under heavy pressure because of the coming allegations that he or his people did kill Rafiq al-Hariri.
Nasrallah delivered a threat to attack Israel in a fiery speech several hours after the Lebanese army fired on Israeli soldiers in Israel's territory, killing one officer and wounding another.
The IDF returned fire and killed three Lebanese soldiers and a journalist.Nasrallah warned Israel, "We will cut off the Israeli hand that reaches out to (attack) the Lebanese army. I say honestly, that in any place where the Lebanese army will be assaulted and there's a presence for the resistance, and it is capable, the resistance will not stand silent, or quiet or restrained.
"The Lebanese army did what it was asked to do, and that is to sacrifice soldiers. Even the Lebanese media sacrificed one of its own,” he said, referring to a journalist who was killed after having been invited to cover the ambush.
His speech was timed to mark the fourth anniversary of the United Nations Security Council ceasefire resolution that ended the 34-day Second Lebanon War in 2006. The actual date of the resolution is August 14, but Nasrallah advanced his speech because of the daily fast that begins next week with the start of the Muslim month of Ramadan.
4. Mosque Near Ground Zero 'Like a Pig in the Temple'
by Eli Stutz
The plan to build a mosque adjacent to the ruins of the Twin Towers passed a crucial hurdle Tuesday when New York City's Landmarks Preservation Commission voted 9-0 not to declare the building now occupying the site protected, making way for it to be demolished and a mosque and Islamic center to be built in its place.
No one was more shocked by the news than retired Brigadier General Dov Shefi, a former chief military prosecutor and now attorney general of the Defense Ministry who lost his son in the 9/11 attack on the Twin Towers. "For us it's like bringing a pig into the temple," Shefi told Arutz-7.
According to Shefi, people cannot accept the fact that a mosque will be built on the site of the disaster. "I think that the establishment of a mosque in this place, a place that serves as a memorial site for 40,000 families, is like bringing a pig (an unkosher animal) into the Holy Temple. It is inconceivable that in all the city of New York, this site was specifically chosen to establish an institution that represents the culture that led the terrorists of Al-Qaeda to carry out the greatest crime ever.
"America sometimes loses its mind. America raised the banner of the freedom and liberty, allowing everyone to express an opinion, but this belief often makes them lose sight of reality."
Shefi has already turned to U.S. government officials, calling on them to cancel this initiative. "I'm connected to all the support groups of the U.S. families and victim organizations, and I'm not ashamed to write them. I sent a letter to the mayor of New York. I know it will be hard for them to accede to my request but they must understand us."
Shefi told Arutz-7 of his son Haggai, and the terrible news on the day of the disaster. He related that Hagai was a "genius of geniuses" and that and at the age of 29 he was already president of a high-tech company.
The Shefi family flew immediately to the U.S. after the disaster, and Haggai's body was found and brought to burial in Israel. Shefi said that Haggai phoned his wife after the plane hit the north tower to say goodbye to her.
5. Egypt Says Gaza-Based Terrorists Fired on Eilat from Sinai
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Egyptian security sources admitted Wednesday that Monday’s rocket attack on Eilat was launched from within its territory in the Sinai and blamed a Gaza-based terrorist group, without identifying it. Other sources identified Hamas by name.
Cairo previously had claimed that the Katyusha rockets were not fired from within its borders. The official Middle East News Agency reported that the terrorists infiltrated from Gaza into the Sinai through smuggling tunnels.
Hamas controls Gaza and has denied any involvement in the launching of the missiles. One of the missiles hit the Jordanian side of the Gulf of Aqaba and killed one person.
The Fatah Intifada Movement representative in Lebanon said Monday his group backs rocket attacks on Israel and would be willing participate, a Lebanese television station reported.
The Islamic Action Front (IAF), Jordan's largest opposition political party, accused Israel of being behind the rocket attack on Eilat, saying it was "undoubtedly a Zionist act [to] shake the safety and stability of Jordan and drag countries in the region to increased security coordination with Israel."
Eilat police updated a previous report and said that two of the six rockets exploded within the city’s limits and not in the sea, as was previously stated by Eilat Mayor Yitzchak HaLevi. Authorities have not yet located the impact sites of three other missiles that landed in the area.
Israel National News reported Tuesday night that if Hamas terrorists from the Sinai were involved in the attack, it would be strong evidence of its ability to use the Sinai Peninsula to stage attacks on Lebanon.
Israel withdrew from the Gaza area in 2005 and surrendered control of the Philadelphi smuggling route along the Egyptian-Gaza border. Smuggling of terrorists, weapons and human traffic—particularly Africans—has increased sharply since then, often with the cooperation of Bedouin tribes.
Failure of Egypt to prevent cooperation among Hamas, Bedouin and Egyptian’s Muslim Brotherhood terrorists would increase Hamas’s stature in Gaza and in other parts of the Arab world while trying to draw Israel into a conflict on an additional front.
6. IDF Kills Gaza Terrorist in Attack on Third Front
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The IDF killed a Gaza terrorist and wounded two others early Wednesday as terror attacks opened on a third front following rockets in Eilat and a Lebanese army ambush in the north.
Israeli army spokesmen said army officers ordered an aerial strike after a terrorist cell was spotted as it approached the security fence in Gaza. Terrorist cells frequently try to the breach the fence to carry out sniper fire on Israeli soldiers or to plant bombs intended to explode when army jeeps pass by.
The incident occurred in south-central Gaza, near the site of former Jewish communities that the government destroyed as part of the 2005 expulsion and "disengagement” from Gaza. Last Friday, the IDF killed a Hamas commander following a rocket attack on the port city of Ashkelon, home to oil and gas pipelines and a large generating station that supplies power to most of the south and parts of Gaza.
Israel faced attacks on two other fronts the past two days—Katyusha rocket attacks on Eilat and Tuesday’s ambush on Israeli forces in Israeli territory near the northern border. One of the rockets on Eilat exploded on the Jordanian side of the Gulf of Aqaba, killing one person. No Israelis were injured.
The ambush in the north took the life of reserve officer Lt.-Col. Dan Harari, a battalion commander, and seriously injured reserve Captain Ezra Lakia. Israel returned fire and killed three Lebanese army soldiers and a journalist who been invited by Lebanon to film the ambush.
Although Iran and Syria give aid to terrorists in Lebanon and Gaza, Israel does not consider the attacks to be coordinated.
7. Netanyahu: Israel will Respond Forcefully to Further Attacks
by Gil Ronen
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu instructed the IDF to respond forcefully to any further aggression from Lebanon, and laid the blame for Tuesday's deadly incident on the government of Lebanon.
"Israel views the attack on IDF soldiers with great gravity,” Netanyahu said in a formal statement Tuesday evening. “This is a grave breach of [United Nations] Security Council Resolution 1701,” he said. “I see the Lebanese government as directly responsible for this violent provocation against Israel. Israel has responded forcefully and will do so in the future as well, against any attempt to break the peace on the northern border and to harm the residents of the north and the soldiers who defend them.”
Defense Minister Ehud Barak called the incident a “murderous terror attack” and warned the Lebanese government against “continuing to provoke the IDF as they have been doing recently.” He demanded that the Lebanese Army investigate and find out who was responsible for Tuesday's attack.
The United States said Tuesday that it is "extremely concerned" about the violence on the Lebanon/Israel border. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the U.S. was in touch with both governments to try and establish what exactly happened.
"We deeply regret the loss of life; we urge both sides to exercise maximum restraint to avoid an escalation and maintain the ceasefire that is now in place," Crowley told reporters.
"We are trying to understand what happened ... Our greatest concern is that whatever did happen not be repeated. The region has enough tension as it is. The last thing that we want to see is that this incident expand into something more significant," Crowley said according to Reuters.
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