August 14, 2006, 3:35 PM (GMT+02:00)
While the damage caused Israel’s military reputation tops Western assessments of the Lebanon war, DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources report an entirely different perception taking hold in ruling circles in Tehran.
After UN Security Council resolution 1701 calling for a truce was carried Friday, Aug. 11, the heads of the regime received two separate evaluations of the situation in Lebanon – one from Iran’s foreign ministry and one from its supreme national security council. Both were bleak: their compilers were concerned that Iran had been manipulatively robbed of its primary deterrent asset ahead of a probable nuclear confrontation with the United States and Israel.
While the foreign ministry report highlighted the negative aspects of the UN resolution, the council’s document complained that Hizballah squandered thousands of rockets – either by firing them into Israel or having them destroyed by the Israeli air force.
The writer of this report is furious over the waste of Iran’s most important military investment in Lebanon merely for the sake of a conflict with Israeli over two kidnapped soldiers.
It took Iran two decades to build up Hizballah’s rocket inventory.
DEBKAfile’s sources estimate that Hizballah’s adventure wiped out most of the ...   more »

I think we generally underestimate the horrible acts of which the most committed Islamo-fascists are capable. I don't know why, given that we know they are capable of mass murder of innocents on airplanes or in buildings, but we do still underestimate them.
I can't say if the troubling coincidences represented in these photos are just that, coincidence, or if it is yet another level of depravity to which a terrorist enemy has sunk. You'll have to be the judge of that for yourself.
There are some things we do know.
Several reports indicated that many of the child victims were handicapped, or disabled. You can see it here on Ynet news, for example. And one of the sources for similar reports is a Lebanese PM, Bahia Hariri. I believe she is the widow of the murdered Rafik Hariri.
'Disabled children placed inside building'
"We have it from a credible source that Hizbullah, alarmed by Siniora's plan, has concocted an incident that would help thwart the negotiations. Knowing full well that Israel will not hesitate to bombard civilian targets, Hizbullah gunmen placed a rocket launcher on the roof in Qana and brought disabled children inside, in a bid to provoke ...   more »

Sgt. Gordon, 51, watched the war in Israel from his couch in Los Angeles, and felt he had to do something to help. He bought a ticket, and days later was in Kiryat Shmona, handing out food to civilians, soldiers
Aviram Zino  
Sergeant Walt Gordon, 51, took some time off from his work as an officer and medic with the Beverly Hills Police to come to Israel last week, straight to the rocket-ravaged town of Kiryat Shmona in the north.  
Gordon arrived on his own initiative to lend a hand to forces in the north and express support and solidarity for the holy land.
"My wife and I are devout Christians and big fans of Israel," Gordon told Ynet. "We saw what was happening in Israel on the news, and especially in Kiryat Shmona, and we decided we had to help."   
Gordon said his police unit in Los Angeles trains with representatives from the Israel Police, so he turned to an Israeli friend there and asked how he could help. After he was referred to the Kiryat Shmona police, he bought a ticket to Israel and went straight up north to offer his help.  
Along with ...   more »