Obama told me so: 01/28/15

Wednesday, 28 January 2015

Salam assured border violence won’t lead to war

Prime Minister Tammam Salam has received assurances that the latest wave of violence along the Lebanon-Israel border...

Israel hunts for Hezbollah tunnels day after border attack

BEIRUT: Israeli troops resumed Thursday search for tunnels that Hezbollah may have dug, a day after a Hezbollah revenge border attack killed two Israeli soldiers, the Jerusalem Post said.

It said the Israeli military began drilling again Thursday in search for possible tunnels near the northern community of Zirit, which is situated close to the Lebanese border. They started the drilling on Wednesday morning but subsequently stopped due to the attack.

The Post quoted military sources as saying that the search was being carried out in response to a request by local residents to rule out the possibility of the presence of Hezbollah attacks in the area.

According to the Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson's office, the military has increased the number of troops along the border Thursday.

The report said Israeli residents were told to return to routine, with analysts persisting that neither Israel nor Hezbollah is interested in a full-scale escalation.

It said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid the blame on Iran for Wednesday’s attack.

“For some time, Iran – via Hezbollah – has been trying to establish an additional terrorist front against us from the Golan Heights,” Netanyahu said. “We are taking strong and responsible action against this attempt.”

He said the governments of Lebanon and Syria also bear responsibility for attacks against Israel that came from their territory and vowed “those behind [Wednesday’s] attack will pay the full price.”

Hezbollah carried out an attack Wednesday in revenge for the killing of six party members in an Israeli airstrike in Qunaitra in Syria’s Golan Heights Jan. 18.

The attack with a missile salvo killed at least two Israeli soldiers in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms in south Lebanon.

World urges restraint after Hezbollah revenge

MARJAYOUN, Lebanon: Israel appeared hesitant to escalate a standoff with Hezbollah after the party’s guerrillas killed at least two soldiers in an ambush in Lebanon’s occupied Shebaa Farms Wednesday in response to the Jewish state’s deadly strike in Syria last week.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called for “maximum calm and restraint,” urging all sides to “act responsibly to prevent any escalation in an already tense regional environment,” a U.N. statement said.

The United Nations Security Council, which convened in an emergency meeting, strongly condemned the killing of a Spanish peacekeeper in south Lebanon, while Spain held Israel responsible for his death.

The United States condemned Hezbollah’s attack but urged both sides “to refrain from any action that could escalate the situation.”

Hezbollah fighters attacked an Israeli military convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms, south Lebanon, killing at least two soldiers and wounding seven.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said that the Israeli convoy, comprising more than nine vehicles, was ambushed on a curve leading to the occupied Bustra farm, east of the area of Majidieh.

Al-Manar said anti-tank missiles fired by Hezbollah fighters damaged nine vehicles, killing and wounding the soldiers inside.

The Israeli army confirmed the death of two soldiers, adding that seven others were wounded.

The Israeli military said five anti-tank missiles hit the soldiers as they were traveling near the Shebaa Farms.

The soldiers were in two unarmored white vehicles without military insignia when they were struck from a distance of about 5 kilometers away, said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli military spokesman.

According to Israeli media, a number of Israeli Army troops were being treated with “light-to-moderate wounds” at a hospital in Safed.

The operation came 10 days after an Israeli airstrike on a Hezbollah convoy in the Syrian town of Qunaitra, in the Golan Heights, killed six Hezbollah fighters and an Iranian Revolutionary Guard general.

Hezbollah claimed responsibility for Wednesday’s attack.

“At 11:25 [a.m.] the Qunaitra Martyrs unit targeted with appropriate missile weapons an Israeli military convoy comprising several vehicles and [transporting] Zionist officers and soldiers, causing the destruction of several vehicles and inflicting many casualties on the enemy,” Hezbollah said in a brief statement.

Hezbollah considers that the Lebanese government’s policy statement, stating that “Lebanese people have the right to resist Israeli occupation, repel its aggression and reclaim occupied territories,” bestows legitimacy on its resistance operations.

In the aftermath of the attack, Prime Minister Tammam Salam called on the international community to restrain Israel from carrying out attacks against Lebanon, stressing his government was committed to U.N. Resolution 1701, which put an end to the 2006 war with Israel.

“Lebanon places the international community in front of their responsibilities and urges them to restrain Israel’s tendency to gamble with the region’s security and stability,” Salam said in a statement.

“Lebanon reaffirms its commitment to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 in all its clauses, and its appreciation of the efforts deployed by UNIFIL peacekeepers,” Salam added.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for his part, warned that Hezbollah would pay the “full price” for the operation.

“Those behind today’s attack will pay the full price,” Netanyahu’s office quoted him as saying at a meeting with Israeli’s top security brass in the evening.

“The government of Lebanon and the Assad regime share responsibility for the consequences of attacks originating in their territory against the state of Israel,” he said.

The U.S. condemned Hezbollah’s attack, saying it supported Israel’s right to self-defense.

“We support Israel’s legitimate right to self-defense and continue to urge all parties to respect the Blue Line between Israel and Lebanon,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.

“We urge all parties to refrain from any action that could escalate the situation,” Psaki said, adding that Washington was closely monitoring the situation.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations told the Security Council in a letter that the Jewish state would take all necessary measures to defend itself.

“Israel will not stand by as Hezbollah targets Israelis,” Ron Prosor wrote in the letter, which was also sent to Ban.

Prosor also demanded that the council condemn Hezbollah and take steps to press Lebanon to disarm the group, as outlined in U.N. resolutions.

Spain’s ambassador to the United Nations, meanwhile, blamed Israel for the death of the Spanish peacekeeper.

“It was because of this escalation of violence, and it came from the Israeli side,” Spanish Ambassador Roman Oyarzun Marchesi told reporters.

The U.N. peacekeeper has been identified as Cpl. Francisco Javier Soria Toledo, 36, and U.N. officials have said only that the cause of his death is under investigation.

The Security Council condemned the killing of the peacekeeper in the strongest terms and offered its deepest sympathies.

AP quoted a diplomat present at the council meeting as saying that senior peacekeeping official Edmond Mulet told council members that the attacks were a “serious violation” of cease-fire agreements and that UNIFIL had launched an investigation.

Meanwhile in Beirut, the Future parliamentary bloc voiced its opposition to implicating Lebanon in matters which did not serve the country’s interests, stressing that no party had the right to hijack the decision of war and peace from the government.

In a statement after its weekly meeting, the bloc said that the security of Lebanon and safety of the Lebanese should be a priority for all Lebanese parties, who should fully respect U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701.

A security source told The Daily Star that 50 shells were fired from the Israeli side across the Lebanese border following the midday attack, while Hezbollah responded by firing several rockets at Israeli positions in the area.

UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said the peacekeeping force commander was in “close contact” with Lebanon and Israel and was “actively engaged with all the parties, urging restraint in order to prevent any escalation of the situation.”

No shelling was heard after calls for restraint came out around 2 p.m. However, Israeli warplanes still hovered overhead.

The source said at least eight shells landed in the Israeli-occupied Shebaa Farms, and several others crashed into nearby Majidieh, a town mainly comprised primarily of agricultural land along the Wazzani River and opposite occupied Ghajar.

Israeli media said that in the wake of the exchange of fire between Hezbollah and the Israeli troops, the Israeli army suspended drilling along the Lebanese border in search for Hezbollah tunnels.

Israeli military sources had told The Jerusalem Post that the search operation came in response to local residents’ fears about the possibility of a Hezbollah attack in the area after the Qunaitra strike.

Schools in Khiam, Mari and Ain Arab closed and Syrian refugees were relocating to a safer region in anticipation of an escalation.

In Beirut, celebratory gunfire could be heard in the afternoon.

AG Nominee Lynch Says She Differs From Obama On Marijuana

Loretta Lynch, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, leaves for a lunch break during a day-long Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on her nomination to be U.S. attorney general. PETE MAROVICH/UPI /Landov hide caption

itoggle caption PETE MAROVICH/UPI /Landov

PETE MAROVICH/UPI /Landov

During her first day of confirmation hearings for attorney general, nominee Loretta Lynch gave answers that seemed in line with President Obama. But then she was asked about marijuana, and whether she supports legalizing it.

"Senator, I do not," Lynch told Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., when he asked if she supported making pot legal.

The moment stood in contrast to other exchanges between Lynch and members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as she defended Obama's right to take executive action on immigration rules and aligned herself with the president's view on U.S. interrogation programs, saying, "Waterboarding is torture."

Sessions asked Lynch about marijuana during the afternoon portion of her hearing. And he noted that the head of the Drug Enforcement Agency also disagrees with the idea of legalizing marijuana.

The senator then read aloud a quote from President Obama from last January, in which he told The New Yorker, "I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very different from the cigarettes that I smoked as a young person up through a big chunk of my adult life. I don't think it is more dangerous than alcohol."

When Sessions asked Lynch if she agreed with that assessment, she said, "Well senator, I certainly don't hold that view, and don't agree with that view of marijuana as a substance. I certainly think that the president was speaking from his personal experience and personal opinion – neither of which I am able to share."

She added, "Not only do I not support legalization of marijuana – it is not the position of the Department of Justice currently, to support the legalization, nor would it be the position should I become confirmed as attorney general."

As The Hill reports, "Obama said in a YouTube interview last week that the federal government is 'not going to spend a lot of resources' enforcing marijuana laws."

Today, Lynch also fielded questions about a range of issues, from America's large prison population and the use of veterans' courts to stalker apps and the Comcast-Time Warner Cable merger. Her confirmation hearing will resume Thursday.

As NPR's Ailsa Chang reported this morning, "Republicans expect to go hard at Lynch about the constitutionality of the president's executive action on immigration. They'll also press her about political decision-making at the IRS, and ask her about the limits of prosecutorial discretion."

Southerners wary but resolute in wake of Hezbollah ambush

MARJAYOUN, Lebanon: Standing on a hill in southern Lebanon, Ahmad Awada stared at the Israeli shells falling on the nearby town of Abbasieh. “Hezbollah has done it. They have taken revenge for their members who fell in Qunaitra,” he said. “God help us.” Life was upended for scores of southerners Wednesday after Hezbollah missiles hit an Israeli convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms and the Israeli army returned fire almost immediately. Some schools in Mari, Khiam and Ain Arab were immediately shuttered. Elsewhere, locals gathered on bluffs and hilltops to watch the shelling.

“We will join Hezbollah in war as long as it is fighting Israel,” said Mahmoud Shehab, who hails from Abbasieh. “We will fight on the front lines, because this is a battle of dignity,” he added.

Medium-sized cars transported workers and refugees away to safety. “We ran away from the shelling in Syria to come here,” said Ibrahim Mustafa, a Syrian refugee residing in the area. “But it turns out the situation is the same – only here you’ll die fighting the Jews.”

Randa, a young Syrian refugee, said the shelling reminded her of fleeing her home in Raqqa. “We were very scared, because we ran away from Raqqa where war was going on. We ran away from death,” she said while perched atop a play structure.

Shepherds whose flocks have long grazed in the area, were surprised by Israeli shelling early Wednesday afternoon. “We left our flocks behind and ran,” said Adnan al-Ahmad, a local shepherd. “My heart was with my children in school but they came back thankfully.”

Since six Hezbollah members and an Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander were killed in an Israeli airstrike in Syria earlier this month, both Lebanese and Israelis have been waiting for Hezbollah’s response.

“We weren’t expecting Hezbollah to take revenge from the south [of Lebanon],” said Hasan Chit, who hails from the town of Kfar Kila. “We were expecting it to happen from Syria or from the Golan Heights.”

“Israel is afraid of us, the Lebanese and we are all with the Army, the resistance and the people,” he added.

In the town of Khiam, not far from the areas of the shelling, Mahmoud Fouani said the Israelis had surely been waiting for Hezbollah’s move. “Israel was waiting in fear for this operation in the wake of the attack in Qunaitra,” he said, adding that he did not think Israel would further escalate the conflict with Hezbollah despite tough rhetoric by Israeli politicians Wednesday.

“I think that Hezbollah has responded in an appropriate way, and now the leader of the resistance [Sayyed] Hasan Nasrallah will have something to brag about when he speaks Friday.”

Timeline of major Hezbollah operations since 1982

BEIRUT: From its inception, Hezbollah’s primary focus was on ending Israel’s 18-year-long occupation of southern Lebanon.

Hezbollah has waged a war against Israeli occupiers, often using inventive schemes and an array of military tactics, such as suicide bombings, assassinations, soldier abductions and murders.

Over the course of 33 years, from 1982 to 2015, Hezbollah and Israel have engaged in a series of military clashes within Lebanese territories.November 1982: After invading Lebanon in June, the Israeli military set up command posts to run the cities they occupied. On Nov. 11, 1982, a Peugeot car rigged with explosives struck a seven-story building being used by the Israeli military in the coastal city of Tyre. The explosion leveled the building and killed 75 Israeli soldiers, border policemen, and Shin Bet agents, some of the worst losses ever for the Israeli Army. Almost exactly a year later, in 1983, an identical bombing happened in Tyre. A suicide bomber drove a pickup truck packed with explosives into a Shin Bet headquarters in Tyre. The explosion killed 28 Israelis.

With the adoption of the Taif Accord in 1989, Lebanon’s Civil War came to an end, but the southern front against Israel remained active for decades.

During the 1990s, after the formal conclusion of the 1975-90 Civil War, Hezbollah engaged Israel in almost daily clashes after the group mounted a resistance operation to drive the occupiers out of south Lebanon. The pace of attacks would intensify well into the decade, with Hezbollah staging ambushes, kidnappings and rocket launchings.

February 1992: Hezbollah killed three Israeli soldiers by infiltrating their camps. In response an Israeli helicopter gunship struck the motorcade of the party’s then-leader Abbas al-Musawi two days later, killing him and his family. Hezbollah then responded with rocket fire into Israel’s security zone in the south.

Under Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah, who assumed party leadership, a retribution policy was enacted in which Hezbollah would respond proportionately to Israeli attacks.

June 1993: Hezbollah launched rocket attacks against northern Israeli villages, and in July 1993 attacks by both Hezbollah and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command killed five Israeli soldiers. In retaliation the Israelis launched the seven-day Operation Accountability, which killed dozens of Hezbollah fighters and 118 Lebanese civilians. After one week of fighting in the southern front an agreement brokered by the United States prohibited attacks on civilian targets.

Persistent attacks by Hezbollah on Israeli military positions, including those of its proxy the South Lebanon Army, continued for years to follow.

April 1996: Hezbollah launched another 30 missiles into northern Israel, citing a roadside bomb that killed a 14-year-old Lebanese boy in the village of Barashit as the reason. In response to intense shelling in March and April, the Israelis launched the seven-day Operation Grapes of Wrath on April 11. Over 1,000 air raids were conducted by Israel and some 600 cross-border rockets were fired by Hezbollah.

September 1997: Hezbollah fighters ambushed an Israeli special forces unit with an explosive device outside the security zone occupied by Israel. The soldiers were killed after entering an orchard booby-trapped with bombs in the town of Ansarieh. A clash ensued and Israeli rescue teams came under fire as they attempted to transport the dead. At least a dozen Israeli soldiers were killed in the ambush which Hezbollah would reveal 14 years later was planned after the party intercepted video footage broadcast by Israeli spy UAVs.

May 1999: Hezbollah attacked 14 Israeli and South Lebanon Army outposts simultaneously. The outpost in Beit Yahoun was overrun and one SLA soldier was taken prisoner.

May 2000: Israel withdrew its forces from south Lebanon which led to the collapse of the South Lebanon Army, considered a great victory for Hezbollah. However, Israel maintained its occupation in the Shebaa Farms, and Hezbollah vowed to continue resistance operations until the area was free of any Israeli presence.

October 2000: Hezbollah attacked Israel in a cross-border raid in the Shebaa Farms area, killing three Israeli soldiers on border patrol. In 2004, over 400 Palestinian and 30 Lebanese prisoners, including Hezbollah leaders Sheikh Abdel-Karim Obeid and Mustafa Dirani, as well as the remains of 59 Lebanese killed by Israel, were exchanged for the bodies of three Israeli soldiers and Elhanan Tannenbaum, an Israeli colonel in the reserves kidnapped by Hezbollah in Dubai in October 2000.

From this point on, a low-level border conflict consisting of Hezbollah rocket and mortar attacks on Israeli military positions in and around Shebaa would persist for another six years until July 12, 2006.

July 12, 2006: Hezbollah abducted two Israeli reserve soldiers in a cross-border raid, a move that sparked the 2006 July War, a 34-day military conflict.

In return for the bodies of the two captured soldiers, Hezbollah demanded the release of Lebanese prisoners. Israel initially refused the demand and responded with airstrikes and artillery fire targeting Hezbollah posts and Lebanese infrastructure, including the airport. The conflict killed more than 1,200 Lebanese, mostly civilians, as well as 165 Israelis, mostly soldiers. A United Nations brokered cease-fire went into effect Aug. 14, but the war formally ended Sept. 8, when Israel lifted its naval blockade.

Ball in Israel’s court after Hezbollah attack

BEIRUT: Within the space of a few hours, two Israeli soldiers were dead, and Wednesday had turned from just another weekday to the day that Lebanese started asking themselves: Are we about to see a repeat of 2006?

That year saw a full-on war with Israel develop following a deadly cross-border attack by Hezbollah on an Israeli patrol. The 2006 war, which ended up costing more than 1,000 lives and severely damaging infrastructure across the country, came after years of “tit-for-tat” incidents between the two sides as part of a carefully calibrated game for which both sides thought they knew the rules.

The name of the unit that attacked an Israeli convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms Wednesday, killing two and wounding seven others, was the Qunaitra Martyrs – a clear reference to the airstrike last week on a Hezbollah vehicle in Qunaitra, Syria.

That attack killed six party fighters, including the highly symbolic Jihad Mughniyeh – son of assassinated commander Imad – and a senior Iranian military figure. Everyone knew that Hezbollah would have to retaliate.

As a result, most have interpreted the Shebaa Farms incident as part of the contained mini-war between the two sides. But could Hezbollah have been looking for something more following such a bold and humiliating attack on its troops in Syria? Or could their response accidently have paved the way for something bigger, as it did back in 2006, due to unpredictable internal Israeli factors?

“Never rule out war between these two antagonists,” said Bilal Saab, a senior fellow for Middle East security at the Atlantic Council. “But Hezbollah has already done what it wanted to do: a limited, deadly and precise attack.”

He pointed to the significance of Hezbollah’s decision to respond to the Qunaitra attack from the Shebaa Farms, a heavily disputed territory in the Israeli-occupied Syrian Golan Heights that Lebanon claims as its own.

“The very choice of geography shows the organization does not want to escalate,” Saab said. “It’s cautious, the choice of Shebaa, it means we are back to the previous rules of engagement, which were stable until 2006, when everything broke down.”

“It didn’t attack inside Israel, or inside Syria in the Golan Heights. Hezbollah is not after major escalation, if it was, it could have done much, much more, and Israel understands this,” he added.

But as with all analysts that The Daily Star spoke with, Saab highlighted that the ball was very much in Israel’s court now, and that this included huge unknowns.

“The political calculation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is very important, and oftentimes it has little to do with the military dynamics between the two sides.”

Following the disintegration of his coalition government late last year, Netanyahu called for snap national elections to be held in March. With his position in peril, he is expected to appeal to the right-wing politicians and parts of Israeli society to keep him in power, a bid that many believe would be hugely boosted by a confrontation of some sort with archenemy Hezbollah.

Seeking to depict himself as a crusader against Arab forces bent on Israel’s destruction, his desire to utilize the attack on a military convoy as something more dangerous was evident in his initial response to the incident. “We will not allow terror elements to disrupt the lives of our citizens and threaten their security,” he said. “We will know how to respond with force to whoever challenges us.”

“He’s a wild card,” Saab continued. “In some ways he is just like [former Israeli Prime Minister] Ehud Olmert, who had an inferior political position and went ballistic on Lebanon [in 2006], which obviously backfired.

“The political calculations were huge back then and my understanding, my suspicion, is that they will also play a factor here. We are just not sure of the size.”

The problem is that Netanyahu has been waiting for such an opportunity to urge government parties and the general public to support his election campaign, Mario Abou Zeid researcher at the Carnegie Middle East Center agreed. “I don’t think he will lose this opportunity, he will use it.”

And there were clear signs Wednesday that fellow Israeli politicians – both friend and foe – would rally around the idea of more fighting. Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman called Wednesday for a “harsh and disproportionate” response, while one of Netanyahu’s key opponents, MK Tzipi Livni, said “an attack on soldiers or civilians will be answered harshly and without compromise.”

“There is definitely a possibility of escalation,” Abou Zeid said. “But it’s not 100 percent yet. I don’t think it would be a popular option inside the Israeli community, on the news they were all against escalation and engaging in open war with Hezbollah, but it is more popular among the higher ranks and commanders.”

Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland and author of the blog “Hizballah Cavalcade,” said it was possible that this attack was too much for Israel to ignore.

“In earlier retaliatory responses, when Hezbollah ‘answered’ Israel after their positions or equipment were hit in Syria, a lot of the time they are smaller scale IED attacks ... mostly resulting in injuries, not huge, so it was possible to sweep it under the rug,” he explained.

This time, however, two Israeli soldiers have been killed, he said. “Are the Israelis going to take this and say we allow this response and won’t escalate? There is the other possibility that they respond in a much harder fashion.”

However, he agreed that Hezbollah was not looking for all-out war: “For the most part they really do have their hands tied. They’ve sent thousands of people to Syria ... I don’t think they want to escalate to point in which everything south of Litani [river] is blasted to smithereens.”

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Lebanon in King Salman’s heart: Hariri

BEIRUT: Former Prime Minister Saad Hariri was optimistic that Saudi Arabia would continue to support Lebanon under the new leadership of King Salman.

“Saudi Arabia will maintain its supportive policy toward Lebanon under the reign of the King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz,” Hariri told pan-Arab daily Ash-Sharq al-Awsat in comments published Wednesday. “The Lebanese have known King Salman for decades as a friend, a brother and a supporter of hundreds of politicians, intellectuals, journalists, businessmen and economists, to the extent that it was said that he knows more about Lebanon than many Lebanese do.”

Hariri explained that King Salman was keen on maintaining the distinctive relationship that links Saudi Arabia and Lebanon since the days of the founder King Abdul-Aziz al-Saud, adding that King Salman was of the belief that Riyadh should do whatever it is in its capacity to restore security and stability in Lebanon and the Arab countries. Hariri said Saudi Arabia maintained this consistent approach vis-a-vis all Arab countries.

The Saudi support was felt by the Lebanese during the numerous crises Lebanon went through, including the 1975-90 Civil War and repeated Israeli offenses against Lebanon that have inflicted much damage to south Lebanon, Hariri said.

“The kingdom was always the first to stand firmly by Lebanon, support it in the Arab and international forums, and generously help reduce the effects of the attacks and enable the Lebanese to rise again,” Hariri told the Saudi daily.

According to Hariri, King Salman was keen on bolstering and preserving the “distinguished Lebanese-Saudi ties.” Hariri recalled that King Salman had special ties with his father, late former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He added that King Salman has always had “sincere feelings” toward Lebanon and was always keen on preserving Lebanon’s interests and rejected all interference in Lebanon’s internal issues.

King Salman has long stressed that Riyadh was keen on Lebanon “healing from its internal and external problems, so that it can play its role in the Arab world and the whole world,” Hariri said.

“Lebanon is always in the heart of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, just as it was in the heart of late King Abdullah bin Abdul-Aziz who made exceptional efforts over the years to preserve the security and stability of Lebanon, and stop it from sliding into the wars and that raged in the region and threatened to extend to our country,” the Lebanese former prime minister said.

Hariri noted that the $3 billion Saudi grant to furnish the Lebanese Army with equipment from France and the additional $1 billion grant to buttress the capabilities of the Army and other Lebanese security agencies, demonstrated Saudi Arabia’s policy of supporting Lebanese state institutions in the face of increasing security challenges.

“Thus far, the total grants from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia amount to $4 billion in a precedent that Lebanon has never seen before, from any other brotherly or friendly state since its establishment,” Hariri said.

“This is clear evidence of Saudi Arabia’s support for Lebanon and its attachment to Lebanon’s security and stability, because it considers that Lebanon’s recovery and survival is an element of strength for the rest of the Arab countries,” Hariri added.

Israel-Hezbollah engagements since 2006

BEIRUT: Both Hezbollah and Israel have assumed a position of mutual deterrence since the 2006 war, avoiding large clashes and maintaining relative quiet along Lebanon’s southern border. Over the past eight years, however, both Israel and Hezbollah have engaged in quiet tit-for-tat acts of violence and sabotage. Feb. 12, 2008: Senior Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh is assassinated in Damascus. Mughniyeh was Hezbollah’s top security commander and was on a number of Most Wanted lists in Israel and the United States for his suspected involvement in several high profile Hezbollah operations.

July 16, 2008: Hezbollah returns the bodies of two Israeli soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, in exchange for the release of five Lebanese prisoners and 199 bodies of Lebanese citizens. Among the prisoners is Samir Kuntar, a Lebanese Druze man who was detained in Israel for more than 30 years.

July 18, 2012: A suicide bomber targets a bus carrying Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. Bulgarian officials accuse Hezbollah of committing the attack that killed seven people. Hezbollah has not commented.

Oct. 6, 2012: A Hezbollah drone successfully flies 55 kilometers into Israeli airspace before being shot down by the Israeli army. In a public address, Nasrallah says the drone was designed in Iran and assembled in Lebanon.

Jan. 31, 2013: Israeli jets struck a convoy of trucks in Syria near the Lebanese border. Israel said the trucks were carrying Hezbollah weapons.

May 3-4, 2013: Israeli jets strike targets near Damascus. Hezbollah missiles were believed to be the target of the attack.

Dec. 4, 2013: Hezbollah commander Hasan Lakkis is assassinated in Beirut. Lakkis was a childhood friend and confidante of Hezbollah chief Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah and played a key role in the party’s drone program. Hezbollah publically blames Israel for the assassination.

Feb. 24, 2014: Israel bombs an abandoned Hezbollah position in east Lebanon.

March 18, 2014: A blast at an Israeli army post in the Shebaa Farms wounds four Israeli soldiers. Nasrallah later claims in an interview with As-Safir newspaper that Hezbollah had executed the attack intending to “send a message that the resistance is still capable of fighting Israel,” despite its intervention in Syria, marking the first time Hezbollah claimed responsibility for attacking Israeli soldiers since the 2006 war.

Sept. 4, 2014: Hezbollah explosives expert Hussein Ali Haidar is killed while dissembling an “Israeli spy device” in south Lebanon.

Oct. 7, 2014: Hezbollah detonates an explosive device in the occupied Shebaa Farms, wounding two Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah immediately claims responsibility for the attack, which party officials said was intended to avenge the death of Haidar.

Jan. 15, 2015: Nasrallah admits in an interview with Al-Mayadeen TV that a Mossad spy infiltrated the party and was providing sensitive information to Israeli authorities.

Jan. 18, 2015: An Israeli strike in Qunaitra, Syria, kills an Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander and six Hezbollah fighters including field commander Mohammad Issa and Jihad Mughniyeh, son of the late Imad Mughniyeh.

Jan. 28, 2015: At least two Israeli soldiers are killed after Hezbollah launches six anti-tank missiles at an Israeli convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms. Israel responds to the attack by firing more than 50 shells into Lebanon.

Hezbollah ambush draws praise, sharp condemnation

BEIRUT: Lebanese and international leaders reacted to Hezbollah’s ambush of an Israeli military convoy in the occupied Shebaa Farms Wednesday, with some condemning it outright and others suggesting the party had overstepped its mandate by potentially forcing the country into an unwanted conflict.

The attack, for which Hezbollah has claimed responsibility, killed at least two Israeli soldiers and injured seven others. Retaliatory fire from Israel also led to the death of one Spanish peacekeeper in UNIFIL.

The move was largely seen as retaliation for a Jan. 18 Israeli airstrike targeting a Hezbollah party convoy in the Syrian Golan Heights town of Qunaitra which killed six party fighters and an Iranian Revolutionary Guard commander.

The Lebanese Cabinet: The government is committed to United Nations resolutions ensuring peace between the two countries, Prime Minister Tammam Salam said Wednesday, calling on the international community to mobilize to prevent any further attacks by Israel against Lebanon.

“Israeli escalation in the border area could open the door to dangerous possibilities that will not serve peace and stability in the region,” he said, adding that the danger posed by Israel could only be fought through national unity and solidarity.

“Lebanon reaffirms its commitment to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701 in all its clauses, and its appreciation of the efforts exerted by UNIFIL peacekeepers, who suffered the loss of one of their members from the Spanish battalion today [Wednesday].”

Resolution 1701 put an end to the 2006 summer war between Lebanon and Israel.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry echoed Salam’s sentiments, adding that Hezbollah’s attack did not amount to a violation of the 2006 deal because it targeted an Israeli military convoy inside the Shebaa Farms, which is considered occupied Lebanese territory.

Future Movement:Lebanon’s security and safety is ensured by total adherence to U.N Resolution 1701, the Future Movement parliamentary bloc, which is headed by Former Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, said in a statement.

“[The bloc] repeats its warning of the aggressive intentions and targets of the Israeli enemy, and considers that Lebanon’s safety should be at the forefront of the interests of all Lebanese factions.”

The bloc re-emphasized that the Cabinet was the only entity entitled to take “crucial and national decisions” in cases of war and peace, as per the Constitution.

“The bloc asks the Lebanese government to make the necessary calls in order to convene an urgent meeting of the U.N. Security Council and look into the volatile situation in the southern Lebanese borders.”

The Future Bloc also offered its condolences for the fallen Spanish UNIFIL peacekeeper.

Separately, Future Movement MP Samir Jisr said the Hezbollah attack would not affect ongoing dialogue between his group and the party and that the date of the fifth session, scheduled for Monday, would remain unchanged

“There are differences with Hezbollah on several issues, most importantly the decision of war and peace ... but this will not hinder attempts to reduce sectarian tension or solve the presidential crisis,” Jisr told the Central News Agency.

“From the beginning, we decided that dialogue would address these two issues and we put major disputed issues aside.”

Progressive Socialist Party leader Walid Jumblatt“It seems that we have entered a phase of big troubles,” Jumblatt tweeted. The MP said “relevant precautions” should be taken to stand in the face of any potential Israeli aggression against Lebanon.

Lebanese Forces leader

Samir Geagea Hezbollah is the sole party responsible for any possible Israeli response, Geagea said, adding: “Today’s development indicates that Hezbollah is further and further expanding its regional schemes against the Lebanese state.”

The LF leader said Hezbollah was to blame if Lebanon is drawn into a war with Israel.

“Hezbollah has no right to implicate the Lebanese people in a battle with Israel. There is a government and a Parliament which can decide on that,” Geagea said .

Former President Michel Sleiman Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to drag Lebanon into a confrontation to serve his election interests, Sleiman cautioned .

“Israel should not be allowed to take advantage of Lebanese divisions,” he said, urging political forces to stand behind the government.

“Political forces should back the government and reinforce its position to give Lebanon [greater] immunity in order to overcome this difficult period,” he stressed.

Marada Movement leader

Sleiman Frangieh “Lebanon’s strength is in its resistance and not with those weak in their souls,” Frangieh tweeted, using the hashtag, Shebaa Farms.

Former Minister Faisal Karami “The relevant response at the relevant time and relevant place,” Karami said of Hezbollah’s ambush.

“The time of impunity for Israel is over. Now [the Israelis] need to review calculations, absorb defeat and run to shelters,” he added.

United States:“We urge all parties to refrain from any action that could escalate the situation,” State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, adding that the U.S. did not agree with the “act of violence” and was calling for calm.

Iran:Iran’s Revolutionary Guard expressed solidarity with its Hezbollah ally, vowing to “stand beside the resistance against the Zionists.”

U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon Sigrid Kaag Lebanese and Israel should exercise self-restraint, Kaag said.

Kaag called on both countries to refrain from taking any action that could further destabilize the situation along the Blue Line, urging all parties to continue abiding by their obligations under Resolution 1701.

Hamas:“This response for the crimes of the [Israeli] occupation, the last of which was the Qunaitra crime, comes as part of the natural right to respond for the reoccurring Zionist aggressions,” read a statement by the Palestinian Islamist movement’s Lebanese branch.

Hamas praised Hezbollah’s move, suggesting that such strong responses would stop the enemy and put an end to its plans.

Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, also described Hezbollah’s attack as “a legitimate response to Israel’s crimes.”

Attorney General Nominee Faces Senate Judiciary Committee

Audio for this story from All Things Considered will be available at approximately 7:00 p.m. ET.

Seeking confirmation, Attorney General nominee Loretta Lynch faced the Senate Judiciary committee on Wednesday.

We Must Act Now to Protect Our Winters

Ed. note: This is cross-posted on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's blog. See the original post here.

2014 was the hottest year on record, and each of the last three decades has been hotter than the last.

In mountain towns that depend on winter tourism, the realities of climate change really hit home. Shorter, warmer winters mean a shorter season to enjoy the winter sports we love—and a financial hit for local economies that depend on winter sports.

Even if you hate winter, climate change affects you – because climate risks are economic risks. Skiing, snowboarding and other types of winter recreation add $67 billion to the economy every year, and they support 900,000 jobs.

Last week I went to the X-Games in Colorado to meet with some of our country’s top pro snowboarders and the businesses that support them to hear how they are taking action on climate.

2 Chainz Might Run for Mayor

Many non-rap fans first met 2 Chainz two weeks ago when he resolutely crushed Nancy Grace in an on-air debate over marijuana laws. While Grace employed her usual hyperbolic, cherry-picking approach, 2 Chainz remained calm and offered practical examples that illustrated the logic behind marijuana legalization. Not least: The wasted tax resources that fund a losing battle of enforcement, money that could be better spent elsewhere.

The debate went viral, and now, 2 Chainz is reportedly considering a mayoral run in his hometown of College Park, Georgia. 2 Chainz broke the news to XXL and confirmed it to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday, noting that he's waiting to see if he meets the necessary qualifications. 2 Chainz, 37, would face off against incumbent Jack Longino, who has been mayor of College Park since 1996.

Meanwhile, Grace continues to fight the good fight against all things weed. Last night she was sandwiched between NORML chairman Norm Kent and Dr. Drew in another heated debate. "OBVIOUSLY, YOU'RE STONED!" Grace tells Kent. "YOU'RE IN OUR HOUSE NOW!" she tells Dr. Drew, "YOU CAN'T JUST THROW OUT A FACT UNLESS YOU HAVE BACK-UP FOR IT!" says Grace, who has literally made an entire career out of throwing out facts that lack context.

Watch it below:

Judge want death penalty for 6 over Yves Nawfal killing

BEIRUT: The judge responsible for the case of Yves Nawfal’s murder issued Wednesday an indictment recommending the death penalty for six people suspected of involvement in the crime, judicial sources said.

Judge Peter Germanous issued an indictment against the three detained suspects Charbel G. Khalil, Charbel C. Khalil, Juliano Saadeh, and three fugitive members of the Khalil family named Christian, Elie and Mario.

The source said that 23 people have been indicted in the case, including 13 who are already in custody and 10 that are yet to be apprehended.

Germanous recommended the death penalty for six, and sentences ranging from three to 20 years for the others, the source explained. The judge referred the case to the Criminal Court in Baabda.

Nawfal’s family visited Justice Minister Ashraf Rifi earlier Wednesday and Interior Minister Nouhad Machnouk Tuesday. Both ministers vowed to follow up on the case.

Charbel G. Khalil and Saadeh are considered the main partners in the crime. In a video shared on social media before Khalil and Saadeh's arrest two weeks ago, the two were seen standing in front of the Kfar Debian police station, near the crime scene, announcing that they would hand themselves in.

In the video, they also claimed that their intention was not to kill Nawfal, and said they did not know him in person.

The crime took place earlier this month when Nawfal was celebrating his birthday at a pub in Kfar Debian.

The incident started out as a fistfight between Nawfal and a group of men over an offhand comment made to a woman.

Kesrouan MP Farid Haykal Khazen, who had received Khalil and Saadeh at his house to convince them to turn themselves in, later raged against the judiciary for "rendering tens of families homeless" by arresting a large number of suspects.

In a news conference Saturday, he criticized Judge Germanous and called for him to be replaced with someone “more credible."

U.S. condemns Hezbollah 'act of violence' against Israel

Israeli jets hit Syrian army posts in Golan Heights

Israeli aircraft strike Syrian army artillery positions, the military says, in retaliation for rockets launched at the...

Timeline: Hezbollah-Israel conflict since 2006 war

BEIRUT: Both Hezbollah and Israel have assumed a position of mutual deterrence since the 2006 war, avoiding large clashes and maintaining relative quiet along the shared border. Over the past eight years, however, a series of incidents have put the U.N.'s fragile 2006 peace pact to the test, with a quiet calculus of tit-for-tat acts of violence and sabotage.

Feb. 12, 2008: Senior Hezbollah commander Imad Mughniyeh assassinated in a car bomb in Damascus. Hezbollah accuses Israel of being behind the attack.

July 7, 2008: Cypriot officials arrest a Lebanese-born Swede and member of Hezbollah for allegedly plotting attacks on Israeli tourists.

July 16, 2008: Hezbollah returns the bodies of two Israeli soldiers in exchange for release of five Lebanese prisoners and 199 bodies of Lebanese citizens.

Aug. 9, 2010: Hezbollah releases footage it said was intercepted from Israeli drones tracing routes used by former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri the day before he was killed in a 2005 car bomb.

July 18, 2012: Bus carrying Israeli tourists explodes in Bulgaria. Bulgarian officials accuse Hezbollah of committing the attack.

Oct. 6, 2012: Hezbollah flies drone 35 miles into Israel.

Jan. 13, 2013: Israel jets strike “convoy of trucks” in Syria near Lebanon border supposedly carrying Hezbollah weapons.

May 3-4, 2013: Israeli jets strike targets near Damascus, said to target stores of Hezbollah missiles.

Dec. 4, 2013: Hezbollah commander Hassan Lakkis assassinated in Beirut. Hezbollah blames Israel.

Feb. 24, 2014: Israel bombs Hezbollah position in east Lebanon supposedly targeting weapons shipment from Syria.

March 18, 2014: Blast at Israeli army post in occupied Shebaa Farms wounded 4 Israeli soldiers. Hezbollah later claims responsibility.

Sept. 4, 2014: Hezbollah explosives expert Hussein Ali Haidar killed while attempting to defuse Israel spy device. Hezbollah accuses Israel of detonating it remotely.

Oct. 14, 2014: Hezbollah detonates explosive device in occupied Shebaa farms, wounding two Israeli soldiers, in retaliation for the Sept. 4 blast.

Jan. 15, 2015: Hezbollah chief Hasan Nasrallah admits a Mossad spy had infiltrated the party.

Jan. 18, 2015: Israeli strike in Qunaitra, Syria killed an Iranian general and six Hezbollah fighters including Jihad Mughniyeh, son of late Imad Mughniyeh.

Jan. 28, 2015: Hezbollah hits Israeli convoy in occupied Shebaa farms, killing two soldiers in deadliest attack since 2006.

International community must restrain Israel: Lebanon PM

Assir to become ISIS emir in Lebanon: report

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No exceptions to unauthorized medicine imports: Lebanon Health Ministry

3 arrested over 250 kilos of spoiled chicken for sale in Beirut

Security forces arrested a tradesman and his two adult sons and seized quantities of spoiled chicken stored in their...

Israeli military confirms deaths of two soldiers in border attack

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'Suspicious' car in Downtown Beirut false alarm

BEIRUT: Lebanese Army technicians examined what they thought was a suspicious car parked near a major coastal military base in Downtown Beirut Wednesday, a security source said.

But the vehicle turned out not to be rigged, and its owner arrived soon after and apologized for stirring fears, saying he did not realize he had parked in an area that might arouse suspicion.

The security source said the Army had diverted traffic as it examined the Kia.

Lebanon’s security forces have been on high alert for car bombs amid two years of jihadi attacks against military and civilians targets across the country.

The Army last week battled militants on the outskirt of the northeastern town of Ras Baalbek, near Syria. The day-long battle left deal eight soldiers and around 40 ISIS-affiliated militants.

Officials react to Hezbollah attack on Israeli convoy with mix of praise, denunciation

BEIRUT: Initial reactions by Lebanese political leaders to Hezbollah’s deadly attack on an Israeli military convoy in an occupied region of south Lebanon Wednesday drew a mix of praise, blame and fear of escalation.

Hours after the attack in the occupied Shebaa Farms which killed four Israeli soldiers, no official government comment was issued. But MPs visiting Speaker Nabih Berri said he was conducting high-level consultations to contain the ensuing exchange of fire, which killed a Spanish U.N. peacekeeper.

MP Walid Jumblatt wrote on his Twitter account, “it seems that we have entered a phase of big troubles.” He also called for taking “relevant precautions” to confront a possible Israeli aggression against Lebanon.

Lebanese Forces chief Samir Geagea of the March 14 coalition which is opposed to Hezbollah, held the party solely responsible for any potential Israeli response, and for drawing Lebanon into a battle with Israel without the consent of its people and government.

“Today’s development indicates that Hezbollah is more and more expanding its regional schemes against the Lebanese state,” Geagea said.

“Hezbollah has no right to implicate the Lebanese people in a battle with Israel. There is a government and a parliament which can decide on that,” Geagea added, deploring “Hezbollah’s lack of transparency” in its ongoing dialogue with political rival, the Future Movement.

Former Minister Faisal Karami of the Hezbollah-led March 8 coalition applauded the ambush of the Israeli military convoy as “the relevant response at the relevant time and relevant place.”

“Time of impunity for Israel is over. Now (the Israelis) need to review calculations, absorb defeat and run to shelters,” Karami said.

Former President Michel Sleiman called on political forces to stand firmly behind the government, cautioning that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is seeking to draw Lebanon into a confrontation to serve his election interests.

“Israel should not be allowed to take advantage of Lebanese divisions,” Sleiman said.

“Political forces should back the government and reinforce its position to give Lebanon (bigger) immunity in order to overcome this difficult period,” he added.

Meanwhile, U.N. Special Coordinator for Lebanon, Sigrid Kaag, called on Lebanon and Israel to exercise self-restraint and to refrain from taking any action that could further destabilize the situation along the Blue Line.

All parties are strongly urged to continue to abide by their obligations under Security Council resolution 1701, Kaag said in a statement.

Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, described Hezbollah’s attack as “a natural and legitimate response to Israel's crimes.”