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By Nissan Ratzlav-Katz and Pinchas Sanderson, www.haaretz.com

Arab reports indicate that Hezbollah is preparing to arm its rockets with chemical warheads and to build extensive fortifications. Defense Minister Ehud Barak blames the Syrians, while Prime Minister Ehud Olmert asks the United Nations to do something.

“[UN Security Council] Resolution 1701 is being violated. Hezbollah continues to get stronger with the ongoing and intimate assistance of the Syrians,” according to Defense Minister Barak. Speaking at a meeting of the Labor party’s Knesset representatives on Monday, Barak said, “The delicate balance that exists on the northern border should not be violated on the two-year anniversary of the Second Lebanon War. We should make an explicit statement: Resolution 1701 did not work, it is not working, and all indications are that it will not work in the future. It is a failure.”

Adding further weight to Defense Minister Barak’s declaration is an article in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Siyasa, which reported Monday that Hezbollah has acquired chemicals needed to make weapons such as nerve gas or mustard gas from North Korean suppliers. The Lebanese terrorist organization is allegedly preparing to arm its Katyusha rockets with such chemical warheads. Echoing Barak’s claims, the Kuwaiti paper also stated that the assistance of Syria and Iran has been crucial in Hezbollah’s efforts to acquire chemical weapons capabilities. The Al-Siyasa report was based on intelligence provided to the Kuwaiti paper by Syrian opposition figures in the United States.

Other Arab sources also indicate Hezbollah is entrenching itself for another attack on Israel. The organization is reportedly stockpiling “truckloads” of building materials, such as steel and concrete, in order to restore and expand the terrorists’ network of fortifications in southern Lebanon.

Beirut-based Dalal Steel Industries, a leading manufacturer of steel-reinforced buildings, reported that it has provided Hezbollah with substantial bunker-building and other materials. The company told Arab media that it had been shipping Hezbollah orders southwards towards Israel’s border. The underground bunkers used by Hezbollah, usually hidden by natural cover such as trees and foliage, were coined “nature reserves” by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in the 2006 Second Lebanon War, and they proved difficult targets to find and destroy.

Eyewitness accounts allege that Hezbollah members are preventing the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) from inspecting the trucks or preventing their movements. Reports by UNIFIL commanders have confirmed that local Hezbollah supporters have effectively prevented the force from efficiently performing its duties under Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 Lebanon War. Among other tasks, the UNIFIL mandate is to assure a southern Lebanon “free of any armed personnel, assets, and weapons other than those of the Government of Lebanon and of UNIFIL deployed in this area.”

In light of the failure of UNIFIL and the ratcheting up of Hezbollah forces, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert turned to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon to prevent weapons smuggling to Hezbollah units in southern Lebanon. “UNIFIL must act much more intensively,” Olmert said during a meeting with Ki-Moon on Monday at the end of the Mediterranean Union conference in Paris.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, center, clasps the hands of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Paris on July 13, 2008

www.JTA.org

Despite overtures by Israel’s prime minister to Syrian President Bashar Assad, Assad refused to acknowledge, shake hands, be photographed with, or listen to Ehud Olmert when the two shared a conference room at Sunday’s Union for the Mediterranean in Paris.

Just hours before the Paris summit, Olmert sent Assad a message pressing for direct talks between the two countries before a new U.S. administration takes office, and insisting on his “serious” desire for peace.

Israel and Syria are engaged in indirect peace talks through mediation by Turkey, which delivered Olmert’s latest message to Assad.

But Assad chose to rebuff Olmert rather than engage in any rapprochement with him at the 43-nation Paris confab.

“We are not seeking symbols,” Assad told a French TV station, saying he avoided a handshake with Olmert because Syria and Israel are still only in indirect peace talks.

In some ways, the elaborate conference held at the Grand Palais, an imposing Art Nouveau structure with a glass roof and pale green arches, served to highlight the long road left to go before Israel is recognized by some of its Arab neighbors in the Mediterranean region.

Several Arab leaders refused to be photographed with the Israeli leader, so there was no joint photo at the meeting’s end.

A Reuters photographer captured a shot of Olmert apparently trying to catch Assad’s attention while Assad blocks his face with his hand to avoid eye contact.

On Monday, an Israeli official said in an interview with JTA that although “Olmert sat through and listened to everything Assad said” during the Syrian leader’s speech at the conference, “Assad left when Olmert spoke.”

French President Nicolas Sarkozy denied that any intentional snub took place Sunday. Assad reportedly left the conference room for hallway consultations a half-hour before Olmert spoke.

Last week, Israeli and French officials had expressed hopes that some sort of direct contact between Assad and Olmert might take place at the weekend summit.

Before the conference, Olmert asked Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to convey to Assad that Olmert is “extremely serious in his desire to move forward in peace talks” with Syria, Israeli officials said.

Despite the undiplomatic maneuvering, attendees and observers noted that the broad participation in the conference may have helped lay a foundation for improved dialogue and cooperation in the region.

The leaders of such countries as Syria, Algeria, Morocco, and Israel all shared a common table, and they reached some concrete agreements toward improving cooperation on regional issues.

Assad’s cold shoulder wasn’t the only snub at the conference. Morocco’s king reportedly skipped a meeting attended by the president of Algeria due to the rivalry between the two countries.

Despite Assad’s avoidance of Olmert, Assad told Al-Jazeera TV on Sunday that he wants to “normalize” relations with Israel once a peace accord is reached.

By Qassim Abdul-Zahra, Associated Press Writer

The United Arab Emirates canceled billions of dollars of Iraqi debt on July 6 and moved to restore a full diplomatic mission in Baghdad, evidence of Iraq’s improved security and growing acceptance of its Shiite-led government.

The Abu Dhabi government announced the debt relief and the naming of a new UAE ambassador to Baghdad shortly after Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki began a visit to the wealthy Gulf nation.

The news was sure to bolster al-Maliki’s government, which has been urging Iraq’s Sunni Arab neighbors to forgive loans taken during Saddam Hussein’s regime and restore diplomatic relations.

Al-Maliki, who has been in office since May 2006, thanked the UAE for the debt cancellation, telling a meeting with local businessmen that it was a “swift and courageous” decision.

The Emirates’ official news agency, WAM, quoted the country’s president, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, as saying he hoped canceling the debt would lighten the “economic burden” facing Iraqis, who he urged to unite behind al-Maliki’s government.

WAM said the debt was $4 billion not including interest. A UAE official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media said the total debt was $7 billion when interest was added.

Iraq has been appealing for relief of at least $67 billion in foreign debt — owed mostly to Arab nations that have been reluctant to forgive Iraq’s belligerence during Saddam Hussein’s regime.

In addition, the U.N. Compensation Commission says $28 billion remains to be paid for Iraq’s 1990 invasion of Kuwait. Iraq now gives 5 percent of its oil revenue to meet the compensation claims.

Al-Maliki’s American backers also have pushed Arab states like the UAE to restore ties with Iraq, where violence has come down by 70 percent over the past year. Jordan, Iraq’s neighbor to the west, has named an ambassador last week, and Kuwait and Bahrain say they will soon follow suit.

Meanwhile, a top Iraqi official said the U.S. has presented Iraq with a proposed list of military facilities Washington wants to maintain control of as part of negotiations between the two countries on a long-term security agreement.

Interior Minister Jawad al-Bolani said the timing for how long the U.S. would control each facility before handing them over to the Iraqis would be based on the security situation in each area. But al-Bolani stressed talks on this issue were ongoing.

“We are still discussing this,” he told The Associated Press aboard the plane carrying al-Maliki as it headed to Abu Dhabi.

The Iraqis, he said, want to take control of the estimated 20,000 detainees in U.S. custody and curb the U.S. military’s authority to arrest Iraqis. No comment was immediately available from the U.S. Embassy, which in the past has declined to comment on the negotiations.

Both sides hope to wrap up the talks on the agreement this month in time for Iraq’s parliament to approve the deal to keep U.S. troops here after their U.N. mandate expires at the end of the year.

Iraq’s deputy foreign minister, Labid Abbawi, said that the country plans to open consulates soon in the U.S. cities of Detroit, Michigan and San Diego, California.

“We chose those two cities because they have large number of Iraqi communities,” Abbawi told The Associated Press.

In Abu Dhabi, Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh confirmed his government was notified of the debt cancellation and said Abdullah al-Shehi, the UAE’s former head of mission in India, was named ambassador to Iraq. The country said last month that an appointment was upcoming.

The UAE withdrew its ambassador to Iraq after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion and after one of its diplomats was kidnapped and later released.

Sunni militant groups like al-Qaeda in Iraq, mistrustful of the government, have warned Arab states not to open embassies in Baghdad. The capital’s first major car bomb of the war struck the Jordanian Embassy, killing 19 people in the summer of 2003. Diplomats from Egypt, Morocco, Bahrain, Turkey, and Sudan have all been either killed, wounded, or kidnapped in Iraq.

Al-Maliki chided his Arab “brothers” at an April conference of Iraq’s neighbors in Kuwait, saying he found it “difficult to explain why diplomatic exchange has not taken place.” Most major Western diplomatic missions in Baghdad are located in the U.S.-protected Green Zone, a large swathe of land on the west bank of the Tigris River.

Violence in Iraq is at its lowest level in four years, but attacks continue.

By Carolynne Wheeler, www.Telegraph.co.uk in Jerusalem

Israel has carried out a successful test of its “Iron Dome” anti-missile defense system intended to combat crude rockets of the kind launched from Gaza and south Lebanon.

The test, which Voice of Israel radio reported was carried out secretly late last week, follows earlier delays and warnings that the $300 million system may not catch all Kassam rockets launched by Palestinian militants at southern Israeli communities.

A Hezbollah guerrilla next to a Katyusha rocket

But Israeli security officials, while not commenting publicly on specific tests, say the system will be operational by early 2010.

“We are doing our best so that the system will be operational by 2010 and all the checking we are doing now is going very well,” said a spokesman for the Ministry of Defence, Shlomo Dror.

Israel’s former defense minister, Amir Peretz, ordered the Iron Dome system, which is manufactured by Israel-based Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, early in 2007 to intercept both Kassams and Katyushas, after more than 4,000 of the latter were launched from south Lebanon into Israel during the 2006 summer war.

The system, which uses a small kinetic interceptor to stop such missiles, is scheduled for deployment along Israel’s northern border as well as around Gaza.

Its developers have come under heavy pressure to finish the system ahead of schedule, even receiving a rare exemption allowing them to work on the Jewish Sabbath, as the Kassam rockets grow more powerful.

Defense analysts have warned the system may not work quickly enough to sense all rockets and say the cost of interception will amount to tens of thousands of dollars per rocket.

The news comes as Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza struggle to maintain a ceasefire declared nearly three weeks ago.

Though Israel’s southern towns have remained largely quiet, the truce has been shaken several times by sporadic rockets and mortars, in turn prompting Israel to temporarily close its border crossings with the territory.

By Aviel Schneider, Israel Today

MEDIA MANIPULATION during the Second Lebanon War in 2006

WAS IT STAGED? Mohammed al-Dura and his father in 2000

Manipulation of a willing Arab and international media has long been a powerful tool in the hands of the Palestinians.

“The recent exposure of a media lie about the 12-year-old Palestinian boy Mohammed al-Dura needs to be studied by the foreign media,” says the head of Israel’s Government Press Office Danny Siemen. “The Palestinians use media manipulation as a strategic weapon to counter Israel’s military superiority and have been very successful in it.”

Al-Dura was back in the news after the French Court of Appeals overturned a lower court decision that found media critic Philippe Karsenty guilty of libel against the France 2 TV station and its Jerusalem correspondent Charles Enderlin. Karsenty accused them of deliberately misleading the world about the death of al-Dura at the start of the second Palestinian intifada (uprising) in Gaza in 2000.

“The verdict means France 2 broadcast a fake news report and that al-Dura’s shooting was a staged hoax,” Karsenty said.

Al-Dura became a “martyr” and enduring symbol of the Palestinian cause in TV footage broadcast around the world. The pictures of the boy and his father cowering helplessly in the crossfire of an Israeli-Palestinian gun battle threw Israel’s image into the gutter.

During the trial, France 2 was ordered to release the entire 27-minute video, in contrast to the 31 seconds shown at the time. In the last scene showing father and son, one can see that Mohammed is moving and undeniably alive.

Karsenty was suspicious about the original report which showed Mohammed in the arms of his father, the victim of “Israeli” fire. “Mohammed is dead, his father seriously wounded,” the report said.

“The pathologist indeed did a postmortem examination of a dead boy at 12 noon. But Mohammed al-Dura was supposedly shot at 3 p.m.!” Karsenty said. “The pictures taken in the morgue are totally different than pictures of Mohammed al-Dura. It is ridiculous.”

American professor Richard Landes examined the al-Dura case along with ballistics experts and dubbed it Pallywood.

“Palestinian cameramen and photographers work for foreign news networks and edit pictures with the aim of blackmailing Israel in the eyes of the world,” Siemen said.

This manipulation of the news influences the international community and has limited Israel in its war against Palestinian terror since the first intifada erupted in 1987. The fear of international condemnation paralyzes Israel and prevents it from taking effective action.

During the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006, the international media condemned Israel for the so-called “massacre” in the South Lebanese village of Kana (57 dead, including 21 children). The Israeli army determined that this was fabricated because the building collapsed seven hours after the air force bombed the area, giving civilians plenty of time to get out. The building wasn’t even directly hit, and some observers suggest that Hizbollah collected bodies of people killed in the war from a morgue, put them in the building and blew it up.

A few weeks earlier, in June 2006, pictures shocked the world when an Israeli shell was blamed for the killing of a Palestinian family of seven on a Gaza beach. But the footage appeared to be staged because no crater caused by a shell was seen in the area.

This year, a Palestinian mother and her four children were killed in Gaza, ostensibly by an Israeli tank shell. An army investigation determined that the shell hit two Hamas terrorists, and the blast from explosives they were carrying blew up the house.

In all of these cases, the damage to Israel had already been done by the time the truth came out. In fact, the truth is rarely reported because by then it’s “old news.”

“Israel is quickly blamed for the deaths of Palestinians,” said Siemen. “The foreign media do not verify the news and rely almost exclusively on Palestinian journalists with an agenda. Without a doubt, Palestinian journalists are using the foreign media in their struggle against Israel.”

ENDURING SYMBOL: From paintings to postage stamps, al-Dura is an enduring symbol of the Palestinian cause