The Israelis have been maintaining that a ship, the Francop, that their forces boarded near Cyprus originated in Iran and was bringing arms to Hizbullah and Hamas. Many US news outlets published the accompanying picture, which seemed to indicate that the arms were being supplied by the Ministry of the Sipah [i.e. of soldier].

The name of that ministry was changed 20 years ago, however, to the Ministry of Defense. One Iranian journalist opined, "So this begs the question of what the emblem of a nonexistent body was doing on the cargo?"

The Los Angeles Times and other media outlets published a series of photos that allegedly back the Israeli claims. Iran, however, says one of the photos -- an apparent shipping manifest from the Ministry of Sepah -- is from a defunct agency, suggesting Israel made up the story, state-funded broadcaster Press TV reports
.

Other reports from the Iranian media blame Western reports, the Times in particular, for hyping claims that Iran, Syria and Hezbollah denied.

"The newspaper should know that if a country plans to send a secret arms cargo to another, it will not brand the shipment with a full description of the batch," Iranian media reports stated.

I have been to over 30 refugee camps in Jordan and the West Bank and I did expect the refugee camps in Lebanon to be worse. I have read a lot and even seen pictures and some videos but still I was shocked by what I saw, what I smelled, what I heard and what I felt. The words I write cannot do justice to this.

Hezbollah is rapidly rearming in preparation for a new conflict with Israel, fearing that Benjamin Netanyahu's government will attack Lebanon again prior to any assault on Iran's nuclear facilities.

The 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel began after an ill-advised operation by to kidnap two Israeli soldiers, prompting a massive Israeli response that lasted 34 days and killed more than 1,000 people.

Gaza was not the only victim of Israeli terror……

Lebanon's opposition, including Iranian-backed Hezbollah, agreed on Friday to join a national unity government proposed by Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri, a senior opposition source said.

The US Special Coordinator for Lebanon warned on Friday that any further security breaches from Lebanon and Israel could lead to a resumption of hostilities between the two nations. Michael Williams’ statement voicing concern over Tuesday’s exchange of rocket fire across the Blue Line came amid media reports that Lebanon’s ambassador to the UN claimed Israel was planning a “vast attack” on the country.

Lebanon's ambassador to the United Nations has warned that Israel is exhibiting signs of an imminent attack on his country, the Lebanese newspaper Al-Hayyat reported on Friday.

Ambassador Noaf Salaam sent missives to the United Nations secretary general and to the Security Council condemning Israel's recent artillery fire on the village of Houla, the site where a Katyusha rocket was fired at the Upper Galilee last week.

“Such attacks are evidently aimed at provoking renewed hostilities to undermine the security and stability in south Lebanon,” the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said in a news release, in which it also voiced concern at Israel’s return fire of artillery shells on Monday.

Lebanese President Michel Suleiman on Thursday suggested that Israel had arranged for collaborators in his country to fire Katyusha rockets at the Galilee earlier this week, in a bid to keep tensions high in the area.

According to the Lebanese newspaper A-Sapir, Israel's declarations that it would not cease its intelligence activities on Lebanese territories validate Suleiman's accusations.

The Israeli ambassador to the United Nations says the world body should investigate a rise in rocket fire coming across Israel's border from Lebanon.

A day after Israel's artillery attack on southern Lebanon, the Lebanese army troops say they have discovered four rockets ready to be launched at Israel.

The Katyusha-type rockets, which were set with timers, were found Wednesday in a half-built house in the border village of Hula, where nine Israeli artillery shells landed the night before.

The Lebanese official said the rockets were discovered Wednesday, placed in a building under construction in the Houla area from where Tuesday's rocket was launched.

He says three of the four Katyusha rockets found were ready to be fired. He spoke on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations.

Opposition leader and Kadima chairwoman Tzipi Livni said on Wednesday morning that "Lebanon is responsible for everything that takes place in its territory."

A Katyusha-type rocket fired from Lebanon hit northern Israel on Tuesday night without causing any casualties, prompting Israel to retaliate with a salvo of missiles, sources on both sides said.

The rocket fired from Lebanon hit open ground east of the Israeli town of Kiryat Shmona and started a fire, which did not cause any serious damage, they said.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora accused Israel of blatantly violating the UN Security Council resolution that led to the end of fighting.

Israel has declined to comment directly on the matter.

Planting such devices would be a flagrant violation of the resolution 1701 ceasefire agreement which ended the conflict, but while Israel declined to comment on the nature of the devices they said their discovery proved that Hezbollah was actually violating the deal. They also claimed that the UN report was part of a Hezbollah plot to distract attention from their violation.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Saniora called the Israeli spying devices discovered in southern Lebanon a clear violation of UN Security Council resolution 1701 that ended the Second Lebanon War, Israel Radio reported on Sunday night.

A U.N. investigation into explosions in south Lebanon indicated on Sunday that Israel had planted spy devices on Lebanese land in what a senior U.N. official said would be a violation of a ceasefire agreement.

The UNIFIL peacekeeping force in Lebanon said its preliminary probe into two explosions in the south showed they had been caused by the detonation of underground sensor devices.

The units were apparently buried by Israeli forces during the 2006 war with the Lebanese Shi'ite group Hezbollah, it said.

"These do look like some sort of espionage device," Michael Williams, the U.N. special coordinator for Lebanon, told Reuters.

If confirmed, the devices would represent violations of Security Council resolution 1701 which halted the 34-day war.

The IDF Intelligence video released this week showing Hizbullah terrorists stockpiling long-range missiles is the proof that Israel needs to “take off its gloves” in the next round of warfare. So says long-time military analyst Yisrael Katzover, speaking with Arutz-7’s Hebrew newsmagazine.

Hizbullah has turned Lebanon, formerly known as the “Switzerland of the Middle East,” into a “powder keg” of explosives, President Shimon Peres said a day after a “work accident’" that may have killed five members of the Iranian-sponsored militia, including a senior terrorist.

People no longer trust Congress, the President, the courts, the media, corporations, political parties, and other institutions of society. People even doubt science and medicine.

Hezbollah lawmaker Hussein Haj Hassan said the explosion happened in the garage of a Hezbollah member, wounding one person. "We are concerned with finding out the reasons for this explosion," Hassan said.
President Shimon Peres, meanwhile, warned that Hezbollah was turning Lebanon into a "powderkeg."

A senior official of the Hezbollah militant group was killed on Monday evening when an explosion rocked a house apparently serving as a munitions bunker in south Lebanon.

Hezbollah denied that the house was being used as an arms depot and said that the munitions that caused the blast had belonged to the Israel Defense Forces and were left over from the 2006 Second Lebanon War.

No more than 20 meters past the former Israeli watchtower, in an empty lot, is the memorial for the victims of the 1982 Lebanon Civil War massacre. Camp residents say the site was once a mass grave for the slain. The memorial was a single-track dirt path linking a series of billboards with images of the dead.

The massacres perpetrators were of the predominantly Christian Phalange party: supplied, supported and supervised by on-looking Israeli soldiers.

The political void left by Saad Hariri in stepping down as Lebanon’s prime minister-designate has sparked fears of instability in the divided country despite forecasts that he will soon return. Hariri was appointed on June 27 but on Thursday he said his attempts to form a government of national unity had proved fruitless and he accused the Hizbullah-led opposition of blocking his efforts.

Israel targeted Friday afternoon Klaile region in South Lebanon so far with 14 rockets, shortly after two rockets were launched from southern Lebanon to Israel, Lebanese official National News Agency reported.

Here we go again! The warmongers, Israel, is doing its best to go to war with Lebanon again in order to wipe the embarrassment they suffered in the last war with Hezbollah. Now, these bastards are doing their best to provoke the Lebanese, and especially Hezbollah, to fire the first shot so as to justfiy Israel’s invasion.

On the afternoon of February 7, rockets rained down on the northern Israeli town of Nahariya, and were immediately described by Israeli police as Katyusha rockets fired by Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

Later in the same day, the attack was described as the result of 'human error' involving a failed test by an Israeli weapons manufacturer in the area.

Less than a week later, the Lebanese army and United Nations troops found three rockets in southern Lebanon. The rockets were connected to timers and were set to fire just one hour after they were discovered.

There were some of those rockets found inside Lebanon with timers and no one present.
Set up by the Israeli Internal Security Service, Shin Bet to again provide the Zionist regime with the lies it needed to launch another war of aggression.

Two rockets were fired from southern Lebanon into Israel on Friday, prompting Israel to respond with artillery fire, Lebanese security and military officials said.

The exchange, in which no casualties were reported by either side, was the latest in persisting tensions between the two archenemies. It was the fourth time rockets have been fired from Lebanon into Israel, each time bringing Israeli retaliation.

Lebanese prime minister-designate Saad al-Hariri said on Thursday he was stepping down after more than 10 weeks of trying to form a unity government with opposition groups including Hezbollah.

His failure has fuelled concern over the potential for another protracted political crisis in Lebanon, where power struggles have brought long periods of government paralysis and violence in recent years.

The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) has accepted an offer by Iran to provide it with weapons produced by the Iranian defense industries, a newspaper in Lebanon reported on Wednesday. According to Al-Akhbar, the proposal was sent from the Iranian Embassy in Beirut.

The Jerusalem Post could not independently confirm the report.

This newspaper has issued the warning before, about the possibility of Israel’s quest to derail the Obama agenda, whether for actual foreign policy reasons, or reasons of domestic political survival.

This derailing could take place in South Lebanon, if we’re not careful. There’s been a flurry of activity by diplomatic envoys, moving mainly among America, Syria and Turkey, but the situation, and the rhetoric, remain dangerous. Some believe, mistakenly, that a military solution can work.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday that his recent warnings that Israel would hold Lebanon responsible for any Hezbollah attack did not signal threats of imminent war.

Israel will hold Lebanon responsible for any future Hezbollah attack should the Iranian- and Syrian-backed militia be brought into Beirut's incoming government, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday.

Though U.S.-backed Lebanese Prime Minister-designate Saad al-Hariri bested Hezbollah in a June ballot, he is holding talks on a new coalition expected to include the Shi'ite group and its allies. Hezbollah has a minister in the outgoing cabinet.

Israel seems determined to provoke its enemies hook or by crook in order to get a war going against Iran. If they’re not continually directly accusing Iran of having a nuclear weapons program – despite the total lack of any evidence to even suggest Iran has any nuclear weapons program – then Israel is accusing Hezbollah of wanting to attack Israelis and Israeli interests outside of Israel warning that, if any Israeli is harmed, Hezbollah will be held responsible. Just to help the provocation along, Israel is also still sending their military jets into sovereign Lebanese airspace. In their latest piece of warmongering chutzpah, Israel is accusing Hezbollah of stockpiling rockets in order to strike Israel.

Israel will hold Iranian proxy militia Hizbullah and the state of Lebanon responsible for any attempt to assassinate Israelis abroad, and it will retaliate, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said Sunday.

Israeli Defense Minister hints at Tel Aviv's intention to launch another offensive against Lebanon, saying the war would be more devastating than the 2006 war.

Do you get it yet?

Israel sent troops across the border into Lebanon. They then claimed the captured invaders were "kidnap victims" and launched their attacks.

The commander of the Lebanese Army, General Jean Qahwaji, ordered the Lebanese Armed Forces on Thursday to stay on high alert in anticipation of any Israeli aggression on Lebanon. In a statement to celebrate the Lebanese Army’s 64th anniversary on August 1, Qahwaji urged the military establishment to preserve its unity in order to face upcoming threats and challenges.

Despite denials yesterday by the Israeli Chief of Staff, General Gabi Ashkenazi, that all is well on the northern front where Israel’s border meets Lebanon, Israeli tanks and troops are piling up at the border and Israeli Air Force jets are flying more frequent sorties in to Lebanese airspace.

Here we go again! The warmongers, Israel, is doing its best to go to war with Lebanon again in order to wipe the embarrassment they suffered in the last war with Hezbollah. Now, these bastards are doing their best to provoke the Lebanese, and especially Hezbollah, to fire the first shot so as to justfiy Israel’s invasion. There
are confirmed reports of advancing Israeli tanks in the Sheba Farms area. Six Israeli jets have entered Lebanese airspace and have circled the area. It seems that these Israeli Jews are never happy unless they have war in their blood. And then they have the nerve to accuse Arabs of trying to wipe Israel off the map. Poor little souls.

Israel has made it quite clear that in any future conflict with Hezbollah, Israel will regard the Lebanese government as being responsible for Hezbollah’s actions. This means that any attack Israel launches against Hezbollah will now include action against all of Lebanon and Lebanon’s armed forces.

Since Israel now regards Hezbollah as an integral part of the Lebanese government, any future war launched by Israel to destroy Hezbollah will have to involve a full-on invasion – which, of course, is what the Israelis have always wanted to do and have attempted a number of times before. But next time will different. Next time the Israelis invade Lebanon it will be with overwhelming force and the resulting occupation of southern Lebanon up to the Litani River will likely be permanent.

The Lebanese army has put its forces on high alert in response to the escalation of tensions over the establishment of an Israeli military outpost along the country's border.

Unlike Iraq, there is no “weapons of mass destruction threat” to facilitate toppling the Syrian regime. This time, a United Nations Tribunal could provide the means, deploying Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri's murder as the weapon. But like the US show trial to convict Saddam Hussein, the show trial to convict Syria for Hariri's murder, built by the United Nation's International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC), has a history of problems.

The UN Security Council has warned that the existence of a large Israeli-run espionage network in Lebanon could threaten a fragile peace established between the two countries following the end of the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war.

The spokeswoman of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) dismissed on Friday a report carried by an Israeli newspaper that UN peacekeepers found around 20 Katyusha rockets that were ready for launch in south Lebanon. "The news report is inaccurate," Yasmina Bouziane said on Friday, adding that if the news had been correct, the UN will be "immediately notified through the appropriate channels."

The Israeli army has set new military buildup along its border with Lebanon Thursday, amid intensified air force flights over Lebanese territories, the official national News agency (NNA) reported.

The Israeli Army stepped up its presence along the border with Lebanon deploying armored tanks and setting up fortifications as it intensified airspace violations in the area, Lebanon's state-run National News Agency reported Thursday. In "unusual military activity," the Israeli Army deployed Merkava tanks and soldier carriers, among other armored vehicles, along the barb-wired fence separating Shebaa Farms from liberated Lebanese territories, the NNA said.

The Lebanese Army has condemned recent Israeli deployments inside Lebanon's borders, saying that it will follow up the move through international bodies.

Lebanese Telecommunication Minister Gibran Bassil accused Israel on Tuesday of causing massive disruptions in cellular communication in the country ahead and on Election Day on Sunday.

Lebanon’s military prosecutor charged 10 more Lebanese on Friday with spying for Israel, bringing the total this year to 55, a judicial official said. Four of those charged were already in custody, having been detained on suspicion of the crime, and the other six have yet to be arrested. Eight of the 10 were also charged with drug trafficking.

Shiite militant group Hezbollah and its allies are poised to defeat Lebanon's Western-backed parliamentary majority in this month's general election, pollsters said on Thursday.

Syria was accused in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri of being the ‘real’ assassins. A massive international anti-Syria campaign was launched by the Bush Administration and Israel to demonize its government.

But things have changed. This weekend, a new exclusive, secret, investigative report showing the real assassins was published by the same weekly, Der Spiegel. Same author. Same editor. New target.

This time Der Spiegel’s Erich Follath claimed solo that the international committee investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister martyr Rafik Hariri has reached “surprising new secret conclusions”, this time pointing to Hezbollah.

The defense establishment is concerned that Hezbollah will try to smuggle advanced anti-aircraft missiles into Lebanon in the near future - yet another reason for the rising tension on the Israel-Lebanon border. Israel has made it clear in past statements that it will consider such a development as crossing a red line, which might necessitate preventative measures.

Less than three weeks before Lebanon's hotly contested election, Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned his people on Monday night that a five-day IDF exercise scheduled to start at the end of the month could mean the Jewish state is preparing for "a new and unexpected war."

While he said he had no information that indicated this was the case, he added that "it is a possibility that cannot be ignored." He spoke in a televised speech.

Biden linked US aid to the nation with the outcome of the election, cheered the current ruling parties and cautioned the nation against electing what he called “the spoilers of peace,” presumably referring to Hezbollah.

Recent polls suggest that the Hezbollah-led opposition has a very good chance of winning the June 7 poll. Hezbollah opposition faction includes a significant portion of the nation’s Christian voters. Contrary to its international image as a hawkish, Shi’ite Islamist faction, Hezbollah’s campaign has emphasized support for Lebanon’s diverse religious character.

It is highly unlikely that Lebanese Hezbollah militants have more weapons now in southern Lebanon than they did at the time of their 2006 war with Israel, the head of U.N. peacekeeping said Wednesday.

Israel says Hezbollah continues to increase its weapons stockpiles south of the Litani River where the 13,000-strong UNIFIL peacekeeping mission is charged with keeping out armed fighters and illicit weapons.

"I think it would be very difficult for Hezbollah to put additional weapons in the area," Alain Le Roy, the French head of the U.N. Department of Peacekeeping, told reporters.

What of the acknowledged doubt—summarily dismissed by the Post—that the Syrian regime is being “framed” for a crime it did not commit? Curiously, the newspaper gives no indication of who might be responsible for such a frame-up. Here, however, the question of “who benefits” is definitely worth pursuing.

Lebanese authorities are reportedly holding up to 25 suspects in what security sources say is a widening investigation into espionage for Israel. Those charged on Wednesday included a senior police officer, along with his wife and sister, according to Reuters.

A retired general in the powerful General Security directorate, his wife and nephew were reportedly charged last month with spying for Israel, which fought a 34-day war in 2006 with the Iran-backed Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla group.

Foxman was invited to the studio to comment on Kofi Annan's announcement that four UN observers had been apparently killed by Israel deliberately. From the odd choice of "expert" for this subject to the style and content, the "interview" – in a prestigious foreign news weekly magazine – looked like propaganda from the darkest regimes. Moderator Yaakov Achimeir stated time and again as a matter of fact that the observers had been killed "by accident," so that the only realm left to investigate was Annan's personal psychopathology for suggesting otherwise.

A senior Hezbollah official has warned of a possible "Israeli attack" during Washington and Tel Aviv's joint military exercise in the region.

Speaking during the national dialogue talks aimed at mending the political divisions between rival Lebanese factions, Hezbollah parliamentary bloc head Mohammed Raad said Tuesday that Lebanon must go on high alert during Israel's biggest-ever military maneuvers on May 31.