The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #92618   Message #1796543
Posted By: freda underhill
29-Jul-06 - 08:25 PM
Thread Name: BS: Gaza Strip 28/9 June 2006
Subject: RE: BS: Gaza Strip 28/9 June 2006
The UN is already in Lebanon, Peace, and as you will have read, has also been bombed by the Israelis, despite repeated requests from various UN members for them to stop bombing its stations there.

...meanwhile,

Tony Blair was facing a full-scale cabinet rebellion last night over the Middle East crisis after his former Foreign Secretary warned that Israel's actions risked destabilising all of Lebanon.
Jack Straw, now Leader of the Commons, said in a statement released after meeting Muslim residents of his Blackburn constituency that while he grieved for the innocent Israelis killed, he also mourned the '10 times as many innocent Lebanese men, women and children killed by Israeli fire'.

He said he agreed with the Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells that it was 'very difficult to understand the kind of military tactics used by Israel', adding: 'These are not surgical strikes but have instead caused death and misery amongst innocent civilians.' Straw said he was worried that 'a continuation of such tactics by Israel could destabilise the already fragile Lebanese nation'. The Observer can also reveal that at a cabinet meeting before Blair left for last Friday's Washington summit with President George Bush, minister after minister pressed him to break with the Americans and publicly criticise Israel over the scale of death and destruction.

The critics included close Blair allies. One, the International Development Secretary, Hilary Benn, was revealed yesterday to have told a Commons committee that he did not view Israel's strikes on power stations as a 'proportionate response' to Hizbollah attacks.
[Cabinet in open revolt over Blair's Israel policy; Gaby Hinsliff in San Francisco, Ned Temko in London and Peter Beaumont in Beirut; Sunday July 30, 2006; The Observer]