George W. Bush appears back on the right track today with regard to the preposterous idea of a ceasefire in southern Lebanon:

"Stopping for the sake of stopping...won't address the root cause of the problem."

I hope Condoleeza Rice was listening.

Sen. Chuck Hagel once again displays, in calling for an immediate ceasefire on the part of Israel, why he is not to be taken seriously should he seek the Republican presidential nomination in 2008.

Should such a ceasefire occur then Hezbollah's use of violence would be validated and the terrorist organization would be emboldened. Iran would confidently laugh at any future punitive declaration coming from the West with regard to its nuclear ambitions, as well as accelerate its shipments of deadly arms to Hezbollah to be used against Israel. Syria would come to believe that its support of Hezbollah would have no adverse consequences for it, and likely increase support for Hezbollah.

This would set up a much more dangerous situation than we have today, with a wider regional war in the Middle East a much more likely possibility. Iran and Syria would be much more likely to miscalculate how both Israel and the West would respond to further acts of aggression on both of their parts. Both Iran and Syria must come to understand that their are real and painful consequences to their continued support of Hezbollah, which would not exist without their influx of money and terror expertise.

Hagel's idea is the wrong one at the wrong time, and it would set up circumstances that would be very likely to lead to a catastrophe in the Middle East in the not-so-distant future. It would appease Iran and Syria, and feed nutritious food to the monstrous mouth of Islamofascism. When it comes to matters such as this, Chuck Hagel simply cannot be taken with a very high degree of seriousness.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert declared that there would be no ceasefire until Hezbollah returns the captured Israeli solddiers, which started this war:

"there is no ceasefire and there will be no ceasefire in the coming days."

And there should be none until and unless either Hezbollah agrees to an immediate, unconditional and verifiable dismantling and removal of its rockets from Lebanon. They won't of course. So there should be no ceasefire until Israel completely destroys the Hezbollah war making capacity in Lebanon.

The Bush administration, which has so emphasized its "war on terror" since 9/11, would do well to back off of the ceasefire talk and let Israel continue unmolested to incapacitate and neutralize those who killed 241 U.S. Marines in 1983. That is, if the administration would have us believe that it truly is indeed still as enthusiastically committed to that war as it has been up to now. Every time Condoleeza Rice steps before the microphone and says that a ceasefire is "doable" this week, while Hezbollah rockets are still raining down on Israel, a mockery of Mr. Bush's commitment to the "war on terror" takes place.

Every time that I hear Condoleeza Rice utter that a cease-fire can be done in Lebanon this week, without also mentioning that this includes Hezbollah unconditionally agreeing to disarm and remove its rockets from southern Lebanon, I get worried. At the very least it gives more weight to those who are nervous about whether she's completely competent in Middle East affairs. She seems to be sending the wrong signals at the wrong time, which gives the impression that the U.S. may be attempting to restrain Israel before the goal of doing real and permanent damage to Hezbollah has been accomplished.

The American mainstream media is in full, condemn Israel fury for the most regrettable deaths at Qana.

But MSM, while listening to the hysterical Kofi "food-for-oil" Annan call for a cease-fire, ignores the following:

1. The IDF warned residents to get out ahead of time.

2. At least 150 rockets were fired from the complex at Israel.

3. The building was loaded with Hezbollah guerillas hiding inside.

Kofi Annan's rush to condemn Israel for this most unfortunate incident, while largely ignoring the rocket launches and the resulting Israeli deaths and injuries, detracts from any shred of credibility he may have possessed after the food-for-oil debacle.
Annan simply cannot be trusted to bring forth any resolution, or make any demand to the UN, that concerns Israel whatsoever.

Condoleeza Rice is welcoming "positive" moves by Hezbollah toward a cease-fire.

Would that include Hezbollah chief Nasrallah's threat today to begin firing missiles at central Israel?

Rice hopes for a cease-fire by Wednesday. Wonderful, now how Hezbollah knows how long they need to hold out for.

But the local authorities are calling the shooting of six at The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle a "hate crime."

Rigggghhhtttt.

Hate crime? Sure seems coincidental with events in the Middle East, just days after Hezbollah urged Muslims to take the fight to Jews in the United States.

It wasn't a hate crime. It was terrorism, plain and simple. And now one person is dead and three others are critically wounded after a TERRORIST act in Seattle.

From Allah Pundit:

Sources told KING 5 the suspect is a Pakistani man with a criminal background. He is from the Tri-Cities but his citizenship is unknown.

And...

One witness, who declined to give her name, said a man walked into the Jewish Federation building with a gun, said he was upset about what was going on in Israel, then opened fire. After the shootings, the man said to call 911, the witness said. The witness said the man identified himself as an American Muslim.

Margaret Thatcher famously told Bush 41 not to "go wobbly on me" in the hours after Iraq crossed Kuwait's borders, and he luckily didn't.

Is Bush 43 going wobbly on Israel's right to destroy Hezbollah? His renewed vigor for a cease-fire, as well as sending Condoleeza Rice back to the Middle East to achieve who knows what, suggests that he is.

George W. Bush has handled this crisis admirably thus far, but that will likely be forgotten if he pressures Israel to accept any cease-fire that would leave Hezbollah's military capability intact, and thus a continuing threat to stability in the region.

Hezbollah killed hundreds of U.S. Marines in 1983. Israel is killing Hezbollah now. It doesn't seem like a time for a cease-fire or for sending Condoleeza Rice back for talks. It does seem like a time for killing more Hezbollah and destroying their war machines.

***

Paul over at Powerline on Rice's return trip:

Although this visit is a bad idea, I'm hoping that it's just an effort to keep Tony Blair and others happy. With any luck, Rice will just go through the motions while Israel gets on with the job. Unfortunately, as we have noted, Israel does not seem to getting on with the job as forcefully as it needs to.

The "Nasrallah Blues":

An Israel Defense Forces analysis of the messages transmitted by Hezbollah Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah to his men during the fighting in Lebanon reveals a slightly different tone from the one he took in three public television interviews in the same period and in an interview with the Lebanese newspaper A-Safir. ...

Nasrallah admits that his organization is having morale problems and says his group will receive support and encouragement.

He adds that not only Hezbollah, but also Israel, has been badly hit.

He also complains frequently that the Arab states have deserted Hezbollah and the Lebanese and are not helping them against Israel.

But the military losses for Hezbollah are far more devastating, and Nasrallah knows it. His attempt to equate his losses with Israel's is a transparently inept one. If his troops have more than half a brain in their heads they may soon choose to replace him for his abominable miscalculation more than two weeks ago, which provoked Israel into finally taking substantial action against the terrorist machine of Hezbollah.

Suspect indeed, but that is hardly surprising:

A Canadian U.N. observer, one of four killed at a UNIFIL position near the southern Lebanese town of Khiyam on Tuesday, sent an e-mail to his former commander, a Canadian retired major-general, Lewis MacKenzie, in which he wrote that Hezbollah fighters were "all over" the U.N. position, Mr. MacKenzie said. Hezbollah troops, not the United Nations, were Israel's target, the deceased observer wrote.

Some conservatives are not happy about Condoleeza Rice's performance thus far as Secretary of State, with a few calling her "incompetent" on Mideast matters.

I'd like to know what she thinks she is going to accomplish by going back to the Mideast this weekend. She should stay the heck out of there, let Israel kill as many Hezbollah terrorists as it can, and return only when there is a chance for a meaningful and lasting cease-fire. That time is not now.

Update: Rice is being a little more ambiguous now about the timeline for her return to the Middle East. Good. Perhaps she's thought it out and determined that now is not the best time to travel back there, and potentially cause an undesirable distraction, while Israel is dispatching more and more Hezbollah terrorists every day.

Another update: Rice is going back tomorrow. The angst rises again.

Say it isn't so. Yes, now Floyd Landis is suspected of possibly doping, and his victory is in jeopardy. Tainted at the beginning, now the Tour de France's ending may be blemished as well.

Which is somewhat disturbing. "Senior military commanders" are obviously in a position to know if the current campaign is not meeting the objectives that they believe must be met to assure the security of Israel, and it is surprising (and possibly emboldening to Hezbollah?) that the cabinet would deny the expansion of current operations. The cabinet did approve the mobilization of three reserve divisions in the event of what it believes might be a future necessity to expand the operation.

Perhaps Israel is overly concerned about alarming the Syrians with a further escalation, and maybe it is waiting to take the next step until the rockets hit further South. But Hezbollah vowed yesterday to begin shooting the rockets further than they have thus far, and it hardly seems the time for the Israelis to be signalling a limitation in their operations that would allow Hezbollah to escape, remain intact and regroup for future attacks against Israel. This can only comfort and embolden Hezbollah.

Jerusalem Post:

Earlier Wednesday, Hizbullah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, looking extremely tired, defiantly vowed that his fighters would begin firing rockets deeper into Israel, beyond the northern port of Haifa, and said the Jewish state's two-week-long military offensive against Lebanon was linked to a US-Israeli plan for "a new Middle East."

"I declare that we will enter the 'beyond Haifa' stage," the bearded and black-turbanned Shi'ite cleric said in a speech on Hizbullah's al-Manar television in the early hours of Wednesday. "In the new stage, our attacks will not remain limited to Haifa. Irrespective of the reaction of the enemy forces on the rocketing of Haifa, we will move to the stage of beyond Haifa."

It really would be to the great benefit of Tehran and Damascus to get a hold of Nasrallah quickly and tell him this is a bad idea, and that they both may well be in the crosshairs if the rockets start flying further, unless of course they didn't foolishly approve of his public uttering of the threat beforehand.

Just heard Hugh Hewitt on the radio mention this alarming post from Counterrorism Blog:

On Sunday, I discussed a Jerusalem Post report claiming that Hizballah sleeper cells outside Lebanon had been put on standby. While I noted the plausibility of this claim, I cautioned that it seemed the Jerusalem Post had no source to which it could be attributed.

The evidence begins to build today, as Adnkronos International reports: "'Sleeper' cells belonging to militant Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah are present in Western Europe, Latin America and in southeast Asia and been ordered to be ready to carry out terrorist attacks should Israel prolong its military offensive against Lebanon, according to unnamed German intelligence sources." While "unnamed German intelligence sources" isn't ideal confirmation, Germany is known to have decent intelligence assets in the Middle East.

There have been a number of CT Blog posts on Hizballah's massive international terrorist network. In particular, Zachary Abuza's post about Hizballah activity in Southeast Asia and Brian Hecht's reference guide to Hizballah activity in North America are worth reading.

Two major considerations may keep Hizballah from authorizing these cells to carry out attacks. The first is that Hizballah is depending on world opinion to draw Israel out of Lebanon, thus allowing the terrorist outfit to live to fight another day. As Bill Roggio notes, "Diplomatic pressure for Israel to halt operations and accept a cease fire will only increase as time goes by. The United States can deflect the pressure for only so long." But if Hizballah unleashes terror attacks against Israeli targets elsewhere in the world, the pressure against Israel may substantially diminish. A second consideration is Iran, Hizballah's major sponsor. Iran almost certainly wants to keep as many sleeper cells as possible in place to serve as a deterrent against a possible U.S. attack on its nuclear program. In Iran's view, unleashing the sleeper cells now may be premature.

If Hizballah does launch an attack in the present environment, the U.S. is one of the less likely places for it to do so. Europe is a more likely target for a number of reasons. Most prominent is Europe's coordination problem. If Hizballah attacks a synagogue in Oklahoma, every state in the Union will instantly clamp down on suspected Hizballah activity. But if Hizballah bombs a synagogue in Italy, that doesn't necessarily mean that the various countries comprising the EU will uniformly clamp down on Hizballah.