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Peace Resolution for Lebanon Unanimously Approved at U.N.
by Colum Lynch and Robin Wright
 The U.N. Security Council unanimously approved a resolution Friday that calls for a halt to the fighting between Israel and Hizballah. The U.N. resolution calls on Israel to begin withdrawing all its forces from Lebanon "in parallel" with the deployment of U.N. peacekeepers and 15,000 additional Lebanese troops. It gives the international force the mandate to use firepower but no explicit role in disarming Hizballah, leaving the fate of the Lebanese militia to a future political settlement. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the cease-fire will not go into effect immediately. (Washington Post)
See also Text of UN Ceasefire Resolution (Ha'aretz)
Underground Hospital Wards that Offer a Safe Haven in Israel
by Donald Macintyre
 Through the blown-out fourth-floor window of the Western Galilee Hospital's north wing, the view across the fields is dominated by the high ridge along the Lebanon border, less than four miles away, from which the Katyusha rocket hurtled into the eight-bed ophthalmic ward. It is easy, standing amid the shattered glass and twisted bedframes, to imagine the carnage there would have been on 28 July if the patients had not presciently been moved underground nearly two weeks earlier. (Independent-UK)
Supporting Israel Is Now a Click Away
Those looking to lend a helping hand to Israel during these times of conflict now have a unique opportunity to do so. The "Support Israel" flag, a not-for-profit project produced by the Web site JerusalemOnline.com, is constructed of the logos of close to 100 organizations that support Israel through public relations, donations, aliya, assistance to the poor and education.
To visit the "Support Israel" flag, click here (Jerusalem Post)
Reuters Drops Lebanese Photographer over Doctored Image
 Reuters, the news and information agency, told a freelance Lebanese photographer it would not use any more of his pictures after he doctored an image of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on Beirut. The photograph by Adnan Hajj showed thick black smoke rising above buildings in the Lebanese capital after an Israeli air raid in the war with the Shi'ite Islamic group Hizbollah. Reuters withdrew the doctored image.
See also Slide Show: Photo Fraud in Lebanon (Aish.com)
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Israel and Hizballah Fight On
by Andrew Marshall
 More Israeli troops poured into Lebanon on Saturday, capturing a broader swathe of territory in heavy fighting with Hizballah guerrillas, as both sides said they would obey a U.N. resolution on a truce - but not yet. Helicopters lifted hundreds of Israeli troops into south Lebanon as part of an expanding offensive launched. Lieutenant-General Dan Halutz, Israel's top general, said Israel had tripled its forces in Lebanon since Thursday. (Reuters)
See also 24 Troops Killed in Day of Battles (Ynet News)
For Some Tourists, War Is No Bar to Visiting Israel
by David Kaufman
 More than four weeks after missiles began falling by the hundreds into northern Israel - part of the country's ever-escalating war with the Lebanese militia Hizballah - Americans continue to visit Israel despite concerns about safety. Before the mid-July outbreak of violence Israel’s tourism sector expected some 2.7 million visitors to arrive this year, 40 percent more than the previous 12 months and about the same as 2000’s record high. (New York Times)
Despite War Toll, Some Christians in Lebanon Support Israel's Goals
by Uriel Heilman
A distinct minority of Lebanese are rooting for Israel to crush Hizballah - silently if not explicitly. “I’m praying for flattening southern Lebanon,” one Beirut native, Micheline Touma, said after fleeing Lebanon. Voices like Toumas are a small minority in the country. But the extreme anti-Hizballah sentiment these Christians express is a sign of a much more widely held view in Lebanon common to Sunnis and even to some Shiites that Hizballah is a long-term impediment to progress and normalization in Lebanon. (JTA News)
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