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Bush and Blair Push Plan to End Mideast Fighting
by Jim Rutenberg and Helene Cooper
 President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain said Friday that they would present a plan to end hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah at the United Nations next week as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice headed into an urgent round of weekend meetings in the Middle East to hash out the details. Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair painted the broad outlines of a plan in which an international peacekeeping force would insert itself between the warring sides and help the weak Lebanese military take control of the southern region controlled by Hizballah. (New York Times)
Nine IDF Soldiers Killed in Southern Lebanon
by Amos Harel and Eli Ashkenazi
Nine IDF soldiers died Wednesday and 27 others were injured in fighting in southern Lebanon. (Ha'aretz)
See also Wounded Soldiers Describe Bint Jbail Battle - Nir Hasson and Tomer Levi
 Wounded soldiers who took part in heavy combat Wednesday on the outskirts of the Hizballah stronghold of Bint Jbail described the enemy ambush. "There was heavy fire from rocket launchers, missiles, and rocket-propelled grenades," said Sgt. Tzachi Duda. Sgt. Ohed Shalom said the soldiers did all in their power to prevent Hizballah gunmen from reaching their comrades' bodies. One of the most troublesome positions was the towering mosque in the village from which terrorists fired at the soldiers. (Ha'aretz)
UN Observer: Hizballah Using Us as Shields
 Six days before he was killed in an Israel Air Force bombing of a United Nations post in southern Lebanon, Canadian observer Major Paeta Hess-von Kruendener sent an email to his former commander in the Canadian army, in which he said that Hizballah fighters were "running around" near the UN post struck by the Israel Defense Forces and that they were using the post as a sort of "shield" against Israel's strikes. (Ynet News)
Pictured: UN and Hizballah flags flying at Lebanese base.
Israeli "Doves" Say Response Is Legitimate
by John Ward Anderson
 Yossi Beilin, one of Israel's most prominent peace activists, says, "People like myself led the movement to withdraw from Lebanon in 2000, and when we were asked what would happen if they continued to use violence against us and shoot at us from Lebanon, we said that when we leave Lebanon according to a UN agreement, then we will have a free hand to use against those who act against us." Two weeks into the war, Israelis have shown extraordinary unanimity in backing the military campaign to inflict a punishing and perhaps lethal blow to Hizballah, despite a rain of rockets into northern Israel. (Washington Post)
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Residents Evacuate Northern Israel En Masse
by Adam Pines
 At least 250,000 Israelis have now evacuated from northern Israel and sought shelter farther south, Israeli government officials estimate. Residents in central cities like Tel Aviv and Netanya have opened their homes and taken in scores of their internally displaced compatriots. Televisions programs dedicate whole segments to finding northerners places to stay. Many northerners are sleeping on mattresses on the cramped living room floors of friends, relatives, and colleagues in the south. (Deutsche Presse-Agentur)
Hizballah: We've Planned This for Six Years
by Hala Jabe
 Sheikh Naim Qassem, Hizballah's second in command, admitted in an interview that Hizballah had been preparing for conflict since Israel withdrew from south Lebanon in 2000. He claimed it had not been convinced that Israel's aspirations in Lebanon were over, despite its withdrawal. Hizballah's stockpiling of arms and preparation of numerous bunkers and tunnels over the past six years have been key to its resistance. "If it was not for these preparations Lebanon would have been defeated within hours," he said. (Times-UK)
Sheba Medical Center to Treat Lebanese for Free
by Judy Siegel-Itzkovich
 Lebanese children and adults wounded in the Hizballah-Israeli crossfire in Lebanon have been invited to receive free treatment at Sheba Medical Center in Tel Aviv. The cost will be paid by Jewish and non-Jewish donors in Israel and abroad, hospital director-general Prof. Zev Rothstein said last week. "We are not to blame for this war. We don't ask who is to blame," said Rothstein. "We have an open Jewish heart. Our aim is to save lives and reduce misery. We don't hate like the terrorists," he added. (Jerusalem Post)
Israeli Citizen Army Shelves Private Lives for Second Lebanon War
by Matti Friedman
 The war along the Lebanese-Israeli border is increasingly drawing in Israel's citizen army, the college students, lawyers, shopkeepers and computer programmers who make up the reserves. The standing army's young conscripts, drafted out of high school for three years, have little memory of Israel's 18-year occupation of south Lebanon that ended in 2000. But many reservists remember it well, and these older troops could play an even bigger rule in the current fight against Hizballah guerrillas. (AP/Cleveland Plain Dealer)
Surge of Violence in Mideast Forces Some Young Jews to Rethink a Rite of Passage
by Lisa W. Foderaro
 For thousands of young Jews a summer tour of Israel is a rite of passage. Their plans have been complicated by the hostilities that broke out earlier this month in northern Israel. Since the hostilities began, only a handful of people have backed out of a trip scheduled for August. "We're not getting a lot of cancellations," said Birthright Israel official Jay Golan said. (New York Times)
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