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Israel Bombardment of Lebanon Enters Sixth Day, Hezbollah
Strikes Haifa
Hezbollah, the United States and the Context Behind Israel's
Offensive on Lebanon
Lopez Obrador Leads Over 1.1 Million Supporters in Mexico
City to Call for Presidential Vote Recount
Putin Dismisses Bush's Call For Russia to Follow Iraqi Model
of "Democracy"
Israel Bombardment of Lebanon Enters Sixth Day, Hezbollah
Strikes Haifa
Israel's bombardment of Lebanon has entered its sixth day
and the Lebanese death toll has now topped 150: almost all
of them civilians. Meanwhile, Hezbollah is continuing to fire
rockets at northern Israel. On Sunday, a missile hit Haifa,
Israel's third largest city. The Israeli death toll since
now stands at around 24. We go to Lebanon to get a report.
[includes rush
transcript]
Israeli warplanes are continuing to attack Lebanon for a
sixth consecutive day. Air strikes on Monday killed 23 people
bringing the death toll in Lebanon to over 150, almost all
of them civilians. The country's infrastructure has been severely
damaged as Israel continues to target roads and bridges. Civilian
installations, factories, gas stations and the airport have
also hit. Israel has now begun targeting Tripoli in the north
of the country, as well as areas in central and eastern Lebanon.
The Israeli air strikes began after Hezbollah seized two Israeli
soldiers during a raid into Israel on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah is continuing to fire rockets at northern
Israel. On Sunday, a missile hit a train maintenance building
in Haifa, Israel's third largest city, killing eight people.
Israel's death toll now stands at 24. In his first televised
appearance since the crisis began, Hezbollah leader Hassan
Nasrallah said the battle against Israel is "just at
the beginning."
- Rania Masri, assistant professor at the Faculty of Sciences
at the University of Balamand in Lebanon and the assistant
director of the Institute for Environmental Studies at the
University of Balamand. She joins us on the line from Northern
Lebanon.
Hezbollah, the United States and the Context Behind
Israel's Offensive on Lebanon
As Israeli warplanes continue to bomb Lebanon and Hezbollah
fires rockets into northern Israel we get context on the crisis
with two analysts: As'ad AbuKhalil, a Lebanese professor of
political science at California State University and Chris
Hedges, a senior fellow at The Nation Institute and the former
Middle East bureau chief for The New York Times. [includes
rush
transcript]
- As'ad AbuKhalil, professor of political science at California
State University, Stanislaus and visiting professor at UC,
Berkeley. He runs a blog called "The
Angry Arab News Service."
- Chris Hedges, journalist and author. He was a foreign
correspondent for The New York Times and is currently a
senior fellow at the Nation Institute. He is the author
of "War is a Force Which Gives Us Meaning". Read
Hedges' article, "Mutually
Assured Destruction in the Middle East"
Lopez Obrador Leads Over 1.1 Million Supporters in
Mexico City to Call for Presidential Vote Recount
In Mexico, over 1.1 million people rallied on Sunday in
Mexico City to demand a full recount in the country's contested
presidential election. Presidential candidate Andres Manuel
Lopez Obrador called on the crowd to commit acts of peaceful
civil resistance to force a recount. [includes rush
transcript]
We take a look at the disputed Presidential elections in
Mexico. Yesterday, populist candidate Andres Manuel Lopez
Obrador led a huge march of 1.1 million supporters through
the capital on Sunday to pressure the court to order a ballot
by ballot recount of the election that took place two weeks
ago. On July 6th authorities announced that conservative candidate
Felipe Calderon, a former energy minister, had defeated Obrador
by a razor slim margin. This was after electoral officials
recounted ballot tallies from the initial vote. The recount
showed that Calderon won the presidency by the closest margin
in Mexico's history - around 220,000 votes of 41 million cast
- or just over half a percentage point.
Lopez Obrador filed soon filed claims challenging the election
results in Mexico's electoral court. He is alleging fraud
and government interference. The march yesterday is the second
large-scale protest in a week demanding a recount.
- John Ross, a regular contributor to the Nation, Counterpunch
and the Mexican daily La Jornada. John has also written
three books chronicling the Zapitista movement in Mexico.
They are "Rebellion From the Roots", "The
Annexation of Mexico" and "The War Against Oblivion.”
He has just completed "Making Another World Possible:
Zapatista Chronicle 2000-2006" to be published by Nation
Books in October 2006.
Putin Dismisses Bush's Call For Russia to Follow
Iraqi Model of "Democracy"
Leaders of the world's industrialized nations gathered for
the annual G8 meeting in Moscow this weekend. On Saturday,
Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Bush gave
a joint news conference that highlighted their differences
over Israel's actions in Lebanon, the state of Russian democracy
and Iraq. [includes rush
transcript]
We turn now to the annual G8 summit that ends today. The
summit was held in St. Petersburg Russia over the weekend.
Leaders of the world's industrialized nations gathered for
their annual meeting where host Russian President Vladimir
Putin, had hoped to focus on energy security, fighting infectious
disease and education. But much of the talks centered on the
Israeli air strikes in Lebanon. In a statement, G-8 leaders
called for the return of the kidnapped soldiers and an end
to the shelling as well as a halt to Israeli military operations.
In addition, the statement also called for an early withdrawal
of Israeli forces from Gaza and the release of detained Palestinian
ministers and parliamentarians.
On Saturday, Putin and President Bush gave a joint news conference
that highlighted their differences over Israel's actions in
Lebanon, the state of Russian democracy and Iraq.
- Excerpt of U.S. President Bush and Russian President
Vladimir Putin joint press conference.
For more on the G8 summit we are joined by:
- Anatol Lieven Senior Research Fellow at the New
America Foundation. He previously covered Central Europe
for The Financial Times and the former Soviet Union and
Russia for The Times of London. His latest book is "America
Right or Wrong: An Anatomy of American Nationalism."
For a copy of today’s program, call 1 (800) 881 2359.
Our website is www.democracynow.org.
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Democracy Now! is produced by Mike Burke, Sharif Abdel Kouddous,
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Jenny Filipazzo and Isis Phillips.
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