Cease-Fire Imminent - Quick! Kill 'em ALL!

Racing against time before a cease-fire is arranged,Israel expanded its offensive in Lebanon on Tuesday, landing commandos by helicopter deep in the country where they raided a Hezbollah-run HOSPITAL as ground forces battled guerrillas in border villages in the south.

Lebanese security officials said the Israeli raid was in Baalbek in the Hezbollah heartland in the eastern Bekaa Valley, some 80 miles north of Israel. Troops landed by helicopter after aircraft carried out several strikes in the area, according to the officials.

"80 miles north of Israel" seems a little far for a buffer zone, don't you think?

Bolstering thousands of troops in southern Lebanon, Israel prepared to send thousands more into the area after calling up reserves, readying forces for an even wider ground push with the aim of clearing out Hezbollah fighters and controlling the border area until an international force can arrive.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert indicated that the stepped-up military action was aimed at inflicting AS MUCH DAMAGE AS POSSIBLE on Hezbollah BEFORE moves to arrange a cease-fire gain momentum.

"Every additional day is a day that saps the strength of this cruel enemy," he said. "Every extra day is a day in which [the army] reduces their stamina and restricts their ability to fire and hit in the future."

Of course, according to Jewish Law, "this cruel enemy" includes Women, Children and the Elderly. Actually, it excludes nothing and no one - not even insects - as long as they're not Jewish.

There were suggestions that the army might drive as far as the Litani River, about 18 miles north of the border, but Meir Shetreet, a member of Israel's security Cabinet, said that line had not been set in a meeting early Tuesday to approve the expanded ground offensive.

Going up "as far as the Litani river" wouldn't have anything to do with stealing WATER, would it? What am I thinking? Israel is a kind and honest neighbor!

Even as Israel stepped up its attacks, Hezbollah drastically reduced its rocket fire into Israel for the second straight day IN AN APPARENT EFFORT TO DRAW Israel into a CEASE-FIRE, which the group has demanded. The army reported that about 10 mortar rounds and rockets landed in northern Israel on Tuesday, a sharp drop from the daily firings of more than 100 rockets before the announcement of curtailed Israeli air strikes.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday that the U.S. would seek action by the UN Security Council this week to arrange a cease-fire bolstered by the deployment of an international force.

Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Israel was aware that there could be "a short diplomatic window" of opportunity for military action. He said ground operations had been expanded "with the intention of creating new conditions so that when an international force arrives ... it will be able to enforce the new situation" in which Hezbollah guerrillas would not be active in southern Lebanon.

Note the use of a "diplomatic window" as an opportunity for MILITARY ACTION. Very diplomatic - n'est pa?

Olmert said that although the Israeli offensive would not remove all rocket and missile threats against Israel, it would deter the guerrillas from firing them in the future. The campaign "has created a completely new equation in the balance of power between the State of Israel and its enemies,"

"We are at the start of a POLITICAL PROCESS that I believe will ultimately lead to a cease-fire under conditions that are completely different than those that prevailed on our northern border," Olmert said.

Amazing! He characterizes this wholesale carnage as a "political process!"

"We will cease fire when we know for sure that the conditions on the ground will be different than those that caused this war to break out."

In other words, Israel will not stop until NOTHING and NO ONE remains standing in South Lebanon.

WAKEUP, AMERICA! This is the definition of insanity and our tax dollars are funding it.