I had planned to post more today. I should have had the time. It just didn’t work out that way.

Of course the big news is the cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah. To discribe this as fragile would be overstating reality.

Also in the Mid East is the story of the two FOX-TV journalists kidnapped in Gaza. Our prayers go out for their safe and quick return.

Cuban Television is showing video of Fidel Castro meeting in his sick room with Hugo Chavez.

There are others as well. I guess there’s always tomorrow.

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This headline portends some good news:

Gaza groups agree to stop firing at Israel

Not so fast there, Sparky.

Senior Palestinian officials said militant groups in the Gaza Strip agreed to stop firing missiles at Israel at midnight Saturday, if Israel launches no new raids into Gaza. But two main guerrilla groups denied that any agreement had been reached.

[...]

Abu Kosai, a spokesman for the Al Aqsa Brigades, said: “This report is baseless. We are going to continue launching our rockets toward the Zionist communities as long as the aggression continues. As long as the aggression exists, it’s our right to respond.”

He also said, “We made contacts with all our brothers who are working in the military field who knew nothing about this report and this agreement.”

Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad, said: “This is a completely false report. Resistance will continue because the aggression exists and rockets are one of the tools we use in this resistance.”

Ok. Still there may be some good news to this, as Captain Ed explains.

If this turns out to be true, it’s a major slap in the face to Hezbollah and to their Syrian patrons. It might signal a split among Hamas factions in the territories and the terrorist leadership in Damascus, which would absolutely want Israel to fight a two-front war, if not more.

We’ll have to watch and see what develops.

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Coffee makes us severe, and grave, and philosophical. ~ Jonathan Swift

In The Bullpen (Chad Evans) War in Lebanon Escalates — “This post is an attempt to put some of the more interesting analyses (excerpts thereof) and a few breaking headlines on one post for easier viewing. My comments, when made, are in italics. This post will be updated through tomorrow morning so please check back.”

GOP Bloggers (Jonathan R.) Want Peace? Stop Iran — “From Gaza to Iraq to Lebanon, the prime mover behind events is Iran. Whether arming and supporting Hamas, Hezbollah or Shia militants in Iraq, Iran has its fingerprints on all manner of mischief.”

Dr. Sanity (Dr. Pat Santy) WHAT IRAN IS COUNTING ON — “It is no coincidence–as others have pointed out–that Iran has taken action on the eve of its nuclear deadline. The war it has initiated is designed to 1)deflect attention away from its nuclear program (not quite ready yet, are we?); and to force the U.S.’s hand in the region–i.e., forcing us to act before they think we were quite ready to act.”

Outside The Beltway (James Joyner) House Extends Outdated Voting Rights Act Provisions — “I remain convinced that applying different legal standards to a handful of states is blatantly unconstitutional in addition to being unnecessary. Indeed, I would argue that the preclearance requirement, which requires the federal judiciary to approve something that the Constitution makes a plenary power of state legislatures, is also unconstitutional. But politicians are too afraid of being labeled “racist” than about such trifles.”

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Coffee is good for talent, but genius wants prayer. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

In The Bullpen (Chad Evans) IDF Starts Incursion; UN Human Rights Council Session Concludes — “The IDF has moved into Gaza in an effort to locate the Israeli soldier who was taken hostage by Hamas over one week ago. Naturally many nations have condemned Israel without condemning the government of Palestine, that is run by Hamas, for attacking an Israeli outpost and taking a soldier hostage. To those nations, it is Israel who is being the aggressive one for responding to an attack and those same nations never utter a word over the daily rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip into Israel either.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Iraqi Documents: UNMOVIC Knew Of Renewed WMD Efforts (Updated And Bumped) — “Continuing my review of the many documents released from the DocEx files over the last two days, I found yet another interesting piece of information regarding Saddam Hussein’s pursuit of WMD. In a summary of a larger document, the translators found that Iraq had restarted its processing of castor-bean extraction, from which ricin can be developed — and that UNMOVIC discovered it in December 2002.”

Big Lizards (Dafydd) Here’s a Switch – — “In a bizarre twist of politics, the Democrats are fighting like the dickens over Rep. Tom DeLay… to keep him on the ballot in Texas, rather than to boot him off. The theory — and I think it’s so transparent, it’s going to create blowback — is that with DeLay’s “ethical” problems (i.e., he incurred the wrath of notoriously vindictive and partisan D.A. Ronnie Earle), having DeLay’s name on the ballot will so turn off Texas voters, that they’ll vote for the Democrat in a strongly Republican district.

I suppose it could work… if, as Democrats believe, Texas voters are all as dumb as a box of bratwurst. Otherwise, they will easily be able to figure out just what the Democrats are up to.”

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Nancy Astor: “If I were your wife, I would put poison in your coffee.”
Sir Winston Churchill: “And if I were your husband, I would drink it.”

Happy 2nd Blogiversary to:
Dr. Sanity!

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Israeli Cabinet Approves Deeper Gaza Incursion, Buffer Zone — “After Hamas fired a longer-range Kassam rocket that hit the city of Ashkelon, the Israeli cabinet has decided to respond to this escalation by pushing the Palestinians farther away. The IDF will deepen their northern incursion into Gaza and start leveling residential structures in their rocket-staging area, intending to set up a permanent buffer zone.”

Iowa Voice (Brian) So How Many Did They Launch? — “We’re quickly getting past the point of no return here. North Korea is already isolated and the international pressure is about as high as it can get, yet he’s not backing down.”

ScrappleFace (Scott Ott) N. Korea Launches Attack Against Sea of Japan — “North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il today acknowledged that he had ordered yesterday’s missile strikes against the Sea of Japan in response to what he called “threatening and provocative movements” that the body of water had made against his nation’s coastline.”

Don Surber Soldiers become citizens — “The Independence Day story of the year is from AP out of Bagram, Afghanistan, where 26 U.S. soldiers from 21 nations became U.S. citizens on the Fourth of July. They took advantage of a 2004 law that speeds up the citizenship process for those in the military.”

Ankle Biting Pundits (Bull Dog Pundit) President Finally Coming To His Senses On Immigration? — “While Karl Rove and Tony Snow say that the President believes any reform should address the status of the 11 million illegals already here one “anonymous source” close to the deliberations predicted the President would abandon the “path to citizenship” (a/k/a “amnesty”)”

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