On July 18th, Israeli war planes struck Lebanese army targets in an overnight raid in which 11 troops, including four officers, were killed and 40 injured. The target wasn't a Hizbullah barracks, it was the regular Lebanese army, which Israel says it would trust to patrol the Lebanese border with Israel, and which they wish would take on Hizbullah.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora pleaded for an immediate internationally-sanctioned cease-fire on Tuesday, saying the international community must have been aware that Israel was committing massacres against Lebanese civilians, including children, women and elders. He said that Israel was acting to destroy "everything that allows Lebanon to stay alive".

Siniora came to power as part of an anti-Syrian political movement supported by the Bush administration, dubbed by the American press "the Cedar Revolution" and thought by some to be a front for US interests. As recently as April of this year George W. Bush said about Siniora:

I told the Prime Minister that the United States strongly supports a free and independent and sovereign Lebanon. We took great joy in seeing the Cedar Revolution. We understand that the hundreds of thousands of people who took to the street to express their desire to be free required courage, and we support the desire of the people to have a government responsive to their needs and a government that is free, truly free . . . We talked about the great tradition of Lebanon to serve as a model of entrepreneurship and prosperity. Beirut is one of the great international cities, and I'm convinced that if Lebanon is truly free and independent and democratic, that Beirut will once again regain her place as a center of financial and culture and the arts.

There's no question in my mind that Lebanon can serve as a great example for what is possible in the broader Middle East; that out of the tough times the country has been through will rise a state that shows that it's possible for people of religious difference to live side-by-side in peace; to show that it's possible for people to put aside past histories to live together in a way that the people want, which is, therefore, to be peace and hope and opportunity.

On July 18th Bush warned Syria to stay out of Lebanon as he signalled to Israel that it would have more time to carry out its military campaign. He said Israel had been asked to ensure that the government of Fouad Siniora survived, but the White House declined to comment on repeated Israeli strikes against Lebanese army units.

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