News Brief

(IsraelNN.com) Arabs generally are bitter at American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's vision for a "new Middle East," Brookings Institute's Shibley Telhami said. They are suspicious of the intentions of the Americans just as they are of the Bush Administration's campaign to spread democracy in the Middle East, he told Reuters News Agency.
 
--American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said in Jerusalem that she is calling for the United Nations to establish a ceasefire and put into place a multi-national peace keeping force this week. She made no mention of the soldiers kidnapped by Hizbullah terrorists. Until this morning, their release was a stated condition for a ceasefire.

--In a dramatic turn around of events, Israel agreed to suspend aerial attacks in southern Lebanon for 48 hours while it investigates the cause of the deaths of about 50 civilians in the Lebanese village of Kana Sunday morning. The announcement of the halt in aerial activity was made by an American State Department spokesman and not by the Israeli government.

In a nationally televised address to local government leaders, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stated there would be no ceasefire in the coming days, stating the IDF will operate in the air, on land and sea to eradicate the terror threat from Lebanon.