It is 11 o’clock, 4 am GMT. The cease fire officially begins in one hour. May peace descend on Lebanon and Israel and may all know peace and safety.

UPDATE: How does Israel plan to implement the cease fire? Take a look at a YNet article in English.

Update 2: CNN has the time of the ceasefire wrong. They correctly state that it is at 5:00 GMT, but incorrectly say that equals 1:00 am ET and 8:00 Israel Time. Bagdad is 3 hours ahead of GMT, but Israel is only 2 hours ahead of GMT. Pretty silly mistake. (You can find a world clock here.)

Update 3: It seems that I was wrong. An article in Haartez said the cease fire began at 7 am local time in Israel and everyone else in the US seems to be reporting 8 am. (Unless, shockingly (sarcasm) Israeli press knows more about what is happening in Israel than the American press.)

A few days ago Nizar Abdel-Kader published an online article “ Out of the Quagmire” on a Middle-East roundtalbe website called Bitter Lemons.  In the middle of the article he writes, 

To circumscribe the Lebanese disaster, now is the opportune moment for the five permanent members of the Security Council and Israel to alter their views and positions in dealing with this highly complicated and multi-dimensional crisis. Left alone, the Lebanese government may be devoured by the intricacies of domestic differences and destabilized by the pressures exercised by Iran and Syria. The longer the current crisis continues, the higher the risk that events will descend into a vicious downward spiral, reminiscent of the multi-national force deployed in Lebanon in 1982 and the failure of the May 17 agreement. Olmert must not repeat the same mistakes committed after the 1982 invasion. The greatest risk remains an attempt by Syria and Iran to use their proxies in Lebanon to oppose the deployment of a peacekeeping force.

Read the rest of his words here.

Mr. Nizar Abdel-Kader is a political analyst and columnist at ad-Diyar newspaper, Beirut

Friday was filled with news of the UN discussion on the current conflict/war between Israel and Hizbollah/Iran. (I name the conflict this way because although the fighting is occurring in Israel and Lebanon, the people of Lebanon are more victim than aggressor. It seems to me that those who are not part of Hizbollah are victims of Hizbollah and Israel.) Late Friday, Saturday day it seems that a final agreement was reached. The resolution is number 1701.
You can read UN Secretary General Kofi Anan’s words on the passing of the resolution. In it he states his sadness that such an agreement wasn’t reached earlier. He lists the casualties in Lebanon – killed, injured, and displaced. The numbers are far too great. My heart breaks and grieves for the innocent of Lebanon. However, he uses underestimated and diminished numbers (he says 41 deaths when today’s total is up to at least 123) the statement about those killed, injured and displaced in Israel. His biases are showing. Apparently to him the only deaths, injuries and displacements that matter are those of the Lebanese. And he wonders why Israel doesn’t trust the UN (not even going into the Hizbollah kidnapping of 3 Israeli soldiers in 2000 within just a few months of Israel fully withdrawing from Lebanon. A UN “peacekeeper” witnessed and videotapped the kidnapping and likely even knew where they were taken, but he denied it and the soldiers died.)

Anan announced that the cease fire will go into effect on Monday, August 14, 2006 at 7 am Israel time (5 am GMT).

I pray that the cease-fire works and that Hizbollah will stop firing rockets at Israel and Israel is able to withdraw from Lebanon. I hope and pray that the UNIFIL forces fulfilling this resolution will be more successful than the current ineffective one.

May G-d spread peace, safety and security soon.