Liveblogging the War: Monday July 31st
In the wake of yesterday’s Qana tragedy, Israel agreed to a suspension of air strikes in Lebanon beginning early today, allowing for an investigation into the bombing, and will also coordinate with the UN to allow a 24-hour window for residents of southern Lebanon to leave the area if they wish. However, Israel has reserved the right during the suspension to attack any terrorist who poses an immediate threat. No doubt, Hizbullah will try to take advantage of this situation, and my prediction is that we will see an unprecedented number of rockets landing in Israel today.11:30PM: Ever noticed how the anti-Israel demonstrations contain scenes of hatred and violence, such as flag burning, show of weapons, nazi comparisons, and general nastiness, while the pro-Israel demonstrations don’t?
I’m thinking that perhaps that tells you something about the different agendas.
10:43PM: Unless I am mistaken, Hizbullah have fired 2 Katushas into Israel today. And if I am mistaken, it is not a lot more than that.
9:58PM: Introducing our latest weapon: Zionist Death Llamas.TM
It may have one of the world’s mightiest militaries, but Israel has turned to imported beasts of burden to help troops wage a 20-day-old offensive against Hizbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.Israeli newspapers carried pictures of South American llamas accompanying commandos out of southern Lebanon, their saddlebags full of fighting gear.
Yedioth Ahronoth daily quoted a senior Israeli military commander as saying the white-furred pack animals could carry up to 27 kg each over rough terrain, were quiet and required feeding only once every two days.
I have managed to track down this picture of IDF soldiers with some Llama-ish creatures, which I found on Dan’s site. Dan seems to think they are Alpacas, and I’ll be darned if I can tell the difference.
9:52PM: Some palestinians, obviously feeling a bit left out of Hizbullah’s game of Kill-a-Jew, have opened fire on an Israeli vehicle north of Ramallah.
9:42PM: Syrian Dorktator Bashar Assad:
“The aggression, killing and destruction committed by the Israelis in Lebanon are part of an operation that was planned and organized by the large forces dominating the international community.”
Hmmm…I wonder who those “large forces dominating the international community” are. I am guessing they are, to quote our friend Mel Gibson, the “F****** Jews.”
9:35PM: A sane voice from Europe: Charles Moore in the Telegraph:
Sir Peter Tapsell is, if the phrase is not a contradiction in terms nowadays, a distinguished backbencher. He first entered the House of Commons in 1959. Noted for his grand manner, he is the longest-serving Tory MP.At foreign affairs questions in Parliament on Tuesday, Sir Peter rose. He wanted Margaret Beckett to tell him whether the Prime Minister had colluded with President Bush in allowing Israel to “wage unlimited war” in Lebanon, including attacks on civilian residential areas of Beirut. These attacks, he added, were “a war crime grimly reminiscent of the Nazi atrocity on the Jewish quarter in Warsaw”.
Mrs Beckett firmly rejected the premise of the question – that Mr Bush had permitted “unlimited war” – and moved on, but I found myself winded by Sir Peter’s choice of words.
What is happening in Lebanon? After the kidnapping of two of its soldiers and the firing of hundreds of rockets against its people from across the Lebanese border, Israel is trying to crush the Hizbollah fighters who have perpetrated these acts. In doing so, it has also killed civilians. Some 500 people have died in Lebanon as a result.
What was the “Nazi atrocity on the Jewish quarter in Warsaw”? There were many, of course. But Sir Peter was probably referring to the events of April-May 1943. The Nazis had earlier deported 300,000 Polish Jews to Treblinka. As news of their fate reached Jews in Warsaw, they decided to revolt against further round-ups. For about a month, they resisted. They were subdued: 7,000 of them were killed and 56,000 were sent to the camps.
Sir Peter surely knew this, yet he chose to speak as he did. Here is a man who has been in public life for more than 50 years (he was an assistant to Anthony Eden in the general election of 1955), and yet he compared Israel’s attack to the most famous genocide of the 20th century. What possessed him?
I ask the question, not because I am interested in Sir Peter – he is not an important figure in the current debate, though he may differ on this point. I ask, rather, because his remark seems to me a symptom of a wider unreality about the Middle East, one that now dominates. It tinged the recent Commons speech by William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary. It permeates every report by the BBC.
You could criticise Israel’s recent attack for many things. Some argue that it is disproportionate, or too indiscriminate. Others think that it is ill-planned militarily. Others hold that it will give more power to extremists in the Arab world, and will hamper a wider peace settlement. These are all reasonable, though not necessarily correct positions to hold. But European discourse on the subject seems to have been overwhelmed by something else – a narrative, told most powerfully by the way television pictures are selected, that makes Israel out as a senseless, imperialist, mass-murdering, racist bully.
Not only is this analysis wrong – if the Israelis are such imperialists, why did they withdraw from Lebanon for six years, only returning when threatened once again? How many genocidal regimes do you know that have a free press and free elections? – it is also morally imbecilic. It makes no distinction between the tough, sometimes nasty things all countries do when hard-pressed and the profoundly evil intent of some ideologies and regimes. It says nothing about the fanaticism and the immediacy of the threat to Israel. Sir Peter has somehow managed to live on this planet for 75 years without spotting the difference between what Israel is doing in Lebanon and “unlimited war”.As well as being morally imbecilic, this narrative is the enemy of all efforts to understand what is actually going on in the Middle East. It is so lazy.
Thus, for example, you would hardly know from watching the television that most Arab nations in the region, with the notable exception of Syria, detest the power of Hizbollah. You would barely have noticed that Hizbollah is a Shia faction, actively supported by Iran, and therefore feared by most Sunnis and by all who resist Iranian hegemony.
Nor would you have seen investigations of how Hizbollah places its missile sites in civilian areas, or coverage of the report in a Kuwaiti newspaper that Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hizbollah, was expected in Damascus on Thursday for a meeting with the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council. You would also not have gathered that the Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, which the television so recently invited you to admire, cannot possibly be carried through if Syria and Iran and Hizbollah are able to operate in that country.
Behind the dominant narrative of Israeli oppression is a patronising, almost racist assumption about the Arabs, and about Muslims, which is, essentially, that “they’re all the same”. Public discussion therefore does not stop to consider whether the immediate ceasefire called for by most European countries might hand a victory to Hizbollah, which, in turn, would ultimately lead to a much greater loss of life. It just postures.
Part of the same attitude-striking is the attack on Tony Blair for being the “poodle” of America, instead of pursuing an independent foreign policy.
This week marks the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the last Middle East crisis in which Britain acted without concerting with America. On July 26, 1956, Gamal Abdel Nasser, the president of Egypt, nationalised the Suez Canal. Britain accounted for a third of the ships passing through the canal at that time, and we feared that Nasser had put his foot on our windpipe. Eden, perhaps reeling from his good fortune in having employed the young P. Tapsell, concocted a secret plot with France and Israel to regain control of the canal by violence and bring about the fall of Nasser.
Ignoring the delicacies of a presidential election in America and a president, Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had publicly made it clear that his country opposed force, we went ahead and invaded Egypt on November 5. Furious at having been deceived, America immediately refused to support the pound in the markets, and we crumpled almost overnight.
The then chancellor, Harold Macmillan, who supported the attack from the first but ratted on it in November, wrote in his diary on August 18: “‚Ķif Nasser ‘gets away with it’, we are done for‚Ķ It may well be the end of British influence and strength for ever.” Well, Nasser did get away with it, and British power in the Middle East did collapse.
We have now passed half a century in which the ultimate responsibility for these decisions has passed from us (and from France) to America. Unless we seriously propose to try to regain that responsibility, either alone or in concert, we do well to try to work closely with America rather than acting like a querulous octogenarian. Mr Blair’s efforts in Washington yesterday to search for a ceasefire that prefers durability over immediacy are perfectly sensible.
Yet Mr Blair is bayed at by all parties and most of the media. It is as if, having relinquished power, we Europeans now wish our own powerlessness upon the rest of the world. We make vaporous and offensive Nazi comparisons. We preach that unilateral action is always wrong. That position can be maintained only by people who do not have to make life-and-death decisions. It is cheap and immoral.
The ensuing comments below this piece are also overwhelmingly supportive of Israel.
9:22PM: Israeli-Australian soldier Assaf Namer was buried today with full military honors.
This article pretends that the reason for Assaf joining the Israeli army is
some secret he will take with him to his grave. However, the article itself answers the question Why did he do it when it quotes a friend of Assaf, who is also an Australian in the IDF.
Another former Bondi resident, Jarryd Rubinstein, who remembered Namer from school, is also serving in the Israeli military.“I knew where he was coming from when he joined the Israeli army; it was the same reason I joined,” Private Rubinstein said.
“I’m a Zionist, (a) patriot and I want to give back something to this country. I want to fight terrorism until it doesn’t exist anymore. I believe if we don’t stop them here and now we will all suffer the consequences for a long, long time.”
Private Rubinstein, 23, is part of the same battalion, although not the same infantry unit, to which Namer belonged.
He added: “His death has not frightened me, it has inspired me. I don’t worry about dying as he died; I am proud to be fighting for Israel and for freedom.”
Young heroes on the front lines, fighting on behalf of the western world.
This theme is dealt with in this great editorial by Piers Akerman of the Daily Telegraph:
Namer was fighting to keep world safeAnother young Australian has been killed fighting in the global war against Islamist terrorists but he will certainly not be the last.
Assaf Namer, 27, wasn’t killed in Afghanistan or Iraq, he wasn’t a passive victim of the Bali bombings or 9/11.
He was killed as he fought with the Israeli army during a fierce battle against the Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.
Born in Israel, he moved to Australia when he was 12 but returned to fight for the nation of his birth. He was a dual citizen.
No doubt there will be some who claim he must have had divided loyalties. Others might try to claim there is some moral equivalence between Namer and self-confessed terrorist recruit David Hicks.
However there is no basis for this absurd claim.
Australians are fighting jihadists like Hicks in Afghanistan and Iraq, Namer was fighting them in southern Lebanon.
Bint Jbeil, where he was killed was a terrorist stronghold.
It may have been the command post for the Hezbollah raid into Israel which Iran and Syria used to trigger the current conflict with the abduction of two Israeli soldiers just over a fortnight ago.
It doesn’t matter.
Hezbollah effectively controls Lebanon and Tehran and Damascus have decided to use the struggling nation as the staging ground for their proxy war against Israel and the civilised West, and the Israelis were entirely within in their rights to pursue the criminals who kidnapped their citizens.
Namer was engaged in the battle the jihadists vow to prosecute until the whole world is converted to its violent Islamist doctrine.
And as long as the jihadists continue to claim “We love death, you love life”, offering no future for their orphaned children but a world filled with hate, others who believe in an alternate world, a world of peace and harmony between people of all races and religions like Namer, like our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, will enlist to fight to keep the world safe from their evil.
They can promise no prospect of peace, no one can, but they do offer to stand between civilians and those who would kill them for refusing to accept their hateful ideology.
The Qana tragedyOn Sunday, the Israeli Air Force launched missiles at the Lebanese town of Qana, killing at least 54 civilians, most of them children. It was a horrible tragedy, one that unleashed understandable fury among the people of Lebanon, and sincere expressions of regret among Israeli political and military officials.Some are calling this a war crime, and they’re right. But the culpable party is Hezbollah, not Israel.While it was Israeli planes that launched the missiles, these attacks did not materialize out of thin air. Since this conflict began on July 12, about 150 rockets have been fired from the vicinity of Qana, with the launchers hidden among civilian targets in the town itself. Speaking to reporters on Sunday evening, Israeli Air Force Chief of Staff Brig.-Gen. Amir Eshel produced video footage showing the launchers being driven into Qana following fusillades.For Hezbollah, this is a clever tactic. If Israel doesn’t attack Hezbollah’s human shields, the group keeps its weapons. If Israel does attack, Hezbollah scores a propaganda victory. From a terrorist’s point of view, it’s win-win: Hezbollah’s leaders don’t care about the lives of innocent Lebanese civilians any more than they care about the lives of Jews.The global community shouldn’t let Hezbollah get away with this cynical, deadly game. In its primer on the current conflict, Human Rights Watch (hardly a pro-Israeli outfit) makes it clear which side is guilty of war crimes in Qana: “Hezbollah must take all necessary precautions to protect civilians against the dangers resulting from armed hostilities, and must never use the presence of civilians to shield themselves from attack. That requires positioning its military assets, troops and commanders as much as possible outside of populated areas. The use of human shields is a war crime.”It also bears mention that Israel has done its best to separate Hezbollah from those human shields. On Thursday, three days before the deadly Qana attack, Israeli military radio broadcast repeated warnings into southern Lebanon telling residents their villages would be “totally destroyed” if missiles were fired from them. On Saturday, a day before the attack, Israeli planes dropped leaflets containing the same message.In many cases, civilians had difficulty acting on these warnings, because Israeli air-strikes on roads made the journey north too difficult and risky. But most people have gotten out. And no reasonable observer can accuse the Israelis of deliberately targeting civilians (as Hezbollah has been doing for three weeks now). If Israel really were seeking to exterminate Lebanese civilians, the body count would be well into five figures.Nothing that we or anyone else write will ease the agony wrought in Qana and the many other places — on both sides of the Lebanese-Israeli border — where innocents have perished. But mercifully, we in Canada are not in that situation. Our removal from the conflict gives us the ability to look beyond the immediate carnage, and examine the deeper intentions of the parties to this war. And according to both civilized morality and international law, it is not Israel that has the blood of innocents on its hands, but Hezbollah.
French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy held a press conference in Beirut, in which he said that Iran was “a stabilizing element in the Middle East.”According to the French minister, “Iran is an outstanding country with great people and a honorable civilization. It has a crucial role in the region.”
Filed Under: General
About the Author: An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.
You may be right, the frequency of rocket attacks may increase… but it may decrease as well because bombs are not falling on Lebanon. If there is one thing that is driving the Hezbollah cause, it is public relations. Without dead civilians killed by Israeli bombs, Hezbollah would not be able to gather new recruits, and garnish support within the greater arabic world.
It seems to me, that because the frequency of rocket attacks has steadily increased over the course of the air campaign (a new record set yesterday) maybe a halt in air attacks is the right move.
Retaliating for rockets falling into Israel by killing hundreds of innocent civilians is not doing anything positive for Israel. The doctrine of “massive retaliation” has never seemed to deter attacks, so why has Israel continued to stick to it?
Last time I checked the goals of this campaign were supposedly to get back captured soldiers, and to stop rocket attacks on Israel and so far neither of these goals has been accomplished. Taking a step back, stopping the air attacks and perhaps sending in smaller ground teams to really root out the terrorist scum seems like a better option.
It seems to me that this option has been kept off the table so far because Israel seems to place a much higher value on the life of a single soldier than it does on the lives of hundreds of lebanese civilians.
I just wanted to thank you for your timely and informative updates. You’ve become my main source of news about the conflict. Keep up the good work!
SK from USA
dear israelly cool
you might be very interested in this analysis of qana
http://eureferendum.blogspot.com/2006/07/milking-it.html
specifically the photography – it appears that it was staged.
(warning : the photos are disturbing. but they are crucial to the analysis)
thank you,
someone in the UK.
The anger of the Arab street is part of the Israeli war plan.
They will use it to get Syria to attack.
Tactics, Strategy, Grand Strategy
*
Cameron,
I agree with you that Hezbulah might lower its missle attacks now. In fact from a politcal standpoint they could stop their attacks and force Israel into the position of re-starting the conflict. It would be a very smart political tactic.
I disagree on the goals of the campaign, and the “massive retaliation”. Israel would get tactically defeated if it only sent in small ground units to fight Hezbulah without using its massive air advantage. The units would have to fight hand to hand on Hezbulah’s own turf. Without Israeli air strikes, Hezbulah would have un-restricted ability to fire missles at Israel, and would be in a position to continually re-supply its front line troops.
The goal of the campaign is to try to destroy Hezbulah.
If Israel did not do something now, in another few years there would be 50 thousand missles instead of 12 thousand, and the Hezbulah army could be grown to 50 thousand instead of 5 thousand.
Stan
Yeah, me too – good work David.
Thank you for doing a wonderful job ‘live blogging’ the war!
On the French Foreign Minister. Ahmedinnerjacket writes to the Germans last week a really strange letter to see if they’ll join in a solution to the Palestinian problem. The German Chancellor ignores him (apparently the contents were ‘weird’). Ahmedinnerjacket also writes a letter to the French, less info on the contents.
The French today announce they can bring peace to this conflict.
And now this from the French Foreign Minister.
Wonder what the Saudi’s are thinking – Iran = Shiite, Saudi – Sunni.
Seems to me there are a few Arab nations whose interest it is not for the shiite Hezb’Allah to succeed.
has anyone asked the question – what religion are the human shields?
http://www.strategypage.com/qnd/israel/articles/20060731.aspx
Quote:
The Lebanese Christians know they are considered eventual targets (as infidels) of Hizbollah, and have noted Hizbollah men joking about getting the “Jews to do our work for us” (killing Lebanese Christians.)
Yes good coverage and updates – please keep it up AussieDave.
The IAF have continued air strikes “in support of ground operations” – but air strikes nonetheless. No ceasefire yet.
I’m sure hardline Zionists will disagree – but if you are going to facilitate peace you need to commit to positively (and peacefully) engaging all stakeholders.
Basic community participation principles mean everyone buys into the process and no one can outright deny it. This means the US speaking to Syria and Iran too.
Forget “us” and “them” and “the Arabs”. They aren’t all the same. And when the dust and death settles you’re all going to be living next to each other again.
“Hezbollywood”
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Diplomacy/8997.htm
theres some serious questions being raised about Qana – was the whole thing staged by Hezbollah?
have the IAF released all video of the airstrikes they did on Qana?
What is going on here. A building falls down eight hours after it is struck. Some are saying that maybe secondary explosives went off, I have a better theory. The Hezzys destroyed the building on purpose. The muslim world wants to believe that 911 was caused by the American CIA, why would it be so absurb that the Hezzys brought down a building to in-flame the muslim world. It sounds like the perfect frame up. They made no attempt at all for a real rescue effort but seemed to have a mini photo studio ready for pictures and videos. It is sick when you see the bodies set up for the perfect photo and since when are body bags clear, usually out of respect for the dead the people are covered. I think this was planned and executed perfectly to get the world response that they wanted. Instead the following questions should be asked; why were rockets being fired from a civilian building (see IDF video)? Why after eight hours was the building not evacuated? Hell eight hours would have been nice when the twin towers were hit. Where was the rescue effort? Who came up with the plan to make it into a photo opt…would not trying to save people take priority? What of the Austrialian photos of Hezzys in with the civilian population firing rockets and dressed like civilians isn’t this against geneva? This whole situation smells rotten. As said by an IDF soldier “we can forgive you for killing our children but we can never forgive you for making us kill yours”.
Great work Dave. Keep it up. Like the first commenter, I come here first for updates on the war.
Israel rejecting the ceasefire:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/5230192.stm
The US giving them a few more days to punish south lebanon. Any wonder scared people shout their support for Hezbollah – who seem to stand firm in the face of invaders and aggressors.
Amos Oz interview:
Q – In your book you argue that fanaticism is not necessarily a permanent condition. You say that as a child you were “a brainwashed little fanatic all the way.” What made you a young fanatic, and what made you change?
A – I grew up in a militant atmosphere in a painfully divided Jerusalem, in times of bitter conflict and rivalry. I grew up as a very enthusiastic one-sided Zionist. Over the course of the years, and through some personal experiences, I have discovered that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, like many other conflicts, has two sides, two perspectives, perhaps two logics. The moment you discover this kind of moral and political relativity, you are no longer a fanatic.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060213/wienerweb
What propoganda BS…Hizballoh starts a war and you want us to believe they are the defenders of Lebanon. They are the destroyers of Lebanon interested only in their own agenda. The scared people are those forced at Hizballoh gun point to be cannon fodder and sacrificial lambs for the their cause. Hizballoh are the aggressors, they started this, they continue it and could stop this at any time by promising to return the captured soldiers and disarm as per the UN agreement and Isrealie withdrawl of southern lebanon in 2000. There only seems to be one side of brainwashed fanatics out of control and they are the one starting wars against Israel. Israel is governed by the rule of law and an elected government that makes decissions for the country, fanatics included. Hizbollah took its actions at the beheast of the elected Lebanese government? Hizbollah contunes those actions at who’s request, certainly not Lebanons. Hizbollah follows the geneva conventions? Hizbollah protects civilians? There are two sides to every conflict and so far the only side reported is Hizbollah’s…not Israels, not Lebanons and certainly not innocent civilians.
No one believes Hezbollah are the defenders of Lebanon.
I think they are just as bad as you do. I am highlighting how people stick up for bad guys against other guys (IDF/IAF) who blow up their homes and their people – and have history of doing so. Are you surprised?
Cameron (above and yesterday) makes the good point that the IDF/IAF/Israeli govt tactics are crass, not clearly following the original mission statement and playing into the hands of Hezbollah.
When people are desperate, they will stick up for anyone who can help them. How else do you explain the German people’s support of the nazis?
Hezbollah will argue they did not start this war, Israel started it 5/10/15/20yrs ago when…blah blah blah. They can argue there would be more UN resolutions against Israel bringing them into line had the US not vetoed every resolution since 1967.
This conflict has very deep roots – best thing to do is to look at how to move peacefully forward with all people benefiting. Don’t listen to extremist rhetoric – from either side. It must be compromise:
Engage (and very importantly, help rebuild) Palestine and Lebanon,
Change your existing apartheid anti-Arab laws (eg land ownership),
Try to talk with Syria and Iran, in doing so you will start to alienate Hezbollah,
DON’T respond when people try to provoke you.
“No one believes Hezbollah are the defenders of Lebanon.”
Apparently President Lahoud and PM Saniora do.
I agree that the animals are alpacas. Llamas are twice as tall. If they were adult llamas, their heads would be level with those of the soldiers.
I couldn’t agree with you more. Apartheid is the best way to describe many of the laws that are in place concerning the treatment of Arabs in Israel and what should be Palestine.
But we will not discuss the laws attributed to Iran and Saudi Arabia where it is jews on the receiving end of discrimination which makes the Israelie laws look pretty good. I ask the folowing, would you rather be an arab muslim living in Israel or a Jew living in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan etc…oh thats right the last Afghan jew was eliminated a few years back and soon the rest of the middle east will be able to claim the same except for Israel. Its funny when people talk about Israel’s treatment of arabs because if you know anything about social heirarchy in Israel it goes a lot deeper than Israelie and arabs both Christian and Muslim but also Jews from Russia, Europe and Middle East. When people say what about those arabs driven from Palestine (which can be debated because many left at the request of their arab neighbors) no one asks about the many Jews driven out of their homes from Morocco to Iraq. But I degress but let me leave you with this proposition, when a jew can just visit Mecca than we will look to change all those laws you say equal apartied.
Compromise…sounds good. Israel offered Arafat 99% percent of what he wanted but yet rejects peace and launches infatida. Israel leaves southern Lebanon in 2000, Hezbolloh becomes better armed and claims victory. Takes withdrawl as sign of weakness and occassionaly rain rockets down in Northern Israel from 2000 to 2006. Israel unilaterally leaves Gaza, receives rocket attacks in return and Hamas as elected government, which will not even say Israel has the right to EXIST. Israel looks to disengage from Westbank and again its looked at as sign of weakness from Hamas. Hamas kidnaps Soldier in an act of war, Hezbollah follows suit. The only compromise Israel can make is to march all Jews into the sea and drown…maybe then Hezbollah and Hamas would find this acceptable, but then again maybe not.
Zionist Death Llamas! LMAO! Thank you, Aussie Dave, for showing that people can maintain a sense of humour under even the most depressing of circumstances. You made me laugh out loud……….
Just because worse things may happen elsewhere doesn’t excuse the ways things are in Israel! We keep hearing about how civilised and democratic Israel is, but it’s still racist by definition, routinely breaks international law, etc. etc.
BTW I’ve been reading this blog for a few days and am grateful for the different perspective it gives me.
Yep, I agree – alpacas. Alpacas are more slender, shorter, quieter, eat less, and are less aggresive than llamas. You put them together in a pasture – they get along well and the llamas will go after wolves or coyotes (where the alpacas run away).
MidEast War: 61
July 31, 2006 12:00 PDT Frequent updates. Scroll. Previous coverage @ right. Links to Lebanese and Israeli bloggers covering the conflict are @ Truth Laid Bear, plus a map view of bloggers in war zone. Map of war zone here….
i got some questions:
Why the MSM keeps counting the number and type of missiles Hezbollah launches into Israel, but no one seems to count the number and type of bombs and missiles Israel launches into Lebanon, what’s the difference?
why we still have not seen any picture or video of hezbollah rocket batteries destroyed amongst the rubble of the buildings Israel destroyed?
Did anyone seen a Hezbollah rocket launcher at the Beirut Airport? or the Power plant?
it’s the prhase “the right to defend itself” copyrighted by Israel?
why everyone has to comply (or else) with IAEA and UN resolutions and inspections, but Israel?
with what type of moral authority the US can ask countries (like Syria nad Iran) to stop sending armament to Hezbollah (allegedly) when the US is sending armament to Israel (allegedly)?
why nobody wants to address the root of the problem: the inhumane conditios in the Ghettos in Gaza and West Bank, and the right to Palestine to exist, and be respected as human beings?
How the people trying to leave the South of Lebanon, or the country can do so if almost every bridge and road is bombed and destroyed? i think the flying magic carpet is just a stereotype…
Racist, so you say that Israel is racist. I have a few questions for you, tomorrow Israel decides to incorporate the entire West-Bank and Gaza into a one state solution and give everyone the right to vote in Israel’s election. Having just voted for Hamas who do you believe the average Palestinian will vote for? Democracy is not a light switch that solves all issues, unless the people truly understand democractic principals. Democracy is NOT MOB rule but the rule of laws. When the time comes do you truely believe Hamas would just give up its power if voted out? It will not, but instead make every excuse as to why the election was a fraud etc. You say what will happen in this new democratic Israel I just talked about above? First not a whole lot, but overtime as the demographic became more arab due to a flood of illegal aliens across the border (300 million arabs and 6 million jews) you will see new laws, like no more building of new synagogues. Next we will have Jews wearing special garments and so on just like in Iran. Don’t believe this will happen, just look at the Palestinian propoganda today and see what they would like to do if they had that power. Read the news from Saudi Arabia to Eygpt, from documentries on the defunct Elders of Zion protocols to blood rituals that the jews perform on arab children. The facts are that mobs riot over cartoons but the jews are vilified as the devil incarnate and there is no recourse. If you believe Israel is racist…then so is America, Great Britian, France and most other modern western nations, except maybe Canada. As for Apartied and its poster child South Africa…look at South Africa today, why I agree Apartied was wrong the new government which has followed is just as bad. However since it is the majority doing it to the minority it is excused or is it excused because it is balck on white, sounds kind of racist to me. So call Israel racist, call it apartied, call it whatever you want. But I will call it safe for all citizens, arab or jew because it beats all the alternatives from Morocco to Indonesia.
THE RESURGENCE OF ORWELLIAN IDEALS
BY: FERN SIDMAN
When George Orwell originally penned his classic novel “1984″, I would venture a guess that neither he nor his readers ever actually envisaged a world that would embrace these warped and twisted values. Fast forward to the year 2006 and we are witness to a world that is being taunted with such strikingly similar values. We live in a world where otherwise educated and civilized people perceive an aggressor as a victim and the victim as the aggressor. Ideals and organizations that are predicated on a theology of terror and espouse a mantra of hate have been elevated to a heroic like status. They have garnered sympathy and support, while the world expresses its unabashed opprobrium towards concepts and countries that espouse justice and respect for life.
We need only look to the current crisis in the Middle East for qualification of the latest version of Orwellian values. The organization known as Hezbollah, an internationally renowned terrorist organization that is being sponsored by Iran and Syria, countries that espouse terrorism and the ultimate demise of Israel and the Western world, staged an unprovoked attack against Israel on July 12th. Since that time, Israel and Hezbollah have been embroiled in a war that raised the ire of the world. The Lebanese people have been used as human shields by Hezbollah whose main objective is to transform the fledgling democracy in Lebanon into another fundamentalist Islamic state.
Hezbollah is a well organized and thoroughly trained band of guerilla fighters who fight their battles while living in civilian populations and blending in with the civilian infrastructure. Since the inception of this current conflict they have fired thousands of Katyusha rockets into Israel from civilian strongholds and neighborhoods throughout southern Lebanon and in Beirut. Civilians are warned each and every time Israel prepares to strike back at Hezbollah terrorists. Thousands of leaflets are disseminated through these civilian areas, imploring all civilians to leave the area.
The recent incident in Qana, which aroused worldwide condemnation of Israel for the killing of 56 civilians, mostly women and children, deserves closer examination. According to writer David Horowitz, “Qana, be it noted was the source of 150 missile attacks on Israeli civilians, and the population of Qana was warned to leave but chose to stay alongside the terrorists. Like most of Lebanon, the population of Qana is on the side of the aggressors, and apparently like most Muslims in this part of the world, death for them is a badge of martyrdom and honor, and a noble pathway to heaven. They are willing instruments of the Islamist jihad.”
Further evidence of Hezbollah’s intent to place the Lebanese civilian population at risk has been revealed by Israel Insider’s Reuven Koret, who filed on a report on 7/31/06 which stated, “On the morning of July 30, according to the IDF, the air force came in three waves. In the first, between midnight and one in the morning, there was a strike at or near the building that eventually collapsed. There was a second strike at other targets far from the collapse building several hours later, and a third strike at around 7:30 in the morning. There too the nearest hit was some 460 meters away, according to the IDF. But first reports of a building collapse came only around 8 am.
Thus there was an unexplained 7 to 8 hour gap between the time of the helicopter strike and the building collapse. Brigadier General Amir Eshel, Head of the Air Force Headquarters, in a press briefing, told journalists that “the attack on the structure in the Qana village took place between midnight and one in the morning. The gap between the timing of the collapse of the building and the time of the strike on it is unclear.”
Gen. Eshel appeared genuinely mystified by the gap in time. He said, “I’m saying this very carefully, because at this time I don’t have a clue as to what the explanation could be for this gap,” he added.
The army’s only explanation was that somehow there was unexploded Hezbollah ordnance in the building that only detonated much later.
“It could be that inside the building, things that could eventually cause an explosion were being housed, things that we could not blow up in the attack, and maybe remained there, Brigadier General Eshel said.
Eshel reported that as recently as two days ago, military intelligence reported the building area had been used by the terrorists for storage or firing of weapons. It was a bad place to cram dozens of women and children.
There are other mysteries. The roof of the building was intact. Journalist Ben Wedeman of CNN noted that there was a larger crater next to the building, but observed that the building appeared not to have collapsed as a result of the Israeli strike.
Why would the civilians who had supposedly taken shelter in the basement of the building not leave after the post-midnight attack? They just went back to sleep and had the bad luck to wait for the building to collapse in the morning? ”
These are questions that have yet to be answered. Perhaps in the days that follow investigations of this incident will uncover facts that Hezbollah would prefer to hide from the world. Hezbollah has already won the public relations battle. They clearly have the United Nations in their corner, an international governmental body that sits with bated breath at every opportunity to condemn Israel. They have the EU and the Arab countries on their side. South American and Asian countries have chimed in with their vocal and strident condemnation of Israel as well.
Hezbollah has won the hearts and minds of the Lebanese people, however, in retrospect that wasn’t an arduous battle. The Lebanese people have thrown their support behind Hezbollah as is evidenced in the composition of the Lebanese parliament. Over 20 percent of the members of this parliament are Hezbollah representatives. The Lebanese people never demanded that their government implement and enforce United Nations Security Council resolution 1559 issued in the year 2000, which placed the responsibility of harnessing Hezbollah forces in the hands of the Lebanese military.
The Lebanese people, particularly the Shiitte population in southern Lebanon, view Hezbollah as a big, warm and giving social service agency. Hezbollah has adroitly filled the stomachs of its constituents, fattening them up, metaphorically speaking for the kill. For the beneficiaries of Hezbollah’s outreach and social service programs are now being called upon to pay the piper. They pay with their lives and the lives of the children as human shields for those who gained favor in their hearts for all the “goodness” that was bestowed upon them.
It is of no great revelation that we hear that Lebanese president Faud Siniora praised Hezbollah for its efforts in defeating the Israeli enemy as he attempts to shore up even more support from the Lebanese population for Hezbollah, thereby encouraging even more of them to die as martyrs to an organization that cares nothing for them, their lives or the future of their children.
And yet we hear no sounds of outrage and indignation at the murderous policy of Hezbollah directed at the Lebanese people. We hear of no raucous and explosive demonstrations directed at Hezbollah for placing the lives of its own people in death’s doorway. Instead, we are deluged with condemnations and denunciations of Israel’s military actions in Lebanon. We hear the world condemn Israel’s “disproportionate” response to the constant barrage of Katyusha rockets that have rained down on Israeli cities and towns. We hear admonitions directed at Israel to exercise self-restraint when attempting to defeat their hardened enemy that seeks its destruction.
As Charles Krauthammer stated in his article entitled, ‘Disproportionate’ in What Moral Universe?’ (Washington Post, 7/28/06), “When one is wantonly attacked by an aggressor, one has every right — legal and moral — to carry the fight until the aggressor is disarmed and so disabled that it cannot threaten one’s security again.”
Mr. Krauthammer goes on to state that, “The perversity of today’s international outcry lies in the fact that there is indeed a disproportion in this war, a radical moral asymmetry between Hezbollah and Israel: Hezbollah is deliberately trying to create civilian casualties on both sides while Israel is deliberately trying to minimize civilian casualties, also on both sides.
Israeli innocents must die in order for Israel to be terrorized. But Lebanese innocents must also die in order for Israel to be demonized, which is why Hezbollah hides its fighters, its rockets, its launchers, its entire infrastructure among civilians. Creating human shields is a war crime. It is also a Hezbollah specialty.
Had Israel wanted to destroy Lebanese civilian infrastructure, it would have turned out the lights in Beirut in the first hour of the war, destroying the billion-dollar power grid and setting back Lebanon 20 years. It did not do that. Instead it attacked dual-use infrastructure — bridges, roads, airport runways — and blockaded Lebanon’s ports to prevent the reinforcement and resupply of Hezbollah. Ten thousand Katyusha rockets are enough. Israel was not going to allow Hezbollah 10,000 more.”
Today the nation of Israel faces even more deadly attacks from the Hezbollah terrorists. Today the nation of Israel, which represents the values of preserving human life, of upholding the loftiest of moral concepts has been transformed into the world’s bogeyman. It is viewed as a giant and ruthless murder machine, which displays a callous disregard for civilian lives. Today the nation of Israel is being raked over the proverbial coals by a world possessed by Orwellian values. Bad is good, right is wrong, justice is injustice. The aggressor is now the victim and the victim is now the horrific aggressor.
Mr. Orwell, wherever you are, we send you a message that your ominous vision has manifested itself. It is a world gone mad, and all vestiges of morality and conscience are slowly and methodically becoming obsolete.
At this most frightening and difficult period in history, those of us left with a modicum of morality, ethics and values must speak out. We must orchestrate a campaign to challenge the purveyors of Orwellian thoughts and to neutralize their vitriolic and incendiary rhetoric.
It is indeed a dark moment in the history of the Jewish people and of the nation of Israel. Our values and ethos must come from our unwavering faith and trust in the Almighty G-d of Israel. Our morals and values must be derived from our G-d given sources of Torah. Our values must reflect the words of our prayers to G-d. Our morals and values spring forth from the divine words of King David in the book of Psalms. It is time to rededicate ourselves to serving our G-d with devotion and passion.
May the Almighty G-d of Israel protect His nation, Israel and may we see a world that can distinguish between light and darkness and of right and wrong.