Global Protests at Indiscriminate Israeli Bombings of Lebanon
The Associated Press puts the Israeli offensive against Lebanon on Friday succinctly:
' Israel again bombarded Lebanon's airport and main roads in the most intensive offensive against the country in 24 years. For the first time, it struck the crowded Shiite neighborhood of south Beirut around Hezbollah's headquarters, toppling overpasses and sheering facades off apartment buildings. Concrete from balconies smashed into parked cars, and car alarms set off by the blasts blared for hours. The toll in three days of clashes rose to 73 killed in Lebanon and at least 12 Israelis, as international alarm grew over the fighting, and oil prices rose to above $78 a barrel. The U.N. Security Council held an emergency session on the violence, and Lebanon accused Israel of launching "a widespread barbaric aggression." In addition to the fighting in Lebanon, Israel pressed ahead with its Gaza Strip offensive against Hamas, striking the Palestinian economy ministry offices early today.
Courtesy al-Anwar.
Israel bombed the HQ of Hizbullah leader Shaikh Hasan Nasrullah, probably hoping to kill him, but he survived and launched more retaliatory strikes on Israeli targets. More Katyusha rockets rained down on northern Israel, forcing many residents to flee. And Hizbullah used a drone to attack an Israeli warship, setting it aflame and forcing it to return to port. Four sailors are missing.
The Israeli attacks may well inflict long-term damage on the limping Lebanese economy.
Israeli spokesmen are saying that they want to finish off Hizbullah. But you can't finish off a mass movement among 1.35 million people. Besides, there wouldn't be any Hizbullah if Israel had not invaded Lebanon in 1982 and occupied the south for 18 years. Israel's grabby occupation radicalized and helped mobilize the Lebanese Shiites. They aren't going to become less radical and less mobilized as a result of the current hamfisted Israeli assault.
On Friday, thousands of protesters rallied in Cairo, Amman, Gaza City, and Baghdad, as well as throughout Turkey, to protest massive Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon. There was also a demonstration in Dearborn, Michigan. There are 25,000 Americans in Lebanon, now in severe danger from Israeli bombings. Most of the demonstrations in the Middle East not only condemned Israel but also the United States.
Americans have to understand that when Israel goes wild and bombs a civilian airport and civilian neighborhoods in Beirut, a lot of the world's Catholics (Lebanon is partially a Catholic country) and its 1.4 billion Muslims blame the United States for it. Israel is given billions every year by the United States, including sophisticated weaponry that is now being trained on the slums of south Beirut. It should also be remembered that Bin Laden said, at least, that he started thinking about hitting New York when he saw that 1982 Israeli destruction of the skyscrapers or "towers" of Lebanon. How many future Bin Ladens are watching with horror and rage and feelings of revenge as Israel drops bombs on civilian tenement buildings? When will this blow back on Americans? (I mean blow back in other ways than an already painful further spike in petroleum prices).
The Vatican called Israel's assault on Lebanon an "attack on a sovereign and free nation."
Reuters reports on the reaction of French President Jacques Chirac:
'He said Israel's offensive in Lebanon following the capture of two Israeli soldiers and the killing of eight more by Hizbollah guerrillas was "completely disproportionate". "One can ask oneself whether there isn't a sort of desire to destroy Lebanon," he said. But he also condemned Hizbollah and the Palestinian group Hamas, which abducted a third Israeli soldier, as "totally irresponsible" for the attacks which provoked Israel's response. '
Italian Premier Romano Prodi said,
"We deplore this escalation and the serious damage to Lebanon's infrastructure and the civilian victims that these raids have caused."
The USG Open Source Center translates from Text of report by Spanish national RNE Radio 1 on 14 July in Spain this statement by the Spanish prime minister:
(Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero) "In my view, Israel is mistaken. Defence is one thing, it is legitimate, and another is launching a counter-offensive of general attack in Lebanon, in Gaza, which will surely bring nothing but a stepping up of the violence."
Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said his
'government condemned both the militant group Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers on Wednesday and the Israeli reaction to it.' He added "We also condemn the Israeli attacks against Lebanon, including the bombing of the airport in Beirut and the naval blockade of Lebanese waters," Støre said. "This is completely unacceptable, and amounts to a dangerous escalation of the situation."
----
PS
For a view from the ground of the situation by refugee workers, see this link.
And see Dennis Perrin.
posted by Juan Cole @ 7/15/2006 12:30:00 AM
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26 Comments:
If bombing Lebanese roads and airport is all what it takes to destroy Hezbollah, why have they been waiting so long?
There is nothing more damaging to a bully than backing down with a bloody nose. That is precisely what the Israelis will have to do because this deranged bombing campaign can not be sustained for long.
The Israelis think the world is ruled by Bush, and all what they need is his nod. Well it aint. He is a bloodied-nose bully too.
My blog got picked up by some right-wing site in a "Middle East Crisis" concatenation- my site meter spiked to ten times the usual traffic - and the comments I get are unbelievable. THey seem incensed that an Arab-American with family in South Lebanon would dare speak against the violence. I think I originally got picked up because I expressed my disgust with Hizbullah.
But surprise, surprise, I can be disgusted with Hizbullah and still object to Israel bombing the hell out of my father's country! You know, I just don't like it when people kill people, especially in my hometown.
But thanks for this collection of quotes. I'll put it up. Or not. It seems bloody hopeless. On the other hand, I don't want to let these right-wing crazies shut me up.
Israel destroys civilian facilities in Lebanon. Israel destroys civilian facilites in Gaza and the West Bank. Israel's proxy, the US, destroys civilian facilites in Iraq and threatens Iran and Syria. All in the name of a War on Terror.
The pattern and purpose should be clear. Israel uses trhe cover of "fighting terrorism" to attack civilan facilites in Arab countries.
This is genocide.
I attended one of the worldwide protests in downtown Seattle today. It was covered by two of the two local news channels. We got a lot of positive responses from people passing by.
***And Hizbullah used a drone to attack an Israeli warship, setting it aflame and forcing it to return to port. Four sailors are missing.***
This may well turn out to be the most significant item in the day's dismal news. It confirms something that some of us have known or suspected for many years -- that it is possible to build a presumably low-tech, and probably inexpensive, cruise missile that works -- probably largely from Radio Shack-Hardware Store type parts.
Let me assure you that if Hizbullah (or whoever built the drone for them) has solved the problems of guiding a small unmanned aircraft to a target, the military situation in South West Asia is going to deteriorate a lot in the next few years. Targets will be things like aircraft sitting at terminals, power stations, mosques, and office buildings. (Maybe generals and ambassadors would do well to pass on taking that corner office). In effect, the various insurgencies will have airpower of a sort. The insurgents having a $5000 Tomahawk is likely to make an impossible situation even worse.
The US has an answer. We can walk away from the Middle East if (when) things get too bad. What are the Israelis going to do?
I don't think any of these so-called global protests are going to achieve jack...
I don't mean to be a Debby Downer, but the history of Israeli attacks on Lebanon shows us that it takes a horrendous massacre of Lebanese civilians to bring the international community to give a hoot...
Right now the Israelis are killing Lebanese at a 6-to-1 ratio - 6 Lebanese killed for every one Israeli... This will go one for weeks, unless one single incident of Israeli bombing kills a hundred-plus Lebanese...
If you read any of the upper-class blogs from Lebanon (check out dailystar.com.lb) you will see that there are many who are only too happy to blame this bloodshed on Hizbollah and hope that the current clashes kill all 300,000 Shiite loyal to Hizbollah...
But the Hizb are death-seekers, which in a very general sense defines the guilt-complex of most devout Shiite (arising from their failure to rise and defend the Caliphate of Imam Ali, or battle on behalf of his son Hussein)...
In 1999, when I first visited Lebanon, I reported that there were two distinct trends in that country - the mothers in Beirut wanted their sons to grow up to be Bill Gates, while the mothers in the South wanted their sons to be Salahuddin...
Lebanon today is still torn apart between those two urban-rural aspirations... While the jump-up upper-class media might well amplify the aspirations of upper-class Lebanese, the rural and devout Shiite are still focused on a sense of pride that seems absurd to most Western commentators...
I remember interviewing a Mukhtar in a village in South Lebanon in 1999, when Israel still occupied lands barely a few hundred meters from his village... I asked the Mukhtar is he was a fundamentalist or a non-fundamentalist... He told me that my question was inaccurate... Either one was a Muslim, or not, he replied...
Israel's Olmert currently states that the military action will cease once Hizbollah surrender and disarm... Everything I know about the 300,000 Shiite who support Hizbollah tells me that this is a pipe dream...
And the pied piper will lead many a children into the mountains before this atrocity is done.
There is some reports that Israel initiated the conflict, ie.,
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/HG15Ak02.html
is this verifiable or are we at the mercy of our MSM?
One small thing the US could do is offer immigration stutus to all people in the area that do not wish to fight the rest of their lives and stop foreign aid to that part of the world. We could easily take our ~10 billion per year we give to Israel and buy a piece of texas along the Rio Grande for them. Maybe they could solve our Border problem!
Some of the statements that I've seen suggest that one of the purposes of this action is to equate Hizbullah (a non-state actor) to a soverign state.
This is a very, very dangerous precedent, and reinforces the Bush Administration's "long war" strategy.
This message is for: Abhinav Aima
Respectfully, your entire commentary was absolutely incorrect in every single regard. You messed up so many of the basic details that I am unsure where to start.
1. No Shia feels guilt over not rising up to defend Imam Ali. We feel anger at those who attacked him. Not guilt.
2. Same with Imam Husain.
3. All Shias hate Salahuddin, as he is mostly only known for his genocide of Shias of the Fatimid dynasty.
As a Shia, these are basic facts that I know is true of all Shia around the world. For you to come in here with a "Wikipedia" level knowledge and make commentary from that is a little insulting.
Can I just point out that Hizbulla have had drones for about 4 years.
Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, assistant professor of political science at the Lebanese-America University, writing in the Guardian:
>>The capture of three Israeli soldiers by the Lebanese resistance movement, Hizbullah, to bargain for prisoner exchange should come as no surprise. . .The prisoners Hizbullah wants released are hostages who were taken on Lebanese soil. In the successful prisoner exchange in 2004, Israel held on to three Lebanese detainees as bargaining chips and to keep the battle front with Hizbullah open. These detentions have become a cause celebre in Lebanon. In a recent poll, efforts to effect their release attracted majority support, much more even than the liberation of Shebaa Farms, the disputed corridor of land between Syria and Lebanon still occupied by Israel.<<
The Israeli position on this, from a UN document, is
>>Israel is not holding any Lebanese detainees as so-called "hostages" or for "bargaining purposes". The Lebanese currently held in Israel are as follows:
Samir Kuntar, a renowned terrorist, is a prisoner serving a life sentence for five consecutive terms, in addition to 47½ years' imprisonment following conviction by the Israeli District Court in Haifa in 1980 on charges of murder of three Israelis in a terrorist attack in the city of Naharia in 1979. The victims of his murderous attack were a father and his 4-year-old daughter, and a policeman on duty who tried to prevent the murder. In addition, Kuntar was convicted of the crimes of infiltration, membership in an unlawful organization, attempt to kidnap and kidnapping for the purpose of apprehension, as well as attempted murder.
Hamed Abu-Amra, a member of the Hizbollah terrorist organization, was apprehended in May 2003 on a ship smuggling firearms and weapons from Lebanon on its way to the Gaza Strip. He was indicted on charges of trading in firearms by the military court in Gaza, and is currently detained pending trial. When apprehended, Abu-Amra did not provide any formal documents attesting to his nationality, but claimed to be a Lebanese resident. Israel does not have any additional information as to the formal status of his nationality.
A third case involving a Lebanese national who entered Israel voluntarily in the beginning of 2004 is currently being dealt with by the Israeli authorities, which are also in contact with the relevant international humanitarian agencies.<<
What's going on here, anyway? So the guy murdered three people more than 25 years ago. If keeping him in custody means that much to the Israelis, they should be more careful protecting their young soldiers along the border. The world is not going to come to an end if three people from one side are traded for three people from the other side. On the other hand, if the Americans and Iranians keep seeing this as a way for their surrogates to test their weapons against each other, the world may be coming closer to an end.
If Israel were populated by Presbyterians and the major Mideast export were figs, this border dispute would attract as much attention as a coup in Fiji. What's going on here, then, involves emotional and economic issues. World leaders aren't allowed to talk about it that way, though.
Again, I wonder how all of you expect Israel to respond to the abduction of soldiers from and an attack on their sovereign territory by an Iranian and Syrian-backed proxy militia. Let's be honest; this has nothing to do with Lebanese prisoners. If it was about prisoners, Hizbollah would have invaded Syria, which holds many Lebanese prisoners. This is about Hezbollah, and by extension Syria and Iran, trying to take control of Lebanon.
Lebanon has not fulfilled the conditions of UNSC Resolution 1559 to disarm Hizbollah. A state cannot claim sovereignty when it cannot establish a monopoly on the use of force.
Can someone address the agendas of the various explanations of what is going on? For example it seems that conservative commentators focus more on Iran while liberals more on Hezbulla itself. I realize that more hawkish thinkers tend to want to link events to the axis of evil. Is it as simple as that the difference in opinion? As a dove it seems incredible that Iran would not be behind this with the timing and everything. Also how much of what is going on a test of the young leadership in Israel?
Forget blowback.
Syria was given 72 hours to stop Hezbollah and return allegedly kidnapped soldiers or face attack.
Iran has warned Israel that an attack on Syria would be met with severe consequences.
Neo-Cons have been quick to capitalize on this intentional escalation of violence by trying to tie US and Israeli interests, when the reality is that a very good argument can be made that the ONLY REASON Arabs hate Americans is because of our disproportionably massive aid to Israel. The bombs they are using are pretty much ours. That is why Arabs see the connection to the US. If those bombs weren't ours, would there even be hatred of the US? Funny how the same neo-cons are the ones who call, along with their Jewish-"American" allies in Congress, for increased military support of Israel. This is a classic example of creating a link that does not exist. We need to do a better job shifting the debate where it should be: debating our unnecessary arms sales to Israel and our meddling in Middle East affairs. We also need to emphasize that the best way to stop terrorism is to stop invading countries or imposing unfamiliar political systems on them. Our opponents have tricked the public into thinking that a connection between Israel and the US exists, while condemning terrorism that started in large part because of the US’ unbalanced position in the Middle East. Not to mention the irrelevant calls for "freedom" and "democracy." These main assumptions need to be abolished. The neo-cons' imperialistic dreams need to be confronted and exposed. Dual loyalists need to be deported. And the public debate must change.
It may very well be too late for anyone to reverse the cycle of violence in the Middle East, caused in large part by Israel and the US. But this is not our problem. We were, and continue to be, part of the problem. I feel sorry for current Israeli leaders who will have to deal with the conditions their predecessors in Israel and the US produced.
Did you see what our clueless president said to Putin at the G8 Summit? He was telling Putin that Russia should have a democracy like they have in Iraq, with freedom of religion and voting. Mr. Putin said "No, thanks! We don't want a democracy like they have in Iraq!" and everyone there had a big laugh. Such a joker president we have.
Regarding the Israeli war going on, I agree with blogger jhgeorge, all the U.S. has to do is say it will cut off aid to Israel if they don't stop this attack and negotiate for a peaceful resolution, and this whole thing would be over. The other parties would agree to a peaceful resolution if simple human rights conditions were met. They want their rights as human beings to be honored just as much as Israeli rights are honored. They keep saying things like their blood is of the same value as Israeli blood; it is not worth less. Is that so hard to comprehend?
Could things escalate to the point where Iran became more actively involved, thus giving the Bush administration exactly what they've been waiting for - a reason to invade? Everyone keeps mentioning how disproportionate the violence is on the part of Israel, but would it really be disproportionate if part of the intention were to exacerbate regional conflict? Ahmadinejad strikes me as someone who wouldn't use much restraint in dealing with this situation - a perfect foil. Three months from now, if the conflict were to broaden, who would remember that Israel gave the excuse of two soldiers being kidnapped?
I don't like sounding paranoid, but after the way the Bush administration worked up the invasion of Iraq, I don't put anything past them anymore.
Those interested in a view on the ground here in Beirut can take a look at my blog.
The Israelis hit Manara tonight, which is a neighborhood about 10 minutes from mine (Hamra). They also bombed the ports in Beirut, Jbeil (Byblos) and Tripoli, which means that it's going to be very difficult for the planned evacuation of Westerners next week...
Juan...be careful what you ask for..your plea for media attention has been answered.
Of all I have read, the best thus far is Larry Johnson's Israel Takes a Stupid Pill
In case the SF Chronicle Editors don't publish it, at least it will be published here!
Editors:
Last week I wrote Sen. Dianne Feinstein to express my concern that Israel's assault on Gaza amounted to collective mass punishment that obviously had nothing to do with Gilad Shalit (a fact his father recognized as well in a Jerusalem Post interview)
Your readers should be interested in her response, in pertinent part:
"Relations between the United States and Israel are crucial to stability in the Middle East, where the road to peace and prosperity continues to be fraught with many obstacles. In this regard, Congress has placed considerable importance on the maintenance"
Full disclosure - I voted for Martin Luther Church in the Primary and am glad that I did.
Amy Goodman interviews Noam Chomsky at Democracy Now! :
Noam Chomsky: U.S.-Backed Israeli Policies Pursuing "End of Palestine"
Gaza, itself, the latest phase, began on June 24. It was when Israel abducted two Gaza civilians, a doctor and his brother. We don't know their names. You don’t know the names of victims. They were taken to Israel, presumably, and nobody knows their fate. The next day, something happened, which we do know about, a lot. Militants in Gaza, probably Islamic Jihad, abducted an Israeli soldier across the border...
The next stage was Hezbollah's abduction of two Israeli soldiers, they say on the border. Their official reason for this is that they are aiming for prisoner release...
But the real reason, I think it's generally agreed by analysts, is that -- I’ll read from the Financial Times, which happens to be right in front of me. “The timing and scale of its attack suggest it was partly intended to reduce the pressure on Palestinians by forcing Israel to fight on two fronts simultaneously.”...
It's a very -- mind you -- very irresponsible act. It subjects Lebanese to possible -- certainly to plenty of terror and possible extreme disaster. Whether it can achieve any result, either in the secondary question of freeing prisoners or the primary question of some form of solidarity with the people of Gaza, I hope so, but I wouldn't rank the probabilities very high.
The United States regards Israel as virtually a militarized offshoot, and it protects it from criticism or actions and supports passively and, in fact, overtly supports its expansion, its attacks on Palestinians, its progressive takeover of what remains of Palestinian territory, and its acts to, well, actually realize a comment that Moshe Dayan made back in the early ’70s when he was responsible for the Occupied Territories. He said to his cabinet colleagues that we should tell the Palestinians that we have no solution for you, that you will live like dogs, and whoever will leave will leave, and we'll see where that leads. That's basically the policy. And I presume the U.S. will continue to advance that policy in one or another fashion.
And we, the American Sheeple, will march over the cliff following our Commander in Chief, led by the neocons, into the pit where Death Is The Way Of Life.
Former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Ronald Reagan, Paul Craig Roberts has this to say about the neocons and the present American regime's slavish devotion to them :
We certainly have to hand it to Israel and its American neoconsevative agents. They have succeeded on entirely false pretenses in launching two wars in the Middle East and now they have prepared the ground for a general conflagration.
Who is to stop them? The Condi Rice State Department? Be serious.
The Democratic Party? What a laugh!
The power mad Republicans who have sold their souls?
The Christian Evangelicals who believe the destruction of huge numbers of people in the Middle East is the lead up to "the Rapture" in which they will be wafted up to Heaven?
The UN Security Council, where the US never fails to veto any resolution or sanction against Israel?
The US and Israel haven’t the troops needed to defeat and occupy Syria, Hizbollah and Iran with conventional forces. Pentagon documents have described two ways in which the Middle East can be secured for Israel. One is the use of nuclear weapons. The other is the destruction of all infrastructure – power plants, water and sewage systems, hospitals, schools, roads, bridges, ports, and a reduction of much housing to rubble by powerful conventional bombs. In other words, an air war that never ends.
Most Americans are incapable of identifying their own US Representative and Senators. Everything they "know" about the Middle East comes from Israeli propaganda: Israel is the innocent victim, and all Arabs are terrorists with suicide bombs.
America is being led by a handful of traitors into participating in "regime change" that might succeed or might dethrone our bought and paid for puppets in Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. If Pakistan were to fall to Islamist forces, Muslims would have a nuclear capability as a counterpart to Israel’s and America’s.
Muslims have many reasons to hate us for generations of oppression and interference in their internal affairs. As Iraq has proven, it is not easy to break their spirit. Out-gunned and out-manned, they still resist, motivated by anger and pride.
Many Americans may think that "ragheads" mean nothing to them. But when $200 oil means Americans cannot commute to their jobs in their gas-guzzlers from their far-flung suburbs, or Russia and China intervene because American-Israeli interests conflict with their own, the world becomes a different place for inattentive, uninvolved, complicit Americans.
Yet "We the Sheeple" obediently follow the neocons over the cliff to our own destruction.
Dr. Cole: I know you probably don't want this blog to become a back and forth between comment posters, but I tried to track down King's blog to answer to his comments and that blog is not available on the internet, so I request you to allow me to post a response to King here...
I made a number of generalized comments going back to my first experience in Lebanon in 1999 that, from a historical point of view, do not make any theological sense, but they are true to my experiences from that time...
To respond fully to King's comments let me try and address some of his points:
1. As King claims to be a Shia, and he probably is, I first find it curious as to why he posts under the indentifier "King"... That in itself seems a little out of tune to me... Also, I am not sure if King is a Hizbollah supporter...
2. Yes, I was wrong for making my comments so whimsically general.. For one, to say Imam Ali's Caliphate is a complete absurdity as the term Caliphate does not really apply to Imam Ali's times - my fault, entirely...
3. Regarding the Shia sense of guilt - this is not a Wiki notion - I have, in my limited experience, come across a broad sense of historical guilt-based anger among the Shia and I think Dr. Cole could probably comment on that with more historical expertise than me...
4. On the matter of Salahuddin, or Saladin, I did not mean that Shiite mothers literally want their sons to be Salahuddin - rather, I got the impression that many aspired to a state of liberation, from Beirut to Jerusalem (again, not literally) that seemed to reflect upon the historical period of the undoing of the crusades... Again, I did not mean the Shia want to be Salahuddin, only that there was a complete disconnect between the aspirations of urban Beirut to the outlying rural communities in 1999 when Israel still occupied vast areas there - I was fortunate enough to visit these areas with UN peacekeepers and acutally spent two days hunkered down while Israeli shelled South Lebanon...
I am sorry if King felt insulted, on behalf of all Shia all over the world, for my glib comments... I did not mean to misrepresent the aspirations of Hizbollah supporters, only to point out the vast gap between their aspirations and those of the urban and Westernized Lebanese.
There was even a protest Saturday by hundreds of Kuwaitis outside the U.S. Embassy in Kuwaiti, which is very unusual.
Israel is terrorizing Lebanon! My husband was born in Lebanon and most of his family is there right now. We spend every second of every hour of every day wondering if they are still alive. So many innocent people have died already. It is time to stop this maddness! How can we just sit here while innocent men, women, and many children die? Israel warns the Lebanese to leave the target areas... but how are these people supposed to evacuate when the Israeli's have bombed and destroyed every way out?! Do not forget about all the innocent blood bein shed. Somebody needs to stand up and say "This is enough!!"
Israel is terrorizing Lebanon! My husband was born in Lebanon and most of his family is there right now. We spend every second of every hour of every day wondering if they are still alive. So many innocent people have died already. It is time to stop this maddness! How can we just sit here while innocent men, women, and many children die? Israel warns the Lebanese to leave the target areas... but how are these people supposed to evacuate when the Israeli's have bombed and destroyed every way out?! Do not forget about all the innocent blood bein shed. Somebody needs to stand up and say "This is enough!!"
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