Ghaziyah, Shiyah, Bombed, with civilian Casualities
Israeli Civilians Shelled, Evacuated from North
The Israeli air force hit civilians at Ghaziyah in the south on Monday, killing 14. When the victims' families and friends held a funeral procession on Tuesday, the Israelis hit them again, killing 6 more innocent civilians. (This terror tactic, where you kill people and then kill their funeral party later, as well, is commonly used by the Baathist insurgency in Iraq).
The Israelis killed another five innocents, these being fruit packers and truckers near the border with Syria.
In the south, the Israeli invaders fought hard battles as they moved as much as 7 miles into Lebanon, losing two reservists in firefights with the formidable Hizbullah.
So the Israelis warned the southern Shiites that they should flee north, otherwise these ordinary civilians would be considered fair game. So thousands flee north to Beirut and go to schools and other shelters in Shiite districts like Shiyah. So then the Israelis bomb Shiyah. If they were going to be bombed anyway, they may as well have stayed home.
Israel has effectively cut South Lebanon off from the rest of the country, having destroyed roads and bridges, etc. Aid workers have been forced to leave the area. The Israelis have declared southern Lebanon a "no-drive" zone, promising to kill anyone who drives around a vehicle. This policy would make it difficult for aid workers to truck in grain and other foodstuffs and medicine. So, they have just left.
The Israelis also bombed a Palestinian refugee camp. The nascent Israeli military ethnically cleansed hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in 1948, expelling some 100,000 from their ancestral homeland north into southern Lebanon, where they were reduced to living penniless and in squalor in camps in someone else's country. They have grown to 400,000, though some demographers suspect that half that number has gone off to Europe, where they cannot get work visas and so spend their days visiting parks and riding the subway.
The Israelis seem to have a list of old scores to settle, and are taking advantage of the war to settle some vendettas. Had anyone charged that Israel was attacked from refugee camp in Lebanon? This is just opportunism (like the whole war).
Hizbullah rained over a hundred katyusha rockets on northern Israel again on Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of Israeli towns in the north near the border. The Israeli army is frustrated at not having been able to stop the rocket attacks, the number and force of which seem undimmed despite Israel's massive air raids and its invasion of south Lebanon. The Israelis also suspect that Iran and Syria are finding ways of re-arming the guerrilla movement. I don't find this plausible. I think it is more likely that Hizbullah just had made excellent preparations for this war, and had a lot of munitions hidden away.
Dennis Perrin on Lebanon.
Another Beirut Blog
Chomsky at Finkelstein.
A Lebanon diary by an Augustinian friar.
What is wrong with American news.
Justin Raimondo endorses Daniel Levy's warning against "creative destruction."
posted by Juan Cole @ 8/09/2006 12:32:00 AM
Click to join Infoco
11 Comments:
Regarding the "What's Wrong With American News" LINK
Come on Professor Cole, don't you think those foreigners' papers are just way too into downer news? They just go looking for the negative-- big, scary bombs, death,destruction and fires. Who wants to look at that if it means missing the "Running of the Brides" at Filenes Basement? You probably want us Americans to lose our world-famous sunny optimism, can-do attitude and youthful sense of fun!
"The Israelis seem to have a list of old scores to settle, and are taking advantage of the war to settle some vendettas. Had anyone charged that Israel was attacked from refugee camp in Lebanon? This is just opportunism (like the whole war)."
Readers would do well to archive each instance of war crimes if for no reason other than to remind the newspapers when the trials start.
"They have grown to 400,000, though some demographers suspect that half that number has gone off to Europe, where they cannot get work visas and so spend their days visiting parks and riding the subway. "
Missing satire alert?
With Bush policy, what we get is all we get. What we are getting is the destruction of Lebanon.
Why is it now American policy to destroy Lebanon? Why does Bush think destroying Lebanon is a good idea?
-jonny bakho
What's wrong with American news ? A simple lack of testicular fortitude or ownership by Israeli interests. Neither bodes well for either the USA or the world.
One difference between the US media and the rest of the world is this: any US editor whose coverage emphasizes carnage in Lebanon will be assaulted by an advertising boycott and an irate salvo of angry letters. JINSA and other groups are also able to submit pro-Israel letters signed by an impressive list of US generals and admirals.
Another difference is that most Europeans or Asians can say "ceasefire now" and care nothing about the implementation. To them it's just dandy if Israel withdraws and Lebanon returns to "normal." US authorities, meanwhile, cannot get clearance on any ceasefire plan that omits (first and foremost) a means to demilitarize or obliterate Hezbollah.
The US public at large is not equiped to challenge any of this and dare not dissent from most opinion leaders or the passionate legion of Israel supporters. Another factor is that Nasrallah really does endorse abolition of Israel. This sets off a visceral defensive reaction. Destruction may not eliminate Hezbollah or may even fortify the movement, but people simply will not believe this until it happens. Sorry.
Today as I listened to the cacaphony of CNN, IBA, and other news sources as well as Fox, again, I was told that everything is going great for the IDF. Though Halutz has named Kaplinsky as a sort of "general of all trades" to be a sort of siamese twin to Udi Adam, we are assured that no one has been demoted and there is no change in command or in philosophy.
This "one week war" has yielded, according to the IDF and their embedded journalists, 400 confirmed dead Hizbollah fighters, along with an unknown number dead from air strikes and artillary so that their 5,000 man force must be suffering casualties in excess of 20%. All of their infrastructure was destroyed again this week and the same two towns have fallen to the IDF again this week. Hizbullah is reduced to a few pockets of last ditch fighters that the IDF is hunting down. In the meantime, another 150 rockets rain down on Israel, 5 of them of the intermediate range/long range variety that the IDF destroyed every one of two weeks ago.
Most recent plans call for another 20,000 IDF troops to bolster the 10,000 already in Lebanon, with a push beyond the Litani so that the IDF controls both banks with a security fence to deny Lebanese access to the river.
The IDF views an international force as establishing itself at the Litani, with the area between Shebaa Farms and the Litani to be an Israeli DMZ. The international force is supposed to shoot any Hizbollah fighters trying to infiltrate but cannot shoot at any Israeli violating the border.
There is an urgency in stressing that this is not an occupation. After all, who occupies what you plan on annexing?
Every day the Israeli plans for a quick and decisive victory become more and more Strangelovian and our leaders buy it, hook line and sinker.
Interesting the different expectations of what the poor Lebanese army will do when and if it gets to the Blue Line.
The Israelis expect it to hunt down, expel or kill anyone who looks like a Hezbollah. The Lebanese Government expects it to coexist with Hezbollah which is now considered the champion and hero of the country.
The Western press is trying to figure out how to morph the cliche "Israel has a right to defend itself" into "Israel has the right to destroy neighboring countries as it wishes". Condi, Rove and AIPAC are working behind the scenes on this one.
The only difference between Condi and Bush is that when Bush says something stupid and meaningless he sounds stupid. When Condi says the same thing she sounds like she knows what she's talking about.
Speaking of birthing, "Rosemary's Baby" will certainly pale in comparison to "Condi's Baby" (and we know who the father is).
Lamont wins over Lieberman in CT race
Good news for everybody who opposes the Iraqi war are, Ned Lamont won the Connecticut democratic primaries over the incumbent Senator Lieberman. Main issue was the war in Iraq, apparently, dems finnally got tired with GOP's beloved democrat's support of the war. Bad news are, Lieberman still wants to run for the Senate sit as independent dem. If he does good, this certainly will benefit the GOP and harm the dems.
For the neocons, whatever is good for the GOP, is good for the world, for the US and for the dems. By this logic, Liebermans's defeat is a setback for the dems because it positions them as "weak on the US security". According to Fred Barnes, while "Islamic jihadists still threatening America, Democrats are purging the hawkish remnants in their party. That's the meaning of the primary defeat in Connecticut yesterday of Senator Joe Lieberman to Ned Lamont, an antiwar Democrat. Lamont is the epitome of a peace Democrat: force averse, naively trusting in diplomacy, and firmly opposed to a strong national security policy."
The Israeli reaction is even more remarkable - at least for those who think that national politics is supposed to be driven by national issues, not by religion and ethicity of the candidates. However, according to Haaretz, "He was campaigning as the candidate with 'dignity,' 'integrity' and 'honor' - three words that will now be turned against him... The more I hear from Jewish voters and activists in the state, the more I understand that many of them voted for Lamont. They just don't give a dam about Lieberman 'the Jewish political icon.' …And I get the sense that many of the Jewish voters who really cared for Lieberman were those who actually vote Republican". As for the war in Iraq, Haaretz does not even mention it!"
Professor Cole, I wonder if you could verify the below translation of an Israeli pamphlet, originally by an anonymous commenter at Angry Arab.
"To the Lebanese citzens residing south of the Litani River
Read this document with full comprehension and do as it orders.
The IDF will escalate its activities and will hit with the most excessive force terrorist elements that uses you as human shields and fires rockets/missiles from inside your houses in the direction of the state of Israel.
Every car including any type that moves south of the Litani river will be bombed because it is suspected in transporting rockets/missiles and military and ruining equipment.
It is your duty to do so as every person in any car is placing their life in danger.
State of Israel"
Picture of the pamphlet at:
http://angryarab.blogspot.com/2006/08/israeli-orientalism.html
Via:
http://leninology.blogspot.com/2006/08/kind-regards-state-of-israel.html
It's the closest pairing from Israel I've yet seen between the kill-you-if-you-stay and kill-you-if-you-leave policies.
This is another comment on the media.
Ron Suskine's new book "The One Percent Doctrine" is an inside picture of the role of ideology and lack of real policy work in the administration. The afterword recounts his meeting in Oct 2005 with William Sloan Coffman who said that "I never thought I would live to see the day that old fashioned reporting would be seen as an act of civil disobediance."
Things are totally crazy now and with an administration and congress that lacks the ability to work through the hard problems of government, there is no telling how bad things could get. The destruction of Lebanon is stupid, horrible, creating more terroists and sowing the seeds of discontnt for decades. How long will it be until the USA can be an honest broker again?
I am just going to stop, but the horror show goes on and on.
What amazes me is that Israel destroys all the roads and bridges then tells those left in South Lebanon that they should leave. Israel then says any car on the road is a target and denies aid convoys the right to enter southern Lebanon.
It then rains bombs down on towns, villages and cities while claiming it 'deeply regrets' civilian casualties.
This is an example of profound cynicism and mendacity even by the already low standards that prevail in our world.
Post a Comment
<< Home