War: Day 8 and Counting
Unfortunately there’s no escaping catching a glimpse of the US media’s coverage of the Middle East if you live in the United States, as television sets are nearly everywhere.
It appears that CNN is focusing today on the plight of the foreigners fleeing Lebanon. They arrive to Cyprus, they need shelter. And they’re hungry. The poor souls. Apparently the Pentagon’s evacuation efforts are below-par compared to other civilized nations. What a scandal. Of course, the scandal of bombing the hell out of a defenseless country and slaughtering its civilians is not worth CNN’s time, not when the perpetrator is the state of Israel. Neither is the plight of our people, with no one to help, isolated from the world and left on its own.
Let’s switch to Fox News. The Fox News reporter is standing at a barbwire, right on the Israeli-Lebanese frontier (no need to point out that she is on the Israeli side of the border, and so is her reporting). “You can literally touch Lebanon if you stretch your arm”. Wow, amazing. So close to danger, and yet so far. It must be so tantalizing for her to be in such a situation. She continues: “The problem with Hezbollah is that they’re like the Taliban; they love those missiles and they don’t wear uniforms. If Israel goes for a ground invasion, Hezbollah will immediately blend into the population of South Lebanon.”
Do Americans and Israelis actually believe this drivel? Hezbollah does not need to blend into the population of the South. Hezbollah IS the population of the south. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Lebanese are loyal and passionate about Hezbollah. It is true that Hezbollah has the backing of Syria and Iran, but to claim it’s a foreign entity is lunacy. Hezbollah is a Lebanese party, with Lebanese leaders and Lebanese followers, with Lebanese aspirations and Lebanese deficiencies. Whether you like it or not, it is the single most popular party in Lebanon.
There is no way to get rid of a resistance that has the backing of a large portion of the population. Hezbollah has its roots deep in Lebanese society, with literally hundreds of thousands of supporters. Unless Israel is thinking of mass extermination of a vast section of the Lebanese people, there is no way to eliminate the resistance.
Israel’s current strategy (bombing the hell out of us) will not shake Hezbollah. They do not have infrastructures that can be hit from the air. They don’t have tanks and caserns. Even if Israel is foolish enough to go for a ground invasion, and even if they break Hezbollah's military backbone after suffering major losses, the resistance will not fade away. Other groups will form; other forms of resistance will take shape, more effective and more deadly to Israel.
The resistance will not die away because our cause is just. People, our cause is just, we must never forget that. It is Israel that has occupied and continues to occupy part of our country for decades. It is Israel that invades our sovereignty day in and day out. It is Israel that has some of our brothers in its prisons. It is Israel that refuses to hand in a map of the hundreds of thousands of land mines planted in the south that kill civilians on a regular basis. It is Israel that has perpetrated obscene massacres against our people over and over and over again. Look across the border; look how the state of Israel is starving the Palestinian people for using their democratic right and voting their government into office.
The state of Israel is a racist and criminal state that has absolutely no regard for our lives. Yes, many Lebanese and many Hezbollah members are anti-Semitic. Yes, many Lebanese and many Palestinians have racist attitudes towards Jewish people. Many Lebanese misplace their anger and turn it into bigotry. I know that and I do not approve of that. But I don't stop here, and use it as the ultimate argument for Israel's aggression, as some hypocrites do. I know that this racism is a concrete reaction to a specific historical reality. Consider the source. The source is Zionism; the source is the Israeli state and its policies over the past six decades.
God knows I am not and will never be a member of Hezbollah. My ideology and my beliefs are radically opposed to those endorsed by Hezbollah. And yet in this conflict, I am heart and soul behind Hezbollah. Make no mistake. This is not about religion. This is not about being a Muslim or a Jew. This is much bigger. This is about safeguarding our honor and our dignity. This is about standing up to the oppressor and saying no. This is about pushing back a project that threatens every single one of us. Nobody should and nobody can take this right away from us.
Thankfully Hezbollah is not alone in this fight. The support and tenacity of the larger part of the population warms the heart. People opening their homes to refugees, volunteers trying to make a tragic situation a little brighter, individuals calling live on TV and the radio, proposing help and giving words of encouragement. This is what countries are built on: fraternity and resilience in desperate situations. The efforts of the free patriotic movement have been especially heartening. Their enthusiasm is exemplary. People’s mettle is revealed in times of crisis, and if I had to point out two major personalities that stepped up and acted like national leaders one can respect and admire, it would be Hassan Nasrallah and Michel Aoun.
You’re going to tell me that a lot of Lebanese are against Hezbollah. That is true. Many are openly criticizing the resistance and putting the blame on its action. You’d be utterly naïve if you thought that Israel started this large and coordinated campaign spontaneously. This is not about two soldiers; this is about taking advantage of the international climate to get rid of the resistance once and for all. This is not about two soldiers; this is a war between those who support the American/Israeli vision for the region, and those who oppose it.
Some in Lebanon support the Israeli plan, and they are not embarrassed to show it. It angers me, but I am not too concerned, because we have seen that these people are capable of nothing in the past.
The Israelis are going to fail, along with Saudi Arabia and the United States and their other allies, Arabs and non-Arabs.
And to the Lebanese opportunists who are betting on an Israeli victory:
Shame on you.
Shame on you for gambling on lunacy and selling your country.
You were defeated before, and you will be defeated again.
It appears that CNN is focusing today on the plight of the foreigners fleeing Lebanon. They arrive to Cyprus, they need shelter. And they’re hungry. The poor souls. Apparently the Pentagon’s evacuation efforts are below-par compared to other civilized nations. What a scandal. Of course, the scandal of bombing the hell out of a defenseless country and slaughtering its civilians is not worth CNN’s time, not when the perpetrator is the state of Israel. Neither is the plight of our people, with no one to help, isolated from the world and left on its own.
Let’s switch to Fox News. The Fox News reporter is standing at a barbwire, right on the Israeli-Lebanese frontier (no need to point out that she is on the Israeli side of the border, and so is her reporting). “You can literally touch Lebanon if you stretch your arm”. Wow, amazing. So close to danger, and yet so far. It must be so tantalizing for her to be in such a situation. She continues: “The problem with Hezbollah is that they’re like the Taliban; they love those missiles and they don’t wear uniforms. If Israel goes for a ground invasion, Hezbollah will immediately blend into the population of South Lebanon.”
Do Americans and Israelis actually believe this drivel? Hezbollah does not need to blend into the population of the South. Hezbollah IS the population of the south. Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Lebanese are loyal and passionate about Hezbollah. It is true that Hezbollah has the backing of Syria and Iran, but to claim it’s a foreign entity is lunacy. Hezbollah is a Lebanese party, with Lebanese leaders and Lebanese followers, with Lebanese aspirations and Lebanese deficiencies. Whether you like it or not, it is the single most popular party in Lebanon.
There is no way to get rid of a resistance that has the backing of a large portion of the population. Hezbollah has its roots deep in Lebanese society, with literally hundreds of thousands of supporters. Unless Israel is thinking of mass extermination of a vast section of the Lebanese people, there is no way to eliminate the resistance.
Israel’s current strategy (bombing the hell out of us) will not shake Hezbollah. They do not have infrastructures that can be hit from the air. They don’t have tanks and caserns. Even if Israel is foolish enough to go for a ground invasion, and even if they break Hezbollah's military backbone after suffering major losses, the resistance will not fade away. Other groups will form; other forms of resistance will take shape, more effective and more deadly to Israel.
The resistance will not die away because our cause is just. People, our cause is just, we must never forget that. It is Israel that has occupied and continues to occupy part of our country for decades. It is Israel that invades our sovereignty day in and day out. It is Israel that has some of our brothers in its prisons. It is Israel that refuses to hand in a map of the hundreds of thousands of land mines planted in the south that kill civilians on a regular basis. It is Israel that has perpetrated obscene massacres against our people over and over and over again. Look across the border; look how the state of Israel is starving the Palestinian people for using their democratic right and voting their government into office.
The state of Israel is a racist and criminal state that has absolutely no regard for our lives. Yes, many Lebanese and many Hezbollah members are anti-Semitic. Yes, many Lebanese and many Palestinians have racist attitudes towards Jewish people. Many Lebanese misplace their anger and turn it into bigotry. I know that and I do not approve of that. But I don't stop here, and use it as the ultimate argument for Israel's aggression, as some hypocrites do. I know that this racism is a concrete reaction to a specific historical reality. Consider the source. The source is Zionism; the source is the Israeli state and its policies over the past six decades.
God knows I am not and will never be a member of Hezbollah. My ideology and my beliefs are radically opposed to those endorsed by Hezbollah. And yet in this conflict, I am heart and soul behind Hezbollah. Make no mistake. This is not about religion. This is not about being a Muslim or a Jew. This is much bigger. This is about safeguarding our honor and our dignity. This is about standing up to the oppressor and saying no. This is about pushing back a project that threatens every single one of us. Nobody should and nobody can take this right away from us.
Thankfully Hezbollah is not alone in this fight. The support and tenacity of the larger part of the population warms the heart. People opening their homes to refugees, volunteers trying to make a tragic situation a little brighter, individuals calling live on TV and the radio, proposing help and giving words of encouragement. This is what countries are built on: fraternity and resilience in desperate situations. The efforts of the free patriotic movement have been especially heartening. Their enthusiasm is exemplary. People’s mettle is revealed in times of crisis, and if I had to point out two major personalities that stepped up and acted like national leaders one can respect and admire, it would be Hassan Nasrallah and Michel Aoun.
You’re going to tell me that a lot of Lebanese are against Hezbollah. That is true. Many are openly criticizing the resistance and putting the blame on its action. You’d be utterly naïve if you thought that Israel started this large and coordinated campaign spontaneously. This is not about two soldiers; this is about taking advantage of the international climate to get rid of the resistance once and for all. This is not about two soldiers; this is a war between those who support the American/Israeli vision for the region, and those who oppose it.
Some in Lebanon support the Israeli plan, and they are not embarrassed to show it. It angers me, but I am not too concerned, because we have seen that these people are capable of nothing in the past.
The Israelis are going to fail, along with Saudi Arabia and the United States and their other allies, Arabs and non-Arabs.
And to the Lebanese opportunists who are betting on an Israeli victory:
Shame on you.
Shame on you for gambling on lunacy and selling your country.
You were defeated before, and you will be defeated again.
posted by J. @ 3:24 AM
23 Comments:
bravo/brava ...
excellent post, jij. just excellent.
This is a war waged on everyone who says NO to Israel.
I am sure this post will attract a lot of Israeli bloggers. Don't bother commenting buddy. Your post is just excellent and says it all!
jij,
we may be against the criminal murders the IDP is perpetrating, but that doesn't mean we have to be on Hezbollah's side. there is a third option.
Lazarus tell us about the third way. I won't respond to the trolls.
I feel real badly that the Lebonese people got caught in the middle of this fight. The UN let you down and Iran and Syria sacrificed the country to spread terror.
The fact is, Israel has given back territory they took in war in accordance with UN resolution and the Hizbollah did not disarm like they were supposed to. They launch rockets into Israel nearly every day and Israel is tired of it.
I really wish that the people of Lebanon would have stood up to Hizbollah and forced them to give the soldiers back. This is a war that Hizbollah started. The Israelis are allowed to respond and if Hizbollah actually cared about your country they would have given the soldiers back. Neither they, nor Syria, nor Iran care about you. They are using you to engage in war against Syria.
It is a tragedy but for all the pictures of dead Lebanese you show there are pictures of Israelis dead in cafes because of rockets and suicide bombers. Israel is a very small country surrounded by a lot of very big countries that want to wipe it off the map. If you screw with a cornered animal long enough it is going to attack, and they have been screwed with long enough.
You were not crying for them when they were getting rockets and suicide bombers. Did you once denounce Hizbollah for these acts or are you, like so many in the region, happy when Jews die?
It could have been a peaceful place with you developing a democracy and Israel minding its own business. Hizbollah ruined that for you and now I hope Israel does not stop until every last member of that terroorist group is dead.
God have mercy on those children and all the innocents who have and are going to die because of Hizbollah, Iran, and Syria.
mikealpha,
i'll read the rest of your comment later; it's long, and i currently don't have the time, but your first line puzzled me: why are you an evil american?
sc,
are you advocating mass murder? your comment sorta reminded me of something an old fascist dictator said half a century ago. his tale didn't end well.
be sensible when you post comments. more importantly, be human.
cheers,
laz.
WOW!!! Did I misread your post? Did you say that FOX was mistaken when they thought that Hezbollah would fade into the civilian population, because Hezbollah IS the civilian population in the south?
Do you mean that do destroy Hezbollah, every civilian in South Lebanon must die?
As an American I'll say that yes, I did believe that drivel, and am sad to hear from you that all southern lebanese are terrorists :(
To go one step further, I saw that Hezbollah is not allowing civilians to flee in order to maximize civilian casualties.
"Hizbullah is preventing civilians from leaving villages in southern Lebanon. Roadblocks have been set up outside some of the villages to prevent residents from leaving, while in other villages Hizbullah is preventing UN representatives from entering, who are trying to help residents leave. In two villages, exchanges of fire between residents and Hizbullah have broken out."
Are you entirely positive these fleeing people are part of Hezbollah, and Hezbollah is doing the world a favor by keeping them concentrated in the south so they can be more easily removed to give the world peace? I have to say I doubt it, but will defer to your greater knowledge on the subject.
mikizzz first no I don't think you are a troll. Second, I really don't know what to say to you. Tell me, what exactly do you Lebanese to do? The country is pretty much evenly split. Some support Hezbollah's weapons as deterrent to Israel, some don't and want them to give the weapons. Lebanon is not Norway, where everything can be resolved through institutions, and it's not North Korea, where one half of the population is thrown in jail and problem solved. What exactly do u want us to do? Start a civil war so that we ensure Israel's security? Besides, Israel's response has been so savage, so gruesome and so pornographic that really the only descent thing for Lebanese to do is to stand together and be strong. This is war and we are all being targeted, pro- and anti- Hezbollah.
blogagogo for the love of god where did you read this comical news?
jij,
blogagogo (??) might have gotten it from ynet news. it's been making its rounds.
You cant expect only the guilty to suffer.
Does that statement still hold when most of those who suffer are the innocents? children?
And explain to me the objectives of the war. After you've done that, compare these objectives to what is happening on the ground.
I'd hardly call Hezbollah forcing civilians to stay in place to die 'comical', jij. I'd certainly be happy to find out it's not true though. Unless of course they are Hezbollah 'civilians'.
fascist dictator said half a century ago. his tale didn't end well.
Something you might also recall is he shared Hizballah's attitude toward Jews.
bush will definately be voted out
mikizzz, you seem to be ignorant as to a fairly fundamental aspect of the American Presidency. They serve two terms only. This is President Bush's second term. He can't be voted out in 2008 because he won't even be running. That said, take your delusional little DailyKos spite back to the lefty sandbox, this is a blog about Lebanon.
jij, you are a star. killon baddon rasak!
dawri, la' dawri, wle dawri wle.
To mikizzz: we need something more practical. Half the country supports Hizbullah in one form or another. We have to ask where all this support comes from. An entire half can not be all idiots. One reason for this support is that Hizbullah operated many humanitarian programs like hospitals and schools. They provided services that the lebanese government was not capable of providing. As jij pointed out, any attempt to disarm them by force will result in nothing but civil war. Thus a national dialogue was taking place (slowly, but still). A devisable plan was being discussed. Israel realized it is a complicated process. They ran out of patience (7aram). So now they are teaching us how to disarm them.
This is definitely not gonna disarm Hizbullah. If anything, it is disarming people's fear of the Israeli war machine.
I certainly hope you are wrong when you say "Half the country supports Hizbullah in one form or another" jooj. Because that gives Israel justification to kill half of the Lebanese people. Before you repeat that "An entire half can not be all idiots", remember that half of Germany supported Hitler.
blogagog: I don't see the analogy. An idiot by definition is a layman who lacks skill. One may call Hitler and his supporters many well-deserved ill names but not sure if Idiots would be right.
I will repeat it: An entire half can not all be idiots. See the reasons above!
Oh. I meant "idiot" to mean "misguided", not the dictionary meaning of the word. My apologies for misunderstanding you.
Social psychologists have noted, and I found it particularly interesting in this case, that in international conflicts, it is common for both parties to feel (usually very passionately) that international report grossly favours the other side.
I know that's what we always feel on this side of the fence, it's interesting to see the sociopsychological theory work in practice; that these are the same notions across the border...
Hmmm...
as an englishman and EU resident I am disgusted by both the coverage of this situation and the complete lack of support for the lebanese people. Blair has made it quite clear that he doesn't value life in the middle east, except for the israelis and the uk troops that most of the population doesn't think should be there.
@shmulik
734 children Palestinian (moslem & christian) have been killed by the IDF + Jews Settler for the past 6 years.
http://www.ifamericansknew.org
Jij
I understand the sentiment. As an american jew who's been scanning Lebanese blogs since this began to get a sense of how things are for you, I am on the whole impressed with Lebanon and its people, and very much torn up over the suffering of innocents in Lebanon.
That said, I just want to point out two things to you, both from your own mouth:
According to you, Hezbollah represents the will of the people of Lebanon. Personally, from what I've read on the various blogs and other sources, I don't agree.
But if you really believe that Hezbollah represents the will of Lebanon, how can you complain when Israel attacks Lebanon in response to Hezbollah actions??
It may be impossible to do, given the emotions of the situation and the danger you find yourself in, but take a step back and think about it logically for a minute, and I think that you'll see the contradiction.
Second, you ask whether Lebanon should have engaged in a civil war "to ensure Israel's security". What you are basically saying is that Lebanon made a decision not to do anything at all to stop Hezbollah's attacks on Israel, because the cost of doing so would be high for Lebanon, while the costs of inaction would fall entirely on the Israelis (and why should Lebanon care about that, hey?)
Well, again, I can see why you might find that approach attractive, but I'm sure that if you look at it rationally you can understand why Israel would vehemently disagree with it.
The fact is - as other Lebanese have so eloquently put it - Lebanon stands at a crossroads. Does it side with Hezbollah, support Hezbollah, and share Hezbollah's fate? Or does it oppose Hezbollah - not just in rhetoric but in deed - and say to the world "we are not with them, we should not be treated like them, and we will help fight them"
Do the former, and - again - I don't see how you can complain when Israel reacts accordingly; if Lebanon stands with Hezbollah it should be treated as though it acted with Hezbollah. Do the latter, and you will have peace and a stable relationship with your vastly more powerful southern neighbor.
Look, all of that said, do I agree with every Israeli action in this war? No - they have been far too careless with their attacks; if they need to take out roads to prevent resupply to Hezbollah they should do so, but for god's sake time the attack to minimize civillian casualties. Somebody in the Israeli army deserves to pay - and pay hard - for the tragic recklessness of Marwaheen.
But should Israel be attacking those roads at all? As long as Hezbollah gets supplies along them, yes, Israel should.
Just my opinion. Stay safe, all of you, and all of yours.
Akiva
Lebanese citizens who suddenly feel a need to declare their solidarity with Hezbollah should consider that Hezbollah has fired 800 missiles into Israel over the last couple of decades.
Now imagine the slaughter that would have ensude if Lebanon had been firing those missiles in to Syria, and how quickly it would have come. Or, imagine that Lebanon was differently positioned, and had tried to fire 800 missiles into into Turkey, Egypt or Iranian cities. Once again Lebanon would be a memory by now.
So you say that this proves nothing because Israel is a democracy and should be less brutal than her neighbors?
Imagine that Cuba fired a single missile toward Orlando Florida... The Cuban government would have been invaded and overthrown inside a month.
Ask yourself, how many attacks did Al Qa'eda and their client the Taliban get on the American mainland before we went and overthew them? Exactly one.
But middle eastern Muslims are so used to killing Israeli Jews that it never even occurs to them that there could ever be a cost for their attacks... That's because Israel is the most liberal, and the most passive country in the world, despite your constant lies that they're monsters. Any strong country would have responded to the constant attacks with a much more mercyless war than Israel will ever do.
As it stands the Israeli army kills far fewer Lebanese Shiites each day than the average Sunni suicide bomber in Baghdad. Funny that Hezbollah has never asked anyone for unity in opposing that slaughter.
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