Potentially explosive subject, controversial et al.
But what happend to the human face?
Why this mayhem and indiscriminate fighting in Lebanon?
Who wins and who loses?
Isn't it a fact that nobody wins in this war which has been on for several years?
Then why fight again?
Why isn't the world community trying to stop it?
Why the 'Global policeman' not trying to stop this?
All questions and questions which have NO answer.
Ultimately the HUMANITY SUFFERS.
Read this pathetic face of the entire game being played out by different players.
PLEASE READ TILL THE LAST SENTENCE................
Quote:
TYRE, Lebanon, July 20 — Carpenters are running out of wood for coffins. Bodies are stacked three or four high in a truck at the local hospital morgue. The stench is spreading in the rubble.
The morbid reality of Israel’s bombing campaign of the south is reaching almost every corner of this city. Just a few miles from the Rest House hotel, where the United Nations was evacuating civilians on Thursday, wild dogs gnawed at the charred remains of a family bombed as they were trying to escape the village of Hosh, officials said.
Officials at the Tyre Government Hospital inside a local Palestinian refugee camp said they counted the bodies of 50 children among the 115 in the refrigerated truck in the morgue, though their count could not be independently confirmed.
Abdelmuhsin al-Husseini, Tyre’s mayor, announced on Thursday that any bodies not claimed in the next two days by next of kin would be buried temporarily in a mass grave near the morgue until they could receive a proper burial once the fighting ends.
“I am asking the families, if they can come here, to claim the bodies,” said Mr. Husseini, whose bloodshot eyes hinted at his mad scramble to secure food rations and bring some order to the city. “Otherwise, we have no choice but to bury them in mass graves.”
With the roads and bridges to many surrounding villages bombed out, few families have come to the hospital to claim their dead.
Even if they could make the journey, they would fear being hit by airstrikes along the way, Mr. Husseini said. Emergency workers have been unwilling to brave the risk of recovering many bodies left along the road, leaving them to rot.
For those relatives who reach the morgue, conducting a proper burial is impossible while the bombing continues. Many have opted to leave the bodies at the morgue until the conflict ends.
The morgue has had to order more than 100 coffins with special handles to make it easier to remove them from the ground to be reburied later.
“What? He wants a hundred?” a local carpenter said, half shocked, half perplexed. “Where the hell am I going to get enough wood to build that many coffins?”
At the hospital, members of the medical staff now find themselves dealing with the dead more than saving the living.
“This hospital is working like a morgue more than a hospital,” said Hala Hijazi, a volunteer whose mother is an anesthesiologist at the hospital. Lately, Ms. Hijazi said, she has begun to recognize some of the faces arriving here as the scale of the Israeli bombings has continued to widen. “A lot of the people are from Tyre, and we know some of them,” she said of the bodies.
A pall overtook Tyre on Thursday, as United Nations peacekeepers loaded more than 600 United Nations employees, foreigners and Lebanese onto a ferry to Cyprus, then promptly packed up their makeshift evacuation center at the Rest House and left for their base in the town of Naqura.
Hundreds descended on the hotel on Wednesday, desperate to board the ferry. Despite fears that many would be left behind, almost all who sought refuge were able to board the ship Thursday.
But as the last United Nations peacekeepers left town on Thursday, those who remained braced for an even heavier bombardment.
For Ali and Ahmad al-Ghanam, brothers who have taken shelter in a home just a few blocks from the morgue, the refrigerated truck of dead bodies is a vivid reminder of the attack that killed 23 members of their family.
When Israeli loudspeakers warned villagers to evacuate the village of Marwaheen last Saturday, the families packed their belongings and headed for safety. More than 23 of them piled into a pickup and drove toward Tyre, with the brothers trailing behind. Another group set off for a nearby United Nations observation post, but were promptly turned away.
As the pickup raced to Tyre, Ali al-Ghanam said, Israeli boats shelled their convoy, hitting the car and injuring the women and children in the back. But within minutes an Israeli helicopter approached the car, firing a missile that blew the truck to pieces as the passengers struggled to jump out, he said.
His brother Mohammad, his wife and their six children, were killed instantly along with several of their relatives. The only survivor in the car was the brothers’ 4-year-old niece, who survived with severe burns to much of her body.
“The dead stayed in the sun for hours until anyone could come and collect them,” Mr. Ghanam said. “The Israelis can’t understand that we are people, too. Should they wonder why so many of us support the resistance?” he said, speaking of Hezbollah.
The 23 bodies now lie in the truck, waiting to be buried. Mr. Ghanam said it would be impossible for them to be buried in their village while the bombing continued. Holding a funeral is impossible, but even digging a grave could attract fire, he said, assuming the remaining family were able to return to the village.
The brothers walked to the hospital on Thursday to sign documents allowing the hospital to bury the bodies in a mass grave.
Unquote:
?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????
From India, Madras
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21But what happend to the human face?
Why this mayhem and indiscriminate fighting in Lebanon?
Who wins and who loses?
Isn't it a fact that nobody wins in this war which has been on for several years?
Then why fight again?
Why isn't the world community trying to stop it?
Why the 'Global policeman' not trying to stop this?
All questions and questions which have NO answer.
Ultimately the HUMANITY SUFFERS.
Read this pathetic face of the entire game being played out by different players.
PLEASE READ TILL THE LAST SENTENCE................
Quote:
TYRE, Lebanon, July 20 — Carpenters are running out of wood for coffins. Bodies are stacked three or four high in a truck at the local hospital morgue. The stench is spreading in the rubble.
The morbid reality of Israel’s bombing campaign of the south is reaching almost every corner of this city. Just a few miles from the Rest House hotel, where the United Nations was evacuating civilians on Thursday, wild dogs gnawed at the charred remains of a family bombed as they were trying to escape the village of Hosh, officials said.
Officials at the Tyre Government Hospital inside a local Palestinian refugee camp said they counted the bodies of 50 children among the 115 in the refrigerated truck in the morgue, though their count could not be independently confirmed.
Abdelmuhsin al-Husseini, Tyre’s mayor, announced on Thursday that any bodies not claimed in the next two days by next of kin would be buried temporarily in a mass grave near the morgue until they could receive a proper burial once the fighting ends.
“I am asking the families, if they can come here, to claim the bodies,” said Mr. Husseini, whose bloodshot eyes hinted at his mad scramble to secure food rations and bring some order to the city. “Otherwise, we have no choice but to bury them in mass graves.”
With the roads and bridges to many surrounding villages bombed out, few families have come to the hospital to claim their dead.
Even if they could make the journey, they would fear being hit by airstrikes along the way, Mr. Husseini said. Emergency workers have been unwilling to brave the risk of recovering many bodies left along the road, leaving them to rot.
For those relatives who reach the morgue, conducting a proper burial is impossible while the bombing continues. Many have opted to leave the bodies at the morgue until the conflict ends.
The morgue has had to order more than 100 coffins with special handles to make it easier to remove them from the ground to be reburied later.
“What? He wants a hundred?” a local carpenter said, half shocked, half perplexed. “Where the hell am I going to get enough wood to build that many coffins?”
At the hospital, members of the medical staff now find themselves dealing with the dead more than saving the living.
“This hospital is working like a morgue more than a hospital,” said Hala Hijazi, a volunteer whose mother is an anesthesiologist at the hospital. Lately, Ms. Hijazi said, she has begun to recognize some of the faces arriving here as the scale of the Israeli bombings has continued to widen. “A lot of the people are from Tyre, and we know some of them,” she said of the bodies.
A pall overtook Tyre on Thursday, as United Nations peacekeepers loaded more than 600 United Nations employees, foreigners and Lebanese onto a ferry to Cyprus, then promptly packed up their makeshift evacuation center at the Rest House and left for their base in the town of Naqura.
Hundreds descended on the hotel on Wednesday, desperate to board the ferry. Despite fears that many would be left behind, almost all who sought refuge were able to board the ship Thursday.
But as the last United Nations peacekeepers left town on Thursday, those who remained braced for an even heavier bombardment.
For Ali and Ahmad al-Ghanam, brothers who have taken shelter in a home just a few blocks from the morgue, the refrigerated truck of dead bodies is a vivid reminder of the attack that killed 23 members of their family.
When Israeli loudspeakers warned villagers to evacuate the village of Marwaheen last Saturday, the families packed their belongings and headed for safety. More than 23 of them piled into a pickup and drove toward Tyre, with the brothers trailing behind. Another group set off for a nearby United Nations observation post, but were promptly turned away.
As the pickup raced to Tyre, Ali al-Ghanam said, Israeli boats shelled their convoy, hitting the car and injuring the women and children in the back. But within minutes an Israeli helicopter approached the car, firing a missile that blew the truck to pieces as the passengers struggled to jump out, he said.
His brother Mohammad, his wife and their six children, were killed instantly along with several of their relatives. The only survivor in the car was the brothers’ 4-year-old niece, who survived with severe burns to much of her body.
“The dead stayed in the sun for hours until anyone could come and collect them,” Mr. Ghanam said. “The Israelis can’t understand that we are people, too. Should they wonder why so many of us support the resistance?” he said, speaking of Hezbollah.
The 23 bodies now lie in the truck, waiting to be buried. Mr. Ghanam said it would be impossible for them to be buried in their village while the bombing continued. Holding a funeral is impossible, but even digging a grave could attract fire, he said, assuming the remaining family were able to return to the village.
The brothers walked to the hospital on Thursday to sign documents allowing the hospital to bury the bodies in a mass grave.
Unquote:
?????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????
From India, Madras
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Is anybody seeing the Human Tragedy unfolding?
Or are all enjoying in their own miniscule world?
Here is one more TRAGIC face of the mindless war........
Quote:
For a few minutes on Friday, they became people again: Zahra Abdullah, formerly victim No. 7; her son Hadi, victim No. 10; and her daughter Myrna, No. 9.
For days they were among the nameless, corpses with numbers, lying in a refrigerator truck at this southern Lebanese town’s morgue.
Health care workers took the bodies out of the trailer, placed them in simple coffins and buried them temporarily in a nearby field until they can be exhumed and given a more formal burial once the conflict, now in its 10th day, ends.
In a daylong event that was not quite a funeral, not quite interment, but a brief goodbye for a few grieving families that could attend, hospital workers and volunteers worked furiously to assemble the coffins, remove bodies from the truck, spray them with formaldehyde and bury them in the mass grave a few blocks away. In all, they buried 82 people, including more than 24 children who died in the past week.
“I didn’t sleep the whole night trying to make this happen,” said Ali Faramat, a local carpenter who spent the entire night cutting planks of wood, which young men from the neighborhood then turned into boxes.
Then the men spray painted names on the coffins, and for a few moments the bodies became people again, loved ones, memories.
No. 37 became Sally Wahbi, a 7-year-old who died in an attack on the Civil Defense Building in Tyre on Sunday. No. 35, Alia Alaedeen, who suffered serious head injuries as she was escaping the town of Sarifa on Wednesday and died Thursday. And No. 73 became Mariam Abdullah, who along with Zahra, Hadi and Myrna was among the 23 people killed in an Israeli attack on a pickup truck escaping the town of Marwaheen last Saturday.
“God, you gave her to me — now take her to heaven,” Mariam Abdullah’s mother moaned. “Take her to Paradise, and protect the victims of evil.”
The scene continued for several hours as bodies in plastic bags, some of them soaked in blood, were photographed and placed into coffins, which were then nailed shut and lined up. The numbers on the wall corresponding to those on the coffins only went up to 74, but the men continued to place bodies into coffins.
“We need a small coffin,” one of the men shouted. The crowd went silent, and soon a body the size of a doll came out, what one doctor called a posthumous birth from a pregnant mother in the trailer. The men broke into chants of “God is great.”
Halfway through, there was a bang as a plane dropped leaflets over the crowd warning them to move at once. “Due to the terrorist acts against the state of Israel that came from your villages and your homes, the Israeli Army has been forced to respond immediately against these acts even within your villages, for your own security,” the note read in Arabic. “You are ordered to leave your villages and head immediately north of the Litani River.”
“They talk about terrorism, but we see this as terrorism, too,” Mohammed Abdullah, 53, a retired army officer, observed quietly, bracing for bodies of his relatives to emerge. “But the United States is standing quiet, and that allows them to continue.”
He last saw his family on July 9, when they drove from their home in Beirut to Marwaheen, where they planned to set up the family’s summer house. He intended to join them next week, but last Saturday they called and said they were evacuating the village with several relatives after the Israelis warned them to leave.
When he saw a television report about an attack on a convoy headed from Marwaheen to Tyre, he immediately realized the implications. Only 4 of the 27 passengers in the pickup survived, among them his daughter Marwa, 10.
He wished he could bury them in Marwaheen, he said, but it was impossible to do so with the roads bombed and the shelling continuing. So he relented and accepted having them temporarily buried Friday.
It took until the afternoon for all 82 coffins to be loaded onto two Lebanese Army trucks. The trucks pulled into a trench gouged by a tractor, and the men began unloading the coffins, placing them side by side, grouped by family name.
Unquote:
:( :evil: :twisted: :cry:
From India, Madras
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Or are all enjoying in their own miniscule world?
Here is one more TRAGIC face of the mindless war........
Quote:
For a few minutes on Friday, they became people again: Zahra Abdullah, formerly victim No. 7; her son Hadi, victim No. 10; and her daughter Myrna, No. 9.
For days they were among the nameless, corpses with numbers, lying in a refrigerator truck at this southern Lebanese town’s morgue.
Health care workers took the bodies out of the trailer, placed them in simple coffins and buried them temporarily in a nearby field until they can be exhumed and given a more formal burial once the conflict, now in its 10th day, ends.
In a daylong event that was not quite a funeral, not quite interment, but a brief goodbye for a few grieving families that could attend, hospital workers and volunteers worked furiously to assemble the coffins, remove bodies from the truck, spray them with formaldehyde and bury them in the mass grave a few blocks away. In all, they buried 82 people, including more than 24 children who died in the past week.
“I didn’t sleep the whole night trying to make this happen,” said Ali Faramat, a local carpenter who spent the entire night cutting planks of wood, which young men from the neighborhood then turned into boxes.
Then the men spray painted names on the coffins, and for a few moments the bodies became people again, loved ones, memories.
No. 37 became Sally Wahbi, a 7-year-old who died in an attack on the Civil Defense Building in Tyre on Sunday. No. 35, Alia Alaedeen, who suffered serious head injuries as she was escaping the town of Sarifa on Wednesday and died Thursday. And No. 73 became Mariam Abdullah, who along with Zahra, Hadi and Myrna was among the 23 people killed in an Israeli attack on a pickup truck escaping the town of Marwaheen last Saturday.
“God, you gave her to me — now take her to heaven,” Mariam Abdullah’s mother moaned. “Take her to Paradise, and protect the victims of evil.”
The scene continued for several hours as bodies in plastic bags, some of them soaked in blood, were photographed and placed into coffins, which were then nailed shut and lined up. The numbers on the wall corresponding to those on the coffins only went up to 74, but the men continued to place bodies into coffins.
“We need a small coffin,” one of the men shouted. The crowd went silent, and soon a body the size of a doll came out, what one doctor called a posthumous birth from a pregnant mother in the trailer. The men broke into chants of “God is great.”
Halfway through, there was a bang as a plane dropped leaflets over the crowd warning them to move at once. “Due to the terrorist acts against the state of Israel that came from your villages and your homes, the Israeli Army has been forced to respond immediately against these acts even within your villages, for your own security,” the note read in Arabic. “You are ordered to leave your villages and head immediately north of the Litani River.”
“They talk about terrorism, but we see this as terrorism, too,” Mohammed Abdullah, 53, a retired army officer, observed quietly, bracing for bodies of his relatives to emerge. “But the United States is standing quiet, and that allows them to continue.”
He last saw his family on July 9, when they drove from their home in Beirut to Marwaheen, where they planned to set up the family’s summer house. He intended to join them next week, but last Saturday they called and said they were evacuating the village with several relatives after the Israelis warned them to leave.
When he saw a television report about an attack on a convoy headed from Marwaheen to Tyre, he immediately realized the implications. Only 4 of the 27 passengers in the pickup survived, among them his daughter Marwa, 10.
He wished he could bury them in Marwaheen, he said, but it was impossible to do so with the roads bombed and the shelling continuing. So he relented and accepted having them temporarily buried Friday.
It took until the afternoon for all 82 coffins to be loaded onto two Lebanese Army trucks. The trucks pulled into a trench gouged by a tractor, and the men began unloading the coffins, placing them side by side, grouped by family name.
Unquote:
:( :evil: :twisted: :cry:
From India, Madras
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From India, Madras
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From India, Madras
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One more face of the WAR..............
Muntaha Shaito’s eyes rolled back as the paramedics screamed at her to stay awake and implored her son Ali to keep her engaged, as she teetered near death from shrapnel wounds inflicted by an Israeli rocket.
Ali Shaito implored his mother, Muntaha, to stay conscious as she lay near death from shrapnel wounds.
“Pray to God!,” one paramedic shouted at her as she writhed in Ali’s arms.
“Don’t go to sleep Mama, look at me!,” Ali shouted, tears streaking his bloodied face. “Don’t die, please don’t die!”
It was the scene that members of the extended Shaito family said they had feared most, the real reason they had held out for days in their village of Tireh in southern Lebanon, terrified of the Israeli bombardment, but more terrified of what might happen if they risked leaving. On Sunday they gave up their stand, and all 18 members crammed into the family’s white Mazda minivan. They planned to head north toward the relative safety of Beirut.
Within minutes they became casualties of Israel’s 12-day-old bombardment of southern Lebanon, which the Israelis say they will continue indefinitely to destroy the military abilities of Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group. By the Lebanese official count, Israel’s attacks have killed more than 380 Lebanese.
An Israeli rocket, which Lebanese officials said was likely fired from a helicopter, slammed into the center of the Shaitos’ van as it sped round a bend a few miles west of their village, and the van crashed into a hillside. Three occupants were killed: an uncle, Mohammad; the grandmother, Nazira; and a Syrian man who had guarded their home. The missile also critically wounded Mrs. Shaito and her sister. Eleven others suffered less severe wounds.
“They said leave, and that’s what we did,” said Musbah Shaito, another uncle, as his niece, Heba, 16, cried hysterically behind him for her dead father, whose head was nearly blown off. This reporter watched as paramedics struggled to remove the dead from the van, but soon gave up, as an Israeli drone hovered overhead.
“This is what we got for listening to them,” Mr. Shaito said, speaking of the Israelis.
The Shaitos came from a farming village about five miles from the Israeli border in a region known for tobacco, citrus and olive crops. They had waved a white flag from the van, signifiying to Israeli aircraft that they were non-threatening, Mr. Shaito told reporters later.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its aircraft operations over southern Lebanon on Sunday had targeted “approximately 20 vehicles” suspected of “serving the terror organization in the launching of missiles at Israel, and were recognized fleeing from or staying at missile-launching areas.” The military did not comment on specific bombings, but cited the area south of Tyre, where the Shaitos were driving, as “an area used continuously by Hezbollah to fire missiles.”
Bombing victims, witnesses and officials interviewed in the area on Sunday said Israeli warplanes hit people escaping by vehicle from their villages at least six times in a day of fierce bombardments. Lebanese Red Cross ambulance drivers complained about narrowly avoiding Israeli fire themselves as they cleared out the wounded, and a Lebanese freelance photographer, Layal Najib, 23, was killed when an Israeli missile struck near her car, about five miles from near the scene of the Shaito family bombing.
Israeli forces have sought to clear the area of all residents, in what seemed to be an attempt to separate the civilians from Hezbollah fighters hidden in the hills and villages. Just days earlier leaflets dropped by Israeli planes warned residents to leave the area and head north of the Litani River, effectively making the area a free-fire zone.
A drive through the southern villages on Sunday morning was like a tour through a string of ghost towns, with most residents having cleared out or holed up in their homes, as Israeli aircraft continued their bombardment. Roads were bombed, making passage difficult or impossible, and fields were scorched as the hulks of bombed cars littered the roads. All but a few stores were shut, with glass and rubble littering the streets.
The families in Tireh had preferred to stay home, but with dwindling supplies and Israel’s warning to evacuate, many of them decided it was time to go.
There were only about 52 people left in Tireh when most left for Beirut in a convoy this weekend, leaving the Shaitos largely to fend for themselves. Without much food or water, the family gave up its stand early Sunday.
Family members included Muntaha Shaito and her boys, Ali, 13, and Abbas, 12; her brother in-law Mohammad and his two daughters, Heba, 14, and Kawther, 17; and several other relatives.
They packed into their van, with all their money and valuables, and raced toward Tyre, the big southern seaport about 15 miles west.
It proved a day of carnage for the Zabad and Suroor families, too, said family members and medical staff members who treated them.
The Zabad family and their relatives, the Suroors, who were desperate enough to break into shuttered stores to steal food in the town of Mansoureh a few miles away, gave up their stand, too, on Sunday.
Minutes before Red Cross ambulances carted away the Shaito family, the Suroor family barreled down the road headed toward Tyre, with the Zabad family right behind.
When the Zabads spotted a wounded man on the road, they stopped and picked him up in their Nissan sport utility vehicle. They stopped again to pick up two men who had been attacked on a motorcycle and got even farther behind the Suroors.
Suddenly a missile hit the Suroors’ Mercedes sedan, killing Mohammad Suroor, the father, and Darwhish Mdaihli, a relative, and severely burning Mohammad’s son, Mahmoud, 8, and wounding his two brothers and sister.
As soon as the Zabads saw the car hit, they sped past, hoping to get to the Najm Hospital, less than a mile away. But a minute later a missile struck near them, setting the car on fire, and the family jumped out. .
The scene was chaotic at Najm hospital, on the outskirts of Tyre, which has been flooded with wounded from the bombing campaign. Doctors rushed to X-ray several of the victims, checking for shrapnel, as others where treated for burns and other injuries. For a short while, the hospital nurses rubbed cream on an 8-month-old baby for burns until they found her mother, Mrs. Suroor.
Despite the severe burns on his face, Mahmoud Suroor turned to his mother while in the emergency room and asked where his father was. She did not respond. Then he turned again to his mother.
“Don’t cry Mama, we’ll all be O.K.,” he said.
Unquote::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Is ANYBODY listening to these desperate people???????????????????
From India, Madras
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Muntaha Shaito’s eyes rolled back as the paramedics screamed at her to stay awake and implored her son Ali to keep her engaged, as she teetered near death from shrapnel wounds inflicted by an Israeli rocket.
Ali Shaito implored his mother, Muntaha, to stay conscious as she lay near death from shrapnel wounds.
“Pray to God!,” one paramedic shouted at her as she writhed in Ali’s arms.
“Don’t go to sleep Mama, look at me!,” Ali shouted, tears streaking his bloodied face. “Don’t die, please don’t die!”
It was the scene that members of the extended Shaito family said they had feared most, the real reason they had held out for days in their village of Tireh in southern Lebanon, terrified of the Israeli bombardment, but more terrified of what might happen if they risked leaving. On Sunday they gave up their stand, and all 18 members crammed into the family’s white Mazda minivan. They planned to head north toward the relative safety of Beirut.
Within minutes they became casualties of Israel’s 12-day-old bombardment of southern Lebanon, which the Israelis say they will continue indefinitely to destroy the military abilities of Hezbollah, the Shiite militant group. By the Lebanese official count, Israel’s attacks have killed more than 380 Lebanese.
An Israeli rocket, which Lebanese officials said was likely fired from a helicopter, slammed into the center of the Shaitos’ van as it sped round a bend a few miles west of their village, and the van crashed into a hillside. Three occupants were killed: an uncle, Mohammad; the grandmother, Nazira; and a Syrian man who had guarded their home. The missile also critically wounded Mrs. Shaito and her sister. Eleven others suffered less severe wounds.
“They said leave, and that’s what we did,” said Musbah Shaito, another uncle, as his niece, Heba, 16, cried hysterically behind him for her dead father, whose head was nearly blown off. This reporter watched as paramedics struggled to remove the dead from the van, but soon gave up, as an Israeli drone hovered overhead.
“This is what we got for listening to them,” Mr. Shaito said, speaking of the Israelis.
The Shaitos came from a farming village about five miles from the Israeli border in a region known for tobacco, citrus and olive crops. They had waved a white flag from the van, signifiying to Israeli aircraft that they were non-threatening, Mr. Shaito told reporters later.
The Israeli military said in a statement that its aircraft operations over southern Lebanon on Sunday had targeted “approximately 20 vehicles” suspected of “serving the terror organization in the launching of missiles at Israel, and were recognized fleeing from or staying at missile-launching areas.” The military did not comment on specific bombings, but cited the area south of Tyre, where the Shaitos were driving, as “an area used continuously by Hezbollah to fire missiles.”
Bombing victims, witnesses and officials interviewed in the area on Sunday said Israeli warplanes hit people escaping by vehicle from their villages at least six times in a day of fierce bombardments. Lebanese Red Cross ambulance drivers complained about narrowly avoiding Israeli fire themselves as they cleared out the wounded, and a Lebanese freelance photographer, Layal Najib, 23, was killed when an Israeli missile struck near her car, about five miles from near the scene of the Shaito family bombing.
Israeli forces have sought to clear the area of all residents, in what seemed to be an attempt to separate the civilians from Hezbollah fighters hidden in the hills and villages. Just days earlier leaflets dropped by Israeli planes warned residents to leave the area and head north of the Litani River, effectively making the area a free-fire zone.
A drive through the southern villages on Sunday morning was like a tour through a string of ghost towns, with most residents having cleared out or holed up in their homes, as Israeli aircraft continued their bombardment. Roads were bombed, making passage difficult or impossible, and fields were scorched as the hulks of bombed cars littered the roads. All but a few stores were shut, with glass and rubble littering the streets.
The families in Tireh had preferred to stay home, but with dwindling supplies and Israel’s warning to evacuate, many of them decided it was time to go.
There were only about 52 people left in Tireh when most left for Beirut in a convoy this weekend, leaving the Shaitos largely to fend for themselves. Without much food or water, the family gave up its stand early Sunday.
Family members included Muntaha Shaito and her boys, Ali, 13, and Abbas, 12; her brother in-law Mohammad and his two daughters, Heba, 14, and Kawther, 17; and several other relatives.
They packed into their van, with all their money and valuables, and raced toward Tyre, the big southern seaport about 15 miles west.
It proved a day of carnage for the Zabad and Suroor families, too, said family members and medical staff members who treated them.
The Zabad family and their relatives, the Suroors, who were desperate enough to break into shuttered stores to steal food in the town of Mansoureh a few miles away, gave up their stand, too, on Sunday.
Minutes before Red Cross ambulances carted away the Shaito family, the Suroor family barreled down the road headed toward Tyre, with the Zabad family right behind.
When the Zabads spotted a wounded man on the road, they stopped and picked him up in their Nissan sport utility vehicle. They stopped again to pick up two men who had been attacked on a motorcycle and got even farther behind the Suroors.
Suddenly a missile hit the Suroors’ Mercedes sedan, killing Mohammad Suroor, the father, and Darwhish Mdaihli, a relative, and severely burning Mohammad’s son, Mahmoud, 8, and wounding his two brothers and sister.
As soon as the Zabads saw the car hit, they sped past, hoping to get to the Najm Hospital, less than a mile away. But a minute later a missile struck near them, setting the car on fire, and the family jumped out. .
The scene was chaotic at Najm hospital, on the outskirts of Tyre, which has been flooded with wounded from the bombing campaign. Doctors rushed to X-ray several of the victims, checking for shrapnel, as others where treated for burns and other injuries. For a short while, the hospital nurses rubbed cream on an 8-month-old baby for burns until they found her mother, Mrs. Suroor.
Despite the severe burns on his face, Mahmoud Suroor turned to his mother while in the emergency room and asked where his father was. She did not respond. Then he turned again to his mother.
“Don’t cry Mama, we’ll all be O.K.,” he said.
Unquote::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Is ANYBODY listening to these desperate people???????????????????
From India, Madras
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Hi All,
Backlash?
Read thru:
At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight.
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Forum: The Middle EastNow, with hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for more than two weeks, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements.
The Saudi royal family and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who were initially more worried about the rising power of Shiite Iran, Hezbollah’s main sponsor, are scrambling to distance themselves from Washington.
An outpouring of newspaper columns, cartoons, blogs and public poetry readings have showered praise on Hezbollah while attacking the United States and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for trumpeting American plans for a “new Middle East” that they say has led only to violence and repression.
Even Al Qaeda, run by violent Sunni Muslim extremists normally hostile to all Shiites, has gotten into the act, with its deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, releasing a taped message saying that through its fighting in Iraq, his organization was also trying to liberate Palestine.
Mouin Rabbani, a senior Middle East analyst in Amman, Jordan, with the International Crisis Group, said, “The Arab-Israeli conflict remains the most potent issue in this part of the world.”
Distinctive changes in tone are audible throughout the Sunni world. This week, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt emphasized his attempts to arrange a cease-fire to protect all sects in Lebanon, while the Jordanian king announced that his country was dispatching medical teams “for the victims of Israeli aggression.” Both countries have peace treaties with Israel.
The Saudi royal court has issued a dire warning that its 2002 peace plan — offering Israel full recognition by all Arab states in exchange for returning to the borders that predated the 1967 Arab-Israeli war — could well perish.
“If the peace option is rejected due to the Israeli arrogance,” it said, “then only the war option remains, and no one knows the repercussions befalling the region, including wars and conflict that will spare no one, including those whose military power is now tempting them to play with fire.”
The Saudis were putting the West on notice that they would not exert pressure on anyone in the Arab world until Washington did something to halt the destruction of Lebanon, Saudi commentators said.
American officials say that while the Arab leaders need to take a harder line publicly for domestic political reasons, what matters more is what they tell the United States in private, which the Americans still see as a wink and a nod.
There are evident concerns among Arab governments that a victory for Hezbollah — and it has already achieved something of a victory by holding out this long — would further nourish the Islamist tide engulfing the region and challenge their authority. Hence their first priority is to cool simmering public opinion.
But perhaps not since President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt made his emotional outpourings about Arab unity in the 1960’s, before the Arab defeat in the 1967 war, has the public been so electrified by a confrontation with Israel, played out repeatedly on satellite television stations with horrific images from Lebanon of wounded children and distraught women fleeing their homes.
Egypt’s opposition press has had a field day comparing Sheik Nasrallah to Nasser, while demonstrators waved pictures of both.
An editorial in the weekly Al Dustur by Ibrahim Issa, who faces a lengthy jail sentence for his previous criticism of President Mubarak, compared current Arab leaders to the medieval princes who let the Crusaders chip away at Muslim lands until they controlled them all.
After attending an intellectual rally in Cairo for Lebanon, the Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm wrote a column describing how he had watched a companion buy 20 posters of Sheik Nasrallah.
“People are praying for him as they walk in the street, because we were made to feel oppressed, weak and handicapped,” Mr. Negm said in an interview. “I asked the man who sweeps the street under my building what he thought, and he said: ‘Uncle Ahmed, he has awakened the dead man inside me! May God make him triumphant!’ ”
In Lebanon, Rasha Salti, a freelance writer, summarized the sense that Sheik Nasrallah differed from other Arab leaders.
“Since the war broke out, Hassan Nasrallah has displayed a persona, and public behavior also, to the exact opposite of Arab heads of states,” she wrote in an e-mail message posted on many blogs.
In comparison, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s brief visit to the region sparked widespread criticism of her cold demeanor and her choice of words, particularly a statement that the bloodshed represented the birth pangs of a “new Middle East.” That catchphrase was much used by Shimon Peres, the veteran Israeli leader who was a principal negotiator of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which ultimately failed to lead to the Palestinian state they envisaged.
A cartoon by Emad Hajjaj in Jordan labeled “The New Middle East” showed an Israeli tank sitting on a broken apartment house in the shape of the Arab world.
Fawaz al-Trabalsi, a columnist in the Lebanese daily As Safir, suggested that the real new thing in the Middle East was the ability of one group to challenge Israeli militarily.
Perhaps nothing underscored Hezbollah’s rising stock more than the sudden appearance of a tape from the Qaeda leadership attempting to grab some of the limelight.
Al Jazeera satellite television broadcast a tape from Mr. Zawahri (za-WAH-ri). Large panels behind him showed a picture of the exploding World Trade Center as well as portraits of two Egyptian Qaeda members, Muhammad Atef, a Qaeda commander who was killed by an American airstrike in Afghanistan, and Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker on Sept. 11, 2001. He described the two as fighters for the Palestinians.
Mr. Zawahri tried to argue that the fight against American forces in Iraq paralleled what Hezbollah was doing, though he did not mention the organization by name.
“It is an advantage that Iraq is near Palestine,” he said. “Muslims should support its holy warriors until an Islamic emirate dedicated to jihad is established there, which could then transfer the jihad to the borders of Palestine.”
Mr. Zawahri also adopted some of the language of Hezbollah and Shiite Muslims in general. That was rather ironic, since previously in Iraq, Al Qaeda has labeled Shiites Muslim as infidels and claimed responsibility for some of the bloodier assaults on Shiite neighborhoods there.
But by taking on Israel, Hezbollah had instantly eclipsed Al Qaeda, analysts said. “Everyone will be asking, ‘Where is Al Qaeda now?’ ” said Adel al-Toraifi, a Saudi columnist and expert on Sunni extremists.
Mr. Rabbani of the International Crisis Group said Hezbollah’s ability to withstand the Israeli assault and to continue to lob missiles well into Israel exposed the weaknesses of Arab governments with far greater resources than Hezbollah.
“Public opinion says that if they are getting more on the battlefield than you are at the negotiating table, and you have so many more means at your disposal, then what the hell are you doing?” Mr. Rabbani said. “In comparison with the small embattled guerrilla movement, the Arab states seem to be standing idly by twiddling their thumbs.”
Unquote:
Thanks
Bala
From India, Madras
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Backlash?
Read thru:
At the onset of the Lebanese crisis, Arab governments, starting with Saudi Arabia, slammed Hezbollah for recklessly provoking a war, providing what the United States and Israel took as a wink and a nod to continue the fight.
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More Multimedia: Israel | Middle East Readers' Opinions
Forum: The Middle EastNow, with hundreds of Lebanese dead and Hezbollah holding out against the vaunted Israeli military for more than two weeks, the tide of public opinion across the Arab world is surging behind the organization, transforming the Shiite group’s leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, into a folk hero and forcing a change in official statements.
The Saudi royal family and King Abdullah II of Jordan, who were initially more worried about the rising power of Shiite Iran, Hezbollah’s main sponsor, are scrambling to distance themselves from Washington.
An outpouring of newspaper columns, cartoons, blogs and public poetry readings have showered praise on Hezbollah while attacking the United States and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for trumpeting American plans for a “new Middle East” that they say has led only to violence and repression.
Even Al Qaeda, run by violent Sunni Muslim extremists normally hostile to all Shiites, has gotten into the act, with its deputy leader, Ayman al-Zawahri, releasing a taped message saying that through its fighting in Iraq, his organization was also trying to liberate Palestine.
Mouin Rabbani, a senior Middle East analyst in Amman, Jordan, with the International Crisis Group, said, “The Arab-Israeli conflict remains the most potent issue in this part of the world.”
Distinctive changes in tone are audible throughout the Sunni world. This week, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt emphasized his attempts to arrange a cease-fire to protect all sects in Lebanon, while the Jordanian king announced that his country was dispatching medical teams “for the victims of Israeli aggression.” Both countries have peace treaties with Israel.
The Saudi royal court has issued a dire warning that its 2002 peace plan — offering Israel full recognition by all Arab states in exchange for returning to the borders that predated the 1967 Arab-Israeli war — could well perish.
“If the peace option is rejected due to the Israeli arrogance,” it said, “then only the war option remains, and no one knows the repercussions befalling the region, including wars and conflict that will spare no one, including those whose military power is now tempting them to play with fire.”
The Saudis were putting the West on notice that they would not exert pressure on anyone in the Arab world until Washington did something to halt the destruction of Lebanon, Saudi commentators said.
American officials say that while the Arab leaders need to take a harder line publicly for domestic political reasons, what matters more is what they tell the United States in private, which the Americans still see as a wink and a nod.
There are evident concerns among Arab governments that a victory for Hezbollah — and it has already achieved something of a victory by holding out this long — would further nourish the Islamist tide engulfing the region and challenge their authority. Hence their first priority is to cool simmering public opinion.
But perhaps not since President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt made his emotional outpourings about Arab unity in the 1960’s, before the Arab defeat in the 1967 war, has the public been so electrified by a confrontation with Israel, played out repeatedly on satellite television stations with horrific images from Lebanon of wounded children and distraught women fleeing their homes.
Egypt’s opposition press has had a field day comparing Sheik Nasrallah to Nasser, while demonstrators waved pictures of both.
An editorial in the weekly Al Dustur by Ibrahim Issa, who faces a lengthy jail sentence for his previous criticism of President Mubarak, compared current Arab leaders to the medieval princes who let the Crusaders chip away at Muslim lands until they controlled them all.
After attending an intellectual rally in Cairo for Lebanon, the Egyptian poet Ahmed Fouad Negm wrote a column describing how he had watched a companion buy 20 posters of Sheik Nasrallah.
“People are praying for him as they walk in the street, because we were made to feel oppressed, weak and handicapped,” Mr. Negm said in an interview. “I asked the man who sweeps the street under my building what he thought, and he said: ‘Uncle Ahmed, he has awakened the dead man inside me! May God make him triumphant!’ ”
In Lebanon, Rasha Salti, a freelance writer, summarized the sense that Sheik Nasrallah differed from other Arab leaders.
“Since the war broke out, Hassan Nasrallah has displayed a persona, and public behavior also, to the exact opposite of Arab heads of states,” she wrote in an e-mail message posted on many blogs.
In comparison, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s brief visit to the region sparked widespread criticism of her cold demeanor and her choice of words, particularly a statement that the bloodshed represented the birth pangs of a “new Middle East.” That catchphrase was much used by Shimon Peres, the veteran Israeli leader who was a principal negotiator of the 1993 Oslo Accords, which ultimately failed to lead to the Palestinian state they envisaged.
A cartoon by Emad Hajjaj in Jordan labeled “The New Middle East” showed an Israeli tank sitting on a broken apartment house in the shape of the Arab world.
Fawaz al-Trabalsi, a columnist in the Lebanese daily As Safir, suggested that the real new thing in the Middle East was the ability of one group to challenge Israeli militarily.
Perhaps nothing underscored Hezbollah’s rising stock more than the sudden appearance of a tape from the Qaeda leadership attempting to grab some of the limelight.
Al Jazeera satellite television broadcast a tape from Mr. Zawahri (za-WAH-ri). Large panels behind him showed a picture of the exploding World Trade Center as well as portraits of two Egyptian Qaeda members, Muhammad Atef, a Qaeda commander who was killed by an American airstrike in Afghanistan, and Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker on Sept. 11, 2001. He described the two as fighters for the Palestinians.
Mr. Zawahri tried to argue that the fight against American forces in Iraq paralleled what Hezbollah was doing, though he did not mention the organization by name.
“It is an advantage that Iraq is near Palestine,” he said. “Muslims should support its holy warriors until an Islamic emirate dedicated to jihad is established there, which could then transfer the jihad to the borders of Palestine.”
Mr. Zawahri also adopted some of the language of Hezbollah and Shiite Muslims in general. That was rather ironic, since previously in Iraq, Al Qaeda has labeled Shiites Muslim as infidels and claimed responsibility for some of the bloodier assaults on Shiite neighborhoods there.
But by taking on Israel, Hezbollah had instantly eclipsed Al Qaeda, analysts said. “Everyone will be asking, ‘Where is Al Qaeda now?’ ” said Adel al-Toraifi, a Saudi columnist and expert on Sunni extremists.
Mr. Rabbani of the International Crisis Group said Hezbollah’s ability to withstand the Israeli assault and to continue to lob missiles well into Israel exposed the weaknesses of Arab governments with far greater resources than Hezbollah.
“Public opinion says that if they are getting more on the battlefield than you are at the negotiating table, and you have so many more means at your disposal, then what the hell are you doing?” Mr. Rabbani said. “In comparison with the small embattled guerrilla movement, the Arab states seem to be standing idly by twiddling their thumbs.”
Unquote:
Thanks
Bala
From India, Madras
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Hi Sunayna,
Great to see you again on the site. I hope you are doing fine (after your exams, right?). Yes, Sunayna, I am passionate about the subject. When I see the suffering of children who have not done anything wrong, who have no enemies on this earth (because they are so innocent), I become very passionate. Think about it, what has anybody worth their name (be it Presidents, PMs, General Secretaries, etc.) done to stop the suffering? Please look at today's papers. The majority of the people killed in the last couple of days were children. Isn't this war meaningless? Yes, I can't help but express my feelings.
Thanks Sunayna once again,
Bala
From India, Madras
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Great to see you again on the site. I hope you are doing fine (after your exams, right?). Yes, Sunayna, I am passionate about the subject. When I see the suffering of children who have not done anything wrong, who have no enemies on this earth (because they are so innocent), I become very passionate. Think about it, what has anybody worth their name (be it Presidents, PMs, General Secretaries, etc.) done to stop the suffering? Please look at today's papers. The majority of the people killed in the last couple of days were children. Isn't this war meaningless? Yes, I can't help but express my feelings.
Thanks Sunayna once again,
Bala
From India, Madras
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Hi Sunayna,
Great to see you again on the site. Hope you are doing fine (after your exams, right?).
I've been on and off exams got over in May yaar....
Yes, Sunayna, I am passionate about the subject. When I see the suffering of children who have not done anything wrong, who have no enemies on this earth (because they are so innocent), I become very passionate. Think about it, what has anybody worth their name (be it Presidents, PM's, General Secretaries, etc.) done anything to stop the suffering? Please look at today's papers. The majority of the people killed in the last couple of days were children. Isn't this war meaningless?
Of course, it is.... I think if you look back at history... most of the wars can be called meaningless. It's absolutely useless and absurd. A few people have vested interests... and the whole nation suffers.
Yes, I can't help but express my feelings.
Yup... and that's what sucks... doesn't it?
Thanks Sunayna once again, Bala
At times, I wonder... is that thanks to annoy me... or are you actually thankful? In my office, we have this new tip... whenever someone says or does something praiseworthy... we say "chal bhag." Lol... it wasn't something I intended... but... you know how it is... each of us... does something for the other, and I really get tired of hearing thanks... ALL THE TIME... so I told others... let's stop saying thanks.... and guess what... one of the guys started "chal bhag" 🙄 anyway... next time... you wanna say thanks.... DON'T. Instead, pray for me... that I keep doing stuff for which others can be thankful... (now here's a sweet thought! I am proud of myself for thinking about it)
From India, Mumbai
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Great to see you again on the site. Hope you are doing fine (after your exams, right?).
I've been on and off exams got over in May yaar....
Yes, Sunayna, I am passionate about the subject. When I see the suffering of children who have not done anything wrong, who have no enemies on this earth (because they are so innocent), I become very passionate. Think about it, what has anybody worth their name (be it Presidents, PM's, General Secretaries, etc.) done anything to stop the suffering? Please look at today's papers. The majority of the people killed in the last couple of days were children. Isn't this war meaningless?
Of course, it is.... I think if you look back at history... most of the wars can be called meaningless. It's absolutely useless and absurd. A few people have vested interests... and the whole nation suffers.
Yes, I can't help but express my feelings.
Yup... and that's what sucks... doesn't it?
Thanks Sunayna once again, Bala
At times, I wonder... is that thanks to annoy me... or are you actually thankful? In my office, we have this new tip... whenever someone says or does something praiseworthy... we say "chal bhag." Lol... it wasn't something I intended... but... you know how it is... each of us... does something for the other, and I really get tired of hearing thanks... ALL THE TIME... so I told others... let's stop saying thanks.... and guess what... one of the guys started "chal bhag" 🙄 anyway... next time... you wanna say thanks.... DON'T. Instead, pray for me... that I keep doing stuff for which others can be thankful... (now here's a sweet thought! I am proud of myself for thinking about it)
From India, Mumbai
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Hmm Sunayna, Very thought provoking comments from you. I have to agree that the nation and its innocent people for the Vested interests of FEW. Right, here I pray for your well being! Bala
From India, Madras
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From India, Madras
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Hi Bala,
Read the articles. I have been watching the news for the past couple of days. None of the Indian news channels consider this war "worth enough" to be covered. They find it worthy to cover Shefali Zariwalla's troubles, they find it worthy to cover the rains in the rest of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka. Actually, that's the only thing I see these days on the Indian news channels. To look for news on the Israel and Lebanon war, I have to switch over to CNN, and that is annoying me to no extent! When I was reading the first post, I could instantly feel myself wanting to shake the Presidents of the world, Bush in particular, and wake them up. And now, I want to shake the news channels and the Indian Government. The government has decided to condemn the act by sending out a message regarding the same. Is that it? That cannot be it. What is a message going to do? Is it going to protect the lives of many who are on the verge of death? Is it going to save the children? Is it going to bring back the happy days?
A viewer of CNN had yesterday sent a message on the forum saying "The Europeans and Americans are more concerned for the safety and evacuation of the Europeans & Americans in Lebanon. What about the Lebanese? No one cares for their safety." Vested Interests. Our government seems worse to me. They took a while even protecting the vested interests of the Indian Army soldiers posted in Lebanon on behalf of the UN, only because Israel is the second-largest supplier of arms to India. And I feel so mad at the thought that I can barely do something about this.
From India,
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Read the articles. I have been watching the news for the past couple of days. None of the Indian news channels consider this war "worth enough" to be covered. They find it worthy to cover Shefali Zariwalla's troubles, they find it worthy to cover the rains in the rest of Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Karnataka. Actually, that's the only thing I see these days on the Indian news channels. To look for news on the Israel and Lebanon war, I have to switch over to CNN, and that is annoying me to no extent! When I was reading the first post, I could instantly feel myself wanting to shake the Presidents of the world, Bush in particular, and wake them up. And now, I want to shake the news channels and the Indian Government. The government has decided to condemn the act by sending out a message regarding the same. Is that it? That cannot be it. What is a message going to do? Is it going to protect the lives of many who are on the verge of death? Is it going to save the children? Is it going to bring back the happy days?
A viewer of CNN had yesterday sent a message on the forum saying "The Europeans and Americans are more concerned for the safety and evacuation of the Europeans & Americans in Lebanon. What about the Lebanese? No one cares for their safety." Vested Interests. Our government seems worse to me. They took a while even protecting the vested interests of the Indian Army soldiers posted in Lebanon on behalf of the UN, only because Israel is the second-largest supplier of arms to India. And I feel so mad at the thought that I can barely do something about this.
From India,
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Yes, Vinisha, absolutely disgusting attitude from Indian the GREAT News channels.
They have time only for somebody's crazy drug story, some silly news dragged to no end on cricket, public spat between some great cricket personalities etc etc. Absolutely mindless, disgusting attitude. The great award winning channels have no time to look at the human tragedy.
Yes, I also switch to BBC for seeing/listening to the unfolding tragedy.
Less said the better on Bush and his best friend(!) Blair.
After having started the terrible misery in Iraq, not knowing how to end it and now getting restless to start enact another tragedy in Iran and Syria in addition to Lebanon.
I pray to God that some undersatnding dawns on these fools so that they realsie their foolishness and stop all these.
Best Regards
Bala
Here is another view of the whole tragedy from a US professor.........
Quote:
ISRAEL has finally conceded that air power alone will not defeat Hezbollah. Over the coming weeks, it will learn that ground power won’t work either. The problem is not that the Israelis have insufficient military might, but that they misunderstand the nature of the enemy.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Hezbollah is principally neither a political party nor an Islamist militia. It is a broad movement that evolved in reaction to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in June 1982. At first it consisted of a small number of Shiites supported by Iran. But as more and more Lebanese came to resent Israel’s occupation, Hezbollah — never tight-knit — expanded into an umbrella organization that tacitly coordinated the resistance operations of a loose collection of groups with a variety of religious and secular aims.
In terms of structure and hierarchy, it is less comparable to, say, a religious cult like the Taliban than to the multidimensional American civil-rights movement of the 1960’s. What made its rise so rapid, and will make it impossible to defeat militarily, was not its international support but the fact that it evolved from a reorientation of pre-existing Lebanese social groups.
Evidence of the broad nature of Hezbollah’s resistance to Israeli occupation can be seen in the identity of its suicide attackers. Hezbollah conducted a broad campaign of suicide bombings against American, French and Israeli targets from 1982 to 1986. Altogether, these attacks — which included the infamous bombing of the Marine barracks in 1983 — involved 41 suicide terrorists.
In writing my book on suicide attackers, I had researchers scour Lebanese sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and the biographies of the Hezbollah bombers. Of the 41, we identified the names, birth places and other personal data for 38. Shockingly, only eight were Islamic fundamentalists. Twenty-seven were from leftist political groups like the Lebanese Communist Party and the Arab Socialist Union. Three were Christians, including a female high-school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.
What these suicide attackers — and their heirs today — shared was not a religious or political ideology but simply a commitment to resisting a foreign occupation. Nearly two decades of Israeli military presence did not root out Hezbollah. The only thing that has proven to end suicide attacks, in Lebanon and elsewhere, is withdrawal by the occupying force.
Thus the new Israeli land offensive may take ground and destroy weapons, but it has little chance of destroying the Hezbollah movement. In fact, in the wake of the bombings of civilians, the incursion will probably aid Hezbollah’s recruiting.
Equally important, Israel’s incursion is also squandering the good will it had initially earned from so-called moderate Arab states like Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The countries are the court of opinion that matters because, while Israel cannot crush Hezbollah, it could achieve a more limited goal: ending Hezbollah’s acquisition of more missiles through Syria.
Given Syria’s total control of its border with Lebanon, stemming the flow of weapons is a job for diplomacy, not force. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, Sunni-led nations that want stability in the region, are motivated to stop the rise of Hezbollah. Under the right conditions, the United States might be able to help assemble an ad hoc coalition of Syria’s neighbors to entice and bully it to prevent Iranian, Chinese or other foreign missiles from entering Lebanon. It could also offer to begin talks over the future of the Golan Heights.
But Israel must take the initiative. Unless it calls off the offensive and accepts a genuine cease-fire, there are likely to be many, many dead Israelis in the coming weeks — and a much stronger Hezbollah.
Unquote:
From India, Madras
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They have time only for somebody's crazy drug story, some silly news dragged to no end on cricket, public spat between some great cricket personalities etc etc. Absolutely mindless, disgusting attitude. The great award winning channels have no time to look at the human tragedy.
Yes, I also switch to BBC for seeing/listening to the unfolding tragedy.
Less said the better on Bush and his best friend(!) Blair.
After having started the terrible misery in Iraq, not knowing how to end it and now getting restless to start enact another tragedy in Iran and Syria in addition to Lebanon.
I pray to God that some undersatnding dawns on these fools so that they realsie their foolishness and stop all these.
Best Regards
Bala
Here is another view of the whole tragedy from a US professor.........
Quote:
ISRAEL has finally conceded that air power alone will not defeat Hezbollah. Over the coming weeks, it will learn that ground power won’t work either. The problem is not that the Israelis have insufficient military might, but that they misunderstand the nature of the enemy.
Contrary to the conventional wisdom, Hezbollah is principally neither a political party nor an Islamist militia. It is a broad movement that evolved in reaction to Israel’s invasion of Lebanon in June 1982. At first it consisted of a small number of Shiites supported by Iran. But as more and more Lebanese came to resent Israel’s occupation, Hezbollah — never tight-knit — expanded into an umbrella organization that tacitly coordinated the resistance operations of a loose collection of groups with a variety of religious and secular aims.
In terms of structure and hierarchy, it is less comparable to, say, a religious cult like the Taliban than to the multidimensional American civil-rights movement of the 1960’s. What made its rise so rapid, and will make it impossible to defeat militarily, was not its international support but the fact that it evolved from a reorientation of pre-existing Lebanese social groups.
Evidence of the broad nature of Hezbollah’s resistance to Israeli occupation can be seen in the identity of its suicide attackers. Hezbollah conducted a broad campaign of suicide bombings against American, French and Israeli targets from 1982 to 1986. Altogether, these attacks — which included the infamous bombing of the Marine barracks in 1983 — involved 41 suicide terrorists.
In writing my book on suicide attackers, I had researchers scour Lebanese sources to collect martyr videos, pictures and testimonials and the biographies of the Hezbollah bombers. Of the 41, we identified the names, birth places and other personal data for 38. Shockingly, only eight were Islamic fundamentalists. Twenty-seven were from leftist political groups like the Lebanese Communist Party and the Arab Socialist Union. Three were Christians, including a female high-school teacher with a college degree. All were born in Lebanon.
What these suicide attackers — and their heirs today — shared was not a religious or political ideology but simply a commitment to resisting a foreign occupation. Nearly two decades of Israeli military presence did not root out Hezbollah. The only thing that has proven to end suicide attacks, in Lebanon and elsewhere, is withdrawal by the occupying force.
Thus the new Israeli land offensive may take ground and destroy weapons, but it has little chance of destroying the Hezbollah movement. In fact, in the wake of the bombings of civilians, the incursion will probably aid Hezbollah’s recruiting.
Equally important, Israel’s incursion is also squandering the good will it had initially earned from so-called moderate Arab states like Egypt and Saudi Arabia. The countries are the court of opinion that matters because, while Israel cannot crush Hezbollah, it could achieve a more limited goal: ending Hezbollah’s acquisition of more missiles through Syria.
Given Syria’s total control of its border with Lebanon, stemming the flow of weapons is a job for diplomacy, not force. Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan, Sunni-led nations that want stability in the region, are motivated to stop the rise of Hezbollah. Under the right conditions, the United States might be able to help assemble an ad hoc coalition of Syria’s neighbors to entice and bully it to prevent Iranian, Chinese or other foreign missiles from entering Lebanon. It could also offer to begin talks over the future of the Golan Heights.
But Israel must take the initiative. Unless it calls off the offensive and accepts a genuine cease-fire, there are likely to be many, many dead Israelis in the coming weeks — and a much stronger Hezbollah.
Unquote:
From India, Madras
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Hi Bala,
Today's paper quotes the Israeli PM saying that the UN peacekeeping armed forces in Southern Lebanon are just a bunch of retirees, and that they are ready to stop the war provided the UN can recruit some real soldiers ready for army, combat, and battle. This does raise lots of questions on the capability of the UN to enforce peace among the warring nations. The mayhem may be happening in Lebanon, but people all over the world are not only condemning Israel but also raising questions on the existence of the UN and the double-sided takes of the US & UK. Bush & Blair may be the leaders of the two most powerful countries in the world, but their ignorance in certain matters is mind-numbingly shocking.
Yesterday's newspaper carried an article which said that Blair made a speech citing that Kashmir was a part of Islamic Terrorism and publicly linked it to the continuing conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan & West Asia. Lots of criticisms have been raised against Tony Blair's statement, with even the Former Foreign Secretary of Britain, Malcolm Rifkind, saying that the Kashmir Issue is a regional dispute between India and Pakistan and it was "silly" for Blair to portray it as a sign of extremist Islamic war.
Such high-handed ignorance is not going to make matters any easier to solve. World affairs and peace are deteriorating day by day. The world is even not sure whether Hezbollah is, in fact, a terrorist organization, with very few countries actually giving it a status of a terrorist organization and even fewer adopting a stand of declaring only the External Wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. I am not aware of India's stand on Hezbollah. I agree with the US professor's views that such attacks are only going to make Lebanese people hate Israel even more and further fuel the fire. Hezbollah, if a terrorist organization, is not going to have any difficulties in recruiting more people for its 'cause'.
What is required currently, besides an immediate cease-fire, is:
1. Greater clarity in world affairs to be exercised by the politicians and governments, especially those who have a greater say.
2. An immediate action on the UN. Do the very countries that brought it into existence intend it to remain a puppet and nothing more? Of course, it is dominated by a few countries, but the other emerging countries who very soon are going to have an equally competent status may even think of establishing a separate entity on the lines of the UN, and that is going to help divide the world further. Look at Asia, so many regional trading blocs, The ASEAN, SAARC, SAFTA, etc. With no unity, this continent is left far behind.
The world is divided as ever, be it the Israel-Lebanon conflict or any other. And it is divided because there seems to be more ignorance than knowledge. The general public has no means of gaining greater clarity except from the media or what the government says. So where does a person go for the truth? Where does one get true unbiased knowledge? What does one do to help, besides raising his/her voice on forums or by signing mass letters? There is no concrete way to make the World Leaders listen.
From India,
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Today's paper quotes the Israeli PM saying that the UN peacekeeping armed forces in Southern Lebanon are just a bunch of retirees, and that they are ready to stop the war provided the UN can recruit some real soldiers ready for army, combat, and battle. This does raise lots of questions on the capability of the UN to enforce peace among the warring nations. The mayhem may be happening in Lebanon, but people all over the world are not only condemning Israel but also raising questions on the existence of the UN and the double-sided takes of the US & UK. Bush & Blair may be the leaders of the two most powerful countries in the world, but their ignorance in certain matters is mind-numbingly shocking.
Yesterday's newspaper carried an article which said that Blair made a speech citing that Kashmir was a part of Islamic Terrorism and publicly linked it to the continuing conflict in Iraq, Afghanistan & West Asia. Lots of criticisms have been raised against Tony Blair's statement, with even the Former Foreign Secretary of Britain, Malcolm Rifkind, saying that the Kashmir Issue is a regional dispute between India and Pakistan and it was "silly" for Blair to portray it as a sign of extremist Islamic war.
Such high-handed ignorance is not going to make matters any easier to solve. World affairs and peace are deteriorating day by day. The world is even not sure whether Hezbollah is, in fact, a terrorist organization, with very few countries actually giving it a status of a terrorist organization and even fewer adopting a stand of declaring only the External Wing of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization. I am not aware of India's stand on Hezbollah. I agree with the US professor's views that such attacks are only going to make Lebanese people hate Israel even more and further fuel the fire. Hezbollah, if a terrorist organization, is not going to have any difficulties in recruiting more people for its 'cause'.
What is required currently, besides an immediate cease-fire, is:
1. Greater clarity in world affairs to be exercised by the politicians and governments, especially those who have a greater say.
2. An immediate action on the UN. Do the very countries that brought it into existence intend it to remain a puppet and nothing more? Of course, it is dominated by a few countries, but the other emerging countries who very soon are going to have an equally competent status may even think of establishing a separate entity on the lines of the UN, and that is going to help divide the world further. Look at Asia, so many regional trading blocs, The ASEAN, SAARC, SAFTA, etc. With no unity, this continent is left far behind.
The world is divided as ever, be it the Israel-Lebanon conflict or any other. And it is divided because there seems to be more ignorance than knowledge. The general public has no means of gaining greater clarity except from the media or what the government says. So where does a person go for the truth? Where does one get true unbiased knowledge? What does one do to help, besides raising his/her voice on forums or by signing mass letters? There is no concrete way to make the World Leaders listen.
From India,
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Hi Vinisha,
Thanks for the detailed and valid analysis of the situation.
The sad fact is that the two most powerful countries are led by not-so-intelligent individuals.
The world has to turn around to get something better.
You have mentioned that you are not sure what India's stand on Hezbollah is. Who cares or listens to India's stance? Isn't it a fact that India does not count in all these high-stakes games powerful nations play?
With great pomp and valor, India took the case of Pakistan's involvement in the terror machinery related to the Mumbai blasts to the G8 meeting. Nobody listened to it. In fact, India received a lecture from the 'Global Policeman' on why and how Pakistan is so important in the global fight against terror. Furthermore, India was chided and asked for "proof" of Pakistan's involvement. It was publicly stated by the two masters of the "war on terror" that India should provide concrete "proof" without which...
Who cares about India's opinion?
Best Regards,
Bala
From India, Madras
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Thanks for the detailed and valid analysis of the situation.
The sad fact is that the two most powerful countries are led by not-so-intelligent individuals.
The world has to turn around to get something better.
You have mentioned that you are not sure what India's stand on Hezbollah is. Who cares or listens to India's stance? Isn't it a fact that India does not count in all these high-stakes games powerful nations play?
With great pomp and valor, India took the case of Pakistan's involvement in the terror machinery related to the Mumbai blasts to the G8 meeting. Nobody listened to it. In fact, India received a lecture from the 'Global Policeman' on why and how Pakistan is so important in the global fight against terror. Furthermore, India was chided and asked for "proof" of Pakistan's involvement. It was publicly stated by the two masters of the "war on terror" that India should provide concrete "proof" without which...
Who cares about India's opinion?
Best Regards,
Bala
From India, Madras
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I believe India is too soft and tends to be taken for granted very easily. A bit of a strong approach won't hurt but would only benefit India to a great extent.
I need to know India's stance on Hezbollah. As a citizen of India, whatever the Government supports, it's equal to saying I am supporting, and whatever the citizens say, in all probabilities, whether agreed to or not, is what India says.
Regards,
Vinisha
From India,
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I need to know India's stance on Hezbollah. As a citizen of India, whatever the Government supports, it's equal to saying I am supporting, and whatever the citizens say, in all probabilities, whether agreed to or not, is what India says.
Regards,
Vinisha
From India,
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Hi Vinisha,
Another side of Hezbollah......................................... ...
What does the US or Britain say?
Quote::::::::::::
Hezbollah paid for his wife’s Caesarean section. It brought olive oil, sugar and nuts when he lost his job and even covered the cost of an operation on his broken nose.
Ahmed Awali, a security guard, ran out of money after a daughter was born. He told one of his neighbors, and soon bags of groceries arrived.
Like many poor Shiites across southern Lebanon, Ahmed Awali, 41, a security guard at an apartment building in this southern city, has received charity from Hezbollah for years. He says he is not a member. He does not even know the names of those who helped him.
Hezbollah fighters move like shadows across the mountains of southern Lebanon; its workers in towns and villages, equally as ghostly, have settled deeply into people’s lives.
They cover medical bills, offer health insurance, pay school fees and make seed money available for small businesses. They are invisible but omnipresent, providing essential services that the Lebanese government through years of war was incapable of offering.
Their work engenders a deep loyalty among Shiites, who for years were the country’s underclass and whose sense of pride and identity are closely intertwined with Hezbollah.
Their presence in southern Lebanon is so widespread that any Israeli military advance will do little to extricate the group, which is as much a part of society as its Shiite faith.
“The trees in the south say, ‘We are Hezbollah.’ The stones say, ‘We are Hezbollah,’ ” said Issam Jouhair, a car mechanic. “If the people cannot talk, the stones will say it.”
Hezbollah is nowhere but everywhere. In this city, the gateway to the fighting and the location of several of southern Lebanon’s largest functioning hospitals, clues about its fighters surface daily.
A doctor at one of the hospitals, Jebel Amal, said it currently had about 450 patients. Hospital officials, however, seemed eager to show off a few wounded women and children, but would not allow access to any other patients.
On Wednesday, a mass funeral was canceled. Authorities cited the security situation. Minutes later, the sound of rockets being launched swooshed from an area near where the burial was to have been held.
“Just because I’m sitting here in this café doesn’t mean I’m not a resistance fighter,” said Haidar Fayadh, a cafe owner, who was smoking a water pipe as his patrons sipped tiny plastic cups of coffee near pictures of Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.
“Everyone has a weapon in his house,” he said. “There are doctors, teachers and farmers. Hezbollah is people. People are Hezbollah.”
The group is at once highly decentralized and extremely organized. Mr. Awali, whose job as a guard pays $170 a month, far lower wages than average, ran out of money for food shortly after his second daughter was born. He mentioned this to one of his neighbors, and days later, people with bags of groceries showed up at his tiny one-room apartment.
“They just put it down in the middle of the room and left,” said Yusra Haidar, Mr. Awali’s wife, sitting on a stoop outside their building, her young daughters, now 6 and 9, eating grapes at her feet.
But it was the health insurance, when Ms. Haidar was facing a difficult pregnancy, that saved the family. They applied for and received the insurance by submitting photographs and filling out paperwork. Someone from Hezbollah — he did not identify himself — came to inspect their apartment, and ask about their finances, checking their application.
They were issued a medical card that they can use in any hospital in Lebanon, Mr. Awali said. The $1,500 needed to pay for Ms. Haidar’s Caesarean section was now taken care of. Mr. Fayadh’s brother also is covered by the insurance, an alternative to state insurance that the group has made available to poor people for only about $10 a month.
“This is what Hezbollah does,” Mr. Fayadh said, with the Hezbollah station, Al Manar, flashing on the television screen behind him.
Most connections with the group are indirect. Its fighters are a part of the population, and identifying them can be close to impossible. On a mountain road not far from the Israeli border on Tuesday, a beat-up, rust-colored Toyota was parked with its doors open. Several men in ordinary clothes were standing on the road. They were in a hurry. One was carrying what appeared to be a hand-held radio, the trademark Hezbollah talking tool.
“No photo, no photo,” he said, walking away from the car.
The next day, the same man, in the same clothes, was standing in a hospital parking as hospital authorities were preparing to bury 88 bodies in a mass grave.
“They are ghosts,” said Husam, a thin unemployed man in a black T-shirt who was waiting for coffee at Mr. Fayadh’s shop. “Nobody knows them.”
Mr. Jouhair, the mechanic, says his son, Wissam, is a medic at the hospital in Bint Jbail, a town that is now largely leveled after Israeli fighter jets bombed it last week. Mr. Jouhair worked to avoid questions about his son, but it seemed clear he had been helping heal wounded fighters.
Hezbollah’s help for Mr. Fayadh came in the form of a canceled electricity bill. Some months ago, a bill amounting to thousands of dollars came for his café. He could not pay it.
“Hezbollah intervened for me to get the price down,” he said, fiddling with his empty plastic cup. “They said, ‘This is insulting for the people.’ ”
The bill came from Beirut. The electric company had sent out bills for a large sum before, something that was particularly frustrating for Mr. Fayadh, who had to transfer his four children from private to public school two years ago, because he could no longer afford the $1,000 annual fee for each child. He blamed the government of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which he said was corrupt and arrogant, ignoring the needs of southerners.
That sentiment is expressed by many here, who see themselves as separate from the Lebanese in the north and center of the country who support a government coalition that is often referred to as March 14, for the day in 2005 when thousands rallied to support them.
“I don’t trust them,” Mr. Jouhair said, as a Hezbollah station played on a radio under a small tree near his tire changing shop. “They do not represent me.”
Hezbollah members also act as silent police, keeping tabs on neighborhoods. Members in cars cruise about, stopping and asking questions at any sign of commotion. Late Friday afternoon, in a suburb of Tyre, men gathered to speak to a visitor and, within minutes, a bearded man in a button-down blue shirt and belted slacks walked up to the group.
“What’s going on here?” the man said, squinting in the sun. “What is she asking about?”
Residents identified the man as the Hezbollah security officer in the neighborhood. He carried a hand-held radio and fielded three cellphone calls in the course of a few minutes. He refused to identify himself. When asked about Hezbollah in the area, he replied, “Hezbollah is us, from the smallest child to the oldest man.”
The deep attachment to Hezbollah here has its roots in recent Lebanese history. In the Israeli invasion in 1982, Shiites across the south welcomed the Israelis, because they had come to fight the Palestinians, who had made their lives difficult for years. But as the occupation dragged on, Israelis came to be hated by the Shiites here, a feeling that is now passed on to small children growing up in the Lebanese south.
“What is that sound?” said Hani Rai, a neighbor of Mr. Jouhair, directing the attention of his small daughter Sara to the whine of a drone in the sky. “Voices of Israeli planes.”
Sara, who is only 3, can already recite a chant glorifying Mr. Nasrallah.
Now, Hezbollah’s military branch is separate from its social works, but in its early days it began together, organizing water delivery for people in Dahiya, the Shiite area in south Beirut, the scene of some of some of the most complete destruction in this war.
Several residents who knew Hezbollah members said they were trained and groomed for up to five years before becoming full-fledged members. The military wing is so secretive that sometimes friends and family members do not know a loved one is a part of it.
Mr. Rai said he was stunned to learn that a close friend of his, Muhammad, was a Hezbollah fighter. He learned of his membership only after his killing some years ago. His body was returned to his family in an Israeli military prisoner exchange, Mr. Rai said.
“When he would leave for a mission, he would say, ‘I’m going to Beirut,’ ” he said.
Mr. Rai has also been helped by Hezbollah: It paid for a relative’s heart operation.
In Tyre, even in this time of war, the group is still as elusive as ever. On Saturday afternoon, after Hezbollah fought Israeli commandos for several hours here just before dawn, men with serious faces, several of them bearded, walked purposefully through the halls of Hakoumi Hospital. Several stood by a large stack of coffins. One studied a list. Another looked distraught, his hair disheveled, his clothes unkempt. When a reporter approached, they turned and walked in the other direction.
“You are sitting here. Do you see anybody from Hezbollah?” said the hospital director, Dr. Salman Zainedine. “I’ve been here for a long time. I haven’t seen one Hezbollah body in this place.”
Unquote::::::::::::::::::::::::
Best Regards
Bala
From India, Madras
Acknowledge(0)Amend(0)
Another side of Hezbollah......................................... ...
What does the US or Britain say?
Quote::::::::::::
Hezbollah paid for his wife’s Caesarean section. It brought olive oil, sugar and nuts when he lost his job and even covered the cost of an operation on his broken nose.
Ahmed Awali, a security guard, ran out of money after a daughter was born. He told one of his neighbors, and soon bags of groceries arrived.
Like many poor Shiites across southern Lebanon, Ahmed Awali, 41, a security guard at an apartment building in this southern city, has received charity from Hezbollah for years. He says he is not a member. He does not even know the names of those who helped him.
Hezbollah fighters move like shadows across the mountains of southern Lebanon; its workers in towns and villages, equally as ghostly, have settled deeply into people’s lives.
They cover medical bills, offer health insurance, pay school fees and make seed money available for small businesses. They are invisible but omnipresent, providing essential services that the Lebanese government through years of war was incapable of offering.
Their work engenders a deep loyalty among Shiites, who for years were the country’s underclass and whose sense of pride and identity are closely intertwined with Hezbollah.
Their presence in southern Lebanon is so widespread that any Israeli military advance will do little to extricate the group, which is as much a part of society as its Shiite faith.
“The trees in the south say, ‘We are Hezbollah.’ The stones say, ‘We are Hezbollah,’ ” said Issam Jouhair, a car mechanic. “If the people cannot talk, the stones will say it.”
Hezbollah is nowhere but everywhere. In this city, the gateway to the fighting and the location of several of southern Lebanon’s largest functioning hospitals, clues about its fighters surface daily.
A doctor at one of the hospitals, Jebel Amal, said it currently had about 450 patients. Hospital officials, however, seemed eager to show off a few wounded women and children, but would not allow access to any other patients.
On Wednesday, a mass funeral was canceled. Authorities cited the security situation. Minutes later, the sound of rockets being launched swooshed from an area near where the burial was to have been held.
“Just because I’m sitting here in this café doesn’t mean I’m not a resistance fighter,” said Haidar Fayadh, a cafe owner, who was smoking a water pipe as his patrons sipped tiny plastic cups of coffee near pictures of Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah.
“Everyone has a weapon in his house,” he said. “There are doctors, teachers and farmers. Hezbollah is people. People are Hezbollah.”
The group is at once highly decentralized and extremely organized. Mr. Awali, whose job as a guard pays $170 a month, far lower wages than average, ran out of money for food shortly after his second daughter was born. He mentioned this to one of his neighbors, and days later, people with bags of groceries showed up at his tiny one-room apartment.
“They just put it down in the middle of the room and left,” said Yusra Haidar, Mr. Awali’s wife, sitting on a stoop outside their building, her young daughters, now 6 and 9, eating grapes at her feet.
But it was the health insurance, when Ms. Haidar was facing a difficult pregnancy, that saved the family. They applied for and received the insurance by submitting photographs and filling out paperwork. Someone from Hezbollah — he did not identify himself — came to inspect their apartment, and ask about their finances, checking their application.
They were issued a medical card that they can use in any hospital in Lebanon, Mr. Awali said. The $1,500 needed to pay for Ms. Haidar’s Caesarean section was now taken care of. Mr. Fayadh’s brother also is covered by the insurance, an alternative to state insurance that the group has made available to poor people for only about $10 a month.
“This is what Hezbollah does,” Mr. Fayadh said, with the Hezbollah station, Al Manar, flashing on the television screen behind him.
Most connections with the group are indirect. Its fighters are a part of the population, and identifying them can be close to impossible. On a mountain road not far from the Israeli border on Tuesday, a beat-up, rust-colored Toyota was parked with its doors open. Several men in ordinary clothes were standing on the road. They were in a hurry. One was carrying what appeared to be a hand-held radio, the trademark Hezbollah talking tool.
“No photo, no photo,” he said, walking away from the car.
The next day, the same man, in the same clothes, was standing in a hospital parking as hospital authorities were preparing to bury 88 bodies in a mass grave.
“They are ghosts,” said Husam, a thin unemployed man in a black T-shirt who was waiting for coffee at Mr. Fayadh’s shop. “Nobody knows them.”
Mr. Jouhair, the mechanic, says his son, Wissam, is a medic at the hospital in Bint Jbail, a town that is now largely leveled after Israeli fighter jets bombed it last week. Mr. Jouhair worked to avoid questions about his son, but it seemed clear he had been helping heal wounded fighters.
Hezbollah’s help for Mr. Fayadh came in the form of a canceled electricity bill. Some months ago, a bill amounting to thousands of dollars came for his café. He could not pay it.
“Hezbollah intervened for me to get the price down,” he said, fiddling with his empty plastic cup. “They said, ‘This is insulting for the people.’ ”
The bill came from Beirut. The electric company had sent out bills for a large sum before, something that was particularly frustrating for Mr. Fayadh, who had to transfer his four children from private to public school two years ago, because he could no longer afford the $1,000 annual fee for each child. He blamed the government of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, which he said was corrupt and arrogant, ignoring the needs of southerners.
That sentiment is expressed by many here, who see themselves as separate from the Lebanese in the north and center of the country who support a government coalition that is often referred to as March 14, for the day in 2005 when thousands rallied to support them.
“I don’t trust them,” Mr. Jouhair said, as a Hezbollah station played on a radio under a small tree near his tire changing shop. “They do not represent me.”
Hezbollah members also act as silent police, keeping tabs on neighborhoods. Members in cars cruise about, stopping and asking questions at any sign of commotion. Late Friday afternoon, in a suburb of Tyre, men gathered to speak to a visitor and, within minutes, a bearded man in a button-down blue shirt and belted slacks walked up to the group.
“What’s going on here?” the man said, squinting in the sun. “What is she asking about?”
Residents identified the man as the Hezbollah security officer in the neighborhood. He carried a hand-held radio and fielded three cellphone calls in the course of a few minutes. He refused to identify himself. When asked about Hezbollah in the area, he replied, “Hezbollah is us, from the smallest child to the oldest man.”
The deep attachment to Hezbollah here has its roots in recent Lebanese history. In the Israeli invasion in 1982, Shiites across the south welcomed the Israelis, because they had come to fight the Palestinians, who had made their lives difficult for years. But as the occupation dragged on, Israelis came to be hated by the Shiites here, a feeling that is now passed on to small children growing up in the Lebanese south.
“What is that sound?” said Hani Rai, a neighbor of Mr. Jouhair, directing the attention of his small daughter Sara to the whine of a drone in the sky. “Voices of Israeli planes.”
Sara, who is only 3, can already recite a chant glorifying Mr. Nasrallah.
Now, Hezbollah’s military branch is separate from its social works, but in its early days it began together, organizing water delivery for people in Dahiya, the Shiite area in south Beirut, the scene of some of some of the most complete destruction in this war.
Several residents who knew Hezbollah members said they were trained and groomed for up to five years before becoming full-fledged members. The military wing is so secretive that sometimes friends and family members do not know a loved one is a part of it.
Mr. Rai said he was stunned to learn that a close friend of his, Muhammad, was a Hezbollah fighter. He learned of his membership only after his killing some years ago. His body was returned to his family in an Israeli military prisoner exchange, Mr. Rai said.
“When he would leave for a mission, he would say, ‘I’m going to Beirut,’ ” he said.
Mr. Rai has also been helped by Hezbollah: It paid for a relative’s heart operation.
In Tyre, even in this time of war, the group is still as elusive as ever. On Saturday afternoon, after Hezbollah fought Israeli commandos for several hours here just before dawn, men with serious faces, several of them bearded, walked purposefully through the halls of Hakoumi Hospital. Several stood by a large stack of coffins. One studied a list. Another looked distraught, his hair disheveled, his clothes unkempt. When a reporter approached, they turned and walked in the other direction.
“You are sitting here. Do you see anybody from Hezbollah?” said the hospital director, Dr. Salman Zainedine. “I’ve been here for a long time. I haven’t seen one Hezbollah body in this place.”
Unquote::::::::::::::::::::::::
Best Regards
Bala
From India, Madras
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Yes, I remember reading that Hezbollah receives hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations from undisclosed sources, but it is suspected that Iran and Syria are the main contributors. They utilize these donations to procure medical supplies, establish hospitals, set up schools, and support various other social welfare activities.
The situation in Lebanon appears to be increasingly unfavorable towards Israel, with International Aid Agencies asserting that Israel is obstructing aid support from reaching Lebanon. There have even been reports of Israeli strikes on a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Lebanon.
Have you read today's Times of India editorial titled "A Terrorist State" by M. Najeeb Mubarki? It provides a insightful analysis of the Middle East's current situation, focusing on Israel's stance and actions, as well as the contrasting responses from opposing forces and a seemingly passive Saudi Arabia. It wouldn't be surprising if significant uprisings occur in the Middle East.
Regards,
Vinisha.
From India,
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The situation in Lebanon appears to be increasingly unfavorable towards Israel, with International Aid Agencies asserting that Israel is obstructing aid support from reaching Lebanon. There have even been reports of Israeli strikes on a Palestinian Refugee Camp in Lebanon.
Have you read today's Times of India editorial titled "A Terrorist State" by M. Najeeb Mubarki? It provides a insightful analysis of the Middle East's current situation, focusing on Israel's stance and actions, as well as the contrasting responses from opposing forces and a seemingly passive Saudi Arabia. It wouldn't be surprising if significant uprisings occur in the Middle East.
Regards,
Vinisha.
From India,
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Hi Vinisha,
If indeed a violent uprising starts in the Middle East, with most of the governments being autocratic, imagine what a human tragedy it could be for the hundreds of thousands of Indians living there. It could be a tragedy on a scale which this world has never seen so far.
I hope everybody realizes the explosive mixture and brings things to normalcy very soon. But somehow, with today's happenings in London, the tension levels are only going to rise.
Oh, what a world we are living in!
Bala
From India, Madras
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If indeed a violent uprising starts in the Middle East, with most of the governments being autocratic, imagine what a human tragedy it could be for the hundreds of thousands of Indians living there. It could be a tragedy on a scale which this world has never seen so far.
I hope everybody realizes the explosive mixture and brings things to normalcy very soon. But somehow, with today's happenings in London, the tension levels are only going to rise.
Oh, what a world we are living in!
Bala
From India, Madras
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Hi All,
How the voices of moderate Arabs are getting drowned in the cacophony of violence??? Read this below:
Moderate reformers across the Arab world say American support for Israel’s battle with Hezbollah has put them on the defensive, tarring them by association and boosting Islamist parties.
The very people whom the United States wanted to encourage to promote democracy from Bahrain to Casablanca instead feel trapped by a policy that they now ridicule more or less as “destroying the region in order to save it.”
Indeed, many of those reformers who have been working for change in their own societies — often isolated, harassed by state security, or marginalized to begin with — say American policy either strangles nascent reform movements or props up repressive governments that remain Washington’s best allies in the region.
“We are really afraid of this ‘new Middle East,’ ” said Ali Abdulemam, a 28-year-old computer engineer who founded the most popular political Web site in Bahrain. He was referring to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s statement last month that the situation in Lebanon represented the birth pangs of a “new Middle East.”
“They talk about how they will reorganize the region in a different way, but they never talk about the people,” Mr. Abdulemam said. “They never mention what the people want. They are just giving more power to the systems that exist already.”
His plight is shared by reformers across the Arab world.
Fawaziah al-Bakr, who promotes educational change and women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, helped organize women to protest the Israeli attacks. “Nobody is talking about reform in Saudi Arabia,” she said. “All we talk about is the war, what to do about the war. There is no question that the U.S. has lost morally because of the war. Even if you like the people and the culture of the United States, you can’t defend it.”
The statement by Ms. Rice — during a fleeting stopover in Beirut last month — is being juxtaposed with the mounting carnage to rally popular opposition against all things American.
In Lebanon, Israel continues bombing despite the fact that the violence could destabilize the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, elected last year in a vote that the United States hailed as a democratic example for the Middle East. Iraq was the previous such example, reformers note bitterly.
In Bahrain, Mr. Abdulemam fears that a proposed new anti-terrorism law could severely curb the freewheeling discussions on BahrainOnline.org, his Web site, perhaps even shutting it down, because among other things the law bans attacking the Constitution. Recently, the government cut off access to Google Earth, he said, probably because too many citizens were zeroing in on royal palaces.
Members of Islamist political organizations, in particular, consider American actions a godsend, putting their own repressive governments under pressure and distancing their capitals from Washington, reformers say.
The Americans “wanted to tarnish the Islamic resistance and opposition movements, but in reality they only served them,” said Sobhe Salih, a 53-year-old lawyer in the Muslim Brotherhood, which was swept into the Egyptian Parliament in an election last fall after capturing an unprecedented 20 percent of the seats. “They made them more appealing to the public, made them a beacon of hope for everyone who hates American policies.”
Glance at any television screen — they are everywhere — and chances are that the screen will be showing mayhem in Lebanon, Baghdad or Gaza. It usually takes a minute or so to decipher which Arab city is burning. Popular satellite news channels like Al Jazeera say repeatedly that the carnage arrives via American policy and American weapons.
Before 2003, the hardest step for any Islamist movement was recruitment, noted Mohamed Salah, an expert on Islamic extremist movements who writes for the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat from Cairo. Moving someone from being merely devout to being an extremist took a long time. No longer, he said. Moderate Arab governments, which have pursued peace with Israel for nearly 30 years, have seen that policy undermined among their publics by Hezbollah’s ability to strike at Israel.
“Recruitment has become the easiest stage because the people have already been psychologically predisposed against the Americans, the West and against Israel,” Mr. Salah said.
Moderate reformers say they are driven to despair by what they see as inconsistencies in Washington’s Middle East policy. For example, in Lebanon lives a black-turbaned Shiite cleric who runs a secretive militia close to Iran. His name is Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and Washington approves of Israel’s bombing campaign to stamp out his organization, Hezbollah.
There is another black-turbaned Shiite cleric who runs a different secretive militia close to Iran. His name is Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, and he lives in Iraq. He is an American friend.
“In Iraq the same kind of group is an ally of the United States, while in Lebanon they are an enemy whom they are fighting,” said Samir al-Qudah, a Jordanian civil engineer. “It has nothing to do with reform, but where America’s interests lie.”
The overwhelming conclusion drawn by Arabs is that Washington’s interests lie with Israel, no matter what the cost.
“Those calling for democratic reform in Egypt have discovered that once Israeli interests are in conflict with political reform in the Middle East, then the United States will immediately favor Israel’s interests,” said Ibrahim Issa, the editor of the weekly Al Dustour, who faces a jail sentence on charges of insulting President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
Reformers invariably add that a credible effort to solve the issue of Arab land occupied by Israel, which they believe is the taproot of extremism, does not even seem to be on Washington’s radar.
Sheik Nasrallah is particularly adept at exploiting public anger at civilian deaths in Lebanon by talking about how fickle the United States can be as a friend. "I want you never to forget that this is the U.S. administration, Lebanon’s friend, ally and lover,” he mocked in a speech on Thursday. He also issued a pointed warning to other Arab leaders that if they spend more time defending their thrones than the people of Lebanon, they might find themselves pushed off those thrones.
Reformers also worry that the chaos in Iraq has fueled public perception that a despot can at least keep violence and sectarian differences at bay. In Syria, war news drowned out dismay over the jailing of activists in a crackdown by the Syrian government this spring.
Omar Amiralay, a Syrian documentary filmmaker, was in a taxi recently when the radio broadcast a news bulletin about a suicide bombing in Baghdad that killed some 35 people.
“The Americans should just let Saddam out of jail for a week,” he quoted the driver as saying, only half joking. The dictator would slay one million Iraqis and “everything would be peaceful again.”
Mr. Amiralay is convinced that change will come only with an eruption from within, but people have no time to think about that now. “Uncertainty has become the order of the day,” he said.
There is a general sense in the region that the Bush administration soured on pushing democracy because of the successes of Islamist parties in the most recent Egyptian and Palestinian elections — the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas, an offshoot of the Brotherhood, in the Palestinian territories.
For the first time in a while, political analysts are again comparing governments like that of Mr. Mubarak of Egypt to that of the late Shah of Iran — an isolated despot who ignored the broad wishes of the population while currying favor with the American administration. Some rulers are clearly nervous.
King Abdullah of Jordan initially criticized Hezbollah when the fighting erupted nearly a month ago, but in an interview with the BBC on Tuesday he was dismissive of American plans for a “new Middle East.” The monarch said he could “no longer read the political map” of the region because of black clouds gathering from Somalia to Lebanon.
That kind of attitude may prove beneficial, reformers say, allowing more breathing space for public debate as leaders try to quiet public anger. But they doubt moderates will find much of a platform.
“There is no room on the street for a moderate like me,” said Mr. Qudah, the civil engineer in Jordan. “We are all against Israel attacking Lebanon, but I am also against hitting cities in Israel where there are civilians. If I tried to say the things in public that I am telling you on the phone, I might be beaten. In a war like this, the extremists alone own the streets.”
How unfortunate? Where does the world go frome here?
Think, friends, think.
Bala
From India, Madras
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How the voices of moderate Arabs are getting drowned in the cacophony of violence??? Read this below:
Moderate reformers across the Arab world say American support for Israel’s battle with Hezbollah has put them on the defensive, tarring them by association and boosting Islamist parties.
The very people whom the United States wanted to encourage to promote democracy from Bahrain to Casablanca instead feel trapped by a policy that they now ridicule more or less as “destroying the region in order to save it.”
Indeed, many of those reformers who have been working for change in their own societies — often isolated, harassed by state security, or marginalized to begin with — say American policy either strangles nascent reform movements or props up repressive governments that remain Washington’s best allies in the region.
“We are really afraid of this ‘new Middle East,’ ” said Ali Abdulemam, a 28-year-old computer engineer who founded the most popular political Web site in Bahrain. He was referring to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s statement last month that the situation in Lebanon represented the birth pangs of a “new Middle East.”
“They talk about how they will reorganize the region in a different way, but they never talk about the people,” Mr. Abdulemam said. “They never mention what the people want. They are just giving more power to the systems that exist already.”
His plight is shared by reformers across the Arab world.
Fawaziah al-Bakr, who promotes educational change and women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, helped organize women to protest the Israeli attacks. “Nobody is talking about reform in Saudi Arabia,” she said. “All we talk about is the war, what to do about the war. There is no question that the U.S. has lost morally because of the war. Even if you like the people and the culture of the United States, you can’t defend it.”
The statement by Ms. Rice — during a fleeting stopover in Beirut last month — is being juxtaposed with the mounting carnage to rally popular opposition against all things American.
In Lebanon, Israel continues bombing despite the fact that the violence could destabilize the government of Prime Minister Fouad Siniora, elected last year in a vote that the United States hailed as a democratic example for the Middle East. Iraq was the previous such example, reformers note bitterly.
In Bahrain, Mr. Abdulemam fears that a proposed new anti-terrorism law could severely curb the freewheeling discussions on BahrainOnline.org, his Web site, perhaps even shutting it down, because among other things the law bans attacking the Constitution. Recently, the government cut off access to Google Earth, he said, probably because too many citizens were zeroing in on royal palaces.
Members of Islamist political organizations, in particular, consider American actions a godsend, putting their own repressive governments under pressure and distancing their capitals from Washington, reformers say.
The Americans “wanted to tarnish the Islamic resistance and opposition movements, but in reality they only served them,” said Sobhe Salih, a 53-year-old lawyer in the Muslim Brotherhood, which was swept into the Egyptian Parliament in an election last fall after capturing an unprecedented 20 percent of the seats. “They made them more appealing to the public, made them a beacon of hope for everyone who hates American policies.”
Glance at any television screen — they are everywhere — and chances are that the screen will be showing mayhem in Lebanon, Baghdad or Gaza. It usually takes a minute or so to decipher which Arab city is burning. Popular satellite news channels like Al Jazeera say repeatedly that the carnage arrives via American policy and American weapons.
Before 2003, the hardest step for any Islamist movement was recruitment, noted Mohamed Salah, an expert on Islamic extremist movements who writes for the pan-Arab daily Al Hayat from Cairo. Moving someone from being merely devout to being an extremist took a long time. No longer, he said. Moderate Arab governments, which have pursued peace with Israel for nearly 30 years, have seen that policy undermined among their publics by Hezbollah’s ability to strike at Israel.
“Recruitment has become the easiest stage because the people have already been psychologically predisposed against the Americans, the West and against Israel,” Mr. Salah said.
Moderate reformers say they are driven to despair by what they see as inconsistencies in Washington’s Middle East policy. For example, in Lebanon lives a black-turbaned Shiite cleric who runs a secretive militia close to Iran. His name is Sheik Hassan Nasrallah and Washington approves of Israel’s bombing campaign to stamp out his organization, Hezbollah.
There is another black-turbaned Shiite cleric who runs a different secretive militia close to Iran. His name is Abdel Aziz al-Hakim, and he lives in Iraq. He is an American friend.
“In Iraq the same kind of group is an ally of the United States, while in Lebanon they are an enemy whom they are fighting,” said Samir al-Qudah, a Jordanian civil engineer. “It has nothing to do with reform, but where America’s interests lie.”
The overwhelming conclusion drawn by Arabs is that Washington’s interests lie with Israel, no matter what the cost.
“Those calling for democratic reform in Egypt have discovered that once Israeli interests are in conflict with political reform in the Middle East, then the United States will immediately favor Israel’s interests,” said Ibrahim Issa, the editor of the weekly Al Dustour, who faces a jail sentence on charges of insulting President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt.
Reformers invariably add that a credible effort to solve the issue of Arab land occupied by Israel, which they believe is the taproot of extremism, does not even seem to be on Washington’s radar.
Sheik Nasrallah is particularly adept at exploiting public anger at civilian deaths in Lebanon by talking about how fickle the United States can be as a friend. "I want you never to forget that this is the U.S. administration, Lebanon’s friend, ally and lover,” he mocked in a speech on Thursday. He also issued a pointed warning to other Arab leaders that if they spend more time defending their thrones than the people of Lebanon, they might find themselves pushed off those thrones.
Reformers also worry that the chaos in Iraq has fueled public perception that a despot can at least keep violence and sectarian differences at bay. In Syria, war news drowned out dismay over the jailing of activists in a crackdown by the Syrian government this spring.
Omar Amiralay, a Syrian documentary filmmaker, was in a taxi recently when the radio broadcast a news bulletin about a suicide bombing in Baghdad that killed some 35 people.
“The Americans should just let Saddam out of jail for a week,” he quoted the driver as saying, only half joking. The dictator would slay one million Iraqis and “everything would be peaceful again.”
Mr. Amiralay is convinced that change will come only with an eruption from within, but people have no time to think about that now. “Uncertainty has become the order of the day,” he said.
There is a general sense in the region that the Bush administration soured on pushing democracy because of the successes of Islamist parties in the most recent Egyptian and Palestinian elections — the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and Hamas, an offshoot of the Brotherhood, in the Palestinian territories.
For the first time in a while, political analysts are again comparing governments like that of Mr. Mubarak of Egypt to that of the late Shah of Iran — an isolated despot who ignored the broad wishes of the population while currying favor with the American administration. Some rulers are clearly nervous.
King Abdullah of Jordan initially criticized Hezbollah when the fighting erupted nearly a month ago, but in an interview with the BBC on Tuesday he was dismissive of American plans for a “new Middle East.” The monarch said he could “no longer read the political map” of the region because of black clouds gathering from Somalia to Lebanon.
That kind of attitude may prove beneficial, reformers say, allowing more breathing space for public debate as leaders try to quiet public anger. But they doubt moderates will find much of a platform.
“There is no room on the street for a moderate like me,” said Mr. Qudah, the civil engineer in Jordan. “We are all against Israel attacking Lebanon, but I am also against hitting cities in Israel where there are civilians. If I tried to say the things in public that I am telling you on the phone, I might be beaten. In a war like this, the extremists alone own the streets.”
How unfortunate? Where does the world go frome here?
Think, friends, think.
Bala
From India, Madras
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I don't know if the information I have is correct or not, but I read this in the editorial of TOI on 10th August. The Council General of Israel said that Hezbollah uses humans as shields, deliberately placing its missile launchers among its own civilians. Any comments?
From India, Mumbai
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From India, Mumbai
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Sunayna,
I am not aware if it's true, but that is the reason cited by the Israeli Government to attack the civilian areas and villages like Qana. However, no missile launcher was found in Qana. It resembles the entire U.S. attempt to locate underground missiles in Iraq and the subsequent failure to find anything.
Regards,
Vinisha
From India,
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I am not aware if it's true, but that is the reason cited by the Israeli Government to attack the civilian areas and villages like Qana. However, no missile launcher was found in Qana. It resembles the entire U.S. attempt to locate underground missiles in Iraq and the subsequent failure to find anything.
Regards,
Vinisha
From India,
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Hi Sunana and Vinisha,
I tend to concur fully with Vinisha's opinion. Now the UN Security Council (hasn't the UN become a toothless body long long ago?) has passed the resolution (to quote the news "after days of political wrangling between US, France and Israel in the midst of the human tragedy on the right wording for the resolution!") asking both sides to cease fire. Unexplainable that the affected party - Lebanon - didn't seem to be involved in any discussion or negotiation! Is that the way the world works?
Bala
From India, Madras
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I tend to concur fully with Vinisha's opinion. Now the UN Security Council (hasn't the UN become a toothless body long long ago?) has passed the resolution (to quote the news "after days of political wrangling between US, France and Israel in the midst of the human tragedy on the right wording for the resolution!") asking both sides to cease fire. Unexplainable that the affected party - Lebanon - didn't seem to be involved in any discussion or negotiation! Is that the way the world works?
Bala
From India, Madras
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The Last word on the War is out??????
Quote:
It took unconscionably long — almost a month — for the United Nations Security Council to produce a formula to end the fighting in Lebanon. While the diplomats dithered, hundreds of Lebanese and Israelis died, one-third of Lebanon’s population was uprooted, and new layers of anger and fear were sown on both sides of the border.
The resolution that the Council finally passed last night will have to be put into effect as quickly and thoroughly as possible, and must lead to a lasting political solution that can avoid future conflicts. That will require more than just an immediate halt to hostilities by both sides and an early withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon. It will also require the dispatch of an international military force with sufficient authority and firepower to guarantee that there can be no repeat of the Hezbollah provocations that set off this destructive conflict.
The Council’s resolution represents a compromise between the United States and France, and standing behind them, Israel and Lebanon. Washington wanted Israeli withdrawals linked to a political settlement and a strong new international force. France wanted Israeli withdrawal to come first.
They finally agreed to combine elements of both approaches, with some of the language on Israeli withdrawals left elliptical and some of the language on the international force left implicit. These locutions must not be allowed to unravel the consensus that more than a mere cease-fire is needed.
As hard as it will be to seal the border against Hezbollah infiltrations into Israel, that will not be enough. Hezbollah has rockets that can be fired from deep inside Lebanon at targets deep inside Israel. These must be stopped as well, ideally by the full disarmament of Hezbollah that the Security Council first called for in 2004.
As a political movement, Hezbollah will always be a significant force in Shiite south Lebanon and in the Lebanese Parliament. But it cannot remain an armed state within a state.
This ugly, unnecessary war had many losers and no real winners. Hezbollah will boast that it stood up to four weeks of Israeli firepower. But it cannot disguise the cost that all of Lebanon has paid. Israel incurred civilian and military losses and inflamed Islamic and world opinion without succeeding in destroying Hezbollah or its rocket arsenal.
Washington, which rightly stood by Israel but wrongly refused to call for a cease-fire or engage in meaningful diplomacy with Syria, also paid a price that could further complicate problems in Iraq and Afghanistan. A rapid and effective follow-through on yesterday’s resolution could make up for some of these losses. Anything less will only compound the damage already done.
Unquote:::
From India, Madras
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Quote:
It took unconscionably long — almost a month — for the United Nations Security Council to produce a formula to end the fighting in Lebanon. While the diplomats dithered, hundreds of Lebanese and Israelis died, one-third of Lebanon’s population was uprooted, and new layers of anger and fear were sown on both sides of the border.
The resolution that the Council finally passed last night will have to be put into effect as quickly and thoroughly as possible, and must lead to a lasting political solution that can avoid future conflicts. That will require more than just an immediate halt to hostilities by both sides and an early withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon. It will also require the dispatch of an international military force with sufficient authority and firepower to guarantee that there can be no repeat of the Hezbollah provocations that set off this destructive conflict.
The Council’s resolution represents a compromise between the United States and France, and standing behind them, Israel and Lebanon. Washington wanted Israeli withdrawals linked to a political settlement and a strong new international force. France wanted Israeli withdrawal to come first.
They finally agreed to combine elements of both approaches, with some of the language on Israeli withdrawals left elliptical and some of the language on the international force left implicit. These locutions must not be allowed to unravel the consensus that more than a mere cease-fire is needed.
As hard as it will be to seal the border against Hezbollah infiltrations into Israel, that will not be enough. Hezbollah has rockets that can be fired from deep inside Lebanon at targets deep inside Israel. These must be stopped as well, ideally by the full disarmament of Hezbollah that the Security Council first called for in 2004.
As a political movement, Hezbollah will always be a significant force in Shiite south Lebanon and in the Lebanese Parliament. But it cannot remain an armed state within a state.
This ugly, unnecessary war had many losers and no real winners. Hezbollah will boast that it stood up to four weeks of Israeli firepower. But it cannot disguise the cost that all of Lebanon has paid. Israel incurred civilian and military losses and inflamed Islamic and world opinion without succeeding in destroying Hezbollah or its rocket arsenal.
Washington, which rightly stood by Israel but wrongly refused to call for a cease-fire or engage in meaningful diplomacy with Syria, also paid a price that could further complicate problems in Iraq and Afghanistan. A rapid and effective follow-through on yesterday’s resolution could make up for some of these losses. Anything less will only compound the damage already done.
Unquote:::
From India, Madras
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Bala,
When I saw the news, my first reaction was, "Now?? After all this?? Why couldn't they come out with it earlier?" And the US seems to be having an attitude like, "Okay, let's get it over with! We have other important matters at hand."
It's depressing to the core. And I still wonder, do the people of Lebanon or other nations like it still have hopes left? Are Hezbollah, Hamas, and other similar organizations enough to give them hope to live another day without worrying when the bomb is going to drop over their heads?
I can't even begin to imagine what living like that must be.
From India,
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When I saw the news, my first reaction was, "Now?? After all this?? Why couldn't they come out with it earlier?" And the US seems to be having an attitude like, "Okay, let's get it over with! We have other important matters at hand."
It's depressing to the core. And I still wonder, do the people of Lebanon or other nations like it still have hopes left? Are Hezbollah, Hamas, and other similar organizations enough to give them hope to live another day without worrying when the bomb is going to drop over their heads?
I can't even begin to imagine what living like that must be.
From India,
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Hi Sunayna,
Good question! Lebanon has been through various challenges over the years including occupation by different countries, civil war, and sieges from Israel and other nations. It is unfortunate for the people of Lebanon who have endured suffering for many years. Recently, I watched a TV program (not on any of the Indian channels) where individuals on the streets recalled a devastating war in the late 1940s when they were children. They expressed great sadness that their children and grandchildren now have to experience an even larger human tragedy.
For more information on the history of Lebanon, you can visit the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lebanon
Best Regards,
Bala
From India, Madras
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Good question! Lebanon has been through various challenges over the years including occupation by different countries, civil war, and sieges from Israel and other nations. It is unfortunate for the people of Lebanon who have endured suffering for many years. Recently, I watched a TV program (not on any of the Indian channels) where individuals on the streets recalled a devastating war in the late 1940s when they were children. They expressed great sadness that their children and grandchildren now have to experience an even larger human tragedy.
For more information on the history of Lebanon, you can visit the following site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Lebanon
Best Regards,
Bala
From India, Madras
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