Living in a Country at War Part II
*Four weeks of war and no end in sight. I think that we all thought the fighting would have finished by now and we would be moving fully into the diplomatic phase. Once this war is over there will be a lot of analysis and recriminations. How this war is being fought is being hotly debated in Israel. Yesterday, the Israeli government made the decision to invade Lebanon up until the Litani River. Something they should have done three weeks ago after it became obvious that air attacks were not going to defeat Hezbollah. This also means sending tens of thousands of reservists, who just days ago were leading their normal lives, into battle. It is a heavy decision.
*I am watching less news, especially CNN and Sky. As the casualties increase the root causes of the war are forgotten. Israel is increasingly vilified. The damage and pain inflicted on Israel a peripheral part of the story. Doesn't the world wonder how a terrorist group-oops, excuse me-militant group is able to wield an army of 7,000 fighters equipped with 15,000 missiles, sagger missiles, rpg's, morters, recoilless rifles and much much more? I suppose it is not interesting that Hezbollah was supplied by Iran, that they effectively created there own state within a state in south Lebanon, that even though Israel withdrew across the internationally recognized border, Hezbollah has armed, continued to attack, and educate and preach that Israel has to be destroyed. As a proxy of Iran they were actively preparing for that. Is the world really interested as to why all of these villages are being destroyed in South Lebanon? What exactly was Hezbollah doing in southern Lebanese villages these last six years: we know what they were doing-building bunkers, tunnels, arms storage, katusha launch sights. They were turning these villages into armed military zones.
*This past Saturday night, buses came and took away thousands of Kiryat Shemona residents who had been in their bomb shelters since the beginning of the war. The plan is to take all 17,000 residents who stayed in the city away on a rotating basis for a few days of rest. Last week a few hundred Nahariya residents who had been sent to a hotel in Beersheva refused to get on buses that were supposed to take them back to Nahariya. I don't blame them. What the hell does the government expect?
*Over 1 million residents still in bomb shelters. Over 300,000 have left becoming displaced persons in their own country. Crops are not being harvested. Hundreds of thousands of people haven't worked in a month. Bank accounts are empty. Stores are not stocked. The government and charity organizations are taking the responsibility of feeding an ever growing population who have no funds. The cash machines are empty anyway since nobody is risking their life to fill them. Tens of thousands of children traumatized, thousands of people not getting their medicine or regular treatment. The situation is getting worse and worse in the north. Over 3,200 missiles have been fired at our cities.
*The rest of us-those that are not directly in the line of fire have slowly been going numb. There is only so much that we can do-we try and live our lives as normal as possible. My children, thank god are still having a good summer. They are already getting a little nervous about the beginning of the school year which is only three weeks away. They are also wondering how they are going to fill their time the rest of the summer. Joyce and I are wondering that as well.
*I bought a new computer yesterday. But it will take a few days to get it. All imports are coming in only to the Ashdod port since we can't use the port of Haifa. Because of this there is obviously a major backlog at the port and many ships are even turning around fully loaded because they are not willing to wait. My computer is being delayed because the store is waiting for a shipment of motherboards. One wonders what other goods are not reaching the country because of the war.
*Brave voices do exist telling it like it is. This is a quote from an article written by Lebanese Journalist Michael Behe. Follow the link to the full ariticle.
Michael Behe, The New Republic The Abdication of Lebanese Leaders,
Act of Denial. 7 august, 2006
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w060807&s=behe080706
"It is easy now to whine and gripe, and to play the hypocritical role of victims. We know full well how to get others to pity us and to claim that we are never responsible for the horrors that regularly occur on our soil. Of course, that is nothing but rubbish! The Security Council's Resolution 1559--that demanded that our government deploy our army on our sovereign territory, along our international border with Israel and that it disarm all the militia on our land--was voted on September 2, 2004.
We had two years to implement this resolution and thus guarantee a peaceful future to our children, but we did absolutely nothing. Our greatest crime--which was not the only one!--was not that we did not succeed, but that we did not attempt or undertake anything. And that was the fault of none else than the pathetic Lebanese politicians.
Our government, from the very moment the Syrian occupier left, let ships and truckloads of arms pour into our country. Without even bothering to look at their cargo. They jeopardized all chances for the rebirth of our country by confusing the Cedar Revolution with the liberation of Beirut. In reality, we had just received the chance--a sort of unhoped-for moratorium--that allowed us to take the future into our own hands, nothing more."
*Four weeks of war and no end in sight. I think that we all thought the fighting would have finished by now and we would be moving fully into the diplomatic phase. Once this war is over there will be a lot of analysis and recriminations. How this war is being fought is being hotly debated in Israel. Yesterday, the Israeli government made the decision to invade Lebanon up until the Litani River. Something they should have done three weeks ago after it became obvious that air attacks were not going to defeat Hezbollah. This also means sending tens of thousands of reservists, who just days ago were leading their normal lives, into battle. It is a heavy decision.
*I am watching less news, especially CNN and Sky. As the casualties increase the root causes of the war are forgotten. Israel is increasingly vilified. The damage and pain inflicted on Israel a peripheral part of the story. Doesn't the world wonder how a terrorist group-oops, excuse me-militant group is able to wield an army of 7,000 fighters equipped with 15,000 missiles, sagger missiles, rpg's, morters, recoilless rifles and much much more? I suppose it is not interesting that Hezbollah was supplied by Iran, that they effectively created there own state within a state in south Lebanon, that even though Israel withdrew across the internationally recognized border, Hezbollah has armed, continued to attack, and educate and preach that Israel has to be destroyed. As a proxy of Iran they were actively preparing for that. Is the world really interested as to why all of these villages are being destroyed in South Lebanon? What exactly was Hezbollah doing in southern Lebanese villages these last six years: we know what they were doing-building bunkers, tunnels, arms storage, katusha launch sights. They were turning these villages into armed military zones.
*This past Saturday night, buses came and took away thousands of Kiryat Shemona residents who had been in their bomb shelters since the beginning of the war. The plan is to take all 17,000 residents who stayed in the city away on a rotating basis for a few days of rest. Last week a few hundred Nahariya residents who had been sent to a hotel in Beersheva refused to get on buses that were supposed to take them back to Nahariya. I don't blame them. What the hell does the government expect?
*Over 1 million residents still in bomb shelters. Over 300,000 have left becoming displaced persons in their own country. Crops are not being harvested. Hundreds of thousands of people haven't worked in a month. Bank accounts are empty. Stores are not stocked. The government and charity organizations are taking the responsibility of feeding an ever growing population who have no funds. The cash machines are empty anyway since nobody is risking their life to fill them. Tens of thousands of children traumatized, thousands of people not getting their medicine or regular treatment. The situation is getting worse and worse in the north. Over 3,200 missiles have been fired at our cities.
*The rest of us-those that are not directly in the line of fire have slowly been going numb. There is only so much that we can do-we try and live our lives as normal as possible. My children, thank god are still having a good summer. They are already getting a little nervous about the beginning of the school year which is only three weeks away. They are also wondering how they are going to fill their time the rest of the summer. Joyce and I are wondering that as well.
*I bought a new computer yesterday. But it will take a few days to get it. All imports are coming in only to the Ashdod port since we can't use the port of Haifa. Because of this there is obviously a major backlog at the port and many ships are even turning around fully loaded because they are not willing to wait. My computer is being delayed because the store is waiting for a shipment of motherboards. One wonders what other goods are not reaching the country because of the war.
*Brave voices do exist telling it like it is. This is a quote from an article written by Lebanese Journalist Michael Behe. Follow the link to the full ariticle.
Michael Behe, The New Republic The Abdication of Lebanese Leaders,
Act of Denial. 7 august, 2006
http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w060807&s=behe080706
"It is easy now to whine and gripe, and to play the hypocritical role of victims. We know full well how to get others to pity us and to claim that we are never responsible for the horrors that regularly occur on our soil. Of course, that is nothing but rubbish! The Security Council's Resolution 1559--that demanded that our government deploy our army on our sovereign territory, along our international border with Israel and that it disarm all the militia on our land--was voted on September 2, 2004.
We had two years to implement this resolution and thus guarantee a peaceful future to our children, but we did absolutely nothing. Our greatest crime--which was not the only one!--was not that we did not succeed, but that we did not attempt or undertake anything. And that was the fault of none else than the pathetic Lebanese politicians.
Our government, from the very moment the Syrian occupier left, let ships and truckloads of arms pour into our country. Without even bothering to look at their cargo. They jeopardized all chances for the rebirth of our country by confusing the Cedar Revolution with the liberation of Beirut. In reality, we had just received the chance--a sort of unhoped-for moratorium--that allowed us to take the future into our own hands, nothing more."
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